Infinite Dendrogram_Volume 2

by Sakon Kaidou

  The other four had run away with a threat regarding her brother, unfortunately. We didn’t know where their base was. If they got there before us and told everyone about what happened here, the boy’s life would be in more danger than ever.

  “Man, I should’ve gassed them,” I said. A whiff of the poison from my Miasmaflame Bracers would’ve rendered them completely immobile.

  “We’re in the city, so wouldn’t that count as terrorism?” asked Nemesis.

  You have a point, I thought. Although I could’ve also scorched their legs with fire from the left bracer and make them unable to walk, and...

  “I can tell that you’re thinking something disturbing,” said Hugo. “Let me assure you, though, that there’s no need to worry about them.” He then pointed to the street they’d run off to.

  I couldn’t see what was behind the corner, but I could hear something being dragged on the ground.

  “What’s that sound?” I asked. The source got closer and closer until it soon entered my vision.

  “Shorry for the waith, Hugo.” It was a girl. If you ignored the ushanka hat on her head, she would’ve been about as tall as Nemesis.

  The first thing I noticed about her was her whiteness. White hair, white cheeks, white hat. Despite it not being particularly cold, she also wore a white felt long coat and a white scarf. And, for some reason, she was also biting into a white manju sweet. The only non-white thing about her were her blue eyes.

  “Heh.” Hugo turned pompous again. “Well done, Cyco.”

  She gulped down the manju before responding. “It’s a pain, but they were weak, so don’t mind it.”

  I looked down and saw that she was holding people — the four hoodlums that had escaped — by the clothes behind the napes of their necks.

  The ease with which she was holding two people in each hand clearly didn’t fit her appearance, but I soon noticed the Master crest on her left hand.

  Well, I guess her strength makes sense if she’s a Master, I thought.

  The way she spoke was extremely monotone, and I couldn’t tell if she was role-playing or if that was her normal way of speaking.

  She noticed me examining her and shot a glare at Nemesis and me. “Hugo the girl pamperer befriended a lolicon? You like little girls, mister?”

  “Who are you calling a lolicon?!” I shouted.

  “Who are you calling a loli?!” Nemesis howled at the same time.

  She actually marked me as a sexual deviant with her first words to me! Who the hell does that?! I thought.

  “That flat chest and low height are exemplary loli features,” she said. “And anyone who has a loli service him is a real lolicon.”

  Slander if I’d ever heard any. Nemesis was a part of me, so she didn’t count.

  “No!” said Nemesis. “This form of mine merely prioritizes beauty over function!”

  “A Master with an Embryo who claims that form to be beauty is a lolicon to the core,” said the white girl.

  “You little...! Seems like I have to do something about that mouth of yours!” Nemesis shouted.

  “Try it.”

  Nemesis jumped on the girl, who faced her head-on, as emotionless as ever. They began fighting, but I felt like I was watching two cats mess about.

  It sure is rare for Nemesis to be this honest with anyone that’s not me, I thought.

  “So, Hugo,” I spoke up. “Who is this monotone and monochrome girl who has no qualms about labeling strangers as perverts?”

  “Cyco,” he answered. “She’s my... party member. I contacted and told her to catch the ones that ran away. The girl’s a bit foul-mouthed, yes, but as you can see, she’s quite reliable. Oh, and just so you’re aware, the things she just said are far from the worst you can hear from her.”

  “Seriously?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “Especially when compared to the abuse she spouts at our clan owner.”

  ...I don’t think I can even imagine that, I thought.

  Well, her foul mouth aside, we now had a total of three Masters in our party. Naturally, that increased our chances of successfully completing the quest.

  “All right, Cyco, tell us what you found out,” said Hugo.

  “Okay,” Cyco replied while her hands were fixed with Nemesis’ as they pushed each other in what seemed like a situation straight out of a pro wrestling match. Still in that state, she turned her face to Hugo and began talking. “After I beat up and interrogated them, they told me where their hideout was. It’s beyond the east gate, in the Cruella Mountain Belt. The specific location was in a map they had.”

  Skillfully using her mouth, she bit into a paper she had in a pocket on her side and threw it over to Hugo using only her head.

  “Cruella Mountain Belt?” I repeated the place name. It was an area I hadn’t been in before.

  “That’s the name of the mountains to the east of this city,” said Hugo. “The area beyond them is Caldina’s territory.”

  “So it’s basically the border between the two countries,” I said.

  “It’s a great place for a bandit hideout,” he continued. “Any Kingdom of Altar military operations done in the Cruella Mountain Belt would be taken as acts of war against Caldina.”

  “Why don’t the two countries team up to take care of the bandits, then?” I asked. Bandits lurking near the border seemed like a big problem for both Altar and Caldina, so it would’ve been natural to team up and exterminate them.

  “That will never happen,” said Hugo. “Caldina only acts when there’s money to be had. In fact, they would do anything for it.”

  “By that, you mean...?” I asked.

  “For the right price, the vilest bandit could be a valued customer.”

  So they’re in on this? I thought.

