by Sakon Kaidou
The others here — Nemesis, Rook, Babi, and Marie — seemed to feel it, too, causing them to back away a bit.
That was completely understandable. After all, at that moment, Shu was actually a bit scary.
“Bro, what’s up?” I asked, feeling that I had to be the one to do it.
That was enough for the air of intimidation to disperse.
“Hm,” he said. “Looks like someone went and did something unnecessary.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, the reason why Figaro is immobile is because the time inside the barrier got stopped.”
“The time is stopped?”
“Yeah, the barriers here have that function, but it’s rarely used. There’s just no reason to, unless maybe if some show monsters went a bit too crazy,” he said. “During the match, the time inside the barrier was slowed down to the very limit, but time stopping is a different thing entirely. Just like with slow playback and pause on videos.”
“If time is stopped, what about their consciousness?” I asked.
“I’ve never been through that myself, but I think they’re conscious. Tian and monster thoughts would probably stop, but just like with mental status effects, the player preservation function keeps every Master’s mind active. Otherwise, players couldn’t log out when they really needed to. However, the light and air movement is stopped, too, so they likely don’t see or feel anything. Though, honestly with the evaporation that happened, I can’t even imagine the state that Xunyu’s in.”
That’s certainly not something I like to picture, but the two fighters are experiencing it right now, I thought.
“This timing...” said Marie. “Was it set up to stop the very moment the duel ended?”
“Most likely,” nodded Shu. “Now we just have to figure out what kind of asshole is responsible for—”
He cut his words short.
A thing had appeared on the top of the barrier, gathering everyone’s attention.
“That’s...” I said.
It was a single silhouette. It had the shape of a costume, and it was one I was very familiar with — an Adélie penguin costume.
“Ayy! Good evening, ladies and gents! What a great fight! Hella hype, wasn’t it?” Once everyone’s attention had focused on him, the penguin began speaking. As he gestured to everyone in the arena, the voice he spoke in was that of...
“...the announcer?” I asked.
It was the very same voice that had done the announcing for today’s battle. It was different than the voice he’d had yesterday.
He didn’t seem used to announcing, so can I assume he infiltrated and stole that role? I thought.
Though he clearly had no intention of answering my question, he touched something on his neck and changed his voice back to the familiar one.
“Aaall right! With the hype fight done, it’s probs time for the Count and Princess to bore you with some speeches and directions,” he said. “But let’s skip that crap and do something fun, instead!”
The penguin followed those words with a spin. Though he was in a suit, it was easy to tell that he was laughing.
And no, it wasn’t because I was used to my brother and his bear costume. Anyone who’d heard the penguin’s soft voice would tell you that it was thick with wickedness and malice.
“Name yourself, you cur!” said a voice from one of the boxes.
The box was significantly larger than most — clearly meant for the guests of honor. I knew the identity of the one who’d said that. It was the person I’d seen when the event began: Count Aschbarray Gideon.
“Why are you besmirching this event?!” the count yelled.
His rage was not without reason. After all, the penguin was making a mockery of a such masterful duel and the very successful event. Even I had a thing or two to say to him.
“HA HA HA! I just said it, didn’t I? I want to do something fun!” After some loud laughter, the penguin put his hands on the back of the suit’s head. “But yeah, I haven’t revealed who I am yet! Allow me to do so!”
Then he took off the penguin suit.
“Get a load of this handsome mug! Ain’t I charming?”
The one inside the suit was a thin man with an Embryo crest on his left hand. He was now wearing glasses and a lab coat, but nothing else really stood out — at least not as much as the penguin suit. Sure, his face was good, but with Masters being able to customize their appearances, it wasn’t anything special.
However, the only ones with such lukewarm thoughts about him were people like me and Rook. The rest of the audience seemed to be extremely shocked.
“You... YOU...!” Count Gideon knew the man, as well, and his presence seemed to rid him of words.
“Oh boy, oh boy! Look at all these people that know who I am!” Despite it being dark, the former penguin purposely put his right hand above his eyes to protect them from sunlight and looked around. He was clearly enjoying the reactions his face reveal had caused. They were a testament to just how well-known his identity was.
“Identity...” I murmured.
When I’d met him yesterday, he’d pronounced himself as “Dr. Flamingo.” It had been clear back then — and now more than ever — that he was just fooling around. That wasn’t his name. It was...
“Why are you here... Franklin?!” Count Gideon demanded.
“BIIINNNNGOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Franklin yelled.
Fireworks began exploding in the air not far from the arena.
Though they were a beautiful sight that made Gideon’s night sky more vibrant, few in the arena could enjoy them. It wasn’t just tians, either. I saw some Masters who looked like they couldn’t even stomach the man’s presence.
It was only obvious. No one here could feel good with Franklin nearby.
Despite being a newbie, even I knew what his name meant to this country’s people.
“Yeah, it’s ya boy! The same guy who fed your king and a bunch of other nobodies to monsters! The Dryfe Imperium’s Superior! The forefront of robotics and monster synthesis! Better check yourselves before you wreck yourselves. Because it’s me, Giga Professor Franklin!”
