Do Not Be Alarmed
A little while ago.
“W-who are you?”
A mysterious man revealed himself before the Houndry party as they made their way back to District 6 of the marquisate.
Silver hair that looked carefully combed. Clad in a uniform more suited to a military officer, the man raised both hands to head height and slipped out from behind a tree.
“Do not be alarmed.”
Those words rang hollow. The four from Houndry tensed at once and dropped into combat readiness.
It was only natural. Houndry’s elites had spent long years on assassinations and infiltration work. As Lucia had once put it, professionals recognized their own kind in an instant.
And this man had none of it.
Not even the faintest trace of presence.
“I would prefer to signal surrender with white, yet all I possess are these pitch-black clothes and this coffin.”
He pointed at the large coffin strapped to his back and spoke with complete seriousness.
“The only white I have is my undergarments. If that will suffice, would you wait a moment?”
Even that was delivered without the slightest hint of playfulness, utterly in earnest.
“I asked who you are!”
“This humble one is Chronos. A servant of the great army that leads the Death God Cult.”
“The Death God Cult…?”
Houndry had only just survived a brush with death at the hands of the fox. Without the extraordinary black magic Karma had cast, every one of them would already have met their end. At the mere mention of that name they flinched and grew even more wary.
“Oh? It seems you are not entirely unfamiliar.”
Chronos spoke at his leisure, but Houndry drew their weapons as one and kept their distance.
Home lay just ahead if they continued on. As reward for completing their mission they were to receive gold bars from Karma. Before Chronos appeared they had even been joking about what they would do with the money.
So they could not yield a single step.
Just a little farther. Only a little more and they would have been there.
“Then, if I may be so bold as to ask—”
While Chronos spoke, the Houndry members traded signals with their eyes.
A moment later—
Shring—!
The lead Houndry operative lunged forward and severed Chronos’s neck.
He had cut it clean through.
And yet—
Ssss—
Chronos’s head scattered like smoke and re-formed.
“It seems… this humble one ought to have been even more courteous.”
He looked down upon Houndry as though nothing of note had occurred.
“Hu… huuh…”
“What the hell…!”
The coordinated follow-up attack the rest of Houndry had prepared dissolved into mist. Even if they tried a linked assault, there was nothing they could do if their strikes simply failed to land.
Chronos promptly dropped flat to the ground and pressed his forehead to the dirt.
“Then, if I may be so bold as to ask.”
Having just been attacked, his posture sank even lower.
“Might this humble one learn the honorable name of your master?”
“What…?”
“You must have a master, surely.”
Chronos, still bowed to the earth, lifted his eyes just a fraction.
“Ah. Now that I consider it, this humble one’s explanation appears incomplete.”
He lowered his head once more and murmured,
“I do not know whether you saw it, but a nine-tailed fox was present at the Magic Tower. The mission given to that vulgar colleague was to—ah, pray forgive me for being unable to name the target—assassinate a certain someone inside the Magic Tower, secure the corpse, and return. A very simple task, that was.”
Chronos spoke with excessive formality, yet he delivered the chilling details as casually as if they were everyday conversation, as though to remind them he belonged to the Death God Cult.
A very simple task, he called it.
“Yet they never returned, so this humble one came in person. Have you by chance seen the fox?”
“Th-then what if we have?”
“Oh? To have seen it and still draw breath. It seems you possess not only sufficient spirit but outstanding skill as well.”
Chronos’s satisfied laugh rolled through the night.
“I too am returning after viewing the fox’s corpse.”
Then, as though that statement had never been made, the laughter cut off at once.
“I watched in case you meant to lie, yet it is truly fortunate that you are kind souls. I offer my sincere apology for testing you of my own accord.”
Still prostrated, Chronos continued.
“It was not a fellow who would cast their life away so lightly. Unable to make sense of it, I was surveying the surroundings.”
“Surroundings… how long has it even been since we left that place…”
“Upon examination, it seemed a separate party had slain the fox. Had the fox erred and eventually sent a distress signal from the Magic Tower, reinforcements from the royal family or neighboring territories would have been inevitable. Yet the fox’s cause of death was simply… defeat. Nothing more.”
Chronos’s gaze then marked each of the four Houndry members in turn.
“The fox fell in battle, and the royal knights withdrew. That should have been the end of the matter. There was nothing further to seek. Yet at the scene remained one single clue that defied interpretation.”
The instant the words left him, Chronos’s form wavered.
“It was all of you.”
Sss—
The rope binding the large coffin to his back came free, and the coffin rolled down beside him.
Clunk. The lid fell open, revealing what lay inside.
A man with both hands folded demurely upon his chest, as though in peaceful sleep.
A silver-haired man.
A man identical to Chronos rested within the coffin.
“Hi… hii…”
“A g-ghost…?”
