Name.
In living life, it is the thing that allows other people to call the being that is me.
Since it is the word that represents me, one must be careful when giving a name.
Whether they might be teased as they grow up, whether the name is too common, whether it holds a deep meaning, and so on.
There are even naming offices that exist for the sake of choosing names, so that should tell you just how important a name is.
In that sense, I was standing at a very important crossroads of choice.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Aurora? My name is the best, right?
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: Naturally, my name, containing many meanings within it, is the best.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: Ha, with a name that doesn’t even have a blessing…
ㄴEducation Master: You don’t even understand animals’ hearts, do you? The one I made is the best.
“Haa….”
How did things end up like this? Let’s turn back time for a moment.
I’m sure… the chat window had still been fine up until Haeasha fired off a laser cannon that resembled a cough.
All that had been coming up were reactions like Haeasha is stronger than expected, she’s powerful, and so on.
Then a new topic burst open in the chat window.
ㄴTruth Scholar: By the way, did you give her a name? It seems like she doesn’t have one yet.
A small comment fired off by Truth Scholar. But its aftermath was enough to overturn the stream.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: True, did you give her a name?
“Uh… I haven’t yet? Wouldn’t Haeasha be enough?”
It was something I genuinely had never even thought about, so I hadn’t paid it much mind.
I hadn’t exactly had the leisure to worry about what to name her when I was busy just trying to survive.
But it seemed the fixed-nick viewers watching the stream had different opinions.
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: Hmm, a name. She is black and resembles a dragon of the surface, so would Black Dragon (黑龍) not suffice?
ㄴTruth Scholar: Wow, are you serious?
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: What? Do you have some complaint about the name I made?
ㄴTruth Scholar: Of course I do. Who would use a name like that…
While the chat window was turning into a sea of fire, I was looking around at the traces Haeasha had left behind.
“Whoa….”
A cluster of mana had burst out from Haeasha’s mouth.
The white mass had carved its traces deeply into the path it passed through.
Where the Cyclops had been standing, not even a trace of it remained.
On the ground brushed by the white beam, the black-paved road had melted in a long line.
She was strong.
Haeasha had shown power similar to what I had expected—no. Power that surpassed it.
“So she’s a ruler, even if she’s young….”
Just as I let that murmur slip out.
I realized that my vision was flashing.
The reason my vision was flashing was…
Because a brawl between the fixed-nicks had broken out.
Chat messages filled one side of my vision in debate.
…Though honestly, rather than a debate, it was closer to a gang fight where they tried to crush one another, but anyway.
Even now, the chat window seemed to be endlessly scrolling upward.
Looking at the earlier conversation, they were having a mud fight over Haeasha’s name.
ㄴTruth Scholar: No, who names someone like that?
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: Hah, then just how well did you name her that you dare lecture me….
ㄴHealing Is Violence: Everyone be quiet and let’s go with the one I made.
ㄴEducation Master: If you don’t know what names animals like, then please be quiet.
The sight of four fixed-nicks fighting while insisting their own names were better… was not particularly pleasant.
Cutting away all sorts of useless talk, I looked at the names each of them was advocating.
Sword Saint of Quickdraw had put forward the name Black Dragon (黑龍), dripping with an Eastern feel.
Of course, the other fixed-nicks’ reactions were cold.
Their opinion was that naming her Black Dragon just because she looked like a black dragon was no different from naming a black dog Blackie.
Naturally, it wasn’t a name I particularly wanted to choose either.
‘For some reason, it reminds me of a Dark Flame Dragon, so I don’t really like it….’
Next was Truth Scholar.
The name Truth Scholar confidently brought out was Draka.
Well, as for the other fixed-nicks, perhaps it was only natural.
They expressed that they didn’t like it. Saying their own names were better.
The next name was Potus.
It was the name Healing Is Violence had made.
The fixed-nicks’ reactions were… well, the same.
They said their own names were better.
Finally, the name Education Master put forward: Jui.
For some reason, my gaze focused on the name Education Master had given her.
It felt strangely bothersome—or, put another way, like I was being drawn to it.
So I tried calling Haeasha, who was floating beside me, by that name once.
The name Education Master had given her.
“Jui?”
Then.
“Ppi?”
As though she had realized I was calling her, she turned her head and looked at me.
Her round golden eyes stared straight at me.
Faced with those eyes that seemed to understand my words, I couldn’t help but ask Haeasha without thinking.
“Jui, do you like this name?”
“Ppi!”
Haeasha—no. Jui clung to me, expressing with her whole body that she liked it.
