Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 20, page 10
I was starting to understand what he was trying to say. “So minimizing casualties as much as possible is our secondary goal?”
“Yeah. It’s not an all-or-nothing thing where we either prevent everybody from dying or nobody. It’s about making sure it’s not as bad as it could be. That’s the choice we’re making here.”
That made sense...but it wasn’t a choice I was comfortable with. It was too much like the decision I myself had made back when I was overcome by doubt—the decision to participate in Fran’s plan so I could minimize both Altar’s and Dryfe’s casualties.
My feelings back then and the feelings I was having now started to blur together, and I clenched my fist.
“Mr. Lesseps, please don’t make that face. I am certain it will not be too bad,” Isara said, gently reassuring me. “It could be that nothing happens at a—”
“Isara, don’t waste your breath on useless reassurance like that. There’s no way absolutely nothing will happen.”
Isara’s words were cut short by Moneygold, who sounded stricter than he ever had before.
“I apologize for crossing the line,” Isara said before bowing her head and falling silent.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked Moneygold.
“There are three reasons I’m attending this ball. First is security, like we just talked about. Second is that I just wanted to, as a personal thing. And then there’s the third reason, which is the most important of all.”
“Which is...?”
“The prez told me to.” I could detect a hint of fear or awe on his face as he said that. The person those feelings were directed to must’ve been the president...the head of Caldina.
“How much do you know about the president?” he asked me.
“Her name is La Place Phantasma,” I answered. “She’s long-lived and has been serving as the head of the Caldinan congress for a long time. And, umm...”
“That she’s called ‘witch,’ ‘enigma,’ and a whole host of other names, right?” I nodded in response—that was the impression she’d seemed to have left on society.
From what I could tell, though, her skill as a politician left no room for doubt.
“People call her many names, but there’s one that hits the mark,” he said.
“And that is?”
“‘Clairvoyant.’”
“Clairvoyant? You mean, she can see the future? Like Teach’s Embryo, Cassandra?” Cassandra foretold the dangers approaching Teach and enabled her to dodge them, and I thought it was the only Embryo capable of seeing the future. That was the first thing that came to mind, but Moneygold shook his head.
“That slut’s nearsightedness can’t compare. I’d call the prez’s thing farsightedness, but it sounds like something that happens to old people, and that’s a comparison I’m too scared to make. My point is that she tends to see things coming long before they happen—as far out as years away.”
“There’s no way...” I said in genuine disbelief.
“I get why you’re surprised. Infinite Dendrogram is full of Masters doing whatever they want. That should make such a power impossible, but I’m telling the truth. She uses her foresight to entrap many of her political opponents and...well, her political opponents.”
Moneygold was probably going to say “political opponents and other countries.” I’d been told that Caldina’s plotting had placed the imperium in an even worse situation than it had been previously. He must’ve refrained from saying it because he remembered where I was from.
“Anyway, a person who can see that far into the future told me to participate in this ball,” he said. “She hadn’t said anything like that for any of my previous boat trips, but she did this time. There’s no way something won’t happen.”
Those words seemed to be filled with a mix of awe and trust.
“You know, the prez had actually begun preparing to welcome Masters before the game was released.”
“Huh?”
“Seems impossible, right? Tians don’t know about the real world. There’s no way they could see us coming. Prez did, though. You know what that means?”
“...That she’s part of the dev team?” Infinite Dendrogram did have a few Masters like Altar’s Tom Cat who were believed to be associated with the devs. Was Caldina’s president also one of them?
“That’s possible,” Moneygold said. “We think she’s something else, though... It’s not like she told us, or that we asked her. Well, only Fatoum probably knows exactly what she is.”
“What do you—?”
Right as I was about to ask him to elaborate, multiple sudden explosions cut my words short.
I heard them from outside this hall—as well as from within.
The walls of the ballroom shattered as smoke from the explosion rolled in. And then, multiple towering figures came into view.
They were Marshall IIs—about a dozen of them. Painted to resemble the desert, these units had head shapes and joint covers meant to protect against the sands, which made them look quite different from the original. They were also wielding weapons that were probably made outside of The Triangle of Wisdom. The machines were accompanied by dozens of infantry—some of them equipped with armor-type Magingears.
The shattered wall, the dancing flames, and the menacing presence of these soldiers immediately told the passengers that this wasn’t some sort of act, but a real assault. Their screams resounded as they rushed to escape, filling the room with an air of panic.
Isara stood before Moneygold to protect him, while he himself looked at me with an expression that clearly said, Told you there’d be trouble.
As chaos overtook the area, words suddenly blared out of the speakers. “We are Dryfe’s Legitimate Government. We have an announcement for everyone aboard Eltram.”
“Dryfe’s Legitimate Government...?” I repeated to myself. The group bore the name of my own country, but I had never heard of it before.
“We request that you show no resistance while we do what must be done here. If you obey, we promise no one will be harmed. But if you resist, we will not hesitate to use indiscriminate force—even against civilians.”
