Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 16 Page 2

  And if anyone tried to do something against this particular king, it could negatively impact the country as a whole.

  “So what will you do?” I asked.

  “I could just tell the prez that I know he’s hidin’ the Orb somewhere, but that seems lazy...so I’ll obviously go and take it!”

  “Huh? But...”

  “Listen, Yu. The mayor told me that he ‘doesn’t know about any Orb’ and that ‘there’s no way it’s in this city.’ So...” she said as she cracked a smile. “...He won’t be able to complain if something he ‘doesn’t know of’ and ‘isn’t here’ just disappears. Will he?”

  That was basically a declaration that she would steal the Orb.

  “Ughh...” a sigh escaped my mouth.

  Her face looked just like it had back when we went into the Huang He mafia’s casino in Hermine.

  We’d spent enough time together for me to understand that despite having an Embryo that let her sense danger better than anyone else, she definitely had a taste for those exact same dangers.

  She was the opposite of my sister, who could never have enough safety nets or secondary plans.

  Perhaps those two had become friends exactly because they were so different? They did have a similar vibe, though, even if Fran’s was more RP-oriented.

  “Hold on. Yu, are you thinking that I’m gonna do something rough just for the thrill and the laughs?”

  “...Am I wrong?”

  “Nope! But that’s not all of it.”

  “Hm?”

  “I mean, we’re on a time limit. If we just report it to the boss, someone else’ll come and take it.”

  Time limit? Someone else? I wondered.

  “Yu. About this Orb-hunt quest...it’s not just some grand little adventure with just the two of us.”

  “...You dragged me into this, you know.”

  “Yeah yeah, just accept it already. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that we have rivals on this quest.”

  “Rivals?”

  “Remember how I told you that some of the orbs’ powers are already known?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, there’s also people in the world who’d love to take these powers for themselves.”

  “Those people being...?”

  “Well, there’s some evidence that Granvaloa’s makin’ moves to grab the Orb that turns water into land, while Legendaria’s degenerates are comin’ after the one that Anthropomorphizes monsters.”

  “Ah!” That meant that this Orb-hunt was also a race...and that Teach probably wouldn’t be the only Superior that would get involved in it.

  And, perhaps most importantly...

  “So we’re not the only ones after the Orb in this city?” I asked.

  “That’s very likely.” Well, an orb that “gives the user a healthy life, and then a new life eternal” certainly did seem like something a lot of people would want. “Whatever’s comin’, you better hope for the best, but expect the worst. Boy, I suuure wouldn’t like to run into anyone like that,” she said, sounding somewhat joyful.

  I had a really bad feeling about this.

  The chill running down my spine told me that I should prepare for a battle more intense than the one back in Gideon.

  ◆◆◆

  City of Commerce, Cortana

  Cortana was the second largest city in Caldina, and it was built around a giant oasis somewhere in the middle of The Great Desert.

  Defying the searing heat, the waters flowing up to form the oasis lake were almost unnaturally pure, making the land around it more than fertile enough to support such a city.

  With the exception of the capital of Drag-Nomad, all the cities of this desert country were built around these welcoming patches of land in an otherwise treacherous desert. Even the Gambling City of Hermine was no exception.

  Many wondered why the vast scorching desert, home to ferocious giant worms, even had such oases of safety.

  There were various theories about this phenomenon, but the most popular one proposed that it was due to the influence of save points.

  Currently, save points were best known as the points through which Masters moved to and from a different world, but people had been aware of their existence for a long time.

  In fact, save points had actually existed before there were any cities built around them.

  As strange as it was, the environments around save points were very conducive to human survival, as though someone was intentionally adjusting them to be that way.

  But no matter what the reasons for it were, people were attracted by the safety that save points provided. Over the many centuries, grand cities had been built around them.

  Even places that weren’t known to be save points at first eventually came to be called that.

  The name of whoever had first used the term “save point,” though, had been completely lost to history.

  As mentioned earlier, Cortana, the City of Commerce, was Caldina’s second most important city — though some would argue it was the first. This desert jewel of water and coin was notably affluent even for a Caldinian city.

  However, that didn’t mean that it was free of the nation’s ever-present heat. The oasis made the city slightly cooler than the barren dunes, but compared to the climate in other countries, the temperatures were still unbearably high. Even those used to it would find themselves sweating, while visitors from other countries were in serious danger of suffering heatstroke.

  This applied to one of the two people walking in this searing heat — the little girl trudging through the sands. Clad in a red dress, wearing childish boots, and sporting a large ribbon in her hair, she walked while sweating waterfalls.

  “Nnh... It’s sho hot. I’m gonna melt...”

  Though she looked at least ten years old, her manner of speaking made her sound several years younger than that. However, most of those hearing her speech from up close would have the impression that this wasn’t an affectation — she simply wasn’t very good at talking.

  “I wanna go to Dryfe. There’s lots of snow there... Or maybe to Granvaloa on the sea... Ah...”

  Suffering the heat, she looked up at the person walking beside her and holding her hand — a man who seemed to be in his thirties.

