Chapter 46 – You can start now──!! (始めて良いよーーっ！！)

"Amazing!! As expected of you, Ursch-kun!! I can't believe you narrowed it down so much with just that amount of information!!"

When I held his hand and praised him as much as I could from my heart, Ursch-kun modestly replied with a shy smile.

"It's not that impressive. After bringing Gijs to safety, the knights and military police in the game probably thought the same and suitably carried out their investigation too."

"No, no, this is completely different to narrowing it down from where he was found!!"

How many forests and mountains do you think there are near the capital?

Narrowing it down to three locations with that story alone is truly amazing. Your specs are exceedingly high.

"Well, you can leave it to me to find out where they're being held... but it might be best to get some combat training so you're ready to fight the criminal when the time comes."

Right, even if Ursch-kun was going to lay the groundwork pre-battle, it would all be useless if I get insta-killed during the fight.

"What kind of combat training should I do, specifically?"

"Physical attack training. From what I hear, magic attacks sound like a bad idea. This is just my guess, but I think the pigskin he's wearing is some sort of curse-type item. Albeit a fairly advanced cursed tool that one can’t normally get."

While saying that, Ursch-kun doodled a pig's head on his memo pad.

A cute, chubby pig.

"So that was a curse-type item. I thought for sure that the Colours Collector was just a bit off in the head and had weird tastes."

"The part about it being a curse-type item is just a guess of mine, though. But even if it was a curse-type item, actually putting on a pig head is a little crazy of him. I'd definitely hate it."

Ursch-kun added a human body under the pig's head.

The result was an illustration of a character with a cute pig face and a 9-heads tall model body.

The face was cute, but it was a somewhat eerie drawing that made me anxious and uneasy.

"You mentioned that your attacks didn't hit the Colours Collector, but maybe it actually did? If the pig head is the same cursed tool that I know of, it would be an item that absorbs 70% of all magic attacks received and heals the user's MP. Moreover, any attack that uses the absorbed MP would hit the MP's former owner directly, as though returning to their owner."

"Really?! So that's why the magic attacks that should have landed didn't deal any damage, and he could continuously fire wide-area attack magic that landed direct hits!! You can't beat that..."

Hearing the trick behind the Colours Collector's low hit detection, I lost energy from my body and slumped my head on the table.

Ursch-kun patted my back.

"Ursch-kun, actually, five of the seven members who fought against the Colours Collector specialised in magic. And the other two were sword-wielding mages."

"Ahaha~ Definitely can't beat that~ Why did you choose such an unbalanced group?"

"In the first place, the characters in the game were students of a magic academy, while the Colours Collector's wide-area attack resembled a barrage of bullets in a hellish shooting game, and even took up the entire screen... I couldn't get close to him, so the only way to attack is with magic."

I see, so the most efficient way to beat the Colours Collector was to have the mages act as support, with Brian as the main attacker.

"There were a lot of phrases I didn't understand, and I'm not sure if I interpreted them correctly, but basically you need training for launching non-magic based ranged attacks, and approaching the enemy while dodging wide-area attacks."

What kind of training would help with those?

As I puzzled over it with Ursch-kun, the door for the small mountain lodge opened and Allis-chan returned.

"Fueeh. Archery is boring when nothing explodes. Bella-chan, do you have any exploding arrows?"

"Ah."

"Fueh?"

I unintentionally pointed at Allis-chan and she tilted her head.

That's right, we had Allis-chan!!

Her main attack method was wide-area bombing, she would be able to move speedily if she mastered her super acceleration, and because she was a child, her body was small and attacks would be hard to land.

Her "wide-area attacks", "hard to approach", "fast" and "hard to hit" completely resembled the Colours Collector's fighting style!!

Once I realized that, I ran up to the puzzled Allis-chan and grabbed her hands while starting negotiations.

"I'll give you half of my explosives if you be my partner for combat training!!"

Allis-chan's face immediately brightened up.

"Fueeeeeh♡ Really?! By the way, how much is half?!"

Allis-chan's cheeks were slightly dyed pink, and she was practically shining as she hopped lightly while asking the amount.

"Enough to turn the capital into a vacant lo..."

"Wow!! That's wonderful!! Please, I would love to help with your training!!"

Allis-chan replied before I could finish.

You like bombs that much, huh.

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Ursch-kun placed a defensive wall in the fields.

It was a combined product of a holy magic shield and a barrier-type magic item.

