Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 13 - Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Third Job 
Prism Rider, Ray Starling 
Only about a week in Dendro time had passed since Hannya’s outburst, but that was long enough for the situation here in Altar to change drastically. 
The biggest reason for the sudden change was that Azurite had announced there would be peace talks between the kingdom and the imperium, scheduled to occur in about two weeks in Dendro time. Thankfully, that was a Saturday in real life, so I would have no trouble participating. 
It would be held in a building built on the border between Altar and the old Lunnings Duchy, which was now effectively under Dryfe’s control. In preparation for it, the kingdom was recruiting a lot of Masters to act as Azurite’s retinue. This was necessary because there was a chance that the talks could go badly and lead to immediate war, as well as the possibility that all of this was just a trap disguised as peace talks. If either of those worst-case scenarios became reality, it would be the Masters’ job to protect Azurite and the other diplomats. 
Our party had received a personal request to join her retinue, and we’d already accepted it. 
Of course, it would be best if none of that happened, but if it did, I’d really regret it if I wasn’t there by Azurite’s side. No one in our party had any objections to going, so we agreed. 
There was one problem, though. If a fight broke out during the peace talks, I’d obviously be up against some of the best Masters in Dryfe... but I really wasn’t strong enough to fight them. In fact, it was possible that I’d be the lowest level person there. I already had the lowest level in my party, after all. Marie was a Superior Job, B3 was a veteran player, and even Rook was fast approaching level 400, while I was only level 150. 
...I’d actually reached 150 that very morning, meaning that I’d maxed out Prism Rider — my second job — and it was time to choose my third. 
“The Catalog gave me several options... but I just don’t know what to pick,” I muttered. 
The Suitable Job Diagnostics Catalog that Shu gave me presented the best jobs for me based on my current build. The ones it recommended now were Knight, which would buff my base build; Priest, which would increase my healing ability; and Scout, which improved a few very useful utility skills. 
“I can see why,” Nemesis commented. “All of these jobs are so common that they don’t feel right for you.” 
“Hey, I don’t mind that they’re common... It’s just that I don’t see that X factor in any of them.” I half-heartedly nodded, still paralyzed by indecision. It didn’t seem like any of them would change my set-up quite as much as Paladin or Prism Rider had. If possible, I wanted a job that would quickly breathe new life into my build. 
I’d hoped to see the high-rank direct upgrade to Prism Rider listed, but I couldn’t find it anywhere in the Catalog — meaning that either no one had taken it yet, or it was a lost job and its conditions were secret. 
It seemed like I had no option but to pick one of the jobs presented to me, but... 
“Why not just pick Knight?” asked B3. “If we ignore your Payback Beyond the Stars and Shining Despair skills, you’re primarily a melee fighter. I don’t think that will change anytime soon, so I think you’d benefit from the active skills Knight would give you.” 
“No no no,” Marie objected. “Scout is the way to go here. Ray always charges head-first into trouble, so he’d get a lot of benefit from utility skills like Reveal and Killing Intent Perception.” 
“Ray’s build is based around taking damage,” said Rook. “I think Priest is the best choice here.” Not even my party could help me decide. Each person present was in favor of a different job. 
We were in a café, by the way. Nemesis and I were here first, but we’d been glaring at the Catalog for so long that before we knew it, we were joined by B3, Marie, and Rook. 
I did have the option of picking all three jobs, but I could only max out one or two of them before I had to accompany Azurite to the peace talks. Taking that into consideration, the next low-rank jobs I took were actually extremely important, but that just made this choice all that more difficult. 
As this discussion continued... 
“Ohh? Well, now ain’t this a shady group, inside and out. What’s up, B3 and company?” 
...I heard a familiar voice from outside the terrace. 
The speaker was that muscle-bound, wolf-eared woman whom I’d seen several times now — the sub-leader of the K&R, the PK clan, and the Nobushi Princess, Rosa. 
“...That’s quite a greeting, Rosa,” said B3, looking extremely displeased. 
“Hahahah. Good to see you know what I’m talking about.” 
B3 didn’t look shady on the outside, so she must’ve felt that Rosa was making a comment about her character. Well, her tone did seem pretty provocative. 
