by Aneko Yusagi
“Hell if I know. Don’t group me with those idiots.”
“Mr. Iwatani . . . Is this another necessary part of governing a territory?”
“That again? Once again, hell if I know. And anything you think you know about how your dad ran the territory is hearsay, anyway.”
“You think my father had his hands in shady business, too?”
Eclair seemed to be distressed about something. I guess I’d have Raphtalia or Sadeena play therapist for her later.
“Anyway, we need to worry about Ren right now. If we let him keep running wild, not only are more people going to get hurt, but it’s possible that he’ll run into those people trying to kill the heroes. We have to capture him somehow.”
Ren was still acting like this was all a game, and whenever things didn’t go his way he wouldn’t trust anyone that didn’t sugarcoat things in his favor. He needed an attitude adjustment. At least in my case, I was suspicious of even the smooth talkers. On the contrary, those were the most suspicious people of all. We needed to figure out who was pulling the strings. If not, who knew when it would come back to bite us? Right now, that meant capturing Ren and making sure he didn’t get killed.
“But . . . capturing someone that’s out of control and has a curse series weapon is going to be really difficult,” I said.
“That is a tough one. We have to make sure he doesn’t die, too. It wouldn’t be so bad if all we had to do was defeat him,” Raphtalia replied.
“The fact that he considered me some kind of boss or something and attacked me by surprise could mean that he’s after experience points.”
“It’s scary because it seems so likely.”
You could gain experience by killing humans in this world.
“In that case, the curse could coincide with gluttony, if you thought of it as devouring experience points,” I suggested.
Ren was the type that would enjoy leveling up characters. If we assumed he’d been consumed by that kind of desire, then he probably saw me as a sitting duck, since I was walking alone, even if I did have Raph-chan with me.
“Then there’s greed . . . It could be that he wants to own everything and so he’s using the bandits to gather up loot. So greed is a possibility, too.”
I wanted to say that greed was my specialty, but I hadn’t unlocked that series for some reason.
“I have a feeling you’re thinking about something self-depreciating.”
“Man, you’re good.”
“Well I’ve known you for a long time.”
I had to give Raphtalia props for her impressive ability to guess what I was thinking. Were my expressions really that easy to read?
Anyway, if the curse series that were attainable differed with each weapon, we would never be able to figure it out. Pride might have been possible, too. There were players in online games that valued their level above all else and looked down on anyone that was a lower level. Ren seemed really proud, or at least the way he seemed to romanticize his lone-wolf tendencies spoke to a sense of pride. I guess Itsuki was a better fit for that one.
“Eclair, aside from the seven deadly sins, there’s also the eight cardinal sins. It’s possible that it could coincide with one of those.”
“Oh! I’ve heard of those.”
Rishia spoke up while raising her hand hesitantly. So those existed here, too? The previous heroes must have really been into all this sin business. Probably some escapist fanboys.
Anyway, the seven deadly sins were a revised version of the older eight cardinal sins, which included gluttony, lust, greed, sorrow, wrath, acedia, vainglory, and pride. So envy was missing, but sorrow and vainglory were included. Acedia was basically the same thing as sloth. Later on, sorrow and acedia were consolidated into sloth, vainglory was merged with pride, and envy was tacked on, resulting in the seven deadly sins.
“If the older eight cardinal sins are included, then it might be vainglory, or being concerned solely with superficial appearances.”
“You think so? I can’t really say for sure, but . . .”
“Is the Sword Hero that concerned with outward appearances? I can see the connection, but it seems a bit weak.”
Raphtalia and Eclair expressed their doubts about the possibility of vainglory.
“Well, this is just based on my understanding, or shall I say the unique understanding of someone from another world. Let’s see if I can make it easier to understand . . . Eclair or Rishia, do either of you know of a game where people play with cards on a table or something to mimic battles with monsters?”
“Yes, I do. There are similar educational materials used to teach people how to fight monsters and get stronger,” Rishia replied.
“Educational materials? Whatever, that will work. To put it simply, people from worlds like Ren and I play with educational materials like that a lot. But just playing with those educational materials doesn’t actually make a person stronger, does it?”
Rishia and the others all nodded. Rishia knew that better than anyone.
“Those educational materials—I’m guessing they’re only used by several people at once here in this world—but people all around the world can play together in similar games in the worlds that the heroes come from.”
“Fehh . . . Did you all play these games with that many people?!”
“Itsuki’s case is a bit different, but for the most part, yeah.”
Itsuki had played a console game back in his world. I hadn’t asked him about the details, so I wasn’t sure if it had elements like those you would find in online games.
“I see. Now I understand why the heroes are so knowledgeable about this world. The importance of prior knowledge cannot be underestimated,” said Eclair.
The power obtained in online games wasn’t true power, and it was vainglory that created attachment to that power. Of course, the experiences gained from playing online games were real, and I’m sure there was value in becoming powerful. Back in my world, there were people that had gotten jobs as a result of relationships built in online games. In fact, someone I knew from online once offered to set me up with a full-time job at his company after I’d graduated from university. It was a guy I’d met in real life, too. He told me that his company could use someone fearless like me that had the charisma I displayed as the guild leader. I’m not sure how honest he was being, but it felt good to hear, anyway. Thinking back on it now, he was probably just flattering me in an attempt to make me his errand boy or something.
