Part 2 of 8
That makes this academy the place to be.
And if you don’t send your kids there, you’ll be left out.
Sending your kids to the Analeit Kingdom academy has become a big status symbol and eventually turned into the norm for the upper class of noble society.
This has only made it even more important to stay connected.
Basically, it’s a big cycle in the Analeit Kingdom’s favor.
It’s no exaggeration to say that they’re second in influence only to the Word of God church.
They might even give the Church a run for their money.
Of course, it’s typical of the Word of God that instead of trying to crush them, they started proactively trying to bring the Analeit Kingdom into their fold instead.
The Word of God has an established presence in the Analeit Kingdom, which means it also naturally reaches the kids who are studying abroad at their academy.
Man, that pontiff hasn’t been guiding the human race all this time for nothing.
He’s got a knack for naturally brainwashing people. Scary stuff…
So yeah, technically, the Analeit Kingdom is being used a bit, but they’re still impressive.
They’re even comparable to the Renxandt Empire, who are always battling it out with the demon realms on their border.
If the Renxandt Empire is the bulwark that protects humanity from the threat of demons, Analeit Kingdom is the safe zone far removed from the front lines.
As long as nothing totally insane happens, it’s a place where humanity could take refuge.
That also means that if anything went wrong there, it would seriously freak out everyone around them.
Which is why we went to work in the Analeit Kingdom!
…At least, that’s the official story.
Honestly, the amount of influence the Analeit Kingdom has on humanity doesn’t actually matter that much to me, y’know?
I only have one reason for messing with them.
Because that’s where Yamada is.
It’s just…like…argh!
What the heck?!
Gahhh! Come onnn!
Aargh! Ugggh! Aaargh!
Whew.
Okay, that’s enough yelling for no reason.
This is all because the stuff I’ve done backfired in ways I never imagined.
All my preparations were going so well, but then everything went ridiculously wrong somehow.
And all of that converged right on our pal Yamada.
In this world, his name is Schlain Zagan Analeit, also known as Shun.
The fourth prince of the Analeit Kingdom.
And he’s the biological brother of the previous hero, Julius.
A prince of a major nation? The hero’s little brother?
As if all that backstory wasn’t overkill enough, then the craziest thing happened.
He became the new hero…
Do you have any idea how I felt when I found that out through my mini-me?
After I worked sooo hard to get rid of that hero!
The next one just had to be a reincarnation!
And on top of that, it’s someone who had a deep connection with the previous hero!
This is awful! No, it’s worse than awful!
How was I supposed to know this would happen?!
I’ve gotta readjust my plans—fast!
First of all, it goes without saying that our goal is to save this world from destruction.
Yeah, this world is doomed to be destroyed soon. That much is certain.
If nothing is done, it’s a guaranteed game over.
So in order to avoid that, we’re gonna destroy the system, which is basically this world’s life support!
Bad idea? That’ll just kill us off faster? Shh, don’t think about that.
The system does keep this world alive, but it also contains an insane amount of energy.
And the whole reason this world is falling apart is that it doesn’t have enough energy.
So our plan is to plunder all the energy the world needs from the system.
It’s kinda like using the electricity that runs a life support system to deliver an electric shock directly to the patient and revive them.
I know it sounds pretty risky, but it should work in theory.
Not to mention, it was that crafty Administrator D who set up the system in the first place, so I had a feeling there would be a backdoor method to do something like that.
I took a look, and sure enough, it really did exist…
Anyway, we’re carrying out our break-the-system plan, which means we have to make some arrangements first.
Like I said before, this system-breaking plan is a huge risk.
If it fails, this world is gonna collapse on the spot without its life-support system.
Which is why we’ve got to take every possible precaution to make sure nothing goes wrong.
You could even say that everything I’ve done these past few years has been for that purpose.
Honestly, the huge war between demons and humans was just one small part of our bigger plan.
There were two main goals.
One: to secure more energy.
It requires energy to destroy the system, and we didn’t have enough.
The only way to get the energy we needed was a huge amount of deaths.
This is because the system works by absorbing the stats and skills people improve during their lifetimes in the form of energy when they die.
Just as we hoped, we were able to gain the bare minimum amount of energy we need from all the casualties after war broke out.
But it’s still just the bare minimum. Ideally, we’d like to have extra just in case something unexpected happens.
It’s only thanks to the noble sacrifices of many demons and humans that we succeeded in securing the necessary energy at all.
