Best-Case Scenario
I'm seriously fucked!
"......!"
All I can see is a pure white sky, and right in the middle of it, I'm in free fall.
I'm going to die. There's no question about it—I'm going to die.
The moment I felt the threat to my life, my brain—which usually rolled along at a leisurely crawl—kicked into overdrive and started thinking faster than it ever had.
Think. Just think.
First, assess the situation.
Apparently I've fallen into a dimensional rift connected to the high sky and am plummeting toward the ground at a terrifying speed.
If I slam into the earth like this, there's no way I walk away. The minimum outcome isn't injury—it's death. Somehow I have to bleed off my velocity and avoid colliding with the ground.
The only power I can freely use right now is Tao Power. If I put Tao Power to work, maybe I can break out of this hopeless freefall.
The deliberation didn't last long. I immediately moved my Tao Power and formed an invisible cushion beneath me.
"Ghhk!"
I'd made it as soft as I possibly could, but the impact that slammed into my body was anything but small.
A split second later and the gravitational acceleration would have snapped something in me for sure.
I let out a breath of relief and looked down. A dense forest had drawn considerably closer. By rough estimate I was floating around thirty meters up.
"...I should get down, right? Ah, that won't work."
I tried to move the Tao Power cushion supporting me and simply ride it to the ground, but it wouldn't budge. Apparently I couldn't cruise around on Tao Power like some magic carpet.
With no other choice I swallowed hard and used Tao Power to build footholds layer by layer beneath me, descending slowly.
At last I touched down in the thick of the forest, exhaled, and temporarily released Nature Realm.
I'd kept it active for so long that my head literally felt like it was about to split open.
"...What a headache."
The situation was desperate.
Charlotte really did seem intent on killing me.
Well, once she'd become certain I was a demonkin, she no longer had any reason to keep me alive.
Everything had gotten tangled far past the point of easy fixes. I couldn't even begin to figure out where to start unraveling it—
Bang!
At that moment a familiar roar cracked from behind me, and searing pain exploded through my left arm.
"Ghhk……!"
I dropped into a crouch on pure instinct and checked the wound through gritted teeth. Something small had punched clean through me at high speed.
That familiar noise. That mind-shattering pain.
This was a gun. Not some magitech firearm—a real modern powder-based gun.
I didn't waste time wondering how a modern gun could exist in a fantasy world.
Charlotte wielded the one-of-a-kind spatial magic called dimensional rifts. Of course she could use a gun.
Dimensional rifts.
Her magic didn't stop at linking one space to another; it could bridge entirely different worlds to this one.
She had used that fact to slip into another world for a few brief moments, seize a firearm, return, and open fire on me.
Granted, her magic had limits—she couldn't linger long in another world or haul over truly broken artifacts at will—but it was still broken as hell.
Step. Step.
Someone's footsteps drew steadily closer. I didn't need to look to know whose they were.
I spun my thoughts at top speed, figured out exactly what I needed right now, opened the Achievement Shop, and spent the points.
What I needed right now was a potion to mend the wound and a single sword to defend myself with.
Anything more than that was beyond my remaining points.
No time to dab the potion on the wound—I downed it in one gulp and gripped the newly purchased sword in my still-functional right hand.
Then I reactivated Nature Realm, rose slowly to my feet, and spoke.
"I believe we need to talk. Don't you agree, Lady Cervantes?"
"No. I don't think we do. Now that it's clear you're a demonkin, conversation is meaningless. You already know how demonkin and demonfolk are treated in the Praon Kingdom. Why make that choice?"
"So this is when people say something is mind-boggling. On what basis are you claiming I'm a demonkin?"
Charlotte, pistol leveled at me, snorted at the question.
"That stone I was holding earlier has the ability to purify any wicked presence nearby. You reacted to it and writhed in pain, so you're either a demonfolk or a demonkin."
The hand aiming the pistol at me did not tremble even a fraction.
"Either way, they're both targets I have to kill."
"Honestly, how many times do I have to say it? It's a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?"
Charlotte scoffed, then fixed me with a gaze colder than frost.
"If you're truly innocent, explain it. Why did you make that pained face just now? Did some sad memory suddenly pop into your head?"
"....."
I had no answer. Even I didn't know why I had reacted in agony to what should have been proof of innocence.
"See? You can't answer either. How about you just admit it already? You know better than anyone that lying is pointless now."
The blonde girl kept the gun trained on me and delivered the words with bone-chilling calm.
