＜Infinite Dendrogram＞

□ Ichimiya (Nagisa)

It was in my senior year of elementary school that I began to illustrate comics, more precisely.

My friends invited me into the Illustration Club because of my club activities.

The Illustration Club also had books written about how to draw comic book illustrations as materials, and I was illustrating them as I read and practiced them.

As I repeated that, I also began to draw in the body of comics.

At first I was frustrated by trying to draw a lengthy story comic book that didn't fit the power of amateurs, and by the number of pages I drew up about three copies of a single book in my notebook.

Note that two of those books were setup notes.

… the content was poor.

But I didn't quit drawing comics, and now, based on reflection, I started drawing a comic book complete with one story.

That was precisely enough to show my friends at the Illustration Club (though it was a comic book reunion since I got into middle school), but within doing so, I thought, "Why don't you send this to the Comic Book Awards?" So much so that you could say, "I can draw.

I still lost the original manuscript I sent, but I duplicated the post because of it.

Cartoon posts for five or six years.

In the winter of my second year of high school, a manuscript I applied for a comic book award was selected.

That cartoon was the first boy cartoon I ever drew.

It wasn't a strong girl comic book with a romantic element that I had written until then, it was a comic book with a story that I happened to want to "draw" on.

The comics I won were published in magazines in the form of read-outs, and were they popular with "Why don't you put your name for the series to the conference?," he asked the editorial staff to say.

I just happened to draw up a story that I thought I couldn't go on.

But when I had to start drawing, there was me portraying a slur and a continuation of the story.

That's how I moved on to tongue clapping and I was a cartoonist, not a college student, by the time I graduated from high school.

I was worried about going to school.

But my parents said, "Choose your favorite life. Because if you have any problems, I'll support you," he even said, holding me back from becoming a cartoonist.

At that time, I cried a little.

That's how I became a cartoonist. I started a series in a monthly magazine.

Sometimes I wasn't used to it at first, and it was a streak of challenges.

You also tried your hand at various martial arts to cover your work, and then you bought an air gun.

Sometimes my parents came to see me and they even said, "You're kind of a boy".

That's also a good memory now.

The series lasted more than two years on track.

So-so popularity, though not a magazine sign, was about fifth from the top.

I don't know if we'll even come to talk about animation in a year or two, I don't care what you think.

That's when the publisher of the magazine I was serializing went bankrupt.

The cause is business failure due to deficits outside the comic book sector.

Thus, my first series, along with the "Part One Complete" incitement complaint, ended with a magazine recess.

At that time, I was relieved for a while.

I remember thinking for hours, days whining about "I don't know what I'm going to do..."

I just had an editor who would say to hell if I should say Buddha or "why don't you serialize the rest in our magazine".

Apparently, because of the crumbling of every publisher, there was something like a contest for the work with a cartoonist who lost his way, and my comics were lucky enough to catch on.

I got time to think.

Time to think is not time to think back.

"Would you like to serialize? The answer to the question" Yes! Happy! "will be the only way.

But...... there was something else I had to think about.

That I can no longer draw.

I couldn't draw anymore.

My comic book continued...... I couldn't draw any more.

With the end of the first part due to the magazine's recess, the protagonist in me - "Marie Adler” - stopped moving.

It felt completely different than before, whether I tried to draw it or not.

She's not moving in the story.

It's like you're moving a corpse in a fishing line, such an illusion.

Slump.

As if I'd even forgotten how to breathe, I could no longer paint Marie's story because my comics...

Not only that, but I can't write other stories step by step, not even a completely irrelevant read out, I can't draw.

I've been serious about comics before as much as I am.

I've done everything I can to draw it.

But I can't draw anymore now.

I did everything in my power to get back on track.

I also tried cooking, handicrafts, and ancient martial arts to go around the world at my own expense as an interview, or that if I acquired new skills, I might see something different again.

But I couldn't.

I can't think and paint a story anymore, as I am.

"Oh, God.

Please.

Give me other possibilities than “me”.

Let me write the rest of her story.

Let me see her. "

Yes, I strongly hoped.

