chapter02 · 071-ep63
Episode 63: The One Who Wrote the First Story
The morning of the day before we left for Tokyo, my phone had been ringing off the hook since breakfast.
The middle-school group.
Osawa: "Dungeons over Obon. Let's go."
Miyake: "Moriyama Floor 50 — I think we're about ready!"
Yamabuki: "You're coming too, right, Saku?"
Fujidou: "Come."
I wanted to go.
I wanted to go SO bad.
But.
Saku: "Sorry — Tokyo over Obon."
Osawa: "TOKYO?!"
Miyake: "What for?"
Saku: "Dungeons."
Osawa: "Called it."
Yamabuki: "Knew it."
Fujidou: "Souvenir."
Saku: "What do you want?"
Fujidou: "Stories about Tokyo's dungeons."
So Fujidou.
Saku: "You'll get a TON of stories. Brace yourself."
Miyake: "When you're back — Moriyama!"
Saku: "Absolutely!"
Before noon, the high-school group rang this time.
Yano: "Let's go to the summer festival!"
Yano: "The Obon one!"
Nishino: "Going!"
Matoba: "I'm wearing a yukata!"
Horiguchi: "......The food stalls."
Yano: "What about you, Ichinose?"
The summer festival.
I'd wanted to go to that, too.
Saku: "Sorry — Tokyo over Obon!"
Yano: "Aww!"
Yano: "Dungeons, right?"
Saku: "Dungeons."
Yano: "Knew it!"
Matoba: "'Dungeon' already shows up in Ichinose's predictive text."
Kuzumi: "......When you're back, come to the shop."
Saku: "I will, I will."
Yano: "Souvenir!"
Yano: "And photos of Tokyo's dungeons!"
Yano: "I'm showing Heine and Hikari too!"
How would I even show Heine and Hikari, I wondered.
But somehow, it made me happy.
Afternoon. Shidami dungeon, Floor 12.
Continuing from the chamber where I'd parted with Tva.
Today, I'd brought Tva's katana. Out of the cloth, and into my waistband.
It had no name yet.
But every time I gripped it, it settled into my hand.
Floor 13. Floor 14. Draw, cut. It wasn't like One Life, One Strike, where only the first stroke carried the power. It wasn't like Durandal, which powered through whatever it cut. It was simply, always, easy to swing.
That alone was plenty.
On Floor 15, I stopped.
The men first, in order.
Vira. Wilhelm. Leon. Tva.
Next was the last of the men.
The Eighth Seat.
I opened the Executives' volume.
The concept art showed a man in human form.
Except — six wings on his back. White wings, black wings, and demon-like wings. Horns on his head. Halos, many layered, floating at the right and left of his head.
Beside it, in my handwriting:
"The one who wrote the first story"
"The stories he wrote became real"
"Now and then, the gods and heroes and demons inside him talk on their own"
"Both man and woman (myths have both)"
Not written: "loves the King."
He was a woman, too — yet this line alone was missing.
Apparently the me of back then had drawn some line of his own. What the line was, even I don't understand.
Anyway — the men's slot should be fine. Probably.
"The stories he wrote became real."
I traced that line with a finger.
Same as me.
Adam Oligo Mythos.
The one whose written stories gained power, who was swallowed by those stories and forgot even his own name.
The one the King picked up — and gave a name to.
"Let's call him."
Five lines of words came flowing in.
"—The first line ever written: the oldest of hero tales."
A line of light ran across the stone floor.
"—The gods written rose to heaven; the heroes written went down to earth; the name of him who wrote, into the boundless sea of stories."
The lines drew circles. One ring. Two. Three.
"—Yet so long as the King calls, thou art here."
A strange light, like white and black mingled together, brimmed within the magic circle.
"—Tehom Rabbah, Eighth Seat."
"—Come forth, 'The First Myth.' Speak at my side!"
The magic circle burst.
Wings spread from within the light.
Six of them.
White feathers, black feathers, batlike membranes of wing. They spread to fill the chamber's whole ceiling, then folded slowly closed.
At their center stood a man.
Wings, horns, and halos aside — an ordinary person.
A calm face whose age you couldn't place. It could read as a man's, or a woman's. A white shirt. Black trousers.
The man opened his eyes.
Quiet eyes.
"......My King."
The man dropped to one knee.
"Adam Oligo Mythos, Eighth Seat of Tehom Rabbah. To be called upon by you is an honor—"
『—AT LAST, thou callest upon me, O King!!』
A thunderclap of a voice burst out of the man's mouth.
The stone chamber buzzed and trembled.
"Wh-what—?!"
『What treachery — leaving ME, lord of the thunderbolt, last of the men!』
『Hold, hold! The first greeting belongs to us of the sun—』
『O King! Kiiing! The company of the hero tales adores thee, one and all!』
『Kukuku...... O King, strike a pact with me— no, one cannot pact with the King, was it not so. Then nothing remains but to kneel.』
『Don't kneel, you demon — it's creepy!』
『Cut it out — quit shoving — I'm first!』
From one mouth, voices came pouring out, one after another.
Low voices. High voices. Old men's voices. Boys' voices. Women's voices. A majestic, godlike voice; a hot-blooded, hero-ish voice; a slimy, demon-ish voice.
All of them — from the same man's mouth.
"Wh— hold on, wait—"
『O King! Behold my lightning!』
Lightning crackled across the chamber ceiling.
『As if I'd lose! Behold my flames!』
A pillar of fire rose from the floor.
『Then I shall give flowers!』
From who-knows-where, a deluge of petals came raining down.
"WHOOAAA?!"
Amid the lightning, the fire pillar, and the blizzard of petals, I crouched down hugging my head.
And at the center of it all, the man was desperately clamping both hands over his own mouth.
