Chapter 11

After awakening as the "Ruler of Numbers," Elaine captured one of the supposedly impregnable castles of the Demon King's army and became a famous adventurer overnight.

I, who had expelled such an Elaine, was treated as incompetent by those around me.

At the Adventurer's Guild, I was treated like a sore spot, and when I tried to take on a quest,

"Hey, aren't you the incompetent one who expelled Elaine? I can't entrust important quests to someone with such poor judgment."

I was turned down by the quest givers.

Despite being an adventurer, I couldn't take on many quests.

In other words, my income plummeted.

Tired of the cold stares from those around me, and unable to make donations to the church as she wished, Lena, in her anxiety,

"Why don't we bring Elaine back to the party? If she's going to fight the Demon King, she should be accompanied by me, the Holy Maiden."

She would suggest this.

Since this happened every time, I wondered if it was mandatory.

I was always refused an audience, so I tried to approach Elaine several times through intermediaries, changing the person who delivered the message each time, but each time,

"It's too late."

I was turned down through intermediaries.

Moreover, since this approach was not recorded in red letters, I concluded that Lena was just anxious.

Of course, the person she suggested to expel, "because they were no longer useful," turned out to be more capable than anyone else.

Lena has a strong sense of responsibility.

She knows that I aim to defeat the Demon King.

And she admires me.

That's why she can't bear to hold me back.

She thought her "Holy Maiden" skill had finally been enhanced, and she could be of use, but then this happened.

"I, I've done something terrible!"

She would panic.

To calm her down,

"It was a decision we made together, so you don't need to feel responsible."

I would comfort her, knowing it was futile, but I would still try to arrange a meeting and suggest her return every time...

And every time, I would die on the same day.

Since I expelled Elaine, I would die the same way every time.

It was a gruesome way to die, even to speak of.

After dying, I would open the "Guidance."

If Elaine had awakened as the "Ruler of Numbers," it would be written in black letters:

"Elaine challenged the Demon King but could not defeat him."

And a mysterious number would be recorded below.

For example, in the cycle when Elaine first awakened as the "Ruler of Numbers,"

(41269/65535)

It was like that.

At first, I had no idea what the numbers represented.

But I thought they must be a clue, so I decided to pay close attention.

After that, I focused on the accumulation of blue letters, which represented "causes and effects."

When I formed a party and started accumulating blue letters, I organized each item to move as efficiently as possible.

Some of these items couldn't be completed simultaneously, no matter how hard I tried.

For example, selecting party members was one such task.

Out of the four slots, three, including myself, were fixed.

The tricky part was that each blue-lettered character had their own unique "cause and effect."

For example, in the case of Faran, the spear user, a representative unique blue-lettered cause and effect was "Dragon Slaying at Mount Mare."

For Nick, the archer, it was "Bridge Building in Meril Village."

However, after several tests, I fixed the fourth member as Faran.

In the case of the Dragon Slaying at Mount Mare, there was a blue-lettered cause and effect where Elaine obtained an accessory in the magic city of Balhant as part of the preparation.

This cause and effect could not be combined with the Bridge Building in Meril Village.

If I went to Meril Village, the accessory would be sold out by the time I reached Balhant.

In other words, obtaining the accessory in Balhant was a time-limited cause and effect.

There might be other causes and effects that could be carried out simultaneously with the Bridge Building in Meril Village, but I couldn't find them.

During this time, the results were announced every time.

38926/65535

36497/65535

34258/65535

32164/65535

30592/65535

The right number was fixed, while the left number varied.

Based on these numbers and Elaine's "Ruler of Numbers" skill, my hypothesis was:

"Could this be... the Demon King's life force, made visible as a number?"

If my hypothesis was correct, the Demon King would die when the left number reached zero, meaning Elaine would win.

After forming this hypothesis, I chose blue-lettered causes and effects that would reduce the left number as much as possible.

Obtaining the accessory in Balhant reduced the number by 5000.

Compared to 65535, it was less than one-tenth, but it was a significant number compared to other causes and effects.

This was one of the reasons Faran became a fixed member.

Similarly, there were quite a few causes and effects where only one could be chosen.

For example, the festival in the eastern town and the martial arts tournament in the western town, which took place at the same time.

I would choose and discard these, selecting as many causes and effects that could be combined as possible.

However, there were unexpected traps in the blue-lettered causes and effects.

Sometimes, even after expelling Elaine, her "Ruler of Numbers" skill would not awaken.

In such cases, Elaine would die easily.

It seemed there were conditions for the combinations, and just blindly increasing the number wouldn't work.

For example, the "Eastern Festival," which was better to skip in terms of the total number of combined causes and effects, was actually more efficient for skill awakening.

"Why the festival?" I would wonder, but since it wasn't my skill, I decided to let it go.

I would be happy when the number decreased significantly, disappointed when it increased, and frustrated when Elaine's skill didn't awaken despite feeling confident.

I would experience a mix of emotions with the numbers announced every five years.

And on the eighty-fourth time,

(29568/65535)

The remaining number was below 30000.

I formed hypotheses about what and how much each number would reduce, compared them to the timing of the causes and effects, and searched for undiscovered blue-lettered causes and effects in parallel.

I tried everything I could while avoiding black letters.

A significant change occurred on the eighty-eighth time.

(12568/65535)

From the eighty-seventh time, it decreased by over 15000!

The new blue-lettered causes and effects I discovered this time were "Fortune Telling," "Bottle Maker," and "Antique Bookstore."

I didn't think the "Bottle Maker" would significantly reduce the Demon King's life force...

So it had to be "Fortune Telling" or "Antique Bookstore."

After further testing, it was determined that the "Antique Bookstore" reduced the number by about 4000.

