Chapter Fifteen: The Masked Man
“Alright then, we got some good leveling in, so let’s actually focus on finding those bandits now. We can do some more leveling after we steal their loot.”
I called everyone together after we had finished cleaning up plenty of the dangerous monsters.
“Hold on! Just what do you plan on doing with the stolen goods?!” Eclair snapped.
“What? Are you going to tell me to return them to their original owners when we have no way of knowing who they are?”
Eclair groaned at my reply. She had said something similar back when we were dealing with the Spirit Tortoise.
“If you can prove they belong to someone, I’ll be happy to return them to that person. But do you think you can do that?”
Eclair seemed to have given up and sighed deeply.
“And I guess you’ll say governing a territory requires such toughness, Mr. Iwatani?”
“Raphtalia, is stealing the bandits’ loot wrong?”
“Huh? Is it wrong? They’re the thieves, so aren’t they the bad ones?”
“R . . . Raphtalia?”
“Hmm . . . I have a feeling Eclair’s response is actually the proper one.”
Still, it wasn’t like I was going to change my mind now.
“Regardless, the bandit loot belongs to me. It will help cover the funds for reconstruction.”
It was always possible that I’d have a sudden need for money, like when I wanted to buy up the Lurolona slaves recently. There was no such thing as having too much money.
“So it’s a necessary evil, in other words? I . . . I don’t know what I should do . . .”
Eclair was at a loss. What happened? I’d actually expected her to show a little more resistance, but . . . Oh well. That just meant less trouble for me, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Eclair sighed.
“Rafu?”
Oh? Raphtalia and Raph-chan had both cocked their heads to the side in unison. It was beautiful! Now I was really getting excited.
“I can’t help but feel like the reconstruction is going better in your village than in the town,” mumbled Eclair.
“The grass is always greener on the other side. Don’t let it bother you.”
She had the cooperation of Melty and some of the nobility, so the reconstruction of the town that Eclair was overseeing had progressed a bit, too. There was still a shortage of hands in my village, after all. It was nothing but a few houses and some farm plots right now, so it was a long way from what you would call a town.
“Still . . . if things continue like this, it’s only a matter of time until . . .”
“If it bothers you that much then stop training all the time and give Melty a hand!”
Sheesh! She had no place envying me if she was going to be a training-obsessed musclebrain. She needed to decide whether she wanted to be a martial artist or a politician.
“Anyway, we’ve cleaned up enough monsters. Now it’s time for some bandit hunting.”
We started making preparations in the mountains near the road that the bandits had infested.
“I’m sure you all know this, but most of the bandits are going to be maybe level 40 at the highest. Just do your usual thing and we’ll be fine.”
People couldn’t class up if they weren’t trustworthy, so the levels of the bandits wouldn’t be that high. Of course, it was possible that there might be drifters who had classed up in Zeltoble or something. We’d come across one once while out peddling wares a long time ago. Someone would probably need to have a successful fighting record in the coliseums to do that. But it didn’t make much sense for someone to become a bandit if they could make money fighting in the coliseums. Whatever, it wasn’t like I actually cared.
“For now, we’ll split up into groups of two and go look for bandits or their hideouts. We need more intel before we can worry about their boss.”
The quickest way to find their hideouts would be to find some bandits and make them talk. We needed to round up several bandits to really get started. As for groups . . . I’d just split everyone into pairs based on who would get along or complement each other well.
“Let’s go with Fohl and Atla, Raphtalia and Eclair, and Filo and Rishia.
If you’d prefer a different partner, then just split up however you like.”
I scooped Raph-chan up into my arms and started walking away.
“Raph-chan’s with me. Come on, Raph-chan, it’s petting time!”
“Rafu!”
“What is that?!”
Raphtalia started to complain.
“We should avoid moving around in big groups. Based on what we know about the boss, I’m going to pair with Raph-chan so that it looks like I’m on my own and see if our prey doesn’t take the bait. If anything happens, Raph-chan will let you know, Raphtalia. Right, Raph-chan?”
