Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 17 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

Control AI No. 13’s Workspace

“Phew...” With the hard work of the event behind him, Cheshire returned to his workspace.

The uninhabited island that had been used for the event could be repurposed for another one in the future, so he requested that the environment AI—Caterpillar—store it away.

Everything else related to it was done and dusted, as well. They didn’t get any new Superior Embryos this time, but that was hardly unexpected. They’d had Alice prepare spare avatars for all the participants in this event, though, in order to provide them with a healthy new one once they were disqualified or emerged victorious, so the preparations had taken up more time than usual.

They had gone to all this trouble because the event might have been less enjoyable if it was too risky.

A thought came to Cheshire’s mind and he pulled up a display showing one of the photos in the database. This particular photo was more than two thousand years old, and it depicted a little girl with a white cat.

The little white kitty was curled up in a small cradle. The girl had prepared it for her friend who was soon to be born.

However, the white kitty was an Embryo. Although he had indeed just been born, he was no baby. Because of that, he certainly didn’t need the cradle, but he slept in it regardless just because it made the girl happy.

Closing his eyes allowed him to remember those times as though it happened yesterday.

“We should have a festival for your birthday.”

“People don’t normally throw entire festivals for personal birthdays. Also, I’m an Embryo, and there’s the birth celebration for all the Masters.”

“Hey, c’mon. We all have the same birthday, but you’re all born on different days. That makes you all pretty individual.”

“You think so...? But if we have a festival for every Embryo’s birthday, then every day would be a festival...”

“That sounds fun! You should do it sometime, Tom!”

“Well, I tried...but it was probably a bit too bloodyyy...” Tom said with a wry grin as he thought back upon the festival he’d managed to set up.

Regardless, the participants had enjoyed it. To him, that meant it had all been good.

◇◇◇

Reality, Kurosaki Household

April 20th, a little before 4PM.

Juliet...or rather, Juri Kurosaki had spent the previous night participating in The Anniversary event with her friends, but now it was evening after a long day at school.

She was currently sitting on the sofa in her living room, waiting for her tutor to arrive for their first meeting. Her mother said she’d found a UTokyo freshman who’d made it in straight out of high school.

Juri imagined her tutor must be diligent and incredibly focused on education, which meant that she might very well be banned from any form of entertainment.

But...Ray and Alto are UTokyo freshmen... If I had either of them as my tutor... A twist of fate like that would certainly allow her to keep playing Infinite Dendrogram and hanging out with her friends there.

As that thought crossed her mind...she shook her head.

...No! It doesn’t have to be them! I need to assert myself no matter who it is! She told herself she’d gather her courage and claim the future she’d promised to her friends. Just like she had during The Anniversary, Juri resolved to fulfill this promise.

As Juri steeled herself, the intercom rang out.

“Excuse me—I am from the tutor’s association. I was meant to be here at four.”

“Just a secooond. Juri, your tutor is here.”

Urged by her mother, who had prepared some black tea for the tutor, Juri went to greet the person at the door.

As her mother opened the door, she momentarily imagined she might see her two teammates from Infinite Dendrogram, but...

“Pardon the intrusion.”

The person at the door was a diligent-looking woman with glasses and a suit. She was too much of a woman to be Ray and too serious to be Alto.

Nrgh... No. I knew it’d turn out like this. It’s fine...

This almost took the wind out of her sails, but she didn’t cave in just yet. Instead, she psyched herself up, fully intent on asserting herself so she could keep playing Infinite Dendrogram. Saying that to her new tutor on their first meeting, though, would sound so ridiculous that her mother might step in and ban her from playing before the tutor even had time to say anything.

She had to bide her time.

With the introductions done, they moved to the living room, where Juri’s mother and the tutor began discussing the length of her lessons and what days they would meet. Juri’s mother was worried about Juri’s declining grades and tried to set her up for as many tutoring hours as possible. Part of the reason for her academic problems was that Juri had been staying up late playing Infinite Dendrogram, so it wasn’t unlikely that she would be banned from it entirely.

Since she was at such a disadvantage, Juri couldn’t figure out how to approach this discussion.

“Considering her grades, may I ask for visits five times a week?” Her mother’s suggestion made Juri’s face tense up as she thought, You have to be joking. However, the poor grades were partially her own fault, so she couldn’t argue.

