This World Was Bugged (Toward The Finale, Part 6)

The Royal Capital had recovered from the scars of battle, and people’s lives were beginning to settle down.

I thought it was about time to truly make Liricia happy.

However, in order to do that, various preparations were necessary.

First, I needed to make sure everyone could survive while we were traveling.

One sunny day.

In the garden of the mansion in the forest, I was giving instructions to Kou while holding the sub-device to my ear.

“From here to here… no, this is already too much trouble. Could you just double the garden’s size lengthwise and widthwise from what it is now?”

“Aye-aye, sir.”

Kou, who had started using the forest-type field dungeon together with the rest of the dungeon, expanded the garden while swallowing up the trees around the mansion into the dungeon.

It was because I thought we should increase our food supply even a little, now that the snow elves had come.

I was told that inside the dungeon, since the light sources were artificial, some crops would not grow in the farm-field floor.

As a result, the size of the garden fields became four times larger, while the orchard and medicinal herb field became twice as large.

With this, even if I was not here, they should be able to manage the bare minimum of self-sufficiency.

The rest was… oh, right.

“Can you make the trees around the mansion taller? I want to make the mansion two stories and then hide it.”

“I can do that. Abracadabra, hurry up and go.”

Along with a strange chant, the trees around the mansion grew taller.

They all became great trees over twenty meters tall.

Of course, it was not just the immediate surroundings; the entire nearby forest grew as if to hide the mansion.

If only the trees adjacent to the mansion grew when seen from afar, it would be completely obvious, so we made the whole area taller and less conspicuous.

Also, cute screams came from the mansion.

“Kyaa!”

“Is it an earthquake, woof!?”

“It’s moving, meow!”

When I turned around, the mansion had become a luxurious two-story building. Its width had expanded too.

It seemed the maid fairies who had been cleaning and doing laundry got caught up in it.

Well, they were making a cheerful fuss, so there was probably no problem. To begin with, they could sink into floors and walls. As expected of fairies that possessed houses.

I entered through the front entrance on the first floor.

There was an entrance hall with an open ceiling. There was also a staircase leading to the second floor.

On one side of the entrance hall, there was a luxurious dining room where many people could sit, as well as a spacious kitchen.

On the opposite side of the entrance hall, there were several guest rooms and servant rooms. There was also a game room that doubled as a chatting room, and a large bath.

The second floor, reached by climbing the stairs, was divided into left and right. On the east side were my room, Liricia’s room, our shared bedroom, and then empty rooms that would be children’s rooms, a library, and a storage room. On the west side were an office, a workroom, several private rooms for senior staff such as a butler, and storage rooms that could be converted to other uses.

The maid fairies’ room would be in the attic. That was what they themselves wanted. Apparently, they liked how it felt like a secret base.

When Red Shadow came, I realized that the dining room had been built as an extension of the household, and I thought it was inappropriate as a place to eat together with high-ranking guests.

Also, because no one had used them, I had not noticed, but the guest rooms and our bedroom had been close together.

It was not about nighttime voices being heard; I simply thought there might be a problem with the host and guest rooms being adjacent.

Also, there had been no room for the maid fairies to live in.

In the future, we might gain more maids or hire a butler, so I prepared rooms for those people in advance.

Also, I learned that when hiring people, maids and servants could stay in large shared rooms, but senior positions such as butlers, head maids, and wet nurses needed private rooms.

Well, it felt like the east side of the second floor was my and Liricia’s private area.

The first floor was a place where we could spend time with other people too, dividing it into two parts like that.

Teti, Sophia, and Rāna liked their private rooms inside the dungeon, so they did not come to the mansion.

After checking the mansion’s facilities, I nodded with a smile.

“Good. This feels nice.”

“Master, I want to consult with you. It’s serious?”

“Hm? Understood. Is the hall fine?”

“Come to the Heaven Realm.”

“Understood.”

A teleportation gate appeared beside me, so I passed through it.

Incidentally, Kou also existed as a Dungeon Core in her hall, but apparently, the Kou in the Heaven Realm had better performance.