A thin silence stretched between us.
".....You know what?"
Charlotte asked quietly.
"I... I really shouldn't have, but... I trusted you a little. No—I wanted to trust you."
A confession so unexpectedly raw it made my chest tighten, coming from someone colder than ice.
"I was just... tired of living while doubting everyone. I thought maybe it would be okay to trust at least one person...."
The hand gripping the pistol trembled, just barely.
"....Yeah. Looks like that won't work after all. Guess it was too big a dream for me."
But her hand steadied again almost at once.
"I don't particularly enjoy spilling my guts like this, but you're going to die soon anyway. A little should be fine. Feels kinda refreshing, actually."
I could feel the distance between Charlotte and me widening in real time.
In the middle of this hopelessly tangled mess—
"....Lady Cervantes, do you know something?"
I sighed and ran a hand roughly through my hair.
"I have one secret."
Then I opened my eyes.
"A secret I don't want to tell anyone. Especially not you, Lady Cervantes."
The moment those always-half-lidded eyes snapped fully open, Nature Realm let me feel her breathing and mana lurch violently for an instant.
"Please. Step back."
"....."
The muscles in her trigger finger twitched, bit by bit.
So it really comes to this after all.
I forced an easy smile onto my face and offered her a warning.
"You'll regret this."
"....Shut up!"
Bang!
Another gunshot cracked. A bullet streaked toward me at blistering speed.
But this time I wouldn't take it helplessly like before.
With Nature Realm active, I knew exactly when she would pull the trigger, exactly where the bullet was aimed, and exactly when it would reach me.
So all I had to do was—
Clang!!
"I did warn you, didn't I?"
I used Light Counter to swat aside the bullet I had read as clearly as the palm of my own hand.
Of course the deflected round only grazed past Charlotte; it didn't wound her directly.
That was deliberate. I wanted to stop her, not kill her.
The instant the bullet bounced away I kicked off hard to the left, breaking her aim. I needed those two seconds of Light Counter's cooldown.
Her muzzle wandered for a beat, then locked onto me again after one second. Once more her finger tensed to fire.
Retaliation was on cooldown and there was nothing to take cover behind—a dangerous spot.
In that moment I decided to put the newly acquired trait to use.
First I reinforced my legs with the meager scraps of mana I had left, stomped hard for acceleration, then kicked off a tree ahead of me and launched my body into the air.
Using the rebound I spun—
Bang!
—and snagged a thick branch of another tree with my left hand, hauling myself up like a monkey.
Parkour—the trait that let me move freely across any terrain—had made that flashy evasion possible.
Watching me dodge the shots as if performing stunts, Charlotte's expression hardened. It was a habit of hers whenever things refused to go according to her plan.
Another volley followed.
Bang!
I flung myself toward yet another tree, and in the barest fraction of a second the branch that had been supporting me shattered under the bullet, spraying splinters.
Bang bang bang!
Multiple rounds tore through the air toward my body as it moved through empty space.
Whoosh!
I blocked their paths with Tao Power; the bullets veered just enough to skim past me.
I landed on another tree.
This time I didn't wait to react—I kicked straight off the trunk and launched myself at her. The plan was to body-check her and shut down her movement entirely.
Looking mildly startled, she pulled the trigger again—but nothing fired.
She had emptied the entire magazine.
An empty click and the rapidly shrinking distance between us.
I was already tasting victory—
".....!"
Charlotte's mana arrayed itself at blinding speed, and a dimensional rift tore open between us.
Suspended in midair with no way to change course, my body had no choice but to pass straight through the rift.
On the other side stretched a vast open plain.
I rolled on landing to disperse the impact, scrambled up, and scanned my surroundings.
"This is....."
Blue sky, green fields, a fresh breeze brushing my skin—and not a single trace of Charlotte anywhere.
"....!"
Scratch that. Her mana immediately began arranging itself in the air again, and a new dimensional rift opened.
From the pitch-black void beyond, Charlotte strolled out at a leisurely pace.
"I never heard you had a talent for climbing trees."
"Haha. I didn't know I had such a curious gift either. As you know, I've lost my memories."
"....Still won't admit it? Fine. Let's see how long you can keep that easygoing attitude."
She leveled the gun at me once more and squeezed the trigger.
Clang!
"That was a waste."
I countered with Light Counter and sent the bullet ricocheting far away.
Frowning, she lowered the muzzle and spoke.
