Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 16 - Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Poisonous Oasis

Armored Pilot, Hugo Lesseps

Early August, 2045.

A month of Dendro time had passed since I moved away from my sister and friends in my starting country of Dryfe. Three weeks had passed since Teach — Ace, AR-I-CA — got me involved in her quest to find the Treasurebeast Orbs.

Since then, I’d done some desert crossing and ruin raiding; since I’d maxed out High Pilot, I had switched jobs to Armored Pilot.

And now, having retrieved the first Orb in Hermine, we’d moved to the City of Commerce, Cortana, where we would supposedly find the second one.

The title of this city was well deserved. Full of shops and bazaars, it was quite wealthy even by Caldina’s standards. It was as though Gideon’s fourth district had been spread out to the size of a city.

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be weird for strange objects like the Orbs to end up in a city like this...but imagine what kind of trouble it’d bring.” I vocalized my worries as I gazed at the street outside the café’s terrace.

Then again, there probably aren’t many places in this world that are free of trouble, I thought.

“You’re not gonna eat that?” asked Cyco.

“Oh, I will. I just had something on my mind.”

Having done some shopping in the morning, we were now taking a lunch break while waiting for Teach.

Cyco was eating vanilla ice cream...or what was left of it.

Here in the desert, ice cream melted extremely fast. She’d tried to finish it before it melted completely, but eventually resigned herself to eating its milkshake-like remains as if it were a soup.

She seemed satisfied, though. I could only guess that the state of the food didn’t bother her as long as it was white.

“Good thing you found the right parts, huh?” Cyco said with a white stain around her mouth.

She was referring to the Magingear parts I’d bought at a store before coming here.

Custom Magingears like my White Rose or Teach’s Blue Opera had two general types of parts.

First were the new, custom parts that my sister had produced specifically for White Rose. They were costly, but they came with an auto-repair function similar to those found on original Prism Steeds.

The other type of parts were the standard, ready-made ones. Those were used in Marshall IIs, and they had to be replaced through maintenance every now and then.

Blue Rose didn’t fully auto-repair, which was probably due to a technical flaw.

It just highlighted the fact that even if you built mechs using real-life knowledge like The Triangle of Wisdom, you’d never reach the level of Flagman, the Grand Artificer of the pre-ancient civilization.

Anyway, I had to replace the parts that I’d lost, but being away from Dryfe had made that rather difficult for most people.

Thankfully, among the grand total of three good things Teach had taught me, one of those had been the means of finding quality Magingear parts in Caldina, so I had no trouble getting what I needed.

The other two good things, by the way, were some piloting tricks and the location of the ruins with a crystal for the pilot job grouping.

I still had part of the money I got for assisting the fight against Gouz-Maise, so I could pay for the parts no problem, but...

“...When Caldina’s stores sell wholesale parts made for the Dryfean army, you know something isn’t right.” Just how did they end up here, I wondered, finding myself a bit awed by Caldina’s distribution channels. That was probably something that bothered every country, not just Dryfe.

“I gotta say, she’s really late,” said Cyco.

“...She is.” Teach was the one who’d told us to wait for her here.

Last evening, she’d said that she was going to search for the Orb and headed straight to the mansion of Cortana’s mayor. And if she didn’t return the same day, we’d agreed to meet up here in the morning or at noon.

Since she was nowhere to be seen in the morning, we’d gone out and bought the parts we needed, but she wasn’t here even now when we returned. It was now noon.

“Is Teach just bad at keeping time or did something happen?”

“Hmm... Both?”

Yeah, knowing her, that’s probably the correct answer, I thought. She was an ace pilot, but you really couldn’t trust her on many things. It probably isn’t even trouble that’s keeping her. I fully expect her to come back and say that she was busy messing around with some girls.

“Heyoo! Yu and Cy! Sorry for the wait!”

“Teach! Oh...”

She came in right as I was thinking about all of that and, well...

“The investigation dragged on a bit,” she said. “Yeah, that’s it.”

“Is that so? By the way, Teach...”

“Yeess?”

“Your neck.”

My words made her flash me an awkward smile and rush to cover a spot on her neck.

The spot, by the way, was clearly a hickey.

“I see you had some fun at the mayor’s place,” I said.

“There was this baby-faced maid with a nice body! I flirted with her a bit and we talked straight until dawn!”

Yeah — pillow-talked, I thought.

“I hope you die.”

“Cy! That’s way too harsh! I actually got the info!” So the little chat with the maid hadn’t distracted her from her job after all.

“So, guilty or not?” I asked.

Teach had gone to the mayor’s place to find out where the Orb might be. At first, I’d thought she’d solicit the mayor’s help directly, but while she was away, I’d realized that probably wasn’t the case.

It had been the same way back at the casino. In situations like these, Teach already knew where the Orb could be, so she’d likely gone to the mayor’s mansion because that was probably the place.

“Heh heh heh. I see you’re startin’ to catch on. And yeah, he’s obviously hidin’ the Orb somewhere. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t try to assassinate me or get a maid to spike my drink with poison.”

