303

Chapter 303: Proof (8)

The Inquisitor choked back a breath as she watched the Meister barely keep the man alive. Hic, hhk. Tears and mucus continued streaming down her reddened cheeks and dripping onto the ground.

“You really do look ugly when you cry….”

“Waaaaaah.”

“Oh, stop squeezing out all that juice. You’re going to get dehydrated at this rate!”

Watching her, Deathbringer wiped her face with the lining of his cloak. His touch was anything but gentle. His hand grew rougher in proportion to all the resentment he had accumulated toward the Inquisitor, and he used even more force.

The Inquisitor’s face was squashed out of shape.

“We didn’t bring any water.”

“I—I waaAAAAAH.”

Oh, seriously. Seeing her burst into tears again, Deathbringer took his cloak off altogether. The area coated in tears and snot was too wide to keep using it.

“Demon Kniiiight!”

“I can’t even cry because of you, seriously….”

That said, the face revealed beneath his cloak was far from normal either.

Though not as bad as the Inquisitor, the tip of his nose and the rims of his eyes were red as he sniffed. It was all out of worry for the Demon Knight.

“Both of you shut up before I kill this guy by botching the treatment. I can’t concentrate with all that noise.”

“Hhk.”

“Fff—”

But the most powerful person here right now was none other than the Meister.

At that one remark, the two covered each other’s mouths. They had no choice, because the Meister seemed like someone who really might kill him just because they were being noisy. They had to save the Demon Knight first.

“Haah, this is a damned mess….”

While the two of them desperately clamped their mouths shut, the Meister, who was administering the bare minimum of first aid, felt slightly exasperated as well. It was nothing much—just the exasperation of seeing no way to keep the Demon Knight alive.

“I think we need to bring a mage capable of healing magic.”

After all, how were they supposed to mend someone whose arms and legs had been mangled when they had neither proper tools nor medicine?

Worse, it was not merely his arms and legs that had been destroyed. There was a penetrating wound in his abdomen, and the rest of his body was covered in ominous injuries as well. This was far, far beyond anything that could be resolved through ordinary measures.

He remained alive now only because he was tenacious, not because of anything the Meister had done. There was absolutely nothing more they could do here.

“Th-then….”

“Get on the horses, go straight back to the wall, and bring several mages. Honestly, that’s the only option.”

Of course, there was a high chance he would die before they could return with the mages. A round trip would take approximately thirty minutes, and the Demon Knight did not look capable of surviving thirty minutes in his present state.

But if they moved the Demon Knight to the wall from here? His organs would be jostled so badly that his own bones would pierce them and kill him. In the end, this was their best option.

“A-all ri—”

“You go too. If we send her alone, she obviously won’t be able to explain properly, and if you go alone, a demon might get you.”

“…Y-yes.”

“And you, put up a wall before you leave. I don’t want to die to a demon.”

“…B-but then the Demon Knight….”

“It’s fine. I put the items that let Divine Power pass through on him.”

The Meister hurriedly drove them away, then continued winding bandages and spreading medicine over the wounds.

His face had lost so much color from excessive blood loss that it looked like a plaster cast—like a corpse—but fortunately, his chest was still rising and falling. The Meister wiped away the sweat that had begun to flow for no apparent reason.

“If you survive, it might be worthwhile to study the tenacious vitality of Mana users.”

No, had all the research on that already been completed in the North? The Meister had never so much as glanced through a paper on biological research, so they had no idea whether it had been published.

Muttering to themself, the Meister popped the cap off the hemostatic agent.

“In any case, surviving comes first.”

Then they poured the agent liberally over his crushed leg.

Even if he survived, that leg was beyond saving. Healing magic had not yet reached the realm of regenerating limbs, and because of his physical characteristics, he could not receive a priest’s divine healing.

Even amid all this, the Meister’s mind continued to assess reality with cold precision.

[Right. Everything has to begin with surviving.]

“…….”

But when the man who had been dying with vacant, unfocused eyes suddenly spoke perfectly well, the Meister recoiled by reflex.

Click. At the same time, the Meister drew a multipurpose knife modified so it could be used in any number of ways.

“What are you?”

[Well. Who do you think?]

Two gazes crossed and became thickly entangled.

—Well. Who do you think?

I let out a deep sigh as I watched the demon bastard start acting like an asshole the moment it got outside.

Maybe I shouldn’t have let it out. Should I have just gone out myself? Those quiet regrets came as an added bonus.

