Future Diary Survival Game-Chapter 79 : Resource Battle - 3

Chapter 79: Resource Battle - 3
I was startled by her proposal.
“Ne? But.”
“Of course I cannot see ahead, so I need a guide. But I will carry the Princess on my back and run with all my strength in the direction she points.”
“Run? On this snow-covered mountain path?”
Then she answered solemnly.
“Of course this is hard for me too as is. So…… could you lend me the brooch for a bit?”
“If you mean this first-place prize brooch. But Sienne is already wearing one.”
“Yes. But even when I used this to amplify my physical abilities, I never experienced any noticeable side effects. Perhaps the level of amplification was too small compared to my limits.”
…….
A monster, then.
“It's only a guess, but I thought that if it were me, maybe the more brooches I wore, the stronger I could become.”
“Uh…… um. Yes, try it.”
“Thank you. Then first, Princess, please get on my back.”
“Ah, all right.”
We pinned the brooches to Sienne’s chest.
Five in total, including her own.
Doing the math in the simplest way, would that mean she became five times stronger?
“Then I will run. You follow slowly in the direction the Princess points.”
“Yes…….”
The moment I answered.
Snow suddenly burst up into the sky.
It was the recoil from Sienne stomping the ground.
The tremendous wind she kicked up vibrated my eardrums.
“Ughhhh. I can't open my eyes!”
Armelia’s voice echoed from far away.
We stared blankly in that direction.
“Oppa.”
“Yeah.”
“How strong would she be if we embedded even glove needles into Sienne?”
“I don’t know, but I think she might just kill one or two Magiretas outright.”
Berseum said too.
“If that one had kept participating in wars, the Empire might have fallen.”
Anyway, compared to Sienne we—who were frail—began to move with difficulty.
How long had it been like that?
Far off I could see Armelia and Sienne.
Armelia recognized us and waved.
“You all worked hard.”
“I didn't particularly work hard. I rode comfortably on Sienne's back. I only thought my ears might fall off from the wind.”
Beneath Armelia's nose, a bit of snot had frozen.
She seemed not to notice herself, so I decided not to point it out.
“Princess, your snot is frozen.”
“Huh?”
Thanks to kind Aina's remark, she hurriedly turned and wiped her face.
She made some overly flustered sound—like wailing—far more than the situation warranted.
Meanwhile Benjamin asked.
“So how was it? Was it really Hellfire?”
“I didn't see it, but the Princess said it was. She said there were flames floating in the air.”
“Floating, huh. So that explained why there were no tracks of a predator monster.”
“I swung my sword at the location the Princess indicated. But…….”
Armelia, having finished wiping her face, continued.
“The sword definitely cut the Hellfire in half. But like a lie, the halves ignited each other again.”
“That aspect is the same as ordinary flames in our world. What happened after that?”
“Just in case, I gathered snowballs and threw them. But that didn’t work at all either.”
“That aspect is different from ordinary flames in our world.”
What an annoying monster.
I wished it would stick to one thing.
“Luckily, it didn’t attack us. It might have been unable to, though.”
“So?”
“It fled. We thought about chasing it, but decided against it because widening the distance from you all would be dangerous.”
I nodded as if that had been the right decision.
I had learned that Hellfire could not be killed.
Berseum asked.
“What will we do now?”
…….
I fell into deep thought.
If Hellfire could not be killed, only one method remained.
We had to secure ordinary monsters faster than those creatures could hunt them.
I really did not want to use this plan.
I sighed and said.
“Let's return to the camp.”
“I want to move next to Darhen Miam.”
We returned to the camp with the teleportation beads.
Darhen had been the de facto leader when the camp was set up; he was good at placating and leading the ordinary participants.
When we appeared, he greeted us with the same smiling face, as if assuming we had been out hunting.
“Did you return? Hm? This time there is no firewood.”
“Gather everyone.”
“Huh?”
“There is no time. Everyone, gather by the altar.”
“All right.”
He apparently sensed something off in my expression, and his face changed.
While Darhen stepped away to assemble the people, I began calculating in my head.
‘The remaining number of monsters was 190.’
Of those, 38 were Hellfire monsters.
In reality, only 152 monsters could be used as firewood.
And the number of additional monsters we needed was 96.
‘From the 152, we must secure 96 before the Hellfire do.’
That meant getting about 62 percent of the total.
This was a number impossible to achieve with just our party.
I hated borrowing the hands of ordinary, unarmed participants, but in this situation there was no choice.
By then, all the ordinary participants had gathered by the altar.
I shouted in a loud voice.
“I want your help!”
And then I briefly summarized the situation so far and explained it.
The participants’ anxiety grew stronger, and their pupils began to tremble uncontrollably.
“W-We don’t know how to fight.”
“Those terrifying monsters……! I heard just seeing them makes you lose your mind.”
“Can’t we just try to endure somehow? Even if the fire goes out, we could all huddle together inside the tent.”
“I don’t want to. I’m scared. I’m scared!”
Not good reactions.
Of course, what I was asking of them was dangerous—essentially no different from asking them to risk their lives.