But judging from Ren’s personality and relationships with others, I couldn’t even begin to imagine him being able to build a relationship from which he could expect anything like that. It was easy to imagine him being the kind of solo player whose interactions with others wouldn’t extend far beyond flaunting a rare drop he’d gotten from a boss or something. Managing a guild had made it painfully clear that being the strongest wasn’t everything and going around flaunting items like that was not only pointless, but also super annoying. But there were people that got off on that kind of thing in online games, and you could probably even say those players were the reason the game companies did so well.
“If he persisted in believing that transient power was true power and neglected his inner development . . . That would be vain power, right?”
Although, if we were talking about vainglory, would Ren really be the best fit? It probably corresponded to Itsuki more than anyone else.
“It’s hard to say one way or the other, since the conditions required to trigger a curse are still a mystery. And I don’t know which sin it would be, but . . . he’s definitely guilty of blatantly committing several of the sins.”
“Hmm . . . So the fact that you are guilty of several sins that haven’t appeared as a curse series serves as counterevidence to the theory, making it even more difficult to determine the curse,” Eclair replied.
She was right. If being a bad person was all it took, I’d committed plenty of sins. But wrath was the only curse series that I
had unlocked. If they triggered based on behavior patterns, I’d have to be worried about greed more than anything else. Even I recognized just how greedy I was. I wasn’t afraid of the wrath series, since I’d started to understand how to stay in control lately, and I had companions that helped me do that.
Maybe the kind of emotional outburst that almost shattered a person was a condition? Hmm . . . I probably needed to spend some time determining the conditions that triggered a curse or I could end up in trouble. But the love of money was greed, right? Thinking about the pile of treasure behind me, I couldn’t help but feel like I was just a big mass of desire. And then there was insatiable desire. But I hadn’t been consumed by greed. There had to be a reason why.
Anyway, the curse series most likely to have tainted Ren was probably gluttony, greed, pride, or vainglory. We’d narrowed it down to a certain degree, so now we could further refine our line of thinking. I had a feeling that it could be dangerous if the curse remained unchecked for too long. The curse series included skills that required the user to pay a price. There had to be a way to get Ren under control before he used those skills.
“. . . ?”
“Rafu?”
Raphtalia and Raph-chan were blinking and looking behind me, in the direction of the entrance to the bandit hideout.
“What is it?”
“Umm . . . I’m not sure, but it felt like a hidden presence.”
Raphtalia and Raph-chan could use illusion magic, so they had increased resistances to the effects of concealment skills and magic. Raph-chan had detected Ren earlier, for instance. I guess it was because they had gotten stronger, but lately they had even started to detect concealed shadow lookouts.
“Is someone there?”
“I’m not sure. They were really well hidden, and I think they’d already fled by the time we noticed.”
“I wonder if it was Ren. That would just make things worse.”
“I think I would know if it was the Sword Hero. It was probably someone else.”
That meant that someone had been watching us seize the hideout from the shadows. If it had been Ren, and now he had fled to a completely different location, that would only make things even more impossible for us.
“Mr. Iwatani, I think it would be best to report this to the authorities.”
“I guess we could report it and have them cast ceremonial magic to interfere with attempts to escape.”
“Yeah.”
It was a reasonable strategy. Chasing him would be pointless if he just used his portal skill to flee every time we found him. He’d gotten away this time, but if we found him again, we would need to jam his portal skill before he could run. Seriously, it would have been so simple if all we had to do was defeat him. Capturing him alive was a real hassle. And then I suddenly remembered something that happened in Zeltoble.
“S’yne.”
I called out to Murder Pierrot, a.k.a. S’yne. She was keeping tabs on me, after all, so I figured she might come if I called. In the blink of an eye, S’yne was standing before me.
“What?———”
Having a conversation with her was difficult, but it seemed like she could hear what we were saying reasonably well, so I guess that was all that really mattered. The real problem was that I didn’t want to rely on her too much.
“Sh . . . she just appeared out of nowhere!”
Oh yeah, I hadn’t told Eclair about S’yne.
“You’ve seen me use portal to teleport somewhere and appear out of nowhere, right? Don’t be so surprised. Just think of her as . . . my own personal shadow.”
I didn’t want to bother with explaining about heroes from other worlds and all that mess. This explanation should do for now.
“She doesn’t seem to be our enemy, so you don’t have to worry.”
Raphtalia told Eclair what we knew about S’yne. I wasn’t sure if I could trust her, but I couldn’t deny that she seemed to be trying to protect me. It probably wouldn’t hurt to rely on her a bit. Hmm? There were two stuffed dolls floating next to S’yne. One was a life-sized replica of Raph-chan. The other one looked like it was based on Sadeena’s therianthrope form. I stood there staring at the stuffed dolls and S’yne pointed in their direction as if to ask what I was staring at.
