Part 3[แก้ไข]
………And hence, we’re back to Izayoi playing the gift game by Shirayuki-hime.
Strangely, Izayoi’s achievements haven’t been that great.
Kicking the water with her bare feet, Kuro Usagi sighed as she sat beside the river, waiting.
“It was unexpected that the news of Izayoi-san’s combat results have been spread together with the evaluation of Jin-bocchan……Due to the combat experience that others have heard by now, it’s inevitable that they would reject inviting you for a game, although you could also blame it on bad timing. Luckily, Shiroyasha-sama had prepared the game for you this time but future games that would allow you to participate in may not come so often now…”
“……….”
---That’s right, for Izayoi’s name had also started to spread along with the news of the new evaluation of the [No Name] Community. As a result, Izayoi’s right to participate in games has been restricted and can only rely on [Thousand Eyes] Shiroyasha to introduce the Games for him.
Then again, not wanting to fight Izayoi in gift games is understandable as his battle prowess is great and his combat records of his previous enemies have been astounding.
The humongous Great serpent goddess who resided in the “Edge of the World”.
Algol, one of the most powerful Star class Ex-demon lords in existence.
Weser, Black Percher’s trusted aide, who was a demon that held the Gift of [Divinity].
Having defeated these foes with insane strength on his own, Izayoi’s strength definitely wasn’t something that belonged in the lower levels.
After all that is said and done, the hosts were people who wanted to make a living, if they knew they’d be defeated, they wouldn’t allow his participation. And besides that, Izayoi had little interest in the mundane and boring gift games of theirs anyways.
Izayoi stretched a little, shrugged his shoulders and looked towards Kuro Usagi.
“Forget it. After all, bullying others isn’t something to be proud of especially when it comes to extorting others to do a favor for you, it sure isn’t right. No point ruining the reputation that was earned right? After all, our Community is a group that upholds Justice while striving towards the goal of [Defeating Demon Lords] so avoiding the battles that would surely be won would also show that we are very tolerant and a situation that we can use to our advantage.”
“You are right on that. But is the Gift obtainable from this Game able to cause a reversal of the current tide in the results ranking?”
“About that……? Well, this can be called a part of the fun after I clear the game.”
Izayoi laughed out with alacrity.
*Pata Pata* Kuro Usagi however, was not amused and continued to kick at the water.
To her, she could see that Izayoi possessed the strength and for her to be unable to introduce the games of his calibre, it was really vexing. Because Kuro Usagi truly believed that Izayoi was someone who could definitely build a name for himself through the victories in stages far larger than this and obtain very rare trophies at the same time.
Kuro Usagi pursed her lips and kicked the water harder.
“Even though Shiroyasha-sama introduced the game for you this once and helped to solve the problem…Kuro Usagi is still unsatisfied. If we lost in a game that we participated in, Kuro Usagi would be able to accept the loss. But to remove the rights to participate in future games….This…This is like---”
“-always relying on others.” Although she wanted to say it, Kuro Usagi restrained herself.
“Yeah, yeah.” Izayoi gave an expression that looked irritated by something troublesome as he scratched his head before looking Kuro Usagi in the eye.
“Kuro Usagi.”
“Ye…Yes?”
“I like your humble attitude, but if you’re too pessimistic, it’s not good. The current situation is really quite uninteresting, but as I’ve already said, it is not hopeless and still within my calculations. So can you stop your inane bursts of self-depreciation? It’s annoying.”
*Ah Uu* Kuro Usagi’s ears drooped as she didn’t dare make another squeak.
After all, Izayoi was busy with the solving of the Game and to hear someone grumbling beside him was really getting on his nerves for it broke the train of thoughts. Placing aside the problem of the pessimism, the bigger problem was the lack of knowledge.
Not wanting to be a bother to Izayoi any further, a depressed Kuro Usagi stood up and intended to hide in the woods for the mean time.
Looking at the depressed Kuro Usagi, Izayoi gave a small sigh before calling out to her.
“Hey, Kuro Usagi.”
“Huh…yes?”
“Let’s have fish for tonight’s menu.”
“Hah?” Kuro Usagi turned her head and tilted her rabbit ears.
Izayoi points to the center of the river.
“Over there, if you caught the fish there and grill them, they’ll be delicious. If I’m not wrong, they are fresh water Horse-Mackerel. I want to try them…… please?”
After hearing out Izayoi, Kuro Usagi smiled and nodded her head.
“Yes! Understood! Tonight, Kuro Usagi will answer Izayoi-san’s wish for tonight’s dinner and take on the responsibility of cooking them personally!”
“Un. I’ll be waiting.”
Izayoi laughed as Kuro Usagi jumped excitedly as she headed to the path in the forest. It seems that her ears were able to pick up the situation from anywhere and it wouldn’t make a difference to leave the scene.
Come to think about it, those rabbit ears sure are the same as ever, showing her expressions so clearly from its movements, though seeing her sudden change made him dazed for a moment, nevertheless, Izayoi was able to fully concentrate now.
As the Sun slowly climbed in the skies and the intensity of the Sunlight that shone into the grove started to increase, it was clear that the Sun was soon reaching its zenith. Based on his estimations, Izayoi concluded that he had probably around 30 minutes left.
[If I don’t start anything soon, time would run out for me…... That being said, it’s not like he had enough clues that could be called clues in the first place.]
Resting a moment longer, Izayoi sighed and re-read the geass roll and as he managed to link up the pieces of information that he missed the first few times, he found that the key points and important details were finally emerging and started to have some queries about the contents of the [Geass Roll].
(Judging from the rules, this is the part where it becomes an intelligence game. So I should be able to get the answer if I piece all the information together and compare them with cross references.)
The first part that Izayoi was mindful about was the game’s name, “Flowers over the lake”
What can be confirmed is that the Aqua Fran is a plant that only grows on river banks. But the game is marked “Flowers over the lake”. This meant that the difference of “lake” and “river”[11] suggests a special environment is involved.
The second thing is the clear conditions. It is only written as “Obtain the Aqua Fran and make it bloom”, nothing else. This definitely has another meaning hidden in it.
After which, there is a difference between “buds” and the actual “blooming” part.
Hence, the “buds over the lake” would bloom to make “flowers over the lake”.
In other words, the Aqua Fran would bloom if placed over water.
“The main thing is these three problems. So if I were to link them all up…”
• What did a lake possess which a river doesn’t?
• The flower buds weren’t to be submerged but a type of flower that blooms on the water surface.
• There isn’t a limit to where the place can be for the flower to blossom.
Amassing the information together, a solution became apparent to Izayoi.
“The method to make the flower bloom is… [A change in the water depth], that means I need to change the environment. The Aqua Fran is only living by the river but if a sudden surge of water were to happen like rainfall, the environment would be changed due to the increase in the river’s depth; or it could also be the situation whereby the buds were washed to the deeper areas and due to the survival instinct imprinted in the flower, it would cause the bud to bloom at the water surface……. That should be it.”
“Correct.”