Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Hidden Boss Reveals the Secret of Her Past Life

Night had fallen, and the long day was coming to an end. After promising Lemn that I would explain things to him later, we parted ways. This was my own, entirely selfish request; I wanted to tell Patrick about my past first.

The lights were off in my room, and the space was instead illuminated by the moonlight pouring in through the window. Patrick hovered beside me as I sat in a chair and gazed at the moon.

“You must be tired after everything that happened today,” he soothed. “You can just tell me another—”

I sighed. “It’s okay. I need to tell you now. It’s only going to get harder the longer I wait.”

I’ve hidden it all this time. I’ve never told anyone else. But now’s the time. I have to tell him. The day has finally come: Patrick will learn about my past life, where I come from, and the truth of my identity. He might not believe me—he might even reject me. Those kinds of thoughts have kept me from telling anyone about my reincarnation until now. Patrick will believe me, though; surely he will accept the truth about me.

“I have memories of my past life,” I began, speaking more confidently than I had expected. “I have memories of being born into a different world, living there, dying there...and then being reborn as Yumiella.”

“Reborn... What do you mean by ‘a different world’? Is it a parallel world, like Lemn was talking about?”

“Not a parallel world. It’s more like an otherworld. Lemn likened parallel worlds to different branches on a tree, so if we stick to that metaphor, an otherworld would be an entirely different tree with its own roots. The laws of the world, the shape of the continents, even the history of the human race are completely different. The world I lived in didn’t even have magic.”

“You didn’t have magic? That’s... I can’t even imagine what that must be like.”

“From my perspective, the fact that magic exists at all is way weirder.”

“Isn’t it inconvenient to not have magic?”

“We have science...pieces of technology that are similar to magical instruments, so things were actually more convenient in that world.”

Huh? It’s nice that we’re having a pretty normal conversation, but isn’t he accepting all of this too easily? He doesn’t seem particularly surprised. This isn’t what I expected at all.

“Um, aren’t you suspicious of this, Patrick?” I asked. “I feel like this all must sound completely absurd.”

“If anything, I feel like a lot of things make sense now. For example, now that I know that your, um, uniqueness comes from your being from an otherworld, I understand it.”

“Oh, that’s fair.” I nodded, pleased with this explanation. “That might be why I’m a bit strange. What’s considered common sense probably varies wildly between different worlds.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Patrick said, giving me a sympathetic look. “It seems like you lived through a difficult world, but this world is relatively safe. You can relax here.”

I see, this world is safe. I don’t have to live like I did before... Hold on. I almost got swept up in the joy of the moment, but that’s not accurate. It’s gonna sound like I’m contradicting his kindness, but I have to tell him.

“This world is actually much more unsafe...” I admitted.

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s true. I can’t say that the entire world was at peace, but the area around me was the essence of peace itself. I lived almost twenty years in a country called Japan, and I never once feared for my life.”

“Twenty years? Did you die young in your previous life?”

Oh no. I was planning to quickly slip that little detail in to explain that, mentally, I was just a little bit older than him. But now I’ve mixed up the order of things.

While I had told Patrick twenty years, more precisely I had lived nineteen years and several months. My current body was around the same age, which meant that my actual age was nineteen plus nineteen... No, wait, I had recalled my memories of my past life after I had lived for five years as Yumiella. That meant that I was nineteen plus nineteen minus five... It was too difficult to calculate. Even a supercomputer might not have been able to solve this problem. I didn’t want to cause trouble for future mathematicians like Fermat did, so I decided to not tell Patrick about the math problem and fudge my exact age instead.

“I just barely didn’t reach twenty. Actually, it might have been even shorter. Yeah, it was much shorter. I only lived for a short moment, so short that it was within the margin of error. It’s basically like I never lived. But anyway, I’m Yumiella now, so I think it’s correct to reference my age as the same as Yumiella’s.”

“Hm? What does that mean...?”

Wait, has Patrick not noticed the discrepancy? Can I even try to play dumb? I mean, I guess it’s fine if he notices. The idea that women are better the younger they are is something a stupid person came up with. That bankrupt theory would mean that the cutest beings are, in fact, zero-year-old babies... Well, babies are cute. Maybe that theory is correct. 

As I sat there pondering those rambling thoughts, Patrick, who had been trying to piece my words together into some sense, suddenly widened his eyes as if he had figured something out.

Oh no, am I caught? Has he realized how old I truly am?

“So you lived your life as someone other than Yumiella in an otherworld. That person was completely different from you, Yumiella... Is this all correct?”

“Yeah... Did you figure it out? I guess it’s not good to hide it. It might disqualify me from being someone you could love, but... Ha ha, it’s hard to admit it.” Though I was trying hard to make the laugh sound genuine, I wasn’t sure if it was convincing.

I wonder how most men would feel if they suddenly found out that their girlfriend was almost twice their age.

Since I wasn’t able to get the words out, Patrick slowly opened his mouth and hazarded a guess: “Could it be...in your past life, you were...a man?”

“I was a woman!” He had made a grave error.

I can’t believe him. Me? A man? How could anyone ever make that mistake? I’m totally a girl, both inside and out! Does that mean Patrick thought I was masculine?

“Does that mean you would’ve believed me if I said I used to be a man?” I asked, scandalized. “Did you think that my femininity was that lacking? Huh?”

“No, not at all!” Patrick backpedaled hard. “You’re very feminine. I just thought... In case there was a chance that it was true...”

I won’t actually get mad about this. I’ll just keep bringing it back up for all eternity. I’m going to hold a grudge about this until I die. I’ll refer back to this moment at every possible opportunity.

“Well, I’m not, like, upset or anything,” I lied. “I don’t know what you’re getting so worked up about.”

“You have some masculine qualities to you. There are times where it feels like I’m with my male friends.” He considered. “That might be taking it a bit too far, but regardless, I think you have little to no femininity.”

“Excuse me? What you’re saying is the complete opposite of what you said before. What’s the truth? I can’t trust your words.”

“But there are moments where your feminine side shows...” he continued, ignoring my outburst. “I ended up thinking about those moments constantly, and before I knew it I had fallen for you so hard that I couldn’t stand it—”

“Whoa yah whoo!” A really strange sound had just left my mouth.

I think thy love for me doth exceed all measure, Sir Patrick. I’ll forgive everything. Actually, now that he says that, I’m glad that I have such an incredibly small amount of femininity. If I’d had too much, maybe he wouldn’t have fallen in love with me.

