Evil Avalon
In a corner of the school grounds, now dark after sunset.
When I turned around to ask how far I should escort him, Mamiya's eyes were gleaming. He released so much magical power that it filled my entire field of vision, creating a world of darkness.
The chirping insects, the faint bustle of the town, and the rustling of grass and trees that had been audible moments ago all vanished. In their place was a silence so profound it made my ears ring.
This was a phenomenon unique to barrier magic that blocked all external energy.
(A time-stop barrier, huh.)
A grand technique that halted time within a fixed area:
《Endless Prison》.
As its name implied, if your time was stopped, you would be forced into a completely defenseless state. It was an utterly vicious barrier spell.
Normally, such high-level magic couldn't be learned without raising one's level tremendously. However, people in this world occasionally acquired skills at random.
In Mamiya's case, 《Endless Prison》 was probably one of those random skills...
But this was cheating on an absurd level.
Putting aside why he had activated something so outrageous, I needed to deal with the dagger he was swinging toward my throat.
It was dangerous, after all.
I precisely pinched the tip of the blade between my fingers and knocked it away with my other hand.
"What exactly are you trying to do, Mamiya-san?"
"Oh? So this skill really doesn't work on you after all."
When I asked what the point of this little exchange was, Mamiya returned to his suspicious smile and picked up the dagger he had dropped.
As always, I had no clue what was going on in his head.
Would it kill him to explain things properly?
First, regarding the skill itself.
He had probably wanted to test whether time stop would work on me.
When he tried to point the dagger at my throat, I had clearly felt him observing my every movement.
There was no doubt about it.
The question was why he felt the need to test me in the first place.
"I have someone I want to kill... a Divine One. Before that, I wanted to see whether it would work on another Divine One like you."
"...Someone you want to kill? What kind of person are they?"
In this world, players were called Divine Ones.
Wanting to kill one was a rather dangerous thing to say.
Naturally, I wanted to know his reasons, but even more than that, I wanted to know which player he intended to kill.
If it was someone I knew, things could get complicated.
So I asked.
And he answered surprisingly easily.
"The Saintess who resides at the very heart of our nation's power structure. If this skill worked, I could have asked her to retire quite easily. But it seems that's not going to happen."
"..."
Mamiya sheathed his sword after unleashing a slash that made the air tremble—a strike completely different from the pathetic swing he had shown at my shop.
A moment later, the air burst with a delayed shockwave.
It was obvious that attack had been overflowing with killing intent.
And the name that had come out of his mouth was...
Not just unexpected.
It was wildly unexpected.
In this country, the Saintess wasn't merely a symbol of dungeon conquest.
She was also a special figure who protected the nation itself.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Japan commanded respect on the international stage because of her.
If someone were to harm her...
I couldn't even imagine how serious the consequences would be.
The organization Mamiya belonged to, Oboro, had the image of noble thieves in DunEx. However, they barely appeared in the story, so their ideology was largely unknown.
Could they actually be some anti-government group aiming to overturn the nation?
I probably should have tried asking about that, even indirectly.
But before that, there was something else I wanted to confirm.
"That's quite the story. But why do you think I'm the same kind of Divine One as the Saintess?"
"Because both of you possess knowledge that's far too abnormal. And your fighting style has the same incomprehensible quality as hers."
Apparently, all four Saintesses scattered throughout the world were famous for possessing vast amounts of knowledge that even the sages of the great adventurer nations couldn't comprehend.
They freely wielded bizarre magic and employed tactics nobody else could imitate.
After watching me fight, Mamiya had sensed that same kind of abnormality.
He was probably referring to the tactics I used with Aerial.
I couldn't deny that.
Anyone who fought like that was obviously a player.
At the same time, hearing that the Saintess was a player made a lot of things click into place for me as well.
Without game knowledge, smoothly conquering dungeons should have been impossible.
Likewise, obtaining jobs nobody else knew about would have been nearly impossible.
Looking at it objectively, she had to be a player.
In other words, just like me, the Saintess was probably one of the testers sent here during the major update.
But if that was true...
Why was there such a huge gap in arrival times?
Records of the Saintess existed as far back as the Taisho era.
That meant she had definitely been around for at least a hundred years.
There had to be some reason for that.
Whatever the reason, if a modern person accustomed to convenient technology had been thrown into this world a century ago, life must have been incredibly harsh.
And after spending over a hundred years here as a player...
What kind of personality would they develop?
I was curious.
But that wasn't important right now.
"So you used me as a stand-in for the Saintess and conducted a skill experiment."
"Of course I never intended to kill you. But could you tell me why it didn't work?"
"...Sure. It's because of this."
Mamiya casually admitted that he had only swung the dagger to see whether I would react if the time stop worked.
True, his movements had been slow, and I hadn't sensed any killing intent.
Still, if it had worked, I wasn't entirely convinced he would have stopped the blade in time.
What annoyed me even more was how shamelessly he asked why the skill had failed.
