)—(\IV/)|—(

"Take this! [Burst Lance]!"

From the tip of Motoyasu's spear, he fired off a blinding beam towards the pack of monsters. The impact caused a dusty explosion to distribute around the targets. He staggered slightly, feeling the shockwave off the attack, but he knew he could easily get used to such a thing when he started seeing the experience being gained.

Combo skills were quite a useful ability to know about.

By using Rino's own magic, she could strengthen some of Motoyasu's existing skills by interlaying the spell's formula as he charged up the attack. It was very simple in premise, but it was a bit difficult to nail on the first try. It took a bit of preemptive practice at a non-existent target before they could ship out the technique to this early-morning fight.

Rino was rather glad to see it work out so well, having it be her first time helping with combos skills.

Seeing the monsters lying down limp, Rino couldn't help to exhale a breath of relief.

"Wow, this worked out better than expected," Motoyasu cheered. "[Blast Lance] was a single target attack and with the help of combo magic, it became an area-of-effect. I wonder how many combinations there are."

"No one's ever gone out of their way to write it all down. From what I know about it, the spell itself doesn't matter, just the element class of the inflicted magic. What will matter is the skill it's used on, if I recall correctly..."

Motoyasu started walking up to the monsters and salvage of the physical materials. Even if he didn't have any use for them, they had some decent value if he sold them back to the marketplace. The main objective of the monster hunts would have already been sent into his inventory by the time, being the source of the further strength of his spear's forms.

He had only wished that his friends were able to figure out about the monster soul mechanic. It was a familiar mechanic belonging to [Emerald Online]. He was sure that Ren and Itsuki would eventually figure it out, but he was more afraid for Naofumi who probably could have been wondering what the hell these random stacks were.

There were a ton of regrets lingering around to how he should have said or done; one of them was telling Naofumi more about the main strengthening method that they should have been using, much the ideal way that he should have acted. However, his position was rather difficult between choosing Myne and Naofumi and if he was to replay that event again…

Frankly, he didn't even want to be in such a situation again.

He hated picking sides.

He wanted there to be a mutual agreement and collaboration.

Even now, he couldn't do anything to bridge the bottomless gap, much less what happened more than half a decade ago.

Feeling the painful memories trying to surface to the front, he shook his head, realizing that he had been holding the same piece of fur for the last few seconds without plugging it into his inventory.

There hadn't been much time to loiter around the fields when they still had a job to complete.

Rino and Motoyasu had woken up early for the purposes of testing out combo skills, but they were away from the capital on a guild request. Down to the southwest of the country, there had been a village suffering from a famine and their chief had envoys of food to be delivered from the capital. Unfortunately, the carriage couldn't be sent until there were people to protect it and Motoyasu, upon seeing the request, asked the others if they could take it on.

He had two reasons for doing so.

The first one had been the fact that he truly did want to help these people out. Perhaps he was trying to look away for a distraction from the current situation, but that innate feeling would have still existed regardless of the trial's outcome.

The second was a sense of familiarity. In [Emerald Online], or any MMORPG he would have guessed, these types of escort missions were part of the normalized missions that had to be completed during an early account's days. Although he knew this world hadn't been as simple as he initially thought, the request had stuck out as the conditions were almost exactly like what was offered in [Emerald Online].

The two party members returned back to the campsite where the others had been keeping watch as the carriage got prepared for the final trek of their journey. He saw Lesty speaking with Myne off to the side.

"Oh, we were wondering where you two went," Lesty said, hearing their footsteps approaching.

"We were almost considering coming to find you," Myne added on.

"Sorry about the delay," Motoyasu wryly chuckled. "I didn't expect us to take long, but I hope we didn't throw off the schedule by anything too great."

"Don't worry too much about that! You actually came back right on time! More importantly…"

Lesty glided over to where Rino had been and started to nudge her on the shoulder with a mischievous smile and a quiet voice, enough that Motoyasu couldn't hear.

"Getting some advancements on the Spear Hero, huh? You're more formidable than you look, dear Rino."

Rino's face brightened to a flushing red.

"T-That's not what I was…!"

Her outspoken words made Motoyasu flinch with surprise, but he had a good feeling as to what Lesty had said considering her reaction.

"C'mon, don't tease her like that." With his spear still leaning on his shoulder, he tapped it down afew times. "We were still trying to practice our combo magic from before. Rino really wanted us to get down that technique and we were able to pull it off this morning!"

"Well, I congratulate you two!" She clapped her hands and smiled at a tilt. "I look forward to seeing the combination in practice soon! I'm not much of a magic user, so it was great that Rino could provide that for you! Perhaps Elena might be more helpful on that than me."

"Oh yeah, I remember seeing Elena using magic during our first day together," Rino commented, "but I… haven't seen her use it ever since. Actually, I don't think I've seen her fight much at all lately."

She glanced over to the carriage where she could see Elena already inside the carriage. She made a quick glance up to see that the two briefly-missing people had returned and without another gesture, she continued reading.

Motoyasu didn't mind the attitude though. She demonstrated enough that he was able to rely on her if things got tough, but if she wanted to take it easy for a while as they dealt with the smaller fry, she was welcome to do so. He didn't want someone like Elena to be getting dirty.

If anything, he would have personally liked it if all the girls took it easy like Elena and Myne, sitting out in the backlines while he did all the work. However, Rino insisted that it felt wrong while Lesty bounced back and forth between helping and relaxing, depending on her mood that day.

"Nothing wrong with that. I trust that we can depend on her if we ever need the help."

"We should probably get going on, Sir Motoyasu," Myne suggested. "The cargo isn't going to be delivering themself."

