Debra (2)
-Well, might as well hear you out.
“…!”
Color bloomed across her face.
She had braced herself for the possibility that he wouldn't spare her so much as a glance!
“You—you said it was an SF world, didn't you?”
-That's right.
“Well, it's like this….”
And so her explanation of her situation poured out. She figured she'd already shown him everything there was to see (?) of her, so there was nothing left to hide and nothing to feel awkward about.
“…Anyway, that's where things stand.”
The messages that had been flying in one after another came to an abrupt stop. An uneasiness crept over her.
So even the Juddak couldn't do anything about it, after all?
She did her best to hide her disappointment. It's not like I expected much, right? Even just information about the Debra race, or some advice on magitech, would have made me happy.
Frankly, even if the Juddak's abilities were impressive, how much real help could a community actually provide? The so-called Dimensional Store didn't feel like a place selling cutting-edge weaponry or high-tech marvels either. Who knew what kind of technology went into manufacturing the goods, but in the end the merchandise rarely strayed beyond ordinary household items and food. And the occasional item she wanted to study would, more often than not, break down beyond all recognition the moment she tried to disassemble it.
Granted, she'd heard that her VIP rank was still a mere 4, and that the Juddak was preparing a premium store separately….
But would that really be any different?
And now, with everything on the line, even the Juddak had gone silent—which only deepened her anxiety. What is this? Silence, all of a sudden? Does he know something about that creature's race? Then why the hesitation? Does that mean it's that dangerous?
The Interdimensional Integrated Community connected all manner of worlds, and many of them were strikingly similar. What had struck her as interesting was that certain races appeared across multiple worlds in common.
Orcs, elves, dwarves, dragons—that kind of thing.
So wouldn't a race called the Debra exist in the Juddak's SF world too?
Whirrr whirrr— rattle rattle—
She had even hauled out her massage chair to soothe her frayed nerves.
“I can hear it just fine! I'm ready, so tell me already!”
She had clearly been aiming for a look of grim resolve, but there was no stopping the tension from melting right off her face under the chair's ministrations.
“Why! Aren't! You! Answering?!”
Ding—
-Huh? Went to grab food, back now lol
“What?!”
You're telling me you stepped out to eat in the middle of a conversation this important?!
“Y-you—!”
Her face flushed crimson.
And here I am, taking this so seriously!
But what could she do? She was the one begging, not the one granting favors. In the end, she had to explain everything all over again from the top. Her voice was pouty and sulky, but she didn't slack on the details.
“…So, with all that said—if you know anything about the Debra race, please tell me. I've made my peace with whatever it is.”
-Debra? What's that? haha
“….”
He was clearly off doing something else entirely, and she had to walk through the explanation several more times.
-Magitech and aliens? Wild stuff haha
“I suppose even you… can't do anything about it, can you?”
-Huh? Why me?
“Pardon?”
She could feel it—the conversation was somehow not landing where she aimed it.
“I—I mean, even for you….”
-Eh? Me?
“Yes. I understand that even you can only do what you can do. And surely, being a being like him—an alien like him—you can't help but be cautious.”
She still remembered it, vividly.
That horrifying creature—the Debrain.
Never once flustered by anything, wearing those eyes brimming with a smug superiority that seemed to say, no matter how you vermin thrash about, you'll accomplish nothing.
Whenever she and her allies tried to pull some trick against him, he would finish the whole situation in an instant, as if he'd known everything in advance—the sheer decisiveness of it.
And then there was the way a mere gesture of his hand could call down pillars of light from the sky and incinerate the mightiest of mages. Worse still, countless статic—no, static—no. Plenty of ordinary soldiers simply never learned how they died; they were found the next morning as unidentifiable corpses.
He shrugged off magic entirely, a being armed with a power no one could even fathom.
She and the Crown Prince, had they crossed the line just a little further, might well have ended up as corpses themselves.
And on top of everything else, he possessed miraculous abilities—he made the crippled walk, cured every manner of disease, and could even extend a person's lifespan.
Had he appeared even a little earlier in history, calling him a god would not have been an exaggeration.
No—even in this day and age, calling him a god would be entirely fitting.
What made it all the more bleak was that, by every appearance, that creature had not seemed to rank particularly high among the Debrains.
