Part 4 of 8
Something strange is going on.
I can’t help but get a bad feeling about it.
And more often than not, my bad feelings are right.
“There’s actually been a slight change of plans. We’re gonna have to move the schedule forward way sooner.”
The commanders all go deathly silent, as if they’ve forgotten to breathe.
I can’t blame them for that reaction. We’ve only just gotten close to being done with the postwar cleanup, and now we’re going to have to march again right away.
The original plan was already pretty busy and short on time. If we’re moving it up even more, then this could turn into a literal death march.
“Yeah, sorry ’bout that!”
Miss Ariel scratches her head and apologizes in a light tone.
This is no comfort at all, but she probably does genuinely feel bad on the inside.
When it comes down to it, Miss Ariel is actually a very good person.
But her apology won’t make the mountain of work ahead of us any smaller.
The term worker exploitation flashes across my mind.
People can do amazing things if they push themselves. We managed to finish reorganizing the troops and get ready to march just in time.
It’s probably because all the commanders worked together and ran around like crazy to make preparations happen.
Mr. Balto and Commander Darad were particularly cooperative; it seems to me like they became a lot more open during this period of preparation.
Even more surprisingly, Miss Sanatoria was fairly helpful, too, in spite of the fact that she’s most likely working with the elves in secret.
When she got back to the Demon Lord’s castle, she actually coordinated with the likes of Mr. Balto, who stayed behind to keep things running in the demon territory during the battle, and Commander Darad. She proactively participated in restoration efforts, upgrading the defenses of the troops who were getting ready to head to the elf village and so on.
Although unlike Mr. Balto and Commander Darad, she didn’t offer to lend her forces to the expedition to the elf village.
Even so, she was a big help.
I guess Miss Sanatoria must have decided to cut off contact with the elves and stick with Miss Ariel.
That seems like a bit of an opportunistic move to me, but it’s not really any of my business.
On the other hand, the Third Army Commander Kogou was decidedly uncooperative.
He’s always been on the rebel side, and he’s against this next attack, too.
That being said, although he’s not actively helping, he isn’t trying to stop us, either.
If someone like Mr. Balto gives him an order, he’ll still do it, albeit halfheartedly.
Weak-willed. Indecisive. That’s my impression of Commander Kogou.
I know it sounds a bit harsh, but I can’t help it.
While the rest of us are burning the candle at both ends, he’s the only commander who consistently refuses to help out.
Technically, I suppose the Ninth Army Commander Black hasn’t helped, either, but he has a special position apart from the rest of us commanders.
As for the other commander with a special position, Miss White, she seems quite busy herself.
Although I’ve never actually seen her looking busy.
Officially, it’s a mystery what kind of work Miss White’s Tenth Army actually does, but I happen to know that Miss White teleports them all over the place to do various odd jobs.
The fact that I haven’t seen any of the Tenth Army members during the staging period is proof in itself they’ve been busy.
They’re here for the departure today, though.
…Although I don’t see a few members, like Miss Sophia.
I’m guessing the ones who aren’t here are traveling with the imperial army instead.
Before we left, Natsume—or rather Hugo—led the imperial army toward the elf village.
We’ll be marching shortly after them, as the second formation in the order of battle.
I glance around the demon army as we prepare to head out.
The first thing that jumps out at me is the empire’s war flags.
There are so many of them that even a cursory look leaves a strong impression.
I’d be willing to bet it was Miss White who prepared these.
We’re going to pretend to be part of the imperial army while we march.
On the surface, demons and humans look exactly the same.
So as long as we display our affiliation this brazenly and spread the word in advance that the imperial army is coming, no one will be the wiser.
There are a few exceptions who visually stand out, like me, but all we have to do is cover up with full-body armor and such.
Right now, in human lands, they’re probably all ready for the imperial army to come marching through.
With no idea that we’re really the demon army.
I’m sure the pontiff has made sure of that.
My first impression of the pontiff was that he was an ordinary old man, or so I thought.
He didn’t have any trace of the aura of the truly strong. If I wrapped my hands around his neck and squeezed just a little, I could strangle him to death easily.
Of that much I was sure.
And I wasn’t wrong about that.
The pontiff is extremely weak, and I could effortlessly destroy him with a single attack.
But that’s just in terms of physical strength.
Miss Ariel, of all people, calls him a monster.
I got a brief but vivid glimpse of that side of him.
“That is precisely why I will not allow the mountains of sacrifices to have died in vain.”
I’m sure the pontiff had no idea how much those words shook me to my core.
I first met the pontiff when Miss White and Miss Ariel took me along to visit the Holy Kingdom of Alleius.
Right before the war, it was a meeting between sworn enemies: the head of the demons and the leader of the Word of God religion, who could essentially be called the leader of the humans.
For some reason, I was also allowed to sit in on this fateful meeting.
Miss Ariel and the pontiff previously came to the consensus that they would work together after the war to take down the elves as a united front, and they evidently forged a secret pact.
