“Seeing as we hadn’t made all the information public yet, and because the enemy vassal weapon holders also don’t consider the waves a threat, the situation is just . . . continuing, basically,” she went on. Takt hadn’t been worried about the waves either, I recalled. A common characteristic of these lunatics. Even Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki had only really considered the waves events to make them stronger for the future. I felt like I was getting to the heart of things. Now we knew that the waves weren’t a natural phenomenon. That cast suspicions on the knowledge of the heroes. When I followed that line of thought, the summoning of someone like me—someone with no knowledge of a game that played like this world—had allowed for the sharing of power-up methods to go much more smoothly. And yet they continued to summon people with game knowledge. That knowledge had proven a barrier to becoming stronger.

It was as though game knowledge itself was some kind of impediment.

“In regard to Kizuna’s capture, we don’t know what kind of measures they are using to hold her, but she has been unable to escape due to a wave summons,” Glass concluded. I grunted.

“Some things haven’t changed then.” When we met, she had been captured because she didn’t fully understand the waves. This felt like it was becoming a bit of a habit with her. “So they haven’t chosen to attack, using Kizuna as a shield?” I asked.

“They probably didn’t think it was necessary to go that far,” Glass presumed. They had to be pretty confident, then. When we fought Takt, his retinue had been happy to try and use Raphtalia as a hostage. In this case, Glass had struck down their leader before he even had a chance to try such a tactic. But that guy hadn’t had as large of a retinue as Takt either.

“Now is the time to turn things back in our favor. Once this meal is finished, I plan to set out myself,” Glass said, full of energy. Then I felt eyes on my back. I turned around and Itsuki spoke to me.

“I like this mood. Upbeat. Is this because you are here?” he asked.

“Not sure about that,” I replied.

“Itsuki . . .” said Rishia. The curse should have been almost gone by now, and yet he was still expressionless in aspect and monotone in delivery. We could only hope Rishia would finally find some peace someday soon.

“I also want to help everyone feel better,” he continued, right out of left field.

“Help how? What can you do?” I asked.

“This looks like the time for . . .” He didn’t finish. He just got up and went over to Filo and the musicians.