“So? Why’re you lookin’ at a Catalog?” Rosa asked. “Messin’ with ya build again? You’re so indecisive. Just get a Superior Job already.” 
“...That’s easier said than done.” 
B3 was searching for info on Full Armor Giant or Shield Giant Superior Jobs, but neither DIN nor The Lunar Society had anything to offer. Apparently, such jobs often had strange conditions — for instance, to get King of Destruction, Shu had to do a certain amount of damage to objects. 
“Also, this isn’t about me. It’s about Ray.” B3 continued. “We’re discussing what job he should pick next.” 
“Hm? Ohh, Unbreakable’s still level 150,” Rosa said. “You have Paladin and Prism Rider... so this’ll be your third one, huh?” For a moment, I wondered how she knew that, but then I remembered that I was actually still a Paladin back when I’d fought her, and she must’ve used Reveal to see that I was a Prism Rider currently. 
“The Catalog’s tellin’ ya... Knight, Priest, and... what the hell? What a boring build.” 
“No peeking — it’s bad manners,” said B3. “And if you think that’s boring, what would you say is an actually interesting build?” 
“A good ol’ first-strike Nobushi build with a focus on spear skills and concealment.” 
“...That’s just your build. I might as well just say, I like this END-based giant set-up,” B3 huffed. 
“Ugh, you damn turtler. Try comin’ outta your shell once in a damn while!” 
“Bitch, don’t act like ya didn’t use your ult to pump up your defense last time we fought!” 
B3, your Barbaroy mode is showing, I thought. 
“One’s all about offense, the other’s all about defense... but they have a lot in common. Like their boorish nature and preference for younger men, for example.” 
“...Marie, please don’t throw fuel on the fire,” I said. 
Also... B3’s into younger men? Since when? 
“Well, let’s leave it at that, then,” said Rosa. “Any ‘best’ builds that don’t follow the Guardian-Jaguarman theory are more or less parallel to each other.” 
“...That’s true.” The Guardian-Jaguarman theory, huh? I’d heard of that before. 
“More importantly, why aren’t ya reccing him that job?” Rosa asked B3. 
“‘That,’ as in...?” 
“Death Soldier.” 
“...Is your stupidity terminal?” For my part, I’d never heard of the job Rosa mentioned. B3 opened her mouth wide and made a face like she’d slipped back into Barbaroy mode, while Marie looked like she was trying to remember something. 
I was curious, so I used the Catalog to search for the job, and found it almost instantly. 
“It has low stat growth, only one skill, and to top it off... it requires you to die,” B3 explained. 
...Requires you to what? I wondered. 
“Despite being a low-rank job with a utility skill, it’s so unpopular that it might as well be a lost job.” 
“But don’t you think it suits him perfectly?” 
“The problem is he’d have to get into a situation where Death Soldier’s skill would actually be useful...” 
“And he gets into those situations all the time, right? He just does some insane shit and basically goes ‘Chances of survival? Caution? What’re those? Can ya eat ’em?’” 
“...I can’t deny that, but...” That actually seemed like a pretty insulting evaluation to me, But B3 actually glanced in my direction, as though thinking that Rosa might actually have a point. 
“Umm, what kind of job is Death Soldier, anyway?” I asked. 
“...Basically, it’s a job that only saw use centuries ago, and even then, only as a punishment for tians.” 
“A punishment?” 
“The unfortunate tians were made to take it before being forced to charge into enemy lines as suicide bombers.” 
Now that’s just terrifying, I thought. 
“According to the lore, it was most popular as a kind of capital punishment 600 years ago.” 
“...How come was it used like that?” 
“Because of Death Soldier’s only skill — Last Command. To summarize its effect, it lets you keep moving after you die.” 
“...You mean, it turns you into an undead?” 
“No. It just lets you move around after your HP drops to 0 for a time based on your level in the skill. Of course, you die once the effect ends, and even at level 5 — the Death Soldier’s max — you still get less than a minute.” 
I said nothing in response. This skill literally cost the user their life. 
“Since it lets you move even after your HP drops to 0, Last Command allowed the Death Soldiers sent out as shock troops to keep running even after they were killed by a rain of arrows. Though, apparently, you can only move parts of the body still connected to the brain — so the Death Soldiers who were blown up by their own bombs couldn’t do anything but wait for death to come for half a minute or so, after their body parts were scattered everywhere.” 
