Chapter 72

The Infinite Inventory

The translucent message said the Inventory's weight limit had changed. And not just changed—it had become “∞kg.”

'... Is this real?'

Honestly, I couldn't believe it. Of course, those translucent messages had never lied to me, but—

'Even so, this is ridiculous.'

How could ∞kg possibly make sense?

I couldn't even begin to imagine how much magical power it would take to create a subspace with an infinite weight capacity through magic.

No, actually, I knew. It would take infinite magical power.

But how could infinite magical power possibly exist? For that reason, neither the Archmage nor even Ian could use an infinite subspace. Granted, I now knew Ian had used an Inventory rather than a subspace, but still.

'Shall I give it a try?'

The sack stuffed full of gold coins stood taller than I did. Even a rough estimate put its weight at several thousand kilograms. But when I casually reached out—

◆Storing 'Sack of Gold Coins' in Inventory.

It went into the Inventory without the slightest resistance. I reached for the sack beside it, and that slid right in too!

◆Storing 'Sack of Gold Coins' in Inventory.

Once again, it went in without the slightest resistance. So did the sack beside it, and the one beside that. I had long since exceeded the Inventory weight limit determined by my Strength stat, but—

◆Storing 'Sack of Gold Coins' in Inventory.

◆Storing 'Sack of Gold Coins' in Inventory.

◆Storing 'Sack of Gold Coins' in Inventory.

.

.

.

They just kept going into the Inventory.

'It really worked.'

The Inventory's weight limit really had changed to ∞kg. Now I could store anything in it, in any quantity, as long as it met the storage requirements.

And the Inventory had only two storage requirements. It had to be an “object,” and it had to be something I “owned.”

So, assuming a continent counted as an object, what if I could own one? That meant I could put an entire continent in my Inventory.

Once I had stored all the sacks of gold, along with every coin and gemstone I hadn't yet bagged—

“...!!!!”

I found Kai staring with his eyes so wide they looked ready to split.

His blue eyes had gone beyond merely widening; they were practically tearing apart. That was only natural, considering he'd just watched tens of thousands of kilograms of gold-filled sacks vanish before his eyes.

“Magic...?!”

And I was the one who'd done it—I couldn't use mana at all, and my mana sensitivity was practically zero.

“Were the soldiers telling the truth...?”

I didn't know what the soldiers had said about me, but—

“Yeah. It really was true.”

I was pretty astonished myself. I knew the message wouldn't lie, but seeing it for myself left me stunned nonetheless.

It wasn't an Authority of the Sovereign of the Abyss for nothing. Nor was it rated [M] for nothing. It was a broken ability... no, an overwhelmingly broken ability, fully deserving of the designation Myth[M].

What's more, Infinity[M] could be combined with concepts other than the Inventory. A concept was a generalization of a group of things. It encompassed invisible subjects as well, such as human thought, time, gods, or something transcendent. That meant I could combine it with anything, provided I raised my Understanding of Infinity.

Starting with infinite Stamina and Mana like Avarus's, I could have infinite Strength and Agility, infinite calories, infinite eyesight, infinite memory, infinite luck, and so on. I could combine it with anything that could be generalized into a concept.

Just in case, I tried combining it with every concept I could think of. None worked. Apparently, my [Understanding of Infinity] was still too low for anything other than the Inventory.

'Understanding of Infinity, huh...'

Honestly, what was that even supposed to mean? It wasn't as though I didn't know what infinity was. A state of endless expansion. Something without limits or restrictions. That was infinity.

But that wasn't what the vision had told me. It had said that infinities could be compared in size. That different infinities existed. And that some infinities were “countable.”

'Hmm.'

It wasn't easy to understand. More precisely, it went against my intuition.

'Would the Archmage know?'

The Archmage, one of the allied army's heroes, might know something about infinity.

Magical studies was the discipline that interpreted all the phenomena and laws of the world. Naturally, it had countless branches: biomagic, which studied the phenomena of life; energetics, which studied the laws of energy; elemental magic, which studied the fundamental elements of nature; and many more.

Alchemy was another branch of magical studies, and a mage who specialized in alchemy was called an “alchemist.” Being a mage didn't mean being an expert in every field. Choosing a specialty and studying it to the exclusion of everything else wasn't just common—it was a given.

