Part 6 of 8
“I didn’t tell you guys at the time, but I asked Ms. Oka about the other reincarnations a few times before. She told me that there are eleven of them being protected in the elf village. She’s succeeded in contacting eight more, including us. The other six people’s whereabouts are apparently unknown.”
I vaguely remember her saying something about this when we first met.
“We know the eight she’s contacted must include us three, plus Hugo and Yuri. I’m not sure about the other three. You with me so far?”
“Sure.”
“The real problem is the last six who are missing. Ms. Oka said that four of them are dead.”
At Katia’s words, my breath catches in my throat for a moment.
It’s not like that hadn’t ever occurred to me, of course.
But hearing it become reality is still a shock.
I often wondered whether all the reincarnations had survived in a world full of threats like demons and monsters.
From what little I’ve been told, I gathered that Ms. Oka went through all kinds of difficulties to gather us reincarnations and keep us safe.
That can only mean that some of us were in enough danger to justify all that.
Which means she couldn’t get to some reincarnations in time to help them?
Now we know the answer, straight from Katia’s mouth.
“The ones who died are Kouta Hayashi, Naofumi Kogure, Issei Sakurazaki, and Hiiro Wakaba.”
At that last name, Fei sits up with a jolt.
Fei and Wakaba had an intense relationship.
Essentially, Fei did things to Wakaba that bordered on bullying.
In her previous life as Mirei Shinohara, Fei was an eye-catchingly beautiful girl, just as she is in her current human form.
However, the only person whose looks drew more attention than hers was Wakaba.
If that were the whole story, Fei probably wouldn’t have bullied her.
But an upperclassman whom Fei had a crush on at the time apparently liked Wakaba, so she ended up bullying the girl out of a one-sided feeling of envy.
Most of what she did was fairly tame for bullying, like spreading rumors or hiding her things.
And since Wakaba rarely showed much reaction, it never turned into anything more serious.
Still, bullying is bullying.
Fei once told me that she’d come to regret her actions once she was reborn.
I can’t imagine how she feels knowing that the other person involved is dead.
“Oh, sorry. I kinda…can’t quite put it into words…”
Even Fei herself seems unable to express her complicated emotions.
As I keep an eye on her, I look over at Katia as well.
Fei isn’t the only one who had a connection with Wakaba.
Katia once confessed to Wakaba, only to be met with an honorable defeat.
I think Katia half expected this to happen, and after the fact, she just smiled and said, “I got shut down,” so I don’t think it upset her too deeply.
But still, how must Katia feel knowing that someone she used to like is gone now?
“Katia, didn’t you…?”
“Me? I mean, yeah, it’s a shock. But I dunno, it doesn’t really feel real, I guess.”
That makes sense.
We weren’t there to witness the moment of her death or anything.
It was simply relayed as secondhand information from Ms. Oka.
It’s probably natural that it doesn’t feel real.
Besides, we’ve already been in this world almost as long as we were in our previous lives.
To be honest, my memories of my classmates’ faces are starting to get cloudy.
I still remember the friends I was close with pretty well, but other than that, I’m starting to forget people who never left a strong impact on me.
Of the four dead, I wouldn’t say I was close with Wakaba or Sakurazaki, but they left enough of an impression that I still remember them.
However, I can barely even remember Hayashi’s face.
“Kogure, huh? I can only picture him crying.”
Out of those four people, I was closest with Kogure.
He was a crybaby even as a high school student, someone who would freak out over just about anything.
“Oh yeah. Just being called on in class was enough to make him burst into tears, right? That takes me back.”
Like me, Fei probably doesn’t remember much about the classmates she rarely interacted with.
I could never forget Kogure, but Fei probably hadn’t given him much thought until his name came up just now.
I can’t help feeling a little sad about that.
“When do you think he cried the hardest? When he got put in charge of taking care of the animals, maybe?”
“Right, right. He was all, ‘I can’t do iiiit!’ Or maybe that time when the teacher took away his handheld game?”
We took a moment to reminisce about Kogure’s biggest crying episodes.
“Ah…if Icchi were alive, that stupid Natsume probably wouldn’t have gone this far.”
Fei sighs.
“Icchi” is probably Issei Sakurazaki.
He was a childhood friend of Natsume, Hugo’s former self, and tended to keep him in check.
Even in our previous lives, Natsume had a pretty violent personality, but he was never as bad as he is now.
He never caused any major incidents, because Sakurazaki was there to stop him.
If he were by Hugo’s side in this world, too, our future might have been very different.
“D’you think Natsume knows that Icchi’s dead?”
“No idea. I guess it’s possible he found out from Ms. Oka somehow.”
“Maybe he did, and that’s why he went crazy. Honestly, I’m pretty sure Natsume thought Icchi was his only real friend.”
Fei was quite close to Natsume and Sakurazaki.
She must have some thoughts about the way Natsume is rampaging now.
“I wonder why. How did it come to this? I thought we all got along well enough back in Japan.”
“Being reborn in a different world would change anybody. And Hugo happened to change for the worse. That’s all there is to it.”
“But you haven’t changed, Katia.”
“Do you really believe that?”
Katia’s sudden intense gaze startles me a little.
“Look, how exactly do you see me anyway?”
“How do I see you?”
“I mean, am I Katia in your eyes? Or am I Kanata?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Katia and Kanata are one and the same.
I don’t know what she’s trying to ask me.
This time Katia sighs. “Oh, forget it. I just don’t know if you really think I haven’t changed or if that’s just what you want to believe.”