...That is downright horrifying, I thought. Also, the fact that you could only move parts still connected to the brain made it seem more like a zombie thing than a higher tier undead. 
“Because it has such a terrible history and reputation, not a single tian would willingly take this job. The same goes for our fellow Masters.” 
“It does?” 
“Nobody really wants the death penalty, and if they have to choose between a job with poor stat growth that lets them move around after death, and a proper job with good stat growth and normal skills that help them survive, they’ll obviously choose the latter. That makes Death Soldier extremely unpopular.” 
“...Oh, I remember it now,” Marie finally spoke up. “Tenchi actually had some tians that took the job, but they’re all part of the Nanshumon clan... which is like the Shimazu clan from real life history. They’re all extremely reckless.” 
...My college friend had also compared some Tenchi clan to the Shimazus, and now I couldn’t help but wonder if he meant their outlook rather than just the location of the territory. 
“...All right, I think I get what Death Soldier is about,” I said. 
“See what I meant?” asked Rosa. “Fits ya like a glove, doesn’t it? It’ll make that one technique of yours easier to use, too.” 
“Technique...? Oh.” I thought for a moment and quickly figured out what she was talking about. 
It was the Impact Counter I’d used on her. She’d actually been the one who named it. And yes, Death Soldier’s skill would certainly be useful for that. In fact, it might even make it more powerful. 
I had to think on this a bit. I could definitely make good use of Death Soldier’s Last Command, and since it was a utility skill, I could use it while maining other jobs. This would come at the cost of the stat growth and amount of skills provided by the other jobs... but it would bring me the major change that I wanted. 
“...All right. I’ll level Death Soldier,” I declared, gathering my resolve. 
“You should really reconsider,” B3 suggested anxiously. 
I shook my head and said, “The peace talks are really close. If Dryfe is plotting something, I need to be as strong as I possibly can. However, I don’t have the time to raise my base abilities high enough to match experienced Masters. I’d rather bet on something that, if I use it well, might let me go toe-to-toe with those more powerful than me.” 
B3 gave up and sighed before saying, “...It’s your build. The choice is yours to make.” Rook and Marie nodded in agreement. 
“If that’s what you think is best, then I think it’s good too,” said Rook. 
“Oh, by the way,” Marie said, remembering something. “Last Command’s skill level... as in, the time you get to move around once it’s active... is linked to job level, so you should focus on leveling Death Soldier immediately.” 
...Well, it would be pretty bad if it improved based on the amount of uses. Tians couldn’t die over and over, after all. 
“Though, don’t forget — despite everything, you’ve only actually died once so far,” she added. “The skill might turn out to be useless to you.” 
“...How strange to hear that from the person responsible for that sole death,” said Nemesis with an exasperated look in her eyes. 
“I would appreciate it if you stopped pointing that out,” Marie replied with a tense face. 
Anyway, I’d chosen my third job. I was going to be a Death Soldier. The name was a stark contrast to the bright and positive names of my first two jobs. 
“It suits your manner of dress perfectly,” said Nemesis, who was harsh on my fashion sense, as always. 
“By the way, those peace talks everybody’s talkin’ ’bout,” Rosa spoke up again. “Are you all goin’?” 
“Yes,” B3 replied. “Your tone makes it sound like you’re going, too. Are you?” 
“Yeah. I’m a ranker, so I got a request to come.” 
Naturally, we wouldn’t be the only Masters joining the retinue. Out of the ones I knew, Juliet, Chelsea, Riser, and Bishmal were also coming, and Azurite told me that she got Miss Eldritch and Tsukikage to join, as well. Apparently, she was already making her pay for her involvement in the Hannya incident. 
Even Shu would be joining us. I found that odd at first, seeing as he’d been apprehensive about leaving Gideon recently, but I would certainly appreciate having him around. 
Even with just these few, Altar’s side was already very powerful — enough, according to B3, to surpass the kingdom’s entire forces in the previous war. 
