< Lie >

"I had thought that Honey would ask about the method to save your world first."

She said, as if it was unexpected. Hearing it, I also thought that I got the order wrong, but I didn't change my question. Since I could ask both. Just because the curse and poison dragon king's owner died, didn't mean that this skill was immediately lifted. It would disappear when I wanted to go out. So there was still enough time.

"Future foresight type, a silent white bird. She is not affiliated to any side and is neutral. I do not know how much you heard from Diarma, but the existence that she solely loves and follows is the source that we cannot say the name of."

A white tree and white bird inside white snow. I thought of the image inside of the piece of Diarma's memories.

"I learned about a tree and a bird from Diarma. The tree's name-."

"Shh."

The mermaid queen touched the tip of her finger to her lips.

"It is better to not say the name even if it is unconsciously. The more it is called and the more it is known, the bigger the influence becomes. So Honey, please do not tell other people if possible."

She continued speaking, singsong.

"The tree where the white bird folds her wings is the fifth source. She circles around the branches as she tells a story and a song that we cannot hear. But it is unknown if she is really speaking with the source."

"To meet her, to go to where the tree is, what do you have to do?"

"The fifth source is none other the, hm, universe should I say, that Honey's world is affiliated to. It is the universe's center as well as starting point, so it is possible. There are numerous worlds scattered around, centered around the source. It is similar to planets circling the sun."

Did that mean I had to travel the universe or something?

"The closer a world is to the source, the more they are affected by the power seeping out of the source. Like the sun's heat and light. The closer you are, the stronger the magical super abilities[1], and the farther away you are, the weaker, so as if to substitute for that, science is developed. There are exceptional cases, too, but generally, it is like that."

"Then the distance from my world to the source was far originally, but… did it get closer? Now?"

In a world that argued over whether bending spoons was a super power or not, skills abruptly appeared. Was the reason for that sudden change, because of that? At my question, the mermaid queen nodded her head.

"The worlds in front were swallowed by the source or escaped, and now it is Honey's world's turn."

"At any rate, if it is closer, it should be easier to find it."

"Unrelated to the distance, it is impossible with Honey's body right now. And, I explained in terms of 'near or far', but it is a little different from the normal definition. Besides that, why are you looking for the Bird who Counts Stars?"

"She has my younger brother."

The mermaid queen was silent. The volleyball that was rolling in the surroundings stopped moving.

"The white bird has Honey's younger brother?"

"Yes. Apparently she could interfere because he had contracted with Diarma. So I have to meet her and recover my brother."

"...She would not have done something like that without a reason. But I cannot guess what it is even a little."

The mermaid queen said, baffled.

"We will try to contact the white bird, but right now, she has left her place. Starting from some point, we could not find her anywhere near the source."

"Do you not know where she went?"

"People who know the future are harder to find than anybody else. We will try our utmost. But, Honey."

The eyes that were like blue pearls slanted slightly.

"Honey's younger brother cannot be brought back. Because he is already not that world's existence anymore, he will be rejected. One of the reasons why the filial duty addicts, who are free unlike us, cannot directly set foot in Honey's world, is exactly that. Since, if they try to forcefully enter, they will be cut down again and again through the resistance, and become infinitely weaker."

The voice continued, pacifyingly.

"Honey's younger brother is weaker than them, so he would not be able to withstand the resistance, and would probably disappear completely."

The rain that had completely wet my body belatedly felt cold.

It was too much, really. I didn't wish for something that big, either. It was just a normal and natural thing. I just wanted to recover my dead younger brother, but I couldn't do just that one thing?

I lowered my gaze and stared at the cracked magic stone in my hand.

All of the poison and curse dragon king's owner's memories, even the ones I regarded as useless, remained inside my head. Even so, it wasn't like there was a brilliant method in those. But, they could probably become a foothold for finding a method.

"I would like to ask you to find the Bird who Counts Stars."

"Please do not worry. Since we also want to know the reason why she moved."

I let out a weak sigh. I wiped my rain-drenched face with my sleeve, but it didn't make much of a difference. I was still soaked, totally like a mouse that had fallen into water.

"Then I'll ask the question I should have asked first. What needs to be done for the world I live in to be safe? Diarma said that I am the key. And what is a source?"

"We do not know exactly what sources are either. If I have to explain, should I say they are gods? It is certain that they made these current worlds, but at the same time, they are swallowing up their children. Conversation does not get through, but it is not that they completely do not have wills. They chased us, who were trying to stop the sources, out and locked us up."

