Chapter 70

AN: Fine, you convince me.

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A gigantic table carved of gleaming black stone sat in the center of the room, surrounded by forty-six luxurious chairs.

However, most of those seats were empty.

Once, every single place had been filled, but now only two were occupied.

One of the seated people was clothed in a magnificent black academic robe, edged in violet and gold. The collar seemed excessively gaudy, but somehow it fit the overall design.

However, the exposed head was a bare skull. Points of dark red light glowed in its large eye sockets, and behind that skull glowed a halo of black radiance.

The being in the other seat was not human either, merely a mass of a black, sticky substance. Its tar-like surface roiled and writhed continuously, never staying in the same shape for more than a second.

The former was Momonga and the other one was Herohero.

"It's really been a while, Herohero-san. Although this is the last day of YGGDRASIL, I didn't expect you to show up."

"Indeed it has, Momonga-san."

The two of them spoke with the voices of grown men, but compared to the voice of the former, the latter's words lacked force, or perhaps it could be said that they lacked energy.

"You stopped coming online after you changed your job IRL, so how long has it been… about two years?"

"Ah, seems about right- wah, it's been so long… this is bad. I've been doing so much overtime recently that my sense of time is starting to go weird."

"That's really bad, right? Are you okay?"

"My body? Well, it's a mess. I haven't had to see a doctor yet, but I'm almost there, it's really bad. Raizel offered his help but sadly, it was still not enough. At the end of the day, I still need to go back to work like a whipped slave I was."

"Uwah—"

Momonga lowered his head in an "I can't take it" gesture.

"That's terrible."

As though following up on Momonga's comment, Herohero delivered a grim monologue, his words laced with an unimaginable reality.

The two of them griped loudly about the foolishness they encountered in their working lives.

Subordinates who did not know how to report, communicate, and discuss things, spreadsheets that changed by the day, scoldings by their superiors for not meeting various KPIs, working late every day until they could not go home, gaining weight because of their irregular lifestyles, and the increasing amounts of medicine they had to take every day.

Herohero's grievances burst forth like a broken dam, and Momonga lent his ear to him.

After about ten minutes, the torrent of words that flowed from Herohero dwindled to a trickle.

"…I'm sorry for making you listen to my whining. I can't complain much IRL."

The place corresponding to Herohero's head seemed to sway, as though he were bowing in apology. Thus, Momonga replied:

"Don't worry about it, Herohero-san. I made you come online despite you being busy, so listening to your complaints is only expected. I'll hear you out, no matter how many you have."

Herohero seemed to have recovered some of his old energy, and with a somewhat more energetic laugh, he replied:

"Ah, I'm grateful for that, Momonga-san. I'm glad I could meet some of my friends after signing on."

"I'm very happy to hear you say that too. Wait, what do you mean by some frien-?"

"… Although it's about time for me to log off."

Herohero's tentacle waggled in mid-air as he was operating the game menu.

"Oh... Y- You're right, it is getting pretty late…"

"I'm sorry about this, Momonga-san."

Momonga sighed gently, as though he didn't want Herohero to sense the regret in his heart.

"Well, if it's like that, then it's a shame… time flies so fast when you're having fun."

"I really did want to stay with you guys to the end, but I'm about to fall asleep."

"Ah — well, you do sound pretty tired. Then, you should log out soon and have a good rest."

"I'm really sorry… Momonga-san. Although, how long do you plan to stay, Guild Leader?"

"I intended to stay on until I was automatically logged out once the servers shut down. Since it's still a ways off, maybe someone might come by in the meantime."

"Is that so…" Hero-Hero said then thought to himself, "... Now I'm not that guilty of leaving you alone here."

"... still, I really didn't expect this place to be so well preserved."

At this moment, Momonga was grateful that he had no way to show his expression. If he did, Herohero would probably have seen his face twist up. Even then, his voice would betray how he truly felt, so Momonga kept quiet, in order to suppress the feelings surging up within him.

He had worked hard to maintain the guild precisely because he had built it up along with everyone else, but hearing words like these from one of his guild members sparked a mix of complicated emotions in his heart. However, these feelings dispersed like mist as Herohero continued.

"Momonga-san, you must have kept the guild going as its leader so we could come back to it at any time. Thank you very much."

"…It was a guild built by everyone, so it's my job as Guildmaster to keep things going so that the members can come back at any time."

"Yes. We had fun with the game because you were our Guildmaster, Momonga-san… I hope that when we meet again, it'll be in YGGDRASIL II."

"I haven't heard anything about a second game… but as you said, I'd be glad if we could meet like that."

"I'll look forward to it! I'm having trouble staying awake… I think I'll log off first. I'm glad I could meet you in the end. Goodnight."

"…"

Momonga wanted to say something, but he hesitated for a moment, and then he spoke:

"I was very happy to meet you too. Goodnight."

A smiley appeared near Herohero's head. Since characters in YGGDRASIL could not express emotions through their facial expressions, they used emoticons instead.

Momonga worked his control interface and produced a similar smiley.

Herohero's last words were, "Let's meet up again somewhere."

— And so, one of the remaining seven guild members that came online tonight, vanished.

Silence descended once more — it was as though nobody had ever been here in the first place. Nothing was left behind.

Momonga looked at the place where Herohero had been sitting, and he muttered the words he wanted to say.

"Today's the last day of the game, I know you're tired, but we'll never have a chance like this again, why don't we stay together until the end—"

Of course, there was no response, because Herohero had already returned to reality.

"Haahh~"

Momonga's sigh came from the bottom of his heart.

In the end, it was better that it had remained unsaid.

During their brief exchange, he could already tell how tired Herohero was from the sound of his voice. Still, despite his fatigue, Herohero had still responded to the e-mail he had sent and logged on for the last day of YGGDRASIL before it closed down. He should have been grateful enough for that. Asking him to stay on would not just have been a matter of being thick-skinned, but actively causing him trouble.

Momonga stared at the seat Herohero had occupied until just now and then turned to look at the other seats. Those were the places where his old comrades had once sat. After going a circle around the table, Momonga returned his eyes to Herohero's place.

"Let's meet up again somewhere… huh."

Let's meet up again somewhere.

See you again.

He had heard these words several times before, but they had never come true.

Nobody had ever returned to YGGDRASIL.

"When and where will we meet again—"

Momonga's shoulders shook violently, and the words he could no longer hold back exploded forth:

"—Are you kidding me!?"

He pounded the table as he shouted.

The YGGDRASIL system registered this action as an attack and began the complex calculations of Momonga's barehanded attack strength against the table's defensive strength to determine the final total of damage inflicted. In the end, the area Momonga had struck emitted a simple [ -0 ].

"This is the Great Tomb of Nazarick that we built together! How could you abandon it just like that!?"

After he shouted the words in his heart, the only thing left in there was emptiness.

"…No, that's not right. They didn't abandon it lightly, they simply made the choice between reality and fantasy. It couldn't be helped. Nobody would betray the guild. Everyone who made that decision must have found it painful…"

Momonga muttered like he was trying to convince himself, and then he stood up.

!!!

"... wha- What are you-?" But when he turned around, he saw someone standing there, silently watching him for god knows how long already.

"... Oh don't mind me, keep going."

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