So the goal of this meeting was to pool their ideas and frankly discuss a plan of action for after the war and after defeating the elves.
Miss Ariel is a true living witness, a being who’s been around since before the system was created.
And from what she’s told me, the pontiff has a highly unusual skill that allows him to be reborn over and over with memories of all his previous lives intact.
That means he’s a living witness to history like Ariel, even if he’s been reborn many times instead of surviving all the while.
And if he knows the real history of this world, that means he knows all about the system, too.
Taboo taught me the truth of the system.
Namely, that the foolish actions of humans brought this world to the brink of destruction, and a lone goddess sacrificed herself in order to keep that destruction at bay.
But that’s only a temporary solution, and this world is still in danger of falling apart.
The system is essentially an enormous spell that takes the experience points that every living being builds up throughout their life, the power reflected in their stats and skills, and recovers it after that being’s death, using it to restore the world and keep it from falling into ruin.
Miss Ariel and the pontiff know the truth about this system.
That’s why Miss Ariel is pitting demons against humans as the Demon Lord and providing the system with more energy by causing mass deaths.
And the reason the Word of God religion teaches followers to train their skills and hear “God’s voice” more often is to increase the amount of energy they provide the system over the course of their lives.
As the residents of this world grow up, they hear announcements each time they gain new skills, level up, and so on within the system.
Very few people find it strange to consider that the voice of God.
They’ve been hearing it all their lives, after all.
But when the other reincarnations learn about the rules of the Word of God, they might just think that this world has some very strange beliefs.
If I found out about that creed without knowing anything else, I’m sure I would’ve thought the same thing.
With other reincarnations, we might have even made jokes about it.
The Word of God religion is so silly, we’d say.
But knowing the truth, it’s nothing to laugh about.
The Word of God actually uses the framework of religion to extort all of humanity.
It tells them to become part of the foundation for the world.
Since they were raised with this creed from birth, indoctrinated by it, they fully believe they’re following the doctrines of the Word of God of their own free will.
It’s extremely effective. Terrifyingly so, in fact.
I’m sure it unsettles me because it treats lives as consumable goods.
It almost feels like a farm: raising livestock in the form of humans and shipping them out to be eaten.
And it’s all the more unsettling since the humans don’t know they’re being raised as livestock at all…
But the person who created this farm is none other than the pontiff of the Word of God.
The more I learn about that religion, the more I realize how terrifying the pontiff is.
It’s his organizational capability that makes him so scary.
The Word of God religion has influence over almost every human nation.
One of the only exceptions is Sariella, a nation that worships the Goddess instead, but there are churches in every other human state.
Even the smallest villages have chapels, spreading the roots of the Word of God religion.
Young children receive the blessing of the Church and grow up hearing its teachings.
By the time they reach adulthood, they’re faithful believers in the Word of God.
That’s how the Church grasps people’s hearts and gains a soft grip of control over humanity.
Not only that, but the churches scattered throughout the world are either used as information-gathering centers or stopping points through which information is relayed.
Apparently, most people who work under the Church acquire the skill Fartalk, an advanced version of Telepathy. This skill allows its users to communicate with one another over a long distance.
They use this skill to relay information, telephone game–style, all the way to the Word of God headquarters in the Holy Kingdom of Alleius.
It may not quite be real-time updates, but it’s still a very fast way of gathering information from distant lands.
The pontiff knows very well just how incredibly valuable new information can be.
In this world without cars or airplanes, travel takes a long time.
Aside from exceptions like teleport gates and Fartalk, the fastest way to convey information is by courier on horseback, but even that is often too slow.
But by putting Fartalk users in every nation, the pontiff can cut down the delay in transmitting information to the absolute minimum.
Then he analyzes that information and makes his moves accordingly.
On top of that, he also has other mechanisms in place that solidify the Church.
Most importantly of all, while these structures require a lot of people, what they don’t require is any particular talent.
Fartalk is an advanced skill, but as long as one learns Telepathy, all that’s required is practice.
Similarly, all the skills required to work for this religious organization are perfectly ordinary.
Anyone could learn them if they put their mind to it.
In other words, it’s a job anyone can do.
And that’s really important.
Because it means he can train any number of replacements.
Instead of putting management of the organization in the hands of one amazing person, he uses the masses to support it.
And since anyone can do it, vacancies are easily covered, with plenty of replacements ready to fill the void.
If one person is lost, someone else can step into their shoes.
Even the pontiff himself is no exception to that rule; when the man who inherited the name Dustin is absent, a different pontiff takes over the role.
And even at those times when Dustin wasn’t at the head, the Word of God church never wavered.
The foundation of this religion is that frighteningly solid and unshakable.
The Word of God religion has been a fixture for hundreds of years, cementing its place as a permanent part of human society.
Yes, the pontiff is undoubtedly a remarkable man.
But instead of his own power, he uses other people to control humanity.
He truly is a king among men.
