# 023. Dai Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu

## 01. Volume 1 - The Great Escape To The Undecided Future

### 001. Afterword

Thus, this is the new series.

In other words, there will also be first time readers.

That’s why I’ll say it. To those who are reading this afterword, I’ll say that brazenly.

“First time readers, hello. Second time and up readers, it’s been a while.”

Something like that! Things like that are not unusual right?

And at last, I’ve also said it.

After over thirty books, I’ve finally gone and said it!!

Just like an author.

Like an author right!

Having published over thirty books, I’ve wondered about declaring something like ‘just like an author’ though (LOL).

Well, enough with the ramblings, so how was “Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 1”?

By the way, for the benefit of those reading this for the first time, I’ll explain a little.

Those who have read the opening 4-koma should already be aware of this, this particular work is a continuation of the previous series “Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 1 ~ 11”.

But, there is no need to read the previous series!

The reason is because, after reading the 4-koma in front, it will allow you to transit smoothly to the start of this volume.

Probably! (Probably, you say!?)

Should be the case! (Should be the case, you say!?)

Frankly speaking, as I’m writing this afterword, I don’t really know how the 4-koma is progressing.

Well, how the story went will be covered and explained in the 4-koma, since, quite some time ago, when I was having a conversation with my project editor M-san,

“Since you’ve come this far to start on the second series, let’s do a summary for the first-time readers!!”

So we had quite a discussion on it. And the plan has headed towards that direction.

But yet, M-san came announcing something shocking.

“Kagami-kun, you know.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve a little ‘ coming out ’ relevation.”

“Eh? Coming out?”

“Yeah.”

“Is, is it that? The truth is that I’m gay, I like you, Kagami-kun! If that’s what you want to say, I completey can’t accept it, you know?”

“Ah haha ~. I’ll kill you, you know?”

“I’m relieved to hear that.”

“Well, jokes aside, anyway.”

“Anyway.”

“You know.”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t I say to put a summary in Dai Denyuuden?”

“You sure did.”

“But, I’ve always found those ‘previous volume summary’ to be a bother to read, and have never once read them.”

“And you are making this shocking revelation just two months before the release date!!”

“I am.”

“No, even if you say that.”

“Still, is Kagami-kun the type who reads summaries?”

“No, not at all.”

“You see!!”

“Even if you say that...... then, what shall we do?”

“What shall we do indeed.”

“You didn’t even think about it!”

After going in circles, at a loss to what we should do, in the end, we still want to add in a summary that’s easy to comprehend for the readers to enjoy this volume properly. As we're caught in our own passion, the plan of summarizing each volume with one 4-koma was sprung.

Initially, there was also the idea of me writing a summary of each volume to turn it into a drawing, for making it into a picture book form, but this was what I said to that:

“No, I will read anything but picture books.”

“Say, Kagami-kun, why are you so proud in saying that?”

And then the idea of a picture book was discarded.

“Isn’t it easier to read 4-koma, and for everyone to understand the summary smoothly without boring them?”

And that’s how M-san came up with the excellent idea.

And then, with regards to making the summary story for the 4-koma,

“It’s tough to get the author himself to make a summary of his own work; so I can’t make you do it. I can’t make you do it, you know! Say, leave it to me! I will do everything ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The super capable resourceful project editor who’s as sweet as candy, M-san, shouted to his author, and so M-san had worked hard on the 4-koma summary this time!

By the way, to talk about how hard the illustrator Toyota-san had worked, at that time, she should have been working hard like a corpse.

So how was the 4-koma that was a result of all this?

Beyond tears, laughter, and being touched, it is a peerless 4-koma that can help you understand everything about the previous series!

It’s definitely an awesome piece of work, isn’t it! Ahh, what an awesome piece of work!

Right! Though I’ve yet to see it, I believe it’s definitely a stupendous piece of work!

(So to speak, I’m giving a great deal of pressure to my project editor M-san, who should be polishing up the story from hereon. (LOL))

So how was the new series that everyone had worked hard to put out?

The story starts immediately after volume 11 of Denyuuden.

Even though it starts immediately after Denyuuden, yet, it’s a completely different story.

Firstly, the concept is different, but that in itself should be enjoyable.

As everything about the situation around Ryner, Ferris, and Sion has changed; the real story starts.

What has occurred up till now was merely the prologue, so the world from this volume onwards is going to expand, and in one breath, it’s going to rapidly build up to the climax, that’s the kind of story it is.

More than ever, as I’ll work hard to let everyone enjoy the story, please continue to take care of me.

And then!

For the new readers who started with this volume, if this volume proves interesting, please do certainly try reading the previous series.

For those who have already read up till here, how about trying to re-read the previous series again?

And then, for the sake of the NEW readers as well as those who would go back to re-read the previous series! What a thing!

In line with the start of this second series, the previous series “Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 1~11” will start selling with completely new covers!!

Different from all the other previously published works of Fujimi, Denyuuden gets a personal design, and on top of that, Toyota-san will draw new illustrations for every volume! (Really, thanks for your hard work, Toyota-san!)

Since, I guess this book will be lined up in bookstores during its launch date, please do go take a look at a large bookstore.

But, there will not be that many copies available, yet. So, I’m wondering whether it will be hard to get hold of a copy. If that happens, please do make an order with the bookstore, or the publishing house. If the orders accumulate it might grab the attention of Fujimi and they just might increase the number of circulating copies, making it seemingly easier to get hold of one.

By the way, I got a first-hand sample of a drawing of Ryner for this volume and it was awesomely cool!

Toyota-san must have vomitted blood as she was drawing, I think.

“What kind of work are you making me do, project editor M-san, dieeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

She’d yelled as she drew, I guess.

By the way, at that moment, I’d also,

“What’s with this schedule? Do you want to kill me?? damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn M!”

As I go on spewing blood.

At that point, as expected, the kind M-san who’s as sweet as candy towards authors.

With a desire to see our dead bodies, he’d say.

“Fuhihihihihihihi. Die! Die! Die! Work until you die~”

Something like this, you know ☆

Frightening.

Ah ~ seems frightening.

Despite being M-san, he’s an S.

Well, about 70% are lies. We’re on very good terms as we work on the project. (No, it’s true, we really get along! (LOL))

So then, I guess this is enough explanation regarding this piece of work.

If you want to know more about Denyuuden, read the afterword of “Denyuuden 1”, and you’ll understand how the events of this piece of work began.

As I wrote until now, I gently took out volume 1 for a look.

As I read my own afterword when I first began this project, I was like so embarrassed that my face turned red!

That’s right! This piece of work had won the Dragon Cup award! (Did you even forget that!)

After continuing for such a long time, and garnering so much support, to be honest, I had not thought that this would happen and was surprised.

And whatever happened here and there, it’s thanks to everyone’s support that I’ve been able to carry on up till now.

Indeed, without you readers, this piece of work could not possibly have continued for so long. Rather than me creating this piece of work as an author, I’ve actually created this together with the readers. That’s why even though it’s the same old line I’ve always said, this time round, indeed, I still want to say, thank you.

I love you alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll! I’ve gone and said such an embarrassing thing.

That was nasty of me, since I really love everyone of you.

In truth, since this is the afterword, I really want to write something cool, and not something that sounds stupid, but still, since I think this is the most important part, ahh, as expected, it’s becoming embarrassing, so let’s forget it (LOL).

But, if there are people who, while reading my work, can forget something unpleasant or something painful even for just a moment, I’ll be glad.

Since everyone else has been supporting me, I also want to write this story for it to become a support for everyone else.

And this new series will become such a story.

A story of being able to stand up, despite how everything in the world is messed up.

It’d be good if I have written it well, though.

I’ll do my best to write it. So, thanks for the support.

And, after all that, it’s time to report on my recent situation.

The truth is, I’m currently playing around with bicycles.

Mountain bike, foldable bike, BMX and such, I’ve been modifying and practicing with them.

And then I told the project editor,

“Let me write a column on bicycles!”

And this was the candy-like reply I got.

“Huh!? What about the manuscript! I’ll kill you, damn you.”

“I, I, I’m sorry.”

The path to a bicycle column is still a long way.

Further on to the next topic.

My residence and workplace are in separate places. Together with other authors, we rented a working place, and that’s where I work. This is kind of tough. Dying, dying from the writing and wanting to stop, someone beside me said:

“Damn you, what are you resting for!? In spite of me racking my brains and writing, what are you resting for!”

“That, that, that’s because you came lateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I’m the earliest here, you know! I’m already at my limits!”

“It has nothing to do with coming late or early. It’s about efficiency.”

At that moment, the third person who arrived awfully late,

“Good morning!”

“It’s no longer morningggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg.”

That is how savage the place is.

Now, which of the three people is me?

The hint is that I’m always the latest. (Eh!)

Well, I’m not always like that. I also have my calm moments, during which I work hard and I almost seemingly died.

And today, I’m working hard as well. Despite pulling an all-nighter playing yesterday, I’m working hard. (No, you are working hard at that?)

But, from hereon, there will be an awesome battle in front of me. So, I guess my afterword will end around here.

By the way, as to what that awesome battle is...

“Alright. I’ve finished writing my afterword, so I’m going back for today.”

“Damn you, didn’t you just come here awhile agoooooooooooooooooooooo!?!”

That’s the battle......

Erm, well, with this and that, it’s time to part for today.

Even though it seems like I’m fooling around with this afterword, but I’m basically a corpse working hard on writing this, hoping to quickly deliver this piece of work to your hands!

And with that!

Next month, around November 20, Dai Denyuuden 2 will be launching, so please look forward to it!

On - top - of - that.

In December, a continuation of “Toriaezu Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 1~11”, “Denyuuden SHOW 1” will be released. Do look after me with regards to that as well!!

And,

I just realized this as I’m making the announcements.

Isn’tttttttttttttttttttttttt the next publication of the series coming out in March againnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn? , I shouted as I left.

I ran away from my workplace.

Well, well. After this and that, the next time we meet shall be in next month's afterword!

See you.

“Alright. I’ve finished the afterword......”

“You can’t go back.”

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

### 002. Chapter 1: The Moment When The World Completely Transformed

“I love you ♡.”

A sudden confession.

“......”

However, Ryner Lute was doing his best to ignore that.

“Heey heey Ryneer ♡ I loove you ♡”

He was told again.

“......”

Like before, Ryner said nothing.

A young man who wished he could sleep for ten thousand years, having black hair and equally sleepy-looking black eyes, Ryner Lute.

Just next to the tall and lean figure with a slightly stooped posture clearly lacking in motivation, came the voice again.

“Hey Ryyyneeer ♡”

What a sweet feminine voice.

“......”

Ryner stubbornly continued to ignore that voice.

To be more precise, he hardly had any time to respond to that lovely voice.

The reason was because, from behind them,

“Hey! Stop right there!”

“Fugitives! Don’t think that you guys can escape us so easily!”

“They are criminals anyway! Let's just kill them!”

The shouting came from dozens of pursuing mage soldiers right behind the duo.

One after another, glowing magical symbols were drawn into the air, and without warning, a hole appeared on the ground where Ryner’s foot had stepped just a split second ago.

“Uwah!?”

BAM! Another hole appeared!

“Waaaaaah!?”

BAM! Another!

“Gyaaaaaaaaa!?”

Ryner yelled out while just barely dodging the successive magical attacks.

“That was bad! That was REALLY bad! If I were a tad slower, my right foot would have been gone......”

BAM!

“Owa owa owa! Hey you guys, don’t you think that using such dangerous magical attacks in the middle of the night is troubling the neighbourho......”

BAM!

“Gyaaaaaaaaa damnnn! You guys have better F***ING remember this!!!”

He was yelling and running at the same time.

Running with every ounce of strength he had.

That was how tense the situation was.

And in that kind of situation.

Following just right behind him was a girl who spoke again,

“Heeey heeey listen to this Ryneeer ~ ♡ I would really love to eat dango ice-cream now ♡.”

“......”

But, as before, Ryner just kept on running without paying any attention to that.

“Seriously ♡ just the two of us running on the streets, it somehow feels like a date, don’t you think ♡”

“......”

“Now, now, Ryyyneeer! You should already be looking at me ♡”

“......”

“Hey hey hey, why don’t I tell you about how I really feel ♡”

“............”

“Well, this is actually my secret, you see. I've already reached the point where I can’t live without Ryner ♡ Oh, I’ve gone and said it......!”

At that instant,

“YOU ARE SO ANNOYINGLY NOISYYY ARGHHHHHH!!”

He reached his limit and turned his head around.

Behind that sweet voice, somewhat contradictory, was an emotionless and expressionless face of a beautiful woman, following close behind him.

The moonlight shone on her long flowing blond hair, and her almond-shaped clear, somewhat emotionless clear blue eyes were gazing intently at him.

She bore perfect features which were beyond ordinary, was blessed with smooth fair skin like that of porcelain, possessing a delicate slender figure, and hanging from her waist where her slender hand rested, which no one would have been able to imagine, was a long sword.

An unbelievably beautiful woman. Anyone who sets their eyes on her would agree she is a woman of unmatched beauty. A beautiful woman who resembles nothing less than a goddess.

When a man receives a love confession from such a woman, it would surely be a heart-stopping moment for him.

Well, he was a little bothered.

“Ah ♡ You are finally looking at me ♡”

He was a little bothered by the words that were repeated by that sweet voice, especially when those words were said by someone with a completely expressionless face.

Even with that expressionless face, the charm she exuded could be felt. She was a beautiful woman.

Ryner looked intently at this expressionless, beautiful woman --- his long-time partner, Ferris Eris.

Though it was not obvious, she appeared slightly embarrassed by his gaze. Her eyes got a little misty. And with a slightly shaking voice,

“Now, now.... don’t look at me like that...... ♡”

That excessive amount of sweetness from her voice, made even Ryner's heart skip a beat.

That being said,

“That unusually meaningless cute act that you are putting on, is REEEALLY pissing me OFFFFFF!!”

In mere seconds, his killing intent towards her rose quickly --- in short, coming to a murderous level.

“Really, what is the matter with you!? What are you trying to do!? Would you please take a look around us! Look, attack magic is coming from the right! Attack magic is also coming from the left! And behind us there’s a ridiculous number of mage soldiers! We are are going to be killed right here! Now now, I have a question for you! In such a situation, what the heck are you trying to do to me?”

In response to such a question, what should normally have been an expressionless face of Ferris was again showing a slight embarrassment accompanied by a slight blush.

“......it’s precisely because we are in such a situation, that’s why I want to ascertain Ryner’s love for me ♡”

“Huuuuuuuuuh!? That’s why I’m asking you what the.......”

BAM!

“Gyaaaaaa! See! See! This is really not the time for......”

“But we made a promise to love each other forever......”

“We did NOOOOOOOOOT! Ugh, what kind of direction is this conversation heading towards......”

BAM!

“Uhyaaaaaa! Hey, by the way...... why do you seem uninjured in such a situation? What did you do to avoid all that magic?”

Ryner asked, to which Ferris completely ignored as she continued, with slightly dreamy eyes that seemed to sparkle.

“We have been lovers for over ten years......”

“Yeah, what a lie. Didn’t we meet just a while back, less than two years ago! Where did that ‘lovers’ thing come from, for goodness sake? Seriously, what’s this? What the......”

That was ignored as well.

“...... Ryner has always been saying this...... I’ll protect my beloved Ferris! So leave this to me, you go on ahead first ......”

“So this is where it's leading to, ehhhhhhhhh!?”

Ryner yelled with final comprehension on how the conversation was unfolding, but it was already too late.

All of a sudden, she caught hold of some of his hair together with a part of his clothing from his back, and forcibly turned him around.

Looking at Ferris, who was still putting an act of mild embarrassment, with a slightly flushed face. Ryner, looking as if he was about to cry, protested,

“...... eh, that’s impossible right? To kick the asses of dozens of mage soldiers, such a bothersome thing, even if it is me......”

Continuing to look embarrassed, she gave him a shy look,

“But, really, I’m truly happy...... about what Ryner said the other night, those words......”

“...... what words?”

“Don’t you remember...... Even if I’m roasted by magic, even if I’m sliced up into minced meat, I’ll definitely protect Ferris! , those were the words...”

“I DID NOT SAY THOSE THINGSSS!! There’s absolutely no way, I would have said such horrifying words!!”

All of a sudden, Ferris returned to her usual expressionless face.

“Now now, that’s why in the case of Ryner Lute, he shall become 'Minced Meat Lute'. It’s meat grinding time.”

“What’s with the meat grinding time! That’s sounds really scary! That’s a joke right? So, that’s a jok......”

However, that was no joke.

Before Ryner could finish his sentence, Ferris made a sweep at his leg, and forcefully grabbed his arm by the joint. And then, with all her strength, she started pulling him towards the direction of the pursuing mage soldiers behind them.

“Wait wait! Please...... wait......”

“Eey!” (sound of effort from Ferris)

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

With a spinning momentum, Ryner was flung into mid-air. The ground and the sky flashed across his eyes.

For a while, Ryner just stared blankly ahead. Then, he turned his head towards the landing ground where he was bounded for.

He saw what was awaiting him there. It was right in the middle of those loud bunch of mage soldiers that were chasing after them.

“......”

Nonetheless.

“......”

Nonetheless, he thought.

“...... Ah...... this is happening again......”

He was already used to it.

He then looked in the direction of Ferris, watching the back of her figure, as she was running away, full of vigor.

“So, what’s going to happen next?”

Without looking back, she answered,

“We’ll meet at the usual place in two hours time.”

Ryner retorted, “Well now, aren’t there like three of those so-called usual places? If you are still fooling around with me, I’ll definitely kill you, seriously you know?” As he said that, he landed head-first.

“Ughhh.”

Groaning like an idiot, he crashed into the ground.

And he was immediately surrounded by the mage soldiers.

“Hahaha. Your comrade has abandoned you. What a pitiful guy!”

“Now there’s nowhere else you can run to, you criminal!”

“Just keep still and let us tie you up!”

While he was being told all that,

“......”

Ryner turned towards them and got up. He made a grunt as he stood up, examined his surroundings, and appeared to consider the seriousness of his situation. Oddly however, there was no sign of any tension from him as he shrugged his shoulders.

“...... well, that line about 'tying me up', isn’t that a little old?”

On hearing that, the man standing right in front of Ryner suddenly flushed bright red.

“Sh... shuddaaaaaap! A criminal has no right to protest!”

“Oh, so that was from you? Did I spoil the mood? If so, I’m really sorry about that.”

The man flushed even redder.

“A... a man with a criminal standing making a fool out of me...... I won’t tolerate this...... I’ve been told from above that it’s perfectly fine to kill you!”

In response to that,

“Really. From above?”

“That’s right! That’s why don’t you dare make light of me. Or I’ll give you a taste of excruciating pain.”

“A taste of excruciating pain...... hmm. Well, I didn’t really have the intention to make light of anything actually......”

After saying that, he suddenly thought of something the man in front of him just mentioned, and smiled faintly at that.

“......”

Well, his wry smile was actually blended into a somewhat sorrowful look on his face.

Criminal.

That’s what that man called him.

Criminal.

“...... criminal huh.”

He murmured. He then glanced briefly at the military uniform of the soldier, specifically at the insignia. The insignia, carved into the uniform, was made up of a snake-like shape twirling around a spear.

That was the emblem of Roland Empire.

And Ryner possessed that same insignia.

“......”

He looked at the clothes he’s wearing. Because of an afflicted wound, he was not wearing his outer garment for his upper body, which was covered in bandages. Otherwise, the outer garment he usually wore, which was currently twirled and tucked around his waist, should bear that very same emblem.

A special cut of a robe weaved into a piece of white armor.

It was a unique type of battle garment specially conferred to only Roland’s mage knight battalion, something which Ryner received from the king of this country, Sion Astal.

Rather, it might be more apt to say that this was something he received from his best friend.

It was given to him before he first started his travels, a particular type of damage-resistant garment that had the ability to withstand even scorching flames.

And of course, the breast area of this particular type of garment had that particular similarity.

“......”

Ryner unfolded the breast area of that garment tucked at his waist. Indeed, there was that very same insignia with a snake-like shape twirling around a spear engraved into that area.

Until just recently, Ryner, Sion, Ferris and their friends had been fooling around, joking, laughing together, and passing the days.

Now, I’m called a criminal.

I’m called a runaway prisoner.

He thought,

“...... somehow.”

He thought out loud as he looked around his surroundings. He looked at the mage soldiers surrounding him. He looked at the curtain of darkness from the night around him.

“...... somehow...... the whole world seemed to have changed in just a single moment......“

He then looked at the mage soldier who seemed like the leader of the group, and said,

“So, you’ve been told from above that it’s alright to kill me!”

From above.

That was what the man had said. But, who from above was he referring to? Someone important within Roland’s military?

“...... I wonder whether it's Sion.”

Ryner murmured.

That's right.

That was how it was regarding his situation.

The directive from the king of this country --- the directive from his best friend, was to brand him a criminal and to have him killed.

“......”

How it had come to this, Ryner was not sure of that himself.

That night from two weeks ago.

It was a rainy night no different from others, when Sion showed up.

For some reason, he was crying.

As he was crying, he asked Ryner to die.

At that moment, the relationship between the two of them ended abruptly.

Just recently before that, we were surely laughing and spending great times together, and then all of a sudden I don’t understand what he’s thinking anymore.

The figure of Sion crying as he tried to kill Ryner.

Strange black blades coming forth from nowhere. The hand of a woman springing out from Ryner’s own chest. And the fading away of the scenery around him. A scene in which he could comprehend nothing.

During that time.

He was standing there alone, enveloped by something resembling a thick shroud of darkness.

But, he spoke nothing of that. He only smiled sadly, and as he was crying, he merely told him to die.

But in the end.

That did not happen.

By the time Ryner regained consciousness, he found himself already imprisoned. Just about anything and everything about this world had changed.

The harshness of the overwhelming transformation of this world was excessive enough to even send Ferris crying.

She told Ryner as she was crying.

Sion had become weird and creepy.

He was laughing like a mad man as he told her that he had killed Ryner.

And that she was not to step into the castle, and show herself before him ever again.

And on top of that, someone who hated wars, someone who hated to see people die, someone who was peace-loving, and that someone, the Hero King Sion Astal, was invading his ally, sending his troops marching into Imperial Nelpha, and appeared to have given the order to kill soldiers, commoners, women, and children without any discrimination.

That Sion.

“......”

That, Sion.

A king who had amassed kingdom-wide popular support.

The appearance of a Hero King.

The appearance of a Hero King who would unite the world. Everything in this world should belong to Roland. That seemed to be what he believed.

Anything that proved as an obstruction, would be removed, killed, and eliminated. That was the state of mind he now had.

“...... really.”

Anything that could change would change.

That was what Ryner thought.

And he thought of Sion’s face. An image of his best friend appeared in his mind.

But that was a tear-streaked face.

A tear-streaked face with a self-loathing expression.

He was definitely not someone who could laugh as he betrayed his best friend. And definitely not someone who could laugh as he invaded another man’s country.

He would always, by himself, frantically shouldering all the heavy burdens which others would find to be endless. In order to hide this from everyone, he would do his best to carry a smile on his face. But in the end, unable to become free of all these burdens, he put on a sad face.

Just like the one he had on that rainy night.

Ryner remembered the pain shown on his tear-streaked face, when he looked as if he was seeking help. The Sion in his memory was way too gentle and hurting inside. He was a sorrowful king.

That was the reason why,

“...... um so, you guys were told from above it’s alright to kill me?”

Ryner queried the same man again.

The man laughed,

“Fuhahaha, that’s right! So, you’re only feeling scared now? But then, I’m not an unreasonable person. If you don’t resist, we are fine with apprehending you in a half-dead state......”

Ryner had stopped listening long before that man finished his sentence.

He looked up.

He looked up at the sky.

He turned his head and looked around. He looked in the direction of one of the country’s taller buildings.

Roland’s castle.

The place where this country’s king resided in.

Just some time ago, Ryner, Ferris, and Sion were spending time engaging in meaningless conversations and laughing merrily in that place.

He was looking at that place.

It was a place where he could no longer return to.

Despite not even an hour having passed since escaping from prison, the surrounding area of the castle was already crawling with these many pursuing mage soldiers, it was probably no longer possible to just fight his way back, and arrive at the castle unscathed.

Because the Roland now was no longer the same as before.

“......”

Without the knowledge of Ryner, Sion had secretly completed the vile human experiments, a previously unfinished legacy of the former Roland Empire.

Now, the military boasted ranks of soldiers possessing an abnormal strength, created from the results of such experiments.

Even for Ryner, formerly known as “The Greatest Magician of Roland”, going up against that level of strength might prove to be a dangerously difficult battle.

Right now, the castle was probably protected by that abnormal power.

And it seemed improbable for the Ryner now to overcome that kind of odds and make it into the castle alive.

In other words, it was no longer possible for Ryner to even meet Sion right now.

“......”

Even if his best friend Sion were to be yelling to Ryner for help, that very one thing was beyond his ability right now.

Ryner looked at that very castle,

“Arghhh... damn. It certainly looks far...”

He said in a languid voice.

Moreover, no matter how the man in front of him shouted,

“How dare you ignore what I’m sayinggggggggg!”

Ryner ignored him.

“But even if it’s far...”

He murmured.

However, as of now, even if it was possible to make his way back to the castle easily,

“...... for me to go this far, it’s decided.”

That was what he said.

He grasped the insignia of his clothing.

The emblem of Roland.

The insignia that consisted of a spear with a snake twirling around it.

The very proof of one’s allegiance to this country.

Ryner grasped it strongly, and ripped it apart. Although part of the clothing got torn off together, he did not care. As he vigorously, forcibly, pulled at it, what used to be a damage-resistant piece of clothing that could only be worn by a member of the mage knight battalion, was ripped into shreds.

Ryner stared at the insignia for a while, and threw it away.

“......”

At that point, his world had undergone a massive change, but no one noticed it.

Because he threw it away a little too quickly.

The emblem.

No one had noticed the fact that he had thrown away this country.

Since young, he had lived in Roland all his life, even though he found everything to be a bother and was a genius of a level which might never appear hereupon again, he was bonded to this place in order to save his friends, again and again.

In order to return to the side of his best friend, he had to do it.

No one had noticed the fact that it was the very first time he threw away his country.

The man said,

“That’s enough. Till the very end, you’re making a fool out of us, if you insist on resisting......”

He was interrupted by Ryner before he finished.

Looking at the man with languid eyes,

“No way. I’m sorry, but that’s not possible.”

He said.

With a shocked expression, the man asked,

“Huh? What’s not possible?”

To that, Ryner, with an idiotic expression,

“No, erm, that’s right. If it’s as usual, it would be kind of different. For me to give my best, to be energetic, to be motivated to do anything, that kind of pumped-up mode is really something I dislike...... Eh seriously!? While I’m in the midst saying that, the possibility of you guys catching me, even in a sluggish manner, does exist actually......”

“Well then, so you are not resis......”

But, Ryner shook his head.

“But, today is slightly different, actually. Let's do it!! You know, I was kind of thinking along this line, if ever so slightly. But then you know, I never thought that such a troublesome situation in which I hardly have any choice would have arisen...... That’s why, I’m going to do it! You see, I was kind of thinking along this line.”

While saying that, Ryner looked up at the castle for another time,

“The unmotivated me is finally going to get serious and do it! Aren’t I great, Sion?”

He said.

But of course, the mage soldiers failed to understand those words,

“What the heck are you saying......”

However, they were interrupted by Ryner,

“As I was saying, you guys won’t be able to catch me, don’t you get it? Do you guys know who I am?”

In response to those words, the mage soldiers looked at each other.

“Who is this guy?”

“And how is it that he’s so full of himself?”

“It can’t be that he’s some kind of highly dangerous guy right......”

The man who looked like the leader started,

“Sh... Shut up shut up! Stop acting so flustered! Don’t be misled by the criminal’s bullshit! Look at that sleepy-faced rascal, what’s there to be fearful......”

But, the leader did not finish his sentence.

To be more precise, he was not in a position to do so as he sailed through the air.

It was not just him alone. One after another, five mage soldiers that were behind him were sent flying as well.

Only then did the rest of the mage soldiers realize that something was happening.

The flying soldiers were all struck by Ryner.

With unbelievable speed, before the mage soldiers even realized what was happening, through a series of strikes and kicks, including the leader of the group, Ryner had sent six mage soldiers flying.

The color of the mage soldiers’ faces changed at this unexpected development.

“What is this guy......”

“K... Kill him. This guys is dangero......”

At that moment, with a swift chopping motion, Ryner hit the back of the neck of the second most important-looking man, the man who gave that order, and knocked him unconscious. For a group of such level, once the bosses were put out of commission, the rest would be easy.

“V... Vice-commander was taken out as wellllllll!”

See ~

With a floating smile, Ryner broke into a run.

Weaving through the confused mage soldiers who just lost their commanders, he broke free of the group and kept on running.

Immediately after that, one of the soldiers who was probably the third highest ranking among them,

“Don’t let your ranks falter! The enemy, the enemy is just one man! If we all use our magic together, we’ll somehow......”

As he shouted and started inscribing a magic symbol, Ryner turned his head around.

As he did so, a glimmering vermillion five-point pentacle suddenly appeared over the center of his eyes.

Using those eyes, Ryner briefly studied the unfolding magic symbol that was drawn in mid-air.

At that instant, the power, structure, and the invocation method of the spell the man was casting, were all read in by Ryner’s eyes, and he promptly deployed the corresponding spell cancellation magic.

His hand moved rapidly in mid-air, and with a speed many times faster than that of the mage soldier, he completed his spell.

“WHAT I SEEK IS INTRUSION >>> SHIRA”

At that moment, black smoke was discharged from the magic symbol Ryner inscribed, and came into contact with the magic symbol the man was currently drawing. Consequently, as it was, the appearance of the man’s symbol changed into something that resembled a devil’s face.

In reaction to that, the face of the man changed into an expression of shock.

“What the... what is going......”

Such a thing should not have been possible.

Just a moment ago, he was, without a doubt, in the process of inscribing the magic symbol, and not only was the structure of his magic being deciphered quickly, a spell cancel was thrown at him, changing the structure of his inscription, for such a thing to happen, what kind of monster......

The man looked at Ryner’s eyes.

The center of Ryner’s eyes.

Right after seeing that vermillion five-point pentacle in the center of his eyes, all of a sudden, the man stiffened in fear.

“It... It’s Alpha Stigmaaa !! This guy is an Alpha Stigma monster!!”

Upon uttering those words, a mild confusion started to arise among the mage soldiers.

Alpha Stigma .

Such a level of disgust, fear, and loathing were embedded in those words.

The eyes that can read in all forms of magic.

However, once the bearer of these cursed eyes goes berserk, regardless of living or non-living, friend or foe, he will start destroying and slaughtering everything around him.

The mark of attestation to a mad monster.

Just as one thought, the mage soldiers looked at Ryner’s eyes and started shaking in fear.

“Mon... Monster!”

Ryner smiled wryly at that.

“...... there’s no need to be so afraid of me...... but then again, if that would make you give up on chasing after me, do become even more fearful ~”

In response to those words, several mage soldiers started fleeing, shouting how they were going to be killed by a monster.

“......”

Ryner made a slightly sad expression for a moment and sighed.

He took a deep breath.

And then,

“...... Errrmmm, ora ora ora! If you don’t want to get killed by an Alpha Stigma monster, get away from here nowwwwwwwww!”

He yelled with all his strength.

This time round, the majority of the mage soldiers started fleeing.

Looking at the scene before him, Ryner thought it fortunate to have invoked his Alpha Stigma this early.

But the truth was Ryner originally had a plan.

After being thrown into prison by Sion, and breaking out of prison with the help of Ferris, it appeared that they had been discovered for the mage soldiers were lying in wait for them, and somehow they had managed to escape to this particular street with all their might.

However, the truth was it was easy to shake off these guys.

Rather, to put it more accurately, it was no difficult matter for both him and Ferris to fight them off.

But, the fact was they fled all the way to this street.

What was the reason behind that?

The original plan was to first lure the mage soldiers, who thought they could win against the likes of Ryner and Ferris, to this street and then lose them. After they were shaken off, the mage soldiers would probably continue searching for them for some time while they were under the impression that they could win against them.

In that case, the mage soldiers were unlikely to call for reinforcements at this point in time, delaying the possibility of having more powerful troops or even the activation of the royal military. That was the original plan.

However, the plan failed.

All thanks to her.

All thanks to that stupid Ferris.

It was all thanks to that rampaging, trouble-causing, dango-fanatic woman, that I have to end up fighting these mage soldiers.

They were definitely not weaklings. If Ryner were to fight them for real, there was definitely a need for him to be somewhat more serious.

If that happened, it might lead to some casualties.

Now that he was about to leave the country, he wished to, as much as possible, avoid injuring his former comrades.

“Well, seems like I’ve already hit some of them......”

On top of that, Ryner was afraid that those soldiers who fled would probably call for more reinforcements.

If that happened, more powerful assassins were bound to come after them.

He originally wanted to buy a little more time for them to finish their preparations to leave the country.

“Oh well, it can’t be helped...... now, incidentally......”

One of the mage soldiers who was attempting to run away had been caught by a quick movement from Ryner.

That man who was caught seemed unbelievably frightened,

“Mon... monster... let go of m... me......”

“What the...... isn’t that a little excessive......”

“I’m going to be killed...... I’m going to be killed by a monsterrr...”

The wail of despair caused Ryner to grimace.

Monster.

He has always been called that. Always.

Monster.

MONSTER.

M-O-N-S-T-E-R.

After being repeatedly branded as a monster, and incurring a harsh emotional hurt, in the end, he had given up on anything and everything, and had given up on coming into close contact with other people.

Because he bore a defiled body, he had no right to love another person.

Because he bore a cursed body, he had no right to stay by the side of another person.

With a sense of resignation, he gave up on anything and everything...... that in itself was an easy and comfortable way out.

In exchange for not hurting others, he put himself in a place where he himself would not get hurt.

In exchange for not betraying the hopes of others, he put himself in a place where he could do things half-heartedly.

Though that place was dark and lonely, it was a place of ease and comfort.

And yet, the person who pulled him out from that place, that place of darkness, was none other than Sion.

After meeting him, then meeting Ferris, and doing stupid things with them, for some reason, before he knew it, he was no longer bothered when others called him a monster.

As they were doing stupid things and laughing merrily together, before he realized it, his heart had opened up, and he no longer needed to bear the feeling of being alone anymore.

Despite all that, Sion had told Ryner to go back to the way he was before.

Having told me to follow him in a pompous manner, without telling me anything, shouldering everything by himself, and saying sorry to me.

But it shouldn’t have been like this.

That was a little too irresponsible of him.

Ryner thought.

“Hey you, I need you to pass a message to Sion.”

“I’m going to get kill......”

“Stop that already.”

Ryner’s intimidating tone stopped the flow of his words. The man seemed about to cry.

However, Ryner just smiled faintly.

“Listen to this. I’m not going to kill you. But, I need you to pass a message to Sion... to the king of this country.”

In response to this, the man glared at him,

“Y... You filth, a message from a criminal like you, His Majesty will never hear of......”

To which Ryner interrupted,

“Hear me. He is really a wimpish person, and there is no way he would ignore this. Anyway, it’s fine even if he doesn’t want to hear of it. I just wanted to let him know I’ll be leaving the country. He can do as he pleases.”

“Who would pass a message for a monster like you......”

“Aye. That’s fine as well. But, you will pass the message. Well, this is how it goes. I............”

After making his request, Ryner then released the man.

The man glared at him,

“I’ll not pass on the ramblings of a criminal!”

He shouted loudly. Well, if that was the case, that was fine in itself. Whether the message was passed on or not, how he was to proceed from now on was already decided.

He shrugged his shoulders, smiled faintly, and said,

“Well, thanks a lot for the trouble.”

“Shut up! You monster......”

“Yeah yeah. Now, I think that would be enough. Most of your comrades have completely fled, you know.”

“......”

Even after having said that, the man continued to glare at Ryner for a while before taking off.

After gazing at the back of his fading form for a while, Ryner turned around on his heel.

“Arghhh... for goodness sake, after this, there will surely be more and stronger pursuers coming after us...... we have to finish our preparations and get out of the country before that I guess......”

While muttering to himself, he started walking.

The first destination was the ‘usual place’ where he should link up with Ferris however.

“......”

At that thought, Ryner stopped in his tracks.

“But then again, which usual place was she referring to......?”

He wearily shook his head in puzzlement.

That place.

“......”

That place was terribly dark.

To put it more accurately, though the absence of illumination was the real cause of the darkness, Sion Astal thought that it was terribly dark.

In the castle of Roland Empire, Sion was sitting alone on his throne surrounded by a large amount of empty space.

Actually, since the start of Roland’s invasion of Imperial Nelpha, in order to pass down various orders, the time Sion spent in this spacious room had increased.

Even though either his subordinates or the nobles would call on him one after another, turn by turn within short intervals, Sion thought that the room was dark and lonely.

He looked at the huge windows lining the left and right of his room. The sky was already starting to brighten, indicating it was about time for the morning visits.

The sunlight started streaming through the windows into the room, and furthermore, given that the room was lit by magical illumination, it was actually in truth far from being dark.

“......”

The darkness was caused by this country.

That was what the king who just turned twenty not long ago thought.

Bearing silver hair that has a regal feel, he has sharp, golden eyes that speak of an indomitable will.

With those eyes, he is always looking far into the future.

The future of this country, the future of the people, the future of the world.

What are the things that can be done to bring forth more changes to this world.

He looks far into the future, makes the decisions, and moves forward.

That’s right.

He is the hero king that everyone had been waiting for.

He is the benevolent lord who remade the formerly corrupt Roland Empire into a strong and prosperous major power standing in the south of the continent.

And this all happened within the span of two years since he became king.

During the previous war with Estabul, he rose through the upper ranks quickly due to his remarkable achievements despite of his illegitmate heritage as the son of the previous king and a commoner. After that, he used everything he had - his skills, looks, and charisma - to overthrow the king by acquiring the people's support.

But he had not stopped at that.

Reforming the old practices of the country, he put the tyrannical nobles in their place, eliminated waste, brought prosperity to the country, and kept on moving forward. Moving forward. Moving forward.

It was almost as if part of his life was seeping away, even though he looked like a man who was slowly losing his sanity, he continued moving forward.

Always searching for the best option.

Always searching for a way that would save the most people.

What is the best method?

Which is the most correct path?

Even when he felt troubled, shed endless tears, and felt despair, he still believed that would be a better tomorrow and kept on moving forward.

Without a doubt, the people were rejoicing.

At the appearance of someone who was like a beacon of light for them.

At the dawning of a light that shone across this world of madness, every single person in this country was rejoicing.

Everything would be fine, as they believed that they could leave everything to him, Sion Astal.

It was because he is the hero king.

He is perfect because he is the light of this country.

Therefore, he will never make a mistake.

It is not possible for him to make a mistake.

Everyone believed so.

And Sion continued to fulfill their expectations.

To look far into the future, and continue moving forward without making any mistakes.

The path which is the most efficient, the most correct, and with the least sacrifices.

That was the reason why he continued those human experiments to create a powerful army.

Because it was necessary.

To minimize the loss of lives of the ordinary commoners, there was no other way than to acquire a power that could easily overwhelm another country.

“......”

It was the same with betraying and invading former ally, Imperial Nelpha.

It was necessary.

To expand and strengthen Roland, to a level where it can be an intimidating force to other countries. It was the same with former ally Nelpha. In the midst of an internal conflict that arose within the court of Nelpha, an anti-Roland faction was born, attempting to seize political power within the country. If Roland did not initiate the preemptive invasion, someday, it would have been the one invaded.

If that's the case, it was better to make the first move, and make it a thorough one. In order to deter other countries from opposing Roland. In order to make them think twice before waging an unproductive war.

He will show it to them.

By doing so, it might be possible to avoid any more meaningless wars from now on. It might be possible to bring an end to the meaningless loss of lives.

To achieve that, a massacre was necessary.

Roland’s army was now on its way to conduct a large-scale massacre in Nelpha. The order was given to show no mercy even towards surrendering troops. Even towards women, even towards children. The order was to spare no one.

To strike fear into other countries.

They shall all watch in fear. In order to make sure that none would ever dare to defy Roland again, the order was to completely crush them.

“......”

In order to show the might of this country, those orders were given.

“......”

Because by doing that, from now onwards, it might be possible to greatly reduce the loss of lives.

Because by doing that, if the desire to oppose Roland was lost, it might be possible to avoid another war.

This was a fair trade.

To sacrifice less to save more.

“......”

The people were supportive. They were enthusiastically screaming about showing Nelpha and showing the world Roland’s might.

Well, that was all due to his manipulation......

“......”

And now, he chose again.

The right path.

The path with the least sacrifices.

Even if the path was a thorny one, he was determined to step on the thorns and carry on.

He will move forward.

Every step he took forward, he bled. As he forced his way through the thorns, he suppressed the urge to scream out. He suppressed the urge to cry. He suppressed the urge to shout out that he wanted to quit, that he wanted to stop moving forward.

And in the end.

“......”

In the end, even his friend.

“......”

He chose to sacrifice even his best friend.

“......”

Because that was also absolutely necessary.

Because in order to move forward, that was necessary.

“............”

Sion shut his eyes and opened them again. He stared at the emptiness in front of him. There was nothing there but emptiness. Rather, he could feel nothing except for emptiness.

Ever since he parted with him, the room --- the world felt like empty darkness.

The days spent with Ryner.

Together with him and Ferris, the trio spent their days laughing merrily like idiots, doing meaningless things and exchanging blows with one another......

Those days seemed to shine brightly in his mind.

In the end he lost them all, even though he knew that he was immersing himself in a fictitious dream, that was what he wished for.

“......”

However, he had lost them all.

When he opened his eyes, it signaled the end of his dream.

It’s time to move on.

Because even if he had experienced losses, despair, and regrets, time will move forward.

Because to proceed into the future, he had to push himself onward.

Losing something, again and again.

Because even if he’s unwilling, even if he shouted ‘I don’t want to’, he had to push himself onward.

Therefore, he moved forward.

In order to acquire something new, even if he was not entirely convinced it’s something better than that from before......

He abandoned his past, threw away what’s important to him, and moved forward while crying loudly.

In order to seize the future, the light in front of him.

He is that kind of king.

A king who always continues moving forward.

Even if he knows that what lies in front of him is merely emptiness for himself, he will move forward......

At that moment,

“...... do you regret it?”

He was asked in that manner.

Suddenly a voice reverberated from within the emptiness in the room.

It’s Lucile.

Lucile Eris.

The head of the Eris swords clan that, for generations, has been tasked to protect this country’s king from the shadows.

Rather, it may be more accurate to say that he is an abominable god who sees everything in this country......

“...... regret?”

Sion replied.

Regret.

It’s not possible not to have any. Whether it was better to do it in that way or in this way, every matter and everything, from large to small, there were many a times when he wanted to die.

If only he was stronger. If only he was wiser. Then his mother would not have died. His friends would not have been killed. Kiefer would not have cried. He would have been able to protect Ferris.

And Ryner.

“......”

He would not have betrayed Ryner in that manner......

A smile floated on Sion’s face.

“Regretful about what?”

Lucile laughed.

“Haha. That’s promising.”

“Is that so?”

“You are really splendid.”

After saying that, all of a sudden, Lucile materialized before Sion from out of nowhere.

Bearing blond hair, and a pair of closed eyes.

And with a face that is beautiful beyond ordinary.

Since he is Ferris’s elder brother, he should resemble her in likeness, but when Sion looked at him, he could hardly feel any form of resemblance between the two of them.

Though they have the same hair color, the same facial features, and the same beauty, Ferris and Lucile were two completely different individuals. Lucile carried within himself a being of demonic nature.

Rather, in that sense, he is no longer a human being.

Sion gazed at Lucile.

“It is indeed an honor to be praised by you.”

“Don’t I always commend you?”

“Is that so?”

“That is so.”

“Hmm. Well, I must have been ignoring all that. Probably because it didn’t really make me particularly happy.”

“Ah, that’s kind of terrible.”

Lucile smiled again. However, the smile seemed to carry no emotion. None whatsoever. A kind of fearful vast nothingness exists within him.

Sion, while gazing at the nothingness, said,

“I’m serious. Since the truth is I don’t really feel happy to be praised by you.”

In response to that, as a faint smile floated on Lucile’s face, he said,

“That’s a pity. As expected, it seems like I can’t take the place of Ryner- kun .”

“......”

Sion couldn’t respond to that.

Nonetheless, Lucile continued.

“However, I truly think that you are a splendid king. In spite of the Power that is devouring you from within, the fact that you can still retain your own will, that in itself is amazing. The previous king --- your father who was promptly taken over by the Power --- lost his sanity......

But at that juncture,

“He was no father of mine.”

Sion said.

Lucile shrugged his shoulders at that reaction.

“Right. You’re probably right. He wasn’t exactly the person that you would acknowledge as a father. Even though the same blood flows in you both, existing as a lowly puppet, he was in a different league from you. The same goes for your brothers. That’s why I’m grateful to you. For the fact that in my generation, I was able to meet a colossal vessel like you...... for discovering the vessel that I was supposed to choose. Your mother was great, wasn’t she? Your mother who was a lowly commoner labeled as a dog, and beyond my expectations, was stronger than......”

At that,

“...... silence.”

Sion said.

And Lucile stopped. He then smiled faintly and continued again,

“...... in any case, you are truly splendid. Because even if you have any regrets, stricken with despair, you’ll surely, without losing your sanity, choose the right path.”

Sion looked intently at Lucile’s beautiful smiling face.

“...... you showed yourself just only to say that?”

Lucile smiled.

“Not really.”

“Well what is it then?”

At his question, Lucile, for once, turned his head to look in the direction of one of the windows in the room. From that window, one can see the streets below the castle. He looked intently in that direction for a while before turning back around,

“Ryner-kun has escaped.”

Sion’s eyes widened at that. That’s impossible. The prison that Ryner was sent to, it was definitely not one from which he could have broken out, even assuming his allies...... even if Ferris was the one to help him in the jailbreak, there was no way she could penetrate through the strength-enhanced guards all by herself......

As if reading his thoughts, Lucile started.

“By the way, the entire strength-enhanced guards were wiped out. It was all set up by Duke Lieutolu......”

“Kun!”.

Sion groaned.

Duke Lieral Lieutolu.

That was the name of Ryner’s father. He was a noble who was supposed to be dead. Someone who used to maneuver this country from the shadows, a dead legacy of Roland.

He is a monster who can match up to Lucile.

“...... he did something unnecessary......”

Lucile laughed heartily at Sion’s reaction.

“Haha. That’s true, he really did something rather unnecessary there. You even went out of the way to conduct research on Ryner-kun, in order to find a way to save him without sacrificing him...... already more than ten people were killed during the human experiments for that sole purpose...... now that he is taken away, all your efforts have gone to waste......”

“Silence.”

“On top of that, since the other side also has the intention of saving Ryner, it’s really a pity. Perhaps, from your perspective, it’s better for Ryner to be living his life with vigor the way he used to before you took away his freedom and made him a sacrifice......”

“Silence!”

“And this must have been within your expectations. That’s why I said you are a splendid king. In spite of feeling troubled, distressed and straying from your path at times, in the end you’ll return to the rightful path and it’s all due to the fact that you can see very far into the future, and will never embark on a path of mistakes. Things like saving your friends, or helping the people in front of you, you can’t do it if it will lead you to a path of mistakes. Eventually, you’ll lose sight of the important things......”

“I said silence!”

Sion shouted loudly.

Lucile opened his eyes and stared at Sion. His clear blue eyes looked straight at him, as if he could completely see through the depths of his heart.

And he smiled.

As if he was making a fool out of him.

As if he was taking pity on him.

Smiling lightly.

Then Lucile said to him.

“...... what is the matter, Sion? The ‘silence’ just now, compared to the level of ‘silence’ when I was bad-mouthing your mother, was much harsher, don’t you think?”

"......"

“...... or is it that you don’t want to be seen by him? The you who is a murderer. The you who conducts human experiments. The you who have lost his humanity, you won’t want him to see you like that, isn’t it? That’s the reason why you became so agitated.”

“......”

And then Lucile smiled again.

“It’s fine even if you don’t feel like answering. Well...... what do you want to do now? Are you going to let Ryner-kun escape after all?”

But Sion, without facing him, replied.

“...... I won’t allow that to happen......”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter to me one way or the other. However, what you’re doing is pointless, Sion. Even if you keep conducting those human experiments, you can’t create another ‘him’. But well, it’s of course a different story if he dies...... but you can’t lift your hand to kill him as well. The thing you never can do......”

Lucile stopped there. He looked intently at Sion and smiled faintly.

“...... you are aware of this as well. And you’ve already made your choice. To sacrifice him. To drop him into the sea of eternal despair. That would be the most efficient way. But you still fret. In a meaningless way. Really, you still retain some sort of humanity...... even though in truth you are hardly a human being right now...... it is indeed a magnificent thing that you still retain some semblance of humanity in what’s left of you. It’s fine then. Do whatever you want. I’ve told you this before, didn’t I? The choices taken by the Hero will never be wrong. You will always do the right thing.”

After saying that, Lucile vanished again.

His form, his presence, his entire existence had disappeared. However, he’s still there. Sion knew that for a fact. Thus,

“Lucile.”

He queried.

As expected, there was a response.

“What’s up? Sion.”

And Sion once again reiterated.

“...... I definitely won’t allow that to happen.”

“Ahaha. You’ve said that earlier. And that’s fine. Having come so far...... since you have already come so far...... after all I can’t rise above the sword of the Hero inside you, feel free to use me as you please. Feel free to use your power as you see fit. Will you sever the darkness from the world? Or will you stop the flow of life? I have absolutely no idea which choice you would take.”

That was what Lucile said.

Sion looked intently at the empty space from which Lucile disappeared.

Sever the darkness from the world?

Or on the contrary, stop the flow of life?

“...... I......”

He started.

“...... I......”

At that moment, a man entered the room.

A man whom Sion used to pass down orders to the military, a military messenger. Normally, if he appeared on his own volition, it meant that something must have happened at the frontlines with Imperial Nelpha.

“Your Majesty.”

The man knelt before Sion.

Sion acknowledged him with a nod and said,

“Rise.”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, did anything crop up at Nelpha?”

He shook his head.

“No sir, this is something from within Reylude......”

