Rosetta Arrowhead

[Welcome.]

When he opened his eyes, he heard a voice. Over the familiar Velvet Room scenery and the table.

“……Game Master.”

It wasn’t a situation worth being surprised about. To say that a storm had passed couldn’t fully describe all that happened the last few days. He figured it was about time it came.

[Even if your level didn’t rise, your subclass level rose. Besides that, after passing through a fateful branching point, there are quite a few things I need to explain.]
“A fateful branch. You really love fate.”

Solomon let out a hollow laugh.

[Now then, shall we start with your subclass?]

───
Subclass: Reaper

Acquired Perk List -
「Inescapable Fate」
: Acquire 1 <Fate Die ⚅>

「Induce Excessive Bleeding」
: On a successful melee sneak attack, the Bleeding status effect lasts longer and does not fade easily.

「Blood-Red Harvest」
: When attacking an enemy afflicted with the Bleeding status effect, Damage +2

……Perks Available to Acquire:
→ Finishing Strike
→ Blade of Attunement
→ Crimson Harvest (New!)
───

Among the points embroidered like starlight along the branch’s trunk, the next node on the bleeding side opened. Even so, Solomon climbed back up the branch again and turned his eyes to one of the first three.

“Finishing Blow.”

───
「Finishing Blow」
: The holder of this perk gains one <Finishing Die ⚅>.
: If the target’s HP is 20% or lower, when attacking, you may roll that die and add the result as additional damage.
───

[Oh, good. With this, you’ve acquired a new perk.]

It was similar in mechanism to the unseen die Solomon already had through the 「Glass Cannon」 trait, the <Glass Die ⚅>. The difference was that it only rolled when the target’s HP was low. At the same time, Solomon had another reason for aiming for this trait.

‘With my current Insight, the information I can learn through this die.’

In other words, the fact itself that the target’s HP had dropped to at least 20% or lower. And the extra damage roll wasn’t something you could ignore either.
In a world with no visible HP bar, being able to know the target’s vitality was priceless information in itself.

Then, along with the bleeding branch, a new starry path branching off from the starting perk he first learned, 「Inescapable Fate」, began to shine.
Starlight of possibilities, clearly connected.

“So did you call me here just to talk about my subclass?”
[Of course not.]

Even so, their conversation was not over. To be precise, it was only beginning.

[As I said, the Messiah of Evil, ‘Angra Maria,’ has appeared in this city. As the Black Museum’s new curator. Undoubtedly, it will cause quite a commotion in this city.]
“Yeah.”
[And accordingly, a new session will naturally begin. Oh, doesn’t it excite you?]
“A new session.”

At those words, Solomon let out a hollow laugh. A session, a single bundle of story that unfolds when people gather in TRPG. It meant that what would happen going forward, after Marie Molesworth became Angra Maria, would not end overnight either.

[Above all, for Solomon, as the human assassin with the mark of myrrh on the tip of his blade.]

Again, that topic. Human assassin.

“I’ve never gotten an easy-to-understand trait like that.”
[Because it isn’t an easy-to-understand trait.]
“Then is it at least a skill?”
[It is merely a symbol.]

The Game Master answered. In a voice cold and subdued, unlike them.

[The human assassin, the last Magus offering the gift of myrrh.]

Recalling Solomon’s role in the rite that brought down the child of god.

[It is not a skill, not magic, not a technique, not an ability, not a perk, not a trait. It is none of those.]

Even that was enough to grasp what it meant.

[As the Game Master, I am merely an arbiter of this world. At times, there are laws even I cannot defy.]
“An arbiter.”

Solomon let out a hollow laugh. It wasn’t like he knew nothing. Game Masters were neither gods nor dictators. They were simply arbiters of the game.

[Our conversation ends here.]

In that uncharacteristically subdued voice, the Game Master concluded. Before long, Solomon was no longer visible in the tabletop room. His consciousness sank into darkness, and the Game Master was left alone.
The darkness writhing beneath the hood like a living creature stared into the air without a word. For a very, very long time.

Knock knock.
At the knocking sound, his eyes opened. Solomon got up calmly, without surprise.

“Excuse me, Mr. Solomon. A guest asking for you is in the lounge.”
“A guest asking for me?”
“Yes.”

Solomon got up at once. At this point, he didn’t even need to stop and think anew about the fact that someone was looking for him. Solomon had already properly established himself as a professional contractor of Hotel Snark.
So Solomon got dressed, gathered his gear, and left his room. Room 333 on the third floor. Too short to bother with the elevator, and subtly annoying to walk down on his own two legs. A cursed floor.

In the end, Solomon went down to the lobby lounge on his own two legs. He soon realized. The air of the hotel lounge was clearly different from usual. No, it didn’t just seem different.

