Acquiring Maximization (1)
“Wh-what are you doing?”
I shrank back against the headboard.
It was some kind of defensive reflex.
“I'm swearing my loyalty to you.”
Seina spoke from where she remained prostrate on the floor.
By any human standard, the gesture was incomprehensible — but from her perspective, it was evidently the most solemn form of deference she knew.
“And why would you swear your loyalty to me?”
I'd been certain this would take a good long while. The wounds and grief the humans had carved into her couldn't be consoled by anything.
So my plan, if things dragged on too long, had been to fall back on the last resort: wooing her with my vast reserves of gaming knowledge.
And yet here she was, swearing loyalty to me — the very species that had wronged her — over a single small act of vengeance I'd helped her carry out.
It defied belief.
“Because you're strong, Gerard.”
“......”
Her words left me momentarily at a loss.
Thinking back on the day's events, all I'd really done was flail my fists around like a brute. And I don't mean systematically trained martial arts — I mean genuinely crude brawling.
'There's no way she's this worked up just because I tanked some mooks' attacks... right?'
“Are you pretending not to know?”
Seina spoke up, as if she'd read the thought right off my face.
“What?”
“You blocked every single one of my attacks.”
She mimed a raking swipe with her claws.
An awkward laugh slipped out of me — because the moment I saw it, I understood exactly what she meant.
'...When did she even attack me?'
Well, it hardly mattered.
I hadn't taken a scratch.
“Get up, Seina.”
Whatever her reasoning was, it didn't change anything. What mattered was that she had sworn her loyalty.
At my words, Seina rose to her feet — and something the size of a watermelon swung into my field of vision.
I whipped my gaze away.
“First... put some clothes on.”
“Okay.”
Seina gathered up the clothes scattered across the floor and dressed herself. I'd very nearly glanced over without thinking, and only barely reined myself back in.
I took a breath to steady myself, then spoke.
“I understand how you feel. I accept your loyalty.”
“Really?”
“Yes. From now on, you'll be my sword, cutting down countless enemies in my name.”
“I swear on the honor of werewolves — I'll serve you with everything I have.”
Seina thumped her chest as if to say, leave it all to me.
Watching her stand there so dependable, laughter started bubbling up out of me despite myself.
“Oh, and one more thing. I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor? Are you hungry?”
“No. Be my teacher.”
What kind of absurd request was this now?
If I'd had anything in my mouth, I would have sprayed it across the room. Nothing could have prepared me for that.
“...What's that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. I have to get stronger. The way I am now, that guy isn't even in my league.”
I scratched my forehead.
There was simply no way a guy like me — whose entire combat repertoire was swinging fists — had anything to teach her.
Wasn't this basically a pro gamer asking a hacker to teach them how to play?
'It's because of the revenge, isn't it.'
She'd probably judged that she'd need to get far stronger to face that man.
“Sorry, but I can't teach you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you can't copy the way I fight.”
With my defense hack active, all I had to do was plow through everything like a bulldozer. She, on the other hand, would have to weigh a dozen different factors in every fight.
“I see...”
A shadow fell over Seina's face at my words. I let out a sigh and answered.
“But I can help you indirectly.”
“Indirectly?”
“I can't tell you right now. But this much I promise you — if you journey with me, you will grow stronger. And before long, you'll achieve the goal you seek.”
At my words, Seina's pointed ears twitched upright.
“...You really think I can?”
“I guarantee it.”
With that, I rose from the bed.
“Let's get some sleep. You take the bed. I'll sleep on the floor.”
Hardly the behavior of a nobleman, I know. But then, it beat the alternative — the two of us lying stiffly in the same bed, drowning in awkwardness. The floor was far more comfortable.
“You're my master now, Gerard. I'll sleep on the floor.”
“No. I'm sleeping on the floor.”
“I said I'm taking the floor.”
We bickered back and forth like that a few more rounds, until finally I heaved a sigh.
“...Fine. Then we share the bed.”
It seemed like the only way this argument was ever going to end.
A day passed.
Rising early in the morning, Seina and I stopped by a clothing shop to buy spare outfits — and then went ahead and purchased two horses as well, courtesy of yesterday's generous "donations" from the slavers.
“Let's move out.”
I swung up into the saddle and looked over at Seina.
“Hold on.”
She was stroking her horse's muzzle, and the poor animal looked downright terrified of her. Well, she was a werewolf.
