Chapter 632: Rumbling, the Scream Carries Delight
"Whoa!"
"What, what, what!?"
"Medje..."
How rude, I'm Thirdrema's urban legend, the White Cloth Ghost.
As I ran across the rooftops of Thirdrema's houses, leaping from one to the next, I could hear those noisy voices drifting up from below. But unfortunately, I didn't have the spare time to stop and give them fan service.
Because you see, that Princess-sama is surprisingly fast! Are you kidding me? How can a non-combat NPC almost catch up to me? She obviously isn't using acceleration skills, but she's still running seriously fast!?
If anything, it looks like Orcelott-kun and his group who are chasing her are about to be left behind, but it would be a huge problem if she caught me right now. I managed to guide her to the main street leading to Thirdrema's castle, but there's still some distance before we reach the front gates... However, if I widen the gap any further, I'll lose sight of Orcelott-kun and the others.
"Why is the one running away worrying about losing sight of the ones chasing him..."
Did Emul pull it off properly? I handed her MP recovery items, so I'd like to believe her spell won't dispel halfway through, but... she probably should be arriving right about now.
If that's the case, should I just corner them around here?
Thirdrema has a structure stacked like a whole cake consisting of three layers: the Castle Area where the Grand Duke resides, the Upper Layer Area where the high-class citizens live, and the Lower Layer Area for the commoners.
My initial plan was to guide her to the Castle Area, or at least the Upper Layer, but thinking about it again, it's hard to imagine Orcelott-kun and his group—who are blatantly from the enemy faction—being able to enter the Upper Layer.
"If that's the case, the battlefield will be in front of the Great Gate connecting the Lower and Upper Layers...!!"
Over here, I'm right here! Aerial three-and-a-half-twist backflip!!
...
............
..................
Thirdrema's Great South Gate. The only players allowed into the Upper Layer are those holding a permit from the Grand Duke of Thirdrema. Which means for players who don't have a permit, or have no intention of getting one, the Great Gate serves no purpose other than acting as a landmark.
In front of that Great Gate, where the sparse number of people felt like a bizarre void compared to the hustle and bustle of the city, something covered in a white cloth dropped down from the sky. Well, it was me.
"Alright then..."
"Oh my, oh my, oh my! The White Cloth Ghost-san really did exist!! I wonder if you are some kind of fairy? Do you understand words~?"
"I UN-DER-STAND. WHITE CLOTH-SAN CAN SPEAK (falsetto)."
"Oh my!!"
"BUT NOT TO-DAY. WHITE CLOTH-SAN HAS WORK. SO... SUB-STI-TU-TION (falsetto)."
Dreams are best kept as dreams. Observe: the Vanishing Magic utilizing the combined properties of Inventoria and item objects!!
By taking off the Festival Garment: Head of the Defeater, dropping it on the spot as an object, and teleporting into my storage space using Inventoria, it should look exactly like only the white cloth was left behind.
Then, after adjusting my gear once more...
"Here I am."
"Oh my~? White Cloth-san turned into someone completely different."
"I swapped places using White Cloth-san's magic. White Cloth-san is an urban legend, a mystical entity after all."
"I don't really understand, but I see~."
If you don't understand, then you don't "see" at all... Well, whatever. My main target isn't the Princess, it's—
"Yo."
"You're... Sunraku!!"
"Are the lackeys of the Current King on a company vacation? Even so, picking Thirdrema as your travel destination is a little too careless, don't you think?"
"Where the hell did you sniff us out...! Or was it under her orders...!?"
"Ah, no, I just coincidentally spotted you in the city."
Strength visibly left Orcelott-kun's body for a split second, drooping slightly, but I mean, how exactly do you expect to conduct espionage in a world where everyone's name is displayed in massive text above their heads...
"But I know what your goal is. You're here to..."
"——Exactly, none other than to kidnap Her Highness the Princess! What a bunch of audacious bastards, you're pathetic even if you are my little brother~??"
...This voice.
"You got stuck at the gate to the Upper Layer just like I expected, Sunraku-kun. I had a feeling that was the case the moment I heard the story from Emul-chan... What the hell is with that exhibitionist pompadour."
"It's the bleeding edge of modern times."
"If an era like that ever comes, I'll destroy the future myself... Now then~? What business do the the Ashura-kai remnants-sama have, lining up their faces here~?"
With a heavy creak, the Great Gate opened, and stepping through a gap wide enough for a single human to easily pass was a woman whose gear looked, if I wasn't mistaken, somewhat more luxurious than the last time I saw her.
Yes, it was none other than the monster of the century, Arthur Pencilgon! A notorious bounty who somehow climbed all the way up to becoming an advisor for Thirdrema through sheer political maneuvering and the borrowed authority of Saint-chan, confidently declaring, "I'm basically acquaintances with Saint-chan, so I've already finished confessing my sins!!" despite only having seen her face once!!
No, seriously, how the hell do you convince NPCs with the logic of "I'm friends with him, so technically I'm besties with Saint-chan too"!?