"-mmph! Mmph, mmnnh......!"
Even with his mouth covered, voices kept leaking through the gaps in his fingers.
『Unhand me, Adam! There is that which we would say to the King—』
『Indeed — we too have the right to speak with the King—』
"......Q-quiet...... down......!"
The man shouted — at himself.
The six wings snapped wide with a whomp.
The right-side halos and the left-side halos blazed bright, all at once.
The lightning in the chamber stopped dead. The pillar of fire fizzled away. Only the petals kept fluttering down to the floor.
Silence.
"......Hah...... hah......"
The man was breathing hard from his shoulders.
Sweat beaded on his brow.
"......F-forgive me. ......None of that — was me."
"Right. I could tell."
"......The ones inside learned the King had called, and, well...... they are getting rather carried away."
The man bowed his head, looking truly mortified.
Now and then, the gods and heroes and demons inside him talk on their own.
It was exactly as written.
Except — today, it wasn't exactly "now and then."
"Adam — is that all right?"
"Yes. Everyone calls me that. The King did so as well."
"Are you okay? That's, um... a lot of sweat."
"......I am fine. I am used to it."
Adam wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve and smiled, calm and easy.
"Normally they do not come out this far. ......Today, having been called by the King, none of them seem able to hold it in."
『Naturally!』
"Quiet."
『......Yes.』
Adam snapped back, instantly, at the voice that had come from his own mouth.
He was doing a comedy routine all by himself.
"Then — for me?"
"'Saku-sama,' I believe."
"Yeah. Figured it'd end up there."
"I followed the First and Second Seats. ......The Fourth and Sixth appear to go without honorifics."
"And you, Adam?"
"......For me, 'Saku-sama' is fine."
A calm smile.
"If I were to drop the honorifics, I fear someone inside would take to calling you in some grand tone of his own accord."
『O Saku!』
"See?"
"Yep. Fast."
The Floor 16 door opened, and five haniwa came pouring in.
One of the halos on Adam's right side flickered alight.
From the chamber ceiling, a single white spear of light came down.
One haniwa shattered.
"Whoa. Awesome."
"Myths are, after all, without limit."
『Let me have a turn!』
『No — me!』
『A moment to shine, for the King!』
"......No. One at a time, in order—"
Before Adam could finish, three of the left-side halos lit up at once, on their own.
A demon's black flames, a god's pillar of ice, and a hero's colossal hammer — all of it came down together.
The remaining four haniwa were blasted out of existence, without a trace.
And, incidentally, a large crater opened in the chamber floor.
"......"
"You're kidding."
Adam had both hands over his face.
"......My deepest apologies. ......I could not stop them."
"No, I mean — you saved me, but. The floor's gouged out, isn't it."
『Well, King?!』
『Did you see our power!』
『Praise us!』
"......QUIET!!"
Adam's shout rang through the chamber.
I burst out laughing before I could help it.
Because they all looked like they were having fun.
The god bellowing for praise, the heroes dying to announce themselves, the demon aching to kneel. And Adam, desperately holding them back — angry, and yet somewhere in it, having fun too.
The laughter wouldn't stop.
"......Saku-sama?"
"No, sorry — it's just, everyone seemed like they were having so much fun......!"
Adam kept the troubled look on his face — and still, the corners of his mouth softened, just a little.
"......Yes. They are having fun. ......I am, too."
From there, all the way to Floor 21, it stayed exactly like that.
The moment I tried to cut with Tva's katana, some god's lightning would land first. Adam stopped it. This time a different god rained flowers down. Adam stopped it. One of the heroes started in with "I would announce myself before the King!" and Adam clamped his mouth shut. One of the demons started in with "The souls of the King's enemies are mine to claim" and Adam got genuinely angry.
Honestly, it was way noisier than diving alone.
But I laughed the whole way through.
On Floor 21, it came time to head home.
"Adam."
"Yes, Saku-sama......"
Adam looked, unmistakably, dead tired.
"Thank you for today. ......That was a ridiculous amount of fun."
"......Then I am glad."
Adam lowered himself to one knee.
A magic circle floated up at his feet.
"Saku-sama."
"Yes."
"......I am the last of the men, I believe."
"Yeah. That's everyone."
"Next would be the Third Seat, I take it."
"Probably, yeah."
"The Third Seat has been braiding her hair, waiting, for quite some time. ......Do brace yourself."
"Huh? I need to brace myself?"
"You do. Far more than for the ones inside me."
An instant answer.
The Third Seat — what kind of person... no, wait. I'm the one who wrote her.
The light slowly wrapped Adam's six wings.
The instant before he vanished, voices burst from Adam's mouth, all at once.
『Call us again, King!』
『Next time, I go first!』
『We shall be waiting!』
『I shall have flowers ready!』
『Kukuku...... next time, I shall show thee my kneeling form.』
This time, Adam didn't cover his mouth.
He only smiled — troubled, and just a little delighted.
The light died.
On the chamber floor remained a crater, scorch marks, and an enormous mass of petals.
On the way home, wrapping Tva's katana in its cloth, I opened my phone.
In the middle-school group, a single photo had arrived.
Osawa, flashing a peace sign in front of Moriyama's Floor 50 transfer circle.
Osawa: "Made it before Obon!"
Miyake: "We got there even without Saku!"
Yamabuki: "Have fun in Tokyo."
Fujidou: "Waiting on those stories."
And in the high-school group, a photo of Yano in her yukata.
Yano: "Rehearsal for the big day!"
Yano: "Be careful in Tokyo!"
Miyake. That was one line too many.
"Hehe."
Grinning, I typed out a reply.
Saku: "I'm off!"
From tomorrow, Tokyo.
One week.
With big sis, and Seina.
And Tokyo's dungeons.
I hugged the cloth-wrapped katana tight.