Hell Mode: Volume 11 (eBook)

Hamuo (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-8218-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The No-life Gamers find that everything is not well in the Prostia Empire. As he scrambles to unlock a new Summon and rig the Songstress Contest to obtain new gear, Allen struggles to find any trace of Beast Crown Prince Beku-the man who incited a failed rebellion against his nation and was forced to flee.
After Allen and his friends split up, each tending to their own tasks, Allen notices that his merchant friend, Pelomas, is missing! Where could he have gone?! Was he just wandering about, or was he abducted? Time is not on Allen's side. If the effects of Mimic wear off on Pelomas, he will transform back into a human and drown in the underwater empire! This already awful situation takes a turn for the worse when Allen is stopped by the Demon Lord himself! Why is the Demon Lord here anyway?! Can the Summoner save his friend? Or will Pelomas meet a grisly, hellish end without proving his devotion to his beloved Fiona?

Textauszug

Chapter 1: Tales of the Prostia Empire

Allen and his party were in the Prostia Empire, the land of merfolk, thanks to the help of the Crevelle Kingdom, a nation under Prostia’s rule. They were searching for Beku, who had incited a riot in Albahal, stolen the Symbol of the Beast King of the royal family, and gone on the run. Under the guise of Princess Carmine of Crevelle heading to meet the emperor, Allen had been granted the title of special ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and had accompanied her to the ocean floor where the empire was located. The No-life Gamers had spent the past two weeks infiltrating the imperial capital of Patlanta, a city built upon a giant crystallized flower, but they had not found any trace of Beku. Moreover, Princess Carmine had not been given the opportunity to meet the Prostian emperor.

Hoping to learn the reason the audience had been delayed, Allen had snuck one of his Summons around the palace. In doing so, he had discovered that Prostia was experiencing a revolt of its own, and that the ringleader, General Ignomasu, had succeeded in his coup and claimed the throne. Allen and his party had then slipped into the palace, now under Ignomasu’s control, and carried out a secret mission to rescue the empress and her children, but this had not helped him with his search for Beku. He needed to extract more information from Ignomasu and his goons, and so the Summoner had cooked up a plan to use Princess Carmine’s audience with the emperor to sneak deeper into the palace.

Ignomasu, having seized full control of the Prostia Empire, had a new goal in mind: invading the land above water. To do so, he required military funds, and Allen was more than happy to use that opening to cozy up to the emperor. Once he had done so, he had been permitted to enter and leave the palace as he pleased.

Allen had then learned that the Songstress Contest was around the corner. The winner would receive a Holy Orb of Macris, a precious item that could strengthen his party. He had coincidentally bumped into Rosalina, a merfolk and singer, and struck a deal with her—he would help her win the contest.

At the same time, Allen had pretended to cut ties with Princess Carmine and her servants, who were actually Cecil, Sophie, and Shia in disguise, and the ladies had been banished to the annex, where they would snoop around. They had met Princess Rapsonil of Prostia and discovered that the blood of Holy Fish Macris coursed through her veins. She closely resembled a typical mermaid, as she was a fish from the waist down. Ignomasu would not officially be recognized as emperor if he did not marry her and have children, thus the princess had been confined in the palace.

Cecil and the other ladies were staying in the annex to speak with Princess Rapsonil and extract intel, find clues as to Beku’s whereabouts, defeat Ignomasu, and save the princess. They had managed to sneak in a Bird G, which Allen could Share with to gauge the situation within. He gathered information from his Summon while enjoying a sweet treat in a café on the streets of Patlanta, trying to come up with a way to get Rosalina into the Songstress Contest.

“Ugh! Screw Allen! How dare he enjoy his time outside while we’re trapped here!” Cecil shouted angrily while squeezing the living daylights out of the Bird G, unable to suppress her rage.

“Y-You’ve, um, got the wrong idea, my lady,” the Bird G croaked in Allen’s voice as he saw the unfortunate state of his Summon. “I’m not having fun. This is necessary.”

“He’s right,” Sophie added, trying to quell Cecil. “We require Macris’s Tears for Pelomas’s sake.”

“Still! This makes me so angry!” Cecil insisted, seeing red. She squeezed the Bird G tighter and tighter, and Allen continued to cry out in pain and panic.

Princess Carmine and Princess Rapsonil watched in a daze—the latter rarely ever saw a bird, and while she was surprised to see this bird speak with Allen’s voice, she was also shocked to see that she was looking at a famous shop on the main street despite being imprisoned in her room. She had even heard the entire exchange between Allen and Rosalina, a merfolk with orange hair and eyes. It was a bizarre experience, and though Sophie had explained that it was because of Bird F’s Awakened Ability, Messenger, the royal could hardly wrap her mind around it.

