The Transcendent Artifact

The story rewinds, just a little—to the moment before he came face to face with the Emperor.

He had summoned Lactea and Luna by messenger bird, then arrived with Ruby at the capital branch's gate and begun the act.

"Interfere, and I kill this woman."

"......No. Hold your positions. They are not to be allowed out of the Blue Magic Tower."

The capital branch's mages, warned by the Viscount Gafelt branch, had the gate surrounded and every preparation in place. And then—

"Th-the intruder is world top-ten class, by the upper ranks' judgment!! Everyone, fall back!!"

Some thoroughly mistaken assessment from the top of the Blue Magic Tower let them walk out without a fight.

"Pfft. Idiots in that tower. They're calling the Captain a mere world top ten."

Yeah. No kidding.

Mages, of all people, spooked by an ordinary man and slapping a world top-ten label on him. Generous didn't begin to cover it. It was generous to the point of insult.

"Anyway, Ruby."

"Yes, Captain."

Clear of the capital gate, he whispered to Ruby, still held in his grip like a hostage.

"Gafelt's alive?"

A question he had shelved while Hanryang's and the Emperor's status windows had his head in a knot.

"Ah. I never got the chance to tell you. It seems he was carrying a transcendent-grade recovery artifact, so he didn't die all the way."

"A transcendent-grade artifact?"

The glittering words snapped his eyes open.

In the world of Babylonia, item grades were divided into four: Common, Legendary, Mythic, and Transcendent, in that order.

Transcendent would be practically endgame in Babylonia.

This was a world where finding a single Legendary artifact was enough to turn ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an ordinary person into a mercenary. And a Transcendent artifact was showing up before the prologue had even ended?

"Yes, Captain. One transcendent, two mythic, three legendary. Famous pieces that were circulating in the underworld—I know them from their previous owners down to their proper names. Sell the whole lot and you could probably found a small kingdom."

"And Gafelt was carrying all of that alone?"

"Yes. But, well..."

The question had slipped out of him, and Ruby finished it with a vicious smile.

"It's Gafelt."

Because it was Gafelt. Beneath the epithet of the Golden Magnate, a textbook shadow merchant who played at kindness, bewitched people, and took nothing but his own pleasure.

Fair enough. Going by the original, Gafelt lived through twelve of the fifteen episodes.

Which meant he had just scooped up spoils the Hero Party wasn't meant to touch until after the prologue. Of course it felt wrong. A newbie who had barely started the game walking off with endgame items—an absurd situation. But they were the ones who had shoved him into this body uninvited.

Have fun, you bastard of an admin. I'll put them to good use. Balance-patch it or don't. Your problem.

Either way, the moment he heard ultra-regeneration, a good idea came to him. He held out a hand toward Ruby.

Tap.

And Ruby, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, set her chin in the offered palm.

"...?"

"...?"

He nudged that soft cheek aside and gave the order again.

"The artifacts. All of them. Hand them over."

"Huh? Ah—yes, Captain! Th-then, if I explain them one at a time..."

Ruby, her face gone as red as her eyes, launched into a flustered explanation.

"Th-this one is..."

Of the spoils taken while wiping out Gafelt's lot, three were actually worth using.

From the top, they held Ultra-Regeneration, Magic Break, and Aura Absorption. What he needed most was the ultra-regeneration—the Ring of Iaso.

The others are useful enough. First, this job.

He picked out the pieces he would use himself and whispered as much to Ruby. She nodded and held out the Ring of Vulcan and the Necklace of the Sword Ghost.

And last of all, the Ring of Iaso.

"Hand it over, you little shit."

"Kieeeek!!"

"Oh? You want to live that badly? Fine. I'll make you into a doll, so the ring comes first."

"Kyehk!!"

Crunch!

"Ah, got it! Here, Captain!"

"Uh. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah..."

Ruby peeled off what had been Gafelt, wiped away the blood and flesh, and slid the ring onto his finger herself.

A gentle voice, and with it the power held in the Ring of Iaso flowed in.

You don't die. You recover.

Simple. Clear. And absolute for exactly that reason.

The rest of the gear was no different.

