CH 150

[The First Player・the Second Player, the Swordsman and the Corrupt Priest]

The sounds of the puppets’ suicide bombing and Sakurai’s roar of anger and grief mixed and rang in the cathedral.

At the far end of the left side of the nave enshrined the statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of ‘love’, ‘sex’, and ‘beauty’. Behind its head, Ethel and Ayako were hiding.

“I never imagined you to be the type who would value lives to such an extent!”

“Lives are the most important things in this world, you heartless bastard!!”

Maybe because of their differing views? Joseph and Sakurai were engaging in arguments even as they were fighting.

As the two girls watched on, Ethel restlessly nudged Ayako who had been staying still almost like a rock. “Hey, is this okay? Shouldn’t we, like, back him up?”

“……” Ayako shook her head, signaling her rejection.

Ayako then tightened her grip on her trident with great force, and seeing it, Ethel fell silent.

If she were being honest, Ayako thought that immediately battling it out with Joseph just because they had happened to encounter him was a bad decision on Sakurai’s part.

This was partly because their original plan was to ‘use Ayako to lower Joseph’s guard and then ambush him’ and abandoning it so hastily was a waste, and partly because Sakurai started the battle without a plan whatsoever, causing them to end up getting cornered like this.

But despite thinking it was a bad decision, she believed that Sakurai had made the right decision, as it resulted in them being able to avoid the ‘worst-case scenario’.

When they encountered him outside the great library, Joseph was instantly able to tell Ayako’s condition.

That indicated there was a very high chance that Joseph was able to retake control of Ayako.

If he had, Ayako would have been fighting on Joseph’s side by now, and Sakurai would have had to protect Ethel, making the battle even more difficult.

Even if say that he was unable to retake control of Ayako, if Joseph had calmly assessed that he was at a disadvantage and chosen to escape instead, that would be the ‘worst of the worst-case scenario’.

If Joseph had escaped, he could possibly have formed an army of puppets that was even bigger than the one before them now.

Making puppets required materials.

The knights surrounding the cathedral, as well as the people of the Elf Territory, would without a doubt fall victim to him.

Not to mention, since they had no idea of the maximum number of puppets Joseph could create, control, and secure as reserves, they had to assume that they would be fighting an uphill battle where the number of their allies would continue to decrease while the number of their enemies would continue to increase, and there would be nothing they could do about it.

Having weighed the pros and cons, Sakurai instantly decided to fight in a ‘relatively better’ situation.

‘Worst-case scenario’ was better than ‘worst of the worst-case scenario’.

Their original plan had been ruined, but he had made a decision quicker than anyone else, and on top of that, taken the most dangerous role in the battle voluntarily.

With everything he had done, Ayako could only silently listen to his order even if he was the madman who had stolen her first kiss.

“……”

That said, her emotions were still raging violently.

Her anger and killing intent were overflowing, but she’d been suppressing them in her chest with sheer willpower as she continued to watch the battle without blinking even once.

The plan to kill Joseph in the cathedral Sakurai had explained to them.

It was basically like extracting the ‘one-hit kill surprise attack’ part from their original plan to ‘lure Joseph out with Ayako, then striking him with a one-hit kill surprise attack’.

In other words, he only saved the originally planned means of attack and improvised it on the fly.

Ayako and Ethel’s role in that plan—which actually couldn’t even be called a plan—was to make preliminary arrangements for the success of the ‘one-hit kill’.

“Jeez, the magic wore off again. Just how many times should I do this…”

While complaining, Ethel once again cast ‘Sacred Magic: Blessing’ on the ‘Yellow Spring Nodachi’ Sakurai had entrusted to her.

According to Sakurai, most weapons from the Netherworld had a special effect against ghosts and the undead.

He had said that with the Yellow Spring Nodachi that had been bestowed with the holy element by Ethel and her help, he’d be able to use a sure-kill move that would deal such tremendous damage to Joseph and highly likely kill him.