“Erm…I’m sorry?”
Katia seems to be in a bad mood now, so I try to make it better.
However, she only looks more annoyed that I apologized without knowing what I did wrong.
Unable to meet her glare any longer, I look away.
Instead, my eyes fall on Fei, who’s clearly stifling a laugh.
“What are you laughing at?”
Katia turns her glower on Fei.
“Oh, nothing! I’m just a spectator in this whole affair.”
Fei smirks, and Katia’s scowl deepens.
This is getting uncomfortable.
“But…that’s not all you came here to say, right?”
I change the subject, trying to clear the air.
If Katia wanted only to tell us about the four students who died, she wouldn’t have waited until Ms. Oka wasn’t around.
I’m sure there’s something she doesn’t want our teacher to hear.
“Right. How much of Ms. Oka’s story do you guys believe?”
Though she still looks a little frustrated, Katia cuts to the main question.
Is she asking whether we think the administrators are real?
“How much? I don’t think she’s lying to us. She said herself that all the stuff about the administrators is objectively just something that the elves have always believed.”
Ms. Oka asserted that the godlike beings called administrators really do exist.
However, she didn’t seem entirely convinced that they’re using this world to gain power, like the elves believe.
“It definitely sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.”
Fei seems to feel the same way I do.
“You’re saying you believe Ms. Oka but not the elves’ story about the administrators. Right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
For one thing, if these so-called administrators can steal strength from the dead, I don’t see how the elves can possibly fight back against them.
Elves aren’t that much stronger than humans. If such a godlike power really exists, there’s probably nothing they can do about it.
Sure, elves live longer than humans and are very proficient in magic.
But frankly, that’s the only difference.
They’re not exponentially stronger than humans or anything.
How could they possibly compete with beings so far beyond human comprehension?
“But we do know that there are beings who call themselves ‘administrators.’ Even if they aren’t as all-powerful as the elves say, they’re strong enough to give people a reason to fear them.”
That’s my conclusion, at least.
Ms. Oka says that they’re real, and then there’s Sophia, who’s apparently one of their underlings.
Sophia’s power is beyond my reckoning.
If there’s something even stronger than she is, that would certainly be something to fear.
“Do you feel the same way as Shun, Fei?”
“Yeah, more or less.”
“I see.”
Katia closes her eyes and thinks for a moment.
As if she’s trying to decide whether to keep going on this subject.
Finally, she seems to make a decision.
“Shun, Fei, do you both trust Ms. Oka?”
“You don’t, Katia?”
Silence.
However, Katia’s complicated expression says more about her inner feelings than any words could.
“Can I ask why?”
I don’t think Katia would distrust Ms. Oka without a good reason.
The look on her face says that this thought has been weighing on her heavily.
I don’t think Katia really wants to be suspicious of our teacher.
There must be some grounds that would motivate her to bring up this topic now.
“Ms. Oka is hiding something. She’s not lying, but she’s not telling us the whole truth, either. That’s the impression I get.”
I was expecting Katia to have a more concrete explanation, but her words are surprisingly vague.
From the tone of her voice, she seems to know that, too.
“What d’you think she’s hiding, then?” Fei presses.
“If I knew that, it wouldn’t be a problem. But I definitely think there’s something that she can’t tell us. I mean, she said she was going to tell us everything, but there’s still so much she hasn’t explained.”
This did occur to me, too.
For instance, she hasn’t said who the reincarnations being protected in the elf village are or what their situations are like.
Or what the other reincarnations she couldn’t shelter in the elf village are doing now.
Ms. Oka has still hardly told us anything about our fellow reincarnations.
“If she’s hiding something from us, of course I want to believe she has a good reason. But facts are facts. We all know that being a fellow reincarnation doesn’t mean someone can be trusted, right?”
I know what Katia’s trying to say.
Hugo and Sophia, for instance, are reincarnations, but they’re working with the enemy.
And it’s possible that Katia is also referring to herself.
Hugo brainwashed Katia in the past.
And turned her against us.
She’s hinting that even people you think you can trust can turn against you.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t believe her. Just…don’t trust her too much. I think we should be prepared that she might betray us.”
Katia’s words hit me like stones.
Who knew it would hurt this much to have to suspect even the people you thought you could trust?
Even knowing that Hugo was behind it, being attacked by close allies like Sue and Katia was still painful.
Sue and Yuri are still in Hugo’s hands, too.
Just thinking about that is depressing enough. If Ms. Oka betrayed us on top of that…
The only response I can muster to Karnatia’s warning is a heavy sigh and a silent nod.
RETURNING MONSTER OF THE WEEK ALWAYS GETS KILLED RIGHT AWAY
When my eyes open, I’m floating in the ocean.
And also, I’m nothing but a head.
You might not know what that means, but honestly, I don’t know what’s going on, either.
I mean, seriously.
What’s up with this situation?
What happened?
I mean, how can I even be alive with only a head?
Everything from the neck down is gone.
Although I don’t think spiders really have necks.
Now all that’s left is to stick a pin through me and put me on display.
Ugh. Unreal.
Oh wait. I guess I’m probably still alive in this state because of that Immortality skill I got when I evolved.
I bet that demon lord blew my body away, and what’s left of me landed in the ocean.
Since all I’ve got is a head, does that mean my body was destroyed by the Demon Lord’s attack?
This is just a guess, but my theory is that while I was unconscious, my HP Auto-Recovery skill started putting me back together from the particles that were left over.