Though not as expected, at the very least, Sion was well aware that the man came to report something important.

Reylude is the name of the capital of Roland. In other words, he came to report about something that was happening in the streets below this castle.

In other words,

“...... Ryner Lute?”

“T... that’s right sir.”

“He escaped?”

“Yes. I’m so sorry sir.”

“There is no need for you to apologize. So, because Ryner kicked the asses of the guards and ran away, you’ve come to request for reinforcements, is it something along those lines?”

But the messenger shook his head again.

“The reinforcements were also......”

Sion raised his eyebrows with a start.

“They were repelled as well?”

“Yes......”

“You mean the pursuing troops were already sent out without even reporting the matter to me?”

“...... yes sir.”

“Who was it? Who was the one who gave the order?”

“It was Major Rahel Miller.”

“...... Miller?”

The name brought a bitter smile to Sion’s lips. The man called Miller, who stayed in the shadows during Sion’s revolution, was actually the mastermind behind the revolution.

He is someone known to be a cut above the rest, possessing a sharp and keen mind, and is able to maintain his calm and composure at all times.

When Sion first met Miller, his preparations for the revolution were almost complete. Whether it was regarding gathering of necessary talent, amassing support from the people, or gathering of intelligence on the nobles that had to be defeated.

And according to Miller’s plans, the revolution happened swiftly.

The world changed.

This is the man who has truly earned the right to stand at the top of the military in this country.

However, he is not one who desires to rise to the top ranks of this country. Stubborn as he is, he has chosen to stay at a lower ranked position and protect this country in his own way.

This is a man who can move without Sion’s permission. He was the one who sent troops in pursuit of Ryner.

Nonetheless......

“What did Miller say?”

Sion asked. And the messenger replied.

“Capture the runaway prisoner, whether dead or alive......”

Whether dead or alive......? In other words, it’s okay to kill him.

However, the troops he sent out were completely defeated. Miller, who in spite of being well aware of Ryner’s strength, had sent out troops that could be defeated by Ryner.

What is the reason behind it?

“......”

Sion thought.

His decision to send out his troops was definitely to delay the reporting of the jailbreak.

If the jailbreak had been reported promptly, there would have been sufficient time to take the necessary counter measures. However, Miller had delayed the report, providing Ryner with extra time to make his escape.

But even if that was so, what can Miller gain by allowing Ryner to escape?

Even though I have sources of information telling me that Miller and Ryner were acquainted in the past, that is not enough reason to have let Ryner escape. Miller is simply not that kind of man.

He isn’t one who would be swayed by emotions to make a meaningless move.

If so, why?

“......”

After some consideration, there were two possibilities.

The first was that in order to discover why Sion was so obsessed with Ryner, he had to ensure that Ryner remain alive.

Another possibility was that he already knew about Sion and the Mad Hero , and that in order for the Mad Hero to be completed, Sion, or rather the Mad Hero himself, had to devour Ryner as a sacrifice.

It was probably the former. Even if Rahel Miller had been known as a genius, to acquire the knowledge on the latter seemed unlikely.

As of now, in this country, the only people who knew of the changes taking place inside of Sion were Sion himself, Lucile, and Froaude.

On top of that, in Lucile’s house, with their nerves in shreds, and safe-guarded in darkness, were Sion’s brothers, or what’s left of them. However, they were deemed as unfit by Lucile, and had never since regained consciousness.

In other words, only three people in this country should possess knowledge of Sion’s true form. And all three of them would definitely keep this in confidence.

That would mean that in order to uncover what Sion was hiding, Miller would have to capture Ryner alive.

So, that’s what it meant.

If that’s the case, there was no need for Sion to take any counter-measures. All he needed to do was to explain things to Miller.

The reason behind Ryner’s imprisonment.

The reason behind the continuation of those human experiments.

The reason.

“......”

The reason why it’s imperative for Sion to throw away his humanity.

All he needed to do was to explain those things.

The distortion and the competitive struggles that plagued this world.

And also.

The true form of the mad goddesses.

Miller should be able to understand then. And he should be cooperative then. If he is willing to accept a promotion to the higher ranks, he might even become a greater aid to Sion.

That in itself would solve the problem of Miller.

What was left was Ryner himself.

It was imperative to capture Ryner alive, but who possessed the capability to undertake such a task......

At that moment, the messenger spoke again.

“Erm......”

Sion stopped him before he could say anything else.

“It’s fine. I’ve already understood the issue with Ryner, and that of Miller, I would deal with......”

But the messenger shook his head.

“N... no, that’s not it. The reason why I came here......”

“Hm?”

Sion lifted his head. And looked at the messenger. For some reason, he was having a puzzled expression.

“What’s the matter?”

As Sion asked, he took out an envelope from his breast pocket.

“...... Well...... I’m not exactly sure whether it’s alright to deliver such an absurdity to Your Majesty but.”

“Uhn?”

“There is a message from the criminal to Your Majesty......”

At that moment.

Sion instantly broke out of his thoughts. His vision seemed to blank out for a moment, and he felt as if his blood was drained away from him.

“...... a message from Ryner?”

Acknowledging Sion’s question, the messenger nodded.

Sion was unable to move a muscle at that.

Terrible.

Sion had betrayed Ryner in an unsightly, and most terrible manner.

Always wearing the face of an ally. Always wearing the face of a friend. While saying things like come together with me , I’ll protect you , in the blink of an eye, he had went back on his words and turned against him.

He could still remember Ryner’s face at that time.

That half-smiling face. That expression of loneliness, as if he was about to cry from a sense of hopelessness, but in the end he held back those tears.

Sion told Ryner that he would kill him.

But still, he called Sion his best friend.

Sion told Ryner he would betray him. But still, he told him, " I won’t give up on you, until I save you, I will not die ".

" No matter where I’ll be, I’ll bring you back to the way you were ".

Even though I’ve told you it’s all over. Even though I’ve told you I’m going to betray you.

When did you start acting like an idiot, making such a serious face, and desperately reaching out to me shouting, "I'll never give up, I’ll definitely never give up".

“...... Come with me, Sion.”

Ryner’s words resounded in his mind.

At those thoughts, Sion seemed about to cry. He seemed about to yell out. Why am I here? Why is it that the world is always, always, such a cruel place. He seemed about to yell out.

In spite of that, in spite of that, Ryner wanted to save me.

But still.

What I did do in return to him?

Without being able to save you, unable to avoid killing you, selling you to eternal darkness. Selling my best friend, and moving forward.

Forward, forward, forward.

And yet, I’ve betrayed him in every possible way, in order to move forward.

“......”

And now, before him, there was a message from Ryner.

No, if he didn’t do that.

“......”

If he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t be able to stand it.

That was what Sion thought.

“......”

The messenger moved closer to hand over the envelope. And Sion took it.

The messenger said.

“The mage soldier who was caught by Ryner Lute, wrote down the verbally transmitted message from him. Of course I did not read it. And anyone else for that matter...... only because, according to that mage soldier...... no matter what, it is better to pass this message directly to His Majesty , those were his words......”

Sion opened the envelope.

He started reading what was written on a piece of paper taken out of that envelope, but he stopped in the middle of it.

And then,

“You may leave for now. I’ll call for you again later.”

“Yes sir.”

The messenger lowered his head again, and left the room.

After waiting for the messenger to exit, Sion quietly took a deep breath. In order not to have his own emotions waver. In order not to fall prey to his own weakness and stray from his intended path again.

Sion inhaled and then exhaled.

And then brought his eyes back to the letter.

Where the following was written.

Eh ~ the thing is ~ how do I say this...... ah there are already so many words? The message hasn’t started yet? Don’t stop writing.

Eh ~ alright, To Sion- sama .

Ah, you can drop the sama I guess. Ah, wait a minute. You’ve already written that, rewrite it.

Erm... yeah. Cough cough.

Alright.

To stupid Sion.

It’s embarrassing to speak formally, and since it’s troublesome as well, I’m going to go with casual form. Casual okay?

Erm... what I want to say is, well in other words, this is how it goes.

For me, you know, how do I say this. I’ve been dead since a long time ago. Even though I’m alive, I’m actually dead. I’m a monster, you see, a monster who is only capable of hurting people, I can’t have anyone remain at my side, I can’t love anyone, thus there is no real meaning in my life. I’m always thinking about such things, you know, and have long since given up on everything.

That’s why despite being alive, I’m actually dead at the same time. Living my meaningless life sluggishly, ‘yaaawn’, that kind of feeling. Yawning every day, thinking whether I’m better off dead, hmm what is this, what am I saying here? Well, it doesn’t matter if it sounded strange.

Anyway, this is what I want to say......

That, that, in other words.

I’m...... you know, saved by you.

From the depths of my heart, you’ve saved me.

I’ve always...... I’ve always been grateful to you, you know.

I think I want to return that favor.

I’ve always been pondering on how to go about doing that.

That’s why even though I’m not exactly sure what kind of trouble you may be embroiled in, I’ll be coming over to where you are.

Didn’t I tell you on that rainy night? I would never give up on you. I meant it. That’s why, in order to save you, I’ll be coming over to where you are.

I’m going to save you.

In order to do that, I’m starting to feel somewhat motivated.

In order to get rid of my past unmotivated self, a brand new me has been born! I’m going to do it --- I’m shouting at your castle, you know? Are you laughing right now? Can you hear me? Well, it’s probably going to snow tomorrow. Yep.

Boring jokes aside, right now I’m thinking of coming over to where you are.

I’m not sure what kind of power I need in order to accomplish that, but regardless of that, I will get my hands on every single bit needed to come over to where you are.

So until then, prepare yourself and wait for me.

Because at that time, I’ll make you regret not killing me.

You.

The willful you who decided to wallow in misery alone, shouldering everything, making that crybaby face, I’ll be coming over to where you are.

I’ll make you.

I’ll make you......

I’ll make you proclaim that I’m the best best friend that you’ve ever had.

Hey you, why the heck are you writing down everything, even the sound of me clearing my throat...... I thought I told you to erase the first part!

Shut up, so are you going to rewrite from the beginning?

Why are you writing my part of our conversation! Hey, you even wrote down my previous comment...... hey I already told you this isn’t needed...... hey to what extent are you writing... you’re fast...... dahhhhhhhhhhhh what the heck! I say why are you writing everything! Ahh, but, uhm, forget it, this is getting bothersome, I'm getting pursued here anyway, just deliver this.

Well, the last part.

Erm, your best friend Ryner Lute.

Sion Ahotaare ...... you trash, how dare you refer to His Majesty as Ahotaare!

Hey, why are you suddenly including your own opinion! It’s my message isn’t it! Anyway, why are you demonstrating your thick-headedness on paper now............ ahh, it has become kind of tiring...... erm yeah. That’s fine as well. Okay, let's end this, shall we? Okay, the end. Please pass this to Sion. Do you understand?

“......”

That was the end of the message.

And then Sion, without thinking.

“...... what the heck is he doing?”

He smiled involuntarily as he said that. The excessively silly contents in the letter caused Sion, who carried a constant state of tension in his nerves since splitting up from Ryner, to loosen up considerably.

The tensed up Sion loosened up.

“...... idiot.”

Sion smiled as he said that.

As he smiled, a few drops of tears started flowing from his eyes.

“...... idiot. Why...... why is he always......”

His voice drifted off, unable to say anything further.

Even though he had betrayed him in such a terrible manner, Ryner could still say something like this.

I’ll make you proclaim that I’m the best best friend that you’ve ever had......

A long time ago.

Though he thought so a long time ago.

“...... to me...... somehow to me, you were my best friend of the past, Ryner.”

Sion’s voice seemed to crack up as he said that.

If possible, he would apologize to Ryner. He would immediately proclaim that Ryner is his best best friend. From here on, to laugh like idiots together. To tell him to work through the night together and have him say ‘no way’ and run away. To chase after him and force him back to work. To have him helping him in his work despite his whining. And occasionally, to sit on the rooftop viewing the night sky, with Ryner, and Ferris, eating dango together. And making meaningless chatter and laughing together.

Those kind of days.

If he could return to those kind of days, he would abandon this world.

That was what Sion thought.

That was what he thought strongly.

“......”

But those were only his thoughts.

Even as a dream, he could only dream about those things in a dream itself.

Even if he was crying.

He would look straight ahead.

With certainty, without looking back.

Moving onward and forward.

Because he is such a king.

“......”

At that moment, his tears had already stopped.

Carrying an emotionless expression.

With only a perfect faint smile.

The face of an unwavering, perfect, flawless hero king.

Sion lifted his head and called for the earlier messenger.

And then.

“...... send for Froaude. In the case of Ryner Lute...... or rather.”

He stopped momentarily before continuing.

“...... in the case of this country’s traitorous fugitive, he shall be apprehended by all means necessary.”

In that manner, Sion corrected his own words.

### 003. Chapter 2: The moment when lights fell

"So there you are", Ryner said as he scowled at the beautiful woman in front of him with half-opened eyes.

Two hours had already passed since he shook off the mage soldiers. It was pitch-black just a while ago but now, the sky was starting to brighten.

The 'usual place' he was to meet Ferris had to be Wynitt dango shop, but when he arrived there, she was nowhere in sight, “Uwah, she’s not here.”

Ryner grumbled while he headed towards Fargo dango shop located at the outskirts, and when he arrived, the proprietress lady who was just opening the shop said,

“Ah ~, if you’re looking for Ferris-chan, "I’m currently making a dango tour!" she was saying as she headed towards Pappul dango pastry shop.”

"Huh, if you’re supposed to wait for me, don’t go about making a dango tour for heaven’s sake!!"

He shouted as he made his way to Pappul dango pastry shop which, by the time he reached it at five in the morning, was already open for business and the shop owner, without saying a word, handed him a piece of paper that said,

“Fuhahahaha! How was it! With your level of moronic brain tissue --- in short moronic tissue, it’s impossible for you to find me, the genius bishojo ! Is it mortifying? Mortifying, isn’t it? Fuffuffu. Well well, if you’re feeling that mortified, then try finding me!!”

“I DON’T HAVE THAT KIND OF TIMEEEEEEEEE!”

As Ryner was yelling out, the shop owner said,

“Man, it must have always been tough on you.”

His pity for Ryner made him feel like crying .

That’s right. It was really tough on him, till the point that he did not even have any energy left to respond.

Well, this was really not the time to go along with Ferris’s foolish antics. Since they were still being pursued by Roland’s military. Every minute and every second counted and he really had to link up with Ferris as soon as possible to discuss the matter on leaving Roland.

That’s why he kept looking back and forth at his surroundings, and thought about which was the next dango shop where he would be able to capture that dango fanatic troublesome girl.

He looked at both the left and right paths, and started to consider.

‘’Now, which of the dango shops along the two paths will she be at?’’

‘’The one on the right is the closer one, but recently she prefers to patronize the one on the left which I think she mentioned was called Puum, or did she mention that at all, arghhhhhh, why do I have to think about such stupid things!’’

While he was thinking about this wearily, the shop owner behind him continued.

“Well, you don’t seem to have any choice really. It is a man’s duty to work hard for a beautiful woman, and besides, she really is an incredible beauty.”

Without turning around, Ryner replied.

" Is it really enough to be just beautiful! That’s really something I want to scream out right now."

“No but, aside from her looks, she also has an incredible personality, hasn’t she?”

However, Ryner reacted by just raising his eyebrows,

“Really?”

He said.

But the shop owner did not waver.

“Yeah. The other day, you know, there was a carriage passing by this shop at an incredible speed, while a puppy was passing through, and it seemed like it was going to get run over in an instant! And at that moment, within a hair’s breadth, she dived across to save that puppy. As a result she was completely covered with bruises and mud.”

“Wow.”

“But the puppy was fine and didn’t have a single scratch. She was willing to go out of the way and risk getting injured to save that puppy.”

“Woah. Well, she does seem like one who would do this sort of......”

As Ryner was speaking, the shop owner seemed to get emotional,

“And the number of puppies she has saved to date, has already exceeded two hundred in number......”

“Huh, what kind of lie is that!”

Ryner instinctively made a comeback.

And he turned around and looked at the shop owner behind the counter.

As he did that, for some reason, the shop owner appeared flustered.

“......”

Furthermore, also behind that counter, not knowing from where and when she appeared, was Ferris, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.

“......”

After she was done, she hurriedly handed the piece of paper to the shop owner and ducked back under the counter.

The shop owner then read from the piece of paper with a nervous voice,

“It...... it’s not a lie! Truly, two hundred puppies were indeed saved! If you think that number is insignificant, there is still that you know? Cats! Two hundred cats as well...... no, two thousand cats were saved!”

Those words.

“......”

Ryner, without a doubt, had nothing to say to that.

A piece of paper was passed out from beneath the counter.

“And also, and also babies! Babies who just started crawling, they were just too full of themselves and willfully took long trips from their homes you see......”

What kind of babies will get too full of themselves and willfully take long trips from their homes! Ryner wanted to make such a comeback at that point, but given how meaningless it seemed to be, he decided to bear with it.

However, the shop owner, in other words Ferris still continued on her silly antics.

“Somehow, for some reason, they were climbing mountains as well. And those were volcano types. Well you see, babies are still ignorant and can’t tell the danger those mountains hold.”

‘’No, that’s not the crux......’’

“On top of that, those babies while crawling with lots of vigor, trod on one another, and in the blink of an eye all 1.5 trillion of them slipped at the same time! They were all about to fall into the volcano at the same timeee!”

The shop owner was shouting energetically all of a sudden.

Thereafter, left without a choice, Ryner was thinking of making a comeback statements like " how can such a stupid thing be possibleeeeee?! ", or " I don’t think there are even 1.5 trillion human beings in this world to begin withhhhhh! ", but before that, he started to imagine ten thousand babies making “zugagagagaga” sounds and climbing furiously and all of them started falling into the volcano at the same time, and then thought that it was truly an unbelievably majestic scene.

“...... wait, ahhh, somehow, somehow it feels kind of pretty incredible.”

That being said, Ferris again immediately handed another piece of paper to the shop owner. He read it,

“That, that’s right! What a horrible tragedy, don’t you think!”

“...... yeah.”

“That’s the thing! That’s when the soft-hearted, that’s when the soft-hearted Ferris Eris-sama, whose heart is even softer than cotton candy, went to the rescue, saving the world! That’s exactly how it was!!”

That kind of.

After hearing that kind of transcendent story, Ryner,

“......”

He nodded his head anyway.

As he looked at the shop owner’s somewhat tired face, he understood, and made a " I can understand exactly what you’re going through " expression, which caused the shop owner to smile bitterly. After the two men connected on a heart-to-heart level, Ryner slowly walked towards the back of the counter.

Ferris, who was crouching under the counter, was once again writing furiously on a piece of paper.

And written on it were the following: “Furthermore, she also rescued 8 trillion, 600 million, and 400 koala bears who were falling off the trees they were climbing, isn’t she something?! (please use an intensely excited tone when you reached this portion on isn’t she something?! )”. And Ryner was staring at that nonsense written on that piece of paper.

“...... erm.”

As he said that, with half-opened eyes, he was scowling at the back of that trouble-causing beautiful woman.

She was found out!? With a startled expression, she turned around, opened her mouth as if to say something, then stopped, then opened her mouth again, then stopped, and finally said,

“Wh... what a coincidence Ryner. I just arrived at this shop a moment ago.”

“...... I see.”

“By the way, I just heard from Oyaji. Seems like you’ve heard quite a lot about me?”

“...... yeah, I’ve heard......”

“What do you think? Isn’t it a little unexpected...... a little unexpected of me...... how was it like?”

She was asking for feedback on her cock-and-bull story with nothing but sheer excitement on her face, which made Ryner feel even more weary.

The obvious answer to that would be " As I thought, it was really an unexpectedly idiotic story ", but since he could see himself getting killed with that kind of response, with a somewhat stiff voice, he decided to go with,

“...... ermmm...... ah ~, yeah. That’s it. I’ve known all along that you are an incredibly kind and good person, but that was really kind of unexpected heh.”

He was doing his best to prevent his voice from involuntarily growing light.

And then,

“Is that really so? That’s so true! That’s right! I’m really a good person! Fufufu.”

In an instant, she was in a completely joyous mood. It goes without saying that her face was beaming happily at the praise.

She was getting all jubilant like an idiot for such a meaningless thing.

“......”

Well, actually, she was not really making a face that was obviously full of happy emotions, at the very least not to others, if any, who might be looking at her. It was just that unlike most people, Ryner was able to tell even the slightest change of emotions from her mostly expressionless face.

And to him, from her face, she was undoubtedly having fun right now.

As Ryner looked at her face, there were still words he wanted to grumble and protest aloud,

“......”

But he gave up on that.

I don’t really have time to go along with your foolish games , he thought...... but after seeing how happy she was from all these silly antics, well, I’ll let it pass , was what he thought.

Because, when he first met her, there was no way she would make such a face.

When he first met her, she had a completely expressionless face, and spoke with a voice that had hardly any inflection, as if she was merely a life-sized doll.

And that was probably due to her upbringing.

It was all due to the fact that she was the younger sister of that monster Lucile.

Perhaps not just that. It was probably due to the fact that her House --- the Eris swords clan, was an extraordinary clan.

A mere doll possessing an extraordinary strength.

To other ordinary folk, this level of strength was something that could even be called a monstrous strength.

And for her to acquire such power at a young age, it was inevitable for her to have sacrificed something for it.

And in her case, they were her emotions, her expressions, and her smile.

Of course, that was something not so uncommon in this particular country. The institution where Ryner was previously placed in was such a place as well.

In the former Roland, which was under a tyrannical rule, these could be said to be fairly common occurrences.

Abnormally intense trainings, human experiments, and people who went insane because of that, Ryner had bore witness to many of such stories.

To die before one goes mad, or to live and break down eventually, those were the two mutually exclusive choices in most cases.

And she was one of those who lived.

The price for that was the loss of her emotions.

“......”

However, right before Ryner, she, who was supposed to have lost her emotions, was smiling happily.

And that was deep-felt genuine happiness, Ryner thought.

And that was probably a thin line.

The thin line that divides the possibility of retaining her emotions and the possibility of breaking down and possibly going mad.

It was just like the time when Ryner had given up on everything.

She completely sealed her emotions away.

However, despite the fact that the emotions were barely visible, she was smiling.

Without showing any expression and any emotion, a dango lover, a troublesome beauty who was ignorant of the world around her.

She who should have lost her emotions.

Day by day, she was regaining bits and pieces of her emotions, that was what Ryner felt.

And that was due to her spending the days with Ryner.

And that was due to her spending the days with Sion.

The three of them spending their days fooling around.

And Ryner thought so again.

It was thanks to Sion.

Ferris was also saved by Sion, he thought.

It also was Sion who pulled her from the depths of darkness.

Ryner and Ferris, who had been entrapped in darkness for a long time, were pulled out by Sion.

“......”

This was something that Ryner would normally never say out loud, but the truth was that Ryner had always wondered whether he was in a dream.

After meeting Sion.

After meeting Ferris.

To have spent his days with the two of them, it was as if he was living a dream in which he was having tons of fun, he thought.

The insane amounts of work that Sion pushed on him everyday, Ferris swinging her sword at him on her whims, and him shouting " It’s annoyingggggg! " at them, but even with that, the truth was that he was enjoying himself as well.

Compared to the amount of trouble they brought him, the number of times they saved him were way more than that, that was truly what he thought.

“......”

The rainy night when Sion told him he was going to kill him.

Ryner once again wanted to give up.

Just as always, finding everything to be a bother, he wanted to give up on everything.

If he was going to be killed by him.

If I’m going to be killed by my best friend who saved me, I can just die here , that was what he thought of immediately.

Anyway, there’s no real worth in me staying alive, I just happened to have a beautiful dream, and that’s enough.

It had always been like that since the beginning. Important things like happiness and friends, as a monster, there was no way he could have acquired all that.

But at that point in time, something different from before awoke within him.

Ferris’s words resounded in his head.

It was at a time when he should have given up as usual, an image of her face appeared in his head.

And she said.

To a monster with a worthless life. To me, a defiled monster who is only capable of hurting others, she said .

Someone who should have lost her emotions. Expressionless, rampaging, self-centred, spouting nonsensical ramblings all the time, that Ferris, to the Ryner who was ready to give up, who looked as he was about to cry as he was getting ready to die, she said.

That Ferris who should have lost all traces of her emotions, with a teary expression.

With a sorrowful, lonely expression, she smiled faintly.

"...... you idiot. If you were to die...... it would be lonely without you......"

Those words struck him hard in his mind as he remembered them. The wall that he used to protect himself, which had been built up over the years till then, seemed to be completely shattered at that.

And the Ryner then could no longer afford to die. He could no longer afford to give up. He realized what a fool he had been before. I have caused her such grief and why didn’t I realize this earlier?

I was saved.

I owed her, the two of them so much. What had I been doing up till now? He thought.

Why is it that he kept pushing them away as they reached out to him, and hurting them as a result.

In order to avoid getting hurt himself, he had hurt them.

And he actually used the excuse of not wanting to hurt them in order to cover it up.

“......”

Ryner looked at Ferris.

He looked at her delighted self.

There was a trace of expression on her face now.

It might be something that was hard to discern, but if one looked closely at her, not just Ryner but someone else, they might be able to notice it as well. That was what had changed.

It was different from the past.

She had changed, little by little.

It was not just Ryner.

Ryner, Ferris, and perhaps even Sion, had changed, little by little.

Because they were spending time together after all.

Because they were spending time together making a fool out of themselves, and laughing merrily like idiots.

It was thus not unrealistic to believe that in the near future, she would be able to laugh out loud. Ryner was sure of that.

If they were together.

He might be getting too far ahead, but if they were to stay together, the day will come when she would be able to laugh heartily, he thought.

And he wanted to see that day come.

He wanted to be by her side and witness it when that day comes, the day when she will be able to show a laughing face, laughing out loud from her heart, he thought.

And.

“......”

He wanted to show that to Sion as well.

That was what he thought.

The Sion who was now alone, appearing to be burdened by some unknown force.

He wanted to show him her laughing face, her crying face, he thought.

No, not just her.

All by himself, he is wallowing in despair, hopelessness, and seemed ready to die. “Ferris and I really wanted to support you in every way possible”, we need to let him know how we feel.

If Sion dies.

If he dies, I’ll definitely.

I’ll definitely go crazy from the pain, and wail out loudly, I need to tell him all that.

“......”

Ryner looked at Ferris.

Just not long ago, she was crying.

Ryner felt extremely flustered from seeing her cry for the first time.

In the prison.

When she came to rescue him, she started crying when she finally found out where he was.

For someone who should carry no emotions at all, Ryner and Sion were the ones who made her cry.

Ryner suddenly went missing on her, with his whereabouts unknown to her.

Sion became weird.

And she became unsettled.

She became unsettled from the feeling of losing everything she had, and finally when she found Ryner, she started crying in relief......

The two of them had become a huge and important part of her life.

For someone who should not possess any emotions, like an empty doll, Ferris was driven to the edge in such a manner.

Just because Ryner disappeared.

Just because Sion became weird.

It was because of that she was driven to the edge.

Did Sion understand that?

Did he really think Ryner and Ferris could leave him alone fighting all by himself?

If he really thought that way.

“...... we have to make him realize that.”

Ryner thought.

Well, even though that’s what he thought, he couldn’t really fathom what was happening.

As before, he was not in a position to contact Sion directly, and from the previous dialogue with the mage soldiers, it seemed like they were ordered to kill him if he couldn’t be captured.

In fact, the second wave may be coming after them soon.

There were already a ton of things they needed to do.

Even if Ferris was still feeling unsettled from all that had happened, it was not the time nor the place to continue fooling around.

Ryner looked at Ferris.

Not knowing since when, she grabbed a string of red bean paste dango from the racks and stuffed it into her mouth.

“Oo, delicious!”

What a thing to say.

The dango shop owner’s face brightened up at that.

“Ah, that was actually a new creation, Ferris-chan. It was filled with a special type of honey. I call it mitsuan-dango. ”

“Mitsuan-dango!? You must have spent time thinking of that, Oyaji!”

“That’s right.”

“That’s awesome! This mitsuan-dango is definitely going to become popular throughout the town!”

“Fufufu. In order to convert my own residence into a dango specialist shop, I’ve racked up quite a lot of debt, and that’s why I’ve worked so hard at this, you know ~.”

What a fun conversation it seems to be, eh... it seems like she can really live on dango alone, does she really need me and Sion? He pondered briefly and said.

“Hey Ferris, we haven’t even managed to meet up with Sion yet, isn’t it too early for you to be back on your feet already?”

Ferris turned her head and tilted it towards him, with an incredulous expression on her face.

“Huh? Get back on my feet? What are you talking about? I didn’t get depressed at all.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup.”

“Hm ~ but you know, just now in the prison, you were cry......”

In an instant.

As usual!

The same usual development unfolded!

With a speed that was not visible to the naked eye of most, she drew her sword and the flat of the blade came smashing into his face.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

And he was sent flying, crashing into the ground with a spin.

“Gafa.”

He landed.

With a tearful expression, he looked up and Ferris said to him.

“Come again, who did what?”

“...... well, you know, you......”

“Hm?”

“...... nothing, nothing happened really......”

Ryner said with a shaking voice.

Well but, the reaction she had just now, that it in itself showed that she was worried about Sion as well, he thought.

Probably......

He was not really confident about that though......

And at that moment, she peered down at Ryner.

“By the way Ryner, you went flying all of a sudden, what happened to you? You aren’t covered with any bruises or mud, it seems. Don’t tell me you saw an illusion of a dog getting run over by a carriage? Don’t tell me you are on some kind of dubious drug?”

In response to that, Ryner,

“...... yeah. I’m on a drug......”

Somehow, he replied with a matching response.

He really had no time to fool around with her anymore.

After sighing slightly, he got up on his feet in a flash. He used his hands to brush off the imaginary mud.

And he sighed again, and said.

“Well, it’s time for some serious talk. Let’s review our situation now.”

At that, she nodded her head and said.

“Okay. But before that Ryner, there is something I need to tell you.”

“Tell me?”

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“Well, currently, a matter of grave importance had cropped up within Roland...... did you know?”

She said it with a strangely meek expression, and Ryner squinted his eyes.

“...... a matter of grave importance? Is it something that is even graver than the war with Nelpha?”

She nodded with the same meek expression.

“Nothing can be compared to this.”

“Nothing can be compared...... so, what’s the matter about?”

She kept silent for a moment, and started taking deep breaths to quell her apparent nervousness, and said.

“Currently, within this Roland Empire, a universally most awesome dango, the mitsuan-dango has been perfected by Oyaji of this Pappul pastry shop......”

“I don’t care about that anyhowwwwwwwwwwww!!”

This time round, Ryner yelled with all his might.

However, she was shocked at his reaction,

“What, what, what do you mean by you don’t care about that! Oyaji of Pappul had to spend years of tireless effort to perfect this!”

The shop owner butted in as well,

“That, that’s right! In order to build this shop, I had to take on a large amount of loans! If I can’t sell this, if I can’t sell this, my whole family will be ruined you bastard!”

He scolded vigorously, and Ryner replied,

“...... erm, ahh, well, if you are putting your family on the line, that really seems like a grave matter but, ermm, well, what should we do about it ?”

That somehow helped to calm him down a little.

Then Ferris made a " you finally understood us " face and said,

“Alright. Anyway, why don’t you first try one of these mitsuan-dango. If you do that, then even if it’s you, you would be able to understand its greatness. After that, we can go into the inner zashiki and discuss our strategies for pushing this dango to the rest of the world.”

“Well, we have other strategies to discuss and it will really be bad if we don’t......”

“Now now, try eating this.”

“Well but, we still have pursuers hot on our heels. If we continue to hang around here carelessly, it will become a dangerous...... wah, what’s this! This is stupendously delicious!”

“Didn’t I tell you! Oyaji! This stupid man gave a thumbs-up as well!”

The shop owner made a gutsy pose,

“Yes! With this, I would be able to pay off my loans!”

" Wahhahha ", Ferris and the shop owner both laughed at the same time.

“......”

He stared blankly at the two of them.

Somehow.

It was somehow a peaceful scene, Ryner thought.

It seemed so peaceful that he was the one who looked like an idiot while he fretted anxiously.

He began to consider the development in which they started relaxing in the inner zashiki, and started feeling as if there was sufficient time......

While he was feeling that......

“......”

Suddenly, a light appeared from the nearby surroundings.

Ryner opened his eyes fully.

The light took up a sash-like form and was streaking towards the shop.

And Ryner knew what that light was.

It was magic. A type of attack magic.

A powerful, highly damaging spear of light.

Among the magic used in Roland, it counts as one of the more destructive types.

It’s Kuuri .

That spear of light was the first.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

Using his eyes, Ryner counted a total of twelve rays of Kuuri fired towards them.

“Ferris!”

Ryner yelled.

But she was already moving. Carrying the shop owner, she leaped to the second floor.

After verifying that, Ryner leaped as well.

After reading the trail of Kuuri , he turned his body away from it, and followed close behind her.

The magic struck.

With overwhelming power, the flashes of light struck Pappul dango pastry shop.

The counter disintegrated into pieces, the pillar was ripped apart, and a hole was blasted through the wall.

From behind them,

“The, the shop...... my debts arghhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

What a wretched woeful cry that was, but they did not have the luxury of time to pay attention to that.

The spell known as Kuuri , is one of relatively higher difficulty level. It was unlikely that the mage soldiers that were pursuing them a while ago had learned the spell at their level.

In other words, the current pursuers were much more skilled than those earlier.

And from the number of Kuuri launched against them, the pursuers numbered at least twelve.

Ryner knitted his eyebrows.

“Arghhh, this is really bothersome......that’s why I told you we should have quickly planned out our next move and made our escape preparations...... what should we do now Ferris?”

While he remained attentive to the enemy’s movement behind them, his eyes were looking at Ferris.

As he was saying that, she was standing on the rooftop --- well, since the first level of the shop had collapsed inwards entirely, the roof was pretty low --- with the shop owner in her left arm, and her right hand on her sword preparing to draw it at anytime.

While glaring in the direction of the enemy, she said,

“We’ll run of course. If we fight, I don’t have the confidence in holding back and avoid wounding any one of them.”

Ryner nodded. He was also thinking along the same line.

If the two of them were to fight them, they would certainly triumph over them. To put it in another way, they were capable of wiping them out without incurring a single wound themselves.

However, they were certainly not opponents against which they could hold back their strength and avoid injuring any one of them.

Several of them would probably be seriously wounded. Perhaps a few of them might even die.

Roland’s soldiers.

They couldn’t lift their hands to kill any soldiers of Roland Empire, a place where they belonged to just a while ago.

“...... now really, this has become really bothersome.”

After saying that, Ryner took a small leap to just stand beside her.

“So now, we run?”

She nodded.

“Right. While we are running, we should discuss about our future plans.”

“Ah, finally you feel like getting down to some serious business eh?”

“I’ve always been serious.”

“............ sigh.”

“Why are you sighing!?”

“No no. It’s just that it has really been fun traveling with you.”

“Y... you, you dare make a fool out of me......”

“I’m not, I’m not, stop brandishing your sword at me while the enemy is still around!!”

Ryner yelled, sighed again, and looked in front of him.

The enemy had not shown themselves yet. They were hiding in the shadows of some buildings along the street, watching them.

Not knowing their exact numbers, it would be a difficult thing to just blindly rush through them. Now, what’s next?

“It would be better for us to stay here and wait until they come out of hiding before we start running, but Oyaji may get caught up in it......”

He looked down towards the shop owner whose head was drooped in despair while murmuring ‘’the debts’’, ‘’the debts’’.

Ferris nodded,

“We definitely can’t get the dango shop involved in our problems.”

“Now now, it’s not just about dango shops, but anyone for that matter. So, which way do we go? Right?”

“Left.”

“Left huh. Okay. Cover me for a while, would you? If I don’t use magic to enhance my speed, I won’t be able to catch up with you. It will take three seconds for me to invoke it.”

“Alright.”

“Okay, shall I go ahead?”

“Do it.”

Ryner lifted up and pointed his hand to the sky.

As he did that, he started drawing out words of light in the air.

The magic symbols that were drawn were evidently of a different structure from that of Roland’s magic.

It was magic which he previously stole from Estabul’s mage knights using the special power of his eyes, Alpha Stigma .

However, as expected, the enemy, who were waiting for them to make a move, started their attack to interfere with Ryner’s spell casting.

To start off, there were several daggers flying towards him diagonally from his right.

But Ryner did nothing to avoid them.

Rather, there was no need to.

Because Ferris promptly used her sword to deflect the incoming projectiles.

Next, balls of fire began flying towards him somewhere from his left. Ferris then thrust her sword into planks of wood that made up the roof, and with her sword acting like a skewer, flung the wood off towards the incoming fireballs. The pieces of wood were shattered into smaller pieces on contact with the projectiles. However, not a single one of them came anywhere near the duo.

And Ryner was gaping at the action,

“Wow, awesome.”

As he said that, Ferris turned and glared at him and said.

Just hurry up.”

“Ya ya.”

Finally, from behind her, came streaking towards them was the same magic that was used previously.

The spears of light, Kuuri .

It seemed like something that even Ferris couldn’t do anything about it, that’s why Ryner started to dodge.

But.

To that she,

“Hn”

She merely made a small sound and swiftly cut the spears of light with her sword.

“......”

Ryner, for an instant, wanted to smile at that.

Because that was the first time he saw someone cutting light. Well, her skill with the sword is always something that amazes him however......

Thinking about that, he remembered a scene in which he saw her slicing lightning apart but......

But as he thought of that, Ryner started to feel a strange unease and his hand that was inscribing magic symbols stopped moving.

“...... eh?”

He murmured briefly.

She sliced apart lightning --- as those words floated in his head, all of a sudden, he felt a sharp strong pain in his head.

That particular memory, when it happened, where it happened, why it happened, he could recall absolutely nothing at all.

Well, in the first place, was that lightning from the sky?

Or was it something that came from magic?

He could not even remember that detail.

At the very least, Roland should not have any magic in the form of lightning in existence......

“...... ouch!”

At that thought, his head was once again assaulted by an excruciating pain, and Ryner groaned......

“Wh... what is this.”

Something odd was happening. Whenever he thought about lightning, he got an immense headache.

Lightning.

Lightning magic..................

“Gua”

In a flash, he felt an immense pain in his head, a nauseating feeling, and giddiness.

“What the hell is this.”

Ryner, with an unsettled feeling, stopped thinking. And his headache was gone.

It was obvious that there was something strange going on.

It was as if he was forcefully disallowed from thinking about anything related to lightning, that was the feeling he got.

What was actually happening now? Rather, it was not now, but probaby something that happened while he was imprisoned......

“...... I was brainwashed......?”

But what kind of brainwashing was that?

What was it that was related to lightning that was erased from my mind?

While Ryner was starting to ponder about that,

“Hey!”

A voice was heard and " Gon "! A loud sound was made as he was given a sharp knock by a sword on his head,

“Gua arghhhhhh!?”

Ryner clutched his head,

“Wh... what the heck are you doing!”

He yelled angrily and Ferris,

“The same goes for you...... wh...... what the heck are you doing! Even if it’s us, anything beyond this...... damn.”

She sounded strained.

He looked at her and saw her desperately slicing away at dozens of Kuuri launched successively, in order to prevent him from getting struck.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Ryner apologized instinctively.

And without looking back, she said,

“If you have...... the time to apologize...... quickly...... finish working on the spell.”

As she said that, he looked at the glowing words he had drawn in front of him and said.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that as well. It’s already done.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Please don’t kill me.”

“Then hurry up and do it!”

“Ya ya.”

And Ryner started to chant the words.

"I OFFER UP THIS CONTRACT OF WORDS, TO BEAR THE SPIRIT BEASTS OF MALICE THAT SLEEPS WITHIN THIS EARTH!"

The spell was finally completed.

At the same time.

Ryner’s movement speed started increasing.

He shook his hand lightly to verify that, well beyond his normal physical limits, his movement speed was several times faster than before, and he said.

“Alright, it’s done. Which way are we going again?”

“Right.”

“Liar ~. You said ‘left’ earlier, didn’t you ~.”

“If you remember, don’t ask again!”

“So, in the end, which way are we going?”

Ferris looked left and right, and after confirming that both paths had gradually narrowed due to the encircling of the enemy,

“Alright. Let’s go the opposite way.”

Ryner nodded.

“Well, let’s go then.”

“Right.”

“I’ll restrict their movement with magic, while you go first.”

“Understood.”

“Alright, I’m just going to do this once......”

Ryner’s hand started moving in the air again. With an unbelievable speed, he inscribed glowing magic symbols in the air.

One done.

Two done.

Three done.

Four done.

Five done.

He finished constructing the equations with a speed that could not be followed by the naked eye, and looked in the direction of the enemy.

The enemy, as before, were going to fire successive bouts of Kuuri . That was the right tactic.

There was no question that the other side had greater firepower. If that’s the case, he should have used more and stronger magic to suppress them.

However.

“That isn’t the right way to use Kuuri .”

Ryner grinned broadly and started to chant.

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUURI!”

In an instant, rays of light were fired simultaneously from the first three magic inscriptions that Ryner had drawn.

All three of them were aimed at the same place.

As the rays intersected, an even bigger and more intense sash of light was created, and at the midpoint between Ryner and the enemy, the light particles fell to the ground.

Subsequently, a huge exploding sound was heard and the earth split open.

The ground that was paved with earth and stones was turned up, causing pebbles and gravel to fly, creating a cloud of sand dust.

There were probably some who were hit by the blast, but that was not what Ryner was aiming for. Creating the cloud of sand dust was his true objective.

In an instant, the smoke-like cloud of sand dust that was stirred up greatly reduced the visibility between the two sides.

Of course, at that moment, the enemy would be thinking of rushing him. And Ryner would definitely respond again with a magic attack. The next attack spell would take some time to prepare. By taking advantage of the low visibility, they would capture Ryner...... that’s what they would be thinking.

But Ryner still had two completed magic inscriptions that were not invoked yet.

While grinning broadly.

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUURI!”

He chanted.

A ray of light was shot out again.

It was aimed in the direction of the enemy.

But it was aimed at a slightly higher point.

It was high enough not to hit the enemy soldiers, but yet not too high at the same time so as to brush by their heads and startle them.

“Uwaah!?”

The gasps of surprise could be heard.

And highly likely, the soldiers should stop moving for around ten over seconds. With the low visibility, and the fact a Kuuri was fired from the opposing side of the dust cloud, they would be too fearful to make a foolish move.

At that moment,

“So long guys ~”

Ryner started running.

He retreated from that place swiftly, full of vigor.

In the midst of running, after putting some distance away from the enemy, once again,

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUURI!”

He invoked the final magic inscription.

The enemy probably still thought that Ryner was still standing on the roof of the dango shop.

That would delay them for another ten over seconds.

That would sum up to around thirty seconds.

With that kind of time, he could easily escape from their line of sight.

Ryner turned his head around from the direction of the enemy to face forward.

As he did so, Ferris appeared from a back alley just some distance away, and he ran towards her.

“What are you doing in a back alley?”

As he was asking her, he caught a glimpse of the dango shop owner lying on the ground behind her.

“Ah I see.”

Ryner nodded in agreement.

If they were to leave Oyaji back there, his death would have been certain. And this was something that was completely off Ryner’s mind back then.

Ferris looked at him with a doubtful expression,

“What was the matter with you back then? You took a pretty long time to invoke that magic, forgot all about the shopkeeper. And furthermore, you had that moronic face looking towards the sky...... wait, the moronic face is a usual occurrence though.....”

“Now, there was no real need to insert that extra line......”

“In spite of that, somehow you were staring blankly at the sky. What really happened?”

At her question, Ryner scratched his head and said.

“Well regarding that, that was something bothering me actually......”

“Something bothering you?”

“Yeah. Regarding lightning...... ah, well, forget it. Is Oyaji okay?”

“Uh-huh. He’s only out cold.”

“You’re kind of dangerous when you get violent, were you the one who hit him?”

But Ferris shook her head.

“Ah, so, he passed out from the fear.”

However, she shook her head again,

“He was crying out ahhh my debts and his eyes rolled over all of a sudden.”

“Eeh ~”

When he heard that, Ryner felt a slight ache in his chest. Well, rather than a slight ache, it might have been a little bit stronger.

But Ferris promptly,

“Now, let’s hurry up and get out of here.”

“Uwah, Ferris is strong. Don’t you feel any kind of heartache?”

With a confused look,

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, it’s nothing if you don’t get it.”

“Well let’s go. The situation doesn’t look too good right now.”

What a thing to say now, and only until now,

“That was what I had been telling you all this while ~”

“Is that so? Well that’s a pity though. Whenever you talk, I don’t seem to hear you at all!”

For some reason, she was brimming with confidence as she said that, and he replied,

“...... well, can you start paying attention to what I say from now on...... please?”

“No way.”

“Ermm...... fine. Since I’ve already known right from the beginning that’s the way you are......”

After Ryner said that with a tired voice, he turned his head around again.

Even though the enemy were still unsure of which way Ryner went and were not coming after them yet, they would get found out sooner or later if they were to continue to hang around here leisurely.

Ryner looked at the lady who had always been inattentive to what he said,

“...... alright. Let’s discuss our strategy along the way as we are getting out of here.”

“Right.”

And the duo ran.

They entered the shopping district, ran just two to three bends ahead, and agilely jumped up onto the rooftops of the grocery stores, and leaped from roof to roof.

Even though there was probably no pursuers who could match up to the speed and vigor at which they were moving, they showed no signs of slowing down.

Ryner began to speak as he was running. He looked at Ferris who was running beside him,

“Well, before we make any other move from now on, it would be prudent to first verify the current state of affairs of Roland.”

Ferris nodded.

“Fugo, gogofugoo, fufufugo.” (munching sounds)

She had four mitsuan-dango in her mouth.

“What the, you managed to bring those along in that kind of situation!”

She swallowed them hastily,

“Of course. That was my top priority and I did my best to grab as much as I could.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. Because of that, I didn’t manage to cover you fully, and there were around two instances that you were nearly hit by those dangerous magic from the sky, which really made me break out in cold sweat.”

“That’s scaryyyyyyyyyyyy, erm wait, you should be covering me properly hello?”

“It was your bad for staring blankly and not paying attention in the midst of a battle.”

“I thought that it was more of your bad for going all out to secure those dango in the midst of a battle.”

At the end of the day, the fault belonged to both.

“Well, putting that aside anyhow.”

Ryner said.

“We definitely need to leave the country for now. It’s not the first time we are getting chased after though, but currently, there is obviously something strange about this country. I think we need to get another perspective from outside of this country.”

“Thr... throat is blocked...... ocha ......”

“Huh? Shut up. I don’t have any.”

“Ah, ah............ ah, a flower bed......”

“Eehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Ah, I’m fine now.”

“Die!”

“Yep. Almost did. That was dangerous.”

Ferris clutched her chest as she spoke with wheezing sounds, and Ryner, with a fed-up face, said.

“Well, that’s enough. Listen to me now.”

“Right. I was listening. You were talking about how dango and ocha are a must-have, is that right?”

“You are completely offffffffffff, aren’t you? I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere in my communication with this person arghhhhhhhhhhhh!”

As Ryner was yelling, Ferris said.

“Putting jokes aside, we need to get out of the country, is that right?”

“Ah, you were listening after all?”

“Fufu. I’m different from you in that I’m always serious.”

“Wow. That’s really awesome......”

Ryner said that with half-opened eyes, and Ferris nodded in contentment.

“I see I see. I’m a pretty awesome person! So, after leaving the country, what’s next? Do you have a way to break the deadlock in this situation?”

She asked.

“......”

Ryner thought back about Sion and what happened during that rainy night.

Sion told Ryner to die and a fight ensued.

And in the end, Sion transformed into something strange.

The Sion then said that he wanted to devour Ryner, something which he completely could not understand.

It seemed like he needed to devour something called The Solver of All Equations , and become something called ‘Shin’ or something like that.

But what did all that really mean?

The thing called The Solver of All Equations somehow seemed to be something special embedded within Ryner’s Alpha Stigma eyes.

Ryner closed his right eye, and felt his eyeball over his eyelid.

The ‘Shin’ that Sion would become after devouring his eyes, what was that referring to?

Was it the 'Shin' in god?

Or was it the 'Shin' in truth?

With the current amount of information he had, he could hardly make head or tail on what was said.

Well, however, the figure that Sion transformed into was probably ---

Ryner recalled how he looked like at that time.

His whole skin was glowing a golden color, and underneath that body, there was something dark, ugly, something that appeared to be filled with despair creeping out of his body.

Underneath Sion’s skin, there was some kind of a grotesque form...... sophisticated patterns, incantation words, magic, light, darkness, it felt like every possible thing belonging to this world was creeping out of his body.

To give an analogy, it seemed like a curse that was out to completely invade this world.

Something abnormal and unpleasant was inside Sion.

And the darkness.

To put it more accurately, it was something resembling a deep shroud of blackness that threatened to bury this entire world.

The scene changed.

All of a sudden, he was surrounded by a bunch of black swords......

The swords......

“Ah......”

At that memory, Ryner made a small sound.

That’s right. At that moment back then, Ryner unleashed some form of magic. Something that was powerful and used for attacking purpose. However, the transformed Sion held up his hand, and the black swords struck the magic, and erased it completely.

The magic unleashed by Ryner.

It was as if that form of magic which he used did not even exist in this world in the first place......

But what kind of magic did he actually use......

At that moment,

“...... ouch.”

Ryner clutched his head again.

It was again that excruciating headache, giddiness, and nauseating feeling.

But he smiled. In spite of having that kind of intense headache, he smiled.

‘’That’s right. That time. Lightning......’’

“...... gaa”

The headache was interfering with his thoughts. Despite the intense headache, he did not stop the flow of his thoughts.

‘’Lightning.................................... magic........................ was............ what I used against Sion.’’

And it was erased.

The magic was erased.

As if it did not exist in this world right from the beginning.

He got the feeling that any trace of its former existence was completely erased from this world.

‘’But what was the true extent of that power? Was I the only one with my memories manipulated? Or.......’’

Ryner looked at Ferris.

She had that strangely worried expression again,

“Really, what is the matter with you, Ryner? You were looking at the sky again. Are you having a headache?”

He only gave a faint smile to indicate that he was fine, and then said,

“It’s nothing. But that aside, there’s something I need to ask you.”

“What?”

“You see, about me.”

“Yep.”