His nature makes him stand out even among all the incredible people I’ve met.
Miss Ariel, Miss White, Miss Sophia, Mr. Merazophis…all of them are incredibly powerful in their own right, so they never depend on those below them.
Since they’re perfect on their own, as complete individuals, they never bothered to become kings who command others with their strength.
The person I’ve met who was most suited to the role of king was probably the late Mr. Agner, the First Army Commander.
Mr. Agner didn’t just lead the First Army—he led the demon race as a whole with great care.
But even then, I have to admit that Mr. Agner’s organization was still utterly dependent on his strength and the authority that came with it.
Without him, his followers couldn’t stand on their own.
But the pontiff’s control isn’t so fragile that things would fall apart after the loss of a single person.
He probably figured out his own strengths and limits from the start and focused on building up an organization right away.
He has incredible insight that allows him to predict future developments.
And since he really did manage to make the Word of God religion so massive, there’s no doubt that he has unbelievable shrewdness and strategy.
Now, most of this is just what I learned from Miss Ariel.
Once I had her teach me about the Word of God religion, I thought I understood how amazing the pontiff was.
…But when I met him in person, I realized I still had a lot to learn.
“We’re going to kill the hero. That’s already set in stone.”
“But if you do that, humanity will no longer be able to stand against you, the Demon Lord. Is this not perhaps a tad bit too one-sided?”
“And how much energy do you think the hero would waste in order to confront me? We’d both be better off without that happening, don’t you think?”
“…I see. So you will not only kill the hero, but eliminate the very framework of heroes entirely?”
“That’s the plan.”
“What are the merits and demerits of doing so?”
The pontiff and Miss Ariel were candidly discussing how to handle the hero.
From what I’d heard, that hero was the older brother of my best friend from my previous life, Shun.
And the pontiff was using the elimination of a human-trafficking organization secretly run by the elves as a way to have that hero build up battle experience and popularity alike.
Since the conflict with the demons was limited to a cold war for the time being, there was nowhere for the hero to make a name for himself.
So the pontiff decided to kill three birds with one stone: get the hero more experience in battle, spread the word of his accomplishments, and crush the plot of the elves all at once.
As a result, Julius the hero became very popular, and by gaining experience by fighting the human-trafficking organization, he raised his level to be on par with previous heroes.
And then, having overseen the hero’s growth in this way, the pontiff cast him aside without a second thought when confronted with the benefits of doing so.
“You wish me to declare Hugo Baint Renxandt the new hero?”
“That’s right. The real one is Schlain Zagan Analeit.”
“And why would we hide that?”
“Because Hugo is a pawn to our dear White. Although I don’t think he knows it. Calling a human we can completely control the official hero will make things much easier for us.”
“I see. Does this have anything to do with the suspicious activity Potimas has been getting up to in the Analeit Kingdom?”
“It sure does. If we wanna kick Potimas out of the Analeit Kingdom, we’re gonna have to cause some serious trouble there first. And we’ll need the whole of society to believe that Hugo is in the right.”
“So you’ve concluded that the fastest and most effective way to build that trust is by declaring Prince Hugo the hero, hmm?”
“I’m glad you’re so quick on the uptake.”
“But if that lie is exposed, the Word of God religion will lose a great deal of credibility. How do you intend to compensate for that?”
“Stamping out the elves is a pretty good payoff, don’t you think? We’re planning on using Hugo for that, too, so your church can take half the credit since you helped out. If anything goes wrong, just claim that Hugo brainwashed you.”
He wouldn’t hesitate to falsify the real hero if it benefited his purposes.
Or plunge an entire kingdom into chaos if it meant defeating Potimas.
On the one hand, you could say he has a good grasp of the big picture.
On the other hand, it’s horribly machinelike, viewing people’s lives as nothing more than numbers.
If discarding one person would save two or more people, then he’d discard that person without hesitation, even if it’s the hero.
Of course, if the hero’s usefulness outweighed the people who would be saved, I imagine he would just as soon not cast him aside.
But that wouldn’t be because he’s considering the individual—no, all that matters would be the abilities of the chess piece called the hero.
A political monster, putting aside any personal feelings or human kindness.
To the human race, he is a king, an absolute guardian, an ally.
And yet, he himself lacks humanity in his principles.
What kind of sick joke is it that the man who leads the human race has no humanity himself?
I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
So I ended up blurting out a comment.
“You say you want to protect humanity, but you’re willing to offer them up so easily.”
He responded:
“If the only way to save the many is to kill the few, then I will kill the few without hesitation.”
Then Miss Sophia snorted.
“What a piece of work, slaughtering the people he’s supposed to save.”
From what I’ve been told, Miss Sophia’s hometown was destroyed by a sect of the Word of God religion, and Potimas took advantage of the confusion to murder her parents.
It’s understandable that she’d hold resentment against the Church.
But the pontiff responded calmly to Sophia’s accusation, too.
“That is precisely why I will not allow the mountains of sacrifices to have died in vain.”