A slight shock came over me as I asked, “...They tried to poison you?”

“Yeah. I didn’t drink any and came on to that same maid instead. She was sooo cute and lewd!”

“Teach, why are you so...?” How could someone be so carefree when they’d almost gotten poisoned...?

Well, Teach’s Superior Embryo, Cassandra, saw not “the future,” but “danger,” so poison was perhaps the most useless method of assassination to employ against her.

Then again, everyone could counter poison with an Elixir, so maybe this “attempted assassination” was nothing but a warning from the mayor.

“I know that he’s hidin’ the Orb,” Teach continued. “If the info I already have on it is true, everyone with wealth and power would want to have it more than anything else!”

“You already know the Orb’s...um, the UBM’s abilities?”

“Yep. Some of the leaked Orbs also had their powers leaked too, and this is one of them. They say that it ‘gives the user a healthy life, and then a new life eternal.’”

A healthy life and a new life eternal.

Well, it was true that those who already had wealth and power might fear death more than other people. They would be afraid of losing their riches to age or illness, so it was no exaggeration to say that they’d want eternal life more than anything else.

“And it seems like it actually works. Hell, the mayor is using it himself!”

“Hm?”

“This is the mayor’s photo from the documents I brought.” She showed me a picture of an obese, jaundiced man with rough skin and bags under his eyes. If intemperance and bad health was a person, this would be him. “And this is a picture I secretly took of him last night. His age, by the way? Seventy years.”

“...Huh?!” This photo clearly showed a middle-aged man no older than fifty. He looked vigorous, his skin was smooth, and overall he seemed to be brimming with life.

I could hardly believe that this was the same person as in the first picture. I’d say he was rejuvenated, but that would feel like an understatement.

“You can see why he’d act like he doesn’t even know about the Orb,” Teach said. “For all we know, he might change back if he loses it.”

“...But you’re Sefirot, aren’t you? Can he really lie to you like that?” Sefirot was a clan that had nine Superiors, making it the strongest clan in all of Infinite Dendrogram.

At the same time, it was the greatest force serving Madam President La Place Phantasma herself.

Teach had told me that Sefirot could only do quests that might lead to international problems — such as this very Orb-hunt — after the president had given them her explicit approval.

Although Teach was officially acting on the request made by the head of a certain company, the person behind this quest was the president herself.

The Orb in Hermine was in the hands of a foreign mafia, so I could understand the lack of cooperation there, but the mayor of Cortana was a member of the congress, so I’d really thought that he’d help us in finishing this quest.

“Ah ha haa! You still don’t really understand Caldina, do you?” Teach said, showing me a map of the country. “This nation is a union of city-states. Some have elections, some have a hereditary system, but each city is its own country, and the mayor is its king.”

The city-state union of Caldina was an assembly of small individual nations, run by a congress where the mayor of every city-state held a seat. This made it the only major country with a “proper” government.

...Yeah, I didn’t count Tenchi. A land of constant civil war seemed less than “proper” to me.

“...So, Caldinian laws don’t fully apply to the cities themselves?” I asked.

“Not exactly,” Teach said. “There are Caldina-wide laws you’d be penalized for breaking, but the mayor of this city thinks he’s above them, and he’s not exactly wrong.”

“Hm?”

“Yu, where did you log in when you started in Dryfe?”

“Well... Vandelheim?” It seemed obvious to me. You picked a country, you appeared in its capital.

“Yeah. Same here. But in Caldina, the starting city is right here in Cortana.”

“Huh?”

“Drag-Nomad, Caldina’s capital and seat of congress, moves from place to place. The level ranges of the monsters around it constantly change, so it’s not a good place for newbies.”

“The capital...moves?” What did she mean by that?

“We’ll visit it someday, so I’ll tell you the details then. It’ll be a surprise!”

“Okay...?”

“Well, anyway, Cortana is Caldina’s second major city, its heart of commerce, and the starting point for its Masters. It’s extremely important... So much so, in fact, that it’s hard to levy any penalties against it.”

“...” The president controlled the actual capital, but the mayor of Cortana held the capital city in every sense but its name. Both cities were actually tiny nations, so if you ignored their stated political roles within the union, they were both essentially kings.

And if anyone tried to do something against this particular king, it could negatively impact the country as a whole.

“So what will you do?” I asked.

“I could just tell the prez that I know he’s hidin’ the Orb somewhere, but that seems lazy...so I’ll obviously go and take it!”

“Huh? But...”

“Listen, Yu. The mayor told me that he ‘doesn’t know about any Orb’ and that ‘there’s no way it’s in this city.’ So...” she said as she cracked a smile. “...He won’t be able to complain if something he ‘doesn’t know of’ and ‘isn’t here’ just disappears. Will he?”

That was basically a declaration that she would steal the Orb.

“Ughh...” a sigh escaped my mouth.

Her face looked just like it had back when we went into the Huang He mafia’s casino in Hermine.

We’d spent enough time together for me to understand that despite having an Embryo that let her sense danger better than anyone else, she definitely had a taste for those exact same dangers.

