by Sakon Kaidou
Almost the moment I began asking for that, I became aware of a certain game.
“Infinite Dendrogram will provide you with a new world and your very own unique possibility!”
A VRMMO that bore the promotional line, and that didn’t betray it, Infinite Dendrogram.
I believed... felt... hoped... that a game which provided countless different possibilities and lives would help me find the continuation to my story that I’d seemed to have completely lost.
With that hope in me, I began Infinite Dendrogram.
I made my avatar’s name the same as hers — Marie Adler.
I gave my avatar a similar appearance: long black hair, tall, pretty, and always wearing sunglasses.
I even went as far as to talk the same way she did — unique in tone and superficially polite.
I finished it up by matching my behavioral patterns to hers, becoming a proper Marie Adler roleplayer.
I felt like and hoped that doing so might help me notice something that could breathe life into her again.
A year had passed since then, and I’d yet to draw her story’s continuation.
However, I could feel her breathing every moment I spent in Infinite Dendrogram.
That alone was enough reason for me to stay here.
◇◇◇
Journalist, Marie Adler
“Nhh...” The princess stretched. “It’s been so long since I had such an enjoyable time.”
“That’s good to know,” I said.
After I’d drawn her, she’d continued to enjoy the many activities available in this plaza. Enjoying the food that she was likely unfamiliar with and the activities she never got to do, the girl had obviously had a very good time. Now, she was sitting on a bench while licking a candy that had the shape of a cute animal.
Why are the stalls here so much like the ones in Japanese fairs? I casually wondered.
“Gideon really is a lively city,” she said. “Count Brittis was telling the truth.”
“Count Brittis?” I asked.
“Yes. He often talks to me about how fun Gideon is.”
“Oh?” Shady. “Well, he’s not wrong,” I said. “As you probably already know — or have heard from him — Gideon is quite a feature-plenty city.”
It was a popular center for trade with the nearby nations of Legendaria and Caldina. The western port city was just a few days away on foot. Its arenas also gave it a powerful tourist industry, making a popular resort city for both rich tians and Masters.
Also, when it came to the kingdom’s main cities, Gideon was the one that was farthest away from the northern country of Dryfe, so there was little fear of them endangering these parts.
“It’s probably the most prosperous city in the kingdom,” I concluded.
“Yes,” said the princess. “Even the people’s faces are more cheerful than in the capital.”
Does she manage such escapes in Altea, too? I asked myself.
Seemingly remembering the state of the capital, the princess suddenly looked a bit down.
The people there had to live in constant fear of war, and the recent PK incident that had resulted in the complete immolation of Noz Forest surely hadn’t helped at all...
“My heart hurts a bit,” I muttered.
“Hm? What’s wrong, Marie? Do you feel ill?” she asked.
“No, I’m fine. Also, you seem to be thinking about the capital’s people, but I don’t believe there’s any need to worry. They should cheer up sooner than later. That’s what the castle’s people are working for, right?”
“...You’re right! I’m sure my sister will take care of it all!”
“Indeed she will.”
...Not like I believe that, I thought.
A good governing body was enough only when there were no international relationships to consider. When a country had a very clear enemy, not even the greatest ruler could do anything to take care of the people’s fears.
I simply didn’t have the heart to tell her that the capital’s people’s woes would continue for a long time. Thus, I told a comforting lie, and considering that it cheered her up, I was confident that I’d done the right thing.
“I will do all I can to help my sister in her work!” she declared.
“Excellent. Do your best, princess,” I said.
“Mrrgh.”
Oh? Why did she suddenly turn sulky? I thought. “Is anything wrong, princess?”
“That’s what’s wrong!”
“By ‘that,’ you mean...?”
“You’ve been calling me nothing but ‘princess’ for a while now! It makes you feel de...distant!”
“Distant,” huh? I thought. Well, I guess avoiding her name and calling her just by her position wasn’t very friendly. Also, the word “distant” was more fitting than she’d ever imagined. After all, I was full of lies.
“Very well. I’ll call you ‘Ellie.’”
She said nothing.
Oh? Why the silence? Did I close too much distance?
“Ellie,” she muttered.
“Don’t like it?” I asked.
“No! I love it! From now on, I am Ellie!”
So she likes it. “Good to know, Ellie.”
“Heh heh.”
My, what an adorable smile. I wanted to take her home, rub my cheeks on hers, and sleep with her.
All right, no no no no. Not only would that be cause for concern, it would also be a kidnapping of an important individual.
Remembering that she was important made me curious about something.
“By the way, Ellie, you said that you escaped the place you were staying at,” I said. “Why are you in Gideon, in the first place?”
“To enjoy it, of course!” she answered proudly.
“Sorry. Poor wording on my part. I meant the official business.” I was confident that I already knew the answer, but it didn’t hurt to confirm.
“Oh, I came here to observe the arena event tomorrow.”