“Normally, what kind of magic do I use?”

“...... magic?”

She asked back.

“Yeah. The type of magic that I use normally. Do you remember what is it?”

While running, she folded her arms and tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Hm. Which is it, I wonder. What exactly is it...... hm? Well, I don’t know much about magic though.”

“But don’t you often see me using magic?”

“Yeah.”

“Just now, didn’t I keep using Kuuri ? That spell carries too much power and it’s easy to kill the opponent with that.”

“Yeah, you don’t want that to happen.”

“But I can’t use Misumi as well. That would cause a flood which would be a troublesome thing.”

Ferris nodded.

“That goes the same for Kurenai and Hamuro . I don’t want to start a fire in the area.”

Ferris nodded again.

“So, what was it? What was it that I normally use?”

Her expression became troubled and disturbed.

“...... hmm? It’s strange. I’ve forgotten about it. What in the world......”

But that was enough.

As expected, it was erased.

From Ferris’s memories as well.

From everyone’s memories.

From the entire world.

Its existence was completely erased.

That was something.

“...... that was at the level of god......”

“God?”

Ferris asked, but Ryner did not answer.

That was obviously some extraordinary power. It could not be explained with the current advancements in magic, there was nothing in existence yet that could replicate that kind of power.

Well, in fact, even with the relics of heroes that were encountered to date, there probably was none that possess that level of power.

An extraordinary power that surpassed that of the relics of heroes.

That power wanted to devour Ryner and become Shin.

Ryner smiled bitterly without thinking.

About what Sion was embroiled in.

“......”

It was kind of too bothersome.

Just the relics of heroes alone were already more than what he could handle, and now there’s this extremely immense power that appeared to be a great bother.

Well, that’s why Sion decided to bear all the burdens all by himself, he thought.

However, the key to unlocking the mystery was not totally non-existent.

Assuming that he already got his hands on a number of keywords.

And because they did not connect till now, he was not aware of what they meant.

Because he had no desire to connect them, he was blind to them.

He did already in fact have a number of keywords.

The weaver of all equations.

The solver of all equations.

α.

ω.

The gate.

The key.

The crimson monster in his dream.

And Sion......

Rather, the monster inside Sion, which he was unable to tell what it was even with his Alpha Stigma , wanted to devour Ryner, according to 'him', and become something called 'Shin', and he didn't really know whether it referred to the 'Shin' in truth, or 'Shin' in god.

That's right. It's not as if he was completely up against a dead end.

The keywords were starting to fall into place.

And these words were learned from outside of this country.

That's why there was a necessity to leave this country.

There was a necessity to gain another perspective of this country from outside of this country.

From Imperial Nelpha. From Runa Empire. From Cassla. It might be possible to gain an entirely new insight by realigning their perspective of this country from those three major powers of central Menoris.

Or at the very least, he should be able to get that new perspective if he were to view this country from Gastark.

The Gastark Empire that uses underhand means to gather the relics of heroes, a major power of the north.

If it's them, there was a chance that they might know more about what's happening to Sion.

Well, even though it brought back distasteful memories of them killing his friends, if it's Lir, the guy who killed Lafla, Pueka, and the rest, he would definitely know something about it.

At any rate, as he was on the verge of leaving during their last encounter, he said the following.

"...... well, as far as possible, do your best to avoid being betrayed, mad monster."

Do your best to avoid being betrayed.

Was that a prediction on what was happening now?

Did he know that Sion would one day betray Ryner?

“......”

It was certain that he knew something.

Those from Gastark knew something.

Well, even if that's the case, it's unthinkable for them, who are actively hunting cursed eyes bearers, to get along casually with Ryner, an Alpha Stigma bearer, which meant that it would be difficult to acquire any kind of information from them, but was it not possible that such information was scattered around elsewhere outside of Roland?

Well, at the very least, there's nothing left to be learned within Roland. Ryner himself had spent many years researching on his Alpha Stigma , and hardly any lead had been turned up after all those years.

However, once he stepped outside of the country, this sort of information that he was seeking came tumbling into his lap one after another.

In other words, the key to the problem that Sion was bearing upon himself, was it not possible for it to be scattered somewhere outside of the country?

That was also part of the reason for Ryner to leave this country.

In order to save Sion.

In order to discover the truth behind his eyes.

“Ferris.”

“Hn?”

“As I thought, we really should get out of this country.”

Ferris looked at him with a " what are you saying when we are already at this juncture " expression.

“You've already said that a number of times. What's wrong with you? Did you really just become an idiot?”

Ryner smiled wryly,

“Well, you see, after thinking about it, I've kind of found various reasons for us to leave this country, and each time I've mentioned it was the time when one of those reasons hit me.”

But Ferris had a slightly worried expression.

Ryner shrugged his shoulders.

“I'm telling you the truth. There's nothing wrong with me really.”

Ferris gave a few knocks to his head with her hand.

“Did somebody put something in your head while I wasn't looking?”

Though she was not too far away from the truth, Ryner shook his head.

“No way.”

But she didn't gave up.

“Or could it be that you got hit real hard on the head?”

“Well, that would be by you with your sword.”

And then she got a eureka look on her face.

“So that was it!”

“I guess?”

“It's fine then.”

“It's not!”

“Now really, it was good for you.”

There was no way a swinging knock with enough power to send him flying could be good for him, Ryner thought, but instead of debating with her illogical line of thought, he continued.

“Anyway, as I was saying, let's leave the country.”

She nodded.

“I don't really mind.”

After getting her affirmation, Ryner said.

“But before that, we need to understand the current status of Roland...... like the war waged with Nelpha...... and which direction this country will be going is also something we need to be able to foresee.”

“Hm. So, how long will the investigation take?”

“Hn ~ well, one day? If I can capture a soldier and interrogate him, as well talk to some of the people in town, it should be enough, I think. After that, we can proceed to observe the battlefront at Nelpha, which should help us in understanding what Sion is trying to accomplish.”

She stopped in her tracks suddenly,

“So, the next place we are heading to is Nelpha?”

And she turned her sight towards the north.

That was the direction where Imperial Nelpha lay.

Then again, since Roland was located at the southernmost of Menoris continent, any other country would be in the north with respect to Roland.

Ryner stopped and looked to the north as well.

“Well really, Runa would be fine as well...... but it's still officially an ally of Roland. For us who are currently fugutives wanted by Roland, it would be easier to move in a country having hostile relations with Roland.”

It was doubtful however how long would Runa maintain its alliance with Roland, which was quick in waging a war.

Ryner looked behind him.

Seeing no sign of them, it seemed like they had completely lost their pursuers.

Ryner ended his speed enhancement magic.

As he did so, he felt his muscles loosen considerably. Since this particular magic releases a limiter in his mind to allow his muscles to perform beyond their normal physical limits, he felt extremely fatigued upon ending the spell.

As his strength ebbed away from him, he breathed out a sigh of tiredness. He then looked at Ferris,

“I think it's time for us to get down from the rooftops.”

“Agree. There's a good dango shop nearby anyway.”

“Dango again?”

“Dango is everything to me.”

“...... well, if you can gain happiness from that, it's fine I guess. Then, let's talk while we walk.”

“Right.”

The two of them jumped down from the rooftop and started walking.

Ryner continued.

“Now that it's decided that we are leaving this country, it would really be bad if we don't bring Arua and the rest along.”

The boy called Arua, was previously saved by Ryner and Ferris from certain torture in Runa Empire, and like Ryner is an Alpha Stigma bearer. Currently, he and his childhood friend, Kuku, are residing some distance away from Ferris's house.

But Ferris looked doubtful.

“No, won't it be difficult for us to cross the borders while bringing them along? We are currently wanted right? Furthermore the pursuit for us will get even more intense, and if we get attacked, it will be difficult to escape while protecting them at the same time.”

“Yeah. I thought so too...... but since we were the ones who brought them to this country, to leave now without bringing them along would be kind of bad, don't you think? Even though Sion may be kind at heart and may continue to watch out for them but still...”

Well actually, how the current Sion might treat them still remained a thing to be seen.

Ryner wouldn't feel good about it if Sion were to take them hostage in order to threaten him to return to this country.

If that could happen, then taking them along would become a necessity. Though by doing that would make things a lot more difficult.

“Now, what should we do about it?”

Though as Ryner pondered aloud, Ferris looked at him with an exalted expression.

It felt like she was laughing mockingly, knowingly.

And she said.

“Fufun ♪.”

“Now, I know what you are thinking just by looking at your face, there's no real need to laugh out loud in that manner.”

“Fufufu~n ♪.”

“Arghh really ok ok. So, tell me what's on your mind. You have an idea, don't you?”

He asked in a not particularly expectant manner.

She nodded and said.

“How about this?”

“What?”

“Let's seek Iris's help in bringing Arua and Kuku out of the country. How's that?”

She said.

By the way, the girl called Iris, who is not even a full ten years in age, is Ferris's younger sister. Her beauty and bothersomeness are the splitting image of her elder sister. In fact, while she is twice as bothersome as her elder sister and a difficult person to deal with, her strength is the real deal.

Of course, she is not yet at the same level as Ferris, but still as the second daughter of the powerful Eris House, at the age of ten, she should already possess a level of strength that makes her more than a match for any ordinary soldier.

Ferris continued.

“Ever since Arua came to this country, while precociously saying how he's going to protect Kuku, he has been training like crazy. If Iris and Arua work together, crossing the borders shouldn't be a difficult thing. At the very least, it should be much safer than traveling with us who are on the run. Even if they are captured, at most they would be sent back to Sion. I don't think there's any danger to that, so what do you say?”

What a thing it was for Ferris to say that.

Without thinking, Ryner,

“Some, somehow...... somehow today, for the first time, you actually came up with something decent.”

On hearing that, she said happily.

“Are you surprised?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Then make a more 'surprised' expression.”

“Eh ~, is that some kind of a request?”

“For once, I just said something brillant, shouldn't you be going Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah that's awesomeeeeee Ferris is a geniusssssssss! and start rolling on the ground......”

“No way I'm going to do thatttttt, neither am I going to make a comeback on your jokes, I'm kind of tired, so can you please stop digressing? Ever since I got out of prison, thanks to the antics from a certain someone, I'm pretty much drained now.”

Ferris tilted her head to one side,

“A certain someone? Who in the world is that?”

“Well, I'm sure if you search that heart beneath your chest, it would be known to you.”

After Ryner said that, all of a sudden, she gasped. She blushed and with an expression that looked like she just had a realization, she clutched her chest with her hands in a hiding and protective manner.

“Those, those perverted eyes...... what, what in the world are you thinking of doing to my chest!?”

It was again one of her little antics.

And Ryner held up his hand,

“Now seriously, I'm not going to play a fool with you anymore, so please let me off.”

In an instant, she went back to her usual emotionless expression,

“Boring!”

“Now, to say it's boring...... after we get out of this country, I'll play along with you, so for now, can you just bear with it?”

“That's a promise?”

“You really want that so much?”

“Uh-huh. For the past two weeks, with almost no one to talk to...... it had been extremely boring. Let's get out of the country quickly and you can continue to entertain me!”

In a sulky tone she said, and Ryner smiled wryly at her.

So that was it. At the end of the day, she was just feeling lonely.

“So anyway, did you go back to look for Sion during the past two weeks......?”

Maintaing a sulky expression, she nodded.

“No matter how many times I went back, I was chased away. There were like dozens of those disgusting monsters that have their bodies liquidefied...... it was impossible to get close......”

Disgusting monsters with their bodies liquidefied.

Ryner grimaced at that.

During that rainy night, when Sion came to assault Ryner, he brought along those too.

They were made from those vile human experiments.

The sacrifices needed for experimentation to create such super soldiers probably numbered by the dozen, or possibly even by the thousand.

It was a research project inherited from the former Roland.

But that was something that should have been terminated since Sion became king.

It should be something that Sion could not forgive.

However, Sion resumed those experiments. In a place which was out of Ryner's sight. Always smiling like nothing was amiss, he was in fact carrying out those experiments behind his back.

Even though Ryner did not know how much of distress he must be feeling behind them, but he......

He was not the type of person who could easily accept people dying, that was something that Ryner knew best.

Deep distress and despair.

That was what was seen on his face on that rainy night.

The face of someone who was shouldering on a heavy burden.

And now, Sion had already deployed dozens of those abnormal soldiers to guard the castle of Roland.

And Ryner,

“......”

He turned his sight away from Ferris, looked at the streets, and then gazed in the direction of the castle.

Even though it looked as if nothing had changed, this country, without a question, had been completely transformed into something else altogether.

Furthermore, this country was invading a country that should have been its ally, Imperial Nelpha.

And according to Ferris, it's not just the surrendering soldiers, but even women and children were being massacred.

That was something.

“......”

That was something Ryner could not see Sion doing.

But that was already a reality of this country.

That was Sion's reality.

Behind their backs, a reality which he carried upon his shoulders alone.

To kill Ryner.

To continue with the human experiments.

To wage wars on other countries.

And, to let his body be possessed by some kind of unknown monster.

Something that was beyond his imagination was arising in this country.

It was something that needed to be investigated......

At that moment, he abruptly had a not so pleasant realization and he looked at Ferris.

“Oh shit, Ferris. I just realized something bad.”

She looked back at him.

“What is it?”

“We are going to leave this country right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And there are some preparations for that right?”

“Yep.”

“But since I wasn't around, my contract with the inn where I was staying should be terminated automatically right? Anyway, Sion was the one paying for it...... and all my belongings...... are probably gone right?”

In spite of what Ryner said, Ferris had a " are you an idiot? " questioning look on her face.

“Even if the contract wasn't terminated, there will be people lying in wait for you there. You are a fugitive now, aren't you?”

“Ah, right. So, what am I going to do? I don't have any other clothes with me, you know?”

She promptly replied,

“Well, that shouldn't pose a problem. Since you are a pervert. Even if you run around naked throughout the whole world, it shouldn't be a problem for......”

“That's not all. On top of that, there's something even worse than that. Without any money now, I can't even buy any clothes.”

At that moment, as if remembering something important, she hit her fist into her other hand.

And Ryner asked.

“Did you just have a sudden stroke of brillance regarding this issue at hand?”

She nodded and then for some reason took on a bullying look and with all her might said.

“This man, such a penniless man arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“.............................. huh, well, it's not totally out of my expectations...... did you really want to say that punchline so much?”

She nodded vigorously.

“That felt unexpectedly good.”

“That's great...... sigh...... so, what about the money?”

“I won't lend it to you.”

“That aside, are you carrying any money right now?”

“Nope.”

“Seriously? You came so far without any?”

She shook her head,

“Not really, I thought I might need to loosen up my purse strings in order to gather information on your whereabouts, so I actually filled up my purse with a large number of gold coins.”

On saying that, even if it's only a little, Ryner could tell that during those two weeks, how much effort she put into in searching for him, and he shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably.

And he asked.

“Well, where is that purse?”

“I don't have it with me now.”

“You left it at home?”

But she shook her head.

“No, I had it just a while ago.”

“And?”

“I left it somewhere.”

“Where?”

“On the lap of the dango shop's Oyaji......”

And then.

And then Ryner remembered the pained look of Oyaji when he shouted " My debts arghhhhhh! ",

“Ah, ahh. That... can't be helped...”

He said without much thought.

She nodded.

“Yeah. It can't be helped. Well, with that much money, he could easily build not just one, but two dango shops easily......”

“Huh? Aren't you carrying way too much money on you?”

“Yeah. It's my whole fortune.”

“Uwah, you are pretty rich...... well then again, it should be expected of a noble I guess......”

But for her to be willing to part with all her fortune in order to find him, it was indeed......

“......”

It indeed was something that made him feel a sense of guilt.

Ryner, with an obscure expression that looked as if he was smiling bitterly and at the same time as if he was smiling faintly, looked at her.

She faced him,

“Well, most of it was borrowed using your name, so don't worry too much about it......”

“Whaat, you used my name aggaain to borrow money huhhhh!?”

Ryner yelled, but Ferris with a surprised look,

“But that's for the sake of searching for you, isn't it?”

“Well, that's true for that matter...... but still......”

“And those were the support funds for the dango association......”

“Eh, what's this? The conversation just took a strange turn?”

“The money that was supposed to be used for a grand dango party for people to have fun enjoying dango in all their meals all day long, that money is gone now!”

“There's nothing fun in thaaattt! By the way, why in the world would you do such a thing!”

Ryner yelled and Ferris, with an incomprehensible expression, looked at him,

“What are you getting so uptight about? It's not the first time I used your name to borrow money right? And it's already at the amount which you can't payback anyway. I just might as well help you borrow more on top it!”

Ferris said with a strong tone.

“Now now, I don't think you need to get so agitated right? Are you seriously mad?”

“Uh-huh. I am mad!”

He looked at her face, which showed no signs of doubt in her defiant reaction,

“...... is that so...... erm...... right...... okay. Well, I guess that's fine then.”

“Fine.”

Her acknowledgment still sounded strong.

And Ryner,

“Is that so...... it's fine?”

While he didn't really completely feel alright with that, at the same time he felt like he could let it pass.

Since they've already come so far, the thought of having one, two, three, four, hundreds, or even thousands of debtors coming after them was way much better than the pursuers of the Roland military.

There were still other things that he needed to think through...... and he went back deep in thought.

In any case, there were a multitude of preparations to be made for the journey, and on top of all them was the issue of money.

Ryner spoke.

“You know, Ferris.”

“Hn?”

“Just now you mentioned that you left your whole fortune with the dango shop Oyaji right?”

“I did.”

“Was that really your whole fortune?”

“It was everything I had.”

“Don't you have any left at home?”

For an instant, she pondered about something before replying,

“It's not as if there's completely none left...... but.”

Ryner nodded.

“There's probably an ambush lying in wait at your house.”

“Yeah. That's something to be expected under such circumstances.”

“Right...... then as things stand, I'm now a penniless man. I could never have imagined that I would become penniless in a country that Sion ruled over.”

He folded his arms in frustration and pondered.

“Now, what should we do now? You didn't bring any change of clothes as well, which is kind of bad. Now that we are going to be traveling in other countries, it's best for you to take off that armor with Roland's insignia on it.”

As he said that, he looked at her armor.

The Roland emblem was engraved onto the chest area of her armor.

Ferris also looked downwards at her own armor.

“Hm. That's right. This might become a bother from now on......”

“...... well, that's not only true for within Roland, but as well as within other countries, where a negative view on Roland is held.”

“Then, I'll need a new set of clothes and armor.”

“Yep.”

“And that means we need money.”

“Uh-huh. Money. Now, what should we do about it?”

As he said that, she stopped in her tracks.

Ryner turned around.

“What is it?”

But she did not answer. She was looking at a single shop that was still yet to be opened for business,

“Well, look there.”

She said.

“Huh? What's over there?”

As Ryner said that, he looked at where Ferris was looking.

It was an apparel shop.

A large apparel shop that carries a large amount of merchandise for both men and women.

As he looked at that, he knew what she was thinking about.

Robbery.

To break open that door, robbed the store of its clothes and money, that was what it was.

That was the worst.

As a human being, this was an act that should be never be condoned.

Besides.

Besides no matter what the reason was, it was something bad......

“Ah ~, we did this pretty often in other countries, didn't we?”

It was something unpleasant to say, but he couldn't think of anything else.

Ferris nodded.

“Uh-huh. We've even assaulted a bank before. That or a noble's mansion...... people who robbed from the poor are called robbers, people who robbed from the rich are called chivalrous thieves!”

What a convenient thing to say for herself, Ryner, without a thought,

“Uwah ~ somehow, somehow that's kind of nostalgic. We did that rather often huh? Even the corrupted Runa church was done in by us.”

“Yep yep.”

For some bizzare reason, given their current circumstances, the two of them started reminiscing their good old days.

“But we seriously became fugitives after what we did then.”

“Uh-huh. But even if we didn't do that, we are already fugitives now. So that was never a problem.”

“On top of that, I was being chased after because of the loans taken......”

“Yeah. And you were preying on the girls on the streets at night......”

“Huh, that didn't happen at all, but well, it's fine. So, what should we do? Are we going to rob that apparel store?”

She shook her head.

“If we do that, won't that make us robbers? As a chivalrous thief, I will of course go after the corrupted nobles!”

“Eh? Is that so? Then why are you looking at that apparel store?”

She pointed at a piece of clothing that could be seen displayed through the glass of the apparel store.

It was a one-piece dress that appeared to give the wearer a great degree of freedom in movement. The colors used were bright, and it looked really nice and lovely, a fine piece of apparel indeed. It came with a belt and a pair of boots, and a label that says " New Item " was attached to it.

Ryner looked at that and asked.

“Do you want that?”

Ferris nodded.

“You're going to rob the nobles and use their money to buy that?”

Again she nodded.

“But is that really suited for traveling?”

Ryner could see that for a tall woman of her height, if she puts that dress on, the skirt portion might be a little too short for her, but she promptly replied,

“No problem at all.”

“Is that so?”

“Uh-huh. Even if it's really difficult to move in it, I'm still going to have that. Because I really love that dango pattern at the waist part.”

That was what she said.

“Eh? Dango pattern? Is there such a thing?”

Ryner looked at the waist portion of the dress. And saw at that part, rather than dango, were three small polka dots lying in a straight line.

“Ah, so that was the main point.”

“Of course.”

“Now, that should not be in such a matter-of-fact manner.”

“Hm? Is there anything wrong with it?”

“Eh ~ ? Ah ~ ? Well, that dress looks kind of cute, so there isn't anything wrong with it.”

“With this, I'll be constantly in one body and soul with the God of Dango!”

“That's great ~”

“Yep!”

Seeing the amount of contentment she held in her acknowledgment, Ryner smiled wryly and then looked at the man's clothing displayed somewhat towards the interior of the store.

“Well then, I think I'll take that.”

The mannequin he was pointing to was wearing a set of man's clothing that was probably made from the same maker which made the dress that Ferris had chosen.

It consisted of a set of shirt and pants that appeared to give the wearer the same great degree of freedom in movement. Like the dress, it had the same so-called dango pattern logo, but in comparison, it was much smaller and less visible.

It seemed like that logo was the trademark of that maker.

Ferris then said,

“Ohh, it seems like the day when you've converted to become a dango believer has finally arrived!”

With that proclamation, Ryner said.

“After you loot off those nobles, and since you've already chosen something fitting for yourself, you might as well buy something of the same maker for me.”

She returned to a serious look and looked at him.

“Sure. So, in other words, you want to split up the tasks? Then you will......”

“Yes. I'll look into the current state of affairs of this country. After that, I would decide whether we should be going to Nelpha or Runa based on the circumstances. I'll try to form a plan. And you will take on the task of making preparations for the journey, as well as liaise with Iris on what to do. Is that alright with you?”

She nodded.

“Fine. So how many days from now should we link up?”

Ryner thought for a moment.

It's not a question of how many days he needed to finish his investigation.

It's a question of how many days they could continue remaining in this country.

It was highly likely that Roland would increase the number as well as the strength of the pursuers, which would intensify things.

How should he work this out?

There was not much time for them to do this at a leisure pace.

“As I mentioned earlier, just one day would do. We don't have time to take things slowly.”

Ryner said.

“We'll link up tomorrow morning at eight.”

Ferris nodded,

“Understood. Tomorrow morning at the usual place......”

Ryner responded frantically,

“Ah, that won't do. I don't know which usual place are you referring to. As a matter of fact, do you know how much trouble I had to go through earlier to find you?”

“Hm. Where do we link up then?”

Ryner pondered for a moment, and said.

“Asohld dango teahouse.”

“Oh, Asohld huh! I have yet to taste that tea dango there. Ryner, you are pretty well-informed, aren't you?”

She praised him.

“Uh thanks.”

He acknowledged it without any rebuke. It's not as if he chose that place because of the dango or anything like that.

Towards the north, slightly beyond the measure of land where that teahouse was, along the highway beside it, was the very first road fork. That was why he chose that place.

To the northwest of that road fork lay Nelpha.

To the northeast lay Runa.

Whichever way it was, it was the highway leading out of Roland.

Moreover, because this highway is not too wide and is a roundabout detour, Roland would never use it for sending its troops to Nelpha. That was why he chose that place.

In other words tomorrow.

They would start their journey once they linked up at the tea house, and by afternoon, they would be out of the country.

“......”

In order to save Sion.

In order to save this messed-up country.

Though he was to carry out such a laborious and troublesome task, Ryner did not exhibit any sign of nervousness, nor fighting spirit, and with his usual languid voice,

“Well, Ferris. Let's do it.”

“Right.”

She acknowledged, and Ryner said.

“...... that fool. That stupid Sion, the two of us shall save him.”

She looked at him.

She looked at him with a slightly surprised expression.

And only very faintly.

Only very faintly, she smiled.

“...... right!”

She acknowledged once again.

### 004. Chapter 3: The Moment When Darkness Completely Took Over

Killing everyone.

As long as it was an enemy, even if it’s women or children, they shall be killed with no mercy.

“......”

That was how it turned out in the end.

He thought.

Just as he previously thought.

Sion Astal became the king, and that was how it turned out in the end.

“......”

That was what Lieutenant General Milan Froaude thought.

With beautiful raven-black hair. With a slender and delicate figure. And wearing a rare black ring on his long slender fingers.

Bearing a face with surprisingly well-ordered features, he possesses a gleaming pair of dark blue eyes that speaks of an unyielding cold darkness.

Those deep, dark-colored eyes seem to despise all they see, making them look like a curse was buried within them.

With those sharp-looking thin pupils of his, he was currently deep in thought on the current state of affairs of this country.

The perfect country that was created by the Hero King Sion Astal.

A beacon of light arising from the former messed-up Roland to guide this country.

He was the one who could reign supreme over this country, or rather, reign supreme over the whole world, that was what Froaude thought.

And he thought that he would be the one to bear upon himself all the necessary darkness in order to make this a reality.

However.

That was no longer necessary.

His Majesty...... in spite of having taken in the darkness of this entire world, has yet to lose his brilliance.

Killing women.

Killing children.

Resuming the human experiments.

Purging the rebellious nobles.

There was no longer anyone who could go against him or this country.

From another viewpoint, he was a tyrant.

A level of dictatorship that was unmatched previously. He already possesses a level of power that could only be acquired through losing himself.

He already possesses a level of power that can strike fear into the hearts of everyone.

And yet.

And yet, he continued on with the identity of a hero king.

A hero king whom, his people were madly in love with, whom his subordinates were cheering on, and whom even those soldiers created from the human experiments had found a reason to die for, Sion Astal.

That was some unbelievable power.

Charisma.

Popularity.

Reputation.

Fame.

All of these became his 'allies'.

A king born with these qualities.

A king born with the ability to carry both humongous levels of light and darkness.

From a dark corner, Sion Astal emitted a piercing gaze that seemed to be able to smash away all obstacles right in front of him, wherever he looked.

That’s why everyone could adore him, and follow him in his madness.

The people.

The country.

The world.

That’s why.

“...... that’s why I......”

He gazed outside the window.

At the corridor that led towards the throne room, the light from the morning sun was streaming in through the window.

It was as if it was shining on the man who was waiting for him further up front, shining on the future of this country.

Well.

“...... His Majesty may not think so though.”

As he said that, a thin cold smile floated on Froaude’s lips.

Because he, Sion Astal, was a troubled king.

The invasion of Nelpha must have caused him a tremendous amount of grief. One who looked upon his face could tell.

But that was just a feeling of pain in his heart.

It would not stop him from moving forward.

In spite of the pain in his heart, his determination would not waver.

The massacre of Nelpha was a thing of necessity. Knowing that, if he were a person who was unable to take on an absolute and convicted decision, he would not have been chosen by Froaude as his liege.

Especially ever since the obstacle Ryner Lute was removed, the determination of Sion Astal to move forward became even stronger. As expected, that Alpha Stigma monster was a cancer to Sion.

But that was removed.

With determination, Sion moved forward.

“......”

Froaude stopped there.

He had come to the end of the corridor, and was standing in front of the huge, spacious throne room. He bowed his head.

And inside the room.

The man sitting on the throne that could only be seated by the very king of this country, nodded.

“You’ve come.”

“Yes.”

Froaude raised his head. In front of him was the Hero King.

Bearing silver hair with a regal feel, and golden eyes that speak of an indomitable spirit which seemed to mesmerize all who look into them.

That light.

Froaude thought.

That light had the power to bury the deep darkness within me......

That was what he thought.

Froaude took a few steps forward and stood just before Sion, then bowed his head again.

“...... you seem to be in great spirits, Your Majesty.”

Sion shrugged his shoulders.

“Hardly.”

Froaude smiled faintly.

“I know.”

“Then, you said that in spite of knowing?”

“Yes.”

“A detestable person indeed.”

“That’s my role......”

“Haha. Is that something that one would say of himself?”

Froaude smiled again. But that was a terribly cold smile.

“And......”

Froaude said.

“I heard you called for me?”

Sion nodded.

“There’s something I want to ask of you.”

“Something you want to ask of me?”

At that moment, Froaude searched through his mind in an instant. What was it that Sion wanted to ask of him?

If it’s about the invasion of Nelpha, it had already been entrusted to the Field Marshal of this country, Claugh Klom. And if he was the one being entrusted, the task would no doubt be completed without any mishaps. He was a capable man. Hence it should not have anything to do with the issue on Nelpha, he thought.

Then, was it to discuss with him about plans for invading Runa? It should also be about time to think about the strategy with regards to Cassla, located to the north of this southernmost part of the continent.

Or could it be about the disposal of the remaining resisting puny group of nobles hidden in the shadows.

Or was it about the movements of the Gastark Empire, which is expanding southwards at an alarming rate.

But for each and every one of them, the appropriate countermeasures were already in progress.

If so,

“......”

Froaude stopped the flow of his thoughts and looked at the face of his king.

The troubled expression of his king, and he.

“...... is this about Ryner Lute?”

Sion nodded.

“Yes. With the aid of his comrade, he broke out of prison and escaped.”

“I see.”

“And on top of that, Miller has been interfering with me.”

Froaude smiled.

“That’s because Major Miller has yet to know of the thing inside of Your Majesty.”

Well actually, Froaude was originally also not aware of that immense amount of power squirming inside of Sion.

But that was something to be expected.

That was a power that a king needed.

Sion Astal was a chosen one, and that’s why he was conferred with such a power.

That day.

That day which Sion showed it to Froaude.

And he understood it immediately.

The responsibility, the light, and the darkness that Sion was carrying was greater than what he had thought.

But this king still moved forward.

In order to change the world.

Froaude continued.

“So, for Ryner Lute......”

“Apprehend him.”

“...... on what grounds?”

“A fugitive traitor of the country.”

“Then shall I kill him?”

Sion’s expression did not change. But he could see that his heart was wavering.

Ryner Lute.

Ryner Lute. Ryner Lute. Ryner Lute.

Just as he thought, that man was a cancer. That was what Froaude thought.

Sion said.

“...... ah. It’s okay to kill him. But the best is to capture him alive.”

And Froaude,

“...... understood.”

He acknowledged.

He turned around after that.

“...... in that case, I’ll be on my way.”

He left the throne room.

Ryner Lute.

He was also, perhaps, a chosen one.

For him to bring this amount of distress to the hero king.

But, each and every person has a role to play in the grand scheme of this world.

Sion is one who will change the world.

And.

As food, as fodder, Ryner is one who will become a sacrifice.

It would be terribly troublesome for the fodder to move freely on his own.

After leaving the throne room, Froaude stood in the corridor for a while, and murmured.

“Now, what is the best course of action?”

To kill Ryner Lute.

Or to capture him alive.

While undertaking that mission, he might uncover some new leads.

What in the world is Sion Astal?

And what will we bring about to this world?

The investigation into those questions were mostly already underway.

And quite possibly, Major Rahel Miller must also have been gathering information regarding these matters. And because he must have reached the limits on what he could discover, he tried letting Ryner escape.

He recalled back to what Sion said a while ago.

“With the aid of his comrade, he broke out of prison and escaped.”

The comrade he was referring to was probably that woman known as Ferris.

And it was probably Miller who leaked Ryner’s whereabouts to her. Miller was making efforts in trying to discover Sion’s secret.

“...... such a roundabout manner was really unnecessary.”

Froaude smiled.

If he really wanted to know, he could just ask Sion. Since there was no longer any need to hide it anymore. But then again, Rahel Miller and his subordinate, Luke Stokkart, are the type of people who would cover up their tracks, and do things covertly. It was this shrewdness of theirs that put Sion in a favorable position to start the revolution to revive this country.

They are excellent men. Men of exceptional abilities.

However, this time round, what they did was indeed a little too indirect, Froaude thought.

Even without doing that.

“...... all they had to do was to ask. Isn’t that right? Lucile Eris-san.”

He murmured in a very soft voice that could hardly be heard by even someone who were to stand just beside him.

On saying that.

“...... that’s right.”

A voice replied.

And the voice came from right in front of him. In the center of the corridor right before him, where there was nothing to be seen.

There he was.

Invisible to the eye, there he was.

“......”

The monster.

Froaude smiled.

“Finally, we meet.”

“I’ve always been watching you though.”

“I see.”

“You are a splendid person. Even when Sion’s heart starts to waver, you will undoubtedly guide him back to his rightful path.”

Froaude shook his head.

“You flatter me too much. His Majesty...... even if I’m not around, he will definitely get back onto his rightful path and move forward.”

“Ah, you’re right. But even so, you’ve aided him quite a lot, haven’t you? You’ve said it right at the start, didn’t you? The time when you and Sion first met......”

I’ll shoulder your darkness.

That was what he said.

However, the Sion now seemed to be able to manage both sides of the light and darkness, without losing his brilliance.

Of course, that also meant that it had become much easier for Froaude to carry out his tasks but.

But Lucile said.

“From hereon, you will still continue to move forward right?”

Froaude laughed.

“You must be referring to how I’m going to deal with Ryner Lute, isn’t it?”

Lucile did not reply. However, Froaude felt his acknowledgement.

He continued.

“His Majesty said to either kill or capture Ryner. But are you...... Duke Eris, wishing for something else altogether?”

There was no response.

There was no sign of him.

It was indeed hard to communicate with a monster, Froaude smiled wryly. He put up with it and continued.

“That is of course something along the same line of what I was thinking. Since whenever it comes to the matter of that Alpha Stigma bearer, His Majesty’s sensibility gets clouded.”

That’s right. Whenever it came to the matter of dealing with Ryner Lute, Sion could never seem to think rationally.

Was it indeed because he was special in some way?

It was a history repeating itself since ancient times.

The hero and the sacrifice.

Was it due to the circumstances binding the light and the sad demon?

That was something that Froaude could not understand. Rather, there was no real need for him to understand. What he needed to do was just what he thought was necessary and required, well rather, at times something that goes beyond that, and then move forward.

Sion wished to kill Ryner Lute. In order to prevent him from becoming his fodder. In order to prevent him from becoming a sacrifice.

There was of course another method. To kill Ryner Lute, and to once again depend on another Alpha Stigma , this was another possibility.

If Ryner Lute could be captured alive, it was also possible to conduct research on him to find a way to save him.

And after saving him, he could substitute another Alpha Stigma for him. That was also possible.

But by doing any of those, he would end up going through a large detour.

If that’s the case, then how about allowing Ryner Lute to escape to other countries?

In that situation, His Majesty would not be able to save him.

If he could not be saved.

If they were far apart from each other, and without a convenient way to save him, the time would come one day when everything ends.

Sion will devour Ryner and attain his true form.

But.

But that would be still too condoning of him.

Froaude thought.

There were still quite a number of major unknowns present. If assuming Ryner got killed by someone else in the meantime, the plan would fail.

If assuming Ryner discovers something that would allow him to pull Sion out of his current state, the plan would fail.

And if assuming Ryner......

“......”

Well, even though the chance of this happening is one in a million, it’s not completely impossible for him to gather strong allies to pose a threat against Sion Astal, or rather, against the entire Roland Empire.

All of that would be for the sake of saving Sion, and not for satisfying his own ego, which will make it not impossible for him to become a great threat.

To see him as not someone who was not just canon fodder for Sion, not just a sacrifice but something beyond that, Froaude shall not let him foil the plan.

Hence,

“...... I shall capture Ryner Lute.”

“I see.”

Lucile answered.

But without skipping a beat, Froaude continued.

“And I shall imprison him in some place beyond His Majesty’s sight, until that day comes. I shall cut his tongue off, and chop off his limbs.”

Definitely.

Definitely in such a situation, Ryner would not be able to interfere with Sion anymore.

“It would be fine if his life is spared, isn’t it?”

Froaude asked and Lucile replied.

“Yes. As long as he is alive, with his cursed eyes. He can still become the sacrifice in that state.”

“If so, he won’t need anything below his head.”

“You do say some scary things.”

But in response to Lucile’s words, I won’t want to hear that coming from you, a monster from which I could only feel an aura of death , Froaude thought.

Even though he did not say it aloud, his thoughts must have reached Lucile.

Lucile said.

“...... fufu. Am I scary?”

“Yes. You are scary indeed.”

Froaude answered honestly.

“Because you might get killed?”

“No, since the day I was born, I have never feared death.”

“...... then what do you fear of me?”

Froaude laughed at that question. He looked intently at the empty space in front of him and laughed coldly.

“What I fear is your weakness. Duke Lucile Eris. The you who has bestowed His Majesty his influence...... the you who possesses an absolute power...... the thing I really feared most...... is a weakness in you.”

“Horh?”

Lucile made a questioning sound as his curiosity was slightly aroused.

But Froaude thought that it was meaningless to continue this discussion. Whatever the case, in the end, there were too many things to predict, and some form of uncertainties are sure to exist. Knowing all that, if one could not have the last laugh, one could not claim the ultimate victory.

And Froaude, and Sion, intend to ultimately bring victory to this Roland.

No matter what the obstacles are.

Whether it is Ryner Lute, or Gastark, or even if this Lucile Eris is the one to interfere.

In the end, we will have the last laugh.

Hero King Sion Astal shall rule over the whole of this Menoris continent, and Roland shall have the last laugh.

Well, but until then.

“...... it has been a pretty long conversation. If I spend too much time here, the traitor will get away.”

Until then, this person...... this monster Lucile Eris, also has a usable value.

At the same time, in order to be prepared to treat him as an enemy, it is necessary to find a way to kill him.

The way to kill this monster who sees everything from within Roland.

“I shall take my leave here.”

Froaude started walking.

Forward.

In the direction from which Lucile’s voice resounded.

And in an instant, a cold killing intent was felt from behind him, but Froaude’s expression did not change.

Since he was not fearful of death anyway.

He continued walking forward.

“......”

Lucile did not say anything. But, he could feel it. He was not putting on a guard against Froaude. That’s to be expected of course. Towards such an insanely powerful monster, Froaude could not even come close to scratching him. He was no way a match for Lucile. That was what he could feel. As long as he continued to remain useful around the monster, it would be fine, that was all he could think of.

But.

“......”

That was fine.

That was no need for Lucile to be wary.

There was no need for him to put his guard on.

For him to think of Froaude as a worthless existence, that was fine in Froaude’s perspective.

While creeping around in the dark like a poisonous snake, there was no need for the monster to notice his fangs right now.

Anyway, in the end.

Since in the end, he would discover his fangs with a certain realization.

“......”

Without looking back, a smile floated on Froaude’s lips. With that smile, he revealed his white teeth for just an instant. A smile that was cold, like that of a devil.

At least for now, as long as he didn’t realize......

“......”

All of a sudden.

“...... you got it all wrong. Even I, am afraid of a human like you.”

From behind Froaude, Lucile whispered close to his ear. At a distance where he could almost touch him.

On the spur of moment, Froaude turned towards that direction.

As he did that, right in front of him, was a strikingly beautiful face of a man with blond hair. That monster, with a smile, was peering at Froaude.

He was peering into his heart.

He understood with just a single glimpse.

This man standing beside him did not seem like an untouchable apparition.

He looked nothing like a insanely powerful monster.

But still, those were his words. In a mocking manner. As if to ridicule him.

“That’s why I am putting my guard on. Against your strength. Against your fangs. Against your poison.”

Even though he said it lightly, he was serious.

Froaude seemed to shake at that.

It seemed like he was shaking from despair.

Even while he possesses such a level of power, there was no sign of haughtiness. There was no sign of arrogance. If so, what should he do? Perhaps, there was really no weakness attached to him.

If so, what should he do?

Froaude seemed to be shaking.

“......”

He seemed to be shaking.

However, that shaking certainly did not stem from fear.

It was from delight.

A feeling of delight from seeing a darkness that was deeper and darker than that of his.

Such a monster.

Such an incredibe monster.

“......”

Is he going to kill me......

As that thought floated in his mind, he appeared to shake with an uncontrollable sheer delight.

“...... haha. You must be joking. I’m not going to make an enemy out of you. If we were to come to blows, I would just get killed in the end.”

“Heh. Is that so?”

“Yes. That is so.”

But that was a lie.

I will one day kill him. It will be necessary for me to do so. The reason for that is because he will become an unnecessary existence.

This monster, such a monster; the world does not need the likes of him.

Therefore, I would be taking in the darkness present within him. I will bear even this darkness. It is just as I’ve said right at the start.

I alone shall shoulder all the darkness of the Hero King, Sion Astal.

“......”

That was what Froaude thought.

He would surpass this darkness, and stretched his hand towards a deeper, darker place.

Somewhere deeper, and darker.

As dark as he could, as deep as he could, in order to increase the brilliance of Sion Astal.

And that brilliance shall bury my darkness.

“...... I will not oppose you. It’s my principle not to do anything that is meaningless.”

“Fufu. Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if that’s what you insist, then it’s fine for now.”

“Then, may I?”

“Sure.”

Froaude bowed his head once more, and started walking.

He could feel his gaze on him from behind.

The gaze of a monster.

But it’s not the time to turn around and look back.

It’s not the time to kill him yet.

Thus, without looking back.

“......”

He started thinking about another prey that he needed to hunt right now.

The situation was at its worst.

Cruel. Dirty. Tragic. Despondent. Everything and anything in sight was so.

But that was not something out of the ordinary.

Since there was no battlefield that is free from those things.

“......”

He looked over the scenery before him, and grimaced.

It was a scene of piled-up dead bodies in a sea of blood.

There was no sign of life anywhere.

Since his orders were to spare no one.

That did not just apply to soldiers.

To kill all living, even women and children, those were his orders.

"In order to show the world the might of Roland, in order to let them know the consequences of opposing Roland, massacre them all."

Those were Sion’s orders, and as such, those were Claugh's very orders.

That’s why right before him, there was nothing but dead bodies.

Belonging to the angry soldiers, crying families, despaired lovers. The nobles, the populace, humans, animals, regardless of status or gender.

There was only death.

Even though this was the first time he had given out such thorough orders to kill everyone, he seemed to be at ease.

No, perhaps, it’s wrong to say so.

It was the same as always.

Whether it comes to killing children, adults, women, men, or anyone else, it was the same as always,

“...... disgusting......”

Claugh Klom seemed to be spitting out those words.

With flaming red hair, sharp red eyes. Donning a set of steel armor, and Roland’s military uniform.

The closest aide to the Hero King, Sion Astal, the Field Marshal of Roland Empire.

From within Roland to the neighbouring countries, there is none who has never heard of his name.

But that fame was not gained from his position as a Field Marshal, but rather as a death god who appears on the battlefield.

Whichever battlefield the death god goes to, a rain of blood will follow.

Riding like the wind through the enemy ranks, and soaking his right arm with the enemy’s blood, a man to be feared by all.

Just by seeing his figure on a battlefield.

Just by seeing the tattoo on his right arm, the enemy is bound to lose their morale and be thrown into confusion from the overwhelming fear arising from just that alone.

That’s the reason for that.

That’s the reason why even when told "for the Field Marshal to be at the frontlines, are you crazy?" in an attempt to stop him, Claugh just shook it off and came all the way here.

Since just by using his name, some of the enemy might lose their fighting spirit and flee, which would make it possible to minimize the sacrifices.

However.

“......”

Claugh looked over the land before him.

He looked over the piled-up bodies.

And with a sad look, he grimaced.

He was now pretty much north from the borders that divide Roland Empire and Imperial Nelpha, within the territory belonging to a noble known as Count Terens.

To be precise, he was now assaulting its largest town. And further up front, were Count Terens’s castle and fortress, where he was making his stand.

By the way, before this, Claugh had already taken over the land of two other nobles, and on top of that, within Terens’s territory, he had completely leveled five villages and two towns.

Thus, once this town and that fortress fall, the connected territory that leads all the way back to Roland, in other words, the defense lines that Nelpha had against Roland would have all crumbled.

All that had taken one week.

In just one week, Claugh had killed many of Nelpha’s populace.

The number of people killed during that period, was already something he didn’t want to think about.

The disparity in strength was evident, and there was no way Nelpha could stand up to Roland.

Rather, since the merger with Estabul Kingdom, there was no country in the south of this continent that could stand up to Roland Empire.

But even so, during this one year after the merger, Roland did not slow down in its pace to move forward.

Sion Astal had been preparing for the upcoming wars during this one year......

Well, rather.

It was not really for these wars, in fact it’s only starting now, all of those efforts in increasing military might were preparations to wage war against the entire world.

Training soldiers. Conscripting soldiers. Magic research.

And the human experiments.

At any rate, Sion has acquired a considerable amount of power.

And thus there had been a fair amount of accomplishments within the country of Roland.

He had acquired from the former broken Roland, which previously existed merely for the pleasure of the nobles, a large amount of data on the unthinkable human experiments which were left behind, and above all else, put a stop to the tyranny of the nobles, brought back peace and freedom to the lives of the people who had suffered under the former rule.

Normally, the build up of military power would have placed a heavier burden on the people in taxation, but Sion instead funded it through the coffers of those nobles who had continued to indulge in their extravagant lifestyle.

And in the end, it was possible to amass a huge army to the benefit of the country.

Under the rule of a righteous king, Roland has become something else altogether, growing into a great powerful country.

“......”

And right here, right now, assembled an army with an extraordinary high morale.

These were not your everyday troops, but strength-enhanced soldiers from the human experiments, a product of the past one year of magic research and training, a hybrid army made up of both Roland and former Estabul’s soldiers.

There were ten thousand of them here.

However, with just that ten thousand alone, Claugh was ordered by Sion to decimate Nelpha’s eighty-eight thousand strong army.

And that was what he had been doing.

He was already close to annihilating Nelpha’s defense lines.

The casualties incurred on this side so far, was only two.

Faced with this abnormal army from Roland, Nelpha was already losing their will to fight.

Thus this war was already.

“...... it’s over.”

Claugh murmured.

Rather, it had to end. So far, it had been going according to Sion’s calculations, by demonstrating Roland’s might, and showing Nelpha the massacres, they had obtained surrender after surrender before Nelpha’s main force was sent out.

By doing that, even if the populace had to be killed initially, the loss of lives could be minimized at the end of the day.

This was the same as those human experiments.

Even if a large number of people had to be sacrificed for the human experiments, in the end, if it was possible to overwhelm other countries with merely ten thousand troops, the loss of lives could be reduced.

And the result of all that could already be seen.

This Count Terens served as a good example.

Even though up till this point in the territory, troops had been sent out for defense, the bulk of them had fled almost immediately. They fled and left behind the people they were supposed to protect. Count Terens must have already abandoned his fortress as well.

Abandoning the wailing commoners, he had fled.

Even so, Claugh would definitely not relax his attacks.

This was where it would be decided.

The killing of Nelpha’s people shall end here.

It definitely will end here.

Therefore,

“...... spare no one.”

Claugh said in a low, dark voice.

The order was passed down quickly. The troops moved in a perfect orderly manner. That is to say Roland’s troops.

Past the piled-up bodies, from the almost completely wrecked town, the soldiers moved forward.

Only four hours were probably needed for the entire castle and fortress to be overrun by Roland’s troops.

There would be more mountains of dead bodies created.

“...... really.”

Claugh, for another time, said.

“It’s really a disgusting way to fight.”

But, since it was necessary, he had to do it.

Sion had been for the past one year, fighting in this manner alone.

And now, together with his other subordinates, they had to answer to his resolve. As the king of Roland, Sion could have pushed all the dirty work to his subordinates.

Well, before the army was dispatched, when Claugh made that remark, Sion,

“If that’s the case, then why are you heading to the frontlines? You can just sit back from behind and leave the dirty work to your men, can’t you?”

And so on and so forth, he said.

And at the end, he said the following.

“...... sorry for making you do the dirty work.”

As he recalled Sion’s tired and sad looking face during that time, Claugh just smiled faintly.

“...... bummer. That idiot always tries to take on everything all by himself......”

At that moment, Claugh, for a single time, turned around and looked behind him.

Towards the south.

The south where Roland is.

Just as he thought, at this kind of distance, it was impossible to see Roland’s castle.

The sky was clear. Even though it seemed like from the southwest, dark clouds were floating towards here, well, before the rain comes, the battle in this land will have ended by then.

Claugh made a small sigh.

And at that moment.

“Your Eminence Field Marshal Claugh!”

The familiar voice came from northeast, the opposite direction he was looking at, and he turned towards there.

And there, was a horse galloping towards here, with a young official riding it.

He has golden hair, and a pair of intelligent looking eyes. Though he is not really tall, it was clear that he has a firm and toned body.

It was Shuss Shirazz.

While six years younger than Claugh at a young age of nineteen, Shuss was someone who had been through countless battles with him, a long-time trusted aide.

He was one who could analyze a situation calmly, and was in charge of gathering intelligence.

Even now, he had been investigating the reactions of Nelpha in response to this particular attack from Roland, and had finally returned.

Shuss stopped his horse before Claugh, got off, and knelt before him.

“I’ve returned, Your Eminence.”

Claugh frowned at him,

“Stop the ‘Your Eminence’ thing.”

“But.”

“That’s enough. How long have you been following me around? All soldiers are now out. So stop mimicking the behaviour of others.”

In response to those words, Shuss made a slightly troubled face.

“However, we are now on the battlefield...... Your Eminence.”

Claugh shook his hand in a fed-up manner.

This person has always been like that. His over-seriousness, is it a bad quality or a good quality, no, it definitely has to be a bad quality.

Claugh gave up and asked.

“And?”

“Yes sir. There are a total of four reports, one good, one bad, and two interesting ones.”

“I see. So, which one do you want to start with?”

Shuss seemed to think for a moment, and made a mischievious face.

“Then, I shall start with the good report.”