According to Kou’s example, it was about as different as Window 2000 and Window 11. I thought the one with the bigger number should be more impressive, but it was the usual incomprehensible Dungeon Core analogy.

And so, when we had important matters to discuss, I spoke directly with Kou in the Heaven Realm.

When I came to the Heaven Realm, Liricia was beside Kou in the temple.

Liricia had a sorrowful look on her face and was looking down in thought.

—This really does look serious.

I went over and spoke to Kou.

“What happened?”

“I was investigating the world system in order to take over management of the world, but I discovered a bug.”

“A bug? That meant an abnormality, right? Can’t you fix it?”

“That is the problem.”

Liricia raised her face, swaying her silver hair.

“It concerns Alec—san.”

“Me? What do you mean?”

When I asked, Kou began explaining.

“This world has a setting where a final boss is created once every fifty or one hundred years.”

“God decided that? Why would he do such a thing?”

“It is a system to prevent wars that would destroy the world before they happen.”

“Even so, it would be better if evil beings like that didn’t exist.”

“By making the final boss a common enemy of the world, many nations and races stop their hostility and conflicts, and unite before the shared goal of defeating the final boss.”

“I see. If that’s the reason, then it was well thought out.”

“However, currently, three final bosses have been left alone without being defeated.”

“Huh, seriously!? So there are others besides that Demon King?”

“Yes. As a result, the Hero born to defeat the final bosses was born as a Hero who is normally cubed stronger.”

“Not three times stronger, but cubed…”

“That is why Master was overwhelmingly strong. Now that I have become a World Core, I can understand it, but your magic power is at the level of nayuta or fukashigi.”

“If you fix it, does that mean I’ll get weaker?”

“More than that, it displays, ‘Because the program is open and running, it cannot be modified or deleted.’ To fundamentally fix it, Master and the three final bosses need to be erased, and then the system must be fixed again.”

“You mean I’d die! I refuse that.”

“Since that would mean God dies, I hate it too—that is why this is a problem.”

Liricia lowered her eyebrows and spoke with a serious expression.

“I do not want to lose Alec-san either.”

“I don’t want to die without making Liricia happy either. I want to make you happy forever.”

“Alec-san!”

Liricia jumped into my chest and hugged me.

I firmly embraced her slender, soft body.

Then, while burying my face in her silver hair, I asked Kou,

“If we leave this bug alone, is it dangerous? Like a fourth or fifth final boss appearing?”

“Since Master has become a god and will not die for the time being, I think it should be all right fifty or one hundred years from now, but…”

“In other words, I was born to defeat the Demon King, who is the third final boss, and as long as I and the Demon King are alive, the current situation will be maintained.”

“Probably, yes.”

While hugging Liricia, I rubbed my cheek against her silver hair.

“Then isn’t that fine? Let’s just leave the Demon King alone.”

But Liricia raised her face from within my arms and said,

“There is still another problem.”

“Huh? What kind?”

Kou continued speaking.

“When I look at the system, since the final boss must absolutely be defeated, strong companions are set for the Hero. The basic pattern is four people including the Hero: ‘Hero, Warrior, Priest, Mage’ or ‘Hero, Thief, Priest, Mage.’ There also seems to be a pattern where a ‘Sage’ joins instead.”

“Hm? …Don’t tell me those companions were also strengthened by the bug?”

“Yes. The companions’ abilities were also cubed stronger.”

“But I don’t have any companions that strong.”

“Probably one of the companions set by the system as the ‘Mage’ is Rubel-san.”

“Ah! True, that amount of magic power is monstrous! She’s about as strong as me!”

“Also, I think the ‘Thief’ is Edgar-san.”

I tilted my head at Kou’s statement.

“He is definitely strong, but I don’t think he was abnormal to that extent…?”

“Edgar-san is a ‘Ninja,’ the higher class of ‘Thief,’ and can use all elemental ninjutsu, even though normally one can only use one or two attributes. He is a cubed-bugged existence.”

