Way Too Many Legs – Part 1

In fiction, a supposed ally betraying you was trite by this point. And, during our first meeting, I really did think that Marielle was my enemy. But those feelings were assuaged by Fianna’s trust in her, and by my own impression of her. Marielle was the image of sanctity. She didn’t look like she had an evil bone in her, she was a high cleric, and she even held the title of “Savior”.

And yet. The situation was unmistakable.

Once again, I hadn’t trusted Yzara, and the shame I felt was undeniable. She had been totally right from the start. Was it because she was the Demon Queen that she could detect evil in someone?

Whatever the case, we had a pretty bad situation on our hands.

“Care to explain what this is about, Marielle?”

“Of course, Hero Takashi,” she said, having no qualms about revealing my status to everyone around the plaza. A murmur quickly spread around the onlookers, most not really knowing what to make of it.

But her next words truly sealed the deal. “You are accused of collaborating with Yzara, the Demon Queen,” she said, resolutely. And in the next breath, “and you, Chloe—I don’t think I need to say exactly how you fit into that accusation, do I?”

“Where’s ya proof?” Yzara said, completely dropping the priestess act. “Or are ya going to arrest us without due process?”

“That’s rich coming from a wretch who took over half the globe. But, as it turns out, I do have proof.”

From her dress, Marielle took out a scroll and unfurled it. It was familiar—very familiar, in fact.

“This is a copy of your Skill Scroll.”

“How did you get that?!”

“Let’s just say… I have my methods. Difficult times require extraordinary methods.”

She glanced to the side, her gaze landing on the crowd—and there he was, smiling back at us. A face I recognized well, even though we had just met a couple of times.

It’s that sleazebag from the Guild!

Yep. The same guy that had tried to get into our party, and later was spying on us at the mess hall. The crowd collectively gasped, as if realizing what Marielle was trying to say.

Was he keeping tabs on us all this time? On her orders?! Damn it!

“Here it is, clear as day,” Marielle added, “your ‘Demon Queen’ title, proof that you’re the titular Yzara the Demon Queen. There’s only one creature in the mortal realm with that title.”

A deathly silence filled the entire plaza.

“Wait, that’s—”

But I held my tongue.

Darn it. She got us.

That Skill Scroll was clearly a forgery. The Scroll we left in the Adventurer’s Guild was redacted, and even if she wanted to imply to the crowd that that idiot stole the Skill Scroll, there’s no way she got her hands on something that didn’t exist. However—

“If you doubt the validity of this, feel free to go to the Diviner and ask for an unredacted copy. I’ll accompany you, of course, to make sure there are no shenanigans again.”

So that’s why she decided to ambush us here…!

The only way to prove this wasn’t a forgery was to get an unredacted copy from the Diviner, which would just prove Chloe was Yzara anyway. This was a lose-lose situation, and literally the worst place for us in the entire city to be. If she had ambushed us anywhere else, we could reasonably have a way out while being escorted to the Temple. Here, we were close enough that the option to claim the scroll was a forgery was a shot in the foot.

There was no way out. Either we accepted the claim or entrapped ourselves.

The real question wasn’t how to refute her claim. No, it was something far more meaningful.

“How did she find out?”

It wasn’t via the Skill Scroll, that was for damn sure. And—credit where credit’s due—Yzara’s performance as Chloe was flawless. There was no possible way anyone would ever suspect she was the Demon Queen.

Did they see her acting as Yzara at some point? Or, even better, saw her transformation?

She did bring out her demon bits willy-nilly, but I was fairly confident there had never been anyone around to see her.

Was it that sleavebag? Nah, unlikely. We’d have been caught earlier.

So why? Why did she go through this elaborate way to corner us here?

The answer came to me like a miasma invading my heart from within.

“...No fricking way.”

“You figured it out, eh, Takashi? No wonder something felt off about her.”

All bets were off. I reached into my Hero’s Bag and pulled out the Debuggun, pointing it straight at Marielle.