She was the opposite of my sister, who could never have enough safety nets or secondary plans.

Perhaps those two had become friends exactly because they were so different? They did have a similar vibe, though, even if Fran’s was more RP-oriented.

“Hold on. Yu, are you thinking that I’m gonna do something rough just for the thrill and the laughs?”

“...Am I wrong?”

“Nope! But that’s not all of it.”

“Hm?”

“I mean, we’re on a time limit. If we just report it to the boss, someone else’ll come and take it.”

Time limit? Someone else? I wondered.

“Yu. About this Orb-hunt quest...it’s not just some grand little adventure with just the two of us.”

“...You dragged me into this, you know.”

“Yeah yeah, just accept it already. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that we have rivals on this quest.”

“Rivals?”

“Remember how I told you that some of the orbs’ powers are already known?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there’s also people in the world who’d love to take these powers for themselves.”

“Those people being...?”

“Well, there’s some evidence that Granvaloa’s makin’ moves to grab the Orb that turns water into land, while Legendaria’s degenerates are comin’ after the one that Anthropomorphizes monsters.”

“Ah!” That meant that this Orb-hunt was also a race...and that Teach probably wouldn’t be the only Superior that would get involved in it.

And, perhaps most importantly...

“So we’re not the only ones after the Orb in this city?” I asked.

“That’s very likely.” Well, an orb that “gives the user a healthy life, and then a new life eternal” certainly did seem like something a lot of people would want. “Whatever’s comin’, you better hope for the best, but expect the worst. Boy, I suuure wouldn’t like to run into anyone like that,” she said, sounding somewhat joyful.

I had a really bad feeling about this.

The chill running down my spine told me that I should prepare for a battle more intense than the one back in Gideon.

◆◆◆

City of Commerce, Cortana

Cortana was the second largest city in Caldina, and it was built around a giant oasis somewhere in the middle of The Great Desert.

Defying the searing heat, the waters flowing up to form the oasis lake were almost unnaturally pure, making the land around it more than fertile enough to support such a city.

With the exception of the capital of Drag-Nomad, all the cities of this desert country were built around these welcoming patches of land in an otherwise treacherous desert. Even the Gambling City of Hermine was no exception.

Many wondered why the vast scorching desert, home to ferocious giant worms, even had such oases of safety.

There were various theories about this phenomenon, but the most popular one proposed that it was due to the influence of save points.

Currently, save points were best known as the points through which Masters moved to and from a different world, but people had been aware of their existence for a long time.

In fact, save points had actually existed before there were any cities built around them.

As strange as it was, the environments around save points were very conducive to human survival, as though someone was intentionally adjusting them to be that way.

But no matter what the reasons for it were, people were attracted by the safety that save points provided. Over the many centuries, grand cities had been built around them.

Even places that weren’t known to be save points at first eventually came to be called that.

The name of whoever had first used the term “save point,” though, had been completely lost to history.

As mentioned earlier, Cortana, the City of Commerce, was Caldina’s second most important city — though some would argue it was the first. This desert jewel of water and coin was notably affluent even for a Caldinian city.

However, that didn’t mean that it was free of the nation’s ever-present heat. The oasis made the city slightly cooler than the barren dunes, but compared to the climate in other countries, the temperatures were still unbearably high. Even those used to it would find themselves sweating, while visitors from other countries were in serious danger of suffering heatstroke.

This applied to one of the two people walking in this searing heat — the little girl trudging through the sands. Clad in a red dress, wearing childish boots, and sporting a large ribbon in her hair, she walked while sweating waterfalls.

“Nnh... It’s sho hot. I’m gonna melt...”

Though she looked at least ten years old, her manner of speaking made her sound several years younger than that. However, most of those hearing her speech from up close would have the impression that this wasn’t an affectation — she simply wasn’t very good at talking.

“I wanna go to Dryfe. There’s lots of snow there... Or maybe to Granvaloa on the sea... Ah...”

Suffering the heat, she looked up at the person walking beside her and holding her hand — a man who seemed to be in his thirties.

“Mr. Zhan, can I swim in that oasis?” the girl asked.

The man shook his head and said, “You’re not allowed to swim in most of Caldina’s oases. People get their drinking water from there.”

“I see... I guess I won’t be swimming then...”

Instead of throwing a tantrum, the girl gave up and continued to trudge along.

“...That café over there sells fruit juice. Want to take a break there?”

“Can I?! Do they have ice scream?”

“They might, but it would melt really fast.”

“Then I’ll eat it fast!” the girl said as she hurried to the café.

Watching her from behind, the man — Great Soul Daoshi, Zhang Zangqi — said, “...It really is so hard to believe it. I know it’s true, but still...”

At that moment, he was reminded of something that happened a week ago, when he had taken on his current job.

◆◆◆

A Week Before, a Certain Place in Caldina

Zhang, the head of the Caldinian branch of the Huang He mafia called “Mirage,” was having a nightmare.

In it, he saw his battle against a flying blue robot.

He saw how it destroyed the five dragons that were his namesake as well as the crystallization of all his power and technique.