“Well, enough about that.” I waved away my concerns. “I’ve always been a woman, in both my previous life and in this one. As long as you know that, we’re fine.”

“I got it. I guess you were concerned about your age, then.”

Darn it. He brought up the taboo subject of age again. I thought I was able to cover it up with the gender talk. I wonder which would be more surprising for Patrick, finding out that his adorable Yumiella was actually a boy, or that his adorable Yumiella was actually much older than him. Most people would be... Hmm, I’m not sure.

“I see,” Patrick said with a melancholy sigh. “I thought you would calm down a bit more with age...”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh well, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but... I thought that you were strange because you didn’t really socialize with people when you were younger. I thought that you’d gain more social intelligence with time, but... Oh, could it be that you were in a similar situation in your past life? I’m sorry if I brought up some painful memo—”

“I, um, I’m sorry.”

That’s true—if you didn’t talk to anyone as a child then you’d probably be bad at socializing, but my personality was formed during my childhood in my previous life. I lived with my parents, and I had plenty of friends. I should tell him that. I feel like it isn’t right for him to think that my personality somehow got twisted due to unfortunate events in childhood.

“Just so you know, I had a regular family and friends in my past life,” I explained.

“Is that...a lie?”

“No, come on. I was even walking with a friend when I got into the accident that killed me.”

Patrick gave a long-suffering sigh. “I feel like I understand you even less.”

Why? The friend I was walking with at the time was at the very least more normal than me. Considering how we were positioned on the sidewalk, I think she probably survived... She sometimes had a hard time sticking to the straight and narrow, but she was overall a good girl. 

Oh, I’m getting tired now. Also...what did I go over already? I, a teenage girl and resident of a peaceful world, died due to an accident, and then I came to this world. That’s all I’ve told him so far. I’ve spent so long explaining something that I could have just summed up in one sentence.

“Do you have any questions so far?” I asked with a sigh.

“You said that your previous world was peaceful, but it was a world where you, Yumiella, were killed, right? That doesn’t sound very peaceful to me.”

“I was just a regular person in my past life, you know?”

“What?”

“Huh?” It was no use, it just wasn’t clicking. Words were surprisingly ineffective at times. “I was a regular person in my past life. I was run over and killed by a car...something similar to a carriage.”

“A carriage that could kill you...?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard about fatal carriage accidents occurring in the Royal Capital every now and then.”

“Well yeah, but you?” he asked, pressing his hand against his mouth.

I could tell that Patrick was seriously confused. He must have been overlooking the fact that I said I was “normal.”

“I was even weaker than Lady Eleanora in my past life. I was the kind of human whose legs would break if I were to jump out of a second-story window.”

“Yeah...?” He seemed to find this hard to believe for some reason.

“I’m saying I was weaker than the average person when I was in Japan. I was out of breath just by running a little bit, and I couldn’t carry a thirty-kilo bag of rice. I only played sports until middle school, and that barely counts because it was table tennis.”

Patrick’s brain seemed to have bluescreened. More than the fact that I had a past life, the fact that I was physically weak in said past life must have shaken him to the core. I could tell what he usually thought of me.

Patrick finally unfroze after about a minute.

Being quiet for a whole minute is pretty long.

“So...in your past life, you were a normal person?” he repeated.

“Yup. I was just a regular student.”

He finally got it. The only problem was that this was all just the preamble to the main event.

I was getting tired from all the talking, but I decided to push through for a little longer.

“So, this is where the real story begins. Where it starts relating to my other self, the one who destroyed the parallel world.”

“I think I have a vague idea of what you mean from what we’ve already discussed. That other Yumiella doesn’t have memories of a past life, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m assuming.” I was glad he was quick to understand. All I had to do now was explain that this was the world of an otome game... This felt like it was going to be the hardest part. “I also know what the actual Yumiella’s personality is supposed to be like. This world is exactly like the world in a...story, one that I know from my previous world.”

“A story? Is this a world inside a book?”

“Um, well... There are differences in the details so... I don’t really know for sure. I suppose that if I really think about it, it’s possible that my previous world was the world from another story altogether, so it’s probably a waste of time to think about it too hard.”

“Well, I guess that’s true...”

The Japan of my past life could have been the world of a game or manga. Even if you had lived all your life in a virtual world that had been created by someone, and then you managed to escape, there was no guarantee that wherever you ended up was actually the original reality. For this reason, I decided to consider this world that I lived in now to be reality.

“In that story from my world, a hero and a saintess defeat the Demon Lord. After defeating the Demon Lord, they face an even stronger enemy. That enemy is me, Yumiella Dolkness.”

“I understand...”

“I’m supposed to be defeated by the main characters of the story, but there’s a world where something went wrong and Yumiella won. I think the parallel world that Lemn told us about is that world.”

“I see.” Patrick nodded before closing his eyes and sinking into thought. Patrick was good at picking up on things, so he had probably realized who the hero and the saintess were. He took a deep breath, as if he had finished sorting out his thoughts, and then he continued. “I understand the situation. I get it all, your past life and your true role. With all that said, I just have one question.”

Only one? I would have attacked me with questions if I were him. I wonder what his question is. It must be really important since it’s just the one.

Patrick seemed slightly nervous to ask it. “Are you glad you came to this world? Do you ever wish you could return to your original world...?”

“I think I’m already dead over there, but I don’t really want to return to my previous world. Even if you told me I could go back right now, I don’t think I would. I’m already used to this world. Also... Um...” I took a deep breath before continuing. “Um... I’m glad I came here. Since I met you.”

Patrick smiled softly and said, “I’m so glad to hear that.” Encouraged by his smile and to cover my own embarrassment, I smiled back.

After finally revealing the secret that I’d been unable to tell anyone, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest. Without thinking, I got closer to Patrick and stretched myself upwards. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to reach his face.

◆◆◆

The next morning found Lemn once again sitting at my dining room table, digesting what I’d just told him about the memories of my past life. Since it was my second time telling the story after chatting with Patrick the night before, I was able to cut down on some details and explain things more smoothly.

“I see. Memories of an otherworld...” Lemn muttered as he shamelessly stuffed his face with bread. He appeared to find the whole thing to be dubious in the extreme.

Which seems like a more normal reaction, to be honest. I can’t fault someone for thinking I’m lying while talking about a past life and whatnot. In the end, there’s only one thing I need to convince him of: that I have no intention of destroying the world.

“I don’t really have any proof for you, so you’re just going to have to believe me,” I pointed out.