But the Archmage was different. A master of every branch of magical studies. On that subject, the Archmage had once told me something.

[“If you ask me 'why' a phenomenon occurs, I cannot give you an answer.”]

However.

[“But I can explain everything about 'how' a phenomenon occurs under a given set of conditions.”]

The laws that formed this world, the truths known only to God. The Archmage had come closest to reaching those truths, which was why the allied army called the Archmage the [Mage of Truth].

In fact, everything I currently knew about evolutionary biology was something I'd learned and studied under the Archmage during my time in the allied army. Surely the Archmage would know something about infinity that I didn't.

'At this point in time, the Archmage should be at the Langrid Mage Tower.'

Unlike Ian, I had a rough idea of where to find the Archmage. I'd set that aside for now, since joining up with Ian remained my top priority, but—

'It wouldn't hurt to establish a connection ahead of time.'

After all, the Archmage was one of the greatest assets I absolutely had to recruit into the allied army.

In any case, while I was a little disappointed for now, expanding the Inventory to ∞kg was more than satisfactory. It was an enormous gain.

For starters, I could store an unlimited supply of the nutrients needed for Regeneration[B+]. In other words, I had effectively acquired “conditional infinite stamina.” Of course, I didn't have infinite money to buy infinite nutrients, but—

'Over twenty million gold.'

The money I'd looted from Avarus's secret vault exceeded twenty million gold. To be exact, 23,453,200 gold.

That was enough to cover a kingdom's annual budget... well, not quite. But it was an enormous sum, on par with the annual budget of a small duchy. And no mere viscounty could possibly amass that much wealth.

'Was this the Dark Merchant Company's operating fund?'

It certainly seemed that way. Funds the Dark Merchant Company had amassed to recruit collaborators in each kingdom. In other words, this was money earmarked for bribing the nobles of the Kingdom of Battenberg.

That must have been how the Dark Merchant Company had taken over Battenberg's political establishment in my previous life. This time, though, I'd intercepted the money. Besides dealing them a tremendous financial blow, I had effectively smashed their plans to pieces.

'They'll be absolutely thrilled.'

I could already hear the Devotees of the Fallen Souls dying of delight.

'This should be plenty of seed money for the allied army, too.'

Now...

'All I need to do is find Ian.'

I just needed to join up with him.

There was still no word from Ian, but that was probably because he was searching some remote mountain valley for me. In my previous life, before meeting Ian, I had been consumed by Madness and lived no differently from a monster. I couldn't let people see me, so I'd wandered from one place far removed from civilization to another.

If Ian was looking for me, then, he would be prioritizing places cut off from civilization. But he wouldn't spend his entire life searching only those places. The Predator Merchant Company's reputation was spreading rapidly. I would be able to meet Ian soon.

In short, everything was going smoothly. Once I'd finished sorting through my thoughts—

“Th-that's impossible...!!”

Kai still hadn't recovered from the shock.

It was his most astonished reaction yet.

“Uh... ugh...!”

The infinite Inventory seemed to have been quite a shock.

* * *

With a few waves of Adrian's hand, the piles of gold vanished into thin air. Then he started walking again as though nothing had happened.

“... Oh, right. Can't forget this runesteel door.”

CRUNCH!

Adrian tore off the solid runesteel door as easily as splitting tofu. Another wave of his hand, and the solid door vanished somewhere.

Watching him, Kai could only stammer—

“Ah... no...”

He simply couldn't fathom what sort of person Adrian was.

The power to make the impossible possible. The ability to turn recklessness into miracles. Until now, Kai had tried to dress it up in such terms, but they could no longer explain Adrian or make him comprehensible.

Because he was Adrian. That was the only way Kai could accept it.

But that aside, there was something they needed to address.

“Surely you don't intend to take all that wealth?”

Adrian stopped at Kai's question.

“Then you want to leave it here? All that money?”

“But isn't that Viscount Veneron's property?”

“And?”

“Pardon?”

“Did that thing back there look like Viscount Veneron to you?”

“...”

Kai had nothing to say.

“The real Viscount Veneron died a long time ago.”

“Then at least give it to his children—”

“They're dead too.”

Kai pressed his lips shut again. ... As Adrian said, Veneron's son Alteron was dead too. And on top of that—

“Count Edmond, the territory's original owner, is dead as well. Avarus killed every last one of his blood relatives. He needed to swallow up the viscounty, after all. You heard that too.”