Even after giving it everything he had, he was unable to harm the robot — while the robot’s weaponry blew off his right arm.

“...Ah!”

That was when he woke up.

The nightmare had left him sweating all over. He tried to get up and wipe the sweat from his body, but...

“What is this?”

...he found himself bound to the bed he was lying on.

He then examined the state of his body.

His skin was covered in wounds. Most were marks left by his many days of fighting, but some were completely new to him.

And most importantly, his right arm was missing from the elbow down.

“...I see. So that was no dream.” Zhang realized then that he’d somehow survived his staggering defeat against The Blue Sky Songstress.

Most of his newer wounds showed signs of treatment with Potions or healing magic, but it seemed like whoever had taken care of him had no means of restoring his arm.

He then looked around to examine his surroundings.

He was in a small but hygienic room, highly reminiscent of a hospital. If you ignored the fact that he was bound to the bed, it was a fitting place for someone in his current state.

However, he didn’t recognize the room at all.

If this is a sickroom...who is it that helped me? he wondered. At first, Zhang thought it must have been one of his subordinates, but that was impossible. If he had been defeated by AR-I-CA, the others must’ve suffered the same fate.

It also couldn’t be another criminal organization. Zhang had often used his combat-capable status to exercise authority over the other criminal leaders in Hermine. If they found him on the verge of death, they would not have helped him — they would gladly finish him off instead.

A kindly citizen, then...? No, that’s the least likely thing of all, he thought before chuckling in self-derision.

His life was definitely not one of virtue. There was no way fate would grace him with salvation at the hands of a benevolent stranger.

In the end, he failed to guess who saved him, and eventually...

“Yo. You awake, Zhang Zangqi?”

...someone entered the room, calling his name.

It was a man, and at first glance it was obvious that he was part of the societal underworld.

First of all, he was clad in a fashionable gray suit. There was no country in Infinite Dendrogram where such suits were worn by upstanding individuals. This kind of clothing only existed in this world because certain Masters had them custom-made.

Over the suit, he wore a trench coat in a strange style, suggesting to Zhang that it was a UBM MVP reward.

And finally, there was a gangster-like hat on top of his head.

All of this combined would make it obvious that he engaged in illegal acts.

At a glance, he wasn’t very tall — about 160 centimetels — and he had a young face that made him look no older than twenty, but that only made his threatening aura more intense by contrast.

The crest on the back of his left hand, showing interlocking gears, was proof that he was a Master.

As he observed him, Zhang also realized something else about the newcomer.

This man...is far stronger than I...and perhaps even The Blue Sky Songstress.

In his current state, he wasn’t even able to determine the extent of this Master’s power.

“Can ya talk?” he asked.

“...I can,” Zhang answered.

“That so? Let’s start with names, then. I’m Rascal the Bloodonyx. Though, I guess ‘The Weapon’ works better for you.”

“Ah?!” The name filled Zhang with shock.

Everyone in Caldina’s criminal underworld knew this name.

The Weapon, Rascal the Bloodonyx — the Superior who made a living exploring ruins and selling the items he discovered. He was especially well-known for his weapons, with some of his finds having made it into the hands of truly infamous criminal organizations.

He was especially well-known for destroying ruins after he was done with them. That was a crime in every country, and he was already on every wanted list for it...but no one had defeated him so far.

Besides that...

“Now, as ya probably know, I’m the sub-leader of the clan known as ‘IF.’”

...he was also a core member of the clan whose membership consisted solely of wanted Superiors. With the leader, King of Crime, currently in the gaol, Rascal here was functionally at the top of it.

“IF...”

“Yeah. The clan that was supposed to take the UBM treasure Orb from Huang He off ya hands.”

Indeed, that had been the plan. Zhang’s role had been to receive the Orb from the main branch in Huang He and give it to IF to create a bond between their groups.

He wasn’t told what the groups would do afterwards, but...

“...I am sorry.”

“Hm?”

“The Orb was taken from me... I cannot complete the exchange.” Zhang had used the Orb during the battle against The Blue Sky Songstress, but he’d been defeated by her regardless, resulting in the loss of both his arm and the Orb. “But...please! Take my life if you must, but please consider making another deal with Mirage!”

Zhang believed that he couldn’t let his failure be the cause of a conflict between IF and the organization to which he’d dedicated his life. Mirage was the greatest criminal organization in Huang He, but having faced a Superior himself, he now knew too well that Mirage stood no chance against an entire group of them.

Thus, he tried to prevent that by offering up his own life.

“I see... I’ll just get right to the point and say that we can’t make deals with Mirage anymore.”

Rascal’s words almost sent Zhang into despair, but...

“That’s ’cause Mirage doesn’t exist anymore.”

...he then said something Zhang couldn’t even understand.

Rascal then began telling Zhang about what happened over the two weeks he’d spent unconscious.

He told him about how Huang He had gotten serious about dismantling Mirage.

About how Dancing Princess, Huili and her Huili Yuminjun — Huili’s Army of Fools — had destroyed every Mirage base in Huang He.

About how even the strongest among them, including The Fang, had been either killed or arrested, and their leader had been captured as well.