“Rafu! Rafu rafu!”
Being a familiar, Raph-chan was able to send Raphtalia a distress signal if needed. Since Raphtalia was one of the more capable fighters among us, I wanted her to be able to move around freely. Raph-chan seemed eager to help out, too. Sure, if I ran into any monsters I might have trouble killing them, but fleeing would be no problem. It wasn’t like there was a rule that said I had to stand my ground and fight any monsters or attackers that appeared. Worse comes to worst, I was sure S’yne would come if I called for her.
“That makes sense. Got it. Let’s go, then,” said Eclair.
“Understood.”
Raphtalia seemed convinced when Eclair agreed.
“Atla, I’m counting on your heightened senses. Go find me a bandit hideout.”
“Leave it to me! Come, Brother! Let’s go!”
“Ugh . . .”
Fohl was acting bitter toward me like usual, but his sister dragged him off and they began their search.
“We’ll be back in a while, then,” said Rishia.
“See you laaater, Master!”
Rishia seemed calm as she and Filo left to begin their search.
“Now then . . .”
Raph-chan and I started looking for the bandits and their hideouts, too. It wasn’t like the bandits were going to be able to injure me, even if they took me by surprise. This was an easy mission for me. I was just walking down the mountain path enjoying a leisurely stroll, playing with Raph-chan.
“Rafuuuuu!”
Raph-chan shrieked and pointed her finger as if trying to warn me about something. What was it? I turned around, but no one was there. But then, all of a sudden, a dark shadow appeared in front of me, so I instinctively raised my shield.
“Assassinating Sword!”
“What?!”
Sparks flew from my shield. The weight of the impact made it clear that it had been a powerful and determined attack. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would have survived such an attack.
“What’s the big idea, all of a sudden?!”
I swung my shield and tossed the ambusher off to the side. I took a quick glance at the person who had tried to stab me.
“Fight me fair and square!” he shouted.
“Wha . . .”
Even I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stood there looking at the attacker, speechless. The attacker’s face was hidden behind a shady-looking black mask made to look like some kind of skull. But based on his build, voice, and the way he held his weapon, I already knew exactly what his face looked like. It was Ren Amaki. The Sword Hero readied himself, with a sinister, jet-black sword gripped tightly in his hands.
“Hmph!”
It might have been my imagination, but his equipment seemed even shabbier than before. From what I could see through the openings in his mask, he had a gloomy expression and something about his eyes just seemed off. No, I may not have been one to talk, but it was well beyond off. His pupils were dilated like his mind had snapped or something.
“R . . . Ren?!”
“Hide . . . Sword!”
Ren began to shimmer like a mirage and then disappeared. What the hell? Had he cast some kind of illusion magic on me that was making me see things? Either way, the fact that he was using a skill with “hide” in the name was plenty suspicious, so I prepared myself for combat.
“Rafu!”
Rafu was telling me where he was. What was that about fighting fair and square, in the first place? He’d attacked me from behind suddenly and then used a skill to make himself disappear. Just what kind of mental state was Ren in? Was “fair and square” supposed to be according to some game’s fighting system? Either way, there was something oddly ambitionless about the way he spoke. But whatever, I needed to focus on the enemy right now.
“Hate Reaction!”
This skill attracted monsters, but I’d figured out that it actually had an additional hidden effect while we were at the Cal Mira islands. That was, it drew out and exposed enemies that were using simple concealment magic or skills to hide themselves. We’d noticed the effect when I’d used Hate Reaction at the same time Raphtalia used her Illusion Blade skill. The concealment effect of her skill was canceled out. So when something or someone was hiding, I could use the skill to find them.
I guess Ren had been trying to circle back around behind me again, because he was right in the middle of moving toward my rear left. His stupidity was really kind of silly, but that only pissed me off more. If he was going to use a skill that lame, he should have taken the chance to withdraw temporarily. That probably wouldn’t have worked against Raph-chan or Raphtalia.
“Damn . . .”