The imprisoned immoral people. Oppositely, the side trying to help the sources swallow worlds were the filial duty addicts. If you calculated it out, they were trying to help the parent trying to eat up their siblings, so they really were seriously crazy filial sons[2].

"Putting aside that you are locked up, it seems like your influence is big."

"Influencing the outside while being locked up in a room is not an unusual thing in Honey's world, right? Though it is not easy to have a structure for that."

Was it something like the internet? And delivery through a parcel delivery service? Well, if many existences like the mermaid queen gathered, I thought that it wouldn't be impossible.

"Even if we saying 'swallowing', it is not that the source directly opens its mouth and eats. The moment that existences that have the crystals of the source's power, magic stones, occupy the relevant world, it is absorbed along with the magic stones."

"…We are using magic stones in various ways, but is that okay?"

"Of course it is okay. Also, monsters that have been made to be affiliated to the relevant world's skills, are also safe. Things like taming. And-."

The mermaid queen pointed to the middle of her chest with the tip of her finger. There, a weak blue light appeared.

"Magic stones also emerge from non-monster lifeforms that have piled up more than a certain amount of strength. These are also safe."

Was that why Diarma also had a magic stone? I hadn't heard that magic stones came out from high rank Hunters, but it might be that they formed when you were about SSS-Rank.

"Blocking monsters until the source gets tired of it and falls asleep, is what we call escaping. It is not being completely safe. Even so, you can earn quite a long time of a hundred years, give or take. If the awakened source aims for other worlds first, it can take longer as well."

"Is there a method to be completely safe?"

"For now, there is not. In the rare chance that we find a way to cause the sources to cease to exist, there is no guarantee that the world will be fine after that. If you destroy the sun itself because it is a crisis where the planet will burn because the sun is approaching, the planet will lose light."

Comparing it like that, I thought that there wouldn't be a way other than to escape. Just then, the volleyball that was rolling around, bounced up.

-There is the method of just attacking the source without causing it to cease existing! If you give damage over a certain amount, it even spits back out the portion of the world it swallowed and becomes quiet for longer!

"Newcomer!"

The mermaid queen who called out to the volleyball in a blaming tone, raised her eyebrows slightly and spoke to me.

"Please do not pay it any mind, Honey. Very rarely, transcenders appear, but it is better to not expect it as a possible method."

"Like yourselves?"

Instead of a reply, the mermaid queen smiled. If I thought about it, they wouldn't have been imprisoned and even labelled 'immoral people' for just simply disrupting. Shouldn't you have to be at the level of beating up your parent, to be chased out of the house and go to jail?

'I think you have to be around L-Rank at minimum, but apparently Yoohyun was close to SS-Rank, so if you say it takes about 10 years… There's no reason for it to be 10 years per rank, for 30 years. That's too easy.'

Since it took 5 years give or take for an A-Rank to become an S-Rank, S-Rank was doubled that, and it would probably be right to see it as over double again to get to SSS-Rank. No, I had to keep in mind that Yoohyun was a born S-Rank. His growth speed would be different, so if someone at a born S-Rank level was born as A-Rank, wouldn't they have become an S-Rank in an instant? Then the increasing time per rank could be many more times longer...

Um, let's just say it's impossible. And even looking just at the curse and poison dragon king's owner, he wasn't a simple L-Rank. Seeing how the fear resistance skill was slightly pushed back by the main body's threatening feeling, he would've been high grade among L-Ranks.

"For simply just blocking monsters, would the 50 S-Ranks that you asked me to gather work? But even before the regression, there were already much more than 50."

"The difference between 50 spread out, and 50 gathered, is incredibly big. And it isn't like Honey is not going to use your skills, right? We will also continue to help Honey in the future. That was probably why Diarma said that Honey was the key."

Listening to the kind voice, I fiddled with the magic stone in my hand again.

It was certain at least that the immoral people wanted to save our world. And there was no need to refuse since they said they would help.

Though the 50 S-Ranks was a lie without a doubt.

I had seen worlds being swallowed up several times in Diarma's memories. If it would've been resolved with just 50 S-Ranks, all of those worlds would've been safe, too.

Why were they lying? Should I ask? Or, would it be better to leave it for a bit longer and see? If they happened to say they wouldn't help anymore and turned away, then the one taking a loss would be me.

"You are reliable. Please take care of me from now on as well."

I smiled back at the mermaid queen.

"Right, will it be that curse and poison dragon types will not come out in dungeons from now on?"