Yeah, it’s awful for the people who got turned into energy, but this is to save the world from destruction.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and all that.
Just ignore the fact that the “few” in this case is an insanely huge number.
All that matters is that without that huge amount of sacrifices, this world would be screwed to the point of no return.
So. Anyway.
The most important of those many valuable sacrifices was the hero.
That was our second major goal: obliterating the hero!
See, the hero is a huge cheater by nature.
It’s like an official cheat code that was built into the system…
You get all kinds of benefits just for being the hero, but the scariest of those is the anti-demon-lord effect.
The demon lord is chosen from among the demons, but demons live way longer and have way higher stats than humans.
Which means humanity could never defeat an experienced demon lord.
To make up for that, the hero is designed to be super effective against the demon lord.
No matter how strong the demon lord might be, the hero will always have the ability to be more than a match for them.
…With backup from the system.
…Consuming a corresponding amount of energy.
And who is the demon lord right now?
Yes, it’s the Origin Taratect you all know and love, Ms. Ariel herself!
She’s by far the strongest individual in the world! I mean, stats averaging around 90,000? Is that a bug or a typo or something?
So what would happen if the demon lord clashed with the hero?
If the system provided the hero with backup to beat her, you better believe it would waste a massive amount of energy.
Obviously, we don’t want our Demon Lord to get killed, of course, but either way, that means we can’t allow the hero to fight the demon lord no matter what.
To make matters worse, the hero even has a special weapon.
It’s called the Sword of the Hero.
Hilariously cliché, I know, but its ability is no joke.
It only works once, but it can kill anyone in a single blow, even a god.
…That means even I would die if it hit me, right?
D is the one who made it, after all.
So, like, I’m just thinking out loud here, but it’s probably supposed to be another sneaky trick, like “You can use this to kill Güli-güli and get tons of energy if you want.”
Just like breaking the system itself…
Or maybe it’s for if some random foreign god came wandering into this world or something?
Either way, that Sword of the Hero spells doom for anyone, even me.
Just letting that thing continue to exist is dangerous!
So our other goal was to get rid of it, obviously.
Ideally by making the hero die after wasting it on something!
One problem, though! If we kill the hero, a new one’s just gonna pop up anyway!
So I tried to mess with the system itself and erase the very existence of heroes!
By erasing the settings for heroes from the system, basically.
So the plan was to kill Julius the hero, then hack the system before the title moved on to the next one.
It was practically a frame-perfect trick, but I did plenty of preparation beforehand, so it was no problem.
…At least, it wasn’t supposed to be.
Well, to get right to the point, that obviously didn’t work out.
And after I worked so hard to set everything up…
We made a queen taratect clone like Mother and sent it after him, thinking he’d have to use the Sword of the Hero to beat it, but he won without using it…
I even had to show up personally…
Considering that the hero’s special cheat ability might’ve activated even against me, I was hoping he’d naturally get killed by someone else, y’know?
In retrospect, his cheat code might have helped him beat the queen taratect clone in the first place.
The Colonel and Deadbeat both went down in the fight against the hero party, too.
I was planning on bringing them back whenever I could find an opening, but they had to go and act all manly and cool…
…We did succeed in defeating the hero, but honestly, the overall plan was a failure.
A major failure.
A really, really unbelievably major failure!
…Sigh.
Well, in a way, it stands to reason that my calculations went wrong.
We were trying to get Julius the hero killed for our cause and it’s only natural that he fought back.
Obviously, Julius didn’t know the real story. All he did was fight like a hero should.
He fought fair and square and totally shattered our expectations in the process.
I was taking the hero way too lightly.
I mean, I thought I was being careful. That’s why I made all kinds of preparations and formed a whole plan just to kill him.
But what I was really being wary of was the “Hero” as a function of the system.
Not Julius, the individual.
That was my mistake.
Now I know that what I really should have feared is the fact that he was chosen to be the hero.
After all, the title is only given to the most fitting person for the job. A mere human who would be the best receptacle for the miraculous power of the hero.
He’s not strong because of his cheat code powers. He’s strong because he was a worthy individual who could be entrusted with those powers.
Faith, determination, pride.
Those powers of the heart are what really make a hero formidable.
So really, I was probably bound to fail from the moment I made that miscalculation.
I accept that part as my mistake.
But that being said, I have a few complaints about what happened next!
