Chapter 33 - He Was a Far Cry from the [Intelligence] Stat

The guide, who had been standing with their back to the coffin, turned toward where Laward was pointing.

A stiff, grinding motion. If that movement had a sound, that would surely have been it.

Unnaturally, like a video playing at a low frame rate, the guide turned to face the coffin with its lid half open.

The instant the guide's gaze landed on the coffin, the talking stopped.

Not a word. Not even a scream.

Apart from Laward, the students either had yet to enter the memorial chamber or were barely listening to the guide's explanation. Yet even they seemed to notice that the guide, whom they had left to talk alone, had fallen silent. Their chatter gradually died away.

Sensing something was wrong, they fell quiet one by one.

"Isn't this how it's normally displayed...?"

Laward, the first to notice, tried asking casually, but—

"No."

An immediate, categorical answer.

"No, no, no."

The guide shook their head furiously.

"That's impossible. It was closed just yester...day."

Then, as if something had occurred to them, the guide called in the memorial hall's staff.

The security staff arrived promptly and, after a brief, decisive discussion, agreed to remove the lid entirely.

But they did not need to lift it all the way to know.

They knew before they even started.

The coffin's lid had already been sitting askew.

Inside, it was empty.

The coffin that should have held the remains of a war hero and the academy's founder contained nothing but dust and a foul stench.

"Who on earth...?"

The security staff backed away, their faces stricken.

"Everything was fine yesterday!"

One employee shouted, perhaps hoping to distance himself from responsibility.

"We locked the memorial hall securely yesterday. And of course, we kept watch all night."

"Are you certain?"

The man among them wearing a hat, apparently the supervisor, asked.

"O-of course! You can check the duty log. We checked everything thoroughly and marked it down. Including this section with the sarcophagus, naturally."

"And no suspicious people came near the memorial hall during the night?"

"We didn't see a single soul. We hardly get any visitors here unless it's a field trip... And at night, even fewer..."

"Tch. As if I can take your word for it."

Apparently dissatisfied with that answer, the supervisor hurried off somewhere.

Was he really going to check the duty log?

After he left, a heavy silence settled over the room.

Faced with this utterly unexpected turn of events, the memorial hall staff and academy students alike stood there dumbfounded.

"Did you... miss an intruder during the night...?"

Everyone except Esther.

"Wh-what? Listen, student. We really did our jobs properly. There wasn't so much as a rat."

"Um... Let's end today's field trip here. We need to resolve this incident first..."

"You're probably telling the truth... Because that's a stone coffin..."

At Esther's suggestive remark, the employees' eyes fixed on her.

Naturally, Laward, standing beside her, also turned to her with a dubious look.

"What does... it being a stone coffin have to do with anything?"

"W-well... It's heavy."

"Huh? That's obvious."

"With a stone coffin that big... even just the lid... would be heavy. It probably took at least four people to close it... Because..."

The employees frowned, unable to make sense of her murmuring.

"You all came together... to open it, too..."

Esther looked over the four employees.

"One intruder, perhaps... But I don't think you would have missed all four..."

"O-one or four, there wasn't anyone!"

"But she has a point. There aren't any handles, and per the founder's wishes, there aren't any decorations either, so there's nowhere to get a proper grip. To open it, you have to make a gap first, then use this..."

The employee raised the iron bar he was holding a little.

"If there really were grave robbers, they would have reached the same conclusion... wouldn't they? That it's too heavy and too hard to grip without tools..."

Esther made her way between the employees. After examining the stone lid, she slowly straightened up.

"I don't see any marks like that..."

There were no marks.

Quite the opposite.

"It was opened and closed far too cleanly. It's too... pristine."

"How is that possible? It takes four grown men and tools to do that."

"Maybe the intruder was incredibly strong?"

At Laward's suggestion, every employee looked dismayed.

That was the best answer Laward could muster, as far removed from the [Intelligence] stat now as he had been in the game.

"Come on, student. Be reasonable..."

"Good grief..."

"He's half right."

But Esther immediately backed Laward up.

Only halfway.

And not merely because she was in love with him.

"It's not impossible. Magic or otherwise... there are ways to exert several times an ordinary person's strength. There are people like that. There were people like that."

"But no one came in. Ah... Don't tell me!"

One employee's eyes flashed as he continued.

"Are you trying to say it was an inside job?"

"Student, I think you've read too many novels."

"Actually, yes. That's... what I was about to say."

"Whew... I thought so. Look, as we keep telling you, operations here are strictly organized. We keep treasures here, so everyone monitors everyone else..."

"Not that sort of insider. I mean... someone inside this coffin."

"Huh?"

"In this case... perhaps I should say the person concerned."

Someone inside the stone coffin.

Inside it.

"Could it have been opened from within?"

At those words, Laward was the first to flinch.

"The Death God."

He uttered the words quietly.

"Could the founder... have become undead?"

Esther added, as though picking up where he had left off.

"Pfft."

Esther had spoken quite seriously, but what followed was a derisive laugh.

