kscans

Chapter 280 - Purpose and Means

Hayato looked around the great hall where the banquet was being held.

He had no desire to approach the area where Esha and the other women were fighting over dessert. Ash, who had tried to intervene, was lying on the ground, unmoving, so he could infer that it was a rather dangerous place.

Hayato moved to where Mist and her group were.

Mist, Damian, and Ruth were for some reason eating and drinking in a corner of the room. Hayato had no idea why they were doing that.

He had heard that they had won against Suzaku, but he thought that might have something to do with it, so he approached the three of them.

"Mist-san."

"Hayato-san, you’ve been through a lot. I’m glad you got your important knife back."

"Yes, thank you. By the way, why are you all here?"

Mist and Ruth looked at Damian. The one being looked at, Damian, had a guilty look on his face.

"Well, the Ten Black Rose Saints came, right? As you know, Hayato, I attacked the ship you were on from a ghost ship. At that time, I fought with the members of the Black Rose…"

"Oh, that did happen, didn’t it."

When they went to get the airship design documents, they had gone to sea by ship to salvage from a shipwreck, but they had gotten into a battle with a ghost ship. The one on that ghost ship was Damian.

Damian had challenged them to a fight because of a grudge from losing to the Ten Black Rose Saints in a Clan War, but as expected, he could not win one against ten and had fled. At that time, as a parting shot, he had said he would win next time.

And now they had met face to face in this mansion. Needless to say, the atmosphere between them had become awkward.

"Rosalie, who originally came to the Eastern Country with us, doesn’t seem to mind, or rather, she seems to have figured things out, but I’m feeling a bit of pressure from the Black Rose members who came today… It’s my fault, but you wouldn’t think it would turn out like this, right? To think we’d end up fighting together."

Saying that, Damian downed the sake that had been poured into his small cup.

Ruth, who was watching him, had a look of exasperation on her face.

"Damian, this is what happens when you only think of people as either enemies or allies. I wish you’d think a little before you act. Why don’t you apologize like Benny-san did?"

"Well, I know, but at my age, bowing my head to someone younger is…"

"Age has nothing to do with it. If you’ve done something wrong, you apologize. Isn’t that what you and Mist are always saying? Besides, when we fight Genbu tomorrow, you’ll get stabbed in the back. Or maybe shot with an arrow."

"That would be a problem… Alright. I’ll go and apologize. Ruth, come with me. If you’re there, I don’t think they’ll be so hard on me."

"What’s with using a child as a shield? Damian, you’re more of a child than Benny-san, not being able to apologize on your own. Well then, Hayato-san, I’ll go with Damian for a bit."

"Yes. Um, be careful."

Damian was pulled by Ruth towards the place where the members of the Black Rose were.

For some reason, the members of the Black Rose surrounded the approaching Ruth and let out yellow cheers, but Hayato did not particularly want to know the reason. Even if he vaguely understood, he did not want to know the truth.

Ruth-kun is a boy, but he has the features of someone who will grow up to be handsome. I wonder if he’ll be alright…

"The two of them will be fine. I doubt the others are that concerned about it."

Although it felt like their vectors of concern were different, Hayato decided to think so as well.

"Let’s leave them to it. Now, for my report, we have defeated Suzaku and obtained the knowledge for the medicine. With this, one part is finished."

"That’s great. By the way, were you alright on your way back? You were ambushed, weren’t you?"

Several of the Ten Holy Demonic Swords were at Takamagahara to capture Mist’s group after they had fought Suzaku.

When Simon had come back alone, and when everyone had come back, he had heard that they were alright, but he wanted to confirm again, so he asked.

Mist nodded with a smile, happy to be worried about.

"Of course, we were fine. We had plenty of items for the Suzaku countermeasures, so both Suzaku and the samurai were easy. And even if we were in a state of exhaustion, the members at that time would not have lost. The samurai said they were going to capture you too, Hayato-san, so everyone was quite angry. Including me, of course."

"I can’t quite imagine you being angry, Mist-san, but thank you. But I’m sorry, I seem to have gotten you involved in all sorts of things, making it impossible for you to concentrate on your task."

Mist shook her head slowly with a gentle smile on her face.

"It’s not something you need to apologize for, Hayato-san, and in fact, I’m the one who got you involved, so please don’t worry about it. I’m the one who should be thanking you, not in a position to receive an apology."

"It’s a relief to hear you say that."

"Still, I wonder where the people of the Ten Holy Demonic Swords went wrong."

"Wrong?"

