The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  But when he was only about 50 meters away, the shitty weakling jumped away from Alhazred.

  He was wearing the same metal slime he’d wore while training with the KoD. It grew tentacles that hit the ground and launched him to the other direction.

  It almost felt like he knew my imperceptible Alhazred was here and was trying to escape him.

  “It’s just a coincidence!” I snarled.

  He just couldn’t have avoided what he didn’t know was there.

  I went after him again and attacked from a completely different angle. Alhazred’s Resources were focused on stealth, so his speed stayed below the speed of sound, but it was good enough to catch up to this shitty weakling.

  I quickly got close, and...

  He jumped in the opposite direction right before I could attack, just like he’d done the first time.

  “Again?!”

  It wasn’t just a coincidence. He was actually perceiving my imperceptible Embryo.

  But how...? I thought. And even if he knows my Alhazred is there, how did he expect to be attacked by an invisible enem— Huh?!

  “Gh?!”

  Suddenly, my vision changed from Alhazred’s to my own avatar’s back in my apartment.

  I came back to find the room on fire. The window was broken, and next to it, there was a red-haired devil — the shitty weakling’s Embryo.

  “Little Flare! Petrifying Breath! Grand Dash!” She launched skill after skill, not holding back at all. She was clearly treating me as an enemy.

  Wait... does he actually know that I’m the culprit?!

  How could he have realized that just from our talk?! The way I’d answered the questions and controlled the conversation was perfect!

  Is the shitty weakling actually some sort of genius?!

  ◇◇◇

  A Few Minutes Ago, Lost Heart, Rook Holmes

  It was a few hours after sundown. The sun’s warmth had already faded from both the air and the ground.

  I finished gathering my thoughts about Gerbera and made my way back to the inn I was staying at.

  There was no one nearby, so I was walking this nightly street all by my lonesome.

  “Hm...” I murmured.

  I presumed that Gerbera would only attack me when I was all alone, and this seemed like a great opportunity.

  “Liz,” I whispered my slime’s name inside my mouth, making sure to not make it audible, and she responded with a single tap on my arm inside my sleeve.

  So there’s nothing yet, then... I’d prefer it if she attacked me before I reached the inn. Breaking it would trouble those working there.

  As that thought ran through my mind, Liz tapped my arm twice. It was a code we’d decided on ahead of time, and it meant “Something invisible is closing in.”

  A moment later, Liz jumped to the side opposite of whatever was approaching us. She was moving the same way she had when fighting that young lady during Franklin’s Game — by hitting the ground with tentacles she extended from her jacket-like form.

  However, they weren’t the only thing that were reaching out from her. She’d also used the part of her that didn’t make up the jacket to spread out countless thin and shiny threads all over the surrounding area.

  Mithril Arms Slimes like Liz were capable of turning themselves into armor as well as weapons, and in this case, she’d turned herself into threads.

  Of course, the focus on thinness and length came at the cost of attack power and endurance, making them break upon the slightest touch. However, that was intentional. Their purpose was to detect, and breaking was how they did it.

  I’d determined that Gerbera’s Embryo was a Guardian focused on concealment, and based on the... better parts of her performance as a murderer, I’d made a guess that it was also invisible, soundless, and odorless. Considering the absurdity of Superiors, it was also likely that you couldn’t be aware of it even if you touched it.

  That was why I’d made Liz spread out a number of weak, easy-to-cut threads. Even if she couldn’t see it or feel it by touch, Liz could still notice when she lost parts of herself.

  This could only be done because Liz was a slime — a creature that could change shape and didn’t seem to feel pain.

  But the fact that I was able to counter that wasn’t the actual crux of the matter. The very fact that I was even capable of thinking of such a countermeasure made it clear that Gerbera had already made a grave mistake.

  An invisible Embryo was no doubt a scary concept. No one could defend against a creature that you couldn’t even feel by touch. However, that only applied if the target didn’t know of its existence.

  Gerbera had committed crimes that were thoroughly based on an extremely high concealing and stealth abilities, and that was exactly what had allowed me to guess her Embryo’s powers. By giving me the information that I was “fighting against an enemy with a perfect stealth ability,” she’d made it possible for me to develop a functioning counter.

  Such a power would lose half of its value if the target merely knew that it was there, and that was Gerbera’s greatest error — even greater than leaving all the evidence I’d found.

  She so confidently believed in her Embryo’s “unknowability” that she’d effectively made me aware that an “unknown” entity actually existed. It was as though she’d colored everything surrounding something colorless, making its shape stand out.

  If she’d tried to assassinate someone without trying to stir any sort of murder-mystery drama, her Embryo would have been able to accomplish that without a flaw to name. Even the likes of royalty would’ve been easy targets. But now, the “colorless” existence was no longer imperceivable.

  “Babi should be attacking her right now,” I muttered.

  After the questioning, I’d asked her to do two things. One of them was to observe Gerbera, which was easily done with the Optic Camouflage skill she’d gotten from a monster by using Drain Learning.

