The World That Didn't End
The world is going to end. How many people could hear those words without flinching? Most would be shocked. A few might shrug it off with a casual “Is that so?” but even then, a sliver of unease would linger beneath the surface. I was no different.
Pandea Chronicle. A medieval fantasy game where you handled events across the Pandea continent. Like most fantasy games, its ending was the destruction of the world. And I had been reincarnated into it—as a fallen noble from a ruined kingdom, no less, and a third-rate villain at that.
Starting life as a disgraced noble from a destroyed country and a third-rate villain hadn’t exactly made for a smooth beginning. Still, there were things that had to be done. My personal hardships were one thing; having my entire existence ripped away was another. So, like the protagonists in all those novels, I moved to prevent the coming apocalypse.
In the process, I burned through most of the remaining wealth of my ruined house. I didn’t particularly mind. The fortune had been substantial, but it would mean nothing if the world ended. Far better to stop the apocalypse, earn recognition for it, and rebuild my wealth from there.
To that end, I even used fragments of the hidden pieces lodged in my memory. Preventing the end of the world required more than a few preparations. On top of that, I had to track down and eliminate most of the shadowy organizations scattered across the continent. Some were directly tied to the apocalypse, but I dealt with the others too—just in case. If they interfered when the real crisis came, it would only make an already difficult task impossible.
Since I had already experienced the end several times in the game, I poured everything I had into the preparations. After completing every possible measure, I waited for the scheduled apocalypse to arrive… but it never did.
“It never came.”
The sky never split open. Monster waves never erupted across the regions. The Outer Gods that existed beyond the cosmos never descended upon this world. All that remained were the hundreds of millions of cells in debt I had racked up while flailing to prevent an apocalypse that never happened, a reputation so infamous that entire nations conducted inspections and searches for me, and the bounty hanging over my head.
All because of the words of a false prophet.
That was why I was now wandering the continent, avoiding prying eyes.
“Heh heh heh.”
A sudden burst of laughter made me look down. An old man in a black robe was chuckling to himself.
“What’s so funny?”
“How could I not laugh? A celebrity like you, personally coming to a filthy back alley like this.”
The old man twisted his whole body as he spoke. But he couldn’t move. He was tightly bound with ropes, unable to budge an inch. Mana nails had been driven into his body to prevent him from controlling his magic, so he couldn’t even use the black magic he specialized in. In other words, the old man before me was no different from an ordinary person. One punch from me would kill him instantly.
Knowing that, he continued to provoke me anyway.
“To think you’d come in person just to stop a single group of black mages. The Empire must be truly short on talent.”
“A single group of black mages? Don’t make me laugh. The signs of a demon descent are this obvious.”
I made a face of disbelief and pointed upward with my finger. Above the dim space, an inverted pentagram drawn in someone’s blood hung in the air. It looked like they had been finishing the ritual with blood right before I arrived—drops were still falling. Unknown characters etched around the formation radiated an indescribable energy. Even though it wasn’t complete, the eerie sensation it sent crawling across my skin was unmistakable. It was clearly a precursor to a demon descent.
“Heh heh, if only you had been a little later, that esteemed one would have descended here personally…!”
A textbook example of a fanatic. Even though his entire body was bound, the black mage kept spewing his twisted faith. I looked down at him with pity and spoke.
“What kind of descent could you manage with such a sloppy formation?”
“…What would a wretch like you know about that esteemed one?”
“I don’t know much about the one you worship so fervently, but I know far more than you about how those damned demons are summoned.”
I had struggled desperately to stop the invasions of demons and Outer Gods, after all. Naturally, my head was packed with countless pieces of information about demon summonings.
“A real demon summoning circle is much larger and requires far more intricate rituals. Moreover, unless it’s the contractor they made a direct pact with, they won’t even respond to the summons.”
“I made a direct contract with that esteemed one! He possessed me personally and let me hear his voice!”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t have been caught so sloppily.”
“……”
“If you don’t believe me, go ahead and ask your damned demon for help. If it really was a direct contract, a portion of the demon’s rank would have transferred to you. It would try its best to keep you alive.”
The black mage, who had been eyeing me with suspicion, closed his eyes. It seemed he was trying to speak to the demon again as I had suggested. But the growing anxiety on his face made it clear the connection had been severed.
“This… this can’t be? Supreme One, Great Deceiver!”
“You’ve already been abandoned. He probably cut the connection the moment I caught you.”
Well, considering he hadn’t even told the man his true name, it was obvious he had been using him as a disposable pawn.
“This can’t be. That esteemed one definitely cherished me…”
After hearing my words, the black mage hung his head in despair. His mouth denied what I had said, but his expression showed he had realized the truth. I stared at him for a moment, then let out a small chuckle.
“Cherished you? That’s a common delusion among you fanatics.”
“…That’s not something someone like you should be saying.”
“What?”
The black mage, who had been hanging his head, suddenly jerked it up.
“Kyle Amillan. The story of how you fled the Empire is already famous. They say the Emperor herself has issued a warrant to find you.”