“Haha, so you want to save the bad report for the last, and leave me depressed? You have a surprisingly bad personality.”

Shuss smiled.

“Just like my superior.”

“Which superior are you referring to?”

“Hm, who is it again? I seem to remember him having red hair and an iron-like body.”

Shuss looked intently at the red-haired Field Marshal of Roland.

But Claugh,

“Who the heck has red hair hrm. Calne?”

What a thing to say, and Shuss smiled.

“No, I don’t remember Major General Kaiwal having anything like red hair...... well let’s leave that aside for now.”

“Yeah. We will do just that. That guy has a pretty bad personality. And on top of that, he’s a lecher who likes other people’s wives.”

“Haha. I won’t deny the fact that his overzealous interest in women is something undesirable though...... Major General Kaiwal probably is sneezing right now, don’t you think?”

“And that would get him dumped because it feels dirty to be sneezed on.”

“Yeah yeah.”

Both of them laughed.

By the way, the person known as Calne Kaiwal, like Claugh, has been a subordinate of Sion since the old militaristic days, and even right now, alongside with Claugh, is called the left hand of the Hero King, and even so, since he is around the same age as Shuss and they have known each other since back then while following Sion, they are on particularly good terms and can joke around with no reservations at all.

However, Calne is a Major General.

Shuss is still a Second Lieutenant.

The reason was because Shuss had rejected all promotions. In order to bear less responsibilities so that he could continue to serve Claugh, and that’s the reason why he’s here right now.

Claugh and Calne are serving Sion.

But, as for Shuss, he chose Claugh as the man he would follow to the bitter end.

And even this time round, he had chosen to follow Claugh to this dirty dishonorable battlefield.

Even though Claugh had told him that it was better not to come along, he just smiled and rejected the advice flatly.

“It was for this that I joined the army. This is my country. In order not to show this terrible scene to my dead family again. In order not to show the terrible scene that had befallen Roland before, I shall be the first to bear witness to all of these.”

What a thing to say.

You are an overly-serious man. If Claugh called him an overly-serious fool, Shuss would just respond in a joking manner,

“Ahaha. That’s quite true. I’m a very serious guy. In order to protect the superior who is even more serious and more foolish than me, and who would throw himself away like an ornamental stone, I’m going along. That’s because you are an important person that Roland cannot do without. I have to be there to save you from dying, at least for one time as a substitute.”

And when Claugh said don’t mess around with me, if you die before me, I’m gonna kill you , Shuss merely grinned.

"Haha. If I die, you won’t be able to kill me, right?"

And only smiled.

“......”

But he understood what this fool was saying.

He too wanted to dirty only his own hands.

If by doing that, they could save someone else, it’s enough.

For that to happen, that’s why we are here.

“...... and?”

Claugh asked.

“Well then, shall we start with the good report?”

Shuss nodded.

“The head of Imperial Nelpha...... has decided to surrender to Roland.”

“......”

That was a report that Claugh had been waiting for impatiently.

To make Imperial Nelpha surrender with the least number of sacrifices, and also to demonstrate Roland’s might to Cassla and Runa, which will give an advantage to Roland in the near future.

Regarding Nelpha’s expected surrender after this, everything should have been going according to plan.

However.

Claugh squinted his eyes.

Given the current circumstances, he did not get the feeling that everything would be going well for certain.

The truth was that Imperial Nelpha was currently split into two factions from within.

The first belonged to the benevolent king who had agreed to the alliance with Roland, Gread Nelphi, and the nobles who followed him.

The second was the Anti-Roland noble faction who see the act of Estabul Kingdom merging with Roland into a larger power as a threat. This faction was formed by the First Prince of Nelpha in order to increase his influence. And while King Gread Nelphi was bedridden from illness, in the name of the King, he might have moved his army southward to invade Roland if not for Roland’s preemptive strike.

Among these two factions, whose head was the one that decided on the surrender.

Well, one could make a guess.

“Was Gread Nelphi the one who put out the surrender?”

Claugh said, and Shuss nodded.

“Yes. Even though he is in his old age, he is still the one who has rebuilt Imperial Nelpha in just one generation.”

“He could immediately tell the difference in strength between Roland and Nelpha, and how unproductive it was to spill unnecessary blood. A wise monarch indeed.”

“Yes.”

“Then, this war is already over.”

Even as Claugh said that, his expression did not relax.

“But, you still have something bad to report right?”

Shuss nodded quietly.

“So, what’s the bad news?”

“King Gread Nelphi......”

On hearing just that, Claugh assumed a troubled expression.

“...... is he dead?”

“Yes. Immediately after declaring the surrender.”

“Because of old age?”

Even though Claugh didn’t really think that was the case, he asked anyway.

As expected, Shuss shook his head.

“He was killed.”

By who? But he didn’t bother asking. He must have been killed by his son from the opposing faction.

Shuss continued.

“King Nelphi offered his head, as well as the imprisonment of his successor, Prince Starnel, as a proposal to end this war but......”

By the way, Starnel was the one who formed the Anti-Roland faction, the prince who raised an opposing flag towards King Gread Nelphi.

“And Starnel didn’t really like the surrendering proposal put forth by King Nelphi right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, he killed his own father to save himself.”

Shuss nodded.

“Thinking that his imprisonment in Roland will undoubtedly lead to his death, in a frenzy, he killed his father, so it seems.”

“What a stupid prince.”

Claugh smiled wryly.

But the prince’s thinking was on the right track.

There was no intention of sparing any of the royal family in this war.

They were to kill all of the royal family and announced it.

Because Nelpha obstructed Roland and resisted, even if it’s only once, they would have to kill all of the royal family.

However, if right from the beginning Nelpha had surrendered, the royal family would be inducted into Roland’s nobility, and would be able to keep their lives and status.

This would have been a befitting result.

The decision to go to war or not lay with the nobles and the royal family. And if the royal family had decided to allow the invasion of Roland, thereby retaining their lives and status, what would then happen?

Making a choice that would be unlike that of the benevolent lord, Gread Nelphi, who can use his own life to protect his people.

In order to secure their own lives, they would definitely surrender.

Though that, in certainty, would reduce the fighting and deaths.

For now, in order to achieve the ultimate end where there is less loss of lives, I’m sorry but we have to make an example out of you, Nelpha.

The orders from Sion was to kill all who were related to the royal family within the order of the second degree.

And Gread Nelphi must have been aware of that. But apparently, he’s attempting to bargain against that. By offering his own head, he had hoped to bargain for his son’s life.

That’s why the surrender came so promptly.

Currently, only the frontline defense had fallen. Nelpha still has seventy thousand strong to be deployed.

By surrendering early, Nelpha has effectively helped Roland to display their overwhelming power to the entire world, so would Roland agree to the bargain?

That was indeed a wise judgement.

That would really help convey the right message.

In just two weeks, Nelpha had fallen to Roland’s invasion.

By surrendering early, it’s possible to secure one’s life and status which would have been taken away otherwise as long as one belongs to the royal family. It’s really better to surrender earlier...... that was the message that could be conveyed to other countries.

This would really have resulted in the best possible end of minimum life loss across the board.

Gread Nelphi has died. Killed by his own son, the prince who understood nothing and could only think of saving himself.

“So what did the foolish son do after killing his father?”

Shuss made a tired face to that question.

“He ordered ten thousand troops to retaliate against Roland......”

“I see. So you’re sacrificing ten thousand soldiers to slow us down while escaping on your own. A complete failure of a noble.”

But Shuss did not acknowledge that. He only looked at Claugh with a dark face.

“Well actually, Starnel has not escaped yet.”

“Oh, so what’s he up to then?”

As Claugh asked, Shuss took a deep breath, to find the right words.

And he said.

“He massacred......”

“What!”

Without thinking, Claugh exclaimed in shock.

But Shuss just continued on.

“...... he intended to kill all the people, and take what he could to make his escape northwards.”

“......”

Claugh had nothing to say to that.

That was the worst possible development.

To think that he couldn’t read his enemy up till here. Killing his own people, stealing from them and then making his escape, what a rotten way of doing things.

This will lead to even more sacrifices, more so than a straight-up assault into the capital.

On top of that, there is no one of authority left to make an official surrender to Roland. In other words, Nelpha will not be surrendering at all.

And because there is no official statement of surrender made, Roland can only continue its killing spree.

Killing those retaliating ten thousand soldiers who are well aware of their imminent deaths, killing the populace, and completely razing Nelpha.

Thinking of that, Claugh,

“......”

He was really at his wits’ end.

That’s why he hated wars.

Since as always, everything and anything about wars is merciless, dirty, tragic, and sad.

Even though they had already assumed the worst, this was something that was one step beyond that.

From now onwards.

From now onwards, it wasn’t possible to change the direction of the events. From hereon, there was still value in the razing of Nelpha and more slaughtering.

In order to reduce the loss of lives in future wars.

Even though this in itself was already a terrible war, it was all in the name of avoiding more terrible wars in the future.

There was no other choice. Shall we get on with this ...... as Claugh was about to utter those words, Shuss continued on.

“However, to add on, there is something else that proved to be interesting.”

“Huh?”

Claugh looked at Shuss. Claugh recalled what Shuss said earlier, about one good report, one bad report, and two interesting ones.

“Something else that proved to be interesting?”

Shuss nodded at Claugh’s query.

“It’s about the earlier report on the ten thousand soldiers that were supposedly heading southwards.”

“Uh huh.”

“They aren’t coming here after all.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean by that?”

“Well...... for some reason, there is a rumor that a man by the name of Toale Nelphi is leading those soldiers eastwards......”

“Toale......?”

Claugh queried as he seemed to have heard the name from somewhere.

Shuss nodded.

“It’s Toale Nelphi. The grandson of the deceased Gead Nelphi.”

As he said that, Claugh remembered.

Froaude mentioned it before he marched his army.

"While there is hardly any talent existing in Nelpha that could pose a threat to Roland at this point in time, there is still one individual whom you must watch out for. His name is Toale Nelphi. He is the son of Prince Starnel and his commoner mistress, and though he is currently away from the center of power of this country, he is sympathetic to his country, and in the event where it seems likely that he would be given power and authority...... it is my recommendation that you crush him first."

That was what he said.

And because of what Froaude said about that Toale guy, he was wondering what kind of person is he, I see .

You’ve come forth to change the direction of the incoming troops.

The son of a commoner mistress.

By the way, that was the same for Sion.

“A weed growing in the wilderness...... is stronger?”

Shuss shrugged his shoulders at what Claugh said.

“But even if Sion-san grew up in the wilderness, he is more of a flower, isn’t it?”

“Right. He is like a pretty-looking, insect-eating plant?”

“Now ~. At the very least, can you compare him to a rose instead? A thorny one or something like that.”

“Yeah ~. Indeed, it is more apt to describe Sion as a rose. For the slip of my tongue, should I slap my lips?”

To those words.

For some reason, Shuss face contorted. He was shaking as if to keep something bottled up within him. In the end, he burst out laughing.

“Please, don’t say something weird! It brought a weird image to my mind.”

His face was bright red from the pent-up laughter directed towards Claugh.

With a sidelong glance, Claugh considered the situation.

It seemed like the situation was not as bad as it seemed.

According to Froaude, the guy called Toale has a high popularity and seems to be an able man.

"I once wanted to eliminate him. Well, thanks to a certain odd duo of a magician and swordswoman, I had to abort it......"

However, for now, Claugh was grateful to that magician and swordswoman. Since if Toale had been killed by Froaude then, this current development would not have been possible.

There still remained a path of less bloodshed to the end of this war.

If Toale became the king of this country and announced his surrender.

“......”

And then after that, if they have Toale killed.

With the head of Toale Nelphi, the war could be ended.

“...... in either case, there is still a lot more killing to be done.”

Claugh muttered to himself.

He had a sudden realization and looked in the direction of Shuss.

“...... but then again, you are pretty kind.”

Shuss was surprised by those words and asked.

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“About the reports.”

“Yes?”

“All in all, even though what we are about to do from now on is still something bothersome, thanks to the order of your reports, I could sense some glimmer of hope at the end.”

Shuss beamed at that.

“I’m most happy to be able to please Your Eminence.”

“Like I said, drop the ‘Your Eminence’.”

“Well, Your Eminence, there is still one more interesting thing to report though.”

“Like I said.”

But Shuss just ignored that and continued.

“And that is something concerning Your Eminence.”

“Huh? Concerning me?”

“Yes.”

“What’s that?”

Shuss then pointed at Claugh’s arm.

His right arm.

He pointed to his right arm, which was of an entirely pitch-black color.

It looked completely different from the former arm that was filled with red tattoos, the arm which earned him the nickname of ‘Crimson Finger Claugh Klom’.

That former arm was devoured by a monster bearing the Cursed Eyes known as Iino Dwoe .

That’s why the arm he has now is an artificial arm. A cursed artificial arm.

It was a special arm regrown from a .

Even though he has already grown accustomed to his new arm and could use it as if it were originally his own, normally, that arm covered in pitch-black would be attempting to kill its own host.

So to speak, it was something born out of one of the crazy human experiments carried out in Roland.

Even though the previous arm with red tattoos came from a similar origin, this time round, it was something even more powerful and more monstrous than before.

After looking at his own pitch-black arm, Claugh asked.

“So, what’s the thing about me?”

Shuss replied in an amused tone.

“Your nickname has changed.”

“Ah. Well, my arm isn’t red anymore. So, what has ‘Crimson Finger Claugh’ become? Did it become something that sounds more adorable?”

“Haha. An adorable name won’t really suit Claugh-san.”

“Well, it doesn’t really need to be adorable though...... but why the hell do I keep getting nicknames attached to my name?”

“Because you are popular, isn’t that so?”

But Claugh merely snorted laughingly.

“Don’t be foolish. It’s a murderer’s nickname. A name of notoriety. So, what has this name of notoriety changed to?”

After a mild laugh, Shuss said.

“The Black Hand Death God.”

Death God huh.

Claugh looked at his black arm again and thought.

Even though he had yet to release the cursed power of his arm on the battlefield, it amounted to the same thing.

This very arm had already taken tons of lives.

He, who did not wish to keep remaining in his current safe haven away from the direct fighting, was well aware of that.

While he was in his safe haven, people were dying. He had witnessed much of that.

And more of that was to come.

“...... hn.”

At that moment.

Claugh’s black arm, the one nicknamed Black Hand , moved in a flash.

That hand caught hold of a knife seemingly thrown from somewhere.

It’s not as if he was looking in the direction from which the knife was thrown. He merely sensed the flow of a killing intent and reacted accordingly.

If a normal person were to have seen this, he or she would have called him a monster.

A monster with flaming red hair donning steel armor.

The death god with a black hand who have appeared on the battlefield.

And then Claugh threw the knife back in the direction from which it came. His throw was powered with a force many times stronger than when it came flying towards him, with a deadly accuracy.

A cry was heard.

Then came the sound of a person falling to the ground.

However, he did not turn to see who it was.

Whether the culprit was a man, a woman, an adult, or a child, it did not matter.

In any case, he had only to kill.

From hereon, he had to keep on killing the people of Nelpha for a while longer.

That’s why he did not bother to look.

Because he thought there was no reason to do so.

He merely.

“......”

He merely, if only a little.

Made a tired and sad face.

“...... I’m sorry.”

The death god of the battlefield murmured with a strained voice.

### 005. Chapter 4: The Moment To Sunder That Darkness

The light had receded.

Sometime in the middle of the night, covered in darkness, at some facility of Roland.

Along the corridor of that facility was Ryner, running at an unbelievable rapid speed, different from his usual languid behavior.

With wide open eyes, and a vermillion five-point pentacle over the center of his black pupils, he was looking intently at the unfolding magic right before him.

At the other end of the corridor.

There were three guards in the process of launching spells in his direction.

Rather, one of them had already completed his spell.

That guard, who appeared to be the most skilled out of them all, had cast Kuuri , which Ryner dodged.

And that guard was stunned,

“To, to dodge Kuuri at this distance......”

While hearing himself called a monster again, something which he was used to already, Ryner ran.

“It’s your own fault for missing at this distance.”

While he said that, another guard was about to complete his magic inscription.

This time round, it's Kurenai .

But Ryner is many times faster, and had constructed a completely different spell structure.

While running, he promptly finished inscribing the glowing symbols.

In the midst of his opponent’s incantation.

“WHAT I SEEK IS BURNING FIELDS >>> KURE......”

In the midst of that,

“WHAT I SEEK IS WATER MIST >>> MISUMI!”

In the center of Ryner’s magic inscription, water started gathering into a state of high pressure, and it burst forth in the form of a jet stream towards the enemy.

The guard who was about to launch Kurenai could only utter the following.

“What kind of absurdity......”

On saying that, the guard who was about to fire off Kurenai , as well the guard who cast Kuuri , were both caught in the strong jet of water and sent crashing into the wall, consequently passing out.

Though Ryner had already gone easy on them to the point where they would not die from his attack, that force must have broken several of their bones.

Usually, Ryner would have gone even easier on them, but today he simply did not have that kind of luxury.

In order to prevent them from calling for reinforcements, it was necessary to knock them out in one shot.

And that's because this place.

“......”

Ryner scanned the surrounding area with just his eyes.

While there wasn't much visible light, he could make out the black rocks that were used to lay the walls of this place, a building which resembled a prison.

This was one out of many buildings which form the intelligence center of Roland.

Though he had probably chosen one of the least guarded places to infiltrate, this was still the heart of the enemy grounds.

If reinforcements were to come, even if it's Ryner, getting killed here was not an impossibility.

That's why he increased the power of his magic, but.

“......”

Ryner looked in the direction of the remaining guard,

“...... did I go too far? But, but, I’m already doing my best to hold back. Sorry.”

He said it with an awkward expression.

And he started running towards the last remaining guard.

That sole guard was already making his escape, running in the opposite direction to call for reinforcements but,

“I won’t let you get away ~”

Ryner gradually closed the distance between them.

If someone familiar to him were to see him, they would ask, why are you running so fast, don’t you always move like a turtle? . That was the extent as to how fast he's running.

Knowing he would get caught up soon, the guard had made a small sound and took out a knife from his waist belt. He then turned around and threw it at Ryner.

But Ryner promptly,

“Hoi.”

He stopped the knife.

“Thanks for that.”

He kept the knife in his own belt.

The guard now had a look of utter despair on his face.

“...... what, what the hell was that...... what the hell is this guy...... why is this monster attacking Class Two Intelligence Center...... damn it!”

And not knowing when to give up, the guard drew a glowing magic symbol to attack his pursuer,

“Too slow.”

Ryner said as he caught up with him.

He had put his own finger into the magic inscription drawn by the guard, and changed its structure. He recklessly changed it to something that he just thought of, completed the inscription and chanted,

“WHAT I SEEK IS, erm, something like, SMOKE, I guess >>> KEMURI!”

That was what he chanted.

As he did that, a cloud of smoke started forming at the center of that inscription, blinding the guard.

“I, I can’t see anything!?”

The guard said with a frightened voice.

And beside him,

“U, uwah, can’t see a thing.”

Having his own visibility taken away, it was a complete failure.

“This is kinda bad.”

While saying that, he searched for the guard’s presence.

The guard seemed to be running away.

“Some, someone......”

The guard raised his voice, about to call for help.

But,

“Please don’t call for reinforcements.”

Ryner grabbed him from behind, strangled him for a while, and he lost consciousness.

The guard fell to the ground.

And the fight came to a close.

Ryner looked at the surrounding smoke, and attempted to decipher its structure with his Alpha Stigma .

“Ah...... I made this recklessly without thinking much, and it’s surprisingly troublesome to dispel.”

While saying that, his finger started dancing in the air again.

He drew a glowing magic symbol, and constructed the corresponding dispelling magic for the smoke that had completely filled up his surroundings.

“WHAT I SEEK IS...... erm, what shall I call it, it would be nice if it sounds real cool, just now it was a little too mundane...... erm, well, WHAT I SEEK IS ah, DISPERSAL CLOUD >>> KI, KIERO!”

In the end, he’s a person without much artistic sense in liguistics after all.

“...... well, erm, hm. What the heck was that again?”

He heaved out a huge sigh.

Supposedly the stronger the words, with one’s will, that are used for invocation will correspond to a stronger magical power, well then again, that’s the research arena of an academic scholar of magic ,

“It's not like I'm some scholar of magic anyway, so that’s fine right?”

Though he said that, there wasn’t anyone around to answer him.

The smoke disappeared as it got sucked in by the magic he created. His surroundings returned to their previous state.

The dark corridor was lit merely by the moonlight streaming in through the window.

He was currently standing in the corridor of the sixth floor of a building belonging to the military, the Class Two Intelligence Center of Roland Empire.

By the way, he originally wanted to infiltrate the Class One Intelligence Center instead, but it was heavily guarded and seemed impossible to penetrate, and that’s why he changed his target to here.

At any rate, that Class One building was filled with those mutated monster guards with liquidified bodies. He remembered a number of those guards who were supposedly dismissed from the mage knight battalion when Sion ascended the throne.

If he had tried infiltrating there, he would die, and that he was certain of, so that’s why he chose this place instead.

In spite of this, that was not to say that the guards here were weak or less watchful.

“......”

Ryner looked at the fallen guard at his feet.

Before coming to this floor, Ryner had already steathily, without causing any ruckus of any sort, disposed of fifty such guards and a dozen working personnel, and had finally arrived here.

That was some unbelievable tough work.

All that took him four hours.

With lots of patience, he had to ambush one or two people at a time and knocked them out in succession, taking him a total of four hours.

He had infiltrated this place at eleven, and now, it’s already three in the morning.

“Ah ~ darn, I’m really tired.”

Ryner said wearily.

Well, by the time he reached the fifth floor, it had gradually become more troublesome, and how he cleared the fifth and sixth floor was just like what he did a while ago.

To put it in another way, if he had continued to clear the fifth and sixth floor in the same slow manner, it would probably take until morning.

But now, he could finally move around freely.

Now that everyone had been knocked out, he was free to search around the facility as much as he wished.

Ryner had been looking forward to this outcome.

“...... uwah ~, what I have to do from hereon out might even be more troublesome however......”

Well, now that it’s late into the night, there wasn’t really any time for him to celebrate.

He gathered what little energy he had left, and trudged into one of the rooms on the sixth floor.

Before him lay a mountain of documents. He reached out to take some, and with familiar ease, started flipping through the pages with an incredible speed.

“...... oops, seems like this is the fruit of the idiotic work that the idiotic Sion was making me do every single day......”

At that moment, he started thinking of Sion again.

He remembered how he was made to slog throughout the past year,

“...... the next time I see him, I’ll hit him first. Do you know how much I want to hit you? , that’s what I will say to him......”

While muttering to himself, he continued flipping through the pages.

But it seemed like this room did not have anything he was looking for, and he headed to the neighbouring room.

And he repeated what he did.

After finishing, he went again to the next room.

“......”

By the way, before coming here, he had already acquired much of the information he desired.

For the whole of today, he was practically jumping from place to place within Roland.

In the morning, while making small talk with the people in town, he was discovered by his pursuers and he fled, at noon, he assaulted some nobles’ residence, extracted some information on how Roland would be moving from now on, and on top of that made off with their money, and then he was attacked by some of his pursuers who he crushed easily, went into hiding after all that, then after when things cooled down he came out again to gather more information from bars, back-street alleys, and other places self-proclaimed to be rich in information.

And consequently, he had a much more complete grasp of the situation in Roland.

1. The more prominent nobles were politically purged, having cuffs put on their authority and power.

Well, this would definitely please the people. It’s all thanks to the Hero King Sion-sama , they were saying. Sion-sama is the ally of the powerless people .

2. For the past year, in order to deal with all the issues, Roland had amassed substantial power. As a result, the neigbouring countries were viewing Roland as a rising threat. They were supposedly banding together to form a coalition to crush Roland, but before they could do that, Roland had already invaded Nelpha. As expected of the reliable Hero King.

This was also something that Ryner was well aware of. Ryner had contributed to some of this power that Roland had acquired during this past year. Well, though among all areas, the fact that the military had expanded the most was something he didn’t know of, and now that he thought about it, Sion had never involved him much in that area.

That was something he couldn’t really stomach, but thinking with regards to the circumstances, it was something really beyond his control.

3. Even though they were waging war, the people were able to become more prosperous in their lifestyle. If the country’s territory continues to expand in this manner, wouldn’t the people be able to become more prosperous?

Ryner had been doubtful of that line of thought. He thought that it couldn’t be possible that the people can continue to become more prosperous in times of war.

To build one’s happiness on top of the deaths of others, how can one possibly live with that?

Sion should have been one of the people who was well aware of this, and in the first place, even now Ryner was still doubtful about the necessity of strengthening Roland’s military.

Indeed, in Northern Menoris exists the threat of Gastark Empire, armed with the Heroes' Relics, has started moving southwards and with its overwhelming power conquered the major power of Stohl.

And fearing that power, the three major powers in Central Menoris have started strengthening their military. Everyone has started setting their sights on war. Setting their sights on encroaching the territory of others.

The possibility of such a large scale world war happening right now is one that will set a precedence in history.

But even so, that is a matter still far up in the north. Until then, can’t Sion, rather than using military force to wage wars to subjugate the south, instead resort to talks and diplomacy to bring the other countries together?

Well, normally that would not be possible.

It would not be possible for someone else other than that stupid king.

However, Ryner thought that Sion is one who possesses such an ability.

Without fighting, he would have the ability to stand in opposition to Gastark or other great nations. And furthermore there was still time.

But yet Sion......

“What’s causing you to be so impatient......?”

Ryner was turning over the pages.

That’s right.

Sion was being impatient.

Extremely impatient.

Impatiently moving forward.

Merely doing it all by himself. Without consulting with his best friend, taking on every single burden.

But why’s that so?

Why was there a need to invade an ally now?

The massacre this time was a performance to make other countries submit easily.

Sion not only wanted to conquer Nelpha, but also Runa, Cassla, in fact the whole of Southern Menoris. Well, it’s a possibility that his ambition extends to that of Central and Northern Menoris as well.

But what’s the purpose of all that?

Is it for his own self satisfaction?

After acquiring one thing, he wants to get his hands on something better the next time. Something bigger and much better.

“...... what a fool he is......”

He is not such a person.

Ryner would be the one who is most aware of that.

The first time we met, he was like a weak insect. Very much afraid of hurting others. Very much afraid of hurting his comrades. And he would take on whatever had happened as his own fault.

That’s why he wanted to become a king.

In order to protect people, his comrades, and the commoners.

He definitely did not become king to fulfill his own desires.

During that time.

At the battlefield where the both of them first met.

During that time, both Sion and Ryner were still students.

The battlefield where their comrades were being slaughtered, where Kiefer betrayed Roland, where Ryner went berserk from his Alpha Stigma , he remembered what Sion said then.

This is what he said. Even when he had done nothing wrong, with a sad face, with a self-reproaching face, this is what he said.

"............ it was my fault to have made you my teammate. Tyle, Toni, and Fahl...... it was also my fault that they died. The war that was started...... it’s also because of me not having become king yet......"

He is a person who hates wars.

He hates having lives thrown away unnecessarily.

But still, now, he’s impatiently killing off people.

What’s the reason behind that?

“Why are you...... why in the world is Sion in such a hurry?”

At that moment.

“...... what a coincidence. That is what I’m looking into as well.”

A voice was heard suddenly.

That was also from the room that Ryner was in.

Feeling surprised, Ryner looked up.

In complete darkness.

Inside the room which he thought was empty just a while ago. He could see the figure of a man, with his back facing him, sitting on a desk beside the window, with a stack of documents in his hands.

A desk which he could reach in merely five large strides. That was how close it was but yet, Ryner did not notice his presence all this while.

It was an extreme situation.

“......”

An extremely bad situation.

It meant that this guy was a guy of incredible power.

Without Ryner noticing, he had sneaked into the room.

No, wait a minute, could it be that he was here right from the beginning?

Ryner glared at the back of that man and said.

“...... so you have been here all this while?”

“Yeah.”

The man replied simply.

That voice was one familiar to Ryner, which troubled him.

He knew this man.

He looked intently at the back of the man.

Despite his youth, he had long white hair. And that mature, kind-looking face, and intelligent sounding voice.

Just by these features, he already knew who he was.

“...... Luke?”

As Ryner said that, the man turned around.

With a grinning, calm face. He was slightly taller than Ryner, and wore a Roland military uniform over his slender body.

Even though he looked like twenty-four, or twenty-five years of age, he sprouted complete white hair which is a special trait of his.

Just as he thought.

It was Luke Stokkart.

The subordinate of Milk Callaud, Ryner’s childhood friend.

Even though he was always carrying that frivolous smile, with the face of a teacher at a nursery school or a kindergarden, for him to go unnoticed in this small, cramped room, he was someone whom Ryner could not take lightly.

Ryner’s body tensed up in preparation of an engagement, and said.

“So, you are here, looking into something as well?”

Luke smiled.

“No way. I’m here waiting for you actually.”

“...... how did you know I would be......”

“Haha. That’s an easy one. With your current strength, there is no way you could have gone to the castle to question Sion-san directly. Well, it might be possible for you to overcome Class One Intelligence Center, but if you were going to escape to another country thereafter, it is necessary for you to avoid running the risk of getting injured. That’s why you won’t attempt to infiltrate that place. Well, you could always acquire that level of information later after escaping to Nelpha...... but in order to do that, you would need to first look into the real situation between Roland and Nelpha, that’s why you’ve decided to come here to take a look before leaving this country...... and as you were wondering where those relevant documents are as you sift through the place......”

At that moment, Luke held out to show him the documents he was holding onto.

“And, here are those documents that I’ve consolidated for you......”

He smiled gently as he said that.

Ryner scowled at that smiling face.

“In other words, you knew all along that I was going to come here?”

“Well, that’s right.”

“...... and you’re here to kill me?”

“Regarding that, well, I’m wondering about it.”

Ryner gave the befuddled-looking Luke a sharp look and said.

“But at the very least, you have filled this room with the traps that you take pride in, haven’t you?”

And he looked around.

That’s how it was. The most troublesome thing about this guy is his extraordinary skill in laying traps.

His strength didn’t lie in his magic, his movements, nor his combat prowess. Well, even though he is notches above that of a normal soldier in all these areas, he was no match for Ryner.

Even though Ryner should have been more than a match for him, he did not feel that victory was already in his grasp.

He had the sinking feeling that all his moves would be read by this guy if he were to fight him.

Feels like I’m dancing in the palms of this fella.

Within Ryner’s sight, he could not see the signs of any traps in the room.

But Luke laughed,

“Ever since you were fighting on the first floor, I have been doing my best, spending two hours to lay all my traps.”

He said that promptly.

As he thought, there were traps present. And it was beyond Ryner’s ability to find them.

A fatal mistake. It was almost as if his defeat had been decided.

“......”

Wait, what if this was all a bluff, another specialty of his. Which meant that there was no real physical trap, but the trap was in his words themselves, that is, a bluff to stop Ryner from moving?

Ryner shifted his eyes around, desperately searching for the presence of any traps in the dark room.

As he did that, Luke pointed to a spot near him,

“For example, somewhere to your right, a trap that springs out a knife.”

Instantly.

A ‘ba-ching’ sound was heard behind him.

Ryner, in a flash, looked there.

That was a fatal move.

The sound was made by a rubber band, which Luke had sprung, striking a document shelf.

And Ryner appeared to be distracted by it.

The opening was all that Luke needed to make his move. A knife streaked through the air in a straight line towards his head......

But a smile floated on Ryner’s face,

“I thought something like this would happen.”

He took a step backwards and dodged it.

Luke had a surprised look on his face.

“Ah, you dodged it.”

“Ha. That’s because of the many times I’ve suffered from falling into your traps......”

But that was not the end yet.

This time round, Luke pointed to his left and said.

“Ah, but the trap is there instead.”

“You can’t fool me again......”

At that moment, a ‘go-gan’ sound rang out on his left.

“Go-gan!?”

Without thinking, Ryner shouted. It was evident that the sound was not made by a rubber band.

So what was that?

Well, if I turned my head, this time round, I’ll really have Luke’s knife sticking into me.

Now, now, then again, it just won’t do if I don’t know where that ‘go-gan’ sound came from. Because it’s ‘go-gan’ right? It’s not ‘ba-ching’ hello? The ‘go-gan’ sound seemed to be something I can’t take lightly......

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh this is so shitty!”

That tug-of-war struggle inside his mind took place in only an instant, and in the end, unable to bear it anymore, Ryner turned his eyes toward that sound.

As he did that, what he saw was a teddy bear being launched from inside of a bookshelf, falling onto the ground.

And then.

“......”

And then that was it.

“Huh, what was that all about!”

Ryner yelled, and Luke smiled.

“What do you think? Does it suit your taste?”

“What!?”

“Well, I was referring to the teddy bear of course. Cute, isn’t it?”

“It’s not cute at alllll!”

“Eh, is that so? Well, I bought that as a souvenir for Captain Milk...... after hearing that it was the cutest and how popular it was from the shop assistant at the plushie store......”

“Duh, that’s not the pointtttttttt! Arghhhhhhhhh, so now, what the heck are you after all this while!”

For some reason, Luke did not intend to seriously fight Ryner today.

Nevertheless, with a weary face from dealing with Luke’s bluffs and trickery, he said.

“...... whenever I fight with you, it’s a serious drain on both my heart and mind, and I really hate that.”

“That goes the same for me, you know. You practically surpass in me in every area, and if I made a mistake in my tactics, I’ll be dead. But then again, I don’t make mistakes.”

“Your face certainly doesn’t go well with your dislikable personality.”

“Haha. Because the only person whom I’ll be gentle to is Captain Milk.”

“Oh really, is that so?”

“Yup, that’s right.”

Looking intently at the contented expression of Luke, Ryner let out a sigh.

It’s really tiring to talk to this guy , he thought. When he looked at the all-knowing face that seemed to be able to see through anything and everything, he felt that whatever his reaction or response was, it would make him look like a fool.

Ryner looked up and looked at Luke.

“So, what business do you have with me? You are here to meet me right?”

Luke acknowledged.

“...... yes, that’s right. I’ve come here to meet you, the traitor Ryner Lute-san.”

“Woah. So now I’ve become a traitor of this country?”

“Yup.”

“Even though I did nothing traitorous at all?”

Luke shrugged at his query.

“....... you are a traitor if you are judged to be so, regardless of whether you truly are one or not...... it’s something you hear often in this country, isn’t it so?”

And Ryner averted his eyes from Luke and looked at the teddy bear on the ground.

That was supposed to be Milk’s souvenir.

Milk.

Milk Callaud.

A comrade and a childhood friend, like Ryner, she was raised in a terrible place where human experiments were conducted day in and day out, a place where nothing but torturous training awaited them daily --- 307 Special Facility.

The Roland then was truly terrible. Rather, until recently when Sion ascended the throne, it was a truly terrible country, a world where, a village could be wiped out just on the capriciousness of a noble, let alone being branded a traitor falsefully.

But that was no longer the case.

Ryner looked up again and said.

“Indeed, that used to be the case...... But no longer now, since Sion became king.”

Luke nodded.

“Yes. This country has changed. It has taken a large step forward. And in days to come, it will continue moving forward.”

That’s right. This country is moving forward. It will continue moving forward. But that,

“...... towards where? Where is it heading to?”

Luke smiled.

“Towards...... the light.”

“But, what if that is the wrong light?”

“The Hero King will never be wrong.”

“Is that so? Sion can be unexpectedly a dunce sometimes. The other day, when he was working an all-nighter, the sleepy-head ended up at the wrong place while going to the toilet.”

“Ahahaha. Is that for real?”

Of course it’s for real.

And it was just sometime ago. About a month ago. At a time when the landscape of this country had not yet changed.

But now, in just one month, everything had been completely transformed.

But why was that so?

“...... what in the world is Sion trying to accomplish? Is there something he is trying to get his hands on that there is a need to attain such power? Why is he in such a hurry to move northwards?”

There must be a reason. There must be an answer to all those questions.

Whether it was about the world war, or Gastark, or the unrest in the neighbouring countries, et cetera, there must be a reason behind all these.

But yet, why was Sion, who hated bloodshed and would never want to see his comrades die, a person who would be pained even at the death of his enemies, why was he doing this,

“Even if there is a reason...... isn’t he in too much of a hurry?”

At Ryner’s query, Luke looked doubtful.

“That’s why I’m looking into that.”

“...... even you guys don’t get what is going on?”

“Not really, we understand more or less what is currently transpiring. But still, there are a few things we are concerned with. His Majesty has been keeping secrets from us. Well then again, ever since I knew him, Sion-san has always liked to keep things to himself. It’s something that can’t be helped......”

Ryner thought about that.

Luke mentioned --- secrets.

It could be that , he thought.

During that rainy night.

There was something inside Sion, and during that time, his appearance had transformed into something strange.

That must be something that was influencing Sion’s actions. Rather, even for his imprisonment, as well as his fretful actions, there must be a relationship between those and the form he took back then, Ryner thought.

But what the hell was that?

Of course, he wasn’t about to look into all that within this country.

But could Luke have already,

“Are you already on to something?”

“Nope.”

Luke promptly shook his head.

“But, currently, my superior...... ahh speaking of that, it’s someone Ryner-san is acquainted with as well. Rahel Miller, having being summoned by Sion-san, is currently being updated on a number of matters.”

“Ah, I see. So Sion is letting him in on the secrets?”

“No idea. It’s not as if I was the one summoned. But still, it doesn’t really matter. Those are Sion-san’s business. There must be a good reason behind them.”

He spoke in a trusting tone.

Because he’s the Hero King, he will definitely not make a mistake.

That’s the tone he used.

Ryner said.

“As I said, what if Sion made a mistake?”

But Luke shook his head.

“Didn’t I tell you earlier? The Hero King will never make a mistake.”

“Didn’t I also tell you? He is unexpectedly a dunce at times. He has made mistakes before.”

“He makes no mistakes.”

“He does. The thing is...... he might have been deceived by somebody else altogether.”

Like the thing inside of him.

Or perhaps that somebody could have been the monster who appears and disappears every now and then around him --- Lucile.

He sighed at that thought. That’s right. There was the possibility that Sion had been deceived and someone was making use of him.

As to exactly who it was...... or what it was, he didn’t know, but it could be due to some sort of embroilment with some particular legend, a legend surrounded by Heroes’ Relics, God, Demon, and things like that. There was a possibility that he was used.

Keeping all this to himself, Ryner looked intently at Luke and continued.

“...... you know, he isn’t the kind of person you guys think he is. He is very much a clumsy fella who would try to bear every burden all by himself. He will never make a mistake? Just because he’s the Hero King? Don’t say such a stupid thing. He is a fella who frequently makes mistakes, and then he’ll be regretting it, brooding over it, continuing to put all the blame on himself. Even if he is the Hero King, he is still human. There is no way he won’t make a mis......”

At that moment,

Luke cut in and said.

“I’m very well aware of that.”

“Huh?”

“Like I said, I’m very much well aware of that. Even Sion-san does make mistakes...... we do acknowledge that. But despite that, what I meant was, that it doesn’t matter. Even for the summons this time, where Miller-senpai has gone to hear Sion-san out, it’s not like we’re going to completely believe Sion-san’s words. Well......”

Luke stopped mid-sentence, and moved away from Ryner. And once again, he propped himself up onto the desk.

“...... right from the beginning, we have not believed in everything. Regarding this country, or even the Hero King......”

Ryner frowned at Luke’s words.

“So why are you guys working for him?”

At that, Luke shrugged his shoulders as if to say it’s a no-brainer.

“Isn’t it because Sion-san is an excellent king? Anybody could see that it’s no easy task to find a person of such calibre. To be blessed with such an excellent king, it’s the great fortune of Roland.”

“So......”

Luke interrupted, and continued.

“However, whether Sion-san is an excellent king or not, and whether we can trust Sion-san or not, are two different matters. It’s possible to work under him despite not trusting him. While we constantly question whether the young king is making any mistakes. If he did, it’s up to us to reduce the number of sacrifices along the way. The Hero King’s...... subordinates had the freedom to act. But for that to happen......”

At that moment, Luke held out the documents in his hand.

“We must have accurate information. And it’s not something that is acquired one-sided through only his words. It’s not something that we get from only one source in hindsight. It must be something that is attained from every possible location, a macroscopic way of gathering information......”

At that point, unexpectedly, Luke had a embarrassed look,

“Oops, it seems like I’ve been preaching a lot to you? But, since you are about to embark on a journey...... this is something I feel a young man like you should hear...... that’s why I’ve come here specially to talk to you.”

He said.

Ryner gave him a sharp look.

So, this is how things were. This fella doesn’t believe in anything.

People.

Country.

The world.

And not to mention even for Sion, he’s a person to be doubted.

That’s why they were allowing Ryner to escape.

To get outside of this country.

In order to let him gather information from other countries.

Those were not the only thoughts that Ryner had had while conversing with Luke just now.

“Even if it’s Sion, could it be that he had been deceived and manipulated into doing all that?”

Even this particular train of thought, quite possibly, was something that this fella had led me to , he thought.

He is constantly suspicious of everything in this world.

“...... so what is it that you are trying to make me accomplish?”

Ryner groaned and Luke, once again, shrugged with a befuddled look.

“Nothing. We just want you to live in whichever way you want.”

“Don’t mess with me.”

“I’m not. In truth...... we have some hopes on you...... if Sion-san comes to make a huge, irreversible mistake, we are hoping you can become a force of deterrence. In order to save Sion-san, you are heading out to the world to obtain the necessary power. Excellent. That’s absolutely excellent. Even though we don’t know what is going to happen to you...... if you manage to obtain great power...... such as an army, or a country, a power that is on par with Roland, if at that point in time you still see yourself as Sion-san’s friend...... since a reassuring partner is hard to come by during a time of a great war plaguing the entire continent, isn’t it so?”

Even as Luke asked that, he continued.

“If Sion-san becomes mad and turns into a tyrant, we’ll need someone who can kill him...... well then again, when that happens, or rather before that happens, we will kill him ourselves.”

He said it in such a manner as if they could do that anytime.

But Luke shook his head. Even though Ryner had not said anything, it was if Luke could read his mind and he smiled,

“No, that’s not it. If we lay our hands on Sion-san at this stage, the ones getting killed will be us. Currently, we don’t have any way of dealing with the monster Lucile. Well, then again...... we’ll manage somehow.”

What a thing to say.

It was as if.

The manner in which he talked, it was as if he could really see through everything.

“...... the monster, would be you instead.”

Ryner said with a half-groan.

And Luke smiled again.

“Haha. I was often told that when I was a child. But, aren’t you the same as well?”

“............”

“Well, that’s enough I guess. I’ll drop it and various other things among that. I’ve probably talked too much. Then, please have this.”

As he said that, he handed the documents to him.

“These are the documents that will fill you in on the situation between Roland and Nelpha. To be honest, I was lying when I told you I consolidated these, they were from my subordinate, Lear Rinkal, who worked through the night before to assemble all these. It’s all for your sake. He’s an excellent man, and it should be easy to read.”

Ryner took the documents from him.

The cover page read,

“Report for Ryner-kun who’s about to embark on a journey”.

That was the title.

“...... sigh. You guys are making fun of me.”

Luke shook his head furiously.

“We are not making fun of you at all. Rather, we are pretty much fearful of you. We were pretty troubled on whether or not to let a person of such power out of the country. But we decided to let you go...... do you know the reason?”

Of course, I do.

“...... the threat that Sion posed is greater than myself, isn’t it? If in the event Sion goes crazy and comes after me, I will be the one to kill him. I’m an insurance against Sion running amok.”

But, Luke shook his head again.

“It’s the reverse, complete reverse. We let you go in order to leave open the possibility of not having Sion-san killed. If assuming that Sion-san was deceived and manipulated by others, and eventually makes a terrible mistake, what we can only do is to kill him. But it’s different for you right? You will hang on till the end. No matter how many sacrifices, how much hurt you’ve incurred, you will still hang on, and try to bring Sion-san back. Because you are his friend...... because you’re his best friend, like what you did on that rainy night...... you still hung on......”

Ryner was left alone in the room.

In his hands were the documents detailing the war status between Roland and Nelpha, which was what Ryner had been looking for.

He flipped the pages and started reading the contents.

So after reading this, what is Luke telling me to do?

He thought for an instant, then shook his head.

No.

It should be after reading this, “what will I do” instead.

That would be something which Luke could not predict, which Sion could not predict.

What in the world can I actually accomplish?

For his sake.

No, that’s not all.

For the sake of the world.

What is it that I can do for the sake of this world?

He recalled the words spoken by a youth, a cursed eye bearer, just before he died a while ago, before Ryner’s eyes.

They were the words of the youth named Lafra.

“Those who have given up on humans, sorrowful God’s eyes bearers...... please save them.”

After saying that, he died.

But just before he died, he was smiling. He was smiling with a saddened face. It was the same as the former Ryner. It was a resigned smile that held unspeakable resentment and sorrow for being born with those cursed eyes.

It was then when Lafra said to Ryner.

“It’s because you are a kind and gentle person.”

He spoke of a foolish thing.

"That’s why...... you will definitely keep the promise. I’m happy to have met you in the end."

Even though he was not really that kind and gentle.

Even though there was no way he could keep that promise.

Lafra still said that.

And then he died.

Ryner thought of trying to keep that promise.

For a person like him who had given up on everything, for once, he would like to try keeping that promise.

In order to do that, he tried working hard, trying to change Roland.

But in the end, this happened.

He couldn’t protect anyone.

With only a mild effort, he couldn’t save anyone.

Lafra, Pueka, Tiir, Kiefer, Milk, Ferris, Tyle, Toni, Fahl, Arua, Sion......

And above all else, he couldn’t save himself.

That had to be because his amount of commitment was not enough.

Since he thought by relying on Sion, with just some amount of effort, everything would work out fine.

To treasure himself more.

To hurt himself more.

To strengthen himself more.

There was a need to take on more responsibility unto himself.

Not the fault of anyone.

Not for the sake of anyone.

What did he actually want to achieve? What did he want to do? It was necessary to think about all this.

“I want to save Sion.”

But that was not all.

“...... people...... everything that’s before me...... I want to save everyone.”

But that was not all.

“Humans, cursed eyes bearers, adults, children, men, women, countries, the world..... anything and everything......”

All of them.

He wanted to save all that he could see.

That was what Ryner thought.

“............”

But that was dream talk.

There was probably somebody else who would say the same.

To bring happiness to others.

To prevent others from getting hurt.

Such kind of dream talk.

Of course, Ryner also thought of this as merely dream talk.

He himself had also caused hurt to others before.

Rather, there were already many who had been hurt by him.

But still.

But still, he decided to choose a different path from Sion.

Until now, he had been running away, and because of that, it had always led to him losing various things.

But this time around, he wanted to try moving forward without running away.

No matter what he has to lose.

No matter what kind of sadness he has to go through.

He wanted to try believing in himself.

Believing in the him who wanted to save someone.

Believing in the him who wanted to save Sion, the him who wanted to save the world.

This monster. For the sake of the people who believed in this monster which was capable of hurting someone just by being alive.

He wanted to try believing in himself a little more.

“............”

At that moment, as he was flipping through the documents that Luke left him, an article he remembered flashed into his mind.

That was something from before Sion ascended the throne.

It was a report that he written during the two years in which, in place of Kiefer, he had spent in prison. It was a report which he had forgotten a long time ago.

The report began like this.

People hate dying.

They hate killing as well.

They don’t like making others cry, or cry themselves.

How would it feel to not be able to choose one’s own life?

What about having one’s family dead?

What about having one’s lover dead?

No one should have wished for all that, but yet why is the world smiling and desiring only such senseless sorrow?

I have never thought of forcefully changing anything. But if I don’t, it will be sorrowful, and neither do I want to lose any more things......

Such bothersome talk......

It’s about time to move on. All this while, I’ve averted my eyes, but if needed, I shall try looking at my own past.

And.

In order to create a world where no one loses anything.

A world in which that child, and Kiefer don’t have to cry, in which Tyle, Toni, and Fahl don’t have to die, in which Sion doesn’t have to brood.

A world in which everyone can laugh and just take afternoon naps.

Ryner Lute

“...... but, I didn’t do anything.”

He thought.

He did not do a single thing.

That’s why this was the worst kind of report.

Lafra and Pueka were dead, and Sion was brooding alone, crying.

Before it came to all that, I didn’t do anything.

But, it’s different now.

He would not say that it was too late, but instead work harder.

In order not to continue losing anything that was precious to him.

In order not to make his dear friends, comrades, family, and people precious to him cry anymore.

He stood up.

“...... I shall leave this country.”

There were a lot of things that had to be done.

Rather.

There were a lot of things that he wanted to do.

That’s why he wanted to leave this country and become stronger, Ryner thought.

Suddenly, at that moment,

“Ah, I see I see.”

Luke, who had supposedly left the room, was peeping in,

“Huuuuuuhhhhhhhhh!? Eh? What? I thought you’ve left already!”

Luke said with an apologetic look,

“No, I’m sorry. I wanted to continue observing you for a while......”

“Don’t fool around with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?”

Ryner yelled in his loudest voice today.

Eh? Eh? This is a bad joke right? Just now, didn’t I say something embarassing?

Look, look, I, I talked about saving Sion, saving the worldd nooooooooo, since just thinking about it is enough to kill me with embarrassment I don’t want to think about it woah it’s reeally embarrrrrrrrrrassssiiiiiiingggggggg!

Luke beamed,

“Well, I never thought Ryner-san is such a fiery and passionate person......”

“Shut uuuppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!”

“Well well, I’m praising you and there’s no need to feel shy about it......”

“Please I beg you, stop that pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!”

“Is it really that embarrassing?”

“...... eh? Of course it is......”

“Then, I shall stop.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Ryner felt a sense of relief. Moreover, it was great that the person who had heard him was not that bully Sion, nor that willful Ferris, but this man with a gentle disposition, he thought......

But, at that moment.

“Well but, but, I didn’t do anything...... , that line moved even me......”

“As I thought, you are a detestable guyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

Ryner looked like he was about to cry.

After laughing delightfully at that, Luke said,

“Let’s get to the main topic.”

“Main topic?”

“Yes. There was something I forgot to tell you.”

“What?”

“Ryner-san intends to break into Nelpha through the Senel border gate right?”

While Ryner did not make any acknowledgement, he had indeed thought of that route.

The Senel border was narrow and was practically unusable for large armies to move through, and most important of all, the Roland troops that were currently invading Nelpha would not be present there.