“Well, I suppose that the only real way to account for your many eccentricities is an explanation as outlandish as coming from an otherworld.”

“Isn’t it enough to know that the me here before you is completely different from the parallel-world version of me who destroyed her world?” I felt bad for the world that had been destroyed, but I couldn’t do anything about it since it had happened somewhere I couldn’t even go.

The other Yumiella and I have nothing to do with each other. The paths of our worlds will never cross, meaning we’ll never meet. All right, then there’s nothing more to discuss. 

The tumultuousness of the past several days was finally coming to an end, and it was definitely time to say goodbye to Lemn, who was still sitting there, casually gulping down all of my scrambled eggs. As I began planning how I was going to kick the god of darkness out of my house, an affable smile spread across his face.

“So, are you ready to discuss how we’re going to deal with the miss from the parallel world?” Lemn asked.

“What?”

“Did I not tell you? The Yumiella Dolkness from the parallel world will definitely come to this world next.”

Huh, is she still not satisfied after destroying an entire world? My other self sounds way too violent.

“Why is she coming here? What does my other self want?”

“Remember what we talked about before? About how to unlock your level cap?”

“Oh, right!”

One of the ways to unlock your level cap is to kill a version of yourself from a parallel world. I see, so she must be after me.

“But that doesn’t mean she would definitely come to this world, does it?” I asked. “Aren’t there countless parallel worlds?”

“Even if all these worlds are parallel, they’re separated by something similar to distance. Her world neighbors this world directly.”

“Then that means there’s a possibility that she’ll go to the world neighboring hers on the other side. Fifty percent... That’s a pretty high chance.”

“Nope, there’s a one hundred percent chance she’ll come here. Remember, all of the other Yumiella Dolknesses are gone.”

Oh, that’s what he was talking about.

A majority of the worlds parallel to this one followed the story of the otome game, meaning that in almost every other world, I was defeated in battle. The only exceptions were the Yumiella in the parallel world who’d beaten Alicia and the others, and me, who’d followed a different path altogether. Of the countless parallel worlds, the only Yumiellas alive were the two of us—it was no wonder that Lemn was concerned.

“Is it even possible to travel to a different world? You can’t do it, right? There’s also the possibility that my other self doesn’t know how to unlock the level cap.”

“That’s, um... Well... There’s someone who’s been secretly pulling her strings,” Lemn said, becoming suddenly evasive, despite how responsive he’d been to my questions thus far.

I assumed this “someone” was a higher being than Lemn—like someone powerful enough to be the only being above level 99 in all the parallel worlds.

“It sounds like this someone might be more of a threat than my other self.”

“Don’t worry about him. He has a lot of restrictions when it comes to interfering with the world. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to use up all the resources he’s saved up.”

“So I should just prepare to beat up my other self?”

“Yup, that’s right.”

I wasn’t going to take everything Lemn said at face value, but right now I had no choice but to believe him.

Fighting myself... I’ve always brute forced my way through battles using my maxed-out stats, but a fight without that advantage will probably be brutal.

I sat there, lost in thought as I pondered what would likely be the strongest enemy I’d ever face. Just then, Patrick entered the dining room.

“Morning, Yumiella,” he said with a yawn. “Sorry for oversleeping.”

“Morning. A lot happened yesterday, so you must’ve been tired. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, but you should take it easy too,” Patrick said as he sat down. He shot Lemn a quick glance before asking, “Did you tell him about...?”

“I explained the gist of things, a little bit about how I have memories of my past life. Oh, and by the way, apparently my other self is going to come here. Lemn and I were talking about how we need to come up with a plan.”

That’s right, I have Patrick on my side! Sucks for you, other me—you’re probably alone, but with Patrick’s help I’m totally going to defeat you. 

In contrast to my confidence, my helpful partner seemed concerned.

“That’s... That shouldn’t be something you have to deal with, Yumiella. You have nothing to do with her.”

I shrugged. “It seems like she’s after me, so it doesn’t look like we can avoid an encounter.”

“Are you okay with that...?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Fighting with a version of yourself from a parallel world... You may be different people on the inside, but do you have it in you to go up against a person who looks exactly like you?” he asked, looking distraught. “Won’t that be too rough on you?”

Would it be rough? I wondered, as I imagined myself and my parallel twin squaring off against each other.

I’d had the advantage of my memories from my past life to ground me, but the other Yumiella had never had anything like that. She had been thrown into a harsh world without anything to help her, and since I was sure she had been unable to get anyone on her side, she had ended up despising the world.

While I was spending time with Patrick and Eleanora, she had been all alone. She was undeniably the hidden boss, an indisputable evil, and a threat to this world. But perhaps I didn’t have any right to reprehend her for that.

I can see it now: she’ll come up to me with her frozen, blank expression and punch me right in the gut. It’ll probably be more painful for her, so I’ll let her do it. Then she’ll slap me across the face... Hey, it’s an unwritten rule that the face is off-limits! How dare you! Your face pisses me off! I don’t like how you’re so expressionless! And then, I’ll leap straight towards her, raising my fist, and...

“Uh, yeah, I think I’ll be fine,” I said after a short pause. “I think it’ll actually be easier to beat her up because I won’t have to hold back.”

“What?”

“I tried imagining fighting her just now, and it turned into an actual fistfight. We were both trying to punch each other in the face.”

“Huh...?” I didn’t think Patrick would be so put off by my thoughts.

Well, my predictions of the future are usually off, so who knows; we might end up peacefully talking things out.

“Just so you know, I want to settle things as calmly as possible,” I assured Patrick. “It just all depends on her.”

“Please handle things as peacefully as you can. I’ll help you if you need me, but it would be painful to have to fight someone who looks like you.”

“Come on,” I protested. “The other Yumiella is a completely different person. You don’t have to be considerate towards her.”

“Could you fight someone who looked exactly like me, even if we were different people on the inside?”

A bad guy with Patrick’s face... I couldn’t possibly forgive him for committing acts of evil while wearing that lovable face. I’ll rearrange his face first, and beat him up to the point there isn’t any trace of Patrick left...

“Huh? I could totally fight them. If anything, I’d be more motivated to take them down.”

“I see... I guess that’s fine, then,” he answered, his voice cold. There was something sorrowful about his expression.

But why...?

This conversation wrapped up, Patrick, Lemn, and I settled into a meeting to discuss how we would deal with the other Yumiella.

“I know we’re trying to come up with a plan, but what exactly are the goals we are trying to achieve?” I asked.

