Chapter 109: dusa – 1
I had known she would react like this.
The Future Diary had also said she blended in with the party quite well.
I went ahead and asked the Diary Book for the bookmark string.
The Diary Book no longer corrected with ‘It is the Thread of Connection.’ and simply held out the string silently.
Tap.
It didn’t even say it hurt anymore. You’ve grown, Diary Book.
“Give your hand.”
“Huh? Ah. A handshake?”
“No. Not a handshake.”
I tied the bookmark string around her finger.
And then, in a soft voice, I said,
“Congratulations. From now on, you’ll be doing quests with us. Without ever getting separated into another team.”
“Co to think of it, you said earlier that you all always moved together. So this is what you were doing?”
“Yeah.”
“What a bizarre ability.”
“Hearing that from soone who handles spirits is a bit…….”
Then Arlia spoke.
“Now that we’ve ford a single party, may I say it?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Please.”
Arlia turned her gaze to Karin.
“Karin.”
“Yeah.”
“As you heard earlier, Mason could see the future.”
“And so?”
Perhaps to ease the burden on her heart, she spoke with the brightest smile she could muster.
“We die in three days.”
Edgar and Louis were in hell.
To be precise, they were before the lord who ruled one quarter of hell.
Louis trembled violently as she carefully lifted her gaze to observe the being seated upon the massive throne.
The being didn’t seem surprised at all by their sudden appearance.
It rely looked down at them with eyes holding the faintest glimr of interest.
‘That’s one of the Four Lords of Hell.’
–Helena Protro Nine.
The sight of her sitting with her legs crossed was that of a beautiful woman.
However, Helena’s hair was not beautiful.
There, countless thin, long snakes writhed and twisted.
Her golden eyes glead so sharply that rely eting them made one’s body stiffen, and at the corner of her lips rested a cruel smile strikingly similar to Magireta’s.
“Such rare guests have co to visit. Living humans, no less.”
“…….”
“Hm. How did this happen? You don’t seem like dropout contestants.”
Edgar stepped forward and spoke.
“It’s an honor to et you. I am Edgar Tyler, and this is Louis Danahan.”
“Nice to et you.”
“I apologize for appearing without notice. We had sothing we desperately wished to ask of you.”
“Go on. Ah, would you like so tea first?”
With an elegant motion, Helena summoned soone.
Soon they heard the sound of sothing slithering.
Snakes crawled across the floor, their upper bodies upright.
They placed teacups on the table and then filled them with sothing dripping from their own fangs.
“Ugh……”
As Louis groaned, Helena spoke.
“Drink.”
“No, um—”
“Drink. If you don’t, I will kill you right here.”
With a gentle smile, she urged them to drink the poison.
Louis only trembled, so Helena spoke again.
“You’re a doppelgänger, aren’t you? The human-looking one over there is perfectly calm, yet you—who are a monster—are shaking this much.”
Then Edgar stepped in.
“I’ll drink my wife’s portion as well.”
“Wife?”
“Yes.”
“Hm. Well, fine. Hurry and drink. It tastes best when it’s fresh.”
Before Louis could stop him, Edgar downed both cups of poison in quick succession.
And he died on the spot, vomiting blood.
“Ah, Arcane!”
But before Louis could do anything, he resurrected.
Helena spoke as she watched him stand back up unhard.
“Aha. I heard from Magireta. One of the human-race winners of this world wished for immortality. Looks like that was you.”
“Yes. Now, will you hear out?”
“Speak.”
Edgar calmly began talking.
It wouldn’t do to suddenly ask her to kill Mason.
He had to stir her interest first.
So he started by laying out their story in full detail.
He explained their journey from the First Quest all the way to the Seventh Quest.
Just like Mason had done with Karin.
Once he finished explaining up to the most recent Bungee Jump quest, Helena spoke.
“I do recall so humans crashing down here not long ago. It was in the territory I manage.”
“Here? Mason most likely bungee-jumped toward the moon.”
“You didn’t know? Hell is the moon.”
Even Edgar, who rarely showed surprise, widened his eyes at that.
Louis was no different.
She was a resident of hell who had crossed over to the world above, but she had never imagined hell existed on the moon.
Edgar looked out the window at the sky of hell.
‘If you can see the moon from our world, then from the moon you should be able to see our world.’
But the sky was only filled with purple.
There was no world, no sun, no stars.
Then Helena spoke.
“Anyway, impressive. That Mason fellow seems to be quite an interesting thinker.”
“The idea to bungee-jump to the moon also ca to . I simply couldn’t carry it out because of the guarantee contract.”
“Hm. A bungee jump. We had a similar quest back in our ti. mories.”
“Your ti? A similar quest?”
Helena nodded softly.
“Just like the doppelgänger Louis over there, I too was once a participant in a past ga. One of the quests then was ‘Flying Far’. It seems the bungee-jump was an arranged version of that old quest.”
“Flying far? You an you actually flew through the sky?”
“Yes. ‘We’ were a race capable of that.”
Edgar didn’t understand what she ant at all.
But one scene did surface in his mind.
The woman who flew gracefully through the sky, overtaking him during the First-Co quest.
Edgar spoke half-jokingly.
“Humans might also be a race capable of that. At least one person definitely flew.”
“Explain in detail.”
“Ah, it was just an aside. Nothing to—”
“I said explain in detail.”
Helena’s tone shifted ever so slightly.
And the atmosphere shifted with it.
Louis nearly hiccupped.
But Edgar, without any sign of surprise, recounted exactly what had happened during the First-Co quest.
Tap, tap.
Helena tapped the armrest of her chair with her index finger.
