Chapter 301 - Evil Spirit (5)

"Bjorn! All I did was watch from behind, but it was still a fun adventure! Let's meet again if we get the chance!"

"... Yeah."

After those brief farewells, Kalton's group left the rupture. Now it was our turn to focus on what we needed to do.

"Come on, let's go. Who knows what else we'll find!"

"... Are you planning to wander around searching at random?"

No, I was planning to pretend to wander around at random while finding exactly what I wanted.

"Follow me. There are a few things I know about."

Oh, well, in that case.

I followed Amelia, who had been here before, out of the boss room and back the way we had come. We found two hidden rewards: an Earth Fragment, which increased Earth Resistance and Physical Resistance by one each, and a Book of Souls, which granted three bonus EXP.

Amelia said she had already used them all on her previous visit, so I took everything. That concluded our search for the White Temple's hidden pieces. Those were all the permanent-boost consumables available, after all. The rest could only be taken outside and sold by using spellbend.

*'Now that we've picked up everything...'

"Amelia, how about staying a little longer instead of leaving right away?"

"Why?"

"Honestly, sleeping only three hours a day has left me tired. Why don't we get a good night's sleep here?"

"..."

Amelia gave me a somewhat disapproving look at my suggestion. It was obvious what she was thinking. So much time had passed that the Labyrinth would close tomorrow. Did we really have to rest now?

*'Tsk. We met our goal ages ago. How greedy can she be?'

But whining wasn't my style, so I gave her a reasonable explanation for why I needed a rest.

"I've got a lot on my mind. I need some time."

"Oh..."

Only then did understanding dawn on Amelia's face, and she accepted my request without further protest.

"All right. We'll rest before we leave, then. Tell me whenever you're ready."

Whatever else you could say about her, she really was kindhearted about things like this.

"Thanks, Amelia."

"... Just get some rest."

Amelia took out her sleeping bag and lay down on the floor. I settled down about three meters away from her and began taking stock in earnest.

'Let's see...'

I had earned 156 EXP from first kills in the White Temple. Adding one for the Advanced Mutant variety kill bonus, three for the Guardian kill bonus, and three from the Book of Souls made 163 in total.

Of course, even with that added in, I was still a long way from level seven. But...

'With any luck, I could hit level seven in the middle to later areas of the sixth floor.'

There was no denying that my character build was getting closer to completion. I'd even picked up the Demon Crusher this time.

*'How am I going to take this back with me...?'

That was what I was thinking when she spoke.

"Jandel, there's something I want to ask you."

"Oh! You mean that Numbered item? I-I don't know what it is either, but I like its weight, so I was going to use—"

"No, it's a different question."

Huh, that wasn't it? I'd been worrying about what to do if she asked to split its value equally.

"Don't you... want to change it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Jandel Jarku. Your biological father."

Oh, that...

Tsk. I'd been deliberately trying not to think about it.

"You might be able to save him."

"All I know is that he died when I was young. I don't know how or exactly when. How am I supposed to save him?"

"If you want, once I've finished everything down here, I could go up to the city and help—"

"Forget it."

I cut Amelia off and spoke firmly.

"That's not what I want."

"... Why?"

Amelia sounded genuinely puzzled. Fair enough. My behavior must have seemed strange from her perspective. She didn't know I was an evil spirit.

And...

"If something that simple could change things, then meeting us here would have changed them already."

The future wouldn't change.

Of course, Amelia seemed to have sensed that to some extent too. But it couldn't carry the same weight for her as it did for me, after hearing a definitive answer from Auriel Gabis and confirming the chains of cause and effect involving Raven and Dwalki.

"It won't change? What do you mean?"

Amelia abruptly sat up. I hesitated for a moment, then told her the truth: how I had tried to change Dwalki's and Raven's futures, only to fail every time.

"That can't be..."

Amelia worried at her lips, struggling to deny what I'd told her. I simply asked her outright.

"Amelia, you already had some idea, didn't you?"

"I already knew...?"

"Then what was it? Why were you surprised when you saw the name 'Nivels Enche'? Why did you look at me like that when I showed up wearing this helmet?"

"That was..."

"Didn't you know? No matter what we do, the past won't change. No, things happened that way precisely because we were here."

"..."

Amelia gave no answer. She merely clenched both fists, holding something back. It was only after a brief silence that she spoke again.

"... So you're going to give up? Without even trying, when you might be able to save your family?"

Her manner of speaking was much the same as usual, but there was an edge of aggression in her voice. Perhaps that was why my own words came out a little bitter.

"He's a father whose face I've never even seen, anyway."

"Meaning you don't care enough about him to do that?"

"... That's right."

"I see."

Though she sounded as if she accepted my answer, Amelia clicked her tongue. She seemed disappointed in me too.

Ha. Maybe I should never have brought this up. It had felt like we'd been getting closer lately, and now I'd ruined it all.

"..."

After that, we rested without exchanging another word.

Perhaps five hours passed. After waking from a good, long sleep, I suggested we just head outside. I figured going out and doing something would be more comfortable than lying around on pins and needles like this.

However...

"Wait, can I stop over there before we go?"

"Do as you like."

Back in the boss room to take the portal, I approached the hut behind it. It was simple curiosity. In the game, it had only been part of the scenery, impossible to enter...

'Oh, the door even opens.'

The door creaked as I stepped into the hut and glanced around. An incredibly familiar feeling came over me.

One bookcase, a dining table, a carpet, a fireplace. There was nothing particularly special about the interior. It was an ordinary hut anyone might imagine. But the floor space, the layout, the arrangement of the furniture...

'It's exactly the same as that place...?'

Without even needing a closer look, one place came to mind.

The Witch's Hut, the only safe zone in the Witch's Forest on the third floor. The very place where I had once rested with Misha, offered myself up as human firewood, and even summoned the Lord of Chaos.