「W-will it be all right…?」

“I’m watching. It’ll know not to overdo it.”

I had even stopped the last resort it tried earlier, and there was also the contract through which I could rein it in at any time. Surely it would not try anything else.

With that thought, I briefly recalled what had just happened. It began the moment I lost consciousness after saying, ‘I want to go home.’

“Ah.”

First, at the moment I thought I had died, I opened my eyes again within the mental world. Why hadn’t I gone back? It was only natural that the question came to mind.

I felt around for my heart and kept examining my surroundings to determine whether I had died and returned. Honestly, I was rather pissed off, too. You said I’d go back if I died. You said I’d go back if I died!!

「…The bomb didn’t explode.」

What quelled my anger was the boy’s statement as he bound the demon with chain after chain. [You XXXing XXXXX, I’ll XXXX—] The demon shackled in those chains was unleashing a torrent of obscenities too foul to convey.

The boy and I ignored her completely.

“It didn’t explode?”

「…No.」

“That’s impossible.”

Fierce White Wind had guaranteed that this creation would make my heart explode the instant I said the keyword ‘I want to go home’ aloud. So why? Nothing had happened that could have damaged it, and even if something had, I had received repairs promptly. Why?

Even during the Bemurchen incident, it had stayed safely inside my inventory alongside the orb and consequently had not suffered so much as a scratch, so why in the world?!

「I-I don’t know.」

But neither the boy nor I had any way to identify the cause. Feeling utterly deflated, I flopped down. So this was the ferryboat. Only then did my surroundings enter the range of my awareness. I was in a small ferryboat floating upon a sea of blood.

“…And the reason I still can’t go back is?”

「Because you haven’t died yet….」

“Is that so?”

I had lost that much fucking blood, and I still had not bled to death? And the Inquisitor had not cut my throat yet either?

I sat up again with deeply complicated feelings about the latter fact. I wondered if perhaps I had recited the chest protector’s keyword incorrectly and considered trying it again.

But every attempt to awaken outside ended with me being repelled by a crushing drowsiness. It was the same no matter how many times I tried.

So it was impossible. The moment I reached that realization, I simply gave up on waking outside. Death showed no sign of arriving easily and merely kept our hearts tense as we waited.

[…]

Around then, the demon also gave up thrashing and lay flat. The boy, who had been watching doubtfully, sat down while still gripping the chains. Faust’s eyes were rimmed in red, but not a single tear had fallen.

“Faust.”

「…Yes.」

“Come here.”

「……!」

This feels oddly anticlimactic. With that stray thought, I pulled Faust toward me.

It was consideration for a boy who might soon die, so he could feel warmth at least at the end of his life. I still resented him, but that did not mean I wanted even the child’s death to be lonely.

“…Hey.”

「…Yes.」

“If I die like this, I’ll wake up in reality immediately, right?”

Yes. No matter how badly you wronged me, at least the end of your life was allowed to be warm.

「…Yes. You’ll wake up immediately.」

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“Exactly as I was when I logged into the game?”

「…Probably not. Time passes there as well, even if the flow of time is different.」

“…Time is passing there too? How much?”

「The flow of time isn’t set to a fixed ratio, so….」

Still cradled in my arms, the child raised one hand and repeatedly curled and uncurled his fingers. It looked as though he was counting numbers.

「Um….」

It seemed he was not very good at calculating. While the child worked out the answer, I blankly surveyed the mental world. Perhaps it rose according to the severity of my injuries, because the sea of blood was gradually growing deeper. I also saw the demon bound in chains and bobbing atop another small boat.

「Not quite two weeks…?」

“Two weeks.”

I had been estimating why death was taking so long, but my brow furrowed slightly. The period was shorter than I had expected.

“But my body should be inside the capsule…?”

Yet whether that could be called entirely good news was debatable.

An issue I had thought of long ago, right after realizing I was trapped in the game, stabbed at me. My eyebrows rose automatically, and my frown deepened.

“…Isn’t my body dead?”

「N-no.」

Had the people around me discovered my body before it died of malnutrition or dehydration?

At the words I muttered instinctively, the child recoiled in horror and shook his head wildly. The last traces of baby fat on his cheeks and his disheveled hair trembled.

「Your physical body is protected by the contract. It will not suffer any harm even without a separate supply of nutrients, or even if it is subjected to physical impact.」

“…Oh.”

That was at least decent news—though perhaps it was only a natural precaution.

