by Nikita Thorn
Mairin had advised against involving the Crafters’ Guild, and they had not asked Kentaro to join them in the invasion in the first place, for fear that the houshi would say yes purely out of his sense of obligation. Seiki had, however, already recounted last night’s trip to Usukumo Mansion to him in full.
“Yeah.” Seiki let out a grim chuckle. “For some reason I was expecting something to happen immediately. It’s like I’m so ready to either try to convince the Rogami we all have better things to do than pointless PVP, or, you know, start looking over my shoulder and trying to Parry passing kills all over again.”
“You think it’ll be that bad?”
“At the time it felt like a good idea, but now that I’ve gone ahead and done it...” Seiki shook his head. “I was hoping to get everything fixed before the end of the Festival, and next week we’d be back doing the same stuff like War Games and upgrading the West Plains instance. And finally get enough sleep, maybe,” he added with a laugh. “But now I realize it might not be that simple.”
“Politics is usually the long game. Relax. Just enjoy the rest of the night. So there’s nothing else you want to do before the Festival is over?”
“Not really.” The last day of the Pacchi Festival for Seiki had been the usual run of Festival Quests and some more adding to the monster collection at the Enenra Bonfire, bringing it up to twelve different kinds of summonable training foes. Taking cues from the Society’s list of Clan Festival Achievements, he had also waited around to join the Corrupted Beast kills he had not yet done and had finally managed to complete all four at least once.
“Same here,” said Kentaro with a smile. “Luckily, we’ve still got one last thing to do.” He produced a piece of paper from his sleeve and slid it across the table.
Formal Invitation Letter [Kentaro of the Crafters’ Guild] – [Seiki]: allows access to the host’s private reception room during the Night of the White Dragon at the end of the Pacchi Festival: Third Floor Sumire Reception Room. Crafted by Kentaro of the Crafters’ Guild.
“Third floor.” Seiki grinned as he noted the location. This was pretty much as high as an individual could go, unless, of course, you were a mysterious nameless player, in which case the ceiling would be the legendary top-floor Himawari Reception Room.
Kentaro nodded. “The Crafters’ Guild got to the fourth floor, but there will be lots of people and I thought I’d prefer something quieter. This invitation will get you to my personal room.”
Seiki smiled. “Helping us plebs out?”
“Keeping everyone cultured,” said Kentaro. “Better view, better dinner, free-flowing drinks. I’ve heard great things about the third-floor room.”
Seiki reached over to pick up the invitation. “Yeah, a break from… politics would be nice. Thanks, I’m looking forward to it.”
An arrow thudded into the table leg right next to him.
Seiki jumped. Ryoushi arrows normally gave a shrill whish that indicated the direction of its shooter. The subtler pitch on this particular projectile only came the moment it hit, giving the impression of it appearing out of nowhere. Unlike common ryoushi arrows, the fletching was white, and there was a piece of paper rolled up and tied to the middle of it.
Kentaro raised his brow. “I have spoken too soon. Apparently, not everyone is patient enough for the long game.”
Seiki pulled the projectile from the wood as he turned around to look for the sender, who, unsurprisingly, had already melted into the lively crowd in Market Street.
“It’s a ryoushi Free Slot,” explained Kentaro. “Irumi has it. You’re limited to a very short message, but you don’t need to actually write anything. It’s almost like Telepathy.”
“So, you just think it?”
“Yeah. It’s pretty handy when you’re trying to send a long ingredient name to someone.”
“That’s a nice perk.” Seiki detached the piece of paper from the shaft of the arrow. The message was indeed short:
South City. Second dead-end alley after first right. Come alone.
Seiki read it out loud to his friend, before adding, “No sender name.”
“Rogami or your… mysterious Himawari Room host?” asked Kentaro.
Seiki thought about it for a moment, before realizing he had a good idea who it was. “Neither.”
“Secret admirer?”
Seiki chuckled and shook his head. “Seems like Gin kept his promise after all.”
