Copy Skills with Affinity!

Chapter 13

In the End

Aiden was walking along the streets at dawn.

A dock at the edge of the Imperial Capital.

He saw a massive ship cutting through the bluish early morning haze as it approached.

Most of the weapons smuggled into the capital were brought in aboard ships navigating the canals. And this place was exactly where today’s incident would break out.

-Quest Info

▶ If you fail the events listed in this section, you will incur massive penalties!

◈ Life Is Beautiful

* Katya Heinkel Craven desperately wants something from you. Help her feel ‘sensation’ as fully as possible!

* A related event will occur soon. (D-Day!)

★ If you handle the incident wisely, the way the ‘Weaver of Fate’ applies to the target will change.

◈ Act I,

* Your contact frequency with important scenario characters has increased sufficiently.

* Soon, your existence will be formally integrated into the scenario. Depending on your actions, the scenario’s course will be decided!

* A related event will occur soon. (D-Day!)

♠ Main Quest

◈ Act I,

* There is a group smuggling weapons into the capital. Apprehend them all.

* Clear condition: Do not cause any civilian casualties.

* If you fail the quest, you will die!

Wow.

Seeing it spelled out and shoved in my face that all these incidents were going to erupt today made my chest feel tight.

Especially that phrase planted so conspicuously in the main quest—“if you fail, you die”—made it even more so.

Unlike the sub quest I received once before, this one felt like it was making it very clear I absolutely had to succeed.

‘It’s exactly the same as what I saw in the game.’

Seeing those ruthless words threatening me—“if you don’t do this, you’ll be killed”—made me feel once again that I really was standing in a game world.

Except unlike a game, where you could try again after dying, for me, dying meant the end.

Still, if there was any consolation, maybe it was that today would be the last time I had to devote my attention to things like this.

‘Surely…….’

Aiden recalled the ‘progression’ of the incident in his head.

No matter how secretly they smuggled them in, bringing in enough weapons to be tied to a coup meant they were bound to leave a trail. The city police of the capital would catch the scent and emerge to crack down—that was the beginning of the ‘scenario’ that would sweep across the whole world.

‘They’ll be there.’

And among the city police coming to conduct the raid would be Aiden’s target.

The one who would awaken their own talent amid today’s ‘crisis’—our Savior.

The protagonist of this world.

At this point, they were merely a rookie in the Imperial Capital’s police force.

I didn’t know what they looked like or what kind of person they were, but one thing was certain—they would appear here today.

No, they had to appear. For the sake of the world’s future, if nothing else.

‘So, take some of the burdens that have fallen on me, too.’

That was closer to how I truly felt.

Anyway, to take that first step, I needed to meet up with the person I had arranged to join forces with.

They definitely said they would be waiting somewhere around here.

As I glanced around, a face suddenly swung down from above.

Like a bat, Katya was hanging upside down from a nearby streetlamp with her legs hooked around it.

…My heart nearly fell out.

“Hi-ya.”

While dangling in the air, Katya waved her hand with a bright smile, making my chest feel immediately heavy.

She looked like an ordinary girl, but the oppressive sensation squeezing my entire body was just like facing a giant predator.

I’d felt something similar when looking at Noel, but at least in her case, there wasn’t that certainty she’d do me harm. Unlike this ticking time bomb in front of me.

“It’s strange.”

That human-shaped predator opened her mouth as soon as she laid eyes on my face.

“What is?”

“That I didn’t sense anything until you came this close.”

“……”

“For someone so remarkable that they can wield the same Holy Flame as me, why can’t you even manage something that simple?”

“……”

“You’re bursting with power, but you don’t seem to know the first thing about how to use it. Honestly, I’d love to drag you back to the Holy Crown Kingdom right now and cut you open to take a look.”

The way she so suddenly and precisely stabbed at my weakness was probably a big part of why I felt this constant pressure around her.

And she wasn’t wrong in the least.

The abilities I carried were all unbelievably powerful, each one formidable on its own. But I didn’t know even a speck about how to use them properly in combat.

From the perspective of Katya, who had been raised as a genuine combatant, I must have seemed pathetic.

“Well, it’s fine.”

Katya dropped lightly to the ground beneath the streetlamp and continued.