-Hiiiing!
“Don't be scared.”
Seina cooed softly, stroking the horse's face.
-Snort! Snort!
But the beast refused to calm down.
“Hey. Stand still, or I'll bite your throat out.”
The moment Seina spoke in that frosty tone, the horse turned docile as if it had all been an act.
“Now it listens.”
“......”
It was, briefly, a heartbreaking thing to watch.
“Gerard, where are we headed?”
Seina asked as she mounted her horse.
“We're going to Rania Forest.”
“...Rania Forest?”
Rania Forest was a vast woodland on the frontier, far beyond the settled lands. Because of that, no subjugation campaigns had ever been mounted there; monsters teemed within it, and the sheer scale of the place meant that people wouldn't set foot inside even to the first line of trees.
“As far as I know, there's nothing in there but monsters. Is there a reason? Is this the strength journey you were talking about yesterday?”
Seina's eyes gleamed as she said it.
Half right, half wrong.
'It's not exactly you getting stronger. It's me.'
What I sought was known as a Wish — an ability forged from the fusion of a desperately held desire and a mysterious power of unknown origin.
They were so vanishingly rare that almost no one possessed one, and certain Wishes wielded power that defied all common sense.
I intended to head into Rania Forest to obtain one such Wish: Maximization.
“Let's go.”
I gripped the reins tight.
It took us a full day before we reached the outskirts of Rania Forest.
“It's green as far as the eye can see.”
Have you ever imagined a world where the color green swallowed everything — horizon to horizon? Rania Forest was exactly that kind of sprawling expanse.
Which meant that anyone who strayed off the path would get lost without fail, and if they ran into monsters on top of that, they'd be trapped on all four sides with no way out.
'None of which applies to me, of course.'
Thankfully, with the game now over four years since launch, complete strategy guides were already everywhere — and naturally, I had every one of them memorized. So the odds of me getting lost converged neatly on zero.
Rania Forest looked like a bewildering maze, but its true structure was dead simple. Starting from the entrance, you just kept heading left, and you'd reach your destination without ever losing your way.
“From here on, we go on foot.”
We tethered the horses at the forest's edge. The monsters inside wouldn't wander this far out.
“It reeks.”
Seina wrinkled her nose and sniffed. Her sharp senses had evidently already picked up the monsters.
“If anything attacks us, don't hesitate. Kill it.”
“Got it.”
“Let's move.”
I doggedly kept bearing left as we advanced. Keep this up, and getting lost was simply not an option.
Then Seina stopped dead in her tracks.
“A troll.”
I looked where she was looking — and sure enough, there one stood, not far off.
Seina kicked off the ground in an instant. It was easily ten meters away, yet she covered the distance to the troll in less than three seconds.
-Graaah!
The troll swung one massive arm at her. Seina's figure vanished for a heartbeat and reappeared above its head — and in the next instant, the creature's skull split open, sliding apart like it had been buttered.
'...She really is something else.'
Troll hide was famous for being tough as leather armor, and she'd peeled it open like it was nothing.
Choosing her first had been the wisest decision I'd ever made. Without Seina, I never would have gotten past this place.
'I'm a one-trick pony — all defense.'
I'd have been stuck in the absurd position of being unable to die to these things, yet equally unable to kill them.
“Let's go.”
A cool breeze swept past, and Seina was suddenly there in front of me, speaking.
“Good work.”
And so we pressed on. We crossed paths with a few more trolls along the way, and every one of them met its end at Seina's hands.
And at last—
“We finally made it.”
I had reached my destination.
An ancient temple stood before us, blanketed in moss, radiating a silent, weathered majesty. Its height was such that even craning my neck all the way back, I couldn't take in the top of it.
A structure stuffed to the brim with grandiosity far exceeding anything its contents could justify.
“Seina, you wait out here.”
I stopped her just as she was stepping up onto the entrance stairs.
“Why? I'm coming with you.”
“I'm saying this for your own good. In there, pain is multiplied a thousandfold.”
“...A thousandfold?”
Seina's perked ears drooped flat.
“But... will you be okay, Gerard?”
“I'll be fine.”
The truth was, this temple had been pure vaporware even in the game — a place players only ever dreamed of entering. For the simple reason that it was absolutely impassable without using hacks.
And me?
“I'll be out in three minutes.”
I was already running the hack.
'Well then, shall we?'
To acquire Maximization.