.
With the spectacle ended, the spectators moved off the beach, up into their village. A couple men stayed to strip Ryuu of his gear and clothing, then left the body laying there on the beach.
I had actually transitioned from my pixie form to the instructor’s booth when Ryuu died, and watched the gruesome ritual through the screen. Now that everyone had departed, I maneuvered the sphere into Ryuu’s range of vision and addressed him in my normal voice through the speaking tube.
“I’m very sure you are angry right now, Mr. Kowa. You probably hate me with a passion for putting Chiara through that.”
Actually, Chiara had been replaced by one of our NPC actor spirits from the moment Ryuu ‘died’ onward. There was no way I would put my Servant through such a thing for no good purpose. But I wasn’t going to tell him that. He needed to hate me, this scenario, and every moment of what he saw happening to Chiara with every ounce of his existence right now. Frankly, I started with that subject to reinforce his anger.
“Right now, I don’t care,” I stated coldly. “I have you in a state where you can’t argue with me, so I will discuss the things you did wrong, instead.”
I paused, but it wasn’t like he could respond. It was just a force of habit.
“First, you fell back on your same old beloved [Spirit Shot] attack. You did the same thing against the dragon. It works at times, but it has become your crutch, and it is usually not the right attack. It takes too long to develop, and it dilutes the impact by spreading out the mana too far. Wind may be your strongest element, but you possess all affinities, and you need to make use of the others when they are better choices.”
I sipped my tea– I had made the attendant serve me tea even though it was anachronistic in the setting, because I really don’t like the coffee-like beverage of choice available in the ‘Dragon Stage’ setting– then continued.
“Second, you rushed in without assessing the situation at all. The way you approached, rushing the village at a magically enhanced speed, they would naturally identify you as a threat, instantly.”
Beyond Ryuu’s lifeless form, I could see the first carrion scavenger approaching. It was time to finish.
“Finally, mages teamed up to cast a powerful joint spell against you, revealing the degree of threat they posed, yet you totally ignored them and got killed before you could accomplish a thing. What were you even thinking?”
I touched the little switch that rerouted my voice to the operator, and ordered, “Reset to the last save point.”
# # #
I wasn’t around for everything Ryuu experienced next, so I’m going to pretend I’m writing Isekai de niito ni wa narenai! for a little while. Well, not really, because the author fills in the things he thinks that Ryuu is thinking, even though, as far as I know, his clairvoyance doesn’t extend all the way into Ryuu’s brain.
I can do this because I did see recordings after the fact, but I will write in third person for a bit, for the sake of realism in the parts where I’m not present.
# # #
“Big Brother! Big Brother! Wake up!”
Ryuu was awakened by a little sea pixie pulling on his sleeve. He brushed her away, then sat up and surveyed the same place and conditions as before, except the sun was higher above the horizon.
He frowned and located the observation sphere, asking. “It’s earlier in the day?”
“The previous time around, you slept for an hour at the beginning, Mr. Kowa,” Tiana’s voice replied through the sphere. “Your little friend came to wake you up, this time.”
After climbing to his feet, he did a brief series of stretches, then turned toward the fishing village and began jogging, cranking it up to a run as soon as the ground became flatter.
“You’re using [Body Fortification] instead of [Strength Enhancement]?” she guessed, then corrected, “No, that’s Light mana. You’re using [Persistence].”
“You don’t approve?” Ryuu asked with a scowl.
“On the contrary, Mr. Kowa, I think it’s a good call. You have sufficient time on this round to arrive in time without magical enhancement at a full run, so you don’t need the speed boost from [Strength Enhancement], and with your magic capacity, you could run full speed for several hours using [Persistence] and still arrive fresh. So this choice leaves you in better shape for a battle.”
He grunted, casting the observer sphere a glance with his eyebrows bunched. Apparently he hadn’t expected praise.
“We shall see if you can also be smarter in other respects,” she added, and his expression soured.
“Maybe you can be a little less vicious?” he shot back. “Did you really have to hurt her that bad?”
“Regardless of your romantic feelings, Lady Chiara is mine to use as I wish, Mr. Kowa.”
His eyes widened, then his expression turned fierce. “And you wished to do something like that to her?”
“Not really. She got herself into that mess on her own.”
“How many times has she been ripped apart like that?” he demanded.
“Only the one time that you saw,” she replied. “I’m not heartless. Once I recognized that she was in an inextricable situation, I paused her scenario until I could insert you into it.”
“Why not just reset her?”
“For certain technical reasons, I don’t have that option right now. Her only available exit is to clear the stage, but, due to a mistake in the scenario, her last save point occurred after she was already hopelessly caught.”
“Then use a previous save point!”
“For certain technical reasons, that option is not available either. Actually, the moment I inserted you into the game, roughly ten minutes ago, has now become the new save point. She is already unable to escape. As I stated, it’s an inextricable situation.”
