More Than Familiar, Almost Nostalgic
"How go the Empire's movements?"
"No significant activity to report as of yet."
It had been a week since the great beast made its appearance.
The kingdoms, Talikal, and the Otherworlders had all been thrown into chaos—but the Empire, the very cause that fanned those flames, had maintained its silence throughout.
And this, despite the fact that it could not move for three weeks under the pretext of a 'seal.'
King Dria of Talikal wore an expression etched with worry as he drummed his fingers against the table. His main forces were on standby, and Lily, who had offered them so much support, was immobilized by the seal. He wished the kingdom's own knights would step forward, but without the aid of the Otherworlders, they could never hope to face that absurd great beast. The kingdom had to husband its strength for the coming war with the Empire.
"Should I count their stillness as a blessing…"
Or was it merely the calm before the storm?
"The Empire will not sit idle forever. They will surely find some means or other to strike at the gaps here."
"Of course they will. At this point, the border might as well not exist."
Otherworlders from every corner of the continent had poured in to subjugate the great beast, and troops from the other kingdoms were garrisoned in Lethes County. It was safe to say that entry screening had all but broken down in the process. An imperial spy slipping in amid all this would hardly be surprising.
A spy… a spy…
The Empire's strength was a grave threat.
The only reason they had been able to repel its wars of conquest until now was partly thanks to Drak's help—but also because the Empire itself had never taken those wars seriously. Most of the famed 'Eight Swords,' the Empire's pride, had refused to join the campaigns, choosing instead to guard the imperial family or their own domains.
But now came an event upon which the fate of the continent hung. If the 'Swords' entered Talikal under the pretext of resolving the crisis…
"…Then all I can do is trust."
Trust that Lily, who had taken the Masterpieces, would stand against every threat.
"By the way, are you sure about that thing?"
A knight, who had only just climbed to the highlands of the snowy mountain, glanced back over his shoulder as he asked. Behind him, a mage shook the blizzard from himself with fire magic, breathing hard.
"Of course. Named NPCs don't usually lie."
"Still—handing that kind of money and gear to us, of all people? All we're doing is planting this thing?"
The knight drew a silver cylinder of sorts from his inventory's subspace. It was made of some plastic-like material one would hardly expect to see in a fantasy world. And yet it wasn't just any plastic—a faint trickle of mana was seeping out of it.
"It's because the ones who hired us can't move themselves. Besides, fifteen hundred Gold is pocket change to them."
Fifteen hundred Gold?
Thirty million won as a quest reward? Watching the exchange from concealment alongside Sgaredo, I tilted my head as I listened to the players. Their levels ranged from the 50s to the 70s. Even with five of them, thirty million won's worth of Gold for a simple installation job was far too high a price. It was enough to commission me roughly seven times over, and it outstripped the rewards from most hidden dungeon clears the rankers ran.
Who put them up to this?
A high-ranking NPC. A group for whom fifteen hundred Gold was barely worth counting. At minimum, a kingdom-level power, if not something greater…
The Empire?
"Still, what's the Empire even thinking, pulling a chore like this?"
"Agreed. Couldn't they just roll over us?"
As the knight and the magic swordsman grumbled, the bespectacled female healer at the rear—her staff clutched tight in both hands—let out a strange little smile.
"H-heh, the, the Empire isn't such a cru, crude lot… F-from their point of view, it was… p-probably, a sound… judgment…"
"Stop with the stuttering already."
"Every time I look at her I get the creeps, I swear. The creepiest one here, and she's supposedly a light-attribute healer."
The players ahead of them shook their heads, and the mage gave the two a kick to knock it off, saying there was no point berating her. He forced a remark in the healer's direction, but she only smiled.
"I see it."
"Hm?"
"There. Not in attack range yet, I don't think."
The archer at the very rear lifted her head. Through the archer's trained eyes, Sgaredo's presence had been confirmed, and she lowered her body. Everything entering her field of vision broke down into planes and lines, each partitioned into measured ranges.
How long did they trudge onward like that?
Beep.
This was the limit.
"One more step from here and the first strike comes immediately. Anyone who wants to plant this thing plants it right here."
"The Empire wanted to plant it as close as possible."
"With our specs, a single hit from that thing and we're dead on the spot. Making it here at all was a miracle, honestly."
The fact that they'd endured this brutal cold to get here was thanks entirely to the fire-specialist mage and the gloomy healer. When the players stole a glance at the healer, she pushed up her glasses with an awkward smile. It had been over a month since she joined them, and she still hadn't settled in.
"Let's plant it."
"Yeah."
They drew out the unidentified cylinder and buried it in the snow. The moment the button at its center was pressed, a magic circle spread across the plane with a hiss. One became two. Two became six.
Six became twenty-seven.