However.

Luke said.

“There’s an ambush there.”

That was something he expected of course.

“...... is that at the level that even Ferris and I can’t break through?”

Luke tilted his head.

“Well, maybe? But I think it’s gonna be tough. If I were you, I won’t choose that route.”

“So it can’t be done?”

“It can’t be done.”

“...... geez, it’s such a bother. Then which way should I opt for hm?”

Ryner spread an imaginary map in his head.

There were two other paths aside from Senel, but one of them, was probably currently used by Roland to send troops into Nelpha, a pretty troublesome route.

That meant only one choice was left.

Luke spoke before him.

“By the way, Fait as well.”

“Ambush?”

“Yes.”

“Sion is serious eh?”

“Well, I’m not so sure whether it’s under the orders of His Majesty.”

“Then, whose orders is it?”

“Who knows? I haven’t really investigated who has currently undertaken the mission of pursuing you......”

Ryner, with a disgruntled look, said,

“Do your job properly duh.”

“Haha. I’m not really obligated to do so much for you.”

Luke laughed.

“But, if you can’t even overcome an obstacle of this level......”

He stopped before finishing, but Ryner knew what he wanted to say.

If he could not even overcome an obstacle of this level, he was no longer of any value to Luke.

Ryner thought.

From now on, he would be pursued by the Hero King of Roland Empire, a major power of southern Menoris.

If he couldn’t even overcome something of this level.

“............”

Ryner started weighing his situation.

Well, even if he didn’t use a border gate, he could always choose to use a wilderness path to go over a mountain to enter Nelpha territory.

That would be pretty bothersome though.

It would take him several days more if he took that alternative, compared to using a border gate.

During that time, the pursuit would still continue, and as much as possible, he would like to be in Nelpha sooner.

“Well, whichever the case, regarding the matter of whether or not we can break through a border gate, I will have to verify it with my own eyes before......”

Ryner looked up.

“Duh, there’s no one around!”

Not knowing when Luke left, he uttered without thinking.

Once again, Ryner was left alone in the dark room.

But he wasn’t about to believe that.

He had enough of having his embarrassing talk eavesdropped by someone else like what had happened earlier.

He started up to ascertain whether Luke had really left.

He opened the door and looked down the corridor.

But it seemed like Luke was gone this time......

At that moment.

Along the corridor.

From the direction which should be leading to a stairway, Luke’s head popped out,

“There’s no need to see me off, you know?”

“As I thought, you’re still here!”

“Fufufu. Since you are way too trusting of people at times, I thought I shall have you be a little bit more suspicious...... now, can you tell whether I really intend to go back or~?”

With all his heart, Ryner answered the quiz that Luke, who appeared to be having fun, had put forth.

“The hell I care, moron! Go die already! Go die now!”

“Ah haha. You are so cruel. But, I’m really going back now. It’s pointless to stop me......”

“............”

Without waiting for him to finish what he was saying, Ryner walked back into the room and shut the door.

Once he did that, he could no longer hear Luke’s voice.

This time round, he heard the sound of Luke’s footsteps walking down the stairs, but whether that was really the case or just a sham, was something Ryner didn’t know, however, he thought that it didn’t really matter anymore, and after letting out a sigh, he took a chair and sat down.

Behaving like a punk, he brought his legs up onto the desk.

When he looked at the clock hanging on the wall of the room, it was already four o’clock in the night.

“No, it should be morning instead......”

With the current season, the sun wasn’t up at such an early hour, and the sky was still dark.

But it won’t be long before daybreak.

When morning comes, they have to start their journey out of the country.

He told Ferris to wait at Asohld dango tea-house, which was just a little further north of the street from this place, at eight in the morning.

Four hours from now.

No, taking into account the time needed to reach that place, Ryner only had an hour left to gather information from within Roland.

One more hour.

He looked outside the window. And gazed out into the night.

From the window which was facing to the west, it was just the right place for him to see the castle sitting in the northwest. He looked at the streets just below the castle to the southwest.

He was gazing at the country that had raised him.

The visible scenery.

He gazed at the nauseating, visible scenery.

And incidentally, he thought

After leaving the country today, I won’t be back for quite a while.

No, it’s possible that I won’t be coming back at all.

The place where Milk, Kiefer, Sion, Ferris, and his friends and comrades were, it was possible that he won’t be coming back at all, he thought.

It was different from before.

It was different from the time when he and Ferris, under the orders of Sion, left to search for the Heroes’ Relics in various countries.

Today, for Ryner, it was farewell to this country.

Though it was not because he felt any saddness in that, for some reason, he had those thoughts.

This place where he was born, where he was bullied, where he was tortured, where he was scorned, where he was treated as a taboo, this kind of country could just disappear for all he cared, but before he knew it, he had found friends and comrades.

But, all that was soon to be destroyed, and in order to restore things, he was going to embark on a journey.

A journey to save his dearest friend.

That was something awesome, he thought.

For someone who had nothing up until now, it was like his life was lit by a radiant light.

He felt that finally there was a meaning to his life.

But, still.

“............”

Ryner looked outside the window with a faint, sad smile.

“...... but still, it feels a little sad to be leaving this place, I guess.”

A lot happened here after all.

Even though most of them might be unpleasant, but it did feel like there were also many good things that happened which could displace all that.

He had never thought that he would ever experience such days. On many occasions, he thought he was going to die and that tomorrow would never come.

It was different now.

It felt sad he could not return to those good old days. He thought of how nice it would be if those happy days could continue. Why was it always the case, that only when precious things were lost, then would he realize it, and feel regretful about it.

If he had to lose them anyway, he would have indulged in them more during those days. During those days, he would have done more.

I would have laughed more, and make others laugh more. I really like you guys. Since I was saved by you guys, I wanted to save you guys as well, even if it’s embarrassing, I would tell you guys these if time could turn back. If I knew we couldn’t go back to the way it was, I would have told you guys properly......

He was thinking of something stupid.

Nevertheless, he could no longer go back to those days.

No matter how much he regretted it, he could not turn time back.

But wouldn’t it be alright if he could change things again tomorrow, he asked himself.

Whenever he thought about the past good times he had, it felt indeed a little.

A little sad.

And he was certain that.

“...... you feel the same way, don’t you? Sion.”

Ryner said as if he was conversing with someone.

But there was no answer.

He gazed through the window. The tall castle, for some reason gave off a different feeling from before, feeling colder, more inhuman, and further away.

Awfully far.

It might be a little difficult to reach the castle with his outstretched arms currently. Stretching higher and taller, it probably won’t do if he didn’t give his best.

But, but still.

“............”

At that moment, Ryner averted his eyes from the window.

And looked at those documents received from Luke, which were propped on his lap. And turned the pages.

He wanted to use the remaining hour to go through the documents. One way or another, it would be difficult to make his move without confirming the situation in Nelpha.

Since he was still debating on whether to continue on to Nelpha, or to head towards Runa instead.

He flipped the pages. And the next page, the next page, the next page.

With an incredible speed, he scanned the words and input the information into his head.

The situation was worse than he thought.

The women and children were really being massacred.

Even though he knew the reason behind it, but still, Ryner frowned.

And then, Nelpha’s actions became weird. Just right before Nelpha’s king officially expressed his surrender, he was killed and confusion set in.

On top of that, the successor sent ten thousand troops to square off with Roland, while he promptly escaped in the meantime.

That was why currently, without the presence of the king, there was no one in authority who could raise the surrender flag for Nelpha.

In this situation, Roland would have to continue fighting until Nelpha was completely destroyed.

But at that point, a ray of hope appeared.....

“............ huh? What’s this......”

At that moment.

He said with a slight groan.

“......that rascal Luke......”

Finally, Ryner understood what Luke was trying to make him do.

It was the worst.

Luke was making him do something which could be said to be the worst kind of bother that could ever be.

This was what was in the documents.

Although the stupid prince, who killed Nelpha’s king and made his escape thereafter, had sent ten thousand troops to fight Roland, in the end, they did not meet Roland’s army at all.

A new commander had appeared and taken command of the ten thousand troops.

A person who carried the blood of the dead king.

The son of the stupid prince and his commoner mistress, a capable man who was popular among the people, had successfully persuaded the ten thousand soldiers to come under his lead, and had led them west, avoiding the conflict with Roland.

And the name of the man who had saved those ten thousand soldiers was.

“...... Toale......”

Ryner said with a weary voice.

Toale Nelphi.

He knew that name well. Just about a year ago, when Sion made a diplomatic visit to Nelpha’s capital, Ryner was also there as well and that was when he had met him. Despite his frailness, he tried to protect his little brother and sister from some stray hoodlums, and as he was getting beaten up, that was when Ryner and Ferris came to his rescue, and that was how they met one another.

That was the discriminated son of the stupid prince and his commoner mistress, but then again, being part of royalty still, he had some amount of influence and had helped Ryner in looking up various things in the library...... well, to say that he knew him well, that was actually the extent of it.

However, he had also put them up and had spent a number of days with the duo.

Toale himself, as well as with his numerous brothers and sisters.

Indeed, he looked like a promising youth with a good head, and always did whatever he could to protect his brothers and sisters while going about his own life.

He was also popular among the people in town, and they cried for him to be the next king rather than that stupid prince.

That fella is really a popular guy.

Thanks to that popularity, he attracted the attention of a strange ‘monster’.

At that moment, Ryner remembered the incident in which a powerful, black ‘demon’ had come to kill Toale.

“...... Miran Froaude.”

Speaking of this, that was the first time he met that man.

With a wave of his ring, he could summon shadow beasts to attack them.

That ring was probably a Hero’s Relic, and on top of that, though Ryner recognized him to be a descendent of the Holy Knight Halford Miran, that man, evidently filled with darkness, hardly looked like a descendent of the Holy Knight.

What he could only see was a demon to the core.

One who could kill people without a change in expression.

And he came to kill Toale.

It seemed like he was working for a tyrant king, and was willing to kill anyone who might hinder them.

“That fella is seriously some kind of murderous devil......”

Ryner said with a groan as he recalled all this.

He remembered his words.

From some place within the dark and deep recesses of his mind, he remembered his words.

“You were asking me, what would be left after killing off all the hindrances...... that was what you asked right? From the bottom of my heart, I would say that after killing off all the hindrances, what’s left would be those of convenience who could serve my purpose. From the perspective of an Alpha Stigma bearer like you, if you kill off all the other human beings, then the world will be easier to live in for all the Alpha Stigma bearers...... That is the truth, isn’t it? People are animals who could only live an existence of aggression. In order to eat, in order to protect their pride, in order to have a better life, in order to protect a loved one......’’

And, in order not to be killed......

People fight.

To create a place where there are no sacrifices, where everyone can live happily...... that is a pile of bullshit. This kind of world is impossible. The world is not as naive a place as you think.

That was what he said.

People fight in order not to be killed.

That was perhaps a statement striking true. But even so, it doesn’t mean he would accept that.

People can find someone to be of a hindrance at one time, or to be disagreeable, or they may even want someone to disappear, but in the next instant, they can also love the same person whom they hated a while ago.

If that someone were to die unexpectedly, even though they should have found him or her to be a bother, they could become lonely in the end, as a result.

That’s why, undoubtedly, there was only one of the aforementioned reasons that fit the needs of having to kill off a hindrance.

If everyone were to kill one another, in the end, oneself will become a hindrance and have to be killed.

It was obvious that the path he was seeking was wrong.

And the result was already showing.

Indeed, as a military man from the great nation of Stohl up north, his words might seem fitting...... but Stohl should have already been annihilated by Gastark.

He wondered what had happened to him after all that, but well,

“I’m pretty sure no one would miss him, so let me just forget about him.”

Ryner smiled and returned his former thoughts.

In any case, Toale, who was targetted by Froaude, is a capable man.

And finally, just as the people had wished, a opportunity had arisen for Toale to ascend the throne.

“But...... what bad timing it is.”

Toale was probably born unlucky, Ryner thought.

With regards of Toale’s situation, Ryner had no clue, but as to what Toale was thinking about, it was a different story.

Firstly,

"Since we’re surrendering, would you forgive the ten thousand soldiers and the people?"

That would probably be his proposal. But this would be rejected.

Because Nelpha’s king is still that stupid prince, and not you.

The Roland now would not just stop at this. In the future, it had plans to invade Runa, Cassla and other neighbouring countries.

They could not afford to show any mercy just because of Toale’s proposal, in order to make Nelpha an example for the rest.

Roland is going to use its might to crush Nelpha thoroughly, and it’s not up to you to stop them.

If you really want to put forth a surrender, you had to take the head of your stupid prince father. And become the official king of Nelpha, only then will anyone start listening to you.

But that was going to be something reckless.

Toale had only ten thousand troops under his command.

In comparison, the stupid prince had sixty-eight thousand soldiers protecting him.

That’s nearly seven times.

It wasn’t a battle Toale could win.

But still, he had no choice but to win. If he could not win over the hearts of the seventy thousand soldiers and have the stupid prince’s head delivered to him, Nelpha’s people would be doomed.

Therefore,

“...... so this is where I shall come in to help?”

With a bitter face, Ryner looked in the direction where Luke had left.

“...... that sly fox.”

Given his capabilities in gathering intelligence, Luke must have been aware that Ryner was acquainted with Toale.

He probably predicted that Ryner would go give Toale a hand after reading these documents.

He remembered his earlier words.

"If you manage to obtain great power...... and so on and so forth."

"Such as an army...... and so on and so forth."

"A power that is on par with Roland...... and so on and so forth."

"If at that point in time you still see yourself as Sion-san’s friend...... and so on and so forth."

He could only hear Luke telling him to go help Toale from all those words.

“Geez. He was out to use me right from the beginning.”

Ryner said with a fed-up voice.

However, as things were going, he had to go help him. If he didn’t, lots of people would die. That was something Ryner did not want.

No, even if Ryner didn’t go help him, Roland would, through some secret maneuvers, dispatch some reinforcements to help Toale with killing that stupid prince.

That was the most advantageous method to Roland.

And once Toale had served his purpose.

Toale would be killed.

“............”

After executing the stupid prince, his capable son, and Nelpha’s royalty, they would announce it to the neighbouring counties.

Did you see the fate of Nelpha, who dare oppose Roland?

If you want to surrender, now’s the time.

If you do it now, we will spare the royal family and the nobles, and allow them to keep their status.

But, if you don’t surrender now......

“ We’ll destroy you ...... to that effect?”

At that moment, Ryner flipped close the documents from Luke.

After withdrawing his legs from the desk, he folded his arms.

And he looked at the ceiling.

“...... I’m beat.”

He grumbled.

For some reason, just as he was about to leave the country, the number of things he had to do just kept piling up.

In other words, if he didn’t hurry, the homework would seem to continue accumulating.

If he tarried around any longer, Nelpha’s soldiers and people would be killed off in the meantime.

A little more bothersome than that would be if Toale’s head were to fly next.

But what should he do next after rescuing Toale?

After linking up with Toale and mobilizing his troops, he would somehow immobilize that stupid prince. It was clear up till that part.

But, what’s next?

Taking Toale along and finding a way out somehow? Would Roland overlook that?

No, it might turn out that he would need to take command of Nelpha’s troops and battle it out with Roland’s army in order to protect Toale......?

“............”

Ryner scowled at the ceiling while turning things over in his head.

Normally, that would not have been the case.

At the very least, Sion, the current Sion would not come to such a conclusion.

If all they needed was the single life of Toale, there was no necessity to incur unneeded loss of lives.

That was balance. A giant balance which human lives rode on.

Kill less to save more.

To save ten thousand lives, it’s ok to kill a thousand.

That has to be what people call a king.

Carrying the fate of a country, the lives of many people while moving forward, that has to be what a king is.

But.

“But...... will I be capable of such a thing?”

Rather, is it okay to do such a thing?

He asked himself.

In order to protect the peace of many, and kill off all the cursed eye bearers.

In order to protect the peace of many, Sion had become a sacrifice while weeping.

Can I forgive all this?

“............”

He thought otherwise.

He thought that there had to be another way.

A world where no one loses anything.

A world where no one cries.

Could such a world exist?

Of course, if he were to say such a thing, he might be laughed at. No, in actual fact, Froaude had already laughed at him.

A country without any sacrifices where everyone living in it can laugh happily.

He laughed that off as bullshit. He told him that it’s better to stop overlooking the painful experiences in reality and to stop dreaming of such naivety......

At that thought, Ryner’s face twisted in pain.

“I already have plenty of those painful experiences......”

But still, even if others were to give up on such a dream, I would still think that way.

If Sion was crying and giving up, I would still......

“............”

Even though he said that, it was still an unpleasant bother to square off with Roland’s army.

At that thought, Ryner recalled the name of the commander of Roland’s army in Nelpha from the documents Luke gave him.

The current commanding officer of Roland’s army was Field Marshal Claugh Klom.

That red-hair muscle-brain.

But Ryner was well aware of that.

The first time when he met him, the only time when they exchanged blows, he became well aware of how bothersome his strength could pose.

Crimson Finger Claugh Klom.

That name was equivalent to that of a death god on a battlefield.

“...... a~h, am I supposed to fight that monster on the battlefield? Seriously?”

Ryner said in an unpleasant tone.

On top of that, this time round, he was not just putting his own life on the line.

He might be possibly shouldering the lives of both the soldiers of Roland under Claugh’s command, as well as the troops of Nelpha under Toale’s command.

Could he actually fight such an opponent while taking care to minimize the number of casualties at the same time?

“............”

At that thought, he recalled even more of what the documents contained. Luke was actually kind enough to have included Claugh’s profile within the documents.

The death god of battlefields.

A demon who has never lost on a battlefield.

With an overwhelming fighting prowess, and a talent in deploying troops.

Against such an opponent,

“What can I do?”

Somehow, he felt like running away.

“Ah geez, I just keep getting into such bothersome stuff.”

But, was it actually God’s grace that his opponent wasn’t Luke? He thought.

If it were Luke marshaling the army, the Ryner now, might not be a match for him.

If such a person, who possesses a level-head beyond ordinary, were to take command of the troops, with the current state of Ryner now, it wasn’t even funny to begin with.

Of course, Ryner had actually studied battle tactics and strategies for use in battlefields before, if he had to be honest with himself, it was a one-man battling...... in other words, the training was targeted to build him into a one-man army.

“So as to speak, well, it would be highly suspicious if I could actually beat that guy from those kind of training......”

He said with a weak voice, and then,

“...... but if I actually encounter him on the battlefield, I can’t let myself be killed either...... then, is that the only way? I must suddenly acquire the ability to surpass him in thinking, that’s the only way right? That kind of development? Uwah, that’s impossible right?”

He was already overwhelmed with despair.

The excessive bothers of life made him want to sigh out.

“............”

At that moment, Ryner glanced at the needles of the clock and realized that it was already past five.

“...... oops.”

While thinking all those weird thoughts and making considerations, without knowing, he had already spent more than an hour.

Even though it was time for the morning sun to rise soon, due to the seemingly bad weather, the sky outside was still dark. That was why the time had passed without him realizing it.

“It’s time to move.”

He hurriedly stood up. Left the room, and climbed down the stairs. As he stepped out of the building, he looked up at the dark sky which was overcast with clouds, and thought that it did seem like it was going to rain today.

“...... geez, and it was such a long-awaited morning for us to embark on our journey. A bad omen eh.”

As he said that, without really thinking much into it despite what he just said, he started off running.

Along the way, he thought of taking a detour to a library, and borrow some books on battle tactics and strategies, but in the end gave up on that thought. Since he knew not when he would be able to return those books after leaving the country, and more importantly, he did not want to find out what Ferris was going to do to him for being late because of that detour.

And then, in order not to be late and have Ferris waiting, he increased his pace.

The time now shifts back to a while ago.

It was already time to set off if she didn’t want to arrive late at the designated place to link up with Ryner.

“Darn. Looks like I might be late.”

Ferris was running along the merchant street.

She was carrying two knapsacks and a large pouch.

By the way, the knapsack on her left contained her clothes. It contained the cute clothes with the dango logo, which were bought from the previously mentioned apparel shop.

Currently, she was wearing the same type of clothes as well.

It was much more comfortable than her usual armor, and her feet felt lighter. Except that the sword hanging from her waist seemed a little out of place......

However, strangely, whatever she wore seemed to suit her beautifully.

And the knapsack on her right, as one would expect, contains Ryner’s new clothes bought from the same apparel shop.

In the beginning, the shop assistant had made some suitable selections for her, except for one piece, which was actually an underwear that only a pervert would wear, that alone was chosen by Ferris.

At that time, the female shop assistant said,

“Ohh, that must be a present for your boyfriend! The two of you must be very close~”

Ferris then replied,

"Nope, it’s the complete opposite in fact. This is something I’m giving him to shame him."

"Uwah, so you guys go for this kind of ‘play’!?"

"...... ‘play’? What are you talking about?"

"No, no, it’s nothing. I see. Miss, for you to go on such level of offense, my most humble self feels absolutely touched. Then, what about this? I think this will look pretty good."

"Hoh. Then let’s have that as well."

"How about this as well?"

"Then, that one as well."

In the end, the knapsack was filled with those pervy wear.

Perhaps, Ryner was really going to travel half-naked most of the time.

Half-naked, with pince-nez glasses.

She started imagining the look of despair on Ryner’s face.

“...... Fufufu. I’m looking forward to it.”

She laughed expressionlessly while running.

Well, actually she did buy a few pieces of normal clothing for Ryner, which was stowed into the large pouch, but that was a secret. She would make him go half-naked, and only reveal those to him at the very end when he started crying.

In any case.

With an incredible speed, she passed through the merchant street, and the residence area, and got onto the highway.

However, she got off the highway immediately.

Even though this path would lead straight to the rendezvous location, Asohld dango tea-house, she couldn’t take that direct path.

Both yesterday and today, as she was going around the town, she saw groups of pursuers who were going round searching for Ryner.

Even though Ferris was not on the wanted list yet, which was why she had nobody coming after her, things might have changed by now.

Even if this wasn’t so, if she was tailed, they would be able to get hold of Ryner’s location, and this could become a bother.

That’s why she got off the highway, and verified whether there was anybody following behind her.

“......mm. It seems okay.”

On saying that, she started relaxing her pace a little.

From now on, she would be heading towards the meeting place without using the unobstructed highway, but before that.

“...... I’m pretty sure it’s around this area.”

She said.

Last night, she found Iris taking a stroll on the streets, and gave her some orders.

Tomorrow, Ferris would be embarking on a journey.

After Ferris and Ryner had gotten out of the country, once things cool down, Iris was supposed to bring Arua and Kuku along and follow behind them.

And tomorrow, before Ferris leaves, she is to prepare eight knapsacks of dango and pass them to her at somewhere a little off the highway leading northwards.

She was at that place where she’s going to receive her dango,

“...... it should be around this area.”

She halted as she said that.

She looked around her surroundings.

It was different from the orderly highway, and even though it was just a small distance away from the main path, it looked as if this was already a complete wilderness area.

The area had a dense growth of wild grass that was even taller than Ferris, and it was an area which was difficult to walk through.

That’s why she intended to head to the rendezvous point through these grass to avoid discovery by any pursuers.

“...... I can’t seem to find Iris among all these thick grass.”

She scanned her surroundings.

And searched for Iris’s presence.

But nothing.

“Iris, are you here?”

She called out, but as she thought,

“......”

There was no reply.

“...... hm. She hasn’t arrived yet?”

She pushed through the grass and moved further up.

“Iris, are you here?”

Then, from among the grass,

“Nee-sama!”

Iris called out.

Ferris turned her head in that direction.

And saw her sister. Iris was there within the grass.

With blond hair resembling that of Ferris, and fair smooth skin. While she had a childish face, her features were unbelievably perfect. She was wearing a dress with lots of frills, and on her back was a small red backpack, her usual outfit.

That Iris,

“............”

Iris was covered in blood, and hanging upside down with her feet grabbed.

Both her hands and feet were bounded as well.

“...... nee-sama, don’t come!”

Iris cried out with a face that looked like she was about to cry.

And Ferris.

“............”

Ferris saw the man who was grabbing her feet.

With long flowing, pitch-black hair, and cold deep blue eyes.

And the man bore a dark smile resembling that of a devil.

That man was familiar to Ferris.

If I remember correctly, he is called Froaude......

But, why is he here.

Why did Iris have those eyes.

Why.

What in the world......

“...... bastard, what the hell did you do to Iris, ehhhhhhhhhhh!”

She drew her sword. And advanced towards Froaude with an unbelievable speed.

It was a speed that could not be followed by the naked eye.

One could say that it’s god speed.

There was no normal human being who would be able to stop her sword.

However, Froaude just carried a dark smile.

“...... you drew a sword in a frenzy...... A foolish thing to do. You should know very well that you can’t beat me alone.”

And he waved his hand. His right hand which was adorned with a black ring.

And he murmured softly.

“...... let there, be darkness.”

In an flash.

The shadow of Froaude on the ground expanded and became distorted.

And out came shadow beasts, flying out from the shadow.

Black-colored monsters that looked like wolves.

One of them flew towards Ferris.

“Ku.”

She swung her sword at it.

But she didn’t cut it down.

The wolf, with its sharp teeth, bit on her sword and stopped it.

Froaude shrugged his shoulders.

“Oops, seems like you’ve gotten weaker since the time we met? The you from before would have been able to readily cut down one or two of those Kagerou (Shadow Wolves) ...... or is it that you have become flustered from this?”

As he said that, he raised his left hand.

The left hand that was grabbing Iris.

Iris was crying. Since young, she had hardly shown any tears and was perpetually smiling, showing expressions which Ferris was sometimes envious of, that very sister of hers was sniffing and sobbing right now.

“...... bastard.”

Ferris withdrew her sword once, took a step backwards, and swung. Her swing was sharper and faster than before.

The two wolves were sliced apart and disappeared.

But the next bunch of shadows had already appeared. Three of those wolves were circling Iris and Froaude.

“............”

Ferris stared at them and concentrated.

If she let her guard down, she would be killed.

This fella. The shadows created by this fella were abnormally strong.

The first time when she fought this guy, she couldn’t touch him at all. At that time, Ryner was with her, and after finding his weakness they managed to drive him off, now, could she rescue Iris from his hands all by herself?

“............”

It would be difficult, she thought.

But it was not impossible, she felt.

Since that time, her skills had gone up a another notch.

Furthermore, she was aware that the shadows were conjured using that black ring he was wearing.

In the space after she cut down all the shadows, she shall slice off that finger where the ring was adorned.

“...... no.”

At that moment, she looked at the bloody form of Iris. Her forehead was cut, shoulders too, legs too...... and more seriously, there was blood dripping from her back..

She understood just by looking at that. Froaude was toying with Iris while she tried to escape. Her back must be ridden with bite wounds from the shadow wolves.

Iris shook in fear. Ferris had never seen her sister with such an expression.

Her sister. Someone whom she has cherished dearly since young,

“............”

This was not the end.

Ferris thought.

His arm.

She shall sever that arm with the ring.

She adopted a low sword stance. She steeled her nerves, and brought forth the highest amount of concentration towards the tip of her sword.

At that moment, Iris yelled.

“Don’t! Nee-sama, don’t!”

“............”

“You have to get out of here. This guy is incredibly strong beyond what we’ve ever se......”

Ferris interrupted her mid-sentence and said.

“...... I’ve seen it before. That’s why there is no need to worry. I’m coming to rescue you in a second.”

Froaude laughed again.

“What beautiful sisterly love...... is that what I should say? But all that is a foolish struggle.”

“............”

Ferris did not answer. She focused all her strength towards the tip, one single point, of her sword.

Froaude continued.

“…... as I thought, you alone don’t pose much of a threat to me. You drew your sword in a frenzy, and chose to fight a battle in which you have no chance of winning...... Ryner-san wouldn’t do such a thing right?”

“............”

She did not answer. A chance of winning does exist. This guy is making light of me, if he thinks I’m the same as before, I shall let him taste pain.

In a flash, I will cut off that arm and wipe that smirk off your face.

She thought.

And her preparations were complete.

At that moment, Froaude said.

“Now, withdraw your sword and stand down. I don’t really enjoy wasting unnecessary time on such trivialities......”

And at that moment.

“Then, I shall put an end to your time here.”

Ferris’s body launched forward.

And that was at a speed many times faster than before.

The shadow wolves reacted and closed in on her, but she started cutting them down immediately.

One.

On top of that, another two of them attacked her simultaneously, one of which she dodged, and the other she cut down and continued advancing forward.

The one she had dodged was once again coming after her from behind, but she ignored that.

It was fine as long as it couldn’t catch up.

Advancing more swiftly, swinging more sharply.

And without getting caught by the enemy’s attacks, taking aim at Froaude’s arm......

“............”

Sharply, swiftly.

Delivering the sword blow to his arm.

In an instant.

“...... gah.”

That muffled cry came from Ferris instead.

The sword never reached Froaude.

A giant black snake appeared from the shadow below Froaude and bit into her right leg.

With razor sharp teeth, it was biting deep into her thigh.

Because of that sudden intense pain, the movement of her sword became dull.

At the same time, from behind her, the wolf bit into her left arm.

“............”

Her face twisted in agony, unable to make a sound from the agonizing pain.

But still, even so, she didn’t stop.

With her sword arm still free, and her left leg which was unhindered, she took a stride forward, and slashed at Froaude......

That man who was wearing a thin, evil smile before all this was slightly taken aback,

“...... you nearly got me. If you continue to move in that state though, your limbs might get torn off.”

But Ferris did not mind. She only glared at the man in front of her,

“...... I’ll kill you.”

“But, you can’t do it.”

He shook his ring. As he did that, another snake came out of the shadow and bit her left leg.

“Nee-sama!?”

Iris cried out.

But, she could not respond to that. Another shadow wolf flew out of the shadow and bit into her remaining free right arm.

“............”

A tearing sound was heard, and blood started spurting out.

At that instant, she almost lost consciousness from the intense pain.

Her sword seemed about to fall to the ground.

But she shook her head, and was determined to endure the pain. If she passed out here, she wouldn’t be able to save Iris.

“............ ku.”

She raised her arm.

To cut off Froaude’s head......

With slow movements, she raised her sword arm.

And Iris began,

“...... please don’t...... it’s enough! It’s enough so please stop moving Nee-sama!”

She hollered.

But Ferris only smiled faintly at her. I’ll be fine, so don’t make such a worried face , she seemed to say. When have you ever seen Nee-sama lose to anyone before? Never, isn’t it? It’s going to be alright this time round as well, so just wait there , she wanted to say.

But, no sound came from her. Her strength started ebbing away from her, from the arm that was attempting to raise her sword......

Iris was crying. With tears flowing, she screamed in a shaking voice.

“Please, please stop. If you continue to move...... your arm...... Nee-sama’s arm would be to......”

Her arm, would be torn into pieces.

She knew that of course. But, she still tried to raise her arm. Somehow, she had to save Iris......

But, at that moment, Froaude hoisted Iris up,

“Do you really want to save her so much? Then, I shall first......”

At that moment, he started waving the hand with the ring.

“...... let there......”

He intended to kill her.

He intended to kill Iris.

In order to stop him, Ferris tried lifting her arm. Gripping her sword, lifting her arm. But, she failed. Her arm did not move.

What should I do?

What can I do?

“............”

But there was nothing she could do.

“...... no.”

Someone.

Someone save us.

She yelled from her heart.

Please, someone save us.

Someone!?

“............”

While she was wishing for that, an unbelievable thing happened.

It was if her prayers were answered.

From the edge of her sight, she could see a lone man running on the highway.

That was a man she knew well.

Always having a sleepy look.

Always unmotivated.

Languidly passing everyday, but at times, this sort of thing does happen.

At the time when she wished for.

At the time when she wished to be rescued, for some reason, he appeared near her, and towards here......

Towards here......

“...... Ry, Ryner.”

She tried saying.

Calling out his name.

Calling out the name of her partner.

“............”

However.

Before she could do that, Froaude had already covered her mouth with his hand.

“...... oops...... I can’t allow that. I’ve gone out of the way, doing my best, to secure Ryner-san’s weakness, if we let him see us in this situation, it might become problematic. He, unlike you, might be troublesome to deal with......”

Despite her attempts, Ferris could not move her mouth against the force exerted from that delicate hand.

Froaude continued.

“...... that’s right. Even if both of you are here, I’m still confident of my victory. But yet, if he interferes, he could turn things around. Even though his strength should be at the same level as yours, but if you join forces with him, there is a chance that I could be defeated. Inexplicable right? If he uses you, a clear advantageous situation to turn things around could be created. It’s like as if he is cloaked in some strange magic...... is it because he is the man known as The Greatest Magician of Roland ?”

But she didn’t hear anything he said.

She could only gaze after Ryner’s figure.

The figure of Ryner that was getting further and further away.

Idiot, why didn’t you turn around , Ferris thought. I’m right here, why didn’t you turn around and look this way , she thought.

“............”

But Ryner seemed to be running with a furor that he’d never had, and had not noticed any of the ongoings close by.

And she was well aware of why he was running so furiously. In order not to be late for the rendezvous. In order not to let Ferris wait, that was why he was running so furiously.

“............”

She gazed at that.

That was the only thing she could do.

After Ryner disappeared into the distance, Froaude removed his hand.

“...... for a moment, you saw a foolish dream, didn’t you? Thinking that there might still be a way out of this.”

He said in a delightful voice.

Ferris lifted her head and glared at Froaude.

“....... I’ll definitely kill you later.”

“Haha.”

“...... Ryner will come. After seeing...... after seeing the state we are in, he won’t keep quiet about it.”

“He’s already long gone.”

“Even so, he’ll come. You...... you’re going to be killed......”

At those words, Froaude, with a jubilant smile, said.

“Ooh. That’s scary. But he won’t be able to kill me. Because you...... you will become a hindrance to him......”

He waved his hand again and continued.

“In order to avoid wounding you, the magician shall fall. Don’t take away my precious things , he’ll shout out, and become incapable of using his magic. He is indeed someone with an intelligent and lucid mind, and can be an unusually tough opponent to fight...... but still, he is trash who should not be a source of distress to my master.”

He lifted his hand with the black ring.

“...... when friends are captured, his heart wavers. When friends are wounded, he becomes unable to advance forward. When friends are killed...... he weeps. That weakness is the problem, isn’t it? Weak. Too weak. That level of trash...... my master......”

And he said.

“He is not worthy of being the friend of Hero King Sion Astal.”

To those words.

Ferris, for an instant, did not comprehend them at all.

Her mind went blank from the incomprehension.

What did this guy just say?

This guy.

“...... don’t tell me...... don’t tell me that Sion...... Sion is your......”

Froaude answered promptly.

“...... this is also on his orders.”

And he waved his hand.

He drew an arc with the black ring.

As he did that, darkness.

At Froaude’s feet, the darkness expanded again and ten beasts appeared.

Iris was......

“Wait, stop!!”

Ferris yelled.

She twisted her body, her limbs seemingly about to be torn apart, after enduring the intense pain from that,

“Stoppp!!”

Ferris hollered.

Pleadingly.

Seeking help.

Please save us.

Somone, please save us , she yelled.

But he did not stop.

The scene before her became increasingly dreadful.

“What is this......”

She was confused.

Unable to think of anything else, she was in a state of confusion.

“What the hell is happening here?”

Iris dying. Being killed. And the orders were from Sion.

What’s this.

What the hell is this.

I don’t get it. What should I do?

What can I do?

She felt a strong sense of loneliness.

The world...... she felt that the world was a terrible place.

It was the same as that day.

That day from two weeks ago.

Ryner went missing all of a sudden, and Sion became weird.

It was a different world from what she knew before, as if it had undergone a complete transformation.

Unsettling, fearful, shivering everyday.

But all that should have ended.

It should already have ended.

Because she found him.

Because she found what she was looking for.

In that prison.

Her light --- that sleepy-headed languid-looking light, she should already have found that.

“Why...... why didn’t you come save me! Ryner! I’m right here! Come quickly!”

She screamed.

She screamed with desperation, attempting to send her calls to the already distant Ryner.

“Come save us, Ryner!!”

However.

What was reflected in her eyes was not light, but darkness.

Froaude laughed.

His thin devilish red lips, parted widely.

“............”

In that instant.

Ferris gave off a throat-tearing shriek.

Somewhat north of that location, at the place known as Asohld dango tea-house.

Ryner was waiting alone.

As it was still early, the shop was still closed. If it were the dango god Ferris, she might have gotten the shop to open, but as for him, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“...... no place to sit.”

Speaking in a moronic voice, he turned his head around.

The time now should be eight-thirty.

Somehow, he managed to reach the place five minutes before the appointed time, a~h, now she won’t be able to complain about anything , was what he thought, but now it was already way past thirty minutes from the appointed time.

“...... that gal, hurry up and get here......”

He gave a knock to his tired waist. Then stretched himself, and bent himself all the way backwards.

That was all he did.

There was nothing else to do.

It seemed like Ferris still had not arrived yet.

“...... did I make a mistake with the time?”

He recalled his conversation with Ferris the morning before, and verified that the appointed time was indeed eight.

Then, why isn’t she here yet?

Don’t tell me something had.....

“............”

At that moment.

Drops of water fell onto his face.

“Huh?”

He looked up into the sky and the sky was already completely dark.

Drops of water just kept falling.

“...... woah, this is the worst.”

Ryner frantically tried to take shelter at the edge of the eaves of the shop.

“...... geez, spare me please...... we are going to embark on a journey hereon. At the very least, give us a pleasant weather when we set off eh?”

Even though he said that, his wishes were unanswered and the rain just got increasingly heavier.

Ryner sighed softly and looked in the direction of the highway again.

The ground was wet from the falling rain.

Ryner continued looking in that direction.

The rain looked like it was going to get even heavier. It might be quite tiresome to leave the country today. After Ferris arrives, he plans to find a place to put up at until the rain stops before moving out again.

“............”

While pondering, he absentmindedly gazed at the scenery before him, which had its visibility distance gradually reduced due to the rain.

Ferris should be here by now, but yet there was no sign of her.

Lightning flashed across the sky.

The rain got even heavier.

He looked at the sky, is this for real , he thought, letting out another sigh.

To walk through this rain would be tough.

He looked at the highway again. In the direction of Roland’s capital.

With his sight set in the direction where Ferris should be coming from, he said.

“...... she’ll be kind of pitiful if she’s totally drenched.”

The sky flashed again, followed by a thundering boom.

It was if the sky was mad about something.

And at that moment.

“...... yner!”

He seemed to hear a voice from afar.

Because of the rain, it was pretty much obscured.

“...... Ryner.”

He could hear it this time.

His name was been called.

“...... finally the princess has arrived?”

As he said that, he looked at the highway. But, there was no Ferris.

But still, once again.

“...... Ryner-tteba!”

He was called.

But that voice, instead of coming from the south, was coming from the north.

“Eh?”

Ryner turned around.

Standing there, was not Ferris --- but another girl.

In the heavy downpour.

Was the smiling face of a girl.

Even though she was smiling, for some reason, she looked like she was about to cry at the same time.

Looking at that girl, Ryner, with a surprised voice, said.

“...... Kiefer.”

And,

Kiefer came running towards here.

“............”

And embraced Ryner tightly.

### 006. Prologue - A Floundering Story

“I love you,” you said.

“That’s bothersome,” I replied.

That was really far from the truth, but since I could not lay hands on you anyway, that was how I responded.

To love someone.

To be with someone.

For someone like me, with stained hands, and a corrupted body, such a thing was unforgivable, I thought.

That’s why I replied, “That’s bothersome.”

As always, on hearing that, your face saddens.

But I thought that was fine.

If this meant causing less pain to you, it was fine.

But, that’s because I also loved you.

As long as I could avoid hurting you, I was fine with being alone. That was what I thought.

That was why I replied, “That’s bothersome.”

In order to run away from your love.

In order to run away from everyone else’s love.

I was running, from one place to another. It was bothersome. Bothersome. Bothersome.

Being near you was bothersome, and as a result I had to run from one place to another.

Even though the truth was that the only person I did not want to hurt was myself. I just used “not wanting to hurt you” as an excuse to run away again and again.

In the end.

I made a mistake again.

Hurting someone important to me.

Losing someone important to me.

Because I never acknowledged my true feelings, you left in tears.

You were hurt.

I did not notice that.

I was only concerned about myself. I only thought about how unfortunate I was.

It was as if I was completely oblivious to you.

And then.

You disappeared.

You disappeared with tears in your eyes.

It was only then that I started feeling regretful.

It was only after losing you that I felt regretful.

How did it come to this? The feelings of regret kept on welling up. They kept on coming.

So, this is a story about taking back what was lost.

A story of me who kept on keeping on, struggling, floundering, to somehow take back what was lost.

No matter how many times.

Again and again.

History kept repeating itself, again and again.

A story about a sad demon, who was struggling with tears in his eyes.

### 007. Chapter 2: The Moment When Light Fell

## Chapter 2: The moment when lights fell

"So there you are", Ryner said as he scowled at the beautiful woman in front of him with half-opened eyes.

Two hours had already passed since he shook off the mage soldiers. It was pitch-black just a while ago but now, the sky was starting to brighten.

The 'usual place' he was to meet Ferris had to be Wynitt dango shop, but when he arrived there, she was nowhere in sight, “Uwah, she’s not here.”

Ryner grumbled while he headed towards Fargo dango shop located at the outskirts, and when he arrived, the proprietress lady who was just opening the shop said,

“Ah ~, if you’re looking for Ferris-chan, "I’m currently making a dango tour!" she was saying as she headed towards Pappul dango pastry shop.”

"Huh, if you’re supposed to wait for me, don’t go about making a dango tour for heaven’s sake!!"

He shouted as he made his way to Pappul dango pastry shop which, by the time he reached it at five in the morning, was already open for business and the shop owner, without saying a word, handed him a piece of paper that said,

“Fuhahahaha! How was it! With your level of moronic brain tissue --- in short moronic tissue, it’s impossible for you to find me, the genius bishojo ! Is it mortifying? Mortifying, isn’t it? Fuffuffu. Well well, if you’re feeling that mortified, then try finding me!!”

“I DON’T HAVE THAT KIND OF TIMEEEEEEEEE!”

As Ryner was yelling out, the shop owner said,

“Man, it must have always been tough on you.”

His pity for Ryner made him feel like crying .

That’s right. It was really tough on him, till the point that he did not even have any energy left to respond.

Well, this was really not the time to go along with Ferris’s foolish antics. Since they were still being pursued by Roland’s military. Every minute and every second counted and he really had to link up with Ferris as soon as possible to discuss the matter on leaving Roland.

That’s why he kept looking back and forth at his surroundings, and thought about which was the next dango shop where he would be able to capture that dango fanatic troublesome girl.

He looked at both the left and right paths, and started to consider.

‘’Now, which of the dango shops along the two paths will she be at?’’

‘’The one on the right is the closer one, but recently she prefers to patronize the one on the left which I think she mentioned was called Puum, or did she mention that at all, arghhhhhh, why do I have to think about such stupid things!’’

While he was thinking about this wearily, the shop owner behind him continued.

“Well, you don’t seem to have any choice really. It is a man’s duty to work hard for a beautiful woman, and besides, she really is an incredible beauty.”

Without turning around, Ryner replied.

" Is it really enough to be just beautiful! That’s really something I want to scream out right now."

“No but, aside from her looks, she also has an incredible personality, hasn’t she?”

However, Ryner reacted by just raising his eyebrows,

“Really?”

He said.

But the shop owner did not waver.

“Yeah. The other day, you know, there was a carriage passing by this shop at an incredible speed, while a puppy was passing through, and it seemed like it was going to get run over in an instant! And at that moment, within a hair’s breadth, she dived across to save that puppy. As a result she was completely covered with bruises and mud.”

“Wow.”

“But the puppy was fine and didn’t have a single scratch. She was willing to go out of the way and risk getting injured to save that puppy.”

“Woah. Well, she does seem like one who would do this sort of......”

As Ryner was speaking, the shop owner seemed to get emotional,

“And the number of puppies she has saved to date, has already exceeded two hundred in number......”

“Huh, what kind of lie is that!”

Ryner instinctively made a comeback.

And he turned around and looked at the shop owner behind the counter.

As he did that, for some reason, the shop owner appeared flustered.

“......”

Furthermore, also behind that counter, not knowing from where and when she appeared, was Ferris, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.

“......”

After she was done, she hurriedly handed the piece of paper to the shop owner and ducked back under the counter.

The shop owner then read from the piece of paper with a nervous voice,

“It...... it’s not a lie! Truly, two hundred puppies were indeed saved! If you think that number is insignificant, there is still that you know? Cats! Two hundred cats as well...... no, two thousand cats were saved!”

Those words.

“......”

Ryner, without a doubt, had nothing to say to that.

A piece of paper was passed out from beneath the counter.

“And also, and also babies! Babies who just started crawling, they were just too full of themselves and willfully took long trips from their homes you see......”

What kind of babies will get too full of themselves and willfully take long trips from their homes! Ryner wanted to make such a comeback at that point, but given how meaningless it seemed to be, he decided to bear with it.

However, the shop owner, in other words Ferris still continued on her silly antics.

“Somehow, for some reason, they were climbing mountains as well. And those were volcano types. Well you see, babies are still ignorant and can’t tell the danger those mountains hold.”

‘’No, that’s not the crux......’’

“On top of that, those babies while crawling with lots of vigor, trod on one another, and in the blink of an eye all 1.5 trillion of them slipped at the same time! They were all about to fall into the volcano at the same timeee!”

The shop owner was shouting energetically all of a sudden.

Thereafter, left without a choice, Ryner was thinking of making a comeback statements like " how can such a stupid thing be possibleeeeee?! ", or " I don’t think there are even 1.5 trillion human beings in this world to begin withhhhhh! ", but before that, he started to imagine ten thousand babies making “zugagagagaga” sounds and climbing furiously and all of them started falling into the volcano at the same time, and then thought that it was truly an unbelievably majestic scene.

“...... wait, ahhh, somehow, somehow it feels kind of pretty incredible.”

That being said, Ferris again immediately handed another piece of paper to the shop owner. He read it,

“That, that’s right! What a horrible tragedy, don’t you think!”

“...... yeah.”

“That’s the thing! That’s when the soft-hearted, that’s when the soft-hearted Ferris Eris-sama, whose heart is even softer than cotton candy, went to the rescue, saving the world! That’s exactly how it was!!”

That kind of.

After hearing that kind of transcendent story, Ryner,

“......”

He nodded his head anyway.

As he looked at the shop owner’s somewhat tired face, he understood, and made a " I can understand exactly what you’re going through " expression, which caused the shop owner to smile bitterly. After the two men connected on a heart-to-heart level, Ryner slowly walked towards the back of the counter.

Ferris, who was crouching under the counter, was once again writing furiously on a piece of paper.

And written on it were the following: “Furthermore, she also rescued 8 trillion, 600 million, and 400 koala bears who were falling off the trees they were climbing, isn’t she something?! (please use an intensely excited tone when you reached this portion on isn’t she something?! )”. And Ryner was staring at that nonsense written on that piece of paper.

“...... erm.”

As he said that, with half-opened eyes, he was scowling at the back of that trouble-causing beautiful woman.

She was found out!? With a startled expression, she turned around, opened her mouth as if to say something, then stopped, then opened her mouth again, then stopped, and finally said,

“Wh... what a coincidence Ryner. I just arrived at this shop a moment ago.”

“...... I see.”

“By the way, I just heard from Oyaji. Seems like you’ve heard quite a lot about me?”

“...... yeah, I’ve heard......”

“What do you think? Isn’t it a little unexpected...... a little unexpected of me...... how was it like?”

She was asking for feedback on her cock-and-bull story with nothing but sheer excitement on her face, which made Ryner feel even more weary.

The obvious answer to that would be " As I thought, it was really an unexpectedly idiotic story ", but since he could see himself getting killed with that kind of response, with a somewhat stiff voice, he decided to go with,

“...... ermmm...... ah ~, yeah. That’s it. I’ve known all along that you are an incredibly kind and good person, but that was really kind of unexpected heh.”

He was doing his best to prevent his voice from involuntarily growing light.

And then,

“Is that really so? That’s so true! That’s right! I’m really a good person! Fufufu.”

In an instant, she was in a completely joyous mood. It goes without saying that her face was beaming happily at the praise.

She was getting all jubilant like an idiot for such a meaningless thing.

“......”

Well, actually, she was not really making a face that was obviously full of happy emotions, at the very least not to others, if any, who might be looking at her. It was just that unlike most people, Ryner was able to tell even the slightest change of emotions from her mostly expressionless face.

And to him, from her face, she was undoubtedly having fun right now.

As Ryner looked at her face, there were still words he wanted to grumble and protest aloud,

“......”

But he gave up on that.

I don’t really have time to go along with your foolish games , he thought...... but after seeing how happy she was from all these silly antics, well, I’ll let it pass , was what he thought.

Because, when he first met her, there was no way she would make such a face.

When he first met her, she had a completely expressionless face, and spoke with a voice that had hardly any inflection, as if she was merely a life-sized doll.

And that was probably due to her upbringing.

It was all due to the fact that she was the younger sister of that monster Lucile.

Perhaps not just that. It was probably due to the fact that her House --- the Eris swords clan, was an extraordinary clan.

A mere doll possessing an extraordinary strength.

To other ordinary folk, this level of strength was something that could even be called a monstrous strength.

And for her to acquire such power at a young age, it was inevitable for her to have sacrificed something for it.

And in her case, they were her emotions, her expressions, and her smile.

Of course, that was something not so uncommon in this particular country. The institution where Ryner was previously placed in was such a place as well.

In the former Roland, which was under a tyrannical rule, these could be said to be fairly common occurrences.

Abnormally intense trainings, human experiments, and people who went insane because of that, Ryner had bore witness to many of such stories.

To die before one goes mad, or to live and break down eventually, those were the two mutually exclusive choices in most cases.

And she was one of those who lived.

The price for that was the loss of her emotions.

“......”

However, right before Ryner, she, who was supposed to have lost her emotions, was smiling happily.

And that was deep-felt genuine happiness, Ryner thought.

And that was probably a thin line.

The thin line that divides the possibility of retaining her emotions and the possibility of breaking down and possibly going mad.

It was just like the time when Ryner had given up on everything.

She completely sealed her emotions away.

However, despite the fact that the emotions were barely visible, she was smiling.

Without showing any expression and any emotion, a dango lover, a troublesome beauty who was ignorant of the world around her.