And about how, by this point, the prosecutions and executions must’ve already finished.

Zhang’s first reaction was silence. Then, having been freed from the bed, he covered his face with his still-healthy left arm...and wept.

He wept from sadness over the destruction of the organization he had given his life to, his own powerlessness to do anything about it, and his guilt over the possibility that things might have turned out differently if he hadn’t lost against The Blue Sky Songstress.

“Zhang Zangqi... I know you’re having a moment, but can I keep talking?” Rascal asked.

“...Yes,” Zhang said, looking at him with reddened eyes. “You saved my life. It would be more fitting for me to listen to your words than to lament my foolishness.”

“Actually, I ain’t the one that saved ya. It was the other sub-leader — the one who was gonna make the trade with you. She picked ya up and told me to look after ya.”

The sub-leader in question — King of Thieves, Zeta — was no longer in Caldina. She’d left the country to get involved in the conflict between Altar and Dryfe to the west.

“I see... But that doesn’t change the fact that I am indebted to you,” said Zhang.

“Well, it’s fine if ya think that way. Anyhow, to get to the point, we saved ya because we want ya to join us.”

“...What?” That was so out of the blue that Zhang couldn’t believe his ears.

“Not as an official member, though,” Rascal continued. “In IF, we only take Superiors who are on wanted lists. It’s part of the ‘brand,’ so to speak... Even with that limit, we’ve got dumbasses who misuse their damn powers, though. Haah...” He let out a fatigued sigh as he thought about something.

Zhang didn’t have the slightest idea what it was that Rascal found so draining.

“Sorry about that,” Rascal said. “Anyway, back to the point — I want ya to be a ‘supporting member’ for the clan. You won’t be an official part of it, but you’ll have to assist us with this and that. Most of these supporting members are tians, and we got a pretty good number of them.”

“...But right now, I have nothing. I’ve lost my organization and my subordinates.”

“Your technique and level haven’t gone anywhere. There’s exceptions, sure, but Masters are generally below tians when it comes to technique. We want you, yourself.”

Having been defeated by The Blue Sky Songstress and seen his organization destroyed, Zhang had lost all confidence in his abilities — and yet Rascal sincerely solicited his aid.

“...If you just want my Superior Job, I can take my life. You will know exactly when Great Soul Daoshi can be taken again, giving IF the advantage in the ensuing race to find it.”

“No, that wouldn’t be good for us. We’ve got no one who can take the job, so if ya die, it’ll probably go to some other Master. If that happens, we’ll never have it again. That’ll be no good at all.”

Rascal was basically saying that if they had a Master who could fulfill the job’s conditions, they might’ve already let Zhang die, but that didn’t really bother him.

“So, what will become of me? Should I just be locked up until you find someone who can take Great Soul Daoshi?”

“That’d be a waste of human resources. Like I said, our group wants you. We can always use people.”

“Why? Why would a group made up of Superiors insist on hiring a mere tian?”

“...Yeah. I suppose I should’ve opened up about that,” Rascal said, looking Zhang straight in the eye.

Then, he slowly began revealing the very foundation of the Illegal Frontier.

“Our goal as IF is to...”

◆

Ten minutes later, Rascal finished telling Zhang all about their intentions.

“And that’s what we’re planning to do.” Zhang silently processed what he had been told...and it all added up to him.

He also understood why IF had tried to make a deal with Mirage.

I see. It does make sense. This explains the actions of both Mirage and IF, he thought.

Through his line of work, Zhang had maxed out Truth Discernment, so he knew that Rascal wasn’t lying.

In fact, he didn’t even need the skill to know that. The experience gained from dealing with scores of crooks was enough for him to know that Rascal was saying nothing but the truth.

“...I see.” From IF’s perspective, Mirage’s plot was nothing but one of the many options they had for fulfilling their goal, but Zhang could at least understand that they did indeed wish to cooperate with Mirage.

It just so happened that he had been defeated and Mirage had been wiped out by Huang He before the partnership could bear fruit.

“That’s how it is. We’d like to have you with us.”

“...I have a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“Which is the next most likely place?”

“Tenchi,” Rascal replied in an instant.

“I see...” Zhang said as he closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again, they gleamed with determination.

“In that case, when you face Huang He, put me on the front line. If you can promise me this, I will accept your offer.”

“I promise.”

The determination in those eyes was also a blazing urge to fight Huang He.

However, it wasn’t the dark flame of vengeance.

...Heh. I always thought that Mirage’s long-term goal of destroying Huang He was unrealistic... But I suppose that I am a member of Mirage to the core.

He’d dedicated his life to that organization, and now, as its last living member, he was given a chance to do the deed they’d failed to do.

For this, he resolved to live on as a supporting member of IF.

“Don’t think you can go off and die just ’cause I put you on the front line, though. It’d be a waste of human resources.”

“Yes. I am well aware,” Zhang said as he took the hand of Rascal — his new associate. “I will work for you and IF, Mr. Bloodonyx.”

“That sounds way too stiff. You’re older than me. Just ‘Rascal’ is fine.”