“It’s not like we know when and where she’s going to appear...” Patrick said. “And I don’t think setting any kind of trap would work against a Yumiella either.”

It seemed like we had already run out of options, despite the fact that the discussion had only just started.

Lemn burst into coarse laughter. “Have you two forgotten about my function in this world? I govern dungeons and magical instruments. We could put you at quite the advantage if I bequeathed to you a rare magical instrument, something of the very highest class.”

“Whoa!” I gasped.

That would be incredible. Can he manipulate the item drop rates or something? Messing with RNG is truly the work of a god. 

Lemn appeared to be pleased when I gave him a look of genuine respect.

“First off, let’s see...” Lemn considered a moment. “What about a weapon affixed with the element of light, your greatest weakness? I know the location of one of the best, hidden deep within a dungeon in a place you humans call Valius. The item in question is a sword of light that slashes through darkness. The god of light, Sanon, even helped forge it.”

“Hm...?” I had a sinking feeling that I knew exactly what sword he was talking about...

“There’s no human alive that can reach the deepest levels of that dungeon,” Lemn continued. “The holy sword should still be sleeping. But it might be difficult for you to wield, miss, so maybe your beau should be the one to... Is something wrong?”

The dungeon in Valius was actually somewhere I’d visited plenty of times during one of my summer breaks at the Academy. I’d cleared the dungeon multiple times in order to finally obtain a dark-type sword. During one of my many descents into that dungeon, a light-type sword had dropped from the final boss, one which was so powerful that I couldn’t really touch it directly. I didn’t need it, so I’d sold it, and it had ended up in the hands of Alicia.

She stabbed me right in the back with it, and then... What happened after that...? Oh, that’s right. A sword like that was dangerous to have around, so I made it disappear using my most powerful spell, Black Hole.

“That sword is gone,” I admitted.

Lemn blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

“I destroyed it using Black Hole. Oh, unless it’s possible that it regenerated itself after that?”

“In that case it can no longer be obtained...” Lemn said, looking crestfallen.

Oh no, I did something bad. I’ll have to cheer him up.

“I’m sure there are a bunch of other neat artifacts that you could help us obtain! You’re the god presiding over all of the most powerful magical instruments, after all.”

“Other instruments, yeah...” Lemn thought for a second, then suggested, “This falls under Sanon’s purview, but there’s a magical instrument that can create a barrier. It’s a light-type item, so it’ll probably come in handy. Where was it again... I feel like it was at a Sanonist church.”

“I’m sorry...” I said, somewhat sheepishly. “I destroyed that one as well.”

Lemn fell silent. I felt terribly sorry for him. The air of darkness and despair surrounding him no longer seemed related to the fact that he was the god of darkness.

This isn’t good. I have a feeling something bad is about to happen.

“Oh, you broke that too, huh.” Lemn seemed defeated. “I guess there’s nothing that can be done, then... Other than the two instruments that didn’t survive an encounter with you, I suppose there is a giant flute that can control monsters. A monster-summoning flute can only call monsters to the user, but the giant flute can impart instructions to the monsters. You’d need my approval to unlock its potential, but—”

“Um...” I interrupted.

“Oh, sorry. I guess that flute is too weak, isn’t it? Monsters wouldn’t be much help if we’re going up against a version of you, ha ha.”

“It’s not that, but... That flute’s been broken too, by Patrick.”

I’ll leave the excuses to you, Patrick! I can’t take this anymore! I thought, giving him a significant look, to which Patrick shook his head at me in response. But you’re the one who broke it!

After the coup d’état spearheaded by the former Duke of Hillrose had floundered, and his plan to use the giant monster-summoning flute to overrun Dolkness County had failed, I had, for my own part, been planning to save the flute and treasure it forever, but Patrick broke it on the spot.

It’s not like I meant to destroy either of the other magical instruments, and Patrick had felt that he had good reason to destroy the flute...

But excuses like that would probably only make Lemn feel even worse. I had no idea what to say to him.

I’m sorry, Lemn. You don’t have to keep trying to come up with solutions.

Lemn didn’t give up. “What about an elixir?” he hazarded, in a voice so faint that I could barely hear him. “Unless you destroyed that already too? It’s a magical instrument I made with the utmost care. I did my best, hoping it would be useful to humans.”

“Oh!” I cried, injecting my voice with extra enthusiasm. “I’ve never destroyed an elixir! I’ve never even seen one!”

“Yeah! I’ve never even heard of such a magical instrument,” Patrick chimed in. “I’m sure it’s still lying somewhere deep in a dungeon, completely undisturbed!”

We both worked together to try and perk Lemn up. A more chipper expression flashed across the boy’s face.

“Really?! Yay!” Lemn enthused. “I bet you have no idea how incredible an elixir is! Let’s go fetch it right away!”

And so, we were off on a trip to obtain an elixir. But I knew something that the other two didn’t—elixirs weren’t really that useful. I decided to not say anything, though, for Lemn’s sake. He bounced with an excitement that matched his childlike appearance.

◆◆◆

We had left the mansion behind, and soon enough, we found ourselves inside a dungeon. Patrick and I followed behind Lemn, who was leading the way enthusiastically. We had come here to obtain an elixir, as part of our plans to go up against my other self.

The dungeon in question was very close to the Royal Capital in Valschein. There were two dungeons near the Royal Capital, and this one was the more difficult to clear of the two. It was also known as “the hidden dungeon,” and I had visited it from time to time while I was a student. Members of the military, adventurers, and students of the Academy usually visited the lower-level dungeon, which left this one comparatively empty, making it convenient to use. Patrick had also done a lot of level grinding in this dungeon while he was a student, and now he, too, was nearing level 99.

It’s not the most efficient dungeon... Wait, hold on. Patrick wasn’t even level 10 when he entered the Academy. He mainly did his level grinding in this dungeon, and he’s already around level 90? I wonder exactly how much EXP you need to reach level 99. Considering how fast Patrick has been leveling up...that suggests that there’s a chance that I reached max level way before I got to the Academy. Was all the work I put in as a child just a waste of time...? No, I should stop thinking about it. It’s not good for my mental health.

It had been only a few hours since Lemn had described both the elixir and its location, and we had decided to go and fetch it at once. We traveled quickly towards the Royal Capital, and soon enough, we were traversing the dungeon’s depths.

“Man, Sanon is so stingy,” Lemn grumbled. “She can go anywhere as long as the sun is out, so she could’ve just transported us.”