That's when.

It reminded me of the existence of a game.

"< Infinite Dendrogram > will offer the New World and you alone < Possibility (One-of-a-kind) >”

VRMMO, < Infinite Dendrogram >, swept the world with such complaining and complaining content.

If this game offers all possibilities and life.

I felt like I could find a continuation.

I had such delusions that I could see the continuation of my comics, which I no longer saw.

I had hope.

So I started < Infinite Dendrogram >.

The name of the avatar is her name...... Marie Adler.

I also made her look like her.

Long dark hair, long and beautiful, always sunglasses on face.

Words and deeds, too, suit her.

One name is "I," and the tone is a little habitual and disrespectful.

Behavioral principles (...) also suit her, and I made her role play in < Infinite Dendrogram >.

By doing so, we may find something. That something might start again.

She in me may breathe back...... I will play her hoping so.

A year after I started < Infinite Dendrogram >.

I still haven't been able to draw on it.

But I feel it.

In my heart, in Marie Adler, I feel Marie's breath again.

That was enough reason for me to be in < Infinite Dendrogram >.

◇ ◇ ◇

□ [Reporter] Marie Adler

"Mm-hmm. ♪ You're such a hiccup. ♪"

"Good for you"

She enjoyed this square even after I painted it.

He drummed his tongue at a street meal he wouldn't normally eat, caught a water balloon, and really seemed to have fun.

Now I sit on the bench side by side, licking this kind of candy in the form of a cute animal.

Still, how can this stall be a Japanese edge tick?

"Gideon is a town full of people. Brittis is a mess."

"Count Brittis?

"Uhm, it's something that taunted Gideon's sagginess and fun from Hiro!

"Heh."

Grey, isn't it?

"Right. As you may have heard from the Earl of Brittis, and as you may already know, Gideon is a city of many characteristics."

Deals with Legendaria and Cardina flourish because of its proximity to the southern and eastern borders. It's a few days walk from both the western port towns, right?

Tourism also brings in a large number of bourgeoisies and masters as one of the leading resorts in the kingdom using the arena as its main axis.

If there's one more thing to say, it's that there's no threat of drife because it's the furthest from the northern border among the major cities.

"It's arguably the most luxurious city in the kingdom right now."

"Mm-hmm. One of them was taller than the rest of us..."

Put the question "Was it out of the ordinary like today even in the Wang capital?" on the shelf.

The princess has a slightly sunken face remembering how she usually spends her time in the Wang capital.

The people of King's Capital today are full of anxiety about war, aren't they?

... I also applauded the PK disturbance the other day and the burning incident that emitted an end to it.

"My chest hurts a little"

"Hmm? What's the matter, Marie? How dare you?"

"No problem. You seem to think more about the people of the King's Capital than that, but it's okay. The complexion of the people of Wangdu will soon be better. So the people at the castle are working hard for that, right?

"... right! Yeah, well, I guess I'll see you soon!

"Yes."

I can't, though.

It is only when it is completed domestically that the country stabilizes by laying down good governance.

With countries clearly hostile, good governance alone cannot contain anxiety and real harm.

But I don't want to tell this kid, "The anxiety of the King's Capital people is still going on because we have enemies."

I'm resting because I'm lying, but I'm in a better mood, so now this is it.

"You're gonna be so frightened, you're gonna have to stick to every smell!

"Yeah, good luck, Princess"

"Mm."

Is that it?

I'm suddenly upset again if I think I'm in a better mood.

"What is it, Princess?

"Bye!

"That?"

"Marie has been so frivolous since just now. Come on! Kagikan... Kagikan!

Do you feel the distance? I see. Maybe that's how you'd feel if you just called her by her position without calling her by her name.

And I guess I just bit it, but it's no surprise you feel false.

I'm a hunk of lies.

"Then let me call you Eli."

…………

Ah, silence.

Did you just narrow down the distance too much?

"Eli..."

"Don't you like it?

"Hey! Eli's good! From now on, you're Eli!

You liked it.

"Yes, Eli"

"Huh."

