Chapter 9

“Um… Lord Zeke. What are all these potions going to be used for?”

“You have no need to know.”

A great many supplies had been packed into the carriage. It was loaded with all kinds of items, from recovery medicines such as potions and mana potions to weapons like swords and even clothing. Nell, Ricky, and Mei watched the scene with curious looks.

Hiroto had been walking down the capital’s main avenue when the three boys and girls accosted him. Just as he was thinking that something similar had happened before, it turned out they were the exact same people.

When he asked what they wanted, one suspicious person started shouting incomprehensible things about eternity, while her two friends tried to stop her. Since nothing was getting anywhere, he ignored them and went around to tool shops, only for the three to follow him for some reason. In that case, he thought he might as well use them as a labor source, which had led to the present situation.

“Ricky, you are as foolish as ever. This is a requiem for our departure to the promised land.”

“…I’m not going to play straight man anymore.”

“This is embarrassing…”

Ricky sighed at the deviant called Mei, while Nell looked around nervously in embarrassment. From what he had heard, they were childhood friends living in the royal capital and were apparently adventurers. They were still a fledgling F-rank party.

(Fifteen years old and F-rank, huh… Luke and I were already B-rank by then.)

The royal capital attack two years ago had swept away unnecessary adventurers. On top of that, strict standards had been established, and the barrier to operating as an adventurer in the royal capital had suddenly risen. In a situation where ranking up was already difficult, why had they chosen the royal capital as their base of operations? Choosing the capital simply because it was their hometown felt shallow to him.

(…Well, maybe just being able to make that decision is impressive in itself. If it were me, I’d choose a safe job.)

Hiroto had decided to work as an adventurer because he had possessed the genius named Zeke. Zeke possessed talent so absurdly violent that he could crush both people and monsters alike. Against an ordinary opponent, he would almost never lose. Because he understood that, Hiroto had chosen adventuring as a way to earn money.

Zeke’s, or rather Hiroto’s, and Luke’s adventurer ranks were originally impossible. They were not something that could be achieved through luck and effort alone. They had simply possessed talent. That was why they had reached B-rank at the youngest age… and Hiroto still had not forgotten that their promotion to A-rank had been Aktor’s harassment.

(So this is the difference between ordinary people and geniuses. These guys will probably learn reality someday too.)

They would be blocked by the wall of talent, despair, learn reality, and become adults. If that was all, it would still be better. Life in this world was far too cheap. In the worst case, they might lose their lives.

(If I’d come to this world normally, I’d refuse to become an adventurer.)

There was no way a person from a peaceful world could go to another world and engage in life-and-death struggles. They would get the wrong idea on their own and end up as monster food. There was no need anywhere to willingly jump into danger. And that was precisely why he thought the three of them had made an admirable choice.

“I have thought of it! If I summon my dragon, we should be able to take A-rank requests!”

“Why A-rank? …But if you can summon a dragon, maybe they really will arrange requests for us!”

“You two… even if you could summon a dragon, wouldn’t it refuse to listen to us…? We’d just become criminals on the spot.”

…He took back his previous statement. These three really were hopeless after all. Their heads had probably gone wrong.

“Hey, damn brats. This is the next place. Work seriously.”

Zeke, or rather Hiroto, and the others arrived at another tool shop. They left the carriage outside and entered the shop. …As a side note, the man managing the carriage was not an acquaintance or anything of the sort. Hiroto had simply bought the man along with the carriage after the carriage happened to catch his eye, then hired him. When he had flashed money before him, the man had obediently nodded.

“Yes, welcome! …!? Y-you’re that Lagias…”

The person who seemed to be the shopkeeper’s face twitched. Hiroto inwardly laughed at the reaction, which was exactly the same as every shop they had visited so far.

“What is this? Does this shop choose its customers? You must be quite high and mighty.”

“…That is not my intention. I would never refuse business with a decent customer.”

“Hmph. So long as you understand.”

He turned his gaze to the goods lined up on the shelves. The bottles filled with green liquid were potions. Since this was the royal capital, their quality was not particularly bad. He gave the shopkeeper the same order he had given at the previous shops.

“Hand over every potion-type recovery medicine in this shop.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Did you not hear me? I said that I, in my great generosity, would do business with you. …Damn brats, do it.”