  “I would guess they get paid a lot and provide passive cooperation in exchange,” he continued. “Caldina probably agreed to react in some way if the kingdom’s army made a move. Even if it was all just an act, the kingdom still couldn’t do what they wanted.”

  Hugo opened the map that Cyco had given him. On the left side of it was Gideon. The right portrayed a desert, and the area right in the middle of them had several mountains. The second closest mountain to Gideon had a circle marking something.

  “This is the place,” said Hugo. “It’s beyond a mountain. Seems like we’ll have to make haste.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ll have to run real fast.”

  For some reason, Hugo gave me a strange look.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Ray,” he said. “You’re a Paladin, aren’t you? Won’t you be riding a mount?”

  “I have a horse, but I can’t ride it because I don’t have the Horse Riding skill,” I answered.

  “So that’s how it is...” he said, looking completely weirded out.

  “...Yeah.”

  Well, this is awkward, I thought.

  “Heh,” he chuckled. “This is the first time I’m seeing anyone who doesn’t have the Horse Riding skill while being in the knight grouping.”

  “Is it normal for us to have it?” I asked.

  “Well,” Hugo said. “Let’s just say that I feel as though someone just told me that they’re a swimmer, but can’t do the front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly stroke.”

  “Is there even anything more to swimming than those four?” I asked.

  “The dog paddle and traditional Japanese swimming?” he suggested.

  Those didn’t seem like they fit.

  “Anyway, I see how it is,” said Hugo. “Leave it to me. I have a means of travel that allows us to get to their hideout in a short amount of time.”

  “Thanks,” I said gratefully.

  In unrelated news, Nemesis and Cyco had become friends during the fight, and were now exchanging a firm handshake.

  Friendship is a great thing, I thought. But man, the fact that one is black and the other’s white reminds me of a girl’s anime from a few decades
back.

  Our party — Hugo, Cyco, and me with Nemesis as my blade — had made our way through the eastern gate in Gideon’s third district and were now standing before the entrance to the Cruella Mountain Belt area.

  There was a road leading towards the mountains, which was being used by carriages and the like.

  We were about to make our way to the gang’s hideout by using the means of travel Hugo mentioned, but...

  “What is that means of travel, anyway?” I asked.

  “This isn’t the right place for it,” he said. “We have to go where there are even fewer people.”

  He can’t show it to anyone or something? I thought. “Does it stand out or something?”

  “You could say that, yes,” he answered.

  And so we walked for about fifteen minutes. We weren’t following the road, either. Hugo actually led us into some forest.

  All right, this is weird, I thought. We were nowhere close to any proper road that could be used by carriages and such.

  If we were about to use something rideable, the mountain road near Gideon would have been much better for it.

  “This place seems good,” he said upon discovering an opening in the forest. It was circular and had a radius of about ten meters. There was a curious lack of tall trees, and it seemed like the plants here had only just begun sprouting.

  “My guess is that someone with a magic-based job used an area-of-effect offensive spell here,” said Hugo. “I don’t know how it was for those affected, but it’s convenient for us.”

  He reached into his inventory, took out a silver sheet, and spread it out on the ground.

  Once he did that, I realized just how big the sheet was. It was a square with sides that were about five meters in size.

  “I’ve prepared the Garage,” said Hugo. “Cyco, any hostiles nearby?”

  “None at all,” she answered. “I’m not picking up any monsters or people.”

  “Roger that.” Hugo opened a window and began doing something on it. A moment later, sounds of machinery began coming out from under the sheet he’d spread on the ground.

  “...Wait, machinery?” I muttered. Suddenly, I realized something.

  Hugo’s job was High Pilot. The noun “pilot” was generally used on people who operated something mechanical. However, this world didn’t have any machinery that could be “driven” in that sense...

  ...unless it was related to a certain country.

  “Hugo,” I said. “You’re...”

  “Ray,” he spoke up before I could finish. “I am taking part in this quest as a person and as a thorn protecting the beautiful flowers we call ‘women.’”

  His statement made it obvious that he’d known exactly what I was gonna say.

  “Why are you on this quest?” he continued. “Is it because you’re a Paladin of the kingdom, or because you’re your own man?”

  There was only one thing I could say in response.

  “Ignoring this would leave a bad taste in my mouth.” It was the exact same thing I’d thought when I accepted this quest. “At the very least, I’m not doing this because of my occupation.”

  “Nor am I.” With those words, Hugo gave a wry smile and pushed down on a button on the window. It said “sortie” on it.

  Right after that, the sheet on the ground began to expand. Its surface began to slip and open up like a garage shutter, exposing a cavity that completely ignored the sheet’s thickness.

  Four pillars rose up at the corners of the sheet and stopped when they were about five meters tall.

  A moment later, a roaring sound came from the bottom of the cavity as a lift began rising up until it reached the surface.

  On it, there was a large object. Its two arms and legs gave it a humanoid appearance. However, it was nowhere near human.

  It was about six heads tall, but its height was above five meters and it was covered in a dark green steel coating.

  On its pelvic area, there was a gun and an army knife that fit its great size, and it didn’t seem like that was the extent of the weaponry it had in store.