Oh, a pretty smile.

I want to take it home.

I want to cheek and sleep with you.

............... No, no, no, no, no, because that's a complete case.

And because it's a VIP kidnapping.

Oh, yeah.

I remember it in a dignitary.

"Speaking of which, Eli said she got out of her place of stay, what was the business of coming to this city?

"Gideon, come on!

"Sorry, I asked the wrong way. I'm on official business."

I will ask with half certainty of the answer inside.

"Um, I just came to the end of an event."

Were you watching Super Clash after all?

This is Gideon's first event.

There 'll be enough royalty to watch and foil, won't there?

"Oh, yeah, it's supposed to come tomorrow."

Huh?

"... sister?

"Uhm."

Elli's sister, the second princess of the Kingdom of Alter.

That is none other than His Highness Ultimia A. Alter, the king's deputy for the First Princess of the Kingdom of Alter.

You can't solve it.

If it's foiled, neither of you will have to come.

Is there something about it?

"Eli entered this city apart from her sister."

"Yesterday I greeted Gideon with a greeting, and made a mix of Tomorrow's Ban, as well as a lot of things."

Don't leave much work to the little one.

I just wanted to say, I guess that's also the guy called the royal service.

"That's why I had a good time today!

"I'm glad Eli's happy for you, too. Oh, I have a little errand to run, so is it okay to move?

"Uhm! Hiroshima is tough!

I pulled Eli's hand and stood up and threw my finished candy stick in the trash and walked away from it.

Along the way, he shifts his gaze to the street lamp at the edge of his sight and sees what is reflected on the metallic surface (...).

"... are the three of you following me"

"What's the matter?

"No, it's nothing, Eli."

◇

After we left the square in front of the arena, I stopped at Gideon's station in < DIN > with Eli.

- is one of the newspapers in Infinite Dendrogram.

As [Knights] are the Knights of the Kingdom and [Ninjas] and [Hidden] register in the sneaks of heaven and earth… [Reporters] can transfer careers by belonging to newspapers, publishers and other mass media around the world.

Marie, the protagonist of my comics, was also a journalist, so choosing a [reporter] job was a certainty.

In that fold, I chose < DIN > from a number of newspapers.

< DIN > is not the largest in the industry, but it is characterised by branches in the major cities of each country.

Others liked the fact that they also work as informers while running newspapers, and that they distribute information across borders, like comics, right?

The < DIN > branch office is also located in this Gideon.

My colleagues at the Gideon branch also told me where the Duff store handles tickets for tomorrow's event.

Incidentally, all < DIN > affiliates, including myself, are treated as commissioners. I'll go to different places.

My starting point was heaven and earth, but I'm in Gideon, in the Kingdom of Alter, after rolling over the Grand Baroa, the Yellow River, the Cardina and the countries from there.

Including the ability to act, the ability to fight, and most importantly the viability to bring information back, < master > is perfect for a commissioner.

... It seems like a high despena rate because you can't act in combat if you're a legitimate [reporter].

[Reporter] 's "Pen is stronger than a sword" is a skill with disadvantages that makes you incapable of taking combat action.

But this is a skill that will only be activated in jobs in that lineage, just like [Saint Knight's] Guardianship of the Sacred Knight, etc.

If you temporarily switch the main job to a different system of jobs, you can deactivate it and take combat action.

So if [the reporter] 's < master > wants to travel, he temporarily switches to another job to move, gathers information as a [reporter] in the interview site, and then switches jobs again to move, so you take the approach.

If there's a problem, basically, you can only do it at a savepoint where the jobs are switched between the cities.

There are other items that can instantly change the main job, some hands that use the [Job Crystal]...... they are disposable on top of the high.

[Reporter] Long and short, either as it is or in a switching way.

So I haven't done either (...).

gossip.

Elli, who stepped into the Gideon branch, was like an elementary school student after a social studies tour, to say the least.

Well, that said, it's not good when you find out, so I'm facing you on the face.

A lot of people have the skills to see through "phantoms" of visual misconception and "disguises" that falsify their status, because [reporters].

