On the Brink (1)
His attitude—appearing out of nowhere and announcing he had a few questions—was so absurd Albrecht could barely keep from calling it out. Yet he held his tongue.
The man was simply that strong. As far as Albrecht, a player of Dungeon in Evil, knew, among every hero who appeared in the story this one ranked among the most formidable.
Albrecht checked his status first, almost by reflex.
Name: Karna
Class: Hero
◈ Status
[Strength: 290] [Agility: 257]
[Stamina: 305] [Intelligence: 40]
[Magic Power: 507] [Divinity: 650]
◈ Traits
[Spearmanship Lv.10] [Acceleration Lv.3] [Self-Recovery Lv.3] [Mind’s Eye Lv.6] [Sixth Sense Lv.8] [Blessing of the Firmament Lv.10] [Blessing of the Earth Lv.10] [Blessing of the Great Sea Lv.5] [Magic Resistance Lv.7] [Disease Resistance Lv.7] [Absolute Poison Immunity Lv.10]
The numbers alone made his strength obvious. His base Strength, Agility, and Stamina stood equal to Erinn’s, and he clearly outclassed Orlando, the other hero they had met before. What stood out most was the Divinity—far higher than any other hero’s. Karna had been born with it, much like Freya, a natural saint. That towering Divinity fused with his holy relic, the Holy Spear, and became the wellspring of every devastating technique he wielded.
Albrecht tensed the instant he saw him. Erinn, by contrast, merely looked displeased; there was no real tension in her. She let out a short, dry laugh.
“Here~?”
She felt the stares gathering as people noticed the two of them facing off.
“With this many eyes watching~?”
“Doesn’t matter. The questions aren’t particularly secret.”
Karna’s voice was flat.
“Depending on your answers, there may be nothing strange about them at all.”
“Which means depending on my answers they could get strange, right~? I don’t feel like answering here~♡”
In truth the questions themselves didn’t bother her. She was thinking of Albrecht. Once Karna’s business was finished she could leave this place whenever she liked; Albrecht would have to live here for a while. She had no desire to start odd rumors in a crowd. Karna studied her for a moment, then spoke.
“…We’ll move.”
He turned and left first. Only then did the people in the martial arts yard begin to murmur in open surprise.
“That man…”
“Isn’t that the Holy Spear Hero?”
Karna was the hero of the Shah Zar Kingdom; the locals could hardly fail to recognize him. Erinn, a foreign hero, was harder to place at a glance—until Karna himself had called her a hero. Recognition began to ripple through the crowd.
“Then that one…”
“Blonde, short… wait, isn’t that the Dern Empire’s hero?”
Feeling the weight of those stares, Erinn glanced at Albrecht. He felt them too and looked back.
“…What are you going to do?”
“What else? We follow.”
“You sure?”
“Why not~? But in exchange…”
She grinned with mischievous sweetness.
“You stick right next to me the whole time~? Like a newborn baby♡”
“…I get what you mean.”
Albrecht let out a quiet sigh and carefully followed Erinn as she strode ahead.
Karna had already vanished, yet Erinn walked without the slightest hesitation. Albrecht was still wondering whether she actually knew where she was going when a voice drifted out of the shadows.
“You didn’t run.”
Karna stood in a narrow alley, deep in shade where sunlight never reached.
“Why would I run~? I’m no coward~♡”
Erinn stepped into the alley with the same unhurried confidence; Albrecht followed.
“So what are these questions that make you…”
She still wore that insolent little smile.
“…stalk people like some creep~?”
“Simple questions.”
Karna reached back and drew the massive spear from its harness. Erinn’s eyes narrowed at once.
“Hero Erinn. Did you commit slaughter inside the Shah Zar Kingdom?”
“Slaughter, huh…”
She gave a short, scornful laugh.
“All I remember is taking out the trash~♡”
“…Confirmed. Next question.”
He continued without pause.
“Have you ever infiltrated the kingdom without royal permission?”
“…Ha.”
Erinn let out a hollow laugh. The questions sounded as if he already knew every step they had taken.
“These are questions with answers already decided, aren’t they? Why bother asking~?”
“…So you won’t deny it.”
“You already knew when you came. But do you know this?”
Erinn’s voice sharpened.
“Your master crossed the line first~?”
“…Master?”
“That’s right. That man is your master. You’re the dog.”
She giggled.
“Following orders without even knowing why he gave them—how is that any different from a dog~♡”
The words were pure insult, yet Karna remained unnervingly calm. He simply watched Erinn refuse to deny anything and reached his own conclusion. He raised the spear into a ready stance. Erinn’s voice turned lethal.
“Don’t take that stance~.”
There was real steel in it now.