“……”
The Emperor herself, huh. It was true that what I had done before leaving the Empire was close to treason, so it wasn’t strange that she wanted to capture and kill me. Of course, I had no intention of dying easily, which was why I had fled the Empire in the first place.
“The fact that the Empire’s greatest hunting dog has run away means the Emperor has abandoned you. For someone who was thrown away so miserably to talk about others being abandoned…!”
Boom—!
The moment the black mage spat out his fierce tirade, mana gathered near his head and blew it apart in the blink of an eye. His body, which hadn’t even realized it was dying, flailed its arms for a moment before collapsing with a thud. At the same time, a voice came from behind me.
“Why do you listen to every word that filth says?”
When I turned toward the voice, light brown hair swayed in the darkness. At the same time, a beautiful woman with snow-white skin revealed herself.
“Listening too long to the voice of something that isn’t even human is bad for your lovely skin.”
The woman slowly walked toward me and the black mage’s corpse. I watched her for a moment before speaking her name.
“Beatrice.”
Beatrice. The owner of one of the five greatest merchant groups in the Empire, a 5-ring mage who stood among the superhumans, and—
“That brings the remaining balance to 178 million cells.”
She was the very person who had willingly lent me the massive capital I needed to prevent the apocalypse.
“Already down to around 100 million. The principal was 2 billion, you know. Even I’m moved watching this.”
“Spare me the empty words. You’re not moved because I’m paying back the debt—you’re moved because your assets are growing, aren’t you?”
“Oh my, you caught me?”
Beatrice smiled softly and hid her mouth behind her fan. I watched her for a moment before speaking.
“What’s the next request?”
“You’re already looking for the next one? This one must have been quite difficult. Why not rest a little…”
Disposing of a black mage showing signs of a demon descent. This request had indeed been tiring. Under normal circumstances, I would have simply accepted her kindness.
If the woman before me hadn’t been known throughout the world as the Spider that Collects Gold Coins.
“Rest? You want me to pay back the money more than anyone, so why say something like that?”
“How can you say such hurtful things?”
Beatrice slowly lowered her fan. A gentle smile peeked out from behind it. She tapped the folded fan against my chest and said,
“I simply wish for you to stay by my side like this.”
“……”
I fell silent at Beatrice’s words. Not because I was surprised by her sudden confession. Rather, I was dumbfounded.
The Spider that Collects Gold Coins. Owner of one of the Empire’s five great merchant groups. A mage who saw all things in the world in terms of gold coins. Beatrice was someone who could be said to have devoted her entire life to currency. And this same woman was saying she hoped I wouldn’t pay her back, even if it meant taking a loss?
Just lending me the money without interest was already a loss for her.
“…The Aricsis County has requested delivery of the artifact they purchased this time—the Tears of the Goddess. One person. The deadline is three days.”
Perhaps because I had been staring at her with suspicious eyes for so long. Beatrice let out a small sigh and told me about the next request.
“The advance payment?”
“Five hundred upfront. Another fifteen hundred upon success. After deducting the ten percent brokerage fee, that’s 18 million cells.”
“I accept.”
Simple delivery requests like this usually had low difficulty compared to the payment. So it was best to take as many as possible in terms of both deadline and funds. Besides, I wasn’t in a position to be picky.
“Kyle.”
As I was about to leave immediately to receive the delivery item after accepting the request, Beatrice called out to me from behind.
“Once you’ve paid off all your debt… will you leave?”
“Of course.”
What a pointless question.
After Kyle Amillan left, Beatrice stared blankly at the spot where he had been standing. The skill he had once used to hunt fanatics under the Emperor hadn’t dulled in the slightest. Even after capturing dozens of cultists, the site where the demon’s descent had been planned remained completely undamaged.
“No wonder the Emperor is making such a fuss trying to find him.”
The current Emperor of the Empire had even issued a warrant to locate Kyle. The unusual part was that the warrant, which would normally be used to find and execute criminals, had been issued solely to find him. The fact that simply providing his location would earn 100 million cells—and capturing him alive would bring a staggering 2 billion—had drawn the public’s attention like nothing else.
Yet despite all that, there was one simple reason the Emperor still couldn’t find Kyle.
“That greedy bitch is throwing a tantrum because I marked him first…”
Beatrice had personally spent a fortune to block all information about him. She had made sure that the Emperor and everyone else searching for Kyle could not learn his current location. It had been an incredibly expensive operation. One could argue it was the largest expenditure of her entire life.
And it wasn’t just the cost. The difficulty of blocking the information had been among the highest she had ever faced. Nevertheless, Beatrice had succeeded in cutting off every single piece of information about Kyle.
“Monopolizing a product in the market is the most important factor, after all.”
A product with no substitutes was bound to sell. Especially if it was the only one of its kind in the entire world. Of course, Beatrice had no intention of actually selling Kyle, but still.
“And yet he talks about leaving without acknowledging any of this effort.”
It left her feeling a little bitter, but Beatrice soon shook her head. That man had always been like that. No amount of pouting from her would change him.
What mattered now was doing everything possible to prevent the monopoly from being broken. To keep him completely trapped inside her web. That was the goal of Beatrice, the Spider that Collects Gold Coins.