“So that was it… Even without that, he was an outstanding person. Who’s the last one?”

At my question, Kou’s surface blinked as if troubled.

“TV not TV. That is the problem. I don’t know.”

“Seriously?”

“It is dangerous that a human set as a companion and as monstrously strong as that has been left alone.”

Liricia also nodded with a gloomy face.

“If there is someone as strong as Alec-san or Rubel-san, it would be dangerous if they went out of control.”

That was true, I thought.

Rubel had also suddenly awakened to her magic power in the past and burned down an entire village.

If we did not quickly find that abnormally strong companion and either persuade or protect them, I could not even imagine what kind of damage might happen.

I asked while thinking.

“Uh, going by the patterns you mentioned earlier, the one missing is the Priest… Liricia isn’t it, right?”

“Because she is an angel sent from the Heaven Realm, she is an existence outside the final boss program.”

“And the only strong Priest I’ve met is Sophia, right? She’s also an angel, so she shouldn’t be it.”

“That’s right. Sophia-san is probably the angel who guides the Hero meant to defeat the second final boss.”

“So there’s an abnormally strong Priest I’ve never met? …Could it be another class?”

“If Edgar-san did not exist, there would have been the possibility of ‘Warrior’ or ‘Martial Artist,’ but…”

Kou was troubled, with lights swirling over her spherical surface.

Liricia also furrowed her brows and fell into thought.

I considered another possibility and asked.

“What about the Sage you mentioned earlier? There are quite a few people called sages.”

“Those people are sages honored as a title. They are different from the ‘Sage’ set as a class in the system.”

“How are they different?”

“The ‘Sage’ class can use both attack magic and healing magic, and can also use Sage-exclusive skills and Sage-exclusive weapons.”

“It’s amazing to be able to use both. I’ve never met or even heard of someone like that… Liricia, do you know anyone?”

Liricia shook her head gently in my arms. Her silver hair swayed and tickled me.

“I do not know either. If there were someone who could use both types of magic, I think rumors would spread beyond national borders.”

“True. —Kou, what are the Sage-exclusive skills?”

I had no clues at all, so I only asked casually.

However, Kou answered,

“Quick Casting, Chantless Casting, and Double Casting?”

The moment we heard that, Liricia and I shouted at the same time.

“Mackybell!” “Ma-chan-san!”

The strange person who kept changing her name.

A mage who fired off high-level magic to relieve stress.

But she hated studying and working. She also hated magical research and practice.

A useless money-loving person who did nothing but play around. But she also had a side that cared for her friends.

Her trademark was the wide-brimmed pointed hat she wore on her head.

—It was her!

She often activated magic simultaneously, but it had been said to be the work of a genius that was almost impossible for ordinary people.

So it was because those were exclusive skills for the Sage class.

Kou let out a relieved sigh.

“That person who sometimes came to the shop? Sophia-san’s friend? I’m relieved now that I know who to mark.”

“Mackybell certainly was a genius.”

In response to my words, Liricia continued.

“Because she was born into a family of court mages, perhaps no one ever considered that she might be able to use healing magic.”

“But she has an incredible habit of slacking off, and she hates studying. She doesn’t feel like a Sage.”

I said that negatively, but for some reason Kou was delighted.

“Hoho! A ‘Sage’ with an ‘Idler’ temperament! That makes her even more Sage-like! She must have become a Sage without using the Book of Enlightenment!”

—I had no idea what she was so happy about.

To begin with, what was the Book of Enlightenment? I had never heard of it.

But well, it was good that we had identified the person to protect.

As Kou said, I was relieved.

“Then this is a relief. I’ll live a long time and not defeat the Demon King. We’ll keep an eye on Mackybell so she doesn’t go out of control. With that, let’s watch and see whether the system abnormality gets worse.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

After that, I brought Liricia back to the mansion.

—However, when I thought about it carefully, questions kept bubbling up endlessly.

So, to resolve those questions, I headed to the shop in the Royal Capital.