“The second you do, the conversation ends~♡”
Albrecht, standing beside her, felt a cold spike of worry that things had already gone too far. In that hair-trigger moment the woman at Karna’s side—Sharti—stepped between them.
“Karna, wait.”
“….”
“We agreed to settle this with words if we could.”
At her restraint Karna lowered the spear. Erinn eased her own tension a fraction.
“Hero Erinn.”
“Mm~?”
“From what you’ve said, both the secret infiltration and the killings appear to be true. Yet if a hero went that far, there must have been a reason—as you yourself just claimed.”
“Hmm.”
“Tell us the reason. We’ll listen and decide.”
Erinn looked at Karna. He seemed willing to follow Sharti’s lead. Fighting him here, with Albrecht possibly in danger, was the last thing she wanted. So she answered cleanly.
“You already know our party recently subdued a dragon and put the Dragon Jade up for auction, right~?”
“I’ve heard.”
“We simply cleaned out one of Mahendra’s underworld outfits that had the gall to steal it from the auction house. Turns out they happened to be your royal family’s shadows.”
She tilted her head.
“So who do you think ordered them to steal the Dragon Jade~?”
Sharti gave a small nod and looked to Karna, hoping he would reach the right judgment. Karna seemed to weigh the words for a moment before speaking.
“…In the end that still means you came into the kingdom and killed its people. Did you not realize a hero doing such a thing could become a diplomatic incident between kingdom and empire?”
“I didn’t kill them~?”
“What kind of sophistry is that?”
“A single lizard whose life was on the line after the Dragon Jade was stolen just went on a rampage~?”
Karna looked briefly nonplussed, then pressed on.
“…There were clear sword marks left in that basement. How do you deny those?”
“Ah, those ones I did kill~.”
“…You admit it? Then what excuse remains?”
“I never said anything wrong~? You asked whether I killed citizens of the Shah Zar Kingdom~?”
Erinn giggled again.
“Since when do disposable shadows count as kingdom citizens~?”
“….”
Shadows abandoned their nationalities precisely so that failure would leave no clear trail back to their masters. Rank-and-file members sometimes kept theirs, but every officer of any importance officially existed nowhere.
“So I’ve never killed a single citizen of the Shah Zar Kingdom the way you put it~ Dummy♡”
“….”
Albrecht was honestly impressed. Leaving the cleanup to Caesius while she herself only handled the leaders—so that was why.
Her political sense really is…
Sharp. Then again, living a third life probably made that inevitable.
Karna found no opening to argue. He simply turned her words over in silence.
“…I understand.”
He accepted her account. Albrecht and Sharti both relaxed; Erinn let a little of the tension drain from her shoulders as well. Then Karna spoke again.
“In that case, where is the dragon?”
“…Huh?”
“By your own words, the one who killed kingdom subjects was that dragon.”
His tone stayed flat.
“I will judge it.”
“….”
Erinn and Albrecht exchanged identical looks of dismay, then both stared at Karna.
“Um~ well…”
“What is it? Do you not know its whereabouts?”
“That’s a little awkward~?”
“Why?”
“…That man appears to be the dragon’s contractor.”
It was Sharti who answered. She looked straight at Albrecht.
“I can feel a contract linking him to a dragon.”
“….”
“Haa~.”
Erinn sighed. She had thought they were finally clear of this, only for the rigid hero to fixate on the dragon next. In a world where dragons occasionally burned entire villages to ash, he wanted to “judge” one for wiping out a single underworld cell…
“A contractor means you gave the order.”
“Karna, if we fight here the damage—”
Sharti tried to stop him, but he raised the spear again without hesitation. Erinn’s hand closed on the hilt of the Holy Sword still strapped to her back. She spoke to Albrecht without looking away.
“…Albrecht~?”
“…Yeah?”
“Sorry to ask a non-party member, but can you take that woman~? She’s a bit of a nuisance if she’s free.”
Albrecht blinked in mild surprise—she was asking him for combat support. Erinn supplied the reason at once.
“She’s a mage~♡”
“…Ah.”
That explained the powerful magic he had been sensing. It might even surpass Letisia’s. He gave a small nod.
“…All right. I’ll try.”
“If it gets dangerous, hide behind me~♡”
In the same breath Erinn drew the Holy Sword. Karna began to thrust the Holy Spear forward—
“Stop, stop~!”
A woman appeared atop the alley wall. Bow drawn, she had both Karna and Sharti in her sights at once. Two more figures stepped out behind Erinn.
“Erinn! Albrecht!”
“Are you all right!?”
Letisia and Freya. The archer on the wall was, of course, Ser-Aria. However they had known to come, they had come to help.
And then—
Thief Clara activates [Grudge Curse: Shadow Assassination]
“…Put the spear down.”
Clara rose from Sharti’s own shadow and set a blade against the mage’s throat.