Ethel had been repeatedly casting her sacred magic on the Yellow Spring Sword like burning firewood to keep the fire going for that very reason.

Ayako, on the other hand, had the major role of delivering Ethel along with the weapon to Sakurai and at the same time restraining Joseph so he couldn’t avoid the move, as well as the surrounding puppets so that they didn’t get in the way.

“…………”

As such, Ayako’s heart wouldn’t stop stirring as she watched Sakurai being tossed about by ‘Self-Destruct’ and having it difficult to even get close to Joseph.

That was because, firstly, she was waiting for Sakurai’s signal for them to make their move.

She had wanted to be the one who decided the timing, but Sakurai had said that he had trouble coordinating with others, so he might not be able to match with her.

Therefore, Ayako could only wait for Sakurai’s signal.

Secondly, it was because she couldn’t help Sakurai. If she helped Sakurai to overcome his current predicament, Joseph might choose to ‘temporarily withdraw’ judging the situation as becoming disadvantageous for him.

And if he did, only a bleak future would await them.

Since they were engaging him here to prevent that from happening, they must not do anything that might make him even think of running away.

Ayako clenched her teeth and tightened her grip on her trident two-three times.

An enemy who was able to flee any time he wished to. Ayako well understood that very troublesome part about Joseph Asanaga.

“‘Self-Destruct’, ‘Self-Destruct’, ‘Self-Destruct’. What’s wrong? You’ve been scurrying around like a rat.”

“Just what did I do to make you mad, father-in-law?! All I did was just steal your daughter’s lips and make her mine! You didn’t even come at me yourself, and instead, just continue to bombard me with your puppets! Just what are you trying to accomplish by showing how small-minded you are?!”

“Cut your nonsense, you daughter-stealing scum!”

“But I’m just telling the truth! Oh, could it be that you’re simply out of your mind?! Or just plain cowardly, perhaps?!”

Amid the chains of explosions, Sakurai used the trap he had set using the Shishū skill to hinder the suicide bombing puppets and moved his body into the small gaps between explosions to escape the blast radius.

When a group of puppets rushed toward him while swinging their swords at him, he’d steal the swords with martial arts and use them to kill the owners.

His dual-wielding skill was not bad, too. Occasionally, there would be a surprise attack coming from behind him, but he’d suddenly spin around to deflect the attack with one sword and take down the attacker with the other.

And if a nearby puppet showed signs of an explosion, he’d instantly draw back and as he did so, he’d continue to provoke Joseph to fuel his anger so that he didn’t consider the ‘escape’ option.

Indeed, he was worthy of being a disciple of the ‘Sword Saint’.

In terms of combat power, he was one or two steps behind the top class, but he made it up with his innate eyesight and intuition as well as his unscrupulous thinking, allowing him to demonstrate strength beyond his actual limit.

In that regard, Ayako honestly admired him.

But even so, the current situation was too disadvantageous for Sakurai and the wounds on his body were slowly increasing as the battle went on.

Therefore, more than admiration, Ayako felt impatience.

All of them, including Sakurai, needed to work together to kill Joseph.

However, Sakurai, the one with the most important role, might lose his life at any moment, and despite that, all she could do was wait for his signal.

That fact made not only Ayako but also Ethel impatient, and every minute and second felt much longer than usual to them.

“…! …!!”

“Tōru, if you don’t hurry, it’s gonna get dangerous. My magical power isn’t infinite, either… hurry, hurry…!”

Please hurry! Please hurry! Please hurry!

The two’s prayers overlapped as though prearranged as they waited, then—the time had finally come.

—

“Ugh!”

Missed the right timing to avoid a ‘Self-Destruct’, I’m sent flying, rolling on the ground. Smoke and a burnt smell rise from my body. My whole body is screaming in pain.

This is the result of my repertoire of curses having run out and I was stuck for a moment thinking of a new way to infuriate Joseph.

(Potions… none. Shit, I don’t even know how long I’ve been fighting.)