That idea stunned me into silence.
Not only was he not proud of what he’d done, but it seemed almost as if he was apologizing to the mountains of dead he’d created.
But he still refused to stop.
If he did, he would be letting all those deaths, those sacrifices, go to waste.
Maybe this was the pontiff’s form of atonement.
An endless atonement, the course of which leads him to accumulating even more sins that need to be answered for.
Yet, he continues, knowing there will be no end, no forgiveness.
How harsh must that experience be?
It made me shudder.
That might have been the first time I realized just how unknowable the pontiff really is.
I hadn’t decided how to live my life.
I was born as a goblin, then the goblin village where I was raised was destroyed, and I was forced to work for Buirimus, the very man who massacred my village.
Then I gained the Wrath skill, escaped from Buirimus’s enslavement, and managed to avenge my fallen brethren.
But after that, I half lost my mind because of Wrath and went around killing everything in sight.
The fact that I met Miss White and the others and had Wrath sealed away to regain my senses was nothing short of a miracle.
If I had continued wandering around half-mad, I probably would have soon run out of strength and died in a ditch.
I am lucky to be alive.
Unlike the people I killed.
Since I had the good fortune to be saved, I thought it was my duty to keep on living.
And if I was going to keep living, I wanted to accomplish something.
But I hadn’t figured out what exactly I should do.
I just followed Miss Ariel, Miss White, and the others.
They were trying to do something incredible and save the world, and I’d just been going along for the ride in some small way.
Without ever facing the sins I committed.
All I did was look on in admiration at people who knew what they wanted and pursued it without hesitation.
But part of me questioned it.
Did someone as aimless as me really have any right to fight at their side?
I couldn’t help worrying about it.
Could taking people’s lives for the greater good really be called justice?
I’m sure Miss Ariel and Miss White already had that all figured out.
But I couldn’t reach a conclusion so easily.
In my old life, I hated anything I thought was wrong.
I was borderline obsessed with ensuring that everything I did was right.
But when I was controlled by Wrath and murdered innocent people, that was obviously wrong.
Ever since then, I’d lost sight of how I wanted to live.
I’d already strayed from the path of righteousness.
I couldn’t find a new path to follow and just trailed after the backs of Miss Ariel and Miss White, which I could see in the distance.
In that moment, the pontiff’s words were like a beacon of light.
Knowing that what you’re doing isn’t right, knowing that it’s a sin, you keep pushing forward for the greater good.
The pontiff showed me that this, too, is one way to live.
I’m sure it will be a painful, challenging path.
But in that moment, I realized that was the path I should choose to move forward.
Atone.
That word that echoes from Taboo.
All right, then.
I’ll atone.
I’ll steel myself to commit even more sins and atone for those, too.
To make up for the deaths of the innocent people I killed.
To make sure they didn’t die in vain.
No, even that is self-serving.
Calling it atonement is far too grandiose.
I will take countless lives for my own selfish reasons.
I won’t apologize.
And I won’t look back anymore.
I’ll continue adding to those mountains of bodies.
And I’ll serve the greater good.
That’s the only way I can move forward.
Thus, I led the Eighth Army in the war and ensured countless sacrifices on both sides.
And now, I’m leading the march to the elf village.
Our goal is to exterminate the elves.
To commit genocide against an entire race.
I’m sure many lives will be lost.
“Move out!”
On Miss Ariel’s cue, I begin walking.
Forward, always forward.
I won’t stop ever again.
Sooo buuusyyyy.
I am sooo, sooo buuuusyyyy.
Buuusy spiiideeeer.
Lyrics by yours truly.
Um, hello? Where are my days off?
My weekends?
Holidays?
What about summer break, winter break, spring break, or Golden Week?!
I’ve been working nonstop for days on end here!
Does the Labor Standards Act not apply to the demon army?!
This is all that stupid pontiff’s fault for being too good at what he does.
In theory, having an exceptionally talented business partner seems great, but not when that means you have to work way faster just to keep up…
Come on. Can nothing be easy?
This just goes to show that dealing with other people never leads to anything good.
That is to say, being a loner shut-in is the ideal lifestyle!
When you get involved with other people’s business, they’ll stick you with a bunch of work, and then you end up busy like me.
So obviously, it’s better to do whatever you want, on your own, at your own pace!
That way, if anything fails, you only have yourself to blame.
And while you can blame yourself, other people aren’t going to blame you.
Self-responsibility.
What a wonderful phrase…
So what am I trying to say, exactly?
Basically, I just don’t wanna screw this up and have the pontiff get mad at me…
Like, all this time, I’ve mostly just been running around doing whatever I want on my own terms, yeah?
So even if I failed, that was no one’s business but my own.
But what will the pontiff think if I fail this time around?
From his perspective, the Demon Lord is the leader of our faction, of course.
So the blame for failure would land squarely on the Demon Lord.
Urgh, my stomach hurts.