“Ren . . . It’s you, right? What’s going on?”
“. . .”
It would have been nice if this were only an illusion, but . . . I never imagined he would be hiding out here. Could it be that Witch was the bandit chief? That would have suited her perfectly. She certainly wasn’t the princess type. Something like a pirate or a bandit was definitely a better fit.
“Maneater! Shooting Star Sword!”
Ren swung his sword at me using the same motion he used for Shooting Star Sword. A cloud of black particles that twinkled like stars shot out from the tip of his sword and rushed toward me. I held my shield out and blocked the attack. It hadn’t been that strong, so I was able to block it with no problem. Ren was weak, like usual. I wished he would hurry up and use the power-up methods already.
I’d left myself open while thinking about how weak Ren was and he didn’t pass up the chance to attack.
“Chain Bind! Chain Needle!”
Ugh . . . My shield withstood the attacks, but I felt a slight dull pain run up my arm. I had Raph-chan to protect, so that was close. Ren continued straight into the next skill.
“ Let this foolish sinner pay for his transgressions with an execution by beheading! With nary the time to scream, let his own head be separated from his torso and then he shall know despair! ”
“Guillotine!”
Chains suddenly shot up from out of the ground and wrapped around my body before transforming into something like barbed wire and piercing my skin. Then an instrument of execution appeared from out of nowhere with a massive blade suspended above my head.
This attack . . . Judging from the look of it, the skill was the same type of attack as the Iron Maiden skill on my Shield of Rage. Damn it! There was no way I was going to eat that!
“Not happening!”
I tore the chains off and stopped the falling blade with my hand. Damn, that hurt! I could see blood. Had Ren finally broken through my defense? It was a bit depressing that he had done it with a skill instead of using the power-up methods I’d shared with him. My SP tanked.
“Ren . . . quit messing around. You better stop this fight before I really get mad.”
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Raphtalia had heard Raph-chan’s warning and came running. She turned to Ren and swung her katana at him. Good! Keep him occupied!
“Transport Sword!”
“Ah! You bastard! Don’t run!”
Before I could grab him, Ren used his teleportation skill as he leapt away and disappeared. What the hell was that? Was it a monster or some other person pretending to be Ren? But the attacker had broken through my defense and that meant he was a real force to be reckoned with. The only other way that might happen is if someone could use defense ignoring or defense rating attacks like the old lady.
The attacker had started off hidden and used a skill called Assassinating Sword. Judging from the name and the skill itself, it must have been a finishing move that had to be used while concealed, in stealth mode, or hiding somehow. There were similar moves in some games. In terms of classes, the skill would be used by something like an assassin, ninja, or scout rather than the more orthodox warrior or knight. That wasn’t at all like the Ren I knew. And he’d been using a sinister sword that screamed curse series.
But . . . a sudden ambush . . . Was he trying to be a player killer like in an online game or something? Don’t tell me Ren was the bandit chief . . . His behavior matched up exactly with what we already knew about how the chief operated. Well, I guess he had come from playing some weird VRMMO game, after all. And to top it all off, he had used an attack that screamed curse skill. If it had been anyone other than me, not only would they have died instantly, but they’d have been sliced clean in half. If Raph-chan hadn’t warned me, I might have been taken out from behind with that first attack.
The thought of it made me nauseous.
“Are you okay?” asked Raphtalia.
“Yeah . . . but . . .”
“Unbelievable. I saw it, too.”
Eclair came running up, seething with anger.
“What in the world is he thinking?” she snapped.
I cast some healing magic to heal my wounds. Oh, and by the way, that Guillotine skill hurt like a bitch thanks to the curse effects I was suffering from. Plus, my wounds took longer to heal now. It had only been thirty minutes since we started our search for the bandits, and I already had a really bad feeling about how this mission was going to turn out.
We ended up finding the bandits’ hideout, but we didn’t find Ren. That meant he was using a cowardly strategy of only fighting people when they were alone, just like we’d heard.
“Alright then . . . What should we do now?” I wondered out loud.
