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DML (OLD) — C3 (Public)
🕑 Added 2024-06-09 02:55:01 +0000 UTCVideogames and fictions became my sole solace.
The adventures I could have.
The friends I could make.
The sense of accomplishment that I had not once felt.
It was all so intoxicating, and I thought I'd be fine as long as things remained that way…
But it didn't.
For in order to exist, all things within the bound of our Universe must always be in a state of constant motion.
Back and forth.
Left and right.
Up and down.
Things could never remain as they were,
And this fact applied to Life as well.
Others simply learnt to deal with it.
They learnt to adapt.
I didn't.
.
.
.
I checked my pocket watch, it was an old, dingy thing I found in the Church. Its decoration and plating told me that at one point in the past, it must have been beautiful, signs of that beauty were still there, if only to serve as remnants of its once glory and proof of its creator's craftsmanship.
"They're late…" I mumbled, putting the watch back into my pocket. I had been waiting for the group of Enforcers quite some time now, over two hours to be precise. I had arrived in Kyoto just yesterday, rented a room in a cheap motel where the bedsheet was stained just a shade too green for my comfort, and then spent the entire afternoon sorting out my luggage.
It couldn't be helped, most Apostle Hunts often took weeks, if not months to resolve, hence why I had to bring enough necessities to last me at least a month.
Just another thing to complain about my System. While I was thankful for the Game, seeing as I wouldn't have gotten to where I was without it, I also felt disheartened that many functions of the Original weren't added. Useful functions such as Gamer's Mind-Body, Dungeon: ID and most importantly, the bloody Inventory.
I could have lived without the iconic Gamer's Mind-Body, or even the Dungeon, but why did the GM have to take away the Inventory too?!
Apparently, at least according to the Game, it was because some of the earlier Gamers often abused it to steal or smuggle goods. Don't ask me why a Gamer would need to resort to smuggling of all things, I had no fucking idea.
"Just where the Hell are these guys?!" I got up from my seat, pacing back and forth as I glared at the sea of people, eyes strained to search for anyone that might resemble the Association's Enforcers. Suddenly, someone put their hand on my shoulder as I spun, muscles tensed in preparation for conflict. I doubted the Apostle would attack me in public, but there's no harm in being cautious, especially when it came to these insane cunts.
"Leonis Magnum, I presume?"
I stared, fingers already gripping tightly on the Black Keys hidden underneath my jacket. The man who spoke was of African descent, his black hair short in a prime and clean crew-cut, his brown eyes narrowed in confusion as he searched my face for something. "You know, when Kirei said he would send his apprentice in his place, I expected someone older… More experienced. The name's Thomas– Thomas Bennett."
Still keeping my eyes trained on him, I slowly relaxed the dead grip I had on my weapons. "Well, you would be mistaken then."
"Clearly, I was…"
…
"So–" I raised an eyebrow as I continued. "– Mind telling me why you guys were two hours late to our meeting?"
"We had complications on the flight, one of the attendants stumbled on one of our equipment." He then added as an afterthought. "We have dealt with the issue, it was nothing a little suggestive Compulsion couldn't handle."
Ah– So they got caught with weapons on the flight? "And how did that happen? Aren't you guys professionals?"
Thomas shrugged. "This Mission is considered low-risk by the Association and the Holy Church so you aren't the only rookie around. One of our newer guys– A rather snobbish nobles' kid, was caught by the security, idiot forgot to hide his Mystic Code, which was unfortunate since the thing was a very intimidating dagger. We had to bail him out, deleted all footages of the scene and altered their memories."
Urggghh- That sounded like a hassle. I massaged my glabella tiredly. Of course I'd get an oblivious noble on the team in my first ever Mission and Chain Quest… Great, just great. "I trust he won't cause us too much troubles?"
"I hope so… Just- Just don't expect anything from him beside the absolute worst, kid. That brat's older than you, but has as much sense as a child half his age. Acted like us lowly peasants owed him his lunch money or something."
Ohhhh– Fuck, that's not good. "What's his name again?"
