Game’s End Part 1

by Mamare Touno

  Of course Isuzu had no idea what exactly it was they’d been doing, but since Serara looked exhausted and Minori seemed to be brooding, she could declare categorically that they hadn’t been slacking off.

  Isuzu was one of the newbies who had been rescued from Hamelin. Her class was Bard.

  She had been friends with Minori since their time in Hamelin.

  …Or rather, Minori had taken care of her.

  Minori, a middle-school kid who was three years her junior, had a very good head on her shoulders.

  Her level had been much lower than Isuzu’s, and she’d been younger, with less experience, but Isuzu felt something very close to respect for her. Of course, some of it was because of the knowledge she constantly shared—the “things Shiroe taught me”—but more of it was due to the girl’s intelligence and her strong sense of purpose.

  I’m pretty dense myself… I’m afraid I’ve leaned on Minori a lot.

  As Isuzu thought, curled up in her sleeping bag, her thoughts turned to herself. She didn’t think she was the tiniest bit useful in this situation.

  In high school, she was in the wind instrument club. That was her hobby: instruments. The wood bass, at that.

  She was tall and gangly, but her hormones had gone off-kilter while she was growing, and she was as thin as a track athlete (not that she was particularly strong). She didn’t think her face was ugly, but it was quite ordinary and far from beautiful.

  She had a bit of a complex about her freckles. Her hair was on the thick side and tended to curl oddly even if she braided it, which discouraged her on a daily basis.

  It wasn’t that she had few friends or that she was bullied, but in the real world, she’d been no more than a country high school girl, the sort that seem mass-produced.

  She’d started online gaming on a whim. Her older brother, who was a Gundam geek, had said, “I’ve got an extra invitation ticket that’ll let you play for free. Want to try it?” and so she’d tried it.

  Once she’d started playing, she’d decided it was pretty fun, and she’d been happy to settle into the music-related Bard class, even in the game. That said, if asked whether she would have played even if it hadn’t been free, she probably wouldn’t have. Her enthusiasm hadn’t gone that far.

  Then Isuzu had gotten pulled into the Catastrophe, and had gotten mixed up with the corrupt guild Hamelin.

  At first, she’d panicked. She’d been so confused she hadn’t known what was happening, and it had gone on and on, but soon a profound despair had caught up with her.

  …And she’d caved, just like that. Her hope had been flattened, and she’d given up resisting. She’d cursed God and the world, cursed them and cursed them until she was empty, and she’d stopped thinking about anything except being fed every day.

  So this is what life feels like for kids in poor countries, she’d muttered to herself, feeling terribly miserable. She hated it so much she thought she’d go crazy, but at the same time, a part of her felt that it made sense. She heard a tired murmur inside her, telling her that this was the kind of ending supporting actresses got.

  Isuzu had lost to the Catastrophe.

  Even at a time like that, Minori had been kind to the other new players.

  True, knowledge wasn’t the sort of thing that disappeared if you shared it, but that didn’t mean there was no point in hoarding it. If you kept it to yourself, there was a bigger chance that when push came to shove, you’d be the only one saved.

  Even so, Minori had talked to the other new players in her room every day, trying to share all the game information she knew with them.

  Her little brother Touya had been like that as well.

  It was impossible not to be surprised that those two were middle schoolers.

  They both had a strength that was beyond exceptional. If it hadn’t been for Minori, Isuzu thought she would have gotten much, much worse in Hamelin, and she might not have managed to regain her cheerfulness yet.

  On the other hand, Serara was a girl her own age.

  She was the one who’d first handed out hot, delicious soup and bread, minutes after they’d been saved from Hamelin. Their treatment at the cursed guild had been awful. It felt awkward to say it herself, but right after their rescue, she’d probably smelled like garbage.

  Even so, Serara had hugged Isuzu, telling her, “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”

  They’d been like a group of refugees that day, in the entrance of the guild hall. As the newbies sniffled, soaked with tears, Serara had told them she was also a new player, and that her level wasn’t much different from theirs.