“Yeah, that. I want the one that looks like Raph-chan later.”
“What kind of request is that?!”
“Rafu!”
There was Raphtalia with another sharp retort. What was wrong with wanting the doll? Just seeing it next to my pillow at night would be sure to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“I’m Miss S———familiar. Pleased to meet you.”
The Raph-chan stuffed doll gave a quick bow. Aw, HELL naw. Raph-chan squealing “rafu!” is what made her cute.
“Fail! You don’t understand what makes Raph-chan cute at all. A Raph-chan that speaks human languages can’t be called a Raph-chan. Change the design.”
“Fine. I’ll———so that it doesn’t talk.”
And the other doll was Sadeena, of all people. S’yne tinkered with something for a moment and the Raph-chan stuffed doll stopped moving.
“Why are we chatting about the stuffed dolls . . . the familiars that S’yne made?!”
Raphtalia had a point. We needed to get back on topic.
“You used some skill that interfered with our skills, right?”
“Yes. Skill———al can block skills.”
“Since you’ve been watching us, I’m sure you know what I want you to do, right?”
S’yne nodded.
“You want me to capture———he flees?”
“Yeah. Can you do that for me?”
S’yne nodded vigorously as if to say, “Leave it to me!”
“You better not kill him. Even if he has a cursed weapon, I’m guessing he’s still so weak that he can’t even begin to compare to us.”
“He’s really that w——?”
I looked away from S’yne and nodded.
“It’s really kind of sad, isn’t it?” said Raphtalia.
“Let’s not go there . . .” I mumbled.
He’d used a finishing move on me in a surprise attack and it didn’t even scratch me. Then he used an attack that was the equivalent of my Iron Maiden skill and the only reason it stung a bit is because I was still weakened from a curse. Now I understood how Glass felt when she fought us. The fact that Ren was weak hadn’t changed. It was just that capturing him without killing him or allowing him to escape was a hassle. Things would be a lot easier if this were a certain monster tamer RPG, where all we had to do to capture him was weaken him and then throw a ball at him.
“Okay———go now?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. He likes to use surprise attacks, so I’m sure he’ll attack you if you just walk around by yourself for a while. Will you be okay?”
“Yes.”
S’yne skipped out of the bandit hideout . . . and then immediately returned.
“What is it?”
“That———!”
I looked over in the direction S’yne was urgently pointing toward.
“What are you still doing alive?!” I blurted out.
The man from another world that S’yne had only recently slaughtered casually strolled up along with one of his friends.
Chapter Sixteen: The Merits of Invading Other Worlds
Was he a ghost or something? No, he certainly looked alive. Maybe it had been a stand-in that S’yne had killed. He could have used some spell to create a double or something. That would be really troublesome.
“It’s the Shield Hero! Eeehehe! Now I can take revenge on you for killing me!”
“Oh? We heard that there might be a holy hero around here. Looks like we hit the jackpot.”
The friend of the man we killed was a large, tallish man that was carrying what looked like a kusarigama, or chain sickle. Paired with the small man, the two looked like a real odd couple. Judging from what he’d said, they must h
ave been searching for the bandit hideout to find and kill Ren and ended up running into us by coincidence. But what the hell did that dimwit mean by “revenge,” anyway? He’s the one who attacked us!
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Atla yelled out to me with a serious look on her face.
“Are those enemies?!”
Sensing the tense atmosphere, Fohl prepared himself to go to battle, but Atla held her hand out in front of him as a sign that he should stay back.
“No, Brother. They are far too strong! We are no match for them right now!”
“B . . . but—”
“If you don’t stay back you’ll just get in Mr. Naofumi’s way.”
Impressive. It seemed like being blind had given Atla a really strong sixth sense or something. To be honest, even I was probably going to have a tough time fighting these enemies. If that was the case, Atla and Fohl joining the fray would more than likely just drag me down.
“I think our best course of action would be to take the captured bandits away from here so that they don’t get hurt,” Atla said.
“Good call. That’s exactly right. You two stay back. We’ll deal with these creeps.”
“Understood!”
“Rafu!”
Raphtalia drew her katana and Raph-chan jumped up onto my shoulder.
“Are these the enemies you mentioned, Mr. Iwatani?!”
“Fehhh . . .”
Eclair and Rishia prepared themselves to be able to attack at any time.
“We’re not really interested in killing the rest of you, but eeehehe . . . doing so shouldn’t be a problem by the looks of it.”
Right now I had Raphtalia, Filo, Raph-chan, Eclair, Rishia, and S’yne with me. I was genuinely thankful that Atla and Fohl had backed down. That would make things a little bit easier on me. We were only facing two enemies, so the odds seemed to be in our favor. But that man had used some peculiarly powerful magic. He’d also been able to keep up with Raphtalia’s movements . . . and now there were two of them. I would have preferred to be able to take care of them somehow with just me and Raphtalia fighting, but . . .
“Your goal is to kill the holy heroes, right?” I asked.