  “Mr. Zhan, can I swim in that oasis?” the girl asked.

  The man shook his head and said, “You’re not allowed to swim in most of Caldina’s oases. People get their drinking water from there.”

  “I see... I guess I won’t be swimming then...”

  Instead of throwing a tantrum, the girl gave up and continued to trudge along.

  “...That café over there sells fruit juice. Want to take a break there?”

  “Can I?! Do they have ice scream?”

  “They might, but it would melt really fast.”

  “Then I’ll eat it fast!” the girl said as she hurried to the café.

  Watching her from behind, the man — Great Soul Daoshi, Zhang Zangqi — said, “...It really is so hard to believe it. I know it’s true, but still...”

  At that moment, he was reminded of something that happened a week ago, when he had taken on his current job.

  ◆◆◆

  A Week Before, a Certain Place in Caldina

  Zhang, the head of the Caldinian branch of the Huang He mafia called “Mirage,” was having a nightmare.

  In it, he saw his battle against a flying blue robot.

  He saw how it destroyed the five dragons that were his namesake as well as the crystallization of all his power and technique.

  Even after giving it everything he had, he was unable to harm the robot — while the robot’s weaponry blew off his right arm.

  “...Ah!”

  That was when he woke up.

  The nightmare had left him sweating all over. He tried to get up and wipe the sweat from his body, but...

  “What is this?”

  ...he found himself bound to the bed he was lying on.

  He then examined the state of his body.

  His skin was covered in wounds. Most were marks left by his many days of fighting, but some were completely new to him.

  And most importantly, his right arm was missing from the elbow down.

  “...I see. So that was no dream.” Zhang realized then that he’d somehow survived his staggering defeat against The Blue Sky Songstress.

  Most of his newer wounds showed signs of treatment with Potions or healing magic, but it seemed like whoever had taken care of him had no means of restoring his arm.

  He then looked around to examine his surroundings.

  He was in a small but hygienic room, highly reminiscent of a hospital. If you ignored the fact that he was bound to the bed, it was a fitting place for someone in his current state.

  However, he didn’t recognize the room at all.

  If this is a sickroom...who is it that helped me? he wondered. At first, Zhang thought it must have been one of his subordinates, but that was impossible. If he had been defeated by AR-I-CA, the others must’ve suffered the same fate.

  It also couldn’t be another criminal organization. Zhang had often used his combat-capable status to exercise authority over the other criminal leaders in Hermine. If they found him on the verge of death, they would not have helped him — they would gladly finish him off instead.

  A kindly citizen, then...? No, that’s the least likely thing of all, he thought before chuckling in self-derision.

  His life was definitely not one of virtue. There was no way fate would grace him with salvation at the hands of a benevolent stranger.

  In the end, he failed to guess who saved him, and eventually...

  “Yo. You awake, Zhang Zangqi?”

  ...someone entered the room, calling his name.

 
It was a man, and at first glance it was obvious that he was part of the societal underworld.

  First of all, he was clad in a fashionable gray suit. There was no country in Infinite Dendrogram where such suits were worn by upstanding individuals. This kind of clothing only existed in this world because certain Masters had them custom-made.

  Over the suit, he wore a trench coat in a strange style, suggesting to Zhang that it was a UBM MVP reward.

  And finally, there was a gangster-like hat on top of his head.

  All of this combined would make it obvious that he engaged in illegal acts.

  At a glance, he wasn’t very tall — about 160 centimetels — and he had a young face that made him look no older than twenty, but that only made his threatening aura more intense by contrast.

  The crest on the back of his left hand, showing interlocking gears, was proof that he was a Master.

  As he observed him, Zhang also realized something else about the newcomer.

  This man...is far stronger than I...and perhaps even The Blue Sky Songstress.

  In his current state, he wasn’t even able to determine the extent of this Master’s power.

  “Can ya talk?” he asked.

  “...I can,” Zhang answered.

  “That so? Let’s start with names, then. I’m Rascal the Bloodonyx. Though, I guess ‘The Weapon’ works better for you.”

  “Ah?!” The name filled Zhang with shock.

  Everyone in Caldina’s criminal underworld knew this name.

  The Weapon, Rascal the Bloodonyx — the Superior who made a living exploring ruins and selling the items he discovered. He was especially well-known for his weapons, with some of his finds having made it into the hands of truly infamous criminal organizations.

  He was especially well-known for destroying ruins after he was done with them. That was a crime in every country, and he was already on every wanted list for it...but no one had defeated him so far.

  Besides that...

  “Now, as ya probably know, I’m the sub-leader of the clan known as ‘IF.’”

  ...he was also a core member of the clan whose membership consisted solely of wanted Superiors. With the leader, King of Crime, currently in the gaol, Rascal here was functionally at the top of it.

  “IF...”

  “Yeah. The clan that was supposed to take the UBM treasure Orb from Huang He off ya hands.”

  Indeed, that had been the plan. Zhang’s role had been to receive the Orb from the main branch in Huang He and give it to IF to create a bond between their groups.

