Those Who Bind the Possibilities

by Sakon Kaidou

  Though some curses could be lifted by the common clergyman from the priest job grouping, many were too strong for that, demanding the powers of skilled, max level tians — a rarity in the kingdom, and doubly so in Gideon, since most hardened clergymen were in the capital.

  Another problem with cursed items was that they could neither be disposed of — since someone might find them and be subjected to the curse — or destroyed — since the cursed item might react to that by unleashing the curse. There was also the fact that these had once been good items, so people were somewhat reluctant to get rid of them.

  Because of these reasons, the long years of “purify or store” handling had created this massive hoard of cursed items. Since the game had started and Masters had entered this world, resulting in an increase in high-level clergymen, the situation here had slowly gotten better, but the cursed items were still great in number.

  Many of the items being held here had once been powerful pieces of equipment. Returning them to a usable state would give the people greater power while dealing with events like Franklin’s Game or the wars to come, and because of this, Count Gideon had been pushing to get them uncursed.

  But it had been going too slowly, and while they’d been wondering what to do, I’d received and uncursed the CBR Armor using my special reward.

  The Count had somehow heard of this — likely from Elizabeth, who’d heard it from Marie — and sent me a request to undo the curses on the items here. I’d accepted, provided I wasn’t bound to any schedule and could do it whenever I had free time.

  Thus, I paid occasional visits to the offices and worked to undo the curses on the items here.

  It took me about two hours to uncurse a single inventory. That might seem like a long time, but clergymen had it even worse. Due to MP and cooldown limitations on their skills, they had to gradually purify items over the course of an entire day, while my Grudge-soaked Greaves did it much faster with me doing nothing but being close to the inventory. Still, it would be a pretty long time until I was done uncursing everything here.

  “The equipment purification will take quite a while, I assume?” asked Nemesis.

  “Well, they’ve spent many years hoarding these,” I answered. “Just look around.”

  “So it’s a great mess, even for Gouz-Maise the grudge vacuum.”

  “...Grudge vacuum? Well, that’s pretty on-point.”

  Whatever the case, I was allowed to do this whenever I pleased, so could purify it all at my own leisure.

  Hell, doing this was advantageous for me, too. After all, the MP and SP stored in the Grudge-soaked Greaves grew the more grudge it absorbed, and considering the chances of my wanting to use it in future battles, having more of it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

  The reward for this activity, by the way, wasn’t monetary. For every ten inventories I purified, they let me pick any one of the purified weapons. These inventories contained sacred swords, mystic blades, and gem brands, and I was allowed to take any one of the ones I’d uncursed.

  Considering that there might situations in the future in which I’d have to fight without Nemesis at my side, or with her helping me in human form, I figured that having a spare weapon was a good idea, and I hadn’t hesitated to accept those conditions.

  But alas...

  “No good,” said Nemesis. “This one is lacking, as well.”

  “Tsk...”

  When I’d told her about the spare weaponry, Nemesis said that she wouldn’t allow it unless the weapon passed her examination.

  She was so strict that none of the ten weapons I’d purified so far had made the cut.

  There were some really strong-looking blades, too, I thought.

  “I still don’t see a single sword that passes!” she declared.

  I knew she’d said, “I’ll have to make sure that it’s fully worthy!” but I’d certainly had no idea she would be so strict.

  Does a weapon that passes her examination even exist? I thought to myself.

  ◇

  After purifying one inventory, I left the room, looked outside, and saw that it was evening. Once done reporting today’s results to the person in charge, I went out to the hallway...

  “Oh?”

  ...and saw someone familiar — Liliana.

  Her face was red, and she was talking to several people while looking somewhat anxious.

  “So she’s no longer in Gideon,” she said before coughing loudly. “I do not think we couldn’t find her if she was anywhere in the city, so we can only assume she went outside...”