I mean, seriously?! The next hero turned out to be YAMADA?!
Honestly, for the most part, it wouldn’t matter which human became the hero.
After all, most important humans participated in the big war, and over half of them died. Plus the half that’s left aren’t really worth much in comparison to Julius the hero.
Even if it went to a promising youngster who didn’t participate in the war, well, a young kid becoming the hero would be even more advantageous for us.
Such a young hero would never grow up in time to factor into our plans.
No matter how broken the hero’s official cheat powers might be, they’re not all powerful—I proved that when I defeated Julius.
Even if someone a bit inconvenient for us became the Hero, worst-case scenario, I could just take care of ’em nice and quick.
Or so I thought!
But the worst-case scenario turned out to be even worse than I thought.
It was none other than Yamada, who’s hard enough to lay a hand on as a reincarnation and one of the strongest to boot.
Well, let’s put aside the power level conversation for a second.
Considering the full strength of our forces, it doesn’t really matter who the hero is; they won’t be a threat to us.
The strongest reincarnation would probably be either Kushitani or Tagawa, followed by Yamada.
Kushitani and Tagawa have been traveling around as adventurers, building up experience.
And even that pair together weren’t able to defeat Mera on his own.
You couldn’t even take Mera, huh…?
Heh-heh. He’s actually the weakest of us…
If you can’t even beat him, you reincarnations should be ashamed…
Okay, that was just an Elite Four bit, but Mera really is the weakest of us.
If the two strongest reincarnations can’t even beat him, then we’ve got nothing to worry about in terms of strength.
Now that Yamada’s become the hero, it’s likely he’s surpassed those two in terms of stats, but it probably evens out since he’s got practically no hands-on combat experience, don’t you think?
So their strength doesn’t really matter, but that’s not the part we need to worry about.
First of all, Yamada is a reincarnation.
That makes it hard for me to lay a hand on him.
Okay, so personally, I don’t really care that much either way, but Ms. Oka has been trying sooo hard to save all the reincarnations. I don’t wanna ruin that for her.
I owe Ms. Oka a lot.
This was in our past lives, but she did save my life.
I want to pay her back for that.
So I’m trying to respect her wishes as much as possible, meaning I try to save reincarnations whenever I can.
Which means the fastest solution—killing the new hero—isn’t an ideal option here.
Not to mention, Yamada himself is raring to follow in Julius’s footsteps.
He wants to avenge the hero, who was also his big brother.
If he’s that fired up about it, he’s bound to get in our way when we try to make a move.
After all, we are the demon army.
More specifically, I am the one who personally killed Julius…
And finally, this part is the hardest to predict and the most annoying: Yamada’s unique skill.
By using my mini-mes to gather information, I found out that his unique skill as a reincarnation is called Divine Protection.
The effect is that it apparently makes the results he wants more likely to happen…
Talk about an abstract description.
I mean, it’s basically just a luck-based thing.
Most skills have their effects described in concrete, predefined numbers, but it’s totally impossible to figure out the extent of this one’s effects.
Even if things go well for him, there’s no way of telling whether that was thanks to his own abilities, good luck, or the help of this stupid Divine Protection skill.
But that’s the skill that worries me the most.
The unique skills D gave specially to each reincarnation aren’t usually so vague.
It might normally be little more than a slight boost in luck that you wouldn’t even notice, but I’m guessing that when it comes down to a really crucial moment, it means he’ll never make the wrong decision.
But that depends on Yamada himself.
In other words, it might bring about the worst possible results for someone he considers an enemy.
And obviously, that enemy has got to be us…
If worse comes to worst, a choice that Yamada thinks is right might even end up preventing our goal of saving the world from destruction. It’s crazy, but it could happen.
Since the effect is so hard to understand, there’s no telling how much this Divine Protection skill could intervene with what you might call fate itself, and that’s what’s so scary about it.
And so hard to plan for.
So, with all that in mind, I’m planning to take Yamada out of the picture for a bit.
Oh, I don’t mean send him to the afterworld or anything terrible like that, of course!
I’m just trying to physically distance him from the situation so he can’t interfere.
Since we were able to get rid of Julius the hero, clearly Yamada’s Divine Protection isn’t all-powerful.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have let the person Yamada cared about so much die.
So I’m guessing that Divine Protection can’t prevent something that’s happening outside of Yamada’s awareness, probably. Hopefully.
