Your Combat Style’s The Same, Isn’t It?

“If possible, I’m curious, so could you tell me now…?”

When Kikori said that, Mirgu made a sour face.

“You… that’s the part where you go, ‘Understood!’”

“I figured that might be the case, but getting strung along is pretty painful, so…”

“Well, yeah, fair.”

“Oh, you actually accept that.”

Kuon, now fully armored up, said that with a grin—but the moment Mirgu shot him a glare, he quickly looked away.

“Fine. I’ll explain. This thing is a defective product as far as adventurer armor goes.”

“Defective…?”

“Yeah. The original concept was armor that increased sustained combat capability.”

As he spoke, Mirgu lightly tapped the mana stones set into it.

“All the mana stones on this armor do is ‘store mana and release it.’ No other special effects… but the idea was you could fire off spells beyond your own mana capacity, or use it as a lifeline in an emergency.”

“That sounds amazing.”

“If it worked as planned.”

But in practice, it didn’t.

Maybe attaching them to armor was the mistake, or maybe it was the combination of mana stones, or compatibility with the metal.

Either way, the armor ended up producing an unintended effect.

“What kind of effect…?”

“It didn’t discriminate what mana it charged. It became a troublesome set of stones that would drain the mana of anything it touched, up to the user’s limit. And when that happens—”

“Mana incompatibility?”

“Exactly. Figures a priest would know. You already knew?”

Mirgu nodded at Kuon’s answer.

“When you mix mana from different living beings, it doesn’t blend properly and causes harmful side effects. The specific symptoms are…”

“Increased aggression. The so-called berserk phenomenon.”

Didn’t that make it a huge problem? Kikori thought.

At the same time, he also thought it might depend on how you used it.

For example, if you emptied the armor’s mana stones first and then latched onto an enemy, you might be able to disrupt their spellcasting.

“You’ve got the face of someone who just thought of a way to use it… but that’s not the only reason I’m recommending it.”

“Huh? There’s more?”

“Yeah. You—your combat style is probably the same as Aria’s, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know if it’s the same…”

“You jack yourself up with War Cry and charge in.”

“…That’s basically accurate.”

“Thought so. The reason you get along with Aria is because you’re the same type. And here’s the thing: Aria goes berserk off her own hype. But you’re not that far gone, right?”

“She goes berserk off her own hype.”

“Don’t tell her I said this, okay? Back when she called herself a swordsman, a warrior, a priest—whatever—her classification as an adventurer was ‘berserker.’”

She really was ridiculously strong, he added.

Mirgu said it like it was nothing, but Kikori had kind of seen it coming.

Even if he bought this armor and took it home…

The moment people found out Mirgu had recommended it, the whole “berserker” thing would get exposed too… or so Kikori thought.