A hard, solid voice—the Ring of Vulcan. And then—

A voice worse than Ruby's. Madness like a nightmare, barely held down—the Necklace of the Sword Ghost.

...With these.

Even a man whose entire mastermind playbook consisted of Chapter One — Act Tough ought to be a little stronger now.

He was still getting a rough feel for how to use them when a voice he had missed reached him.

"Sorry we're late, Captain."

"......Sorry, Captain."

Vice-Captain Lactea, and No. 4, Luna.

As he had already decided, he had no intention of revealing Black Wolf's identity for the time being. He gave Ruby a short order.

"Carry out the directive."

Ruby Red, Black Wolf's hostage, was to be dumped into the underworld beaten half to death.

"Yes, Captain."

She vanished the instant the words were out, and only then did Lactea and Luna come forward.

Luna most of all.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Captain...!!"

"......?"

"Because of me, Hanryang... I... I sent him on a stupid errand...!!"

Click.

Luna pulled her mask off entirely. Her emerald eyes shone as her whole body shook.

"This is my doing. I'll get him back by myself, so let me lift the Restriction—no. Please. Please just let me make up for it, Captain."

She clutched tight.

The small, scar-covered hand fisted in the hem of his loose black robe trembled pitifully.

Lactea supplied the rest. Luna had sent Hanryang out to buy ingredients for a meal she wanted to make him, and he had run into the Emperor, and everything had gone wrong. Because of her, Hanryang might be dead or captured and Black Wolf in danger, so she meant to shoulder the whole of it alone.

But—

The line was already written into his head.

"We get Hanryang back."

"...B-but, Captain!?"

"Enough."

Pat.

Stroke. Stroke.

He set a hand on Luna's trembling head, smoothed it once, and turned away.

"We move."

"...Huh?"

Was that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his imagination?

"......Th-thank you, Captain."

He thought he could see the flush even past where the mask had been. There wasn't a second to spare for it.

"Lead the way, Luna."

"...Yeah! Captain!"

And just like that, they set out for the battlefield.

And so it was the present again.

"Luna."

"Yeah, sis."

A soft slide of magic.

Through Luna's emerald veil he slipped in between the Emperor and Hanryang, turning the Ring of Iaso over in his fingers and waiting for the moment.

Unlike the Emperor, in perfect S+ condition, Hanryang was under Black Wolf's restriction and had no weapon. Even being generous, he was A+ at best, so—

"......I am sorry—sir."

His defeat had been decided from the start.

"Drop the veil, Luna."

"Yeah, Captain."

They showed themselves in the same breath and turned their eyes on the Emperor and her knights.

"Wh-who are you!!"

"Quiet. For a little while, I'm the only one who talks. White Sword Ghost. Persona. Open your mouths and I'll kill you."

"Yes, Captain."

"Yeah, Captain."

Lactea's murderous aura and Luna's chilling mana seized the surroundings in an instant. He shook out the flesh dolls as if he were dusting off his hands and let them scatter.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

BOOM.

Ruby's Flesh Dolls—each one with a body on par with A-rank—closed a complete ring around the Emperor and a dozen-odd knights.

Grotesque intruders who had burst into the fight without warning, and flesh dolls of hideous shape. An ordinary person would already have been shaking apart and screaming. But—

True to the Emperor of the Empire and the knights who guarded her, they had only drawn in on themselves. They were not afraid.

"......Ruby—is it, sir?"

He walked up to Hanryang, who had lifted his head a beat too late, seized him by the throat, and whispered.

"In the end, you disappoint me."

"Ah...... C-Captain—"

"So this is punishment."

In the same instant, the Necklace of the Sword Ghost fired.

He took that monstrous strength as it was, then closed his hand.

Crack.

A horrible sensation, like snapping a waterlogged log bare-handed. And still easier than he had expected, so that the chilling awareness of what it meant to kill came flooding in.

"...That monster, with one hand?"

"Impossible...!! Look closer!!"

"C-confirmed. He's dead."

Only then did fear take the Emperor and the knights, and the system window rose again.

The skill that had failed now caught. Slowly, he drew off the Ring of Iaso and fitted it onto Hanryang's thick finger.

Crrrack—

He watched breath return together with the neck he had crushed, then pulled the ring free, put it back on his own hand, and turned his head toward Luna.