Sure enough, it was The Clash of the Superiors. The event was an absolute first, after all. It was only natural for royalty to come in and make it even more prestigious.
“My elder sister should come tomorrow, too,” she added.
“...Eh? Elder sister?”
“Indeed.”
The elder sister of Ellie — second princess of the Kingdom of Altar. The only person that could be was the first princess and the current acting ruler of the country, Altimia A. Altar.
It didn’t make sense. After all, a single member of royalty was more than enough to give an event prestige.
...Is there something more? I thought.
“So you and your sister entered Gideon separately, huh?” I asked.
“I acted as her representative yesterday. I met Count Gideon and we made preparations for tomorrow’s banquet. It was very hard!”
I would prefer it if they didn’t overwork such a little girl. However, that was probably part being royalty, so I couldn’t really say much.
“That’s why I’m very glad I got a chance to relax and enjoy myself today!”
“Well, and I’m glad that you enjoyed yourself, Ellie... Oh, I have something to take care of. May we go?”
“We may! I had enough fun here in the plaza.”
I took Ellie’s hand, helped her stand up, disposed of the stick from her candy, and began walking away. While doing so, I looked at one of the city lights — specifically, the image reflected on its metallic surface.
“We’re being followed by... three people,” I muttered.
“Did you say something?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, never mind, Ellie.” After leaving the plaza, we entered Gideon’s DIN office.
DIN, Dendrogram Information Network, was one of the news companies of the continent. Just like Knights got their job from the kingdom’s knight orders and like Ninjas or Onmitsu got theirs from Tenchi’s shinobi villages, Journalists got their job by becoming associated with one of the many mass media companies all over
the world.
The protagonist of my manga, Marie Adler, was a journalist, so it had already been decided that I would take this job.
The news company I decided to join was DIN. It wasn’t the biggest in the industry, but it was notable for having offices in every important city of each country. Then there was the fact that it also acted as an information peddler without borders, which I liked because it was very “manga-like.”
Naturally, DIN had a branch office here in Gideon, as well. In fact, I had found out about the scalper that sold tickets for tomorrow’s event by asking my colleagues here.
By the way, every single Master working for DIN was treated as a special correspondent. After all, we could travel all over the place.
I had started in Tenchi, and I’d already been to Granvaloa, Huang He, and Caldina before ending up here in Altar.
We Masters made great special correspondents because we had the dynamism, fighting ability and — most importantly — the power to survive after getting the required information.
Of course, due to the skill “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword” preventing all combat action, pure Journalists had extremely high death rates.
However, just like Paladin’s Aegis, it was the type of skill that only worked while having a main job from that grouping, making it perfectly possible to fight after nullifying it by switching to a job from another grouping.
That was why many Journalist Masters chose to travel after switching to another job, changing back to Journalist to do the relevant work and then switching to a fighting job when traveling again.
The problem with that was the fact that job switching could only be done at save points, which only existed at towns and cities.
Sure, there was also the option of using Job Crystals, which allowed the user to instantly change their main job no matter where they were, but they were both expensive and disappeared after one use.
There were pluses and minuses to both staying a Journalist and constantly switching jobs. That was why I’d chosen neither.
But enough about that.
Once we entered the office, Ellie looked like an elementary schooler that had just gone through an educational field trip. Well, not like anyone could tell, considering that I’d had her wear a mask. Many of my fellow Journalists had skills that allowed them to see through Illusion’s visual trickery and Disguise’s fake stats, so I did it to make sure no one realized who she was.
“I didn’t know news companies were so active,” she commented.
“They’re really busy with the preparations for tomorrow’s event,” I said. “Even I got a job.”
Once I thanked them for telling me about the scalper, they’d given me many various data devices. They’d wanted me to make the best of my special seat and get the best recordings I could.
Some might think it unnecessary, considering they’d reserved the media seats, but I could fully understand wanting to have shots from many different angles. It was especially important in fighting matches. I used many such photos as references when drawing my manga.
We didn’t stay in the office for too long. I merely said hi, asked for two sets of information, and left.
◇
The information I got was everything concerning two noble families.
The first family was the rulers of Gideon: the Gideons. The current head of the family, Count Aschbarray Gideon, was a fifteen-year-old youth.
He’d inherited his position from his late father, who had lost his life to an illness about two months ago. However, his coming-of-age ceremony had been only a month ago, so there was a bit of a lag until he officially inherited the title and became acknowledged as the count.
Speaking of coming-of-age, the Kingdom of Altar had a custom where the ones to be sent to war weren’t the current heads of noble families, but their heirs. Many would assume that it should’ve been the other way around, but apparently, they believed that the ones who lived through such pain and trials were the ones who were truly worthy of becoming the nobles of the next generation.
However, the war had happened half a year ago, when Aschbarray hadn’t been of age, so he’d ended up avoiding having to participate in it. The military officer the Gideon family had sent to represent him had died in the war, so it was safe to say that the Count was quite lucky.