"Something-Glascheit, didn't bother getting his full name. Brat's a real piece of work." Glascheit… Hmmm, where had I heard that name before? Wasn't that the kid in Waver's class? No, it couldn't be him, he's probably still a baby, or most likely hadn't even been born yet… Someone related to him perhaps? "Glascheit, the House that specialized in Beast Magecraft?"
"Yeah, those guys." That's interesting. If‐ If I played my cards right, I might be able to gain access to a very fascinating branch of Magecraft. While it wasn't considered too big a deal in the Association, Beast Magecraft could become another Trump Card in my arsenal, especially if my theory proved true. Thus, as much as I loathed to admit it, this kid's rotten personality might just work in my favor.
"Don't."
"Hmmm?"
"I know that look, kid. Dealt with enough of our kind to recognize what it means. I'm telling 'ya, don't mess with the Glascheit, their House ain't that big in the Association, but they are known for their brutality and recklessness. You mess with one, you mess with all." Thomas explained, looking at me with the slightest hint of worry.
"Thanks for your concern, Mr. Bennett, but I'm well aware of my limits. I'm not going to do something too drastic, if it works, it works, if it doesn't then that's no skin off my nose."
He nodded approvingly at that. "Good, as long as you understand. Now, let's go meet the team, we have wasted enough time chatting."
…
A few minutes and multiple interruptions by concerned citizens later, we finally arrived at a coffee hidden at the back of the airport. Apparently, a young kid following someone thrice his age, who also looked nothing like him was a big deal here in Japan, who would have thought? "Thank Gods, I was getting real annoyed…"
"You and I both, kid." It was a short walk, but I kinda got the gist of Thomas' personality. He's a decent guy, way too chill and kind for an Enforcer, and very different from your typical Magus. The guy didn't care much for advancing his Craft, only how useful it was and how easier it would make his Missions. It didn't come much as a surprise when he admitted to me he was more of a Spellcaster than an actual Magus.
"Well, here we are… Time to face the music–" He glanced at me wearily. "– You ready, kid?"
"Dude, I was born ready."
…
Had you ever met someone so profoundly annoying that the mere sight of their face made you want to go apeshit? The kind whose voice irritated you so much that every time they opened their mouths, you would feel this intense urge to shove your fist down their throats? Yeah, neither had I, until today. Thomas really undersold Sven Glascheit's prize-winning personality.
Never had I met someone more bitchy than this little bastard, and this was my second life. He whined about any and everything, had a total mental breakdown if someone so much as looked at him the wrong way, and was so far up his own arse I was genuinely amazed he didn't have his head in it all the fucking time.
"YOU SHOULD ALL BE THANKFUL TO EVEN BE ALLOWED TO BREATH THE SAME AIR I AM–!!!"
"… Don't kill him. Don't kill him. Don't kill him." Thomas sighed heavily next to me, holding me back with his hand as I struggled to not outright murder the whiny sonuvabitch. I was close to the limits of my patience when Sven turned to address me. "– AND YOU!" He spat angrily. "YOU'RE JUST A KID, WHY ARE YOU EVEN ALLOWED TO COME WITH US?!"
"Haaah– I don't know! Because I'm not a whiny little bitch like you? Or it could be that I was recommended and trained by a Church's enforcer who participated in the most recent Grail War and survived?" I took a deep, deep breath to calm my rising temper. "Now, stop your pathetic yowling before I shank your arse, you half-witted MUTT!"
I wasn't wrong either. Technically, Sven Glascheit was a dog in a sense. His Magecraft allowed him to temporarily let his bestial nature take over the wheel– Which in his case was, hilariously enough, a Doberman. Honestly, if he wasn't such a cunt, I'd feel sorry for him, but the way he was acting just made me want to have him euthanized. Shot. Poisoned. Either would work.
Though if it was an option, having him run over by an eighteen-wheeler would be preferable. And from the looks of it, our entire group seemed to agree with my silent sentiment, if the murderous glares they were sending him was to be trusted.
Seeing things were getting heated, Thomas chose to step in, scolding me with his gaze as he spoke, frustration lining his words. "'Kay, that's enough! We're all in this together, so hold back on the name-calling and insults, yeah?"
He took off his flat cap, running his hand through his short hair. "I get it, tension's high and all, but this ain't helping anyone. Sven, you are making everybody bloody uncomfortable. I'm sure someone like you must realize the danger this will put us in, aye? A faulty teamwork is worse than no teamwork at all.
