Part 4 of 8
The arrow flies past Hugo and into the imperial army behind him, piercing right through multiple soldiers.
Despite having lost several allies to the attack, Hugo simply looks back at me and grins.
Something about that smile sends a shiver down my spine, but I nock another arrow and try again.
Just like the first one, it flies toward Hugo at high speed thanks to my Wind Magic, but he manages to evade it again.
This doesn’t make any sense.
Hugo should still be weakened, since I took away his stats and skills once before.
Even if he’s trained since then, there’s no way he should have been able to get fast enough to dodge my arrows.
“Pretty weird, right? You wanna know how I got this strong? I bet you’re dying to know!”
Hugo casually kicks forward.
The distance between us closes with a single step.
So fast?!
I was wrong. This can’t be the power of equipment alone!
As I retreat, I grab another arrow and shoot.
Hugo ducks to the side, dodging the arrow.
The time it takes to dodge slows him down a little, putting more distance between us.
“Hey, don’t run away! C’mon, I thought we were friends!”
I loose another arrow.
At the same time, the elves around us launch an attack on him all at once.
“Yeah, right!”
Magic and arrows rain down on Hugo, but he brushes them off easily.
This is all a bit unexpected.
I use Telepathy to order the nearby elves to evacuate.
It looks like I won’t be able to take on Hugo by holding back.
However, as the elves retreat, Yuri’s magic chases them down.
“Elves are heretics! Death to the elves!”
Her magic blows away all the elves surrounding me, leaving me isolated.
Then Hugo steps in again to slash at me with his sword.
I retreat once more, trying to put some distance between us.
“C’mon, we weren’t done talking! I’m actually pretty grateful to ya, y’know? I wouldn’t be the man I am today if I hadn’t suffered so much I almost went insane!”
Almost? No, he definitely is insane!
But I have no right to make that comment.
Because I’m the one who made him insane.
“And that’s how I got all this power! You know about one of ’em, right? The Lust skill. It’s an awesome skill that lets you make people do whatever you want!”
I loose more arrows. He dodges again.
“And there’s one more thing! Now I can be the strongest guy ever. ’Cause I got the skill Greed, too! With this, I get to steal some of the strength of anyone I kill! Why d’you think I’m on the front lines, huh? It’s all so I can kill lots of enemies and make their power my own!”
Stunned, I stop moving for a fraction of a second.
The effects of that skill flash through my mind from the elves’ records.
The Greed skill.
It’s another one of the Seven Deadly Sins skills. When the user kills someone, they gain some of the victim’s power.
But only a small amount of their skills, stats, skill points, and so on.
Essentially, though, Hugo has used this skill to make himself even stronger than he was before.
How many lives has he taken?
How many sins has he amassed to gain all this power?
I stop moving for only a moment.
But in that moment, Hugo closes the gap between us and raises his sword.
“Up here!”
“Eh?!”
The sword makes a shallow cut through the arm of the wind armor that I normally wear.
I quickly create a windblast between us, using the recoil to push us apart.
This hurts me, too, but I’m at a major disadvantage in close combat.
“Huh. Well, look at you.”
Hugo appears to be completely unharmed.
Still, I keep firing arrows.
Hugo dodges them easily.
As I start to nock my next arrow, a blast hits my body.
“Nngh?!”
“Ms. Oka. It seems like I can’t get through to you at the moment, so please go to sleep for a little while. Don’t worry. I’ll pray to God to cleanse the poison that’s tainted your thoughts. You’ll be pure again in no time!”
It’s Yuri’s magic.
As soon as I realize this, I automatically loose an arrow toward her.
The arrow hits a surprised Yuri in the shoulder.
And it’s a highly destructive Wind Magic–imbued arrow.
It blows right through her shoulder, sending blood flying everywhere.
…Oh no. How could I do this?
Reflex or no, I accidentally hit Yuri with a potentially fatal attack when she’s only being manipulated!
“Uh-oh. What kinda teacher would do that to her own student?”
“H-how dare you say such a thing!”
Hugo is the last person to have any right to say that to me!
Pretending to fly into a half-crazed frenzy, I shoot another arrow.
It doesn’t hit, of course, flying off course so that Hugo dodges it easily.
However, now my preparations are complete.
I haven’t been firing my arrows for nothing.
If Hugo was sane, he would’ve noticed that I’ve been running away in a big circle.
The arrows sticking out of the ground are a starting point to generate a barrier.
It won’t be as strong as the one that protected the village, of course, but it’s still the kind of barrier that can’t be reproduced with skills that imitate the ancient techniques.
I activate the barrier.
Leaving Hugo in the middle.
He isn’t simply trapped in there, either.
The air inside the barrier is rapidly escaping.
Manipulating the wind means that I can move the air.
And while this world does seem to be different from Earth in various ways, oxygen certainly still exists here.
The basic rules of this world are no different from those on Earth. They just seem different because of the addition of the new rules known as skills and magic.
Just like on Earth, humans cannot live without air.
The shape of the barrier doesn’t change, but with the air gone, the pressure inside changes rapidly.
The human body can’t stand up to this pressure. Even if it could, the lack of oxygen would cause it to die soon enough.
This is an original spell that I developed myself.
Hugo desperately tries to destroy the barrier, but it’s no use.
It may not be perfect, but it’s still a reproduction of a barrier from the age of the gods.
I can’t activate it without a great deal of difficulty, but once it’s been produced, the barrier can’t be destroyed.