Therefore, "Fortune Telling" was an indispensable cause and effect for defeating the Demon King.

Even as a blue-lettered cause and effect, it was on par with a red-lettered one.

Curious, I asked Elaine,

"What kind of fortune telling was it?"

The reason was that we visited the fortune teller's shop together, but I didn't know the content.

We entered one at a time, and while Elaine was getting her fortune told, I had to wait outside.

I had tried getting a reading once, but...

"You can't see the future, can you? I can't read your fortune."

I wasn't even given a reading.

So only Elaine could get a reading.

And even she said,

"Hmm, nothing specific. They just said, 'You have an unusual destiny, let me record your palm.'"

There was no indication of how the reading was connected to the battle with the Demon King.

But that was a minor issue.

As long as getting a reading significantly reduced the Demon King's life force, it was good enough.

On the ninety-fifth time,

(10835/65535)

It was no good.

I was completely stuck.

No matter what I did, I couldn't break the (10000/65535) barrier.

I thought I had tried everything within the scope of what was possible.

Perhaps I had overlooked something that would reduce the number significantly, like the fortune telling case...

"Alright, let's reorganize the plan."

I thought, and while checking the causes and effects I had completed, I looked back at the past pages...

"That's strange."

On the ninety-fifth time, I had made a significant mistake.

While focusing on discovering new causes and effects, the blue-lettered causes and effects I completed on the ninety-second and ninety-fifth times were exactly the same.

Of course, the parts not recorded in the book, such as the details of daily life, were probably different, but at least the red and blue-lettered causes and effects were the same.

However, the numbers for the ninety-second and ninety-fifth times were different.

When placed side by side,

Ninety-second time (10762/65535)

Ninety-fifth time (10835/65535)

There was a difference of 73.

"What does this mean?"

Since I didn't know how Elaine and the Demon King fought, these numbers were the only clue to infer the battle content.

Despite completing the same blue-lettered causes and effects, there was a slight difference in the battle results.

This meant there was another way to reduce the Demon King's life force besides the blue-lettered causes and effects.

Based on this, I hypothesized three ways to reduce the Demon King's life force.

One, there was a way to boost Elaine's combat ability after her skill awakened, other than the blue-lettered causes and effects.

Two, Elaine's combat ability remained the same, but there was a way to weaken the Demon King.

Three, neither Elaine's nor the Demon King's combat abilities changed, but the kingdom's knight army could be strengthened, or the Demon King's army could be weakened, reducing Elaine's burden and conserving her strength.

These were the possibilities.

"But... there's something odd about the last two."

That's right.

Based on my intuition, the last two didn't feel right.

They seemed like the kind of things that would be recorded as blue-lettered causes and effects in the "Guidance."

I had no idea what effect the blue-lettered causes and effects had on Elaine's battle with the Demon King.

I wasn't present at the battle.

All I knew was that the blue-lettered causes and effects were connected to Elaine's skill awakening and the reduction of the Demon King's life force.

I believed that these ultimately fell into one of the three categories, and I had been working on this assumption.

My hypothesis was that the 65535 number represented the Demon King's life force, as seen by Elaine's skill.

If it were possible to weaken the Demon King beforehand, I felt it would reduce the maximum value on the right, not the number on the left.

Moreover, there was nothing related to the kingdom's knight army on the ninety-second and ninety-fifth times, and I hadn't defeated any of the Demon King's high-ranking officers, only the grunts.

If it were possible to weaken the Demon King's army beforehand, it would indeed reduce Elaine's burden.

However, I had never been able to do this, and even if it were possible, it would still be recorded as a blue-lettered cause and effect.

Since reducing Elaine's burden would ultimately lead to a reduction in the Demon King's life force, I concluded that...

There must be a way to boost Elaine's combat ability without relying on the blue-lettered causes and effects.

This was my main hypothesis.

If that were the case... how did Elaine and I interact before the party's expulsion and before her skill awakened...

"I have no idea..."

I was completely stuck.

I thought about it while looking at the book, but nothing came to mind.

"Maybe I should practice some sword swings."

When I was stuck, I thought of my master's teaching:

"When you have something on your mind, there's nothing better than swinging a sword mindlessly."

Following this teaching, I decided to swing my sword.

My master said that by moving my body mindlessly and deliberately emptying my mind, I would be more likely to come up with good ideas.

So, I focused on swinging my sword.

I continued to swing, listening to the sound of the air being split.

My skill is "Sword Master."

Unlike the Holy Maiden or accounting, it is one of the "innate" skills, but it is almost as close to an "acquired" skill.

I was told that if I didn't at least have a "Warrior" level skill by the age of fifteen after training with a sword, I should give up on the path of the sword.

Of course, if I had exceptional natural talent, I could be given the "Sword Master" skill without any training.

There were past "Sword Masters" who were naturally talented and strong without any particular training.

However, I was only slightly above average in height and build.

I wasn't particularly fast, had no exceptional reach, and didn't possess overwhelming strength.

While swinging my sword, I realized I was thinking about these things and snapped back to reality.

"Swinging a sword mindlessly is hard."

I had been thinking about my skill.

And there was a reason I couldn't concentrate.

I was tired.

Sweat dripped from my forehead into my eyes, and I completely lost my focus.

"Really, to this extent. I must have gotten a bit rusty from spending so much time staring at the book."

I wiped the sweat from my forehead, scratched my head, and chuckled to myself...

"Maybe! What if!"

An idea flashed in my mind.

I returned to my room and opened the "Guidance."

I compared the ninety-second and ninety-fifth times again, rechecked for any overlooked details...

"It's the same."

I closed the "Guidance."

If my hypothesis was correct...

What I needed to re-evaluate was not this book.

What I needed to re-evaluate was myself.

I needed to re-evaluate my own sword.