Even with the Immortality skill, I wasn’t exactly gonna have the ability to have conscious thoughts if my head was smashed to pieces.
In which case, if someone has Immortality but their head is destroyed with no way to put it back together, wouldn’t they still basically be dead?
Yikes!
Is it just me, or is being alive yet dead kind of scarier than death?
It’s literally a living hell.
Thank goodness for HP Auto-Recovery.
Without it, I might’ve been screwed.
Really, the fact that I’ve regained consciousness now is a miracle on a number of levels.
First of all, it’s actually pretty lucky that I got smashed to bits and thrown into the ocean by that attack.
If I had been left intact, she might’ve noticed that I wasn’t really dead, and if I hadn’t gotten thrown into the ocean, she might have even taken my remains home.
Alternatively, if my regeneration had started right there on the spot, she probably would’ve seen it.
And if she knew I couldn’t die, then she could really have come up with a fate worse than death for me.
Like sealing me in concrete and sinking me to the ocean floor, or having carnivorous monsters eat me every time I come back to life.
Although I guess I technically could have experienced the latter while I was floating in the ocean.
Oh, gross. What if I’ve actually been eaten by something and come out the other end already?
And I don’t even know the extent of how well Immortality works.
This isn’t exactly likely, but if I were split apart at a molecular level, I doubt I could come back from that.
I mean, clearly I can survive as just a head, which is pretty good, but I don’t want to get overconfident.
What if I got eaten and digested into molecules? Then I probably wouldn’t be able to regenerate.
Well, either way, I said I don’t want to get overconfident, but it’s not like being careful is going to change the outcome of Immortality much.
I mean, did you see that demon lord’s status?
Mother was already the kind of boss who’d show up only in an impossible game, but now there’s something several times worse?
And like, saying “several times” isn’t even an exaggeration.
Stats that average 90,000? What the hell?!
Get outta here!
Even power creep should have its limits!
And that’s only her stats. Once you factor in the skills, well, it’s beyond hopeless.
Like, maxed-out skills across the board? Who does that?
The worst part was those resistance skills.
Most of her attributes were all the way up to Nullification.
So she just doesn’t take damage, huh?
What am I supposed to do about that?
Pretty sure there’s nothing I can do.
Hang on—why would a demon lord come to kill me anyway?
No, I guess I already know.
The Demon Lord’s species name was origin taratect.
That means she was the original taratect monster.
The zenith of all taratects, who even Mother would have to obey.
Just like my Parallel Mind told me in that emergency contact, she’s even stronger than Mother, the monster we thought was the strongest of all.
She must have gotten some kind of distress signal from Mother and come to eliminate me.
Well, I guess my victory was only a matter of time, so it makes sense that Mother would request backup.
Although it doesn’t explain why her “backup” was that…thing.
I mean, I don’t even get how that could exist.
What the hell is that?!
That’s gotta be against the rules!
Uuugh.
Seriously, what am I gonna do?
Just when I thought I’d finally escaped the Great Elroe Labyrinth, Mother’s attacks have kept me too busy to enjoy the outdoors.
I thought I had a faint glimmer of hope to conquer her somehow, but then an even worse monstrosity showed up.
What kind of crappy game is this?
No waaay.
Seriously, no waaay…
Argh. Ugh. Bleeegh.
Mm’kay! Guess I should start figuring out my next move.
Things might look pretty grim, but as long as I’m alive, I gotta keep hanging on until I breathe my last.
First, let’s assess my situation.
My body is currently in the gory state of being nothing but a head.
If a monster or something attacked me right now, I’d be helpless. Or would I?
My max HP is lower than usual, probably because my body’s gone, but my MP hasn’t changed.
So if I was attacked, I could at least use magic to fight back.
Wait a minute. If I can use magic, can’t I use Healing Magic to restore my body?
I don’t know if Healing Magic can bring back lost body parts, but HP Auto-Recovery seems to be able to do it, so it’s worth a shot, right?
I have no idea how long it’ll take me to recover completely, but until then all I can do is float around and hope that nothing attacks me.
Although I don’t know how long it took for my consciousness to recover like this, so it could take ages to rebuild my body with Auto-Recovery and Healing Magic for all I know.
Actually, I wonder how long it’s been since the Demon Lord blew me up?
I wasn’t conscious, so it’s possible that it’s been days or even longer.
Maybe the Demon Lord forgot all about me in that time and wandered off somewhere?
That’s probably just wishful thinking.
I can’t do anything until my body is repaired, but when it comes to her, even having my body back won’t make a bit of difference.
Honestly, I could challenge her a hundred times and still never win.
Even if I use Immortality to do a zombie attack, it won’t make a difference if she doesn’t take any damage in the first place.
I was starting to get to the point where I could beat Mother if I used a few curveballs, but that demon-lord thing? Running away is the only option I can think of.
Hmm? No, wait a sec. If I can defeat Mother, couldn’t I beat her with the same method?
Thinking about it, Mother is still strong enough that I’d have to run away from her in person.
If the Demon Lord and Mother are connected as master and servant, then maybe I can use that connection to send some Parallel Minds to attack the Demon Lord, too?
That…might actually work.
Although it still won’t be easy by any stretch of the imagination.
I mean, look at those stats.
She basically teleported over to me from out of the range of my perception with sheer speed.
Even if I run at top speed, she could catch up to me in a second.
And by the time I notice her presence, it’ll be too late to teleport.
