Chapter 28

“Thank you for healing me…,” he said. Tomori shook her head slightly. “No… If you hadn’t stopped me earlier, I would have just hurt Watamaki with my magic instead…,” she muttered, slightly dazed. She blinked once, hard, and then glanced at Yuuma’s arm. “Was that…was that really Watamaki?” “It was.” Yuuma nodded firmly. “I’m sorry for keeping this a secret until now, Shimizu. I don’t know what could have happened to cause it, but Watamaki has become a monster race known as a Night Fiend, instead of a player character. That’s why I was able to capture her with my Monster Tamer Capture spell and turn her into a familiar… I swear I’ll find a way to turn her human again. I know it’s selfish of me to ask this of you…but will you help me?” Yuuma had spoken in a rush. He stopped now and stared directly at Tomori. The right thing to do in this situation would have been to bow, but he didn’t want to put any more pressure on her than he already had. Tomori was silent for a moment, as if having trouble processing the truth. She suddenly blinked and began speaking again. This time her voice trembled with fear. “B-but…Watamaki attacked us in the playroom… She injured Aida and Tada, and then when Miura tried to stop her, she…she… Oh god, his arm…” Tomori broke off mid-sentence, covering her mouth with her left hand and gagging. Yuuma froze stiffly, but Sawa rushed over and began awkwardly patting Tomori’s back. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that vomiting had been programmed into AM. Tomori was able to keep down the stew she had just eaten in Calcina. After a few seconds, she was calm again. She muttered a thank-you to Sawa and managed to stand back up by using her staff for support. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to see that…” “Don’t apologize… It’s my fault for bringing up bad memories…,” said Yuuma, not quite sure how to respond. Tomori shook her head slightly. “I know you didn’t mean to. But…Monster Tamers sometimes lose control of their familiars, don’t they?” Tomori had apparently read the guidebook closely. Yuuma nodded in reply. “Yes. Familiars have a stat called loyalty. The max starting value for loyalty is one hundred…but if loyalty reaches zero, they turn back into enemy monsters again.” “How high is Watamaki’s loyalty stat, right now…?” “Let me check…” Yuuma pulled the card out from his holster again and tapped it with his index finger. As he skimmed the status window that appeared, he noticed that her level had risen to 18 at some point. The important piece of information was located two lines farther down. “Currently…her loyalty is eighty-seven out of a maximum of one hundred. The last time I looked, it was sixty-four,” said Yuuma, reading the stat aloud. Tomori looked slightly relieved, but her lips soon tightened into a grimace again. “If that number reaches zero while she’s summoned, though, she’ll probably turn on us, right?” “Y-yeah.” Yuuma nodded once more. He doubted something like that would happen, but he had no proof other than his own conviction. According to the guidebook, “reasons that a familiar’s loyalty may decrease include being left hungry or at low HP for extended periods of time.” That phrase, “may include,” however, suggested that there were other reasons that the guidebook did not mention. For instance, there might be spells that could instantly drop loyalty to zero. If so, Yuuma’s control over a familiar could be instantly broken, and there would be nothing he could do about it. Tomori stared at the card in Yuuma’s left hand before abruptly turning away and saying softly, “I’m sorry… I can’t decide yet. Can you wait for my answer until after we’ve saved Sano and logged out again?” “Of course.” Yuuma answered without hesitation, but he still felt pretty apprehensive about it. If Tomori chose not to help them, she might even decide to tell the other students in the shelter about Sumika. There was no point worrying that far ahead, however. They had finally severed the cleansing steel chains sealing the door leading to Philos Island. Right now, their next step was to make their way through the underground passage and locate Nagi in the dungeon beneath the lord mayor’s manor. “Kenk, help me open the door,” Yuuma said as he put the card away. Kenk walked over to Yuuma’s side without speaking. They each grabbed one end of the chains that still hung from each door. “Three…two…one!” They began pulling at the same time, as hard as they could. The massive metal doors resisted at first, but once they started moving, they swung outward with almost disappointing ease. After checking for signs of monsters inside, Yuuma peeked at the reverse side of the doors. Kenk stepped closer. “Is there something on the doors?” he asked. His voice sounded serious. “No…I was just thinking, if this passage is for people to escape from the lord mayor’s mansion, there must be some way to open the doors from the other side, right? If the chains are on the outside, how do people open the doors from inside, then…?” As Yuuma explained, he pointed to a spot on the back of the door. Two threaded metal bars poked through from the other side of the door, likely the opposite ends of the U-shaped metal fitting to which the cleansing steel chain had been attached. The bars were fixed to the door with massive nuts, which had protuberances to allow them to be turned by hand. If you removed the nuts, you could probably hit the bars on their ends in order to knock the fittings out through the other side, causing them to fall to the ground, chain and all. Kenk seemed to grasp the setup as well. He groaned and frowned. “Seriously…? What a stupid gimmick! Why not just use a normal key instead…?” “Because a normal key can be opened with an unlocking spell.” “Oh… I forgot there was magic like that here.” Sawa interrupted their banter, apparently beginning to lose patience. “How long do you two knuckleheads plan on standing around?” “Sorry, hold on just a second!” Yuuma shouted back. Yuuma reached out and grabbed one of the nuts with his right hand. He was worried it would be fixed in place by the game system, but with a little elbow grease, it turned surprisingly easily. “Ah!” Kenk seemed to grasp what Yuuma was doing. With a small gasp, he rushed over toward the other door. The two raced to see who could remove the two nuts from each side and push their U-shaped fitting through the door first. The hunks of metal fell to the ground on the other side of the doors with a clang. Just as expected, after stepping around to look at their handiwork, they found the loose fittings and chains lying in two piles on the floor. Although they were only fragments of the original, the two chains were about fifty centimeters long each. They might be able to use them elsewhere, and they would probably fetch a hefty sum if sold. Yuuma gathered up the chain and fitting on his side and placed them into his inventory together with the two nuts. After confirming that Kenk had collected his own set, they raced back to Sawa and Tomori’s side. “Sorry for the wait!” “You know, if you go around picking up every item you see…” Sawa trailed off mid-sentence with a sigh. She spun on her heel, facing forward again. “Whatever, you’re the one who has to carry it home. Chop-chop! Let’s get moving already.” With that, Sawa began briskly walking forward. Yuuma ran after his sister without saying a word. He could feel Tomori and Kenk holding in their laughter from behind.