Joseph’s puppets numbered less than 50, so the battle should’ve gone on for quite a while.

But in that period, all of my attempts to get close to him resulted in failure. I knew it, but his speed of transferring his consciousness to another puppet is too fast.

In the original game, Joseph was able to transfer his consciousness between his puppets as well, but there he controlled only a limited number of puppets, and above all, it was fundamentally impossible for Joseph to escape from the battle, to begin with.

In addition, you could bring Akano and other magicians. With wide-area spells, it was possible to wipe out multiple puppets at once, so I’ve never had such a hard time fighting him in the game.

That’s why I have to say that the current situation where he has a huge number of puppets under control while I have no means to deal with them is quite precarious.

“Good grief, foolishly charging in and then moving back over and over again won’t allow you to break through this situation, you know? Yet you’ve been repeating it more times than you can count with your fingers… your stupidity truly knows no bounds.”

“……”

“Still, Ayako and the saintess’ daughter still haven’t shown up, hm? Have they run away? Or have they abandoned you?”

“Tch.”

“Oh, where has your composure gone to? Well, I will praise you for doing a good job of cutting down half of my puppets.”

A tall chestnut-haired female knight (Joseph) behind the lines of the encirclement of puppets is sneering at me as I lie collapsed on the ground.

I’ve run out of healing potions, and the Knight Steel Swords I took away from the puppets have been thrown quite far away from me.

As such, I can’t even benefit from their give minor recovery every 10 seconds effect anymore. When I try to forcefully move my body, it feels so painful I almost scream out.

Completely outnumbered, and no chance to turn the tables in sight—but it’s okay.

I’d assumed I would never be able to get close to him from the start. I knew I’d get cornered eventually.

That’s why I repeated the same actions over and over again. Of course, I would have struck if there was a chance, but my luck wasn’t so good.

“Heave-ho.” I slowly get up and sit on my knee.

I probably look like I’ve realized that I have no chance to win and have given up right now. It’ll be great if it makes Joseph think so.

“Have you finally come to realize your foolishness?”

“Well, I did everything I could, but still failed to even touch you. I’ve got no choice but to give.”

If I don’t kill Joseph with a single blow, he would surely escape and cause the situation to worsen.

And to kill him with a single blow, I must have Joseph be within my sword range.

But he is a very cautious guy. He’s been keeping his distance from me.

“So, well… yeah. I was thinking I should at least give you a parting gift.”

“Oh, even though you’re already on the brink of death, you’re still trying to pull something?”

Always a suspicious guy, eh, I reply to Joseph’s question with a snort.

He doesn’t have to be so cautious. Even if I tried pulling something, the situation was almost already irreversible, and I couldn’t get close to him, to begin with.

But that’s not to say I have given up on killing Joseph. The ‘parting gift’ part isn’t exactly a lie, either.

“So, what is this ‘parting gift’ of yours?”

“Oh, it’s nothing but a truth that you’re yet to be aware of even after so long.” I sneer at Joseph this time.

I’ve got only one way to overcome this predicament. Since I can’t get close to him, I have to get him close to me.

And I have just the right words (weapon) for that.

“A truth I’m yet aware of? What are you—”

“The reason you’ll never find love and be loved even if you’re given 10,000 years, you gloomy coward. Curious, don’t you? It’s because… you keep playing with puppets, that’s why.”

Joseph suddenly falls silent, his face stiffening.

My sneer becomes wider, and I continue with a mocking tone and expression, “I know a lot about you, you know? The fact you moved to the royal capital because you couldn’t get over your first love, the fact you settled near her place and stalked her, the fact you dug out her grave, took her ring finger, and buried it with your original body, I know all of it.”

