Strongest Gamer; Let's Play in Another World Volume 2

by Shinobu Yuuki

  I didn't even hesitate.

  My joints shrieked in protest, but the cursed sword still moved me just the way I wanted it to. I wrapped my arms around Mary and spun her behind me as fast as I could. I felt the daggers hit home, stabbing into me one after the other. Even slicked with oil, they felt awfully sharp. These guys didn't skimp on their equipment. Two sunk into my left leg, three into my back, and one of them pierced straight through my chest.

  I wasn't a goner yet. My hands trembling, I smashed two potions from my belt. Still, even moving now was going to be difficult. Theodoran's next move should have been to send in his four remaining soldiers and watch from the back. If I pushed myself to the limit, I could take out four goons, but if I was wrong about that, the only things I had to rely on were guts and luck.

  "Aoi? Why did you...?"

  When my legs nearly gave out, Mary supported me, staring at me in confusion. Even when I tried to command the cursed sword to move me, all I did was sink further to the ground. If I truly couldn't fight anymore, I was going to have to find another way. Forgive me, Mary.

  "I'm protecting you. I'm not ready for our time together to be over, Mary. Are you?"

  I was so far gone that I wasn't sure I could even form words, but I tried anyway. I faintly thought, if nothing happened now, maybe I'd made a wrong choice and ended up on a bad route. But I still had faith. I believed we would make it through.

  "Knight, seize that man. Aren't you sworn to protect?!"

  So, Theodoran was trying to make her betray me? I had a feeling he and I would've been good friends, if we were gamers. Hell, he didn't even want her to kill me, just restrain me? I had to hand it to the guy for keeping a cool head.

  ◇

  "Aren't you sworn to protect?!"

  Theodoran's shout unearthed the sweat and agony of Mary's training, the blood and death that accompanied her on the battlefield. But buried among those was also a long-cherished memory. Theodoran, if nothing else, let me thank you for that reminder.

  The dusty, nearly forgotten memory sent Mary back to an old cathedral, a majestic castle watching over it in the distance. She was still small, and a familiar warmth wrapped around her tiny hands.

  "What do you want to be when you grow up, Mary?"

  "I wanna be strong!"

  "You do? How come?"

  The nostalgic voice clawed at her heart and wrung tears from her eyes. She reminded herself, That isn't where I belong anymore.

  "I wanna be strong enough to protect Mother and Father!"

  "I see. Then maybe you should become a knight."

  "What's a knight?"

  "Knights are people who swear to protect what they hold dear."

  Of course...

  "Really?! That's perfect! Then I'm going to become a knight."

  I remember, now. I remember why I became a knight.

  "That way, I can protect everyone I love!"

  The force that had long pushed her forward subsided, as though a tired old motor finally gave out. But in its place, rusty, forgotten gears began to turn, and a new fire kindled inside her.

  ◇

  At Theodoran's appeal, a spark flared up in Mary's eyes. Oh, shit. Did I miss a flag somewhere? Well, if Mary betrayed me, at least it would make for an interesting story. As a gamer, you've got to learn to savor the bitter endings as well as the sweet ones.

  "Aoi, would you grant me one wish?"

  Mary's voice was strangely playful for a betrayal event.

  "What is it?"

  "Spoil me rotten. Never stop protecting me."

  That was quite the tall order. In spite of my wounds, I had to laugh.

  "Haha, what a line. Sure. It'd be my pleasure."

  I was pretty sure that was two wishes, not one, but I just nodded along anyway. There was only one choice for me.

  "Thank you, Aoi. I, Mariet, do hereby swear to protect and cuddle you, in exchange for the same, until the end of time, even if I make this whole world my enemy."

  A sudden breeze tossed Mary's hair, and I watched as black chased it from tip to root. Her silvery sword and armor flashed once and turned to scarlet and gold. Her clear blue eyes flared up and turned a ruby hue. She hadn't lost her aloof aura, but the doubts that clouded her mind had burned away.

  "Execute Appraisal."

  Mariet

 

  Vitality: 240/240 Stamina: 300/300 Willpower: 380/380

  Skills:

  Wow, Dark Knight? Huh, and she lost her last name too. I wish I could say I planned this all out, but seriously, I did not see this one coming. I was pretty sure I'd used up all my luck on this event. Hard mode was fine and all, but gambling on long shots like this was not my style. Thank goodness it'd all worked out in the end.

  This had to be what Karumi had told me about. Mary had changed alignment, switching from the humans to either the Daemons or just the labyrinth itself. This was the change a knight had to undergo, if they gave up being a guardian of their people. Still, I had never expected to see Mary cloaked in darkness.

  "Rest. Leave this to me."

  As she readied her scarlet shield and sword, I only had the strength to nod in return. Mary blurred, throwing herself headlong at the enemy and blowing away three hunters with a single slash of her sword. She thrust home the sword and shield with an unearthly grace, and as she danced the hunters piled up along the wall.