  Its chest area was open, and inside, I saw a cockpit that bore a striking resemblance to one I had seen in some old anime.

  In conclusion, it was a humanoid battle robot.

  “‘Magic and Gear,’” he said. “More widely known as Magingear. The main weapon of the Dryfe Imperium.”

  Hugo — a High Pilot of the Dryfe Imperium — said that as he got into the cockpit.

  “...Hugo,” I said, impressed.

  “Right now, I am but a knight fighting for a lady’s tears,” he told me. “You are not a Paladin of the Kingdom of Altar, either. Am I correct, fellow knight?”

  “...Yeah,” I nodded.

  Yet again, he’d donned that aura straight out of a young girls’ manga or a Takarazuka performance and spoken as if he were a character from a play. Despite how ridiculous it seemed, I couldn’t help but agree with what he’d said.

  The Kingdom and the Imperium had been at war once. There was a ceasefire going on right now, but it was rumored that it was going to get heated again within the next few months. The countries we served were true enemies.

  However, as we were right now, that didn’t matter to us. It was also completely irrelevant to the girl who’d cried for her brother and the boy we were going to save.

  Our standings had absolutely no connection to what we had to do. When we’d taken this quest, we had been acting as our own individual human beings.

  “Shall we go?” he asked from his cockpit.

  “We shall,” I answered and jumped on the hand of the Magingear he was piloting. The other hand was already occupied by Cyco.

  With both its hands full, Hugo’s Magingear stood up.

  “Demi-Dragon-tier Magingear, Marshall II... Sortie!”

  And so, the Marshall II began dashing towards our goal — the other side of the mountain.

  ◇

  Magingear. That was the abbreviation of “Magic and Gear” — a term used to describe the imperium’s main type of weapon.

  As I sat on this weapon’s right hand, all the shaking caused by its running made me think of something.

  The first Embryo I’d seen after beginning to play Infinite Dendrogram had been my brother’s Baldr. That was a technological weapon, too, but since it was an Embryo — something that was unique to each Master — it wasn’t quite the same as something made by technology.

  The Magingear, however, were weapons born from Dryfe Imperium’s scientific prowess — a part of the world’s setting.

  As far as I was aware, the imperium was the only country in Infinite Dendrogram that excelled in technology and science. That fact made me curious as to why the other countries didn’t follow its footsteps.

  Technological innovation was something that would normally spread like wildfire. The imperium had been a technological nation for more than a hundred years. Reason suggested that their knowledge should’ve spread to other countries by now.

  When you looked at it as a game, it was probably safe to say that the reason was that the developers wanted to keep each country unique. However, Infinite Dendrogram’s setting was detailed enough to incorporate the basic function of logging in and out. That made me think that the technological gap between the nations wasn’t without a world-building reason, too.

  So, as we made our way to the hideout of the Gouz-Maise Gang, I asked Hugo about it. “What do you think?”

  “Heh,” he grinned. “To know the answer to that, you have to know about a certain civilization.”

  “Civilization?” I repeated.

  “Yes,” said Hugo. “It’s called either the ‘lost’ or the ‘ancient’ civilization.”

  ...That name seems familiar, I thought. Oh, right. Silver — the horse I pulled from the gacha — had “ancient civilization” in his description.

  “That civilization existed a few thousand years ago,” Hugo continued.

  According to Hugo, the ancient civilizat
ion had been highly advanced in terms of technology. It was similar to the imperium in that regard, but their technology had been superior to anything Dryfe had now.

  However, the civilization perished, leaving behind only a few machines and texts that archeologists stumbled upon every now and then.

  “You’re gonna have to tell me more than that,” I said.

  “There are theories that the grand civilization disappeared because their technological advancement made the people too arrogant, and therefore it incurred some divine wrath,” he explained. “According to the legends, a god and his thirteen servants went around destroying every civilization that existed back then. Every country besides Dryfe and Granvaloa believes that legend, so the people choose not to make any scientific and technological advancements.”

  I see, I thought. So they’re actively avoiding technology because they’re afraid of divine punishment. Hm...? Dryfe and Granvaloa?

  “That doesn’t apply to those two countries, then?” I asked. “And wait, Granvaloa is scientifically advanced?”

  “Well...” he said and pondered. “You might say that Granvaloa has science and you might say that it doesn’t.”

  How am I supposed to process that?

  “First, let me tell you about Dryfe,” he said. “Dryfe has always presented itself as the true successors of the ancient civilization and thus didn’t shy away from technology and science. However, all their attempts to recreate the technology of the ancient times have failed, so they had to compromise for machines such as the Magingear, which only functioned by using people’s magic.

  “People’s magic?” I asked.

  “Yes, they can only move at the cost of MP. Right now, my Marshall II uses 1MP per minute. In battle, it would be 1MP per second. There are differences in extent, but this is how every Dryfe machine works.”

  MP per second, eh? Reminds me of my Reversal, I thought.

  Anyway, a certain thing made sense now. That was the reason why Hugo’s jobs — Pilot, Mechanic, and High Pilot — were so focused on MP growth.