“How do you—”

“So pathetic! Every part about you!!” To further piss him off, I cut his words with a scream and start verbally abusing him. “You fooled yourself into thinking that you were happy just to watch her from afar when you were actually too afraid to make a move on her! The fact that you were in love with her was plain for all to see, you failure of a man! There ain’t no way you’re gonna get the woman you love if you do nothing, you coward! You can’t expect things to work out by themselves! You’re no prince on a white horse! You’re just a guy who is ugly both inside and outside! The chance of you being reborn as a beautiful girl who is excellent in both literary and martial arts is higher than that, you dumbhead!”

Barraged by the storm of insults, Joseph stares mutely, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly.

I’ve accumulated quite a bit of mental damage and frustration from the experience points that have gone to waste because of the puppets’ ‘Self-Destruct’, so my spirit is lifted seeing him like that.

“To move to a place where you could watch your first love’s house after she got married, talk about a stalker! You might be thinking that you were praiseworthy for devotedly watching over her happiness, but that’s only your delusion! From her point of view, you were nothing but a terrorizing creep! You thought she never noticed you, didn’t you? Well, guess what. When two people from the same village moved to the same place at the same time, it’s bound to cause a rumor! Of course, she knew about you! You had been one step shy from getting reported, you perverted bastard! Have some self-awareness, will you?!”

Abusing a bad guy right on his face as I pleased for the sake of justice feels so good.

The matter of morals aside, it is a great method to temper your mental fortitude.

“I-I am not like that…”

“A normal person wouldn’t dig up a grave, stole a dead’s left ring finger that’s used for marriage, and buried it in his own grave! Just saying that makes me want to puke! On top of that, you even created Ayako to fulfill your sick fantasy! And she’s not even based on your first love, but an imaginary daughter if you had had one with her! That fact alone speaks of your perverseness! Even the most normal part about you is disgusting! I’ve never in my whole life seen someone as disgusting as you!”

“Shut up!”

“You’re the same as kids who reflect the person they liked in the things they created! But unlike you, kids still have shame and self-control!! What your first love praised you for was your using ‘Puppetry’ to entertain others, not using it to pleasure yourself like you’re doing now, you gloomy bastard! Did you know that?! I bet you didn’t, do you?! If you did, you wouldn’t have lived so pathetically, after all!”

“You’re wrong! Shut up!”

“Which part was I wrong about? You’ve gone to great lengths to master a single art and it deserves praise, but your motives, actions, and results are smearing dirt on it, you dumbhead! Can’t handle the cold hard truth? Man up and try killing me with your own hands if you dare! But then again, a guy who is insecure without a puppet in his hands and is too afraid to come up to his first love and say hi like you will never be brave enough to do it!”

I then take a deep breath, slam my hand on the floor, lean forward, and dish out the finishing blow.

“In the end, you’re nothing but an eternal bachelor, jobless, virgin, and spineless coward who complacently lives in his own delusion, is only skilled in pleasing himself, addicted to playing with puppets 24/7, and hasn’t even a shred of dignity as a man, you dumbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaass!”

The scream ends, and silence enveloped the surroundings.

As for me, I’m gasping for air and trying to catch my breath.

Contrary to the tense atmosphere, I’m feeling very refreshed, and even though we are going to enter the main act, I can’t stop myself from smiling from the wonderful sense of satisfaction.

Then getting back to sitting in a comfortable position, I say to Joseph with a smile still on my face, “Phew…… oh, you still here? You can leave the rest to your puppets and just go home, you know?”

“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

Hmm, I did talk shit to anger him, but I didn’t expect he would be so angry to make such a ghastly expression.

Has anger clouded his reason? He makes the puppets around him open the way, snatches a sword from one of the puppets, and makes his way to me.

He screams at me with a bright red face as he does, but maybe because I find it totally uninteresting, it only goes in through one ear and out the other. The only thing I can tell is, ‘Oh, he’s screaming something~’.

Maybe my attitude rubs him off the wrong way, Joseph becomes even more furious, and he finally passes through the encirclement and stands in front of me.

His body is a puppet so it’s not breathing, but he heaves his shoulders up and down as though he’s breathing raggedly for some reason—the sight of it makes me snort. However, seeing the sword he raises, and the girls dropping down from up above beyond it makes me smile.