"How the hell are you deflecting these? Did becoming a demonkin give you some new ability?"
"How about we stop this already? Conversation is a perfectly good solution. Have you never tried it?"
Charlotte clenched her jaw and fidgeted with her fingers.
"Are you really not a demonkin? But I'm certain...."
She answered my words yet made no further move.
I started walking slowly toward a half-resigned Charlotte—
......!
That was when it happened. Behind me a dimensional rift ripped open at high speed, and the very bullet I had just deflected came flying out of it.
Predicted point of impact: my heart. I twisted on pure reflex.
Without Nature Realm I would have died instantly to that attack.
Thud!
"Ghk.....!"
The round punched straight through my left shoulder.
My head went blank for a second as scorching pain flooded the joint.
"So you're not invincible after all."
Charlotte wore a bitter little smile as she watched me clutch the gunshot wound.
"What now? No trees to climb, and one arm's useless. How about dying quietly?"
"Haha……. You've really tied up most of my advantages. But Lady Cervantes—allow me to offer one piece of advice to my dear Lady Cervantes."
My body had long since been reduced to tatters, yet I picked the sword back up from the ground and dropped into a low stance.
"Lady Cervantes, you always act while keeping the worst-case scenario in mind."
"Of course. Otherwise when that situation actually hits, you can't do a thing."
"Then from now on I recommend you keep the best-case scenario in mind as well."
I forced a fierce grin through the burning agony of the wound.
"Because starting right now, I'm going to personally make that best-case scenario happen!"
I stomped hard and closed the distance on her.
"....The best-case scenario for me is you dying quietly!"
Bang!
Clang!
By now the sequence felt almost contractual—gunshot, then Light Counter. Immediately afterward Charlotte controlled the recoil, re-aimed, and moved her finger on the trigger again.
I needed movement that would shatter her expectations if I wanted to stay alive against those terrifying bullets.
Just like before.
I dredged up the memory of freefalling through the sky.
The memory of instinctively condensing Tao Power beneath me and surviving.
Taaah!
I condensed Tao Power in front of me, stepped on it, and soared through empty air.
But that alone wasn't enough. I needed something even more unpredictable.
I instantly repositioned the Tao Power I'd just kicked off to my side, condensed it again, and kicked that core—my body changed direction midair as if it had broken free of the laws of physics.
Even Charlotte, who had faced every kind of enemy, would have trouble landing a clean hit on a target that moved this erratically.
She took a single step back and fired, but just as expected she missed.
Good. Ride this momentum.
I clenched my teeth against thighs that felt ready to burst, a skull that felt ready to crack, and a shoulder gushing blood, and kept closing in.
Form a foothold to the left and kick off.
Form a foothold below before hitting the ground and kick off.
Form a foothold to the right and kick off.
Form a foothold to the left again and kick off.
Form a foothold behind me and kick off, shooting forward.
I performed every single one of those steps in empty air where there was not a scrap of ground to stand on.
Without the Parkour trait and the Wanderer class, I could have died and come back and still never pulled off such bizarre movement.
Charlotte's shots rang out again and again, but every bullet flew somewhere completely divorced from my actual trajectory, never even coming close.
She couldn't read my movements at all.
Before I knew it the gap between us had shrunk to almost nothing. Vague bewilderment was written plain across Charlotte's face.
"....Haa. I really didn't want to use this."
Muttering with a sigh, she opened yet another dimensional rift and hurled herself through it.
I threw myself after her into the same rift.
Passing through the pitch-black tear, I arrived somewhere filled entirely with darkness.
I couldn't even tell whether there was a wall right in front of my face or not.
"Huff... huff...."
I panted hard and swept the surroundings with Nature Realm, but I couldn't sense Charlotte anywhere.
"Where the hell is this supposed to be. I never wanted to go world-touring this way."
I was too exhausted for even the jokes to come out properly anymore.
Catching my breath, I probed the environment with Nature Realm.
This place was a long, rounded structure—a tunnel.
"Why a tunnel all of a sudden..."
That was when a bright light began approaching from far down the passage.
The distance was still considerable, so pinning down exactly what it was with Nature Realm was a bit of a stretch.
"A person, maybe?"
No—it was closing too fast for a person. And that steadily growing, rhythmic noise…
".....Wow."
I saw it and despaired.
A thousand-ton lump of scrap iron barreling forward at an average of a hundred kilometers per hour.
Ding-ding-ding!!
A train was charging straight at me.