The absurd and fantastical ability made the princess feel a touch taken aback. She had personally experienced such things before because of Allen and was beginning to honestly believe what Shia had said about how once they found hints leading to Beku’s whereabouts, they could defeat Ignomasu and release everyone from imprisonment in a flash.

“Come now, Cecil. Let him be,” Shia said before attempting to steer the conversation back on track. “Allen, if we have this purchase record you speak of, Rosalina can win the Songstress Contest, I take it?”

“Exactly,” Allen replied through the Bird G. “Princess Rapsonil, would you happen to know where these records are? I believe they’re somewhere in the palace.”

The princess, startled upon hearing her name, hastily replied, “Unfortunately, I don’t know where they’re kept. However, there are a few officials in charge of running the Songstress Contest. I believe they take care of such things.”

“I see... Then instead of scrambling around in search of the records, it might be better to negotiate with merchants who already have them.”

The purchase records were a key element of his scheme. When Allen had first met Rosalina, she had been busy visiting shops to purchase outfits and accessories in preparation for the contest. She had been asked to show her entry pass for the contest, but if she had shown hers, it would have quickly been discovered that she had come from Minehponta, a Prostian province that had been suddenly barred from participating. She had refused to show her pass, which had led to a bit of a scuffle with a shop employee.

Allen wanted to know why one could not buy accessories without that pass and had asked Princess Rapsonil about it. The royal had politely provided two reasons: First, it was a way to filter out and question those who did not have a pass or tried to fake one. If one were to win the Songstress Contest, they would not only receive a Holy Orb of Macris, a physical symbol of the Holy Fish’s favor, but also be completely absolved of any past crimes. This stemmed from a rule stating that anyone who received praise and honor from Macris for their beauty and singing could not possibly be a criminal.

That rule also encouraged cheating, however. Even if one illegally obtained accessories for the contest and forged an entry pass, as long as they won, they would leave with a clean slate, walking away scot-free. And so, Prostia had taken measures to crack down on these cases—entry passes were not only strictly limited, but one was also required to show theirs to even get their hands on any accessories needed for the contest. The magic shops cooperated with the campaign, which was why Rosalina had nearly been dragged into a separate room for interrogation. I see... Allen thought. If we can somehow find a loophole in these restrictions, or even manage to forge a convincing entry pass, as long as Rosalina wins, we haven’t committed a crime.

The second reason for requiring an entry pass at time of purchase was to keep track of which contestants bought what accessories. Holy Fish Macris, for some inexplicable reason, put heavy emphasis on appearances and outfits, and contestants thus wished to use the purchase records to discern what kinds of looks had won in previous contests. But it was not just the contestants who closely analyzed Macris’s tastes; shops did the same to increase their sales. For example, merchants could sell an accessory and claim that it was sure to help a lady win. Conversely, some would recommend wares that were not in fashion at the time, claiming that it would make a lady stand out since a certain trend had been in style for three years now and Macris was surely bored with it.

These tactics were used to sell items to various contestants. Hence, purchase records held value in and of themselves, leading to the rampant issue of them being forged. There were some bad actors among the merchants who sold falsified purchase records for exorbitant prices, claiming that they had obtained intel from a different store, and spread misinformation.

The merchants wishing to mitigate this issue had formed a group. They had suggested to the emperor at the time a method to guarantee the authenticity of the purchase records. Whenever something was purchased, the merchant selling it would require a valid entry pass, all of which were linked to the purchase records. That information would then be submitted to the palace, and the officials in charge of the Songstress Contest would use it to verify the authenticity of the pass. Merchants would be able to plan their sales and further increase their profit that way. In turn, the empire could collect a hefty sum in taxes, allowing the Songstress Contest, one of the empire’s largest events, to proceed without any fraud or injustices.

The emperor had agreed with this idea, and so, contestants now had to show their entry pass to make purchases. If someone could prove that they were not a part of the contest, there was no limit to the accessories they could buy. However, if purchases were deemed suspect, many stores would choose to interrogate the buyer. At the very least, when the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.12.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Hell Mode
• Illustrationen: MO
• Übersetzer: piyo
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Adventure • Comedy • Fantasy • Isekai • Light Novel • Reincarnation • zero to hero
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-8218-9 / 1718382189
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-8218-3 / 9781718382183