“Teleportation is such a useful skill. Is there any way that I could learn it?” I looked hopefully at the god of darkness.

“Why do you keep wanting the abilities of the gods, miss?”

“It’s not something only I want,” I protested. “I’m sure most people would want such useful abilities if they could learn them.”

As we talked, we continued to progress deeper into the dungeon. Lemn apparently knew the shortest way to the deepest level, and he marched forward without any hesitation.

The only slight impediments were the monsters that appeared during our journey. The enemies completely ignored Lemn as if he weren’t even there, and they instead came straight for Patrick and me. I’d always known that monsters only attacked humans, but seeing it in action really made the fact that Lemn was a god sink in.

We were now close to the deepest level.

“Yumiella,” Patrick whispered to me. “You once told me that the boss here was dangerous, but you never told me what it is.”

“Did I really say that?”

“You definitely did. You said that I shouldn’t fight the boss here, no matter what.”

If I was correctly recalling the content of the game, the boss here was a giant golem. It was one of the strongest enemies in terms of its defense against both physical and magic attacks, but its attack and speed were low. It wasn’t particularly dangerous, it just took forever to take down, which made it a bad fit for level grinding. It didn’t have great drops either, which made this dungeon less appealing overall.

Oh, right... Now I remember. That’s why I told him not to go up against it.

“I did say that. But I didn’t warn you off because the monster is strong; it’s because its defense is too high. It’s inefficient for level grinding.”

“That’s...a very Yumiella-like response.”

“That’s not the first time you’ve said that. Is it supposed to be a compliment?”

Patrick paused and glanced at me in a way that was difficult for me to interpret. “It’s a compliment...” he said finally.

I guess it’s a compliment, so I’ll let this one go, I thought to myself as a monster popped out from behind a corner and I took it out with a roundhouse kick.

We continued, progressing smoothly without any major issues, and within an hour or so, we were able to reach the entrance to the boss’s lair on the fiftieth floor.

Before heading in, I decided to check something with Lemn first.

“Will we get the elixir by defeating the boss here?”

“I can manipulate the drop rates within the dungeon, so we’ll definitely get it,” he assured me.

“That’s good to hear. I don’t want to have to go through this multiple times.”

“I’ll leave the boss to you two, though. I’m sure you’ll be fine, seeing how you two have fared up to this point.”

In the game, the elixir wasn’t a guaranteed drop. I’d found that out after clearing the main story of the game and spending some time farming this dungeon in preparation for the Yumiella battle. After being terribly irritated by the boss’s high defense, I finally obtained an elixir.

The elixir could fully recover the HP and MP of a member of your party. It was very rare to have an item that could in a single turn fully heal a character that had hit zero HP and fainted. When I fought against the unreasonably strong hidden boss, I hadn’t wanted to slip up and use the elixir at the wrong moment—and because of my cautious attitude, I ended up defeating Yumiella without using the elixir at all. That was all the elixir was: a fancy recovery item that frugal people like me couldn’t bear to use.

I shrugged these thoughts away. “Well then, let’s head in.”

The doors to the boss’s lair opened, and what awaited us inside was a large golem, sitting squarely in the back of the room. It appeared to be made out of some sort of metal, and it was obvious that it had maxed out its defense. The golem sensed the approaching intruders, and one of its eyes began to glow.

“Yeah, that does look like a difficult enemy,” Patrick lamented.

“Leave it to me! I have an idea.” I had a trick up my sleeve to defeat the golem.

While this world seemed like one you’d find in a simplistic number-crunching RPG, it was much more nuanced in reality. Battles weren’t fought by shaving down a straightforward stat like HP—they were actual fights to the death. Hitting your opponent’s weak point was an important and effective battle strategy.

There was no need to slowly chip away at the golem’s armor plates, shining dimly in the low light of the boss lair. Our true targets were the monster’s joints. Because of how its armor was constructed, we could take advantage of the gaps between the plates in those areas. The segment that connected its head to its torso appeared to be its weakest point.

The golem will probably stop moving right away if we cut off its head. Even if it turns out it can still move without a head, its movement should be pretty restricted by that point; its eyes are in its head, after all. Sure, those big anime robots can keep fighting if you take out the main cameras in their heads, but I bet a golem can’t do the same.

As I stalked slowly towards the metal giant, Patrick called out to me from behind. “Do you want to use my sword?”

“My bare hands will be fine. This requires precision.” I had left my own sword at home, but I wasn’t sure if I could accurately hit the golem’s weak point with a weapon, so my bare hands would be fine. Actually, they were preferable.

The golem looked down at me from its towering height. I stared at its massive arm as the boss slowly lifted it into an attack position, and I thought about how I might reach its neck. This looked like a job for my partner.

Our thoughts and hearts are so connected, we should be able to perform combination moves on the spot.

“Patrick! We’re going for a combo move!”

“A what...?” He looked at me blankly. My hopes were dashed. We couldn’t do it.

C’mon, man, I thought in exasperation as I turned back to the golem just in time to find its arm swinging down. I stopped the gigantic arm from crushing me, holding it back with one hand while I discussed the plan with Patrick.

“Our combo move!” I reminded him. “It’s that thing where you raise the ground up and I jump off it.”

“If that’s what you wanted you should’ve said so,” Patrick grumbled. “Use your words, Yumiella.”

“Yeah, you’re right, sorry.”

All right, let’s take it from the top.

I pushed the golem back and called out once more, “Patrick!”

“Got it.” Patrick cast an earth-magic spell, making the stone floor in just the small area I was standing rise up, so quickly that I was taller than the golem almost at once.

As soon as my specially made launchpad stopped rising, I leaped up towards the ceiling with my own strength...and came to an abrupt halt when my head crashed straight through the ceiling with the force of my momentum.

“Mister...” Lemn craned his neck upwards to contemplate my legs dangling down. “What is she trying to do?”

Patrick sighed audibly. “I don’t know.”

I could hear Lemn and Patrick’s exasperated voices below, muffled only slightly by the stone surrounding my head.

That wasn’t something I should’ve done in a dungeon, I reflected as I tried to pull my head out of the ceiling. I’ll try it again one day. I think it might be a useful strategy if I’m up against a strong enemy that’s airborne. I’ve decided that I am going to consider this to be part of the plan. Check out my smooth moves, I thought, twisting my body to the side and kicking off the ceiling.