Those last words were directed at Masters and other passengers who could fight. They clearly stated that if we stood against them, they would start killing any passengers they could—even women and children. It was the kind of ultimatum that could only come from someone truly vile.
And it reminded me that Fran had once said something similar.
“You will be released once we complete our objective. Until then, do not move.”
A moment after they said that, the door through which passengers were trying to escape was smashed open, and more units appeared through it. With that, multiple Marshall IIs were standing at every exit, keeping every passenger in the ballroom from leaving. It was probably the same situation all over the ship.
“...Tch. They’ve blocked it off,” said Moneygold, clicking his tongue in frustration as he placed a hand against his ear. I noticed that he had Telepathy Cuffs equipped and guessed that he must’ve tried to use them, but they hadn’t worked.
After a moment of thought, he looked at Isara. Then, saying nothing, he pointed at himself, Isara, and then me.
“Can you hear me?” Suddenly, I heard his voice as though it was ringing inside my head. My eyes widened in surprise. “Don’t talk through your open mouth. Just keep it closed and whisper and we’ll hear it.”
“O-Okay... What is this, though...?”
“We’re connected by Isara’s osteophony wires. Think of it like a phone made of two cans and a string. Don’t touch your temple—that’s where the wire is. Even a brush from your fingers would break it.”
There was a wire on my head? I really couldn’t see it, though...
“Isara’s the Fullmetal Princess. That’s the earth and metal manipulation magic SJ. This is within her power. Oh, you can still move, though. Isara will adjust the wire’s length.”
I looked at Isara in surprise, and she gave me a gentle smile.
“Anyway, the trouble’s finally arrived,” said Moneygold. “That damn prez. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually knew that we’d be attacked by DLG specifically.”
“Who are the Dryfe’s Legitimate Government, anyway?” I asked.
“The remnants of the side that lost the Dryfean civil war, basically. The ones who didn’t die, surrender, or get arrested ended up escaping here to Caldina. And they brought a lot of Marshall IIs with them.”
The group’s name and the Marshall IIs made it easy to guess, but this confirmed they really were from my country.
“What do we do about this?” I asked.
“What, indeed...” Moneygold said as he rubbed his double chin and hummed. “Isara, how far can you reach?”
“Long-range manipulation is a weakness of mine, so I doubt I can reach farther than halfway through the hall.”
“Uh-huh. I see. Anyway, like I said before, Isara is a solo battle type and can’t protect large areas in a fight. Conversely...I can only fight in a way that would also harm the civilians.”
Those were the major problems with solo battle types and wide-scale extermination types. Fran brought them up pretty often. In a situation like this, where one side had to protect something, the ones that came out on top were wide-scale suppression types—and those who simply outnumbered the other side.
“Could you suppress them all by Freezing them all at once?” Moneygold asked me.
“Cyco’s La Porte de l’Enfer can’t differentiate well enough.” I could choose to target only tians, only Masters, only monsters, or several groups at once, like how I’d targeted both Masters and monsters while fighting Rook. However, there was no convenient setting for just “hostile tians.” The skill really worked closer to having me choose who not to target—back in Gideon, I’d had Fran and Veldorbell registered as exceptions before we set the plan in motion, making it so that the skill only targeted all other Masters.
Compare that to what had happened in Cortana—I hadn’t had time to register any exceptions and ended up freezing every other Master along with Emily.
“If I targeted just tians now, some passengers would Freeze too,” I said. Like Cyco had disapprovingly explained earlier, Caldinans had a relatively high population of kinslayers. If I froze even a single part of them in this situation, they would be at risk of getting shattered.
This wouldn’t be a problem with La Porte de l’Enfer Deuxième, which worked based on the damage the target dealt to me—but if I let them attack me, they would damage the passengers too.
“Well, most powerful skills have flaws,” said Moneygold. “Yours could even have some weaknesses that neither you nor Cyco are aware of.”
That was entirely possible too. I didn’t actually get that many chances to use it in battle, so I couldn’t deny that it could have quirks I hadn’t figured out yet.
“Anyway, I get the situation,” Moneygold said. “We don’t have enough people to take care of this while keeping the casualties low. Let’s add someone, then.”
“Huh?”
“Isara. Connect to one more person. Your target is...”
And with that, Moneygold pointed at one of the passengers in the ballroom.
◇◆◇
Eltram, Special Ballroom
Following the assault, everyone in the room was overwhelmed by chaos and confusion—but there was one man among them who was smiling.
...Jackpot! Niala! Fey! The gamble paid off! That man was none other than the leader of Goblin Street, Eldridge.
He was utterly thrilled by DLG’s attack on the ship, because this was exactly what he’d been waiting for.
The DLG were Goblin Street’s target. The Marshall IIs that the group piloted were luxury items that went for no less than eighty million lir per unit on Caldinan markets, and that was without considering their equipment and other tech they might be carrying. Eldridge had happened upon information suggesting that this prize prey would attack Eltram and came aboard the ship to take them. When they’d entered the final night of the trip with no sign of the Marshall II units, he was worried that this was a waste of time—but it seemed the heavens had not abandoned them quite yet.