Which is exactly why I’ve been busting my hump like crazy around here.
Unlike the teleportation I was planning on, marching through the human territory is going to take a few days. With my teleport magic, it would’ve been instant.
And since it’ll take a few extra days, that means we have to speed things along accordingly.
Plus, we have to secure rations for the trip and stuff.
Well, I’ve got Balto working on that part.
And each individual army is preparing on their own otherwise.
Then what exactly have I been doing, you ask? Well, tons of stuff that no one else but me could do, duuuh.
First, taking care of a few things in the empire.
Since we were planning to travel by teleportation, I didn’t think about going through the empire, which means I haven’t done any setup ahead of time whatsoever.
We told the pontiff that we poached Natsume for our army, so he seems to think that the empire is under our jurisdiction or something.
Which is to say, he told us at the meeting that he’d leave it up to us.
Thanks, but I really wish you wouldn’t…
Natsume’s Lust skill can only provide complete control over a few brainwashed people at a time.
There’s no real limit on the number in theory, but unfortunately, it takes a long time to set everything up for a full brainwash.
It’s definitely not the kind of thing where he snaps his fingers and goes Voila! You are now under my hypnosis!
He has to use it on them repeatedly over time for the effect to really sink in.
If he just uses it once, the effect will expire, and they’ll be back to normal in no time.
And even when they’ve been completely brainwashed, the effect will get weaker over time if it’s not refreshed.
Although when the brainwashing effect has been applied that many times, it should take an equally long time for the person to come back to their senses. And if someone tries to force them to snap out of it with Healing Magic or something, it’ll be more difficult the longer they’ve been in the brainwashed state.
Unlike me, our pal Natsume only has one body, and even teleporting him around with me to brainwash various people has its limits.
For one thing, Natsume only has so much MP.
Yep, the Lust skill requires MP to use.
And since Natsume’s MP is so limited, we have to carefully pick and choose who we brainwash.
We’ve done it to the most important people in the empire already, mostly to solidify Natsume’s position.
You know, like Natsume’s father, the sword-king of the empire.
Also, super-influential lords and stuff like that.
Mostly just civil officials, though.
Man, I gotta tell ya, the internal affairs of the empire have gotten super corrupted…
Most of ’em were in a nasty all-out political war.
The civil officials were all skimming off the top, dealing out injustices, all that kind of stuff.
Meanwhile, the military generals are so muscle-headed that the officials managed to deceive them into leaving for far-off areas and so on, keeping their power in check.
The sword-king tried to wrangle the military officers under control and restrain the corrupt officials, but the strength-obsessed generals don’t accept the sword-king because they consider him to be too political.
So instead of skillfully handling anyone, the king here is totally isolated.
And now the generals are distancing themselves from the sword-king and refusing to help keep the peace in the capital.
Which means the corrupt civil officials can do whatever they want.
Yeah, the whole thing is pretty hilarious.
I could definitely picture an epic period drama or movie about it with the sword-king as the protagonist.
Anyway, since that’s what was up in the empire, all we had to do was convince those corrupt officials to come over to our side, and everything worked out fine.
We didn’t even have to brainwash all of them—some were willing to do what we asked if we just handed them a bribe.
I mean, that made things easy for me and all, but yikes…
Mr. Sword-King, you can cry if you want to.
You’re being brainwashed by your own son, for one thing.
Huh? Who made him do that, you ask?
Oh yeah, that was me.
The mysterious woman pulling the strings of a corrupted empire.
You can call me the femme fatale of ruining royal courts if you want, okay?
So yeah, the empire is firmly under our control now, but it’s not exactly airtight.
For instance, we’ve got over half the civil officials on our side, but we left the generals alone.
Most of them have territory that’s either close to or directly on the border with the demon realm.
If we want to get through the empire, we’re going to have to pass through their land one way or another.
So I’m gonna have to do something about that.
Also, we’re going to use a teleport gate to go from the empire to the next human nation.
We’re obviously not gonna march from the demon realm all the way to the elf village across a whole continent.
The empire is big enough that it has multiple teleport gates, but after the big war and all, the waiting list to use them is crazy long.
There are reinforcements sent to the empire from other nations who are now trying to get home, adventurers who enlisted as volunteer soldiers, and so forth and so on.
On top of that, there’s distribution of goods that was halted during the war in favor of the transportation of soldiers.
Basically, since teleport gates are so convenient, they naturally see lots of traffic during emergencies like this one.
Plus, now they also need to be used to teleport Natsume and the imperial army toward the elf village, meaning there’s serious congestion.
And we have to squeeze our way in to use one somehow.
Even though they’re all super booked already.
We need to cut in line in front of all those people waiting to use the teleport gate.
Us, an entire army.
Ha-ha-ha. Yeah, this is gonna require some fancy footwork!
So I’ve had the Tenth Army running around to solve all kinds of problems within the empire.
How did I solve them, exactly? Well, there are some things in this world you’re better off not knowing. That’s all I’m gonna say.
