Murmur, murmur—.
We did not arrive outside the city until morning.
Beyond Dawnguard’s city walls, carriages and travelers waiting to depart for other cities had gathered.
I passed the adventurers chatting noisily and spoke to an old man leaning against a carriage.
“I am looking for a carriage bound for Free City Vertas.”
“Vertas?”
The old man chuckled. A foul stench wafted from his yellow teeth.
“Just catch any carriage here and get on! Nine times out of ten, it will be heading for Vertas!”
I see.
As I said before, I had never once come to Dark City Dawnguard at this point.
Even if I had wanted to do so in the game, there had been no way.
I had privately worried about what I would do if there were no carriages heading to Free City Vertas, but it seemed that this was precisely the time when adventurers were migrating in large numbers.
How fortunate. If there had been few carriages, I would have had to pay a great deal of money.
“Hey.”
I was still following that train of thought when the old man in front of me spoke again.
“If you are going to Vertas, how about using my carriage? I was just about to head there myself.”
“How much?”
“Let us see. If you give me two million Shillings for you and your companion...... Huh? Hey! Where are you going!”
Without offering any reply, I walked past the old man.
“That was a wise choice.”
At that moment, Adelia, who had been trailing along beside me, spoke up.
“If transportation were scarce, it would be one thing. But if nine out of ten carriages are bound for Vertas as they are now, the price should be around five hundred thousand Shillings.”
“......”
“Besides, that man is quite the fool. If he wanted to overcharge you, he should have said there were no carriages heading to Vertas.”
Chatter, chatter—.
Adelia continued talking to herself after that.
She said she could not help but wonder how someone with a mind that foolish had survived long enough to become an old man.
Watching her quietly, I chuckled to myself.
‘Adelia.’
I’m sorry, but I had another reason for passing that old man by.
***
Adelia and I were going from carriage to carriage, asking about prices.
Tap—.
At that very moment, someone placed a hand on my shoulder and stopped me.
“Excuse me.”
“......?”
“You...... Aren’t you that gladiator who distinguished himself in the Underworld Arena a few days ago?”
When I turned around, I saw a man with an impressive smooth bald head and a stubbly beard.
He had a muscular build that made him look more like a warrior than a merchant.
However, the badge hanging from his chest proved that he was an experienced merchant.
‘......Oh?’
After seeing the badge, I could not help but be surprised.
Indeed, it was a mark bestowed only upon merchants who had traveled the 【Silk-road】 more than a hundred times.
That meant the merchant was a veteran among veterans.
‘Wait, could this man be......?’
I was narrowing my eyes slightly as I studied the merchant’s face.
Then it happened.
The bald merchant looked at me and burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha! From the way you are glaring at me, you must be that gladiator!”
“......What do you want?”
“Nothing much. What else would a merchant like me want?”
“......”
“I simply want someone to safely protect the carriage until it reaches its destination.”
In other words, he was seeking an escort for his merchant company.
“Where is the destination?”
“Free City Vertas. Well? Will you come along?”
Rustle—.
The man extended his hand for a handshake.
There was no reason to refuse, so I took his hand.
I had secured a ride on a carriage. For free, at that.
“Here, this is an advance payment of five hundred thousand Shillings. If we arrive safely at our destination, I will pay you another five hundred thousand.”
Jingle—!
“......”
I take that back.
I had secured a ride on a carriage. And I was being paid extra for it.
***
Rattle, rattle—!
The carriage shook.
Under the scorching afternoon sun, we were passing through a wasteland where grass grew in scattered patches.
The Silk-road, one of the few Safe Zones in the Uncharted Lands.
Along that sacred route, six carriages advanced in a procession.
It was a scale more than large enough to be considered a major merchant company in the world of Loel. Accordingly, there were many mercenaries protecting it as well.
Of course, it was pitifully small compared to the Ruins Merchant Company......
‘......They are outside the norm, so let us exclude them from the comparison.’
In any case.
The mission Adelia and I had accepted was not to escort the merchant company.
To be precise, it was to escort the merchant company master.
All we had to do was protect that bald, muscular older man who was looking at me with curiosity.
Thanks to that, while the other mercenaries marched outside the carriages, we could sit comfortably beside the merchant company master and travel to the destination.
“Hey.”
At that moment, the bald merchant company master spoke to me.
“You are someone separately hired by the Ruins Merchant Company, are you not?”
“......”
“Human Butcher Barba had been champion for such a long time. Just when the spectators were getting tired of him, I think they hired you to breathe life into the Underworld Arena......”
“......”
“Well? Am I right?”
The bald merchant company master was subtly trying to sound me out.
I kept my mouth firmly shut without giving any answer.
When it became clear that I had no intention of answering, the bald merchant company master burst into hearty laughter.
“Ha ha, you are playing hard to get.”
“......”
“There was nothing about chatting in the contract, is that it? All right. I will not bother you any further.”
The moment he finished speaking, the merchant company master closed his mouth.
Even as the silence continued, he kept glancing this way.
Rustle—.
I simply ignored him and turned my gaze back to the skill window I had opened earlier.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Ritardando: True】
Grade: ??
Type: Active Skill, Authority Skill
Cost: None
Cooldown: 12 Hours
[Skill Description]
They say that time flows equally for everyone and that no one can defy it. But you, who have earned the acknowledgment of the ‘Master of the Second Hand and the Moment,’ may be an exception.
The grains of sand inside the glass grow heavy. Arrows flying at high speed drift slowly through the air.
But be careful.
The moment you abuse an instant that has become eternity, your time will gradually be eroded. In the end, you will lose your identity within endless slowness.