All that’s left is the timing, Eldridge thought. The situation after I rob them will change depending on when I do it.
The robbery itself wasn’t that difficult. Eldridge had the skills for it, and he’d come prepared with an Inventory which could store many Marshall IIs. Nothing could really stop him from beating the DLG and taking their goods.
The problem was that acting against them would lead to many tian deaths.
Eldridge didn’t have much of a problem with that on its own, but it would have negative side effects for him.
If his actions here led to the deaths of any passengers—many of whom were Caldina’s upper class—things might go badly in the future. He could even end up on the wanted list, or at least the trader blacklists, which would make it impossible for him to sell the Marshall IIs here in Caldina.
The grudge he’d invoke from killing so many tians might even make him a prime target for hired mercenaries like the Superior Killer.
Taking such risks into consideration, Eldridge waited for the right time to strike with all the care he could muster.
The best time would be the moment the people on the ship begin fighting back. As long as he wasn’t the first to strike, Eldridge thought, it would all work out.
During the chaos and conflict that would unfold, he would steal as many Marshall IIs as he could.
The best outcome for him would be one where he avoided responsibility for this incident while still profiting off of it.
All I can do now is wait, Eldridge thought. I wonder where Fey is, though...
He’d already looked around the chaotic hall and seen Niala, but the other clan member was nowhere in sight.
There’s several kinds of jamming preventing us from using Telepathy Cuffs. How should I go about this...?
With timing being an important factor, coordination between them was invaluable. And while Eldridge might’ve been able to take the Marshall IIs, Fey and her Embryo were better suited for disarming the infantry.
I need to ask Niala or look for her myself...but we’ve been told not to move, so doing that could set them off, and—
“Hey, you’re Eldridge, right? King of Burglary?”
His thought was cut short by a sudden, spine-chilling voice in his head.
“Ngh...!” Eldridge stopped himself from lashing out purely by reflex and slowly looked around.
There wasn’t anybody suspicious close to him—everyone was actually cowering right now because of how stern Eldridge looked as he scanned his immediate surroundings.
But then, a fair distance away, he caught sight of someone who was looking right at him.
It was a man with a rotund, corpulent body—King of Revelry, Moneygold. He’d gotten Isara to connect with Eldridge using her wires, just as they’d connected to Hugo.
“I’m talking to you through an osteophony wire. Don’t touch your temple and speak without opening your mouth.”
That gaze and those words made Eldridge instantly understand how this communication worked. However, there were still things that didn’t make sense to him.
How does he know my name? Does Sefirot actually know our plans? Such suspicions whirled around in Eldridge’s head, but he needn’t have worried. Caldina had been the ones behind the Altean blockade in Altar, and Sefirot had simply been provided with details on all the PKs they’d hired for it—with the exception of the Superior Killer.
That was why Moneygold recognized Eldridge and noticed him in the crowd.
“I have a vague idea of what you’re after, but you shouldn’t do it just yet,” said Moneygold.
“I know,” replied Eldridge. Moneygold’s words made him even more alert, but as Eldridge himself had no intention of making a move yet, he had no objections to staying put.
“We wanna keep the casualties low, you see. If you’re gonna do it, match our timing and go after the ones we can’t.”
With that, Eldridge realized that Moneygold wanted him to join them in the counteroffensive.
That was something Eldridge would do gladly. If he mounted a counterattack on the orders of someone directly serving the Caldinan congress, there was no way Caldina would hold him responsible for whatever happened afterward.
Assuming Moneygold wasn’t planning to double-cross Eldridge and make him take the blame, this was a fantastic proposal.
However, Eldridge hid the fact that this would benefit him from Moneygold, instead replying with, “And what’s in it for me?”
If there was any advantage to be gained, Eldridge would go for it, and his experience and instincts told him there was still something more he could get out of this situation. In a way, he was letting his greed take the wheel, and in response...
“You won’t make an enemy of me.”
...he got only a few simple words that still spoke volumes.
The pronouncement left Eldridge speechless. It was borderline blackmail, but it was certainly worth the cost.
Eldridge was currently in a downward spiral after his repeated defeats at the hands of Superiors, and he certainly wanted to keep that from happening again.
Since it was Caldina who’d ordered the Altean blockade that had led to Goblin Street’s first failure, though, it could be said that Eldridge’s downward spiral had been caused by Moneygold’s faction in the first place. Eldridge, however, had no way of knowing that.
“Of course, that only applies if your group doesn’t go after the other passengers. Also...I’ll hook you up with a buyer who’ll pay full price for the stuff you farm up here.”
Eldridge liked that offer quite a bit. He still didn’t have any contacts in Caldina’s black market. If he could get one by cooperating with Moneygold, that would be well worth it.
There was no way Eldridge was going to refuse this proposal now.