I’d have to just teleport around frequently so she can’t figure out where I am.
Although even then, I might not be able to outpace her.
Since she’s the size of a human, she can enter places that would be too narrow for Mother, too.
Maybe I’m better off just floating on the ocean like this?
I bet it’s safer than being on land.
Although it wouldn’t surprise me if that freaky Demon Lord can run on water or something.
Actually, she probably can.
With proper use of Dimensional Maneuvering, it’s possible to run on pretty much anything.
I could do it myself if I tried, and the Demon Lord’s got better stats and skills than I do, so she must be able to do it, too…
Ah-ha-ha.
There really is nowhere to run.
At any rate, I’m safe for now (or at least as safe as you can get when all you have is a head). And since I can currently savor the sweet freedom of being alive, the Demon Lord must not have noticed yet that I’m not actually dead.
Or maybe she has, but she can’t locate me.
Maybe I should just do nothing and play dead for the rest of my life.
But I don’t know what my Parallel Minds have been doing while I was unconscious, so it might be wishful thinking to assume she hasn’t noticed me, too.
Hrm.
Guess I should contact them.
Helloooo? This is the main body speaking. Anybody there?
Hmm? Body, is that you?
Oh, we connected. Nice.
So you really are alive. What kind of magic trick did you use?
Believe it or not, I evolved and got the Immortality skill.
What?!
So now I’ll never die!
Wow. Talk about a cheat code.
Yep. So basically, don’t worry about me.
What’s going on over there?
We’re still locked in battle with Mother.
Wow. So that means the Demon Lord probably does know I’m still alive.
Hmm? Demon Lord? Is that what that monstrosity was?
Yep.
And also the original taratect, apparently.
With stats that were all around 90,000 to boot.
Geez, what kind of impossible game is that?
Yeah. She actually smashed me into pieces with a single attack.
Without Immortality, I really would be dead.
But it took a while for my consciousness to come back like this, so who knows what’s gonna happen next time she finds me?
Yeah, that doesn’t sound good. Maybe we shouldn’t get in touch like this too often, then.
How come?
Whenever we make contact, it gets easier for Mother to detect your physical location.
Oh crap!
So we’ll interfere with the signal so that Mother can’t find you, and you just worry about running away. I’ll contact you when we beat Mother, okay?
Roger that.
Over and out.
Well, at least I know what’s what now.
My Parallel Minds are still in battle with Mother.
Which means, most likely, the Demon Lord already knows that I’m not dead.
I assumed she’d suspect that I’m alive, since my attack on Mother hasn’t stopped.
And yet, here I am, relatively safe.
That can only mean the Demon Lord doesn’t know where I am right now.
So I guess it really is safest for me to keep floating around in the ocean.
Yep. Until my body gets better, I’m just gonna pretend to be an innocent piece of seaweed.
THE ELF VILLAGE
Deep in the mountains of the Sariella region lies a hidden cavern.
In the back of the cavern is a secret room disguised behind a dead end.
In this secret room in the hidden cavern, a place considerably hard to locate, is a teleport point that connects to the elf village.
It’s hidden so thoroughly that we never would have found it without Ms. Oka’s guidance.
Even with Appraisal, I couldn’t see any hints of its existence, so I doubt anyone could find it without knowing exactly where it is.
“You must keep the existence of this place a secret, of course.”
We all nod.
A powerful barrier protects the elf village, making it impossible to enter unless you use a special teleport point.
In other words, this is one of the few entrances to the elf village. If its location was revealed, it could lead to unwelcome intruders.
Most likely, no one outside of the elves and their close confidants is supposed to know about it.
Ms. Oka probably isn’t supposed to show us where it is, either.
The fact that she brought us here seems like proof that she trusts us all deeply, but Katia’s warning is still in the back of my mind.
Katia said we shouldn’t trust Ms. Oka too much.
But she certainly seems to trust us, at least from my perspective.
Honestly, I don’t know what to do.
For now, I’m still in the ambiguous state of trusting our teacher while harboring a little bit of doubt.
“Now let us proceed.”
Ms. Oka activates the teleport point.
Light floods the room and engulfs all of us, and my vision warps briefly.
Once it returns to normal, we aren’t in the cavern anymore.
Instead, we’re inside a circular building.
There are several teleportation circles on the floor, like the one we just used.
However, the details of the building aren’t important right now.
Because as soon as we arrive, we find ourselves at swordpoint.
Several elves are holding their swords out toward us.
“Please, wait! I brought them here!”
Ms. Oka stands between us and the elves, who look ready to attack at any moment.
Instead of human language, Ms. Oka is speaking the language of the elves.
We studied it at the academy, so I can more or less understand it.
However, I can only speak it slowly and in short phrases. I doubt I’d be able to interject in a pressing situation like this one.
“Name?”
“Filimøs Harrifenas.”
The man who seems to be the captain addresses Ms. Oka curtly.
“The chief’s daughter… And why have you brought humans here?”
“They are reincarnations and comrades of the hero. The empire’s army is on its way here right now. I brought them to help us fight back.”
Ms. Oka’s explanation seems to placate the man, but he still doesn’t lower his sword.
“I see. However, we cannot allow humans into the village. If they are to participate in battle as our allies, they may fight outside the barrier.”
“They will do no such thing. These people are my guests. I will not have them thrown out into danger.”
“Daughter of the chief. I will not repeat myself. Send them back through the teleport point immediately.”
Ms. Oka and the man seem to be directly at odds.