I’ve won. Or so I thought.
For one fatal instant, I forgot there are reincarnations here more dangerous than Hugo.
“Aagh?!”
In that moment, I have no idea what happened.
But I know that a powerful force struck my body, sending my vision spinning.
“Ha-ha-ha! Damn, that was close! I almost ate it in there! Nice one, Sophia!”
As I roll to the ground uncomprehendingly, Hugo’s loud laughter reaches my ears.
It’s only then that I realize what must have happened.
Negishi must have destroyed my barrier.
And I was blown away by the aftershock, or something like that.
I was too careless.
Just like with Yuri a little while ago, I’ve been so focused on Hugo that I forgot to stay vigilant of the other dangers around me.
I have no right to make fun of Hugo for such a thing anymore.
“How pathetic. After all that ‘don’t interfere’ grandstanding you did.”
“C’mon, don’t be like that. How was I supposed to know Oka had such a crazy move up her sleeve? It’s over now, though.”
Raising my head, I see Hugo standing above me.
“Nngh?!”
His sword swings down, tearing deep into my abdomen.
No! Stop! It hurts!
“You sure gave me a run for my money there. Looks like I won, though. Heh-heh-heh. I’m not gonna kill you; don’t worry. I wanna make sure you get a good look at the total ruin of all the elves! What should I do with the rest of the class, hmm? If they’re willing to cooperate, maybe I’ll let ’em work for me. But if not, guess I’ll torture them in front of you, huh? You’ll make a good face for me then, won’t you? Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Should be fun, right?!”
Please, don’t!
I have to stop him.
But the pain won’t let me move my body properly.
“Well, isn’t this nice. It’s the total opposite of last time. Well? How do you like being crushed into the ground, huh? You’re probably goin’ crazy wondering what’s gonna happen to you now, right? Totally hopeless, I bet. Well, I’m not gonna brainwash you. I’ll make you watch as I send you to the nethermost depths of despair until your spirit’s totally broken!”
Hugo aims a kick at my small body.
It’s enough to send me flying through the air, slamming into the trunk of a tree.
The impact sends shock waves through my body, and blood gushes from the cut in my stomach.
“You know she’ll die if you keep this up, right?”
“Oh right. Can’t have that, can we?”
Tears well up in my eyes from the pain, blurring my vision.
The image of Hugo approaching me wavers, until suddenly my vision is filled with light.
Unable to look at it directly, I close my eyes, wiping the tears away with a trembling arm.
“Sorry we’re late, Ms. Oka.”
Then, as I open my eyes again, I see Shun and his friends, standing firmly between Hugo and me.
WORSHIP MEEE!
How did this happen?
A bunch of people are prostrating themselves in front of the forest.
The offerings are piling up, too.
And all of this is for…me.
I’m being worshipped for some reason.
Sort of like I’m a local god or something.
Seriously, how did this happen?
I guess the only explanation is that a whole bunch of different factors created a chemical reaction that resulted in this bizarre situation.
First of all, I shouldn’t have wiped out all those robbers.
If whole hordes of robbers suddenly disappear, of course people are going to be suspicious.
Once the lord of the county started investigating the cause, it was only a matter of time before they found out about me.
If it had ended there, that wouldn’t have been so bad.
Mr. Lord, who also happens to be the baby bloodsucker’s father, seems to regard me as dangerous, so he’s been proceeding with extreme caution.
I wasn’t planning on doing anything unless they really provoked me, so I didn’t mind them keeping an eye on me if they kept being polite about it.
But then I had to go and get discovered by a group of adventurers.
It would’ve been one thing if they came from the town, but I wasn’t expecting them to come up behind me.
Turns out, they came from a neighboring country on a mission to figure out the source of an unusual outbreak of monsters.
Or I guess it would be more accurate to say the source of an unusual migration of monsters.
Yep. That’s my fault.
My Intimidation scared a bunch of monsters so badly, they fled all the way into the next country.
If anything, it’s only natural the adventurers investigating that phenomenon would end up here, since the source is none other than yours truly.
I should’ve used Teleport to temporarily hide from them. In fact, I was away in the Great Elroe Labyrinth on some business when they arrived in the forest, so when I teleported back, I ran right into them.
Felt like I’d gotten into a traffic accident.
That’s how the adventurers found me, but what really surprised me was that the newbies who I rescued before in the Great Elroe Labyrinth were among them.
You know, the ones who I found being corned by a snake in the Upper Stratum that one time?
I’ve evolved since then, so I look a little different, but they still clearly recognized me right away as their spider savior.
So they stopped their adventurer buddies from trying to attack me. Then, for some reason, they offered me fruit.
I figured I might as well take it, ’cause why not? But in retrospect, maybe I should’ve thought it through a little more.
Because now they all seem to think that I’ll play nice if they give me fruit or something.
From there, well, one thing led to another, and next thing you know, here we are.
You don’t get it?
Yeah, I’m not really clear on the details myself.
Some adventurers walk into a town.
They tell everyone there’s a spider monster in the forest, aka me.
Somehow, rumors spread that this same monster is the one who dealt with all those robbers.
And now they think I’m the second coming of some Goddess’s Divine Beast or something?
Leading to me being worshipped at the moment.
Yep. Still doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
From what I gather, the Goddess religion that folks in this town practice has something about spiders being holy creatures, and this so-called Goddess once had a servant called a Divine Beast.