"Yeah, you're right." Motoyasu made a bright smile. "Let's go help that famine."

)—(\IV| Chapter 1-22 |IV/)|—(
)\( Stray Guidance )/(

The village looked like any other village that Motoyasu had envisioned outside the capital, but the directed silence stares had been slightly unnerving, but it wasn't because he was creeped out about it. It was as if they watched with hope and considering what he was delivering to them, he was happy to provide.

After alerting the village chief of their arrival, the starving villagers had come and surrounded the carriage while Motoyasu helped out with distributing the food equally. There was a bit of shouting and chaos with people trying to get their portions ahead of others, but he was able to keep things to a humane level.

"Don't grab onto it! Stop sticking your hand out to steal some! We'll be giving them out accordingly! There's enough for everyone here and then some!"

Rino was already getting overwhelmed by the amount of people and without Lesty to assist her, she might have been stampeded due to her small size. Myne was by Motoyasu's side, handing him the correct portions while Elena stayed inside the carriage, merely watching over the main cargo in case someone tried to do anything funny.

He assumed that being the daughter of a merchant, she would be more accustomed to scenarios like this, but Motoyasu wondered if the reason she was an adventurer was that she followed after her father. Either way, they had the situation under control with the help of some of the chief's trusted members of the community lending a hand.

However, he saw a few young siblings through the outskirts of the people. They were skinny and they were looking onto the crowd like it was a great task to break through, clearly a sign of their hunger. They didn't have any parents that were present with them and once he noticed, Motoyasu couldn't ignore them.

"Myne, can you handle things here for me? I need to do something for a second."

"Sure, I'll be glad to. Don't take too long though."

Motoyasu took a few portions, one for each of the children and then an extra two, and held it all in his arms, being careful they weren't going to be yanked out. Once he managed to break through, he approached them with a warm smile contrasting their despair-ridened expression.

He had to crouch down to meet them properly.

"It must have been really frightening to try and get through all those people, right?"

The eldest child, who couldn't have been more than eleven years old, nodded after a delay. He started passing the portions to them as light started to fill their eyes.

"T-Thank you, sir…!"

With his hands all empty, he rubbed the head of the child.

"Keep your heads up high. You might be going through a terrible part of your life, but you just need to power through it. The good will eventually come; trust me."

To be honest, he really did hope his own words were true, but he wasn't showing his grimacing in front of them. He kept his cheerful expression, trying to uplift their moods, even by a little bit.

"Go off to your parents, alright? Make sure you get their share of the food to them."

As the children ran off, careful not to trip over and drop the given articles, the eldest one was still looking at him.

"Are you really the Spear Hero?"

"Yeah. I'm here to help everyone out because that's what we heroes do. We're not all about fighting; sometimes we have to lend a hand to people that need our help regardless of what troubles they have like a shortage of food."

"So cool…!"

Motoyasu couldn't help to chuckle.

"Stay happy like that and keep smiling. It won't make people less hungry, but they'll definitely be less cranky! Anyways, you should get going and catch up. I still need to help out the others here."

"Y-Yes, Spear Hero!"

He gave a little wave as the child ran away, but as the shadow disappeared from his sights, he felt a heavy weight off his chest. It felt painful to look at them, knowing that they've been suffering for who knows how long and considering how he was informed that this quest was up for a few days, he couldn't imagine what they've been going through.

With a heavy sigh, he returned to the carriage to help continue distribute the rations to the villagers.

He started to notice that this was merely a short-term plan. For each person and family, there definitely wasn't enough to last the village the entire week. Logically, the meals would have gone to the children first and foremost, but if they were looking almost like skin and bones, the famine must have been hitting hard.

After having everybody getting their share, the rest of the cargo was carried out to a village storage area near the village chief's home. The helpers and Motoyasu carried the heavy boxes over, neatly placing them down. The girls, on the other hand, were free to leave and relax for the day at spare rooms at the inn.

To be frank, all of them were spare; they were the only visitors here.

As they were almost finished, Motoyasu looked at the food that will disappear in the matter of a week and afterwards, he knew that the famine will simply continue like normal if nothing concrete was to be done.

"Excuse me? Spear Hero?" A call from a helper reached out at the storage's doors. Motoyasu realized he had been spacing out again. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I was just thinking about your famine problem."

His grip on the box lightened up, but his eyes remained to be glued to it. He felt like Naofumi's caring influence was urging him to step in and do something, if not for the fact he already wanted to do so. Though, it wasn't as if he had any ideas of where he could start.

"Say, this village's main source of income is agriculture, right? I think I saw some of the fields as I came into the area."

"Aye, you'd be right," the helper said, scratching his head. "We've been having problems with our crops this year and normally, that wouldn't be too bad of an issue. We always made enough to wiggle by, but this year has been devastating to us. With little to sell, we couldn't get to the end's meet. We did have the occasional adventurers to stop by our inns to help ease our economy's downfall, but it could only delay it for a short time."

"And I'm guessing the waves of destruction aren't making things any easier?"

"It certainly hasn't helped things around here. Ever since it started, people have been quite on edge lately and for extra salt in the wounds, traders became less frequent around these parts due to it."

"So it isn't entirely due to the lack of crops. It's everything combined together that started the famine." Motoyasu made a heavy sigh. "At a glance, it doesn't look like I can do much for this place. I wish I had some money I could donate to help out, but I'm running a bit low myself."

"Don't feel so bad for us, Spear Hero. We still have hunters, trying to get some of the bare minimum for the majority of us to survive until our next potential harvest. It's the reason why we were able to buy a shipment of rations from the capital, but we weren't able to properly get an escort for it."