Only Sienne and our party were overwhelmingly strong; for ordinary people, monsters were terrifying beings.
At that moment, Armelia stepped forward.
“I’m not trying to boast, but until now, you’ve owed your lives to us.”
“T-That’s…”
“Of course, we also acted to survive and for efficient task division. But now that Hellfire has started hunting ordinary monsters, we must secure enough firewood too.”
“I understand what you mean.”
“Then why do you still look so defeated? If you keep dazing out like this, all that awaits you is freezing to death!”
Her voice rang with sincerity.
But still, the participants could not raise their heads.
They were all people who had somehow survived the quests so far.
But until now, their fights had been against other participants—or against themselves, like in the Diet Quest.
Facing an unknown existence like monsters must have been a first for them too.
‘No helping it, then.’
I looked toward Benjamin.
He flinched slightly, then sighed.
“I know what you want to say. You’re suggesting we use this, aren’t you?”
What he pulled out was Beramut.
A glove that could control people like dolls by connecting needles to their heads.
“Yes. It won’t be comfortable, I know.”
“No. I’d been considering that method myself. Unfortunately, it has a range limit. The threads connected to the glove can only reach so far.”
“Ah.”
“In this vast mountain, making them move around is impossible. We could insert the needles without connecting the threads, but……”
“In that case, they’d be uncontrollable and wouldn’t return to camp.”
What a dilemma.
I sighed inwardly.
Then it happened.
[Ask Aina to use necromancy.]
‘Huh?’
[When someone is terrified, people often say, “Their soul trembles,” right?]
‘No, not really.’
[Their souls are frightened. Aina should be able to calm them.]
Thinking there was nothing to lose, I asked Aina.
She tilted her head and blinked three times.
“So what do I do now? Like last time, should I soothe their souls? Doing that for almost a hundred people won’t be easy.”
Then the Diary Book spoke.
[That time, you were restoring souls tainted by Edgar. To simply erase fear and inspire courage doesn’t require nearly that much effort.]
‘Then?’
[You probably don’t even need to be taught. Aina, as one of the Possibilities, can do it.]
I was about to ask what kind of irresponsible answer that was when—
Aina suddenly raised her hand.
Then, as if she were a conductor, she began moving her arms this way and that.
Mumbling under her breath, as though entranced.
“Like this. And like that?”
Where her hands moved, the participants’ eyes began to change little by little.
Their trembling bodies stilled.
Determination appeared on their faces, and their eyes became clear.
When her “conducting” ended, Darhen was the first to speak.
“I’ll do it. No—I will make it happen.”
“Mr. Darhen.”
“I’m sorry. I showed such a pathetic side of myself.”
He turned and shouted to the crowd.
“The Princess is right. If we stay like this, we’ll all freeze to death anyway!”
“……”
“And besides, these people have worked hard to protect us until now. It would be inhuman to shrink back when they ask for our help. Don’t you agree?!”
“Oooooh!”
They responded loudly in unison.
Sienne spoke in a dazed voice, surprised by such a dramatic emotional shift.
“Aina, what did you do?”
“Uh…… like this, and that?”
“You still don’t seem all there.”
“I’m perfectly fine! I just don’t have a concrete way to explain it. I thought I could do it—and I really could.”
Armelia nodded approvingly.
“Excellent. As your senior, there’s nothing left for me to teach you.”
“How are you my senior?”
“I took Mason’s medicine first.”
“That’s all it takes?”
Anyway, thanks to Aina’s necromancy, the participants regained their fighting spirit.
After that, we began dividing specific sectors.
Naturally, Armelia took command.
“I’ll organize you into teams of five. That makes nineteen teams total. Everyone, look here.”
With a stick, she drew a map on the ground.
She had copied the compass map perfectly, with impressive drawing skill.
Seeing that, I realized something and asked the Diary Book.
‘Make nineteen copies of that map for me.’
[Now you’re relying on me properly.]
The Diary Book grumbled, but still produced fine copies as it had before.
While I quietly tore out the pages in secret, Armelia’s explanation finished.
“Everyone memorized your team’s zone, right?”
“Yes!”
“We caught three monsters in two hours, but it might be harder for you. Even if each team captures just one monster, that’ll count as success.”
“Understood.”
“With one outing, that’s nineteen monsters secured. If we make just a few such trips, we can get the ninety-six monsters we need.”
When she finished speaking, I quickly handed out the maps I’d torn from the Diary Book.
“Th-This is…”
“It’s a flawless map. No, really—it could be considered a piece of art.”
“That person really can do anything.”
That wasn’t me.
Well—it was me, but it wasn’t me.
In any case, the divided teams of participants each prepared their weapons and gear carefully.
I sincerely wished for their safe return as I spoke.
“The Princess must have already indicated the positions of the monsters for phases one, two, and three. After returning and warming yourselves briefly, move out immediately.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Of course, we won’t just sit back and give orders. We’ll work harder than ever to hunt monsters too. Please, count on us.”
I bowed lightly.
Then, all hundred participants bowed to us in unison.
“We’ll count on you too!”