  The people she was talking to were clad in navy blue shinobi clothing, and wore masks and plated headbands on their heads, making them look like the most standard of ninjas. These days, they weren’t an uncommon sight here in Gideon — you could see them jumping from rooftop to rooftop at noon and midnight alike.

  The primary cause of these sightings was one of our party members: Marie.

  Count Gideon was really bitter about his city being subjected to the horrors of the Gouz-Maise Gang and the terror of Franklin’s Game. Because of that, he’d decided that he had to be strong on policing and intelligence, leading him to ready his pocket money to set up an intelligence agency.

  Since such a group would handle sensitive information, Count Gideon had wanted it to be made up of tians, rather than Masters, but there had been a significant lack of qualified people.

  During the attack by a SUBM called the Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria, and the war that had come later, the kingdom had lost many of its battle-focused tians, leaving the country’s forces underleveled and underskilled. Most of the few capable tians were in the knight orders and other groups rooted in the capital. Thus, to form an intelligence agency that could double as police, the Count had first had to acquire the right people, and he’d chosen Marie to help him with this purpose.

  After Franklin’s Game, Elizabeth had introduced her to the Count, and Marie had taken the opportunity to sell him the Jewels storing the monsters that only attacked Masters, which had gone on to be used to train and powerlevel tian knights.

  She’d also revealed to him that she was the Superior Killer and the Death Shadow — the Superior Job of Tenchi’s onmitsu grouping. Upon hearing that, the Count had wondered if he could use Marie’s connections to hire some Tenchi ninjas for his intelligence agency, since they were known to be highly capable operatives.

  Marie had accepted his request and contacted the Tenchi ninja group she was still connected to, which was the shinobi village where she got her onmitsu jobs, apparently.

  As luck would have it, a civil war in Tenchi had destroyed their employer’s household and left them wandering, searching for a new boss.

  Count Gideon’s wants and the ninja group’s wants had matched perfectly, and soon enough, the entire village had moved to the city.

  “Soon enough” was a bit of an understatement, actually, considering they’d come all the way here from Tenchi — the other side of the continent — in less than a week’s time. It was a speed impossible for most Masters, let alone tians, and naturally, the Count had been absolutely dumbfounded.

  When he’d asked about it, however, they’d merely said, “It’s a trade secret. Nin-nin,” in a manner as questionable as it was ninja-like. Apparently, not even Marie knew how they’d pulled it off.

  Whatever the case, true to their reputation, the ninjas were highly skilled.

  Tenchi, the land where the Gideon Shinobi Force had originated, was known as the country with the strongest tians. For Tenchi’s battle-focused tians, reaching level 500 was more like a starting point than anything else, since they would then begin to hone their techniques until they became true martial artists worthy of the name. Because of this and other reasons, Tenchi was often referred to as the “land of strife.”

  Luckily or unluckily, depending on your perspective, the country’s current state was much like that of Japan during the Sengoku Era, so almost none of their great power was directed toward other cou
ntries.

  It’s not like a constant civil war is all that better, but still, I thought.

  Anyway, the highly stereotypical ninjas were all max level stalwarts, making them simply perfect for the job. Count Gideon had quickly hired them and set up the Gideon Shinobi Force, an information agency answering directly to him. And thus, we now had a Rome-like city in which ninjas were a common sight.

  Also, Marie had made big bank for her role as mediator, and she’d gone on to treat us to some food.

  So yeah, the ninjas were a normal part of Gideon by now, but Liliana’s panicked expression as she talked to them certainly wasn’t.

  “We will split up and search Gideon’s surroundings,” said one of the ninjas.

  “Please do so,” replied Liliana and coughed yet again. “I’ll join you soon.”

  “Do not overdo it.”

  The ninjas kicked the floor beneath, dashed away, and vanished like shades in sunlight.

  “Ah, Ray!” Liliana cried as she saw us nearby, again looking somewhat anxious.

  “Are you okay, Liliana?” I asked.

  Her pallid expression made it evident that she wasn’t in good health.

