Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue: The Video Game Knowledge Pitfall 

It was later that same night. We were eating a buffet-style meal, set out on the terrace in the castle courtyard and illuminated by both torches and magical light. 
“Hey! That’s mine!” Filo squawked. 
“Hah! Dinnertime is a battlefield! If you wanted it so badly, you should have put your name on it! But even that wouldn’t stop me from eating it!” the Demon Dragon retorted. 
“Bleh! I really do hate dragons!” Filo and the dragon were bickering over a massive pile of food. For all the words coming out of their mouths, strangely enough they looked like they were getting along quite well. The Demon Dragon had certainly pulled her weight in the battle earlier. The biggest immediate problem was her continued attempts to sex me up. Every time she saw me looking over, she would throw a saucy wink my way, so I was making it a habit not to look at her at all. 
Everyone was eating their evening meal in their own way. After a while, amid the natural flow of things, I found myself sitting with just Itsuki and Kizuna, the three heroes who held holy weapons. We were eating together. 
“Reborn souls, huh? Do you think we could find some kind of common ground with them?” Kizuna asked. 
“They are dangerous individuals, handpicked by this one who assumes the name of God—our ultimate enemy. Do you think that enemy would select anyone who might listen to what we have to say?” I asked her. 
“They are still human. I think there is a chance,” Kizuna replied. 
“Which is how they lured you into that trap in the first place,” I reminded her. 
“Hey, too soon!” she shot back. 
“I mean, I don’t have a problem with the idea of wanting to try talking with them. I can understand it,” I said. It was one of Kizuna’s strong points. The point she was making was that wiping them out without even trying to talk to them first wasn’t especially human on our part. However, I didn’t expect them to give us time for such a strategy. 
“What if . . . and just hear me out . . . what if this one who assumes the name of a god is somehow responsible for my game knowledge?” Itsuki quietly suggested. That sounded possible to me now. Even if being summoned was the correct process, having some prior knowledge would change your actions once you arrived. 
“The other three heroes, the dead ones, all seemed to treat this like a game too from what I knew of them,” Kizuna said. This being like a video game could very well be another trap placed by this “god.” Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki had all basically placed limits on their own strength because of their game knowledge. 
“That gives me a thought . . .” I looked at Itsuki and Kizuna, who both gave puzzled replies. “Itsuki, you thought this was the world from a commercial game called Dimension Wave, right?” 
“That’s right,” he said. 
“Hold on. They have the same name?” Kizuna spoke up. At Kizuna’s comment, Itsuki looked over at her. 
“Does that mean we played the same game?” he asked. 
“I doubt it. You have some kind of special powers in your world, right, Itsuki? I don’t have that in mine,” Kizuna replied. 
“And you don’t have any game knowledge about this world, correct, Kizuna?” Itsuki asked. 
“That’s right. I was about to play a game called Second Life Project: Dimension Wave. It was a VR game and I’d never played it before. I got summoned right after getting into the pod, so I started out thinking this was just a very realistic game,” Kizuna explained. That experience was definitely going to cause some misunderstandings, timing-wise. “Do you think this god being was involved in that somehow?” she asked. 

“That’s a tough one. Even if they were, you wouldn’t have any preconceived notions and power-up methods,” Itsuki mused. 
“There’s a difference between a game you are playing for the first time and one you’ve devoted your life to,” I added. On that front, Kizuna was pretty lucky. 
“You read a book, right, Naofumi?” Kizuna asked. 
“That’s right. According to the Shield Spirit, summoning that way never fails,” I replied. I still wished they had considered the place more carefully. 
“Thinking about it now, I’m quite jealous of you both. Whoever thinks that having some knowledge is going to lead to such failures, after all,” Itsuki said. 
“You might be right. If this was all set up by the enemy, then it’s quite a nasty trick,” I replied. 
“You said it. The VR game you were about to play, Kizuna . . . was that different from the one Ren played?” Itsuki inquired. 
“From what I’ve heard about them both,” I said, “they are two different things. Ren played on a helmet-type machine while Kizuna used a machine prepared by a company—a pod filled with liquid.” 
“There sure are a lot of Japans,” Itsuki commented. At least five of them, for sure. I could only think of mine as the “normal” Japan, but to the others, it was probably just as weird as theirs were to me. “Knowledge being the pitfall placed by our enemy . . . that sure is dangerous.” 
“A trap that already killed three of the four holy heroes in this world,” I said sadly. 
“Please, don’t remind me. Ah, and we have a wave tomorrow as well,” Kizuna moaned. That made me feel annoyed too. It was for the sake of the world, true, but they really were too frequent here. I wondered if there was any way to spread them out more . . . 
Then it hit me—an idea that would later be confirmed by deciphering more of the ancient texts. 
“What would happen if you used Hunting Tool 0 to attack the crack in the waves? If it has the power to severe illegitimate power, it might have some effect on it,” I suggested. 
“Ah, that sounds interesting. Ideas like that just take a bit of trial and error,” Kizuna replied. 
“I think it’s worth giving it a try,” Itsuki added. 
“Well then. We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us. You guys need to eat up and prepare for the next battle,” I told them. 
“We know, we know,” Kizuna said. 
“Indeed. With delicious food, a clear objective, and the combined strength of our allies . . . we can overcome any troubles that may befall us,” Itsuki said. 
“Even someone calling themselves a god,” I replied. 
“You bet,” he said. 
The scale of the foe we faced had just got a whole lot bigger. I also needed to let the guys back in our world know about this as quickly as possible. This feeling in my heart, I couldn’t explain it. Each of us from our different Japans settled down for a brief moment of respite.