  “I was targeted by slave traders, too, in a town called Susukino, but I was rescued, and now I’m part of a proper guild,” she’d told them. Those words had probably saved many of her friends.

  Of the whole Crescent Moon League, she’d been one of the members who was kindest to the newbs. Isuzu had felt an affinity with her, both because their levels were similar and because their actual ages were the same. By now, she was the person she was closest to at the Crescent Moon League, and they spent almost every day together.

  Because of this, to Isuzu, Minori and Serara were both trustworthy acquaintances. She thought it would probably be okay to call them “friends”, but for some reason, she felt that it wouldn’t be right to declare that they were friends without their permission, and the feeling made her call them “acquaintances.” Still, in her heart, they were friends.

  …And so there was no way the two of them had slacked off on recovery. Isuzu knew neither was the type.

  Then what had caused that day’s tragedy? Who had been in the wrong?

  When faced with that question, Isuzu found herself at a loss.

  That confused, drawn-out battle had gone on for a whole thirty minutes.

  By the time they made it through the battle—a battle in which somebody could easily have died—the party was half destroyed, and every member had completely exhausted their MP and special skill recast restrictions. If the enemy had found them one more time when they were like that, they really would have been annihilated.

  Desperately, the party had tried to get back to the entrance. On the way, they were spotted by the Skeletons who’d revived, and they’d ended up having to fight a gruesome running battle as they went…

  Today was completely awful.

  They’d had a horrendous time of it.

  Isuzu and the other members’ first attempt at a dungeon had set a record: They’d beat a retreat just one hour after going in.

  It…wasn’t Touya.

  She wasn’t as close to Touya as she was to Minori, but she did know him.

  She thought he was a good, cheerful kid. Had they gotten into trouble because Touya was useless, or because he’d had ill will toward them? She could declare categorically that was not the case.

  True, during their short expedition, he’d made a few wrong moves, like that forced charge. However, if she examined each individual case, although every one of them had certainly been a misstep, there had been some sort of idea or logic behind them on Touya’s part, and they weren’t the sort of things she could just arbitrarily blame him for.

  She tried thinking of other causes.

  For example, she had met Rundelhaus the Sorcerer for the first time at this camp. Of their current group, his personality and actual strengths were the biggest unknown.

  There was nothing modest about anything Rundelhaus said. He was arrogant, and his constant bragging was annoying. True, he had the face of a handsome prince, but as far as Isuzu was concerned, he just seemed shallow.

  Then was Rundelhaus behind the day’s defeat? She wasn’t sure about that, either.

  Yes, in some ways, Rundelhaus’s overconfidence and carelessness had made their situation worse. Still, when she looked at each incident separately, as with Touya, Rundelhaus’s actions had been backed by intent and the idea that he could win.

  More than anything, there could be no doubt that Rundelhaus loved h
is class and had done his best to display its true strengths. After all, Rundelhaus was a type of narcissist, and he considered annihilating the enemy a virtue, so there was no way he’d cut corners.

  He isn’t a bad guy…

  From where she lay on her stomach, Isuzu shot a glance at Rundelhaus. With his arms crossed and his mouth set in a dissatisfied line, Rundelhaus had the air of a mountain monk sitting under a waterfall. The fact that his looks were completely Western European made this seem very strange, but there was no doubt that he was serious.

  I bet he’s mentally going over what went wrong today.

  She also thought he might be blaming himself. Rundelhaus seemed to say whatever came into his head, and during the day’s adventure, he’d roundly blamed most of the group. Still, at the same time, he was apparently hard on himself as well, and he’d seemed irritated and filled with self-reproach.

  Haaaah…

  In that case, when it came right down to it, was nobody to blame?

  Nuh-uh. Hold it, girl. That’s not quite fair, is it?

