Neptune visited the mansion near midnight. In the salon, I rolled up my sleeve and showed him the eleven stars on my arm.
Like him, I’d started with a maximum of twelve. The reason I had eleven now was because I’d killed one fake me.
“Amazing. Really, I mean it.” For once, he looked serious when he said he was amazed. He always acted so detached, even when he asked for help. I’d even call him full of himself.
But this time, he seemed genuinely impressed.
“Do you think so?”
“It wasn’t worth much surprise that you’d defeated the fake me, but defeating your own imposter? That’s huge. He was strong, wasn’t he?”
“He sure was. It was a close one.” This was true. If I’d let him fire an acceleration at himself, I’d probably be the loser.
“Ahaha, of course. Super high-level fights always turn out like that.”
“I see.” That made logical sense. “Also, I know I got your permission before, but I defeated one Lil and one Ran each.”
“Yep, and I told you to do that, so no worries. Did you notice anything, though?”
“They’re both strong.”
“Yep. That’s exactly why I think it’s based on talent.”
“What do you mean?”
Neptune grinned. “Consider my fake 100%, and me 90%. Those Lils and Rans are 100%, while mine are more like 1%.”
“Why the difference?”
“Because it’s talent. Both of them have abandoned improving their own combat abilities. If you hadn’t become an adventurer, you’d work on different skills, wouldn’t you?”
“…Yeah, I guess I would.” I grinned wryly.
If I hadn’t become an adventurer─no, if I hadn’t come to this world─I’d still be a corporate slave, overworking myself to death forevermore. The only things I’d be improving would be my eating speed and the size of my eye bags.
It’s even simpler than that, huh? Maximizing power and mainly using physical attacks with some magic sprinkled in… It’s just a difference in training philosophies.
“So the ones there, then…” I said.
“Yep, I think they’re what would happen if the girls trained their close combat capabilities. They are monsters, after all.”
“I see.”
“Are you going back tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I want to go up two or three more floors. I’ll warp there so I can skip the lower floors and not worry about lowering anyone’s stars.”
“Ahaha! I really am glad I asked you for help. How reassuring! Did everyone who came to you for help before feel like I do now, I wonder?”
“I dunno.” I couldn’t answer that.
Ding!
A bell rang outside the mansion, signaling that the next day had come.
“Well, it’s late. I’d best be going,” Neptune said.
“I’ll get in contact if anything happens.”
“Yep. And if you find anything I can do, okay?”
“I won’t hesitate to call you for help.”
“Ahaha, you’re my boss now, so don’t hold back. Say jump, and I’ll ask you how high.”
“That’s not how our Family works.”
“I noticed.”
After that aside, Neptune got up to leave the mansion.
Knock, knock.
As if on cue, someone knocked on the door.
The door opened, and Emily came in─and was immediately pushed aside.
“Emily?!”
“Aaah!” she screamed.
Lil and Ran, from the Neptune trio, had barged in.
“You okay, Emily?” I asked her.
“Nep, this is bad!” Ran yelled.
“What’s the matter, girls?”
“Look at this,” Lil said, rolled up her sleeve, and showed her arm to Neptune. Like the two of us, she had star marks on it. I knew that already, but seeing them in person reminded me of how serious this situation was.
But here was the real cause of concern.
“There are fewer now?”
“Yeah. They’re going away.”
“Mine are, too! See?” Ran showed off her arm, too.
“What is going on… Hmm,” Neptune grumbled.
“What’s up, Neptune?” I asked.
“I have fewer now, too.”
“What?!” I looked at his arm. Like he’d said, there were fewer stars. “One more disappeared than the number of monster kills?”
“Yeah. Same with Lil and Ran.”
“Mine…haven’t gone down.” I rushed to look at my arm, but I still had the same number of stars.
We all thought to ourselves in silence. Eventually, we looked up at almost the exact same time.
“Did one go away because the day changed?”
“Is it the days passing that does it?”
We checked answers with each other. Our bounty of experience had helped us quickly analyze the situation.
Neptune and I nodded to each other, acknowledging the likely correctness of each other’s hypotheses.
“The question is, was the time between then and now worth one star…”
“…Or will it start going down by one star every day starting today?”
We nodded again.
Our answer came twenty-four hours later, when the bell tolled once more; the Neptune Family’s marks had automatically reduced by one again.
An unstoppable countdown had begun.