Chapter 10 — Interlude: They Do Die From Time to Time, Don’t They?

Standing in front of Sion's door, Youichi felt as out of place as always. He still wasn't sure what sort of expression he should greet her with, now that she had reached the rank of Sage.

Had she really wanted to become one? It had been a sacrifice to protect the rest of them. Even now, she might still feel resentful about it. He couldn't help but turn that thought over and over in his mind.

Youichi shook his head. It was too late for that. All he could do now was the work accorded to him as the servant of a Sage.

He knocked on the door.

"Come in." Magic brought the words to his ears.

He opened the door. Inside was a room decorated in white and pink. The furniture was white with cat paw prints, and the curtains and carpet were pink. There was a canopied bed and a delicate chandelier with a flower motif.

In this room that smacked of the tastes of a young girl, the Sage Sion was lying on an enormous cushion. Relaxing comfortably in a loose negligee, it seemed she hadn't been expecting any guests at all.

"Oh? Youichi? Do you need something?" Seeing him enter the room, she looked a little surprised.

"You're the one who told me to come and give you a report on the situation, weren't you?" He couldn't quite mask his exasperation, but it was business as usual as he walked over to her.

"Youichi, please. Don't talk like that when it's just the two of us," Sion said with a sad frown.

He breathed a sigh. "Geez, fine. But if I don't talk like that regularly, I'm bound to slip up eventually."

"If I allow it as a Sage, there's no problem, is there?"

"A servant like me shouldn't be setting a bad example for the others."

"Well, anyway. What is the situation?"

"First, regarding the invaders. Santarou managed to fight off the Darkness, but the damage to the surrounding area was immense. The region around Altana has been turned into a desert. Fixing it would probably be impossible."

"You said 'fight off.' It wasn't defeated, then?"

"It managed to run away. It took a pretty severe beating, so Santarou said it wouldn't be coming back. But it's hard to say if something like that has feelings or intelligence in the first place."

"I see. Please continue." It seemed that she didn't approve of this news, as she spoke with a somewhat unsatisfied expression.

"Lain has also fought off the Wolf King."

"I understand when it comes to Lain. She's rather fond of animals, after all."

"The Hedgehog incident didn't go well. Yumehisa was sent to deal with it, but was killed. That's the second one this year. At this point, we're just uselessly stacking up the number of victims. Can we not ask the Great Sage to intervene for us?"

"I'm afraid that's impossible. Grandfather is incredibly busy."

Grandfather, my ass, Youichi thought.

Sion and the Great Sage had no actual blood relation. Being a "grandchild" of the Great Sage was only a title. It was nothing but a twisted game of pretend.

"Flirting with the slaves is far too important to him," Sion said, ridicule plain in her voice. Even Youichi knew that they couldn't expect the Great Sage to help them. He had only thought to bring it up just in case. "I will put together a team myself to deal with the Hedgehog."

The only thing they really knew about the Hedgehog was its outward appearance. It seemed roughly human-shaped, slender and covered entirely in a lustrous black metal. Going by its behavior, it was assumed to be some sort of machine. Something like blades or needles fired out from its joints, so it had come to be referred to as the Hedgehog.

"That's it for the cases we couldn't classify. There are two that are clearly Angel types. One has appeared in Zabora, and the other in Ent. These were eliminated by Shirou and Yoshifumi, respectively. There was one point of interest with the Angels, though. Previously, it seemed their appearances were more or less random, but now that seems to be changing."

"You think they've found what they're looking for?"

"It doesn't seem like they know the exact location yet, but they appear to be gradually narrowing it down. I'm sure they'll find it sooner or later."

The only issue was that neither Youichi nor Sion knew what these Angels were even searching for. In short, they didn't know why they were targeting this world in the first place. It was believed that the Great Sage alone knew the reason, but he was too lazy to bother sharing it with his subordinates.

"Next, about the Sage candidates."

"Ah! I saw that the dragon died somehow. What happened after that?"

"Come on. Are you not concerned about how this dragon actually perished?"

"It was about level one thousand, right? They do die from time to time, don't they?" Sion said seriously.

