Ch.164164. Complete Resolution

Arpatustu is a demon in human form.

Though slightly elongated, he still barely maintained a form that anyone would recognize as human.

But now, the creature was transforming its body.

Larger, into the form of a beast somewhere between a bear and a tiger.

Demons as a race don’t transform. They don’t have such abilities, nor do they need to hide their true appearance.

They simply go around as they are.

However, the demon before me was denying this fact, squirming and changing its form quite effectively.

At the same time, bizarre sounds that made me want to cover my ears began bursting forth.

───!!

I wasn’t surprised. This was expected.

“Still, seeing it in person is somewhat overwhelming.”

Its already unnaturally elongated body, more stretched than a normal human’s, was swelling up.

As it transformed into a massive beast, it felt rather majestic.

“Despite your weakness, I acknowledge your courage to stand in my way! Die!”

It was rather troublesome that it was swinging its arm at me with that majestic bulk.

Judging by its comments about weakness, it seemed to have immediately recognized my poor stats.

And… in the current situation, I really was weak.

‘Because there’s nothing I can do.’

Currently floating in the air due to Celia’s magic, my movements weren’t free. So dodging was impossible.

A frontal paw attack in its transformed state. Parrying wasn’t an option either.

I was in a situation where I’d be helplessly hit once and die… but I remained calm.

As long as my levitation was maintained by Celia, she would block any attack that reached me.

And… I already had a countermeasure prepared.

I take out the prepared item from my inventory.

[Dawn’s Edge]

[The quiet time before greeting the morning.]

[Designates a certain area as the time of dawn.]

Simultaneously, the bizarre noise completely subsided.

The space suddenly became quiet. At the same time, Arpatustu’s transformed form reverted to its original state.

I could see it shouting something in confusion, but unfortunately, it was dawn now, so I couldn’t hear it.

Dawn’s Edge.

Both the name and description gave a very sentimental feeling, but despite such weak descriptions, its performance was definite.

Because this… is a reality-altering item.

As the description says, it changes a designated area to the concept of dawn… that is, a time of silence.

Though it’s called reality alteration, it just makes it dawn, so it doesn’t particularly affect game balance. I used it very frequently in the game.

Dawn was the shortest time period in-game, and there were quite a few achievements and gimmicks only possible at dawn.

They weren’t really necessary, but I have memories of thoroughly exploiting this item to complete them all.

The reason I immediately thought of this item as a countermeasure was because I had used it so much and knew how to use it well.

So, how did I undo Arpatustu’s transformation with this? Because the bizarre noise that has now disappeared was the cause of all Arpatustu’s enhancements.

More precisely, the entity making that noise was strengthening Arpatustu.

The curse-type demon Srelza.

Its specialty is curses through sound, and amplification of curses through parasitism.

As for its peculiarities…

What’s a curse to humans is actually a buff among demons… making them stronger like that.

And the most absurd thing is, to weaken the strengthened enemy, you need to silence Srelza, but to silence Srelza, you need to subdue the strengthened enemy first.

It becomes a situation where the tail wags the dog.

But what if you have Dawn’s Edge?

In a forcibly silenced world, its abilities are completely sealed.

That means Arpatustu’s specs would have returned to normal.

“You’re caught.”

Though he couldn’t hear me due to Dawn’s Edge’s effect, Arpatustu seemed to realize what situation he was in and became docile.

The case was closed.

///

Arpatustu transforms into black mist.

Restrained by Celia’s magic, with arms and legs cut off by Alkine’s sword strike, and Lilith’s holy spear piercing its heart, it would have been terrifying if it had endured.

Looking back, it seems like I didn’t do anything, but everyone else doesn’t seem to think so, so I pretended not to notice and looked at where Arpatustu had been.

Still quiet due to Dawn’s Edge’s effect, I saw something wriggling, unable to move, dropping with a thud.

There was no form to describe. It was just something like jelly.

Slime. Srelza was that kind of species.

‘I don’t know why it’s a slime though.’