"Shinbunsha was nothing like that."

"I'm having a hard time getting ready to cover tomorrow's event. I've been pushed to do my job."

When I told him how grateful I was to be taught the duff shop, he brought a variety of interview equipment. They want it to be recorded perfectly because it's a special seat at the corner.

You would also be taking press seats...... I know you should take them from various angles.

Angle is important for the best shot in a fight match. I know because I used it often as a material photograph when drawing comics.

I didn't stay much longer at the Gideon branch, and when I greeted him, he gave me just one two pieces of information and immediately walked away.

◇

The information I got at the Gideon branch, it's information about a certain two noblemen.

The first is the Count Gideon family that holds this Gideon.

Count Ash Valley Gideon, who is currently ruling Gideon, is now a fifteen-year-old boy.

He said his father, an earlier Earl of Gideon, died ill two months ago and quickly succeeded the Earl family.

It should be noted that she had a little rug by the time she officially succeeded because it was a month ago, but now that she did, she's already been treated as an Earl.

This is what I have to talk about when it comes to uniforms.

It is customary for the nobility of this Alter kingdom to be joined by men and others who are not principals but successors during the war.

"Not the other way around? I think so, but they have the idea that" those who can survive such ordeals, trials, deserve the next generation of nobility ”.

However, during the war six months ago, he didn't have to take part in the war because he wasn't serving.

By the way, a martial officer serving the Count's family joined the ranks as a nominee, but that person seems to have died in the war, so the Count was lucky, wasn't he?

But it's not all good.

Currently this city of Gideon is under a series of kidnappings by an organization that will become the Gozmays Bandits.

He said the incident had been happening since the survival of his predecessors, but he still hasn't found a way to solve it after replacing it.

This still calls into question the ability of the young Earl of Gideon to maintain law and order and manage his territory.

You think there is also talk among the unspoken nobles of whether it would be better to leave it to another?

But the First Princess and the heavy-town aristocrats in power trust the Count Gideon family, and they don't intend to relieve them of their duties.

If the damage to the Gozmaids Bandits continues like this, it might change the story again, but on the contrary, someone might just fix it.

The other is the Count Brittis family.

The Count of Britis had a territory between this Gideon and the port town facing the < West Sea >.

Our Lord is Count Alzar Brittis. He says he's still fine, even though he's 60 years old.

It's his benevolence for breathing “Gideon's Fun” into Eli, but you think it was sinister with the Gideon Count family from the previous Earl of Gideon's generation?

That the horses didn't fit.

that while territory of the same size, there was a difference between the Earl Gideon family and the cloud mud with dueling cities.

They had a lot of other causes.

It's weird at this point if you pinch a personal look.

Why did Count Brittis, who hates the Count Gideon family, tell Eli “Gideon's Fun”?

You should say bad things about the person you hate, normally.

Because this city can enumerate as much as it wants to poke a weakness.

But it only conveys positive information.

All I can think of is that I already wanted Eli to take an interest in Gideon and walk around the city.

Though I'm still in the speculation stage as to what I'm going to do with letting you walk away.

Yeah, well, I also had this information about this Earl of Brittis.

Count Brittis had one son who had been able to do so since he was old.

Count Brittis was very annoying and she was so cute that it didn't hurt to put it in her eyes.

I also finished my main uniform and was officially looking forward to the future as a successor.

Yeah, I was already in service.

As of the war the other day.

In accordance with custom, he joined the ranks of his father, Count Brittis.

Count Brittis thought of his son and used his bare possessions to gather soldiers.

Said to make sure my son came home safe.

He also did everything in his power to ensure that troops from his territory were deployed near the kingdom's strongest Kingsguard Knights.

Said to make sure my son came home safe.

All that was left of Count Brittis, who spent everything for his son... was his son's right wrist fitted with a family crested ring.

[Demon General (Hell General)] Logan Godhardt.

He was one of the top rankers in the Empire of Drife and his name was known as the Devil.

He said during the war, he was moving for the head of the Kingsguard Knights.