  Oh man, I'd totally seen this before. This was like a scene from one of those Warriors games. Well, that did fit the fantasy setting, but that genre wasn't really my cup of tea. I was into more realistic games.

  "Ready to surrender, Theodoran?"

  After making short work of the hunters, Mary directed her sword at their leader and held it at the ready.

  "It appears I am defeated. Would you mind not holding it against my hired help?"

  "Sure. I couldn't care less about them. All I want is to protect the people I love."

  My heart skipped a beat, hearing Mary deliver such an evil yet lovable line with so much style. Oh man, she's a keeper.

  "I surrender."

  "Excellent. Then I will be handing you over to the authorities for... Wait a moment."

  Theodoran rolled his eyes and grinned at my goofball of a knight.

  "Aoi, under what charges should I arrest this man?"

  Mary looked at me with some concern. I couldn't help but smile.

  "Attempting to extort or bribe a labyrinth manager is a serious crime."

  She may have fallen to darkness, but Mary was still Mary. Theodoran began to wilt, and she ran to catch him. And as I contentedly watched that scene, my eyelids began to feel awfully heavy...

  Final Chapter

  "You more than tripled the number of repelled intruders, and not one of them a repeat. Splendid!"

  "Oh, you're being too kind. I only barely made the minimum."

  I was still stuck recuperating in the cabin's bed when Karumi arrived to accept my written report.

  "You can look forward to a bonus and a raise, as well as another spot bonus for unexpected risk to life and limb. We'll have those all to you right away."

  "Yeah, can't wait. Hey, maybe you could tell me a little more about dark knights?"

  "Let's see, is that information restricted? Well, no, I suppose this qualifies as a need-to-know situation. The guardians of humans aren't always called knights, by the way; the term used varies depending on where they're from. But at any rate, when one of them decides to stop protecting their people, they usually lose their powers."

  Usually?

  "However, if the protector's covenant is overwritten by another oath, they instead become a dark knight, and the sworn guardian of their new people. Typical dark knights tend to be inferior to normal knights, in exchange for casting off their restraints, however..."

  "It seems like the class change actually powered her up instead."

  "You should have heard my father laugh. The recipient of the oath
was a labyrinth manager, and it was sworn inside their labyrinth, but still, such a simple, obviously romantic oath ought never to have reached all the way to him. Certainly, he would have conferred his blessings and protection as soon as it came to his attention that a labyrinth personnel member had become a dark knight, but this was an unusual case. The wish was so fervent, so powerful, that he bestowed greater power upon her than is typically done in these cases. Miracles sprout up around you, Kousaka."

  Well, now it all made sense. But why did Karumi sound a little annoyed?

  "Not at all. I was just doing my job."

  I'd told her much the same before. I was just making sure that I would be able to rest easy at the end of the day, knowing I'd done all I could.

  "I see. Well, I shall take my leave. Father will be wanting a detailed report."

  Karumi sighed and left through the door which returned to the office, just like always. As I saw her off, I vowed to get a recording the next time Karumi appeared wearing a dress. I mean, she was the one benefiting from all my hard work, so it was only fair that I got something out of it, right?

  A UI window had started flickering while I was speaking to Karumi, and I looked over to see I had an incoming call. The oddly persistent person who'd stayed on the line waiting for me this whole time turned out to be Suzu.

  "Pick up the phone faster if you're there, stupid! I heard you passed out while defending your labyrinth!"

  Suzu was hopping up and down so much, I thought she was going to burst right out of the window. Did I just see a strawberry pattern? Probably better not to say anything. Suzu seemed worried about me, so I set to explaining.

  "Haahh. Can't believe I got so worked up over nothing. You poisoned yourself by drinking too many potions? How dumb a dummy are you?"

  Here I did my best to offer a full explanation, and all I got in return was verbal abuse. She seemed pretty angry, though, so I kept my peace. She'd just get even more annoyed if I tried to defend myself. I'd been in bed ever since the whole Theodoran thing had wrapped up. I'd fainted after the fight, and they'd had to carry me back to the cabin. The girls had called Karumi, and she'd rushed over to diagnose me. She'd immediately pronounced I had a severe case of potion poisoning. Apparently one of the effects of overdosing on magic potions was a huge, temporary status debuff, which explained why I'd been unable to move for a while and had eventually passed out. Even though I'd recovered from the worst of it, I was still feeling pretty sluggish.

  "I swear to god, Aoi, most people don't give themselves potion poisoning! I've never even heard of that happening to someone before. Hello! Earth to Aoi! What is wrong with you?! How many damn potions did you chug down?"

  She was still going at it. You know, even if I wanted to tell her---she was already on to complaining about something else anyway---I wasn't even sure how many I'd drunk. I'd been basically pouring stamina potions down my throat during the lightning-fast remodel, and then there'd been the battle with Theodoran where I'd taken a few vitality potions. Apparently those had been the straw that broke the camel's back. Well, I'd learned my lesson. I didn't even want to think about how many potions I'd used in the last week.

