Spring of the Imperial Capital - 3
The Hero turned his head toward Jerome and asked,
"What is your current level of attainment?"
Jerome answered without hesitation.
"Barely upper-rank."
The Saintess was mildly surprised to hear it. The words "barely upper-rank" proved that Jerome was, at the very least, a "pretty useful NPC." Of course, she would have to watch carefully how he performed in actual combat before she could be certain, but it was a tremendous relief all the same.
The Hero already knew exactly where Jerome stood at this point in time, yet he still made a show of assessing their strength in order to avoid suspicion. Acting had long since become second nature to both the Saintess and the Hero.
Keeping his gaze fixed on Jerome, the Hero continued.
"It would take far too long to go down through the castle."
"Can you jump from here?"
Jerome agreed without a moment's pause, as if ready to follow them anywhere.
"Yes."
Then his eyes shifted toward the Saintess, full of concern.
"But the Saintess…"
Jerome still saw her as a fragile young girl. The Hero, having tailed her, already knew she was more than strong enough; he had also realized, though he had never noticed it before his regression, that she possessed a respectable level of combat ability. Yet he could not afford to let anyone know he had been following her, so he had no choice but to play ignorant just like Jerome.
Hearing Jerome trail off while fretting over the Saintess, the Hero finished the thought for him.
"Come into my arms."
"You can't get down alone, after all."
"Right?"
The way he said it felt like he was testing someone, and the Saintess tensed, her mind spinning into paranoid overdrive.
Is this bastard testing me right now?
She already knew he had seen her leaving the black market, so the tension only tightened further. Telling herself not to panic, she took a steadying breath, repeated the mantra, and reached for her pen again to answer him. For some reason her hand was slick with cold sweat—the unmistakable mark of nerves.
—Yes.—
In the next instant the Hero was in front of her. He slid one arm under her legs and the other behind her back, lifting her into a princess carry. This body was surprisingly light; she could tell because he showed not the slightest strain as he held her. Breathing perfectly steady, he spoke to reassure her.
"Hold on tight."
With that he set one foot on the windowsill. Was he seriously planning to jump while holding her? A flicker of fear ran through her. Back when her Erosion Rate had been climbing she had acted as if nothing could frighten her, but heights still scared her now. Without thinking she clenched her fists in his clothes until the fabric crumpled into the shape of her hands.
Whether he was pretending not to notice or simply unfazed, the Hero remained utterly calm as he threw himself outward and landed on the ground below.
Thud.
The sound of boots meeting earth, and then he carefully set her down on her feet.
21% → 20%
…What?
This made no sense. The effect of the Madman's Notebook was supposed to lock the Erosion Rate in place. So how—?
No. It had returned to normal, so it must have been a temporary glitch. She reassured herself with that thought and looked around.
A world of nothing but pink. In that endless pink, a single massive cherry tree stood alone, its roots wrapped around the capital's gates as if cradling them. The tree rose so high it seemed ready to blot out the sky, towering with the arrogance of something that feared nothing—like a fragment of the World Tree itself.
Then a heavy metallic crash followed.
Boom!
Before she knew it, the man clad in the gleaming silver plate that was the very symbol of a Holy Knight had leapt from the window after them.
The first thing that had to be dealt with was that towering cherry tree rooted at the capital's gates. Every hour it scattered petals across the entire city, stimulating mind control and trauma, steadily draining mental strength. Leave the tree standing and the situation would only grow worse. Even high-level characters did not possess infinite mental stats, so destroying it as quickly as possible was critical.
It was the first boss—more of a tutorial fight—so the encounter focused less on direct combat and more on performing gimmicks and destroying the tree with unusual speed. In that sense the entire Imperial Capital stage was one giant boss monster. The main objective was to ignore the citizens who would suddenly lunge out and try to pick off party members, and simply reach the tree as fast as possible.
One very important question still lingered in this storyline: Where had the Emperor gone—Osis, that supposedly powerful mage, one of the Stars? She was not in the capital. The news that the Emperor had left the city was never taken lightly, yet in the story she had gone to persuade the Master of the Magic Tower, Akan, to return to the front lines. So, aside from the Hero, the Saintess, and a few early companions, the only real task was to break the gimmick and drive the Disaster out.
But who was she? Someone who had poured her entire school years into this game. And though it was still only a hunch, the Hero seemed to be hiding something as well. That meant she still had quite a few cards left to play—enough, even, to go beyond merely driving Spring out and actually capture and kill her.
Heh. Perfect.
In the early game the party leader was the Saintess; after Spring, leadership was shared with the Hero; and after the Saintess died, the player took direct command. Right now, therefore, command fell to her. Turning the green Hero into a proper veteran within six months would require the Saintess's full support. She was the kind helper, the character who taught the player how the game worked.
She would be forced to revise that thought soon enough.
—First, that cherry tree appears to be the source.—
The Hero and Jerome both gave small nods of agreement.
—The citizens are attacking those around them for no clear reason, or simply collapsing.—
—They are still citizens. Please be careful with them.—
That last part was not her true feeling. She was only parroting the Saintess's lines. The fastest method would have been to cleanly wipe out every citizen NPC standing between them and the tree. In other words, she had no time to waste on those unpleasant things merely pretending to be human. Facing Spring on the front lines would only make things worse. For someone whose goal was to force-skip the bosses somehow, take them out early, kill the Demon King, and return to her original world, they were nothing but inconvenient obstacles.
But killing them would be discovered without fail, and that would shatter the Saintess's image completely. If the Hero really had regressed—if her guess was correct—then she had to imitate the Saintess perfectly. The Saintess who lived in the Hero's memories, the one she herself did not know.
Well then. Time to move.
Along the great avenue leading to the capital's main gate, people with vacant, unfocused eyes stood scattered in their path. Ain, the Hero, handled them with practiced ease—swinging the scabbard of his sword or using his fists to knock them unconscious or pin them down. Jerome, true to his status as a background extra with almost no weight in the game, had not inspired much hope, yet at this level she could rate him around third- or fourth-tier. That was a genuine relief. Third- or fourth-tier was still within the range that a well-raised Saintess, the Hero, and one first-tier character could cover.
Still, the limits of an extra showed: he was clumsy at controlling his strength against the citizens, and he made frequent small mistakes that grated on her nerves. Well, good enough was good enough. If they kept advancing this smoothly they would reach the cherry tree soon. Burn the tree, drag Spring out of it, and kill her, and she would no longer have to worry about Part 1.
The real question is whether we can start Part 2 early, in spring.
At last they arrived beneath the tree. The shade was deep and dim. Strangely, her vision still picked out the shapes of things almost as clearly as in full daylight. Night vision was an advantage, so she did not dwell on it. The pink sky and the endless cascade of cherry blossoms swirling down from above made her eyes swim and set a headache throbbing. Fluorescent pink really was a color that hurt the brain.
Almost there. Someone might ask how they were supposed to climb a tree that had grown atop the walls, but the roots themselves formed a convenient ramp that helped them ascend. It was an extremely artificial setup, yet in the game climbing the walls had been mandatory for driving Spring out early, so it counted as game logic. Now that the game world had become reality, why were the roots still obligingly forming a path? She could not shake the feeling that something was deliberately luring them in.
Before anxiety could control her, she controlled the anxiety. Another deep breath. A stabbing headache tore through her skull.
Heal
Hah. Even if these roots were meant to lure them, it did not matter. Her goal was to kill Spring either way. If it was a lure, she would break through head-on and kill her.
That was the only path.