“...Hmm,” I pondered. If she handled info like that, she might know how it all played out and ended.

“You said that he was completely right. Do you know the truth behind the event?” asked Nemesis.

“Do you want to know? 600 lir per area, please,” Marie said. “You can also buy the info on all four of the places at once for 2,000.”

I see. So she only appeared before us to sell some info, I thought. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m interested in what happened, so...

“...I’ll pay,” I said.

“Ah! Ray, let me pay half of the money!” Rook joined in.

We both gave 1,000 lir each.

“Thank you for your business,” she said. “I’ll start with the conclusion: the player killers who occupied the hunting grounds around the capital city of Altea have been completely annihilated.”

Now that’s a rough word, I thought.

“Annihilated?” I asked.

“Almost all the player killers in the hunting grounds are on their death penalty now,” she answered. “With something so extreme happening, I don’t think they’re gonna do this dirty work again. Some of the relevant clans might even split up.”

Work? Clan?

“Umm...” I expressed my confusion.

“Oh, forgive me,” she said. “The player killer group responsible for this event was actually a union between several player killer clans.”

“A union...?” I raised an eyebrow. I was told it wasn’t a solo effort, but an actual union between player killer clans? I thought. ...Wait, our country actually has enough player killer clans to create a union?

“Yes,” she answered. “Easter Plains at the east was occupied by K&R. Sauda Mountain Pass to the south was occupied by Mad Castle. Wez Sea Route to the west was occupied by Goblin Street. These three clans were responsible for the recent player killing.”

Two of those clan names sound really villainous, I thought. They’d probably chosen them on purpose. What about the north, though? That one’s the most important to me.

“As for their motives... Apparently, they did it because someone hired them to do the player killing,” Marie added.

“Was it Dryfe?” Rook asked.

The question made her slightly raise her arms and shake her head. “That’s the rumor, but we at DIN don’t have any conclusive proof of that, so I can only say that I don’t know,” she answered.

Well, as things are now, the only one who could be happy about Altar being damaged in such a way are Dryfe — the country we’re at war with — so it’s quite likely, I thought. Though it does seem a bit too direct.

“From their perspective, it was probably just an attractive scenario where they could get some extra rewards for their player killing by merely switching their hunting grounds, but the world wasn’t too kind to them,” she continued. “They were annihilated by a certain four Masters.”

“Four...” I repeated the number. Just four Masters had destroyed the player killers in all four areas.

Is that even possible? I wondered. Well, I guess the south made sense, considering Figaro was involved.

With that in mind, the other hunting grounds had been...

“Yes, it was made possible by the work of the four Superiors loyal to the Kingdom of Altar,” she said. “They were the ones who exterminated all the player killer clans.”

Superior.

That was the term used to describe the ones who had made their Embryos evolve to the final — seventh — form. They were the elite of the elite among players, and the total number of them didn’t even cross a hundred yet.

“King of Destruction the Unknown, Figaro the Endless Chain, Tsukuyo Fuso of the Lunar World, and Lei-Lei, the Prodigal of Feasts,” she said, naming the four. “They all went to a separate hunting ground and exterminated all the player killer clans occupying them. Oh, but Tsukuyo Fuso had her clan with her.”

“Oho...” I said, interested.

So Figaro’s nickname is “Endless Chain,” huh? Is it because he uses chains? I pondered. Also, is the King of Destruction’s nickname seriously just “Unknown?” What the hell? We don’t even know his name, so he could be a serious weirdo.

“Now, take a look here.” Marie took out a crystal ball and placed it on the table.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Well, it’s basically an item to display visual media,” she explained. “It shows what you record on magical cameras.”

Magical cameras? I raised an eyebrow. Well, it’s obviously a camera that works magically, but I can’t help but wonder if the devs think anything goes as long as you put “magic” next to it.

“Due to all the recent happenings here in the Kingdom of Altar, we at DIN increased the numbers of secret cam... I mean, information-gathering equipment we place here,” she said.

...Illegal spying, eh? I thought.

“Some of them happened to film the end of these terror events,” Marie continued as if it wasn’t a big deal. “This thing has it all in full detail.”

She activated the crystal ball.

“Since you two were talking about it, let’s begin with a look at the south, where Figaro the Endless Chain went...”