Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 10 - Chapter 5.1

Side Story: Nightmare at the Gaol 
April 6th, 2045, Bow Hunter, Gerbera 
Hello, I’m Gerbera! My real name is Kikuko Belmont, and I’m a seventeen-year-old domestic helper so charming, I put flowers to shame! 
“Gerbera” is a very clever name that comes from my real one — “kiku” is how they call the flower in my dad’s country! 
Right now, I’m here in Dendro, having a very good time— 
“...Like hell I am. Screw it. It’s not working,” I sighed as I rested my head on the counter of the café on the first floor of my gaol residence. 
I’d tried to distract myself from the heavy mood by starting a cheery monologue, but it was just making me feel worse. 
“You’ve just logged in, and you’re already so down... What’s wrong?” asked Sechs Würfel, who was my clan leader, landlord here in the gaol, and the owner of this café. He actually sounded worried. 
No matter how many times I interacted with him, he seemed like a really good guy. How had he, of all people, ended up as the King of Crime? 
“Give me some iced coffee, please,” I said. “Pour it in the usual dolphin glass.” 
“Mm-hm. Very well,” he replied before preparing my drink like a true professional. 
I watched as the black liquid filled every part of the intricate dolphin-shaped glass. It was my favorite among the many interesting glasses we had in this café. 
Even the customers knew that by now. Recently I’d overheard a conversation that went: 
“That dolphin glass is Lady Gerbera’s favorite.” 
“Guess we can’t use it, then.” 
“...Isn’t that all the more reason to pick it and lick it?” 
The Legendarian-sounding perv had received a taste of my Alhazred’s attacks. 
“Here you go,” said the leader as he gave me my coffee, bringing me back to the present. 
“Thank you,” I replied as I took a sip. It was as good as ever. 
The CLOSED sign was up on the door, so there were no customers inside, which made the place very quiet. 
April the Prism Person — the only employee besides our leader — was just sitting on a chair with her eyes closed. 
What’s she doing, anyway? Why is a robot sleeping? I wondered. Well, whatever. Let her rest while the café’s closed. I relaxed and took another sip. Ahhh, it’s so refreshing. 
Noticing that I was feeling a bit better, the leader asked again, “So, what’s wrong?” 
It made me remember the reason why I’d been in a bad mood in the first place. 
“My death penalty just ended,” I revealed. 
“Ohh, now that you mentioned it, I haven’t seen you recently,” the leader said. “So who got you this time?” 
“I... think it was the ‘Fu’uta’ guy. I entered the dungeon that I think was his territory, my vision started to glitch, and I died before I could even make sense of what was going on.” 
“Ohh... Well, that certainly sounds like a battle against him,” he said, implying that he knew what the deal was with Fu’uta’s Embryo. 
Personally, I still couldn’t make any sense of what he’d done to me. 
“So now you’ve fought all the Superiors here in the gaol, haven’t you?” our leader asked. 
“Yeah... but it wasn’t even a fight against half of them,” I whined. “I’m probably one of the weakest gaol Masters...” 
A whole three weeks of Dendro time had passed since my arrival here. 
It didn’t seem like a lot, but it had dramatically changed my mentality. 
The Chinese saying “The frog in the well knows not the sea” seemed to describe me perfectly. 
I was a sheltered little froggy before, but now I’m out in the salty sea, and it’s basically killing me... 
I was training to regain confidence that I was the strongest, but the more I trained, the more distant that goal seemed to become. 
I did think that the leader’s guidance had made me stronger, but it felt like I had no chance against the other Superiors. 
The leader never died even if he was killed, while Hannya had just completely curbstomped me. 
That had already been a heavy blow to my confidence, so I’d decided to check on how strong the other two Superiors were, and now I regretted that immensely. 
Jumping into a battle between Candy and one of the gaol’s UBMs, I’d just crumbled to bits, and I still didn’t have the slightest clue what had happened when I’d tried to go against that “Fu’uta” guy. 
I’d just walked into the dungeon he was rumored to stay in, and the next thing I knew, my vision and stats had started to glitch and I’d just died. 
So now I’d lost a whole four times in a row. Thankfully, I’d only gotten the death penalty the latter two times — when I’d fought Superiors of my own accord — but losing still kinda hurt. 
Honestly, it felt like nothing I did by myself ever came out right. 
Back in Caldina, when I’d tried to use Alhazred to steal a national treasure, I’d been found out almost instantly, put on the wanted list, and even dropped the item. 
Back in Gideon, when I’d tried to win against the King of Destruction, he’d sent me here to the gaol, and that had been in addition to Rook destroying my mentality. 
Nothing ever seemed to go my way. 
I want to believe that my Alhazred and I were the strongest, but the world, and especially this gaol, was full of weirdos that felt like they existed to deny that. 
“Is the gaol just a hive of people with broken Embryos?” I muttered. 
“I believe many would call yours broken, as well,” the leader commented. “And you should bear in mind that the three besides me are focused on wide-scale attacks... or conditional indiscriminate attacks... so you have bad compatibility with them.” 
“I guess you’re right...” 
Hannya was someone you couldn’t let have the high ground. 
Candy was someone you shouldn’t — or couldn’t — come close to. 
And Fu’uta... I just didn’t know what to think of his powers. 
“You’re usually a solo battle-type, aren’t you?” I asked him. “Have they ever killed you?” 
“No. So far, Shu is the only one who’s ever given me a death penalty.” 
...How many times? 
And how the hell had the KoD pulled it off? The leader was basically immortal. 
“Ohh... the days when I can once again call myself the strongest feel sooo distant...” I moaned. 
“You may start getting to them by maxing-out your new jobs.” 
“Mgrr...” 
One of the first things the leader had made me do as part of my training was to remove my old jobs — including Dead Hand — and take new ones. 
I’d whined about how much time I’d spent leveling them, to which he’d replied, “They have next to no synergy with your Alhazred, so there’s no point in keeping them.” 
That actually kinda hurt. 
Anyway, back to the present... 
“Your Alhazred is a Guardian, so it’s not hard for you to level, is it?” he asked. “The created dungeon here in gaol has good XP efficiency.” 
“Yes, but... straightforward work is so hard. Why can’t there just be a way to grab a Superior Job like it’s nothing?” 
Right now, I was leveling jobs from the hunter grouping. 
I had started with Hunter, then the low-rank offshoots of Trap Hunter and Poison Hunter, and now I was working on Bow Hunter. 
Once I was done with this, I’d go for the high-rank Great Hunter. 
Good thing that the gaol had job crystals from all the countries. 