Clearly, the elves are even more clannish than I thought.
At this rate, they definitely won’t let us into the village.
“Stand down, would you?”
Just as the tension seems about to explode, a man’s voice comes from the entrance.
As soon as we see the speaker, all of us freeze.
“Potimas?”
Ms. Oka alone murmurs the man’s name in disbelief.
Indeed, standing before us is Potimas, the elves’ chieftain who had seemingly been killed by Sophia.
“That’s right. Have you forgotten your father’s face?”
Though his words seem joking, Potimas’s face is serious.
But Ms. Oka, Hyrince, and I all saw him dead.
We saw Sophia toss his freshly severed head to the ground right before our eyes.
That gruesome sight certainly didn’t seem like a fake or an illusion.
“I thought you were dead?”
“It would take more than that to kill me. Lower your swords.”
He addresses the soldiers to give them an order.
The soldiers faithfully obey, lowering their swords and taking a step back.
“Now, then. Welcome to the village of the elves.”
Despite his words, he doesn’t appear very welcoming at all.
Honestly, I’m pretty wary of him.
Part of it is the strangeness of a man who I thought was dead suddenly appearing right in front of me, but there’s something else about him that’s strange and suspicious in a way I can’t quite place.
Besides, anyone who suddenly Appraises someone they’ve just met probably looks down on others.
This is the second time I’ve met this man.
The first time was before I went to the academy, when he showed up escorting Ms. Oka.
His attitude was awful then, too. He introduced himself and Ms. Oka, then left without waiting to hear my reply.
As he spoke, a strange sensation overcame me, but I assumed at the time that it was just a physical response to how uncomfortable his attitude made me feel.
Later, Katia identified that strange feeling as the discomfort that happens when someone Appraises you.
Appraising someone without their consent is considered a very rude breach of etiquette.
Between that and his snobby attitude, it was clear that he didn’t deem us worthy of his consideration.
As if he didn’t recognize us as people.
Even now, he seems to be viewing us more as tools of war than guests, so his gaze makes me very uncomfortable.
“Come. We shall prepare a modest reception for you.”
With these brief words, Potimas turns and walks out of the room.
We hurriedly follow after him.
“How did you survive?”
Ms. Oka asks the question that I, too, was wondering.
“There are many ways to avoid death.”
This is hardly an answer.
For a moment, I consider Appraising him on the spot as payback for the first time we met, but getting on his bad side in this situation seems like a bad idea.
“What about the imperial army?”
“They haven’t yet reached the outskirts of the barrier. As of now, they are marching through the forest.”
As he speaks, Potimas exits the building.
Following him, the rest of us are at a loss for words when we lay eyes on the scenery outside.
All around us is a forest composed of such large trees that they might well be more than a thousand years old.
The roots of the gigantic trees have been carved out to form homes.
Looking back at the building we just left, I realize that it, too, is actually a giant tree.
The elf village isn’t just a bunch of buildings in a forest. It’s built into the trees themselves.
“Wow,” Katia murmurs involuntarily.
It’s as if we’ve wandered into the world of a fairy tale.
However, countless eyes soon glare at us, drawing us back to reality.
From atop the branches and in the shadows of the trees, the elves are watching us closely.
I can feel the wariness and disgust in their gazes.
It’s a fresh reminder that we’re not welcome here, as if the swords pointed at us when we arrived weren’t enough.
Concerned, I look back at Anna.
For me, this is just a rather unpleasant welcome. But for Anna, a half elf, this place is full of painful memories.
Being glared at like this on top of that could easily unearth more trauma.
Anna is putting up a brave front, but her hands are trembling slightly.
I press close to her, trying to shield her from the piercing glares.
Potimas moves on briskly, paying no attention to us.
As we follow him, Ms. Oka asks him about the current situation.
“Do you know how large the imperial army is?”
“Around eighty thousand.”
This is a surprise to me.
Is it really safe for them to send such a large army in the midst of the human-demon war?
No, it almost certainly isn’t.
And yet, the army is already well on its way.
If the demons find out about this development, I doubt they’ll miss such an opportunity.
This situation is even more disastrous than I thought.
“The trouble is that the church has provided a considerable amount of their soldiers. The fact that they’ve announced a false hero like Hugo shows that they are deeply tied to the empire.”
If the Word of God army has joined forces with the empire, that must mean that Hugo has the church held firmly in his fist by now.
Most likely, the brainwashed Yuri is with him, too.
“If their march proceeds smoothly, how soon do you think they’ll arrive?”
“Three days, I would imagine. If they’re attacked by powerful monsters or anything of the like, it might be another story, but unfortunately luck seems to have taken their side.”
I tilt my head quizzically at Potimas’s odd statement.
“The legendary-class monster who has threatened our village for years, the queen taratect, is on the move. As a result, all of the other monsters in the area have fled. The imperial army will likely run into few monsters, if any, on their course here.”
Another queen taratect?
The queen taratect is said to live in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, but there are four others in the world as well.
From the sound of it, one of them lives in this very forest where the elves make their home.
The elf village is at the heart of a vast forest called the Great Garam Forest.
According to Ms. Oka, the village and the barrier that protects it are about the size of the special wards of Tokyo.
And the forest, since it’s big enough to hide that at its center, is easily the size of Hokkaido.
There are many monsters in the great forest, and the queen taratect rules as the most powerful of all.
Unfortunately, since the queen taratect has moved and driven away all the nearby monsters, this works in the army’s favor.