She who should have lost her emotions.

Day by day, she was regaining bits and pieces of her emotions, that was what Ryner felt.

And that was due to her spending the days with Ryner.

And that was due to her spending the days with Sion.

The three of them spending their days fooling around.

And Ryner thought so again.

It was thanks to Sion.

Ferris was also saved by Sion, he thought.

It also was Sion who pulled her from the depths of darkness.

Ryner and Ferris, who had been entrapped in darkness for a long time, were pulled out by Sion.

“......”

This was something that Ryner would normally never say out loud, but the truth was that Ryner had always wondered whether he was in a dream.

After meeting Sion.

After meeting Ferris.

To have spent his days with the two of them, it was as if he was living a dream in which he was having tons of fun, he thought.

The insane amounts of work that Sion pushed on him everyday, Ferris swinging her sword at him on her whims, and him shouting " It’s annoyingggggg! " at them, but even with that, the truth was that he was enjoying himself as well.

Compared to the amount of trouble they brought him, the number of times they saved him were way more than that, that was truly what he thought.

“......”

The rainy night when Sion told him he was going to kill him.

Ryner once again wanted to give up.

Just as always, finding everything to be a bother, he wanted to give up on everything.

If he was going to be killed by him.

If I’m going to be killed by my best friend who saved me, I can just die here , that was what he thought of immediately.

Anyway, there’s no real worth in me staying alive, I just happened to have a beautiful dream, and that’s enough.

It had always been like that since the beginning. Important things like happiness and friends, as a monster, there was no way he could have acquired all that.

But at that point in time, something different from before awoke within him.

Ferris’s words resounded in his head.

It was at a time when he should have given up as usual, an image of her face appeared in his head.

And she said.

To a monster with a worthless life. To me, a defiled monster who is only capable of hurting others, she said .

Someone who should have lost her emotions. Expressionless, rampaging, self-centred, spouting nonsensical ramblings all the time, that Ferris, to the Ryner who was ready to give up, who looked as he was about to cry as he was getting ready to die, she said.

That Ferris who should have lost all traces of her emotions, with a teary expression.

With a sorrowful, lonely expression, she smiled faintly.

"...... you idiot. If you were to die...... it would be lonely without you......"

Those words struck him hard in his mind as he remembered them. The wall that he used to protect himself, which had been built up over the years till then, seemed to be completely shattered at that.

And the Ryner then could no longer afford to die. He could no longer afford to give up. He realized what a fool he had been before. I have caused her such grief and why didn’t I realize this earlier?

I was saved.

I owed her, the two of them so much. What had I been doing up till now? He thought.

Why is it that he kept pushing them away as they reached out to him, and hurting them as a result.

In order to avoid getting hurt himself, he had hurt them.

And he actually used the excuse of not wanting to hurt them in order to cover it up.

“......”

Ryner looked at Ferris.

He looked at her delighted self.

There was a trace of expression on her face now.

It might be something that was hard to discern, but if one looked closely at her, not just Ryner but someone else, they might be able to notice it as well. That was what had changed.

It was different from the past.

She had changed, little by little.

It was not just Ryner.

Ryner, Ferris, and perhaps even Sion, had changed, little by little.

Because they were spending time together after all.

Because they were spending time together making a fool out of themselves, and laughing merrily like idiots.

It was thus not unrealistic to believe that in the near future, she would be able to laugh out loud. Ryner was sure of that.

If they were together.

He might be getting too far ahead, but if they were to stay together, the day will come when she would be able to laugh heartily, he thought.

And he wanted to see that day come.

He wanted to be by her side and witness it when that day comes, the day when she will be able to show a laughing face, laughing out loud from her heart, he thought.

And.

“......”

He wanted to show that to Sion as well.

That was what he thought.

The Sion who was now alone, appearing to be burdened by some unknown force.

He wanted to show him her laughing face, her crying face, he thought.

No, not just her.

All by himself, he is wallowing in despair, hopelessness, and seemed ready to die. “Ferris and I really wanted to support you in every way possible”, we need to let him know how we feel.

If Sion dies.

If he dies, I’ll definitely.

I’ll definitely go crazy from the pain, and wail out loudly, I need to tell him all that.

“......”

Ryner looked at Ferris.

Just not long ago, she was crying.

Ryner felt extremely flustered from seeing her cry for the first time.

In the prison.

When she came to rescue him, she started crying when she finally found out where he was.

For someone who should carry no emotions at all, Ryner and Sion were the ones who made her cry.

Ryner suddenly went missing on her, with his whereabouts unknown to her.

Sion became weird.

And she became unsettled.

She became unsettled from the feeling of losing everything she had, and finally when she found Ryner, she started crying in relief......

The two of them had become a huge and important part of her life.

For someone who should not possess any emotions, like an empty doll, Ferris was driven to the edge in such a manner.

Just because Ryner disappeared.

Just because Sion became weird.

It was because of that she was driven to the edge.

Did Sion understand that?

Did he really think Ryner and Ferris could leave him alone fighting all by himself?

If he really thought that way.

“...... we have to make him realize that.”

Ryner thought.

Well, even though that’s what he thought, he couldn’t really fathom what was happening.

As before, he was not in a position to contact Sion directly, and from the previous dialogue with the mage soldiers, it seemed like they were ordered to kill him if he couldn’t be captured.

In fact, the second wave may be coming after them soon.

There were already a ton of things they needed to do.

Even if Ferris was still feeling unsettled from all that had happened, it was not the time nor the place to continue fooling around.

Ryner looked at Ferris.

Not knowing since when, she grabbed a string of red bean paste dango from the racks and stuffed it into her mouth.

“Oo, delicious!”

What a thing to say.

The dango shop owner’s face brightened up at that.

“Ah, that was actually a new creation, Ferris-chan. It was filled with a special type of honey. I call it mitsuan-dango. ”

“Mitsuan-dango!? You must have spent time thinking of that, Oyaji!”

“That’s right.”

“That’s awesome! This mitsuan-dango is definitely going to become popular throughout the town!”

“Fufufu. In order to convert my own residence into a dango specialist shop, I’ve racked up quite a lot of debt, and that’s why I’ve worked so hard at this, you know ~.”

What a fun conversation it seems to be, eh... it seems like she can really live on dango alone, does she really need me and Sion? He pondered briefly and said.

“Hey Ferris, we haven’t even managed to meet up with Sion yet, isn’t it too early for you to be back on your feet already?”

Ferris turned her head and tilted it towards him, with an incredulous expression on her face.

“Huh? Get back on my feet? What are you talking about? I didn’t get depressed at all.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup.”

“Hm ~ but you know, just now in the prison, you were cry......”

In an instant.

As usual!

The same usual development unfolded!

With a speed that was not visible to the naked eye of most, she drew her sword and the flat of the blade came smashing into his face.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

And he was sent flying, crashing into the ground with a spin.

“Gafa.”

He landed.

With a tearful expression, he looked up and Ferris said to him.

“Come again, who did what?”

“...... well, you know, you......”

“Hm?”

“...... nothing, nothing happened really......”

Ryner said with a shaking voice.

Well but, the reaction she had just now, that it in itself showed that she was worried about Sion as well, he thought.

Probably......

He was not really confident about that though......

And at that moment, she peered down at Ryner.

“By the way Ryner, you went flying all of a sudden, what happened to you? You aren’t covered with any bruises or mud, it seems. Don’t tell me you saw an illusion of a dog getting run over by a carriage? Don’t tell me you are on some kind of dubious drug?”

In response to that, Ryner,

“...... yeah. I’m on a drug......”

Somehow, he replied with a matching response.

He really had no time to fool around with her anymore.

After sighing slightly, he got up on his feet in a flash. He used his hands to brush off the imaginary mud.

And he sighed again, and said.

“Well, it’s time for some serious talk. Let’s review our situation now.”

At that, she nodded her head and said.

“Okay. But before that Ryner, there is something I need to tell you.”

“Tell me?”

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“Well, currently, a matter of grave importance had cropped up within Roland...... did you know?”

She said it with a strangely meek expression, and Ryner squinted his eyes.

“...... a matter of grave importance? Is it something that is even graver than the war with Nelpha?”

She nodded with the same meek expression.

“Nothing can be compared to this.”

“Nothing can be compared...... so, what’s the matter about?”

She kept silent for a moment, and started taking deep breaths to quell her apparent nervousness, and said.

“Currently, within this Roland Empire, a universally most awesome dango, the mitsuan-dango has been perfected by Oyaji of this Pappul pastry shop......”

“I don’t care about that anyhowwwwwwwwwwww!!”

This time round, Ryner yelled with all his might.

However, she was shocked at his reaction,

“What, what, what do you mean by you don’t care about that! Oyaji of Pappul had to spend years of tireless effort to perfect this!”

The shop owner butted in as well,

“That, that’s right! In order to build this shop, I had to take on a large amount of loans! If I can’t sell this, if I can’t sell this, my whole family will be ruined you bastard!”

He scolded vigorously, and Ryner replied,

“...... erm, ahh, well, if you are putting your family on the line, that really seems like a grave matter but, ermm, well, what should we do about it ?”

That somehow helped to calm him down a little.

Then Ferris made a " you finally understood us " face and said,

“Alright. Anyway, why don’t you first try one of these mitsuan-dango. If you do that, then even if it’s you, you would be able to understand its greatness. After that, we can go into the inner zashiki and discuss our strategies for pushing this dango to the rest of the world.”

“Well, we have other strategies to discuss and it will really be bad if we don’t......”

“Now now, try eating this.”

“Well but, we still have pursuers hot on our heels. If we continue to hang around here carelessly, it will become a dangerous...... wah, what’s this! This is stupendously delicious!”

“Didn’t I tell you! Oyaji! This stupid man gave a thumbs-up as well!”

The shop owner made a gutsy pose,

“Yes! With this, I would be able to pay off my loans!”

" Wahhahha ", Ferris and the shop owner both laughed at the same time.

“......”

He stared blankly at the two of them.

Somehow.

It was somehow a peaceful scene, Ryner thought.

It seemed so peaceful that he was the one who looked like an idiot while he fretted anxiously.

He began to consider the development in which they started relaxing in the inner zashiki, and started feeling as if there was sufficient time......

While he was feeling that......

“......”

Suddenly, a light appeared from the nearby surroundings.

Ryner opened his eyes fully.

The light took up a sash-like form and was streaking towards the shop.

And Ryner knew what that light was.

It was magic. A type of attack magic.

A powerful, highly damaging spear of light.

Among the magic used in Roland, it counts as one of the more destructive types.

It’s Kuuri .

That spear of light was the first.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

Using his eyes, Ryner counted a total of twelve rays of Kuuri fired towards them.

“Ferris!”

Ryner yelled.

But she was already moving. Carrying the shop owner, she leaped to the second floor.

After verifying that, Ryner leaped as well.

After reading the trail of Kuuri , he turned his body away from it, and followed close behind her.

The magic struck.

With overwhelming power, the flashes of light struck Pappul dango pastry shop.

The counter disintegrated into pieces, the pillar was ripped apart, and a hole was blasted through the wall.

From behind them,

“The, the shop...... my debts arghhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

What a wretched woeful cry that was, but they did not have the luxury of time to pay attention to that.

The spell known as Kuuri , is one of relatively higher difficulty level. It was unlikely that the mage soldiers that were pursuing them a while ago had learned the spell at their level.

In other words, the current pursuers were much more skilled than those earlier.

And from the number of Kuuri launched against them, the pursuers numbered at least twelve.

Ryner knitted his eyebrows.

“Arghhh, this is really bothersome......that’s why I told you we should have quickly planned out our next move and made our escape preparations...... what should we do now Ferris?”

While he remained attentive to the enemy’s movement behind them, his eyes were looking at Ferris.

As he was saying that, she was standing on the rooftop --- well, since the first level of the shop had collapsed inwards entirely, the roof was pretty low --- with the shop owner in her left arm, and her right hand on her sword preparing to draw it at anytime.

While glaring in the direction of the enemy, she said,

“We’ll run of course. If we fight, I don’t have the confidence in holding back and avoid wounding any one of them.”

Ryner nodded. He was also thinking along the same line.

If the two of them were to fight them, they would certainly triumph over them. To put it in another way, they were capable of wiping them out without incurring a single wound themselves.

However, they were certainly not opponents against which they could hold back their strength and avoid injuring any one of them.

Several of them would probably be seriously wounded. Perhaps a few of them might even die.

Roland’s soldiers.

They couldn’t lift their hands to kill any soldiers of Roland Empire, a place where they belonged to just a while ago.

“...... now really, this has become really bothersome.”

After saying that, Ryner took a small leap to just stand beside her.

“So now, we run?”

She nodded.

“Right. While we are running, we should discuss about our future plans.”

“Ah, finally you feel like getting down to some serious business eh?”

“I’ve always been serious.”

“............ sigh.”

“Why are you sighing!?”

“No no. It’s just that it has really been fun traveling with you.”

“Y... you, you dare make a fool out of me......”

“I’m not, I’m not, stop brandishing your sword at me while the enemy is still around!!”

Ryner yelled, sighed again, and looked in front of him.

The enemy had not shown themselves yet. They were hiding in the shadows of some buildings along the street, watching them.

Not knowing their exact numbers, it would be a difficult thing to just blindly rush through them. Now, what’s next?

“It would be better for us to stay here and wait until they come out of hiding before we start running, but Oyaji may get caught up in it......”

He looked down towards the shop owner whose head was drooped in despair while murmuring ‘’the debts’’, ‘’the debts’’.

Ferris nodded,

“We definitely can’t get the dango shop involved in our problems.”

“Now now, it’s not just about dango shops, but anyone for that matter. So, which way do we go? Right?”

“Left.”

“Left huh. Okay. Cover me for a while, would you? If I don’t use magic to enhance my speed, I won’t be able to catch up with you. It will take three seconds for me to invoke it.”

“Alright.”

“Okay, shall I go ahead?”

“Do it.”

Ryner lifted up and pointed his hand to the sky.

As he did that, he started drawing out words of light in the air.

The magic symbols that were drawn were evidently of a different structure from that of Roland’s magic.

It was magic which he previously stole from Estabul’s mage knights using the special power of his eyes, Alpha Stigma .

However, as expected, the enemy, who were waiting for them to make a move, started their attack to interfere with Ryner’s spell casting.

To start off, there were several daggers flying towards him diagonally from his right.

But Ryner did nothing to avoid them.

Rather, there was no need to.

Because Ferris promptly used her sword to deflect the incoming projectiles.

Next, balls of fire began flying towards him somewhere from his left. Ferris then thrust her sword into planks of wood that made up the roof, and with her sword acting like a skewer, flung the wood off towards the incoming fireballs. The pieces of wood were shattered into smaller pieces on contact with the projectiles. However, not a single one of them came anywhere near the duo.

And Ryner was gaping at the action,

“Wow, awesome.”

As he said that, Ferris turned and glared at him and said.

Just hurry up.”

“Ya ya.”

Finally, from behind her, came streaking towards them was the same magic that was used previously.

The spears of light, Kuuri .

It seemed like something that even Ferris couldn’t do anything about it, that’s why Ryner started to dodge.

But.

To that she,

“Hn”

She merely made a small sound and swiftly cut the spears of light with her sword.

“......”

Ryner, for an instant, wanted to smile at that.

Because that was the first time he saw someone cutting light. Well, her skill with the sword is always something that amazes him however......

Thinking about that, he remembered a scene in which he saw her slicing lightning apart but......

But as he thought of that, Ryner started to feel a strange unease and his hand that was inscribing magic symbols stopped moving.

“...... eh?”

He murmured briefly.

She sliced apart lightning --- as those words floated in his head, all of a sudden, he felt a sharp strong pain in his head.

That particular memory, when it happened, where it happened, why it happened, he could recall absolutely nothing at all.

Well, in the first place, was that lightning from the sky?

Or was it something that came from magic?

He could not even remember that detail.

At the very least, Roland should not have any magic in the form of lightning in existence......

“...... ouch!”

At that thought, his head was once again assaulted by an excruciating pain, and Ryner groaned......

“Wh... what is this.”

Something odd was happening. Whenever he thought about lightning, he got an immense headache.

Lightning.

Lightning magic..................

“Gua”

In a flash, he felt an immense pain in his head, a nauseating feeling, and giddiness.

“What the hell is this.”

Ryner, with an unsettled feeling, stopped thinking. And his headache was gone.

It was obvious that there was something strange going on.

It was as if he was forcefully disallowed from thinking about anything related to lightning, that was the feeling he got.

What was actually happening now? Rather, it was not now, but probaby something that happened while he was imprisoned......

“...... I was brainwashed......?”

But what kind of brainwashing was that?

What was it that was related to lightning that was erased from my mind?

While Ryner was starting to ponder about that,

“Hey!”

A voice was heard and " Gon "! A loud sound was made as he was given a sharp knock by a sword on his head,

“Gua arghhhhhh!?”

Ryner clutched his head,

“Wh... what the heck are you doing!”

He yelled angrily and Ferris,

“The same goes for you...... wh...... what the heck are you doing! Even if it’s us, anything beyond this...... damn.”

She sounded strained.

He looked at her and saw her desperately slicing away at dozens of Kuuri launched successively, in order to prevent him from getting struck.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Ryner apologized instinctively.

And without looking back, she said,

“If you have...... the time to apologize...... quickly...... finish working on the spell.”

As she said that, he looked at the glowing words he had drawn in front of him and said.

“Ah, I’m sorry about that as well. It’s already done.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Please don’t kill me.”

“Then hurry up and do it!”

“Ya ya.”

And Ryner started to chant the words.

"I OFFER UP THIS CONTRACT OF WORDS, TO BEAR THE SPIRIT BEASTS OF MALICE THAT SLEEPS WITHIN THIS EARTH!"

The spell was finally completed.

At the same time.

Ryner’s movement speed started increasing.

He shook his hand lightly to verify that, well beyond his normal physical limits, his movement speed was several times faster than before, and he said.

“Alright, it’s done. Which way are we going again?”

“Right.”

“Liar ~. You said ‘left’ earlier, didn’t you ~.”

“If you remember, don’t ask again!”

“So, in the end, which way are we going?”

Ferris looked left and right, and after confirming that both paths had gradually narrowed due to the encircling of the enemy,

“Alright. Let’s go the opposite way.”

Ryner nodded.

“Well, let’s go then.”

“Right.”

“I’ll restrict their movement with magic, while you go first.”

“Understood.”

“Alright, I’m just going to do this once......”

Ryner’s hand started moving in the air again. With an unbelievable speed, he inscribed glowing magic symbols in the air.

One done.

Two done.

Three done.

Four done.

Five done.

He finished constructing the equations with a speed that could not be followed by the naked eye, and looked in the direction of the enemy.

The enemy, as before, were going to fire successive bouts of Kuuri . That was the right tactic.

There was no question that the other side had greater firepower. If that’s the case, he should have used more and stronger magic to suppress them.

However.

“That isn’t the right way to use Kuuri .”

Ryner grinned broadly and started to chant.

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUURI!”

In an instant, rays of light were fired simultaneously from the first three magic inscriptions that Ryner had drawn.

All three of them were aimed at the same place.

As the rays intersected, an even bigger and more intense sash of light was created, and at the midpoint between Ryner and the enemy, the light particles fell to the ground.

Subsequently, a huge exploding sound was heard and the earth split open.

The ground that was paved with earth and stones was turned up, causing pebbles and gravel to fly, creating a cloud of sand dust.

There were probably some who were hit by the blast, but that was not what Ryner was aiming for. Creating the cloud of sand dust was his true objective.

In an instant, the smoke-like cloud of sand dust that was stirred up greatly reduced the visibility between the two sides.

Of course, at that moment, the enemy would be thinking of rushing him. And Ryner would definitely respond again with a magic attack. The next attack spell would take some time to prepare. By taking advantage of the low visibility, they would capture Ryner...... that’s what they would be thinking.

But Ryner still had two completed magic inscriptions that were not invoked yet.

While grinning broadly.

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUURI!”

He chanted.

A ray of light was shot out again.

It was aimed in the direction of the enemy.

But it was aimed at a slightly higher point.

It was high enough not to hit the enemy soldiers, but yet not too high at the same time so as to brush by their heads and startle them.

“Uwaah!?”

The gasps of surprise could be heard.

And highly likely, the soldiers should stop moving for around ten over seconds. With the low visibility, and the fact a Kuuri was fired from the opposing side of the dust cloud, they would be too fearful to make a foolish move.

At that moment,

“So long guys ~”

Ryner started running.

He retreated from that place swiftly, full of vigor.

In the midst of running, after putting some distance away from the enemy, once again,

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUURI!”

He invoked the final magic inscription.

The enemy probably still thought that Ryner was still standing on the roof of the dango shop.

That would delay them for another ten over seconds.

That would sum up to around thirty seconds.

With that kind of time, he could easily escape from their line of sight.

Ryner turned his head around from the direction of the enemy to face forward.

As he did so, Ferris appeared from a back alley just some distance away, and he ran towards her.

“What are you doing in a back alley?”

As he was asking her, he caught a glimpse of the dango shop owner lying on the ground behind her.

“Ah I see.”

Ryner nodded in agreement.

If they were to leave Oyaji back there, his death would have been certain. And this was something that was completely off Ryner’s mind back then.

Ferris looked at him with a doubtful expression,

“What was the matter with you back then? You took a pretty long time to invoke that magic, forgot all about the shopkeeper. And furthermore, you had that moronic face looking towards the sky...... wait, the moronic face is a usual occurrence though.....”

“Now, there was no real need to insert that extra line......”

“In spite of that, somehow you were staring blankly at the sky. What really happened?”

At her question, Ryner scratched his head and said.

“Well regarding that, that was something bothering me actually......”

“Something bothering you?”

“Yeah. Regarding lightning...... ah, well, forget it. Is Oyaji okay?”

“Uh-huh. He’s only out cold.”

“You’re kind of dangerous when you get violent, were you the one who hit him?”

But Ferris shook her head.

“Ah, so, he passed out from the fear.”

However, she shook her head again,

“He was crying out ahhh my debts and his eyes rolled over all of a sudden.”

“Eeh ~”

When he heard that, Ryner felt a slight ache in his chest. Well, rather than a slight ache, it might have been a little bit stronger.

But Ferris promptly,

“Now, let’s hurry up and get out of here.”

“Uwah, Ferris is strong. Don’t you feel any kind of heartache?”

With a confused look,

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, it’s nothing if you don’t get it.”

“Well let’s go. The situation doesn’t look too good right now.”

What a thing to say now, and only until now,

“That was what I had been telling you all this while ~”

“Is that so? Well that’s a pity though. Whenever you talk, I don’t seem to hear you at all!”

For some reason, she was brimming with confidence as she said that, and he replied,

“...... well, can you start paying attention to what I say from now on...... please?”

“No way.”

“Ermm...... fine. Since I’ve already known right from the beginning that’s the way you are......”

After Ryner said that with a tired voice, he turned his head around again.

Even though the enemy were still unsure of which way Ryner went and were not coming after them yet, they would get found out sooner or later if they were to continue to hang around here leisurely.

Ryner looked at the lady who had always been inattentive to what he said,

“...... alright. Let’s discuss our strategy along the way as we are getting out of here.”

“Right.”

And the duo ran.

They entered the shopping district, ran just two to three bends ahead, and agilely jumped up onto the rooftops of the grocery stores, and leaped from roof to roof.

Even though there was probably no pursuers who could match up to the speed and vigor at which they were moving, they showed no signs of slowing down.

Ryner began to speak as he was running. He looked at Ferris who was running beside him,

“Well, before we make any other move from now on, it would be prudent to first verify the current state of affairs of Roland.”

Ferris nodded.

“Fugo, gogofugoo, fufufugo.” (munching sounds)

She had four mitsuan-dango in her mouth.

“What the, you managed to bring those along in that kind of situation!”

She swallowed them hastily,

“Of course. That was my top priority and I did my best to grab as much as I could.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. Because of that, I didn’t manage to cover you fully, and there were around two instances that you were nearly hit by those dangerous magic from the sky, which really made me break out in cold sweat.”

“That’s scaryyyyyyyyyyyy, erm wait, you should be covering me properly hello?”

“It was your bad for staring blankly and not paying attention in the midst of a battle.”

“I thought that it was more of your bad for going all out to secure those dango in the midst of a battle.”

At the end of the day, the fault belonged to both.

“Well, putting that aside anyhow.”

Ryner said.

“We definitely need to leave the country for now. It’s not the first time we are getting chased after though, but currently, there is obviously something strange about this country. I think we need to get another perspective from outside of this country.”

“Thr... throat is blocked...... ocha ......”

“Huh? Shut up. I don’t have any.”

“Ah, ah............ ah, a flower bed......”

“Eehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Ah, I’m fine now.”

“Die!”

“Yep. Almost did. That was dangerous.”

Ferris clutched her chest as she spoke with wheezing sounds, and Ryner, with a fed-up face, said.

“Well, that’s enough. Listen to me now.”

“Right. I was listening. You were talking about how dango and ocha are a must-have, is that right?”

“You are completely offffffffffff, aren’t you? I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere in my communication with this person arghhhhhhhhhhhh!”

As Ryner was yelling, Ferris said.

“Putting jokes aside, we need to get out of the country, is that right?”

“Ah, you were listening after all?”

“Fufu. I’m different from you in that I’m always serious.”

“Wow. That’s really awesome......”

Ryner said that with half-opened eyes, and Ferris nodded in contentment.

“I see I see. I’m a pretty awesome person! So, after leaving the country, what’s next? Do you have a way to break the deadlock in this situation?”

She asked.

“......”

Ryner thought back about Sion and what happened during that rainy night.

Sion told Ryner to die and a fight ensued.

And in the end, Sion transformed into something strange.

The Sion then said that he wanted to devour Ryner, something which he completely could not understand.

It seemed like he needed to devour something called The Solver of All Equations , and become something called ‘Shin’ or something like that.

But what did all that really mean?

The thing called The Solver of All Equations somehow seemed to be something special embedded within Ryner’s Alpha Stigma eyes.

Ryner closed his right eye, and felt his eyeball over his eyelid.

The ‘Shin’ that Sion would become after devouring his eyes, what was that referring to?

Was it the 'Shin' in god?

Or was it the 'Shin' in truth?

With the current amount of information he had, he could hardly make head or tail on what was said.

Well, however, the figure that Sion transformed into was probably ---

Ryner recalled how he looked like at that time.

His whole skin was glowing a golden color, and underneath that body, there was something dark, ugly, something that appeared to be filled with despair creeping out of his body.

Underneath Sion’s skin, there was some kind of a grotesque form...... sophisticated patterns, incantation words, magic, light, darkness, it felt like every possible thing belonging to this world was creeping out of his body.

To give an analogy, it seemed like a curse that was out to completely invade this world.

Something abnormal and unpleasant was inside Sion.

And the darkness.

To put it more accurately, it was something resembling a deep shroud of blackness that threatened to bury this entire world.

The scene changed.

All of a sudden, he was surrounded by a bunch of black swords......

The swords......

“Ah......”

At that memory, Ryner made a small sound.

That’s right. At that moment back then, Ryner unleashed some form of magic. Something that was powerful and used for attacking purpose. However, the transformed Sion held up his hand, and the black swords struck the magic, and erased it completely.

The magic unleashed by Ryner.

It was as if that form of magic which he used did not even exist in this world in the first place......

But what kind of magic did he actually use......

At that moment,

“...... ouch.”

Ryner clutched his head again.

It was again that excruciating headache, giddiness, and nauseating feeling.

But he smiled. In spite of having that kind of intense headache, he smiled.

‘’That’s right. That time. Lightning......’’

“...... gaa”

The headache was interfering with his thoughts. Despite the intense headache, he did not stop the flow of his thoughts.

‘’Lightning.................................... magic........................ was............ what I used against Sion.’’

And it was erased.

The magic was erased.

As if it did not exist in this world right from the beginning.

He got the feeling that any trace of its former existence was completely erased from this world.

‘’But what was the true extent of that power? Was I the only one with my memories manipulated? Or.......’’

Ryner looked at Ferris.

She had that strangely worried expression again,

“Really, what is the matter with you, Ryner? You were looking at the sky again. Are you having a headache?”

He only gave a faint smile to indicate that he was fine, and then said,

“It’s nothing. But that aside, there’s something I need to ask you.”

“What?”

“You see, about me.”

“Yep.”

“Normally, what kind of magic do I use?”

“...... magic?”

She asked back.

“Yeah. The type of magic that I use normally. Do you remember what is it?”

While running, she folded her arms and tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Hm. Which is it, I wonder. What exactly is it...... hm? Well, I don’t know much about magic though.”

“But don’t you often see me using magic?”

“Yeah.”

“Just now, didn’t I keep using Kuuri ? That spell carries too much power and it’s easy to kill the opponent with that.”

“Yeah, you don’t want that to happen.”

“But I can’t use Misumi as well. That would cause a flood which would be a troublesome thing.”

Ferris nodded.

“That goes the same for Kurenai and Hamuro . I don’t want to start a fire in the area.”

Ferris nodded again.

“So, what was it? What was it that I normally use?”

Her expression became troubled and disturbed.

“...... hmm? It’s strange. I’ve forgotten about it. What in the world......”

But that was enough.

As expected, it was erased.

From Ferris’s memories as well.

From everyone’s memories.

From the entire world.

Its existence was completely erased.

That was something.

“...... that was at the level of god......”

“God?”

Ferris asked, but Ryner did not answer.

That was obviously some extraordinary power. It could not be explained with the current advancements in magic, there was nothing in existence yet that could replicate that kind of power.

Well, in fact, even with the relics of heroes that were encountered to date, there probably was none that possess that level of power.

An extraordinary power that surpassed that of the relics of heroes.

That power wanted to devour Ryner and become Shin.

Ryner smiled bitterly without thinking.

About what Sion was embroiled in.

“......”

It was kind of too bothersome.

Just the relics of heroes alone were already more than what he could handle, and now there’s this extremely immense power that appeared to be a great bother.

Well, that’s why Sion decided to bear all the burdens all by himself, he thought.

However, the key to unlocking the mystery was not totally non-existent.

Assuming that he already got his hands on a number of keywords.

And because they did not connect till now, he was not aware of what they meant.

Because he had no desire to connect them, he was blind to them.

He did already in fact have a number of keywords.

The weaver of all equations.

The solver of all equations.

α.

ω.

The gate.

The key.

The crimson monster in his dream.

And Sion......

Rather, the monster inside Sion, which he was unable to tell what it was even with his Alpha Stigma , wanted to devour Ryner, according to 'him', and become something called 'Shin', and he didn't really know whether it referred to the 'Shin' in truth, or 'Shin' in god.

That's right. It's not as if he was completely up against a dead end.

The keywords were starting to fall into place.

And these words were learned from outside of this country.

That's why there was a necessity to leave this country.

There was a necessity to gain another perspective of this country from outside of this country.

From Imperial Nelpha. From Runa Empire. From Cassla. It might be possible to gain an entirely new insight by realigning their perspective of this country from those three major powers of central Menoris.

Or at the very least, he should be able to get that new perspective if he were to view this country from Gastark.

The Gastark Empire that uses underhand means to gather the relics of heroes, a major power of the north.

If it's them, there was a chance that they might know more about what's happening to Sion.

Well, even though it brought back distasteful memories of them killing his friends, if it's Lir, the guy who killed Lafla, Pueka, and the rest, he would definitely know something about it.

At any rate, as he was on the verge of leaving during their last encounter, he said the following.

"...... well, as far as possible, do your best to avoid being betrayed, mad monster."

Do your best to avoid being betrayed.

Was that a prediction on what was happening now?

Did he know that Sion would one day betray Ryner?

“......”

It was certain that he knew something.

Those from Gastark knew something.

Well, even if that's the case, it's unthinkable for them, who are actively hunting cursed eyes bearers, to get along casually with Ryner, an Alpha Stigma bearer, which meant that it would be difficult to acquire any kind of information from them, but was it not possible that such information was scattered around elsewhere outside of Roland?

Well, at the very least, there's nothing left to be learned within Roland. Ryner himself had spent many years researching on his Alpha Stigma , and hardly any lead had been turned up after all those years.

However, once he stepped outside of the country, this sort of information that he was seeking came tumbling into his lap one after another.

In other words, the key to the problem that Sion was bearing upon himself, was it not possible for it to be scattered somewhere outside of the country?

That was also part of the reason for Ryner to leave this country.

In order to save Sion.

In order to discover the truth behind his eyes.

“Ferris.”

“Hn?”

“As I thought, we really should get out of this country.”

Ferris looked at him with a " what are you saying when we are already at this juncture " expression.

“You've already said that a number of times. What's wrong with you? Did you really just become an idiot?”

Ryner smiled wryly,

“Well, you see, after thinking about it, I've kind of found various reasons for us to leave this country, and each time I've mentioned it was the time when one of those reasons hit me.”

But Ferris had a slightly worried expression.

Ryner shrugged his shoulders.

“I'm telling you the truth. There's nothing wrong with me really.”

Ferris gave a few knocks to his head with her hand.

“Did somebody put something in your head while I wasn't looking?”

Though she was not too far away from the truth, Ryner shook his head.

“No way.”

But she didn't gave up.

“Or could it be that you got hit real hard on the head?”

“Well, that would be by you with your sword.”

And then she got a eureka look on her face.

“So that was it!”

“I guess?”

“It's fine then.”

“It's not!”

“Now really, it was good for you.”

There was no way a swinging knock with enough power to send him flying could be good for him, Ryner thought, but instead of debating with her illogical line of thought, he continued.

“Anyway, as I was saying, let's leave the country.”

She nodded.

“I don't really mind.”

After getting her affirmation, Ryner said.

“But before that, we need to understand the current status of Roland...... like the war waged with Nelpha...... and which direction this country will be going is also something we need to be able to foresee.”

“Hm. So, how long will the investigation take?”

“Hn ~ well, one day? If I can capture a soldier and interrogate him, as well talk to some of the people in town, it should be enough, I think. After that, we can proceed to observe the battlefront at Nelpha, which should help us in understanding what Sion is trying to accomplish.”

She stopped in her tracks suddenly,

“So, the next place we are heading to is Nelpha?”

And she turned her sight towards the north.

That was the direction where Imperial Nelpha lay.

Then again, since Roland was located at the southernmost of Menoris continent, any other country would be in the north with respect to Roland.

Ryner stopped and looked to the north as well.

“Well really, Runa would be fine as well...... but it's still officially an ally of Roland. For us who are currently fugutives wanted by Roland, it would be easier to move in a country having hostile relations with Roland.”

It was doubtful however how long would Runa maintain its alliance with Roland, which was quick in waging a war.

Ryner looked behind him.

Seeing no sign of them, it seemed like they had completely lost their pursuers.

Ryner ended his speed enhancement magic.

As he did so, he felt his muscles loosen considerably. Since this particular magic releases a limiter in his mind to allow his muscles to perform beyond their normal physical limits, he felt extremely fatigued upon ending the spell.

As his strength ebbed away from him, he breathed out a sigh of tiredness. He then looked at Ferris,

“I think it's time for us to get down from the rooftops.”

“Agree. There's a good dango shop nearby anyway.”

“Dango again?”

“Dango is everything to me.”

“...... well, if you can gain happiness from that, it's fine I guess. Then, let's talk while we walk.”

“Right.”

The two of them jumped down from the rooftop and started walking.

Ryner continued.

“Now that it's decided that we are leaving this country, it would really be bad if we don't bring Arua and the rest along.”

The boy called Arua, was previously saved by Ryner and Ferris from certain torture in Runa Empire, and like Ryner is an Alpha Stigma bearer. Currently, he and his childhood friend, Kuku, are residing some distance away from Ferris's house.

But Ferris looked doubtful.

“No, won't it be difficult for us to cross the borders while bringing them along? We are currently wanted right? Furthermore the pursuit for us will get even more intense, and if we get attacked, it will be difficult to escape while protecting them at the same time.”

“Yeah. I thought so too...... but since we were the ones who brought them to this country, to leave now without bringing them along would be kind of bad, don't you think? Even though Sion may be kind at heart and may continue to watch out for them but still...”

Well actually, how the current Sion might treat them still remained a thing to be seen.

Ryner wouldn't feel good about it if Sion were to take them hostage in order to threaten him to return to this country.

If that could happen, then taking them along would become a necessity. Though by doing that would make things a lot more difficult.

“Now, what should we do about it?”

Though as Ryner pondered aloud, Ferris looked at him with an exalted expression.

It felt like she was laughing mockingly, knowingly.

And she said.

“Fufun ♪.”

“Now, I know what you are thinking just by looking at your face, there's no real need to laugh out loud in that manner.”

“Fufufu~n ♪.”

“Arghh really ok ok. So, tell me what's on your mind. You have an idea, don't you?”

He asked in a not particularly expectant manner.

She nodded and said.

“How about this?”

“What?”

“Let's seek Iris's help in bringing Arua and Kuku out of the country. How's that?”

She said.

By the way, the girl called Iris, who is not even a full ten years in age, is Ferris's younger sister. Her beauty and bothersomeness are the splitting image of her elder sister. In fact, while she is twice as bothersome as her elder sister and a difficult person to deal with, her strength is the real deal.

Of course, she is not yet at the same level as Ferris, but still as the second daughter of the powerful Eris House, at the age of ten, she should already possess a level of strength that makes her more than a match for any ordinary soldier.

Ferris continued.

“Ever since Arua came to this country, while precociously saying how he's going to protect Kuku, he has been training like crazy. If Iris and Arua work together, crossing the borders shouldn't be a difficult thing. At the very least, it should be much safer than traveling with us who are on the run. Even if they are captured, at most they would be sent back to Sion. I don't think there's any danger to that, so what do you say?”

What a thing it was for Ferris to say that.

Without thinking, Ryner,

“Some, somehow...... somehow today, for the first time, you actually came up with something decent.”

On hearing that, she said happily.

“Are you surprised?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Then make a more 'surprised' expression.”

“Eh ~, is that some kind of a request?”

“For once, I just said something brillant, shouldn't you be going Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah that's awesomeeeeee Ferris is a geniusssssssss! and start rolling on the ground......”

“No way I'm going to do thatttttt, neither am I going to make a comeback on your jokes, I'm kind of tired, so can you please stop digressing? Ever since I got out of prison, thanks to the antics from a certain someone, I'm pretty much drained now.”

Ferris tilted her head to one side,

“A certain someone? Who in the world is that?”

“Well, I'm sure if you search that heart beneath your chest, it would be known to you.”

After Ryner said that, all of a sudden, she gasped. She blushed and with an expression that looked like she just had a realization, she clutched her chest with her hands in a hiding and protective manner.

“Those, those perverted eyes...... what, what in the world are you thinking of doing to my chest!?”

It was again one of her little antics.

And Ryner held up his hand,

“Now seriously, I'm not going to play a fool with you anymore, so please let me off.”

In an instant, she went back to her usual emotionless expression,

“Boring!”

“Now, to say it's boring...... after we get out of this country, I'll play along with you, so for now, can you just bear with it?”

“That's a promise?”

“You really want that so much?”

“Uh-huh. For the past two weeks, with almost no one to talk to...... it had been extremely boring. Let's get out of the country quickly and you can continue to entertain me!”

In a sulky tone she said, and Ryner smiled wryly at her.

So that was it. At the end of the day, she was just feeling lonely.

“So anyway, did you go back to look for Sion during the past two weeks......?”

Maintaing a sulky expression, she nodded.

“No matter how many times I went back, I was chased away. There were like dozens of those disgusting monsters that have their bodies liquidefied...... it was impossible to get close......”

Disgusting monsters with their bodies liquidefied.

Ryner grimaced at that.

During that rainy night, when Sion came to assault Ryner, he brought along those too.

They were made from those vile human experiments.

The sacrifices needed for experimentation to create such super soldiers probably numbered by the dozen, or possibly even by the thousand.

It was a research project inherited from the former Roland.

But that was something that should have been terminated since Sion became king.

It should be something that Sion could not forgive.

However, Sion resumed those experiments. In a place which was out of Ryner's sight. Always smiling like nothing was amiss, he was in fact carrying out those experiments behind his back.

Even though Ryner did not know how much of distress he must be feeling behind them, but he......

He was not the type of person who could easily accept people dying, that was something that Ryner knew best.

Deep distress and despair.

That was what was seen on his face on that rainy night.

The face of someone who was shouldering on a heavy burden.

And now, Sion had already deployed dozens of those abnormal soldiers to guard the castle of Roland.

And Ryner,

“......”

He turned his sight away from Ferris, looked at the streets, and then gazed in the direction of the castle.

Even though it looked as if nothing had changed, this country, without a question, had been completely transformed into something else altogether.

Furthermore, this country was invading a country that should have been its ally, Imperial Nelpha.

And according to Ferris, it's not just the surrendering soldiers, but even women and children were being massacred.

That was something.

“......”

That was something Ryner could not see Sion doing.

But that was already a reality of this country.

That was Sion's reality.

Behind their backs, a reality which he carried upon his shoulders alone.

To kill Ryner.

To continue with the human experiments.

To wage wars on other countries.

And, to let his body be possessed by some kind of unknown monster.

Something that was beyond his imagination was arising in this country.

It was something that needed to be investigated......

At that moment, he abruptly had a not so pleasant realization and he looked at Ferris.

“Oh shit, Ferris. I just realized something bad.”

She looked back at him.

“What is it?”

“We are going to leave this country right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And there are some preparations for that right?”

“Yep.”

“But since I wasn't around, my contract with the inn where I was staying should be terminated automatically right? Anyway, Sion was the one paying for it...... and all my belongings...... are probably gone right?”

In spite of what Ryner said, Ferris had a " are you an idiot? " questioning look on her face.

“Even if the contract wasn't terminated, there will be people lying in wait for you there. You are a fugitive now, aren't you?”

“Ah, right. So, what am I going to do? I don't have any other clothes with me, you know?”

She promptly replied,

“Well, that shouldn't pose a problem. Since you are a pervert. Even if you run around naked throughout the whole world, it shouldn't be a problem for......”

“That's not all. On top of that, there's something even worse than that. Without any money now, I can't even buy any clothes.”

At that moment, as if remembering something important, she hit her fist into her other hand.

And Ryner asked.

“Did you just have a sudden stroke of brillance regarding this issue at hand?”

She nodded and then for some reason took on a bullying look and with all her might said.

“This man, such a penniless man arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

“.............................. huh, well, it's not totally out of my expectations...... did you really want to say that punchline so much?”

She nodded vigorously.

“That felt unexpectedly good.”

“That's great...... sigh...... so, what about the money?”

“I won't lend it to you.”

“That aside, are you carrying any money right now?”

“Nope.”

“Seriously? You came so far without any?”

She shook her head,

“Not really, I thought I might need to loosen up my purse strings in order to gather information on your whereabouts, so I actually filled up my purse with a large number of gold coins.”

On saying that, even if it's only a little, Ryner could tell that during those two weeks, how much effort she put into in searching for him, and he shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably.

And he asked.

“Well, where is that purse?”

“I don't have it with me now.”

“You left it at home?”

But she shook her head.

“No, I had it just a while ago.”

“And?”

“I left it somewhere.”

“Where?”

“On the lap of the dango shop's Oyaji......”

And then.

And then Ryner remembered the pained look of Oyaji when he shouted " My debts arghhhhhh! ",

“Ah, ahh. That... can't be helped...”

He said without much thought.

She nodded.

“Yeah. It can't be helped. Well, with that much money, he could easily build not just one, but two dango shops easily......”

“Huh? Aren't you carrying way too much money on you?”

“Yeah. It's my whole fortune.”

“Uwah, you are pretty rich...... well then again, it should be expected of a noble I guess......”

But for her to be willing to part with all her fortune in order to find him, it was indeed......

“......”

It indeed was something that made him feel a sense of guilt.

Ryner, with an obscure expression that looked as if he was smiling bitterly and at the same time as if he was smiling faintly, looked at her.

She faced him,

“Well, most of it was borrowed using your name, so don't worry too much about it......”

“Whaat, you used my name aggaain to borrow money huhhhh!?”

Ryner yelled, but Ferris with a surprised look,

“But that's for the sake of searching for you, isn't it?”

“Well, that's true for that matter...... but still......”

“And those were the support funds for the dango association......”

“Eh, what's this? The conversation just took a strange turn?”

“The money that was supposed to be used for a grand dango party for people to have fun enjoying dango in all their meals all day long, that money is gone now!”

“There's nothing fun in thaaattt! By the way, why in the world would you do such a thing!”

Ryner yelled and Ferris, with an incomprehensible expression, looked at him,

“What are you getting so uptight about? It's not the first time I used your name to borrow money right? And it's already at the amount which you can't payback anyway. I just might as well help you borrow more on top it!”

Ferris said with a strong tone.

“Now now, I don't think you need to get so agitated right? Are you seriously mad?”

“Uh-huh. I am mad!”

He looked at her face, which showed no signs of doubt in her defiant reaction,

“...... is that so...... erm...... right...... okay. Well, I guess that's fine then.”

“Fine.”

Her acknowledgment still sounded strong.

And Ryner,

“Is that so...... it's fine?”

While he didn't really completely feel alright with that, at the same time he felt like he could let it pass.

Since they've already come so far, the thought of having one, two, three, four, hundreds, or even thousands of debtors coming after them was way much better than the pursuers of the Roland military.

There were still other things that he needed to think through...... and he went back deep in thought.

In any case, there were a multitude of preparations to be made for the journey, and on top of all them was the issue of money.

Ryner spoke.

“You know, Ferris.”

“Hn?”

“Just now you mentioned that you left your whole fortune with the dango shop Oyaji right?”

“I did.”

“Was that really your whole fortune?”

“It was everything I had.”

“Don't you have any left at home?”

For an instant, she pondered about something before replying,

“It's not as if there's completely none left...... but.”

Ryner nodded.

“There's probably an ambush lying in wait at your house.”

“Yeah. That's something to be expected under such circumstances.”

“Right...... then as things stand, I'm now a penniless man. I could never have imagined that I would become penniless in a country that Sion ruled over.”

He folded his arms in frustration and pondered.

“Now, what should we do now? You didn't bring any change of clothes as well, which is kind of bad. Now that we are going to be traveling in other countries, it's best for you to take off that armor with Roland's insignia on it.”

As he said that, he looked at her armor.

The Roland emblem was engraved onto the chest area of her armor.

Ferris also looked downwards at her own armor.

“Hm. That's right. This might become a bother from now on......”

“...... well, that's not only true for within Roland, but as well as within other countries, where a negative view on Roland is held.”

“Then, I'll need a new set of clothes and armor.”

“Yep.”

“And that means we need money.”

“Uh-huh. Money. Now, what should we do about it?”

As he said that, she stopped in her tracks.

Ryner turned around.

“What is it?”

But she did not answer. She was looking at a single shop that was still yet to be opened for business,

“Well, look there.”

She said.

“Huh? What's over there?”

As Ryner said that, he looked at where Ferris was looking.

It was an apparel shop.

A large apparel shop that carries a large amount of merchandise for both men and women.

As he looked at that, he knew what she was thinking about.

Robbery.

To break open that door, robbed the store of its clothes and money, that was what it was.

That was the worst.

As a human being, this was an act that should be never be condoned.

Besides.

Besides no matter what the reason was, it was something bad......

“Ah ~, we did this pretty often in other countries, didn't we?”

It was something unpleasant to say, but he couldn't think of anything else.

Ferris nodded.

“Uh-huh. We've even assaulted a bank before. That or a noble's mansion...... people who robbed from the poor are called robbers, people who robbed from the rich are called chivalrous thieves!”

What a convenient thing to say for herself, Ryner, without a thought,

“Uwah ~ somehow, somehow that's kind of nostalgic. We did that rather often huh? Even the corrupted Runa church was done in by us.”

“Yep yep.”

For some bizzare reason, given their current circumstances, the two of them started reminiscing their good old days.

“But we seriously became fugitives after what we did then.”

“Uh-huh. But even if we didn't do that, we are already fugitives now. So that was never a problem.”

“On top of that, I was being chased after because of the loans taken......”

“Yeah. And you were preying on the girls on the streets at night......”

“Huh, that didn't happen at all, but well, it's fine. So, what should we do? Are we going to rob that apparel store?”

She shook her head.

“If we do that, won't that make us robbers? As a chivalrous thief, I will of course go after the corrupted nobles!”

“Eh? Is that so? Then why are you looking at that apparel store?”

She pointed at a piece of clothing that could be seen displayed through the glass of the apparel store.

It was a one-piece dress that appeared to give the wearer a great degree of freedom in movement. The colors used were bright, and it looked really nice and lovely, a fine piece of apparel indeed. It came with a belt and a pair of boots, and a label that says " New Item " was attached to it.

Ryner looked at that and asked.

“Do you want that?”

Ferris nodded.

“You're going to rob the nobles and use their money to buy that?”

Again she nodded.

“But is that really suited for traveling?”

Ryner could see that for a tall woman of her height, if she puts that dress on, the skirt portion might be a little too short for her, but she promptly replied,

“No problem at all.”

“Is that so?”

“Uh-huh. Even if it's really difficult to move in it, I'm still going to have that. Because I really love that dango pattern at the waist part.”

That was what she said.

“Eh? Dango pattern? Is there such a thing?”

Ryner looked at the waist portion of the dress. And saw at that part, rather than dango, were three small polka dots lying in a straight line.

“Ah, so that was the main point.”

“Of course.”

“Now, that should not be in such a matter-of-fact manner.”

“Hm? Is there anything wrong with it?”

“Eh ~ ? Ah ~ ? Well, that dress looks kind of cute, so there isn't anything wrong with it.”

“With this, I'll be constantly in one body and soul with the God of Dango!”

“That's great ~”

“Yep!”

Seeing the amount of contentment she held in her acknowledgment, Ryner smiled wryly and then looked at the man's clothing displayed somewhat towards the interior of the store.

“Well then, I think I'll take that.”

The mannequin he was pointing to was wearing a set of man's clothing that was probably made from the same maker which made the dress that Ferris had chosen.

It consisted of a set of shirt and pants that appeared to give the wearer the same great degree of freedom in movement. Like the dress, it had the same so-called dango pattern logo, but in comparison, it was much smaller and less visible.

It seemed like that logo was the trademark of that maker.

Ferris then said,

“Ohh, it seems like the day when you've converted to become a dango believer has finally arrived!”

With that proclamation, Ryner said.