“Well...I suppose I should respect the wishes of my superior. ‘Rascal’ it is.” Zhang considered calling him “Sir” instead, but he thought that might also sound too “stiff” for him.

“Hmph. This ain’t about me. I just wanted ya to use something more comfortable. Anyway, thanks for joining us. Can we do the Contract now?”

“Of course.”

Rascal then took out a Contract.

This was common practice in the societal underworld. Contracts that forbid actions such as betrayal or leaking secret information were, in a way, the very first step towards earning someone’s trust.

However, from what Zhang could tell, IF’s contract conditions were unusually relaxed.

The only conditions written on it were “until the time comes, Zhang Zangqi must not talk about IF’s goals without the permission of an official member of IF,” and “unless the situation is such that Zhang Zangqi deems that there is a high chance he will die, he must obey the orders of the official members of IF.”

“Is this really good enough?” On a Contract for the entry to Mirage, the second condition would be more like “if a higher-up tells you to die, you die,” and that would be just one condition out of far more than just two. IF’s conditions seemed almost lax in comparison.

“Yeah. Knowing what may happen in the future, a contract that’s too strict might do more harm than good.”

“I see,” Zhang said, signing the Contract with his left hand.

And so, the ex-member of Mirage became a supporting member of IF.

“I know you just joined and all, but I already have a job for ya. It’ll be your role for the time being.”

“That is fine by me. What would this job be?”

My first job in service of the Illegal Frontier, he thought. What kind of trial am I about to be put through, I wonder...? Whatever it is, I will overcome it.

His resolve firm, Zhang waited for Rascal to speak.

And after a brief silence, he...

“I need ya to do some babysitting.”

...said something so absurd that almost all of Zhang’s resolve dissipated immediately.

A deafening silence followed. Babysitting? As his first job for IF? The idea was enough to make Zhang freeze.

“Sorry about that,” said Rascal. “I worded it wrong.”

“Oh, no need to apologize...” So he merely misspoke, Zhang thought as he readied himself for his first mission once again.

The words that followed...

“Babysitting’s just part of it. There’s more to do besides that.”

“Babysitting is part of it?!”

...made Zhang raise his voice, completely dispersing the tense atmosphere.

Naturally, he found it hard to simply accept such an unfitting job.

“Are you being serious?!” he asked.

“I’m good at manipulating people, but I don’t lie or hide anything. Yeah, we need a babysitter.”

Unfortunately, Zhang’s Truth Discernment didn’t react to anything Rascal was saying.

That meant that, sadly, Rascal was speaking the truth.

“No, wait! What does babysitting have to do with IF?!” Zhang could not see any possible reason that a clan of infamous criminals would need a babysitter.

Do they run a preschool as a subsidiary business? Zhang wondered, when suddenly...

“Is the talking over?”

...the door to the sickroom opened, and a childish voice that sounded quite out of place reached their ears.

Zhang looked at the door and saw a little girl looking in.

She looked no older than ten years old and, likely because of someone else’s tastes, was wearing a frilly red dress that wouldn’t be out of place in a piano recital.

And on the back of her left hand, there was an Embryo crest showing two crossed axes.

A girl... Is she the one that Rascal wants me to babysi... Hm?! Zhang’s thought was cut short by the realization that Rascal’s aura had completely changed.

He still looked calm on the surface, but he was clearly extremely tense on the inside, like he was standing right next to a bomb that could explode at the slightest wrong touch.

“Ah. Mister! Are you the new ‘support’ guy?” the girl asked Zhang, seemingly oblivious to Rascal’s state.

“Y-Yes. I just signed the contract.”

“I see. Nice to meet you.”

“Yes... You too.” Still not sure what to make of the situation, Zhang returned the greeting.

He took her extended hand and, careful not to be rough, shook it.

That made the girl happier than one might expect, and she put on a broad, innocent smile.

“You’re a good person, mister! A plus! Not an enemy!”

“Hm...?” Zhang didn’t understand what she was saying, but also couldn’t help but wonder why Rascal relaxed and let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m Emi-ee Killingshton! Call me Emi-ee!”

“Zhang Zangqi. Let’s get along, Emmie.”

“No! Not Emmie! Emi-ee!”

“Hm...?” Zhang tilted his head in confusion. Rascal, growing tense again for some reason, came to his aid.

“...This here’s Emily Killingston. She’s still not good at saying her name.”

“Hey! I can say it fine! Don’t bully me, Rashcal!”

“...Can’t imagine how long it’ll take until you can properly say mine.” Listening to them, Zhang understood the problem of the name and spoke again.

“Sorry about that, ‘Emily.’ Is that better?”

“Yeah!” Emily seemed very satisfied that Zhang had said her name correctly.

“Emily, we’re not done talking, so go play elsewhere. My Machina can keep ya company, can’t she?”

“Huh? But Machinya’s a very bad player. I made the whole Oshello board black!”

“...That dumbass can’t even win a game of Othello against a child?” Rascal heaved a fatigued sigh.