Now, I ain't asking you to make peace with everyone here. I'm just askin' you to keep a lid on it 'till after the situation with the Apostle has been solved, or things are gonna be a whole lot harder than they need to. And please, keep your voices low, we really don't need to announce our group to the whole damned airport like that. Don't want a repeat of what happened on our flight, do we?"
Sven 'the-mutt' Glascheit turned purple at that, falling heavily on his seat as he seemed to notice the small crowd that had gathered from his outburst, staring curiously at our ragtag group. "We can't stay here anymore." I muttered, throwing a side glance at the dispersing crowd. "This isn't exactly a good spot to plan our next step. It's not secured.
And I don't know about you all, but I don't want the Association after my ass for revealing its existence because a dumb mutt couldn't keep his mouth shut."
Thomas nodded. "Well, it's a good thing our lodgings have been taken care of and paid for by the Association then. It's a five stars hotel close to the center of the City." I looked at him questioningly. "The Queen was quite generous when she approved this Mission, it's why the rewards are so high actually."
Queen? I only knew of one, and I was certain they weren't talking about her. Then who could it be… "Wait, wait! So you're telling me The Queen of The Clock Tower– Lorelei Barthomeloi herself approved this Mission?! Are you fucking with me?!" There's no way, there's no way in fucking Hell this would be a low-risk Mission if it had that woman's stamp on it. I didn't know a lot about her, but I did remember reading of her irrational hatred towards all Dead Apostles.
To her, Apostle Hunting wasn't a job, it was a fucking hobby and only sufficiently powerful Apostles could get in her sight. So either this whole Mission was a sham, or there's something huge I was missing. "Don't worry your little head, kid." Thomas laughed at my expression. "The Queen does this every year, she would put up one Mission with absurdly high rewards to pick out the more promising Mages.
This is her test for kids like you, us oldies are mostly just here to evaluate and assist you bunch. You do this well, pass with flying colors and you might even land yourself a fully-paid scholarship in the Tower, room and board included."
That… That explained a fuck ton actually. I was wondering why someone like Glascheit would take part, since it wasn't like he lacked money, but if the rewards included the acknowledgement of Lorelei herself then it made sense. The prestige that could bring you would make even snobbish shit stains like Glascheit here salivate. Now that I really thought about it, our group was composed mostly of teenagers, wasn't it?
Some also belonged to big Families, but not all of them were from prestigious Houses, so they must be here for the chance of scholarship. Well shit, that kinda complicated things, didn't it? After having the displeasure of knowing Sven Glascheit, I was planning on killing him and stealing his Family Crest. I thought I could divert the blame on the Apostle… But now, with this bit of information, that plan seemed implausible, since the whole Mission would be under intense scrutiny from the Association.
"Huh…"
"Yeah, feeling overwhelmed yet, kid?" Thomas threw a smirk my way, and I almost couldn't stop myself from punching him. "Dick…"
The air, previously filled with tension and stress seemed to dissipate at his warm and boisterous laughter.
.
.
.
If you had never been in a five stars hotel room before, let me tell you, the place was ridiculous. The bedsheet stainless and clean, the windows clear, the room for one had a fucking chandelier on the ceiling… Like, who needed a chandelier in their bedroom? The whole thing was designed to imitate a more traditional Western stylistic that reminded me of the Tohsaka Mansion, but what truly drew my attention was the bathtub, which was half the size of that dirty hotel room I rented. "Holy shit…"
We had decided to rest for the day, get our minds straight and cool before discussing our plan, so basically I had the rest of the day to enjoy this, and I would enjoy this. I quickly stripped myself of any article of clothing, jumping excitedly inside the bathtub I had prepared prior, and Gods did it feel good to be able to straighten your legs in the bathtub. As I sunk into the warm water, I felt like I was in Heaven– Bubbly and warm Heaven.
"No wonder rich people spend so much on Hotel… I could really get used to this."
I probably shouldn't though, since starting from tomorrow, things were going to get a lot more stressful, what with us having to find and eliminate the rogue Apostle. But, that's a problem for future me, let's leave that for him to deal with. I pulled up my Quest Page, staring at the unfinished Chain Quest.