And the British army, which was forming near the Kingsguard Knights, was ravaged by more than three thousand cannibal demons led by [the Demon General], who said few bodies remained.

Thus the Earl of Brittis mourned his beloved son, his successor.

Misfortune is not only that, but also the funds spent collecting soldiers in the war, and then the condolences for the vast bereaved families.

To Todome, an epidemic that broke out in Count Britis' territory.

In order not to diffuse it within the kingdom, but to hold it within the territory, he used all of his remaining financial resources.

That's how the epidemic was contained, but Count Britis' territory was completely broken.

Count Brittis bowed his head to the royal family and returned his territory.

Normally, it is something that still manages to go on even when it becomes difficult to run a territory (although there is often a great deal of damage to the inhabitants in the process).

But Count Brittis didn't do it and returned the territory to the royal family early.

It is also said that this was because he tried to save the inhabitants by making them royal jurisdictions, or because he lost his successor and no longer had any untraining against the territory.

That's how Count Brittis became a legal aristocrat with no territory, and he says he works in the royal palace as a single clerk.

What is he thinking right now?

◇

"But I didn't know you knew so much about nobility..."

The boulder is a newspaper. Lots of great people gossip.

Thanks to the addition of pieces of information, I have been able to read various muscles.

But assuming it's what I assume, it's a throwaway bowl for a long time.

It won't turn out the way you think it won't roll too well.

"Eli, what is Count Brittis like?

"Is Brittis getting any better? Seriously."

Are you serious?

"But sometimes it's amazing."

"Do I look lonely?

"I'm so frightened, I know it well."

That being said, Eli is looking somewhere far away with a slightly sunken face... in a certain direction in the Wang capital.

"There's a straw."

"Yeah, I know"

"You two are so big."

I have heard that Elli's sister, First Princess Ultimia, is in intense duty as the king's deputy and that her sister, Third Princess Theresia, can only live in a sick and sterile backyard.

"Oh yeah, and Theresia has always been in bed. Shit, I never even bluffed with you. But this soldering... can't stay awesome."

Eli took a sigh that seemed to disappear.

"I've been rushing you. You don't know if you're being molested by me."

"... Eli"

Today, until we met in person, I heard about Eli as my princess.

Alter's second princess is very selfish, vainly active, truly unattended, and curious beyond her control.

Actually, I guess so.

Because this time, we are not offering to visit the city of Gideon, and we are escaping from our place of stay.

But maybe the loneliness of not being able to spend time as a family with my sister or sister was applauding Eli for her actions.

"But I was happy today! Marie was there for me! I've never seen you like this before!

Eli squeezed my hand with both hands and gave me a bright smile similar to the sun after the black clouds cleared.

"If you're happy, I'm happy for you."

"Uhm, very nice to meet you! It wasn't as nice as it sounded! … but"

Eli, cut the words and nag.

"But... the mahogany is something else."

That said, Eli let go of the hand she was holding and turned her back on me.

"It's time for wrinkles to get out of the way."

"... Are you done? Eli."

"Uhm! Thanks to Marie, I'll hang in there tomorrow."

That said, Eli squeezed her hands together with her back turned.

"One day, if you can hang in there more like this, I'll give you a good night's sleep."

Eli looked back and said this with a full smile.

"Then we'll go around this gideon together!

Eli's words.

It's the determination and dreams of a little kid.

Given her or her sister's position, I don't know if I can actually make that happen.

But......

"Yeah, Eli can do that, I'm sure."

Not as a lie, but as a wish. That's what I answered.

Really, I sincerely want this kid's innocent dreams to come true.

So let me help you a little too to make Eli's dream come true.

◆ ◆ ◆

■

"Target and accompanying person start moving. The direction is the most street...... the residence and anticipation of Count Gideon, the place to stay"

"The footage is recorded on [magic camera]. We have all the“ evidence ”to tailor that < master > to the bad guy. If things were to happen, it would be now."

"Communicate to each squad that was turning to the information agitation in the city. Gather around and destroy Elizabeth S. Alter, Second Princess of the Kingdom of Alter."

To be continued