So we’re just gonna destroy the Analeit Kingdom real quick.
Huh? That still sounds pretty terrible?
Shh. Don’t even worry about it.
All right, let’s go take down a monarchy, people!
“Heh-heh-heh. Finally. I can finally pay those bastards back for what they did to me!”
Oh, dear me.
Someone thinks he’s cool…
“Hey, Sophia! Don’t just stand there! Let’s go!”
“Coming, coming.”
A man decked out in full armor yells at me impatiently as I roll my eyes.
Normally, I wouldn’t stand for this kind of treatment for a second, but it’s hard to get angry when I think about how pathetic this loser is.
The man stomping around in front of me with his shoulders squared is Hugo Baint Renxandt.
He’s the prince of the Renxandt Empire and a student here at the Analeit Kingdom academy.
Not that he actually goes to school all that much.
Apparently, he screwed the pooch about five years ago and got suspended.
I don’t know what he screwed up exactly, because I didn’t care enough to ask. Judging by his ranting about “those bastards,” though, I’m guessing he messed with the wrong crowd and had the tables turned on him somehow?
Then I suppose one of “those bastards” is probably Schlain, the prince of this kingdom, who’s our current target.
Oh brother.
What in the world am I doing here anyway?
This “pulling the strings” business? Is that what you’d call it?
Either way, it really isn’t my thing.
I’d much prefer to just punch the problem square in the face and be done with it.
But I just have to keep telling myself that all this is necessary.
Supporting this idiot Hugo is the role I’ve been given.
He’s a reincarnation, too, but I’m really only helping him because Master decided his grudge would make him a convenient pawn to for our purposes.
…When I think about it that way, it really is pitiful.
And I can still remember the moment he was set up as a pawn with perfect clarity.
“Shit! I won’t let it end like this! This is my world! It exists for me, only for me! Like I’d accept this ending?! Not a chance in hell! It’s not over until everything belongs to me!”
“Damn that elf! I’ll have my revenge! She’s gonna rue the day she messed with me!”
“I’ll take away everything she has someday! Just like she did to me!”
“Just you wait! I’ll destroy everything she holds dear! Then I’ll beat her to a pulp while she screams and cries over their remains!”
“You watch! I’m gonna take this world back for myself!”
Hugo was screaming and throwing a fit.
“Shall I help you out with that?”
Since he completely failed to notice me, I got bored and addressed him myself.
“Who’s there?!”
Hugo whirled around.
Master teleported me directly into Hugo’s room, so from his point of view, it was like I suddenly appeared directly behind him.
I couldn’t blame him for being surprised.
This was the perfect chance to teach the panicking little fool that I was above him.
“I’d be willing to lend you a hand, since we’re fellow reincarnations and all, hmm?”
I put on a meaningful, unconcerned smile.
“…Huh? Reincarnation?”
Hugo’s brow furrowed.
Well, I suppose he wasn’t stupid enough to jump at the chance to work with some suspicious stranger who randomly appeared in his…
“…Whatever. I don’t care who the hell you are. If I can get revenge on those bastards, I’ll even work with a demon or whatever else!”
Ah, he is stupid enough.
“Hell yeah. I’m in!”
“There you have it. What do you think, Master?”
“Hunh?”
A white shadow flitted behind Hugo’s back.
The figure covered Hugo’s mouth with one hand, preventing him from screaming.
Then, once he could no longer move, the other hand lightly touched Hugo’s forehead.
And a tiny white spider small enough to fit on your fingertip crawled down the hand and into Hugo’s ear…
Seconds later, Hugo’s body started convulsing.
Just like that, his eyes rolled back and he passed out.
Yes, it’s quite a disgusting story all right…
Even now, as he saunters along brimming with confidence, that little spider is in his head…
Hugo doesn’t seem to remember that incident, but ever since then, he’s been strangely obedient whenever I tell him to do something.
So that spider must be brainwashing him…
Could there be one of those in my head, too…?
I quickly shake my head to chase out the awful thought.
She did put a weird curse on me, but she would never go so far as to put a spider in my head!
…Probably.
…No, she wouldn’t.
Master will cut down anything in her path without mercy, but she’s actually quite soft on the people she cares about.
Since that technically includes me, I’m sure she wouldn’t do something like that.
Although she does have somewhat different moral standards than most people, which means she sometimes does the most disturbing things without batting an eye.
Seriously, who starts an entire war just to accomplish their goals?