  "Aoi, I locked the front and back doors to the labyrinth's first stratum."

  The door opened, and Mary entered the cabin. Her black hair and crimson eyes had turned back to their original blond and blue. They changed whenever she picked up a sword, though. If I'd been a little younger, I would've thought maybe it was some kind of super cool special power that sapped your life force every time you tapped into it. Like, the kind that necessitated wearing an eyepatch. That'd be awfully inconvenient when it was both your eyes, though...

  In its current state, the labyrinth was a dangerous trap for any kids from the village who wandered in by accident, and there was even a risk of monsters nesting in it, so I'd asked Mary to lock it up for the time being.

  "Aoi, what shall I do from now on? I feel as though I can do anything!"

  Mary looked ready to take on the world, but sadly I had to burst her bubble.

  "You locked up the labyrinth, right? That means there's nowhere left to protect, except the cabin and the area around it. We won't be reopening the labyrinth for some time."

  I'd worked my ass off on that labyrinth, so of course I wanted to expand it, but I had no budget. Every last DL I had to my name had been spent on building the first stratum and then on remodeling it in the last few days. I was thinking it'd be nice to build another stratum to serve as sort of an apartment complex, so we could host more residents. Getting a bunch of tenants paying rent sounded like a lovely way to make some passive income.

  "All right, then I'll protect you, Ann, and this cabin. Um, what shall I protect you from?"

  You know, it'd be pretty awesome if she could protect me from the hardships of the world, or the bureaucracy of labyrinth management, but that didn't really seem up her alley.

  "Yeah, dude, what are you gonna do, make her a mall cop? Anyhoo, I got places to be. Catch you on the flip side."

  Stay classy, Suzu.

  "Aoi, what is a mall cop?"

  "Uh, yeah, dunno what she meant by that. Better ask her next time she calls."

  Mary looked at me in confusion. Damn it, it was hard to keep up a poker face when I could barely move. I'll get you for this, Suzu.

  ◇

  "Allow me to apologize for everything I've put you through."

  After Mary had captured him, Theodoran had been sent back to the city along with his entourage of hunters, and a huge fine had been levied against him for attempting to bribe a labyrinth manager. It seemed they hadn't imposed any manual labor or community service, though.

  He'd now returned to the village once again, and had specifically asked to see me, so we met up in the mayor's house. Walking there under the effects of the potion poisoning had been tough. Even with Mary supporting me the whole way, the trek to Milt felt like it'd taken forever. Theodoran began apologizing profusely the moment I set foot in the mayor's living room.

  "Tell me one thing. Why apologize now?"

  "I have been informed by one of the hunters working here that your labyrinth is the only one in these parts, and that you live there and operate it with your family. Knowing what I do now, the conditions I sought to impose on you were beyond unreasonable. That I attempted to negotiate such a position means I am a failure as a merchant."

  Well, that made sense. He wasn't actually so much apologizing for doing something bad as admitting a failure on the job. That seemed more his style.

  "I accept your apology. However, I have a feeling you've got another reason for coming."

  He seemed sincere, but surely he wouldn't have come to apologize when the wound was so fresh unless he had some ulterior motive.

  "Well, yes. You see, there have been a number of accidents affecting my core business as of late. I consulted a fortune teller, and mysteriously enough, she implied that my spate of poor luck might dry up if I came to see you."

  Oh yeah, that reminded me. I'd gotten a bunch of letters while I was stuck in bed. One of them was a letter from the company bigwigs, praising my performance and promising me a promotion and a raise. I'd also gotten a bunch of get-well cards from fellow employees, but I'd forgotten there was one that had Theodoran's signature on it. In the rush of remodeling the labyrinth and fighting, there was one more angle we were pursuing which I had neglected. Apparently the sabotage efforts against Theodoran's business interests had been more effective than I'd given them credit for.

  "No doubt a wise woman, that fortune teller. This is the first I've heard of your business troubles, but I'm sure that, now that you've made amends, fate will smile down upon you."

  "What a relief to hear. I do believe you're right."

  We were dancing around the issue, but this was more like a peace talk than anything else. Anyway, I had no reason to keep fighting him, now that he wasn't demanding I hand over Ann. This guy was probably ruthless when you drove him into a corner, s
o knowing when to let go was important. And honestly, it wasn't like I objected to every part of the contract. I wasn't going to teach him how to make my potions, and I certainly wasn't going to let him lay a finger on my family, but as long as he didn't touch those things, I wasn't going to put my life on the line to squabble with him. You don't get continues in real life.

  "Anyway, what made you come all the way out here in the first place? Why are you so desperate for magic potions?"

  If Theodoran had just been looking to make a profit, he would've backed off when I first showed teeth. There were other, less hostile markets to play in than going toe-to-toe with a labyrinth manager.