  “Oh, don’t mind me,” she said and coughed again. “Her Highness escaped today. Have you seen her, perchance?”

  She showed little intention to answer my question, instead revealing that she was caught up in more Elizabeth-related trouble.

  “...No,” I said, shaking my head in response.

  The kingdom’s second princess was a very free and brazen character, as well as a genius escape artist. Though she refrained from doing it on days with official business, her leaving the Gideon residence she was staying at had become a nearly daily occurrence by this point.

  The fact that she was able to escape while being observed by the Royal Guard and several max level ninjas spoke volumes about the extent of her skill. It was hard to believe she was just a child who didn’t even have a single job.

  ...Well, the primary reason why Elizabeth had become so good at escaping was the coaching from Rook, who, for reasons unknown, had been trained in such things in real life.

  Our party is full of eccentrics, I thought.

  “And you’re no exception,” Nemesis commented telepathically.

  ...I can’t really deny that.

  “Well... I know I probably shouldn’t say this, but isn’t that a common thing at this point?” I asked Liliana.

  “Indeed it is.” She nodded. “But things are slightly different this time.”

  “In what way?”

  Elizabeth had sneaked out, and the officials had gone out to find her. What could be different there?

  “A short time ago, as a countermeasure against her antics, we gave Her Highness a Jewel.”

  Jewels were items that allowed the storage of tamed monsters that obeyed their owners. Even if they couldn’t fit the monsters into their minion capacity, children and low-level humans could use them by putting them in party slots.

  “I see,” I said. “Since you can’t prevent her from escaping, you decided to give her a means to protect herself.” As far as safety was concerned, that was perfectly reasonable.

  “Yes,” Liliana said and coughed again. “Count Gideon used his connections to procure a Pure-Dragon and presented it to her.”

  “Well, that’s something...”

  Their rarity on the market made Pure-Dragons quite a luxury. While Demi-Dragons went for about 1,000,000 lir, Pure-Dragons were often over ten times more expensive.

  I figured the Count hadn’t hesitated to fork up the money for something so costly because he’d felt responsible about Elizabeth getting kidnapped during Franklin’s Game.

  But man, Count Gideon sure is rich, I thought.

  He’d rewarded the Masters, given money to the families of those that’d died, paid for city repairs, created the Gideon Shinobi Force, and he’d still had more funds to spend. His wealth might’ve been another reason why Franklin had picked Gideon as his target city.

  “And, well... the Pure-Dragon’s name is ‘Stealth Dragon,’” Liliana added.

  “Oh, ‘Stealth Dragon,’ eh?” I said. “Wait... Stealth?”

  I have a bad feeling about this.

  “Stealth Dragons have the ability to hide themselves and the people riding them,” she explained.

  ...I more or less see how it is.

  She went on, “Count Gideon assumed that this quality would make it an optimal bodyguard, since it could hide Her Highness and take her away from trouble, but...”

  “...it was also an optimal escape partner,” I finished her sentence.

  The escape artist princess had been given the perfect ally: a monster that was basically a huge, flying Marie. Sure, it didn’t have Arc-en-Ciel, but that wouldn’t stop it from being stupidly troublesome.

  “Yes.” Liliana nodded. “We’ve been searching for Her Highness and the Stealth Dragon ever since they disappeared in the morning, but we can’t find them anywhere in Gideon, so we assume that they might’ve left the city.”

  “That’s... plausible,” I said.

  Among the ninjas, there were many people from the onmitsu grouping, just like Marie. That grouping excelled at both hiding and finding hidden things, so if they’d had no luck finding Elizabeth in Gideon, it was likely that she’d gone outside the city.

  Thanks to the Gideon Shinobi Force, the city was now considerably more peaceful and safer. However, the same couldn’t be said for the city’s monster-ridden outskirts. Even if you had a Pure-Dragon bodyguard, this was a world where you could easily be ambushed by something even more powerful.