Especially one so huge that both the human and demon sides suffered massive losses.
But the fact she would do that without a moment’s hesitation is what makes her my master, I suppose.
And yet, she’s incredibly overprotective when it comes to her inner circle.
That much is obvious from her attitude toward Ms. Ariel.
Ms. Ariel is quite a bit stronger than me, but Master really shelters her so carefully, making sure to keep her away from the battlefield and any even the remote possibility of danger.
Honestly, I’m a bit jealous.
Something stirs in my chest, but I rein it in through sheer force of will.
That was too close.
Envy almost got out of control there.
The Envy skill I have is highly effective, but it also has serious drawbacks.
It makes it much harder to control my emotions.
My feelings have always been on the intense side, but the Envy skill has made them that much more extreme.
I know I have a bad habit of acting on my emotions without thinking, and I would like to fix that, but it’s easier said than done.
Though I have gained the Heresy Resistance skill to help reduce the effects of Envy.
But it hasn’t become Heresy Nullification yet, so it still can’t completely cancel out the effects.
I have to control myself.
Careful to avoid being noticed, I take a few deep breaths to calm down.
Meanwhile, Hugo has already reached our destination ahead of me.
He slams the door open without so much as a knock.
“…You could at least knock.”
“C’mon, we’re pals, aren’t we? Deal with it.”
The man waiting in the room greets Hugo with a deepening furrow in his brow.
This is the first prince Cylis, who appears to be in a bad mood twenty-four seven.
Like Hugo, he’s one of our pawns.
Pawn Number Two, you might call him.
He’s a dull, pathetic man with nothing of note about him except his pride and the fact that he can’t admit that his younger brothers are superior to him.
He’s the first prince and son of the true queen, yet the second prince Julius was far more famous than him, being the hero and all.
And Julius’s full brother, the fourth prince Schlain, has been a child prodigy all his life.
Meanwhile, the future king Cylis is average at best.
So he’s afraid that one of his younger brothers is going to steal the throne from him, you see.
When we offered to help him chase out his younger brother, he took the bait right away.
Basically, it’s the kind of power struggle you see all the time in legends and such.
“This is going to work, right?”
Cylis puts on a pompous tone to hide his fearfulness.
“Of course it is,” snaps Hugo. “Who the hell do you think I am?”
Honestly. He has a lot of nerve for someone who’s borrowing other people’s power to try and grab the throne instead of relying on himself.
What a pathetic little man.
Although it’s that nature that allows us to use him so easily.
“And no one saw your face?”
“Duh! Look at what I’m wearing!”
Hugo holds up his arms and turns in a circle to show off his armor.
He’s currently decked out in full-body armor and wearing a helmet that covers his face.
Nobody will be able to tell who’s inside.
That much should be obvious at a glance; this so-called prince must be seriously worried to ask such a stupid question.
There’s nothing to worry about, you fool.
Don’t you know who’s backing you up?
Failure is simply not in the realm of possibility.
Ahh, although I suppose technically…that’s as far as our goals are concerned, not necessarily these two.
Cylis paces around the room anxiously.
On the other hand, Hugo flops down in a chair, looking unconcerned.
I lean against the wall with my arms folded, waiting.
It should be any moment now.
Listening carefully, I hear someone knock on the door of the next room over.
“It’s Schlain.”
“Hmm? Come in.”
“Thank you.”
Ah, so it’s begun.
Our target, Schlain, has entered the room next to us.
“What is it?”
That voice belongs to the owner of the room Schlain has entered: his and Cylis’s father, the king of this kingdom.
“You’re the one who called for us, aren’t you, Father? What is it you need?”
“Hmm? I didn’t call for you.”
Well, of course you didn’t.
After all, we’re the ones who summoned him here.
After that, things fall unnaturally silent.
In sharp opposition to that silence, I sense magic filling the room next door.
They’re using Wind Magic to muffle the sound.
And then the caster speaks.
“Aaaaaah! Brother! What are you doing?!”
Pfft.
What an awful actress.
The girl who just delivered that very forced cry is the one who cast the spell.
With that scream as his signal, Cylis runs out of the room, throws the other door open, and charges inside.
Hugo follows behind him.
I walk unhurriedly after the two.
“What’s going on?!”
“Brother Schlain attacked Father!”
“He did what?! Schlain, have you gone mad?!”
Oh? From the sound of things, Cylis actually isn’t half bad at acting.
