Frost Dragon (1)
"Huh..."
It still didn't feel real. There was no sense of weight to any of it. And yet, if that 180,000 won hadn't been a scam...
Then everything that had just happened was real. He had met Kenelm. He had heard Kenis and the old man's story. He had fired a constellation into the sky. The price for all of it: a mere 180,000 won.
For a fleeting second the bean sprouts and ketchup still sleeping in his fridge flashed through his mind, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
...I really am a god...
In the empty room he clenched his fist tight, then opened it again, turning the thought over. Even when he had met Kenelm, there hadn't been any sudden surge of power. It had just... felt ordinary. The same as always.
When he made the constellation, he had simply thought he could do it, so he did. Nothing particularly special had washed over him.
Thud.
He flopped onto the bed. Habit was a terrifying thing; the moment he was comfortable, his hands were already opening the game the way they always did.
The familiar loading screen passed. The temple, the hardworking dwarves, and the frost egg sitting alone on the plain came into view. The remaining time was so short it looked ready to hatch at any second.
That means all of these are actually alive, doesn't it?
He pinched one of the dwarves toddling around and lifted it. The dwarf soared into the air along with his finger, short legs thrashing wildly as it struggled.
Th-this dwarf is alive!!
After a bit of waving it around, he set the dwarf down near the mine with a soft plop.
No matter how he thought about it, it still didn't feel real. That this game of his was truly connected to another world, that his every action might actually affect living people...
It felt like a pretty big deal... and then, after a moment's thought, maybe not that big a deal after all.
Did I ever use a skill on a person? Did I ever kill anyone?
If anything, he had babied his hero-class characters so they wouldn't die, and in World Exploration Mode he had only ever selectively blasted the grayed-out things with lightning. He had already been doing the work of killing demons that Kenelm had asked of him from the start.
All he had to do was give this game his best. Same as always.
Ah. Kenis's trial is completely over now, so I need to do the weapon synthesis.
He poked the frost egg sitting on the plain while sorting his thoughts, and suddenly remembered why he had opened the Coliseum event in the first place.
Star-grade enhancement.
A system where a hero-class adventurer who obtained two or more of the same weapon would have their existing weapon enhanced.
To make the adventurers' rankings match the prizes he had set in advance, he had gone through absolute hell—literally shitting blood from the stress.
Now it was time to harvest the rewards of that long, grueling labor.
Since this is real, enhancement actually matters.
If anything, the ranking manipulation had been essential for the other world's sake. By rigging the rankings, the hero-class adventurers would grow stronger, and with that strength they would hunt demons even more easily.
This was righteous, just ranking manipulation.
Having finished negotiating with the small, precious conscience in his heart, he casually navigated the screen to the Coliseum-exclusive UI. Kenis and the old man, who had been sitting in the palm of his hand only moments ago, now stood in the center of the Coliseum.
The people packed tightly around the two of them kept shouting at the top of their lungs, dancing and singing as if some grand celebration had broken out.
The dialogue was a little broken, but still readable enough that it wasn't a real problem.
He watched for a moment, then checked the final rankings of the Coliseum event. Kenis had taken so long in her trial that she would probably only place around tenth, but...
The thought of Kenis receiving the unicorn in Hans's place made his head throb.
No. In a way, Kenelm is basically this game's operator, and she's assisting me.
If he used the operator's power, couldn't he manipulate the rankings?
Clinging to that slender hope, he opened the ranking window.
Ba-bam—!
A cheerful fanfare rang out as the ranking board appeared.
And the result...
Kenis was first.
"Nice! Nice!!"
A joyous uppercut punched into empty air.
The power of the operator and the power of cash. With both of those in his hands, he was practically invincible.
"Kenelm is a god. And I am invincible."
Technically he was the god, but anyway—Kenelm was a god.
Offering this joy up to Kenelm, he pressed the final settlement button for the Coliseum event.
"Praise the great Sixth God!"
"He who embraces us in light! Oh, He who whispers in starlight!!"
The heat had reached near-frenzy. The arena was so full of the roaring cheers of the wildly excited spectators that eardrums threatened to burst. People grabbed the person next to them, shouting, linking arms, and cheering together.
The God Himself had descended, taken the Hero and the High Priestess away, and returned them once more in starlight!
The crowd's fervor showed no sign of cooling; it only boiled higher and higher.
Bards madly scribbled down the inspiration surging through them, while the hands of scholars and priests recording this historic, mythic moment trembled violently.
Fwoosh—!
As if putting a period on all that clamor, the sacred flame that had been burning so loftily in the arena suddenly swelled. The louder the flame grew, the quieter the surrounding cheers became, and in their place a tension thick enough to burst began to shimmer.
The mysterious sacred flames that had not gone out even once since the festival of duels began now blazed high.
Swelling as if it meant to set the sky itself on fire, the flame at last began to reveal what it held within. Sacred relics that had been nothing more than hazy shadows slowly took form.