"Persona. Take him and go back."

"Yes, Captain."

He was making ready to withdraw, watching people too frozen by fear to even think of grabbing him, when—

A sub quest rose again. And this time it wasn't his life on the line.

"Captain. What do you intend to do?"

It was the Vice-Captain's.

Lactea's life, hanging on a quest.

Tap. Tap-tap.

Without quite meaning to, he had already picked up one of Black Wolf's habits, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he drummed it out against his thigh.

Running away right now was already enough to set his hands shaking, and on top of that he was supposed to get under the Emperor's skin?

Suppose it went like this.

"Your Majesty. Scratch?"

"...?"

"Scratch? Scratch? Ahh, yup, that scratched. Lol."

"...Fear or whatever else, I'm killing you where you stand."

"...Eh."

If it went like that, how exactly was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he meant to stop an S+ monster?

And the conditions are fussy, too.

One: reveal that he was Black Wolf. Two: get himself slapped with a special-grade wanted notice. Three: kill three of those monstrous escorts, every one of them A+.

Bastard admin.

Tease him about a balance patch and the man patches the whole thing straight into hard mode.

"Captain. What do you intend to do?"

"......That's what I'm saying."

Everyone had frozen where they stood, waiting on nothing but his next move.

Honestly, it weighed on him. But dawn was creeping up, and it was hurrying him along.

Let's see. Something that would actually get under the Emperor's skin...

He had the original Babylonia and the setting collection down to the last line. He thought it through, then rose from where he stood and walked toward the Emperor.

"P-protect Her Majesty the Emperor!!"

"Ghk...!! M-my legs won't move...!!"

"Aaah, don't come closer, don't come closer!!"

Somehow the knights were louder than the Emperor standing at the very front. All the better. A perfect chance to speak so that only she would hear.

"...You. What is your name."

Right on cue, the fear-stricken Emperor lifted a cutting glare to him, so—

"Black Wolf."

The first condition, cleared in a breath. He bent at the waist toward the Emperor and whispered.

"Reyna. If your father saw you like this, he'd be furious enough to kick his coffin open and come running."

"......"

Sorry about the first meeting.

But there was nothing else I could do.

Every complex the novel gave the Emperor was tied to family. She had lost the late emperor to the schemes of the nobility, and lost the one older sister she had left on the battlefield. For her, this was the surest method there was.

And sure enough—

"You said Black Wolf?"

Crunch.

Crrunch.

Grinding her molars hard enough to break them, the Emperor flushed with rage, shoved back against the fear, and came closer.

"...Say it again."

"I said if your father saw you now, he'd be furious enough to throw his coffin open and come running."

"......I see."

Reyna gave one small nod. Then she slowly lifted her head and declared it.

"Once your head comes off, you won't be able to speak at all."

"...?"

"Knights of the proud Empire of the Sun, hear me. From this moment, this man—Black Wolf—is an enemy of Babylonia and of its allied nations."

The instant she declared it, clear hostility kindled in the knights' eyes.

Having proclaimed the special-grade wanted notice, the Emperor at last drew her sword and leveled it at him.

"You dare disgrace His late Imperial Majesty twice. I will take that head here and now."

A fear worse than when Ruby had suspected him came crashing in. Even so, there was a part of it that rankled as unfair, so he opened his mouth with care and asked.

"...? That was once, though."

He had insulted her once. Hadn't he?

The Emperor's face crumpled all at once, and she took a heavy step.

"Once, the first time. Then I told you to say it again, and that made two. Precisely two."

"So I shall kill you twice, Black Wolf."

No. Hold on.

The second one was because you told me to.

The sense of injustice flared hot, and he was about to get a word in when—

Shhk.

A chilling shearing sound dug into his ears.

"......?"

A single stroke too fast for human senses to even answer.

Saved by someone, he froze without meaning to, dumbstruck—and a soft, lovely voice soothed him.

"A stubborn, ill-starred bond. I will sever it with my own hand."

But he was not the only one who heard it. Another, having heard that voice, lowered the sword she had been swinging and asked, very small—

"......Sister?"

And in the next moment—

"It's been a while, Reyna."

She still looks stupid. Horrifyingly stupid.