Unwanted Reward (Complete)

My mind went blank for a moment.

"...A farewell?"

My expression darkened before I even realized it.

"What, feeling sorry now that I'm actually leaving?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

I clenched my fist until it ached and bit down on my lip.

"Why... where are you going..."

"...Eugene."

My vision was shimmering; apparently even tears were welling up.

"I'm not done yet..."

I was on the verge of crying, but I held it back by a thread and met Dark's eyes.

"I've still got a lot to squeeze out of you."

"...You lunatic."

I meant it.

Thanks to Dark I had become an aura user, and I had gained the Evil attribute and a spirit's name. And that wasn't all. I had obtained the S-rank Unique Trait Villain, and I could activate skills even without a borrow ticket.

Not that the last one isn't a laughably inferior knockoff of anything I borrow through Admiration.

I, who had been little better than an ordinary person without a borrow ticket, could now hold my own in a fight. And more than anything—

"You said we were friends."

Only then did Dark huff a quiet laugh.

"Worry not. I am not departing forever."

With that, Dark changed shape for the first time into something close to human.

Black hair. Black eyes. Black clothes, besides. Every last thing was a color that swallowed light whole, and I found myself staring, emptied of thought.

"What are you gaping at so vacantly?"

"...It's the coexistence of the secondhand embarrassment of watching a friend who dressed to the nines for a blind date, and the bewilderment that they actually look pretty decent."

"Pffhah. You lunatic."

An androgynous face. A voice that sat nowhere in particular between man and woman.

"A farewell is a farewell, however brief. So I ought to at least show you my true form."

"...Thanks."

"Think nothing of it."

The clothes that poured down like shadow, the air around them—looking at it, I finally felt it in my bones that this was a Spirit King.

"Indeed. You asked why I am leaving, did you not?"

I nodded without a word. Dark smiled at me.

"Because this body has gone against the world."

"...Gone against the world?"

"You should know that better than anyone."

I understood at once.

Caesar, the Evil Spirit King, was originally a being not of this world but of the original one. For such a being to be here—that, I supposed, was what "going against the world" meant.

An ominous thought brushed through my head.

"Hey, Dark. Don't tell me you—"

"Worry not. You will come to know this soon enough, but spirits are high existences. For each attribute there is but one, so this body shall not be deleted."

The worry had been pinpointed so exactly, and the explanation so neatly supplied, that I relaxed in spite of myself.

Dark went on talking while drawing something like a magic circle, using shadow as ink.

"But one must know the cause, no? Unfortunately a restriction has been placed upon you, so I have no choice but to ask another who might know."

Caesar nodded.

And then, once more, Eugene.

Someone else who might know?

"Who's that supposed to be?"

"The Spirit King of Light. The firstborn of all spirits—that one will surely know something. I intend to pay a brief visit."

Fair enough. For Dark, it was the obvious choice. In effect, a high existence had been forcibly summoned through the Unique Trait Admiration. Getting a grasp of the situation before anything went wrong was the right call.

"Perhaps because it has been so long, it feels a little awkward."

At last the magic circle was complete.

He, she, it stepped onto the finished circle and slowly raised a hand toward me in a wave.

"Worry not. My children will remain by your side."

"Worry? Please."

I'm the one who should be more worried right now.

Dark's mouth curved in a faint smile.

"...That, of all things, you need not worry about."

Thanks to one another's names, have I not become your star, and you my darkness?

"Say it so I can actually understand you."

"Dense, aren't you. I shall be off."

"Yeah, grab me a Melona on your way back."

"...Melona?"

With that, Dark was gone. Vanished, leaving behind only that wistful little word.

"...Melona?"

Just like that, I was alone.

"Haa..."

Maybe the tension had finally let go of me. I sank down where I stood without meaning to.

I was going to wrap up the underworld and then enroll, that was the plan.

House Lamis. The head of House Lamis. The cultists. The Six Apostles of the Evil God. Dark, and even Vulkan.