But this was a good opportunity.
To prevent any more pointless tricks, I pulled a small curled horn from my Magic Bag and revealed the answer.
"It's an item that nullifies all status effects. Time stop counts as a status effect, so it doesn't work on me. As for the Saintess, she probably has a status-effect immunity skill, so it wouldn't work on her either."
"What kind of horn is that?"
"A demon's horn. And before you ask, it's not for sale."
Alongside instant death and mind control, time stop was one of those terrifying skills that meant instant defeat if you had no countermeasure.
The only defense was a skill or item that protected against status effects.
The curled horn I had produced was a cheat item that automatically nullified all status effects just by carrying it.
In DunEx, it was so difficult to obtain that players traded it for astronomical prices.
Acquiring one through normal means in this world was probably impossible.
And yet...
For some reason, I happened to know a demon personally.
The moment I learned their horns naturally fell out and regrew, I had ordered them:
"Never throw them away. Save every single one."
As a result, I had plenty.
Still, the item was far too powerful.
I only intended to give them to people I truly trusted.
The man standing before me was someone whose motives remained completely unreadable.
For now, I would hold off.
"Hmm... if that's the case, defeating the Saintess is going to be difficult."
Mamiya stroked his chin, still releasing enormous amounts of black magical power while wearing an expression that suggested he wanted the horn.
Apparently, he had no intention of dispelling the barrier.
Since nothing outside could affect the interior without first destroying the barrier, he was probably maintaining it to prevent eavesdropping.
Honestly, I appreciated the caution.
If anyone overheard this conversation, I'd probably end up in prison alongside him.
Still, why was he trying to challenge the Saintess in the first place?
If he hated her enough to talk about killing her, there had to be a powerful reason.
When I asked, he turned toward me with the same fabricated smile and posed a question of his own.
"I want to improve this country. You saw it, didn't you? The way your precious people knelt and apologized to someone like me."
The moment they learned he was a noble, people feared they might have offended him and immediately knelt with their heads bowed—even though he was just some unknown young man.
How could anyone consider that normal?
He called it a deplorable society.
From the standards of our original world, where nobles didn't exist, he certainly had a point.
But if I had been born as a noble's son...
I'd probably have enjoyed the benefits.
Being pampered and having a beautiful maid wake me every morning didn't sound bad at all.
Then again, nobles had to live under the constant pressure of family obligations and public scrutiny.
I didn't think noble privileges were worth those restrictions.
It sounded suffocating.
Still, hearing something like that from a noble himself was surprising.
Did he really dislike the aristocratic system that much?
"It's less dissatisfaction with nobility and more dissatisfaction with society itself. Opportunities should be distributed equally, and the capable should rise to the top. Wouldn't a society like that be ideal?"
He wanted to create his ideal society.
To do so, the aristocracy was an obstacle.
But according to him, the Saintess, who backed the nobles and allowed herself to be used by them, was the true source of evil.
Because of her existence, the nobles believed their actions were justified and never questioned themselves.
For the sake of the people, he intended to personally visit the Saintess and ask her to retire as soon as possible.
I thought the desire to improve society was admirable.
But I had absolutely no interest in reforming the world.
In fact, I had already accepted the existence of nobles.
Of course, if they tried to restrict my freedom or harm the people important to me, I'd fight them to the bitter end.
Otherwise, I had no intention of risking my life for some grand cause.
I already had more than enough problems demanding my attention.
And frankly, I wouldn't recommend fighting the Saintess.
More than a hundred years had passed since her arrival.
During that time, she might have raised her level tremendously.
This world wasn't a game, so reaching the level cap of 90 was probably impossible.
Even so, a level around 50 wouldn't be surprising at all.
If he planned to fight a monster like that, researching her level and skills was absolutely essential.
Without that information, even someone like Mamiya would simply be committing suicide.
After I honestly shared my thoughts with him while he smiled cheerfully through his ridiculous speech, he replied:
"Just kidding. Half kidding, anyway."
A response that wasn't funny in the slightest.
"The Saintess can wait. What I really wanted to talk about was my younger sister, Chizuru."
"...I see. Have you heard something?"
Perhaps because my reaction had been lukewarm, he forcefully changed the subject.
Or maybe the entire conversation had been a test from the beginning—a way to probe my thoughts and personality.
Either way, I was grateful to move on from such a dangerous topic.
And now we had arrived at the matter that truly concerned me.
What exactly were my little sisters doing?
I had assumed they were happily exploring dungeons and hunting monsters together, but according to Mamiya, the reality was far beyond anything I had expected.
"I heard they're at the arena."
"...Huh? The Adventurers' Guild arena?"
There was an arena at the Adventurer School as well.
My fight with Tsukishima there was still fresh in my memory.
However, its primary purpose was training, not duels.
It was built to withstand enhanced physical abilities, but functionally it wasn't much different from a regular gymnasium.
After school, it was fully booked by club activities and couldn't be used freely.