The Bandit leader had guaranteed a meeting before the end of the Festival, and was apparently cutting it close, with only two hours left on the clock.
Kentaro looked at him. “So do I need to meet you in front of the City Morgue later?”
“He specifically said South City, so that probably means peace.” Seiki got up to leave, and Kentaro grabbed a teleport scroll from his tray of goods and put it in his hand.
“Just in case,” said the houshi. “We have reached the point where you no longer have to force yourself to be in uncomfortable situations now, no matter how mild.”
Knowing the item cost more than a hundred gold to craft, Seiki was about to refuse, but then he saw his friend’s expression and changed his mind. “Thanks. I’ll try not to waste it.”
Kentaro smiled. “Any last words?”
“I’ll be fine. But, uh… maybe try Locate if I’m not back by the time the White Dragon event starts?”
“I’ll try Locate if you’re not back in twenty minutes,” Kentaro called after him.
Giving his friend an appreciative nod, Seiki squeezed his way through Market Street toward South City. Just like it had been in the past week, the crowd was in constant high spirits, with a hundred conversations going on at once. The topic now seemed to have shifted to speculations about the upcoming Night of the White Dragon event, whose mechanics no one seemed to understand. Lucky for Seiki, Ippei had earlier volunteered to find out more about it, and at least Kentaro seemed to know what he was doing with the Banquet Tower party, so he figured he could just leave the activities to his friends to handle.
The journey became much quieter after he entered South City. The specified location of second dead-end alley after the first right was not difficult to find. Seiki had been down the lane a few times in his early days in the City.
The narrow L-shaped dead end was nestled between a shop wall and a tall wooden fence, and rewarded low-level explorers with an old lootable wooden crate, which often spawned either a Ripe Plum that healed for a few health points or a useless Broken Dagger with no stats that could somehow be equipped in the Secondary Weapon Slot.
There were no shops or quest givers after the bend, and the sole street lamp in the vicinity did not quite reach the end of the alley, leaving the area hidden mostly in shadows. Seiki could see why someone would pick the spot for a secretive meeting.
“Over here, Seiki,” came a hasty whisper.
The voice was definitely that of Hatsuo, the self-proclaimed actor-for-hire, although the man himself was nowhere to be seen. Seiki’s first thought was that he was concealed by some ability akin to a ninja’s Camouflage, but he quickly realized that the voice was coming through a narrow crack in a wooden plank from the other side of the fence.
“Gin paid me for fifteen minutes of my time. He didn’t specify the method, and due to… circumstances, we’re doing audio-only right now if you don’t mind.”
Seiki could not see the point of the excessive secrecy, but at least Hatsuo seemed to have dropped any role-playing he had been engaged in during the previous encounters. “That’s fine. As long as we can talk.”
“Just a warning. Please don’t try to climb over the fence. That happens and the conversation immediately ends, all right? If we’re good on that, let’s just get to the point. I take it that you received an interesting invitation recently. Yes?”
Seiki had not expected so much so quickly and it took him a second to process what the man was talking about. “What invitation?” he said cautiously.
&
nbsp; “You know what invitation we’re talking about.”
Seiki paused to think. The fact that Hatsuo was openly admitting to insider knowledge was perhaps a very good sign that this conversation might go somewhere after all. “Yeah, I’ve got the invitation.”
“Don’t go.”
That was the last thing Seiki had expected. “Why not?”
“Well, I’m sure you can see it’s not exactly a normal invitation.”
“Yeah, no sender name, and the impossible Himawari Room that the Society couldn’t even get.”
Hatsuo sighed. “Which is exactly why you shouldn’t go. You don’t want to get involved with someone whose means far exceeds yours, and who operates under different rules, especially when theirs are… fewer.”
Seiki drew a careful breath. This implied several things. “These people who operate under different rules… you mean, the so-called worldbreakers?”
“I can’t answer that. Conflict of interest here, you see. I can’t reveal the identity of my employers, so I’m not going to confirm either way.”
