Chapter 246 - Branching Point (6)

What mistake had I made to make her act like this? The thought never even crossed my mind. After all, Misha had watched me from my side longer than anyone.

A barbarian who read books.

A barbarian who could act as a Scout.

A barbarian who played dumb but was actually cunning.

A barbarian who always knew things no one else did, as though they were common knowledge.

There must have been countless things to find suspicious. Until now, she might have brushed them off, telling herself that some people were simply like that...

But what happened that day must have brought it all home. She knew more about me than anyone, after all.

["Why should I give an enemy what he wants?"]

I had kept dodging the question with a suitably barbarian excuse, but it must have looked strange to Misha. She, at least, knew I only dug my heels in when I had a reason.

["If you don't answer, I'll kill that Red Cat girl. Got it?"]

When that bastard Baekho said that, I had even felt a profound despair. Perhaps Misha had sensed that, too—that I had been cornered and was desperately holding back an answer.

"... Disappear? What are you talking about?"

It was the middle of the night, and everyone else was asleep. Misha had cautiously come to me and revealed her fears, and I answered as though I knew nothing.

"Why would I suddenly disappear?"

"N-no, it's just... Yeah, it was just a nightmare, nyah."

Misha changed the subject, blaming a dream. She seemed to think that if she voiced the fear inside her, it might actually come true.

"A dream? If you're that scared, you can sleep beside me!"

"I-it wasn't that bad, nyah! Hmph, forget it, nyah! If you're going to make jokes, just go to sleep, you stupid barbarian, nyah!"

Misha left the room, protesting that I was talking nonsense, and I let out a silent sigh. My chest felt tight.

'Suddenly disappear...'

I knew why she had said that. Yesterday, I had sneaked into her room and read the book on her desk. It was one I had read at the library before—a book detailing several patterns of behavior and habits exhibited by evil spirits.

[Evil spirits are cunning and skilled at acting. Nor do they cling to their relationships. When faced with a crisis that threatens to expose their identities, they choose to sever all ties and go into hiding.]

It was a passage I could understand all too well. Exposure meant nothing but ruin, after all. First, they would distance themselves from everyone around them as much as possible. If that failed, they would eventually try to change identities. And if even that option was closed to them...

'They'd go to Noark.'

In fact, Noark was a city made up of such people. Criminals and evil spirits who could no longer remain in Raphdonia hid in the sewers, and Noark took them in.

'That bastard Clown is famous for joining Orculus as soon as he was exposed as an evil spirit.'

I lay on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. My head was a tangled mess.

'If they found out I was an evil spirit...'

How would they react? Would they feel betrayed and furious that I had deceived them? I honestly didn't know. At least Misha seemed more afraid that I would disappear from her side, even if I was an evil spirit.

'Damn that bastard Baekho.'

At last, I admitted it. I was afraid of them discovering what I really was. More than the guillotine I might be dragged to, I feared everything I had built collapsing around me. Even if it was only a sandcastle.

WHOOSH.

I took a magic device out of my subspace. It was a device that let people hold conversations without anyone overhearing.

["Fine. If that's what you want, I'll leave you nowhere to belong. Hans Krissen is an evil spirit! The proof is in my backpack—"]

It also had a recording function, which the dwarf I had met in the Doppelgänger Forest had used to back Hans G into a corner.

CLICK.

When I pressed the recessed switch on the underside of the device, their conversation from that day played back with vivid clarity.

["What's there to agonize over? They're just NPCs anyway."]

["But they're still the companions I've been with all this time—"]

["What a joke. Think you'd still feel that way if they knew what you were?"]

Hans G had no answer for the dwarf. Because he knew.

["The person your companions thought of as a friend was the real Hans. And as you know, the real Hans is no longer in this world."]

We were evil spirits. Whatever bonds we forged here, they could only be fragile relationships built on lies.

["But... I consider them my true companions."]

That was how Hans G had answered that day. But what had he actually done?

["Wh... y...?"]

["I-I'm sorry."]

When the dwarf found himself in danger and forcibly exposed his identity, Hans G had unleashed flames on the warrior and sided with the dwarf.

Deep down, he had known it himself. They could never go back to the way things had been. The companion he had once cherished would now consider him an enemy.

CLICK.

I pressed the button again, shutting off the sound. Suddenly, I remembered Takellan's words.

["One day, you'll feel the same way I do."]

He was wrong. If such a moment of despair ever came for me, my end would be far more horrific and wretched.

* * *

Another two days passed. Nothing of note happened during that time, either. No further leads emerged concerning the major clan suspected of being behind the assassination attempt. In the end, the incident fizzled out, with the trail cut off at the expendable underlings. There was nothing left to pursue.

Oh, but I did get more knight escorts out of it. Now that it had been proven that a force hostile to the royal family was targeting me, they had committed additional manpower. Rather excessively, at that.

'Ha. I can't go anywhere like this.'

I already had three close guards. And that was only inside the house. More than thirty knights stood watch outside, and whenever I went out, every last one of them followed me. Oh, they had even assigned me a food taster.

"I'll try it first, in case it's poisoned."

At every meal, a knight who specialized in raising Poison Tolerance tasted the food first.

"D-do you really have to do that, nyah? W-why would I ever hurt Bjorn, nyah...?"

"Better to be certain. Mmm, delicious. Your cooking truly is excellent, Lady Karlstein."

"Th-that doesn't make me feel any better, nyah!"

Having a taster do this at every meal clearly put Misha in a bad mood... But seeing them be this inflexible actually made them seem more dependable.

'With this much security, I won't have to worry even if Noark sends assassins.'

