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“It’s true.”

Katalina seemed to have been talking to someone for some time. She then confirmed the information by nodding towards me with a stiff expression.

“Well, the decision has already been made anyways.”

Even if what they said was a lie, I had already decided to take them on by myself.

“I knew you’d think that way.” Wine answered with a smile.

“Let me offer something as well. Whether I lose or win this battle, do you have any thoughts about joining the Camelot alliance?”

“Ellie, you…!”

Katalina yelled out angrily, but I’d have plenty of time to persuade her later on. If they weren’t going to be my enemies in the future, was this fight really necessary?

I hoped that she would say yes to my request. Honestly speaking, the offer was beneficial to her as well.

“Does that mean you are going to guarantee that we can keep the rights of the Chaos guild?”

She asked in reply, as if she was interested. At least, I hoped she was.

“Though I may not be able to guarantee all of it, I promise you that I will provide you with the minimum of it. I swear this on my name.”

“Fufu… it makes me wonder how it would have been if I had met you in a friendlier setting. But I’ve already lost interest. I hate going around in a rush, trying to re-establish support from sponsors, and I’m sick of stopping the infights of the guild. On top of that, I’m sick of the fact that no matter how hard I try I would never be able to catch up and only just see you get even further ahead. I’m going to give up on my rights as the guild leader today. Perhaps I’ll even quit the game itself and start a new life with the money I’ve earned so far. That might not be such a bad idea.”

“Does that mean you will be giving up on playing Blue Sky?”

“Maybe… but that’s probably not going to be the case. I’m simply saying that I will no longer be putting myself in the race for power and ranking anymore.”

Then I finally nodded in understanding.

“So you’ve already decided.”

“Yes. If you would be so gentle as to let me go after this battle ends, Miss Artoria, then I will just live as a neutral player after this is finished.”

“I shall promise you that.”

“Thank you.”

From my point of view, it seemed like she was genuinely thankful for my words and bowed politely towards me. Since I couldn’t just stand there, I also bowed towards her.

Whenever someone was at their absolute peak and knew that they were going to fall hard, how many would just accept the inevitable as they see themselves in the worst moment of their life? Though we didn’t have a good relationship since we met each other as enemies, at least right now, she had my respect.

“Now then, let us get this to an end.”

Tiara smiled brightly as she pulled out her Nightmare.

“C-Can I participate as well…”

“That is not quite possible, sorry.”

Katalina couldn’t just stand by and asked to join me in the battle, but someone rejected her request.

“And you are?”

It was a user that was wearing the typical outfit that an archer would wear.

“… Sharon. The vice-guild leader of the now gone Shining guild, and owner of the legendary weapon ‘Robin Hood’s Bow’.”

Katalina answered my question instead of the woman who interrupted her.

“I’m Sharon, Miss Artoria. It is an honor to meet you. I heard that my pal created a huge debt towards you just the other day.”

“Are you talking about Lycan?”

“Heh, yes. He’s always been a bit of a goofball. But did you know? He began taking illegal drugs again, even though he quit those things five years ago, due to the amount of stress you put on him by killing him in the game.”

“!!!”

Illegal drugs, huh. I was shocked by what Sharon said. Since I’ve seen people around me turn into husks of themselves due to the effects and dangers of illegal drugs, I knew very well what they could do.

Though I knew that in reality, if you were determined enough, you could purchase illegal drugs much more easily than in Korea. Since it’s different in foreign lands, I didn’t think I would hear that someone who had been harmed by me would end up taking drugs to cope with it.

“Just ignore him. You’ve fought him fair and square and gained that victory.”

Seeing me shaken to the core, Katalina tried her best to make excuses.

“Heh… my apologies, it seems like you’re mistaking something here but I’m not here to gather sympathy from you two. I was acquainted with him somewhat since we’re both vice-guild leaders, so I thought I should at the very least show some formality and join this battle, meaning that I do not have any grudge against you, Miss Artoria, not at all.”

“…”

I couldn’t say anything. It wasn’t only because of the feeling of guilt I had from hearing that Lycan had turned to drugs to cope with the stress I brought him. I finally realized that this whole time I was being way too accepting of all the items that I had gained within the Blue Sky game. Not only did I earn legendary tier items one after another, there were mountains of ancient tier items piling in the sky castle, and the overwhelming amount of gold I owned made the memories of efforts I put into the game in the past completely miniscule in my mind.