“Die and repent!”

“Tōru!”

Ayako throws her trident, piercing Joseph’s back, and follows up it up by sending several chains coming out of magic formations to restrain his body.

As Ayako is holding down Joseph, I grab the nodachi Ethel tossed toward me and pull it out of its sheath as ‘Sacred Magic: Blessing’ rains down on me, buffing me.

“Huh?”

The Yellow Spring Nodachi demonstrates 1.2x attack power against the undead and ghosts.

The holy element bestowed on it makes it deals double damage against those monsters.

In addition, in the original game there exists a certain combined (sure-kill) move that comes about as a result of the combination of Ethel’s ‘Sacred Magic’ and Higaki’s ‘Flame Sword’, and it has the effects of both, but stronger.

Its power is 5x normal attack, doubles that when the target is an undead or a ghost, which makes its maximum output a grand total of 10x normal attack damage.

“Flame Sword!”

“Sacred Magic, Holy Light!”

The beam of light released by Ethel is absorbed by the red flames covering my sword, turning the flames golden.

The golden flames-clad sword looks as if a holy sword whose very purpose is to purify sinful souls that is still clinging to the mortal world even after their death.

Wings of flames sprout out of my back. They will help me bring down the holy sword of purification I’ve specially prepared to eradicate Joseph.

The Yellow Spring Nodachi’s special effect, the holy element enchantment, and the combination skill’s conditional attack power multiplier.

After all the corrections are tallied up, it comes to a sure-fire move that deals 24x damage.

Its name was—

“—‘Divine Flame Holy Sword’!”

With a blade that numerous players reported as ‘need balance fix’ but was never fixed in my hands, I shoot forward with a flap of the flame wings and close the distance between me and my target in an instant.

However, my target isn’t the restrained puppet before me, but the blue-haired young knight standing amid the other puppets right diagonally behind it, shocking Ayako and Ethel.

“?!”

“Tōru?! Where are you-?!”

Chill out guys, I know what I’m doing.

“‘Absolute Flame Judgement’!”

I swing my sword horizontally, cutting the young knight into two, but I don’t let up and, taking advantage of the momentum, I rotate my body and swing the sword one more time but vertically this time.

十-shaped slash. Golden flames burst out from the cut sections of the lumps of fleshes that have fallen to the floor, swallowing them.

Following that, the surrounding knights collapse one after another.

It’s like their threads have been cut, and among the puppets that are tumbling down like falling dominoes, some can’t keep their human shape and start to pour out lumps of fleshes from the inside of them.

It is a disgusting sight, but it also serves as proof that they have been liberated from Joseph’s control.

“Huh, wait, what?! What’s going on?! Weren’t we supposed to kill this one?!” Ethel asks while looking alternately between the restrained puppet and the remains of the burned-up one.

“—, …!”

“You guessed it.”

“Guessed what exactly?!”

Ayako, having been closely watching the battle, manages to guess what happened, but Ethel doesn’t, apparently.

That said, what happened is simply ‘I got ahead to the puppet Joseph was going to possess (escape into) and cut it down’, that’s it.

“Why the roundabout way? You could have just cut down the one before you.” Ethel asks.

“When Ayako restrained Joseph, he was left with either of two options: to freeze in shock or to run away. By waiting for a beat, I made sure he would run away, and then I overtook him to the puppet he was going escape to.”

“Makes sense, but how did you know where he’d escape to?”

“I understand him… or rather, I’ve come to understand him.”

“Huh?”

During the battle against Joseph, I repeatedly attacked him and tried to approach him in many different ways.

It was all to get closer to him, but in addition to that, it was also to learn his habits and narrow down his behavioral patterns.

“When he transferred to another puppet, he often chose one that was right diagonally behind him. Of course, he’d prefer the one further back than the closer ones. Ayako, I’m guessing you’ve known that from watching him for so long, right?”