If the queen taratect had stayed behind and maybe even run across the imperial army, that would have been much more favorable for the elves.
As for me, I’m half-disappointed and half-relieved.
We caught a glimpse of the queen taratect’s terrifying power on the way here.
When we left the Great Elroe Labyrinth, I looked down and saw the place where a queen taratect had once burst free and gone on a rampage.
The destruction was so severe that it had permanently changed the landscape.
If that thing had run into the imperial army, the latter would most likely have taken devastating casualties.
The elves would have triumphed without needing to fight at all.
But that would also mean that soldiers who are only being used by Hugo would be killed in droves.
There might even be people among them who are brainwashed, like Yuri.
When I think of it that way, I’m almost happy with these results.
I know how naive that is.
If we really do have to fight, it’ll be kill or be killed, even if the soldiers are innocent.
But some part of me can’t help hoping that if we can just do something about Hugo, the rest of it will work out somehow.
At the very least, I might be able to save my brainwashed friends from him.
There might even be more of them besides Sue and Yuri who have been brainwashed unbeknownst to me.
As I think about it, my hand automatically clenches into a fist.
“We’re here.”
Potimas enters a house built into one of the huge trees, cutting the conversation short.
Inside the house is a large circular desk, creating a conference room of sorts.
As soon as we sit as instructed, elven waiters carry food to our table.
“These are elf dishes, but they should suit the human palate, too.”
At Potimas’s words, I take a bite of the food.
It’s lightly seasoned and vegetable focused, but that only serves to highlight the quality of the ingredients.
In fact, it’s delicious.
Exhausted from our journey, our party eats without speaking.
“You seem to have enjoyed it. Good.”
Seeing that we’ve finished eating, Potimas speaks again.
“We have prepared quarters for you. I shall ensure that you can go about your business there until the imperial army arrives.”
They seem very well prepared.
Almost as if he already knew we were coming.
Which he probably did, I suppose.
I don’t know how he got that information, but it’s the only explanation that makes sense.
Otherwise, how would they prepare living quarters and just the right amount of food for humans with such perfect timing?
And yet, we were greeted so harshly when we first arrived.
Did the information not reach the teleport-point guards, or was that just an act?
Either way, I can’t figure out Potimas’s intentions.
All I know is that he seems very shady.
Maybe that’s why I can’t help but distrust Potimas’s next proposal.
“Additionally, I’m sure you would like to see the other reincarnations, no? The hour is late. I shall arrange for you to meet them tomorrow.”
WATER SPIDER
I’ve been drifting on the waves for a few days now.
My body is finally back to normal.
Man, I certainly had my work cut out for me.
I got attacked by water wyrms, attacked by water dragons…
Seriously, that was no laughing matter.
Getting attacked by a bunch of water wyrms wasn’t an issue at first.
I mean, it wasn’t ideal, but I managed to deal with them even in head-only form, so we’ll call it even.
Yep. Turns out I actually got by pretty well without a body.
Alone, my head could still use magic, making this situation sort of like one of those tower-defense games where you have to shoot down the enemy before they get too close.
Occasionally a few persistent buggers broke through, but I used my Telekinesis skill to move myself away.
In short, I was managing all right.
That just goes to show that wyrm-class monsters aren’t even a threat to me anymore.
Some of the upper-level ones had stats averaging more than 2,000, but I still beat them without even having a body.
Talk about using your head!
It definitely helped that my go-to weapons, the Dark Magic spells, were just as powerful when used underwater.
The water didn’t dampen or slow them down at all. Maybe it was because of the fantasy-like nature of the Dark attribute.
I mean, Fire definitely wouldn’t have worked, and if I’d used Lightning or something, I would’ve just zapped myself, too.
The water wyrms did have Wyrm Scales, but the difference in our stats was so great that they might as well have been wearing paper armor.
Since my magic attack power exceeds 10,000, I guess it’s no surprise that their measly 2,000-and-under defense wouldn’t stand a chance.
Anyway, I was able to deal with the constant onslaught of water wyrms easily enough.
But then that water dragon showed up.
Listen, I was as surprised as you are.
I mean, seriously.
A goddamn dragon isn’t supposed to spawn as naturally as if it were some ordinary mob.
It looked kinda like a plesiosaur and seemed pretty strong at that, but when I Appraised it, I was still taken aback by its power.
I suppose the silver lining was that it was still a fair amount weaker than Araba.
Using Telekinesis to move my head away, I fired at the water dragon with magic as it chased me.
This little game of chase went on for what felt like hours, until I finally managed to beat it.
Lucky for me, it was the physical-based meathead type.
It wasn’t fast enough to catch up to me, either, and its magic wasn’t all that, so I didn’t die even when it grazed me a few times.
Though if it had made a direct hit, I probably would’ve been knocked out and ended up as fish food.
Who knows how long it would’ve taken for me to recover again?
All’s well that ends well.
Anyway, thanks to the experience I got for killing the water dragon, I leveled up.
You couldn’t really call it molting, since I didn’t have a body to shed skin from, but the usual level-up recovery situation did make my body grow back.
I can only imagine how gross it would’ve looked to any witnesses as my body grew from the stump of my head.
But even leveling up wasn’t enough to fully regrow my body. I got only about half my torso back before it stopped.
From there, I spent several more days fending off those stupid water wyrms while using Healing Magic to fix the rest of my body.
I could’ve done without the occasional bonus water dragon, by the way.
Unlike the first one, I just ran away from these ones.