“As long as you keep your promise, I don’t care about trivial things like that. So, what are we doing first?”

“There’s someone I want to introduce you to. Let’s meet them first.”

If it was our Savior, it would be nothing for them to make Katya feel something right away.

In the first place, in the original story, the reason Katya was drawn into the party as a ‘companion’ was because she felt something the moment they first met.

Not long after their encounter, regardless of the method, breaking through her innate numbness and letting her feel some sort of ‘sensation’—that was the beginning of her individual quest.

I remembered perfectly how, after that, Katya stuck close to the protagonist wherever they went.

Katya let out a small laugh and replied.

“I’m looking forward to that.”

…Her voice sounded bright enough, but it also felt like she was saying that if I didn’t keep my promise, she’d deal with me however she pleased.

▣

The raid site was boiling with fierce energy.

It wasn’t just a figure of speech—the temperature was genuinely high because bombs were going off and bullets were flying everywhere.

The blaring of the city police’s loudspeakers repeatedly urging them to surrender, the criminals’ curses, and the tearing sounds of gunfire and explosions all blended into a deafening uproar.

For something that was supposed to be a simple weapons smuggling crackdown, it felt absurdly over the top.

‘Still, I guess it’s fortunate there haven’t been any casualties.’

Even if they weren’t regular military, the Imperial Capital’s city police were certainly elites among law enforcement organizations. None of them were the kind of people who’d struggle with dismantling a criminal group like this.

The clear condition of ‘no casualties’ didn’t seem in too much danger.

And on the outskirts of that fierce battle—

“Do we really have to stay this quiet?”

While Aiden felt his stress level skyrocketing just by being here, Katya, crouched with him in the shadows watching it all, muttered her complaint.

Apparently, she was deeply displeased that they were ‘boringly’ refraining from joining in, whatever they planned to do here.

‘Honestly, really…’

Since she never felt any physical sensations, Katya enjoyed pulling every kind of stunt she could think of to feel something mentally instead.

“Just bear with it for a bit. There’s nothing to gain from jumping in there right now.”

“You’re making me sit here bored this long, so if it all ends with nothing, I’m really going to get angry, you know?”

“……”

Watching bullets and explosives flying in front of us, hearing her casually call this boring—it made me wonder what kind of lunatic I’d ended up with.

If she said she’d get angry, that meant at minimum a catastrophe with civilian casualties in the dozens—at worst, the hundreds. It wasn’t something I could brush off lightly.

‘They should be showing up any moment now…’

Fortunately, before Katya could grumble any further, the incident I remembered was unfolding right in front of my eyes.

“Everybody back!”

Exactly.

Aiden nodded inwardly as he watched one of the cornered criminals step out carrying a box that looked dangerous at a glance.

“…A Hellfire Bomb?”

It was telling that even Katya, who until now had been watching with disinterested eyes, whistled at the sight.

“Didn’t they avoid using those during the Allied War because they were so expensive? What the hell is something like that doing rolling around in a back alley?”

While she muttered such things under her breath, Aiden caught sight of the city police’s faces turning pale one by one. They must have instinctively realized that if that thing went off, it wouldn’t be strange for the whole district to vanish.

“-Wait, calm down-”

“Drop your weapons! If you don’t put them all down on the ground right now, I’ll detonate it!”

Ah, it almost felt nostalgic. Wasn’t this the very first cutscene that played right after the tutorial ended?

And here.

This was where our great Savior would appear, stepping in to subdue the petty criminal threatening to blow up the entire area in one swift motion—that was the beginning of the grand story.

Yes, any moment now.

One.

Two.

Three.

“…Team Leader, what do we do?”

“For now, don’t provoke him. Can’t you see that bastard’s eyes have rolled back?”

“Hey! What are you whispering about over there? I said drop your weapons on the ground!”

“Wait, calm down. Okay? Listen. We’ll put them down. We’re putting them down, see?”

“……”

They were supposed to appear.

No.

They had to appear… hadn’t they?

Aiden felt a chill crawl up his spine as he looked at the scene in front of him, where nothing was happening.

His hands and feet turned cold.

Obviously.

Obviously, the one who should have been here was nowhere to be seen.

‘Gone?’