"I still can't ignore this place. I feel like I have to do something here to levitate the famine, even by a little bit."

Motoyasu circled himself with his thoughts, trying to parse through the different solutions he could strike, but he wasn't a professional. He was simply a university student that was majoring in something completely different and it wasn't as if he had hobbies that included fighting a famine. He only hung out with his friends and played [Emerald Online] in his spare time.

'Wait, [Emerald Online]...?'

"Say, you wouldn't happen to have an unexplored dungeon around these parts, would you?"

"Unexplored dungeons?" The helper pondered at the odd question, but he earnestly thought about an answer. "I think there are some ruins off in the outskirts of the village, being about an hour or two by foot. Not sure what it has to do with the famine, but you're welcome to check it out. You'll have to ask a bit more about it though; I'm not much of someone that knows a lot about ruins."

It was a shot in the dark, but he might have latched onto some type of miracle.

"Is it off to the west?"

The helper widened his eyes, surprised at the remark. "You already know about it?"

"No, it was just a hunch," Motoyasu wryly smiled. "Maybe even a blind guess! It would have looked appealing if I got it right without even knowing!"

"I see." The helper felt a bit of cheerfulness, seeing the Spear Hero's happy mood. "Anyways, as far as I know, very few people enter into that dungeon. I was told that the monsters, although there are not many, were strong there, but they mainly kept to themselves within."

"Right down to the monster descriptions, huh?"

"Did you say something, Spear Hero?"

He shook his head. "Just thinking to myself. That's all."

)—(\IV/)|—(

The next morning, Motoyasu was already awake, the first one of the group to see the dawn's breakthrough. He put his usual outfit back on and feeling refreshed, he knew what the plan was for the day. It was going to derive from the planned schedule of heading out further, but there was no rush since that was simply a way to fight more monsters and find new spears for himself.

He had his map set out on the table in the small lobby, preemptively marked by that same helper.

He believed he had enough medicine and potions for the trip, but he didn't exactly have the luxury of making a full set preparation within a famined village. He was simply trying to remember the ins-and-outs of the quest that belonged in [Emerald Online], the one that was becoming more and more similar as he thought about it.

If the knowledge all matched up correctly, there was something inside that dungeon that would be able to not simply alleviate it, but fix it entirely. He wished he did some further research about this world before setting off, but there wasn't much he could do about it now. All he could do was make it part of his checklist to see what other similarities this world shared with [Emerald Online] and allow his gut instinct to lead the way here.

"Sir Motoyasu? What are you doing?"

Myne's voice surprised him as she walked up behind him.

"A-Ah, Myne. It's you. I didn't think you would be awake already. Are the others up too?"

"Yep, everyone else is just getting themselves presentable. Bed heads and all that." Myne peeked over his shoulder to see the marked map and a broken concentration on Motoyasu's face. "Are you planning something out?"

"It's just a little something," Motoyasu said, glancing back to the map. He pointed to the dungeon's area for her. "If my guess is correct, we should be able to find something in these ruins that would help out the famine greatly. It might even solve that problem entirely."

"Doing something more for the villagers?"

"I can't stand it, knowing that they're suffering. If I'll be a Cardinal Hero, I'll do my best to make everyone happy and if possible, I'll exhaust all my options."

"And you believe the answer will be in the dungeon?"

"Hopefully."

He looked over his shoulder to see Myne's face a bit too close to his own. As the incognito princess, it was difficult to not be flustered at her beauty, but it was that same pain that was tearing him from thoughts for Naofumi. It cancelled each other out as he managed to keep a straight face, yet agonizing feelings.

He really just wanted to know what truly happened that night, but that was straying from the concern at hand. Tackling more than one at a time would surely lead to a half-assed result and that was the furthest thing he wanted to provide to them.

"Do you think everyone will be alright with this little sidequest?"

"You're the one leading us and we've chosen to follow you. Why wouldn't we be?"

"I only wanted to check with everyone," he sighed. He held his cheek up with a planted hand. His gaze, although leering down at the map, was a bit distant. "I've been worried that there was some type of problem going on that I didn't know about and I would rather the issue be brought up sooner before it would be too late."

"Sir Motoyasu, I trusted you when you went against the accursed Shield Demon and I felt warm kindness from you ever since. I know you mentioned that he was once a friend of yours, but have you ever considered that he was not the friend you thought he was?"

"It wouldn't be the first time I misjudged someone based on how they acted to me, but…"

The memories of Naofumi back in their apartment were as fresh as ever, even down to when he was hung over and developed a fever as Naofumi took care of him happily without a word of displeasure. His enjoyment and innocent cheers were something that he wanted to learn for himself, free of burdens and hidden agendas.

He really didn't want to think about a scenario where that had all been lies.

He wanted there to be a truth that was untold that painted the real story of both claims of victim and culprit. His hand slowly clenched itself as a grimacing expression half-emerged.

"... W-We're getting sidetracked."

Recovering himself, Motoyasu shook his head and collected up his map, standing up from his seat and moving away from the table. Myne slightly flinched when he suddenly left his seat, but she stepped out to let him do what he pleased. He hoped that she wasn't taken aback from the odd gesture.

"The village chief set aside some food for us for the morning, but I'm planning on going out for a bit due to that. I want to repay him with some monster meat that they could use. I'll be back soon and when I do, we'll be heading out to that dungeon. Tell the others to get themselves ready, alright?"

"Of course, Sir Motoyasu."