“To think that the Sword Hero is the bandit chief . . .” mumbled Eclair.
“It’s safe to assume that Witch is behind this.”
“The former princess? Just how long does she plan to act so foolishly?”
Witch hadn’t been in the hideout, either. She was probably staying low somewhere else. I guess I’d start by getting the bandits to spill . . . hmm?
“Umm . . .”
I approached one of the bandits that had been in charge of the hideout and looked at his face more closely. I’d seen this guy before. And recently, too. Wait, wasn’t he one of the bandits that Ren had captured? What was he doing here?
“Hey . . . Didn’t you get captured?”
He was one of the bandits that was always there when I used Filo to threaten them. He’d been acting real tough when we first showed up at the hideout, but his legs started shaking and he started looking around nervously as soon as he saw me. So I’d pointed over to Filo.
“Ra! Fu! Fu!”
Raph-chan had an evil grin on her face. I just loved how she always played along so well. Raphtalia could’ve learned a thing or two from her.
“Alright, Filo, eat—”
“I surrender!”
The bandit had given up immediately, and that’s how we’d ended up here. Like always, the other bandits had started calling our bandit friend names like “scaredy-cat.” Of course, I swiftly put them in their place.
“Why are you on familiar terms with a bandit, Mr. Iwatani?” Eclair asked.
“We seem to be stuck in an unfortunate relationship. Our first encounter was before I’d cleared my name. I couldn’t take his group of bandits to the vigilante corps, so I stole their loot. Then we ran into each other again during the whole Melty abduction mess and I used his hideout as lodging.”
“So you couldn’t really capture him even if you had wanted to.”
“Pretty much. After that, I saw him again around a week ago when he’d been captured by Ren, and now this makes the fourth time.”
“And why is he here now?”
“That’s what I’m trying to ask him.”
My subordinates swiftly took care of any bandits that still had some fight in them. There were more of us this time, so things were going really smoothly.
“Who are these people?! They’re monsters!”
“Exactly! These monsters are just as strong . . . no, they’re even stronger than the chief!”
“Complimenting us isn’t going to get you anything. In fact, pay up.”
“What are you charging him for?!”
Raphtalia was really on top of her straight man game. I was starting to feel like this was a comedy sketch.
“Ugh . . .”
“Anyway, we turned you guys in, so what are you doing here being bandits?”
When I thought about it, nothing about this guy made sense. He should’ve been behind bars in some prison or something by now.
“That’s right. What happened?” asked Raphtalia.
“When we were being transported, our carriage was ambushed by a bandit and we got away.”
“Hmm . . .”
What a mess. The carriage was ambushed while they were being transported . . . Did that mean a friend had rescued them or something? The security measures in this country were surprisingly lax. I should probably have a word with the queen about that.
“It was the chief.”
“Reeeeennnnn!”
I screamed out unintentionally. That idiot! What the hell was he doing rescuing bandits?! Even worse, he’d rescued the very bandits that he had captured! What was he thinking?! Was this like that sockpuppeting thing I’d heard about online? No, I guess that was different.
Raphtalia sighed.
“What in the world is he thinking?”
Her voice was filled with exasperation. I felt the same way. Even Eclair had been thrown off balance by the bandit’s reply.
“And when was this?” I asked.
“Umm . . . Around a week ago.”
That meant it was only shortly after Ren had fled. Had Witch lured Ren in and then immediately organized the gang of bandits?
“I see. In that case, the mastermind . . . probably isn’t Ren. Did the chief have a skanky redhead chick with him?”
Raphtalia sighed.
“I could say a thing or two about your choice of description, Mr. Naofumi, but I can’t deny that it does sum her up well.”
“Chick? The chief is always by himself.”
“Yeah, I guess he is always alone. He even kept his distance from his party members,” I said.
In online gaming terms, Ren was what you would call a solo player.
“I don’t know why, but I’m starting to feel sorry for him.”