But as far as I knew, all the hunter grouping SJs, offshoots included, were already taken. 
The fact that I couldn’t get one no matter how hard I worked was a real downer. 
“Even a Master with a Superior Job can be a third-rate if he isn’t thorough,” said our leader. “Even I supplement my build with sub-jobs.” 
Oh, yeah. I always thought that you just had to get a Superior Job and just level that, but I guess that’s not how it works... !? 
“Speaking of which, what are your most-used sub-jobs?” I asked him. 
“Recently, I’ve been using Glass Meister a lot.” 
“How does that supplement your build?!” 
There’s no way it could be useful in battle! He just has it as a hobby! 
“It’s very dear to me,” he continued. “The café’s glasses are all made by yours truly.” 
“You made this?!” I shouted as I looked at the dolphin glass in shock. 
It was very impressive, even if you took the effects of the job into consideration. 
“Upon coming here, I realized that I like making glasses... or more like, pouring coffee into them.” 
“That’s a weird thing to like,” I told him. 
“I hear that a lot. But... you know how it fills every edge, no matter how complicated the glass is? I’m fond of watching that happen.” 
“Hmm...” I half-understood what he meant, half didn’t. 
But I did know that he had many complicated-looking glasses here, and I’d always wondered if it was hard to clean them. 
(It turned out he used The Saint’s purification magic.) 
“I believe I like it because it feels... familiar,” he added. 
“...Familiar?” What, exactly, could coffee poured into a glass remind him of? 
Also, it hit me that this was the first time he’d said that he liked something. 
“Would you like some more coffee?” he asked. 
“Yes, please. And be generous with the milk.” 
As he began pouring the coffee, I asked him something that had been bothering me for a while. 
“Why did you become the King of Crime?” 
He really wasn’t the type of person to act like a criminal. 
Honestly, it never even seemed to me like he had any desires that would motivate him to commit crime. 
He had a gentle demeanor, and I hadn’t heard him say that he liked anything until just a moment ago. 
That was why I kept wondering why such a person would become the King of Crimes, much less the leader of Illegal Frontier. 
“Well... I can’t say I have any reason worth naming,” he replied. 
“Eeehh? I don’t believe you. I mean, King of Crime is a high-risk job that could have you sent to the gaol... and actually did!” 
As far as I knew, that was the reason why, despite not being a lost job, it was a job that no one before him had ever managed to take. 
If they’d tried, they’d been captured by Masters or killed by tians during the process. 
“You misunderstand. Becoming the King of Crime was merely a side effect,” he explained. “I committed crimes day in and day out, and one day, I got a message saying that I’d unlocked a job change quest.” 
“You weren’t going for it?” I asked. 
“Yes. It happened by chance.” 
Now I was even more confused about his reasons for committing crimes. 
“By the way, which control AI were you handled by when you started out?” he asked. 
“Two children,” I said. “Twins. You can get different ones?” 
“Yes. I got a cat.” 
Ohh? That’s nice. I like cats. They’re as cute as me. 
“During the introduction, I asked him, ‘What should I do?’” he asked. 
“Eh?” You were starting a game so... just game, right? 
“As embarrassing as this might seem, I started this game because I had nothing to do on the other side, but because I was like that, there was nothing I really wanted to do here, either. That was why I asked the cat to help me with that.” 
He’d had nothing to do on the other side? 
That reminded me that he was online more often than me, and I was a NEE— uhh... a domestic helper. 
Did he have no job? 
“He answered my question by saying, ‘You can become a hero or the demon king, a king or a slave, a good person or an evil person. You can do something, or you can do nothing. It’s all up to you.’” 
“Interesting...” It was kinda fun to imagine a cat saying something like that. 
The twins had said something similar to me, actually. 
“And that is why I am the King of Crime, Sechs Würfel.” 
“Umm... I’m not sure I get it.” Had I blacked out and missed part of the conversation? 
“It’s nothing complicated. He gave me six options: hero, demon king, king, slave, good person, evil person,” he said as he took something from the counter. 
It was a die, just like the ones decorating this café. 
“I assigned the six options on each of the sides and rolled to decide which one I would be.” 
“...Eh?” 
He rolled the die on the counter. Unlike the one out on front, it had normal values instead of all sixes, but he still rolled a six. 
That wasn’t important right now, though. 
What was important was the fact that... 
“...You decided by rolling a die?!” 
“The room was a bit disorderly, and there were things such as chess boards and dice, so I borrowed a die, rolled a six, and decided to become an evil person.” 
So he had... rolled to become a criminal? 
“Is... Is that it?” I asked. 
“Yes. There’s nothing more to it. That’s why I am Sechs Würfel — I rolled a six on a die,” he said as if it was nothing, then picked up the die and rolled it in his hand. 
“...Ahaha.” I laughed with no energy or glee. 
I was pretty sure that if he’d rolled a five, he would’ve been a really good person who went around helping people. 
And if it was a four, he would’ve willingly become a slave. 
He’d be completely faithful to those roles, just as he was faithful to being evil now. 
I’d known him for almost a month now, so I knew him well enough to know that that was just how he was. 
I’d even known him when he was The Saint, when he’d truly behaved like and had an aura of a perfect holy maiden. 
Ohh... I suddenly understood what he found so familiar about coffee being poured into a glass. 
He himself is exactly like that. 
No matter how complex the role — the container — he could change himself accordingly and fit it perfectly. 
I’d fought all the Superiors here, and they all had powers that were scary in their own ways, but no one... no one had a mind as terrifying as this Master here. 
“But I guess you need someone like that to take charge of a criminal clan,” I thought out loud. 
The two sub-leaders had probably thought the same thing — that no one was more fitting to lead us than this person here, who changed himself in order to fit the mold. 
No one could do a better job at being the king of us criminals. 
“Is anything the matter?” he asked. 
“Nothing at all. By the way, about today’s training—” 
I was about to ask him what we’d do today— 
“KING OF CRIME! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE! COME OUT, DAMN IT!” A thick voice resounded from the outside. 
What’s this about? I wondered. 
 
April 4th, 2045, gaol 
“Shit!” Upon logging in and realizing that they were in the gaol, Gakido and his Sixth Realm Chaos couldn’t hide their frustration. 
Gakido had climbed up to the tenth in Tenchi’s duel rankings and fifteenth in their clan rankings, but now that they were here in the gaol, it was completely meaningless. 
“It’s all their fault!” he cursed. 
There were two people Gakido blamed and hated for this. 
First was, of course, the person who had directly sent them to the gaol: the King of Brigands, Bigman. 