He took one step out the door, but it was almost as if he froze there. His hand was stuck on the doorknob, unable to twist as he glanced back to Myne once more.

"... Hey, Myne?"

"Yes?"

"If you were hiding your true thoughts and emotions from me, would you… tell me?"

"You already know how I feel towards you."

"... I see. Thanks."

He went off without another word, but the conflicting thoughts were swirling around in his head.

He had to say that the monsters around these parts hadn't looked filling to eat, but they hadn't been all rubber like the balloon monsters he encountered during the first days of this adventure. The monsters could only be easily described as demon boars, but the mark hadn't been exactly that.

Though, it mattered very little since they were all eventually just a stack of materials and meat in his inventory. He did manage to unlock a spear out of it, but there wasn't anything noteworthy about it.

However, his mind kept swinging back to the trial.

He wanted to talk to Naofumi so badly and so desperately, but Aldrecht said that it would only endanger himself and Naofumi in the process. The Church of the Three Heroes were the masterminds behind the whole dilemma and has their eyes apparently glued to all of his friends. Since he seemingly went against Naofumi, he allegedly didn't have the same level of spying security from the Church.

Though, he could only imagine his friend hating his guts right now, not to mention Ren and Itsuki whenever they found out. It definitely scared him by a margin, wondering if it truly was a good idea to have that desire to see him again.

As Motoyasu killed the last monster, his sights glanced up at the timer unlocked by the Dragon's Hourglass.

[240 : 35]

There was over a week left until the next wave began.

He wondered if the promise was still going to be kept, by whom, and for what reason.

)—(\IV/)|—(

After providing the village chief with all of the earnings of his outing, the girls had been set to journey with him to the ruins. They took their carriage over there, making the trek a bit quicker, but it wasn't anything that would have cut the time by a large portion like a motorcycle or a car. The roads to the ruins were rather bumpy and they had to go carefully, but it gave everyone some ease on walking the entire way.

That alone was good enough for Motoyasu, as he kept up his walking pace. He positioned himself outside in order to defend against any possible monster flanks. However, there wasn't any that was too serious or warranted someone from the carriage to come out and help him.

After some time, Motoyasu could see the stone ruins built into a weathered cliff of red earth. The entrance had been blocked off by a sealed wall. To anyone's perspective, it looked like there wasn't anything worth mentioning, but Motoyasu came up and knocked on each part of the exterior wall until he felt a hollow sound emerge from the action.

Using only a normal skill, the wall was shattered into rubble, revealing the entrance for their access.

If he hadn't had evidence to believe that this was ripped straight out of [Emerald Online] before, the exact image of this dungeon would have been the nail in the coffin. The walls would regenerate after a while, so it was in their best interest to clear this dungeon while they weren't stuck inside.

However, Motoyasu made sure to mark the interior floor with his spear, just in case it occurred.

"So uh…?" Rino's voice called out to him as they stood by the entrance. "How is this going to help with the famine again? I don't remember you telling us clearly."

"If I'm right, then this dungeon has something called a Miracle Seed. It'll help the village with the famine if we're able to get our hands on it."

"Sir Motoyasu, you're quite smart! You even knew that the entrance was well hidden!"

Motoyasu got flustered at Myne's compliment, but didn't reveal any blushes.

"You're embarrassing me. This was nothing too complicated. I just knew about this place beforehand. I wasn't even sure if this place even existed, but I'm really glad it does. We can go save the villagers now."

If he had to be honest, it was rather strange that an environment from [Emerald Online] was here. He and his friends had already established that this world belonged to the book that he had brought home for Naofumi, so regardless of the similarities, it couldn't be treated as any more than a coincidence.

It aligned so much though.

Even the candles along the dungeon hallways had been in the same places.

In the game, the candles represented the time limit that the player had. The boss of the dungeon must be defeated before the candles burned out or else they would be booted back to the entrance. The main problem had been the maze that was between both sides, but it was discovered that there were only five different maze patterns and it wasn't akin to a randomization.

To compensate for the gimmick, the monster spawn rate was dialed down by a large margin.

He tried to follow the few versions that he did know about, but it kept leading the group to dead ends.

"M-Maybe Sir Motoyasu knew where he was going, but the execution was a bit mistaken…"

"I was sure this was the way though," he sighed at Lesty's wryly comment. "Maybe the layout was much different than I expected. I don't want to waste time by doing the failsafe strategy of all mazes by holding close to the right side, but…"

He decided to let his instincts carry him to the boss.

After wandering for a few minutes and dealing with the very occasional monsters, he started to feel a cool air emerge from down a path. Following it, they found themselves in a vast room that felt like some type of dream. It was obvious that the walls were made out of stone, but they were so blue and transparent that he could have mistaken it for ice.

Although, this didn't feel like a place where a boss battle would take place. In the game, it was a circular room where the dungeon's prize was held in the middle, propped up by an altar and surrounded by torches which screamed out evidence of a fight.

However, the contrast came in the form of a circular room that felt more like a research facility than a type of arena. Instead of torches and an altar, there was a lot of paperwork and lab equipment scattered around the area, unneatly thrown about as if a police squadron had swept the room.

"What is this place…?"

"You don't know?"

"The location is correct, but I didn't expect it to look like this."

He was starting to be scared that his second-hand knowledge was wrong.

"Look around for a seed of some type and tell me if you find one so I could check its validity. It should normally be in a small chest, but considering this wasn't what I was imagining, it might be held in some other manner."

As the group split up, Motoyasu was rolling over the different types of equipment that were cluttered. Some of them had signs of a fighting struggle, considering the damaged property and tipped furniture.