After breakfast, Aynar headed to the sanctuary, and Erwin went out to see her younger sibling. I was going out, too.

"... You're going out, nyah?"

"It's about time I got back to work."

I had rested enough. It was time to get moving again and take care of the things I had put off.

"By work, do you mean buying more things, nyah?"

"No, I have other business this time."

"Hmm, nyah?"

I usually spent my downtime shopping, but that wasn't the purpose today. I had made a lot of money this time, but...

'Its value will keep climbing if I just sit on it. No reason to go shopping now.'

For one thing, equipment prices had already begun to plummet. With so many explorers—the primary customers—dead, demand had fallen. Food prices, on the other hand, had risen. People had begun hoarding supplies out of concern that the supply of magic crystals might drop starting next month.

'For now, I'll hold on to my cash and spend as little as possible.'

Currency here wasn't merely scraps of paper given value by social consensus. It had tangible value. After all, this world ran on magic crystals, a universal material that became iron or wheat in the hands of alchemists. Currency wouldn't lose its value. The value of labor might hit rock bottom, though.

'I wonder if Hikurod's doing all right...?'

The dwarf suddenly came to mind. Business at his smithy had seemed to be going reasonably well lately, but in the current climate, he probably had no customers at all. I felt a little sorry for him. He had sunk his entire fortune into opening that shop, only for this to happen.

'I'll go see him when I have time...'

I quickly got dressed and left with Misha. A carriage prepared by the knights stood outside. It felt like far more consideration than I deserved, but...

"Please step inside."

By now, I climbed into the carriage without a second thought. It wasn't costing me anything, and they said this made guarding me much easier. What was I supposed to do?

"Where shall we take you?"

"The Grand Temple of the Followers of Leatlas."

Once I told the driver our destination, the carriage set off.

"... The Followers of Leatlas? Why are we suddenly going there, nyah?"

There was an anxious look in Misha's eyes. I understood how she felt. The religious powers here were practically the natural enemies of evil spirits.

'Tsk. Looks like she hasn't completely put her suspicions to rest.'

For a day or two, Misha had read books about evil spirits and made loaded remarks to me, but before long, all of that had stopped. I had thought she'd concluded that she was imagining things and that I couldn't possibly be an evil spirit.

'... At a time like this, it's probably better to leave her alone rather than do something that might stir things up.'

So I simply carried on the conversation as usual.

"I'm going to ask if they have a priest to spare."

"... A priest to spare, nyah? A-are you planning to l-leave the team, nyah?"

"What are you talking about?"

"But even if we get a priest, there are already five of us... Ah! Don't tell me you're going to make someone... nyah."

Seriously, what was she talking about? I sighed and stated firmly,

"I'm not leaving the team, and neither is anyone else."

"Huh? Then why a priest... nyah?"

Misha trailed off, her confusion clearly unresolved. I told her my plans.

"Because we need to start preparing to head up to the sixth floor."

"Oh, the sixth floor, nyah? Right, I see, nyah. But what does that have to do with this, nyah?"

"I'm going to form a clan."

It was time to graduate from a five-person team.

* * *

Even a small group was classified as a clan once it exceeded five members, since it had to be split into at least two teams.

"A clan? So we'll be traveling as a group of ten from now on, nyah?"

Well, that was probably how things would end up. But not right away.

'Erwin can act as our Scout, so for now, one priest should do.'

From the sixth floor onward, we would also need to recruit another explorer to fill a specialized role. That would bring us to eight for the time being.

'At our current level, even split into groups of four, we should have no trouble reaching the fifth floor.'

Honestly, I wasn't too worried about that part. If all else failed, meeting up on the second floor was an option. Depending on our starting locations, regrouping could take time, and the party-size penalty on the fourth floor would slow us down again...

'But we're not a major clan.'

Unless the goal was to control hunting grounds, a day or two made little difference to a small clan. The real problem lay elsewhere.

'When will the Labyrinth return to normal?'

If things didn't look viable, I planned to hunker down for a few more months. We would need that much time to finish preparing for the sixth floor anyway.

"We've arrived."

As I sorted through my thoughts, the carriage stopped in front of the Grand Temple. Most of the knights waited by the carriage. I went inside with only Misha and my three close guards.

"Commander Crovits is out on business at present."

Rather than Paul Crovits, whom I knew, another paladin greeted me. His name was Sven Parav. He was the deputy commander of the Followers of Leatlas's Second Paladin Order, if I remembered correctly.

"It is an honor to meet you, Baronet Bjorn Jandel. What brings you to our order today?"

I briefly explained my plans: I intended to form a clan, and if possible, I wanted to recruit a priest. To cut to the chase, he refused me outright.

"Hmm. Even for a baronet, I'm afraid that would be difficult."

Neither my newfound fame as TITAN nor my noble status as a baronet carried any weight with the order. Those were merely the basic qualifications. Recruiting a priest required a merit score.

'Sigh. Why are they just as inflexible as in the game?'

Since this was within my expectations, I asked how I could raise my merit score and received a detailed answer.

'Apart from a few things, it's all pretty much the same as the game.'

In the end, it looked like grinding was the only answer. Tsk. I should have done it in advance.

"Parav, was it? Thanks for today. I'll come back another time."

"Of course. A hero's visit is always welcome."

With my brief business concluded, I said goodbye to Parav and turned away. Then, just as I opened the reception room door to leave...

「The activation conditions for the Star's Blessing have been fulfilled.」

The last vine keeping my ill-fated encounter with the Dragonslayer at bay snapped.

"..."

Goddammit. It really was one thing after another.