“!!”

“Simply put, that’s his habit, especially pronounced when he felt like he was in danger. On top of that, every time I charged at him, he’d always retreat that away, and halfway it became ingrained in his dead brain. That’s why—”

“That’s why when he tried to escape in a panic after being restrained, he’d move according to his ingrained habit… Which also means you’ve been purposely getting beat up just for this moment…?”

“That’s right.”

In combat, you have to watch closely and think carefully. The more inexperienced an opponent is in combat, the more likely they will have patterns (habits) in their actions. Use them to your advantage, and it won’t be difficult to beat them.

And sometimes, you can lead your opponent to ingrain a habit in them. That way, you can trigger an opponent to do his habit and make sure you get your blow in. Will be better if the blow is a fatal one.

That’s what uncle, aka the ‘Sword Saint’, told me when I was a kid.

At the time my only thought was “Isn’t it only natural?” because it was only natural to me to read the movements of monsters when fighting them, but I never imagined it would come in handy so many years later.

Experience truly matters more than strength when it comes to human-to-human fights, as such thought comes to my mind… I knit my brows.

Ethel, who thought that everything was over, notices it and a dubious expression appears on her face.

“What’s wrong, Tōru? Your sure-kill­move did hit him right?”

“It did. No doubt about it, I got a clear response.”

“Right. Then why are you making such a sour face? The puppets all collapsed already, too. It’s proof that he’s already gone, right?”

“Gone he did. From here, that is.”

“—?!”

“Wait, Tōru, do you mean that he—?!”

In response to Ayako and Ethel, I sigh and nod.

The experience points acquisition log is always displayed in my field of vision. It says the number of exp I’ve acquired and the reason for it.

In short, the log will say “+25 for performing a swing”, “+153 for defeating a Puppet Knight”, and so on when I acquire exp, but… what should be there isn’t there.

And that is, “+xxx for defeating Joseph Asanaga” that I’ve been waiting for.

The fact that it isn’t there tells me… a truth that’s very bad for us.

“My bad, looks like I failed to kill him.”

“!!!!”

“Huh?! Hold on a second! What do you mean?!”

The two become flustered at my words. It’s only natural, they also understand the worst situation that may come to pass if Joseph escapes, after all.

I honestly am quite flustered, too. I could have never imagined that Joseph would be able to survive my 24x damage, broken attack.

(In the original game, as long your level is 55 or higher, you’d be able to kill him in one hit… but to think he’d survive…)

Even though I’ve got my stats reduced by 30% because I’m nothing but a mob, I’m still level 82 and have compensated for the difference in stats with ‘Seed’ items.

Therefore, in terms of stats, mine should be similar to those of level 60 main characters, so the problem shouldn’t be in my lack of stats.

I can’t comprehend why I failed to kill him.

But that’s probably not something I should think about right now.

There’s no way to go back in time, so there’s no point in regretting what’s happened. What’s important is, what do we do now?

I know time is on Joseph’s side, but I’m stumped on what we are supposed to do.

This is a problem. Like, a big problem. And if I don’t solve it, I may get a huge headache in the future.

(If he comes back after replenishing his puppets, I’m confident I can create an opportunity to kill him, even if he has drafted everyone in the Elf Territory into his puppet army, but it will be really troublesome if he completely escapes and comes back for revenge when I least expect it.)

“Tōru! What do we do?! Don’t you have any other devious ideas?! That’s your specialty, right?!”

“—?! —?! –?!?!”

“Girls, please stop shaking me. It’s distracting.”

Faced with my two panicking comrades, I hold up my sword and fall into thought.

I then start practice-swinging to concentrate. After a few minutes of thinking and practice-swinging, the result is…

“……For now, let’s go back and ask someone for some advice.”

“The nerve of you saying something so unhelpful after making us wait and watch you practice-swinging like idiots?!”

“~~~!! –! –!”

I knew I was going to be scolded, but that’s really the only thing I could say.