However, there were some that couldn’t make it. After his proposal, Figaro suffered an attack that left him hospitalized in real life, and Hannya seemingly hadn’t logged in since the incident, presumably because she was staying by Figaro’s side. Lei-Lei always had an erratic Dendro schedule, so she wouldn’t make it to the peace talks, either. 
As a result, only two of the five Superiors would be present. 
“What about Kashimiya?” I asked. 
“Darling has family business that day. Said he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to log in for it.” 
Kashimiya was among the strongest 1v1 fighters in the kingdom, right next to Figaro. Not having him around really hurt, but if it was real life business, then we had no choice but to accept it. 
Tom had also said that he wouldn’t be able to participate. Apparently, he was still rumored to be connected to the developers. Maybe his refusal had something to do with that? 
“If Rosa is participating, it means that I’ll be on the same side as her and the Superior Killer,” said B3. “This kinda reminds me of what we did at the capital back in March.” 

Oh yeah — they were the ones behind the blockade at Altea. It was strange and almost moving to think that the same people who’d conspired against the kingdom would now be fighting for it. 
“Speaking of which, I wonder where Eldridge and his GobStreet went,” said Rosa. 
“Ah, DIN has info on him,” said Marie. “After the blockade, he traveled all over and fought Superiors like Master Jiangshi, Xunyu; The Earth, Fatoum; Great Admiral, Antimicrobic Soy Sauce; and The Saber, Saki Muryo-Taisu.” 
“I haven’t heard of the last one before, but that’s a... big name.” Muryo-Taisu referred to “10 to the power of 68” — one hundred unvigintillion. It was a Buddhist concept of the immeasurable. 
“I had that exact thought when I first heard it,” said Marie. “Ignoring that last name, though, she said that ‘Saki’ is her first name in real life, too.” 
“You know her?” 
“Yeah. From my time training over there. She’s a Tenchi Superior, after all.” 
Tenchi, huh...? That place was on the other side of this world, so I rarely heard anything about it. It didn’t seem like my Tenchi-dwelling friends from real life got involved in any major incidents, either. 
...Though, I did recall Natsume looking like he wanted to say something. “Yinglong... Magical Apex, Human Bomb, and now Realm-Divider, huh?” said Rosa. “Why’s Eldridge pickin’ fights with beasts like that? Wasn’t he the cautious type?” 
“Mad Castle split up after the blockade incident, so I can only assume that Goblin Street had a bad time, as well,” B3 answered. “They must’ve tried to make up for it, only to be defeated again and again... The fact that he fought a lot of bad matchups is proof of that.” 
“His presence opens up many tactical avenues, though,” Marie added. “He’s really strong against people he is compatible with.” 
Plus, even if he was defeated every time, he still managed to challenge all those Superiors. In addition to what I’d heard about his tactical skill, it became pretty obvious that Eldridge was a really fearsome Master. 
“Well, enough about him,” said Rosa. “What matters is that we’ll be on the same side for our next job. We were really at each other’s throats recently, but let’s get along, shall we?” 
“Yeah. Let’s,” I said, and we exchanged a handshake. 
She was a decent person... for a PK junkie, anyway. 
 
Death Soldier, Ray Starling 
I switched jobs to Death Soldier right after we left the café. It had no conditions and you could pick it at just about any crystal, so it was no trouble at all. 
Now, we were leveling as a party some distance away from Gideon. The party consisted of me, Rook, Marie (who’d switched to Journalist), B3 (who’d switched to Shield Giant), and finally two of Rook’s monsters, Marilyn and Audrey. This was more or less what we always used when leveling. 
“By the way — is it just me, or are Marilyn and Audrey bigger than they were when I first saw them?” I asked. 
“Have they gained weight?” Nemesis echoed me. Marilyn roared and Audrey screeched as if arguing with her. They were both girls, I guess, so I could only assume that they didn’t like the assumption that they’d gotten fatter. 
“Well, both Marilyn and Audrey are higher level now. They might even change species at some point,” Rook said. 
I had actually heard that certain kinds of monsters could change species as they leveled up. This seemed like something straight out of Pokémon, allegedly, a good number of UBMs were actually normal monsters that had become uniquely strong among their kind. They were both Demi-Dragons right now, but apparently there was a chance that they’d actually go up a rank. 
