A Misunderstood Mentor

I knew it from the first time the man came.

Those who lose everything and still cannot give up and scratch their feet.

Maybe I felt it because I was just like myself.

"I heard you were undertaking a job"

The man was stiffening his whole body with black armor.

The covert covering of the whole body with a black outfit makes backwork a business and brings one's presence infinitely closer to the shadows.

But this man was like black itself.

Deep, deep, dark black like darkness.

For a moment I also forgot to answer, just staring at a man.

"I'd like to see the chief here..."

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Now I'm replacing the chief."

I never ask for work directly to a hiding place.

Usually in secret contact with an intermediary person.

It was even the first time an outsider had come here.

"You seem to know about us, but whose introduction brought you here? In the first place..."

Before anyone, the man put his right hand against his chest and lowered his head.

Its standing behavior is so grand that I fall in love again.

"Excuse me. I'm Rick. Rick Kai. The Knights of the Kingdom of Lucia."

Most of the covert requests are made by the nobles of the Kingdom of Lucia.

More than once, we have been used in ugly factional feuds.

But I had a feeling this guy named Rick wouldn't make such a crap request.

"Fine. Let's hear what you're asking. But don't come directly next time. For once, this is a safe house. When people find out, they have to change places."

"Oh well. That's a bad thing. Er..."

"Yor. I don't have a second name. It's just yol."

That was my first meeting with Rick.

"Join the Adventurer Alliance?

"Oh, yeah. I want you to aim to be within the 10th ranking, if possible."

Rick's request was odd.

Even if it's an undercover investigation, what's the point of being at the top of the guild rankings?

"The Decathlon will gather within the 10th ranking of the Alliance, and I want you to be able to participate in it"

"The Ten Horsemen? Is that that the Ten Australians meeting at Guild Association headquarters?

"That's right. However, it is likely that the next Decathlon will not take place at Guild Association headquarters. The purpose is not the place, but the person who participates there."

"Person? That means he's in the 10th place."

"No, I'm not in yet. Not yet..."

Overall, I don't get the guidelines.

Are you sure that the intended person will eventually enter the rankings?

It's a precarious and uncertain request nonetheless.

Perhaps you're not willing to talk about your original purpose.

Usually that wasn't anything to worry about.

A covert job is just to take a request and do it.

Yet I wanted to know what his purpose was.

Maybe this was the first time I was interested in someone else.

Come and take the Guild Association's introductory exam.

Is there such a coincidence?

In front of him stood a woman who devastated a clan of divine descendants and left the inside.

"You know him?

I couldn't answer Rick.

Now I'm in the middle of a request, and I have to deal with it calmly. I know, but I get hot so my head can burn to reunite with Leia, who can also be called a clan vendetta.

Leia didn't even try to look at me.

As if I didn't exist there, I have a pale reception.

My head boils even more about that.

"Calm down. You don't have to rush"

Rick puts his hand on my shoulder.

"Everything is connected. Eventually, we will fight again and again."

I had no doubt Rick would make a statement as if he were seeing the future.

I rapidly regain my calm like I got cold water from my head.

"What the hell are you doing?

I didn't think you'd answer me or anything.

An oligarchy man who doesn't talk in vain is called the shield of silence.

But Rick answered me as if to speak to the child gently.

"I want to create a complete world."

It was supposed to be cold armor waste, but I was feeling something warm from the hand that came with my shoulder.

Rick and I have done many Alliance quests.

The ranking rises rapidly and you can see within 10th place.

When the month of the year flowed, Nurhachi, who had been ranked first for nearly a hundred years, had fallen to second place.

The name Alice comes first.

"Is she who you're after?

"No. Rankings change again"

Hope for that word, I realize who I am.

I always thought Rick's intended person was a man's person.

I'm so upset just because I thought that was a woman.

I didn't expect to live with the opposite sex for nearly a year.

Always in between, or I start to follow that behavior with my eyes, and I start to care about details.

"Speaking of which, Rick seems to be making a few requests besides me. It all seems like a woman, including me, but does it make sense?

"Hmm? I guess so"

"Yeah, Linden, secretary of the Guild Association, and Makina, ranked fourth."

"Oh. Did you look into that? Doesn't make any sense, he just happens to be a woman."

"... Really? Let's just believe it."

In fact, Rick had no shadow of a woman close to him, but there were times when he acted suspiciously only one.

Once a day, I always pray.

That was more than praying to God, it was like talking to someone you loved, and you couldn't help but look like that.

Who are you praying to?

Just thinking about it made my chest hurt like it could be strained.

He came within the 10th ranking of the Alliance and completed his first assignment.

Around that time, a man named Takumi will be number one in the rankings, pulling out Alice.

"Keep an eye on the man nearby."

I didn't ask why.

Eventually, Rick will tell me everything.

I just have to wait for that time.

Just one word. I ask Rick a question.

"When it's all over, can you be happy?

Rick slowly removes his helmet instead of answering.

There is nothing there, black armor without a head with a helmet standing in front of him.

"By then, I won't be in this world anymore."

Reach into a space of nothing.

I try to touch his face, which was supposed to be there.

In a space of nothing, my hands did feel Rick.

"But that's all right"

I closed my eyes and kept my face close to Rick.

He had fallen to be buried in the grass of the prairie.

With the Ultimate Weapon Dam Gallion collapsing, I could only look up into the sky.

I see Rick's soul being sucked into the white world.

It may not arrive any more.

Still, I reach out desperately.

"... that's not okay"

I was betraying Rick.

To me, it's not a complete world, like a world without Rick.

That is why I cooperated with the installation of the Four Divine Pillars proposed by Takumi.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you get away"

I lost everything and there was nothing left.

I thought I'd never get anything important again.

So, I couldn't forgive you for losing you!

"Four God Columns!!

Squeeze the last force.

Four god beasts planted in my body are released from my outstretched hand.

Rick's soul flies in a spiral with Xuanbu, White Tiger, Peacock and Blue Dragon connected to my hand.

"Delivery, it arrived!!

Such a feeling is conveyed through the divine beast, with only a few fingertips, like touching something.

Shards of soul that the Divine Beast would have shredded.

On a dam gallon with a small white grain crumbling, pouring down.

Just like then, my fingertips were feeling something warm.