[Chain Quest: An Enforcer's Rite of Passage]
Difficulty: Hell On Earth
Every budding Enforcer must have their first Apostle Hunt to be considered a real member of the branch, that is the unofficial rule. Though your first Hunt seems a tad too difficult, don't you think?
[Reward: Exp, Title, Two Random Skills, Clock Tower's Scholarship]
[Failure: Death or Enslavement]
My eyes narrowed slightly as I swallowed down a curse after seeing the Difficulty. For context, there were seven Levels of Difficulty.
Easy
Manageable
Hard
Insane
Impossible
Hell On Earth
Leo Must Die!
The Game didn't calculate Difficulty Level based on my knowledge, so that tidbit of information Thomas shared shouldn't have bumped it up, but then why did the Difficulty suddenly increase by two entire Ranks? Last I checked, it was at Insane still. Why did it? What had changed since? We had just arrived to our base of operation, we hadn't even begun the search for our target yet!
"Okay… Okay. Relax Leo, you will be fine." Before I knew it, I was hyperventilating. It should be fine, right? Games were created to be beaten, they wouldn't be Games otherwise. If you knew anything about Hack'n'Slash, then you knew how dramatic they liked to name their Game Modes, and even then people still regularly beat said Modes without taking Damage, didn't they? Who was I kidding, we were fucked…!
"I need to tell Thomas." I grimaced, wiping the bubbles off my toned and muscular form as I began to dress myself. This was bad, really bad. Even the Fuyuki Fire didn't warrant this Level of Difficulty, and I was basically a normie at the time. If the Game considered this Quest to be worse than that, then there's a real chance our team could get wiped. In fact, "What are the chances of our team dying?"
79.135%
That's not too bad… "What are the chances of me being killed?"
75.622%
Fuck… "What are chances of me being killed by someone on the team?"
89.666%
"Okay…" Here came the real kicker. "What are the chances of Sven Glascheit attempting to off me?"
3.31%
"FUCK!!! If it's not him, then who?!!" I bit on my thumb, my teeth grinding down hard enough to draw blood, in spite of my Supernatural toughness. Our team had twelve people, all of which I had never met before in my life. We had six who belonged to prestigious Houses, and the rest were simple commoners like myself. Thomas and his two buddies were temporarily safe from suspicion, since they were basically our supervisors, but just to be sure…
"What are the chances of Thomas and his friends killing me?"
2.588%
That left me with seven other people as possible suspects. Glascheit was out too, since from the looks of it, he didn't really want to kill me. That's five out, only seven left. I hadn't truly talked with the rest, I hadn't even learnt their names, but it must be one of them. "Right, what are the chances of– Arrrgghh…"
I fell to my knees, clutching my head as blood began to pour from my orifices. It's in these moments that I regretted not following Rin's advices. She had told me to stop abusing Future Calculation multiple times, and while I did stop for a bit, habits were indeed hard to break. I had already used up my charges for today, what upset me even more was how I used them, nearly all of the charges were spent on stupid shit, answering things like how likely I was to enjoy the food I just bought,…etc.
Normally, as long as I hadn't used it up, Future Calculation recharged at a decent rate, with every hour and a half equaling 5 charges, but because I had used it all up, not only did I have to suffer the penalties, I also had to wait for an additional 72 hours to use it again. I wasn't even sure if I had even an hour left to spare, let alone 72. "Shit…!"
I raced to the door, hoping to Gods that Thomas and his friends hadn't left for whatever reason, but as I got near, a knock suddenly sounded on the other side. I stared as the knocking continued in a rhythmic pattern as I slowly reached for the Black Keys I had left on my bed, eyes focused on the door. "Who's there?!"
A feminine voice responded. "Ah- Hmm, I'm Primrose, Primrose Archelot, I'm part of the team? We have already met in the coffee, but we didn't really get the chance to talk so-so I was wondering if–?"