I mean, these guys were on the same level as the earth dragon Araba.
How was I supposed to deal with something like that when I was still regrowing my damn body?
Besides, I could float, but I couldn’t dive.
Since my opponents could move around in the water freely, I was at a huge disadvantage. It made no sense to try to take them on.
Turned out there was a Swim skill. If I acquired that, I thought maybe I’d be able to dive down.
But if I tried to pick it up, probably because of my lack of aptitude or whatever, it would cost a huge amount of skill points.
I didn’t want to waste the points, so I gave up on that and decided to just run away from water dragons instead.
Even now that my body’s fully recovered, taking on a water dragon sounds like a huge pain. Instead, I’ve just been fleeing from them.
Bwa-ha-ha! Kneel before the power of my full-speed escape!
With my incredible speed stat and the trump card known as Teleport, fleeing from the likes of a water dragon is a piece of cake!
Although I’m trying not to use that too often, since the last thing I want is to teleport right into the Demon Lord’s waiting hands.
That’s why I’m still floating around on the ocean.
According to the map function Professor Wisdom gave me, the waves carried me pretty far away from the Great Elroe Labyrinth, but I’m still keeping the same degree of distance from the shore.
Right now, I’m thinking about riding the waves farther away from the Great Elroe Labyrinth, then eventually making land somewhere or other.
I think I’ve lost the Demon Lord by now, and if she’s gonna look for me, she’ll probably check in or around the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
If I get far away from there, I’ll run less risk of being found.
If I keep out of her sight, make land somewhere far away, and keep increasing the places I can flee to via Teleport, even that crazy Demon Lord shouldn’t be able to catch me.
Even with her insane teleportation-like speed, it’s not like she’s actually teleporting.
Sound-barrier-breaking speed or no, it still takes time to cover that much land, so I’d like to think that I could use that time to use Teleport and get away.
The main reason I can’t necessarily escape her yet is that I don’t have enough options for Teleport destinations.
The only places I can teleport to right now are inside the Great Elroe Labyrinth or a limited range of the surrounding area.
The Great Elroe Labyrinth is Mother’s territory, and outside it, my options are extremely limited.
Within that small range, the Demon Lord could easily track me.
So if I extend my teleport range outside where she can track me, I should eventually be able to lose her completely.
Putting it that way, I think the ocean is actually a pretty good escape option, too.
Even the Demon Lord probably wouldn’t think to check some random part of the ocean.
Although I guess you can’t exactly call it safe when there are water dragons here.
After drifting around for a few more days, I finally came up on land again.
Man, I’ve never been happier to feel ground under my feet in my life.
Floating on the ocean was getting pretty uncomfortable.
Part of the reason I came up on land was that I got fed up with that, but there was also the minor detail of the water dragons beginning to attack me in swarms.
I mean, you guys are a pretty powerful class of monsters, right?
Are you even allowed to form cliques?
Like, I can’t even swim underwater, you know? I’m basically a spider-shaped buoy.
So yeah, I decided I was done with that and escaped onto the land.
Fighting a single dragon is enough of a pain. I definitely don’t wanna mess around with a whole group.
Being on land has its own threat in the form of the Demon Lord, but since she doesn’t seem to have found me yet, I should be fine.
I’ve got to worry about the more imminent threat.
Namely, the buttload of water dragons that have locked on to me. Even now that I’m on land, they’re still sticking their heads out of the water to glare at me.
I can practically hear them yelling, And don’t come back!
I guess that’s the end of my watery adventures in relative safety from the Demon Lord.
From here on out, looks like it’s land or bust for me.
The Demon Lord could have spies anywhere, which means I’d better try to avoid being spotted as much as possible.
My first goal is to find a river.
Why, you ask?
Well, if you spend a lot of time in the ocean, you end up soaking in seawater, y’know?
And seawater really clings to you.
I have the Odorless skill at least. That helps with the ocean smell, but I’ve still got crusty salt all over me.
Nobody likes being crusty.
Oh right, Odorless is a skill I got when I maxed out Silence.
Just as the name implies, it reduces my scent. The higher the skill level, the less I smell.
Pretty good skill for an assassin, right?
Although it could come in handy in everyday life for some people, too.
Thanks to that, I don’t have to worry about getting smelly.
Not that this body really produces a lot of odor in the first place.
Anyway, I’m gonna go look for a river or pond or whatever to wash up.
I’m careful to minimize my presence as I move, though not so much that I drive myself crazy worrying about it.
Even when I was super-weak, I was stealthy enough to sneak around the den of monsters known as the Great Elroe Labyrinth pretty well. Now that all my skills have gotten even higher, my stealth has gotten even…worse, actually.
Because come to think of it, I got that stupid Intimidation skill and the Fearbringer title, which pretty much cancel out all that by announcing my presence to everyone nearby.
No matter how much I hone my stealth skills now, the best I can hope for is to cancel out the double-fear effect.
Frankly, whether I’m sneaky or not, there’s only so much I can do to keep from being found.
Meaning there’s no point in being super-extra-careful.
If someone spots me, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Just like in the labyrinth, monsters and stuff tend to sense my presence and run away before I even get near them.
To the point where it sometimes even causes a mass exodus.
I think that might just be their animal instincts or whatever, not something that’s affected by stats.
Even weak monsters like frogs were able to sense me coming, after all.
If anything, the weak monsters might have even sharper instincts about it.
Assuming I keep traveling on land, I think I’ll eventually cause a mass migration of all the monsters in the area.