I popped free of the hole I’d made, and I found myself falling in a straight line towards the golem’s head. The golem’s slow reflexes prevented it from defending itself. My ultimate hand-sword, additionally strengthened by the speed of my fall, was going to pummel this golem right in the throat!

“Oops,” I muttered sheepishly. “I’m a bit off.” My finger, straight as a pin, had indeed ended up stabbed deep into the golem—but rather than striking the weak point at its throat, I had pierced its chest, where its armor appeared to be the thickest.

I pulled my hand out and landed gracefully on the ground, while the golem’s enormous body crashed down simultaneously behind me.

“Incredible,” Lemn said admiringly.

“No, I...” I attempted modesty, but it didn’t stick. “I mean, yeah, that’s just how strong I am.”

I was embarrassed at myself for spending so much time thinking about weak points and strategy when I’d ended up using none of them. I’d meant to fight this battle with brains, but had ended up using nothing but brawn.

In my defense, it’s partially the golem’s fault too. How pathetic of it to die right away after getting poked by the bare finger of a mere human. The highest level of defense? What a joke. Is the golem too weak, or am I too strong? What a hollow victory.

“Let’s go home, then,” I sighed.

“Huh?” Lemn said, confused. “You just want the one?”

“There’s more than one elixir?!”

I had thought that an elixir was a unique item, with only a single one in existence. However, it appeared from Lemn’s reaction that it was just that its drop rate was incredibly low, which meant that I maybe could have gotten several in the game as well.

“There are a total of seven elixirs,” Lemn said, holding up seven fingers to underline his point. “I can ensure that they drop every time, so let’s do six more rounds. With your strength, miss, this will take no time at all.”

“Are there really only seven?”

Lemn paused. “I wouldn’t lie,” he said at last. “That’s the truth.”

Well, that means there are definitely more than seven. Well, even if there are, they’re still rare. I’m not surprised that this suspicious god would refuse to give us all of them. But seven is more than enough. Let’s not dig too deep into this and just prepare for the next round.

◆◆◆

Our seven rounds of farming the dungeon ended quickly with minimal fuss. We memorized the route and sprinted to the deepest level. It was quick—almost too quick.

Patrick even took down the boss by himself three times. He had aimed for its joints—first immobilizing its hands, then its feet, and then landing a final blow at the place where the armor connected around its neck. He had done exactly what I’d intended to do as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

It’s fine, I assured myself. I’m not upset or anything.

With that, we had obtained everything we’d come here for, and so we headed home right away.

Since we had departed on our impromptu dungeon expedition in the early morning, it was still only a little past noon. I called for some tea to refresh us during our well-deserved break, and I took a meditative sip as I studied the elixirs.

The seven clear jars were laid on the table. They were made of glass so thin and delicate that I felt like I might break one just by holding one in my hand. On top of that, the bottles were so unnaturally transparent that when illuminated by a strong enough light, they seemed to disappear altogether. Finally, as for the contents themselves, the containers appeared to be completely empty.

“Um, there’s nothing in these,” I observed.

“That’s how they’re supposed to be,” Lemn explained. “An elixir isn’t something you drink like a potion.”

“Hm? Are elixirs items for recovery, then?” Patrick asked.

Oh, he doesn’t know what elixirs are.

I had my knowledge from the game, but I didn’t know any details about elixirs, since I’d never actually ended up using any. But I knew that they were consumed in a manner similar to the several other kinds of potions in the game by inputting the command “Use,” so I had simply assumed that they were also liquids.

Lemn held up a translucent elixir and explained, a little smugly, “The elixir is, simply put, a resurrection item. It’s a versatile medicine that heals even the dead, bringing them back to life. It is an exception beyond all other exceptions to the laws of the world.”

“What?! It can revive the dead?!” I was truly shocked.

In the game, reaching zero HP caused a character to faint. This represented the idea that they were in a critical state, just shy of dying without further treatment. I had thought that elixirs would be useless to me because I could simply heal myself with my endless supply of mana, but being able to revive someone from death utterly changed things. That meant I could die and come back to life seven times. It wasn’t some berserk number of lives like twelve, but it was still a respectable number.

“There are requirements for it to be effective, of course. It needs to be used right after you die... I think you’d have a window of a couple hours at most. Also, you need at least a part of the person you’re resurrecting.”

“A part of the person?”

“It means it won’t work if they’ve been completely annihilated. For instance, that spell you like to use, Black Hole, would be pure annihilation.”

“If that’s the case, I’m not too sure this would be an effective recovery item against the other Yumiella,” Patrick said with a bitter expression.

I can’t believe the other me is using magic that makes resurrection impossible... My alternate self is so evil and outrageous. I feel like it’s going to be just like in the game, and we’ll end up not using any of our elixirs for one reason or another.

“That’s why we should just set aside a part of you beforehand,” Lemn said with a toothy grin.

“Patrick, I’m going to cut off your arm, so don’t move!” I announced, standing abruptly and advancing towards him.

Patrick leaped up. “Back off! You’re not totally joking, are you?! Don’t come near me!” He began inching nervously backwards.

Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of your arm and keep it safe in case anything happens. And I’ll stare at your beloved arm each night as I fall asleep. It might even be nice to hold your disembodied hand as I drift off to sleep, or maybe I could try using it as a literal arm-pillow. 

I smiled at Patrick blissfully. “We’ll be together...forever.”

“Gah!”

Patrick continued to put distance between us, the blood draining from his face.

“Hey, why are you running? Hey? Why, why, why, why, why?”

Maybe I took things too far. I guess that’s enough of pretending to be a psycho killer girlfriend. 

“Come on, I’m obviously joking,” I said soothingly. “You got way too scared.”

“The look in your eyes made it seem very real...” Patrick said, his voice trembling a little. “I think you have the potential to do something like that...”

“Me too,” Lemn chimed in. “That was the most scared I’ve ever been of you.”

Huh, I didn’t know that I had such a talent for terror. I feel like I’ve discovered something new about myself, but I’m not even a little bit happy about it, I thought, returning to my seat.

“So,” I said, coming back to the original question, “what do you mean by setting aside parts of us?”

“Nothing as horrific as what you suggested. Hair counts as a part of you, you know?”

I see, so I can come back to life just by setting aside some of my hair.

Patrick, returning from the far corner of the room he’d fled to, sat back down.

“Hair is fine,” he sighed. “We should each keep some just in case.”

He reached for his tea. Right as he brought the cup to his lips to take a drink, I quickly leaned over the table, grabbed some of his hair, and yanked it out.