He knew the time limit was still going, as there were a few torches spread across the perimeter, but his curiosity started to get the better of him when he stepped on an old paper that looked like there was a spear on it. Picking it up, he started to read it on its crumbly sheet.

"The continuation of the ultimate weapon's experiments.

"Progress on the weapon's spear form had been successful. Upwards to ten spear forms could be inputted into the ultimate weapon and more are to be inserted eventually.

"However, it was later discovered that the individual replications were not problematic. It was when all of the weapons had been combined as a singular form when the energy levels started to become unstable. If the experimentation continues at a similar rate and the ultimate weapon is used without a proper solution, all of our progress will be reversed and all energy stored within will not be able to be exerted properly.

"The next step will be determining a method to solve this problem, but the alchemist's cavern will not be good enough for a potential solution. The experiment will be moved to another location until further notice and different types of projects will be held here instead.

"The path to creating the ultimate weapon, the replication of the heroes, has almost been completed. If this issue is fixed, this weapon will work as desired."

Motoyasu had to admit that this was a bit hard to read. The rest had been technical jargon that Motoyasu couldn't begin to fathom what it might have been talking about.

"Replication of the heroes…?"

The hiragana was a bit faded out at some parts, but there was enough of it that he could guess what the paper was all about. His interest piqued at the final sentence, mentioning the projects that this dungeon held and his blissful heart was hopeful that the Miracle Seed was one of them since it matched the ingame description of it.

"Sir Motoyasu! We found a chest!"

On Lesty's call, he set the paper on a nearby table and walked over to see.

At the back of the room, there was an ornate chest that was tucked away underneath some of the rubble. Rino tried her best to move it out, but he gently pushed her aside to do the work himself.

With a deep breath, he placed his hand on the treasure chest, but he didn't open it up quite yet.

"I have a feeling that this isn't going to be given to us for free."

"What do you mean?"

"When I open this up, there's going to be bricks that fall from the ceiling and create a hostile golem. The entrance will be closed off when it does until we beat it, but from what I know, the fight shouldn't be too bad. I just need everyone to focus on supporting me and firing magic at it."

"I-I understand!"

"Then I suppose we should get ready."

Motoyasu nodded at Rino's and Elena's words as everyone drew their weapons outwards in preparation.

He opened the chest and inside, his hopes were pleased, seeing the familiar shape of the Miracle Seed, sitting in the interior cushions like an egg in a nest.

As he predicted, there was a crashing noise behind them and turning around revealed the golem monster who had crushed some of the equipment upon entry. It wasn't exactly the same design as the game, but with the Miracle Seed in hand, there wasn't much he could complain about, especially when their levels had exceeded the dropped monster.

Pocketing the seed into his inventory, Motoyasu stepped up and spun his spear to a fighting stance.

"Alright, follow my lead!"

The golem noticed Motoyasu's deft approach and started swinging its arm to crash him in his wake, but Motoyasu's speed had been too quick for the large monster. It crushed his shadow, tearing it up into broken earthen pieces as he turned back to deal a four hit combo on the hand. It was enough to tear it off the main body, but it hadn't been bothered.

As Motoyasu gave himself some space between him and the golem, he noticed that the broken bricks had started to regenerate itself back into the hand. It then grabbed one of the lab furniture and threw it at him.

He was going to block it until Rino's fire magic blew it up and Elena's wind magic blew the smoke and residue away. Lesty buffed him with an attack spell, giving the power, while Myne's onslaughting fire magic onto the main body gave him the opportunity.

He ran into the golem, dragging his spear into the air with a leap.

"[Fang Thrust]!"

Lighting up the speartip, the skill executed in an upwards slash and then a downwards attack. It finished up with piercing thrust that was able to push the golem's large body backwards.

He landed on his feet as the golem slid to a halt, pushing all of the environmental items with its heel.

The damage was rather visible, being a direct hit on the golem's chest. Bricks were shattered onto the ground and where they had been, there was a strange core tucked as the underlayer. It didn't take much time for the bricks to start raising back to where he landed his skill.

Offhandedly, he counted about five seconds where it was exposed.

It was rather obvious that this was the weak point of the boss, but the skill only swept away a small portion. He needed to hit it hard for it to open up with a wider gap.

"Sir Motoyasu, watch out!"

With Rino's concerned calls, he saw that the golem took up more of the surrounding debris and tossed them where he was. He managed to duck the first one and the second one was destroyed by the girls, but there was an unexpected third projectile that followed in the shadows.

The golem had detached its fist and it was flying right at him.

Motoyasu quickly started charging up another skill and struck its light into the bricked attack. He winced at the sheer impact his arms received, but the golem had worse things to worry about, having its arm shattering into dust.

He could still see the broken rubble begin to shake and recover back to the main body, but Motoyasu ran alongside it. Spells were being fired out to help him get closer, but its left arm swung at him through the magic. Motoyasu forced himself to jump back to dodge it, but that space gave itself enough time to regenerate its arm.

He wasn't getting through with any fancy footwork, not that he thought he could, so there was only one other solution he could pull off. That would have been by brute force.

"Rino! Come!" Motoyasu held out his spear while keeping his eyes on the golem. "Let's do our combo skill!"

"O-Okay!"

She ran up quickly and held out her staff to his spear, casting a basic [Faust Fire] skill. The power was still flowing through his weapon, alit by a burning torch as he pointed the tip towards the golem.

"Time to be defeated!"

He sped up, drawing closer to the golem as it opened its arms as if it was going to try and clap him between the palms. However, Motoyasu's mind was thrown off when it slapped those hands against the ground, blasting a huge gust of air to blow outwards. It was strong, but it wasn't enough to stop Motoyasu's siege.

