Part 3 of 8
The empire borders the demon realm, and I already know that Negishi was assassinating elves there anyway.
I don’t know how, but she must have made contact with Hugo while she was undercover in the empire.
Then she zeroed in on Hugo’s power and decided to use him…
At any rate, this situation couldn’t be worse.
I don’t know how far Sophia’s side can reach with their power. We have to leave this kingdom and take refuge somewhere safe.
“But, Ms. Oka, if we can stop Hugo, this whole thing should blow over. We have to go back and catch him…”
“No.”
“Ms. Oka!”
Even if I explain how dangerous Negishi is, I doubt Shun will accept it.
So I’ll approach from a different angle.
“The Church has announced the new hero. His name is Hugo Baint Renxandt.”
The Holy Kingdom of Alleius is the headquarters of the Word of God religion.
Just a few days ago, their pontiff presented the name of the next hero: Hugo.
That announcement is the reason I came hurrying back to this kingdom.
“Huh?”
Shun gapes at me blankly.
I had a similar reaction when I first heard this news.
Titles are absolute, and Shun is undoubtedly the holder of the hero title.
And yet, the Church pronounced Hugo the hero instead.
Clearly, something shady was in the works.
And sure enough, I arrived to find this disaster unfolding.
“Even the Church is working with him.”
That’s the only possible conclusion I could reach.
As I said before, titles are absolute.
The Appraisal skill is rare, but there are some people in the world who have it, like Shun himself.
And there’s also the existence of Appraisal Stones.
The fact that Hugo isn’t the hero would be found out immediately if either was used on him.
Since the Church put forth such a ridiculous claim nonetheless, they must have some hidden motive in mind.
“Do the elves have any idea why the Church would be complicit in such an absurd plot?”
Mr. Hyrince seems to have reached the same conclusion.
I’ve already come up with the answer.
“Most likely, it’s safe to assume that Hugo’s brainwashing has allowed him to worm his way into the Church.”
Shun told me on the way here that Sue was being controlled by Hugo.
Following that logic, I concluded that Hugo must have used that power to take control over the Church and make them announce him as the new hero.
“Impossible. The effects of brainwashing are limited. It’s not powerful enough to incite a situation like this, is it?”
Hyrince seems doubtful, but considering what Sue did, it’s easy to see that’s not the case.
It’s incredibly difficult to brainwash someone enough to drive them to kill themselves or someone else.
Even back on Earth, it was said that using suggestion and such to make someone do something they strongly objected to would be all but impossible.
The same holds true in this world: Even if some skills can temporarily make someone obey the user, the brainwashing will quickly fail if the victim rejects it strongly enough.
But there is just one skill that makes all those things possible.
“Usually, no. But there is one exception.”
“An exception?”
“One of the top-class Seven Deadly Sins series skills, Lust. Its brainwashing effect is far more powerful than any other skill can induce. I have no doubt that Hugo now holds this skill.”
There is a limited amount of special skills in this world.
The Seven Deadly Sins series and the Seven Heavenly Virtues series.
I learned the basic information about these skills from Potimas, after asking for certain reasons.
And one of those skills is Lust.
It uses potent brainwashing to force the afflicted to obey the user.
All of the Seven Deadly Sins skills Potimas told me about had extraordinary effects, but Lust stuck out in my mind as especially horrid.
Still, Potimas was only guessing at the skill’s effects from a person who once had the Lust skill in the past, so he didn’t know exactly how effective it might be.
So I don’t know exactly how many people Hugo can brainwash at once.
“At any rate, we have no way of knowing how far Hugo’s influence has spread. It’s best to assume this entire kingdom has been lost.”
“That can’t be…”
For now, our best option is to prioritize safety and regroup somewhere beyond the borders of the Analeit Kingdom.
“I can’t let that happen. That’s all the more reason we can’t just let Hugo go! If we do something about him now, we might still be able to stop this in time!”
“No!”
Shun’s logic is sound in theory, but there’s a reason we can’t do that!
“As long as Sophia is there, we have no chance of winning.”
Sophia, once known as Negishi, is on another level of strength from us.
I fought for the humans in the war.
My goal was to make contact with Tagawa and Kushitani, who were fighting in the same battle, but all three of us found ourselves facing down a demon general called Merazophis.
Merazophis’s strength was so overwhelming that it was only when we fought together that we stood even the slightest chance of landing a hit on him.
We didn’t stand a chance of winning.
A single hit was all our efforts won us.
It turns out that Merazophis is a former servant of Negishi’s family.
According to Potimas’s research, he was originally an ordinary human but gained his current strength after Negishi’s powers turned him into a vampire.
In other words, Merazophis’s master Negishi is even more powerful.
I don’t say this to brag, but my stats are fairly high.