Still, it wasn’t a bed of roses for him.
The city of Gideon was still being terrorized by serial kidnappings at the hands of a group known as the “Gouz-Maise Gang.” They had been happening since the rule of the previous count, and even after Aschbarray took over, it still didn’t seem like it would be taken care of anytime soon.
The continuation of this terror made the people question the young count’s ability to manage his lands and keep the peace. Apparently, the more critical nobles were talking about leaving the rule to someone else.
However, the first princess and the nobles who had a say in national politics trusted Gideon’s name and had no intention of relieving him of his duties. That might change if the Gouz-Maise Gang continued its activities for longer than they could tolerate, but for all we knew, someone could just pop out of nowhere and simply take care of them.
In any case, the other family was the one bearing the name “Brittis.” They ruled the area between Gideon and the port city facing the West Sea. The head of the family was Count Alzar Brittis. Though sixty years of age, he was still in good health.
Alzar had told Ellie about how fun Gideon was, but he had actually been on bad terms with the Gideon family ever since their previous generation.
They simply didn’t get along. There were many reasons for that, one of which was the fact that, despite having similar amounts of land, the Gideons were far more influential simply because they had the duel city.
That was enough for me to find the situation suspicious.
It was odd that Count Brittis — who supposedly hated the Gideons — had told Ellie about how fun the city was. Most people wouldn’t have anything good to say about those they hated, not to mention that a list of bad things about Gideon could have been pretty lengthy. And yet, Count Brittis had only told her the good things. That was enough reason to believe that he’d intended for her to become interested, walk out, and see for herself. I had my guesses, but I still wasn’t confident about why he’d done that.
There was even more interesting info about him.
While getting up there in years, Count Brittis had had his first son. The man was an extremely doting parent and loved his son very dearly. Once his son came of age and became his official heir, he had naturally become excited about what the boy would become in the future.
Indeed, his son had gone through his coming of age ceremony. It had happened before the war half a year ago.
Following the custom, the son went to war to represent his father.
Good father that he was, Count Brittis spared no expense to give him the soldiers he needed to come back in good health. He also did some political maneuvering to have his son’s army fight alongside the kingdom’s strongest: the Knights of the Royal Guard. All so he would come back to him in good health.
And, after all he did for his son, all that Count Brittis got in return was a right hand with the family’s crest on it.
Hell General, Logan Goddhart.
A Master sitting at the top of Dryfe Imperium’s rankings, infamous for commanding numerous devils.
During the war, he had focused only on killing the Royal Guard’s commander.
Naturally, the Brittis army, positioned near the Royal Guard, had been overwhelmed by the three thousand or so man-eating devils who had left barely any identifiable corpses. Thus, Count Brittis had lost his only heir — his beloved son.
The tragedy didn’t end there, for not only had he spent great quantities of funds to gather the soldiers for the war, he also had to pay condolence money for those who’d lost their loved ones. To top it all off, the Brittis County got hit with a plague, causing the count to use the very la
st of his riches to prevent it from spreading all over the kingdom.
Though his efforts had been successful, they’d come at the cost of his county’s bankruptcy. Count Brittis had bowed before the royal family and relinquished his territory to them. When managing a territory became difficult, it was rarely impossible to continue it, but I couldn’t deny that the path to recovery would normally be harsh on the people.
Anyway, Count Brittis hadn’t gone with that option. That could either have been because he wished to save his people by putting them under the royal family’s wing or because — having lost his heir — he simply didn’t have any attachment to his lands anymore.
Thus, Count Brittis became a noble without land, and he now worked at the royal palace as a common civil official.
I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in his mind these days.
◇
“I must say, I’m impressed by the detail of their info on these nobles,” I muttered to myself.
As expected of a news company. They sure know their bigwigs, I thought.
Anyway, all this info gave me a better grasp of the full picture. Still, if things really were as I assumed them to be, the plan really lacked thoroughness. It required a great bit of luck to produce the results he seemed to want.
“Ellie, what kind of person is Count Brittis?” I asked.
“Count Brittis? He’s very diligent,” she answered.
Diligent, huh? I thought.
“However, he sometimes seems to be very lonely,” she added.
“Lonely?”
“I’m lonely, too, so I can see it,” said Ellie. Her face fell, and she looked into the distance... in the direction of the capital.
“I have an elder and a younger sister,” she continued.
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“They both have it very difficult.”
I had heard that her elder sister — first princess Altimia — was overwhelmed by her work as acting ruler, while the younger sister — third princess Theresia — was very sickly and could only live in a certain sterilized environment they had.
“My elder sister is much older than me, while Theresia is always in bed. We’ve never had a chance to play as sisters, and this past six months... we haven’t even spent time as a family.” Ellie breathed a silent sigh before continuing. “I always felt so lonely. I was no longer sure if I was even loved.”