Flash—!
"Whoa!"
"S-something's coming out of the sacred flame!"
Some were swords, others shields. There were glittering jewels, long staves, and hammers. And among them was a horse with a horn on its head.
Gleaming platinum-white armaments. They slowly drifted through the air, seeking their masters. Strangely enough, among those who received a sacred relic were some who received one that looked exactly like the one they already possessed.
"What's this? It looks exactly like my axe? Hey, you too?"
"Yes, my lady... it's completely identical to my shield."
That was the case for Friga and Iscal, for Kenis, and for Emperor Caesar, who had been granted a sacred relic by the Imperial Knight Commander.
"Hmm. What is the meaning of this?"
Caesar muttered as he compared the two identical scepters in his hands. Aside from the color, every last detail was so perfectly the same that there was almost no difference between them.
Why had the God bestowed the same sacred relic once more?
He tapped his fingers, trying to fathom the deep intent behind it—when the anomaly occurred.
Fwaaah—!
The twin armaments that had emerged from the sacred flame began crumbling into motes of light from the tips. A sacred relic given by the God, crumbling!
"Kyaaah! Hey, hey, what's happening to this thing?!"
"Y-y-your ladyship, calm down, please calm down! Aaaagh! My shield!"
Friga hopped frantically trying to catch the axe turning into light dust, while Iscal clutched the shield that was vanishing like powder. Caesar, too, let out a low hum as he watched the scepter gradually disappear.
The light dust was not merely scattering.
It was seeping into the armaments they had originally possessed.
Like salt dissolving into water, like rain soaking into the earth, the light melted along the surface of the weapons and spread. Countless tiny ripples formed the way raindrops strike and draw circles, merging and colliding until they became one vast resonance.
Rumble—!
"Hup!"
The tremor in the scepter he held grew steadily stronger. Caesar had to put every ounce of strength into not dropping it. One hand was not enough; he used both.
The scepter thrashed like a living snake. The sight of it trembling madly while pouring out light!
And then, in a single instant—
Flash—!
It gathered the dazzling light in the blink of an eye, and the scepter's trembling ceased. The light that had been pouring from it vanished as if something had sucked it away, and the violent vibration fell still as if it had all been a lie.
"Hah... haah—"
"Your Majesty! Are you all right? Are you injured anywh—"
"I am fine. What in the world was that commotion..."
Leaving the worried escort knights who still dared not approach behind him, Caesar slowly stroked the scepter in his hand.
Outwardly it looked no different from before.
A splendid, ornate staff radiating silvery-white light.
But when he touched it, he could feel it. The invisible power flowing through the scepter. That power which only the master of a sacred relic could sense had grown even greater, even more refined.
"This is..."
In the very center of the scepter, a small star pattern that had not been there before was now engraved. As if a morning star that banished the dark had been set as ornament, a single star carved with exquisite delicacy.
What did this symbolize?
A single star, a morning star, a star... I do not know.
After a moment's thought, Caesar shook his head. His learning in theology was too shallow; fretting over it would not yield an answer. One of the advantages of being emperor was having many capable people under him.
He would simply order his competent scholars to investigate.
Prrrhiiiing—!
A sudden snort of a horse reached his ears. Turning his head toward the arena, he saw a pure white horse with a horn on its head repeatedly snorting roughly at a young man.
Prrrlk— Prrlk—! Prrhihihing!
"O Great One! Why do You impose such a trial upon me! That filthy, impure, lust-filled beast of a creature ruled by his lower half is to be my master?! Prrrlk—! I cannot accept this—!!"
"Ah, no. That seems a bit harsh for a hor—"
"You will close your mouth—!! Oh, heavens. Where has the maiden beautiful as a rose's thorn gone! She was surely coming to claim me, and yet— Maiden! Maiden who resembles a rose, where are you!!"
The unicorn that had been repeatedly kicking its hind legs at Hans raised its head to the sky and wailed in sorrow.
It was resentful. It hated the Great One who would impose such a cruel fate!
Why order it to offer its back to a filthy male! It was a being permitted only to pure, clean maidens!
"My lady, that horse... the maiden like a rose's thorn it's talking about—could that be you, my la—"
"Shh! Hey, shut up. Read the room, will you? Hide me behind your shield and get us out of here. Now!"
Friga, body hidden behind Iscal's shield, hurried out of the arena at a quick pace. The star pattern newly engraved on Iscal's shield, and the matching star that had appeared on the axe peeking over the top of the shield, stood out clearly.
Kenis, too, kept glancing warily at the unicorn before suddenly bolting and vanishing outside the arena.
The other challengers, equally unwilling to get involved with the unicorn, disappeared like the wind.
What remained were only the unicorn howling at the sky and Hans.
"Maiden—!!"
"Hah..."
The clear blue sky looked especially spiteful today.
Hans looked up and let out a deep sigh. It was a sigh heavy with many meanings.