  Babi was to observe the apartment building, follow Gerbera if she left, and be on standby to attack her if she attacked me using her Embryo.

  Even if it was Superior, the fact that it was a Guardian meant that it had a certain unavoidable weakness: its Master. No matter how tough and strong the Guardian, it couldn’t protect its owner if it wasn’t at its side.

  Due to this, Gerbera and I were tied now.

  However, I had the advantage in the fact that I’d predicted her attack, while she hadn’t even considered that could happen.

  “Now, it’s just a matter of which Embryo defeats which Master first.”

  Naturally, in terms of overall battle potential, their side was far above ours, but due to the excessive focus on concealment, her Guardian’s speed and power weren’t particularly great. By running away as I was, I could keep buying time for a decent while longer.

  The only thing we actually had to worry about now was...

  “...whether or not Babi can take care of Gerbera in time,” I murmured.

  She, too, wasn’t a particularly powerful Guardian. Due to dedicating her Resources to charm, drain, learning, and the merging power, her base stats were lower than that of other Guardians in their fourth forms.

  As an incognito employee, Gerbera might currently have jobs such as Carpenter, Architect, and Swindler, but even so, she was a Superior, and it was highly likely that she was max level.

  It was a gamble whether Babi would be able to defeat her... In fact, it was best not to expect that to happen.

  Babi’s attack wasn’t the main part of the plan.

  I was suddenly overcome by a mild shock. Liz had just touched me in a way that said, “It’s not coming after us.”

  The Guardian had probably returned upon realizing its Master was in danger.

  That reaction was only natural, and I’d hypothesized that it could happen.

  So now, to switch to the main part of the plan, I made my way to Gerbera’s apartment.

  Upon arriving there, I found her standing there with wounds c
overing her entire body, and on the floor next to her, there was a broken Brooch.

  Looks like Babi did a good job cornering her, I thought.

  “Mrrgh!”

  My Embryo kept on attacking her, but all her attacks were stopped by something invisible standing before Gerbera. Apparently, the Guardian was focusing on staying in one place to protect its Master.

  Even the way Gerbera used her own Embryo seemed to be greatly flawed. Gerbera should’ve simply made it drop defense altogether and just defeat Babi.

  “So you’re here... ‘Rook,’ was it?” she said while looking at me through her invisible Guardian. “I don’t know how you did it, but you found out that I’m the true culprit.”

  “Yes...” I replied. “You’re the one behind the serial murders here in Gideon.”

  Somehow, I could accept that she’d still believed she wasn’t found out yet, but the fact that she didn’t even know why I’d found her out had me at a loss.

  No, wait. She was merely acting as if she didn’t know.

  In her mind, she already understood the reasons.

  “Yes. That’s right,” she continued. “I am Unknown — the one behind those murders.”

  That certainly doesn’t seem like a nickname you would use to refer to yourself, I thought.

  Nevertheless, I now had the culprit’s confession. My work as a detective was done. Case closed.

  “It seems unbelievable, but did you also actually find out my Superior Embryo’s... Alhazred’s power?” she asked.

  So the invisible Guardian was called “Alhazred,” eh? Also, though I’d expected this myself, she’d actually just revealed that she was a Superior.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “It probably cannot be perceived by the five... no... the six senses.”

  “Exactly. Alhazred is an Embryo that only I can feel... Heh heh heh heh heh.” Gerbera began laughing for some reason. Her smile was... ridiculously unpleasant. “You completely exposed my plan... You must be a real genius.”

  Though it sounded like it, she wasn’t praising me. In fact — it was the exact opposite.

  “Even if you raise me up, it will not change the fact that you were outdone by a newbie,” I declared.

  As long as she couldn’t consider me a genius or something else outside the norm, it would make her consider herself inferior.

  My words made her face, still displaying that unpleasant smile, turn stiff. She didn’t speak a word in response.

  Yes. Of course you’d react like that, I thought. I’d already developed a decent grasp of her mentality, the extent of her thoughtlessness... and the essence of the very core of her heart and mind.

  “During this investigation, I considered you not just as a criminal, but as a person, as well,” I continued. “When I visited you here today, I said that the culprit was an idiot. But now...”

  I hadn’t been mistaken, but that assessment wasn’t quite complete, either.

  “Now... I see that you’re more than just a thoughtless idiot.”

  I’d arrived at a single conclusion that answered everything there was to know about her person.

  It was the reason behind her excessive carelessness, the naïveté behind her evaluation of Shu, the mistakes in her cryptograms, the lack of caution in her words, and the fact that she hadn’t realized that I’d found her out even when I’d basically spelled it out for her.

  All of that stemmed from a single problem.

  “You only see the world how you want it to be.”

  She stared at me, still not saying a word. However, something in her eyes had changed.

  “You don’t think you will fail, so when you do, you don’t understand the reasons why,” I said. “You don’t want to believe that others are better than you, so you evaluate them as inferior to yourself. You think your targets will fall for your schemes, so you don’t even try to confirm whether you’re off the mark or not.”