And yet, I had to team up with Tagawa and Kushitani, who were likely even stronger than me, to be anywhere near even footing with Merazophis.
In that intense battle, where I thought Tagawa might be cut down at any moment, I felt the fear of death intensely even though I was providing support from the rear.
Worse yet, I feared that Tagawa and Kushitani might be killed before my very eyes, so much so that I could barely breathe.
When Kushitani was gravely injured, the fear was so strong that my insides felt frozen.
After all that, the most we could do was escape with our lives.
And yet, Negishi is even stronger than Merazophis.
We don’t stand a chance of winning.
“Teacher, who in the world is she?”
Shun looks at me with alarm, perhaps finally realizing how serious I am.
“Sophia is…”
But just as I open my mouth to explain about Negishi, Leston and the others arrive.
The timing is unfortunate, but right now, escaping is more important than explaining.
Once we made it to safety, I would tell him all about it.
Or so I thought…
“Fancy meeting you here.”
…until Negishi stood in our way yet again.
I’ve been watching everything go down by way of my clones, and damn, this is crazy!
Talk about a jam-packed event!
From Yamada’s perspective, his cute little sister suddenly killed the king, then Natsume suddenly reappeared despite supposedly being exiled.
Plus, the first prince Cylis worked with Natsume to pull off a coup d’état and pinned the blame for the king’s death on Yamada.
Talk about a bolt from the blue, at least for poor Yamada, y’know?
Sadly, we had no choice but to frame Yamada and force him to flee from the capital.
Poor guy…
Hmm? I can’t say that when I’m the one who set him up?
Yeah, I guess you’re right…
But still, if I hadn’t made all this happen, things might have taken an even more tragic turn.
Natsume would’ve tried to get revenge on Yamada and Ms. Oka one way or another, I’m sure.
And the eldest prince, Cylis, might’ve acted on his inferiority complex toward his younger brothers and obsession with the throne even without our intervention.
Not to mention, Potimas was corrupting the highest echelons of the kingdom’s ruling class, too!
There were already bombs all over the place.
So all we did was make those bombs go off in the most convenient directions and times for our purposes.
I got rid of the bombs for you! You’re welcome!
See? I did nothing wrong!
…What do you think? Are you buying that?
No? It’s still on me?
Hrm. Oh, all right. I’ll admit it.
I did quite a few things wrong!
Like, we totally killed the king.
And even if he was being controlled, that poor girl who killed him might be seriously traumatized about that.
Yes, I know I’ve done some nasty things!
But I won’t stop!
I mean, I kind of can’t.
There might be a smarter way to go about this, but this is the very best I could come up with.
At any rate, we used this chaos to get rid of all the kingdom officials who were under Potimas’s control, and Vampy got rid of Potimas herself.
As usual, it wasn’t his real body, so he’ll probably pop up in another body soon enough, but I think we at least managed to root him out of the kingdom.
With that, our mission is more or less complete.
Now all we need is for Yamada and friends to get away safely.
Without an entire kingdom behind him, Yamada shouldn’t be able to do anything too crazy anymore.
We just need him to hide out someplace until everything’s over.
Or so I thought, but it seems like he’s having a hard time with the people Natsume brainwashed.
He can’t seem to do anything against a mind-controlled Ooshima.
Hrm. I thought Yamada was strong enough to knock out Ooshima fairly easily, but maybe I overestimated him a little?
No, I guess this is more about emotions than strength.
He probably can’t turn his sword on someone who’s been his friend since our previous lives.
Still, though…
“Katia! Come back to your senses!”
“How very rude. My senses are fine, thank you. You are a traitor, and traitors must be punished.”
What is this, a lovers’ quarrel?
Ooshima shoots Fire Magic, and Yamada cancels it out with Water Magic.
It looks cool and all, but since I’ve gotten used to seeing all kinds of crazy next-level battles, this isn’t all that exciting.
Yeah, they’re definitely giving it their all, but it kinda lacks the proper tension somehow…
So it just kinda ends up looking like Yamada and Ooshima are playing around, from where I’m standing.
Again, they’re really fighting their hardest, okay?
But when you’ve done battle with legendary-class monsters and that the like, well…y’know?
Except, as I’m kinda half-watching with a rude level of disinterest, I end up reacting too late.
WHA—?!
Ooshima blew up on purpose?!
It’s a suicide attack to shake off Natsume’s brainwashing!
Wait, but that definitely looks like a fatal wound to me…
Oh crap… Now I’ve done it…
I didn’t think someone would blow themselves up just because they couldn’t escape the brainwashing on their own…
“Katia?!”
Yamada runs over to the collapsing Ooshima and catches her before she hits the ground.
But since Ooshima took the full brunt of her own all-out attack, with no defenses, anyone could see that she’s hurt beyond saving.