Soon she ground her teeth and shouted:
“Magireta!”
“Knew you’d call.”
Ssshhk.
Magireta appeared with an extrely troubled expression.
Helena asked sharply, as if rebuking her.
“‘What is going on here?’”
“‘What.’”
“‘Humans shouldn’t be able to fly. They can’t wield ether.’”
“…….”
“‘For there to be soone who can wield it…… don’t tell ?’”
Magireta shrugged.
“‘Yes, that don’t-tell-.’”
“‘This isn’t what we agreed! Why did you allow that child to participate in the quests?’”
“‘No. The agreent was “Please don’t kill that child.” And technically it wasn’t even an agreent, it was a wish ticket you used.’”
“‘You…….’”
“‘I granted your wish. That child has not truly died even once.’”
She continued, as if soothing her.
“‘This ti it just so happened that the child got included in the quests……. I didn’t deliberately force her into the ga out of malice. As you know, my ga chooses participants completely at random. It was just bad luck.’”
“…….”
“‘Even if she gets eliminated midway, I will never “kill” her. Elimination is possible without killing. Your wish ticket is still valid.’”
Helena replied in an icy voice.
“‘You must have known the real intent of my wish. My wish was that the child would never get entangled with you!’”
“‘Then you should have said it that way. How would I know your true intent? So things don’t work unless you put them into words.’”
“‘Whatever you say, this is absolute betrayal to .’”
“Ha.”
Magireta let out a small laugh.
Then, changing from her soothing tone, she spoke sharply.
“‘So what do you expect to do about it.’”
“…….”
“‘Calm down. Our relationship isn’t so shallow that it would fall apart over sothing like this. Right?’”
“‘I’m going down to the world. I need to find that child.’”
“‘No. Don’t.’”
Ignoring Magireta’s attempt to stop her, Helena rose from her seat.
And she walked out of the building.
Magireta drifted around her, continuing to speak.
“‘Think again. The world of humans is fragile. If you descend, you won’t last even a few days.’”
“‘Not my concern.’”
“‘Really? I’m about to get angry.’”
“‘Lady Magireta.’”
She looked up at Magireta.
Then she spoke each word as if cutting them out one by one.
It was an imitation of the tone Magireta had used just monts ago.
“‘So what if you get angry.’”
“‘Y-you…….’”
“‘You can’t restrict . That’s the Hidden rule.’”
“…….”
“‘You’ve managed hell for countless years. Think of this as taking a vacation.’”
Magireta trembled.
‘Kill you.’
But she couldn’t kill her.
The rule forbade it.
At that mont, Edgar, who had followed after them, spoke.
“Excuse , could you wait? I haven’t finished speaking yet.”
“You really can’t read the atmosphere, can you.”
“I hear that often. Haha.”
“…….”
“Well, what I wanted to ask was……”
Edgar could not finish his sentence.
Physically, he could not.
In less than a second, his body hardened into solid stone.
Not taphorically—he had literally beco ‘stone’.
“Ah, Arcane!”
Louis scread and clung to him.
Edgar was no longer a person but a statue.
“You, you…… what did you do to Arcane!”
But Helena did not answer.
Louis’s furious yelling didn’t even reach her ears.
Helena crouched down.
And the next mont—
–Taaat!
She shot upward toward the sky.
And in an instant, she pierced through hell’s atmosphere and began flying toward the world above.
With just a leap, Helena could cross back and forth between the world and hell.
“Haah.”
Magireta pressed her forehead as though she had a headache.
Soon her gaze fell on the stone statue that Edgar had beco.
‘Annoying.’
Crack—
She kicked Edgar’s statue.
It shattered into hundreds of pieces.
Louis, overwheld by fear and sorrow, felt tears well up.
“Ah…… aaah.”
“Ha. I should warn them……. No, I can’t because of the contract. What do I do.”
“Arcane. Arcane.”
“I guess I should at least go see my little brother.”
Ssshhk.
Soon Magireta vanished as well.
All that remained were Louis, sobbing uncontrollably, and the silent stone fragnts of Edgar.
“We die in three days.”
Arlia had said that with a bright smile.
After calming Karin—who kept shouting she was being scamd or tricked—we went to sleep.
But the next morning.
Surprisingly, Karin did show up without having run away overnight.
Berseum opened his mouth.
“Thought you might try running. Good to see a young person acting responsibly.”
“Haah. Well, I was the one who asked to be added to the party.”
“Even if you tried to run, my detection magic would have caught you, though.”
“…….”
“Anyway, Mason, today is when Magireta cos, right?”
I nodded heavily.
“As I said before, she probably wants to warn us about sothing.”
“But couldn’t do so…… was that it.”
“Yes. Sothing must have restricted her. We need to pierce through that restriction and hear the warning. We need clues about what’s coming.”
Right now, we knew nothing.
Everyone nodded with serious expressions.
Then Karin asked,
“So Magireta just wanders around like that even when it’s not during a quest?”
“The lack of information is truly severe.”
“I tend to ignore information unless I absolutely need it.”
“This is information you absolutely need.”
“…….”
“For reference, Magireta usually appears suddenly like a ghost. Prepare yourself so you won’t get startled.”
Karin replied with a scoff.
“No matter where or how she appears, nothing will startle . The spirits always warn beforehand.”
“Right. You call them spirits.”
“Eeeek!”
Before she realized it, Magireta had placed a hand on Karin’s shoulder.
Completely contradicting her earlier boast, Karin jerked up to her hips and let out a weird noise.
Magireta glanced at her and spoke.
“Ha. Because of you, I swear this is such a headache.”
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