Like why a certain general and his extended family all went mysteriously missing, for instance.
Look, the literal fate of the world is at stake here—we’ve gotta do whatever it takes.
And there’s no time to waste…
Meaning I can’t be wasting all of it on the empire anyway.
We’re still not done in the Analeit Kingdom, for one thing.
Based on my original plans, I should be focusing on there by now.
But because of a sudden change in plans that came up with that part, I’ve had to divert some resources over there, too.
Basically, I’m now stuck fighting a war on two fronts over here.
No wonder I’m so freakin’ busy!
Anyway, here we are in the Analeit Kingdom.
Specifically, the royal castle where an uprising took place the other day.
It’s late at night, and everyone is sound asleep.
Although that being said, this place is a little too quiet.
After all, it’s a stupidly massive castle, and there’s only a handful of people in it at present.
So the silence is so overwhelming, it’s almost deafening.
Later tonight, Yamada and friends should be breaking into this castle.
I know this because we just announced that the third prince Leston and Ooshima’s duke and duchess parents, who we captured during the uprising, are going to be executed.
Knowing Yamada and Ooshima’s personalities, they’re definitely going to try to launch a rescue.
In fact, my clones that are watching Yamada and friends already saw them leaving their hideout.
So I more or less emptied out the castle to make it easier to greet them.
Why would I go through all that trouble, you ask? Well, I guess you could call it an experiment.
To be totally honest, technically, I don’t really have to do this particular experiment… But it’ll make for useful insurance when I fight Potimas, or rather totally destroy him.
If this experiment succeeds, it’ll open up a new option for me.
Although even if it does succeed, I don’t really wanna take that option if I can help it.
Let’s just say it’s definitely a last resort.
Uh, well, hrmmm…the experiment is definitely reason numero uno, but there are a bunch of other small reasons, too, and they all add up to it making more sense to do than not.
Like, it’ll keep Yamada and friends even more occupied, for instance.
But did I really have to force it into my schedule during this ridiculously busy period? Uh…I almost kinda feel like I didn’t?
…Honestly, I was kinda obsessed with carrying out every single project I had planned, but I probably could’ve put off or postponed a few of the less important ones, huh?
…Okay, maybe. But still!
It was already planned, so I figured I should still do it!
If I put it off or postponed it, my plans would get more messed up down the line!
So in other words, what I’m saying here is that it’s really better if I do it! Yeah!
No doubt about it.
As I nod silently to myself in affirmation, I sense a disturbance in the f—um, in space.
Hrm? Someone’s trying to teleport in here?
If anyone’s gonna show up via teleportation right now, I’d guess it would be Güli-güli?
No, wait, I take it back.
The construction of this teleportation portal is on a lesser skill level from Güli-güli’s.
Frankly, it’s kinda messy.
Besides, if it was Güli-güli, he’d already be here moments after I sensed him coming.
If it’s taking this long for them to show up, it can’t be him.
I guess the construction is half-decent, objectively speaking, but considering that Güli-güli is a literal god, obviously, it’s gonna pale in comparison.
Actually, just the fact that they can use Spatial Magic at all means they’re pretty damn skilled.
Me and Güli-güli are exceptions, but usually, Spatial Magic isn’t the kinda thing you can just use willy-nilly. Only a few people in this world can use it at all.
Even the Demon Lord can only just barely use basic Spatial Magic, y’know?
Anyway, enough defending this unknown user for whatever reason. Who the heck is gonna show up? I brace myself.
And soon, an old man appears.
Ahh, I knew it. This guy.
I’ve seen this old geezer before.
Quite a few times, in fact.
Apparently, he’s called Ronandt or something.
Well, his name doesn’t really matter, but he is the leading imperial court mage and definitely the strongest guy in the empire.
In fact, as far as magic goes, he’s probably the strongest human of all.
He was also Julius the hero’s magic teacher and has lots of connections besides.
I definitely have him pegged as one of humanity’s major players.
After all, he’s also basically the authority on Spatial Magic, with the highest skill level of any human I’ve ever seen.
So when someone was teleporting here, he was my number one guess.
The question is, why would this geezer show up here at this particular moment?
I thought he was traveling with Natsume and the imperial army.
Since he’s way stronger than Natsume, we couldn’t brainwash him or anything, but it’d be a shame to let his power go to waste, so we just ordered him to join the expedition.
Easy enough to do, since we’ve got the sword-king of the empire in our hands.
And at the moment, the imperial army is supposed to be marching toward the elf village.
Then what exactly is this old man doing here and not with them?
Hrm. Well, I guess the obvious assumption is that he’s here to help Yamada and company, right?
I don’t think he’s actually met Yamada before, but he did teach his older brother.
And he has met Hyrince, who’s traveling with Yamada right now.
…Okay, but would he really teleport here in such a hurry just for that?
It doesn’t quite add up.
Oh well. Throwing one old man into the mix won’t change what I have to do—I guess it’s no big deal.