Ren was so pathetically alone that even Raphtalia felt bad for him. But Witch was probably still with him for the moment. Anyway, it didn’t seem like the bandits were trying to hide Witch or anything. As far as I could tell, they really didn’t know anything and hadn’t seen her. Did that mean Witch wasn’t with Ren anymore?
Actually, I noticed that his equipment seemed really beaten up. I’m sure he had plenty of money since he was robbing adventurers. It wasn’t like he’d be selling his better equipment to make ends meet or anything. Maybe he was giving all the money to Witch to fund her extravagant lifestyle or something. Nah . . . That didn’t seem too likely, judging by how much loot the bandits had piled up here.
“What in the world are they trying to accomplish, I wonder,” mumbled Raphtalia.
Was Witch pulling the strings from behind the curtain, or had she already abandoned Ren? I guess we could wait until we caught him to find that out. Now that he had appeared, we needed to make capturing Ren our top priority.
“Ren was using a sword that I’m guessing is part of a curse series. Confronting him could be dangerous, so we need to be careful.”
“I noticed,” said Raphtalia.
“But assuming it’s cursed, I wonder what the curse is.”
Based on the types of skills he was using and how powerful they were, I had no doubt it belonged to a curse series. If figuring out the details could help us predict his behavior, it was worth giving it some thought. The question was: what was the curse?
We already knew there was wrath . . . Assuming there were other curses, they might correspond with the seven deadly sins or something similar. But the skill Ren had used was . . . Guillotine. It was similar to my skill in that it used an instrument of torture or execution, but it still wasn’t the same skill. If there were different curse series, then it would make sense that the weapons would have different effects.
“My Shield of Wrath . . . Well, originally it was called the Shield of Rage, but either way I’m guessing the naming comes from the seven deadly sins. Does that concept exist in this world?”
Raphtalia was from a rural area, so it was probably better to ask Eclair about something like this.
“Yes, I’ve heard about a similar concept of sins existing in records of legends left by previous heroes.”
Some previous hero that had been from another world like I was had probably introduced the concept. After all, the heroes that were summoned from other worlds were probably the kind of people who liked that kind of thing.
“Let’s make sure we’re talking about the same seven deadly sins. There’s pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust, right?”
Eclair nodded in response to my question.
“Those are the ones.”
My curse series had been unlocked by the anger, or the wrath, that I had felt toward Witch, Trash, and everyone else in this world. As for Ren . . . We could probably rule lust out. The remaining sins all seemed possible, so there was no way to tell which it might have been.
“Anyway, I wonder why we haven’t heard any talk of the bandit chief being the Sword Hero.”
“Maybe it’s because he’s been wearing a mask,” suggested Raphtalia.
“I guess that could explain it.”
If he changed his sword, they wouldn’t know he was a hero. The Sword Hero running a gang of bandits . . . I guess any rumor that sounded that crazy would have been snuffed out before it ever made it to us.
“Did none of the bandits recognize the Sword Hero’s voice?” I asked the bandit.
“We were threatened and told we’d be killed if we said anything. We kept quiet because he would have killed us!”
Ah, yeah, Ren was really secretive. That was probably why he was trying to hide his face with a mask, too.
“Honestly, getting captured like this is a relief. I’m just glad it’s finally over.”
“Oh yeah?”
What in the world was Ren thinking? I mulled it over while we tied up the bandits and proceeded to steal their loot.
“Good grief, are all the heroes like this?”
“Hell if I know. Don’t group me with those idiots.”
“Mr. Iwatani . . . Is this another necessary part of governing a territory?”
“That again? Once again, hell if I know. And anything you think you know about how your dad ran the territory is hearsay, anyway.”
“You think my father had his hands in shady business, too?”
Eclair seemed to be distressed about something. I guess I’d have Raphtalia or Sadeena play therapist for her later.
“Anyway, we need to worry about Ren right now. If we let him keep running wild, not only are more people going to get hurt, but it’s possible that he’ll run into those people trying to kill the heroes. We have to capture him somehow.”