…I seem to remember a certain demon lord having the title Ancient Divine Beast, but I’m sure I’m just imagining it.
Yeah, I must be! Let’s go with that.
But forget about our friend the spider demon lord for now.
The reason they started worshipping me in the first place is they figured out I’m the one who killed the robbers.
I can gather why, though.
It must’ve been the lord’s wife, the baby bloodsucker’s mother.
Yep. She totally ignored her husband’s request to keep things quiet and went all around town telling anyone who’d listen about that attack.
Like, “The Divine Beast saved me from bandits!”
And she must’ve found out from her husband that I killed all those skulking robbers, ’cause she told everyone about that, too.
If the most powerful lady in town started referring to me as the Divine Beast, well, you can see how things went from there.
On top of that, those adventurers I rescued have been telling everyone in town about their own little encounter with me, too.
You wouldn’t believe how fast everyone started believing I’m the Divine Beast after that.
Maybe it’s just because they were all Goddess zealots to begin with, but I gotta say, I’m a little worried they were all so willing to trust a monster just like that.
I feel bad for the poor lord who has to wrap his head around this situation.
He’s the one who’s right for wanting to be cautious of a monster, if you ask me.
Man, the power of religion is scary.
Still, when this whole situation first began, they were merely worshipping me from a distance.
Praying in front of the forest, occasionally putting out fruit as an offering, that’s about it.
There weren’t too many people, either. Just particularly devout followers of the Goddess, adventurers praying for safety, and stuff like that.
How in the world did that turn into a huge crowd of people milling around the forest? Well, no good deed goes unpunished.
The adventurers must have spread the word that I can use Healing Magic, and next thing you know, a mother’s bringing her sick child to me.
Crying, holding the kid up, the whole shebang.
I ignored her for a while, but she kept crying out some word that definitely had a pleading tone, so eventually I had to give in.
I Appraised the kid and found that she was suffering from a pretty serious illness.
The kind of thing that wouldn’t go away from normal healing.
I doubt there’s any technology to cure cancer in this fantasy world.
Yeah. The kid had liver cancer.
How does a child get liver cancer, you ask?
That’s what I wondered at first, but I kinda figured it out by looking at her status.
She had the Foul Feeder title, just like me.
I guess they must be a poor family.
They’ve probably eaten a lot of crummy food due to poverty, including poisonous stuff.
I’m assuming the effects of the title protected her digestive organs, but her liver couldn’t hold up to all the toxins.
The same goes for her mother, whose organs were in a similarly sorry state.
It’s not like I had any real obligation to help them, but I didn’t have anything better to do, so I decided to heal both of ’em.
Simply using Healing Magic like normal wouldn’t have done the trick, so I had to use some pretty high-handed methods.
Basically, I put them to sleep, hollowed out their organs, and used Healing Magic to make them generate new ones.
If a doctor from Earth saw that, they’d probably pass out.
But I guess that’s a fantasy world for you.
Still, that move ended up biting me in the butt a little bit.
’Cause starting the next day, a ton of sick and injured people started coming to me for healing.
At this point, I figured there wasn’t much else I could do, so I went ahead and healed every single one of ’em.
And that’s why I’m being worshipped now.
Hrmm.
When I put it that way, this is half my own fault, half the fault of the Goddess religion’s teachings.
But it’s not doing any harm at the moment, so I guess it’s no big deal.
The Demon Lord, who might very well be the real Divine Beast, is still in the Bottom Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth for some reason.
Are you becoming a shut-in? Feel free to just stay there forever, ’kay?
All things considered, it seems like I can relax for a little while at least.
Otherwise, I would’ve hightailed it outta here the second all this craziness started going down.
In fact, as long as the threat of the Demon Lord isn’t hanging over me, this whole being worshipped thing actually isn’t half-bad.
I get a lot of food as offerings, for one thing.
I’ve barely had anything good to eat till now, so to be honest, I’m pretty moved by all this offering business.
Most of it is fruit, but there’s enough variety that I don’t get tired of it.
When I lived in the labyrinth, I never could’ve imagined getting to eat such sweet stuff every day.
This rules!
If possible, I wouldn’t mind eating other dishes besides just fruit, but you won’t catch me looking a gift horse in the mouth.
So the new richness of my diet is definitely the biggest plus, but there’ve been other benefits, too.
Since I’ve been healing all the sick and wounded people who have been throwing themselves at me nonstop, I’ve gotten some titles.
Five, to be exact.
[Rescuer], [Medicine Alchemist], [Saint], [Savior], and [Guardian].
<Rescuer: Acquires skills [Healing Magic LV 1] [Light Magic LV 1]. Acquisition conditions: Acquires a certain number of purification points. Effect: Strengthens effectiveness of healing. Explanation: A title awarded to those who save others.>
<Medicine Alchemist: Acquires skills [Medicine Synthesis LV 1] [Healing Magic LV 1]. Acquisition conditions: Use a certain quantity of medicine. Effect: Strengthens effectiveness of medicine. Explanation: A title awarded to those who use medicine.>
<Saint: Acquires skills [Miracle Magic LV 1] [Holy Light Magic LV 1]. Acquisition conditions: Acquires a certain number of purification points. Effect: Drastically strengthens effectiveness of healing. Explanation: A title awarded to those who save many others.>
<Savior: Acquires skills [Charity] [Hero LV 1]. Acquisition conditions: Acquires a certain number of purification points. Effect: Drastically strengthens capacity for Light attribute. Explanation: A title awarded to those who save countless others.>
<Guardian: Acquires skills [Iron Defense LV 1] [Shieldsmanship LV 1]. Acquisition conditions: Protect a certain number of people. Effect: Greatly increases defense and resistance abilities. Explanation: A title awarded to those who protect others.>
I got Medicine Alchemist by using Medicine Synthesis in conjunction with Healing Magic.