"Student. Didn't you hear who the person resting here... or rather, the skeleton here, used to be? Someone who fought the undead a hundred years ago. And you think someone like that became undead? Could there be anything more disgraceful?"

"That's precisely why it's evil. Because that's what it aims for."

Laward answered immediately.

"If the necromancer has returned, her first targets would be those war heroes and their power."

Just as House Hasgard, a count's house on the frontier, had been targeted.

"She can neutralize the most troublesome opponents, the ones who defeated her, before anyone else—and even enslave them."

Yesterday's enemy was today's ally.

Even an enemy from a hundred years ago could be today's ally.

"They would be a high priority."

"Don't be ridiculous."

The employee waved his hand dismissively.

"Let's give you every possible concession. A whole century's worth of concessions, and say the founder did become undead. That still doesn't solve the weight problem. You can't lift this."

"No... I told you. There... 'were people like that.'"

A war hero could do it.

"..."

Every employee fell silent.

Even the other students, who had said nothing all this time, seemed quieter than before.

Not only their lips, but their entire bodies had stopped moving.

One by one, they began to break into cold sweats.

"So you're saying the founder's corpse came back to life and walked out? Where did it go, then?"

"Enough. There's no evidence she's right. All we can do is get the students out and investigate."

"Um... W-well..."

"That's enough from you, too. We understand your theory, but you students don't need to get involved anymore. Guide? Please take charge of them."

"No, that's... that's not..."

"I said enough. You're scaring the other students. Nothing good will come of talking like that. You'll only spread strange rumors..."

"That's not it... You said earlier... didn't you? That you hadn't seen anyone... That the doors were locked securely."

"Yes, we're certain of that..."

"Then that means..."

Esther swallowed hard.

"It didn't... walk out."

Here.

It's still here.

033

Even when watching horror movies, I despise the sort of person who says, "There was a strange noise over there. Let's go check it out."

As a master of survival whose guiding principle was safety first, I could not begin to understand that behavior.

It was a surefire way to die first.

Even in movies, those characters usually served as an "example."

That was why I hadn't picked [Investigate] when I played the game.

First year, second semester.

The field trip.

A message had popped up saying the slightly open stone coffin looked suspicious, but I had chosen [Ignore] without a second thought.

That was the end of the field-trip storyline.

On to the next story.

But now I knew.

A lot of things were tied to that event.

Hints at the return of the Death God's cult and the mastermind.

The Laward–Esther route.

Heroes from a hundred years ago rising again, one by one.

It was thanks to [Ending Preview], which had supplemented my knowledge—woefully lacking for someone who had both possessed a character and returned to the past, all because I had only seen one ending.

Thanks to that item, purchased after completing achievements, I could grasp the broad outlines of the story.

A good spoiler.

That contradiction actually existed.

It was an even better spoiler than, "This part's boring, so you can take a bathroom break here."

The ending that mentioned this episode—the event where the undead first appeared—was one of Esther's.

Number 3.

Esther's third ending.

The academy had a lot of events.

School trips, sports days, interschool athletic meets, an autumn festival that the third-years skipped because they were busy preparing for graduation, winter rabbit hunts, and so on.

There were so many that I wondered whether these kids ever studied.

I doubted their parents would be particularly pleased.

Anyway, field trips and picnics in particular were a privilege reserved for first-years.

So an event during the field trip with Esther, the only heroine in Laward's year, was practically a foregone conclusion.

According to the preview, Ending 3 would pop right up if you chose [Investigate], followed by [Challenge], [Challenge], and [Challenge Anyway].

"Investigate, then challenge three times."

If I were memorizing a walkthrough, I would have thought this one was pretty easy.

"Choose Investigate, and you find the undead."

Then challenge it.

"First round, defeat."

Challenge it.

"Second round, another defeat."

Challenge it anyway.

"Third round, defeated again."

Laward would face an opponent he could not defeat.

The game's mechanics made victory absolutely impossible.

It was a match designed to be lost from the start.

But using that defeat as motivation to get back on his feet was the theme of Ending 3.

The problem was that challenging it three times would impress Esther even more.

The current Laward would fight to prove he was more useful than her rather than to protect her, but...

There was room for Esther to get the wrong idea all on her own.

Room for her to decide he had fought for her and be moved by him.

This was a girl who would keep coming back even after being rejected ten times.

Honestly, I could easily see her making that sort of mistake a dozen times.

"I really do think we'd be better off waiting at the academy."

Blash, following behind me on the way to the memorial hall, spoke up.

"Might we not disrupt the students' field trip?"

"We're almost there already. I'm simply eager for you to meet Esther."

In truth, Esther was part of it, but I was hurrying there primarily to stop Laward.

If I left him alone, he would fulfill the requirements for Ending 3.

Of course, Laward wouldn't be fighting for Esther.

But I had constantly drilled into his head which enemy he needed to face.

Even if it was an opponent he could never defeat.

Even if he failed no matter how often he tried.

The Laward of today would undoubtedly...

Challenge it.

"Here. It's still here."

The moment Esther finished speaking—

SHING!

Laward drew Holiday.