Hayato did not quite understand what Mist was saying. He did not know much about the Ten Holy Demonic Swords, but he thought that was just the kind of group they were, not that they had gone wrong.

Mist smiled at Hayato.

"The Ten Holy Demonic Swords were a clan called ‘The Samurai’ in the previous world. Their record in the Clan War was the top 4. They lost to Ivan-san’s ‘Blackjack’."

"Is that so."

"Perhaps they couldn’t accept their loss. They might have thought they lost not because of strength, but because of the performance of their weapons, like Ivan-san’s Excalibur or Esha-san’s Beelzebub, which has a different form now. That might be why they sought out weapons with good performance."

"Ah, I see."

Excalibur was a weapon that could deal high damage while ignoring defense, and Hayato had heard that Esha’s Beelzebub was in the form of a staff at the time and could use the wide-range annihilation magic, Destroy.

Weapon performance was an important factor in battle. He did not know what Simon thought, but the members of the Ten Holy Demonic Swords might have thought that they were not inferior in terms of pure power.

"As far as I could tell from watching that match, it seemed to be a difference in the purity of the clan rather than the performance of their weapons."

"A difference in purity?"

"Yes. ‘The Samurai’ was strong, but they were strong as individuals. To make it to the top 4 like that, they must have been quite something. But the Clan War is a group battle. They were defeated one by one. And I think Noat-san’s support was quite effective."

Mist-san sure pushes for Noat-san. I heard that Noat-san repelled Simon, so she must be strong when she’s serious. Looking at her usual self, I wouldn’t think so.

As Hayato was thinking that, Mist continued.

"Simon-san might be a little different, but the other members, in their pursuit of strength, probably confused their purpose and their means."

"Confused?"

"The means exist for the purpose. But rarely, the means itself becomes the purpose."

Hayato thought, ‘I see.’ The Ten Holy Demonic Swords had tried to become strong for some purpose, but they had become obsessed with just becoming strong.

"Actually, I have experience with that myself. Am I studying medicine just because I’m seeking knowledge, or is it to help patients? Damian pointed that out to me a long time ago."

"That happened?"

"We seek knowledge to save patients, and if we only seek knowledge, it will lead to irreversible consequences, Damian said something like that. It was when I was so engrossed in my research that I collapsed in the lab."

Hearing that, Hayato wondered about himself.

The scale of the story was completely different, but he had something similar.

He wanted to improve the taste of his coffee, but that was for his customers. But if he only pursued the taste of the coffee and neglected his customers, by the time he made the best coffee, there would be no customers left to drink it.

It was more likely that the cafe would be gone than that there would be no customers. At that time, he felt that Esha and Ash and the others would not be by his side.

Hayato had been told by the leader of the Ten Holy Demonic Swords that they were similar. At that time, it had been about production skills, and he had been able to say that they were clearly different, but now he began to think that the other party might have seen that possibility in him.

He thought he might be overthinking it, but lately, the taste of his coffee had been improving, and the time he spent on it had also increased. He felt a little anxious.

"You’ll be fine, Hayato-san."

"Huh?"

"You have companions around you who will admonish you if you do something like that, don’t you? If you do something wrong, Esha-san and Ash-san and the others will stop you. And of course, I will too. So you’ll be fine."

"...Was my anxiety showing on my face?"

"I’m not a psychiatrist, but the first thing a doctor does is to relieve the patient’s anxiety."

Saying that, Mist smiled.

Hayato realized that she was right, and returned the smile.

"You’re right. I can’t win against Esha in either the virtual reality or in reality, and Ash and Ren-chan are here too, so I feel like I’ll be fine."

"Yes. As long as you have a heart that can listen to someone’s words, you’ll be fine. Well, let’s stop this conversation for now. I’m not conducting a consultation, after all."

Mist said that, drank the sake in her small cup, and then looked at Hayato.

"Tomorrow, we will go to Ryugu and fight Genbu. I intend to obtain the second piece of knowledge there."

"Understood. Tomorrow, Lunaria-san and the members of the Black Rose will be fighting with us, so it might be easier than today."

"That is a great help. I heard from Ash-san today that the conquest of the Skyscraper Babel is also going smoothly. It won’t be long before everyone can be saved."

"Yes, I will support you until the end, so please focus on gathering the knowledge without worry."

"That is very reassuring. I am counting on you. Now, how about a cup, Hayato-san? The sake of the Eastern Country is quite delicious."

"You’re right, I’ll have some."

Hayato did not usually drink sake in either the virtual reality or in reality, but since he had been invited, he decided to drink with Mist.