Hos.h.i.+ told them everything that he could remember. Seiji and his friends exchanged awkward glances."We"ve been waiting here for you a bit more than three hours. Judging from the time that pa.s.sed, and all the damage to your clothing, you must have gone through many things… You really can"t remember anything else at all?"
Hos.h.i.+ did his best to recall as he looked at his right hand.
The mysterious marking had now vanished. However, Hos.h.i.+ could sense that its power was still within him. He then checked his pockets, only to find that all his red leaves were there as well, with not a single one missing.
He could faintly recall that he seemed to have met the golden-haired girl again, and that he was with her…
"I think that I might have been… saved by that golden-haired girl, and then I was together with her…" Hos.h.i.+ muttered.
Everyone remained silent for a moment.
"That"s all you can remember?" Seiji folded his arms. "It would have been fine if you had only had a nice chat with her for three hours. However, the tatters on your clothing prove that you were doing otherwise. I highly doubt that some of those cut marks could have been caused by the sticky fluid monsters. You were probably fighting against something else inside as well. Perhaps you were fighting against other spiritual monsters, or even… humans."
The atmosphere became somewhat heavy.
"I don"t want to say this, but it looks like she was manipulating you, Hos.h.i.+." Seiji sighed. "It"s quite obvious that you were fighting, and now you"ve lost your memory afterward. This is basically no different from her having taken advantage of a puppet."
Hos.h.i.+ fell silent for a moment.
"Team Leader, do you believe that she"s an evil existence?"
"I didn"t say that. Still, it"s a possibility." Seiji had a serious expression. "She was the cause behind this incident. She brought much hards.h.i.+p upon you, and made you lose your memory… Do you still want to believe in her despite all this?"
Hos.h.i.+ fell silent for an even longer period of time. He recalled what that girl looked like, as well as her singing…
"I… want to believe…" Hos.h.i.+ spoke softly as he clenched his right hand.
Seiji looked at Hos.h.i.+"s right hand.
"If there"s a method to remove the marking that she put on your body, do you want to remove it?"
"…No."
"Do you still want to see her again?"
"Yeah…" Hos.h.i.+ nodded.
"Such an idiot." Seiji sighed. "But… I suppose that"s just how you are, Hos.h.i.+ Amami."
Another period of silence fell over everyone.
"Well, that"s the end of this matter," Seiji told everyone. "We weren"t able to train in the Domain as I"d expected… and Kazuko-san is now in a hibernation state because of this incident. She won"t be waking up soon. I… I thought too simply of the Domain and the Inner Worlds. I need to properly self-reflect. The fortunate part is that despite this sudden incident, everyone returned safely with n.o.body injured… Everyone did a good job. Let"s all have a good rest now. If any of you feel that something is wrong with your body, let me know immediately."
------
Nirou Iwazaki was staring blankly at the ceiling.
That was because he was now dead. Despite the fact that he was an experienced Spiritual Ability user, he and more than ten other members of their "organization" had all died within their base!
The other powerful individuals in the organization that rushed over to support everyone found that they were too late when they arrived.
There was only one lucky survivor, an Awakened by the name of Heita Nis.h.i.+zawa.
This gray-haired boy had been seriously injured and barely managed to survive. He told his rescuers what he had witnessed.
All of this death had been caused by a single person.
That person wore mystical-appearing attire that resembled something a stereotypical elf ranger from fantasy anime and manga would wear. This "elf ranger" wore a magic runic hat, possessed an exquisite longbow, and had beautiful and androgynous features that made it difficult to determine the person"s gender. This person was basically no different from a real elf!
He… or she summoned powerful spiritual monsters and shot powerful spiritual arrows that killed everyone! This person destroyed the organization"s base in the Forest Palace all by themselves!!
Heita"s testimony, video cameras from the destroyed base, and a certain type of scene replay magic spell all confirmed the details of this attacker. However, it was impossible to determine who this person was or what faction they belonged to.