For Sion, who had surpassed a level of one hundred million, a dragon at level one thousand was little more than a fly to her.

Youichi was struck by a complicated feeling. Sion likely didn't feel that she had changed at all. But whether she liked it or not, possessing such overwhelming power would begin to warp anyone. No matter how much she tried to keep herself under control, she still exuded an unquestionable sense of hubris.

"Ah, whatever, that's related to something else, so I'll set it aside for now. First, it appears they cleared their original mission. There were four casualties."

"Yes. It was probably the correct choice, but they cut off the four powerless among them fairly quickly. It's rare for the Install to be successful on an entire group, so it's a common strategy."

"About that...two of the casualties were those without any powers. The other two were from the five S-Rank candidates."

Sion had mentally sorted her candidates into four different ranks:

S-Rank: Those who had been to this world before. They had already had the Gift installed and possessed a considerable amount of strength. The most promising candidates.

A-Rank: Those possessing particularly powerful skills. Depending on their growth, they could potentially surpass the S-Rank candidates someday. The opposition.

B-Rank: Those who possessed only average skills, their abilities no greater than that of the natives. There was still a small possibility of some sort of growth, however faint. The pit.

C-Rank: Those who possessed the lowest level of skills, in most cases weaker than even the natives. In extremely rare cases, capable of growth, with those who did grow often surpassing the progress of the A and B-Rank candidates. The bottom of the pit.

Finally, those without any powers at all had no possibility of becoming Sages, and therefore weren't included in any category.

"That is unexpected. What are they doing now?"

"Using the powerless ones as bait, everyone else made straight for the city. From there, they decided to head to the capital for their second mission, as advised. But for some reason, three of the S-Rank candidates returned to the starting point, where two of them died, and the survivor headed into the forest."

"Why is that?"

"It's the same as with the dragon. They just died, suddenly and without warning. It was bizarre enough in the case of the dragon, but for these instant deaths to happen repeatedly at the same location is even stranger, don't you think? They expired almost immediately after making contact with the surviving powerless candidates from the bus. That, of course, makes me doubt whether those two are truly all that helpless, but the question then becomes, 'What can these powerless candidates do?'"

Their world was very much what one would call a Sword and Sorcery world. Due to the influence of magic, any number of peculiar happenings were possible. Even a single swing of a sword could split a mountain in two.

But that was only as a result of the Gift.

The powerless candidates who hadn't received the Gift should have been nothing more than generic, weak mortals. Weaker than even the natives.

"Looking at the phenomenon, it appears to be some sort of Instant Death ability...but back in our old world, I never came across a single person who could use magic. That goes for you too, right, Sion?"

"I wonder. The Japan we knew could have been a very different place compared to the Japan of today. Maybe it has undergone some significant changes."

"There's no way it changed that much...well, whatever. The problem is that someone who can use Instant Death Magic has now appeared in this world."

"It's not worth worrying about, is it? I assume you know why Instant Death Magic isn't all that popular."

"Hmm...because it's inefficient, right?"

Instant Death Magic was something that indeed existed. However, using it required an enormous amount of magical energy, so basically any other type of magic was far more efficient. And when using it against higher-level opponents, it could be resisted entirely. In short, it was only effective against weaker opponents who could just as easily be dealt with through much simpler means.

"Precisely. Anyone could learn to use Instant Death Magic. Yet barely anyone does. In our long history of war, the presence of Instant Death Magic is well known, and numerous methods of resisting it have been developed. It's common knowledge that an Instant Death Magic that works with a one hundred percent success rate doesn't exist."

"We have to be careful, though. Maybe we should change these last two candidates to C-Rank?"

"You worry too much. But if doing so will make you feel better, go ahead."

The way that she brushed it off, as if it were something so inconsequential, was only proof of the monster that her power had turned her into.

Perhaps this was a cause for optimism, though. Instant Death Magic only worked against weaker opponents. In that case, couldn't it mean that one of their "powerless" candidates might in fact be incredibly strong?

Without the Gift, such a thing is impossible... Even so, Youichi began to get a bad feeling about those two remaining otherworlders.