Shoot…I didn’t think this would happen…
I guess I underestimated the strength of Ooshima’s will.
I can’t believe you were able to resist the brainwashing from a Seven Deadly Sins skill, even for a second…
That goes beyond unexpected.
Ahh, I’m sorry, Ms. Oka…
As I apologize silently, a soft light envelopes Yamada and Ooshima.
Healing Magic, huh? That’s not going to do anything n—
Wait! This isn’t Healing Magic!!
What Yamada’s doing definitely isn’t Healing Magic at all?!
Somehow, Ooshima’s unmistakably mortal wounds are healing up.
“Ah…Shun…?”
“Katia, are you back to normal?”
“Huh? My wounds…?”
“I healed them.”
“You’re…so…ridicu…lous.”
“Stop trying to talk. We’re getting out of here.”
Ooshima and Yamada start getting flirty, but I can’t worry about that right now.
What just happened was so shocking that my real body jumped out of my seat.
Ooshima’s wounds were definitely beyond saving.
In fact, I’m pretty sure Ooshima was already dead by the time Yamada caught her.
Normal Healing Magic can’t fix fatal wounds right away, and even Miracle Magic, the advanced version of Healing Magic, can’t bring people back from the dead.
There’s only one skill that might be able to do that.
The Seven Heavenly Virtues skill Mercy.
That’s the only skill in this world that can bring someone back from the dead.
And to think that Yamada of all people would have it…
Well, okay, I guess I had some idea that might be the case.
I actually knew that there was a human with the Mercy skill, although I didn’t know who it was.
But the Seven Heavenly Virtues skills, like the Seven Deadly Sins skills, are really hard to get.
I don’t think most human in this world could get it even if they deliberately tried.
Which means it’s even less likely that someone would acquire it by chance.
That’s why I figured there was a good chance that the person who had Mercy might be an outsider in this world: a reincarnation.
And if anyone was going to get Mercy, it probably would be Yamada.
In fact, part of the reason I had Natsume brainwash reincarnations like Ooshima and Hasebe was to figure out if any of them had Seven Heavenly Virtues skills.
Ooshima and Hasebe both turned out to be a bust, so by process of elimination, either Yamada, Ms. Oka, Tagawa, or Kushitani must be the holder of Mercy.
Personality-wise, it wouldn’t be surprising if Ms. Oka had it, but since I’d never seen her use it to revive a murdered elf, that ruled her out.
That also left Tagawa and Kushitani, but Yamada seemed like a more logical fit.
But the only way to find out would be to use Appraisal on Yamada or get him to actually use it, and I couldn’t very well just drop a dead body in front of him for that.
I guess this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since I got to see him use it because of this (un)lucky break.
Although I already had a hunch it was him, I hadn’t figured it into my plans since I couldn’t find out for sure. Now that I know, this might be a big opportunity.
The cost of using Mercy is that one’s Taboo skill levels up.
Mercy makes bringing back the dead possible, which is difficult even in the system of this world.
But once you’ve revived the dead, you’re confronted with Taboo, which reveals the true nature of the system.
Once you find that out, you’re bound to realize what it really means to bring back the dead.
D is a sick bastard, as usual.
Always out to break people’s hearts.
But maybe I can use that to my advantage.
I’ll lure Yamada in and have people die in front of his eyes.
No doubt he’ll bring them back from the dead.
And then his Taboo level will go up.
Eventually, when it maxes out, Yamada will learn the truth of this world.
And then he’ll be faced with a choice.
Will he stand against us? Or join hands with us?
I suppose pretending he didn’t see anything is an option, too.
No ordinary human can carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.
And if he chooses to oppose us, then I’ll crush him, of course.
But I don’t think Yamada could do that.
He’s a lower-middle-class kid, after all.
Sure, he’s a hero or whatever now, but originally, he was just a normal boy.
So I’m sure he can’t take on the fate of the world.
I’ll push him into finding out the truth and get him to give up.
Yep. I was gonna have him escape and hide out somewhere, but now I’m changing the plan.
We still need him to get away from the royal capital for now, but I think I’ll have Yamada see a bit more action after all.
My thoughts race as I form a new plan.
Now that Ooshima is down, the biggest obstacle to their escape is gone, so that part should be easy.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
EXCUSE MEEEEE?!
Uh, Vampy? What do you think you’re doing?
Why exactly are you standing in their way like some kind of big final boss?!
“Oh, here. Present for you, Ms. Oka.”
“P…Potimas?!”
“I-it can’t be!”
And now you’re dramatically tossing her Potimas’s head?!
Obviously, that’s gonna freak everyone out!
Vampy! Seriously, what’re you thinking?!
She licks some of Potimas’s blood off her hands.
“How disgusting. Perhaps his rotten personality made his blood taste bad?”