“Yoink!”

“Ow!”

The hair was obtained—I clutched a hefty chunk of gray strands in my hand. However, the shock of this sudden assault on his head had caused Patrick to drop his teacup. The high-pitched sound of shattering china rang out.

“Oh no, why’d you do that, Patrick?” I scolded.

“You’re blaming me?” he said, glaring at me, blinking back tears of pain as he pressed his hand to his head.

Uh, sorry for taking too much. But you could just yank out my hair too; it won’t hurt me a single bit...

Before I could give voice to a proper retort, Lemn pointed at the broken teacup. “Why not try fixing that with an elixir?”

“What? It’s a teacup.”

“You’d be reviving a piece of earthenware that is, for all intents and purposes, dead. It’ll be a piece of cake.”

I didn’t realize that the concepts of life and death applied to inanimate objects. Naturally, pouring a potion onto a broken item wouldn’t do anything. Since an elixir could work on inanimate objects, this more than anything else made it clear that, since an elixir wasn’t something that was ingested, it was best to think of it as something entirely different from a potion.

Lemn handed me one of the small jars, and I looked down at the scattered shards of the teacup.

“What should I do with this?” I asked.

“Try filling it with magical energy,” Lemn responded. “Focus your mind on the teacup, as if you’re casting a spell.”

“This is a single-use item, right...? This feels like a waste.”

“It’s important to practice how to use it before you really need to.”

He had a point. Our backs would be up against the wall once we were in a situation where we needed to use an elixir. It would be good to practice using it so we could act swiftly in such a case. Plus, even if we used one now, we’d still have six left.

Just as Lemn had instructed, I slowly started pouring my magical energy into the elixir. I stared at the shards of the teacup and silently chanted a command for it to be repaired.

The effects took place immediately. The small jar in my hands began to shine, and the beams of light that poured out arced towards each shard. They floated upwards, and the pieces came together in midair like a puzzle, reforming the teacup. Returned to wholeness, the cup silently deposited itself atop the table, and the elixir simultaneously exploded into tiny pieces in my hand, sparkling as it dissolved into thin air.

Oh, what a waste. 

Patrick, who was closest to it, reached out to examine the cup.

“It’s completely fixed,” he said, turning it over in his hands. “You can’t even see the seams.”

“Wow, that’s neat.”

“But... This is...”

What is perplexing him so much? I wondered as I looked over at the teacup once more. I realized what was strange right away. There was steam billowing out of it—the teacup was filled with hot tea.

“Why is there tea in there?” I asked, dumbfounded. “Also, was it even that hot? It’s like it was just poured.”

“It was less than half full, and I remember it being a little cooled down too.”

It appeared that the elixir had not only revived the cup, but the tea inside it as well.

Is this how it’s supposed to work? Is this a feature, not a bug?

I gave Lemn a questioning look, and he responded with one of his affable smiles.

“Even if you regenerate the flesh, a dead body won’t be revived without the soul,” he explained. “It’s only a true resurrection once you return the insides, not just the container, right? This is the power of an elixir.”

Though Lemn spoke of this as being the true meaning of resurrection, it put me in mind of something else entirely.

Rather than resurrection, this is more like the item that triggers...

“Time trave—” I cut myself off, not wanting to derail the afternoon by having to explain something else from my past life. “Never mind, it’s nothing. The result is the same anyways.”

This wasn’t quite what I’d been expecting from the elixir, but its effects were more than satisfactory. It would be best if we didn’t have to use one, of course, but it was nothing but reassuring to have six of them just in case something went wrong.

I’ll have to collect hair from Eleanora and everyone else in the mansion later. As for Ryuu... I think if I peel off a scale, that should work.

“Be careful,” Lemn cautioned. “The bigger and the more complicated whatever you’re trying to resurrect is, the more mana you’ll need to use.”

“Understood.”

The amount of mana I’d needed to regenerate the teacup had been minuscule, but it made sense that reviving a person would use much more mana. I’d never been in trouble because of a lack of mana, so not having enough magical energy likely wasn’t something I would have to worry too much about. What concerned me was whether a situation in which we’d need to use an elixir would be one where we could actually use it. If we were to get wiped out completely, there would be no one left to use it—and we would need to actually have an elixir on hand in the first place. After having used one in our teacup experiment, we now had six left. Having them all in the same place would be too risky, so I wasn’t sure what to do with them all.

“How should we divide up these six elixirs?” I wondered aloud. “First, Patrick and I can each take one, then...”

“I can hold on to them, if you’d like,” Lemn volunteered. “You don’t have to worry about them disappearing if they’re inside a shadow, and I can bring them to you right away.”

“Hmm...” I considered his offer, then nodded. “I guess I’ll leave them to you, then.” I was admittedly a little worried about letting Lemn hold on to them, but it’s not like we needed all six at once, so it was probably fine. He could take charge of the other four.

Lemn grabbed the remaining jars on the table, handling them none too delicately, and tossed them into a nearby shadow.

Man, that ability looks so useful. I’m jealous.

“So, now that healing’s out of the way...” I shifted the subject to my next concern about the battle ahead. “Do you have something like a really strong weapon? That’s what I was expecting.”

“Hm...” Lemn thought, tilting his head to the side. “I have a bunch of things, but I feel like you’re stronger just using your bare hands.”

I thought we were going to be rolling in legendary swords and stuff when he said we were going to gather up dungeon-made weapons. But weapons like holy swords probably wouldn’t agree with my constitution. I could probably use something like a sword of evil, though.

After a moment lost in thought, Lemn turned back to me and said, “I can’t think of anything offhand that you could use... Do you have anything in mind that you’d want?”

Something I want? Well, I shouldn’t ask for something too ridiculous and cause this god any trouble, I thought, as I began creating a mental wish list of things that might just exist.

“I want a sword that shoots out a beam of light when I’m at full health.”

“I don’t have anything like that. That’s not even a real sword.”

“What about an arrow that can awaken a hidden ability if you survive being shot by it?”

“No... What does that even mean?”

“Then I’ll just take a transformation belt.”

“I don’t have that either... What are all of those things?”

What the hell, don’t you have anything cool? I made sure to suggest things that had a good chance of existing in a world like this. On top of that, three of my dreams that I’ve secretly harbored have been utterly crushed. This is truly not what I expected. I’m so disappointed. 

As I stood there, deeply saddened, Patrick asked, “What about that sword? The one you already have.”