  Right. There was one person she’d failed to examine: Isuzu herself. She couldn’t deny the possibility that she’d had issues which had dumped them into trouble several times.

  It’s not as if I’m good at this stuff…

  When all was said and done, Isuzu was a newbie gamer. She knew nothing about martial arts, and in the real world, she’d never even dreamed of struggling to survive. There was a decent possibility that she was bad at fighting.

  Even so, it had been two months already.

  Isuzu was aware that she’d fought her way through battle after battle in this world. She couldn’t possibly be so unused to combat that she’d ended up this much of a mess, could she? Besides, unlike Touya, Isuzu was a rearguard class. She wasn’t taking enemy attacks directly.

  Still, when Isuzu thought back, all sorts of things about the day’s adventure had felt off to her as well. In this case, “felt off” meant no more than actions which, in retrospect, hadn’t been the best move.

  She didn’t know why it had ended up the way it had, but when she thought back, she felt as if several mistakes had piled up, one on another.

  Bards had many types of special skills, but their Continuous Support songs were particularly noteworthy. These were musical wave patterns that were unconsciously radiated from the Bard’s body.

  They were convenient and powerful special skills: They were sustainable support that affected all members of the party, and they would continue to bestow their benefits indefinitely, as long as the Bard didn’t end the effect. If used at the beginning of an adventure, Continuous Support songs would continue to display their effects throughout the adventure without any effort on the Bard’s part, which made them the sort of special skill you’d want to use all the time.

  The problem was that only two of these Continuous Support songs could be used at the same time. High-level Bards had fifteen types of Continuous Support songs, and at this point in time, even Isuzu had ten variations. The question of which two of these ten types of support to use was the first problem a Bard encountered, and it was one even high-level Bards continued to worry about.

  Today, Isuzu had chosen Circular Carol and Sword-Speed Etude. The first support song added additional damage to magic attacks, while the second increased the speed of weapon attacks. Of the types of support Bards could provide, both were standard.

  However, in today’s combat, they had failed.

  Circular Carol did increase magic damage, but as a result, the enemy’s attention had been drawn to Rundelhaus. She hadn’t expected that particular problem at all.

  On top of that, there had been more enemy reinforcements than she’d anticipated, and the battle had turned into a melee.

  At that point, although they were in the middle of a battle, Isuzu had decided to change songs. Changing a support song required a long chant, and it was generally best to avoid doing it during a battle. Even this time, she’d hesitated and put it off, but the idea that they might be wiped out if things kept on this way had stiffened her resolution to change them during battle.

  She’d switched Circular Carol for Nocturne of Meditation.

  Sword-Speed Etude had become Dancing Pavane.

  Nocturne of Meditation was a support song that gradually recovered MP, even during battle. In Elder Tales, MP recovered slowly whenever players weren’t fighting. Resting increased the speed of recovery. However, it didn’t recover during battle. Nocturne of Meditation was used to recover MP while players fought, although the speed was a mere fraction of what it would have been if they’d been resting.

  Dancing Pavane improved all party members’ agility and increased their evasion rate for monster attacks.

  Once enemy reinforcements had appeared, it had been inevitable that the battle would be prolonged. Actually, the battle was already chaotic by the time she’d decided to change songs. Isuzu had changed them in preparation for a long-term battle.

  At the time, she’d thought there no other alternative, and even now, she didn’t think the decision had been wrong.

  Still, in retrospect, it hadn’t changed the situation in their favor.

  It had raised their evasion rate, of course, and the speed at which they expended MP had clearly slowed down. The recovery from Nocturne of Meditation was helping to buffer the amount of MP consumed by special skills and healing.

  However, at the same time, Circular Carol and Sword-Speed Etude had stopped increasing damage.

  Once their damage output fell, it took more time to defeat a single enemy. If defeating enemies took longer, combat time increased—and as a result, the amount of necessary HP recovery needed increased, and MP consumption grew fiercer.