Ren was still acting like this was all a game, and whenever things didn’t go his way he wouldn’t trust anyone that didn’t sugarcoat things in his favor. He needed an attitude adjustment. At least in my case, I was suspicious of even the smooth talkers. On the contrary, those were the most suspicious people of all. We needed to figure out who was pulling the strings. If not, who knew when it would come back to bite us? Right now, that meant capturing Ren and making sure he didn’t get killed.
“But . . . capturing someone that’s out of control and has a curse series weapon is going to be really difficult,” I said.
“That is a tough one. We have to make sure he doesn’t die, too. It wouldn’t be so bad if all we had to do was defeat him,” Raphtalia replied.
“The fact that he considered me some kind of boss or something and attacked me by surprise could mean that he’s after experience points.”
“It’s scary because it seems so likely.”
You could gain experience by killing humans in this world.
“In that case, the curse could coincide with gluttony, if you thought of it as devouring experience points,” I suggested.
Ren was the type that would enjoy leveling up characters. If we assumed he’d been consumed by that kind of desire, then he probably saw me as a sitting duck, since I was walking alone, even if I did have Raph-chan with me.
“Then there’s greed . . . It could be that he wants to own everything and so he’s using the bandits to gather up loot. So greed is a possibility, too.”
I wanted to say that greed was my specialty, but I hadn’t unlocked that series for some reason.
“I have a feeling you’re thinking about something self-depreciating.”
“Man, you’re good.”
“Well I’ve known you for a long time.”
I had to give Raphtalia props for her impressive ability to guess what I was thinking. Were my expressions really that easy to read?
Anyway, if the curse series that were attainable differed with each weapon, we would never be able to figure it out. Pride might have been possible, too. There were players in online games that valued their level above all else and looked down on anyone that was a lower level. Ren seemed really proud, or at least the way he seemed to romanticize his lone-wolf tendencies spoke to a sense of pride. I guess Itsuki was a better fit for that one.
“Eclair, aside from the seven deadly sins, there’s also the eight cardinal sins. It’s possible that it could coincide with one of those.”
“Oh! I’ve heard of those.”
Rishia spoke up while raising her hand hesitantly. So those existed here, too? The previous heroes must have really been into all this sin business. Probably some escapist fanboys.
Anyway, the seven deadly sins were a revised version of the older eight cardinal sins, which included gluttony, lust, greed, sorrow, wrath, acedia, vainglory, and pride. So envy was missing, but sorrow and vainglory were included. Acedia was basically the same thing as sloth. Later on, sorrow and acedia were consolidated into sloth, vainglory was merged with pride, and envy was tacked on, resulting in the seven deadly sins.
“If the older eight cardinal sins are included, then it might be vainglory, or being concerned solely with superficial appearances.”
“You think so? I can’t really say for sure, but . . .”
“Is the Sword Hero that concerned with outward appearances? I can see the connection, but it seems a bit weak.”
Raphtalia and Eclair expressed their doubts about the possibility of vainglory.
“Well, this is just based on my understanding, or shall I say the unique understanding of someone from another world. Let’s see if I can make it easier to understand . . . Eclair or Rishia, do either of you know of a game where people play with cards on a table or something to mimic battles with monsters?”
“Yes, I do. There are similar educational materials used to teach people how to fight monsters and get stronger,” Rishia replied.
“Educational materials? Whatever, that will work. To put it simply, people from worlds like Ren and I play with educational materials like that a lot. But just playing with those educational materials doesn’t actually make a person stronger, does it?”
Rishia and the others all nodded. Rishia knew that better than anyone.
“Those educational materials—I’m guessing they’re only used by several people at once here in this world—but people all around the world can play together in similar games in the worlds that the heroes come from.”
“Fehh . . . Did you all play these games with that many people?!”
“Itsuki’s case is a bit different, but for the most part, yeah.”
Itsuki had played a console game back in his world. I hadn’t asked him about the details, so I wasn’t sure if it had elements like those you would find in online games.
“I see. Now I understand why the heroes are so knowledgeable about this world. The importance of prior knowledge cannot be underestimated,” said Eclair.