It was safe to call him the kingdom’s greatest enemy.
To Be Continued in the Next Episode…
Midword
Bear: “I bear good news: it’s time for the midword!”
Cat: “Yaay! Something neew!”
Bear: “In Volume 3, the main story stops with Figgy’s and Xunyu’s battle.”
Cat: “Now, it’s time for some side stories that take place during Volume 2!”
Bear: “They’re about Ray’s beary merry party members — Rook and the shaded journo.”
Cat: “These stories are told from perspectives other than Ray’s.”
Cat: “You might come to see things that you cannot see through Ray’s eyes.”
Bear: “They’re also strongly linked to the events in Volume 4.”
Bear: “Now, it pawsitively saddens me, but we must say goodbye! Until the afterword!”
Side Story: The Case of the Untamable Slime
Pimp, Rook Holmes
“Lucius, you’ve already learned the English patterns?”
“Yes! I’m also halfway done with Japanese and German, as well!”
“Amazing. Not even I could do that when I was your age.”
“I’m doing my best, Father! After all, I’m your and Mother’s...”
◇
“It’s morning,” I muttered as I woke up at my usual time at the break of dawn, on my first day after our arrival at Gideon.
A night of sleep here in Infinite Dendrogram made me feel as if I’d actually slept that much, which was quite curious, since the tripled flow of time here meant that I’d only slept a third of that time in reality.
“Good morning, Marilyn,” I said. She was already awake in the jewel. “Let me do something, and then we’ll have breakfast.”
I got dressed and began going through my daily routine.
<
br /> It was lip-reading practice. Something I’d been doing for nearly ten years now, ever since I was five years old. It consisted of checking the shape of the mouth when pronouncing various sounds from various languages.
However, in Infinite Dendrogram, things were a bit different.
“It’s quite clear by now that any words with a meaning have the exact same shape no matter which language you use... It all gets translated into Infinite Dendrogram’s common,” I said. “I haven’t fully learned it yet, so it might be a while until I’m able to lip-read here.”
Whether I used English and said “hand” or Japanese and said “te,” the shape of the mouth was exactly the same. It seemed to me that any words were translated into Infinite Dendrogram’s common the moment they were given meaning. However, meaningless sounds — such as “h,” “a,” “n,” “d” — came out like they were supposed to.
In real life, I could freely lip-read conversations from several languages. Here, though, I was sent back to square one and now had to spend every day increasing the vocabulary I could read.
“Sorry for the wait, Marilyn,” I said after about an hour’s worth of practice. “Let’s eat.”
“Morning, Rook!” Babi said. “Yay! Food!”
“KIEEH...” Audrey added. (“Man, I’m hungry...”)
Babi and Audrey had awoken, as well, so we all went to eat breakfast.
Once that was done, I returned Marilyn and Audrey to the Jewel and walked through Gideon’s streets.
Marilyn and Audrey had been fighting ever since they woke up.
“MHOOO!” (“You uncouth red chicken!”)
“KIEE! KOOO!” (“You hard-headed turtle bitch! Fuck you!”)
This had been happening ever since Audrey had joined us. It might’ve had something to do with Marilyn being very diligent and Audrey being the delinquent kind of girl, but I’d also heard that land-dragons and avians just naturally didn’t get along too well.
We’re a team, so I’d really like it if they became friends, I thought.
“What do we do today?” asked Babi, causing me to ponder.
According to my friends list, both Ray and Marie were offline. From their vocabularies and the expressions they used, it was safe to assume that they were Japanese, and with it being nighttime over there, they were most likely asleep.
Due to that, it was best for me to take care of business that was entirely my own.
“We’ll first go to the Pimps’ Guild,” I said. “There’s someone I want to see there. After that, we’ll look around the tamed monster market.”
I had to meet a certain person in the Pimps’ Guild and then buy one or two new monsters, which was the reason why I’d come to Gideon in the first place. However, the latter priority had dropped a lot when I’d gotten Audrey to join us.
“MHOO.” (“Master, please do not get another bird.”)
“KIEEE.” (“Turtles either, Boss. We have one too many already.”)
Hearing Marilyn and Audrey say that from inside the Jewel on my right hand, I thought about what I really needed.
“Well,” I said. “We have Marilyn for land and Audrey for air, so now we need someone for water. I don’t think it’ll be a bird, but it might actually be a turtle.”
After giving appropriately differing reactions to my words, the two suddenly looked confused. From what I could tell, they had only just realized I could understand what they were saying.
“Who are you going to meet, Rook?” asked Babi.
“A person called Catherine,” I answered. “She helped me a lot back at the capital when I became a Pimp. She’s the one who told me that I should do some part-time work and get the Identification skill.”
“We actually met someone like that?”
“It happened when you were sleeping.”
After the Catalog Ray had lent me had told me that my suitable job was Pimp, I’d had trouble finding the capital’s Pimps’ Guild due to it being in a relatively secretive place and me being a newbie with little knowledge of the area. Catherine, an experienced Pimp, had helped me find it.
