Chapter 9
●
In fact, the plan was perfect.
Elphante might have all sorts of security spells in place, but the ‘supply room’ is practically the equivalent of the early-game front yard for Sera players.
If you loot too much, they'll eventually catch on and slap you with a penalty, but taking one or two things you need is practically essential to progression.
That means I know exactly which route to take and how to get through, even with my eyes closed.
And if, like me, you can use the ‘Point Shop’ and have points to spare, this is the easiest way to break in.
◎ Haste Potion
[ Item: Consumable ]
[ Price: 100pt ]
[ Temporarily increases the user's movement speed. ]
◎ Shadow Mask
[ Equipment: Accessory ]
[ Price: 100pt ]
[ Conceals the wearer's face and alters their voice. ]
◎ Catwalk Shoes
[ Equipment: Shoes ]
[ Price: 200pt ]
[ They make your footsteps completely silent! ]
Take a potion to move quickly and slip past the various security measures; use the Shadow Mask to hide your identity from the surveillance magic set up throughout the room; and use the Catwalk Shoes to silence any noise you make while sneaking around.
It's a cost-effective early-game stealth-and-infiltration combo. With just this much, you can avoid a good number of the academy's security systems.
‘...Points really are great.’
I spent just a few hundred points and turned what would normally take days of prep work to infiltrate the supply room into a moment's work. In terms of performance, this is easily on par with a C-rank stealth skill on the assassin tree.
The downside is that the items disappear after one use, but just being able to stock up on all kinds of items is a huge advantage.
Items that cost several thousand points can even turn the tide in a crisis all by themselves.
“Huff...”
I jumped down, half-exhausted, from the window I'd struggled to climb through.
The Haste Potion gave me a little more agility, but my base stamina is every bit as trash as you'd expect with F in every stat. Even this simple exercise is exhausting.
‘I feel like I'm going to die...’
Thinking that, I rummaged through my pockets.
There was something else useful for a moment like this.
◎ Energy-Boosting Biscuits x2
[ Item: Consumable ]
[ Price: 50pt ] x2
[ Feeling a little worse for wear? Restore your stamina with these biscuits! Peanut flavor, 10 per bag! ]
[ Remaining points: 2,000pt ]
“...”
The wording is oddly ad-like, but they really are useful.
I'd already gotten good use out of them on the way here.
As I chewed on a biscuit, I felt my energy returning and surveyed the things piled around me.
I found what I was looking for right away.
‘There it is.’
A palm-sized incense burner. It was modest for a ritual vessel, but that only made it stand out more.
“Hmm.”
Since the supply room was full of old things haphazardly piled up, it was usually a complete mess.
I grunted as I pulled the incense burner out from the bottom of a pile of items stacked almost to the ceiling.
Ultima of Divinity. A thousand-year-old incense burner said to hold ancient power.
Despite that grand description, it doesn't actually have any impressive abilities of its own. It has just one simple function.
You could say this is a ‘telephone.’
The party on the other end is just... an unbelievably powerful being.
‘I've got the most important thing...’
I turned my gaze around to find anything else worth taking.
Normally, activating this would require all kinds of rare items, but where are we?
This is Sera players' official super-easy jackpot loot-farming spot. Getting those items shouldn't be hard.
I searched out the things I needed one by one and tucked them into my clothes.
Powder made from a unicorn's horn to start the fire, a phoenix feather to ignite it, a coralwood fan to control the brazier...
If I take too much, they'll catch on eventually, but surely it's okay to take just the few things I've picked out.
“Whoops.”
I got so caught up in taking things that the stuff piled above me began to slide down, but it didn't come crashing down with a particularly loud noise, so it was fine.
“...?”
That's what I thought.
Until a ‘person’ buried among the falling objects came tumbling down with them.
“...!”
Instinctively, I caught the small body that came straight down toward me.
I'd done it on instinct, thinking that letting the person hit the floor would cause an even bigger commotion.
But the moment I saw the face of the person in my arms, I regretted it.
“...”
A tiny girl was fast asleep, clutching a sword wrapped tightly in chains.
Just looking at her sleeping, she really did look like a cat that's completely zonked out.
But as soon as I recognized who she was, a chill ran down my entire body.
Yeah. Who would've imagined it?
That someone sleeping so peacefully was a butcher who'd killed more than a hundred people.