The power obtained in online games wasn’t true power, and it was vainglory that created attachment to that power. Of course, the experiences gained from playing online games were real, and I’m sure there was value in becoming powerful. Back in my world, there were people that had gotten jobs as a result of relationships built in online games. In fact, someone I knew from online once offered to set me up with a full-time job at his company after I’d graduated from university. It was a guy I’d met in real life, too. He told me that his company could use someone fearless like me that had the charisma I displayed as the guild leader. I’m not sure how honest he was being, but it felt good to hear, anyway. Thinking back on it now, he was probably just flattering me in an attempt to make me his errand boy or something.
But judging from Ren’s personality and relationships with others, I couldn’t even begin to imagine him being able to build a relationship from which he could expect anything like that. It was easy to imagine him being the kind of solo player whose interactions with others wouldn’t extend far beyond flaunting a rare drop he’d gotten from a boss or something. Managing a guild had made it painfully clear that being the strongest wasn’t everything and going around flaunting items like that was not only pointless, but also super annoying. But there were people that got off on that kind of thing in online games, and you could probably even say those players were the reason the game companies did so well.
“If he persisted in believing that transient power was true power and neglected his inner development . . . That would be vain power, right?”
Although, if we were talking about vainglory, would Ren really be the best fit? It probably corresponded to Itsuki more than anyone else.
“It’s hard to say one way or the other, since the conditions required to trigger a curse are still a mystery. And I don’t know which sin it would be, but . . . he’s definitely guilty of blatantly committing several of the sins.”
“Hmm . . . So the fact that you are guilty of several sins that haven’t appeared as a curse series serves as counterevidence to the theory, making it even more difficult to determine the curse,” Eclair replied.
She was right. If being a bad person was all it took, I’d committed plenty of sins. But wrath was the only curse series that I had unlocked. If they triggered based on behavior patterns, I’d have to be worried about greed more than anything else. Even I recognized just how greedy I was. I wasn’t afraid of the wrath series, since I’d started to understand how to stay in control lately, and I had companions that helped me do that.
Maybe the kind of emotional outburst that almost shattered a person was a condition? Hmm . . . I probably needed to spend some time determining the conditions that triggered a curse or I could end up in trouble. But the love of money was greed, right? Thinking about the pile of treasure behind me, I couldn’t help but feel like I was just a big mass of desire. And then there was insatiable desire. But I hadn’t been consumed by greed. There had to be a reason why.
Anyway, the curse series most likely to have tainted Ren was probably gluttony, greed, pride, or vainglory. We’d narrowed it down to a certain degree, so now we could further refine our line of thinking. I had a feeling that it could be dangerous if the curse remained unchecked for too long. The curse series included skills that required the user to pay a price. There had to be a way to get Ren under control before he used those skills.
“. . . ?”
“Rafu?”
Raphtalia and Raph-chan were blinking and looking behind me, in the direction of the entrance to the bandit hideout.
“What is it?”
“Umm . . . I’m not sure, but it felt like a hidden presence.”
Raphtalia and Raph-chan could use illusion magic, so they had increased resistances to the effects of concealment skills and magic. Raph-chan had detected Ren earlier, for instance. I guess it was because they had gotten stronger, but lately they had even started to detect concealed shadow lookouts.
“Is someone there?”
“I’m not sure. They were really well hidden, and I think they’d already fled by the time we noticed.”
“I wonder if it was Ren. That would just make things worse.”
“I think I would know if it was the Sword Hero. It was probably someone else.”
That meant that someone had been watching us seize the hideout from the shadows. If it had been Ren, and now he had fled to a completely different location, that would only make things even more impossible for us.
“Mr. Iwatani, I think it would be best to report this to the authorities.”
“I guess we could report it and have them cast ceremonial magic to interfere with attempts to escape.”
“Yeah.”
