kscans

Chapter 64 - Battle Report

The morning after the fierce battle with Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King.

"..."

At the counter of a cafe bar on the outskirts of Istia, now our familiar meeting spot, the place was unnaturally empty considering the number of players coming and going outside.

Seated next to me was a beautiful woman in a kimono with striking crimson hair, who had been silent for a good thirty seconds. The cause of her silence was none other than me, who had just unloaded my story. I, for my part, had been poking at the light meal I'd ordered for a while, trying to pretend the frozen atmosphere didn't exist.

The fried white fish with a side of dipping sauce was quite delicious, if you could ignore the strange feeling that no matter how much you ate, it never filled you up.

I also chose to overlook two other facts: that the bite-sized pieces of fried fish were made from a certain twenty-meter-long bastard that lived in the `Great Flowing Sand Cavern`, and that the sauce was a shocking pink of a fluorescent color that did nothing to whet the appetite.

"...Wait, so this isn't fish, it's a sna—"

"—For now."

Just as I realized I was having my first snake-eating experience without even knowing it, and was about to reach for the plate again thinking, well, if it tastes good, who cares, the kimono-clad beauty next to me rebooted from her nearly one-minute-long freeze.

"...For now, I'll swallow my various... concerns, and just say congratulations."

"Oh, uh, thanks."

"Like 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 all off, you defeated it with some kind of unconfirmed cutscene? I have a mountain of questions, but let's put them aside for now."

"Ah, thanks...?"

Hmm, I'm getting some kind of strange pressure from Kagura-san. I'm aware that I just recounted a rather idiotic adventure story, but while I expected her to be exasperated, I don't think I did anything to deserve her anger.

"Just so you know, you are absolutely not to speak a word about the mid-battle skill growth that happened to your partner. There's only one precedent for an awakened skill, and the person in question is the top player in Arcadia... This could cause a commotion on a whole different scale than what happened with you."

"Wait, an awakened skill?"

"It's just what it sounds like, a skill that evolves at a critical moment in battle, like in manga or anime. A heroic system where you grow stronger in the heat of battle doesn't originally exist in this game."

So my heroine has too much protagonist potential.

And the top player in Arcadia is that `Sword Queen`, I... Ali... Alice? Or was it Alisa? Something like that, the angel girl, right?

After three years of Arcadia's history, she's the second one ever? Seriously, who is my partner? I'm starting to get jealous.

"Anyway, none of that even matters. As a magic crafter, the biggest news I can't possibly ignore is—an unidentified material that I've never even heard of, and it dropped from a max-level secret boss...!"

As Kagura-san's speech gradually picked up speed, I noticed the expression on her face was one I'd never seen since we first met.

This person, she's not angry at all—

"—Show me. C'mon, show me! Let me see it, let me touch it, c'mon, hurry!"

...She's just so excited she's about to burst. Her tension is so high her natural way of speaking is slipping out.

Her incredibly pure, sparkling smile is a fatal mismatch for her "cool, disheveled kimono-wearing older sister" character. The gap is so huge, I might just become a fan.

While internally adding points to my fan evaluation, I took the `Withered Fragment of the God-Wedge Armor` from my inventory and materialized it.

It was a chunk of metal big enough to hug, despite being called a fragment. I couldn't possibly put it on the counter, so I set it down on the floor—and Kagura-san crouched down in a flash, like a child who had found something interesting on the side of the road, and began to inspect the unknown material with rapt attention.

Oh no, the hem of her kimono is all over the floor, and wait, what's with that slit, do kimonos have slits, her legs, and with that disheveled style, if she leans forward so defenselessly, the gap in the front, ah! No, miss, you can't! Ahh!!

As a man trying to be a gentleman in front of Sora, I averted my eyes from the chest I almost peeked at with the speed of sound. Meanwhile, the magic crafter, who was absorbed in her inspection of the metal chunk...

"—...Huh? Huh?"

A moment later, she let out a dazed voice.

From her words, I had gathered that this spoil of war was an unknown material that even a seasoned magic crafter had never heard of. That's why, despite being a little taken aback by Kagura-san's unprecedented excitement, I was inwardly getting excited along with her... but hmm, was it really something to be so stunned about?

"Um... Kagura-sa—"

"Haru-kun."

I was about to call out to her, seeing her rather unusual state, but was cut off by a voice that was suddenly cold, a complete change from before. Was this the first time she's called me by name...? I didn't have a chance for such leisurely thoughts, as before I knew it, she had spun around and was right in my face.

"Whoa, hey, what?"

"Answer me honestly. You haven't shown this to anyone else, right? I'm the only one who knows. Right?"

"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 the cool sister persona go?

"No, no, no, you're too close. And your character is getting lost."

"What, character...?"

I hesitated to comment on someone else's role-playing to their face, but I had no choice. It seemed she wasn't so distraught that she didn't realize what I was pointing out. Kagura-san's words faltered, and she slowly backed away from me.

Then she looked away awkwardly and took a deep breath, once, twice.

"...Ah, my bad."

It seemed she couldn't hide her embarrassment; the composed face she put back on was still flushed red. She has a cute side to her, I see. My impression of this person changes every time we meet.

"Well, don't worry about it... so, was it really worth getting so worked up over?"

"Ah, well, how should I put it... yeah. In terms of quality, it's a pretty shoddy item, not what you'd expect from an Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King drop. Of course, compared to the materials you've gathered so far, it's an exceptional piece."

Hmm. Well, I had guessed as much from the "Withered" in its name, so it seems it's an inferior version compared to the normal materials you can get from Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King.

Since it was a spoil of war that had fallen into my lap through sheer favoritism, I could easily accept it with a "well, of course," but Kagura-san's attitude made it clear that the story didn't end there.

"Okay, and?"

So I prompted her, sensing there was more. For once, she seemed to hesitate—then, after a few seconds, she regained her usual cheerfulness, looked me straight in the eye, and spoke.

"Alright, I'll be blunt... Do you know anything about Terror Armaments?"