  “I had the Gideon Shinobi Force extend their search to the outside of the city,” said Liliana as she walked towards the exit. “I’m about to join them and—”

  She cut her words short and coughed so heavily that she staggered.

  It had been bothering me ever since I’d seen her today. The red face, the coughs — it was clear that she was ill.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “Do you have a Cold?”

  “...Yes, but it’s just a normal Cold, rather than the Epidemic they had in the capital.”

  In Dendro, illnesses were classified as disease-based debuffs. However, unlike the basic poisons and the like, they could be significantly more troublesome, as many of them couldn’t be removed by your standard Elixirs or Antidotes.

  The Food Poisoning I’d once gotten had disappeared after I’d taken just one drug, but there were Epidemics that could only be cleared by healing skills from Superior Jobs. Alas, not everyone had access to people with such skills, so most had to settle for slowly healing themselves with medicine made by people in the doctor grouping, simply waiting for the illness to go away, or...

  “Liliana,” I said slowly. “Have you met with Her Majesty before she ran away today?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “But she disappeared soon afterwards...”

  I’m starting to see what’s going on here, I thought.

  “All right, I’ll search for her, too. But you have to stay in Gideon and rest.”

  “But I...!”

  “Leave it to me,” I said while looking her in the eyes. She momentarily hesitated before giving me a light nod.

  “Very well,” she said. “I leave Her Majesty to you.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll find her no matter what.” I nodded confidently and left the knight offices.

  [Quest Received: Search — Elizabeth S. Altar, Difficulty 5]

  [Confirm the quest details in the quest window]

  The message I received was highly reminiscent of an event I’d experienced a month ago.

  ◇

  After leaving the offices, I took Silver out of my inventory and jumped on him, and as I made my prosthetic left arm hold the reins, Nemesis climbed up behind me. Then I activated Silver’s Wind Hoof skill and dashed through the air towards my destination.

  “You know where to find Elizabeth, Ray?” asked Nemesis.

  “Ye
ah,” I said. “I’m almost completely certain that she went out to look for a food that works on Colds.”

  Dendro had loads of foods that made people healthy, and some of them were effective against Colds. One such food were Clearberries — a type of berry often found in the areas surrounding Gideon. However, Clearberries also weakened the symptoms of the Epidemic that had attacked the capital recently, so most of Gideon’s Clearberries had been sent there. Alejandro had told me that the storage was completely empty.

  This morning, when she’d seen Liliana suffering from a Cold, Elizabeth had clearly wanted to do something about it and decided to get her some Clearberries. And if she hadn’t found any of them in Gideon’s shops, it was entirely possible that she’d used her mount-bodyguard to go forage for them directly.

  “Well, she’s a proactive girl, after all,” said Nemesis.

  Thanks to a quest I’d done not long ago, I knew where I could find Clearberries. They grew in the area southwest of Gideon, the Saudade Woods.

  “The monsters there aren’t particularly high level, so it’s not too dangerous,” said Nemesis. “A little girl with a Pure-Dragon at her side should fare just fine, no?”

  “The monsters there were below Demi-Dragon-tier, so it wasn’t too dangerous,” I replied, emphasizing certain words.

  “...Past tense, eh?”

  “Yeah. Things are different now.”

  Following Franklin’s Game, the ecosystem in Gideon’s surroundings had slowly begun to change. The most noticeable difference was that the more powerful monsters that had once lived farther away had started coming closer to the city.

  When I’d been searching for quests to take with my party, I’d learned that the southwestern woods was now a habitat for Pure-Dragon-tier monsters and above.

  ◇◆◇

  Southwest of Gideon, Saudade Woods

  In the middle of Saudade Woods, there was a girl and a Pure-Dragon.

  “Phew, this should be more than enough!” The second princess of the Kingdom of Altar, Elizabeth S. Altar, nodded in a satisfied manner while looking at a basket full of Clearberries.