At this timing, there absolutely should have been someone.

In the midst of this chaos, there had to be at least one person who would step forward and show ‘courage.’

But.

There was no one.

Everyone only looked around, gauging each other nervously, too afraid that they might be the one to die.

There was only ordinary people here.

No one dazzling, no one who bore the fate of the world on their shoulders.

The ‘protagonist’ Aiden had been counting on to take the burden off him—

Was nowhere to be found.

“……”

Aiden squeezed his eyes shut.

In the end.

The ‘worst-case scenario’ he had so desperately wanted to avoid was taking shape right before his eyes.

“Hey.”

And.

Before he could even finish gathering those thoughts.

A cold voice came from beside him.

“So, where’s the person you were going to introduce me to?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me they’re among those pathetic creatures over there.”

This was not the kind of atmosphere where he could confess the truth.

If he admitted it, it wouldn’t have been strange if Katya lopped off his head on the spot.

No—thinking about Katya’s usual temperament, that would have been the normal outcome.

“—”

Once again.

A switch clicked into place inside his mind.

That survival instinct of his that always switched on in extreme situations.

“Aiden. Your answer?”

Even the smile Katya usually wore like a mask was starting to fade, as she spoke those words again.

It was practically a final ultimatum. Like she was asking—did you really waste my time with this nonsense?

And in that brief moment, Aiden’s mind was racing, churning out an assessment of the situation at terrifying speed.

‘What I need to deal with right now…’

Right now, what he had to do was somehow make this monstrous princess next to him hurt.

If he couldn’t pierce through all of Katya’s ‘Holy Flame’ and force her to feel some kind of ‘sensation’—

He would die here.

‘—That’s the premise.’

And he had already considered once before how he might achieve that purpose.

If he wanted to break through every last scrap of Holy Flame she possessed, he would have to deliver a ‘blow’ so powerful it was almost absurd.

Right now, what he had was a single revolver he’d brought for ‘self-defense,’ and, just as Katya had pointed out, a collection of half-baked abilities he didn’t even know how to use properly—only carried around.

Pathetic weapons, abilities that were like a pearl necklace on a pig.

With all that.

He had to land a ‘strike’ that would surpass the output of a monster on par with Noel.

“—”

So then, really.

Could he do it?

Was there any way?

The calculation came fast—and the conclusion came even faster.

“Are you deaf or something? I’m asking—”

“Shut your mouth. Just wait.”

There was.

Exactly one way.

He’d come to this conclusion before, too.

It was a method he absolutely didn’t want to use.

Really, truly didn’t want to.

“I.”

And to do it, first—

He had to call one person.

As he spoke, Aiden reached inside his coat and pressed something firmly.

“I told you. Wait.”

One second. Two seconds. Three.

He counted silently, all the way to ten.

And then, after that brief stillness—

The anomaly came immediately.

“—What’s that?”

Someone sharp-eyed down at the docks muttered the words.

They must have sensed that something about the environment had changed.

Even though you couldn’t see it with your eyes, anyone with a good intuition would have realized that some fierce ‘current’ was forming around them.

It began as a faint movement.

Turned into a wind, then a gale, and then into a raging typhoon that sent anything remotely heavy whipping through the air.

And finally—

From the sky.

A ‘person’ wrapped head to toe in a shroud of pure white mist came hurtling down, like a falling star.

-!!

-!!!!!!!!!

The explosion that followed was so violent it made the gunfire from moments ago seem like a gentle drizzle. Nearly everyone in the vicinity let out a scream.

Except for Katya—her eyes gleaming—and Aiden, who had ‘called’ the figure himself.

“Hoo—”

Noel adjusted her hat, which had been knocked slightly askew by the tremendous landing. She lifted her chin just enough to survey her surroundings.

“Ah.”

And then, when she spotted Aiden, she gave a small, serene smile.

“—Did you call for me?”

Her calm greeting was completely at odds with the terrifying entrance she’d just made.

“……”

Aiden fumbled absently with the switch he’d tucked back inside his coat as he stared at Noel in disbelief.

This was the signal device she had given him, telling him to press it if he ever found himself in danger.

‘…That she’d come running the moment I was in danger.’

It hadn’t been a lie.