“I’ll take it as a yes,” said Seiki, which the man did not refute, which Seiki took as further confirmation. “How exactly are you involved?”
“Like I said, I take acting jobs. Clans hire me to do things when they’re short on people.”
“And what did ‘they’ hire you to do exactly?”
“I can’t tell you that either. I wasn’t going to agree to this meeting, but then Gin told me what you’ve been up to. So I just want to say one thing, all right? ‘They’ want the same thing you do. I’ll emphasize this again: what is good for ‘them’ happens to also be good for you, whether you’re aware of it or not.” The man paused for a moment. “I know it sounds convoluted. But you can help this along by not going to the fifth floor. Just throw the invitation away and forget about the whole thing. Trust me. It’s something not worth pursuing and you’ll be better off not getting involved.”
“Well, it’s a bit too late for that. Your so-called employers followed me around and specifically gave me an invitation by name, and now you’re saying I shouldn’t get involved?”
“I know. I’ll give it to you that you fell right into this gigantic mess that you didn’t really start. If you take my advice and don’t show up, I’ll make sure ‘they’ know you’ve agreed to walk away, and they’ll leave you alone from now on. No more masked stalkers showing up behind you on dark streets, no more people showing up in your instances uninvited.”
Seiki drew a silent breath. Hatsuo knew much more than he thought, and what he knew could be the key to joining the dots between everything that had happened. He was not sure if the part about showing up in instances uninvited meant Fumiya’s appearance in the Shussebora Cave or the masked invaders showing up at the Society, or both. For all he knew, this could be an attempt at reverse psychology by whoever was responsible to get him to the fifth floor.
Hatsuo sighed when he noticed the silence. “I know you have no reason to trust me, so how about I answer a few of your questions in an attempt to sate enough of your curiosity? I can’t tell you who ‘they’ are or what they’re trying to do. I can confirm what they’ve done, up until before the start of the Festival, but not why.”
“Okay,” said Seiki. “So ‘they’ were behind the White Crane invasion and the Fuoka Army key?”
“Yes.”
“They wanted the Fuoka Army to invade the White Cranes over this key.”
“Yes.”
“They switched the scroll to a rare scroll so someone would mess up and wreck the White Crane territory?”
“Yes.”
“Why would anyone want to do that?”
“That’s a why question, Seiki.”
Seiki’s mind was racing. He had no time to think through the man’s answers, so he thought he could just get as many done as he could and process the results later. “Okay, uh, they tipped off the Rogami to take advantage of the Fuoka Army’s failed siege.”
“Yes.”
“They hired the Shadow Manors to come after me?”
“Sometimes, yes.”
“Including… that Level 4 looter guy? He’s on their pay?”
“I’m not sure who you’re talking about. If you ask me to guess I would say yes.”
“They hired Ichikeya to get the puzzle poem to Kano Castle, with the intention to let Renshiro intercept it?”
“That was Fumiya, but I suppose that his goal also aligned with their goal, so they let it happen.”
“They got the White Cranes to go on a treasure hunt with a puzzle poem, then tipped off the Rogami.”
“Again, Fumiya’s goal happened to align with their goal, so they let that happen, too.”
“Wait, so you’re saying Fumiya is not part of ‘them’?”
“That’s a who question.”
Seiki thought about it. Taken literally, Hatsuo’s answer could have meant that Fumiya was indeed a part of the group, but had made that decision alone and not on behalf of the rest.
Noting his pause, Hatsuo continued. “You see that knowing more doesn’t help you. Like I said, it is in their interest to influence certain courses of events, to nudge the world toward the direction they wish, which, I’ll say again, will also benefit you.”
“I honestly can’t see how letting Kano Castle gather up all the rare treasures is going to benefit me, or anyone.”
Hatsuo did not respond to the statement. “Look, there’s a lot to do around here, Seiki. Do your War Games. Join a clan. Go visit Fuoka. Go east, to the sea. The starting quest for that is in the Mannaka Village inn. There are so many things that will keep you occupied for months, if not years.”