“Then use your Elder magic to do something about it!”
“I did do something, Mr. Kowa,” she replied plainly. “I inserted you into her scenario so that you can rescue her.”
He let out an audible growl, then looked over at the pixie flying next to him as he ran.
“I remember the way. Can you fly ahead and check on her?”
“Check?” the pixie asked, tipping her head.
“It’s an hour earlier, right? Maybe she’s not in the shackles yet. Or at least you can reassure her, let her know we’re coming to get her, right?”
The pixie zipped ahead at high speed, disappearing in the distance in a matter seconds. Ryuu set his jaw and kept running.
The concern that was etched deep on Ryuu’s face was understandable. Although she may have died from blood loss from the amputations even before the first bite from the sea wolf boss, perception did not end with death in this simulation. She was aware of her body being consumed, bite after bite. In the worst case, she was already shackled to the post once again, doomed to wait an hour for a repeat of the experience that was still fresh in her mind.
The voice spoke to him again through the observation ball. “Since we have time, I would like to offer some recommendations.”
“I already heard you, okay? I blew it! I rushed in without thinking, and I didn’t expect a bunch of villagers to have attack magic that effective!”
“And you relied too much upon [Spirit Shot],” she added in a dry voice.
He shot the ball a glare, then his mouth twisted.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s inefficient,” she stated. “The effect spreads too wide for targeted damage, and the casting speed is too slow as a defensive tactic. You need a better ranged attack, and you need a better shielding magic.”
He didn’t reply, but she had more to say, anyway.
“And the biggest issue is, you’ve become content with it and stopped seeking more powerful tactics. You’ll never kill the Demon King with [Spirit Shot], Mr. Kowa.”
“Are you just here to criticize, or do you have something better to suggest?”
“You’re a magic swordsman with an affinity for all elements, Mr. Kowa,” she stated. “Do you have any idea how rare that is? Why are you hung up on using just Wind mana?”
He scowled and pressed his lips together.
“Could it be, once you mastered Wind, that you began focusing on making it as strong as possible and never practiced the others? You learned body magic skills using other elements, but I haven’t seen you use anything but Wind with your sword.”
“It doesn’t matter what element I use, I just have to make it as strong as possible! What good does it do to spread my effort out across seven elements if they’re a seventh as strong?”
The voice from the ball was silent. He kept running, his feet pounding away at a pace only an olympic runner could maintain at this point.
Finally, her voice came across again. “I am very angry with your instructors right now, Mr. Kowa. To think they allowed you to leave their care equipped with such a ridiculous idea.”
“What’s ridiculous about it?” he demanded.
“First, although you will probably improve a bit more as your spiritual strength increases, you have largely maxed out your Wind element potential. You are now hitting as hard as you will hit, relying on Wind alone.”
“If I go back to another element, I’ll become weaker, then grow until I max out at the same strength!”
A deep sigh came from the observation sphere.
“What?!”
“Go back and study your elements, Mr. Kowa. Then figure out how you can use multiple manas in your attack.”
“You need a magic item or a spell for that!”
“Then learn a spell. You have the potential for spellcasting. Besides, although spells make it easier, they are not a necessity. Also, now that you’ve begun mastering spiritual strength, you can use that to make it easier as well.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have time for this. I need something I can use right now.”
“You surely know other attacks, even if you haven’t maxed them out. Don’t keep showing those magic users the same attack. They are highly competent mages. They were casting combined spells.”
“When did villagers ever have that kind of magic?”
“This is the Elder Age, Mr. Kowa. Monsters that survived from the primordial age are still roaming the world, especially in the oceans. Everyone in this age is either dangerous, or dead.”
Ryuu had no more time for the sphere and Tiana’s voice from this point forward, because the village was now visible in the distance. He settled into a trot and angled for the stream, then used a [Strength Enhancement]-fueled leap to jump to the other side so he could approach unseen.
At this time, the pixie found him once more, flying up close enough to him that he could read the expression on her tiny face. She had a very somber look.
“Bad thing, Big Brother! Big Sis already tie tie!”
He shook his head, his expression growing grimmer. Then a voice entered his head… Tiana’s voice.
Don’t react and don’t reply. I don’t trust whoever is on the other side of the observation sphere.
His eyes grew, then he studiously set his expression to neutral.
The pixie said, “Pixie tell Big Sis no cry cry! Big Brother coming!”
Possibly reacting to something odd in her tone, Ryuu frowned over at the tiny creature, his eyes uncertain.
As the pixie stared back into his eyes, Tiana’s voice entered his head again.
The person in the instructor booth is imitating my voice, Mr. Kowa. I’m not running this simulation. I’m the pixie flying next to you. And it seems I can’t log out.