Count Edmond, who had granted Veneron his title of viscount, was dead as well. Kai had heard it himself when Adrian interrogated Avarus in the Infinite Labyrinth, so the information was certain.

Even so...

“It is true that taking spoils in a territorial war is the victor's right, but it must be done under the royal court's supervision. The corresponding taxes must also be—”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean—”

“When did we do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“When did we fight a territorial war?”

“Well, obviously—”

... Come to think of it, they hadn't.

“We launched a surprise attack. Suddenly, at that. As long as we keep our mouths shut, no one will know we did it. Look, we're even wearing masks.”

Adrian produced a mask from somewhere and put it on. Kai had no idea when he'd picked that up, but what good would wearing a mask do now?

“Didn't you identify yourself as the wastrel the moment we launched the attack?”

“Oh, right. I did. I figured he wouldn't realize it was me. Who knew it would be Transmog?”

Adrian pulled the mask off again and tossed it aside.

“But there aren't any witnesses who saw our faces anyway.”

... That was true.

“Then let's just say we wore masks.”

If there were no witnesses, it was an assassination. That was what Adrian had said when he first kicked down the manor's front gate. In other words, it was utter nonsense. And yet, incredibly...

... Kai had no rebuttal.

Still, that didn't mean he had no concerns.

“The royal court will send a team to investigate this incident.”

Veneron viscounty had fallen completely. A viscount was still a noble, and more importantly, Veneron timber was high-quality lumber used by the royal court and many nobles. What would happen if that supply suddenly stopped?

“It's only a matter of time before the royal court hears about this.”

And the royal court would investigate it thoroughly.

“If we are identified as the culprits behind the attack on the viscounty...”

They could even end up being blamed for Count Edmond's murder—

“What are you talking about?”

Adrian cut Kai off, sounding utterly baffled by his words.

“The culprit behind the attack is right above me.”

Kai raised his gaze above Adrian's head. There was only the dim ceiling of the secret underground vault. Nothing was there.

“No, not up there.”

Adrian tipped his chin toward his belly. His stomach. The organ in the human body responsible for digestion. In other words, he meant “Avarus,” the mass of flesh being digested inside him.

For a brief moment, Kai's mind left him.

“Didn't Avarus bring down Veneron viscounty, steal all its wealth, and run off?”

And just like that, Adrian cobbled together a story. Kai's absent mind never did return. After all, not a single part of it was wrong.

Avarus really had brought down Veneron viscounty. After swallowing up the territory, he'd impersonated Viscount Veneron and seized all its wealth.

It was just—

“The secret vault was already empty when we got here. What are you talking about?”

He'd merely embellished the story a little.

“More importantly, this is the least troublesome money in the world, so it's fine to take it.”

“What do you mean by the least troublesome money...?”

“A criminal's money.”

... Once again, astonishingly, Kai had no rebuttal. Since nothing Adrian said was wrong—

“I understand perfectly.”

Kai bent down and picked up the mask Adrian had tossed aside.

* * *

Having apparently convinced himself, Kai picked up the mask I'd discarded and put it on. He checked it carefully to make sure no part of his face showed. I couldn't see what good that would do at this point, but anyway.

I left the secret vault, following the light of Kai's aura. As we slowly climbed the long spiral staircase, I sorted through my thoughts one by one. Specifically, the information I'd extracted from Avarus inside the Infinite Labyrinth.

Desperate for even a moment's relief from his endless pain, Avarus had freely spilled things I hadn't even asked about. Most of it was information I already knew. But there had been quite a few unexpected revelations I'd never learned even in my previous life. The first was this.

'He approached Seraphia deliberately.'

Avarus had approached Seraphia deliberately. His goal was to have her consume the Elixir of Infinity—the very elixir he had reluctantly taken himself.

'She must have taken it in my previous life.'

She would have fallen ill in the same way back then. The way the lycanthrope and monster legion attacking the county had been dealt with was different, but the outcome—Seraphia being bedridden—was the same.

So the future altered by the variable that was me could be said to begin now. A new branch would extend from this point in time, in which my intervention had kept Seraphia from taking the Elixir of Infinity.

On that note—

'He called her the appointed one.'

Avarus had called Seraphia “the appointed one.”