Ew, don’t lick that blood. It’s dirty! Go on, spit it out!
“You did this…to Potimas?”
“What other explanation could there be?”
“But you…!”
“You’re not going to say I could never kill anyone, are you? You’ve done plenty of killing yourself, after all. This isn’t Japan. The same rules don’t apply here, and you know it.”
Debating with Ms. Oka is all well and good, but what are you planning to do next?
What the heck? I did explain that we were going to let Yamada and friends escape from the capital, right? She didn’t forget, did she?
So why do Ms. Oka and the others look like they’re about to fight Vampy?
“Ms. Oka, you want to fight me? Oh, stop. Master told me not to lay a hand on you.”
See?! I knew it! I did say that, didn’t I?!
Then why are you standing in their way now?!
Even those softies are gonna try to fight you if you do that!
“But I suppose you give me no choice. It’s not my fault if it’s just self-defense, right?”
IT TOTALLY IS, DUMBASS!
N-no, no, it’ll be fine.
I’m sure even Vampy is still planning to let them go in the end.
And if it comes down to it, Phelmina will step in and stop her on my behalf! I think!
Just then, a chakram goes flying toward Yamada.
…Wait, what? Isn’t that Phelmina’s weapon?
Vampy alone is too powerful for these guys to take. If you add in Phelmina, there’s no way for Yamada and company to win at all, is there?
Clad in black, Phelmina stops Yamada from trying to back up Ms. Oka.
An identically black-clad Wald swoops down on Hyrince, who’s holding Anna.
They’re not dressed in white like usual because that would stand out a bit too much for undercover work in the kingdom.
People are starting to figure out that white clothes equals the Tenth Army anyway.
I don’t know if anyone in this kingdom is aware of that, but just to help avoid being found out and to fit in with Cylis’s soldiers, I had them wear black.
None of that matters right now, though.
Vampy keeps canceling out Ms. Oka’s magic, slowly but surely closing the distance between them.
When Vampy got the Envy skill, she also got a title that granted her the Divine Scales skill.
It’s an advanced version of the Dragon Scales skill that dragons and wyrms have.
Its effects are twofold: adding scales to the user’s body to increase their defense and interfering with the weaving of magic.
So it raises physical defense while also dealing with magic attacks by hindering their casting.
It’s a powerful skill, one of the best defenses there is.
And as far as magic goes, by combining it with the similar effects of the Dragon Barrier skill, it can all but cancel out most magic.
Since Ms. Oka seems to have a magic-heavy build, she’s a terrible match for Vampy.
Throw in the huge difference between their stats, and she pretty much has no chance of winning.
Vampy clearly realizes that and is slowly, lazily walking toward Ms. Oka.
Ms. Oka tries to stop her with Wind Magic, but since magic doesn’t work on Vampy, it’s literally just dust in the wind.
“Ahh!”
Finally, Vampy grabs Ms. Oka around her slim neck.
Seriously, what the heeeeell?!
What’s wrong with you?!
At this rate, the adventures of Yamada and friends are gonna meet an untimely end right here!
Argh! If it’s come to this, I have no choice but to show up and save them as some mysterious stranger!
But just as I’m starting to seriously consider this half-baked plan, a white wyrm comes flying in.
Isn’t that…?
“Fei?”
Yamada’s words overlap my thoughts as he addresses the wyrm.
Fei is Shinohara, right…?
She used to be an earth dragon, but since she made a summoning contract with Yamada the hero, she took a special route to evolve into a light wyrm.
Since it’s a special evolution, she entered some kinda cocoon thing for quite a while, but it looks like the evolution finished just in the nick of time.
Seriously, talk about perfect timing!
…A little too perfect, don’cha think?
Maybe this is Yamada’s Divine Protection skill at work again?
“Yeah, you’re just in time.”
While I was thinking about all that, it looks like Yamada and Shinohara were communicating telepathically.
“Shun! Mount that wyrm and get out of here!”
As the third prince Leston shouts, everyone jumps into action.
“Don’t worry about us! Shun, and Hyrince, too! Take Miss Oka and run!”
“Shun! Let’s go!”
Hyrince runs toward Yamada, carrying the unconscious Ms. Oka and Anna.
“Do you think we’ll let you escape?”
Vampy steps in to stop them.
Uh, hello?! You’re supposed to let them escape!
Seriously, what are you doing?!
Luckily, while Shinohara uses her dragon breath to keep Vampy and the others at bay, the others get on her back, and she flies off.
Phew. They managed to escape.
Ah, that last breath attack burned Wald pretty good…
Well, he’s probably not gonna die.
Vampy and Phelmina promptly knock out Leston and the rest who stayed behind.
Phelmina quietly says something to Vampy, who brushes her off impatiently.
That’s it, Phelmina! You tell her, girl!