He took a platinum coin from his pocket and tossed it to the shopkeeper. When the man saw it, he went blank for a moment, but immediately understood the situation and lost his composure. As expected of a merchant, he seemed to understand the value of currency. He sank to the floor after receiving a top-class platinum coin.

“A-a platinum coin!? T-that’s absurd! Even if I gathered every product in this shop, it wouldn’t match that! There’s no way I could prepare change either…”

“I do not need such a thing. If you feel any guilt, then become a merchant worthy of that money… What are you doing, damn brats? Hurry up and load it onto the carriage.”

When he turned around, the three fools were standing still. Nell and Ricky’s eyes were sparkling, while Mei had apparently forgotten her character setting and was excited. …He had already seen the same sight many times. These boys and girls really must have been insane.

The three, having regained their composure, and the shopkeeper busily began loading the goods into the carriage. Hiroto tried to help too, but the shopkeeper strongly insisted that he rest, leading to the current situation. As he watched them, Hiroto was lost in thought.

(A repeating world, huh… In the end, it’s meaningless unless we solve that.)

Alderic’s words absolutely could not be ignored. Hiroto had decided to move forward, but unless he also solved this problem, he could not truly liberate Lagias.

(In the game, it ended after defeating Elzen. Is it looping because there’s no scenario beyond that after all? …For such a simplistic reason?)

The protagonists defeated Elzen after a deadly battle. There was no particular epilogue, and during the ending, only a little of what happened to each character afterward was shown.

As far as Hiroto knew, Wish Soul had no multiple endings. Even if one lost a boss fight, it simply became a continue. There might have been another ending prepared as a concept or hidden setting, but since Hiroto did not know about it, there was no point thinking about it now.

(Should I talk to the king one more time? No, as a basic premise, if we don’t defeat Elzen first, the loop won’t even matter. Right now, I should only think about getting stronger. It may not be the best option, but it should at least be better.)

He had not the slightest intention of simply making the protagonist stronger and calling it finished. Hiroto intended to get deeply involved in this battle as well. That was precisely why he had to become stronger. The Forest of Death was for that purpose.

“Lord Zeke? Is something wrong?”

A shadow fell into his field of vision. When he lifted his gaze, his eyes met Ricky’s. Nell and Mei were behind him as well. …The shopkeeper was working silently by himself.

For some reason, at that moment, Hiroto wanted to hear what they thought. He wanted to hear from these three, who knew nothing of the circumstances and were nothing more than children. From ordinary people below even background characters who had never appeared in the game.

“Damn brats. When you face… a problem that will never end, how would you solve it?”

“A problem that will never end? Um, that would be…”

“Is this some kind of riddle? Mei, do you know?”

“Of course. Even if an insect cannot understand, I can. For Zeke and I have been firmly bound since ancient times by the chains of karma.”

It seemed it had only been his imagination after all. Hiroto’s head must have been bursting from overthinking. He would finish the preparations quickly and rest properly today.

“Speaking of something that never ends… when will our Darkness Triangle request ever be finished?”

“…True. We can’t even complete an F-rank request.”

“The Adventurers Association instructors are scary, aren’t they? They’re strict and yell right away. They could at least give us a hint…”

(D-Darkness Triangle? What is with that lame name? Don’t tell me that’s their party name?)

Hiroto trembled. When he thought about them operating under such an embarrassing party name, he found himself utterly put off despite it being someone else’s business. …Incidentally, at the time, Zeke, or rather Hiroto, and Luke had not actually formed a party. They had simply taken requests together when their schedules aligned and had not been an official party.

“We are properly gathering medicinal herbs. And yet those insects make a fuss. Surely they are frightened by my majesty.”

“We gathered a lot, so the right one should be in there somewhere. …Or maybe it still isn’t enough?”

“Hmm, they didn’t specify a number though.”

The rookie adventurer party Darkness Triangle fell into thought. Hiroto knew none of the circumstances, but he thought the Adventurers Association’s judgment was correct. If they let people like this take other requests, the royal capital headquarters would collapse.

“Ah, sorry, Lord Zeke. For us, I guess the problem that never ends is our F-rank request.”

“Indeed. It is a trifling request unworthy of me.”

“We’ve had to redo it so many times.”