Though they’d barely just met, Zhang already felt that Rascal was dealing with a greater share of problems than most others in IF.

Regardless, he soon sent Emily away.

“Later, mister!”

“L-Later.” Right after the door closed with Emily on the other side...

“Phew...”

...Rascal let out a sigh of relief as if all the tension instantly left his body.

Zhang then asked, “Rascal... Do you want me to ‘babysit’ Emily?”

“Yes. Until now, it’s been me, the other sub-leader, La Crima...and a certain dumbass who got herself jailed who’ve been taking turns looking after her — but now, I’d like to put her in your hands. For the time being, anyway.”

The fact that he mentioned La Crima — a criminal infamous even in Caldina — made Zhang understand that Emily was being cared for by IF’s official members, which said all that needed to be said about her importance.

However, there was something he didn’t get.

Why was Rascal so tense while Emily was here? There was another thing that had him confused: for some reason, Rascal’s tension was directed at Zhang as well.

It was as though Rascal had been worried that he would do something to Emily.

That seems like a sign that he doesn’t trust me yet, but...

There was something strange about it all.

Rascal did indeed dedicate a bit of his focus to Zhang, but it felt more like he was preparing to jump in to protect him.

That didn’t make much sense to him.

“Rascal, what is that girl...?”

“...Hmm.” He couldn’t exactly come to a conclusion just by thinking about it, and since this was related to his job, Zhang elected to just ask.

And Rascal, being the type who didn’t lie or hide anything, readily answered.

“Zhang Zangqi... You didn’t use Reveal on her?”

“I didn’t...”

“Good move... You might’ve been a minus if you did.”

“Hm?” Zhang couldn’t help but note the emphasis on “minus.”

It reminded him of how Emily herself called him a “plus.” It didn’t take much to connect the two terms.

“But...didn’t you realize who she is after just hearing her name? As far as we IF members go, she’s better known than me, La Crima...and maybe even the leader in some places.”

“What? I... Hmm... Ah?!” Zhang tried to remember if he had ever heard the name “Emily,” and after a few moments, he did recall something.

He knew the name, but Zhang could hardly connect it to the girl he just met.

Who could blame him? There was no logical way to link that name to a little girl who could barely speak.

“Let’s keep talking, Zhang Zangqi,” Rascal said as he put a hand on Zhang’s shoulder.

“V-Very well...” Zhang replied, still shaken.

“Your first job is to be Emily’s babysitter...or ‘a supporter for her job.’ Though, keep in mind that the job isn’t unrelated to you.” Rascal, noticing Zhang’s state, decided to change the subject. “So, about that UBM Orb that Mirage was supposed to give us... Including that one, there’s actually six of them spread out across Caldina. Lots of Superiors the world over, as well as tough guys from the underworld, are coming after them.”

“The Orbs...?” The Orb he’d obtained by the order of Mirage’s main branch contained a UBM called “Thundershield Beast, Dangai.”

It was a very potent weapon, and the idea that there were five more in this country made Zhang quite nervous.

“So you want me to join the competition for the Orbs and take them?”

“No. I mean, it’s fine if you do get them, but that’s not the top priority.”

“What is, then?”

“I want you to observe who’s seeking the Orbs. Find out their abilities, goals, personalities, dispositions...and if they’d be open to having a chat and joining us,” Rascal said before looking Zhang right in the eye. “We’re not after UBMs or MVP rewards, but the human resources they attract.”

Those words made Zhang realize something.

Using the Orbs as bait seemed inefficient while they’d been spread across Caldina, but if you looked at it another way...

“...Let me ask something.”

“Sure. Ask away.”

Gathering his determination, Zhang asked, “Is IF behind spreading the Orbs into Caldina?”

“Yes. The other sub-leader stole seven orbs from Huang He’s treasury and spread six of them across this country.”

Zhang had actually expected Rascal to dance around this question. After all, one of those Orbs had been the reason why he’d fought The Blue Sky Songstress and lost his right arm.

However, Rascal answered truthfully, still adhering to his creed of never lying or hiding anything.

“...I see. So you made a deal with Mirage to get back something you let go of just so you could use it as bait for human resources?”

“That’s only half of it.”

“Half?”

“We planned to collaborate with Mirage and execute our plan within Huang He, but with us being as infamous as we are, it’d be hard to trust us if we just approached ya and asked to join forces, wouldn’t it?”

“Hm...” In such a case, Mirage would have no doubt assumed that IF had ulterior motives, leaving no room for trust.

“Now, imagine if ya had something really valuable, like a national treasure of Huang He, and solicited our cooperation with that... What happens then?”

“...At the very least, we would understand your motives better. It would put our minds at ease much more than if we’d gotten your trust for free.”

“Exactly. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and nobody in the underworld believes in uncompensated kindness. My plan was to gain your trust by first letting ya get your hands on something that could act as a vector for it.”

Zhang completely understood Rascal’s perspective.

“...Though, that’s not to say that I know exactly what she was thinking while going through with the plan,” Rascal said, thinking of Zeta. Zhang noticed that Rascal occasionally described his actual feelings, rather than conveying facts, though he couldn’t tell whether that was because of Rascal’s creed to not lie or hide anything, or if the words merely escaped his mouth on their own.