“...Mmm.”
Unfortunately for me, it seemed the commotion just now had woken her up.
Still in my arms, the girl stirred and stretched.
“Haaah... yawn...?”
And as she stretched her arms out, her yawn gradually faded, as if she'd noticed something was strange.
She blinked her yellow eyes absentmindedly and looked around. Then her eyes met mine.
“...”
“...”
For now, I should put her down.
I held the girl with both hands and set her upright on the floor.
For several seconds, we just stared blankly at each other in silence.
And finally,
the girl realized she was ‘being held’ by a man she'd never seen before.
Of course, what she did next was instantly grab the hilt of the sword she'd been clutching.
[ A crisis situation has been detected. ]
[ The threat is deemed to pose a direct danger to your life. ]
[ Skill: Life-or-Death is being applied at EX rank. ]
Yeah.
I'm fucked.
●
There are various reasons why characters in Sera are classified as evil, but one of the criteria is ‘karma.’
To put it more intuitively, that means ‘number of kills.’
The more people you kill, the easier it is for your alignment to drift toward the evil route.
Becoming more susceptible to corruption as your karma rises is probably part of the same system.
The demons, the central antagonists throughout the scenario, tend to approach people with high karma first.
And the person embodying the extreme end of that system is standing right in front of me.
Normally, she's not that dangerous.
As long as you don't get close.
“...”
What happens if you do? Well...
I'll answer that by saying she's the person with the highest karma score by far, beyond even Elnore, who cuts people down whenever she gets the chance.
The person who's killed the most people in this academy is the tiny girl standing right in front of me.
“...!”
And watching the sword swing toward me, I can understand all too well how she managed to do that.
Even Elijah, the protagonist, couldn't react to Life-or-Death when it was enhanced to EX rank, and was sent flying with a single punch.
But right now, all I can do is react to the trajectory of Yuria's sword as she swings it.
“-...!”
Once I realized I was truly at death's door, my concentration sharpened so much that the world seemed to slow down.
Unlike with Elijah, I think it helps that this attack is genuinely coming at me with the intent to kill.
I deflect the first strike, aimed at my neck, with the incense burner in my hand. Since it's an artifact, it won't break after a few hits, so I can use it as a shield.
Sparks fly with a loud clang.
‘What kind of monster is this?!’
Even with her strength enhanced enough to send a person flying like a feather, the impact leaves my whole body aching.
That's ridiculous power for a strike thrown right after waking up, without even getting into a proper stance.
If there's one bit of good news, it's that I know how to keep from getting hit by her again.
I throw my whole body backward and roll.
In a real fight, that would be a stupid move.
It serves no purpose other than putting some distance between us.
But against this woman, it's definitely effective.
The instant my body hits the floor, I instinctively gauge the distance between her and me.
‘Three and a half steps.’
It's a distance she could probably cross in less than a breath and cut me down.
But Yuria stands rooted to the spot.
She has near-invincible combat ability against anyone who enters within ‘three steps of her,’ but conversely, she herself can't enter within ‘three steps of her opponent.’
A person forced to keep her distance from everyone.
That's the mechanism behind the ‘curse’ placed on her.
[Would you please stay still?]
Seeing her float those words in the air with tears in her eyes made it clear she wasn't particularly happy about being suddenly held in a stranger's arms.
“...So you can slice me up more easily?”
[Yes.]
Come on, let that much slide.
Regardless of my opinion, though, there's no denying that I'm in a dilemma.
There's a wall behind me. Yuria is pointing her sword at me from the front.
As long as I keep more than three steps away, I'm safe, but at this rate, I have no way to escape.
People bump into each other sometimes. If she weren't burning with such intense hostility over it, I might've been able to negotiate...
“...?”
Wait a second.
Negotiation.
A negotiation, huh.
I thought of a few details about her backstory.
As you'd expect of someone forced to keep her distance from everyone, Yuria usually lives more or less like a vagrant.
Running into her unexpectedly in the supply room was a surprise, but considering she prefers places that are ‘sparsely populated’ and where she can ‘keep it that way,’ it wasn't entirely impossible.
The faculty didn't come here often unless they had business, so she must've made it her own little home.
And people living in those conditions are always chronically plagued by one thing.
“...”