Maybe he should go into theater instead of seeking the throne?
Well, I guess it’s a little late for that.
“Guards! Schlain has attacked His Majesty!”
Cylis’s voice echoes clearly through the hallway.
That’s actually because I’ve increased its volume with magic.
This way, even people who don’t know anything about what’s going on should be able to hear him.
“Seize him!”
As I casually peer into the room from the hallway, Hugo is just slashing at Schlain with his sword.
The room is in quite a sorry state.
The king has been shot through the forehead and killed, Schlain is clutching his just-opened wound, and a small young woman is standing there expressionless.
“Yo. You don’t look so good, Mr. Hero.”
“You…Hugo…?”
“That’s right.”
Hugo takes off his helmet.
“Hugo. Don’t go giving yourself away like that.”
“C’mon, why not? I wanted him to get a good look at me before he dies.”
Schlain looks utterly confused by the exchange between Cylis and Hugo.
As such, he doesn’t even notice me entering the room.
“You’re curious, right? See, your big brother here wants the throne. I want revenge on you and Oka. So you’re a thorn in both our sides, get it?”
“But…why…? Cylis is already next in line for the throne…”
“Funny you should mention that. See, before he kicked the bucket, that stupid king was planning to make you his heir. He figured if you were declared as the next king before you could be declared as the hero, they wouldn’t wanna send you into battle!”
“As if I would let my throne be stolen away for such a foolish reason!”
It’s true that the king was planning to make Schlain the next king.
We didn’t even have anything to do with that part.
Although the rest of it is mostly our fault.
“Brother. Unfortunately, you must now die here.”
This line comes from Suresia, the princess of this kingdom, who’s been silent all this time.
Since she’s a princess, that means she’s Schlain and Cylis’s sister, of course.
“Sue, why?”
“I have opened my eyes to true love, dear brother. I would do anything for the sake of that love, even if I must kill my own brother.”
This Suresia girl was apparently really attached to Schlain, so he must be extra surprised by this turn of events.
“Hugo! Is this your doing?!”
I suppose it makes sense he would figure that much out, then.
“Oh dear. You noticed, huh? Took you long enough. Yeah, I did it. What do you think? How’s it feel to have something stolen from you? Sucks, right? I should know, since the same thing happened to me! Ga-ha-ha-ha!”
Hugo has a certain skill: Lust.
Like my Envy, it’s from an especially powerful line of skills called the Seven Deadly Sins skills.
Its primary effect is brainwashing.
That’s how he’s controlling Suresia.
“Change her back right now!”
“You think I’m gonna do that just ’cause you asked nicely? What a moron.”
For all the scorn Hugo is throwing at Schlain, he has no idea that the brainwasher is also being brainwashed himself.
How pathetic.
He’s caught up in a temporary sense of superiority.
Although thanks to his arrogance, he’s forgetting that a cornered rat bites back.
“Oof! How do you still have so much strength?!”
Schlain is so furious that he’s thrown a punch at Hugo.
Looks like he’s going to follow up with some Attack Magic, too.
I suppose I’d better help that idiot out.
“Oh? He’s got more fight in him than I expected.”
“?!”
I activate my Divine Scales and Dragon Barrier skills to prevent the casting of magic.
At the same time, I stop hiding my presence and allow my aura to fully permeate the room.
Immediately, Schlain rolls to the side to put distance between us.
Well, well. That’s a half-decent reaction.
As I’m momentarily impressed, Schlain turns to look at me, and a strange sensation assails my body.
This feeling…Appraisal, I’m sure.
Tough luck for him, though.
As the holder of the Envy skill, I’m also a Ruler.
I can use my ruler authority to block Appraisal, you know.
So he won’t be able to read my stats.
“Sophia! This one’s mine! Don’t go stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong!”
“Oh really? Looked like he was beating you up to me.”
Idiot. He would’ve been in trouble if I hadn’t helped out.
“Enough! Stop arguing and finish Schlain off quickly!”
…Would you mind not ordering me around?
Besides, I can’t have anyone killing Schlain.
So we’ll need our next player to show up and help him escape.
“I won’t let you!”
There, see? Help has arrived.
A small-framed figure jumps into the room.
She unleashes some magic immediately, blowing Hugo away.
Although my Dragon Barrier skill reduces its power, so it doesn’t deal much damage.
“Ooookaaaaa!!”
