Invitation
Invitation
Day One.
The Otherworlders who caught wind of the news quickly began swarming into the forest.
Unlike when the bounty had been five million berry, the frequency with which they came flooding in this time was considerable.
Probably because you could collect the money just by inflicting meaningful damage without even going so far as to finish me off.
Apparently, that brought out a corresponding surge in participants.
I hunted down every Otherworlder who came into the forest, one after another, and wrecked them.
Coming into this forest now was no different from saying you were here to attack me, anyway.
I didn't need to hold back, so that was honestly a relief.
I also got a little intel out of it on the side while interrogating them.
From what I heard, the Knight Order—the main force—was coming after a bit more of a delay.
That was a small piece of good news. It meant I'd have more time to run wild.
The Otherworlders had definitely gotten stronger over time, but they were still manageable enough. In fact, catching them was easier precisely because the idiots kept throwing themselves at me recklessly.
I made good use of the equipment they dropped, too.
The high-quality, expensive-looking pieces among them, I tossed into my weapons pouch.
Armor was awkward to use, so I piled it up in one spot for now.
Day Two was similar.
This time, more people poured into the forest.
Day One was, by definition, populated only by those who'd come charging in with no real plan. Day Two was when things could be considered to have started in earnest.
Of course, nothing really changed. I tracked down the intruders and dealt with them.
There was no need to wait around in the cave, either.
The hearing Amdusias had granted me let me pick up all kinds of things, so it was more effective to find them first and launch an ambush.
That day, too, I carved up dozens of them that way. I spotted a few streamers among them.
This was making me feel like some kind of mass murderer, but the people who'd come looking for me were all, without exception, Otherworlders, so I felt no particular guilt.
Day Three was a little rough.
A full thirty Otherworlders composed entirely of A-Rank Adventurers came at me at once.
What's more, they were well-armed, and a few of them were even carrying Holy Water.
Even for me, overpowering thirty strong opponents with raw strength alone was a bit of a struggle.
Numbers that large carried a pressure all their own.
But that was it.
Aside from physical specs, they fell short of any true A-Rank Adventurer in both experience and sheer presence.
You could chalk it up to the limits of being Otherworlders. Even if they somehow managed to inflate their stats, they simply hadn't had anywhere near enough time to let real battle experience sink into their bones.
In that case, the solution was simple.
I just had to hit them with a particularly powerful opening blow. They say that momentum is everything in a fight.
"This is insane—!"
"Fuck 'em up! Fuck 'em up!"
Once I wrecked three of them in one go at first contact like that, riding the momentum was easy.
I did pick up a few wounds in the process from pushing too hard, but I paid them no mind. For me, even spilled blood could be a weapon.
And so, Day Three passed without incident.
Day Four was actually easier.
The aftermath of having taken down those thirty the day before seemed to have been pretty substantial, because the Otherworlders venturing into the forest actually decreased.
I briefly considered whether I should go torch the goblin village again, but I gave up on it.
Setting fire to it four times... honestly, I felt a little bad about it, and... at this point, with things having escalated this far, goblins staying on alert made little difference anyway.
Instead, I burned the armor the Otherworlders had dropped. Most of it was made for women anyway, so I couldn't have worn it. Better to get rid of it entirely so no one could use it.
Crackle—pop-pop—
All the leather and cloth armor turned to ashes like that. I couldn't burn the plate armor, so I chucked it into the Goblin Village. Goblins in plate armor, huh... Now that I thought about it, I had spotted a few houses in the village built by piling up rocks.
I hoped it'd at least help them fend off intruders.
And so, Day Four passed with just a handful of intruders repelled.
Then, Day Five dawned.
On this day, a somewhat unusual visitor came looking for me.
"Hey...! Yor... are you alive in there...?!"
The distance was too great to make it out perfectly, but the tone and voice sounded familiar somehow.
I gathered my weapons and headed that way first.
If it was an intruder, I didn't care. I just had to kill them and return them to a handful of dirt.
"Whoa there..."
When I arrived, two women were standing there.
Faces I knew, but ones I wasn't exactly glad to see.
5th Region Branch Leader Sepir and Team Leader Nikki Tanesia.
The executives from Lemegeton had abruptly come to this forest.
"What a bloodcurdling atmosphere you've got going on. You could at least wipe off some of the blood soaking your clothes before you walk around. If I'd run into you without knowing who you were, the sight would've scared me right off."
"Nikki... please refrain from pointless provocations. We came to talk, so show some courtesy."
I wasn't sure how to handle them, so for now, I kept my guard up and asked.
"If you weren't faces I recognized, my blade would've flown at you first... So, what business do you have here?"
"I imagine you've roughly guessed already, but... naturally, it's an invitation to join us."
At Sepir's words, I frowned.
"Asking me to join you again? You keep asking without getting tired of it. I would've thought I'd already given you my answer plenty of times."
"Yes, you always refused. However, isn't the situation a little different this time?"
"...That's."