And the second was the slave dealer who’d caused them to attack that village: La Crima. 
During their death penalty period, they’d gotten online and discovered that La Crima was actually a very infamous character known for pulling such schemes. 
He specialized in modifying tians using his parasitic Embryo and selling them on the black market as either battle or pleasure slaves, which led to him developing vast amounts of wealth. 
His deeds had earned him lots of enemies, and back in Caldina, he had even been targeted by two Superiors: the King of Termination and the King of Revelry. 
The enigmatic man had somehow survived the encounter and soon gone on to Caldina. 
“That goddamn parasite fucking used us to test the strength of Hokugen’in forces!” I shouted. 
And even if Hokugen’in hadn’t interfered with Gakido’s work, La Crima would’ve just gotten some new slaves, meaning that he hadn’t stood to lose anything in this debacle. 
“That goddamn slaver asshole played us like a fuckin’ fiddle!” I screamed. 
“Yeah!” another member of his clan agreed vehemently. 
They had cooperated with La Crima on their own free will, but they conveniently forgot that part. 
As a side note, the member who’d negotiated with La Crima wasn’t online. He probably felt he couldn’t show his face after what he’d led them into. No doubt he was afraid of being the target of the clan’s ire. 
“What now, boss?” asked one of the members. 
“Looks like there’re dungeons and shops here in the gaol, too,” added another. 
They were worried about what would become of their Dendro life, now that they were here. 
Gakido, however, just grinned like a ravenous beast and said, “We’ll start by settlin’ the score.” 
“Eh? But they’re outside...” 
“No... we’re puttin’ the blame on La Crima’s boss.” 
“Boss...?! Y-You mean, the King of Crimes... Sechs Würfel?!” 
From their investigations, they’d found out that La Crima was in a clan called “Illegal Frontier,” which was led by the King of Crimes, who was now in the gaol. 
Someone had bought this info from the DIN and spread it everywhere as a way of getting back at the clan. 
Despite that, there was only info on four of the members: La Crima, Emily, Rascal — whose activities really stood out — and Sechs, their leader. 
There was nothing on Zeta, who always disappeared from her crime scenes before getting spotted, or Gerbera, who was new to the clan and had gone to the gaol before doing anything significant. 
“You lost against a Superior, and you’re gonna pick a fight with another?” asked one of Gakido’s boys. “That’s a bit...” 
“Think about it — even if he’s a Superior, he’s a loser just by bein’ here in the fuckin’ gaol. There’s no way he’s as much of a beast as Bigman.” 
Any Master who’d been here long enough would call Gakido an idiot for thinking that, but unfortunately, the only ones on the scene were the members of Sixth Realm Chaos. 
Most Masters from the three western countries would’ve said the same, but this clan was from the far-east land of Tenchi, and didn’t know much about the King of Crime beyond the name of his job. 
“We’ll kick his ass and take his wealth as reparations,” Gakido said confidently. “I mean, he has a clan, sure, but he’s all alone here. I heard that even Al Capone was really pathetic after they locked him up.” 
A cool-headed Master would’ve pointed out that Al Capone hadn’t had an Embryo, but everyone in Sixth Realm chaos was too angry to think that much. 
“Let’s start by gatherin’ info,” said Gakido. “We’ll find out what he does, where he hangs, and attack him when there’s no one to get in the way.” 
“Hell yeah!” 
They went around the gaol and found out lots of things about him. 
Strange as it was, all the prisoners talked about Sechs like he was above them, but no one said that he was strong. 
They mentioned that he was a model prisoner, had a café, enjoyed reading, made good coffee, that he had a soft demeanor, had nice glasses, and cute employees, making the Sixth Realm Chaos members conclude that he was absolutely harmless. 
“Kheheheh. That dumbass,” Gakido spat and grinned. “This is gonna be so easy. It hasn’t even happened, and I’m already cheering up.” 
After finding out all they needed, they decided to attack him in two days, when the café would be closed and there would be no customer Masters to get in the way. 
Imagining the attack and their victory, they began the preparations for the assault. 
However, none of them had noticed the soft, sympathetic gazes the other Masters were giving them. 
They were looking at the clan like they were just another in a long line of poor sacrifices, but none of the clan members were in the state of mind to realize it. 
And they hadn’t noticed that each and every single fellow prisoner hadn’t said a single word about how dangerous the KoC really was. 
Thus, two real life days passed, and Sixth Realm Chaos attacked the café, Dice. 
 
April 6th, 2045, Bow Hunter, Gerbera 
“COME OUT OR WE’RE BURNING YOU DOWN WITH YOUR CAFÉ!” 
The suicidal idiots barking outside were a bunch of filthy-looking men in clothes that made them look like stereotypical criminals. 
The one at the front was extra weird. He wore animal skins and flashy clothing that looked kinda like the “kabuki” style from my dad’s country, while at the same time not even close to it. 
The cherry on the cake was the cringy gloves, though. 
His clothing aside... what was up with that face? He could choose anything he wanted during character creation, and he’d gone with something that brutish? 
...Speaking of which, I was beautiful in real life, too. 
Yeah, I had spent some time making my character, but the overall beauty rating was the same. 
That reminds me that I forgot to change my breast size, I thought. I hope the leader doesn’t realize that I have pads on... 
“Yes, yes, who is it?” the leader asked as he opened the door with a face like he was being visited by children selling cookies. 
Does he ever feel any danger? I thought one moment before he bent his upper half forward, probably due to a punch in his stomach. 
The people passing by instantly ran away, because of course they would. 
“YOU TOOK TOO FUCKIN’ LONG!” the boss-looking guy shouted. 
“My apologies. So, who might you be?” said our leader, clearly not caring about the stomach blow. 
Why would he? 
After all... physical attacks did nothing to his HP. 
“I’m the King of Grind, Gigamaru Gakido! I’m the man who was tenth on Tenchi’s duel rankings!” 
Gigamaru Gakido... what a weird name. Also, this was the first time I’d ever seen someone from Tenchi. 
Our clan didn’t have a single member from there, come to think of it. I wouldn’t mind if some cool-looking samurai guy joined. I’d talk to the leader about that later. 
For now, the main matter was Gakido, and uhhh... 
“Tenth? Isn’t that kinda lame?” I asked. 
I lived in Gideon, the Mecca of duels, but even I knew only the first eight. Wait, no. I’d forgotten the seventh... what was his name, again? It was the burning, smothering guy, right? 
B... B... Bijmal? 
“What the hell’d you just say?!” Gakido snapped. 