He had spoken as though the moment he connected a call, anything at all could be arranged, but she didn't believe it. On the surface he affected every manner of nobility, but to her—a genuine aristocrat—something subtle about him felt off.
The contemptuous gaze and the superiority radiating from his expression had been real enough, but his actual conduct carried none of the dignity, none of the standing that true nobility should have. That was the best way she could put it.
Well… though if we're judging by dignity alone, the Juddak I'm talking to right now isn't all that different.
Either way, that fact was what had driven her to despair. It meant that even more terrifying Debrains could come looking, didn't it?
Maybe they could deal with that creature successfully—and then, someday, his homeland might launch a full-scale invasion.
Just then, a sound cut through her brooding.
Ding—
-An alien like him?
-AhhAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Genuine delight was radiating off the Juddak's messages.
“I'm sorry—am I wrong?”
She tilted her head, puzzled.
-lmao no, no you're not. Go on, keep talking lololol
“??”
Regardless, her thinking went like this.
Sabotage the completion of the structure he was building—or, at the very least, devise countermeasures against his magic-nullification effect.
At present, the creature was devoting himself entirely to the construction of some bizarre machine-built structure. Judging by the Crown Prince's hints, it appeared to be nearing its final stages.
But if she touched him directly, there could be serious trouble later when the race called the Debrains came looking. Wars, after all, had a way of igniting over the smallest of pretexts.
So her goals were, first, to delay the structure's completion by any means possible, and second, to uncover the secret behind his magic nullification so that, if things went wrong, they could prepare countermeasures and stand against the Debrains themselves.
“Not a single spell worked on him…. It was truly terrifying.”
She shuddered as she recalled the sight of him shrugging off an endless bombardment of magic as though it were nothing.
-Really? Now that IS interesting lolol
Something about the Juddak's breezy reaction struck her as odd, but she didn't register it.
“That's why I need your help. Whatever you ask of me, I'll do it.”
-Oh yeah? Then how about this: 'I, I am a third-rate who was defeated by… the massage chaaair~!' That too? lmaooo
“Th-that—!! That's not what we're talking about!!”
Her face burned scarlet. The Juddak simply could not take anything seriously. Her cheeks puffed up and flushed with heat.
-lololol
What is this?
Here I am, being so serious.
And yet, strangely, instead of getting angry like before, she felt her heart settling. Was it because he treated it all like it was no big deal that the weight on her own chest was lifting too?
But then the Juddak's blunt criticism arrived.
-Wow, living in a flower garden, are we lololol
“I'm sorry—a flower garden? What do you mean by that?”
A flower… garden?
-I mean, look at yourself. You think just because you don't touch him directly, these Debrains or Cobrains or whatever-they-ares will just quietly let it slide? Come on. First thing you do when you meet something like that is draw a blade. That's just common sense, no?
That's… not usually what people call common sense, is it?
-Eh, a pretext is just whatever you slap together on the spot. What it comes down to is: are you strong, or am I? And if you want to be picky about it, who eats how much of the damage.
That's… a little extreme, wouldn't you say?
“…One deviation, on my part alone—but the fate of the continent hangs on it. It might even hasten an invasion.”
-And THAT attitude is supposed to be enough?
“Pardon?”
-If you're going to fight them at all, you salt the earth and burn every last seed lololol
A slight shiver ran through her. For some reason, the Juddak's message seemed to reek thickly of blood.
“W-well….”
Isn't that a bit much, even for him?
Absurd, too.
That was what she thought.
-Honestly, if you want to negotiate from strength, looking like a complete madman up front is an excellent strategy.
Something about this… something about this is backwards, illogical, doesn't add up in a dozen ways, and yet… how do I put it?
There was a strange, satisfying itch being scratched, deep and cathartic.
And then there was that thing in the Juddak's tone—call it conviction, call it confidence.
Groundless as it was, a giddy warmth rose up inside her, a feeling that if she simply followed his words, success would come as a matter of course.
-Alright! First things first!
“F-first things first?!”
-Buy this. I'll throw it in at a special discount.
“Pardon?”
-Well? Come on, it's the deal of a lifetime—yours for just 70 million points!
That… 70 million points is my entire life savings, you know?
And at last, the following message appeared for every single user of the community:
'MagicIsJustAHelper' has successfully purchased 'Juddak's Mercy Package for Third-Rates' from the Dimensional Store. (Congrats