[Usage Effect]
Time slows.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Authority Skill 【Ritardando】.
It was the reward I had obtained after clearing Dawnguard’s hidden dungeon.
The effect of this skill was very simple.
‘......When I use it, time slows for a certain period.’
It was a skill for when a boss entered a troublesome pattern.
Of course, that did not mean a player could roam freely through stopped time.
I merely had to watch the trajectories of the slowed attacks and plan an evasion route in advance.
It was a kind of thought-acceleration ability.
‘Well, that aside......’
Rustle—.
I examined the skill window closely once more.
After Adelia finished her Requiem, a change had occurred in Ritardando.
First, the modifier True had been added to the skill’s name.
‘......I finally obtained the True Form.’
The Authority of the Elders possessed tremendous power.
Mere mortals could never dare to bear that power.
That was why most Authority Skills underwent a downgrade. Their output was limited so their abilities could be provided at a manageable level.
‘But skills bearing the modifier True are an exception.’
True.
It referred to a state in which divine Authority could be used as it was, without any restriction.
A modifier that only special beings acknowledged by the Elders could receive.
‘In the game, I could never obtain Ritardando’s True Form......’
It seemed that the Master of the Second Hand and the Moment had taken quite a liking to me.
Was having Adelia perform a Requiem a divine move?
‘......No, but why is the cooldown so much longer?’
If I remembered correctly, Ritardando’s original cooldown was only three minutes.
By contrast, the cooldown of the True Form was twelve hours.
Even by simple calculation, the wait time to use it had become 240 times longer.
Did that mean the skill’s effect had been amplified by that much? Was the long wait the price of wielding its power?
‘Hmm.’
I don’t know. I still lack the information I need.
For now, I’ll use the skill once. Then the answer will reveal itself.
Ding—!
〔Authority Skill: 【Ritardando: True】 Activated.〕
The skill activated in tandem with my will.
Tick, tick, tick—!
The sound of a second hand coming from every direction. At the same time, everything in the world began to move more and more slowly.
‘Huh......?’
Wait. Something was wrong.
*Ruuuuumble—.*
*Rattleeeee—.*
The skill’s effect was far stronger than I had expected.
No, it was not merely stronger......
‘......This is too much.’
It was excessive.
To the point where I wondered whether time needed to flow this slowly.
The carriage shook. In response, the organs throughout my body began to sway minutely as well.
With time’s flow slowed, I began to perceive every single one of those movements.
‘Urk!’
Motion sickness hit me. A wave of nausea surged up because of the queasy feeling.
My body could not endure the discrepancy between the time flowing in reality and the time I perceived.
Ruuumble—.
CRUNCH—!
‘Ah, damn it......’
......To make matters worse, the carriage shook, and I bit my tongue.
‘Agh, aaaaargh!’
I let out a scream filled with pain. Naturally, only inside my mind.
This terrible torture continued until Ritardando’s duration ended.
Ding—!
〔Mental Power ‘MAX’ Resists Unconsciousness.〕
Damn it.
It felt as though at least ten hours had passed.
If it hadn’t been for 【Soul of the Swordmaster】, wouldn’t I have passed out from the terrible pain?
Well, it wasn’t as though I had gained nothing.
Ding—!
〔You have endured terrible pain for a long time.〕
〔Reward: Passive Skill 【Low-Grade Pain Resistance】 Acquired.〕
......Whether that was a reward commensurate with the pain I had suffered was another matter.
***
“......”
Rattle, rattle—!
Adelia stared intently at the man sitting across from her.
He was a truly mysterious being.
Even if it was not easy to assess the full strength of someone far above her, for some reason, she could not sense even the slightest presence from the man.
‘Exactly how enormous must the gap be if I cannot even gauge his ability......?’
Overwhelming martial prowess that killed powerful enemies in a single stroke and passed terrifying Trials as if they were nothing.
On top of that, he possessed a noble heart that cared for the vengeful spirits trapped in the abandoned factory.
Watching the man’s conduct gave rise to a vague sense of reverence. It was not for nothing that he had been chosen as a ‘Seeker of the Sword’ who carried on the will of a great Elder.
Adelia felt immense gratitude that she was receiving instruction from such an extraordinary being.
“Gasp!”
“......?”
Cough, cough—!
It was at that very moment.
The man suddenly began breathing hard.
His eyes widened as he coughed repeatedly, his entire body shaking. In an instant, his breathing became unstable.
“A-are you all right......?”
It was far too sudden a situation.
Startled, Adelia hurriedly moved to the man’s side.
Fortunately, the man soon regained his composure. Taking deep breaths to steady himself, he answered in a deliberately calm voice.
“I am fine. It is nothing, so pay it no mind.”
But Adelia could tell that he was lying.
‘......Blood?’
The cuff of the sleeve he had used to cover his cough.
There was a small bloodstain on it.
Adelia looked at the man once more with trembling eyes.
Only then, as if a veil had been lifted away, did she begin to see the man properly.
A frail body with hardly any muscle. Skin so pale that his veins were visible.
That was right. He had appeared weak from the first time she met him. It was difficult to understand how a body like that could withstand such explosive movements.
‘Could it be......?’
In an instant, many thoughts passed through Adelia’s mind.
The reason the man’s body had been so abnormally frail.
The reason a Seeker of the Sword, who kept far from the secular world, had suddenly appeared in this world.
And the reason he was bringing her along and trying to impart insight to her even while he was so busy.
‘......Could it be that he does not have much time left to live? Is that why he is trying to burn himself out to the very end?’
At that moment, all of the man’s suspicious actions were explained.