In the labyrinth, that effect almost resulted in my running out of food.
But right now, I’m more worried about it helping the Demon Lord find me.
She probably…no, definitely would.
If a huge monster stampede appears out of nowhere, there’s no way that demon lord won’t notice.
Even if she can’t specifically detect my presence, all she’d have to do is look for the center of the disturbance to figure it out.
And once she does, she’ll definitely come find me.
At which point I’ll be killed on the spot.
Hmm. That puts me on a pretty short time limit.
I have to expand my range somehow before she spots me, then start teleporting around to keep my whereabouts hidden again.
As I contemplate these things in my wanderings, I find the river I was hoping for.
My body feels so gross and sticky at this point that I just dive right in without thinking.
I plunge underwater for just a moment before popping back up to the surface.
I create some thread, easily weave it into a cloth, and use it to wipe myself down.
I didn’t pay too much attention when I got dirty back in the labyrinth, but if I have the option of keeping clean, I’m definitely going to take it.
Washing off in running water is nice, but what I’d really like is a nice hot bath.
I don’t know if there’s even such a thing in this world, but still.
If not, maybe I could at least find a hot spring?
Once this whole thing with Mother and the Demon Lord is settled somehow, I’m definitely going to look for one right away.
No, I guess finding delicious food comes before that.
After I went to all the trouble of getting out of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, I haven’t found a single tasty thing to eat!
This is a serious problem!
That’s all Mother and the Demon Lord’s fault, too!
They’ve totally ruined my dreams of a happy-go-lucky outside life!
I mean, I wanted to make it outside for so long, and now that I’m finally here, what do I get? A super-stressful life on the run!
It’s just not fair.
Based on my original schedule, I should be enjoying a nice, relaxing sightseeing trip by now.
Scenic forest and mountain views!
Nope, Mother blew those away with a breath attack.
How about a nice trip to the ocean?
Sorry, it’s peak water dragon season.
It’s not fair; it’s just not fair!
Why does the threat of imminent death follow me wherever I go?!
Not to mention that if I stop for a minute, the Demon Lord might catch up to me.
How am I supposed to relax with all that going on?!
At any rate, I have to do something about the Demon Lord and Mother if I want to survive at all, not to mention live happily from here on out.
I activate Wisdom to check the Demon Lord’s current location.
Heh-heh-heh. That’s right. You think I’m just going to sit by and let myself be killed?
If I successfully Appraise a target, I can use Professor Wisdom’s marking function.
That allows me to check the location and Appraisal information of anything I’ve Appraised once, even if it’s far away.
Combined with Wisdom’s map function, I can find out at a glance where the Demon Lord is.
As a bonus, when I use this feature, my map expands to include wherever the target is currently located.
I can’t actually teleport to those places unless I’ve been there in person, though.
So it looks like I still have to travel around myself to increase my number of potential Teleport destinations.
Just as I suspected, it looks like the Demon Lord has figured out that I’m still alive because my Parallel Minds haven’t stopped attacking Mother.
It seems as though she went back to where she blew me away, and she looked around to figure out where I went.
And now she’s traveling over the ocean.
Man, even Sherlock Holmes would be jealous of those tracking skills.
How did she figure out so quickly that I was in the ocean?
I guess maybe it’s a good thing that the water dragons chased me onto land.
Luckily, it seems like at least she doesn’t know where exactly in the ocean I was, meaning she’s just scouring the whole thing right now.
Scary.
I think I know how a criminal feels when they’re being chased down by a great detective.
But if she’s on the ocean, maybe this is a good opportunity for me.
Couldn’t I go work on reducing Mother’s number of minions while she’s too far away to return to the Great Elroe Labyrinth immediately?
I don’t know how much bigger her army got while I was drifting around like dead seaweed, but even if she laid some new eggs, I doubt they’ve grown enough to be a threat yet.
With my current strength, she’d need arch taratects or higher if she wants to put a scratch on me.
Even greater taratects would be a bit of a pain in large enough numbers.
But the biggest threat of all her minions is still that puppet spider.
I mean, I can say with confidence that I can beat an arch taratect one-on-one now.
I have a definite advantage over them, no doubt.
My stats and skills are a cut above, aside from the arch’s physical stats, after all.
But that’s not the case with the puppet spider.
After encountering it and escaping quite a few times, I’ve been slowly figuring out that thing’s nature.
First, it’s a spider, but it’s also not really a spider.
It’s a human-shaped doll, like a mannequin, with a spider about the size of a fist in the center.
The spider has thread throughout the mannequin’s core and uses Thread Control to make the thing move.
Although it’s a spider, it fights more like a human by nature.
For one thing, a spider that has weapons should definitely be against the rules.
Plus it’s got six arms, Asura-style, and each one of them is holding a damn sword.
It’s pretty good with those swords, too. Like, I don’t think it should be allowed to call itself a spider at this point.
I mean, sure, I’m pretty far removed from a normal spider myself, but that thing doesn’t even look like one anymore.
Its skill makeup is different from the archs and the rest of the spider army, too.
Most significantly, it has weapon skills now and other upper-level skills that seem more suited for a human than a spider.
I have fought humans before, but I basically just trampled them with the sheer difference in our stats. I can’t say that was a very educational experience.
To be honest, I can’t read the puppet spider’s movements at all.
If anything, I can just barely manage to evade its attacks with the golden combo of Future Sight and Thought Super-Acceleration.
Part 6 of 8