“Skill, volley—!”
Three fire arrows fired by Misaki pierced the body of the Minotaur.
Guo!
The Minotaur roared and looked like it was going to fall, but it still had a few millimeters of HP left.
――Damn, you’re still alive!
“Provocation—!”
Himemi turned the Minotaur’s hostility towards her.
Then, he guides the Minotaur with a side step to an angle where the range of attack does not reach me.
No, Himemi won’t last at this rate.
Damn, one more shot, one more shot…
“Master, please apply Auto Mana Recharge!”
Misaki asked for it.
My last mana gives me an auto mana recharge.
However, with auto mana recharge, it takes too long to accumulate mana until you can fire a salvo.
“Master, hurry up! Do as Misaki says.”
Urged by Himemi, I activated the skill without thinking.
“Automatic recharge—!”
I have no other options left.
“Himemi-chan, please endure for 30 seconds!”
“Misaki, I know, I’ll do something about it.”
The amount of mana that can be recovered in 30 seconds is only a few percent, what are you going to do?
“I can’t let you do it–!”
Don–.
Himemi was reading Minotaur’s Back Jump.
When the Minotaur slightly bent its knees for a moment, it sensed that it was flying backwards, and Himemi rushed forward accordingly.
“knock back–!”
Damn–!
Himemi’s shield stuck out where the Minotaur flew backwards and stood firm.
The Minotaur, which was hit by a counter-attack with a shield, leaned back and lost its balance.
It seemed that he was going to raise his ax, but he couldn’t do that and staggered back about five steps.
Himemi dashes and sticks out her sword to follow up.
Kakin――!
But before the tip of the sword could reach, the minotaur carded with the axe.
–Bunn!
Himemi’s flaming arrow flew there.
Right, right, even if you can’t shoot a volley, you can shoot a single flaming arrow with less mana!
Really, I blame myself for not turning my head.
Gwoooooo.
The Minotaur’s HP bar became completely zero and he let out a final cry.
It shattered into fragments, glittering and turning into dust, and melted into the air.
A floor-clearing fanfare sounded, and the entrance and exit were unlocked.
Then a level up message popped up.
“Wow, you did it!”
「Yes, master」
However, only Himemi responded to my voice.
Misaki ran out of stamina again and lost consciousness.
I ran over to Himemi and hugged her.
I didn’t know why it happened all of a sudden.
However, I felt compelled to do so.
“Thank you Himemi!”
Himemi was surprised when I hugged her, and stood still for a while.
“I’m really grateful, thanks to you guys I was able to defeat it――!”
“–That’s right! Everyone did their best. Master too.”
Himemi said so and hugged me back.
“No, I’m useless… I’ve been helped by everyone, and I haven’t been able to do anything.
“It’s not like that. I was able to come this far because I had Master. If I take that much damage, my head won’t work.”
“No, it’s no good, you guys have been active, but Mr. Tamotsu and Mr. Double Tim have sacrificed for us. If you could do better…”
“Master did the best he could, and I’m sure Tamotsu-san and Doubletim-san have respawned safely.”
“No, that’s not all. Yukki-san, Captain Duck, and the other Guild Union members are all amazing.”
“Really?”
“Everyone is doing various social contribution activities through the XANA Metaverse on a regular basis for someone other than themselves. But I’m not doing anything.”
“I see”
“I just wanted to get out of the black company just for myself, and I was just trying to make money in the Metaverse for my own comfort.”
“that kind of thing is”
“And yet, I survived like this, and everyone sacrificed for me, the most worthless person…”
“What are you talking about, Master!”
“What?”
“You just have to do what you can do to the best of your ability at the time. Contributing to society is something you do after making the most of yourself.”
“After I let you live?”
“That’s right, I think that it is only when you can make the most of yourself that you can work for others.”
“I see… I don’t know.”
“Besides, everyone makes mistakes and mistakes. I’m sure everyone will be fine. In the first place, this responsibility is not on Master, but on Eve.”
“Well, yes, but…”
“So don’t look down on yourself. I’m tired right now, so I’m just feeling like that. Let’s rest a little. Now, let’s go to Misaki and the others.”
“Oh… yeah. That’s right, praise those kids too.”
“That’s the master’s role. Because you’ll be dozens of times more happy than being praised by me.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sorry… I might have been timid.”
“Yes, let’s go strong! Master”
Misaki and Mami evacuated to the wall, and Himemi and I snuggled up.
“I wonder how Kaede and Chushin-kun are doing…”
“Probably, you should be in Yukki-san and Botamochi-san’s party.”
“Ah, you’re in the party over there.”
When I became aware of the party, the party panel popped up.
Kaede and Chushin-kun aren’t in my party, it’s probably as Himemi says.
“There’s also a duck team, so I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, that’s right, I’m sure…”
About twenty minutes had passed.
I was dozing off.
“Master, Mami’s stamina is about to drop to 10%.
“Oh, I see……”
“Mama…”
“Eh, Mami…”
Wasn’t that a misunderstanding after all?
When I fell into this hierarchy, in my faint consciousness, I remember Mami saying ‘Mama’.
“Himemi, do you guys dream too?”
“No, we don’t sleep, so we don’t dream. Even when you’re unconscious in Oblo, it’s just a setting where you lose consciousness because you’re out of stamina. It’s not like we’re really inactive.”
“That’s right. I wonder if Mother is called Mama… while I’m unconscious, maybe I’m communicating with Eve?”
“What do you think? My data does not show that Mami called Eve, or that Mother was called Mama.”
「Master？」
“Ah, Mami, did you notice?”
「Yeah」
“Mami, were you dreaming just now?”
“Dreams…? Hmmm… Oh, maybe I was dreaming about Mama…”
“Mama, do you mean Eve?”
Eve?” Um, I don’t mean Mother. ……. My mom is Akemi.”
“Eh! Akemi… is that a third generation secretary?”
“Ah, erm…”
Hmm?”
“This is something I shouldn’t have said…”
“Eh, who told you that?”
“But it would be nice to be a master… maybe.”
“Eve?”
“No, no. Uncle Amakaze.”
“Amakaze? Who is it… Do you know Himemi?”
“No, not at all. At least not in my data.”
“No, it’s the one who saved me, the one who brought me out of the darkness.”
“I’m sorry, Mami, I don’t really understand. Well, can you tell me everything from the beginning?”
“Mami, my real name is Hikari.”
“Eh, what’s your real name? Maybe there was a Master before me?”
“No, Mami, you’re really human.”
“Eh! Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
(Written by Jiraiya / Edited by Achille)