If Kano and the others were at an arena, it probably wasn't the school's.
The Adventurers' Guild had another arena entirely.
In fact, that was the one most people thought of when they heard the word "arena."
It featured a system where adventurers fought each other for prize money and pride.
Even in DunEx, it had been a convenient place to gain PvP experience.
However, participating there was supposed to require adventurer registration.
Chi-chan, as a student at the Adventurer School, could register as an adventurer despite being a middle school student.
Kano, however, was just an ordinary middle school student.
She wasn't even qualified to enter a dungeon.
If she tried to register, the guild receptionist would throw her out immediately.
So perhaps they were only spectating?
When I asked, Mamiya explained that there was apparently an exception to the participation requirements.
"It seems members of unofficial clans are exempt from adventurer registration checks. They don't need to reveal their names, addresses, or even their real faces."
"Unofficial clans? Then Kano and Chi— Chizuru-san are competing while hiding their identities? Why?"
"I didn't hear the details, so I can't say. But I received a ticket and thought you might be interested too. Let's see... the starting time is..."
Mamiya pulled a sheet of paper covered in printed text from his breast pocket and showed it to me.
Looking closer, I saw the words:
"Arena Spectator Ticket."
What was this supposed to mean?
Were they asking me to come watch them fight?
I had participated in the arena countless times as an Adventurer School student back in DunEx, but this was the first I'd heard that anyone could participate simply by belonging to an unofficial clan.
More importantly, why were Kano and the others fighting there?
"Can I take a look?"
"Sure. I was planning to give one to you anyway."
Mamiya flicked his finger.
A ticket about the size of a playing card flew toward me.
Catching it, I examined the front.
In large letters, it read:
C-Rank Pair Division
The arena number, seat number, start time, and various other details were also listed.
Since it was a pair division, Kano and Chi-chan were probably fighting together.
The important part, however, was on the back.
(So that's what this is...)
Several team names were listed there.
And among them...
There it was.
EEE.
If they were fighting under that name, they were probably trying to raise the clan's profile.
"This EEE is the clan you're trying to establish, isn't it? It seems Chizuru is participating as well. Would you mind telling me what kind of clan it is?"
"...We haven't really decided on any policies yet."
A few days ago, Tenma-san's maid had been abducted by the large-scale dungeon conquest clan known as the Ten Rakshashas.
We immediately began discussing how to get her back, only to discover that the problem was far more difficult than expected.
After all, the Ten Rakshashas openly flaunted their military power.
Simply asking her to return wouldn't work.
The maid, worried about her master's safety, would never agree so easily.
To make her feel safe enough to come back, we needed an organization that even the Ten Rakshashas couldn't easily interfere with.
That was the idea behind the provisional clan known as EEE.
The specifics—its policies, its headquarters, and everything else—had yet to be decided.
Even raising the clan's profile was something I thought we'd discuss afterward.
Yet somehow they had already started acting on their own.
More importantly, I had clearly forbidden both Kano and Chi-chan from joining EEE because there was a real possibility of ending up in conflict with the Ten Rakshashas.
"Opposing the Ten Rakshashas, huh? So Chizuru and the others entered the arena to increase the clan's reputation."
"It's only a theory for now. But there are many powerful adventurers competing in the arena, and it's watched by both the media and large audiences. Considering the risk of exposing their identities, they should probably stop."
The arena was an excellent place to build a reputation.
Naturally, however, it came with significant risks.
Many arena participants were star adventurers featured on television and in magazines.
Even members of large-scale conquest clans entered in pursuit of enormous prize money.
Kano and the others had only been competing for a few days, so their rank was still low.
They probably wouldn't face truly powerful opponents yet.
But if they kept winning, those opponents would inevitably appear.
To be blunt, their current abilities weren't enough.
On top of that, arena matches were considered the nation's most popular form of entertainment.
They were broadcast on multiple specialized channels and attracted countless passionate spectators and viewers.
And it wasn't just ordinary people watching.
Clans looking to strengthen their forces, as well as nobles seeking talented recruits, paid close attention too.
In other words, the arena was a double-edged sword.
It was an ideal place to gain fame, but also a major risk for anyone who wished to conceal their identity.
If this were just a game, I'd have happily jumped into the arena, earned some money, and steamrolled everyone with my player skills.
But this wasn't a game.
Fighting here always carried the risk of death.
And standing out increased the chances of losing one's peaceful life.
Those risks should never be underestimated.
"The event starts at eight o'clock. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going. And I'm going to stop our sisters."
Mamiya glanced at his wrist terminal as he asked.
Of course I was going to stop them.
There wasn't much time left before the event began, but fortunately the Adventurers' Guild was only a few minutes away on foot from the school.
I should make it in time.
Forget my foolish little sister.
What truly surprised me was Chi-chan.
Back in DunEx, she had been a calm and intelligent character.
I had expected her to serve as the brakes.
Instead, it seemed both girls were the type to keep the accelerator pressed to the floor.
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