Hiroto thought they should redo that catastrophic party name first. To begin with, why were they failing a beginner-of-beginners medicinal herb gathering request? From what he had heard, they had probably just randomly gathered every herb growing in sight. It was a beginner request that should be completed with no issue if they compared the herbs to a guidebook or actual sample.

(If they don’t meet the conditions for completing the request, of course they’d have to redo it. ………………Don’t meet the conditions?)

Because they had not met them, they had to redo it… But what had not been met?

A world that repeated over and over. The protagonists always won, and Elzen always lost. It was that way in the game, and Alderic had certainly said the same thing. In other words, the Gate to the Otherworld had not been opened.

(No, maybe it was opened in the past. But Elzen and Pariaach shouldn’t have been there.)

The first Diabalet, together with Lagias, had opened the Gate to the Otherworld and encountered the spirit of prayer, Oración. What they wished for was to distance spirits from this world. And yet Pariaach continued to exist even now.

(The wish wasn’t complete? Even though it should grant any wish. I see. The current situation is contradictory…)

He felt as if he could see a glimmer of light. He had no basis for it, and it carried risks. On top of that, the conditions had not been met at present. But it was fully worth keeping in the corner of his mind. …To think he would once again end up borrowing strength from ordinary people below even background characters.

“It’s already evening… I feel like we did something amazing today.”

“The dark night strengthens my power.”

“…Hey, Mei. You don’t even resemble him anymore. You’re a completely different person. The real one has dignity, he’s cool, and his aura is totally different.”

The explosive shopping spree backed by money had ended. He instructed the carriage to be taken to the designated place tomorrow, and the coachman accepted before leaving. Hiroto also needed to rest early today.

“Damn brats. This is your payment. Be honored.”

What he handed each of them was a silver coin. As expected, handing platinum coins to children would cause all kinds of inconveniences. It could easily become the seed of trouble.

“T-this much… Lord Zeke, thank you very much!”

“We did it, you two! Our first completed request was a request from Lord Zeke! I’ll make this silver coin a family heirloom!”

“…”

The boy Ricky and the girl Nell rejoiced. In contrast, the deviant Mei fell silent. No, more accurately, she was muttering softly. “W-w-w-what should I do? I touched Lord Zeke’s hand. I’m too embarrassed to sleep tonight,” she kept mumbling. …Hiroto was exasperated, wondering whether touching Lagias was really that unpleasant. Her character setting had collapsed too.

“Damn brats. If you seriously want to master the adventurer trade… visit the Adventurers Association branch in the Rent Domain. Farewell.”

Leaving them behind, Zeke, or rather Hiroto, continued forward. He would no longer stop.

Early morning. When the royal capital was still asleep.

At the eastern gate stood one large carriage and a black-haired figure. There was no one on the driver’s seat. There were not even any horses hitched to it.

A shadow moved toward that strange scene.

“I thought you would tuck tail and run.”

“…Like hell I would. I won’t run. I’ll fight. I don’t want to regret it.”

“Hmph. Make every effort not to let that become mere lip service.”

It was a brown-haired figure carrying a large bag on his back. Multiple swords hung at his waist. It was Van Freak. The Sword Saint’s final disciple.

“So, are you all here to see this failure off? What overprotective people you are.”

“Hoho… To be precise, we are here to see both of you off.”

“We won’t be able to meet for a while. I at least wanted to burn this sight into my eyes.”

“That’s right. …Honestly, I want to go with you.”

Glanz, Ciel, and Selen offered words of farewell.

“…Van. Don’t cry. Don’t trouble Zeke either. Understood?”

“I’m not your little brother…”

Atri and Van exchanged their usual words.

“Zeke. Let’s become stronger. And then let’s definitely win. Our future will continue from here on too.”

“…………Naturally. You do what you must do.”

Zeke and Luke exchanged few words. That was because they understood this was not an eternal farewell. Things would continue from here on too. Surely…

Van approached Zeke and looked at the carriage with a puzzled expression.

“…Hey? Why are there no horses?”

“Are you an idiot? Travel time is nothing but a waste. We will fly directly.”

“Huh…? …No, wait a second!”

Van noticed something and panicked, but it was too late. Zeke, Van, and the carriage were enveloped in light. It was teleportation, which he had seen many times before.

Through the teleportation magic constructed in an instant, the two vanished. They headed for the entrance to hell.