1.
Blood had been torn away from the extremist’s heart as if by claws.
The ringleader, who still hadn’t realized he was dead until the very end, collapsed.
I, too, fell over after using my own body as a bullet and firing myself forward.
"Uuugh..."
I was so drained I couldn’t even scream.
I went limp like a crushed squid.
If the reward isn’t good, I’m seriously jumping off a building.
I still hadn’t found the answer, but I was close to clearing it.
"Silver Wolf, help me..."
"Just wait a little..."
I dragged myself over to Silver Wolf.
She had collapsed as well, breathing hard.
Judging by the way she was rubbing her face and wiping away blood, she’d pushed herself way too far.
"We won. We won! Fuck, I’m the strongest!!!"
"You still have the energy to shout?"
"I’m replacing the scream I wanted to let out with a shout."
Goddammit.
We won, sure, but after this was over, weren’t we going to end up in wheelchairs?
I couldn’t exactly reenact Untouchable: 1% Friendship with Silver Wolf.
We were both at rock bottom.
For a while, we just lay there together and stared up at the dark sky. We needed a moment to catch our breath. I closed my eyes and rested without thinking about anything.
Flash!
While resting with my eyes closed, one thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
"Wait, no way."
"Whaaat..."
"This place... isn’t it a space created by the ringleader?"
The subspace we were standing in.
The ringleader made it.
The ringleader had just died.
Then what about this space?
"...Silver Wolf! Open it! Open the door!"
"W-wait!"
"Fuck, I went through all that—I’m not dying here!!!"
When I turned my head and looked around, I saw the space starting to collapse.
The ground cracked, and pieces began to fall away.
We’d been too exhausted to notice.
We’d won by squeezing every last drop out of our blessings, but both of us were in awful shape.
Silver Wolf hurriedly swept her gauntlet through the air, manipulating the space until a small circle opened up—barely big enough for one person to pass through.
"Hup!"
"Eek!"
I threw Silver Wolf, then dove after her.
The little circle closed the instant I got through.
We tangled together and barely made it outside.
"Who dies like that at the very end...?"
We’d almost died after becoming lost in space.
My already battered body couldn’t take any more. I dragged myself forward, shuffling my feet. Silver Wolf, having recovered a little, grabbed my arm and supported me.
But...
Truth had to be confirmed.
"Gghhh...!"
With pain like my eyes were burning, I rewound the past.
As time turned back, I saw the world lingering in ash-gray.
"What I need to find is Hanabi, and her current location."
Footprints appeared, guiding the way.
Silver Wolf said nothing, simply helping me along as she followed my steps.
Before long, we reached a place enclosed by iron bars.
It was a cramped space, like an animal pen at a zoo.
Inside, I could see black hair with a reddish sheen.
"Hanabi."
The truth. The key. The last person needed to finish this damned [quest].
When I called her name, red eyes bloomed like cherry blossoms.
Hanabi was clutching the hairpin I had bought her.
"...Adrian? Why are you..."
Like a pitiful heroine, Hanabi’s eyes trembled sadly.
As if waiting for the knight who had come to save her, she reached out toward me.
"Shadow of the Past, use."
Yeah, no, I don’t buy it~
I’d been hit in the back of the head too many times. It was honestly terrifying.
I stayed silent for a full minute, and Hanabi, still reaching out toward me, began to sense something was wrong.
And after spending that minute watching all of Hanabi’s past...
I was finally able to reach the truth.
"You insane little bastard."
My condition had worsened, and I was on the verge of passing out from my injuries.
So I squeezed out the last of my strength.
"Aah!?"
And brought my fist down hard on Hanabi’s head.
2.
When I opened my eyes again and sat up...
It wasn’t some unfamiliar ceiling.
"...Wow, look at that face."
"You little shit, seriously."
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the pawnshop owner’s generous face.
Startled, I shot upright.
Beside me, Silver Wolf was lying in bed, fast asleep, breathing softly in little snores.
And sitting in the chair by the bed were...
the pawnshop owner and Hanabi.
"Mister."
"What."
"Could you please kick out the crazy bitch sitting next to you?"
Ah, fuck, it’s that crazy psycho freak again.
Run for it!!!
I barely managed to hold back the urge to grab Silver Wolf and bolt.
Every time I looked at Hanabi’s face, a reflexive gag rose in my throat, but I kept my mouth shut.
"Hmm..."
Look at that!
Even her eyes are different now!
How the hell did she figure it out?
It’s that look!!!
The hairpin I’d given her was still in her hair, but her whole atmosphere was different.
A mischievous smile, and a strange little tilt of the head.
Nothing like the pitiful, heroine-like Hanabi from before.
"Adrian, how did you know?"
"I know nothing."
"Oh, come on. Don’t lie. You knew everything."
"N-noIreallyknownothingHanabi."
"Why are you being polite?"
Fuck!
She keeps messing with me!
"Still, I’ll praise you. You showed a better last dance than I expected. I didn’t expect you to run into those monsters, though."
"..."
"I didn’t like that you ruined the play, so I wanted to kill you, but then I thought I might die instead. And if I just left you alone, that was annoying too."
"Could you maybe just let me live once?"
She was terrifying.
My whole body was shaking.
"Fine! I’ll let you live!"
"Aaaah!!! Fuck!!! Thank you!!!"
Wait, for anyone wondering why I’m freaking out like this, let me explain.
Everything about the troupe was fake.
Literally everything.
The unease I’d felt.
Hanabi’s supposedly predetermined role.
Even the ringleader’s desperate life-or-death struggle.
All of it had been fake.
You might say, what the hell kind of nonsense is that??? But for a full minute, I’d seen Hanabi’s past.
Through [Past Sight].