As if some gangster chairman had arrived, quite a few men were standing guard there, holding their positions. They weren’t even dressed in the kind of easy-to-read suits.

Too old-fashioned and archaic…… blood-red robes.

The moment he saw it, Solomon swallowed silently. How could he not know? The sight of that mage he had personally punched a knife-hole into, and that proud name.

House Arrowhead, the Spear-Sorcerer, Prism Mage.

One of the Five Great Houses that ruled this city, the real rulers of the kingdom that formed the 「Ancient Council」 with Uptown as their base.

“Assassin bastard. Don’t keep the Duke waiting.”

A man in blood-red robes snapped sharply at Solomon. As if to say he hadn’t forgotten that Solomon had punched a knife-hole into one of their house mages from behind.

“Oh, what an honor.”

Solomon calmly crossed between the mages in blood-red robes. Needless to say, all the other seats were empty.
At the same time, countless robed mages were standing, filling the corridors as if packing every corner of the lounge.

He could tell the moment he saw them. Each one was a powerhouse on a level that couldn’t even be compared to the House Arrowhead mage Solomon had fought before.
And the reason they were all here was to support and attend only one person, ‘her,’ who wanted to see Solomon.

That was why she was there.
The head who led one of the Five Great Houses, House Arrowhead. A noble among nobles, the one called by the name of Duke.

“Duke Arrowhead…….”

Should he have called her Your Grace? In this situation, did even Solomon have some etiquette he had to follow.

“Welcome.”

There, the person herself spoke.

“So you’re the Solomon my older brother spoke of? It is my first time meeting you.”
“……”

Solomon sat down without a word. Staring at her in front of him, the real thing he should have felt an untouchable presence from, he swallowed his bewilderment.

She looked like a girl who had just turned twelve at most.
A lady’s bonnet embroidered with layers of purple lace roses, and a Victorian gothic dress of pitch-black velvet and blood-red lace. From the choker around her neck and the jeweled brooch on her chest, to the lace adornments delicately covering her wrists.
Like a masterpiece of Pygmalion, it was as if a top-grade bisque doll that should have been behind glass was breathing and alive and moving.

[Insight Success! A living bisque doll]

It was not a metaphor. In each small motion she made, the joints of her limbs were not flesh and blood and bone…… gears and mechanisms meshed, and the device moved.

“Yeah. I’m that Solomon.”

Solomon answered as he sat facing her. His name was no longer something that even needed hiding. No, now everyone knew it, whether he liked it or not. His name.

“I am Rosetta S. Arrowhead.”

The girl whispered softly, covering her mouth with a purple fan.

“People call me Duke Arrowhead. To be honest, I like ‘Duchess’ better.”

Puffing her cheeks like a child.

“Lately, people say we need to change, something about being woke……? Even so, following trends is part of a lady’s refinement.”

Emerald eyes like fresh greenery. But what gleamed beyond them was not the warmth of life, but the mineral, cold radiance of a jewel.

“Hehe, is my appearance really that fascinating?”

That very radiance asked Solomon sharply. Solomon belatedly averted his eyes.

“Staring at a lady too intently is terribly rude.”
“……My apologies.”

Solomon answered blandly.

“It’s my first time seeing the mighty Duke of House Arrowhead, so I was overwhelmed by the honor.”
“Oh my, I don’t dislike a man who understands a girl’s heart.”

She lifted her teacup. Clink. From her fingertips touching the cup, a very faint porcelain scrape sounded.

“So what business did you seek me for? Did you come to avenge a dead house mage or something?”

Solomon asked back. A brief silence. At the end of the silence, Rosetta S. Arrowhead, the living bisque doll girl, burst into laughter.

“Ahah, ahahahaha!”

As if it was so funny she couldn’t stand it.

“What’s so funny?”

Solomon asked again, before the girl cackling without restraint.

“Revenge, what are you talking about! Ahah, ahaha! How stupid! Honestly, ahaha! Egh, kehuk!”
“……”

To the point she nearly lost her breath. Only after she barely got her breathing under control did she continue.

“I am kh, khkh…… not such an idle lady that I’d move for a dead fool. Khh!”

As if even continuing was too funny to endure.

“Besides, our house has no fools.”

After laughing, she said in a cold voice.

“So even if a few fools die, it’s of no concern to us. Isn’t that right, Alfred?”
“You are correct, Your Grace.”

Their house had no fools. So even if a few fools died, it didn’t matter. Because their house had no fools in the first place.
Solomon stared at her, even more dumbfounded.

“Then what did you come all the way here for?”
“There could only be one reason.”

At the end of her laughter, Rosetta Arrowhead spoke, the head of one of the Five Great Houses and the Patriarch of House Arrowhead.

“Because I have a commission I want to entrust to the human assassin.”