  He wasn’t told what the groups would do afterwards, but...

  “...I am sorry.”

  “Hm?”

  “The Orb was taken from me... I cannot complete the exchange.” Zhang had used the Orb during the battle against The Blue Sky Songstress, but he’d been defeated by her regardless, resulting in the loss of both his arm and the Orb. “But...please! Take my life if you must, but please consider making another deal with Mirage!”

  Zhang believed that he couldn’t let his failure be the cause of a conflict between IF and the organization to which he’d dedicated his life. Mirage was the greatest criminal organization in Huang He, but having faced a Superior himself, he now knew too well that Mirage stood no chance against an entire group of them.

  Thus, he tried to prevent that by offering up his own life.

  “I see... I’ll just get right to the point and say that we can’t make deals with Mirage anymore.”

  Rascal’s words almost sent Zhang into despair, but...

  “That’s ’cause Mirage doesn’t exist anymore.”

  ...he then said something Zhang couldn’t even understand.

  Rascal then began telling Zhang about what happened over the two weeks he’d spent unconscious.

  He told him about how Huang He had gotten serious about dismantling Mirage.

  About how Dancing Princess, Huili and her Huili Yuminjun — Huili’s Army of Fools — had destroyed every Mirage base in Huang He.

  About how even the strongest among them, including The Fang, had been either killed or arrested, and their leader had been captured as well.

  And about how, by this point, the prosecutions and executions must’ve already finished.

  Zhang’s first reaction was silence. Then, having been freed from the bed, he covered his face with his still-healthy left arm...and wept.

  He wept from sadness over the destruction of the organization he had given his life to, his own powerlessness to do anything about it, and his guilt over the possibility that things might have turned out differently if he hadn’t lost against The Blue Sky Songstress.

  “Zhang Zangqi... I know you’re having a moment, but can I keep talking?” Rascal asked.

  “...Yes,” Zhang said, looking at him with reddened eyes. “You saved my life. It would be more fitting for me to listen to your words than to lament my foolishness.”

  “Actually, I ain’t the one that saved ya. It was the other sub-leader — the one who was gonna make the trade with you. She picked ya up and told me to look after ya.”

  The sub-leader in question — King of Thieves, Zeta — was no longer in Caldina. She’d left the country to get involved in the conflict between Altar and Dryfe to the west.

  “I see... But that doesn’t change the fact that I am indebted to you,” said Zhang.

  “Well, it’s fine if ya think that way. Anyhow, to get to the point, we saved ya because we want ya to join us.”

  “...What?” That was so out of the blue that Zhang couldn’t believe his ears.

  “Not as an official member, though,” Rascal continued. “In IF, we only take Superiors who are on wanted lists. It’s part of the ‘brand,’ so to speak... Even with that limit, we’ve got dumbasses who misuse their damn powers, though. Haah...” He let out a fatigued sigh as he thought about something.

  Zhang didn’t have the slightest idea what it was that Rascal found so draining.

  “Sorry about that,” Rascal said. “Anyway, back to the point — I want ya to be a ‘supporting member’ for the clan. You won’t be an official part of it, but you’ll have to assist us with this and that. Most of these supporting members are tians, and we got a pretty good number of them.”

  “...But right now, I have nothing. I’ve lost my organization and my subordinates.”

  “Your technique and level haven’t gone anywhere. There’s exceptions, sure, but Masters are generally below tians when it comes to technique. We want you, yourself.”

  Having been defeated by The Blue Sky Songstress and seen his organization destroyed, Zhang had lost all confidence in his abilities — and yet Rascal sincerely solicited his aid.

  “...If you just want my Superior Job, I can take my life. You will know exactly when Great Soul Daoshi can be taken again, giving IF the advantage in the ensuing race to find it.”

  “No, that wouldn’t be good for us. We’ve got no one who can take the job, so if ya die, it’ll probably go to some other Master. If that happens, we’ll never have it again. That’ll be no good at all.”

  Rascal was basically saying that if they had a Master who could fulfill the job’s conditions, they might’ve already let Zhang die, but that didn’t really bother him.

  “So, what will become of me? Should I just be locked up until you find someone who can take Great Soul Daoshi?”

  “That’d be a waste of human resources. Like I said, our group wants you. We can always use people.”

  “Why? Why would a group made up of Superiors insist on hiring a mere tian?”

  “...Yeah. I suppose I should’ve opened up about that,” Rascal said, looking Zhang straight in the eye.

  Then, he slowly began revealing the very foundation of the Illegal Frontier.

  “Our goal as IF is to...”

  ◆

  Ten minutes later, Rascal finished telling Zhang all about their intentions.

  “And that’s what we’re planning to do.” Zhang silently processed what he had been told...and it all added up to him.

  He also understood why IF had tried to make a deal with Mirage.

  I see. It does make sense. This explains the actions of both Mirage and IF, he thought.

  Through his line of work, Zhang had maxed out Truth Discernment, so he knew that Rascal wasn’t lying.