Although by the time I got it, my Medicine Synthesis and Healing Magic skills were both maxed out already, so I didn’t exactly gain much.
I don’t really understand why I got Guardian, to be honest.
Maybe it’s because I protected the town from the robbers, or I protected the people from illness, or something like that.
Iron Defense increases my defense ability, so that’s pretty handy.
And Shieldsmanship increases the strength of my shield and my ability to use it, when I have a shield equipped.
But, uh…y’know?
Me, equip a shield?
Is it even possible for me to equip weapons and armor?
Okay, this skill is useless. Cool.
Anyway, so Rescuer, Saint, and Savior are all acquired by getting something called purification points.
Basically, you build them up by doing good deeds or whatever.
I’ve been doing a whole lot of healing for super-sick and injured people, mostly by using my crazy-high magic stats to brute-force everything. That explains how I got all these points.
Each of these titles also increases the effectiveness of my healing, making me even better at it, so that’s nice.
Heal people, get a title, improve my healing, and heal some more.
I basically got caught up in a nice endless healing cycle.
The new skills I got from these titles are Light Magic, Miracle Magic, Holy Light Magic, Hero, and Charity.
As the name suggests, Light Magic manipulates light.
Holy Light Magic is an advanced form of Light Magic.
Miracle Magic is a fancier version of Recovery Magic, so I don’t know why I didn’t get it when I maxed out Healing Magic.
It lives up to its name with crazy-powerful healing that lets me heal pretty much anything that isn’t dead.
Then there’s the Hero skill.
It seems to form a pair with the Demon Lord skill. Just like that skill, it multiplies all my stats by one hundred times its skill level, as well as increasing my resistances.
Um, am I really allowed to have the Hero skill when I already have the Demon Lord skill?
They’re not going to repel each other and make me explode from the inside or anything, are they?
Or is it the kind of thing where the hero and demon lord are strongest when they combine their strength or whatever?
In that case, might as well go for it.
But nothing has happened so far, so it’s probably fine.
Light Magic, Holy Light Magic, Miracle Magic, and Hero.
That’s a lot of goody-goody-sounding skills for a spider.
Pretty surreal, huh?
And the Charity skill is the straw that breaks the spider’s back.
It’s another super-broken skill like Perseverance.
Why would a title give me such a crazy-broken skill?
Doesn’t that seem weird to you?
And naturally, I acquired the Ruler of Charity title, too.
That makes six ruler titles altogether.
At this point, I kinda just have to laugh.
<Charity: n% of the power to reach godhood. Extends the equivalent effect of HP Ultra-Fast Recovery to the user and anyone recognized as the user’s allies. In addition, the user will gain the ability to surpass the W system and interfere with the MA field.>
<Ruler of Charity: Acquires skills [Miracle Magic LV 10] [Offer]. Acquisition conditions: Obtain [Charity] skill. Effect: Increases MP, magic, and resistance stats + correction to support skill proficiencies. Grants ruling class privileges. Description: A title granted to one who has conquered charity.>
Are you serious?!
Miracle Magic got maxed out in one go.
And the effect of Charity is pretty wild, too.
It doesn’t do me much good, since I’m a total loner, but if the general of an army got this or something, presto! You’d have an invulnerable army on your hands.
Unfortunately, since I’m an outcast, it’s pretty much wasted on me.
Although I guess I might be able to use it if those eggs I laid in the Great Elroe Labyrinth the other day hatch successfully.
My newfound life as an object of worship continues, but it’s becoming a bit of a problem.
Making contact with people is scary.
I did mention I was a loner, remember?
I was an outcast in my previous life, and all the more so in this one so far!
That’s just how I am!
Seriously, though, I’ve never been very good at communicating with others.
I spent most of my time alone, and when people did try to talk to me, I ended up not responding because I didn’t know what to say.
I got bullied, too, probably for that same reason.
One particular girl who always stood out in class would hide my stuff and say mean things to me and so on.
It was rather mild bullying, so it didn’t really bother me that much anyway.
Most of the time, it consisted of her coming up to me, saying something mean, and walking away.
Can you even really call that bullying?
I’m not sure, but I know I was pretty alienated in class.
I hardly ever held a conversation with anyone else.
So I don’t know how to deal with these hordes of people aggressively coming at me all of a sudden.
I have more or less learned the language here now, though.
While I’ve been staying near this town, I set up some invisible thread that I’ve basically been using like a tin-can telephone to eavesdrop on people.
I’ve had my Parallel Minds working hard on deciphering it to figure out the language.
Thanks to that, I’m getting to the point where I can more or less understand basic conversations.
That’s how I know about the lord’s wife spreading her rumors and stuff.
I understand the language now.
That’s the first step to being able to hold a conversation.
Now all I have to do is get Telepathy, and I can use it to send my thoughts and statements to people.
Then I can hopefully gain some recognition as an intelligent creature, not just a monster to be fought.
