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Last Embryo Volume 7 Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Half a day after the battle ended.

All the Players watched the sinking Atlantis continent from the window of the Spirit Train while Community leaders were discussing the acceptance of the natives of the continent of Atlantis. After all, their numbers were high, and it would be difficult to accommodate all the natives into just one Community, so there is no choice but to open up the undeveloped land and place them there while giving them support.

However, despite the loss of their homeland, no one was grieving. They got their long-awaited king back, and the king told them to believe in him and follow him, after all, so their reliability and pride prevailed over anxiety about the other side of the sea.

They will surely overcome any hardship thrown at them.

Organizers were also busy preparing bonuses and establishing the next round of the War. But until the next stage is ready, it will be a short break for everyone.

After watching them all, Sakamaki Izayoi headed to a coffee shop inside the Spirit Train.

「……….Now then. Let’s have a little talk, shall we?」

He opened the door of the coffee shop and checked inside. From inside the store, you could hear the classic music playing from records and smell the aroma of coffee being ground.

It looked like a coffee shop made with the Outer World in mind.

Since there was a service lounge on the 「Spirit Train」, there were only a few Players who went to this privately run coffee shop. Who would those players be, exactly? Only people born and raised in Europe in the Outside World.

「Yo, can I sit down with you, James?」

James, who was unfolding the newspaper, looked startled. Then he looked at Izayoi with a displeased look.

「What a surprise. I didn’t expect you to come to invade my privacy.」

「Of course. And if I managed to catch you by surprise like that, then it was all the more worth it.」

He sat in front of James without asking for his consent and sat there without budging for even an inch. Giving up and shaking his head, James folded up the newspaper and turned to Izayoi.

「So, what did you come to talk about? Since you came all the way here to see me even though the other Players were resting elsewhere, do you have something important to talk about?」

「Of course. The battle of Atlantis is over, but there are some things about your actions that I couldn’t understand.」

Izayoi started talking with a quarrelsome attitude, but James listened with a seeming lack of interest.

「Can’t be helped then, let’s just hang out for a cup of coffee. So what are you here to ask?」

「First of all, you, the victor, won and did not leave the Atlantis continent. Because you avoided the battle with Typhon and did not accompany Heracles, I can only think that’s because you renounced the reward for courage from the beginning. 」

In response to Izayoi’s question, James scratched his back and answered with annoyance.

「I just didn’t want to collect unnecessary hate. In the future, there may be more opportunities to cooperate with other Players, so I just wanted to do some work for free for a while.」
「I thought so too at first. But after you withered the great tree that supported the continent, a completely different possibility emerged.」

This time James revealed his disgust without even trying to hide it.

「…I’m sorry, do you have any proof?」

「It’s maddening, but I have nothing. But the most suspicious suspect is you, so from now on, just listen to my assumptions over a cup of coffee.」

Izayoi provoked him.

「At least, since the great tree withered exactly when it did, I think that it adds up with you being the culprit.」

「I agree with that, but I don’t see the merits. I don’t think that Typhon would stop even if the continent sunk, withering the tree would only increase his power and block the escape routes for the other Players.」

「Yeah, but there was one advantage to it. Typhon, who was using a resonance-type B.D.A., was about ready to self-destruct.」

James’ eyebrows moved for the first time as if his interest was picked.

「Hou? Who did you ask about that resonance-type B.D.A thing?」

「When I rescued Typhon, I heard about it from Vidar. It seems that the aftereffects of B.D.A have been present for a long time, but it seems that it was not enough to stop him. In other words, the most likely suspect has to be someone familiar with how the B.D.A works.」

「Hmm… you have a point. In other words, in order to get rid of Typhon, who was a common enemy to all of the Players, I withered the great tree?」

「If that’s all there was to it, there would be nothing to talk about, but the problem is that you, the winner of the first round, is the prime suspect. It was very likely that if you didn’t present us with the seeds of the fruit from the Star Tree, then probably all the other Players would have left the continent.」

「Well, I wonder about that.」

「If all the Players had left, a war would have begun between the resurrected Typhon and the upper echelon of Little Garden, and Typhon would have been excluded from the 2nd War for the Sun’s Authority without any risk. If you just wanted to eliminate Typhon, there shouldn’t have been a need to move in the first place for you.」

「I see, I didn’t notice that.「

It seems that James has stopped acting, but he still has no intention of admitting that he was the one who withered the great tree.

「In other words… from the beginning, that person was not aiming for Typhon. He wanted enthusiastic Players to be killed by him, or depending on how his luck would turn out, he wanted them to either sink with Atlantis or be wiped out in Typhon’s suicide explosion. In other words… his purpose was to reduce the number of Players to exterminate.」

「It’s a cruel accusation.」

James laughed and finished his coffee and left his seat.

「Even if that’s the case, I don’t think that person is guilty of anything. Rather, shouldn’t he be praised for doing a good job dealing with heroes?」

「Ha, spoken like a true charlatan. That’s not what I’m mad at. The real issue starts here.」

Izayoi stood up and roared as he stuck his index finger in James’ face.

「I don’t know how much you are involved in the situation in the Outer World, but in this case, if you don’t know the characteristics of the B.D.A that Typhon used, you can’t connect to the story. The person who created Typhon’s B.D.A. is connected to it all behind the scenes.」

For the first time, James looked directly into Izayoi’s eyes. Grabing James by the chest, Izayoi declares with a voice that would make even a demon shiver.

「I don’t dislike people who are involved in scheming within the rules of the Game, but I will never forgive those who repeatedly engage in brawls outside of the Game. I will definitely make them regret it.」

He stared at James with angry eyes.

What if it were the Sponsors who gave Typhon his B.DA? There is also a possibility that all the members of 『Yggdrasil』 are being used by the mastermind.

The organization that gave birth to 「The enemy of the World」can no longer be overlooked. Now that Izayoi has declared war against him with fiery eyes, he pushed James aside andleft the coffee shop.

There’s still a matter of his connection to 『Ouroboros』, but no matter wat happens, if he tries anything again, Izayoi will kill him with his own hands.

James stood still for a while. He suddenly put a smile on his lips and combed his hair with his hand.

「I see. This is Sakamaki Izayoi?」

A wicked smile unlike any before, a smile so demonic that if Heracles had witnessed it, it would have broken his neck on the spot, bloomed on his face.

However, unlike the theatrical smiles he showed so far, that one was the one of joy, or the one he was using only when he was truly having fun. He walked over to the coffee shop’s black telephone and turned the dial.

「It’s me. The stage of the next Game is probably going to be set in Rome. I was going to wait and see how things are going to play out… but I think I found a pretty interesting toy. I think I am going to play with it for a bit, to the extent that Lady is not going to hate me for it.」

The recipient must have been in a meeting, because James could hear yelling from the other side of the receiver, but ultimately they agreed with him.

「Thank you. So, our next target is going to be… yes, the 『No Name』. We are going to take care of them first at the next stage of the Game, the Roman Conclave.」