“Oh no no, Miss Gerbera,” said the leader. “That’s certainly not true. Tenchi’s dueling scene is particularly strong. It has about twice as many participants as the others, so the tenth there is about as strong as the kingdom’s fifth.” 
I nodded in understanding. Well, I did hear that Tenchi was “the land of strife” or something. 
“And, uh... the King of Grind?” I asked. That job name seemed to have a familiar aura... 
“The King of Grind is more or less the Eastern version of King of Destruction,” the leader explained. “Both jobs excel at object destruction. But while the KoD is focused on STR, the King of Grind is more balanced and thus is easier to use in combat.” 
“You really know everything, don’t you?” I commented. 
Anyway, if going by job alone, this weirdo here was on the same level as the King of Destruction. 
...It really didn’t feel that way, though. 
“Ohh, ‘Gakido’?” the leader said casually. “Now I remember. You lead a bandit clan called ‘Sixth Realm Chaos,’ which was destroyed by the King of Brigands, Bigman the Mountain-Splitter, about five days ago. So that sent you here to the gaol. From what I recall, your crimes are burglary, murder, and sexual assault, among many others. Oh yes, that is certainly enough to put you on the wanted list.” 
It felt like our dear Sechs Würfel was a bit too knowledgeable. At least, for someone stuck in the gaol. 
Wait. It suddenly hit me that one of our people, La Crima, was currently operating in Tenchi, so he’d probably gotten that info from him. 
“Well, you sure know a damn lot about us,” sneered Gakido. “Then I guess you know why we’re here, don’t ya?” 
“I cannot even begin to imagine,” our leader replied. “Coffee, perhaps?” 
“NO! YOU’RE LA CRIMA’S BOSS! SO WE’LL KILL YOU AND TAKE YOUR SHIT AS REPARATIONS!” 
“Is that it?” 
“LIKE HELL! WEAK-ASS OR NOT, KILLING A SUPERIOR WILL MAKE US FAMOUS! IT’LL SEND A MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE GAOL, AND WE’LL SOON BE THE TOP OF THIS SHITTY PLACE!” 
Hearing his words made me choke. 
I had no idea why, but it felt like my old wounds were opening up — like I was watching a detailed replay of a very dark, very cringy period in my life. 
“But there is no rule that says that defeating me would make you the top of the gaol,” the leader said calmly. 
“But tons of prisoners treat you like you’re above them, don’t they? If I beat you, that means I’m above you and them!” 
I choked again. Oh, how I wished for him to stop talking. He sounded exactly like I had when I was going after the KoD. It was making me cringe. 
Gakido, please. I really don’t want or need this kind of familiarity. Shut up, or I’ll kill you. 
“Oh... very well,” said the leader. “Are we having a duel?” 
“Nope. It’s already over. Look at your stomach,” said Gakido. 
From where I was, I could only see the leader’s back, so I made Alhazred move in front of him and checked. 
On his stomach, there was a circle-stamp with a large “B A N” written on it. 
“What would this be?” he asked. 
“That’s a seal made by my Embryo, Banten’in. Better not touch it, my guy. You’ll be torn to shreds.” 
I looked and noticed that the same stamp was on the knuckle parts of Gakido’s gloves. 
That is so lame. 
“I see,” said the leader. “So it’s an Embryo that inserts a bomb through touch... or more like, changes the parts of the body touched into bombs.” 
“You got that right! And just so you know, no one who’s had it on them has ever come out alive!” 
Oh, so that was the purpose of the stomach blow from before. 
Would our leader actually die from being torn to shreds, though? 
He probably wouldn’t... 
“If you admit defeat, I wouldn’t mind removi—” 
“Excuse me for a moment,” the leader said, cutting off Gakido and then walking past him to stand in the middle of the street. 
“Where the hell do you think you’re goin—” 
“Like this?” 
Before anyone could stop him, Sechs Würfel touched the seal on his stomach and, like advertised, exploded into little bits. 
Dark red pieces of flesh and blood rained down on the surroundings, dirtying the unpaved road and Gakido’s clan. 
Ew. 
“Whoa?!” Gakido shouted. 
“H-He went and killed himself...!” cried a man behind him. 
The leader had probably gone away from the café to avoid making a mess inside. 
I really didn’t see why he’d bothered. He could easily use The Saint’s purification magic to clean up. 
“Wh-Whatever,” said Gakido. “This still counts as a win against him. It just ended in one hit.” 
“Oh, yeah. Suuure,” I said with all the sarcasm in the world. 
They finally noticed my presence, and Gakido asked, “Who the hell are you?” 
“A freeloader.” 
“Oh, I get it. You’re the KoC’s bitch.” 
“...Huh?” 
I feel like he just said something staggering. 
“You have a good face, but your tits look fake as hell. Man, the guy has shit taste in women.” 
“Huhhhhh?” I yelled. “Who the hell are you calling fake? You better not mess with me!” 
Did this idiot actually just call me flat— I mean, the KoC’s bitch? What is he, a porn-crazed brat from a 2000s MMO? This is the first time anyone in Dendro’s talked to me with the lower half of their body! 
Wait, there was also La Crima... but the circumstances and implications there were different. 
I considered just beating them right here and now. Alhazred was outside with them, and none of them had a clue. 
That made me think it was possible, but Gakido had a Superior Job, and I didn’t have a good track record with them here in the gaol. What to do, what to do...? 
“Argh, forget this fake-ass hoe,” said Gakido. “Let’s just take everything in the café. Get to it, boys!” 
“Roger!” his bootlickers replied almost mechanically. 
You could tell they were used to this and that it was no surprise that they’d gotten on a wanted list. 
As they tried to enter the café, something called out to them and stopped them. 
“Please-wait-a-mo-ment.” 
“Wh-What? Who’s talkin’... Huh?” Gakido’s people looked around and quickly found the source of the voice. 
The entity was sitting on a chair, looking at them with inorganic eyes that had been closed until just a moment ago. 
It was none other than the Prism Person, April. 
She hadn’t moved an inch even when her owner had blown up, but now... she stood up. 
“Are-you-en-ter-ing-this-es-tab-lish-ment-with-the-in-ten-tion-to-rob-it?” She hadn’t participated in the conversation at all, but she seemed to have listened. 
“What’s this? It’s like a human, but it’s got spherical joints. Is it a Marionetter’s doll?” 
“Well, damn,” Gakido grinned. “Score. It looks like it costs a whole lot. Let’s take it, and—” 
Gakido entered the café with the intention to take April, but the moment one of them stepped in... 
“Rec-og-nized-as-a-threat. Initiating battle mode — eliminating.” 