The only person I really need for this experiment is Yamada anyway.
Frankly, it doesn’t really matter how much power he has on his side.
’Cause this castle is practically empty, remember?
There’s not gonna be a big battle.
So it doesn’t make a difference if the old man joins them.
Sorry you went to all the trouble, gramps, but there’s nothing for you to do here, okay?
The old man is standing on top of the royal castle.
Taking the utmost care not to be noticed, I hide my presence and watch him.
He doesn’t move, either, probably sensing what’s inside the castle.
Before long, his brow furrows suspiciously.
Well, yeah. The castle is basically empty right now.
If he showed up to save the day only to find the place devoid of enemies, it’s no wonder he’d react to that.
“Eh, it’s fine.”
IS IT, THOUGH?!
I silently scream at the old man’s careless mumbling.
Come on, use your head a little more!
There’s obviously something wrong with the castle being abandoned, right?!
Should you really just leave it at that?!
Come on, let’s see you act like the big shot imperial mage or whatever! Do SOMETHING!
But instead, the old man loses interest in the inside of the castle and starts gazing up at the sky instead.
Oof, this guy’s an oddball all right!
You know the type.
People who march to the beat of their own drum and no one else’s.
Usually, people like that are incapable of working in groups and cooperating with others.
Ugh. Really now, you should try to make peace with others a little more, like me.
So? Is this guy waiting for Yamada and the others to show up?
Maybe he’s planning to meet up with them and break into the castle together.
Although I doubt whether this guy will actually be able to work together with Yamada and his crew.
They’re definitely gonna have a falling out, if you ask me.
See? Look, Yamada showed up and the old guy’s firing magic at… I’m sorry, what?
Hmm? Hmmmm?
What the hell is this geezer doing?
He’s shooting magic…at Yamada and his friends…? What?
Whaaat?
Unreal.
Why would you even do that?
Like, the old man is flying through the air and just firing off a barrage of magic at them.
Yamada and his group are riding on Shinohara in dragon form, high in the sky.
And now they’re getting laser beams shot at them.
Shinohara is pretty high up there, but the laser’s aim is really accurate.
She’s dodging around like crazy.
Well, I guess that’s some impressive marksmanship, fitting for a big shot imperial mage.
But I probably shouldn’t be admiring that right now, huh?
I don’t know why the old man’s attacking Team Yamada, but at this rate, they might just straight up run away.
He’s definitely keeping them at bay right now.
Shinoda’s trying to close the distance, but getting closer means pushing deeper into the old man’s magic range, making them a target for bigger and stronger spells. Plus, the time from casting to impact is only going to get shorter.
In other words, it’ll make it harder to dodge, and deal more damage if it hits.
Some manga protagonist once said that a knife is faster than a gun in close combat, or something, but that definitely doesn’t equate to guns being totally useless in close quarters.
The phrase point-blank shot exists for a reason.
When you’re fighting a really skilled mage, you’ve gotta get close to them to have a chance at winning, but just getting close isn’t some automatic guarantee of victory.
Will Yamada be able to get close to the old man?
Actually, I kinda need him to get close and win, or it’ll screw up my plans!
Beams of light shoot out of the old man’s cane, and Shinohara dodges them as she presses closer.
But just like I feared, her ability to avoid them reaches a limit as she gets closer, and one of the lasers grazes Yamada’s cheek.
He put up a barrier to protect himself, but it looks like it didn’t fully prevent him from getting hit: Blood starts to trickle down his cheek.
Somehow, that actually seems to boost Shinohara’s determination, and she starts charging ahead.
She gives up on dodging completely and zooms straight toward the old man.
But that’ll just make her the perfect target.
Sure enough, he shoots a laser beam toward Shinohara.
Yamada produces a shield of light to block the laser.
Ah, so they’re planning on blocking like this to close the distance.
A few more laser beams shoot out, and Yamada blocks each of them.
Then, once they’ve gotten close enough, Yamada jumps off Shinohara’s back and swings his sword down at the old man!
Wow. That’s some action movie–level stuff.
But unfortunately, the old man still outclasses him.
Yamada’s sword only cuts through air.
From his point of view, Yamada probably has no clue what happened, but I had a perfectly clear shot of the moment.
It was Short-Range Teleport.
The old man used teleportation to get behind Yamada.
“Hmm. Well, I suppose that earns passing marks.”
Now he’s saying something obnoxious to Yamada.
In the next moment, he fires another barrage of magic at our young hero.
Looks like he’s using low-level magic at rapid-fire speed.
The spells you learn as your magic skills level up are generally more powerful, but they also take more time to invoke.
So instead, the old man is using weaker low-level spells in large quantities and at high speed to turn this into a bullet hell game for Yamada.
For a human, this old guy is pretty damn good.
Yamada uses his sword and those magic light shields from before to block them.
But he can just barely keep up with the defense.
I don’t see him being able to counterattack, and in fact, even his defenses won’t last much longer.
