No-Show

The final boss. The game's ultimate enemy. Fittingly, he was the strongest thing in it, plastered head to toe with every important piece of setting the story could stick on him.

But I wasn't worried. There was no way I failed to bring him down.

Why? Because I'd specced up until catching him was a foregone conclusion.

The potions I'd stockpiled in the Subspace Pouch alone... Mm. Yeah. Dump the lot, and I could drown the final boss.

So it wasn't going to happen. Me, losing to the likes of him.

"Mm... this bastard...?"

And that's how I let my guard down.

No—could you even call it letting my guard down? Who would have seen this coming.

"He's pulling a no-show...?"

They call it NIMBY. If something's unpleasant to look at, you don't want it sitting at your own house.

So the Waste Disposal Site ended up the same way. Please put it somewhere out of the way. Not here.

Which meant there was exactly one place I had to go. Out of the Middle District, toward the West Outermost District.

No point wasting strength on the trip itself.

I left the inn, and a couple of buildings later an ownerless house still caught my eye. I turned into the alley beside it. Into the dark. Deep.

"Beside the trash can... where the wall's cracked... ah. Here."

This was it. The place I'd been looking for. The place I'd marked ahead of time.

A trace of mana no ordinary person could see, left on the alley wall.

Teleportation is difficult. Moving from one preset coordinate to another, though—that's manageable. The Subspace Pouch. More precisely, a kind of spatial magic.

Right in front of me, empty air split open and spat out a single paper scroll. A teleport scroll.

"Destination—the tobacco shop, obviously."

Once I'd set it in my head, there was nothing to hesitate over.

Riiip.

I tore the scroll, and for an instant a violet light flared.

CRASH!

"Gah! Agh, jeez, you scared me!"

"...?"

A faint dizziness, and the changed scenery, told me the teleport had worked. The welcome, though, was anything but warm. Trash lay strewn in every direction.

Mm. Figures. I had the picture.

"Hey... are you piling trash up in here again?"

"It's my choice! More importantly, you startled me, Mr. Siegfried! What are you doing here!"

I stepped out of the alley and looked right, and there was a head poked out, staring this way.

Pointy ears!

Right. An elf was looking at me, a few strands of golden hair stuck to the corner of her mouth, as if she'd been asleep until a moment ago.

"Well, I had business in the outer district."

"Couldn't you just walk over quietly?!"

"Mm. Too much of a hassle. No."

She heard my excuse and started squawking like she couldn't believe her ears. But honestly—was now the time for her to be yelling? It had been a while, and she hadn't changed a bit. Not for the better.

A lecture was in order.

"Lulu. Nothing pricking your conscience?"

"...Uh, nooo? Why are you suddenly like this?"

"I told you not to pile trash over there. It draws bugs."

What, did it make this much of a racket every time I teleported in? That part was fine. If anything, I was the one who ought to apologize. I was the one invading her space.

But if the racket was because of trash she'd stuffed into the alley? That was a different conversation.

Little by little, as if she felt the situation turning against her, Lulu's lime-green eyes darted this way and that. An emergency escape? She started to pull the head she'd poked out back into the shop.

"And where do you think you're going."

"Gyah! Violence is wrong!"

Not a chance. I caught her by the collar and put her right back where she'd been.

"Don't sleep out here. You want to get knifed in your sleep? Hmm?"

"At this hour, who else is even wandering around here besides you, Mr. Siegfried...!"

Honestly, this was the real problem. She knew how dangerous this place was, and she still sat out here like that. I knew that, unlike the way she looked, she was strong enough to survive even in the outer district. I also knew she could handle most grown men with one hand. Even so.

Tsk. No matter how I turned it over, she had far too little caution.

Come to think of it, our first meeting had been the same.

Not long after I'd possessed this body, I'd set myself the goal of surveying every district in the city.

I'd just finished the eastern district and come to survey the west when I found her. An elf, being dragged along by a pack of rough-looking men.

Well, sure. Mm. It happens. It was the outermost district; maybe the nightlife had simply grown up out here. I did think that. But even so—that elf, hauled along unable to even hold herself up, spilling nothing but a vacant little laugh. It looked like they'd used some dirty trick.

So I stuck my nose in. That's how I ended up saving her.

Time passed. Once the elf had her wits about her, we traded names, and I pieced the situation together while we talked. On review, most of my guesses weren't wrong. They really had picked up an elf high on something and were hauling her off as they pleased.

Except—if one thing differed from what I'd expected...

She'd brought it on herself. She'd been smoking, and she'd collapsed in a heap.

Would men who found a defenseless girl in a place this rough just leave her lying there? Of course they'd scoop her up. Push it far enough, and she would have been the star of an involuntary exhibition—of her viscera. And she was smiling. Over what, exactly? Then one more thing that really got under my skin.

What?

I'm the manufacturer! I tried modifying it a little and made a mistake!

...Why would she do a thing like that?

"That huuurts...."

Today, the memory of that day laid itself over the present. Over the sight of her clutching the forehead I'd just flicked.

She looked up at me with tears welling in her eyes, and... how to put it. The back of my neck went stiff. I didn't particularly feel sorry for her. I was a little angry.