<NPC: Marielle

Class: High Cleric

Unlocked Classes: White Mage I, White Mage II, Cleric, High Cleric

EXP: 112,309 (Lv. 48)

Fire: 148 Water: 32 Earth: 138 Air: 254 Lightning: 212 Holy: 343,330

HP: 4533/4533

MP: 288

Skills: Heal, Greater Heal, Divine Healing, Healing Light, Light Strike, Luminous Strike, Greater Light Strike, Divine Punishment, Holy Barrier, Restoration

Status conditions: Infected (%‡¤⁂‼&◊§)

Titles: Savior>

“She’s—infected.”

Damn it!

How could I be so dumb? I just assumed that, because the White Death-controlled monsters couldn’t penetrate a Polis, and with such strict custom controls for people, that there was no chance anyone infected could sneak inside Adaville.

But what if the infection had already penetrated deep inside? What if it had reached the very top?

A myriad of questions bubbled up in my mind. How long had she been infected for? What was her goal? How much of her thought process was affected by it?

“You’re making one heck of a grimace, Hero Takashi,” the governor said with a wicked smile. “But don’t worry. I plan to do this peacefully.”

“…What do you want?”

“Two things. First,” she said, holding a finger up, “Yzara. Alive, of course. We won’t force you to kill her this time.”

So she knows that much, huh?

“Then” she said, holding the second finger, “that Debuggun.”

“Eh. Now it all makes sense. Why you wanted it so badly last time.”

“Truly, a thorn in our path to enlightenment. That thing shouldn’t exist in this world.”

Enlightenment? What the heck is she even talking about?

“What if I refuse?”

“You’ll be locked away forever, and trust me, that won't be pleasant. Really, the only reason I’m even offering you this deal is to prevent any unnecessary confrontation. You cannot win. Oh, and don’t even think about using your gun. Your little ‘reset’ would do nothing to me, and all these soldiers are instructed to pounce the moment anything happens.”

I looked between Yzara and Marielle. What was the best option out of this mess? I tried to consider things as calmly as I could.

First option—fight our way out. But that was impossible. We were literally surrounded by enemies, and although we had a bit more power now, we were still pathetically weak by this world’s standards. We had to beat both Marielle herself, and all these soldiers. There was no chance.

Second option—take the deal with the Devil. Seemingly, this was the simplest and quickest way out of this mess. However, it required me to trust Marielle’s word, and betray Yzara in turn.

Could I do it?

…Who am I kidding? Obviously not!

Yzara might be the Demon Queen, but I trusted her more than some random glitch. No, I trusted her more than pretty much everyone else in this world right now. I couldn’t betray that trust we had built until this point.

What we needed was firepower—a way to defeat everyone without getting captured.

That led me to the third option—the nuclear option. I could reset Yzara back to her spawn state, right here and now, unleashing the full power of the Demon Queen at her prime. But that would quite literally be the same as nuclear war back on Earth—it would result in mutually-assured destruction. Even if she didn’t target me directly, I’d still be killed in the crossfire, for sure.

And besides, could I really do that to Yzara? After she said she didn’t want to return to that state? If I nuked her, I’d effectively erase the one person in this world who put her trust in me. And for what, petty revenge on Marielle?

All that was left was the secret fourth option, to do what we came here to do in the first place. The Temple of the Seven was a no combat zone. No offensive skills could be used inside. If Yzara could sneak in and unseal her class, we’d have enough strength to take on Marielle and then some.

The only problem was, of course, the soldiers blocking our way into the Temple.

If only we could get rid of them…!

I thought I had been alone in this world. The only human in a sea of NPCs. But I was wrong. There are no NPCs here, no matter what the Debuggun says. Everyone here thinks and acts like a real human.

And that meant that bonds and connections we forged mattered, too.

Suddenly, a figure landed right in the middle of us with a heavy thud. The elf had long, braided blonde hair, was lightly dressed, and had a scimitar on her waist. She turned to me and Yzara first, her taciturn face being somewhat comforting.

“Fianna…?”

She gave a small smile.

“I didn’t expect to see you two again so soon, Takashi and Chloe. I’m here—to finish this.”