In those brief fragments of the past, I realized this insane, deranged little psycho had done this sort of thing more than once.
An abandoned orphan, a cursed girl, a descendant of the only doll clan...
A fool who wears masks to deceive others and treats the world as a toy.
Neither crying nor laughing, just moving entirely for her own pleasure.
From the very beginning, she’d approached me because she sensed my potential.
And from that moment on, this lunatic had swapped masks and become a "genius orphan forced to work after being captured by a troupe"!
It gave me chills.
Maybe this was how the protagonist of The Truman Show felt.
The ringleader we fought with our lives on the line was also a doll Hanabi had painstakingly created.
The troupe members were dolls Hanabi had made.
The lavish theater itself was something Hanabi had created.
Such power for a single human being to possess.
It felt like I’d glimpsed the dark side of the Path of [Elation].
"Black hair!"
"Yes!"
"I hope you gained a lot from this whole experience! There are way more dangerous people in the galaxy than you think!"
You’re the most dangerous one here, you crazy bitch.
"And... Zephiro and Asat Pramid. I don’t know what you think of those two, but be careful. I’m saying this sincerely!"
"Yessir, yessir."
"Haha! And this is my invitation to you!"
A black embossed business card was tossed my way.
When I looked at it, I saw the words "End of the World Bar."
"If you ever want to meet fools like us, just tear up that card."
"...I don’t particularly want to meet them."
"That’s mutual disgust! Same here!"
Hanabi giggled, apparently finding something very funny.
"Also, I’ll make a special exception and let you call me Hanabi."
"I don’t need that kind of special attention."
"Normally you should call me Sparkle, but... is our connection really a normal one?"
Hanabi.
No, the girl who called herself Sparkle changed outfits.
A fox mask appeared over her head, and twin braids fell down on either side.
She wore a specially modified red Japanese-style outfit, clearly designed purely to show off her individuality.
"I’ll take good care of this hairpin too!"
I really wished she’d just disappear in front of me.
"Answer?"
"Yes, ma’am!"
"Good, good! After putting on such a big play, I need a little rest. Well then, if fate allows, let’s meet again!"
A girl who did whatever she wanted, a girl who was strange in every possible way.
She stood up, stretched, and with a poof, confetti scattered through the air.
The girl’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
"...Huh, so the woman I got tangled up with this time was a Masked Fool?"
"I don’t know what a Masked Fool is, but that bitch is definitely insane."
The girl left as selfishly as ever, right to the end.
It was honestly pretty disgusting that I’d been toyed with by some lunatic I couldn’t even begin to understand.
But...
"I’m alive, so it’s fine!"
Let’s just be glad I cleared the [quest] without dying.
If I regressed because I was dissatisfied, it would all be over.
"By the way, how are you here, mister?"
"Me? That young lady brought you and Silver Wolf here and asked me to treat you."
To put it bluntly, our condition had been about as bad as a 92-year-old grandpa who could keel over any second.
It was amazing that the pawnshop owner had managed to save us.
When I opened my hand, I saw a single ginkgo leaf there.
"Hmm."
I’d learned the truth.
I’d cleared the [quest].
And now I knew the world was full of crazy bastards.
"Ugh, shit..."
Scary. So scary.
Especially that girl called Sparkle. I couldn’t make sense of the way she thought.
She felt weaker than Zephiro and Asat, at least by instinct.
But because she didn’t seem dangerous at a glance, she was even more frightening.
She felt less like a fool and more like a madwoman.
"Forget all that! Give me my reward!"
After putting me through all that hell, I was absolutely expecting a really good reward.
You ask what I’d do if they didn’t give me one?
I’d just kill myself~
...though since I’d just regress anyway, all I could really do was go, "Hmph! Adrian’s upset!"
"Lord Aha, I believe in you..."
Come on, I’m a follower of the Path of [Elation], aren’t I?
People with the same vibe should help each other out!
"Give me my reward!"
When I called out to the status window, a different window than usual appeared.
=======
♠ ◆ ♥ ♣ - 『Special!』
【You cleared a specially prepared [quest]!】
【It looks like you cleared it in a weird way with the help of an Aeon instead of the way we expected, but since you succeeded, we’ll let it slide!】
▶ Title acquired (!)
◈ Title: [Destroyer] acquired.
- The chance of drawing the attention of ■■■■ has increased.
- Synchronization with the Path of Destruction has slightly increased.
❖ - Reward adjusted, 지급
❖ - 5-star [Blessing Warp] and other items
=======
"...A 5-star [Blessing Warp]?"
It had been upgraded from 4-star to 5-star.
But since it was five stars, maybe it was on a whole different level?
- Hold it right there!!!
I was about to check the reward, but...
A ridiculous red status window popped up.
- A normal reward would be boring, so here comes the random slot machine!
Ah, you crazy bastard Aha!!!
[Earth] [Penacony] [Xianzhou] [Amphoreus] [Paradise of the Strange]
A slot machine labeled with all kinds of words spun wildly.
Should I be grateful there wasn’t a word for "loser" in there?
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
After passing through dozens of place names, the reels slowed down.
The only words I could barely recognize were Earth, Xianzhou, and Penacony.
Even then, I couldn’t possibly memorize every region spread across the galaxy.
"What the hell is this, you nerd...?"
I was getting tired of this.
Fuck, this is just bullshit.
As the reels slowed further and finally came to a stop, the words that lined up were...
[Earth] [Earth] [Earth]
Huh?
Ah, excuse me?
- A reward has been granted!
- [Quest] clear reward: one week of lunar sightseeing rights and the Egg of Soul Manipulation.
"A week of lunar sightseeing rights???"
From start to finish, the rewards were impossible to understand.
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