April stopped speaking in monotone. Words just flowed out of her mouth... 
“Eh?” 
“Eh?” 
And the man who tried to touch her was split in half, making him speak through two mouths. 
Before either of his halves could even fall to the ground, he was cut into little pieces and became bits of light before a single drop of blood touched the floor. 
“Ah?!” 
“H-He had a Brooch, right?! How did he die in one hit?!” 
A Brooch, eh? 
April attacked with both hands, so it had broken with the first, I’d guess. 
I mean, they were all really susceptible to damage right now. 
“Starting elimination of enemies within the café’s perimeter,” she said smoothly before stepping outside. 
I’d thought this back during training, but it was staggering how well-spoken April was in battle compared to how she was usually. Did the café employee work she was assigned to put some sort of load on her AI? 
“Tch...! Don’t let her scare you! There’s just one of her!” 
“It’s just a robot! We took out dozens of guard robots in ruins back in Tenchi!” 
Ruins, huh? I’d never been to one. 
Even so, I was pretty sure that there wasn’t a single robot stronger than April. 
...Oh? 
Some guy who was probably in the nobushi grouping came out of his hiding spot and attacked April from behind. “Got you now...! Huh?” 
His aim was true, and his spear was heading straight into her. But... 
“I-It’s not piercing?! How?! Why isn’t my surprise attack working?!” 
The nobushi grouping was focused on surprise attacks, but this one couldn’t even break through April’s clothes. 
“Eliminating,” April said as she responded with a swing of her arms. 
Her arms didn’t reach the guy due to the spear’s range, but that didn’t matter. 
“GHUAH?!” 
The man was decapitated, exposing the flesh and bone of his neck. 

Gross. 
“W-Wires?!” The onlooking bandits finally realized what her weapon was — they were metal wires extending from inside April’s wrists. 
They were thicker than the steel threads used by some assassins — enough to be called wires. 
It didn’t seem like they were strong enough to cut people apart, but that was exactly what they did. 
“Khh...! Protect your weak spots! Those wires won’t do shit if they don’t touch your body!” Gakido screamed. 
He wasn’t wrong. There was nothing to those wires besides their toughness. 
But I would really recommend against focusing on defense. 
“GHUAH?!” a man in heavy armor screamed as he was torn into shreds and became bits of light. 
“Th-The armor’s in pieces...?!” someone shouted. 
“What?! What’s going on?!” 
Looking at them reminded me of tofu, a food my dad liked. Tofu could be cut using threads, and these wires broke their bodies apart just as easily. 
There was no point in just watching out for them, though. 
The reason why they were so easy to tear apart... was the fact that they were simply really fragile right now. 
“Huhh?!” 
“Wh-What’s wrong?!” 
“M-My END’s supposed to be 4,050... b-but it’s 50 now!” 
“Just minus 4,000?” I commented. “That’s... pretty tame, April.” 
“There are no endurance-type Superior Jobs or Guardians,” she said. “This is more than enough.” 
Oh, so she’s just conserving energy, I thought. 
“A... a skill that lowers defense!” one of them screamed. 
“Heh! Then I’ll just run circles around it with my speed and— GHAAHH?!” 
An AGI build did nothing more than stomp on the ground, but that was enough to give him a compound fracture. 
Actually, it seemed like the leg was just gone. 
It was the expected result, though. 
His END was probably so low now that it was actually in the negatives. 
So yeah. April the Prism Person had the ability to reduce the toughness of surrounding material. 
It was extra lethal on AGI builds, which had low END to begin with. Just like now, it could easily bring that stat to below zero. 
Simply running too hard could make an AGI build’s bones shatter and flesh crumble, while an END build’s toughness would do as much good as a sheet of paper. 
AGI builds would be driven to self-destruction, END builds would lose their one selling point, and all would be slain. 
That was the power of the Diamond Slayer’s transformation weapon, Material Slider. 
When I’d first heard about it, I had reflected that the one who’d made it didn’t care one bit about game balance. 
Though, honestly, that kinda applied to Dendro as a whole. 
“U-Use ranged attacks! Beat it from a distance!” 
“I-It’s not working! Arrows and bullets don’t do anything!” 
April’s Material Slider not only lowered the toughness of surrounding material — it could also raise her own. 
Their attacks were all negated by a defense which, from what I could tell, easily exceeded 100,000. 
“April’s easily Superior-level,” I commented to myself. I hadn’t won against her once during training. 
I just made myself sad again... 
“Shit! I beat the King of Crime, and now I’ve gotta deal with this fuckin’ monster?! Outta my way, boys! No matter how tough, my Banten’in’s gonna turn it into scrap!” Gakido clenched his fists, covered in Banten’in, and struck a boxing pose. 
Well, if Banten’in could blow up any material it placed a seal on, then maybe it had a chance against April. 
However, to pull it off, Gakido would have to get close to April while being conscious of his severely lowered defense, which didn’t even allow him to run as fast as he wanted. 
It was a battle that would be over in one hit from either side, but due to her range, April had the upper hand. 
However, before such a battle could begin, April tilted her head at Gakido’s words. “Did you just say that you defeated my owner?” 
“Heh! Hell yeah! My Banten’in made short work of your master, the King of Crime, Sechs Würfel!” Gakido claimed proudly. 
“But he is right there.” April pointed behind Gakido. 
“Huh?!” He turned around so fast you could hear it, but all he saw was three of his clan members. “You little...!” 
For a moment, he seemed to think that April was just toying with him, but the robot just continued pointing in the same direction. 
Gakido turned around again and saw only two of his clan members. 
“...Huh?” 
Oh, so he’d realized that one had just gotten the death penalty. 
“Hey! You two! What happened to Fapel? He was there just a second ago!” 
The other two didn’t say a word in response — they just eerily stood in place with faces full of suffering and fear. 
They didn’t even make a sound, as if their throats... bodies... were full of something. 
Their bodies then began to change. 
Their eyes popped out, blood poured out of their mouths, and their bodies throbbed like hoses about to release large amounts of water. 
But before anything like that could happen, their bodies suddenly vanished and became bits of light. 
They must’ve used the suicide function to save themselves from the extended suffering of suffocation. 
When they vanished, they left only their drops... and a red liquid. 
“...Ah?” Gakido said dumbly. 
It was the same liquid as the one that was scattered all over the surroundings. 
The same liquid that had gotten on all of Gakido’s clan members, all of whom were now dead. 
It was the blood and flesh of Sechs Würfel. 
Gakido could’ve noticed this earlier, but I was guessing that he’d achieved his goal so easily that he couldn’t even think properly. 