"Take this! [Burning Fang Thrust]!"

Like before, he cleaved it upwards and downwards, but the damage had been exponentially more noticeable. The body was torn apart, bit by pieces, as Motoyasu finished the skill with a strong strike to the exposed core.

It started cracking and not before long, it shattered causing Motoyasu to continue flying through the golem and landing on his feet. The golem, without anything to hold it together, was consequently defeated, returning back into a pile of bricks.

"You did it, Sir Motoyasu!"

"You're so strong!"

"You really did take care of that monster easily!"

"It wasn't anything too…" Glancing back at the golem, he supposed it was quite an achievement and they were all cheering him on. "W-Well, I guess that was a good job well done, right?"

Grabbing part of the shattered golem core, he managed to unlock another spear that improved his general status. It might have been handy someday in the future if he ever needed the improvement.

Moreover, Motoyasu was merely glad that it went so nicely.

Or so he assumed.

The room started to tremble as Motoyasu staggered to catch his footing. The girls on the other side of the room were feeling the same shaking.

"W-What's going on!?"

"An earthquake!? Is the dungeon falling apart!?"

The method that the dungeon would kick players out to the entrance would be through a method of collapse. It would send the party down into a lower dungeon, one without a time limit, forcing them to make their way out in order to restart the time limit with a newly constructed maze. Killing the boss would stop the time limit, so this was likely another difference in this world.

"But why…!?"

However, they should have at least a few more minutes to make it out. He didn't understand the reasoning for the premature collapse, but when he looked at the surrounding torches, he widened his eyes.

They were all blown out.

"That clap against the ground…!? The golem was smart enough to take out the flames in its final moments…!?"

The ground underneath him started to crumble as he saw the girls descend down with him.

There was a stone slide in its place, most likely the forced path to the penalty dungeon. All of the rubble and broken furniture had fallen with them, causing it to be difficult to see the other girls. He could still hear their screams of confusion and fear.

The slides were split up ahead and there wasn't any way for him to get to the girls in time.

"You four, stick together and find a way out! I'll figure out my own exit on my side! Stay safe!"

Those were his last words to them before their shouting became nothing more than an echo while the slide dropped him off a large hole. He braced himself and clenched his body, expecting the fall to hurt a bit.

)—(\IV/)|—(

"U-Urgh…"

He could hear his own groans pulsating through his ears. His body felt stiff from such a drop, but he hadn't suffered much damage. His mind was more concerned with the others and if they were able to get off the slide safely, but he needed to start moving about. If they were together, there shouldn't have been any monsters that they weren't capable of taking down.

All that was left on the checklist was for him to either regroup or find the exit. He preferred getting the former before the latter though.

He lit a nearby torch, thanks to what little knowledge he had of fire magic, and took it in his hand as he started surveying his surroundings. This place had looked exactly like the dungeon above, given its different layout.

Staring into the darkness, there was only one thing to do.

"... It's a bit…. lonely by myself. No matter. It's only temporary."

He began travelling through the corridors, hitting almost every dead end that he could find.

There were a few monsters he easily dealt with and some more spears that were unlocked. He found a few monster corpses on the ground that were fresh, meaning that the girls must have been through here. Rino's fire magic must have been the thing to char its fur.

There was a relief that they were in the same maze, but regardless, it was still a maze.

"I have to be getting closer. There's only so many dead ends that exist here…"

As he continued, there was a subtle ringing in his ear that started to show up. It might have been an effect of a certain monster he hadn't encountered here yet, but existed in the game. He wondered if this had been its effect, stalking him from the shadows. They don't have any direct combat abilities, but what they could do was—

"Dearest Motoyasu? Is that really you?"

Motoyasu's chest tightened and his body shook.

His breathing started to get heavy, gulping every moment he could get.

"I-It's… It's just a trick by those monsters…" he told himself. "They're not… actually…"

"We're not actually what, Motoyasu?"

When he turned around, the world around seemed to collapse into a dark void. Two spotlights flickered in the distance, far away from where he stood, but he didn't need to be close to them to be able to see their nondescript expressions. Their eyes were tucked away under their bangs, but even while he tried to stand with his sanity, it was starting to crumble underneath his feet like the torch trap he suffered.

His foot instinctively took a step backwards.

"I… I didn't…" He held onto his head. "I-I didn't mean to have it end up like…"

"Hmm? What's a bitch like you doing here?"

"Mind your business. All I wanted to do was meet my Motoyasu."

"Your Motoyasu?"

"Indeed, he was mine from the beginning."

They weren't talking to him anymore; they were starting to speak to each other in a violent tone.

"Wasn't it your fault that I died? You should go to hell for that."

"No, it was your dirty hands that caused me to die. You're the one that should be burning there."

Flashes of his memories started to flicker before his eyes as the longing pain was arising from his stomach.

"N-No… I-It was my fault! Don't be blaming anyone else! It was all my fault!"

His back foot kicked himself into a frantic run, but no matter how quickly or how long he moved, the spotlights didn't seem like they were getting any closer to him. Not even reaching out was doing anything to help him, but as he ran, they started moving towards each other with the same murderous atmosphere that he could remember clearly.

He could remember the blood.

He couldn't remember whose blood was on him.

There was an audible scream that reached the heavens.

He didn't understand.

Why was happiness so hard to give to other people?

He wanted them to smile and he believed that everything was alright, but the clues were already showing along their words and actions. He simply didn't want to see any of that and chose to believe his own truth, spun together by convenient lies. All he wanted to see were those smiles.

