Chapter 835: December 18th: Human Efforts Exhausted, Heaven's Will Descends
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"D—, gonna die, I'm gonna die......"
As expected, Hiiragi was alive.
Right before the explosion, thanks to an all-or-nothing high-speed forward dash using the Levin Trigger: Hazard, she couldn't avoid taking massive damage, but she managed to escape a fatal wound. This was likely also due to Hiiragi having allocated a large portion of her stat points into HP.
"H-Heal... I need to heal. Ugh, geez! These flames won't go out!!"
"That's because it's a curse-type, you know."
"Hiee."
The blade of purple flame was thrust right at the throat of Hiiragi, who was about to chug a recovery potion. Leaving the potion to spill onto the ground from the tilted bottle before it could reach her mouth, Hiiragi fearfully turned her head to the side, only to find Kyogoku standing there with a beaming smile.
"I'll listen if you want to leave a haiku... or rather, your final words, you know?"
"…………Wh—"
Resistance was already meaningless. Therefore, Hiiragi had only one last resort left.
"Hm?"
"Why...... Hic, why are you doing......! Such a cruel thing.........?"
It was an appeal to pity through tears. It wasn't fake crying; it was an earnest, tearful plea utilizing the ultimate truth discovered by an individual named Maki Fuyuri over the dozen or so years of her life: "If a human cries, things will eventually work out somehow."
If one stuck to the logic of an infant all the way up to this point, there were things to lose, but also things to gain. The "fragility to tears" she had gained by crushing with her crying every single friendship she had ever made in her life was still alive and well in full-dive VR. Shedding large, heavy tears, Hiiragi spoke eloquently.
Why attack her when she doesn't even understand what's going on?
She had no choice but to intercept, but she really didn't intend to fight at all.
She was right in the middle of extending her record as a PK, so what was so fun about getting in the way of that?
First of all, doesn't her heart ache from attacking other people?
Actually, more than anything, she wants an apology first.
Shedding pure, earnest tears born from an infinitely pitch-black core, Hiiragi meticulously and carefully explained just how cruel Kyogoku was acting and just how much of a victim she was (while sneakily venting her anger about Isuna slacking off somewhere).
It was a relentless string of absurd arguments that would make it entirely justifiable for a normal person to throw a punch by now, but Kyogoku simply listened to it all with a gentle smile.
"Hey, hey! Are you listening!?"
"Yeah, I'm listening properly. So basically, you're saying I'm entirely the bad guy here, right?"
"Eh...... Y-Yeah."
Faced with Kyogoku, who admitted fault so incredibly easily, Hiiragi replied with a completely deflated expression. That being said, if she understood, she wanted her to take responsibility—give her some tangible goods for the time being... Just as Hiiragi was about to voice that demand, Kyogoku's subsequent words cut her off.
"But the truth is, I'm not the bad guy."
"......Eh?"
Affirming it, then immediately denying it. Hiiragi let out a bewildered voice at a palm-flip that was far too fast even by palm-flip standards. Wondering if perhaps there was someone else behind the scenes who had requested this PK, Hiiragi braced herself, but...... the words that followed were not just unexpected, but entirely beyond comprehension.
"Because Heaven told me to do it."
".........Hnn?"
Ten, the number ten? A dot? A marten?
"Umm......... Is that the name of a, player?"
"No, Ten as in Heaven. The sky."
While lightly pressing the katana forward, Kyogoku pointed upward... to the sky.
In other words, if one took Kyogoku's words at face value, she was attacking because the sky told her to "PK Hiiragi."
That meant......... it wasn't a matter of accepting a request, holding a grudge, or seeking profit; she truly just came to kill her "just because," didn't it?
"......Have you gone crazy?"
"No? I'm perfectly sane."
The person known as Hiiragi had frequently been subjected to rude remarks like "you can't be reasoned with," but since a conversation had been established up to that point, she had merely sneered at them, wondering what they were talking about.
But today, for the very first time, Hiiragi truly understood the meaning of the phrase "can't be reasoned with." Even after making eye contact, focusing her attention, and exchanging words... there was a fatal discrepancy.
"Huh? Eh, w-wait a minu—"
"Well then, let's do this."
Snick. The tip of the blade bit into her throat, and it was only then that Hiiragi finally remembered the fact that she was in check. She instinctively tried to stop it by grabbing the katana with both hands, but her fingers were burned by the purple flames and dropped off in chunks the moment they bit into the blade.
"Wait wait wait wait! I'll give you items, I'll give you Mani, so wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wai—"
That's quite a death poem with a tragic excess of syllables. Thinking that, Kyogoku swung the katana completely through along with her words of farewell for the departed.
"───Divine Punishment."
"Te—"
With a clean slice, Hiiragi's voice stopped as her neck was severed by about two-thirds. Then, the moment her body's movements unnaturally and completely halted.........
"Whoa."
The graphics constituting Hiiragi collapsed and shattered. Then, in the place where Hiiragi had been, various items, weapons, armor, and accessories scattered out like an overflowing flood...... The sheer quantity was far too massive for someone who didn't possess an Inventoria-type item.
"Whoa, wa, wa...... Was she using some kind of inventory expansion item? No, this is way too much, too much, too much......"
Kyogoku was staring in exasperation at the loot piling up higher and higher, when her ears suddenly twitched.
"......Who?"
Kyogoku's ears, having received an enhancement modifier to her five senses as a boon of "converting" to the Beastmen race, had distinctly picked up the sound of someone exhaling behind her.
Chaki, the "Mane-Tearing Hound", infused with strength once again, made a small sound as she turned around, purging all unnecessary tension from her body.
"AH......... at sUch timeS, i just need tO pUt both hands UP. is thAt Right?"
The dark sea of trees, the piling wealth. The purple-flamed tail and the pure-white scales meet in a secret, fateful encounter───
Author's Afterword
She wanted to eliminate the problem with her own hands, "craving" absolute peace of mind; she didn't want to needlessly poke her head into a commotion.
Standing by as an onlooker wasn't a betrayal, but a final mercy. If she had been winning here, at the very least she wouldn't have been abandoned.
・Thief King's Hidden Room
A mysterious ring said to have hidden the grand treasure of the great thief hailed as the Thief King. Even after losing much and eventually losing his life, it was the one thing the Thief King Baldir never let go of until the very end.
This ring functions as a secondary inventory, and its capacity is equal to the player's base inventory. Items placed inside this additional inventory do not affect the player's weight.
Or perhaps, what he truly desired wasn't the treasure itself, but the brilliance needed to adorn this secret ring.
Translator's Notes
- [1] Title: Adaptation of the proverb 人事を尽くして天命を待つ ("Do your utmost, then await Heaven's decree"). The title replaces 待つ (await) with 下る (descend).
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