  It was a vicious cycle.

  Still…

  Yes: “Still.”

  Isuzu couldn’t convince herself that the decision had been a bad one. It might have been a mistake, but only in that it hadn’t been the best move possible. In other words, it was no worse than the mistakes Touya and Rundelhaus had made. She couldn’t believe that it had been what had pushed them into the day’s confused, desperate battles.

  Besides, if it had been a mistake, what should she have done?

  Isuzu contemplated.

  …I’m not much good at thinking, either.

  She wasn’t good at reflecting on her mistakes and putting together strategies. Analysis and execution were her weakest fields. However, the heavy atmosphere in the tent made Isuzu even more uncomfortable than thinking did.

  As a result, even though she felt as if her stomach were filled with heavy, sunken stones, there was nothing for her to do but worry.

  This was probably true not just for her, but for Minori and Touya, too, and all the newbies in the tent. Worrying was the only way to pass the time.

  Their first night in the mountains of Zantleaf had only just begun.

  3

  The hall was tiny—although probably still larger than a school classroom in the old world—and it echoed with a sweet melody played by beautiful women. With that chamber music in the background, many groups of people filled the room.

  The Ancient Court of Eternal Ice.

  The Room of Seven Maidens, in a corner of an upper story.

  Young knights stood, speaking magnanimously. Young princesses had installed themselves on the sofas tastefully arranged around the room and were giving little cries of delight at bits of gossip. Young nobles behaved courteously. Fledgling scholars showed sober smiles that were almost wry. Slender bureaucrats.

  Tonight’s soirée was said to be a candid gathering of the young people of Eastal. About forty guests, whose ages ranged from late teens to midtwenties, were present.

  “…Do you intend to stay here the entire time?”

  “Yes.”

  Krusty’s answer was brief. He and Raynesia were seated across from each other at a small, round table.

  Raynesia tried to smile back, but her smile was slightly strained.

&nb
sp; It wasn’t that Raynesia particularly disliked Krusty.

  As a rule, the well-built knight was taciturn, and he never tried to use aristocratic flattery on her. This meant she could get by without pretending to be “a beautiful princess soaked by the rain,” which was very nice.

  However, she was a daughter of the Cowen dukedom.

  If she spent this much time with one man, who knew what sort of rumors would spread? Things would probably be all right during the soirée. However, the thought of what might be said later depressed her.

  Does this man understand that…?

  In front of her, Krusty was drinking Black Rose Tea mixed with alcohol, his expression untroubled. They’d taken their seats at this table about the time the soirée began, nearly an hour ago. They hadn’t made any real conversation, either.

  The situation was a result of their interests aligning for the short term. For Raynesia, the advantage was that she wouldn’t have to be suffocated by compliments from young nobles, knights, and civil servants. After all, she was the granddaughter of the leading lord, Duke Sergiad.

  There were only two ducal families in all of Yamato. Dukes were the greatest of the great aristocrats. The title had been granted to them by ancient Westlande. Now that that ancient dynasty had fallen, in terms of the aristocratic class system, the only house that outranked the Cowen dukedom was the House of Saimiya, the grave keepers of the Westlande dynasty.

  As a daughter of such a great noble family, Raynesia was courted by many knights and civil servants. Raynesia had one older sister and one younger brother, but her sister had already married someone below her station, and so when Raynesia took a husband or her brother took a wife, one of them would inherit the House of Cowen. Viewed in that light, it was no wonder that she was an object of worship, adoration, and desire to the nobles and knights of her generation.

  Haaaaah…

  Thinking about it made her stomach start to feel like lead, and she gave a furtive sigh. To Raynesia, “marriage” seemed like something from a distant, unknown country. Her parents’ relationship seemed much too formal for what the world termed “husband and wife,” and her older sister’s relationship was a very soppy one. Raynesia couldn’t decide which of these was really “marriage.”