“After you loot off those nobles, and since you've already chosen something fitting for yourself, you might as well buy something of the same maker for me.”

She returned to a serious look and looked at him.

“Sure. So, in other words, you want to split up the tasks? Then you will......”

“Yes. I'll look into the current state of affairs of this country. After that, I would decide whether we should be going to Nelpha or Runa based on the circumstances. I'll try to form a plan. And you will take on the task of making preparations for the journey, as well as liaise with Iris on what to do. Is that alright with you?”

She nodded.

“Fine. So how many days from now should we link up?”

Ryner thought for a moment.

It's not a question of how many days he needed to finish his investigation.

It's a question of how many days they could continue remaining in this country.

It was highly likely that Roland would increase the number as well as the strength of the pursuers, which would intensify things.

How should he work this out?

There was not much time for them to do this at a leisure pace.

“As I mentioned earlier, just one day would do. We don't have time to take things slowly.”

Ryner said.

“We'll link up tomorrow morning at eight.”

Ferris nodded,

“Understood. Tomorrow morning at the usual place......”

Ryner responded frantically,

“Ah, that won't do. I don't know which usual place are you referring to. As a matter of fact, do you know how much trouble I had to go through earlier to find you?”

“Hm. Where do we link up then?”

Ryner pondered for a moment, and said.

“Asohld dango teahouse.”

“Oh, Asohld huh! I have yet to taste that tea dango there. Ryner, you are pretty well-informed, aren't you?”

She praised him.

“Uh thanks.”

He acknowledged it without any rebuke. It's not as if he chose that place because of the dango or anything like that.

Towards the north, slightly beyond the measure of land where that teahouse was, along the highway beside it, was the very first road fork. That was why he chose that place.

To the northwest of that road fork lay Nelpha.

To the northeast lay Runa.

Whichever way it was, it was the highway leading out of Roland.

Moreover, because this highway is not too wide and is a roundabout detour, Roland would never use it for sending its troops to Nelpha. That was why he chose that place.

In other words tomorrow.

They would start their journey once they linked up at the tea house, and by afternoon, they would be out of the country.

“......”

In order to save Sion.

In order to save this messed-up country.

Though he was to carry out such a laborious and troublesome task, Ryner did not exhibit any sign of nervousness, nor fighting spirit, and with his usual languid voice,

“Well, Ferris. Let's do it.”

“Right.”

She acknowledged, and Ryner said.

“...... that fool. That stupid Sion, the two of us shall save him.”

She looked at him.

She looked at him with a slightly surprised expression.

And only very faintly.

Only very faintly, she smiled.

“...... right!”

She acknowledged once again.

## 02. Volume 2 - The Tomorrow Unknown To The Great Battle

### 001. Afterword

Right, we're now in the second month of the consecutive releases!

I'm dying! I'm dying!

I screamed as I start writing the afterword.

No, you see, the Denyuuden here seems to be on the receiving end of a great upheaval, so everything's going hectic. It has become something terrible. Aside from the manuscript, I'm so swamped with work that I could die.

To start off, terrible thing number 1!!

Short story releases will cease from now on! (eh!?)

In other words, the editorial department hopes that I can write a "Roland Revolution Chapter". As I was groping for the places I can write about, I decided to stop writing the short stories and spend time on that! And that's how things have become, now that there's no more "Toriaezu Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (The Legend of the Legendary Heroes Anyway)" series, 2 or 3 volumes of the longer, greater content-based Roland Revolution Chapters will contain the short stories I've written to date.

Just as I was about to make an advertisement to the world about the succeeding series of "Toriden", that is "Denyuuden SHOW 1", I have to stop that as a new development unfold.

And that will be, the new series will start selling in the next month!

And the title is.

"Shinyuuden Kakumeihen Ochita Kuori Yuusha no Densetsu 1 (Shinyuuden Revolution Chapter The Legend of the Fallen Dark Hero 1)".

Yeah!

The title is long!? (LOL)

The contents will be surrounding the blank period of two years in which Sion became king, which can be said to be made up of fairly important content to the story of the Denyuuden, which still have many unanswered questions with regards to the Empire of Roland.

What are the pasts of Claugh, Calne, Miller, and Luke, and how did they meet Sion?

What are Ferris and Lucile doing then?

How did Sion carry out the revolution of Roland?

In order to seriously pan out that important story, I've also stopped the serializations in Doramaga .

See? Isn't this a terrible thing? Right?

Well, and after this and that, terrible thing number 2!!

Because of that reason as well, the short story serialization will stop.

The part 1 and part 2 of the short story that will be included in the Doramaga published at the end of December and end of January will be the final chapters of the 6-year long Denyuuden serialization.

Even though my serialization had already been running for a long period of six years, it kept doing well recently in the Doramaga survey, and you guys are reading this and giving me such tremendous support, but yet, I selfishly want to write the revolution chapter and stop the serialization, with regards to this, I'm feeling pretty apologetic...... but even when I'm feeling that as well, I have decided to make sure what I'm doing here will make you guys even gladder.

Of course, in exchange for stopping the serialization, next year onward, I'll present an even more and better Denyuuden, so please continue supporting me, thanks in advance!!

Now now, let's move on to the third matter! (There's more~!!)

As I stumbled upon my unread manuscripts in an old box, suddenly, my super capable editor in charge, M-san, who has nurtured me all this while, said something like this.

"Hey Kagami-kun."

"Yes?"

"The other day, it was the first time I praise your manuscript right?"

"Yeah you did."

"You know."

"Yes."

"About the praising matter."

"Yes."

"You graduated didn't you?"

"Eh?"

"After getting praised by me, who has become famous for never praising anything, doesn't that mean you've graduated?"

"Eh? Eh? Erm, why that suddenly......"

"Well, I've nurtured you this far. I'm really happy. Well then, please keep doing your best."

"Like I said, what's this about......"

"There's a change in editors!"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?"

And so, there is a change in editors ~.

At the same time, Toyota-san also have her editor in charge changed, and over her side, such a drama took place. The editor-in-charge said.

"He, Saoti, let's cut away the Super Brief Denyuuden 4-koma included at the start of Dai Denyuuden 1!"

"Eh? Eh? The Super Brief Denyuuden is different from the Battle Royal 4-koma, if M-san cuts the name, the afterword that Kagami-san had written......"

"No, this is a graduation exam......"

"Huh? Graduation? What's with the sudden graduation thing?"

"That of course means that Saoti is going independent! Since the editor is going to change. Now, go get them. Show them!"

"Eeeeeehhhhhhh!? Super bothersome!"

So whether Saoti did scream out in that manner or not, I have no idea but still went ahead and wrote that anyway, and with that extremely well done 4-koma,

"Graduate!"

The editor-in-charge yelled and left.

And so, well, even when I wrote it like a comedy, but to me, my editor-in-charge is like my second parent, and I really respected him, and this parting gives me a mixed feeling of fear as well as pride.

But above all that, what I really want to say is, without M-san discovering me and nurturing me, Denyuuden, Elwin , and Kagami Takaya will not have existed, and my thanks are never enough.

That's why I'm writing a personal message in a 'public place' like this.

M-san, thank you very much. It's my pride to have been able to work with you for the last 7 years. I'll never forget your kindness. I look forward to working with you again one day.

And I think Toyota Saoti also feels the same way.

That's why, take your time to recuperate, one day, we'll work together again. I'll always be waiting for you.

And so, after graduating from the great M-san's care, I have some thoughts.

I have to show a even more awesome face. Meaning "Toriden" and my "serialization" have come to an end.

I have to do something more interesting. Something that will please you all even more. Something more awesome. I shall start from here and make something to show that I'm really working hard, to the M-san who's watching from afar.

Denyuuden, as well as Kagami Takaya, will start to challenge something new, so everyone, please support me!!

And with that, I shall introduce you to my new editor-in-charge.

And so, my temporary new editor-in-charge is none other than the editor-in-chief of Fantasia label, K-tou-san.

"Geez, Kagami-kun, I'm really busy, so stop staying such things on your own ~."

So as to speak, the one who's gradually revealing my selfishness, is none other than the one who's also famous among the people on other levels, the super beautiful editor-in-chief-sama. Slightly older than me, the so called young executive right? Elite right? Young-exec right? (customary distasteful laugh)

When K-tou-san and I met up, we had an abnormally passionate talk.

"Are you going to the motor show this time?"

"Yep."

"Uwah, I'm so envious."

And so, it's about cars huh!

Jokes aside, for someone abnormally busy like K-tou-san, he almost always take into consideration my selfish opinions patiently. I'm really indebted to him.

Anyhow, we're already almost at the end of advertising, but yet, I wanted to stop the serialization out of the blue! I wanted to write the revolution chapter! He not only applauded my decision, but said to me, Then make something even more awesome! , What I have here is awesome! , he started suggesting, and before I knew it,

"Hey. Hey hey, even though I was the one who initiated the suggestion, before I knew it, it has become something real bothersome...... hey, heyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

As expected of the young executive.

And this was how it went.

So, with this and that, we're all going to work hard together.

Please continue to support Denyuuden from hereon!

And so, with that, I'm almost done with reporting my situation, I guess.

Ah, right, I have to write the afterword!

In my previous afterword, I announced the new covers for Denyuuden, and The books are already launched and lined up in bookstores, so go to the large bookstores and check it out yourself , I wanted to write this time but, Please waitttttttt , a mail saying that came.

Not just the large bookstores! Even for us medium sized bookstores, we took the trouble to order and then, since they came with the wrapper that says "over 2 million copies sold", we also did a handmade popup that says "over 2 million copies sold" and placed it beside the entire series on the shelves! We'll show you the soul of Denyuuden! So be it small or medium stores, we're doing our best so come take a look.... was what was written in the mail, making me really happy.......

What a touching mail.

"Sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!"

I collapsed (seriously).

That's right! Even the small and medium sized stores are doing their best. I'm really touched. Really sorry. Thanks for your support. I'm really happy about the popup. Thank you.

Everyone, go to your nearest bookstore and take a look!

So let's go find those bookstores that favor Ryner, no, I mean Denyuuden, alright!

Then, let's all conquer the world!!

Orh!! (wait, looks like a cult LOL)

But really, thanks. Even though I always say this, but thanks to the support of everyone, I can continue writing this.

Thank you very much.

And also, please continue to support me.

Now now, with this, the pages are finally finishing, and I want to end this.

The next time we meet will be next month, when

"Shindenyuuden, Revolution Chapter, The Legend of the Dark Fallen Hero 1"

Gets launched!

And also at the end of the month, will be the first part of the last chapter of the serialization in the Doramaga. The last chapter will probably be followed with some great special write up, it seems, or is there, I don't know?

Anyway, I think there's gonna be something, so please also support Doramaga.

For details, get a copy of Doramaga, or visit my official website "Kagami Takaya's Healthy Lifestyle", and also the official website of Denyuuden made by Fujimi Shobou!

Well well, I shall see you in next month's Roland's revolution chapter!

### 002. Chapter 1: The Balance Scales For Emptiness And Darkness

“Do you know the way to sever darkness?”

She remembered that conversation from a long time ago.

"The way to sever darkness?"

The young Ferris tilted her small head to one side and looked up at her brother.

The place was in the garden of her home. A moonless night.

She was just ten.

"............"

How old was Lucile?

She pondered.

She could see that he was already an adult. No, it was as always. He was always perfect, with a level of strength which she could not even come close to.

That’s why Ferris looked up at Lucile. As always. It was as if he was in faraway place above where she could not touch him, that’s how she was looking up at him.

Lucile then looked down at her with an expression of love, smiled faintly, and said something incomprehensible again.

"That’s right. The way to sever darkness. Does Ferris know?"

Once again, Ferris tilted her head.

"Can darkness be severed?"

"Yes, it can...... rather, there is nothing that the sword of an Eris can’t sever...... there shouldn’t be."

"There shouldn’t be?"

Lucile smiled at Ferris’s query.

"Yes, that should be the case however...... the truth is, I myself am yet unable to sever darkness. I’m practicing though."

"Nii-sama is practicing on severing darkness?"

"Yes. The Ferris now, iron......"

"I can cut iron."

"Oh, is that so? Ferris is such an excellent girl."

But Ferris shook her head at that.

"Tou-sama and Kaa-sama think otherwise. They kept saying that different from Nii-sama, I’m a piece of trash."

She said calmly, expressionlessly.

And Lucile put his hand on her head, and gently ruffle her hair in a stroking manner.

"Whatever Tou-sama and Kaa-sama say, you are excellent, Ferris. Have some confidence. You carry in you a radiant light which I do not have."

"Light?"

"That’s right."

"I carry in me something that Nii-sama doesn’t have?"

"That’s right. That’s why someday, you will have a way of severing darkness that's different from mine."

"...... sever darkness?"

"Yes."

"I’m going to be able to sever darkness?"

"Yes."

"...... but what will that be for?"

Why would I want to sever darkness?

Ferris was doubtful about that. That’s why she asked that question.

But Lucile did not gave her an answer. He only smiled gently.

"Even if I don’t explain it, you will be able to do it in time."

That was what he had said.

But now, she was filled with regret.

She regretted not asking exactly how does one sever darkness then.

The way to sever black, deep darkness, why didn’t I ask about it , she blamed herself.

The reason was because she was now in the middle of a dark, despairing situation.

And she was shaking uncontrollably in fear of what was before her.

The sky was still dark; it was early morning.

The place was at the side of a highway somewhat north of Reylude, the capital of Roland Empire.

Ferris’s whole body was covered in blood, unable to move at all. Beasts and snakes made out of shadows were biting into her arms and legs, rendering her immobile.

And before her, was a darkness which was darker than even night, and a growing hopelessness.

The man who was completely adorned with black was about to kill her sister.

The man --- Froaude, laughed. He laughed thinly with his mouth wide open, a mouth bordered with devilish red lips.

And he. And he was about to throw the blood-drenched Iris into the midst of the ten shadow beasts that had been born at his feet.

Stop , Ferris cried out.

But that voice reached no one.

Please stop , Ferris yelled.

But that voice reached nowhere.

Merely, merely, the dark despair before her merely continued to swell.

Ferris was fearful.

Her arms and legs were already horribly cut up, and looked as if they were about to tear off, rendering her unable to move.

But yet, Ryner did not come and save them.

And on top of that, Sion --- Sion was the master of this man.

That became a shocking kind of hopelessness.

Everything seemed to turn black.

But yet, she continued to holler. In order to sever darkness. In order to call out to the light.

“Why...... why didn’t you come save us! Ryner! I’m right here! Hurry!”

But, that voice, without a doubt, reached no one.

“Save us Ryner!!”

That voice could not sever darkness.

The world was turning increasingly dark, descending into a state of gloomy melancholy.

Froaude carried a thin smile.

“Stop!!”

Ferris hollered.

But, he didn’t stop.

“Please, I beg of you...... I beg of you, please stop......”

But, he didn’t stop.

Froaude only smiled mockingly.

And released his grip.

Iris fell.

Her sister fell into the midst of the dark beasts.

“No.”

On the spur of the moment, Ferris’s body seemed to want to react in an attempt to save her sister. But, her body refused to move. There was a shredding sound from the tendons of her arms and legs, and it seemed like she was completely no longer able to move anymore.

“Ugh, it can’t be!”

She screamed.

“It can’t be!”

She screamed.

But it was.

The darkness before her was increasingly thickening.

The beasts of darkness, started devouring the slender arms, legs, and stomach of Iris.

“Iriss!?”

Ferris shrieked.

A tearful shriek.

Iris was squirming furiously. As the beasts were devouring her, blood was spurting from every part of her body while she squirmed furiously.

“Ir, Iris!? Iris!?”

Despite having the tendons of her limbs torn up, Ferris frantically tried to get her body to move.

“Iris, I, I’m coming to save you now, just wait there. Just a little more......”

She could let her arms be torn off.

If she did that, if she did that, she could inch closer to her sister......

But, at that moment.

The worst possible thing happened.

Froaude waved his finger lightly, and one of the beasts brought its teeth to Iris’s neck.

“Stop.”

And started sinking its teeth in.

“Please stop.”

And her head.

“............”

Ferris let out another shriek.

A shriek so loud that it could tear her vocal chords into shreds, a throat-tearing shriek.

Terribly.

Because the world was a terribly cruel place.

Shrouded in a thick fog of darkness, the world which was no longer visible from that darkness was a terribly cruel place.

"Do you know the way to sever darkness?"

She didn’t know.

This darkness. She thought that she wouldn’t be able to sever such intense darkness.

Her sister died in front of her.

And all she could do was watch.

No, soon, she was going to die herself. She lost too much blood. Her consciousness was getting hazier, taking away her ability to process what was happening.

Her vision was getting darker.

Her consciousness started fading away.

It was futile, she thought.

Whatever she did would be futile, she thought.

But,

“............”

Within that fading consciousness.

Within that darkness that was looming over her, suddenly, she found an even deeper darkness.

“............”

That was beside Froaude.

That darkness appeared above the beasts that were devouring Iris.

It was a man. A man, cloaked in darkness, appeared.

And that man said.

“Steel with dark grey wings.”

He murmured softly and lightly waved his hand.

Instantly.

The beasts around Iris abruptly disappeared without a trace.

On top of that, the wide shadow at the feet of Froaude vanished, as if it was devoured by something else.

The darkness was severed by an even darker darkness.

Then that man slowly looked down at the ground. He gently carried the cut-up blood-soaked body of Iris.

And he turned his head around to look at Ferris.

Looking intently, straight at her.

Those eyes.

That figure.

That darkness was something familiar to Ferris.

Having the same blond hair as her, and the same extraordinary perfect features.

Her brother, Lucile Eris.

Lucile was looking down at her.

Ferris, who looked as if she was about to cry, looked up at Lucile.

It was the same as that time when she was ten.

She looked up at her brother from a faraway place, unable to reach him, and with a cracked voice, said.

“Ni, Nii-sama......”

Her brother smiled. With a gentle expression. He gave off a look as if nothing bad had happened here.

He looked intently at her, and with a calm gentle voice, said.

“...... there is no need to make such a face, everything will be okay, Ferris. Since I’ve come, I will not let anyone lay a finger on you guys anymore.”

“But, but Iris is already......”

But Lucile said,

“Iris is alright.”

He showed her their sister whom he was carrying in his arms.

Something unbelievable had happened. What was supposed to be a cut-up, blood-soaked body of Iris, had not a single wound on her body.

Rather, there was not a single drop of blood visible on her.

Her sister, with a peaceful look, was sleeping in Lucile’s arms, against his chest.

“How, how...... Iris......”

As Ferris began, Lucile, in order to set her mind at ease, nodded and said.

“Didn’t I say it earlier? I’ve come. That’s why there is nothing for you to worry about anymore, Ferris.”

At the moment, Lucile again raised his hand.

As he did so, the shadow monsters that were restraining her vanished,

“Ah......”

As the restraining forces disappeared suddenly, she started falling to the ground.

But immediately, somebody supported her body before that happened.

Not knowing how his movements occurred, before she knew it, he hugged her from behind.

“...... are you alright? Ferris.”

Her brother’s voice sounded beside her ear.

But she could not respond to that voice. She truly had already lost a lot of blood.

It was a wonder that she was still alive.

Die.

She knew that.

Her temperature was falling, and soon she would die.

She knew that.

It was awfully cold. Her body was awfully cold.

But yet.

For some reason, she was not afraid. She did not feel alone. What she felt was the warmth from behind her, giving her a sense of peace.

It was an unfathomable feeling.

She had experienced that same feeling in the past.

That was a memory of a long time ago.

It was so long ago that she had almost forgotten about it.

Ferris suddenly recalled that memory in which she was hugged from behind.

It was a memory of a time when she was putting her life on the line.

It was a memory of her who, as usual, was risking getting killed by her father and mother.

With a blood-soaked body, after being dumped in the wilderness, she was hugged by her brother in the same manner.

It was the same warmth.

Peace.

And.

“............”

And during that time, she remembered hearing her brother say something strange.

She slowly recalled those words.

Lucile was hugging the blood-soaked Ferris and said.

"It’s alright. Everything is fine now. I’ll protect you. From this darkness, I’ll save you."

At that time, Ferris could not comprehend a single thing.

No, it was the same as right now. She couldn’t understand what her brother was saying, and what he wished to do.

But, with a sad face, her brother continued.

"The curse. I alone shall bear this crazy curse. That’s why there is no longer anything for you to worry about."

Curse. That’s right. That was what Nii-sama had said.

But what was that all about? What was her brother trying to tell her?

Ferris recalled. Her brother’s face during that time. Her brother’s words.

"That’s why there is nothing for you to feel troubled about. Since I will make use of the Sacrificial Demon and the Stupid Hero to sever this darkness. That’s why you should go outside. And walk under the light. I alone shall walk in the darkness."

That was what he had said.

The Ferris then could not comprehend a single thing her brother spoke about, and did not say anything.

It just felt good to be hugged.

Not once.

Because not once since she was born had she experienced the feeling of being hugged before that incident, that’s why her brother’s warmth felt good, and she did not say anything.

But.

“............”

Ferris opened her eyes slightly.

Above her face, was the face of her brother, Lucile.

He was holding Ferris in her arms, and looking down at Ferris with love.

Looking intently at that face, Ferris said.

“I’ve remembered some of the past......”

But Lucile interrupted her.

“It’s okay not to remember.”

“But.”

“It’s fine, Ferris. There is nothing for you to worry about. I’ll handle the troublesome stuff...... rest well. When you awake, everything will already be over.”

Lucile moved his hands over her eyes in order to close them.

As he did so, her vision began to darken again, and all of a sudden, she became drowsy.

She was clearly aware of what her brother was doing to her. He was forcibly snatching away her awareness from her entire body.

Ferris frowned.

Please wait, Nii-sama ...... she wanted to say, but no voice was heard. Her entire body went limp against her brother’s body.

It was something abnormal, a special ability.

But where in the world did her brother acquire such an ability?

Again, Ferris felt that her brother was far away from her. As always, in an unreachable place, in an incomprehensible place, in an untouchable place, a faraway place, she felt.

It was as always.

Lucile, her brother was shouldering everything, and seemed to be in a place which was enough to make her fearful. What was her brother doing now? What was he thinking of? She could not even understand that.

But still, she couldn’t ask. Because she remembered.

She remembered once again.

The memory of that day.

The words of that day.

The words he said after saving me that day.

Her mother’s head flew.

Her father’s body ruptured.

While I was bathed in their blood, Nii-sama turned around with a kind expression on his face.

And.

"Now...... there’s nothing to fear any more, Ferris. Everything has ended. From here on, I’ll be protecting you."

As a child, she could only shake in fear at those words.

He was not a human, but a monster who was in a faraway place, and she could only shake.

But she could not ask.

Such as where did you go .

Such as what in the world did you do .

What in the world did my brother...

In order to save me, what had my brother done?

Ferris opened her eyes and looked up at her brother.

With a cracked voice, she said,

“Nii-sama......”

But her words stopped there.

Lucile, in a soft voice,

“Sleep.”

At that instant, she lost her awareness.

Her consciousness faded away swiftly.

Feeling good from his strong, warm embrace, she could not think of anything anymore.

Her consciousness was carried away by a strong force.

Ferris could not resist that force.

All her remaining strength left her, and leaving her body in the care of Lucile, she closed her eyes.

Her vision became dark, dark.

“............”

She fell into darkness, and everything around her disappeared.

That scene.

Miran Froaude looked at that scene with a pair of cold eyes.

The monster gently lay his sisters down on the ground.

Ferris Eris and Iris Eris.

Looking down at his beautiful sisters, Lucile held out his hand.

“My life, to transfer.”

As he murmured softly, the space in his hands blurred and a golden sword appeared, and he thrusted the sword into Ferris chest.

As he did that, something unbelievable happened. Her limbs, which should already have been badly torn began patching themselves and the wounds she incurred started closing up.

Her evidently fatal wounds, which should be impossible to be healed by magic, for some reason, were disappearing.

Looking at that, without thinking, Froaude smiled wryly.

Is such a thing really possible?

The scene looked like Lucile was bestowing his own life force to his sister.

At that instant, he wanted to ask if you do that, won’t your life span decrease? to Lucile, but then realized how stupid that question was and let it pass.

A mad monster like him won’t be interested in his own life.

But.

“...... as one would expect, even a person like you will be fearful for his sisters’ lives.”

As Froaude said that, Lucile looked at him. With blue eyes so deep that one could not see the extent of that depth, he smiled.

“In order to ascertain that, you actually went to all that trouble to injure my sisters?”

“No no. Of course not. The reason I attacked Ferris-san was to make her a hostage to capture a certain Alpha Stigma bearer......”

Lucile responded delightedly.

“If you kill her, you can’t make a hostage, can you?”

“No. I did not intend to kill her.”

“That was unintentional?”

“Yes. Your sisters were just too adorable...... and unintentionally, I seemed to almost kill......”

“Haha. So you have that kind of hobby.”

Froaude smiled weakly as an acknowledgement to that.

But of course, he had no such hobby.

He had no intention of wasting his energy on such a thing. His true purpose right from the beginning was to test the reaction of Lucile.

Rather, was it more accurate to say that he wanted to find the weakness of Lucile?

While it would be great to keep them as hostages to use against Ryner Lute, he really wanted to find a weakness of this monster that was shrouded in mystery, but outside of his expectations, Lucile arrived at the scene late, at the point where he almost killed Ferris Eris and Iris Eris.

Well, if he did kill them, it would be fine as well.

But.

“............”

But Lucile came to save them.

This monster, took the trouble to leave His Majesty’s side, and came to save his sisters.

Now.

Froaude thought.

Now, what can I conclude from the actions of this Lucile Eris?

Froaude thought.

Clearly, there was an inconsistency to Lucile Eris’s actions this time.

At the beginning, when Froaude first met Lucile, he was under the impression that this man would never take the trouble to help his useless sisters out. Froaude could see existing within him a darkness that was much similar to his own, except that it was much darker and deeper.

That’s why when he first attacked Ferris and Iris, he thought that the chances of him coming to save them were pretty low.

But he was wrong.

Lucile came to save them.

At the very least, this meant that the possibility existed in that his two sisters could become his weakness.

But regarding that, there was a further question. If he’s going to save them anyway, why not do it earlier?

If it’s him.

If it’s this monster, however far he was, he could move across distances in an instant, and could have come here to save them earlier --- that’s the way Froaude saw it.

If that’s the case, he could have come and saved them right from the beginning.

He could have come and saved them before they got wounded.

But he didn’t. No, was it because he couldn’t?

Whichever the case,

“............”

Wasn’t it the case that...... Lucile Eris’s power extended across the entire land of this country?

Froaude squinted his eyes and looked intently at Lucile.

Just as he did that, Lucile withdrew that golden sword which had appeared from out of nowhere, from Ferris.

It seemed like he had finished healing his sister’s wounds. The wounds which would have been fatal without a doubt, had completely disappeared without a trace from the body of Ferris Eris. Even her clothes which were ripped into shreds were restored.

It was if she had been returned to the state before she was attacked, an abnormal power indeed.

After ascertaining that, Froaude said.

“I have some questions.”

“What is it?”

“Could it be that you are angry over your sisters’ injuries?”

But Lucile shook his head.

“No.”

And he looked at the black ring that Froaude was wearing, and then looked down at the once again expanded shadow at his feet, and smiled.

“It’s their own fault for not even being able to match up with an opponent of underling class.”

Then Froaude laughed.

“Underling...... is it?”

At the same time, he was once again surrounded by his black, shadow beasts.

Kagerou (Shadow Beasts) . Conjured by the ring he was wearing, The Ring of The Dark Emperor .

Their movements are fast and sharp. At a level that normal human beings are unable to follow. No, even the mage knights would not be able to come close to their level of power.

However, even so, compared to the monster, they were nothing more than the level of henchmen weaklings. And that was the very truth. That was the level of power hidden within the monster.

If he wished, he could kill Froaude in the blink of an eye.

“............”

Froaude deployed the shadow beasts in front of him. If the monster felt like it, and had decided to kill him off, he would probably be able to stop his movements for about one second, it seemed.

Lucile smiled again.

“Are you afraid?”

To his query, Froaude made an affirmation promptly.

“...... there isn’t anyone who won’t be afraid while standing before you, isn’t that so?”

“You did mention that you aren’t afraid, didn’t you? Or at the very least, you aren’t afraid of death.”

“Of course, I’m not afraid of death. But...... now is not the right time for me to die yet.”

Lucile smiled again.

“Not the right time? Haha. You do say some interesting things. Who can actually decide on the time of his death, you should be one who is well aware of that, aren’t you? Even if one does not want to die, when it’s time to die, one has to die, there are also times when one has to live even if he doesn’t want to. Now.”

After saying that, he softly held out his hand.

“Now. Which one do you belong to?”

Froaude tensed up his whole body. He clenched his fist tighter and increased his strength of his grip on his ring. When he did that, the shadows became stronger and larger.

But he knew very well that it was a meaningless move.

To go against such a monster.

Froaude was well aware of the fact that going against the worst monster of Roland with merely such level of strength was like hitting a rock with an egg.

Lucile smiled at the shadow beasts conjured by Froaude.

“Do you think that somehow or another, those things can actually do something to me?”

Froaude shook his head.

“No way.”

“Then, what kind of front is this?”

“Who knows? What could it be?”

As he said that, a dark, acute smile floated on Froaude’s lips. Following that, he waved his right hand. He waved that black, pitch-black ring.

Instantly.

The black beasts at the foot of Froaude sprung forward.

Three beasts were running towards Lucile to attack him.

Of course, he was well aware of the fact that this was meaningless. Lucile dispelled the beasts by just a mere wave of his hand.

No, there was something more.

“......n.”

Froaude realized something strange was flying towards him, coming from where Lucile waved his hand.

It was like a shockwave, invisible to his eyes......

At that moment.

Froaude’s right arm was sliced off from his body and sent flying into the air.

“Gah.”

Blood was spraying.

His right shoulder felt an excruciating amount of pain. Then Froaude looked at his right arm. The cut was abnormally clean and neat. He had no idea what was it that had cut him......

Was it the blade of a sword that came flying?

Froaude looked at Lucile.

Lucile, with a cheerful face, while gazing at Froaude, waved his hand again as if he was toying with him. Once again, he felt something he couldn’t see. Froaude read the path of that unseen force. He lowered his body, and jumped to the side.

Immediately after.

The ground where he originally was standing at was cleaved apart. The ground was cracked open. The split of the ground from that cleaving force was so very deep that the bottom was not visible at all.

It was clear that this was not the work of a human being.

No, it was neither the power of Rhule Fragmei as well.

It was as if that came from a god, or demon......

“............”

But at that thought, Froaude became doubtful.

God, or demon?

How can it be?

How can a man, with a faltering heart like his, who is fearful of his sisters dying, possess the power of a god?’’

Laughable.

Truly laughable.

“............”

Froaude caught hold of his severed right arm, which had been spinning in the air --- the ring on that arm to be precise, and waved it.

And then.

“Let there, be darkness.”

Darkness was born from those words once more. But not any of the beasts. A blade. A single blade. Concentrated into that blade, was all of Froaude’s power...... equating to all the shadow beasts that he could summon.

Small, fine, strong, hard, sharp.

Gathering all his power at one point......

“What do you intend?”

Lucile smiled as he looked at him. With a you can’t touch me with that puny power look on his face, he looked at him.

Of course, Froaude knew that.

With such a level of power, he knew that it was not possible to even graze him in the slightest.

But still, even so, Froaude gripped the blade of darkness in his left hand.

And said.

“I’m going to kill you right here.”

Lucile smiled.

“What a boring joke.”

“Not really, I thought it was pretty interesting myself though. But if you are so confident, why don’t you receive this attack without dispelling the blade?”

As he said that, Froaude plunged the blade into the ground.

There was strange ‘gusha’ sound and the soil around the sunken blade started to liquefy.

That was the power imbued into the blade.

But even as he was watching, as expected, Lucile did not move an inch. A thin smile floated on his lips as if he were mocking Froaude,

“If it pleases you, I shall receive it.”

“Certainly.”

“So be it. Then do......”

But at that moment.

Lucile’s voice trailed off.

With a slightly surprised expression, he looked intently at Froaude.

And once again, a thin smile floated on his lips.

“...... ah, I see. This time round...... so that’s what it’s supposed to be.”

And for the very first time, Froaude had a relaxed smile on his face.

“Yes. That’s what it’s supposed to be.”

During the time they were conversing, Froaude had sent the buried blade underground, to emerge from a completely different location.

And that location was just next to the head of the fallen Ferris Eris.

If Froaude sent the command from his mind, Ferris Eris’s head could be lopped off immediately.

Of course, Lucile could easily defend against that.

However.

Froaude had another move put in place beforehand.

That was at a place far from here. South of this highway, in Roland Empire’s castle, where the king was.

At that place were assassins sent by Froaude, who should be about to take Sion’s head with their knives.

That’s right.

In other words, that was what Froaude was really up to.

Firstly, to find out whether Lucile would come save his sisters.

If he did, then Froaude would attack both Sion Astal, the king in the royal castle whom Lucile was supposed to guard, and Lucile’s sisters at the same time, and see who he would choose to save.

Now.

“The swords-clan that is supposed to guard the king for generations...... who will you choose to save?”

As Froaude said that, Lucile looked at him, and said,

“In order to research this, you’re actually willing to put your own life in danger?”

Froaude replied,

“It’s not about that. To me, it’s not something as simple as satisfying my own curiosity. It’s all thanks to the Eris House for protecting the king, that we are able to leave the king’s side to perform our duties with a peace of mind. But if you can turn traitorous just because your sisters are taken hostage, then it won’t do if I don’t think of a counter-measure. That’s why the earlier......”

“An experiment?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“The results are not out yet. This is it. Currently, I’m after both the lives of His Majesty and Ferris-san. Who would you choose to save, I await to be enlightened.”

But Lucile continued smiling.

“You are really an interesting man...... I don’t think there is any meaning to such an experiment though.”

“I won’t know unless I try......”

“You would.”

Lucile said, interrupting Froaude’s words.

Lucile again waved his hand lightly. As he did that, the blade of darkness conjured by Froaude was dispelled.

And then Froaude began,

“...... so you are choosing your sister?”

Looking intently at Froaude, Lucile cheerfully shrugged his shoulders.

“The assassins around Sion are already sliced into pieces.”

At those words,

“............”

He had again gained a little more understanding regarding this monster.

Froaude’s eyes had never left Lucile all this while. Therefore, based on that, Lucile should not have left this place at all.

But he said that he had killed off the assassins who were after Sion’s life.

What did he mean by that?

Could it be that Lucile Eris is actually two people?

No, that line of thought did not seem to come anywhere close to the truth. Then, what is it? Don’t tell me that the person in front of me right now is actually an illusion?’’

Could it be something else......

At that moment, Froaude’s thoughts were interrupted by Lucile’s words.

“That, just now, was a service for you, Miran Froaude-kun.”

“...... service?”

“Yes. Well, needless to say...... there was no real need to kill off those assassins around Sion. Because you didn’t order them to actually kill Sion, right? Since you won’t be able to kill Sion after all.”

“............”

That was the truth.

Froaude only ordered the assassins to pretend they want to kill Sion.

It’s only natural. There was no reason for him to sacrifice his master’s life for the sake of a trivial experiment.

However, if he already knew that,

“But, I still killed them to show you. Do you know why?”

“Tell me about it.”

Froaude shrugged his shoulders. But, since there was nothing attached to his right side, only his left shoulder bobbed up, which felt unpleasant to him. He turned his sight to his right shoulder for a moment and then looked at Lucile.

“Why’s that so?”

Lucile smiled and said.

“Because you are an interesting fella. This is the first time I’ve encountered someone who will square off with me in such a manner. That’s why, even though it’s not much, I felt like doing you a service.”

“Hoh.”

“As a reward for your capability, I shall let you in on a secret. I shall tell you what you really want to know. About my power. About my weakness. It is as you have thought. In truth, I no longer have a physical body. My form here is incorporeal.”

“Incorporeal?”

“Yes. That’s why......”

At that moment, Lucile vanished suddenly.

In the next instant, he appeared right behind Froaude.

“That’s why while I exist nowhere, I can exist anywhere.”

And then Froaude turned around slowly, and gazed at that beautiful man with sheer delight.

“...... does that equate to being able to be in two places at the same time?”

Lucile nodded.

“Anywhere. If need be, shall I show you two of me right now?”

Froaude shook his head at that.

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m doubting your words.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Really? It seems to me however that you don’t believe a single thing I say.”

Froaude smiled.

“No, really. I’m not doubting you at all.”

But a little.

Isn’t he a little too talkative?

Froaude thought.

When people become overly talkative, it means that they have something to hide.

And right now, in Froaude’s eyes, Lucile Eris was hiding something.

But what is it?

What is it that he was trying to hide?

Or am I over-thinking things? To this monster, everything is just a time-killer, isn’t this just something on a spur of a moment, something for him to play around with, something to kill time?

“............”

But in his heart, he doubted that.

It didn’t look like it. This fella just wouldn’t do such unnecessary things.

Right now, clearly, he was hiding something.

Perhaps there was some reason for doing that which was unknown to him, but he could see that Lucile was hiding something.

In order not to let Froaude grab hold of his weakness.

In order not to let Froaude become suspicious of something important.

However.

“............”

What in the world would that be?

What was he up to?

Froaude looked intently at Lucile. Looking at the extraordinary perfect face of the monster.

And he tried to peek into the heart of that monster.

He stretched out his hand towards the depths of the monster’s heart, as if he was about to gouge out the truth that was hidden in the deep, dark recesses.

Then.

“.............”

Then, Froaude said.

“...... you’ve gotten me. Well, if you can protect both His Majesty and your sisters....... I have no complaints at all. I shall withdraw from hereon.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I’m more than satisfied with seeing that level of power. I can now confidently leave His Majesty’s life in your hands.”

“Then, you’ve already satisfied your curiosity.”

“Yes. At the very least, at the expense of one arm, I’ve more than satisfied my curiosity.”

As he said that, Froaude looked at this right arm again. By the way, the bleeding had not yet stopped.

Lucile began,

“Shall I fix that for you?”

As he said that, without answering, Froaude commanded the shadows from his mind.

As he did that, the shadow at his feet reacted. A small spherical mass of shadow flew out from the ground and covered the wound on his right shoulder.

Subsequently, another one of them flew out and covered the wound of the severed right arm.

Then, the two shadows started joining together.

This should rejoin the right arm to the body. Though this was actually the first time his arm was severed, and he wasn’t really confident whether it would go well or not, but he had read from the ancient text left behind by his ancestor that such a use actually existed with The Ring of the Dark Emperor .

The ancient text of that detestable ancestor, the Holy Knight Halford Miran.

Froaude tried moving his newly reattached arm. Following that, he tried moving his fingers.

“............ n.”

Though he was feeling a kind of faint numbing pain, the movements felt more or less the same as before.

Lucile had a slightly surprised look on his face,

“Hoh. Impressive.”

“No, it’s nothing compared to your power.”

At any rate, Lucile had shown him the ability to heal someone who was on the verge of death. After being shown such level of power, he was not pleased in the slightest at being told that he was 'impressive'.

After smiling faintly, Lucile said.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

Froaude turned his eyes to look at the fallen Ferris on the ground,

“I’m going to capture Ryner Lute. According to my intelligence, he is now up north at the fork of the highway...... using Ferris-san as the hostage.”

“I don’t mind. Use her as you wish. But......”

At that, Froaude nodded.

“It’ll be alright. I won’t hurt her. I fully understand how precious your sisters are to you.”

“Then, do as you like.”

Lucile said. Then, he turned around. Seemingly about to disappear.

And then Froaude continued.

“But well, if you were to capture Ryner-san for me, that would be the most comforting......”

But before he finished, Lucile had already disappeared. It was if there was nothing there right from the beginning, his existence, his presence, his figure, all of them vanished completely.

Froaude looked intently at the place where Lucile had disappeared.

Then,

“...... incorporeal huh.”

He murmured.

Was that really the truth?

He tried recalling the words of Lucile just a while ago.

The words he said when he mentioned that he was incorporeal.

He had hardly any physical form. He existed nowhere. But that was why he could exist anywhere.

Lucile had said that.

In other words, wherever Froaude was, whatever he was doing, would be monitored and could be dealt with, that’s what it meant.

But was that really true?

“............”

Froaude looked down at the beautiful, fallen sisters lying on the ground. He looked at the two young ladies who were almost killed by him earlier.

And thought.

If Lucile truly could exist anywhere, and could extend his vision across the land, then why didn’t he come save his sisters before they were on the verge of death?

With regards to the assassins around Sion, whom Froaude had dispatched, Lucile could indeed sense them while he was here and had dealt with them.

But why could he not do the same for his sisters?

No, perhaps the truth was.

“...... am I really taken to be of underling class whom he thought his sisters could defeat?”

Froaude murmured, but then shook his head. That couldn’t have been the case. Ferris Eris’s strength is still way below mine.

And Lucile could not possibly be unaware of that.

Then why was he late in saving them?

At that thought, Froaude recalled the legend behind the Eris House.

For generations, the Eris House has served the king as guards.

Within the country where their protection extends, there is none who can come close to touching the king.

When reading that part of the legend, it basically meant that within the borders of Roland, the king’s safety was guaranteed, but if one turned that around, it could also mean that if the king were to travel out of Roland, the Eris House could no longer extend their protection to him.

In truth, during the time when Sion went to Imperial Nelpha for a diplomatic visit, Lucile did not follow along.

But was it because he did not go.

Or was it because he could not go.

If it were the later, what would it mean in what took place just now?

Lucile could not leave the country.

Lucile could save Sion, in the castle at the heart of Roland, just right before he was attacked.

But if it were some distance away from the castle. Perhaps, if it were at the highway near the borders of Nelpha or Runa, he would need more time before he could come save his sisters. And what happened earlier was such that if he were late by another second, everything would have been too late.

Now.

How did these three things add up?

What did these facts indicate?

The answer was this.

“...... if he stepped out of the centre of Roland, depending on the distance......”

Lucile Eris becomes weaker.

And that was just talking about Roland. If he were to continue putting his distance away from the centre, and step out of Roland......

“He probably couldn’t even maintain that form, eh? What do you say? Duke Eris?”

To that question.

“............”

There was no answer from Lucile.

No, rather.

He could not answer. You can’t respond to my question ,

“Because you can’t hear me.”

“............”

“Even though you said that you can exist anywhere but in truth...... your sight has yet to extend to here.”

“............”

“That’s why you were late in coming.”

“............”

“That’s why you were late in coming to save your sisters.”

“............”

“But then again, that didn’t seem like a huge weakness. Still, you are a humongous monster, bearing deep darkness that is beyond mine...... but yet......”

What in the world is he afraid of?

Froaude asked himself.

What was the weakness he possess that there was a need to become talkative in an attempt to hide it behind those words?

Froaude turned his eyes and looked away.

The answer was.

“............”

It was already out.

At that moment, Froaude’s red lips parted widely, and a smile floated. A dark, devilish smile.

Lucile came to save his sisters.

The greatest monster of Roland had come to save his sisters.

Was that proof of a shred of humanity left in him?

Or was it because of sibling love?

Sentiments?

No, it wasn’t.

For a monster of that level, he didn’t think he would waste his energy on such trivial stuff. He wouldn’t waste his energy on meaningless things.

Then why did he come save his sisters?

The reason was simple.

“............”

Froaude silently looked at the figure of the fallen woman, lying on the ground.

Looking at the beautiful face of the woman. He squatted and touched her face. He turned the head of Ferris Eris a little.

The woman who should have been dead was sleeping soundly.

Froaude smiled.

Because he knew what Lucile was hiding.

The timing at which he appeared to save his sisters. The way he spoke. His expressions. Everything pointed to one thing.

He came to save his sister. But he chose to be just in time. If he were late by even one more second, his sister would have been dead for real.

But, it might have been convenient for him.

If the one who died were Iris Eris, there would have been no problem at all.

That’s why he was not too late.

He.

“............”

He came here to save only Ferris.

But what was the reason?

Froaude was not sure of that. But, what was certain was that he didn’t care about the life of one sister, but was exceptionally concerned for the other, which meant......

“...... is there a need for me to let her go free......?”

At that moment, Froaude used his hand to cover both Ferris’s mouth and nose. He was uncertain what kind of power Lucile had used to put her to sleep but it seemed like her consciousness was not going to return anytime soon.

Her face only grimaced unbearably, and her fair cheeks were tinged with red.

If he continued pressing against her mouth and nose in this manner, she would quickly die without a doubt. Gazing at that, he continued.

“If she is really that important to Lucile Eris...... I should have to kill her here.”

If this was the case, this might really be the great weakness of Lucile. Whatever was inside of her. Whatever that might spill out as a consequence of her being alive, might well be Lucile’s weakness.

Whatever it was, Lucile certainly did not want Froaude to know.

No, if he were to kill her now, Lucile was going to appear again. From the faraway centre of Roland, even though he might be too late this time, but he would still come.

If that happened, Froaude might be killed this time.

Froaude could not kill Ferris here.

However.

“.............”

What if she was out of the country?

His power should not extend outside of the country.

Outside of the country...... if Froaude were to kill her then, what could he do?

“............”

At that thought, Froaude stood up.

As he did so, his cheeks became wet with drops of water. He looked up into the sky. It should now be way past eight in the morning.

Nevertheless, the sun was not out. The sky was completely covered with dark clouds.

Rain , as he was about to say that, the rain drops started getting increasingly heavier.

The sky brightened as lightning flashed. The wind was strong as well. A storm was brewing.

And then Froaude,

“............”

He looked down at Lucile’s weakness lying on the ground beside him. She was getting wet from the rain and dirty from the sodden mud.

She remained unconscious even now.

Looking at that, he thought about it once more.

Now, what should I do from hereon?

“............”

It would be easy to use her as a hostage to capture Ryner Lute.

But.

Between crushing Ryner Lute, and letting Lucile Eris’s weakness escape out of the country,

“Which is more important?”

But even as he asked himself that, there was no doubt in him.

Once again, he commanded the shadows with his mind. As he did that, at his feet. On the muddy ground, his shadow expanded and two beasts appeared from it.

The beasts then grabbed hold of the sleeves of both Ferris and Iris with their teeth and started dragging them across the ground.

They were bringing them to the highway. By doing that, anyone who would be passing by would see them and tend to them.

Well, with this rain, perhaps no one might be passing by, but in any case, they would regain consciousness after some time.

And then they would join up with Ryner Lute and depart from the country.

Going far away out of the reach of Lucile Eris.

“...... at a distance where I can cut open her body to see what’s inside, at a place unknown to Lucile Eris.”

The beasts unleashed by Froaude disappeared into the tall grass in the wilderness. And both Ferris and Iris who were dragged went out of sight as well.

The dragging sounds were gradually masked away by the sounds of the heavy rain till they were inaudible.

The sound of the rain.

At the intense sound of the rain drops hitting the ground, Froaude looked up into the sky again.

At that moment, the sky flashed again. A thundering boom was heard almost immediately. It seemed like the lightning struck somewhere close by.

And then.

“...... to embark on a journey......”

Froaude laughed, then.

“Isn’t this an excellent weather for that?”

He said.

And then he looked away from the sky and looked in the direction of the highway up front.

Away from the direction of the centre of Roland, towards the direction of Imperial Nelpha and Runa Empire, beyond the highway.

Where Ryner Lute should be waiting.

Well, since Ferris was out cold and unable to meet him anytime soon, he would probably get worried, and come running back. If he did that, he should stumble upon the Ferris and Iris who were lying on the highway.

Perhaps, he was already making his way back now.

At that thought.

“...... I should not tarry about here any longer.”

As he said that, he turned on his heel. And started trudging through the muddy wilderness.

The sky was still dark.

But he did not feel unpleasant about it.

Drenched in the heavy rain, he slowly made his way back to the heart of Roland.

### 003. Chapter 2: The Balance Scales For Passion And Love

Approximately at around the same time.

Just north of the highway where Ferris and Iris were rolled onto, at Asohld tea-house, was Ryner Lute.

There was yet no sign of Ferris who should have already arrived at the rendezvous location, and on top of that, it was raining, and just about the time when Ryner was starting to get worried, all of a sudden.

“...... yner.”

He heard a voice.

Which was muffled by the rain.

“...... Ryner.”

He heard it clearly this time.

His name was called.

He thought it was the voice of Ferris, who was late for the rendezvous and started,

“...... so the princess has finally arrived eh?”

From the eaves of Asohld tea-house, where he was taking shelter from the rain, he turned towards the highway.

However,

“............”

There was no sign of Ferris.

Huh? What the? I thought I heard someone calling my name......

As he tilted his head, once again.

“...... Ryner-tteba!”

He was called.

However, that voice was not coming from the south, but rather from the north.

“Eh?”

Ryner turned around.

And looked at the highway through the reduced visibility caused by the rain.

There was a woman standing there.

“............”

But the woman standing there was not Ferris. As he looked closely, he knew she was clearly not her.

Firstly, her height was different. She was somewhat shorter than the tall Ferris. Her hair color was different. Ferris was blond, while she had shoulder-length red hair.

And her voice was also different from that of Ferris.

Compared to Ferris’s emotionless and monotonous voice, her voice carried a tone of intimacy and happiness.

And that voice.

For some reason, was known to Ryner.

A long time.

He had not heard that voice in a long time.

From a distant memory, that voice resided in the most peaceful part of his mind.

It was when Ryner and Sion were both seventeen. When they were students. In that memory, she was a friend and comrade. Always tagging alongside Ryner, and nagging at him.

But in the end.

In the end, she also left crying.

Even though she was originally a spy from the now already subjugated Kingdom of Estabul, she was made used by the nobles of Roland who had held her sister hostage.

And that led to her betraying her comrades, including Ryner, Sion, and a lot more others, leading to the deaths of many.

But that’s not her fault. They were in a terrible era, and there was nothing much she could do.

But still she felt responsible for all that and had left the country.

That’s right.

She had left the country a long time ago.

But yet, right now, she was right in front of him.

No, perhaps, she was no longer the same person as before.

Previously, her red hair was in a short cut that extended to her shoulders. Her face which still bore some childish features had now turned into a beautiful face of an adult.

But her eyes remained the same. Strong, dignified, but yet tinged with a feeling of weakness embedded somewhere within those red orbs, it was if they were completely the same as before.

She was happily looking at Ryner with those eyes. With a smiling face,

“Ryner!!”

