The Great Tomb of Nazarick was a guild formed by forty-two top-tier players.
Despite having only forty-two members, it stood out among countless guilds and consistently ranked third overall.
Within the Throne Room, the noise and bustle of the past were gone. The silence filling the space made Naohara and Momonga feel faintly uncomfortable upon their return.
Memories stirred from deep within.
Momonga looked around with nostalgia. Banners engraved with different emblems lined the surroundings, among them those representing Naohara and Momonga themselves. They were proof that the forty-two players had once existed.
"Me."
"Naohara."
"Peroroncino."
"Bukubukuchagama."
"Blue Planet."
"Herohero."
"Variable Talisman."
"Touch Me."
"Ulbert."
...
Momonga extended a bony finger and pointed at the banners one by one, quietly reciting the names of his former companions. Naohara did not interrupt him, simply standing at his side and listening.
Although he had come here with a purpose at the start, twelve years had forged an unbreakable bond between him and this place.
"If Ulbert knew you put him after Touch Me, he'd probably start arguing again."
"Those two really don't mix at all."
After Momonga finished, Naohara couldn't help but tease him.
"Those two gave me, the guild leader, a real headache back then. If we hadn't kept pulling them apart, they would've come to blows long ago."
Pulled back from his memories, Momonga responded with a hint of weariness.
Ulbert's dislike for Touch Me was something everyone in the guild knew. Back then, Naohara had even asked both of them why things were so bad between them.
...
"Why do I argue with that guy? I just can't stand seeing someone who's such a winner in life. Besides, our personalities were never going to get along."
"Anyway, let's go raid a boss together tomorrow. With your [Dragonslayer] and my [World Disaster] class, we'll be the strongest combo there is."
Ulbert waved his hand dismissively as he spoke to Naohara. Then, as if something suddenly occurred to him, he draped an arm over Naohara's shoulder and extended the invitation, grinning as he talked about their adventure the next day.
...
"That guy's way of thinking is dangerous, and he's openly hostile toward me. I actually wanted to get along with him."
"Maybe he's right. Our personalities really are incompatible. Oh, right, let's go raid a boss tomorrow, Naohara. Your [Dragonslayer] paired with my [World Champion] class will definitely be the strongest combination."
On the other side, when Naohara asked Touch Me about it, he could only respond with resignation. He wanted to get along with Ulbert too, but their personalities were completely opposed.
Laughing loudly, Touch Me invited Naohara along, then logged out at lightning speed before Naohara could even refuse.
"But tomorrow Ul—"
Staring at the empty space where Touch Me had been, Naohara swallowed the words he was about to say and let out a helpless sigh.
The next day came, and what followed was obvious. Ulbert and Touch Me both showed up looking for Naohara and ran straight into each other. After a brief moment of silence, the situation instantly devolved into a massive shouting match.
Naohara watched the two quietly. He never expected to stumble into a light-novel-style scene where two people were arguing over him. He clicked his tongue in disbelief, then remembered that both of them were men and fell silent.
Thinking about it more carefully, Naohara made a rather tragic discovery. All the people he was close to were men.
[Could it be that I'm a natural-born bayonet expert?!]
Naohara shook his head in alarm, forcefully pushing the terrifying thought out of his mind. If he kept thinking along those lines, he was afraid he'd head down a very wrong path.
Looking at the two in front of him, then at friends he was close to like Momonga and Peroroncino, Naohara decided that for the time being, he should go have a proper talk with Bukubukuchagama.
...
Thinking back on what had just crossed his mind, Naohara's look toward Momonga subtly changed. Come to think of it, the two of them really had been together almost every day. Either Naohara would drop by Momonga's place, or Momonga would come to his, and it had gone on like that for more than a decade without a break.
"What's wrong?"
Sensing that his friend was thinking about something unpleasant, Momonga asked, confused.
He hadn't done anything at all, yet Naohara suddenly backed away a few steps, as if Momonga were some kind of dangerous beast. Momonga couldn't make sense of it. Had Naohara's "condition" flared up again?
He knew perfectly well that Naohara had these episodes from time to time, but nothing strange had happened just now. They had only been talking about Touch Me and Ulbert. It shouldn't have triggered anything.
[No way… his condition has gotten worse again!]
After a stretch of increasingly wild speculation, Momonga looked at Naohara with pity.
"Ahem. I just remembered something unpleasant."
Naohara coughed twice and answered, completely unaware that Momonga had already built an entire diagnosis in his head.
How was he supposed to explain it? Was he really going to say, "We might be a little too close, and it freaked me out"?
If he said that out loud, he'd get laughed at for ages.
I treat you like a friend, and this is where your mind goes?
Naohara couldn't even bear to imagine what Momonga's face would look like if he figured it out, so he chose to brush it off, not realizing Momonga had already "figured out the truth" in his own way.
"Anyway, I did come here to talk to you about something."
"Come on, come on. Take a look at this."
Dropping the topic, Naohara suddenly remembered why he'd come in the first place.
He opened his backpack, and from a crack that appeared in midair, he pulled out a blade that looked utterly ordinary. He held it up, practically buzzing with excitement.
"Is there something special about that weapon?"
Seeing how excited Naohara was, Momonga felt a spark of curiosity. After all, it wasn't often Naohara took a weapon this seriously.
Momonga opened the weapon's attribute panel and carefully read the description.
[Dragon Destruction Sword]
[A sword that appears ordinary, yet now gives off a refreshed impression. If you feed it dragon materials, you may gain unexpected rewards.]
[Dragonbane: The sharp blade inflicts wounds that cannot heal, placing the target into a bleeding state. The longer the bleeding persists, the higher the damage dealt.]
The description was short, completely unlike the long-winded explanations he was used to seeing, only a few lines in total.
But Momonga wasn't disappointed. He stared at the text, and that final line immediately set his mind racing.
"Now I get why you're so excited. If I'm not mistaken, this weapon can evolve. And you've already tested it, haven't you? The only question is what grade it'll reach in the end. At the very least, divine-class shouldn't be a problem. As for World-Class…"
Momonga spoke with genuine surprise. An evolving weapon? Even he had never heard of such a thing. Without question, it was priceless. Back when the game was still booming, it would've caused a frenzy among players and sparked endless heated debate.
"So? You're curious how far it can go, right?"
"You bastard. You show me this and then say that like you're trying to hook me. You just want the materials in the warehouse, don't you?"
Momonga snapped, seeing straight through him. Naohara's goal was obvious. He wanted to drag Momonga in and have him help feed this bottomless pit.
No one could even guess how many dragon materials it would take to evolve that weapon.
"Heh. Well, Nazarick isn't just mine. I need the guild leader's approval, don't I?"
Naohara rubbed the dragon horn on top of his head and spoke with exaggerated seriousness.
"Fine, go ahead. Most of the dragon materials in the warehouse were put there by you anyway."
Momonga sounded impatient, but deep down, he couldn't help feeling pleased that Naohara had actually asked for his opinion.
"Classic gentle-but-tsundere. That's our guild leader for you."
Naohara flashed a thumbs-up, then bolted before Momonga could react. The ring on his finger flickered, and he vanished from the spot in an instant.
"Naohara!!"
The moment he disappeared, a furious roar echoed through the Throne Room.