At the impossible sight the Houndry party froze where they stood.
“Chronos, you see.”
He himself spoke with perfect indifference.
“It is also discourteous to keep pressing, yet I would like an answer by now. Why did you come to the Magic Tower?”
“I don’t know. We just did as we were told…”
“As expected—there was a master.”
Chronos cut them off with a sly grin.
“Then this humble one’s question returns to its beginning. I wish to know the honorable name of your master.”
Chronos asked once more, but Houndry deliberated for a long while. The being before them was thoroughly unnerving, yet freely revealing Karma’s name was nearly as terrifying.
“I beg of you. I do not wish to harm you.”
Chronos spoke as though his patience had already run out.
“W-wait just a moment.”
“As quickly as possible, if you please.”
Houndry turned their backs on him and huddled together. After roughly five minutes of heated debate they reached a conclusion.
“You talk to him yourself.”
They were simply passing the buck.
Opposing him was useless—attacks did not work—and from the start the other party had declared surrender and made a request. That was their reasoning. Having Karma decide in person seemed the least bad option.
Above all else, the ominous aura pouring off Chronos felt vivid enough to tear skin. He maintained every courtesy, yet the moment his temper turned, where that aura would be directed was all too clear.
“Take this.”
Hiss—
“It is Lord Karma.”
A Houndry member handed over the flame.
—That is how it came to be, Sir Karma.
Chronos said.
His manner of speech was no different from my past life, yet his attitude was.
Why is he being so careful?
There was no chance the Houndry lot would have stayed quiet upon seeing that ghost. They must have turned hostile at first.
And yet—why were all of them still alive?
The Chronos I knew would have killed three and used the last as leverage.
—This humble one has a question for you, and so has been discourteous.
For the moment I decided to answer while the creature was still somewhat in its right mind. Until now I had always been the one searching; Chronos had come looking for me first. Of course what he had found was not the real me but Karma. Even so, I could not let the opportunity slip. I had to extract every scrap of information possible.
“What question?”
—I am curious as to the reason Your Excellency sent your subordinates to the Magic Tower.
I see. Why had someone who was neither of the royal family nor any other authority chosen to pursue the Death God Cult? That was the thrust of it.
I felt a great deal hinged on my answer. Depending on what I said, not only the Houndry men over there but I myself could be placed in danger. The thought rose unbidden.
“Why are you curious about that?”
So I asked in return, buying time while I tried to read Chronos’s intent.
—Regrettably, this humble one cannot answer. Though it is presumptuous, I would first have you reply to this humble one’s question, Sir Karma.
I was shut down at once.
This bastard.
He wore humility like a cloak, yet he had no intention of yielding a single word.
No choice, then.
How about this instead?
I do not answer Chronos.
Confirming the results of the choice.
When you refuse to answer, Chronos begins killing the Houndry party one by one.
As expected.
Quite a few things seemed different from the past life, yet in the end his true nature had not gone anywhere. I had promised those men payment, so trimming the roster by two would not be the worst idea—yet it still felt wasteful. Houndry’s true elites numbered only those four, and they had actually located the fox. If they died I would have to raise and dispatch others, another waste of time. More than anything, I already had plans to put them to work in a different fashion next year. If they died now the plan would fall apart.
Or should I try a lie?
I tell Chronos that as Karma I received a commission to pursue the Death God Cult.
Confirming the results of the choice.
Chronos begins killing the Houndry party one by one until the client is revealed.
…So he was prepared to go all the way.
No matter how I turned it over I could not discern the answer Chronos wanted. Had he simply threatened or flown into a rage it would have been easier to read him; by lowering himself completely and speaking with such courtesy, he made his true intent far harder to grasp. Opposite of the fox—precisely because he differed from the past life, he was troublesome to handle.
No choice left.
Time to spend coins.
Tier 3 Upgrade
Correct choices will now be highlighted.
Upgrade Cost:1,000 Coins
As I mentioned before, the next upgrade to the Scouter was the ability to see the correct choice. Where the Tier-3 privilege Choice Simulation found the wrong answers, this one did the opposite—it showed only the right one. Perfect for a situation like now, when too many options and possibilities only muddled the mind.
My coin balance after taking down the fox: 10,200.
A thousand coins? Nothing worth fretting over.
Coins Remaining: 9,200
After the notification window, I slowly closed my eyes and opened them again.
And the choices appeared.
“Ha. How stupid. What made you think I was chasing a pathetic trash heap like the Death God Cult? I can already tell the level of that Death God you lot serve.”
Uh…?
Why was this the correct answer?
It opened by hurling insults straight into his face—and the system claimed that was right? The window was even telling me to go after the Necromancer’s master himself while talking to one of his loyal servants.
More than that—did the wording really have to be that crude?
Had I always spoken like that?
……Was I actually supposed to say this?