See? Look, he’s perfectly fine.
But I should probably prevent her from attacking him any further.
This tiny intruder is the elf who was our teacher Ms. Oka in our previous lives. I cancel out her next magic spell with my own.
“Y-you?!”
Her eyes widen.
We did just run into each other recently, I suppose.
And it was a rather shocking scene, too.
No wonder she’s surprised to see me here.
“Shun! Run for it!”
Ms. Oka uses magic to break the floor, scattering dust everywhere.
“But!”
“No buts! We have to withdraw for now!”
“Mr. Hyrince?”
“Leston told me you were in danger, so I came running. I’m sure you’re confused, but we just have to get you out of here for now.”
I hear this conversation amid the dust, followed by the sound of running footsteps.
“What are you doing?! After them!”
Cylis shouts, but Hugo and I both ignore him.
“Now, be sure to follow the plan, all right?”
“Yeah, you got it.”
Hugo sneers and steps toward Cylis.
“…What is this?”
Sensing something is off, Cylis backs away.
“Oh, no big deal. Just gonna mess around in your head a little bit.”
“Wha—?!”
Hugo’s hand shoots out and clamps around Cylis’s face.
“What are you doing?!”
“Changing our deal. You’re gonna work as our disposable pawn from here on out.”
“G-gahhhh?!”
Cylis screams in anguish.
I leave the room without waiting around to see it through to the end.
What Hugo is doing to Cylis right now isn’t brainwashing—he’s destroying his spirit.
Why not brainwash him? Because someone else is already doing it.
Cylis was being controlled from the start.
I doubt he was aware of it himself, and it wasn’t total control, just nudging his thoughts in the right direction, or so I’m told.
But that controller can turn him into a completely mindless puppet, as long as they don’t mind damaging his spirit like Hugo is doing right now.
And the only way to overwrite that control is to break his spirit completely.
Basically, we’re erasing everything from his mind, including the other person’s control.
The truth is, there are lots of other people in this kingdom who are already being secretly controlled just like Cylis.
The king was one of them.
That’s why we killed him.
We needed to overthrow the Analeit Kingdom because its top brass were already victims of mind control.
Master even said that the decision to make Schlain the next king was probably the result of their thoughts being manipulated, too. We don’t know for sure what the goal was, though.
According to Master, her best guess is that they wanted to keep Schlain the hero close by and accessible instead of handing him over to the Church.
We had to completely crush the kingdom in order to root out all the corruption.
Which is why we’re currently doing some pest extermination in the castle.
We have Cylis’s soldiers attacking the people we identified as being mind controlled.
And among those soldiers are members of the Tenth Army in disguise.
There’s no way they won’t accomplish their tasks.
Meanwhile, I’m on my way to destroy the mastermind who was trying to control this kingdom from the shadows.
“Good day to you.”
I arrive in one of the guest rooms of the castle.
Waiting for me there is none other than Potimas.
“…I knew it. You lot are responsible for all this commotion, then.”
“Pest control is a big undertaking, you know.”
“Hmph. How irritating.”
Potimas stands and faces me unhurriedly.
“…I cannot defeat you in this body.”
“Oh? How very gracious of you.”
This man can possess replicas of his body and control them from a distance, while his real self is still in the elf village.
So the real one won’t die no matter how many bodies of his we kill.
That’s probably why he’s so calm, but I didn’t expect him to give up without a fight.
“I have a message for White and Ariel.” Potimas’s expression doesn’t change, but there’s a dark flame burning deep in his eyes as he speaks. “I am waiting in the elf village. Come, and I will crush your conceited delusions with all my might.”
“I’ll be sure to let them know.”
Although knowing Master, she’s probably listening in through one of her clones already.
I can’t stand looking at that unpleasant face of his for another second, so I promptly chop it off.
Potimas’s head rolls across the floor.
Honestly, though, Master…
I can’t believe he would put her name before Ariel, who’s been his sworn enemy for so many years. He must have a serious grudge at this point.
Although I’m sure she’s done enough to earn it.
Now, then.
As long as Schlain escapes safely, the plan will be a success.
But that wouldn’t be very entertaining, would it?
I’m feeling a little dissatisfied, especially after Potimas didn’t even fight back.
So…
Perhaps I’ll go have a little fun.
“Oh? It’s been a while.”
A young girl sweetly smiled at me.
The last time I saw her was years ago, when she was still a little girl.