Although it broke within the first hour of training, it underwent modifications every day, and according to Ursch-kun, today's wall would theoretically be able to withstand 5 shots of a dragon's breath.

Ursch-kun, you make it sound so simple, but I know that's not something merchants do.

"Okay. The defensive wall of 10km in diameter is ready. What about your side?"

Right in the middle of the wide plains, with a pattern somewhat like ivy, yet somewhat geometric, a dome-shaped cage of pale light was created.

Ursch-kun waved at me from outside and I waved back from the inside.

"Good work Ursch-kun~ We're all good here! The Body Enhancement is working fine, and we're fully equipped with defensive items. Well then!! Allis-chan, Second Prince, you can start now──!!"

"Oka~y. Bella-chan!! Here it comes~!!"

"........Here it comes─...."

Inside the dome, Allis-chan largely swung her hand down from a distance, and the Second Prince readied his bow.

Although the training had just Allis-chan and I at first, the Second Prince eventually joined us as well.

We couldn't let the second prince get caught up in an explosion and die, so we piled a bunch of items with effects on his person, which unfortunately made him look like a rich man with bad taste.

Within those was an 『SS-Rare』 gacha item named 『Anti-Soul Necklace』

Once put on, it was a single-use item that fully recovered the user despite having died or receiving an insta-kill attack.

I didn't think much of it in the game, but now that it exists in reality, it scares me a little.

Even Ursch-kun cringed a little when he saw that necklace.

Seriously, just what kind of person was Ursch-kun in the game? This isn't something a 15-year-old should be creating.

Following Ursch-kun's advice of keeping the item's effects─and even the fact that I had it─a secret, I told the prince that it was a 『Super Amazing Healing Item』and had him equip it... Five of them.

Yes, I had him equip five of those on the first day.

But for some reason, there left only three hanging from the prince's neck.

Well, not that I didn't know the reason.

The prince had gotten caught in Allis-chan's wide-area bombing twice and instantly died.

The details were as follows. Ursch-kun was running around the inside of the defensive wall to fix the cracks caused by Allis-chan's bombs. And likely due to poor visibility, he bumped into the Second Prince and the prince fell.

Then by chance, Allis-chan's bombs landed directly at the prince and instantly killed him, causing the 『Anti-Soul Necklace』to activate. That was the first instance.

By the way, Ursch-kun was unharmed. From that day onwards he was banned from repairing the defensive wall from the inside.

In the other instance, the large amounts of Physical Attack Resistance items I piled on him were all destroyed by stray bombs, and one bomb caused a shock wave that blew him away. The resulting impact instantly killed him and triggered the 『Anti-Soul Necklace』to activate. A total of 2 instances.

They say to always be doubly sure, so I gave him some just in case, but I really, really didn't think the Second Prince would really die in combat training.... And twice at that.

I thought even Allis-chan would hold back a little if the prince was involved, but I guess she didn't hold the title of 『Bomber』for nothing.

Allis-chan was depressed when we restarted training, but along the way she got so excited and threw her bombs without paying attention to the prince.

Allis-channnnn!! You!! Just so you know, you've bombed the boy you like twice already!!

I'm so glad the item properly activated!! So glad!! Else the three of us would be executed for killing royalty!!

Cheat Item-sama!! This really made me glad of my cheat reincarnation. Thank you, 『Closet』!!

But after reviving, the Second Prince's status shot up, so in a sense, Allis-chan was digging her own grave.

With the prince gaining a large boost in level and getting used to the bombing, he's quite a troublesome opponent.

While deftly avoiding the flying bombs, rocks and dust with an acrobatic somersault, he accurately snipes with his bow.

What's a (6-year-old) prince doing, somersaulting up to 2 metres high and shooting arrows from there? The game genre is all wrong.

And is he using wind magic on the arrows? No matter how much I run or dodge, they keep chasing after me like a homing missile. The arrows.

Did the prince forget his main objective in learning archery was about controlling his Deadly Sin King skills?

What are you mastering archery for? What the heck are you working towards.

And so from this combat training, the four of us exponentially rose in level and status, albeit in unintended ways.

After three weeks had passed, we had to return to the capital the next day, thus the last combat training of this camp began.

We were watched over by those who came to pick up the second prince: his escorts from the imperial knight and knights corps, and... the queen.

The Second Prince was evolving in a different direction than planned. Really, just what are you working towards...