But I’m gonna have to punish Vampy myself, too…
So I’m punishing her.
“Wait a minute! I let them go in the end, didn’t I?! And besides! If we just let them leave like that, who knows what they would’ve done?! That’s why I put a Coma status effect on Ms. Oka! Now they won’t be able to make a move for a good fifteen days! See! I’m a smart girl! So you should really let me off the hook!”
A compelling testimony.
But she still needs punishment!
“Pgyaaaah!”
As Vampy shrieks like a bird being strangled, Phelmina looks on with a satisfied smirk.
You realize you were complicit in this too, though, right?
“Eeek?!”
So I punish her, too.
That being said, Yamada and the others still managed to escape in the end, and putting Ms. Oka into a deep sleep was actually a relatively smart move. I generously let them off with only a light punishment.
For the sake of Vampy and Phelmina’s dignity, I won’t get into the specifics.
The status condition Vampy used on Ms. Oka, Coma, is apparently an advanced version of the Sleep condition.
Just as the name implies, it puts the person into a sleep from which they can’t awaken normally and it’s incredibly difficult to undo.
I have no idea when she picked up a skill with a status condition like that…
In fact, I’ve never even heard of such a condition…
Hrm. I thought I had an idea of most skills in existence, but I guess this is a reminder that there are still skills out there I don’t know about.
According to Vampy, the coma she put Ms. Oka into will wear off on its own in about fifteen days.
Why fifteen days? Because any longer than that, and her body would start rapidly deteriorating and she’d die without ever waking up.
Yikes!
I mean, I guess it makes sense. You can’t eat while you’re in a coma, so if it goes on for that long, it’s bound to be bad news.
As long as Ms. Oka’s in a coma, Yamada and the rest of them won’t be able to move too much, and Ms. Oka won’t be able to indoctrinate them, either.
Ms. Oka’s source of information is Potimas, after all.
Knowing him, he’s definitely taught her some messed-up lies.
There’s no telling if that could cause Yamada and his friends to do something crazy.
In that sense, it was definitely a good call to put Ms. Oka into a coma.
It’ll keep Yamada and the others pinned in place for the next fifteen days, and we can work on other stuff in the meantime.
We definitely have a lot to do.
First, there’s the matter of internal affairs in the demon territory.
We’ve shoved all that off on Balto.
From the end of the big war till now, Mr. Oni and the rest of the commanders have been focused on postwar cleanup efforts, but that’s mostly settled down now.
With Boobs back, too, we can probably return to business as usual.
Which brings us to our next step: an armed expedition to the elf village!
Yep, you heard me! The elf village is going down!
Now that the big human-demon battle is over, it’s about time we get rid of that PITA Potimas, which naturally means we’re embarking on a campaign to destroy the elf village.
We’re not talking about the throwaway bodies Potimas keeps flinging at us.
No, this time we’re gonna crush the real thing.
And that requires us to raze the whole damn elf village to the ground.
Which is exactly why we had to slow down Ms. Oka and the others, y’know?
Ms. Oka is an elf, and we can’t have her getting caught up in this.
I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep an eye on Ms. Oka and friends while we’re fighting Potimas.
It’s safe to assume this is going to be a crazy-fierce battle.
I do intend to rescue the reincarnations who’re being kept in the elf village, but to be totally honest, we might end up having to abandon them.
That’s just how dangerous the fight with Potimas is gonna be.
So of course I want to reduce the amount of potential distractions as much as possible.
When I fight Potimas, I want to do it under ideal conditions.
Here’s the thing, though. There’s one guy we’re gonna have to deal with for that to happen…
Dustin, the pontiff of the Word of God.
There’s no way we can have an all-out war against Potimas without his help.
“…Yet another unreasonable request.”
So yeah, here we are!
The Holy Kingdom of Alleius, headquarters of the smash-hit Word of God religion!
Sitting in front of me, or rather diagonally from me, is Pontiff Dustin himself.
Why isn’t he right in front of me, you ask?
“You can do it, can’t you? Come on, do it.”
Because the one sitting directly across from him is the Demon Lord, wearing a big smile.
The pontiff is basically the head honcho of the human race.
And the Demon Lord is the head honcho of the demon race.
Normally, you’d never even expect these two to cross paths.
Yet, here they are, sitting across from each other and even having a conversation.
Normally, this kind of event would probably be one for the history books.
And in such incredible circumstances, the Demon Lord is blatantly pressuring, even threatening, the pontiff.
Man, she’s something else.
In response, the pontiff heaves a heavy sigh.
“You want me to permit the demon army passage through human territory. You do understand what that would entail, do you not?”
Yep. That’s the main topic for today.
Let our demon army pass through human land so we can crush the elf village, puh-leeeze.