...Still, nothing to be done. It was hard to say much more about it here. Just like this—whenever I happened to teleport, I'd stop by and make sure she was in one piece. That would be enough.

"Che... I'm older than you, so why do you keep..."

"Then act your age—forget it. Anyway, it's been a while."

"...Yeah, long time. You said you came for work...?"

I nodded.

Right. It was about time to go. There was still a ways left to the Waste Disposal Site.

Even in a moment this important, the reason I'd lingered here making idle talk was simple. Was I nervous...? Before the final battle? Well. It would be strange not to shake. Succeed at everything up to now, and lose this once, and it was still game over.

But that was done now. Looking at that same elf, still glaring at me with those prim eyes, I really was all right. All right enough to manage a hollow little laugh.

"Mmm... since you're here anyway.... Want to take some tobacco with you...?"

"Hmm. I don't exactly have the leisure for that.... Yes, all right. I'll stock some while I'm at it."

"I'll have it ready right ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠away!"

I could smoke it after I took the final boss down. Before I headed back.

Lulu went straight to it, the way she always did. She brought a glass bottle and packed it with tobacco ground down to brown. Just as she'd once declared, proud as anything, that tobacco was vegetarian too, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the leaf here was so good you wouldn't believe this was the outermost district. The usual stuff. Without needing to be told, she packed the bottle with care, then held it out to me.

"That'll be 500 gold, dear customer!"

"You commit fraud with remarkable shamelessness."

"Ehehe... I was joking. Two hundred—no, even 150 gold...?"

That was the thing, wasn't it. The art of negotiation. First you make an unreasonable demand, no exceptions. Lower the next one, and the other party finds it easier to give in. Sure enough, 150 gold looked cheap after you'd heard 500. Even so, hadn't she opened far too high? Seventy percent off.

But, mm... fine.

"Yes. Here you are."

"Yesss~ thank y—huh?"

I took the glass bottle in one hand and, with the other, passed her the coin pouch as it was. Like the pans of a scale, her pale, slender hand slowly sank under the weight. If she'd known how much I was giving her, she would have caught it with both hands.

"Uh, eh? Eeeh?! This is way over 150 gold! This'll clear 500 easy!"

"It's a tip. Spend it on something constructive."

No hesitation. I turned and walked. Nothing left worth lingering over.

A few steps on, a hurried shout came from behind.

"Th-thank you! Come again, Mr. Siegfried!"

"...."

Again, she said. Maybe I should have at least left a last goodbye.

The outermost districts of Belac City do not look the same in the east and the west.

Both are run-down, at the base of it. The difference is functional, you could say. The reasons they're run-down differ a little too.

The east sits flush against a dense forest. Monsters crawl in from time to time, so it's a place where you have to fight for your life several times a day. Put up streetlights or benches and they're wrecked before you know it, which is why almost nothing of the sort is installed. Cracked and broken on every side, the neglect shows. What shops exist deal mostly in monster byproducts, and the lodgings are large-scale affairs built to double as fortifications.

The west is another story. Monster attacks are far less frequent here than in the east. That's also why a Waste Disposal Site could be built at all. Put it in the east, and the disposal site itself would have become trash. A kind of commercial strip had grown up instead, buildings packed so tight the sunlight couldn't reach between them.

I walked through it, down streets that now and then reeked of acrid smoke and foul waste. As Lulu had said, the early-morning streets were quiet. Only a few people smoking in the alleys, here and there.

"...."

I let all of it pass and kept my silence. Buildings with no trace of people grew more numerous, and the farther I went, the clearer the sirens and the grind of machinery became in the distance. Because I was getting closer. To the site of the final battle.

And not only me. The one who had called me there was drawing steadily closer as well.

Keep walking, and the buildings vanished altogether. The paved road vanished with them, and I walked on dirt. There was no barrier to protect the lower classes of the outermost district. If a wall existed at all, it stood only between the Middle District and the outermost district. Nothing blocked the way ahead. I kept walking.

Slowly, it began to fill my view. A mountain of trash.

"They say... it only disposes of trash, but..."

In truth, this place did something far more comprehensive. This was where everything the people of Belac City had turned their backs on went to fade—into a colossal violet lake of unknowable nature that swallowed whatever was cast into it.

The place the Status Window was calling me to had been clear from the start. The place my feet had been heading all along. The Purple Lake.

In other words, where the final boss was.

"...Fuck."

And I spat the curse. Because I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nervous? No. I wasn't nervous. I was uneasy.

"Why is it this peaceful...?"

The only sounds were machinery shifting trash, and the bleat of warning tones. No presence at all. I would rather have felt killing intent, the kind that might ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cut me down on the spot. I didn't. My breathing started to quicken. I kicked off and climbed the highest mountain of trash.

"Why...? How?"

All that met me was stillness. The Purple Lake.

The final boss wasn't there.

At the same time, the Status Window's message rose again. Words whose precise meaning I still couldn't grasp, the same as before. Somehow, this time, they felt ominous.

"?!"

In that instant, a burning pain began in my right hand.

Cold sweat. I rolled my eyes, and I could see it.

A Purple Crest, seared into the back of my right hand.