Does It Even Matter?

Was there really any need to care?

Back when Redberry was still completely out of her mind, somewhere in the basement of the Citadel of the Black Moon, a man sat in the confinement room, staring intently at nothing but a screen.

—If you put your life on the line, there's nothing you can't do.

"Wow. How is one person this pretty?"

The star of that clip was Taebaek—the man who, mere days ago, had single-handedly brought the scrim match of the Mock Siege, a tournament worth billions, to a grinding halt.

In that dim confinement room, he munched away noisily at the mess of snacks scattered around him, gasping in admiration over and over.

I want to watch it again.

She's even prettier in person than on a screen like this.

Of course, "in person" just meant her Deoen avatar, but to Taebaek, who experienced the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠game as if it were reality, that was as good as the real thing.

"Redberry's got it so good. Ugh, I wanna take Lily's class too. How is the odds such complete garbage?"

Anyone who donated over ten thousand won to Lily or watched for over thirty hours earned a chance at a 'Condensation Stone.' Trade that stone in for an ordinary one, and you got a seat in her class.

Taebaek technically qualified on both counts—but so did a small army of other people.

With live viewership topping 150,000, it was, in a way, only natural.

"Think Vlack could maybe snag one for me?"

Vlack had promised that as long as Taebaek fought all-out and won, he'd somehow get him a Condensation Stone.

So he'd tried his hardest—and this was how he was repaid? Locked up in a box?

Truly incomprehensible.

Crunch.

"Ah. Ate it all."

Two more weeks until his confinement was lifted.

They'd brought him a mountain of snacks, and it had only been a few days before he'd demolished the lot. You could practically read the number right off the empty wrappers.

'The message is clear: don't pull any stunts before the Mock Siege.'

His confinement was measured in in-game playtime, not real time, so unless he showed up and served it honestly, he'd be rotting in this room for the rest of his life—unless he left the guild entirely.

Just try leaving. I'll lure you back, one way or another.

"Heh heh… Hey! Bring me some snacks!"

"......"

"I know you're all standing out there! You think I don't know I put half of you in your seats?!"

"We know, you idiot."

"What? So now that I've lost my position, you've all gone insane—"

Creeeak…

The door to the confinement room swung open, and a huge man stepped inside.

Black armor, and a black greatsword slung over his shoulder that called the moon to mind. The master of this place.

"V-Vlack? What are you doing here?"

"You little punk. Didn't I tell you to sit still? Are the guild members your errand boys?"

"N-no! I just asked them to bring snacks, that's all—"

"Spare me. I just barely managed to keep the whole tournament from going up in flames because of you, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and I'm on my way back from cleaning it up."

I seriously want to kill him.

Vlack's black eyes glinted, cold as ice. Taebaek swallowed hard.

Despite founding more than half of Black Moon and posting the guild's highest contributions, Taebaek was still only vice guildmaster for one reason.

'He's overwhelmingly strong.'

No matter how much Mythic-grade equipment he wore or how hard he fought, he could never win. It wasn't for nothing that Vlack was a single-digit ranker.

Vlack let out a long sigh and dragged a hand down his face.

"Because of you, I've had no peace—guild, streams, the tournament, none of it."

"...Come on, you could stand to show me a little love."

"Talk sense for once. I barely managed to talk them around, so you are to have zero contact with Lily. Absolutely none."

"What?! She's streaming again?"

Even after all that chaos?

Vlack nodded.

"I know it was a mess. Honestly, she acted like nothing had happened at all, which threw me off more than anything… but thankfully the scrim's going ahead as planned. Just not against Black Moon."

"So she doesn't actually hate us, then? Her body says one thing but her heart says sol—"

"......"

"Okay, okay. I'll keep my head down. Happy?"

That glare could kill a man.

Taebaek fidgeted uselessly with the empty snack bowls.

Ignoring him entirely, Vlack shifted his greatsword.

"And even when you get out, you're not getting the vice guildmaster seat back."

"? Don't be ridiculous. That's not happening."

"It's not up to me. Your image is in tatters right now—I can't give it back. Give you that seat again and Black Moon falls apart."

"Since when did you care about stuff like that?"

"Since you laid hands on Lily's business."

Lunatic. And he wonders why people poke at it.