"No. Rather, the curse and poison dragons that Diarma made are the minority. But one thing is that, since he was killed, the other addicts will come. They are not curse and poison dragon types, so you will not be able to expect good luck like this time."

I was definitely lucky this time in various ways. No, should I say it was a foundation that Diarma had laid? If that bastard hadn't sent a Lauchtas, I wouldn't have been able to get the Dragon Slayer title either.

It was reaping what he sowed.

"So please pay attention to the born S-Ranks if possible. It is even better if you register them with the keyword."

Yoohyun was already registered, and it seemed like Sung Hyunjae and Riette wouldn't do business with the addicts even if I didn't register them.

"Who are the two that I have not met yet?"

"We do not know that exactly either. The filial duty addicts contacted them first, so the information was hidden. We only know that there are five, and about the ones that are in contact with Honey."

Seeing how they had harassed Yoohyun after Sung Hyunjae ran off, it seemed like the other two also didn't contract or had refused. The dragon bastard really was incompetent. I hoped that the successor would be similar, but would they be as incapable as that guy?

We exchanged a few more questions besides that, and after asking her to put the broken magic stone into my inventory, I left the space inside my consciousness.

When I opened my eyes, what I saw was a dim ceiling. It didn't seem like it was outside of the dungeon, and the 1st floor castle was cut up. Was it the 2nd floor?

"Han Yoojin-ssi!"

Noah called to me, close to tears. Why were his eyes wet every time I saw him? When I raised my head, I saw Riette perched on a giant windowsill that only had the frame left. When our eyes met, she raised her hand a bit and smiled. I also saw Sung Hyunjae slightly to her side.

"Was there no trouble? I was not asleep for long, right?"

"Yes, not even one day has passed. The 2nd floor boss only appears when the moon rises to the middle, so we were waiting."

It seemed like they had already handled the normal monsters. It was fast.

I raised my upper body and sat. When I checked my inventory, there was a [Cracked Magic Stone] in the list. The curse and poison dragon king's owner.

'...Would Yoohyun's contract have been released on its own?'

Among high rank contracts, there were ones that were maintained even after the skill user died, so I should check when I got out. Checking.

…My brother's face was indistinct. Instead of the current Yoohyun, I kept on thinking of the face that was inside of the lizard bastard's memory. Though they were the same person. …They weren't completely the same, but still.

"Yoojin-ssi, are you possibly hurt somewhere?"

At Noah's question, I shook my head no. If I was hurt, than that would rather be better. I was too fine, so my mood was actually bad. I didn't use anything like a potion, but there wasn't an injury or trace anywhere on my body. It wasn't real, so obviously there wouldn't be, but still.

"Want to drink?"

Sung Hyunjae, who had come over at some point, held out a tumbler. When I took it and drank a sip, a thick orange taste filled my mouth.

"You shouldn't not know that I am sick of orange flavored potions, but you are trying to give me orange juice?"

"So, it doesn't taste good?"

"No, it tastes good."

It seemed like it was disgustingly expensive juice. When I sipped a little more, Sung Hyunjae's gaze stuck to me piercingly. That person's observing gaze was irritating every time I received it. Should I say it felt like I was being stripped? Truthfully, I was being exposed to the core as well.

"Why are you staring like that?"

"It wouldn't do for you to get sick, so I'm searching you."

"Though I just said that I am not hurt anywhere."

"Since you might not realize it yourself. I don't want any problems to occur for Han Yoojin-gun. It's better for you to be healthy inside and out."

"Since you think of me that much, I really do not know what to say. If anybody saw, they would think that Sung Hyunjae-ssi is becoming my guardian or something. Or is it that I have to be fine in order to repay my debt? A debtor with a lot of things to extort away?"

"Rather than that, I'm thinking of you as a custom item that was sent down from the sky because I lived good-heartedly."

…Wow, he said himself that he lived good-heartedly. Eurgh.

"Yoojin-ssi is not an item."

Noah complained, but it was lightly ignored. It is okay, Noah-ssi. Since it was the same for me, anyways.

"The item with the incredibly great performance is tired. Let us quickly finish the attack and go out. Isn't it about time for the boss monster to come out?"

"As you desire."

Sung Hyunjae bowed exaggeratedly, and then turned around. He was a really annoying person, but maybe because of that, I felt a little better. I shouldn't pointlessly dwell on things, and do the best I could for things I could do. I looked one more time at the inventory list, and then stood from my seat.