On top of that, I’ve done all that in just a single month… that very fact frightened me greatly. It was why I had begun this war, and used the unification of the server as a pretext when truthfully I was just aiming to further my personal greed.

How many users had been harmed from my actions? How many had lost their livelihood because of me? And just who would they resent for that?

“There’s no need to blame yourself for it. It was all something that they brought to themselves.”

Did they really bring it onto themselves like she was saying?

“Well, you just need to confirm it in this spot right here. That the path we took was incorrect, and that your way was the correct one. That the reason we were defeated was because of you. Please make us directly understand the power that you have. I feel that it’s the only way that we would be able to accept that we had all lost.”

What she was saying was right. This very war may have ended up completely different depending on my involvement in it. Since I was definitely sure that before I had established Camelot and began showing off my power, they probably thought that they were in a good position. They could have been one of the major guilds that had influence enough to challenge any other top guild. But all of that possibility had crumbled to pieces just because of my involvement.

Though it was hard to accept it, they had to. But they really wanted to see for themselves just what a powerful force I was. It could have been the very reason why they set up this fight.

Yes, I had the duty to make them understand and accept my power. You could say it’s sophistry or hypocrisy, it didn’t matter. I decided to just think of the situation simply. Whatever the justification is, this world is ruled by the strong after all.

If you are weak, you tend to fall out of the race and become eaten by others. This didn’t apply only to the Blue Sky world but to real life as well… thats why, I’m not the bad person here but just that this is how this world works..

After seeing that truth and justifying it to myself, I felt calmness flow through me. Yeah, I’ve already set myself down this path anyways.

I took a battle stance. The three high ranked users also immediately took their stance as well since they wouldn’t possibly just stand by watching me, with two of them on the side starting to move backwards.

I answered Katalina’s request, though it was more like an order. As long as I am Artoria within the Blue Sky world, even if every single high ranking user were to become hostile to me, I still wouldn’t be willing to fall by their hands so easily.

The moment you hesitate when controlling the character is the moment you have lost the battle, and you would stagnate the moment you start to feel complacent. The only way you can keep increasing your skills is by always challenging yourself against foes that put you at risk of losing. By that standard, this battle was one of such battles.

I even liked it more since the combination of their specific classes made it particularly tricky to deal with. Mage, archer and assassin. They all had the flaw in which they had small amounts of health, but they specialized in delivering powerful singular blows.

If I were to divert my attention too much to one particular user among them, the other would use that gap in defence to land a critical hit on me. And the one that would do such a thing most certainly was…

“We’re starting off, okay?”

Definitely Tiara, as she hid her appearance while saying those words.

“Hah!”

I let out a short shout as I charged towards Wine directly. The more time I gave them, the more it would be unfavourable to me. So I was thinking of cutting her down before her ‘memorization’ of a spell is completed.

Clang!

As if she had already predicted my move, she opened up a shield and blocked my attack. However, the shield which should have lasted 10 seconds disappeared instantly due to the weight of the blow I delivered to it.

If I swung again, I would have defeated one of the three enemies I was facing. I tried to continue my motion and swing my Excalibur at her without any hesitation.

Twang!

But I had to jump back, dodging an arrow that flew by the place I was an instant ago. During the short moment I took to dodge, Sharon had finished aiming at me and started unleashing arrows.

It seemed like me dodging her shots was buying more time, since Sharon continuously activated one skill after another. The best case scenario for me was to damage her before she activated a skill and make her cancel her activation, but because of Tiara who had, unbeknownst to me, gotten behind me and dashed towards me with her Nightmare, making that impossible for me right now.

“Tsk.”

As I dodged her strike aimed at my back, Tiara made an expression that looked as if she was annoyed. However, before her expression could even fade away, she once again blended into the background of the area.

Honestly, it’s a skill that’s difficult for me to deal with. Suddenly, I felt a chill run down my spine as if I knew something was aiming for my back. Then I heard a clear shout of voice from that direction.

Wha-?