  Yes, in order to see more value in herself as she appeared in her own mind, she averted her eyes from reality.

  Of course, there was some actual idiocy in her, as well, but most of her failures had their roots in the fact that she always turned away from her own absurdity.

  Because of this, others always saw her as an abject idiot, her plans always ended up being sloppy, and her behavior was always thoroughly thoughtless.

  I was certain that she couldn’t even listen to others without warping their words beyond recognition, and it was probably so bad that even the most reasonable of warnings seemed completely off base.

  “However, your evaluation of me was correct,” I continued. “I am certainly below you, and it’s fair for you to see me as a weakling.”

  Gerbera hadn’t warped reality when it came to me — I was, no doubt, inferior. But that was exactly why the truth-filled tirade directed at her had delivered such a powerful effect. She’d taken the words into her mind without warping them in any way, and they had become like venom to her.

  She’d then hastily tried to mend her image, convincing herself that my words were absurd and warping them to conclude that I hadn’t yet figured her out.

  “You tried it just now, as well,” I said. “You’re cornered by someone far below yourself, so you tried to convince yourself that I’m actually not below you.”

  It was all for the purpose of keeping her perceived reality in line with her ideal. Gerbera wanted to be free to believe that she hadn’t failed or made a mistake — she’d just encountered a really bad enemy.

  That was how she functioned, and it even showed in her Alhazred, which was based on her personality.

  “That’s why you are the only one who can see your Embryo. You only see the world as you want it to be, so your Embryo became a creature that can only be seen by you alone.”

  It was a being that only lived in the vision of one person — much like an imaginary friend. And yet it followed her whims and influenced the world like a sort of phantasmal beast. That was what her Guardian was, and there was much to be said about a mind that could birth it.

  “That is the truth behind your Embryo... and you yourself,” I declared. “You’re no ‘Unknown.’ You’re merely someone who avoids her own truth, senses, and even the nature of her mind. In other words — an immense idiot.”

  If words could truly hurt people, then what I was saying was a double-edged sword, for they hurt me, as well. I, too, was avoiding my own truth and path in life. But even so, I spoke those words to her.

  “Eh... No... I... That’s... not...”

  Gerbera was unable to refute what I’d said.

  She swallowed all the responses she tried to speak. Although she was trying her hardest to ignore the inconvenient reality as she’d always done, my words were like a wedge keeping her from escaping it.

  Unveiling the truth behind her heart made it impossible for her to subconsciously avert her gaze from her failure, stopping her every time she tried it.

  The words had now been carved into her mind, and she would remember them every time her escapism made an attempt to take over, forcing her back to reality. Having heard my words, her brain was correcting her every time she tried to avert her gaze.

  For all I knew, she might even be remembering the many failures she’d committed throughout her life. Those were surely memories she’d rather have forgotten.

  “Aaahh, aaahh, AaAAhHh!” Gerbera wailed as she strongly covered her eyes with her palms, as though to say that she didn’t want to see this reality.

  But alas, her mind had already seen it — her heart had witnessed the truth.

  She could no longer convince herself that she was the greatest, or that she’d never failed.

  “...AHhhH.” Gerbera suddenly moved her hands from her face, and her eyes looked directly at me. They showed no emotions I could easily read — all I saw was an amalgam of countless feelings. However, they all converged into a single emotional vector, which was best translated into “I have to erase him.”

  She now had a strong will to eli
minate me.

  “Who... a...m... I?” she asked. The words had a meaning, but it didn’t feel like was actually talking to me... or anyone else, for that matter.

  “You’re Gerbera, no?”

  “N o,” she shook her head. “I a m U n k n o w n.”

  A moment later, she began losing parts of herself.

  Not bleeding a single drop, she gradually vanished as though eaten by the air itself. No — she was actually becoming impossible to see.

  Like the mad wizard her Embryo was based on, she disappeared as though she was eaten by an invisible monster.

  “Total Eclipse of the Flesh — Alhazred.” She spoke the name of her ultimate skill. The process was now complete, and Gerbera was nowhere to be seen.

  I silently gasped as I realized the skill’s effects. It was akin to Babi’s Union Jack — the merging of Guardian and Master. It made Alhazred take in Gerbera’s only weakness — herself — and make them both imperceptible.

  “Babi! Liz!” I shouted, giving them the order to attack the place where she’d just been.

  Liz’s threads had already been spread out around the room.

  None had been cut yet, meaning that Gerbera was still there.

  If she tried to evade, I would simply refocus the attacks to where she moved.

  She had no means of escaping this.

  “Huh...?!”

  And yet, it didn’t seem like any of the attacks were landing.

  In fact, it was as though...

  “Is this more than just imperceptibility?!”

  [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown], [I am Unknown]

  Before I realized it, the surroundings had completely changed.

  The walls were now covered in carved writing, all saying just “I am Unknown.”

  The term was repeated countless times, and it felt as though she was trying to assert the words to me, or perhaps even to persuade herself.

  It was no exaggeration that the words appeared “before I realized it.”