A smile.

Blood.

Another smile.

More blood.

He could remember all the beautiful smiles that they both gave to him, but it was the blood stained on his hands as he cried his heart out that left the everlasting impression on him. If he could have done anything differently, he needed to trust them in order to understand them.

It was his fears that were the knives that killed them.

"Motoyasu is mine! If you weren't around, he would have never been strayed away from me!"

"You were corrupting him with your devilish acts! Motoyasu deserves to be with me!"

"No! Stop it!"

As the figures attacked each other, he felt a sharp stab sensation on his side. His feet stopped running as he glanced out to see an unbelievable amount of blood gushing outwards, gradually feeling his strength becoming lost in the conflict.

His hand, consumed by the stain, flashed a younger palm before seeing his current hand dyed in the colour.

When he looked back up to the figures, they were both lying limp underneath the light. He forced himself through the pain to walk up; the world allowed him to do so, as he hyperventilated at the gruesome scene.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

He fell to his knees, being drenched in the growing puddle that emerged from both of their bodies.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

His hands finally felt onto the soaked ground as tears started to dripped down, mixing its transparent colour into its redness, consumed without making a difference in its shade.

"I just… wanted everyone to be happy…"

His voice croaked.

"It's my fault that it ended up like this… I should have trusted them more…"

Their lifeless expressions merely looked up from the ground to him.

"I… I shouldn't have survived. Why was I allowed to live…?"

His body gave up, slumping over the puddle far enough for his head to be touching the blood. All he could feel was the voice shouting out into the empty black void, reflecting his own screams back to him.

"Ikuyo! Momiji!"

)—(\IV/)|—(

Motoyasu suddenly opened his eyes to find his body leaning back against a wall underneath the midday sun. With sweat dripping down his forehead and a restless heart, his head was in a deep swirl and was due for a major headache in a few moments.

"H-He's awake!"

The voice came from Rino who was by his side as he woke up.

As she shouted it out, all the other girls ran up to check on how he was doing, but his vision had been blurry from waking up so quickly. His throat was dry and he wanted to collapse, but he had enough strength to keep himself up.

"W-What happened? Where am I?"

"We're outside the dungeon, Sir Motoyasu," Elena answered, handing him some type of fruit. He took it without any question, noticing a bit of a citrus aroma to it. It smelt rather calming, exactly what he needed in this situation. "Your screaming pulled us towards you as you were getting attacked by Voice Gengars."

"My screaming, huh?" he smiled wryly. Looking around, he was indeed just outside of the dungeon. The actual entrance had closed up again. "I probably seemed super uncool, wasn't I? I guess those Voice Gengars manipulated my senses and I lost control of myself. Everyone dragged me up here, right?"

"You were a bit heavy, but it wasn't anything too problematic," Lesty reassured. "Elena, Rino and I were more concerned with the random outbursts of shouting rather than the weight."

Motoyasu chuckled. "Then I owe everyone here a favour. Thanks."

"You should suck on that fruit," Myne pointed out. "Elena found it nearby and she says it helps with curing mental attacks."

Elena merely shrugged. "It's a bit convenient that there's a poriane tree right next to the place where you can suffer from what they can cure, but hey. There's no need to complain about such a thing. Though, there's only a single tree and the number of fruit it produces is limited, so we should count ourselves lucky."

There had already been a cut opened up for him as he sucked on it like a lemon, only without the sour part to it. Actually, it suspiciously tasted like an orange mixed with a peach despite the different colour and more elliptical shape.

He could feel his headache moving away already.

"Thanks again," Motoyasu said while he tried to stand back up. He staggered with his footing, causing Elena and Lesty to be moving to catch him if he fell, but he managed to plant himself straight without any assistance. "Let's head back to the village quickly and get the Miracle Seed to the village chief."

"Are you sure you can move around like that?" Myne asked. "You didn't look like you were in your right mind when you woke up."

"I'm flattered that you care about me, but I think I should be fine. This fruit really did help me out a lot." He took another drink out of the fruit's juice and followed up with a smile. "See? No problem here!"

"I feel like you're forcing yourself, Sir Motoyasu…"

"I'm fine! Really!" He grinned at Rino. "It'll take a lot more than that to take me down!"

"If Sir Motoyasu says he's fine, we should believe him. Arguing about it won't do any good," Elena said. "Getting back to the village should be our priority here."

"Erhm, I suppose that makes sense," Lesty murmured. "The carriage should be around the corner."

As the girls led the way for him, Rino glanced back to Motoyasu.

"Sir Motoyasu? Are you hiding your true feelings? You sounded like you were in distress when you were trapped in those attacks."

Motoyasu tried to put on his usual cheerful aura.

"W-What? N-No! Why would I? It was just a little nightmare I saw during the Voice Gengar attacks. There's really nothing for you to worry about. I promise!"

Rino kept her stare, grimacing in his response.

"A-Alright then."

)—(\IV/)|—(

The village chief was pleasantly surprised to see what had been given to him. He didn't know what it was, but Motoyasu quickly explained to him that he went out to the dungeon in order to get the Miracle Seed for the village. When it was planted, it would produce an abundant amount of food for the residents to eat. He was willing to give it up for free as a samaritan action from him which made the village chief almost jump for joy, if he hadn't been at the age where doing so would look unprofessional and weird.

However, the village chief brought up an odd comment as he mentioned the ruins.

Apparently, it belonged to a powerful alchemist in the distant past, but it remained unexplored because it was sealed with some type of powerful barrier. Motoyasu was a bit surprised, considering that the only real issue had been trying to find where the entrance was. He didn't even feel any type of barrier nor did anybody in the party.