"Big sis...!?"
"Just so you know, the moment I got intel on you guys, I already dispatched personnel to round up the Alex-faction spies."
Stop calling checkmate on turn one. At this point, Orcelott-kun's only options are to die right here or run away and die later. I bet those high-level player operatives, the RPAs or whatever they're called, are definitely hiding inside Thirdrema too. She's way too terrifying.
"Ugh, are you getting in my way again...!?"
"That makes me sound like the bad guy. I'm with the Thirdrema faction, you're with the Current King faction. I don't care who you side with, but if you march into my territory, I'm going to crush you."
Hyuhyun! The tip of her holy spear sliced through the air and leveled directly at Orcelott-kun. He and his party instantly drew their swords and took their stances.
"It's three against two. Do you think you can win?"
"What's your level, Sunraku-kun?"
"148. But I'm in the middle of training some skills, so this isn't my try-hard build... But if we're doing this, I'll kill 'em, alright? I'll let 'em off with half-dead, though, 'cause I don't want to get the PK status."
"The war hasn't officially started yet, so I kind of want to test if killing them gives me the PK penalty, though~."
"Do it yourself."
By the way, I have no idea how he did it, but it looks like Orcelott-kun has uncapped his level. Still, isn't Level 110 underestimating us a bit too much? And his gear doesn't exactly exude that specific aura of end-game content either.
Gear? Gear... Hmm? Why did my memory suddenly snag on something again? I shouldn't have forgotten anything related to Orcelott-kun.
"Now, what will you do, my foolish little brother? If you tuck your tail and run, I'll forgive you and only send assassins after you! Think of it as your older sister's utmost mercy!"
"You're really getting into it. Should I lick my sword too?"
"Stop, it lowers my dignity. Besides, do you really think anyone still roleplays as a generic serial killer these days?"
I mean, maybe they do? You know, the kind of murderer who laughs like 'Keeheehee'... Murderer, serial killer... Gear... Ah, that's right.
"Ahhh! I remember now."
"What is it, Sunraku-kun?"
"I actually had something I needed to give back to Orcelott-kun."
"To me?"
Yeah, yeah. Since my playstyle is squeaky clean, I had absolutely no use for it, and Bilac refused to touch it when I tried to dispose of it, so it's just been gathering dust taking up space in my Inventoria.
I thought about just leaving it in there since the capacity is infinite, but that sword is probably the same type of weapon as a Hero Weapon or Rei-shi's greatsword, so I might as well return it here. It originally belonged to Orcelott-kun, after all.
"Here, I'm returning this."
"Huh?"
"Wait, what!!!?!?"
Why are you so surprised? You really treat your own flesh and blood too much like a villain. I have a younger sister myself, so I'm sure dealing with a younger brother is completely different, but just knowing he's Pencilgon's little brother makes me want to treat him kindly. His life must be so exhausting...
Operating the menu screen, I relinquished my ownership rights, and instead of dropping it on the ground, I tossed it directly to Orcelott-kun... the Sword of the Slaughterer.
"W-Wait, Sunraku-kun, when exactly did you get that!?"
"Huh? Right after the Wethermon fight."
"Over three months ago...!?"
What is she talking about... hm? The sword is writhing... Oh my, arms sprouted from the mass of meat, and legs too. Wow, what massive abdominal muscles... No, wait,
"What is that?"
"It's the Slaughter Bringer's penalty! The Demon of Slaughter gets stronger the longer you go without PK-ing with that sword!! Why did you leave it alone until it turned into that!!?"
"How the hell was I supposed to know!? Write important shit like that in the flavor text!!"
In a slow-motion sequence clearly signaling the start of some kind of event, the magic sword—having transformed into a crimson-black flesh demon with the blade sprouting from its forehead like a horn—charged directly into Orcelott-kun without losing any momentum.
And the moment they collided, it threw open its maw widely, revealing... wait, are those ribs? Is it the same Devouring-Great-Crimson-Clad-style predation?
"Wait—"
"Ah, my little brother got eaten."
"What happens when you get eaten?"
"Hell if I know, I've never seen it in its humanoid state before!!"
If I were to describe the sound of Orcelott-kun with words, it would be "guboh" or "goburyu." The demon of the magic sword that had completely engulfed him into its torso opened its grotesque mouth.
"Slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaughteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr!!!"
Ooh... that's quite the intense self-assertion.
Author's Afterword
・Demon of Slaughter
A special monster that appears when the condition imposed by the Slaughter Bringer—one kill per day—is not met.
Normally, if the condition is not met for a week, it forcibly spawns from the player's inventory. However, because Sunraku stored it inside Inventoria—which materializes items as physical objects rather than purely digital data to withdraw—it remained completely ignored up until this very moment.
Its level and stats are calculated by taking the "Number of days without killing a player or NPC" and subtracting the "Number of monsters, etc., killed," with respective multipliers applied.
And furthermore, if it devours a player or NPC after becoming a demon...
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