I cracked open the door, half my body still hidden behind the expensive wood, right hand clutching readily at my weapons. I was greeted by the sight of a young girl, aged around 16 to 17 with light strawberry blonde hair tied into a prim ponytail. Her eyes were ocean blue, but with a shade off and she was pretty… Very pretty. Now, I had seen plenty of hot models, curtesy of Instagram and other social networks in my time, but Primrose had this friendly, cutesy vibe that seemed to separate her from them all.
She was probably another Named character, one I didn't know, which made sense since Type-Moon had this habits of throwing a fuck ton of new characters at the fandom. How did I know she was a Named character? I meant, how could she not? Look, when it came to Anime, characters with unique names, weird appearance and were part of the female population were most likely Heroines, or part of the supporting cast. Now, this was just a wild guess, but I had feeling she belonged in the first class.
"So… What do you want?"
"Hmmm… C-Can I come in?" Yup, definitely a Heroine, probably of the shy, childhood friend archetype that would be friendzoned by the protagonist at the end.
I allowed the girl in, setting down my blades on the table, close enough that I could grab it in case of an emergency, but not too close to make her feel uncomfortable. Though, from her weirded out and startled expression, I hadn't succeeded despite my effort. "S-So, I was wondering if we could get to know each other. I already talked to our other teammates, they seem like good people, but I haven't gotten the chance to talk to you…"
I brushed through my hair. "I kinda have my hands tied at the moment, can this wait?"
"O-Ohh… I guess? But, Leo– Your name is Leo, right?" I nodded. "A-Are you alright? You lo-ook a little pale."
Her gaze landed on my face, the corner of my mouth to be precise. I touched it to find a thin trace if blood, one I must have forgotten to clean up in my panic. "Shit." I stood up, searching for the box of wet tissue I had thrown somewhere. "Ah! H-Here, let me." From her pocket, Primrose took out a white handkerchief, beautifully embroidered with a golden rose. "Don't, it will dirty your handkerchief."
Primrose jumped. "N-Nonsense, we are to be comrades, are we not? I-If I can't even sacrifice this much, how can I hope to help us in upcoming battles?!" She suddenly looked forlorn at that. "… How can I hope to be useful to anyone." She whispered, her voice small but audible to my ears. It was like looking at a reflection of the old me, shy and lacking in confidence– Weird, I didn't remember ever being a cute girl though, I wasn't even a handsome guy, just your average Joe.
I might be projecting, but seeing her like this reminded me of the past, a time when I tried to stay cheerful and please everyone. For the kids watching, don't go down that path, all you could ever find there was the quickest way to self-destruction. Fuck. I looked at the saddened girl, the way she was clenching her jaws, as though recalling something painful, and I knew, I just knew I had to help her.
"Haaaaa–" I sat back down, gesturing at her handkerchief, then to the trail of drying blood on my face. She smiled at that as she wiped the blood off me, a brilliant and radiant smile that I doubted many people could pull off, but it suited her well. "So… What are you busy with? M-Maybe I can help you?"
That offer seemed to take the wind out of her sail as she slumped back, seemingly almost scared of something. Rejection if I were to guess. "It's nothing. I just… Just had a bad feeling about this whole thing for some reason. Don't know why, nerves I think?"
"Uhmm, I-I think I get that somewhat. I'm kind of a nervous wreck myself, but I t-think that can be solved with a bit of meditation and conversation?"
"Yeah, I was 'bout to go to Thomas, decent guy really. Wish we were related." I chuckled, within the short few hours we had known each other, Thomas had somehow wormed his way closer to my heart, something my actual father had ever managed to. 21 years, 21 years and almost 10 years of absent. While I suffered, living in a small, rundown place we rented, he was out there living the life with his mistress.
Worse thing was, I couldn't even blame him, not when a majority of the fault lied with my mother. "So, do you want to come with me, we can get to know each other on the way to his room…?"
Primrose nodded eagerly, the radiant smile still plastered on her face as we both got out of my room. "S-So, aren't y-you kind of young for Apostle Hunt, Leo?"
"Hmmm? Well, I mean, age isn't always an indication of skill, I think I can handle most of the newer and weaker Apostles just fine, just have to dodge their bites, and I should be good. One of my guardians agrees with me as well, it's him who set it up for me to join this Mission actually. Said he this could help my reputation in the Tower and give me some experience…" I briefly stopped, then decided to add. "Though now that I have all the facts, I'm pretty sure he just wanted to opt out of having to deal with a bunch of stuck up aristocrats."