If we can hold a conversation, I might be able to find new ways of getting along with people.
Aside from the major problem that is the Demon Lord, I might even be able to live side by side with human society.
Yet I can’t quite take the plunge, because I’m too afraid of interacting with others.
How do you hold a conversation, anyway?!
Do you just start with talking about the weather?!
What comes next?!
I can easily imagine myself saying, “Nice weather we’re having, huh?” and then drowning in a pool of my own sweat because I can’t think of anything else to say, y’know?!
What are people gonna think if a spider starts talking to them about the weather and then freezes up?!
I’m pretty sure that would scare anybody!
I know I wouldn’t wanna be near someone like that!
Even now, when I don’t have to say anything, it still scares me if people come anywhere near me!
Outcasts get scared when there are lots of people around, you know!
As it is, with people coming up to plead for healing and stuff, I probably would’ve left this place immediately if the lord guy hadn’t forbidden people from entering the forest!
He probably wanted to forbid people from coming anywhere near me, but since the whole town’s crazy about their “local god” right now, he must’ve given up on that.
Still, I gotta thank you, Mr. Mayor.
At least I can flee into the woods if I need to get away from people.
They don’t know how crazy it is that they’re able to make someone like me run away.
But that does leave me with a problem. Am I gonna have to start socializing with humans even more than this?
Nope, not happening, thank you very much!
No, for now I’ll just keep things the way things are.
It’s hard to get people to understand each other, after all.
FATEFUL CONFRONTATION
By the time Fei drops us off at the border where the barrier used to be, the elves and the imperial army are already clashing.
The elf army is making full use of the forest, using the trees as shields and footholds while they shoot at the enemy from a distance with magic and arrows.
The imperial army, on the other hand, is being slowed down by the countless roots protruding from the ground, along with their own heavy armor.
At a glance, it looks like the elves have the upper hand.
Still, that won’t stop the imperial army.
Not unless I defeat the person standing in front of me right now.
“Well, well, well. You’re here, too, huh?”
Hugo smirks unpleasantly.
“Yeah. To defeat you.”
“Ha! That’s hilarious! You, defeat me? Like that’s ever gonna happen!!”
Waves of pressure roll off Hugo, as if he’s trying to dominate the entire area.
“Is Yuri all right?”
Daring to ignore him for a moment, I look over Hugo’s shoulder instead.
Yuri is lying on the ground, losing a frightening amount of blood.
As I speak, I sense Ms. Oka trembling behind me.
Judging by this situation, she must be the one who brought down Yuri.
“We’re healing her right now, so she won’t die, at least,” Sophia replies smoothly.
A boy I’ve never seen before is treating Yuri.
“Wald, be a dear and carry her somewhere safe when you’re done healing her, will you?”
“…All right.”
The boy called Wald looks disgruntled but appears to give in and nods.
“Do you really think we’ll just let you take her away?” I demand.
“Oh? Would you rather just leave an unconscious girl here on the battlefield, then? It’s all the same to me, really.”
I don’t have a good answer for that.
If we leave Yuri lying on the battlefield, she’s bound to get hurt.
“Hey, don’t ignore me!”
Hugo cuts in between Sophia and me.
“Hey, Natsume. Been a while, huh?”
Tagawa calls out casually, ignoring Hugo’s fury.
“Hunh? Who’re you?”
“C’mon, it’s me. Kunihiko Tagawa.”
Hugo looks oddly perplexed.
“Kunihiko Tagawa…Kunihiko Tagawa. Tagawa?”
What’s going on? Hugo’s acting strange, even for him.
Does he really not remember Tagawa?
“Well, whatever. The only guy I’ve got business with here is Shun. Shut up and stay out of it.”
Looking furious at being dismissed so easily, Tagawa tries to take a step forward, but I hold out a hand to stop him.
I have to face Hugo myself.
“Hugo. Let me ask you one thing. You don’t intend to surrender, do you?”
“Why would I? I’m gonna beat you to a pulp right here and now, then rub Oka’s nose in it till she knows what hell on earth feels like.”
“I see. All right, then.”
Clearly, reasoning with him isn’t an option.
“P-please, stop,” Ms. Oka calls out weakly. “I have to take care of Hugo with my own hands. You mustn’t get involved.”
I shake my head. “Sorry, but I have no choice.”
Ms. Oka is already injured.
It doesn’t look to be fatal, but she obviously can’t fight anymore.
“Anna, please heal Ms. Oka.”
“Of course.”
I leave Anna in charge of our teacher and take a step toward Hugo.
“Wait!”
“I can’t. Ms. Oka, Hugo’s not just your problem. I have to settle things with him myself, too.”
I hear Ms. Oka struggling behind me, but Katia holds her back.
She must be truly determined to fight Hugo.
If I step in and fight him instead, it might be an insult to that determination.
Still, I can’t back down.
I have even more reasons than Ms. Oka to fight Hugo.
“Mr. Hyrince, please protect Anna and Ms. Oka.”
“You got it.”
Normally, I’m sure he would try to stop me from taking on the enemy general alone.
But this is one time that I can’t let anyone else take care of it.
I think Hyrince understands that, too.
“Sophia. Don’t interfere.”
“This again? I’m not helping you even if you’re about to die this time, all right?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.”
I wasn’t expecting Hugo to tell Sophia not to get involved.
Honestly, I’m relieved.
Sophia is strong.
If she won’t interfere, then I can focus entirely on Hugo.