"They just keep lining up, don't they."

Not that I'd had a choice. If I had failed even one of the things that had come crashing down on me, the happy ending would have been as good as gone.

"If this were a game..."

Among good, middling, and bad, this would be like ultra-ultra-ultra good, wouldn't it? Of course, the difficulty had been high enough that the rewards had poured in to match.

"Shall I take a look?"

I pulled up my list of held skills at once.

"In the setting book they sorted these out properly, but here they've just lumped skills and Unique Traits together."

Did that mean Unique Traits were a kind of skill too? I decided to look them over as my eyes happened to land on them.

The first thing that caught me was Martial God's Physique.

"Right. Number Two had that."

It was the Unique Trait that had made the Second of the Evil God's Six Apostles a named boss. I tried to check the description, but—

"...What?"

It was locked down tight, with nothing but the restriction of that Unique Trait applied.

Until it's unlocked, only the restriction fires, huh.

So that was why my aura and mana resistance had been uselessly high.

Seeing the words "finish reading," it looks like I have to find something and read it to unlock this.

A few candidates came to mind, but I didn't have time to hunt them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠down and sit with a book right now. I already had Ancient Aura and Admiration; there was no need to rush the unlock.

The restriction bumped my aura and mana resistance, so it kind of feels like my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠defense went up too.

In the end I set Martial God's Physique aside for later and looked over the rest of the skills.

Ancient Aura is aura, plain and simple.

Just as Dark had said, it felt several times denser than anyone else's. The displayed rank was only C-, but it performed on par with A-rank.

Once I get more used to it, I should be able to raise the rank through training.

Next was Villain, the one I had Dark to thank for.

Absolute resistance to Evil.

Taken as a sentence on its own, it was clearly a trait worthy of the rank. But—

What does "Evil" even mean, exactly?

Like Martial God's Physique, this one would take time to look into properly, but the setting book had classified even poison and the cultists' malign aura as Evil. So it was a sure thing that it would help me, at least somewhat, in a duel with Number Six.

The part where I look like a villain to anyone who's on guard around me is a little annoying, though.

I wasn't an actual villain, so it probably didn't matter.

All right. Then the most important trait.

Admiration—the trait that was as good as my lifeline.

Bloomed Admiration had only a single extra line: Connects with the Original Work.

That's probably what summoned Dark.

I didn't know exactly how it functioned, but one thing was certain.

If you fulfilled certain conditions, you could borrow the skills of people from the Original Work.

So I just have to make come true here the things the original characters wished for?

I turned it over for a moment, but the information I had was far too thin, so I shelved it for later.

All right. Last of all—

"A parting gift."

The one and only F-rank skill my friend, Dark of Darkness, had tossed me on the way out.

"...Has this description lost its mind?"

I did not need a reward like this.

The last thing left was the sub mission reward.

"The Unique Trait already bloomed, so that just leaves Preview and ???'s Skill Borrow Ticket."

The borrow ticket first.

I felt it in my gut.

That is not something you use carelessly.

Even when I had tried to use it earlier, I had instinctively flinched back in fear. I decided not to touch it until I at least knew what those question marks were hiding.

"And then there's this..."

The words Preview.

This, no matter how I thought about it, was that, right?

Advance preview, cookies, rental tickets...

A precious little thing that let you skip ahead and look at a chapter that hadn't opened yet. It would definitely pick one future among the things that were going to happen to me and show it.

I thought it over for a moment.

Save it.

It was still the early part of the original story. The beginning was the prologue, relatively light, and things were only going to get much ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠harder from here. So holding onto it for now was the right—

Beep.

"Ah, fuck, I hit the wrong—"

The next instant, the future played out.

Shhk.

A blue-white blade wreathed in red flame took the masked man's head off in a single stroke.

"To think three of the Six Apostles would come... I must go to Rania at once."

Vulkan Vulcanus started walking.

That guy with his head cut off?

That's me.