I could feel Jui’s cool, rough scales through my arm.
At that, the chat window stopped for an instant.
As if they couldn’t believe the current situation. As if they understood what had happened.
For a few seconds like that.
ㄴTruth Scholar: N-no, w-wait a seeecond
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: …Hah, it’s over.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: Ah… then isn’t it basically decided…
ㄴEducation Master: As expected, mine is the best, right? I told you I understand animals’ hearts the best~.
Education Master’s strangely triumphant comment contrasted with the despair of the fixed-nicks who hadn’t been chosen.
***
I had momentarily forgotten my objective while naming Jui, but in the end, the reason I had come out to the city was to check Jui’s combat power.
Jui’s combat power was… honestly, she looked stronger than me.
The hardness of her scales, the might of her attacks. In all of them, I was behind her.
So there was no chance Jui would become a burden.
Rather, I was the one in danger of becoming a burden….
Like that, I once again gauged where my position stood in this world.
She was a creature with the position of ruler, but she was still young enough to be pushed around by a subadult.
Worrying over various things, I returned to the submersible, and Jui entered the submersible first.
Then immediately.
“Are you sleeping?”
She was lying there, floating in the air.
Letting out only faint breaths without the slightest movement.
ㄴTruth Scholar: When they’re young, all they do is move around and sleep!
ㄴEducation Master: Fighting the Cyclops was her first time, so… it’s understandable she’d be tired.
Certainly… Jui was still close to a newborn baby, so even moving around a little could be strenuous for her.
In other words, for the time being, it would be difficult for her to go exploring in my place or support me in combat.
“If I want her to help me, I’ll just have no choice but to raise her….”
As I muttered those words, a comment from Sword Saint of Quickdraw came up.
An important fact I had forgotten until now.
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: Then she will not be of help in catching the Reaper.
“…Ah, the Reaper.”
The memory of fear that had sunk deep within my mind resurfaced.
An old black hood, a deer-like skull, a giant scythe.
And its killing ability, capable of slaughtering a Cyclops in an instant.
An important memory came up along with it.
The next managed sector was the place where I was.
The time remaining, even if I gave myself a generous estimate, was….
“Five days…?”
With the Reaper’s defensive power still unknown, I had to acquire the force to bring it down within five days?
A task that seemed realistically impossible had been thrown at me.
As if cold water had been poured over my head, my nerves rose sharply like a well-honed blade.
In a situation directly tied to survival, I immediately asked the fixed-nicks watching the stream.
“Is there any way to catch the Reaper within five days?”
The first to answer was Sword Saint of Quickdraw.
ㄴSword Saint of Quickdraw: If you can wield my sword, you can win, but… doing so within five days seems impossible.
The Haizen answering me was a Sword Saint, but I was not.
Just because it was the Sword Saint’s sword didn’t mean I could become a Sword Saint. In the same way, simply learning the sword would not let me overcome the great wall called the Reaper.
Then was there no way out?
“…No, wait. I have a rifle.”
The “mana emission rifle.” If I had that rifle, I might be able to inflict meaningful damage on the Reaper.
It was a rifle that had burned a Cyclops in one shot, after all.
But… I was uneasy.
I didn’t know how tough the Reaper was, but since it mainly handled management, it probably had defensive power that wouldn’t fall short of a Cyclops or jellyfish.
I needed reliable insurance.
The deep sea was far too harsh to survive on this kind of gamble.
As I was thinking that, a comment from one fixed-nick came up.
ㄴHealing Is Violence: If you turn off the stream, I’ll give you something that’ll help your situation.
ㄴTruth Scholar: No, why are you turning off the stream on your own… Aurora? This is viewer manipulation—
I turned off the stream immediately.
Right now, I was in a state where I wanted to grasp at even a straw.
How much time passed like that?
After roughly a few minutes, a gift came flying in from Healing Is Violence.
[A gift request has arrived from Healing Is Violence.]
Along with a message in the one-on-one chat window.
Healing Is Violence: Don’t use it carelessly, and it’s better not to show it on stream.
Reading the message, I pressed the accept button floating in midair.
Then, a single water bottle decorated with golden ornaments appeared above my hand.
Like a teardrop, it had a narrow mouth and a sphere-like body that drooped downward.
Inside, it contained a liquid that gave off a strangely white and golden light.
But at a glance, I had no idea what it was, so I had no choice but to ask Healing Is Violence.
The answer that came back was.
Healing Is Violence: Holy water. The Saintess’s.
In other words, it was holy water from the Saintess, who stood at the pinnacle of divine power.