In short, we know we’re technically enemy troops, but can we come in?
Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out why the pontiff called it an unreasonable request.
What nation in any world would give an enemy army permission to pass its borders?
Not to mention, the Demon Lord and pontiff are officially enemies.
Since they’re the representatives of the demon and human races respectively.
They’re just temporarily working together because they currently have a common enemy in the elves.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, sorta.
Although they’re really all mutual enemies who aren’t quite in a three-way deadlock.
Getting rid of Potimas is more urgent, so they’ll cooperate a little as far as that goes, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re enemies, too.
Not to mention, the demons and humans just had a big ol’ war.
Asking him to grant the demon army safe passage under those circumstances is really a rash, ridiculous, reckless request.
And yet. And yet, I say!
It’s really just the Demon Lord and the pontiff who are temporarily working together.
Not the demons and the humans—just the Demon Lord and the pontiff.
That part’s important.
Both of them are technically at the tops of their respective races, but it’s not like either of them has total control.
The Demon Lord has a pretty firm grasp thanks to her reign of terror, but that doesn’t exactly mean everyone is thrilled about it.
And since the pontiff is really just in charge of a popular religion, he can’t exert complete control over humans, either.
Religion is a convenient form of control for inciting people to action, but in the end, it only appeals to people’s thoughts, which makes it difficult to force them to believe something they don’t agree with.
Like, for instance, Let’s reconcile with the demons.
Especially when the Word of God religion has been hyping the demons up as the sworn enemy of the human race since forever ago.
If either of them suddenly changes their official stance, they’re gonna lose their ability to unify their respective bases real fast.
And since the Word of God religion is more or less built on unity, that’d basically be the end for them.
Although I’d be willing to bet some particularly faithful nobility and royals would be like, Well, if that’s what the Word of God says! so I don’t think they’d fall apart that easily.
Even though he has no lawful control over them, it’s impressive that the pontiff can manipulate people this much with ideas alone.
No wonder even the Demon Lord recognizes him as a major power.
And right now, the pontiff is saying that this request is way too unreasonable.
Hrm. The Demon Lord keeps pressuring him to do it, but honestly, I don’t think it’s gonna work.
Even I realize this is a seriously big ask. I guess I’ll just have to teleport the whole army past the human territory by myself…
“It was very difficult to lay the groundwork for this.”
Wait, why is it looking more possible all of a sudden?!
…Huh? For real?
“Ahaaa! I knew you’d be able to pull it off! Yep!”
The Demon Lord beams and praises the pontiff.
But I know what she’s really thinking. Holy crap, is this guy for real…? probably.
I mean, when I talked to him about it beforehand, this guy said even he couldn’t pull off something that crazy!
But now that he’s talking to the Demon Lord, here we are.
Our plan from the start was to open with a ludicrous demand, then say Well, if you can’t do that, at least help us out however you can! It’s the perfect threat…ahem! I mean negotiation tactic.
It’s a basic strategy to start by asking too much, then give your real request so it sounds doable by comparison, right?
The Demon Lord and I were laughing it up together about how he’d never be able to let the demon army pass through human territory, so we’d use that to squeeze whatever we could out of him, or at least that was the idea…
But what did this old dude just say?
It was “difficult to lay the groundwork”?
Doesn’t that mean he’s all ready to give us the go-ahead at any moment?
…What kind of cheater is this old man?
Listen up, reincarnations. You’re better off not trying to cheat your way through politics.
You can’t cheat a cheater with a half-baked plan, apparently…
“Are you sure about this, though? Wasn’t this a bit of a stretch, even for the world’s most popular religion?”
Ah! Demon Lord! Don’t ask him that!
The pontiff’s smile deepens, as if he’s detected my inner panic.
“Yes, it certainly was. This favor came at a considerable expense, with no regard for the consequences. And so…” The pontiff pauses for a moment, his eyes crinkling shut with a smile. “I won’t accept failure as an outcome, understand?”
EEEEEK?!
Scary?! How is this old guy so scary when he’s not even strong at all?!
We came here to threaten him, but we’re getting threatened instead!
“…We’re not going to fail. You can count on that.”
While I’m totally intimidated by the old man, the Demon Lord remains perfectly calm.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” she continues, “for so, so long…”
Though her voice is quiet, the look in her eyes is anything but.
Wild emotions churn behind her calm expression.
“Indeed. Truly, we have waited a very, very long time for this.”
The pontiff’s eyes look the same.
These two have been fighting against Potimas for an incredibly long time now.
I’ve heard the phrase ancient grudge before, but their hatred for Potimas has built up for even longer than any of those.
I really hate Potimas, too, but I bet my feelings pale in comparison to theirs.
They’ve just had way longer to hate him.
It’s even gotten to the point where they hate anything related to him.