“I’d have new tactical options if that happens before the peace talks in two weeks, but I don’t know if it will,” said Rook. “But you’re working so hard, so I’ll do my best to become stronger, too.” 
“Thanks, Rook.” 
Though, you know you’re already over twice my level, right? I added internally. I’ll have to work even harder... 
“By the way, Ray,” Marie spoke to me from the dragon carriage. “You seem to be laser-focused on the peace talks right now, but you do know that it won’t end there, right?” 
“Yeah,” I nodded. “If something happens during the talks, it’s likely that we’d just end up with another war, right?” 
“Exactly. Oh, and do you know about the special effects of war? I mean the War Boundary, of course.” 
“I do. I looked it up after Franklin’s Game.” 
It started when the leaders of the countries involved agreed to activate it. It was just called the “War Boundary,” and once active, it granted three special effects to the involved countries, as well as the rest of Dendro. 
The first of these effects was a restriction on Masters logging into the countries who were at war. 
The moment the war began, the War Boundary would be established in the parts of the countries that were designated as battlefields. Masters who were outside the country rankings would be unable to enter those zones, and the non-rankers who were inside the boundary when it became active would be forcefully logged out. The amount of people who would be allowed in would be really limited if it was just kill and duel rankings, but because it counted clan rankings as well, you could easily get in by just belonging to a ranking clan, even if you only joined it for the duration of the war. 
There were two reasons for this. 
First, it limited the damage done. If anyone could participate in the war, the amount of Masters on both sides would just keep growing, which would severely increase the damage suffered by both countries. This was a preventative measure against that. 
The War Boundary also allowed rankers from countries that weren’t participating in the war, though. That was how Caldina was able to send rankers to Dryfe to interfere in the previous war. 
The other reason was crime prevention — to keep Masters from taking advantage of the situation to perform illegal acts. Masters on all wanted lists — like the members of the infamous IF — didn’t belong to any country and weren’t part of any rankings, meaning that they were always rejected by the War Boundary. Supposedly, this prevented wartime criminal activity all over the land. 
It seemed like something that might be nice to have around all the time, but apparently there was a limit to how long War Boundary could last. 
The second special effect was the increase of experienced time. Normally, for each real-world hour, you experienced three hours in Dendro; but during war, each hour in reality would become thirty in-game. This was applied to the entire world, so Masters from the other countries received an absurdly good time bonus. 
However, one real life day translating into an in-game month was an incredibly significant change. If you got the death penalty during a war, the conflict would likely have ended by the time you were allowed to log in again, meaning that you’d be unable to do anything more for the war effort. 
The third special effect was the victory conditions. Before the War Boundary was activated, both countries would present their win conditions and demands. The losing side would have no choice but to fulfill the demands registered by the winners at the outset. Wartime demands surpassed even the highest-level Contracts in gravity, and it was said that a country that refused to fulfill them would be met with something far worse than mere destruction. 
Apparently, this helped ensure fairness. Because Dendro had clear Contracts and victory conditions like this, there was much less deception and far fewer people went back on their word than in real life, making conflicts far more straightforward. 
Perhaps that was just how this whole thing had been designed. 
During the last war, Dryfe’s victory condition was the fall of the kingdom’s capital, while Altar’s was the destruction of the imperium’s forces — but it actually ended without either side achieving their goal. However, the Old Lunnings Duchy was on Dryfe’s invasion path, and they now effectively had control of it. 
Of course, it was possible to fight without activating the War Boundary, but that would only result in an all-consuming struggle, without a clear demarcation for when it should end. Anyone could see that would result in huge numbers of civilian casualties, just like it had during Franklin’s Game and Logan’s invasion of Quartierlatin. Because of this, the very game-y War Boundary, with its victory conditions and established demands, was the preferred way to wage war throughout Dendro’s history. 
Therefore, if the coming peace talks went badly, the countries would decide on how and when they would deploy the War Boundary again. 
“So, what do you think is our biggest problem if a war does break out?” Marie asked. 
“...The fact that none of us are rankers.” Because of that first special effect, which limited what Masters could log in to the warring countries, only rankers would be able to stay in Altar and Dryfe. No one in the current party was on any ranking table, so we’d all just be ejected from the War Boundary immediately. 