Shaking his head, Vlack turned for the door.

"Where are you going, anyway? Fully geared up like that?"

"Guild raid. Field boss raids have been piling up lately."

"What? Then I should come! I'm better than those losers—"

"Want me to cut your internet access entirely?"

"I'm sorry."

Thud!

"...Still. You could've at least left the snacks."

Tsk.

Picking crumbs off the floor, Taebaek turned his attention back to the stream.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Redberry accepted her Condensation Stone and shuffled off to her seat.

She'd clearly need time to recover, mentally speaking.

I switched donations back on after a long while.

I'd had to keep them off for the sake of running the stream smoothly—and lately there'd been no shortage of incidents begging for an emergency broadcast—but now I finally had a little breathing room.

"LilyLily, thank you for the hundred thousand won! You're right, it does feel like it's been ages."

Pa-pa-pa-PAM! Pa-PAM!

"BloodDemon! Thank you so much for the million won! Yes, we're doing the scrim."

Vlack had sent me a lengthy written apology.

Frankly, reading it hadn't stirred much of anything in me.

His guild member had done wrong, so of course the guild's leader owed an apology—it was only natural. But I'd never had any intention of actually accepting it in the first place.

'Things I've seen a hundred times before. Nothing worth dredging up again.'

Desire aimed at me was something I'd watched pour in steadily for a very long time. Every time, it had made me furious. It wasn't as if my state of mind had ever been peaceful enough to be merely disgusted by it.

So really—was there any need to care now?

The donations kept coming in an endless procession after that.

Perhaps everyone had been pent up from not being able to give all this time—the won came flooding in like a tide. In the end I had to shut donations off again in under ten minutes, but merely reading through them all took over three hours.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

When scrim day arrived, all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠five promised matches were over in less than three hours.

The reason, naturally, was my explosive growth.

Thanks to the Mock Siege's balance adjustments, my stats were actually lower than they'd been against Redberry, but it made no difference.

Having gained Divinity, I could now wield a far wider variety of techniques at a far higher level than before. Rankers in the top thousand simply could not stop me.

My teammates, too, were more than up to standard.

"Um… should we wrap it up soon?"

"Yes, let's. The less of our strength we expose, the better."

I nodded along to Vlack's words as he scratched his head.

More practice was effectively pointless at this stage; continuing would do nothing but expose our capabilities for nothing.

'Not that I've really shown much.'

All I'd used was combat with my body alone, a few simple spells, and a brief flick of spearwork against Lizaka.

I hadn't drawn on a single divine technique, nor pushed my power past any limits.

The last match in particular, I'd fought with nothing at all—no magic, no weapons, nothing special. Pure physical ability, and nothing else.

The gap had been so absurd that we'd gone into the settings and deleted the alliance penalty entirely, at which point all eight of them swarmed me at once, desperate to take me down.

'Mmm…'

And of course, I won.

In a way, it was the only possible outcome.

My body had always carried abnormally powerful blood, and that flesh grew harder, stronger still under the influence of Divinity.

Feeling out that strength, a thought occurred to me: what if I'd faced the Copycat after gaining Divinity?

'...It would have been horrifying.'

Me, Divinity awakened, wielding the Sacred Fire.

At that level, the moment I landed a single blow, he might have been erased without a trace.

No—not might. He would have been erased, guaranteed.

The flames of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Sacred Fire synergized with Divinity to a terrible degree.

Of course, if I were the one on the receiving end, that would be a different story.

"Um, that person. I mean—Lily…?"

"Yes?"

Just as things were winding down, the chuunibyou kid Devil shuffled sheepishly over to my side.

"Th-that thing you promised to give me. The mana…"

"The Condensation Stone?"

"Y-yeah! That! If you give it to me…"

Ahem!

His face bright scarlet, Devil turned his eyes pointedly elsewhere for no reason at all.

Was that really something to be so embarrassed about?

"Hmm… I did, didn't I."

I had promised, after all.

Not just Devil, whose face was about to split open—but Vlack too, silently hoping all the while.

Vlack didn't seem to expect much, probably because of the whole Taebaek mess, but still.

I mulled it over for a moment, then nodded.

"I'll give it to you."

In exchange, though—