Both the Demon Lord and the pontiff actually despise Potimas so much that they’ve basically committed genocide against anyone who appears to be an elf.
Although since elves are basically Potimas’s spawn, I guess that’s kind of inevitable.
Besides, lately, most of this elf genocide has been at the hands of the Tenth Army, under my orders… I’m not exactly in any position to judge.
But even as my mind goes off on this tangent, when I look at the Demon Lord and the pontiff gazing silently into the distance with almost nostalgic expressions, I can practically feel a cold sweat on my back.
Yeesh. We really can’t afford to screw this up.
Not that I was planning on failing, of course, but y’know?
This is Potimas we’re up against, remember?
There’s no way that bastard doesn’t have a trick or two up his sleeve.
And depending on the nature of those tricks, we might end up having to temporarily withdraw or something.
But I can’t imagine saying that when I see the way the Demon Lord and the pontiff look right now…
They’re giving off this “After a hundred years, we meet at last! Let’s settle this once and for all!” kind of atmosphere.
…In fact, it’s probably been way more than a hundred years.
I can’t blame them for having some serious feelings about it.
And the success or failure of this plot to destroy Potimas rests in my hands.
Oh hey, did my stomach just start hurting all of a sudden?
’Cause that is some major pressure.
…I-it’s fine, though! It’s gonna be fine!
This is what I’ve been preparing for all this time!
I can do this!
I just gotta believe!
At least, I’m gonna keep telling myself that.
But hey, I do want to wipe Potimas out in one go if possible, just like they do.
Especially when I think about what he’s put both of them through.
Potimas has caused plenty of trouble for me personally, too, so I’d like to put that to rest and leave the Demon Lord and pontiff feeling satisfied.
And since the pontiff managed to lay the groundwork for us, that should make things easier.
Our original plan assumed that even he wouldn’t be able to get permission for the demon army to march through human territory.
So even though it would’ve been crazy tough, I was planning on teleporting the entire army directly to the elf village myself.
It would’ve cost tons of energy, mind you!
We just figured it was a necessary sacrifice.
But now, if we can go through the human territory, we don’t have to eat that giant cost!
Which means we can put all the saved energy to other uses.
This should seriously raise our chances of defeating Potimas.
But it does cause some problems, too.
Since teleporting only takes a matter of seconds, the demon army hasn’t really started to prepare to march just yet.
Except now we have to march them through human lands, which means we have to make plans for preparation and the actual march.
The Demon Lord and the pontiff are discussing the details now.
Looks like things are gonna be busy when we get back to the demon realm…
We’ll have to prepare in a serious hurry.
Especially if we want to achieve the Demon Lord and pontiff’s dearest wish of so many years without a hitch.
Atone.
When I close my eyes, that word rises to the surface, as if someone is speaking directly in my head.
Even when I open my eyes, the word is still there.
I can sleep and wake, and still it sticks to me without end.
Atone.
This is the effect of Taboo level 10.
The knowledge that is afforded to those who commit taboos and raise the skill level to its highest, and the cost of that knowledge.
Those who max out the Taboo skill must live with this word for the rest of their lives.
Atone.
A word directed toward all humans living in this world.
Taboo exists to make humans aware of their own sins, the actions that drove this world to the brink of destruction.
But if that’s true, then what do we reincarnations who were living in a different world entirely have to atone for, and how?
The answer is…
I didn’t know cleanup after a battle would be this hard.
Once I finish most of my work, I flop down exhaustedly.
Thanks to my stats and skills, my physical exhaustion isn’t actually that bad.
But the mental and emotional toll is much deeper.
After all, my work right now consists of identifying those who were killed in battle, preparing condolence money to send to their relatives, and so on.
The sacrifices in the formation I led, the Eighth Army, were very extensive.
At least half of those were because I forced them to charge the enemy in what amounted to a suicide attack.
Each time I look at the list of names, I can almost hear their cries of resentment toward me.
And then there’s the sight of their families clinging to their recovered bodies and sobbing.
I have to offer them my sympathies without any real emotions behind my words.
I can’t let any feelings show.
I don’t have the right to be emotional about it.
Because I have to be the heartless superior who cruelly sent them to their deaths.
Really, I shouldn’t even be allowed to dwell on these sentiments now.
I force myself to clear my mind and focus on dealing with the aftermath.
Since I destroyed the fortress where we fought with my own hands, it’s no longer strategically worth occupying.
There’s no point in claiming ownership over a pile of rubble.
But we have to recover the bodies of the dead from both armies that were left on the battlefield and the supplies that were left inside the fortress.
Otherwise, battlefield looters will make off with everything.
Most of the supplies in the fortress were ruined beyond use when I blew everything up, but fortunately, there were some resources remaining that weren’t destroyed in the battle, which I managed to recover.