She was also the one that’d told me that the headquarters of the Pimps’ Guild was here in Gideon. Catherine regularly visited the place, so I didn’t see any reason not to drop by and say hi.
After following my map to a back alley in Gideon’s eighth district, I arrived at an establishment that seemed to be a mix between a bar and an inn. The sign near the entrance said “Pimps’ Guild’s Headquarters,” so there was little doubt that I had the right building. The Adventurers’ Guild doubled as a bar, too, but the fact that this one was also an inn probably meant exactly what most would assume.
“I’ll go eat over there!” said Babi before going to a table.
Though she wasn’t as much of a big eater as Ray’s Nemesis, Babi did eat quite a lot. Of course, the amount she consumed meant little when one noted that she ate solely sweet things turned spicy.
Anyway, likely due to me being a Pimp that was clearly too young, I attracted quite a lot of attention.
“Excuse me,” I spoke to the high level-looking man working behind the counter.
“Welcome, boyo,” he replied. “Well, aren’t you a young’un! Oh no, that won’t be a problem! We don’t have age restrictions here! Anyone’s free to enjoy themselves at any time!”
Though he talked with a fake-looking smile, it didn’t seem like he had any malice towards me. That was probably how he interacted with any average customer.
“Oh, I’m not a customer. I’m a member of the guild,” I said as I showed him my card.
“Well, whaddya know, you really are,” he spoke as he looked at it. “It’s rare for Masters to become Pimps. We have two or three others, but you’re easily the youngest among them.” The fake smile was all but gone as he changed his attitude towards me.
Just as he’d said, Pimp — despite being a useful job — wasn’t too popular among Masters. As far as I was aware, the most popular jobs here in the kingdom were from the knight grouping, and though watching Ray made me understand why, I still wondered why the pimp grouping was so niche in comparison.
“So, you’re lookin’ for someone you can offer your services to?” he asked. “Or do you need some workers?”
The first question referred to guild quests, like the model-searching one I’d taken back at the capital. The second question referred to buying tamed monsters and the like. In Gideon, just like this place, they could be bought in the fourth district.
“The latter, please,” I said. “May I ask something, though?”
“What is it?”
“Is the Master known as ‘Catherine’ here?”
The moment I spoke that name, the guild turned completely silent. Some people dropped their glasses, some went into a fetal position and cowered, while others just quickly paid their bills and hastily walked out.
What am I supposed to make of this reaction? I thought.
“Do you know her?” he asked.
“Yes,” I nodded. “She helped me a lot in the capital’s guild.”
“Well, she is good at taking care of pretty boys,” the bartender said. “Though most of them just avoid her... Anyway, she should be here soon.”
I decided to wait for her. I went and sat at the same table as Babi and let the time pass by while I drank the free tea they gave me.
During that time, I felt that Marilyn and Audrey — still in the Jewel — were fighting about something again. I heard sounds that seemed to refer to my tastes, Catherine, love rivalry, dragon anthropomorphization, and love between birds and people.
What are they talking about? I thought.
After nearly an hour of such waiting, the guild’s door opened, and I heard a familiar, high-pitched voice.
“Heeyyy! Good morning to you allll!”
“Ah, she’s here,” I said.
The owner of the voice was the Catherine I was waiting for.
She came into the guild accompanied by four maids and, upon
noticing my presence, walked up to our table.
“Oh my! It’s really Rookie!” she said joyously. “I’d heard that the PK blockade had stopped, but I didn’t think that you’d have arrived in Gideon already.”
“I did, as you can see!” I responded. “I came here with Babi, my party members Ray and Marie, and these girls right here!” I introduced Babi and the two girls inside my Jewel to her.
“Rook, who is this?” asked Babi.
“She’s the one I told you about — Catherine Kongou,” I answered. “She’s a highly skilled Pimp and a very reliable person.”
“Oh come, now, Rookie, praise like that will make me blush!” Catherine cried.
A moment later, I noticed that Marilyn and Audrey seemed really shocked, for some reason. It seemed as though they were surprised by Catherine’s appearance. Thinking that, I re-examined how she looked.
Long blonde hair bearing the slenderness and glamor of silk.
Eyes of a deep blue color reminiscent of a clear sea.
Custom-made clothing of a lavish design, clearly created from high-quality materials.
Nails covered in simply masterful art that she’d probably done by herself.
A voice as charming and enchanting as a mermaid’s.
Over two meters in stature.
Huge biceps, about as thick as a horse’s neck.
A slightly exposed chest which revealed pectoral muscles that seemed to rival steel.
A face with a boorish structure and features that clearly belonged on a dominating overlord.
Indeed, it was the exact same Catherine that I’d met back at the capital.
Her appearance was certainly unique, so it wasn’t too hard to believe that she’d surprised Marilyn and Audrey.
It’s actually pretty interesting that even monsters can be surprised by what we humans wear, I thought. This has been on my mind for a while, but it really does seem that their thoughts are similar to those of humans.
◇
Catherine Kongou was a veteran Pimp. However, rather than being from the pimp grouping, her current main job was Siren — a Superior Job from the harlot grouping bearing conditions such as “Charm a total of 100,000 people or monsters.”