Kirei was many things, but a good politician definitely wasn't one of them. Primrose responded, seemingly angry at being put in the same category as the others. "H-Hey! I'm not stuck up!"
I nearly laughed at that. "No, no you're not, Primrose. But, you're the outlier, not the standard. I'm not sure if you have noticed, but a majority of our group are consisted of aristocrats and nobles. They're quite conceited as well…" While I'd gladly admit I was partly at fault for not even bothering to get to know my teammates, they too had to take parts of the blame due to how haughty they had acted. Even the commoners seemed to look down on me as a Magus in Asia.
"… At least they don't all act like Sven, that's something I guess?"
Now that the topic was on Sven, the brat confused me. I was sure he would be the culprit, but he wasn't. Take into account how Future Calculation operated as a Skill, 3.31 percent was low, obscenely low in fact. I had hoped it was him, so I had the moral high ground to demand for some sort of compensation from House Glascheit, but despite our rough start, it looked like he didn't really want to kill me, which was strange, since I was positively murderous at him.
"O-Ohh. H-Here we are, I think?" Primrose and I stood before Thomas' room. As our unofficial supervisors and bodyguards, he and his two buddies– Maxwell and Wilhelm had their rooms scattered all over the hallway that had been rented for our team, Thomas' was at the end of the hall, farthest from mine and closest to the elevator. Coming to Maxwell or Wilhelm would have been faster, but I had a feeling those two wouldn't listen to me.
Was it bias from my side? Perhaps… Did I give a damn? Not really, no.
*KNOCK
*KNOCK
*KNOCK
"Who's there?"
"It's me, Leo. I'm here with Primrose Archelot!"
Rustlings and banging were heard as Primrose and I turned to look at each other, wondering if we should go inside to help. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait in this awkward silence for long as Thomas pulled open the door. "'Sup, kid." He glanced at Primrose, then nodded approvingly. "Damn, you work fast… Still a kid and already stealing hearts, aye?"
Primrose blushed a bright red while I sighed wearily, lips twitching. "Let us in, old man. This has something to do with our Mission." His face hardened at that as he unlocked the security chain and gestured for us to come in. "So, what's this about, kids?"
"Right, so I haven't been totally honest with you, I actually have the… Ability to determine the Difficulty of a Mission and it just told me we have 79.135 percent chance of being wiped out. I don't know about you, but I really don't like those odds."
"… You ain't fucking with me, are 'yer?" Thomas grimaced, while Primrose stared at me in surprise, not bothering to hide the scared expression on her face. "W-What?"
"Say I believe you…" Thomas stopped briefly, showing traces of thoughtfulness and concern. "… Do you know you know how that's gonna happen?"
I run a hand through my hair, trying my best to display sincerity and honesty. "I can't tell you how it's going to happen, but I'm 89 percent certain it will be from sabotage and in-fighting. One of ours is a rat." Thomas' eyes flickered at the girl next to me, but seeing the genuine worried look on her face, Thomas seemed to soften. "Is it that Glascheit brat?"
I shook my head. "Surprisingly, no." I quickly added. "It's not you or your friends either."
"Well, so excluding you, we have six possible culprits left. Can this ability of yours determine who it might be?"
I scratched my head angrily, upset that my mistake had cost us a valuable source of information. "Can't, I've used up all the charges, it's out of commission, need to wait another three days for it to work again." Thomas cursed. "Shite… You sure you can't get it to answer another question? Even one more person excluded could help us out a lot here."
"No…" I shrugged. "If I attempted to force another one out of it, I'll probably blackout instantly from brain damages, before I could even tell you. Our best bet right now would be to account for what we know about every person in the team and go through a process of elimination, then keep our eyes on the most suspicious 'till they either slip up, or prove their innocence."
Thomas slumped back into his chair, arms crossed as he sipped his tea, recently made from the looks of it. "Guess we will have to then. So, what do you already know about the members of this team?"
"Not much."
"Then sit." He pointed at the chairs, understanding the gesture, Primrose and I both sat down, waiting for Thomas to continue. "Right, so 'bout our team…"