And so, he hadn’t realized that our leader’s flesh and blood hadn’t become bits of light. 
“This is as grotesque as it always is...” I sighed. 
The flesh and blood scattered all over began to crawl and gather where the two had used the suicide function. 
Once a giant pool of blood and bits was formed, larger than the volume of one person, it began to rise up. 
The fluid extended, was compressed to the size of a single person, and began to receive form like heated glass being expertly shaped into a human. 
Eventually, even the clothes were given shape, and finally came the color. 
The result? Sechs Würfel was now standing there as if he’d never exploded. 
“Hello, Mr. Gakido,” he said. “I haven’t seen you in six minutes and twenty-seven seconds.” 
“Huh? A-Aaahh...?!” Gakido was naturally surprised. 
Blood and flesh had suddenly become human again right before his very eyes. 
That wasn’t strange in our leader’s case, though. Being blown up into bits and fluids, only to return to human, meant absolutely nothing to him. 
You could cut his head off, pierce his heart, crush him with a giant leg, and he would simply shrug it off. 
To him... all of those states were just one of his shapes. 
That was the kind of body he had... the kind of monster he was. 
Sechs Würfel was the only Master who’d replaced every last part of his body with slime. 
 
Body replacement type, otherwise known as Type Body. 
It was an ultra rare Embryo category separate from the usual Arms, Guardian, Chariot, Castle, Territory, and even the rarer ones like Maiden and Apostle. 
I didn’t know the details of it, but I was told that it was completely different from the Type Arms that replaced only certain parts of the body, like hands or eyes. 
Type Body Embryos were actually the rarest of all, and examples of them were few. 
Even our leader only knew a single one besides himself — Caldina’s King of Termination, who’d replaced his whole body with machinery. 
There was a reason for their rarity, of course. 
Embryos hatched and evolved based on their Master’s personalities. 
Embryos were always influenced by who or what their Masters were, though it happened to different extents. 
That left us with a question: what kind of personality would a person who would replace his entire body with slime have? 
Personally, I couldn’t begin to understand it. 
I couldn’t even comprehend why he had this kind of Embryo or how he saw the world. 
He could become a slimy monster, be split into little pieces, mimic another person’s body, yet accept it all as if it were him. 
I didn’t want to imagine the mentality of a person like that. I felt like it was off-limits for someone like me. 
Today, I’d found out and understood that he was the type to fulfill the role he was given, but even so, I knew that I didn’t even come close to truly understanding him. 
After all... Type Body could only be given to people who could turn themselves into something entirely different and see absolutely nothing wrong with it. 
 
“K-King of Crime?! Shit!” Gakido looked shocked by the sight of the person he’d just blown up standing before him completely unscathed. 
Of course he was shocked. 
If Banten’in couldn’t kill the man, it meant that Gakido had no means to do it. 
“The King of Grind doesn’t have the Right of Destruction skill, after all,” said our leader. “You can only turn me into little pieces, nothing more.” 
See what I mean? He was completely blown up and says that, I thought. 
Then again, that mentality of his was surely part of the reason why he was the way he was. To him, there was probably no difference between taking the shape of a human and taking the shape of a slime. 
He acted differently whenever he switched from the King of Crime to The Saint, so maybe becoming a slime and acting the part came naturally to him, too? 
Also, he was extremely good at changing shape, even by slime standards. Whenever he was in his default form or the form of The Saint he used very often, all the cells in his body were exactly like those of a normal human. But he went back to being slime whenever his shape was broken. 
Also, according to him, the DNA of his The Saint form was exactly the same as that of the original person. 
I’d asked him how he knew that when there was, as far as I knew, no way to check DNA in Dendro, and he’d said, “I became The Saint by fooling the The Saint’s crystal, which judges viability of job inheritance by checking DNA.” 
I was still curious about how he’d ended up replacing the woman who had been meant to become The Saint. 
Also, his Superior Embryo’s name was “Primordial Shifting, Nu.” 
I didn’t know what that was based on, so it was probably really minor. Was it an urban legend or something? It’d be pretty embarrassing if it was actually famous, but I was just thinking this, so I was safe. 
Anyway, in conclusion... 
“Our leader is... unbeatable,” I said. 
He was a full slime, so even if you cut his head off, pulled his heart out, or reduced him to bits, he’d just come back to normal like it was no big deal. 
Blunt, slashing, explosive — all physical attacks were useless against him. 
As for magic... I wasn’t so sure, either. 
He had a bunch of special rewards inside him at all times. 
There were skills to consider, too, so I felt that he could even handle fire, even though it was supposed to be a slime’s weakness. 
He also had the KoC’s passive skill, which made him have really high stats. 
And finally, he had the ultimate skill which was probably the worst thing you could ever encounter. 
Seriously, how did the KoD send this guy to the gaol...? 
“You seem to be the only one left, Mr. Gakido,” the leader said. “Would you like to fight me now?” 
“Ngh... ghh...” He said nothing in response. 
Gakido understood that he had no chance against him. He probably wanted to just run away. 
Feeling like a mere onlooker, I watched the scene until our leader called out to me. 
“Miss Gerbera!” 
“What?” I asked, jumping. 
“You were worried that you might be among the weaker people here in the gaol, weren’t you? Care to test just how much you’ve changed?” 
“...What do you mean?” Unable to understand what he was getting at, I tilted my head and imagined a question mark popping up above my head. 
He looked away from me and talked to Gakido. “Mr. Gakido, you may choose to fight Gerbera instead of me.” 
“What?” 
“Win against either of us, and I will let you off the hook and give you this café.” 
“...Ehhhh?!” His words shocked me so much that I let out a weird sound. 
Huh?! We’ll lose this café if I lose?! But it’s my home here! 
“Hah! You’re damn right I’m choosin’ this woman here,” Gakido said as he looked at me, all smiles. 
Oh man, that relieved look really pisses me off. 
“Very well,” said the leader. “Are you okay with this, as well, miss?” 
I wasn’t! 
I really wasn’t, but... ah, no dice. 
His eyes looked exactly the same as whenever he made me go through his hellish training. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. 
I had to prepare myself. 
And so, I reluctantly agreed to do what he wanted me to. “Fine... I’ll do it.” 
I’d be up against a Superior Job in the same vein as the KoD. What if I lost? 
Well... I’ll just move in with the leader again and continue living as a freeloader. 
 
We left the street we were in and arrived at a wasteland outside of the gaol’s town. 
This was Gakido’s idea. He couldn’t go all-out with the constant risk of damaging the prize: the café. 