The village chief merely disregarded that little point and decided to see if the seed would produce the mentioned results, planting it in the middle of one of the dying crop fields. Motoyasu watched as he prayed that he had been right.

Almost instantly, his hopes were satisfied. It took no more than ten seconds for the plant to immediately start growing with a large stalk and fruit started to grow along its branches. It was a bit weird how it happened so quickly, but it simply meant the famine was solved that much quicker.

The cheering from the onlooking villagers affirmed that notion.

After giving themselves a bit of rest of the day, it was back into the carriage to travel around in order to get stronger and help more people in need as a hero.

That's what he would have wanted, but the girls had unanimously agreed that they should take a break for the rest of the day. He had no quarrel with their decision, so he ended up lying down in his room for a bit, letting them do whatever they wanted to do.

After lying for a few minutes, he started to think it was a bad thing to do.

Every time he closed his eyes, the ringing of his ears would restart and the violent scenes of what happened half a decade ago would start playing in his head.

He knew he lied to Rino.

He knew he wasn't fine.

However, this burden wasn't something that needed to be shared. People deserve to feel happy, but they shouldn't need to feel pity for what happened to him in the past. That despair belonged to him and him alone as a constant remainder of reality.

That was the reason why he hasn't told Naofumi or Ren about it.

Itsuki had only known due to an accident out of his control, but if he had the choice, he would have kept it a secret from him too.

Motoyasu felt a heavy weight, crushing his chest as he laid still on the bed, only for the door to be knocked on a few times. He quickly pushed it off and brought out his casual expressions, calling out to the visitor.

"Come in."

He noticed the incognito princess emerged from the door before closing it behind her.

"Sir Motoyasu, I believe we need to have a private conversation."

Raising his eyebrows, he swept his legs off the bed and brought himself sitting upright. He was a bit concerned that Myne might have been chasing after the same problem Rino was bringing up, but he held his tongue, trying to not put any emphasis on that.

"What's up? You haven't been enjoying this break of yours?" he asked jokingly.

"No, it's not that. I've come in contact with some rather frightening news for you. I honestly don't know how to tell you this since you've told me that you and the other Cardinal Heroes were friends, but…"

Motoyasu straightened his back.

"But what?"

"... Well, the Sword Hero has been arrested back at the capital."

Motoyasu had merely blinked at the revelation.

He didn't have the words to express his utter confusion.

)—(\IV/)|—(

Author's Notes :

someone please end me

i just needed to get some shit out there fuck me grahhhhhhhh let me out of this arc alreadyttttttttttttttt

i cheated with this chapter got lazy fucking sue me

wake me up wake me up inside i cant wake up wake me up inside saveeeeeeeee meeeeeeeeeeee

)—(\IV/)|—(
SKIT 041 : Their Names

[Rino] : "Are you… really alright, Sir Motoyasu?"

[Motoyasu] : "I-I'm fine… You don't need to worry about the great Spear Hero, after all!"

[Lesty] : "You've been talking while you were unconscious though. It sounds like you were in a really bad nightmare from that monster's mental attacks."

[Motoyasu] : "I'm telling you two that it was nothing! You don't need to worry about me that much! It was… just a bit scary, that's all! A few frights and that was it! Talking about it will probably bring back some of the nightmares later tonight, so it's probably for the best that we leave the topic."

[Rino] : "I-Is that so…?"

[Motoyasu] : "Y-You know what we should talk about!? What I'm going to be cooking tonight! I managed to get enough food in my morning hunt to reserve enough for a midday meal before we head off into other places in Melromarc! Though, I think it's a lot better if I show you rather than tell you! C'mon, let's get back to town!"

[Rino] : "..."

[Lesty] : "..."

[Rino] : "H-Hey, Lesty? Do you… really think Sir Motoyasu is okay?"

[Lesty] : "I think the answer was… kinda clear from how he was talking."

[Rino] : "I just wonder what happened with Sir Motoyasu and the people named Ikuyo and Momiji…"

)—(\IV/)|—(

)—(\IV/)|—(
SKIT 041 : Voice Gengars

[Elena] : "You know, this isn't my place to mention this, but… Eh, never mind. I guess there's no need to bring up anything that will lead to nothing."

[Rino] : "Huh!? You can't just start off like that and not finish your thought! Now I'm curious!"

[Lesty] : "You were thinking about the Voice Gengars and how they affected Sir Motoyasu, right?"

[Elena] : "Oh? If you want to explain it to her, feel free. I'll just be on my way."

[Rino] : "Ah! She actually left!"

[Lesty] : "Well, Rino? Do you know about the Voice Gengar monster?"

[Rino] : "Those guys? Yeah, obviously. They're monsters that manipulate your thoughts and memories using their screeching voices and when you're down from it, they come in to kill you. That's why it's very dangerous to approach an area with Voice Gengar sightings by yourself. You need a team to deal with it. It's basic adventuring lessons!"

[Lesty] : "That's not actually the full story."

[Rino] : "Huh?"

[Lesty] : "I heard that Voice Gengars can be resisted when someone has good mental fortitude. Adversely though, those with weaker mentalities will take the attacks very hard."

[Rino] : "... Oh."

[Lesty] : "I think Elena is simply concerned whether Sir Motoyasu has the quality to be the Spear Hero if he was heavily affected by their attacks like that. I've never heard of someone taking a Voice Gengar attack as terribly as Sir Motoyasu did."

[Rino] : "S-Sir Motoyasu…"

)—(\IV/)|—(