The Turmoil of the Age, Part 2
“Come to think of it, everyone must want something different. And yet the standard is the same?”
After another victory, I paused the game for a moment to cool my head and glanced at the phone lying beside my keyboard. Agares was there on the lobby screen, seated in a chair and reading some book I couldn’t even identify.
“Of course the miracles people want are all different. But the value of a miracle is ultimately decided by the person receiving it. Just as a good house and a car are natural to a wealthy man, while they are the dream of a beggar on the street, some players are likely enjoying this game to obtain something that, in your eyes, seems utterly trivial. On the other hand, someone else may think the dream you desire is nothing special at all.”
“...Then it’s obviously impossible for everyone to be happy.”
“Why are you acting like this? You’re not a child.”
He snapped the book shut with a crisp smack and let out a faint laugh.
Other players. The beings I paid attention to right after my units as I played Pandemonium. I honestly couldn’t tell whether I should see them as enemies or as people I could cooperate with.
If they were anything like me, then it was obvious they would never give up their own desires.
“Infinite competition. Aren’t you used to it? Even becoming one of the best players out of only ten teams won’t let you rest, so you have to keep running.”
“How far have the others grown? If we fought them now, could we win?”
More than anything else, the lack of information made me uneasy. I already knew about the various rumors and strange incidents floating around, but I had no way of telling whether those rumors actually belonged to a genuine player faction.
“The game has only just begun. I assure you, those of you running headlong after your desires and putting everything else aside will have no choice but to reveal yourselves. So don’t be so anxious, and instead focus on making yourselves stronger.”
“...Can’t say that’s wrong.”
Agares didn’t give me a straightforward answer, as usual, but he did give me a clue. And I agreed with him.
What mattered most for now was growing stronger myself. My avatar and my faction were the kind of beings capable of doing exactly that.
Of course, my avatar’s rest wasn’t quite over yet, so I moved the mouse and queued up another ranked match.
“By rough estimate, if I win about ten more times, the rankings should start coming into view...”
Victory. Victory again. After tasting the miracles of Pandemonium, a mere solo ranked match had become absurdly easy to win. Thanks to the widened field of vision and the calm that let me keep my composure even in the most dramatic situations, turning losing games into wins had also become much easier than before.
The promised top ten ranking was now close enough to see with my own eyes. At this pace, I’d reach it without much trouble.
“Rank 50? Looks like you’ve achieved something meaningful.”
“How did you...?”
That was when Agares suddenly cut in from inside my phone. I jumped at how accurately he’d guessed my current rank, but what came after that was even more shocking.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times. You should check for yourself.”
When I asked again, he only grinned and told me to see it for myself. In the end, I took my hands off the mouse and keyboard and picked up the phone. With my avatar, the core of my species, and the central body of my faction all currently at rest, there was little I could do besides check the alert that had arrived.
Achievement: Realization of Desire
Reward: Unit Experience
“This can’t be...”
“It’s a miracle that allows you to artificially raise the experience of a selected unit. Just as it strengthened your reflexes and the like.”
I was momentarily speechless, but Agares continued his explanation in a perfectly nonchalant tone.
But this was not something that could be brushed aside so casually. The shock that hit me was like the collapse of a wall that had always been there by nature and yet had never been questioned.
It was a force that denied my vague assumption that the relationship between Pandemonium and me was vertical. Pandemonium was not merely a tool. I, too, could become a tool for my units. In other words, we could affect one another.
My growth was their growth, and their growth was my growth. We were, in the truest sense, one.
“Just keep doing what you’ve been doing. For each other.”
Agares’s voice was light, as though my reaction amused him.
***
“Vice-captain. Someone from the lord’s castle has arrived.”
“I can roughly guess why.”
Late at night, in a tavern in the center of the city, he received a report from one of his men. A message from the lord’s castle, no less. For an ordinary mercenary, it would have been only natural to meet that kind of contact with tension. But he, as though he’d been expecting it, accepted the report with complete composure.
“I’ve heard about Rhoden. They say some unknown monster showed up, right? Odds are, a passage connected to the Demon Realm opened somewhere in the northern forest.”
“Then the rumor was true after all.”
“A rumor’s only a rumor when there’s no one saying the same thing. When so many refugees from there are telling the same story, do you really think it’s just idle talk? Bring them in.”
He chuckled at his subordinate’s words and nodded, ordering the person from the lord’s castle waiting outside to be shown in.
And soon, a young man with a displeased expression stepped into the room. The man seemed dissatisfied with the room’s thick smell of alcohol and smoke, and the moment he entered, his brow furrowed even deeper.
“A pleasure. I’m Robinson, the man leading a bunch of idiots who don’t know their place.”
“...I’m Hilder, steward of the lord’s castle.”
The two briefly introduced themselves. They already knew who the other was, so there was no need for anything grand.
“Tell the lord this for me. Thanks to him, we’ve been operating just fine here. And tell him not to worry. We simply want to get along with the lord.”
Robinson grinned and spoke first.
His confidence was so brazen that even Steward Hilder flinched. No ruler likes an armed group that doesn’t answer to them operating within their territory.
That was why mercenaries always had to watch the mood of the powerful if they didn’t want to be checked or controlled. And yet Robinson stood there so boldly, as if none of that applied to him.
“That’s not the issue. The lord has recently given an order to your lot, who seem to be in rather high spirits.”
“If it’s an order directly from the lord, then the reward should be pretty decent.”
“...The details are to gather the soldiers around Rhoden and, together with them, exterminate the strange monsters that were said to have come from the northern forest.”
What an arrogant little thug... He should be grateful we’re even letting him operate here.
Hilder did not like the way he casually spoke of rewards, nor the way he acted so confidently without yielding an inch.
But this place was, in effect, their stronghold. Their momentum as they drew the mercenaries of the region under one banner was so formidable that even Hilder, who prided himself on being the steward of the lord’s castle, felt himself shrink before it.
“As for the reward and the rest of the operation, I’ll discuss those details with your leader.”
“Ah, well, that’s a bit difficult.”
Even Hilder’s attempt to preserve some dignity was blocked. When his request to meet the commander was refused, he looked at Robinson in bewilderment.
“Our commander is a rather unusual person.”
“No, what is that supposed to mean...?”
“So I’ll deliver the message myself. It won’t take long.”
Robinson’s lips curled into a grin, but his eyes flashed without the slightest wavering. Hilder swallowed dryly without realizing it, and though he tried to stand, he ended up plopping back down again.
“Commander, I’ve heard all of the lord’s castle’s proposal. They...”
“Accept it.”
“Ah, yes.”
After Hilder left, Robinson quietly made his way to a secluded room. Alone there was a massive man. He was even fully encased in heavy armor and still hadn’t moved an inch.
As if he already knew how things would go, he accepted the proposal without even listening to Robinson’s reply.
“Prepare to move. At once, tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
From within the armor came a rough exhale along with a scraping voice. Robinson answered with his head bowed low, not a trace of the insolence he’d shown Hilder.
Still the same, I see.
Once outside the room, Robinson let out a slow breath. They’d been together for some time now, and though Robinson had become the second-in-command and was effectively handling everything himself, his legs still trembled whenever he stood before him.
But he’s worth it.
Of course, Robinson did not follow him without gain. He glanced down at the brand clearly stamped on his wrist and twisted his lips into a smile.
Overwhelming violence is frightening only when it belongs to your enemy. If that violence becomes your reliable ally, there is nothing more reassuring than that.