“Yaaaah!”
The situation changes in the form of Hyrince jumping down from Shinohara’s back.
He brings down his blade toward the old man’s head as he descends.
Just like he did with Yamada moments ago, the old man escapes using Short-Range Teleport.
The geezer teleports behind Yamada.
Hyrince lands, and he and Yamada shift their stances.
They’re trying to reset, I guess.
But now, Shinohara is in the sky above the old man, and Ooshima is on her back, both ready to attack.
One against four.
Even this guy will have trouble dealing with those odds.
And it looks like he realizes it, too.
“Oh dear… This is too much. You got me, you got me. This old man is retreating.”
With that, he teleports away.
A real Teleport this time, not just Short-Range.
Since he was already starting to form the spell for it right after he dodged Hyrince’s attack with Short-Range Teleport…
…He must’ve known at that moment that he couldn’t win.
……So, uh.
What exactly did he come to do in the first place?
The weird old geezer attack aside, Yamada and friends have arrived to rescue their family members from being executed.
I’m sure that old man’s attack caught them off guard. Hell, I wasn’t even expecting it.
Seriously, what was that guy thinking…?
Team Yamada warily searches inside the empty castle.
They’re proceeding with caution, clearly expecting a trap.
But this isn’t really a trap. Not exactly.
So they reach the throne room without any issues.
There, the first prince Cylis is sitting on the throne, waiting for them.
Lined up in front of him are the people who were announced to be executed: the third prince Leston, the duke and his wife, and some older lady named Klevea.
This Klevea person was originally Yamada’s maid.
She’s a bit too well-built to be a maid, if you ask me, but apparently, she used to be a soldier.
She was captured along with Leston during the uprising, so I threw her in with the rest of the bunch.
The executioners stand behind the four captives.
And as soon as Yamada’s crew enters the room, they swing their swords before anyone can stop them and behead the four victims right before their eyes.
Then Yamada goes running up in a hurry and uses a certain skill.
The resurrection skill: Mercy.
As I watch in secret, the third prince and the other captives are all brought back to life.
Man, that’s way too easy.
We’re talking about people’s lives here.
But divine power can manipulate even life and death.
It’s kind of unsettling, seeing D’s ridiculous power on display like this.
I mean, it’s not like I couldn’t bring back the dead.
But that’s only in this world, where the system exists.
My power is limited, and it only works because the concepts of life and death are different in this world than others.
There’s no way I’d be able to bring back the dead in a world without this system, no matter how hard I tried.
And D built that whole system from scratch.
Even before I became a god, I could never figure out just how strong D was, but even as a god myself, I have yet to find any limits to D’s power.
It’s seriously terrifying.
Bringing back the dead is literally the work of miracles, but Yamada can do it for only a small cost.
He has no idea just how messed up that is.
A feat like that should cost way more than just raising Taboo’s level a bunch.
Besides, I wouldn’t be so obsessed with staying alive in the first place if it was that easy to bring people back.
Hrm.
I kept it to four people just in case Yamada ran out of MP, but maybe I should’ve thrown in a few more?
From what I can tell, it doesn’t look like his Taboo skill maxed out.
It probably still went up four levels, though, so this whole exercise wasn’t a waste.
Besides, leveling Yamada’s Taboo skill is just a bonus.
This whole thing is just a sideshow, really.
If it failed, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.
My experiment is complete anyway.
I take a peek at the revived third prince’s soul.
Yep.
Potimas’s soul has been ripped out of him.
All I really needed to know was if you could get rid of Potimas’s influence by dying once.
That was the main goal of this experiment: What happens if you kill someone who’s got a Potimas parasite, then bring them back to life?
And now we know.
Based on how the system works, I had a hunch that skills wouldn’t continue to affect the soul of someone who’s died, but now I know for sure.
So what does this mean, exactly? If you kill someone and bring them back to life, they can be freed from Potimas’s control.
It’s a pretty violent method, but now I know that if it comes down to it, there’s at least one way to free Ms. Oka from Potimas’s clutches.
…Although since that method would mean killing Ms. Oka, albeit temporarily, I would prefer not to do it, if possible.
Plus, it was humans we used in this experiment, not elves.
Since humans are outside the scope of Potimas’s Kin Control, I imagine it might be harder for him to parasitically control them.
Which means that even if killing them once works for humans, it might not be the same for elves.
So I should probably keep this as an absolute last resort after all.
Well, I’m all good here. Now I just need to make sure Yamada and friends escape safely.
“Shun, go check on the teleport gate, please. I assume it’s broken and won’t work, but just to be sure. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Leston and the others.”
“All right.”
Sounds like Yamada and his little friends are gonna go check on the teleport gate.
It’s one of the major forms of transportation in this world.
Since you can cross from one continent to another in an instant, it’s definitely very convenient.
If you want to get to the other continent without a teleport gate, you have to either cross an ocean teeming with water dragons or make your way through the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Part 4 of 8