It was a reasonable strategy. Chasing him would be pointless if he just used his portal skill to flee every time we found him. He’d gotten away this time, but if we found him again, we would need to jam his portal skill before he could run. Seriously, it would have been so simple if all we had to do was defeat him. Capturing him alive was a real hassle. And then I suddenly remembered something that happened in Zeltoble.
“S’yne.”
I called out to Murder Pierrot, a.k.a. S’yne. She was keeping tabs on me, after all, so I figured she might come if I called. In the blink of an eye, S’yne was standing before me.
“What?———”
Having a conversation with her was difficult, but it seemed like she could hear what we were saying reasonably well, so I guess that was all that really mattered. The real problem was that I didn’t want to rely on her too much.
“Sh . . . she just appeared out of nowhere!”
Oh yeah, I hadn’t told Eclair about S’yne.
“You’ve seen me use portal to teleport somewhere and appear out of nowhere, right? Don’t be so surprised. Just think of her as . . . my own personal shadow.”
I didn’t want to bother with explaining about heroes from other worlds and all that mess. This explanation should do for now.
“She doesn’t seem to be our enemy, so you don’t have to worry.”
Raphtalia told Eclair what we knew about S’yne. I wasn’t sure if I could trust her, but I couldn’t deny that she seemed to be trying to protect me. It probably wouldn’t hurt to rely on her a bit. Hmm? There were two stuffed dolls floating next to S’yne. One was a life-sized replica of Raph-chan. The other one looked like it was based on Sadeena’s therianthrope form. I stood there staring at the stuffed dolls and S’yne pointed in their direction as if to ask what I was staring at.
“Yeah, that. I want the one that looks like Raph-chan later.”
“What kind of request is that?!”
“Rafu!”
There was Raphtalia with another sharp retort. What was wrong with wanting the doll? Just seeing it next to my pillow at night would be sure to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“I’m Miss S———familiar. Pleased to meet you.”
The Raph-chan stuffed doll gave a quick bow. Aw, HELL naw. Raph-chan squealing “rafu!” is what made her cute.
“Fail! You don’t understand what makes Raph-chan cute at all. A Raph-chan that speaks human languages can’t be called a Raph-chan. Change the design.”
“Fine. I’ll———so that it doesn’t talk.”
And the other doll was Sadeena, of all people. S’yne tinkered with something for a moment and the Raph-chan stuffed doll stopped moving.
“Why are we chatting about the stuffed dolls . . . the familiars that S’yne made?!”
Raphtalia had a point. We needed to get back on topic.
“You used some skill that interfered with our skills, right?”
“Yes. Skill———al can block skills.”
“Since you’ve been watching us, I’m sure you know what I want you to do, right?”
S’yne nodded.
“You want me to capture———he flees?”
“Yeah. Can you do that for me?”
S’yne nodded vigorously as if to say, “Leave it to me!”
“You better not kill him. Even if he has a cursed weapon, I’m guessing he’s still so weak that he can’t even begin to compare to us.”
“He’s really that w——?”
I looked away from S’yne and nodded.
“It’s really kind of sad, isn’t it?” said Raphtalia.
“Let’s not go there . . .” I mumbled.
He’d used a finishing move on me in a surprise attack and it didn’t even scratch me. Then he used an attack that was the equivalent of my Iron Maiden skill and the only reason it stung a bit is because I was still weakened from a curse. Now I understood how Glass felt when she fought us. The fact that Ren was weak hadn’t changed. It was just that capturing him without killing him or allowing him to escape was a hassle. Things would be a lot easier if this were a certain monster tamer RPG, where all we had to do to capture him was weaken him and then throw a ball at him.
“Okay———go now?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. He likes to use surprise attacks, so I’m sure he’ll attack you if you just walk around by yourself for a while. Will you be okay?”
“Yes.”
S’yne skipped out of the bandit hideout . . . and then immediately returned.
“What is it?”
“That———!”
I looked over in the direction S’yne was urgently pointing toward.
“What are you still doing alive?!” I blurted out.
The man from another world that S’yne had only recently slaughtered casually strolled up along with one of his friends.
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