“Guys, you should stay out of this, too,” I tell my allies.
As the sounds of the furious battle between the elves and the imperial army echo all around us, Hugo and I face off in silence.
Readying my sword, I Appraise Hugo.
<Human LV 61 Name: Hugo Baint Renxandt
Status: HP: 3,169/4,831 (green) (details)
SP: 2,577/2,577 (yellow) (details)
Average Offensive Ability: 3,889 (details) +400
Average Magical Ability: 998 (details) +200
Average Speed Ability: 2,939 (details) +400
MP: 1,542/1,711 (blue) (details)
: 2,663/3,255 (red) +0 (details)
Average Defensive Ability: 1,255 (details) +200
Average Resistance Ability: 2,384 +200 (details)
Skills:
[HP Auto-Recovery LV 6] [MP Recovery Speed LV 2] [MP Lessened Consumption LV 2] [SP Recovery Speed LV 7]
[SP Lessened Consumption LV 7] [Magic Power Perception LV 3] [Magic Power Operation LV 2] [Magic Divinity LV 2]
[Magic Power Conferment LV 2] [Magic Power Attack LV 1] [Destruction Enhancement LV 4] [Cutting Enhancement LV 4]
[Impact Enhancement LV 2] [Piercing Enhancement LV 1] [Shock Enhancement LV 1] [Heretic Attack LV 4]
[Battle Divinity LV 2] [Energy Conferment LV 2] [Energy Attack LV 5] [Sword Mastery LV 4]
[Throw LV 2] [Spatial Maneuvering LV 2] [Cooperation LV 2] [Leadership LV 4]
[Concentration LV 10] [Thought Acceleration LV 3] [Prediction LV 1] [Arithmetic Processing LV 1]
[Memory LV 1] [Hit LV 8] [Evasion LV 8] [Stealth LV 3]
[Silence LV 1] [Odorless LV 1] [Appraisal LV 10] [Conquest]
[Stupefaction] [Water Magic LV 1] [Lightning Magic LV 1] [Jinx Magic LV 1]
[Heretic Magic LV 2] [Demon Lord LV 1] [Dignity LV 2] [Rage LV 4]
[Overeating LV 3] [Greed] [Lust] [Destruction Resistance LV 1]
[Impact Resistance LV 2] [Cutting Resistance LV 2] [Status Condition Resistance LV 3] [Heresy Resistance LV 4]
[Pain Resistance LV 7] [Vision Enhancement LV 3] [Auditory Enhancement LV 2] [Olfactory Enhancement LV 2]
[Taste Enhancement LV 2] [Tactile Enhancement LV 2] [Divinity Expansion LV 3] [Ultimate Life LV 10]
[Magic Hoard LV 2] [Instantaneous LV 5] [Endurance LV 5] [Herculean Strength LV 8]
[Sturdy LV 4] [Technique User LV 2] [Protection LV 2] [Running LV 9]
[Taboo LV 9] [n% I = W]
Skill Points: 217
Titles:
[Monster Slayer] [Ruler of Greed] [Ally Slayer] [Human Slayer]
[Ruler of Lust] [Human Slaughterer] [Merciless] [Monster Slaughterer]
[Master of Madness] [Champion] [Commander] [Lord]
>
His stats are all over the place.
They’re low overall, but he has tons of skills.
His skill points are a strangely uneven number.
This is the strength that Hugo has built up using Greed.
He must have gained the more powerful skills due to titles.
The Ruler of Lust and Greed titles must have granted him powerful skills, as well as Master of Madness, which I’ve never even heard of.
What really concerns me is the Demon Lord skill.
The Demon Lord and Hero skills can be gained only by either using a huge amount of skill points or building up enough proficiency.
Since Hugo calls himself the real hero, I don’t think he would go out of his way to acquire the Demon Lord skill.
Which means he must have gained it by building up proficiency.
Now, I don’t know how you earn proficiency for the Demon Lord skill.
But for the Hero skill, it’s said that you can gain it by behaving in a way befitting of a hero.
Hyrince, for example, gained the Hero skill through proficiency.
So it’s safe to assume that the Demon Lord skill has similar acquisition requirements.
And Hugo met those requirements.
Just what sort of evil deeds has he committed?
I invoke Mental Warfare and Battle Divinity and look Hugo right in the eyes.
His smile is that of a man gone mad.
Like someone who can’t turn back even if he wanted to.
Quietly, I raise my sword toward my former classmate.
“Here we go.”
“Hurry it up!”
Hugo beckons me, so I charge forward.
I swing my sword down toward him, but Hugo blocks it with his own blade.
“Hah!”
We lock swords for a moment, then Hugo forces me back and swings a counterattack at me.
I use that momentum to dodge backward, but a black cloud spews forth from Hugo’s sword, chasing me down.
Surprised, I nonetheless sweep it away with my sword.
So Hugo’s weapon is a magic sword.
It seems to have a Dark-attribute effect on it, too.
However, its power is nothing so impressive.
Tagawa’s magic sword is probably much stronger.
I bathe my own sword in light to counter his.
This is an enhancement done with my own magic, not a function of the sword itself.
My light-coated sword clashes with the darkness of Hugo’s.
The light slashes through the darkness and knocks Hugo’s sword back.
“Huh?!”
Hugo stumbles backward, and I strike his chest with the butt of my sword.
The impact knocks him off his balance, and he hits the ground with a thud.