The magic circle that unfurled in an instant soon blazed with brilliant light, surging upward until it brushed against the seal that shrouded the snowy mountain—
Kriiii—!
"Huh?"
"It stopped."
"That thing…"
To be precise, I had blocked it the instant before it touched the seal. Frowning as I halted the spell's light with my spear, I studied it.
A crack in the seal and Manifestation. There's something more than just expansion going on here.
Were they trying to summon something?
One thing was certain: the Empire had been reaching its hand toward this place. Whether it meant to break the seal and summon something, I couldn't say.
But daring to break the seal was the problem.
FWOOSH!
"Oh…"
"It's Lily!"
"Whoa! It's Lily, everyone!"
When I stepped in front of the cylinder, the players greeted me with easy familiarity. It seemed like an obvious reaction, but I could never take it for granted. Right now, I had just obstructed a quest commissioned by the Empire, and I fully intended to stop this cylinder too. Not out of any particular hostility toward the Empire—there was business between us, true, but nothing confirmed yet, and as long as they didn't invade, there was no need for open enmity.
But the moment they tried to break the seal, everything changed. For Sgaredo's sake, and for my own, there was more than enough reason to stop this.
Aren't you being too naive?
Right now, I'm their 'enemy.'
"Illegal Is Best, sir."
"Hm?"
"Block her."
FWOOSH!
And unlike his companions, the healer—who had known exactly what I was—gave the word, and the mage, Illegal Is Best, swung a great wall of flame at me. Naturally, the fire didn't deal me so much as a scratch.
In that moment, the healer scooped up the cylinder and fell back.
"What the hell? Why are you attacking Lily, man?"
"Yeah! Have you lost your mi—"
"You're, the ones who've lost their minds…"
The healer regarded the sword duo with contempt, then turned her murky eyes on me.
Something was off about her.
That woman.
"W-we came here at the Empire's request… And Lily, you are on the kingdom's side…"
"But! You wouldn't get in the way of a quest, right? Right, Lily?"
"……"
"Lily?"
Ugh, seriously.
Illegal Is Best, his staff already raised without anyone noticing when, let out a sigh. "You two are idiots. Didn't you see? The quest itself is obviously to break the seal. You think Lily's gonna let that slide while she's standing right there?"
"Th-the idiot is you…"
"What'd you say, punk?"
"I won't ask you to simply hand it over. This is a fight, after all."
Each side simply had its own circumstances, that was all—no matter how skilled the opponent, no matter who they were.
I should take it and find out what they were planning to do with it.
That had been the plan.
"Ugh. Hey, healer. First, cast your bu—"
"Yes~."
KRA-KOOM!
"…Huh?"
The two knights vanished without a trace. To be precise, they were annihilated by the healer's excessive 'buff.' A vibrant blue aura seeped into the healer's body, and her gloomy smile brightened all the more.
"H-hey?!"
"O-otherworlders are so fun. Strutting, strutting about when you can't even sw-swerve out of the way… kikik."
"You… what are you?"
Before Illegal Is Best could even finish asking, the 'buff' came down again.
FAAASH!
"…Why me?"
"I have questions for you."
I shrugged off the buff that had engulfed the mage, then snatched him up in the same motion and pulled him back behind me. The mage was trembling all over—hardly the composure of a player.
Ssshhhh…
It had only grazed me, yet that familiar sensation knitted my brow of its own accord.
"Y-you didn't, save the archer…?"
"She's a player, isn't she? One is enough for now."
I would have saved an ordinary human, but players were immortals—no reason to bother. And whatever that woman was, this party had been in opposition to me from the start.
At my words, the corners of the woman's mouth curled slowly upward.
"I-I knew it. You're a fun one… N-no wonder the Duke watches you so closely…"
"The Duke of the Empire?"
"Hee-hee."
Another buff came at me. I batted it aside with divinity as easily as swatting a fly, but the force packed into that so-called 'buff' gnawed at my own. When the thrown spear reached within arm's reach of the healer, her two eyes flashed wide open.
"Ngh!"
"That's…"
A colossal radiance erupted from her body, devouring the spear's charge and swallowing a whole corner of the snowy mountain. Having slipped clear of the wave of light, I turned to the mage dangling limply at my side.
"What is that woman?"
"Sh-she was a player… She was definitely a player…"
"……"
A status ailment attack that pierced straight through the system's protection. Faint as it was, it was unmistakably something that touched the soul—a technique in the vein of the Celestials' arts, or an ancient dragon's. And then there was the pure-white light that spilled endlessly from around the healer.
More than familiar—almost dear to me, that name.
"The, the Duke said to only… only watch… but… I-I can't anymore."
Flap.
The robe slipped away, and the healer's hair gleamed pure white in the open air.
A saintess.
"B-by the name of God."
Light flooded the snowy mountain.