However, entering the ranks at this point would be difficult. The kill rankings, which were based on total kill points, were dominated by wide-scale extermination builds and veteran Masters. You could become a duel ranker by fighting another ranker for their position, but you needed to be a distinguished duelist already to even challenge the lowest — 30th — in the rankings. 
We obviously didn’t have the time to try for the kill or duel rankings, so our only option was the clan rankings, which were based on the amount of quests completed by the clan’s members, as well as the difficulty of those quests. Every quest gave points based on its difficulty, and the higher that was, the more points you received. A difficulty level one quest gave you 2 points, level two was 4, level three was 8, and it doubled that way until level nine, which gave you 512 points. The points you got for difficulty level ten quests varied, but apparently, the minimum was 10240. 
“...Hey, shouldn’t level ten quests be 1024 points?” asked Nemesis. “That was the pattern, right? Where did that extra decimal place come from?” 
I was wondering about that myself, but it seems that level ten quests just give you way more than the others, I thought in response. 
Also, the points were split evenly between all the people who participated in the quest. Some said that you could enter the clan rankings by just clearing a few difficulty level ten quests all by yourself, but almost no one was capable of that, obviously. Clans that made it to the rankings were almost always ones with tons of members who did a whole bunch of quests. There were also clans made up of a few elites who’d cleared a handful of difficulty eight or nine quests, but they were a minority. 
I could see why Miss Eldritch’s Lunar Society was the kingdom’s number one ranking clan. It had a huge amount of members, and most of them were no-lifers who believed that Dendro was the true reality. It’d be weird if it wasn’t at the top. Lots of ranking clans would be getting temporary members who only wanted to be allowed inside the War Boundary. That made it extremely easy for the order of the rankings to change, but The Lunar Society would no doubt remain at the top. 
Speaking of which, the clan rankings were updated every month in real time — which was three months in Dendro time — and the next update was coming up in a week. That was shortly before the peace talks that could very well lead to war, so you could see many clans looking for new members, even in the streets of Gideon. 
Also, I’d heard that just before the previous war, Dryfean Masters who’d temporarily joined clans that ended up not making it to the rankings abandoned them in favor of those that did. 
That was totally possible and expected. Ultimately, anyone could take part in the war as long as they managed to find a clan that was in the rankings. 
“It’ll be difficult to enter the kill or duel rankings in time, so if a war broke out, I think we’d have to temporarily join a clan,” said B3. 
“Well, we don’t have a choice,” Marie agreed. “Neither I nor B3 killed enough monsters or did enough dueling.” 
“...When it was still active, Mad Castle would’ve made it to the lower end of the clan rankings, but we’re no longer on any rankings.” Oh yeah. K&R was a top-ranking clan, so it made sense that B3’s Mad Castle — a PK clan on a similar level — would’ve been there too, if it hadn’t disbanded. 
“Why not borrow the club prez’s Lunar Society?” B3 asked. “I think she’d let us in.” 
“I’d... honestly want to avoid that.” I felt like that’d make me indebted to her, and I was scared of what that could lead to. 
“Besides that... I know that Kashimiya’s K&R is in the rankings, but that’s basically just a Kashimiya fan club, so getting in would be pretty difficult,” B3 continued. That was a shame. Even though it was a PK clan, K&R seemed like a better option than Miss Eldritch’s Lunar Society. 
Fortunately, though, I already had a good clan in mind. 
“I was actually considering snagging some spots in Chelsea’s clan. I’ll talk to her about it later,” I said. 
“Ohh, Golden Pirates,” said B3. “I suppose there’s nothing to worry about, then.” 
Golden Pirates was the clan belonging to the eighth-ranked duelist, Chelsea, the Wandering Golden Sea. It was a clan that had followed her here from Granvaloa, and it was still quite active. The members regularly did duels, quests, and dungeon raids, among other things, and it was always floating between the 10th and 20th places in the clan rankings — meaning that it would most likely stay on the ranking boards even after the next update. 
“I was told that I could bring a party, too,” I said. “I think it’ll work out.” 
