The Corrupt Guildmaster Shows the Difference
“Uoraaah!!!”
Zeiss’s spear aimed for Aron’s neck. Even though it was a weapon meant for mock combat, it was a powerful strike that would render him instantly unable to fight if it landed. Aron narrowly evaded the attack by a hair’s breadth.
“His movements are different from before…!?”
“It’s been a long time since I got serious!! I’ll crush you with everything I’ve got!!”
Aron launched a counterattack, a sweeping horizontal slash. But just before it touched Zeiss, the blade’s trajectory was forced off course.
“Damn it…!! That ability that blocked Galius’s attack…!!”
“Good strike, but you won’t break through my wind barrier!!”
Aron’s sword was repelled, creating a brief opening. Zeiss thrust sharply toward the now-wide-open Aron.
“Defense Up ×3!!”
The spear struck toward Aron’s abdomen. Despite stacking enhancements, Aron was blown backward.
“Guuuuuh!!?”
Blown away, Aron slammed into the ground the instant he touched the wind barrier enveloping them, crushed by the force of the wind.
“Gah!?”
“Is now the time to be lying down!?”
Zeiss lowered his spear and charged. He leapt into the air, once again tracing a spiraling trajectory.
“Spiral Thrust!!”
“Guh… Strength Enhancement ×3!!”
With Strength Enhancement stacked atop Defense Up, Aron braced himself and caught Zeiss’s Spiral Thrust with his sword. A sharp metallic clang echoed across the area.
“Fangs of the Great Beast are strong, but…”
“Our Aron is holding his own against them!”
“Do your best, Aron-san!!”
“You can beat him!!”
The surrounding adventurers shouted their encouragement. Alongside those already eliminated, even some who had withdrawn from this selection exam began to gather.
“Uoooooooh!!!”
Aron activated Strength Enhancement two more stages. The instant he planted his foot, cracks split the stone pavement with a loud sound. Using the spring of his entire body, Aron blasted Zeiss backward.
“…!? You’ve gotta be kidding me!? He pushed back my Spiral Thrust…!? This is fun!!”
Zeiss’s wind barrier fused into his Spiral Thrust, adding the power of wind to its rotation. Spinning on his heel, Zeiss charged at Aron once more.
“Here I gooooo!!!”
Kicking up the surrounding stone pavement, Zeiss’s Spiral Thrust rushed toward Aron. Aron raised his sword high into the air, just as he had when he first awakened his power. He closed his eyes, focusing.
“That guy’s an idiot! Zeiss-san’s charge is on a completely different level from before! There’s no way he can stop it!”
Wilx shouted excitedly. I held him back with a hand.
“W-what…?”
“I don’t want to miss even a single moment. Be quiet for a bit.”
That man, Zeiss, uses the power of spirits to boost his speed and defense, in other words, he possesses a hybrid ability combining Fiel and Lizette. On top of that, he supplements his offensive power with the technique known as Spiral Thrust. He’s practically the ideal adventurer. Thinking about it…
“He may be A-rank, but his actual strength is already at S-rank level.”
“… Huh. You’re good at evaluating your enemies.”
Abilities and information outside my original-story knowledge. I see, everything up to now really had been just the tutorial.
“Accurately grasping an adventurer’s capabilities is also necessary for a Guildmaster. But…”
“What?”
… Heh. Interesting. Even after surpassing the tutorial, I can still think this.
We can win.
“This match is our victory.”
Because we, too, possess people who were “never depicted in the original story.” Just as Emidia is that person for me, Aron has “her” in this worldline. I was convinced of it.
As the power-amplified Spiral Thrust bore down on him, Aron opened his eyes and shouted.
“Sylvia!!”
It was a call to his comrade, Sylvia. In the direction of his voice stood the female mage Sylvia and the old mage Yolm, both holding their staves ready.
“Yolm-san! Please!!”
“Hohoho! Gale Shot!!”
A sphere of wind shot forth from old mage Yolm’s staff. A bullet of swirling air currents slammed directly into the wind barrier deployed by Zeiss. The wind bullet, wrapping airflow within itself, dug into the barrier.
“Zeiss-chan has deployed a wind barrier, you know? Magic won’t get through. And a wind bullet, no less…”
An attack of the same attribute, two mages, and Sylvia’s unique skill…
I see.
“It’s precisely because it’s the same attribute that it works.”
“W-what are you talking about…?”
Cassandra’s voice wavered for the first time. Sylvia, you really came up with something interesting. That’s exactly why you’re the leader of the A-rank party Red Dragon’s Wings.
Sylvia cast another spell toward Yolm’s Gale Shot.
“Storm Dragon!!”
The tornado spell Sylvia unleashed swallowed the Gale Shot embedded in the wind barrier. The next instant, the tornado enveloped the barrier and fed wind into the Gale Shot. Empowered rapidly by the newly generated air currents, the Gale Shot broke through the barrier and struck Zeiss head-on as he was unleashing his Spiral Thrust.
“Guaaaah!? What the hell!? Why did the wind barrier—!?”