I slowly put my hand in my pocket, moving at a pace that made it clear I had no intention of provoking her.
Then, with a solemn gesture, I took out the biscuit I'd been eating earlier.
“...”
[...]
I could feel Yuria's gaze lock onto the biscuit in my hand.
As I waved it in front of her, her eyes slid after it, following it back and forth.
I heard her swallow. Her stomach was probably growling like crazy, too.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
I tossed the biscuits one by one, like I was feeding a cat.
I made sure to lead her away from the direction of the exit, setting her course with a trail of biscuits like Hansel and Gretel.
[Why are you trying to lure a person with food?]
One advantage of communicating with words floating in the air is that you can separate speaking from using your mouth.
The fact that she can catch the flying biscuits with incredible reflexes while making words like that appear says it all.
[I'm not some animal. Who would fall for something like this?!]
But it seems her body's being honest.
Every time she eats one, she looks happier and happier.
The way she's grinning as she munches away, if she had a tail, it'd already be swishing back and forth.
And perhaps she realized I was watching her, because she suddenly snapped out of it with a gasp.
[I-I won't fall for such primitive tricks! I'm a human being!]
I see.
“I've got more. Want some?”
[...]
A little while later.
Yuria was purring as she crunched through the whole bag of biscuits I'd handed her.
She really is like an animal.
[By the way, who are you? Why are you here?]
“...”
Apparently, people can communicate like civilized human beings only once their stomachs are full and they're warm and comfortable.
Those questions are only coming up now, huh.
‘...But honestly, I can't tell her the truth.’
How am I supposed to say I came here to steal things?
Even if Yuria lives almost like a wild animal, she's not completely incapable of communicating, as she just showed.
It'd be a problem if word got back to another staff member.
Is there a good excuse I can use...?
Ah, right.
Before I answered, I glanced at the incense burner lying on the floor.
If I just take it out of here, it'll draw her attention. So let's talk my way through this.
“I came to feed you. Someone asked me to.”
I had to bring up something she couldn't help caring about.
[...Pardon?]
Yuria asked blankly.
Judging by the dozens of question marks floating around her, she must've been pretty flustered.
“Someone I know told me to look after you.”
[Someone you know...?]
There isn't really anyone. But if I make up a story like this, it might come in handy later.
In the original, you couldn't create variables like this, but then again, if this were the original game, I wouldn't have met Yuria in the supply room.
Since I'd met her ahead of time, shouldn't I take advantage of the opportunity and make things go a little more smoothly later?
“Your sister is doing well in the Holy Empire, so don't worry.”
The key is to get this information to her in advance.
Yuria's body stiffened noticeably.
“The Pope won't pay any attention to you or your sister for a while. You'll still have to keep a low profile at the academy, though.”
The girl clutched the chain-wrapped sword she'd never once let out of her grasp even tighter.
It was a small gesture, but the whirl of emotion I sensed from her was terrifyingly intense.
The reason she'd come all the way from her homeland, the Holy Empire, to Elphante Academy, far across the world, and was living like this was all because of that man.
The original scenario wouldn't go into that in detail until Chapter Two, but, well.
I figured it was fine to at least tell her how her one and only family member was doing.
“...”
My gaze lingered on the sword Yuria was still holding close.
It looked like an ordinary sword, but it was one of the most wicked items in all of Sera.
Yuria served as a sort of ‘seal’ to suppress it. The curse involving the three-step distance came from that object, too.
Although not to the same degree as Elnore, Yuria must be constantly at risk of mental corruption.
Shouldn't I at least tell her something hopeful? She's been having a hard time.
[You... Who exactly are you? Where did you come from...]
“I'm leaving.”
Of course, that didn't mean I was going to explain all that, too.
‘Because there was no such person to begin with.’
Yeah.
A lie will catch up with you if you let it go on too long.
Since I'm wearing a mask anyway, I might as well make a mysterious exit.
I picked up the incense burner that had rolled across the floor in the earlier collision.
Since Yuria was from the Holy Empire, she surely knew how valuable this thing was, but she seemed too shocked by what I'd just said to pay it any attention.
Thank goodness...!
At least all that bluster paid off...!
“...I'll come again.”
Still, I left her with a farewell.
I'll probably have to come back to the supply room at least once more to swipe some things.
Cut me some slack then, okay?
●