“Do you give up?”
I point the tip of my sword at his neck and offer Hugo another chance to surrender.
“Hmph! Don’t get full of yourself just ’cause you got in one lucky hit!”
Hugo pushes my sword away, leaps to his feet, and quickly regains his stance.
Then, with the agility of a beast, he charges at me recklessly.
I calmly assess the movements of his flailing sword and dodge the attack.
Then I sweep his sword away again and knock him to the ground, just like before.
“Do you give up?” I repeat.
He stares at me in disbelief, but then a grin supersedes his expression.
However, the smile quickly fades, too.
“It’s no use. Your magic won’t work on me.”
I could tell he was trying to use some kind of magic on me.
My guess is that he tried to use Jinx Magic.
I don’t know what effect that magic has, but it doesn’t matter.
Hugo’s magic attack power is too low, and my magic defense is too high.
On top of that, I have the Dragon Power skill I gained when I defeated the earth dragon in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
As long as I’m using it to weaken the power of magic, Hugo’s spells can’t touch me.
“Surrender.”
“Hell no!”
Hugo stands up again, waving his sword around wildly.
There’s no trace of logic to his movements anymore; he’s just flailing around with his weapon at random.
It’s like a child throwing a tantrum.
His sword comes toward me, and I dodge it by a hairbreadth.
I firmly strike the hand holding Hugo’s sword, knocking it out of his grasp.
Then I form a fist with my left hand and punch the now-defenseless Hugo in the chest.
“Oogh!”
Hugo grunts painfully and crumples to the ground.
Seeing him clutching his side and groaning, I can’t help feeling a little gratified.
“This can’t be happening. This world exists just for me, doesn’t it? Why can’t I win?”
Still crouching on the ground, Hugo mutters to himself madly.
Does he really still believe that?
“This world isn’t yours. It belongs to everyone who lives in it, not any one person. Especially not you.”
Hugo glares up at me furiously.
But evidently he still isn’t able to stand because of the blow I dealt to his stomach.
“Oh? Well, isn’t that a lovely sentiment. But since you don’t know the truth, you just sound ridiculous.”
The speaker steps forward with a rather scornful smile.
Sophia Keren.
A reincarnation just like us.
And, according to Ms. Oka, an enemy who has sided with the beings called administrators.
As Sophia steps forward, Katia, Tagawa, and Kushitani step forward beside me.
Armed and ready.
They’re prepared to battle at any moment.
However, Sophia simply stands there calmly, along with the boy and girl on either side of her.
“Sophia!” Hugo snarls, still on the ground. “Kill them!”
“Hmm. Whatever shall I do?”
Sophia looks amused.
Her eyes are those of someone glaring down at an insect in disgust.
But I thought these two were allies?
“Now’s not the time to screw around!”
“Yes, but don’t you remember what you told me? I thought I wasn’t supposed to interfere.”
“Ngh!”
Hugo twitches.
“Besides, we have no further use for you,” Sophia continues casually.
She says it so easily that none of us understands her meaning at first.
As if she’s just commenting on some idle gossip.
“Wh-what?”
Hugo himself is the first one to respond to her chilling words.
“Merazophis, what’s the situation?”
Sophia ignores Hugo and addresses someone else.
At first I thought she was speaking to one of the two people flanking her, but I was wrong.
“We have already begun the invasion.”
“Is that right? A little soon, don’t you think?”
The man appears as suddenly as if he just sprang out of Sophia’s shadow.
There’s no other way to describe his abrupt appearance.
He has an overly serious expression and the pallor of a man who could die at any moment.
“Huh?! What’re you doing here?!”
Tagawa lets out a startled yell.
“You know that man?”
“He’s an executive in the demon army.”
My breath catches in my throat.
An executive in the demon army?
What would a man like that be doing here?
Did the demons already know that Hugo was out of control and choose this moment to attack?
No, that wouldn’t make any strategic sense.
Then I suddenly realize what Sophia’s words mean.
“No further use.” That can mean only one thing.
They were working behind the scenes, manipulating Hugo to control the imperial army.
“You’re part of the demon army?!”
“Very insightful. It’s a little late for that epiphany now, though. The invasion’s already begun, after all.”
I knew the sounds of the battle around me seemed more intense than normal.
If Sophia is telling the truth, the demon army has begun their assault.
The imperial army was nothing but a decoy.
While the elves were busy fighting them, the demon army launched a surprise attack.
“Sophia, you used me, you scumbag!!”
Sophia ignores Hugo’s shouting.
As if to say that she has no need to waste time on him.
No, as if his existence itself is pointless.
“Shun, what do we do?” Katia asks me quietly.
I don’t know what to do here, either.
But I know we can’t just let Sophia do as she pleases.
She’s the strongest person I’ve ever encountered.
I can’t just let her run wild.
“We defeat Sophia.”
“My, that’s quite a declaration.”
Sophia chuckles mockingly.
Her smile says she’s more than confident that we’re powerless to do such a thing.
“You certainly beat down our little puppet here, but if you think I’m on his level, you’re going to regret it.”
Her tone is light and joking, but there isn’t a hint of mirth in her eyes.
At that moment, the boy named Wald picks up Yuri and retreats with her.
Watching them go, the man called Merazophis draws his sword.
The other girl simply remains behind Sophia, unmoving.
“Well, if you insist, I’ll play with you.”
Sophia spreads her arms wide, calmly inviting us to attack.