“I see,” said B3. “Once we return to Gideon, you should go get confirmation, though, just in case.” 
“Good idea.” We continued the hunt until the sun began to set, and by the time we returned to Gideon, it was already dark out. 
At that point, we went straight to Chelsea to talk to her about letting us into the clan. 
We found her at a diner she frequented, and for some reason, she was holding a mug in one hand and looking really peevish. 
“Nnghh... Screw love... just screw it...” She was hanging her head and had a dense, dark feeling hanging around her — something I’d never expect from someone so hearty and cheerful. 
“Chelsea... don’t look so sad,” said Juliet — a fellow duel ranker — as she gently rubbed Chelsea’s head. 

“...Look at those mugs and plates piling up,” commented another girl duel ranker I’d seen before. 
Also, they were all underage, so despite appearances, they were actually drinking juice. 
“Juliet and... ‘Max,’ right?” I called out to them. “What happened to Chelsea?” 
“Ah...! ’Tis a conflict borne of the throes of passion that burden all of mankind,” Juliet replied. 
“Oh. It’s the guy with the freaky outfit and nickname,” added Max as she noticed me. 
Wait, “freaky nickname?” Does she mean “Light and Dark-Wielding Hero Clad in Violet and Crimson?” Doesn’t she know that only Juliet calls me that? I’m just “Unbreakable” to most people, I thought before focusing on the conversation. 
“Relationship trouble?” I asked. 
“Indeed,” said Juliet. “Love struck down the horde of gold, and upon the twilight of this very day, it all became as dust.” 
“...some relationship problems were tearing the clan apart, and it was disbanded this evening?” Juliet confirmed this with a nod, but that was really bad for us, actually. We came here for a reason, but it meant nothing if Golden Pirates were no more. 
“Chelsea... how did it come to this?” 
“...You’re really gonna ask that?” she looked up at me with steady eyes and a red face. 
Honestly, I was intimidated. 
“...Then again, we did talk about taking you on as a temporary member if a war broke out, so I guess it would be unfair if I didn’t explain it,” Chelsea said before taking a deep breath. “It all started because there was a scumbag in the clan who was secretly dating twenty of the girls at once.” 
“Twen...” Now that was a hell of an overreach. How was it even physically possible to cheat on such a scale? 
“It seemed to be going well for him, but he was exposed at the Love-Duel Festival.” It was a couples event, so... did he schedule too many dates? Honestly, it was actually kind of impressive that it took the festival to finally rat him out. 
“The girls he was two-timing followed some weird light that led them to him,” Max added. “He was on a date with another woman, so they questioned him, and then a fight broke out.” 
The Love-Duel Festival and strange lights... that rung a bell. That King of Light guy caused more trouble than just Hannya’s outburst, huh? 
“The cheater left our clan as if to run away, but the cracks he opened up began to widen... and today, our clan disbanded.” 
“Now that’s just... damn...” The idea that such a hearty crew met such an end made me kind of sad. Well, they were all only human, so perhaps it was only natural for their relationships to fray like that. 
“And... you know the thing that pisses me off the most about this?” Chelsea continued. 
“No. Not a clue...” I shook my head. 
Chelsea made an even more terrifying face and said, “That I had absolutely no part in any of this drama.” Her voice was full of both grief and rage. 
I honestly didn’t know what to say. Juliet also seemed somewhat flustered, while Max was just freaked out. 
“...A playboy who can date twenty women at once didn’t even try to get her, huh?” said Nemesis telepathically. 
Don’t you dare say that out loud. She’d probably sink this whole place in Poseidon’s liquid gold, I thought in response. Chelsea’s power might’ve been one of the reasons why the cheater didn’t make a pass at her. He might’ve been too scared. 
“Screw love...” Chelsea said as the dark aura gathered around her again. 
“But Chelsea... y-you are cute,” said Juliet. 
“Oh man,” sighed Max. “I’ll treat you to some food, so just cheer up already... I hope my wallet’s not too dry...” 
I had no choice but to leave Chelsea to them. But... man, we had a problem of our own now. With Golden Pirates no longer an option, we had to find another clan, and... 
“...Is it just me, or do you now have no choice but to join that woman’s Lunar Society?” 
...Ah. Damn it.