The leader told me, “Though the King of Grind doesn’t have Right of Destruction, his ultimate job skill is Grinding Shockfist, which is a wide-scale area attack. He wouldn’t be able to fight as he wished if we were near the prize café.” 
“Tch! Well, you sure know a lot,” Gakido clicked his tongue. 
“Yes... In a certain place, I found a list of jobs,” the leader said as he looked in the café’s direction. 
“Oh?” I asked. 
Was it in the café’s safe or something? I’d constantly worry about something that important getting stolen. Though, with April there, we probably didn’t have anything to worry about. 
“So, are you two ready?” the leader said as he stood right between us like a referee. 
We’d already signed a Contract, so if I lost this, Gakido would really get the café. There was also an extra rule preventing the use of Brooches. 
Oh, dear, I sighed. I’ll be a little tricky... 
“You’re damn right I’m ready!” Gakido roared. 
“I guess you can start,” I said. 
Just a little bit more... 
“Ah, Miss Gerbera, please don’t back away any more,” said the leader. 
Tch. He’d noticed. 
I would’ve liked for there to be more distance between us when the battle began. 
“It seems like you both are ready, so... begin.” 
“Ooaagh!” Gakido charged at me like a boxer, just like when he’d faced April. 
His body swayed as he rushed at me, quickly closing the distance between us. 
I couldn’t read the movements of his upper body. 
He was preparing a decent feint — one that I probably couldn’t deal with. 
However, feints I saw coming were pointless against me. 
“Agh?!” Gakido suddenly fell to the ground. 
Why? Because I’d made Alhazred, whom he couldn’t see, trip him up. 
Still, due to the shin guards on his legs, it wasn’t enough to cut off his leg. 
Those are pretty tough, I thought. Is this the rumored Tenchi craftsmanship? 
I didn’t really mind that I couldn’t sever his leg. It wasn’t damage I needed right now. 
I just needed enough time to activate my ultimate skill. 
“I am Unknown... Total Eclipse of the Flesh — Alhazred.” 
It was best to activate it before a battle even began, but if that wasn’t an option, it was important to buy enough time to do it. 
“She... disappeared?!” Gakido yelled. 
Following the activation, I merged with Alhazred and became imperceivable to everyone in the world. 
“What’s going on here?!” Gakido exclaimed. 
“Well, considering that Miss Gerbera already knows about your Embryo, I think it would only be fair if I told you about hers,” the leader said calmly. “She has an Embryo that’s imperceptible to everyone but her.” 
Our leader had just gone and told him about Alhazred. 
You’re not helping, damn it! 
“So she’s still around, huh?” Gakido asked. 
“Yes. Not even I know where, though.” 
“Then I’ll end it with this one.” Gakido cracked a grin, raised both his fists to the air, and threw them to the ground, shouting, “Mark of Cataclysm — Banten’in!” 
That created a seal that seemed as large as one hundred meters, which then went on to cause an explosion several times larger. 
 
Gaol, outskirts of the residential area 
“Mark of Cataclysm — Banten’in” was the ultimate skill of Gigamaru Gakido’s Embryo: Marked Murderfists, Banten’in. 
Banten’in’s special characteristic was marking things and making them explode, and this ultimate skill represented it perfectly by creating a mark far bigger than the usual ones and making it cause incomparable destruction. 
It allowed him to pulverize people without even marking them directly — the giant mark on the ground did the job most of the time. 
It was the pre-Superior Gakido’s trump card. 
“Kheheheh. Thanks for choosin’ this as the battleground, losers!” 
Gakido himself came out of the destruction relatively unscathed. He did this by canceling out the explosion near him using a Grinding Shockfist. 
Of course Sechs survived, too, but the destruction had sent him flying all over the place. 
“That woman’s gotta be gone for real now, heh heh. Just look at all this shit!” Gakido said as he looked around with pride. 
It seemed as though everything within a diameter of one kilometel had been turned upside-down. 
Gakido was confident that only a slime could survive this unscathed. 
He also thought that the robot that had killed his clan, April, would’ve easily made it through this, but she wasn’t on the scene. 
“Well, with that done, I’ll just wait for the KoC to fix his body and make him give me my café,” Gakido smirked. 
He’d already lost sight of his initial goal of beating the King of Crimes and becoming the top of the gaol. 
Or more like, that was just what he was choosing to believe. 
A large part of him just really didn’t want to face the undefinable, immortal King of Crime. 
In a way, he was much like his ex-opponent, Gerbera. 
No... she wasn’t an “ex-opponent.” 
The fight was still going on. 
“Hey! KoC! Where the hell are ya?!” he called out to the broken wasteland, started walking and then just... tripped. “...Huh? Now that’s weird. There’re no rocks here or anything.” 
He tried to get up, but his legs didn’t seem to listen. 
“Is it a debuff?” 
He looked at his status summary, but didn’t see any detrimental effects or HP loss. 
“Huhhh? Then why am I...?” He lay there, confused, for about ten-odd seconds. And then suddenly... 
“...Huh?” 
He had no idea when it had happened, but there were ten-odd bowgun arrows in the back of his knees. 
It seemed as though the shooter was avoiding the shin guards and going for the unprotected area. 
It was barely even a knee at this point — it was just a tendon linking the thigh and the shin. 
“Ah. Eh? Aaahh?” 
His stats now showed that yes, he’d suffered damage. 
In addition, there was the Bleeding debuff, as well as a Knee Joint Destruction injury-based status effect for both of his knees. 
“H-Healing! Gotta heal...!” 
He tried to take out his inventory and heal himself using the medicine inside. 
But for whatever reason, his fingers didn’t seem to even touch his inventory. 
Ten-odd seconds passed. 
“AAAHHH?!” 
All he had in his hands was a destroyed inventory. The contents were scattered all around him. 
“What the hell... WHAT THE HEEELL?!” Gakido was shaken up by the incomprehensible situation. 
There was someone looking down at him. 
But he couldn’t feel it — couldn’t perceive it. 
It was none other than Gerbera. Merged with Alhazred, she observed him. 
Though merged with her Embryo, she wasn’t limited to using Alhazred’s scythe-arms. She could use her own, too, and she was holding bowguns with an Auto-Loading Function in each. 
She was the one who’d destroyed Gakido’s knees and inventory. 
Gerbera had survived the cataclysm he’d caused. 
The reason for that was simple: she’d been trained to distance herself the moment she saw that the enemy was about to use their ultimate skill. 
Anyone would be wary if their opponent vanished before their very eyes, and many who were capable of it would launch a wide-scale attack. 