Along with the thought that it might throw the medical world into chaos, I felt a measure of relief. It was the reassurance I could not help feeling as a human being.

[…They’re treating you. The people around this body are treating it.]

But while we braced ourselves for death and waited, the situation changed slightly.

“…Are they?”

[Yes. The Hero is even leaving to bring back someone who can treat you.]

I cast a displeased look at the elated demon, then saw the indescribable expression of the boy in my arms and finally sighed.

“But can I actually survive that? I feel like I’ll bleed to death first.”

[If I go out…]

“What difference does it make if you go out? You still need Mana to recover, don’t you?”

[…We can replenish the Mana by offering sacrifices.]

I see. Offering sacrifices replenishes Mana.

“You think I’ll allow that?”

My gaze turned icy. [Just hear me out.] What followed was the demon lapsing into servile mode again. Only after she groveled again and again and even renewed the contract did she receive the chance to go out that had led to the present moment.

—Don’t look at me like that. I’m fucking miserable too.

“That bastard, seriously….”

I narrowed my eyes as I watched the demon take its frustration out on the Meister. Should I tell it to come back right now?

「……」

…Damn it. I’ll overlook it one more time.

Watching Faust observe the demon with his body curled up, I inwardly repeated the character for patience once again. If the bastard wasted any more time, I would not let it go. That resolve was carved into me alongside the word patience.

“The fuck is this?”

Meanwhile, the Meister narrowed their eyes at the Demon Knight standing before them and declaring that this was fucking miserable.

They had not known him for especially long, but they knew perfectly well that the Demon Knight was not the kind of person who spoke that way.

[How can this be? O ancient magic, how can this be? How could you saddle me with an idiot like this…?]

“I asked what you are.”

[Don’t rush me, Gretchen. Do you think I have any other options right now?]

“…….”

[This is wretched. So wretched. Why must I be reduced to this…?]

Should I kill this thing? The Meister briefly contemplated it while staring at the entity—whether Demon Knight or demon, they could not tell—that did nothing but say whatever it wanted.

“…Meister.”

But fortunately for someone, the thought was never put into action. The red in the other party’s eyes had faded.

The Meister instinctively realized that the owner of those eyes was the being they knew.

“What?”

“…I intend to regenerate my body by borrowing the demon’s power.”

“Is it like that wager you made before?”

“…I’m not sure. Rather than a wager… it is closer to our wishes coinciding and the two of us temporarily joining forces.”

“Why didn’t you do it earlier?”

At that question, the Demon Knight slowly exhaled. The situation evidently was difficult for him; the words came one syllable at a time, slow enough to seem rather comical, yet entirely understandable.

“…Temporary or not, joining hands with a demon in front of a priest would be strange.”

True. From what the Meister had heard, the Inquisitor had initially said she had to kill him because he was a demon. It would have been awkward to join hands and play patty-cake with a demon right in front of her.

The Meister understood the Demon Knight’s excuse at once.

“Then that thing that popped out just now must have been the demon.”

“…Yes.”

“Good. I don’t care, so do what you need to do.”

“Then step back. You’ll be caught in it.”

The Meister retreated as far as the barrier of Divine Power. The Demon Knight’s eyes, which had been gray, soon turned red again, and white mucus rose through the gaps between the stones piled on the ground.

Sliiide.

The white mucus swirled across the ground like a maelstrom, then opened a pitch-black hole at its center.

Thump. Two long shadows soon shot out through the hole: one white sword and one ordinary longsword.

“Those are….”

The snow-white sword among them was easy to recognize. Naturally so, because the Meister had personally forged it.

It was a masterpiece completed by using Biryuho’s bone as its foundation and enchanting it with all manner of magic.

“Why do you have that?”

The Meister knew that Green Ears had once carried the two swords. But when they had awakened after losing consciousness in Bemurchen, the swords had been gone, so the Meister had assumed they had been lost in the disaster… Never had they imagined that the swords would appear here.

The Meister blinked.

[O ancient magic.]

Unfortunately, however, no one here was willing to satisfy their curiosity. Ignoring the Meister, the demon murmured an incantation.

[O supreme law, O scales of the universe, grant a rightful exchange.]

At that, the two longswords began to break apart, scattering into powder as though they were being disassembled. There was no need to think deeply about it. This was clearly some form of dismantling.

“Fuck.”

Do you have any idea how hard it was to make that?!

Watching their masterpiece dissolve into the air, the Meister spat out several thick curses.