Her words choked me up for a moment. She was right—the situation was indeed very different this time. I had no way of knowing when the Knight Order might come charging in.
If they did charge in, whether I could even take them on was uncertain.
No... in all likelihood, I'd lose...
That was the stature of the Knight Order.
The guardian swords upholding this Empire. Those who proclaimed themselves to stand at the very vanguard of humanity.
It wasn't the whole Order, perhaps, but that monster-filled organization was sending a subjugation squad just to capture me.
Because of that, their offer couldn't help but carry more weight. If I entered Lemegeton, at the very least, I could preserve my life.
"..."
But still, I hesitated just the same. The reason was... not an easy thing for even me to put into words.
I couldn't properly gauge for myself why I was hesitating this much.
"...Who knows."
In the end, the only thing that came out of my mouth was this lukewarm response.
My reaction must not have sat well with her, because Nikki spoke up with a frown.
"Ha. Why is it this time? Are you going to give some pathetic excuse again like last time, something like 'I don't want to serve a demon'?"
"..."
"Get a grip. You're not in a position to be worried about that kind of pride right now. First you have to survive, you bastard."
She was right. It was a fair point, but something about Nikki's words just got under my skin.
I frowned and spoke to her.
To be honest, I had quite a few things to say myself.
"Come to think of it, isn't this whole mess your fault?"
"...What?"
"If that damn Dantalion hadn't shown up here to blow my cover, none of this would've happened."
"Urk, well, that's..."
This time, Nikki stepped back. Because it was the truth.
In the end, the reason the subjugation order had been placed on me was that Dantalion had shown up out of nowhere and forced a public coming-out. I couldn't possibly harbor any good feelings toward Lemegeton after that.
I'd started saying it just to argue, but once the words were out of my mouth, they did explain things to a degree. But that was all—they didn't satisfyingly explain the hesitation in my heart.
For now, Nikki offered her rebuttal to my words.
That Dantalion had acted arbitrarily. That the Branch Leaders had so much individual autonomy it was hard to just stop one, and all sorts of things like that.
Multiple excuses came out, but the conclusion was one: she meant it had nothing to do with her.
I suppose it was true. She'd always seemed to particularly dislike Harold, after all.
Though making excuses right in front of the person affected wasn't exactly a good look.
"That's enough, Nikki."
As she kept arguing, Sepir stepped in and cut her off.
She must have realized that continuing to speak would only work against them.
Instead, she quickly lowered her head and offered me an apology.
"First of all... I apologize. That this situation has arisen due to our missteps is undeniable. But this is absolutely not a bad offer for you, either."
She continued speaking.
"We can promise you excellent treatment and a comfortable place. A talent of your caliber could even aim for the position of Branch Leader immediately. Even so, do you refuse?"
"...Yeah."
"... Understood. Then at the very least, please take this."
Sepir let out a heavy sigh and pulled out a piece of paper.
Thwip—
And then she conjured a spike of ice and cut her own finger.
Bright-red blood beaded up and dripped from her finger.
Wearing a slight frown, she began drawing a sigil on the paper. An intricate, geometric sigil. Seeing this, Nikki's eyes went wide, and she said something snide.
"Hah, you're sharing that too? You sure landed a highborn master here."
I observed her drawing the sigil with keen attention.
Because the pattern seemed oddly familiar. It was a sigil I was certain I'd seen somewhere before.
'Tch, where did I see it...?'
It only took a brief dive into the sea of memory before I could recall where I'd seen it.
Now that I thought about it, a Lemegeton follower named Lian had once died while drawing that in front of me.
Once she had finished the sigil, she handed the paper to me.
"Here. A means of contact. In an emergency, draw this sigil in blood and breathe your mana into it. Then the lord of the 2nd Branch will receive it."
"...Thanks."
I didn't go so far as to refuse that.
In a way, it was a final lifeline.
Though the lifeline seemed a little frayed and rotten. Should the situation truly spiral into the absolute worst, I'd have to cling to even this frayed rope.
Honestly, I even felt somewhat grateful.
It was framed as a recruitment offer, but despite that, they were even sharing this kind of information with someone who was an outsider.
Nikki, though she always had a sharp tongue, had a track record of passing me valuable intel at least once before.
After handing over the paper, the two of them looked like they were about to leave.
"We'll take our leave, then. I pray you'll contact us in due time..."
"So, what are you going to do now?"
That was Nikki's question. I answered.
"Who knows... For now, I'll just have to throw myself at it."
"Oh, for heaven's sake. The opposition has Knight Commanders, too. Even we run for it when a Commander shows up. You really think you stand a chance all on your own?"
"Don't worry. I've got a corner I can flee to as well."
"No, it's not worry, it's just... Sigh, forget it. We're off, then."
And so, the Lemegeton people came quietly and left quietly.
After that, I passed the time dealing with a few more Otherworlder intruders.
And then, dawn broke on the sixth day since the subjugation order had been issued.
It was the day the Knight Order, composed solely of elites, invaded the forest.