It was collecting the corpses that was far more difficult.
Of course, it was largely the survivors and new members of the Eighth Army who were put in charge of collecting the bodies.
Most of them were friends and acquaintances of the dead.
There have been several occasions where someone discovered the body of a friend and broke down crying, unable to continue working.
I’m responsible for all this tragedy.
It’s enough to put me at a loss for words.
But still, I’m not allowed to fall silent.
I have to tell the sobbing soldiers to “quit crying and work” without a shred of mercy.
If they look up at me with hatred, I glare back even more intensely.
The pressure of my glare forces them to lower their heads and surrender.
The members of the Eighth Army are a mishmash of people who never had anything to do with me.
From the very beginning, they had no reason to be loyal to me.
And now that I’ve forced them to march into certain death and gotten many of their comrades killed, that lack of loyalty is turning into anger and fear.
Into hatred for the meaningless deaths.
But they can’t oppose me.
The resulting despair is painfully clear.
I’ve become an evil general who controls his soldiers with fear.
There’s no justice anywhere in that picture.
But this is the path I chose.
It’s way too late to turn back now.
Heaving a sigh, I stand up from the chair in my private quarters.
We’re having a meeting with all the commanders today.
I leave my quarters and head for the conference room.
Along the way, I run into Mr. Merazophis.
“Hello.”
“Hello.”
We exchange equally brief greetings.
Mr. Merazophis is Miss Sophia’s servant.
Since I became a commander, he’s also been looking out for me as my senior.
He’s always been a quiet man who doesn’t go in for small talk, but today, he seems especially somber.
I’m sure he’s feeling down for similar reasons to my own.
That normally pale face of his looks even more pallid than usual.
Together, we walk silently toward the meeting room.
When we open the door and enter, Commander Darad is already seated, with just as heavy a mood as both of us.
But unlike our mental exhaustion, Darad looks more physically drained than anything.
Unlike Merazophis and me, Commander Darad is a normal demon.
His stats are naturally lower than ours.
Between the battle and the cleanup work afterward, he must be completely worn out.
“Ah. Sir Merazophis and Sir Wrath.”
Even his voice lacks its usual vigor.
This man is clearly exhausted.
“You must be working hard,” I blurt out without thinking.
“Hrm. So I really do look that exhausted, eh?”
“Yes, more or less.”
There’d be no point trying to deny it, so I answer honestly.
“How pathetic I am. Losing spectacularly in my biggest battle yet, then disgracing myself once again in the process of cleaning up after my mess. It’s enough to make a man lose faith in himself.”
Commander Darad chuckles mirthlessly.
Fortunately, Commander Kogou enters at that moment.
The giant commander senses the mood in the room and turns awkward and apologetic as he shuffles to his seat.
Commander Kogou looks pale, too.
Seems like all the commanders are being overworked to some extent.
I take my seat as well and wait for the meeting to start.
After a short while, Miss White enters the room.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but it almost seemed like she glanced at Commander Kogou when she entered.
Although since her eyes are always closed, it’s a bit hard to tell where she’s looking.
“Heya. Looks like the gang’s all here.”
While I’m distracted by Miss White, Miss Ariel enters as well.
There are still some commanders missing, but I guess the rest of them aren’t coming today.
More importantly, Mr. Balto looks extremely distressed next to Miss Ariel.
He’s so pale, it seems like he could drop dead at any moment. Is he all right?
“The Second Army Commander isn’t back yet. She won’t be here today.”
Miss Ariel indicates that the Second Army Commander, Sanatoria, won’t be joining us.
Miss Sanatoria came to one of these meetings alone just once to report on her army’s current situation, but then she went right back to the front to keep an eye on the fortress that had been overrun with monkey monsters.
Right now, she’s on her way back from that fortress with the Second Army.
In the previous meeting, Miss Ariel stated that our next target is the elf village.
Some of the commanders are in contact with the elves; the former Ninth Army Commander Warkis was colluding with them.
Miss Ariel and Miss White haven’t told me which ones, but I’m guessing from context that Miss Sanatoria is one of them.
It’s just a guess, but I’m almost certain I’m right.
And if I can figure that much out, there’s no way Miss Ariel and Miss White don’t already know.
Which means that for the moment, they’re knowingly letting her go free.
I can’t understand why they would do that if we’re on the brink of marching on the elf village to wipe out their entire race.
But knowing Miss Ariel and Miss White, I’m sure there’s a very good reason that isn’t immediately apparent.
“Now then, I’ve gathered you all here for a very important reason. We’re going to discuss our plan of attack on the elf village.”
Hmm? I keep my surprise to myself.
Usually, Miss Ariel leaves Mr. Balto in charge of running these meetings.
But this time, Miss Ariel herself is handling it herself.
Part 3 of 8