“I know exactly where some of the Orbs are, and I’ll tell ya. You’ll go to the closest one from here and get cracking.”

Zhang nodded in response before a question from earlier came back to him.

“I understand my job now, but there is one more thing I need to confirm.”

“Emily, right?”

“Yes. Is she...truly that Emily?”

“She is.” Truth Discernment didn’t trigger yet again.

Zhang didn’t actually need to ask — he already knew it was the truth.

It was just that he found it so difficult to link the stories he’d heard to the girl he’d seen.

“But as you can tell, she’s still a child. We can’t just throw her into the desert by herself. We need some human resources by her side... This reminds me of when Zeta said that ‘the girl is a whole ten years old, she can travel across the countries and do proper work.’ The hell was that about? There’s no damn way she can do that. She ain’t some prodigy. Child wonders like that probably don’t even exist,” Rascal trailed off again, but he soon had himself back on track. “Anyway, there’s really only one thing I can say to someone who’s gonna act as Emily’s support.”

“And that...would be?”

“Don’t become her ‘enemy.’”

“‘Enemy?’”

“Act like her guardian. Scold and admonish her when you must. But don’t disparage her without a purpose. Don’t hurt her for no reason. Don’t treat her with disdain. Don’t flip her ‘switch.’ Otherwise...”

“Otherwise...?”

“You’ll end up seeing her true nature for yourself.” Rascal said that with more gravity than he had anything else so far.

That was when Zhang realized that Rascal had been tense because he was worried that Zhang would do something that Emily disliked, letting him see her “true nature” then and there.

“...I will keep this warning in mind.”

“I can understand if it’s hard to understand and believe, but it won’t be long before you do,” Rascal said as he gave Zhang a paper with the job details, opened up a map, and pointed to a location. “You’ll know when you make it to the location of your first job...Cortana, the City of Commerce.”

◆◆◆

City of Commerce, Cortana

A week had passed since then, and both Emily and Zhang had made it to Cortana.

It was worth noting that while Emily was struggling with the heat now, it wasn’t a problem for her while traveling on the sands. At that time, they’d been on a small sandboat provided by Rascal.

It was air conditioned, and Emily spent most of her time there, reading picture books and such.

Zhang dealt with the occasional worm, turning them into jiangshi before putting them in Jewels.

During all this time, Emily had not shown even a glimpse of her “true nature,” so he still had trouble believing that she was the same Emily that he’d heard so much about.

...But Rascal wasn’t lying. There must be something more to her. I just have not seen it yet.

As that thought was running through his mind, Emily, standing at the front of the café, called out to him.

“Mr. Zhan! Are you coming?” The way she did it made her look like a normal child, which brought a bit of a smile to Zhang’s face.

Zhang and Emily both were currently wearing accessories that hid their true appearances. This was because Emily, as a member of IF, was a wanted criminal, while Zhang could be targeted due to his ties to Mirage.

The accessories, provided by Rascal, were highly potent. Even the highest levels of Reveal would have trouble with them. First the ship, then these trinkets... Rascal was an absurdly well-prepared man.

In the eyes of passersby, Zhang and Emily likely looked like a normal family or at least close enough to it.

With his right arm being a prosthetic made of Fu, though, he might’ve stood out at just a bit.

“Yes. I will be there in a moment,” Zhang said as he began walking towards Emily...but then something rendered him speechless.

...Why is she...here? The café’s windows were large, so you could easily see inside.

And what Zhang saw was The Blue Sky Songstress, sitting at a table and chatting casually.

Indeed — this café they were about to enter was actually the exact location where Hugo had been waiting for AR-I-CA.

She’s after the Orbs too, so I guess it makes sense to run into her here, but... To Zhang, this woman was first and foremost the person who had destroyed his organization and taken his right arm. It was safe to call her a sworn enemy.

What do I do...? My job here is reconnaissance... Rascal told me to gather info about the people who come after the Orbs. If I get into trouble here, I might be exposed, and that would make my job harder...

Zhang was actually thinking about his role and how he would execute it. Despite being a man of the underworld, he was rather like a diligent, hardworking citizen.

“Emily, why don’t we go to another—?”

“Yay! It says ‘ice cream!’” In Zhang’s mind, the optimal course of action was to go to another café, but that course of action was shut down by Emily, who read the menu and beamed.

And needless to say, he couldn’t just leave her here.

“Ugh... Come what may.” So, Zhang and Emily both entered the café.

“Oh, we are sorry, but there are no open tables,” an employee said.

“Ahh, now that is unfortunate,” Zhang said, regaining the hope that they could go somewhere else.

“We will have to seat you alongside some other customers.”

Zhang was at a loss for words.

Why? Because the six-person table they were led to was the very one occupied by The Blue Sky Songstress and her group...

“Yaay!”

...and Emily had already taken a seat there.

In silence, the Great Soul Daoshi — the peak of Huang Hean necromancy — prayed for his own bliss in the afterlife.