Taking her up on her offer, I charge forward.
THE LORD’S ANGUISH
“Protests, you say?”
“That’s correct.”
Merazophis frowns uncertainly, and I heave a tired sigh.
Unable to bring myself to speak any further on the matter, I instead hand him the papers.
As Merazophis reads them, his eyebrows draw closer and closer together.
“These accusations seem very…excessive.”
“Indeed.”
For once, Merazophis’s emotions are plain on his face.
For someone who normally seems so cool and composed, at the moment he almost looks heated.
But I suppose that’s not important at the moment.
The real problem is the contents of the letter Merazophis is now holding.
To summarize its lengthy demands: “Give us the spider demon your people are worshipping.”
The letter is from Ohts.
According to them, since the monster lived in the dungeon contained in the land of Ohts, it belongs to them.
If we continue to unjustly keep it to ourselves, the letter says, they are willing to resort to military force.
This is a new level of foolishness.
How can anyone claim ownership over a wild monster?
We have no such illusions of possessing it.
It has chosen to be here of its own accord, and we are by no means the creature’s keepers.
If they think that man can control such a thing, then the people of Ohts have knotholes for eyes.
“So how are we to reply?”
“Do not ask the obvious. I will simply explain that we do not claim ownership of the creature, in polite tones that even a complete idiot will understand.”
You must forgive me if my tone is a tad sardonic.
No matter how I respond, Ohts is sure to find fault with it anyway.
They are our neighbors, but I cannot say that we have a friendly relationship.
After all, their religion, the Word of God, blatantly claims that we followers of the Goddess are heretics.
Thus, it is inevitable that we would have a poor relationship with any land that worships the Word of God, including Ohts.
And since they live right on our borders, they meddle in our affairs all too often.
This is another such incident.
However, all that aside, there is another reason that Ohts has decided to approach in the form of a protest letter.
You see, the spider monster in question, also known as the Nightmare of the Labyrinth, has caused no small amount of damage to their land.
The Nightmare is a monster that emerged from the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
At the exit of that labyrinth was a fortress erected by Ohts to prevent monsters from escaping.
And the Nightmare of the Labyrinth destroyed that fortress.
Ohts seems to have attempted to keep this under wraps, but there was no hiding such a major incident.
The rumors have spread so far that even our commoners know all about it.
With this in mind, Ohts has chosen to take a defiant stance.
In the letter, they claim they “must punish the monster that has caused harm to our noble land.”
Which is why they demand we hand the creature over to them.
Though one doubts whether that is the whole truth of the matter.
No doubt the people of Ohts have heard rumors that the Nightmare of the Labyrinth has been healing people.
In fact, it’s been causing such miracles as healing those who were on the verge of death by incurable illness and even restoring lost limbs.
The Nightmare has done all this while receiving only the paltriest offerings in return.
A miraculous creature that can cure any illness or wound.
If they hear of such a thing, of course people are bound to come clamoring for healing.
And there will be those who seek to profit from it, too.
No doubt Ohts wishes to take the Nightmare back to their land and use that healing power for their own benefit.
That is why they have sent such ridiculous accusations.
No matter how we reply, I am certain they will refuse to back down.
I am inclined to doubt they seriously intend to use force, but continuing to harass us through “diplomatic” means does seem quite likely.
Even if we tell them that “handing it over” is simply impossible.
They must understand that already, making this even more ridiculous.
I have a bad feeling about the whole situation.
Something tells me it’s only going to go from bad to worse.
My bad premonitions are, unfortunately, always correct.
Right now, in this very mansion, I have all manner of visitors of varying degrees of office.
Most of them are nobles from other countries.
And all of them are here for the Nightmare of the Labyrinth.
It seems they are all scheming to lure it to their own homeland if possible.
However, that doesn’t seem to be going well for them.
The Nightmare can easily be lured out with food.
However, it emerges only enough to show itself. If any further contact is attempted, it quickly retreats into the forest.
A few people attempted to communicate using Telepathy, but the Nightmare quickly withdrew as if running away.
Only when there were people who needed to be healed would the Nightmare make an appearance. Besides that, it stayed in the forest.
I have ordered everyone not to enter the forest in an effort to avoid angering the creature.
The townspeople have accepted this, not wishing to disturb the Divine Beast.
However, our greedy visitors make no attempt to abide by these rules.
Some have ventured into the forest, and a few even attempted to forcibly approach it.
“Dammit! That stupid bug! Horrible insect!”
The man currently shouting and stomping about in the mansion is one such individual.
I must say, it is most unseemly to witness a grown man throwing a childish tantrum.
Quite honestly, I would rather not have him in my mansion at all, but certain circumstances forced my hand.
This man is an official emissary from the land of Ohts.
I have no choice but to provide any such emissary with a warm reception, even if he comes from a country with whom our relationship is fraught.
And no matter how damnable a creature he might be, at that.
I can tell by the way he displays his idiocy with reckless abandon in my home that this is not a man of merit.
Indeed, he constantly causes trouble, and we, his hosts, are the ones who must pay the price.
Since he first started staying here, not a day has gone by that he has not complained to my staff.
If these were legitimate complaints, then surely we would amend them to make his stay more pleasant, but all of them are unbearably foolish beyond repair.
“The food is terrible.” Of course the vegetarian diet of Goddess worshippers would not appeal to a man who dislikes most vegetables.
Part 4 of 8