If it’s related to curses and sound, wouldn’t something like a bat be more fitting? But maybe that species was taken by the succubus side? Anyway, it was a very random species designation.

Whatever it was, what mattered was that it was stopped now.

This was the biggest reason why I had prepared Dawn’s Edge.

Actually, if I had only thought about Arpatustu, I wouldn’t have needed to rummage through the imperial treasure vault and give Celia unnecessary experiences with all this talk of preparation.

No matter how enhanced Arpatustu was, it wouldn’t have been a major threat with our current lineup.

You could say I brought it specifically to subdue Srelza. As long as sound exists, it can escape.

In-game, the only way to catch it was through suppression using Dawn’s Edge.

It’s an extremely absurd structure, but originally it couldn’t be caught at all, and it was introduced like a gimmick exclusively for veteran players, so there weren’t many complaints. There weren’t any rewards either, so it wasn’t mandatory.

Anyway, if it never appears, that’s fine, but once you encounter it and let it escape, it keeps appearing and becomes annoying.

Popping up at random moments to cast curses and such.

How could I just leave such a variable? I had to catch it.

In the quiet dawn, I slightly pointed at the center of the solidified slime, and instantly, Celia’s magic and Alkine’s sword pierced that spot simultaneously.

The two didn’t even look at the exploding Srelza, just smiled at each other.

…Don’t compete over something like that. It’s brutal.

As Srelza’s remains transformed into black mist and disappeared, Dawn’s Edge’s duration ended.

The quiet space returned to its original atmosphere matching the proper time. Sound could be heard again.

“Done.”

With this, it’s completely resolved.

“Ludion, there are monsters swarming outside the academy. Should we leave this for the headmaster to handle?”

…Almost completely resolved.

To lighten the burden of the headmaster, whose face was already full of dark circles, we each spread out to deal with the monsters that had gathered outside the academy.

Afterwards, there was an incident where we bet on who could catch more, and unexpectedly Lilith won, causing Celia and Alkine to lose spirit. Fortunately, since Lilith didn’t brag and ran away, things didn’t escalate.

///

A few days after thinking that the concerning matter was over and I should enjoy the vacation…

I found myself in the north.

No, it would be fortunate if I had just arrived. Right now, I was crossing swords with the Duke of the North… Alkine’s father, which was quite troublesome.

For reference, it’s a duel to the death.

“So you’re that fellow I’ve only heard about. I can see that my daughter has poor taste in men. Now die.”

“Wait a moment, please.”

“Still, I must acknowledge that you caught my daughter’s eye. Now, offer your neck.”

What kind of thought process is it to ask for my neck while saying he acknowledges me?

Still, I offered it anyway! I avoided it by dodging, so it passed by.

“I wondered why she was so protective of someone who doesn’t look particularly strong… but you use strange techniques.”

However, Alkine’s father didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping even after witnessing my unconventionally strange evasion.

“My father is like that. Try to appease him somehow! Fighting!”

My desperate plea for help was met only with such encouragement.

No, please try to stop him. I sent such a look, but… Alkine didn’t seem to have the slightest intention of doing so.

Giving up on asking for help, I hurriedly spoke to the Duke of the North who was readjusting his stance.

It was an attempt to resolve this through conversation… but this was a mistake.

“Wait a moment, please. Father. Please calm down a bit…”

“Father? Who gave you permission to call me Father?”

I had unknowingly touched on a taboo.

“From now on, I’ll be serious.”

“This is insane.”

Oh my goodness, Duke… why are you like this when you appeared so cool in the game?

I knew you cared about your family, but I didn’t know you were such an extreme daughter-doting father. He didn’t have much presence in the game.

Should I have guessed from the setting book that said ‘He cherishes his daughter greatly. He regrets sending her to the academy more than six times every day’?

I don’t know. I wasn’t relaxed enough to think about such things right now.

“Die!”

With this personality, I would have had to face this eventually. Let’s think of it as getting a preventive vaccination early.

Having reached that conclusion, I executed a parry against the fiercely descending sword strike.