“This doesn’t make sense. So they went through all the trouble to stalk me for a week and then invaded the Society, partly to give me the invitation, and now they’re telling me to just forget it?”
“Like I said, this is for your own good.”
“Why me in the first place?”
“Let me ask you a different question. Why do you even play? Ask yourself that. And if your answer isn’t ‘to destroy all the enjoyment I could get out of this whole experience’, then take my advice. If that still doesn’t convince you, look behind the crate at the end of the alley.”
Warily, Seiki walked over to look behind the old container. The only item in it was a piece of fine, thick paper.
Formal Invitation Letter [Fuyu of the Ichikeya] – [Seiki]: allows access to the host’s private reception room during the Night of the White Dragon at the end of the Pacchi Festival: Second Floor Tsubaki Reception Room. Crafted by Fuyu of Ichikeya.
Seiki wanted to groan. “Of course, she’s involved.”
“It’s not a joke,” said Hatsuo. “If you really want to go, go to that one first. Maybe she’ll be able to talk you out of it. Fuyu likes to play, but she feels somewhat responsible about dragging you into all this and this is the chance for you to get out of it. Why you, you ask? You see, in this world of no consequences, you’re one of the few people who actually have something to lose.”
The man’s tone turned ominous at the last sentence.
“What do you mean?” cried Seiki.
No reply came through the crack in the fence.
“Hatsuo?”
Cursing under his breath, Seiki leapt up on top of the wooden crate and jumped, grabbing the top of the fence and pulling himself up. On the other side was an empty backyard of one of the South City residences, with no sign of Hatsuo.
Perhaps by design to establish an impassable soft boundary, the top of the fence broke nearly straightaway, dropping Seiki back onto the ground, before immediately fading back in place. An idea occurred to him; he grabbed a silver and his post kit, and addressed his message to Sasu’s Locating service.
A pigeon returned a few seconds later.
Sasu [Level 4]: (8 seconds ago) Request to Locate Hatsuo – player does not exist.
Seiki stared
at the result. Throwing away a low-level character was one thing. Hatsuo was above Level 20, and it took more than a few months of dedicated playtime to reach that.
To check his theory, he scribbled a quick message to Gin of the City Bandits as he made his way back to the kakigouri shop: Your guy no longer exists.
A reply came shortly:
Gin of the East City Bandits [1 minute ago]: Just in a different form, mister ronin. That was the best I could do. I hope it went satisfactorily.
“I see,” said Seiki. The character called Hatsuo must have ceased to exist for quite a while now, and the man wanted to hide his current name, which explained why he had organized a conversation through a crack in the fence. Gin’s message, however, confirmed that the Bandits were aware of his new identity, and Seiki felt slightly better knowing that at least that information lay somewhere. “The long game, huh?” he said to himself.
He soon found himself back in the cheerful atmosphere of the brightly-lit kakigouri shop. Ippei had now joined Kentaro at their usual table, and had already got two firework rockets assembled while weighing his options on the third.
“It was Hatsuo,” Seiki reported. “Or… the guy who used to have a character called Hatsuo.”
The samurai looked up. “The actor guy?”
Seiki nodded. “And he made it sound like he’s working for the mafia.”
“I did not expect that conclusion,” said Kentaro.
“According to him, there’s this shadow organization pulling the strings behind everything, like an all-reaching all-powerful group of...”
“Worldbreakers,” said Ippei.
Seiki drew an uneasy breath. “He didn’t deny it.”
Kentaro lifted his brow. “These are your old friends from Beta?”
The samurai let out a troubled chuckle. “I wouldn’t exactly call them that, considering they probably didn’t even know who I was. They were… local legends, in a my-friend-knows-of-a-guy-who’s-friends-with-them kind of way. Of course, everyone claimed to know them, but, in reality, it was just a lot of name-dropping. Remember there was no Society back then to keep records straight, so everything was word of mouth.”