Due to the physical characteristics of this person, the organization decided to code-name them "Elf Ranger". The organization a.s.sessed this person as an "above average" threat based on the damage this person inflicted and the power level displayed.
The next morning, Seiji contacted Hana and told her about what happened last night.
"In the future, you should pay more attention to this person named Hos.h.i.+ Amami," Hana told him.
"Of course." Seiji nodded. "This was his first time visiting an Inner World. I suppose that he had a lucky miracle of sorts for something like this to happen to him."
The youth on his first adventure who met a mysterious and powerful golden-haired girl. This seemed just like the cla.s.sic beginning to a novel or manga. However, Seiji had no clue if this story would turn out to be good or bad for Hos.h.i.+.
"I would like to request an a.n.a.lysis of the damage inflicted upon his combat uniform. Is it possible to determine what types of attacks caused such damage? It also needs repairing… Could I ask you to do that?"
"Yeah. Mail the combat uniform back to me," Hana agreed.
"Also, I"m concerned about that group who suddenly attacked us for no apparent reason… None of them saw any of our real faces, but since we killed three of them, we need to remain on guard," Seiji continued. "Could I also ask you to investigate those dual daggers?"
Hana agreed to this as well.
Seiji didn"t request Natsuya"s a.s.sistance, because this incident was unrelated to her. This was related to his knight order. Seiji considered it alright to have Natsuya of the Yoruhana Family help him with smaller matters, but this was something related to him and his friends" lives, so there absolutely needed to be concrete results.
After finis.h.i.+ng their video chat, Seiji immediately mailed over the items.
He didn"t use any normal mail delivery. Instead, he used a mystical service that he wouldn"t have to worry about reliability or speed of. However, the price for this service was rather expensive.
This matter had now temporarily come to an end after Seiji mailed the items.
The greatest lesson he learned from all of this was that Kazuko"s Domain wasn"t nearly as safe as he"d thought it was.
Seiji understood that training in an Inner World had its risks. However, he mistakenly underestimated the risks. He didn"t expect that the controller of the Domain herself, Kazuko, would also meet with a problem.
Taking advantage of Kazuko"s ability to easily train in Inner Worlds on a daily basis… Well, after all of this, Seiji could only say that dreams were beautiful but reality was cruel.
Inner Worlds possessed even stronger existences than Kazuko that could even overrule her control over the Domain! Meeting any such existences would cause even Kazuko to meet with danger. In an even worse hypothetical scenario, everyone could die there!!
At any rate, Seiji felt that he had underestimated Inner Worlds far too much.
Inner Worlds weren"t the same as dungeons in games. There was no fixed path to take through an Inner World, nor was there a story plot. Entering every time was a true adventure with a.s.sociated risks. What one met inside would be unknown. In fortunate circ.u.mstances, an Inner World would provide excellent training. But in unfortunate circ.u.mstance, it was also possible to die within just a short few seconds.
Even if Seiji had the ability to save and load, he didn"t dare to allow himself to die.
He now had a new understanding of how dangerous Inner Worlds were. This caused him to rea.s.sess the value of his [Spirit House] from his system.
His system"s products were truly extraordinary… A place where he and his friends could cultivate safely was far more valuable than he"d originally expected!
System: "Heh heh heh, now you understand how it is, dear." Seiji imagined his system saying that.
But, the [Spirit House] was truly an option!
It wasn"t that he didn"t want it to begin with. It was that he was poor in points. Seiji sighed.
He needed to earn more points. Seiji figured that he should first hurry and finish the second volume of Brother Monogatari as quickly as possible before thinking of other ways to grind points.
Although he was working on the dating sim game as a side project, this wouldn"t possibly be finished anytime soon. He needed something that would give him many points quickly… No, he needed a project that would give him rewards as soon as possible.
Seiji then had a flash of inspiration that caused his eyes to light up.
He immediately went on the internet, and created an account on Sakura Island"s most famous website for light novel artists, Whiteboard!
Seiji figured that he technically counted as a light novel artist as well, since he drew all the art for his own novel. Wouldn"t he be able to earn some points by uploading some drawings on the internet?