"Search if you want, but when we looked through it before, there was nothing Gabrilius had left behind."

At Amelia's words, which seemed to urge me to hurry out, I merely checked the books on the shelf before leaving. Oh, all the pages were blank. The titles were written in the ancient language, so I couldn't read them either.

Hmm. If I brought Raven here later, could she find something?

"If you're ready, let's leave."

"Oh, I'll go out first, just in case."

"..."

Soon, the two of us stood before the portal. Once we stepped through, we would return to the place where we had first entered the rupture.

I stepped forward, entering the portal first as the tank.

WHOOOOSH

The portal's light wrapped around my body, and my vision flashed. Slowly, my sight returned.

But what the hell was this?

"Whew! Finally out, are you!"

A group of explorers stood before me, as though waiting for us.

"So, a Numbered item dropped—"

The explorers and I flinched at the same time as we looked at each other.

"Huh? What the—Iron Mask?"

It was the explorer team led by Beck, a member of the lord's faction.

"Ha, isn't this a surprise? I never imagined you two were the people these three met inside."

"Three...?"

Unconsciously following Beck's gaze, I turned my head and froze.

EEEEEEEE

For some reason, my ears wouldn't stop ringing.

* * *

What was this?

My mind went blank for a moment, but my brain continued registering and analyzing the visual information coming in.

Kalton Drek.

Aimburn Berta Garcia.

And Jandel, third son of Jarku.

The corpses of the three who had left through the portal only a few hours ago lay sprawled on the ground.

No, it wasn't just those three. There were two more bodies. I had an idea who they were too.

["This is bad! Remud and Hans didn't make it in!"]

They were probably the two who had supposedly been waiting outside.

Then how on earth had this happened?

"... Bjorn."

Amelia had followed me out at some point. Taking in the situation, she gripped my wrist.

Was she telling me not to do anything rash? Well, that seemed to be it, but...

EEEEEEEE

Ugh, so loud.

Trying somehow to regain my composure, I closed my eyes for a long moment, then opened them. Everything before me remained exactly as it had been.

"Running into each other twice on the same expedition—we must have some sort of connection!"

Smiling affably, Beck rose from the corpse he had been using as a chair. Amelia asked him a question.

"... Why were you here?"

"Well, we were looking around the area just after the rupture opened, and wouldn't you know it, we spotted these two."

Beck lightly nudged the bodies I presumed to be Remud and Hans with his foot.

"We grabbed them and asked a few questions. Apparently only three of their companions had slipped inside. So we kept waiting, and out these three came."

Beck shrugged, skipping over what had happened next, and Amelia didn't press him. It was obvious, after all. They must have killed those three, getting only the information they needed out of them. Things like the Guardian dropping a Numbered item at the end.

EEEEEEEE

Amelia and Beck were talking about something. It was so loud around me that I couldn't hear them clearly. So I just stood there thinking in a daze.

["Ah, is that a little difficult for a human? Just call me Jandel Jarku!"]

I had known he would die. But I hadn't known it would be because of me.

'If I hadn't been here.'

Jandel Jarku would have entered the rupture with his entire team. No companions would have been left waiting outside to be spotted by these bastards.

And as a result, he...

No, they wouldn't have died. They would have continued their journey.

And with any luck...

["Heh, he'll surely become a great warrior. A child with both her blood and mine—"]

Jandel Jarku might have been able to watch his child grow. No, perhaps they might even have entered the Labyrinth together once the boy was an adult.

'If only I hadn't been here.'

Then an evil spirit would never have possessed Bjorn Jandel's body either.

EEEEEEEE

The ringing grew worse. It was a kind of defense mechanism, meant to help me shut out, however slightly, the voice echoing inside me.

A ringing for a coward.

I clenched my fist. I was putting all my strength into my hand, yet the blood rushed to my head.

EEEEEEEE

'If it hadn't been for me.'

Dwalki wouldn't have died. Even if he had become an explorer later, he wouldn't have gone all the way to that dangerous place on the fourth floor.

EEEEEEEE

'If I hadn't come.'

Dwalki's love might have worked out too. They might have met as companions by chance one day and formed a relationship where they healed each other's wounds.

*'If I...'

Perhaps.

What if.

Yes, what if I hadn't been here?

EEEEEEEE

My ears—no, the inside of my head—felt numb.

"By the way, why is our friend Iron Mask so quiet?"

"Bjorn."

Like an assignment I had kept putting off. Telling myself emotions were only emotions.

"Bjorn, get ahold of yourself."

All the countless feelings I had tossed into a corner of my heart and ignored came crashing over me at once.

I had to do something. For myself, because I knew it would be hypocrisy to claim I was doing it for anyone else.

I opened my tightly shut mouth.

"Amelia."

Her real name, not her alias, Emily. Was that alone enough to tell her what was happening?

"They're with the lord. Restrain yourself."

Amelia tightened her grip on my wrist. Of course, it was pointless.

I stepped forward.

You're an Agility build, after all.

"Bjorn..."

As I shook Amelia off and advanced, Beck chuckled.

"Heh, looks like Iron Mask is angry. Did I ask you to hand it over? All I said was, let us take a look at what you got. We've been waiting a long time too, haven't we?"

I hadn't properly heard their conversation, but I understood from the context.

Right, so you're curious about this?

CLACK

I took the hammer out of subspace.

No. 87, Kraul's Demon Crusher.

"A hammer? There's a Numbered item like this...?"

Beck's muttering trailed off. Then his expression changed.

"W-wait a moment. Can I take a closer look? I'm wondering if it's the one I know."

"Go ahead."

I took another step forward, and Beck cautiously did the same.

Then, once he was just the right distance away...

"I-it really is! Did that really drop in there?"