But then, help came from an unexpected source.

“Mrs. Kurosaki, once or twice a week—for a total of about six hours per month—should be sufficient,” said the tutor.

“But I’m worried about her grades...”

“Merely increasing her study time would make it difficult for the young lady to maintain her focus. Instead, I recommend that you give me a few intensive hours where I teach her the proper methods of learning and problem-solving, which will in turn allow her to study on her own more effectively. Also, giving her too many tutoring hours would only reduce her own desire to learn by making her feel all her studying can happen while she’s being tutored.”

“My! Is that how it is?”

Perhaps it wasn’t “help,” exactly. The tutor convinced Juri’s mother against setting her up for endless hours of tutoring, but she was serious about education and was fully intent on making Juri study on her own time.

If this tutor was so good at convincing people, how could Juri possibly win any Infinite Dendrogram playtime out of her?

A-An hour a day...? No, that’s just three hours there... Juri was at a loss.

However, the tutor was sharp enough to notice. The girl’s expression seemed to spark some thought in the woman, and she took out an object that might make Juri feel better.

“You okay? Wanna play some cat’s cradle?”

With those familiar words, she presented her with a cat’s cradle string.

“...Huh?”

“Cat’s cradle makes for a good mental exercise. It can help soothe your nerves as well.” The smile on her face as she spoke those words also suddenly looked very familiar.

“...Alto?”

“Wheuh?”

The tutor—Soprano Natsume—had put on a suit, glasses, and wiped off her customary face paint to leave a better impression on Juri’s parents, and the sound she made when Juri called her by that unexpected name completely clashed with her current appearance.

For the record, Juliet wasn’t forbidden from Infinite Dendrogram—or any other kind of entertainment, for that matter.

◇◇◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

I logged in to Dendro right after I got back from class.

When I met Natsume there, she’d told me that Horobimaru returned to her—and that she’d used her ticket right away. She was lucky and got an MVP reward, but instead of being happy about it, she’d put on a distant look and said, “...Will having stuff like that make people think I’m powerful? What if it gets me attacked...?”

I started to feel like the problem wasn’t just her being overly negative, but the land of Tenchi being...the way it was.

If Alto was right, though, I had three MVP rewards, so I would be attacked all the time. I couldn’t even imagine what kind of life Jubei would lead carrying around a whole seven of them. And that was just off the top of my head.

“Anyway...” I ducked into a fairly open alley and took Silver out of my inventory. I wanted to check on how the minor damage he’d gotten from Jubei was doing.

I only needed a moment to realize that the wound was much smaller than before, which made me guess that it would be gone in no time.

“What a relief,” said Nemesis.

“Yeah.” That was one less thing to worry about.

There was something else regarding Silver that we had to consider, though. It was the teleportation ability that he’d used against Jubei—the third skill that was still locked.

This was the second time I’d seen it, with the first being the battle at Quartierlatin, but I still didn’t know its activation conditions or effect. I tried asking Silver himself about it, but unlike Gardranda he didn’t give an answer either in reality or in my dreams.

“If only there was some specialist we could ask...” With Silver being a weapon of the pre-ancient civilization, that was a tall order. The person who’d taught me the most about Silver so far was Mario, but he was a Dryfean, so I couldn’t go to him again.

Besides him, there was Blue Screen, who’d fixed up Gold Thunder and was involved in SMPS production...but I hadn’t heard of him coming across any new information regarding the Prism Steeds.

“How easy this would all be if we could only talk to the Grand Artificer who made Silver,” said Nemesis. “Flagman, was it?”

“Yeah, but you sure as hell can’t speak with a tian from 2,000 years ago... Hm?”

...I feel like I heard that name recently, though, I thought.

After that, we did various things in the city before returning to the inn we were staying at.

“Oh. Mr. Starling, we have a letter for you,” said the innkeeper as we entered.

“A letter?” I opened it to see a collection of dates and time intervals, accompanied by the words, “If circumstances allow, please come visit me at any of these times.”

However, the most notable thing to us was the sender’s name.

“Ray.”

“Yeah. Mhm. Seems like we had the right person here in Altar all along.”

The letter was from Integra Sedna Clarisse Flagman.

She was the childhood friend of the first princess as well as the current Arch Sage.

And so, I accepted the invitation from the one who had inherited the name of Grand Artificer.

To Be Continued