She was so small, with nowhere to go—someone I thought I had to protect.
But by the time we met again…
“Shouko…Negishi…”
“Would you mind not calling me by that name?”
Negishi licked her fingertip, looking displeased.
The seductive gesture made her seem far more mature than her years.
It was as if to show me plainly that she’s no longer a child, no longer in need of my protection.
All the more so because it was fresh blood she was licking off her finger.
“My policy is that our past lives are the past, and this is the present. I’m not the kind of person who needs her teacher’s pity anymore.”
“Pity? But I…”
I couldn’t completely deny Negishi’s words.
Her position in her past life couldn’t be described as a good one by any stretch of the imagination.
She certainly didn’t fit in with the class.
I did my best to reach out to her whenever I could, but if you asked whether that came out of my pride as a teacher or pity for her as a person, I have to admit I would be hard-pressed to answer.
“How…?! How can this be?!” the elf summoner shrieked.
The blood on Negishi’s hand came from the monster he’d summoned.
He was one of the most famous and powerful elf summoners, and the beast he had called upon was one of the strongest.
Its danger level was S rank, a monster on par with wyrms and dragons, but it was swiftly ripped apart beyond all recognition.
“How?! How…?”
As the summoner repeated his cries deliriously, his voice was suddenly cut short.
I looked over to see his body collapsing, his head removed from the neck.
The chakram that must have beheaded him flew back into the hands of a white-clad girl, who had appeared seemingly from nowhere at Negishi’s side.
As I stood there dumbfounded, all the other elves around me were gone.
Their bodies now on the ground.
A sea of blood began spreading around me.
“Why…would you…do this…?”
The question rose from my lips unbidden.
“Why? Because the elves are a nuisance to us.”
Negishi answered as if it were obvious.
“Us?”
“Yes. Us.”
“So you really are with the demons…”
The last time I saw Negishi was near the border of the empire.
After that, she was taken to the demon territory.
So I suspected that she must have ended up joining their side.
“The demons? Yes, I suppose that’s one way to put it.”
“What?”
But her response was strangely phrased.
“We are technically putting the demons to work. But I don’t think it’s quite accurate to lump us in with them.”
“You’re not with the demons…?”
Then what in the world is going on?
“You wouldn’t know about the Administrators, would you?”
My eyes widened at that word.
How? Why?
The “Administrators” she refers to are unbelievable beings.
Even though I’d been taught about them all my life, I was never sure if they even really existed.
“I can’t believe the elves are trying to oppose them. How stupid can you get?”
“It can’t be! You mean you’re doing this under the Administrators’ orders?!”
“Isn’t that what I just said?”
“Ms. Sophia.”
As Negishi rolled her eyes and shrugged, the girl in the white clothes addressed her reproachfully.
“I know, I know. I’ve already said too much, right? You’re such a stick-in-the-mud.”
Negishi laughed at the other girl teasingly.
That smile made her almost look like a normal girl her age…
…save for the fact that she was standing in a sea of blood she had wrought herself.
I didn’t understand how she could laugh so casually under such dire circumstances.
That was when I realized she wasn’t the Negishi I knew anymore.
She was always a difficult child, but it felt like I was talking to a completely different beast, one who was far more terrifying.
“Well, then. I’ll let you go this time, since you’re an old acquaintance and all. Now that you see the difference in our strength, don’t get in our way again.”
Then, with a brisk wave, she led the white-clad group away.
This all happened not long ago.
I was in the empire, near demon lands, to investigate the ongoing disappearances of elves in the area.
Although I brought along the summoner and several other skilled elves, I was the only one who survived.
And that was only because I was spared, not because I was strong enough…
Which I’m sure was the case just now, too…
We fled to a mansion that Leston uses as his base.
“Leston is supposed to meet us here. Then we’ll slip out of the country.”
“Ms. Oka, wait! We have to do something about Hugo, or Sue will—!”
“We can’t.”
Shun wants to go back to fight Hugo and put a stop to this rebellion, but that’s just not possible.
Not as long as Negishi is there!
Even if Shun is the hero now, I doubt he can win against someone who could effortlessly destroy an S-rank monster.
How did she get here, when she was in the far-off demon realm not long ago?
All I can think of is that Hugo let her use a teleport gate.
The kingdom and the empire each have a teleport gate, which allows one to warp across the long distance between them instantly.
Part 2 of 8