Wind magic has the property of changing its power based on airflow. What happens when you combine that with Sylvia’s unique skill, Pierce?
The magical resistance values forming the spells melt together and fuse. It’s not as easy as it sounds, of course. Most likely, embedding Yolm’s Gale Shot into the barrier was the key. That created a distortion in the barrier’s composition. Then Storm Dragon generated air currents and fed them into the Gale Shot…
Sylvia shattered a wind barrier that should have been impossible to break, using magic of the same attribute.
It was a combination technique only possible with deep magical knowledge and a clear understanding of each individual’s abilities. In such a short time, Sylvia had fully grasped Yolm Andersen’s capabilities.
Because she herself lacks brute force, she understands her allies and draws out their maximum potential… leadership completely opposite to Zeiss’s. Zeiss, who specializes in individual combat power, would never comprehend this.
The Gale Shot entangled Zeiss’s Spiral Thrust itself, twisting its trajectory. With the spiral forcibly distorted, Zeiss was thrown defenselessly before Aron.
“Wha—!?”
“Our… victory!!!”
Aron slashed once with his sword. The strike landed squarely on Zeiss’s shoulder and slammed him into the ground.
“Gyaaaaaaah!!?”
Zeiss screamed. Aron reached out and tore away the string around Zeiss’s neck.
“Zeiss Rickelsen, disqualified!!”
At Emidia’s declaration, the area erupted in thunderous cheers.
“Uoooooooaaaah!!!”
“Aron wooooon!!!”
“This is insane! He took down the leader of Fangs of the Great Beast!?”
“Sylvia-san is amazing!!”
“I can’t believe Yolm Jiisan played such a big role…!?”
At that moment, the final members to pass the selection were decided.
A-rank adventurers Aron, Sylvia, and Galius of Red Dragon’s Wings. And D-rank adventurers Fiel and Lizette. And finally, the one who had quietly survived until the very end…
“Hohoho. Peace, peace!”
B-rank adventurer Yolm Andersen responded to the surrounding adventurers with a peace sign.
“T-this can’t be… Fangs of the Great Beast are the strongest in the Ilios Guild… they’ve never lost to anyone…”
The shock must have been overwhelming. Wilx’s eyes grew watery as Cassandra patted his head, her own face clouded with a sullen expression.
It was a surprisingly charming look, one you’d never imagine from the composed or cold expressions she’d shown in recent days. From that alone, it was clear that her usual demeanor was merely the mask of a woman named Cassandra.
“You don’t look convinced, Cassandra.”
“Of course I’m not convinced. Zeiss-chan was serious, you know? I never thought he’d lose.”
“If it had been the usual Fangs of the Great Beast, Aron and the others would’ve been in danger.”
“The usual? What do you mean?”
“Before the melee began, Fangs of the Great Beast gathered around you. You were firing them up then, weren’t you?”
As if something clicked, Cassandra snapped her fan shut. Her expression showed realization.
“Ah… I see… the usual… huh.”
Cassandra muttered to herself, while Wilx looked back and forth between us, clearly confused. She already seemed to understand, but since Wilx was here, I explained the cause of their defeat in a way he could grasp.
“If you had simply told Fangs of the Great Beast to ‘fight as a party like usual’ and left it to their initiative, this outcome would have been completely different. But you said, ‘Show them your strength.’ That was the cause.”
“Y-you!! How dare you say that to Cassandra-sama—!!”
“That’s it.”
“… Huh?”
“You are an ideal guild organization with a strong sense of unity. Your trust in Cassandra is deep. Precisely because of that, a single word from the Guildmaster carries enormous weight. Fired up by you, they must have thought, ‘We have to secure this quest no matter what.’”
Wilx clenched his fists. He tried to grab me, but Cassandra stopped him.
“It’s fine, Wilx… Yes, he’s right. This one’s on me. They were already tense from being on expedition. I should have stayed silent.”
Being the away side, they acted as “those who take” in order to secure the quest, something that would never happen in a normal dungeon run. In contrast, Sylvia, leader of Red Dragon’s Wings, acted as “one who protects.” Though it looked like both sides had dispersed their forces, the underlying structure was completely different.
Zeiss split up his existing forces in order to annihilate the enemy.
Sylvia formed adventurer teams to maximize her available forces and moved to pick them off individually.
That difference decided the outcome.
Conversely, it also showed just how trusted Cassandra is as a Guildmaster. Realizing that was the greatest takeaway this time.
Cassandra nodded repeatedly as if convincing herself, then shrugged her shoulders.
“Luminage is a fine guild too. Aside from Red Dragon’s Wings, there’s Lizette, the Black Lightning, and… Fiel, was it? Adventurers with power beyond their rank. And then…”
Cassandra cast her gaze ahead. There stood Yolm Andersen, surrounded by adventurers.
“… Sigh. I really feel how clouded my own eyes have been. I can’t help but envy Zilkein-chan’s keen insight.”
Cassandra gave a wry smile. The sharpness in her eyes, the look that had been testing me, was gone.
What do you think about this chapter?