No amount of hiding could help against that, so Gerbera needed to distance herself until the enemy calmed down. 
During its ultimate skill, Alhazred’s attacks were completely imperceptible, and they had the greatest effect when the enemy was calm. 
No matter how wary they were... they just couldn’t see them coming. 
“Poison... Paralysis... and Intoxication?!” Gakido shrieked. 
He had no idea when he’d received them, but his status summary was displaying a whole bunch of status effects. 
His movements were so sluggish that he couldn’t even see to hold and use his medicine. 
The status effects were there because ten-odd seconds ago, Gerbera had used her Poison Hunter skills. 
“My arm... MY AAAARM!” 
He had no idea when it had happened, but his left hand was gone from the wrist down. 
Only now did he realize that he’d lost an important part of his body. 
This had happened ten-odd seconds ago, when he’d crawled over to his medicine, only to touch a mine placed there by Gerbera’s Trap Hunter skill. 
He’d missed each and every single attack. 
He didn’t perceive anything. 
He couldn’t perceive anything. 
Everything that Gerbera did while merged with Alhazred using its ultimate skill could never be noticed the moment she did it. 
The very fact that you had been attacked would reach you a whole ten-odd seconds late. 
“G-Grinding Shockfist! Grinding Shockfist!” 
Using his remaining hand, Gakido frenziedly used his ultimate job skill to attack his surroundings, but alas, Gerbera wasn’t close enough for it to reach. 
She stood at a distance, bowgun in hand, watching and waiting for her prey to grow weaker. 
Once he raised his upper body, she silently shot his left eye. 
He lost half of his vision instantly. It scared him, but he had no idea that it was caused by an arrow piercing his head. 
He reached for the area and unknowingly touched the arrow, making the wound worse. 
Gakido was already as good as dead. 
Three of his limbs were gone, his HP was almost non-existent, and the many debuffs were weighing down on him. 
Even so, Gerbera didn’t come close to him. 
She simply waited. 
Not saying a word, she waited until the very last moment. 
As she was now, she wouldn’t make her presence known until the very last moment. 
That was her greatest change since entering the gaol. 
She would keep a cool head and relentlessly chip away at her opponent’s life until they died. 
She wouldn’t let her guard down or allow anyone to perceive her. 
She had become perhaps the most haunting hunter of all. 
Once Gakido stopped moving, Gerbera, while keeping her distance, finished him off with a fire magic gem. Flames embraced him, but Gakido didn’t even realize it until his death penalty came. However, before he went, he was able to whisper a short sentence. 
“It’s a nightmare...” 

 

 
Bow Hunter, Gerbera 
After the incident with Gakido and his merry crew, we returned to the café, and I was now having some of our leader’s coffee along with a simple cake. 
This was nice and all, but I was still in a bad mood. 
“Hey,” I called out to our leader. 
“Yes?” 
“You called that a test, but... wasn’t he just really weak? I don’t feel like it was even a fight.” 
Gakido had been about as easy as Rook from when I’d fought him back before I was sent to the gaol. 
He was nothing compared to the KoD, Hannya, Candy, and Fu’uta. 
He must’ve been one of those third-rates who focused too much on their SJ! 
“Perhaps,” said the leader. 
Ah. I knew it. 
So basically, I was still one of the weaker people here in the gaol. 
“Ugh... This is hopeless... I’m pretty sure I’m the weakest Superior...” I lay face-first on the table, as dejected as I had been when I’d first logged in today. 
I had no idea why, but the leader was making a slightly different smile. 
What’s so funny? 
“By the way, about your nickname...” he began. 
“I can’t call myself ‘The Unknown’ yet.” 
I had to win against the KoD first. 
Hold on. If even our immortal King of Crime had lost against him, what chance did I have? What a downer of a thought... 
“Perhaps, but Gakido gave you a very good one, didn’t he?” the leader asked. 
“Eh?” 
He had? D-Did he mean “Fake-Breasts?!” If that became my nickname, I’d have to quit Dendro for good! 
“The name he gave you is... Albtraum.” 
”Albtraum”? Umm... that means “Nightmare” in German, right? Better than what I expected, but... “Nightmare”...? 
“Isn’t that common?” I asked. I felt like there’d be at least a few “Nightmares” in every country. 
“I would say it’s a good start.” 
Hmm... it wasn’t weird or anything, so I didn’t really mind it. 
“Then I guess I’ll be Gerbera the Nightmare for now,” I said. 
“Excellent. I will tell that to our regular customers.” 
“That’s kinda embarrassing. Please don’t.” 
“Well, these names only gain meaning when others give them to you and start using them regularly.” 
I cringed. 
That hurt the side of me that desperately wanted to be called “Unknown.” 
I’ll just change the subject. 
“By the way, do you have a nickname?” I asked him. 
“I’m confident I had one... but haven’t heard it used for so long that I’ve forgotten it. If only it was as easy as Miss Hannya’s, it would never have left my memory.” 
Oh yeah, hers was just “Hannya.” 
Thinking of her reminded me of the time the leader and I had gone shopping and she’d mistaken us for a couple. 
She’d just popped out and attacked, screaming, “COUPLES IN THE GAOL?! I CAN’T EVEN SEE MY GUY!” 
It had been crazy scary. I’d used my ultimate skill, but even it had done nothing against her trampling. I’d even had pain on because of training, so it had hurt a lot, too... 
If the leader hadn’t been there to become The Saint and heal me, I would’ve gotten the death penalty on the spot. 
“Speaking of Hannya, I haven’t seen her in a while,” I went on. 
Besides the leader, she was the Superior I met most often. Was she busy in real life or something? 
“Ohh, you didn’t know?” the leader asked. 
“Eh?” 
“She was released yesterday. She gave us this cake as a parting gift. She made it herself, apparently.” 
“Oh, I see.” 
The cake was good, but I couldn’t tell that it was homemade. This reminded me that as long as she didn’t snap, Hannya was actually a very feminine lady. 
Also, I’d heard of it happening, but I still had a hard time believing that anyone could be released. 
Of course, we did plan to escape. 
“...Hm?” I murmured. 
Hannya... had been released? 
Hannya, the woman who went on a murdering spree whenever she as much as saw a couple, had been released? 
Hannya, the woman who’d destroyed more buildings here than any other Superior, had been released? 
Hannya, the woman who was known for her low boiling point even among all the low-lives here, had been released? 
“...She’ll be back in no time, won’t she?” I asked. 
In response to my words, the leader broke his usual smile and cracked a wry grin — a rarity for him.