Chapter 64 - Battle Report
—The morning after the fierce battle with [Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King].
".............................."
At the counter of a café bar on the outskirts of Istia, now a familiar meeting spot, the shop was unnaturally empty given the number of players passing by outside.
The beautiful woman in a kimono with striking crimson hair sitting next to me had been silent for a good thirty seconds. As the one whose words had caused this, I had been poking at the light meal I'd ordered for a while now, trying to ignore the frozen atmosphere.
The fried whitefish, served with a dipping sauce, was quite delicious, provided I ignored the strange sensation of my stomach never feeling full no matter how much I ate.
I also chose to ignore two other things: the fact that the bite-sized fillets were sourced from that twenty-meter-plus bastard that inhabited the [Great Flowing Sand Cavern], and that the sauce was a shocking, fluorescent pink that was, to be frank, anything but appetizing.
"...Wait, so this isn't fish, it's snake—"
"—For now."
Just as I came to the realization that I was unwittingly experiencing my first taste of snake—and deciding it was fine as long as it tasted good—my kimono-clad companion finally rebooted from her near-minute-long freeze.
"...For now, I'll just swallow... all of that, and say congratulations."
"Ah, yes, thanks."
"How you even had the guts to challenge that thing, or how you even reached the boss room in the first place... and to top it off, you defeated it with some unconfirmed cutscene? I have a mountain of questions, but let's just set those aside for now."
"Uh, thanks...?"
Hmm, I'm sensing some mysterious pressure from Kagura-san. I'm aware I just recounted a rather idiotic adventure tale, but while I expected her to be exasperated, I couldn't think of any reason for her to be angry.
"I should tell you, don't you dare mention what happened to your partner's skill during the fight. An 'Awakened Skill' is something with only one other precedent, and the person in that case is the top player in Arcadia... The commotion would be on a completely different scale from what happened with you."
"Eh...? What's an 'Awakened Skill'?"
"It's just what it sounds like, a skill that evolves in the heat of battle, just like in manga or anime. A heroic system where you get stronger in the middle of a fight isn't supposed to exist in this game."
So my heroine's potential as a protagonist is just off the charts, huh.
And isn't Arcadia's top player that [Sword Queen], Iri... no, Ali... Alice? Or was it Alicia? That angel, right?
After three years of Arcadia's history, Sora was only the second person to do it? ...Seriously, who is my partner? I think I'm starting to get jealous.
"But even that doesn't matter! As a Mako, there's something way bigger I can't possibly ignore—an unidentified material I've never seen or even heard of, and it dropped from a secret boss meant for max-level players...!"
As Kagura-san's voice grew more and more rapid-fire, I realized from her expression—one I'd never seen since we first met.
This person wasn't angry at all—
"—Show me. Come on, show me! Let me see it, let me touch it, hurry up!"
...She was just completely overwhelmed with excitement. Her usual cool demeanor had vanished, and her tension was through the roof.
Her dazzling, pure, and innocent smile was so jarringly mismatched with her 'casually worn, disheveled kimono' persona. The gap was so extreme, I couldn't help but find it charming.
While mentally adding points to her fan-rating, I took the [Withered Fragment of the God-Wedge Armor] from my inventory and materialized it.
The lump of metal was far too large to be called a mere fragment. It was too big for the counter, so I placed it on the floor. Immediately, like a child who'd found something fascinating on the side of the road, Kagura-san plopped down into a crouch and began examining the unknown material with rapt attention.
Ah—her kimono hem is all over the floor, and wait, since when do kimonos have slits like that, her legs, and in that disheveled style, if she leans forward so unguardedly the gap in the collar will—ah! No, miss, you can't! Aah!!
Since I was trying to act like a gentleman in front of Sora, I, a lone man, tore my eyes away from her chest at the speed of sound. Oblivious to my internal struggle, the Mako engrossed in her analysis...
"—...Huh? W-What?"
After a moment, she let out a stunned voice.
From her words, I already knew this loot was an unknown material that even a veteran Mako had never heard of. That's why, despite being a little taken aback by her uncharacteristic excitement, I was secretly just as thrilled... but hmm, was it really something to be that dumbfounded about?
"Uhm... Kagura-sa—"
"Haru-kun."
Just as I was about to call out to her, seeing her less-than-ordinary state, her voice, now a complete contrast to before, cut me off with a chilling tone. I think this might be the first time she's called me by name... but I was given no time for such carefree thoughts as she suddenly spun around and got right in my face.
"Whoa, hey, what the—"
"Answer me honestly. You haven't shown this to anyone else, right? I'm the only one who knows? Is that correct?"
"Uh... y-yes."
Whoa, she's close. And the pressure...
"K-Kagura-san, let's calm down a bit, okay?"
"I am calm."
No, you're not. Where'd your cool big-sis persona go?
"No, no, no, you're too close. And your character's getting lost."
"What, my character...?"
I really didn't want to critique someone's role-play to their face, but I had no choice. It seemed she wasn't so flustered that she didn't realize what I meant. Kagura-san trailed off, then slowly backed away from me.
She averted her gaze awkwardly and took a deep breath or two.
"...Ah, sorry about that."
She couldn't quite hide her embarrassment. The composed face she put back on (her role-play) was tinged with a blush. She really did have a cute side. My impression of her just kept changing every time we met.
"Don't worry about it... Anyway, was it really worth getting that worked up over?"
"Ah, well... how to put it... yeah. In terms of quality, it's actually a pretty crude item, not at all what you'd expect to drop from [Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King]. Of course, compared to the materials you've gathered so far, it's in a league of its own."
Hmm. The character for 'withered' was in the name, so I'd figured as much. It was a degraded version compared to the normal materials you could get from [Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King].
Since this loot had practically fallen into my lap through some fluke, I could easily accept that with a simple "makes sense." But from Kagura-san's reaction, it was obvious the story didn't end there.
"Okay, and...?"
I prompted her, sensing there was more. She hesitated for a moment, a rare sight for her, before her usual cheerfulness returned. She looked me straight in the eye and spoke.
"Alright, I'll be direct... Do you know anything about Terror Armaments?"
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