“Oh, that one...” I dismissed it. “I think it’s just a sturdy sword.”

Patrick was referring to my beloved dark-type sword. The sword, which I had obtained after numerous rounds of dungeon farming, was indeed rare because it was a dark-type item. However, the primary advantage of an elemental weapon was that it allowed the wielder to attack with an element that they couldn’t otherwise use. A dark-type sword wasn’t very beneficial to me as a dark magic user.

That sword... Where did I put it? I know it’s somewhere in my room.

Lemn looked confused, being unaware of the sword we were talking about.

“‘That sword’? What are you talking about?”

“Let me bring it out.” Since he was here, I decided to have Lemn appraise it. I got up and went to my room to grab the sword.

After several minutes of rummaging, I found it collecting dust at the bottom of my closet. Sword in hand, I returned to the room where Patrick and Lemn waited. It had taken a while to locate it—I’d forgotten that I’d tried to stash it somewhere that Eleanora couldn’t find it.

“I’ve brought it.”

I showed Lemn the sword, which was completely black from its handle to its sheath. The boy god’s face went completely blank. He squinted at the blade in my hands.

“Are those gardening shears...?”

What does he mean by gardening shears? I thought, my gaze following his out of curiosity, tracing the blade with my eyes.

The sword itself was a standard bastard sword—the kind that was shorter than a two-handed sword, but longer than a one-handed sword. I only used it one-handed.

“They’re not shears, are they?” I asked, feeling oddly anxious about the status of my sword.

“This... Where did you get this?” Lemn demanded.

“From the dungeon in Valius... Is it something I shouldn’t have?”

“Well, that’s not really the issue. There should be no problem with humans using it... But does it work okay? It doesn’t have the key either.” Lemn’s voice gradually became quieter, as if he was unsure of what he was saying.

I had been using the sword for quite a while, but my only impression of it was that it was a perfectly normal sword, albeit one that was durable enough to withstand my strength. I gripped the handle and unsheathed it, wanting to give the blade a look as well.

Lemn fell abruptly out of his chair and began crawling backwards.

“Hey!” he protested. “That’s dangerous!”

“Oh, sorry.” I’d never seen such an intense reaction from him before.

Is this sword really that dangerous?

“It’s rare to see a dark-type sword, but it’s really an ordinary weapon besides that,” I reassured him. “Can you at least tell me a little bit about it? You must know something.”

“That sword is not something that should exist in this world. It must have slipped into this world from someplace else.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Like I said before, there shouldn’t be any problems with a regular human using it,” Lemn said, speaking slowly, as if carefully choosing each word. “I knew of its existence, but this is my first time actually seeing it.”

It appeared that I had managed to obtain an item that shouldn’t have dropped in the dungeon at all, perhaps through some bug. I had thought that I was unlucky in my dungeon drops, but maybe I was actually incredibly lucky.

“So... What exactly is this sword?” I asked, hoping for an answer as direct as my question.

This god seemed to only disclose information when it would be helpful for him, so getting him to say anything useful about this sword was going to be quite the chore. If it was safe, I would keep using it as I’d been doing. If it was dangerous, I needed to take the proper steps to handle it, like putting it somewhere high up where my dear Eleanora couldn’t reach it.

Oh wait, I can just hide it at the top of my closet.

“That sword is...” Lemn said solemnly, beginning to speak as soon as I had reached this important conclusion. “It’s a sacred instrument used to manage the world...or rather, all of the parallel worlds. It’s a sword that can cut away unnecessary worlds, like pruning excess branches. This blade is literally god’s gardening shears... A sword that’s really a secateur.”

“A secateur...”

“A god that ranks above me is supposed to have possession of this sword. I think it will remain a regular sword for as long as you don’t have the key that unleashes its power.”

“What...?” I asked, awed.

“Yeah... It’s something much too big for a human to have. If you like, I can hold on to it,” Lemn offered, misconstruing my feelings.

“I can’t...” My eyes glazed over a little as I contemplated the sword. “If I have something as powerful as this, my inner middle schooler will be awakened. Heh, heh heh...” A strange laugh slipped through my lips.

Come on. Gardening shears that cut off worlds? A sword whose power can only be unleashed with a hidden key? Secateur? This is bad. I thought being an edgelord was like the measles: if you get it once, you develop immunity. Apparently that isn’t the case. The disease of being an edgelord is more like the flu, with countless strains.

Chill out, me, I admonished myself. You’re going to end up creating some embarrassing memories at this age. There’s already one bard out there spreading the story of an edgelord that’s based off you. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. Okay... I’m all right now.

“I’m okay,” I said, nodding reassuringly to Patrick and Lemn, who were giving me some serious side-eye after hearing my creepy laugh. “I’ll be able to suppress the curse.”

“Um... I don’t really understand, but good luck with that,” Lemn responded doubtfully.

“You’re thinking something ridiculous again, aren’t you, Yumiella?” Patrick asked, seeing right through me like he always did.

You know... What I said just now also made me sound like an edgelord.

As I struggled to keep a creepy grin from reappearing on my face, Lemn pointed at the sword, seeming a little frightened.

“I’ll hold on to that, then... Okay?”

“There’s a part of me that still wants to have it...” I protested. “I might need it in a dire situation.”

“If I hold on to it, you won’t have to have it on you at all times.”

Lemn’s offer made sense too. If I was going to leave it at the top of my closet anyway, I might as well have the god of darkness carry it, so he could hand it to me at any moment.

The thing is, Lemn seems like he’ll only give it to me in an emergency, instead of handing it over whenever I ask for it. 

As I agonized over what to do, Lemn continued to push me to bequeath the sword to him. Lemn was probably being so aggressive because he wanted to be the one to watch over something so dangerous.

“Hmm...” I considered.

“I can pop it out of my shadow instantly,” Lemn wheedled.

Pop it out of his shadow? I can see it now, me calling out to him, “Lemn!” He appears right beside me, and he whispers, “Summon authorized,” and his shadow begins shaking, and the secateur appears. No, no, wait, it should be a more elaborate performance. He should manipulate the shadows, and make it look like the sword is being pulled out from his body; that would be super cool. I’m so inspired by this idea.

“I’ll leave it with you,” I finally agreed. “But under one condition.”

“What is it...?”

“I would like you to do a special performance whenever you take it out.”

Lemn was silent for a moment before finally saying, “Leave it to me!”

Since he agreed, I handed the sword over to him right away. I should have known then—that he had enthusiastically responded without knowing what he’d agreed to.