She said with a strong, loud voice, no softer than the loud patter of the raindrops.

It really had been a long time since his name was called by her. Ryner, in response to that, with a dumbfounded voice,

“...... Kiefer.”

He spoke.

Her name.

Kiefer Knolles, the name of an old friend.

At that moment.

Her face which should have been beaming with happiness contorted before his very eyes.

Into a crying face. Even though her mouth was smiling, she had a crying face.

He could not see any tears. No, maybe she was already crying, but the tears were hidden by the falling rain, making it impossible to really tell.

Suddenly she started running. Towards here.

Ryner could not move. He could only, dumbfoundedly, look at her rushing up to him.

And then.

“............”

Kiefer came flying towards the edge of the eaves of the tea-house.

She embraced Ryner.

Pressing against him, and pushing his back against the door of the tea-house which was not yet opened for business.

And while that was happening.

“.............”

Kiefer did not say a word. She only embraced Ryner tightly.

He looked down at the head of Keifer which suddenly came pressing into his chest.

“.............................. erm, ehh, um, Ki, Kiefer? Right? The real thing?”

What a thing for Ryner to ask stupidly without thinking. Given the fact that she knew Ryner, and suddenly, with a crying face, came hugging him, she had to the real thing.

But because he had not seen her for a long time ever since she had left the country, he was just stunned when she suddenly appeared and came embracing him.

Ryner looked down at the woman who was hugging him, and had a slightly troubled expression.

“Ah, erm, ah~, what should I say. Long time no see......”

“............”

But Kiefer did not reply. She hugged him even tighter. She buried her face into his chest.

And then.

“............”

And Ryner just gave up on saying anything.

Looking at her with a troubled face. She was already completely drenched by the rain. The water drops in her beautiful red hair glistened. The slender body that was hugging him was surprisingly cold.

“............”

Ryner awkwardly held her shoulders with his hands.

“...... if you stay wet like this, you’re gonna catch a cold, you know?”

He said softly.

At those words, she looked up.

She met his eyes straight on with her red eyes.

Her eyes looked dim and he knew at once that she had indeed been crying. Her face blushed slightly with embarrassment. But more than that, she happily looked up at Ryner’s face and showed him a mischievous smile.

“Ah ~, now, Ryner-tteba, while I wasn’t around, did you go after other women? You lecher.”

What a thing to say suddenly and Ryner frowned.

“It’s been a long time since we saw each other, and all of a sudden, that?”

Kiefer laughed.

“But ~. The Ryner from before wasn’t the kind who would do such a thing, geez.”

After saying that, she gently touched his hands that were around her shoulders. And then,

“Before...... in the prison, the time when I kissed Ryner...... Ryner was much more nervous......”

Before she finished her words, Ryner withdrew his hands.

Thereafter, while shifting his eyes,

“Eh, ah, ah, er, Kiefer, to, to bring up something like that suddenly......”

As he fumbled with his words in a flustered manner,

“Yeah, that’s it, that’s it.”

Kiefer laughed again. Following the withdrawing motion of Ryner’s hands, she stretched her hands. And grasped his hands.

Ryner was about to promptly shake them off but Kiefer, instantly,

“............”

Instantly, made a sad-looking face, and he stopped short.

His hands were grasped. Her hands were warm. Speaking of that, his chest had become warm from her embrace and her breathing.

If that’s the case.

“............”

If that’s the case, I’ll let it pass , Ryner thought. If he could pass on some of his warmth to her freezing body, he would let it pass, he thought.

But Kiefer just smiled, and once again buried her face into his chest, and hugged him like how a lover would.

“...... urmm.”

Ryner had a real troubled look.

In other words, erm, hm, what kind of situation is this?

Erm, erm, erm, what should I, eh, what should I do? About this?

As his mind was spinning, Kiefer said.

“You know, Ryner.”

“?”

“Erm...... do you remember...... the words I’ve said on the very last day we saw each other.”

And then.

“...... the words on the very last day we saw each other?”

Ryner started thinking back.

And remembered.

On the very last day he saw her.

Everything took place in a prison.

A double agent for Roland and Estabul, the business was settled with her being thrown into prison, and in order to save her, Ryner made a bargain with the upper echelon of the military, and exchanged his own freedom for hers.

That was something that took place three years ago.

Ryner recalled that distant memory.

That day.

That day when everything had changed.

That day when every of their comrades died on the battlefield, the day when the last remnants of peace was all gone.

That day.

When Sion was reproaching himself, and said that he would rise above. To the upper echelons of the military. He said that he would rise to the top of the country with everything he got, and change everything for the better. In order to not let any more people cry. In order to not let any more people get hurt.

True to his words, he had made that a reality. He had become the king of this country and changed everything. He was really something. But he was a fool who overworked himself sometimes.

And then on that day.

Ryner said that it was bothersome and didn’t feel like doing anything. He was sick and tired of having his comrades die, as usual. He was fearful of hurting others. And thus he ran away. Going into prison, and spending his two years languidly. The only thing he did was to write that report on the Heroes’ Relics. But in the end, he didn’t strive to achieve anything beyond that. Because he didn’t strive, that’s why things had come to this. Sion weeping, and the whole country turning weird.

And additionally, on that day.

He later heard from Sion that Kiefer had left him in Sion’s care and had left the country. Having resided in both Estabul and Roland, she wanted go out to see the world, and see the other countries. Ryner did not know of the thoughts and feelings she held in her heart when she left the country. But still, she left the country.

But, before that.

In the prison, just right before Ryner took the place of Kiefer in prison, they had their last conversation.

Three years ago.

Within this country, where there was a much tighter security in the prisons then, the two of them had a conversation.

Ryner looked sleepy as usual.

But Kiefer was crying. While crying, she kissed Ryner and said.

"I finally know why I have fallen in love with Ryner. I used to think that it was because there was no need for me to have my guard up against someone that unmotivated...... and that I could always feel at ease around you...... but it wasn’t like that. Because Ryner is really kind. And strong. That’s why...... that’s why you are no monster. I guarantee that. If you call yourself a monster again, I won’t forgive you."

He remembered those words of hers.

“............”

Ryner frowned again.

She had held out her outstretched hands towards Ryner again.

The same kind of outstretched hands from Sion and Ferris, towards him.

Even though he had thought of himself as a killing machine, a monster who had no right to love another, and had continued running away, she had told this monster that she loved him.

But still, even with that, Ryner ran away. He had continued running away during those three years.

And it was not until he was too late for anything and everything that he realized it.

Sion had become weird. The country had become weird. Ferris crying. Kiefer crying. Milk crying. Tyle, Toni, Fahl, Byor, Lafra, Pueka, all died.

Only when he was too late for anything and everything then he realized.

Everyone had stretched their hands to me and I didn’t manage to take hold of any one of them.

The last day they met.

Even though when Kiefer had already told him that.

"Ryner is not a monster. At the very least, in my eyes, you aren’t one."

And then Ryner.

“.............”

The Ryner now still did not see it that way however. He still thought of himself as a monster, a dangerous existence who may hurt people, even now he was afraid of all that however, he no longer thought of running away.

He won’t run away again, he thought.

Therefore, Ryner,

“...... ah, I remembered of course. Kiefer told me I’m not a monster......”

But he was interrupted and with a sparkling smile, she looked up at him,

“I said that I like Ryner, did you remember that properly!?”

She said.

And Ryner,

“Huh, it was about that!?”

Instantly, her face turned red.

“Eh? Eh? What do you mean by ‘it was about that’!”

“Erm, ah, ah ~ …... no...... ah, that, you know? That Kiefer like me as a friend...... right......”

But, Ryner could not continue.

Since Kiefer’s eyes started to blur as she looked straight at him.

Into Ryner’s eyes.

Looking straight into the eyes bearing the abominable curse called Alpha Stigma .

Ryner, without thinking, seemed to want to turned his face away. Since he could not bear it when people gazed into his eyes.

When people peeked into the eyes bore by the monster, by himself. He felt ill at ease every time when people peeked into his killer eyes.

But she should already be well aware of it.

Since he had gone berserk right before her.

Because he couldn’t stop his eyes from going berserk, he had killed lots of people around him.

Not only did he kill all of the mage knights of the Kingdom of Estabul, he almost killed his friends, Sion and Kiefer.

He was a monster.

A cursed monster.

He had no right to accept the love of another.

He had no right to be loved by another.

Even though he should be well aware of that.

Even though she should be well aware of that.

She still looked straight at them.

Ryner’s eyes.

Cursed eyes.

The creepy eyes where the vermillion pentacles floated above.

“............”

With eyes filled with love, she looked intently at him.

And Ryner.

“............”

But, at that moment, suddenly.

“...... kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!”

A voice shouted out.

From the direction of the highway, upon which rain continued to fall.

From the south,

“Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!”

The voice of a young girl was screaming desperately.

And then Ryner,

“Eh?”

He looked up.

And Kiefer as well,

“Eh?”

And turned her head around.

As they did that, again,

“Beast-kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun! Helpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!!”

Such a voice could be heard.

And furthermore, that was a familiar voice.

An adorable, clear voice.

He could immediately recognize it to be the voice of the younger of sister of that crazy, troublesome, dango demon.

Ryner looked towards the direction of the voice.

In the heavy rain.

Stood a young girl.

With blond hair, and extraordinary perfect features on her face. Wearing a dress with lots of frills, and both her back and her hands were laden with a number of knapsacks.

It was Iris Eris, younger sister of Ferris Eris. She was around ten years of age? Wait, she should be twelve now, right?

Well, it did not matter now anyway.

That Iris was looking this way.

“Beast-kun!!”

She called out again.

And then Kiefer,

“Beast-kun?”

She looked here with an incredulous expression.

And then Ryner,

“.............”

Did not reply.

By the way, regarding the nickname ‘Beast-kun’, it was given by Ferris who told Iris, At night, in order to assault girls, Ryner will transform into a beast and wander around the streets! . And since then, Iris had always called him that. Well, it would be troublesome to explain all this so he ignored that for now.

Ryner strained his eyes to look at Iris through the low visibility caused by the rain.

As he did that, he could somewhat make out her face.

“...... what is it?”

Ryner muttered reflexively.

The Iris who was always energetic, and making trouble for him, now had a face contorting as if she was about to cry.

At that moment, Kiefer asked.

“...... an acquaintance?”

Ryner nodded.

“The younger sister of my partner.”

“...... partner?”

“Yeah.”

After giving an appropriate reply, he again looked at Iris. But, it was evident that there was something strange with how she was behaving.

With her feet, she should be able to reach this tea-house in just mere seconds.

But yet, she did not seem to be bent on making a move.

And furthermore, she was facing the other side, with her back facing here, appearing to be dragging something heavy across the ground.

But he did not know what that was. The rain was extremely heavy, and he couldn’t really make out what was at her feet......

“............”

At that moment.

Iris propped something up from the ground.

What was propped up had the same blond hair as her, a face of similar features as her, the face of a peerless beauty.

With long bond hair that was completely drenched, fair skin, and a flawless face.

But those eyes on that face were shut. And the face looked pale as well.

Looking unconscious.

Or was it because.

She’s dead?

“...... Ferris!?”

Ryner shouted and sprinted forward.

“Ah.”

Kiefer exclaimed in surprise but this was not the time to pay attention to that.

It was clear that something bad had happened.

Iris looked as she was about to cry.

And that monster-like, willful, bothersome, one who should possess the strength to become a mighty foe against any opponent, that Ferris was lying on the ground.

It was clearly an abnormal situation.

Ryner ran with all his might. Closing in towards the place where Ferris was lying, at an insane speed.

The nearer he got, the more evident it was that the situation was bad. Iris had dragged Ferris through the rain all the way up till here.

Both of them were drenched and covered in mud, looking pathetic.

As Ryner reached their side, he said.

“What in the world...... what in the world has happened?”

Iris, while weeping,

“Ne, Nee-sama...... Nee-sama was killed......”

“Wha!”

Instantly, Ryner’s heart seemed to stop.

Killed?

Ferris?

Ferris was killed...... then Ferris is already......

“............”

Ryner placed a finger to her neck, and from that, even though Ferris felt cold from the rain, he could still sense a body temperature and a clear pulse.

Then, Ryner looked at Iris,

“She’s alive, you know?”

As Iris was sobbing up her tears, she nodded a few times.

“She, she, she died but then came back to life.”

To those words,

“Huh? She died but came back to life?”

“Un.”

“Huh, ah ~. What do you mean by that?”

As Ryner asked with a questioning look, Kiefer caught up to him.

“Now Ryner-tteba, you were so fast......”

But Ryner did not answer.

She then looked at the unconscious Ferris, where Ryner had placed a finger to her neck, and turned serious.

“...... is she dead?”

Ryner shook his head.

“No, she still has a pulse.”

“Her temperature?”

“A little cold, but there’s no problem.”

“But, if she continues to stay in this rain......”

“Ah, ah, you’re right.”

“Let’s move her.”

On saying that, Kiefer carried the legs of Ferris.

And Ryner as well,

“Yeah.”

He acknowledged, and carried her head and body. And with that, they back-tracked from where they came from.

And as they reached the edge of the eaves again, Kiefer started knocking on the door of the tea-house.

“Excuse me. There’s someone injured, can you let us in?”

She called out.

Ryner could only act dumbfounded at Kiefer’s sensibility.

In a way, he was fed up with himself for being useless.

He was again stunned into inaction.

After seeing Iris cry, and hearing about Ferris being killed, he was very much stunned.

But there was really no time to be dawdling around.

Due to too many things happening just recently, he had almost forgotten that both he and Ferris were Roland’s fugitives right now, and they were being pursued by the military.

It was possible that Ferris might have been done in by those pursuers. No, it’s not a possibility, that had to be the case.

Those pursuers could just be nearby.

They were actually able to render Ferris to such a state. The pursuers this time might be tough opponents who were nothing like what they’ve seen till now.

There was really no time to be dawdling around.

“Geez, get a hold of yourself.”

Ryner said to himself and breathed out softly.

At that moment, the owner of the tea-house came out. A person Ryner also knew by face, the bearded Oyaji of this establishment.

As Oyaji looked at Ferris,

“Ferris-chan!? What in the world......”

And Kiefer,

“She seemed to have fainted. And because it’s raining outside, can we bring her inside to rest?”

“Of, of, of course. Come, please come in quickly.”

And then Kiefer turned her head around. After Ryner acknowledged her gesture,

“Kiefer.”

“Uhn.”

“For now, I’ll.....”

But before Ryner could finish what he wanted to say,

“Got it.”

Kiefer nodded. After that, she took hold of Ferris and entered the tea-house.

Ryner who was about to speak, but in the end was able to send his communication across to her without the further need for words.

“............”

Ryner smiled wryly.

Of course , and again he recalled the past.

Kiefer, she is excellent.

Even in that Roland Empire Royal Military Special Academy, she was seen as excellent, and on top of that, she was highly popular, and thanks to that, because she was often seen with him, he was even more hated by the rest.

But that was convenient. Since he didn’t like to mingle with other people, thanks to her, he was hated by all the rest, which made it easy for him.

No, perhaps she was the same as well. As a spy, she had to keep on deceiving others, but perhaps she did not really have the strength in her to bear with her own hypocritical front, that’s why she chose to stay beside the most hated dunce of the academy.

And the both of them started living a life where others could not get close.

Then Sion came along.

To make Kiefer and Ryner his comrades, the Sion who was the top of the academy came to scout for them.

Ryner recalled the scenes from the past academy days.

As he recalled the days he spent with Kiefer, the first time he met that disagreeable Sion acting like an honors student, Ryner smiled.

Then, he turned around.

He tensed up his whole body and cast his consciousness around him.

To ascertain the presence of any enemy in their surroundings. To ascertain the nearby presence of whoever had caused Ferris to be in that state.

However, even when he strained his ears, he could not sense the presence of any enemy. Perhaps the enemy might already be right beside him, but all he could hear was the loud pattering sounds of the rain.

Every other sound was masked by the sounds of the heavy downpour, and he could hear nothing else.

But still, even so.

“...... can’t sense any killing intent.”

But still, that might not be necessarily accurate.

Since the enemy was someone who could defeat Ferris. To erase his presence completely from detection should be easy for this fella.

“............”

Ryner took a step into the rain.

But there was no reaction, no sign of any enemy.

“Anyone there?”

“............”

“If you are there, making a response will make my life easier, you know.”

But to Ryner’s words,

“............”

There was no response from any possible enemy at all.

“None I suppose, HERE!”

Ryner tried using a much louder voice, and as expected, there was no reaction at all.

However, it did seem like there was no enemy in the nearby surroundings.

So as to speak, if there were any enemies at all, during the time when Ryner was still unaware of whether Ferris was still alive, at the point where he was in a stunned state incapable of making correct judgements, that would be the best time attack him.

That was the time when he was utterly defenseless.

Which meant,

“...... then, there...... aren’t any pursuers after all?”

Who did that to Ferris?

Could it be that she was in that state because of something else?

Well, regarding that, everything would become clear if he asked Iris after stopping her crying.

“...... it’s hard to make head or tail from Iris’s conversations though......”

As Ryner said that wearily, he released the tension in his body. And he turned round his heel again.

And started walking towards the tea-house where Ferris, Iris, and Kiefer were in.

And then he,

“Perhaps I should wait until Ferris regains consciousness......”

Then, in response to his own words, in a dejected tone,

“No, it might be even harder to get any proper information out of the elder sister......”

While saying that in a groaning tone, Ryner smiled.

In any case, there were more than a mountain of urgent things to do. He couldn’t relax yet, for now, he would wake Ferris up and find out what had happened. Um, but then after that, regarding Kiefer......

“............”

At that moment, Ryner’s thoughts halted.

Even though for now, there were already more than a mountain of urgent things to do, but he just remembered that what just came up a while ago was at another level of urgent humongous matter.

Those biting red eyes of Kiefer.

He remembered those eyes of hers that were looking straight at Ryner.

“...... u~mm.”

He tried shaking his head perplexedly but, his unkempt black hair, which was a result of his sleepy-headedness, was now thoroughly wet from the rain.

Ryner then,

“...... ah ~, it’s a little troublesome now that I’m leaving the country, but maybe I should cut my hair.”

What a thing to say when grooming had always been troublesome for him, but he tried saying that as a habitual practice of running away from reality.

Then, once again, he looked at the tea-house where Kiefer and Ferris were.

“............ sigh.”

After making a small sigh, he again started walking towards the tea-house.

It was a sudden thing.

Suddenly, anything and everything about the world had changed.

It was really sudden. But it’s because that it was so sudden that during all this while, people were taking things easy, and that no one seemed to have realized it.

No, even now, there were still a lot of people who had yet to realize it, wasn’t it so?

The wildly enthusiastic populace.

The joyful people.

The landscape of this place, Roland Empire, seemed to have completely changed, it was now surrounded by fiery emotions.

With an overwhelming amount of charisma, the perfect king, Sion Astal, had started proclaiming about dominating the world.

First, raze Nelpha, then where next?

Runa?

Cassla?

Let’s show everyone the might of Roland.

Let’s show everyone the might of the Hero King, Sion Astal.

“............”

Just recently, the people of this country should have been living happily in peace.

Purging the nobles, shrinking the scale of the army, redistributing the newly acquired wealth back to the people, they should have been living happily.

Everyone should have been happy with the newly acquired stability.

All of a sudden.

It was really all of a sudden, that the landscape of this country had changed.

Since they were bestowed with a peaceful country from the kind and gentle king, they shall be guided by the king to become a militaristic nation.

Turning into a smiling country that destroys other countries.

“............”

That’s right.

The peace which was thought to be everlasting, was starting to break down.

But she was not surprised by this.

Because she thought that this would happen.

A country that has everlasting peace.

A country where everyone can live with a smile on their faces.

Where no one cries.

Where no one gets hurt.

A truly perfect world.

Perfect world.

But that was.

That was way too perfect.

It was at the level of perfection where everything would crumble with only a touch.

“............”

And it did.

Even though it was certain that no one had touched it, it crumbled.

It was a crumpling landscape.

“............”

Milk Callaud was gazing with knitted eyebrows.

With soft flaxen hair, despite being at the age of seventeen, she still retained some child-like features on her face, as well as in her large eyes. Wearing Roland’s military uniform over her slender body.

Stretching the back muscles of her tiny body, she strained her eyes to see as far as possible, across the landscape before her.

By the way, she was now on the rooftop of a building that was covered in a pitch-black colour.

On the rooftop of the official residence of the Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squad of the Roland Empire.

This official residence was originally a water tower built from a high tower, and she was now on top of that, and even with her short height, she could gaze at almost the entire landscape of this country, she felt.

She could see everything, she felt.

That’s why from the top of that water tower.

“............”

Milk gazed intently at the face of this country.

Today’s wind was strong, and her hair fluttered in the wind.

Even though it was already eight in the morning, the sky was still dark.

Perhaps it would rain today.

She looked up into the sky, then let her sight fall a little.

The streets below Roland’s castle filled a large expanse of land before her, and further from there were flat plains, hill stretches, making up the entire landscape.

The landscape before her had changed completely through the years gone by.

The flat plains were decreasing, the cities were expanding, and flood control was progressing.

This country, had gradually, gradually become boisterous.

To the point where one would simply have forgotten about the former mad Roland.

The former Roland that was tyrannized by the mad king and the mad nobles.

Sion Astal was the one who changed that country in one breath.

The people who were now living in the large cities were full of smiles, full of hope, full of expectations of the Hero King.

If he was the perfect, flawless Hero King, he would create an excellent place for all to live in.

If they just pin their hopes on the perfect Hero King, things could only get better.

Now, let’s follow the Hero King.

Now, let’s move forward along with the Hero King.

Now, let’s, together with the Hero King, exterminate the people of the other countries, and take everything away from them.

There was no need to think about anything.

Because the Hero King would not make a mistake.

“............ even though that could not have been possible.”

Milk murmured while gazing at the streets.

She knew of it.

The king’s weakness.

Sion Astal’s weakness.

Even though she had only met him a few times, but still, Milk felt that she could see his weakness.

With a kind, gentle, smiling face, and regal eyes.

A king so perfect with no opening.

However, because he was too perfect, that’s where he was fragile.

Even though people could not possibly live alone, but yet, he took on everything alone upon himself.

And hiding himself in a place where no one could see him, screaming silently in anguish.

Lonely.

Please help me.

Someone, someone, please look at me.

Milk knew how painful that was.

Milk knew that people were not supposed to live alone.

That’s because Milk had already died once.

In that orphanage, she was not loved by anyone in this world, and by the time she realized that she was alone, her heart had already died once.

But Ryner brought her back.

Ryner told her not to die.

Ryner looked at her with that tired-looking, troubled-looking, but kind-looking black eyes.

He gave her the reason she was searching for to live.

That’s why.

That’s why she had stayed alive until this point.

And as long as she remained alive, one day.

One day...... she would be able to meet up with him, with Ryner, and thanked him for that.

“...........”

At that moment, she knitted her eyebrows unexepectedly.

Because she recalled something unpleasant.

After searching for so long, and finally she was able to reunite with him, but beside him, always with him, was an extraordinary beautiful blond hair woman, she recalled.

And that person made Ryner smile. Milk had never seen him smile so happily before.

And then.

“............”

She felt a little lonely.

The place which she had always wanted to be in, an agreement which she had made previously, was taken by someone else.

Of course she was happy that Ryner was able to smile.

In the past...... in that orphanage, Ryner would never have smiled in that manner.

Known as the genius killing machine.

He bore deep wounds within, and carried an expression that seemed to have given up on anything and everything.

A face that seemed to find everything a bother, a face that was on the verge of tears.

Milk couldn’t make that Ryner smile.

But now, he was smiling happily.

The one who managed that was not herself.

Regarding that, it was a little.

A little.

“...... uu~, even though I tried not to think about it at all.”

She clutched her chest and smiled. She took in a breath and tell her weak self don’t ! As she reprimanded herself, she put on a smiling face.

But as expected, her tears were about to flow out.

But it can’t be helped , she thought. The fact that her tears were forming couldn’t be helped, she thought.

She had always dreamt of meeting him again, always, always.

For a long, long time.

For a hard-bearing, sad, lonely time, she had wondered what should she do when she see him again. What should she say? What kind of face should she show him? Do you still remember me? , she would say. Firstly, she probably ought to thank him. It was thanks to you that I have stayed alive up till now , that’s how she would thank him. And also, and also, do you remember my last words? She would say. Ah, that was of course something I said while we were still kids, and it might not mean anything at all. But, but, I’ve always thought if that were to happen, how wonderful it would be , she would say. That was...... if we were to stay alive and meet again, after giving my thanks, would you take me as your bride, I was wondering , she would say...... then again, how can these words come from myself ~ ahh now, I probably won’t be able to say it when I do get to meet him. Even expressing my gratitude is embarrassing enough, perhaps I won’t be able to say it in the end. But, but if I can meet him again.

If she just stayed alive, and be able to meet him once more......

“............”

On a painful night.

On a sorrowful night.

Hugging her pillow, always thinking of such things.

All those things she had thought about,

“...... they didn’t go well though......”

She murmured, and while somewhat on the verge of tears, she smiled.

Finally on the day she met him.

In the end, Milk was in a state of surprise, her mind blank, and none of what she had imagined came to pass.

She didn’t say her thanks.

Though she was frequently mulling regretfully over that, but the fact that Ryner was living and smiling was something she was truly happy about.

Even though it was not because of her but someone else.

If Ryner.

Towards that girl.

“............”

Even if Ryner likes that girl...... since I like Ryner, as long as Ryner is able to smile like that, I’ll be happy enough.

At that moment, it was more than what she could bear, and her tears just overflowed from her eyes.

“Ah, ah, no, my, my tears just came out! But, but that was true, you know? I’m really happy that Ryner is able to smile like that, you know?”

Somehow, she was trying to explain herself to the empty air.

Of course, there was no reply from the empty air.

And then Milk smiled.

She was laughing at her idiotic behaviour.

And then.

“And also......”

She murmured.

“And also, now, I’m no longer......”

Now, she was no longer alone. After Ryner told her to live, and she did her best to do that, even though there were many unpleasant things that happened. No no. Even though there might be a lot more unpleasant things. But, there were also many teary, joyful moments that just washed those unpleasant stuff away.

Meeting Luke. Meeting Lear. Meeting Lach. Meeting Moe. Seeing Major Miller’s grim, angry face.

And everyone said that they would become her family.

She often recalled those words that Luke had said to her.

All of us like you, and became your subordinates. We are together with you because we like you. That’s why we want you to get back what you’ve lost, and we want you to attain happiness. We are not fighting for the country. We are fighting for people. The people precious to us, before our eyes, as much as possible, we want to save them......’’

And Milk also thought the same way.

Because she like Luke and the rest, that’s why she stayed together with them.

It would also be great if she could help them get back what was lost, she thought.

Not fighting for the country.

For Luke and the rest. To protect her family, she fought.

The important people before her eyes, she’s fighting to save many, even if she’s doing it by herself.

But.

But because she’s no longer alone.

Even when the night was dark, she wasn’t lonely.

Therefore.

“............”

Therefore, even if Ryner did not turn around, towards her......

“............”

At that moment,

“...... captain.”

Someone called her.

“Captain Milk.”

Milk did not turn around. No, she just couldn’t turn around for now. Since her tears were flowing. If she were to be seen in this manner, she would just cause worry to the rest.

That’s why she franctically wipe her tears with her hands.

Of course, if she did that, it would obvious to others what kind of state she was in right then.

But, she wiped her tears. Then she practiced smiling once towards the empty space, and turned around.

Below the water tower were her subordinates.

Standing there were her family.

Luke Stokkart.

Lear Rinkal.

Lach Velariore.

Moe Velariore.

She looked at her friends and smiled.

As she did that, Moe looked up at her.

“Well, we were thinking where have you been, and it appears that you have climbed to someplace pretty high up!!”

He said it with such an envious face that Milk had to smile.

“This is my special seat.”

Then Moe, with a seemingly lonely face,

“Ehh, then does it mean that I’m not allowed up there?”

“It’s ok!”

“Really!?”

“It’s ok!! Only specially for Moe!”

“Yay!”

As that kind of conversation unfolded, the Lach standing next to him said,

“Ehhhhhhhh, only Moe, what about me, what about me?”

“Of course it’s also ok for Lach!! But Major Miller’s face is scary, so not for him ~”

Everyone laughed at her words.

Then Lear looked up into the sky,

“...... now, captain. Isn’t it about time to get down from there? I think it’s about to rain soon.”

On hearing that, Milk looked up into the sky again. Indeed, from the looks of the sky, it seemed like a storm was brewing and rain would descend upon them very soon.

“...... if it rains, it will be dangerous up there.”

But Milk just smiled at those words.

“But, for just a little longer.”

She wanted to stay here for just a little longer, she thought.

As she said that, the tallest of them all, the eldest of them all --- well even though that was being said, he was merely twenty-six years of age --- Luke nodded,

“Then, perhaps I alone, should come join you for a little while.”

After saying that, he scrambled up the water tower.

And stood beside her.

Along the vertical height of the water tower, right at the top, there was merely a small amount of space, and it was a narrow fit for the two of them.

As Luke stood beside her, he began,

“...... what was captain gazing at?”

On hearing that, Milk turned her gaze to where she was facing.

And Milk said,

“...... the streets.”

“Hm.”

“And the future of this country.”

“I see.”

Luke nodded and squinted his eyes. Always in a calm manner, a gentle person, as if he was a guardian at a nursery school, but in truth he has a very intelligent mind, which Milk knew about.

No, the Lach and Moe who were acting like kids just now, as well as the cool collected Lear, aside from the kind faces they put on, they have another true side to them, and Milk was aware of these.

Each of them was better than Milk, and that’s why they could see far into the future.

That’s why even though there should have been no real need for them to ask Milk, but still, Luke, with a kind voice, faced her and asked.

“And what did captain see?”

And then, Milk shook her head.

“...... no no. I couldn’t see anything. But there are lot of things I must do......”

“You can see them?”

“Yes.”

Luke smiled at her acknowledgement.

“...... since most people can’t see the things they must do. And for you to be able to see them clearly, as expected, captain is great.”

And then Milk smiled and looked at Luke.

As always, he had that kind, gentle face.

As she looked at that face, she puffed up her cheeks and said.

“Now, Luke and the rest of you guys shouldn’t flatter me so much.”

But Luke shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s not flattery. It’s the truth.”

“That’s straaannggee. I’m already well aware of the fact that Luke is way smarter than me, and way stronger than me. In fact, I should become the subordinate of Luke and the rest instead......”

At that moment, Luke interrupted her.

“No, the truth is...... we are really proud to have become your subordinates. Because just by you being here, we are all able to smile. Even though you should have had a lot of harsh experiences in your life, but you still smile bravely, and only think of others......”

“But, but it’s the same for everyone of you......”

But Luke shook his head,

“It’s not the same at all. Our hands...... our hands, beyond what you think, have long been stained. Stained so much that we could not see a future ahead of us.”

He said.

And then he looked intently at his hands. Slim, long fingers. Both white palms.

Even though they were evidently clean, but Luke’s eyes were seeing something else altogether.

It felt like he was looking at the lives that he had taken.

The warmth of the blood.

In any case, when Milk saw the expression that Luke had then, which was different from usual, she was lost for words.

He was carrying a deep sorrow.

But.

“............”

He looked at her again with a kind smile.

“...... but, it would be wonderful if I can dream about that again, that’s what I thought whenever I looked at you, captain. If I can make you smile. My family...... if I can protect my new family, I can once again, with these stained hands, chase after the light, and that would be a wonderful dream to see...... that’s what I can think about again. Not just myself. Lear, Lach, Moe as well, they all should be thinking the same thing. Our true strengths don’t matter at all...... there’s none who are not satisfied with being your subordinate.”

Luke said that.

And Milk,

“............”

She only smiled.

Since there was nothing more she could say.

Although.

Although I feel the same way.

A new-found family. In order to protect that and her new comrades, she had to try doing her best once more, she had to try staying alive once more, and that’s what she thought.

She who should have already died once, was brought back to life by Ryner.

And now she was supported by everyone.

That’s why she was no longer completely alone.

No longer lonely. No longer sad.

Now that she was surrounded by so many important things, to the point where it had become dazzling to her.

That’s why.

That’s why she said.

“...... then, I shall remain as captain, is that fine?”

As she said that, Luke, with a slightly sad smile, nodded.

That was a formality.

To her, that was an important formality.

It was a formality to acknowledge that their relationship with one another was beyond that of a commander-subordinate relationship.

Then, she turned her eyes away and once again looked at the streets below the castle.

And faced that direction.

She turned her eyes towards the direction of the highway running northwards.

“...... it seems like Ryner managed to leave the country?”

Luke nodded.

“Yes. As you’ve commanded, I’ve lent him a hand by handing him those assembled information documenting the status of this country. Whether everything goes well or not, the rest will be up to him......”

But he was interrupted by Milk who said.

“If it’s Ryner, everything will definitely turn out well. Because he is......”

He is someone I like, a genius different from me.

But she swallowed those words before finishing.

Luke looked at the side of her face with a worried expression,

“...... is it really okay not to go along with him......?”

As he asked her, once again, she smiled with a face that was on the verge of tears, and did not answer.

“.............”

That.

Even though I really want to go along, but, it’s sad to admit this but, that is her job.

Just recently, she had heard about the darkness of this country from Luke.

She had heard about what Luke and the rest had been doing up till now, what they had been thinking of.

She had heard about the darkness that Sion Astal was shrouded in.

She had heard about the darkness that Ryner was shouldering.

They were things that she could not have imagined, terrible, dark, lonely things.

She was being protected and sheltered, knowing nothing, while everyone was bearing all those painful things, she was always smiling.

But, finally, she had come to the same place.

“............”

That’s right, while gazing down at the streets below the castle, she thought.

Finally, she was able to shoulder the same things as the rest of them.

That’s right, she thought.

And then she pondered.

With her small head, she pondered with everything she got.

About everybody’s happiness.

About her own happiness.

About the direction of this country.

It was the first time she pondered so seriously.

And the conclusion.

“............”

The conclusion was that she’s going to give up on Ryner.

Ryner had things to accomplish outside of the country. But she could not go along with him.

Because, there were also things to accomplish within this country.

Because she had a family here.

Because there were things she had to protect in this country.

“............”

And all that would also one day help save Ryner, she thought.

Whatever that Ryner had left behind in this country, she would protect them and that would definitely be of assistance to him, she thought.

Then, everything was fine as it was, wasn’t it so, she......

“............”

She asked herself.

At the end of that highway, right now, Ryner was about to leave the country.

And beside her, was that beautiful woman.

“............”

But, even so, everything was fine as it was, wasn’t it so, she thought.

Perhaps, her dream was already fulfilled, but, and, if everything went well with Ryner, if he was able to smile, everything was fine as it was, wasn’t it so, she thought.

“........................ Luke.”

She said softly.

However, this excellent subordinate of hers seemed to know what she wanted to say.

He patted Milk’s head and held her to his chest.

In the midst of that, her tears flowed out again.

She really wanted to go along with Ryner.

Because that was really her dream.

If she could reunite with him once more. If she could meet him again, she wanted to become his bride and remain by his side. To do her best to make him smile, to live her days with him, it had always been her dream.

At that moment, Luke said.

“............ if it’s so painful, it’s alright to go after him.”

But, Milk just shook her head vigorously. As a result, the chest area of Luke’s clothes were smeared with her tears and mucus, which was something that could not be helped.

She only shook her head.

“...... I shall remain in this country.”

“............”

“Because. Because, right here where I am, there are so many people important to me.”

“............”

“And also...... and also...... one day, when Ryner returns...... if there are no friends here waiting for him, it’s going to be lonely......”

“............”

“That’s why I’m going to do my best here. Even though I can’t be right beside Ryner...... but I’m sure this is the best way I can be of help to him......”

“............”

Luke did not say anything.

Milk also did not say any more.

And after that, no one knew how much time had passed. She cried for a while. Luke’s clothes were completely dirtied.

And after that, she looked up.

“............”

As expected, Luke was making a kind, gentle face.

Milk smiled.

“...... somehow, I’ve done something embarrassing.”

And Luke said,

“Because we’re family.”

“...... uhn.”

Milk nodded meekly.

That one word was enough.

For not changing her decision to stay in this country. For not changing her decision to not go after Ryner. That one word was enough, to affirm that her decision was the right one, she thought.

And then,

“Ah ~, I messed up Luke’s clothes.”

She said in a joking tone.

As she said that, Luke looked down at the chest area of his clothes.

“Ah, really. I have to ask Major Miller to grant me another set of uniform.”

“I’ll wash it.”

“Really? Ah, but, Lear is really good at laundry though.”

At Luke’s words, from below the water tower,

“You said that with the intention to push all the laundry to me, isn’t it so?”

As a voice cried out, Milk looked down.

As expected, all her family members were right below.

It was as if they were all waiting for her return, that was what their expressions were showing.

And then Milk smiled.

Her decision was the right one, she thought.

Then.

“............”

She shifted her eyes from the streets below the castle to somewhere else.

Towards the core of this country.

She was looking at a higher --- a building much higher than this water tower, within this country.

Roland’s castle.

A place where the Hero King Sion Astal resided in.

That was the reason why she was going to remain here.

The Roland Empire which had undergone a transformation at an alarming rate.

It was now a country of overwhelming military might, and not only had it given an order to kill off surrendering soldiers in Nelpha, but also massacring escaping women and children.

It was a country protected by monstrous soldiers with abnormal fighting capabilities, a result of completed mad human experiments.

In order to remain near the center of that, which had also undergone a sudden transformation, the Hero King Sion Astal.

“............”

In order to monitor that overly perfect, and consequently fragile, mad king,

“............”

At that moment, she jumped off from the water tower.

Even though the water tower was pretty tall, it was not a big deal to her.

Gripping the rails and using them as a pivot, she flung herself over, and landed lightly on her feet.

As she landed, beside her, was Lear handing her a new set of clothes.

That was, so as to speak, a full set of uniform.

In the military, there was a set of ceremonial uniform used for meeting the nobles and the royal family, and that was one of those.

She took them from him.

At that moment, Luke also leaped down.

“Well?”

He asked.

She nodded.

Once again, she looked up.

Towards the center of Roland.

At the crown of the castle.

She did not know what was happening inside now. It seemed like Major Miller was now having an audience with Sion Astal, and that he was being informed about the details regarding Sion’s transformation, as well as what was going to happen from hereon, but still, quite possibly, it would not translate to a complete comprehension of everything.

She did not think that Sion Astal would reveal everything.

Perhaps, she could not reject that there was actually a possibility that Sion Astal was merely manipulated by something else.

That would mean that this country now was in a terrible state of instability.

That’s why she needed to remain here.

That’s why she......

“...... well, let’s go, shall we?”

And she started walking.

In order to find the source of the darkness plaguing this country.

In order to catch hold of the darkness plaguing this country.

And the rampage of this country

“Let’s go...... and meet the Hero King Sion Astal-sama.”

In order to stop the rampage of this country, to be of some help to Ryner who had embarked on a journey.

### 004. Chapter 3: The Balance Scales For The Goddesses And The Hero

She is really a beautiful woman , Kiefer thought.

It was in a room on the second floor of the tea-house.

As she looked at the sleeping, blond-hair beauty lying on the bed, she wanted to sigh out but then decided against it.

Speaking about the brief explanation that she had received, her name was apparently Ferris Eris.

During the time that Kiefer left the country in search of a way to remove the curse of Alpha Stigma from Ryner, it was Sion who made her the partner of Ryner.

It seemed like these two had been travelling together in company for the entire past year.

The two of them had been journeying to search for Rule Fragment ...... rather, Heroes’ Relics according to Ryner’s report.

Only the two of them.

Only the two of them......

“...... travelling together huh.”

She muttered softly.

“Hn?”

Ryner looked up and looked towards here. He was sitting on a chair beside the bed of the sleeping Ferris. And was looking worriedly at her (Ferris).

At any rate.

“............”

At any rate, she was not going to be jealous.

Because, she was very much well aware that he would be kind to anyone else, and additionally, she couldn’t see any particular special feelings displayed towards her (Ferris).

And besides, besides.

Un, erm, ah ~.

“............”

Uu ~.

Right. I’m sorry. It’s really jealousy.

Kiefer groaned in such a manner within the depths of her heart all by herself.

Ah ~ now, what the heck is this. I’ve being doing my best wholeheartedly since leaving the country, Ryner-tteba. Ryner-tteba!!

What was I trying to accomplish by keeping it a secret......

“............”

At that moment, once again, she was about to sigh out in frustration, but gave up.

Because it couldn’t be helped.

Because she was someone who had betrayed Ryner and the rest, someone who had left the country. Besides, in the end, even though she kissed him and confessed her love to him, she had yet to hear a reply from him.

Thus.

Thus, this was not something unheard of right ~ it couldn’t be helped right ~ but even so I can’t accepttttttttt itttttttttttt!

In the end, not being able to accept it, her heart was in a state of turmoil.

“............”

Then, Kiefer looked intently at the sleeping Ferris.

She was really extraordinary beautiful, as far as one could see.

How could she win?

Kiefer felt dejected just thinking about all this.

She tried finding her own reflection in the mirror at the corner of the room, then looked at herself. She thought that she had become more womanly than before, growing her red hair to shoulder length, and bearing pretty well-arranged features. Not bad, she thought. Probably. Then again, she had that supreme ruler from the northern part of the continent falling for her. Surely, yes, even though she wouldn’t know it herself, surely there was no problem with her looks, she thought......

At that moment.

Kiefer, once again, looked at that thing on the bed that couldn’t possibly be a human.

She had soft silky skin, fair and smooth like porcelain, and fine, soft, golden hair.

Looks like a woman...... and it’s not just about the curves; her height, slender body, delicateness which every man would want to protect, a nice body with a great style.

It was as if she came out of a fairy tale.

“...... like a princess.”

She murmured without thinking.

On hearing that, Ryner smiled wryly.

“No, no, you are tricked by what you see, you need to experience it for yourself. She truly is a demon down to the core.”

As he used a familiar manner to talk about her, Kiefer felt like crying.

Uwaan ~. She was on the verge of tears, but Ryner failed to notice that.

She looked at Ryner.

He had that usual sleepy, languid face, and had that look that seemed to be ignorant of the inner workings of the love relationship between a man and a woman.

“...... sigh.”

This time, she actually sighed out.

“Ah, Kiefer should be feeling tired, it’s okay to go sleep, you know? I’ll be looking after her.”

Duh, that would be the last thing I want.

Instead of crying that out, she held back and smiled.

“...... it’s alright. It’s been a while since I saw Ryner, and my tiredness had all flown away.”

She said gritting her teeth as she smiled.

As she said that, her face seemed about to turn red, but she managed to stop her flush somehow.

Furthermore, she wanted to demonstrate that she had become a woman who was able to respond with such words, that’s why she made an effort.

Besides, besides, the lines she just said were her true feelings. They weren’t made up at all.

Even though this was the first meeting in three years, her feelings had not changed at all. That was what she was certain of.

Looking at his face. Looking at his sleepy eyes. Looking at his unkempt hair. Looking at his languid lean body. Looking at his awkward behaviour.

She looked at his kind-looking face in spite of all that.

Ah, as she expected.

She thought.

As I’ve thought, I’m still in love with Ryner , she realized.

But then.

“............”

Ryner still had that slight withdrawn expression.

It was the same as previously.

When Kiefer had expressed her interest in the past, he had that same face.

And she knew the reason behind it.

She knew what was embedded within his heart.

He thought of himself as a monster. He thought of himself as a cursed monster that could not take hold of anyone’s hand.

Even though he is actually a kind-hearted person. Even though he has saved many with his hands.

If I am killed by you, or shattered by you, that will still be fine , that was something she couldn’t tell him.

On just a touch, you will be shattered , he would think, you will be killed , he would think, fearfully.

It was as before, currently, his heart was surrounded by a sturdy armour.

Taken by a deep curse.

She knew that immediately when she saw him again.

That was why she went on a journey.

In order to break his curse.

In order to break his Alpha Stigma curse, and set his heart free.

In order to do that, she went on a journey.

For the sake of the person she loved, she flew off to a gallant adventure.

And the result.

“............”

The result!

Before she knew it!

A super beautiful woman came in between me and Ryner, jeez!

Geez, what is the meaning of this? I really want to cry out!

“...... geez, damn that Sion.”

She uttered without thinking.

“Eh?”

As the befuddled Ryner asked, Kiefer shook her head.

“No no. It’s nothing.”

Even though it wasn’t really nothing, but yet she said that it was nothing.

And again, she flashed a smile. She showed a grinning face.

It would be embarrassing if her flustered emotions about the appearance of a love rival were let known, so instead of focusing on these thoughts, she switched her attention to think about other matters.

There were now three important matters that she had to consider.

Regarding the situation she was now in.

Regarding the situation Ryner was in.

Regarding the situation the country was in.

“............”

First of all, the matter regarding herself was a simple one.

As commanded by the supreme ruler from the northern part of the continent. the king of Gastark Empire, Riphal Edea, she came here to rescue Ryner.

As asked, she came all the way here to bring Ryner back to Gastark.

Thus it was fortunate for her to be able to meet with Ryner just as she entered Roland.

But it was pretty unfortunate for her that Ryner had a beautiful woman for a partner.

Well, in any case, the situation that she was in now was not too bad actually......

Now, regarding the situation that Ryner was in.

“............”

She first looked at Ryner, then at the sleeping Ferris on the bed.

Ferris appeared to be attacked by someone, and had lost consciousness as a result.

Her younger sister --- a girl by the name of Iris, who is now on the first floor of the tea-house, eating dango served by the shop owner --- had filled them in.

At that moment, Kiefer thought back on the words said by Iris.

It went something like this.

"Ermh, you see, Iris was waiting for Nee-sama, then there were a lot of black ghosts, and then Iris went ‘Paang’, but it didn’t work at all! And then when Iris was running away, her back was ‘Kappu’! ‘Kappu-ed’! And then, that black man in black clothes, ‘Stop!’, Iris said but that guy didn’t say a word! And then Nee-sama came, she came to save Iris but the black shadowy ghosts also ‘Kappu’ Nee-sama! And Iris said ‘Stop!’ and cried. But it was useless, both of us shouted ‘Help us!’, but it was useless. And on top of that, the black guy said that he was sent by Sion Nii-chan, and Nee-sama cried. While crying, both of us died. We were ‘Kappu-ed’ and died. But but ‘Pah’, Iris’s eyes opened and came back to life. And then we were on the road. Nee-sama was still sleeping. Iris tried waking her up but she didn’t, and then we came here!"

That was how it went.

By the time Iris finished recounting on what happened, thirty minutes had went by, but still, she could make neither head nor tail on what had transpired.

However, as she observed Ryner’s expression then, it seemed like things didn’t look too good.

She tried remembering the occasions when Ryner’s face changed, and it was roughly during the time when Iris mentioned the following.

Black shadowy ghosts.

The black guy controlling them.

The black guy was sent by Sion.

Ferris and Iris had died once.

“............”

From those four lines, Kiefer could only guess the following.

Ryner’s partner was attacked.

By who?

By a pursuer sent by Sion.

That’s how the situation was.

In other words, Sion had dispatched pursuers after Ryner. For some reason, currently, the two of them weren’t on the best of terms.

But, why?

There were various reasons that Kiefer could think of.

It had been three years since Kiefer left Roland.

However, she had been continually keeping tabs on the state of Roland. Travelling across the central part of the continent, arriving at the north, and finally reaching the most northern part of the continent, Gastark Empire, in the midst of all that, she had been acquiring plenty of information regarding the status of Roland.

To quote, after having left the country for two years, Sion started a revolution and ascended the throne.

And in a year’s time following that, Roland was merely focusing its energies and resources on domestic affairs, accumulating power.

Furthermore, she had heard from some well informed individuals up north, that after merging with the Kingdom of Estabul, the expanded Roland generated apprehension within the neighbouring countries, but during the reign of the peace-loving Hero King, Sion Astal, there shouldn’t be any major problem.

And Kiefer couldn’t agree more.

If it was Sion, he would first stabilize Roland from within, then use non-aggression diplomatic policies towards its neighbours, and bit by bit, strengthen Roland, she thought.

In fact, she was somewhat worried about that approach.

This was due to the insight she gained while she was in Gastark Empire, watching how the country invaded and overwhelmed various large nations in the north at an alarming rate.

And on top of that, she was right beside the king of Gastark Empire --- Riphal Edea, the Hero King of the North.

She was beside him, watching how the world changed in an instant the moment he stepped onto the stage.

She was beside him, watching how Gastark swallowed up various large nations in the northern part of the continent.

She saw how the other countries in the upper portion of Central Menoris, due to fear of Gastark’s power, started strengthening their military and seeking to increase their territory, stirring up war after war.

In fact, it was very probable that the flames of war would spread across the entire continent of Menoris.

No, the truth was it was already happening.

That was why she was somewhat worried about Roland.

She was wondering how could the gentle, peace-loving Sion deal with the chaotic situation of a war-torn continent.

Of course, so as to speak, since Sion had come from a military background, he probably would be inclined to create a militaristic nation, she thought, but the problem was given his gentle nature, and the fact that he was an advocate of peace, would he really be able to properly build up Roland’s army? That was what she was worried about.

That kind of Roland would just be destroyed by another country. That would really be kinda bad, huh? She thought.

“............”

But that was needless anxiety, as she found out later during her journey back to Roland, after being ordered by Riphal to bring Ryner back to Gastark.

What she thought to be a peace-oriented Roland had started invading Nelpha.

And the army that invaded Nelpha was an abnormally enhanced one, a result of human experiments.

Furthermore, they were killing even surrendering soldiers, and women as well as children.

“............”

She never would have thought that the Sion she knew would actually act in such an entirely different manner.

But regarding that.

She didn’t think that Ryner would actually forgive such a thing.

Sion had changed.

But Ryner had not changed.

Wasn’t that the reason why the friendship between the two had come apart?

“.............”

As she was thinking along those lines, she looked at Ryner, who was looking intently at the sleeping Ferris on the bed while carrying an expression that appeared to be deep in thought.

And then she asked.

“Hey Ryner.”

“...... hn ~?”

“Well you see...... there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What in the world...... actually happened to Sion?”

Instantly.

He looked in this direction with a slightly surprised expression. He seemed about to say something, then took on a troubled expression followed by a sad expression.

And she began,

“......Ryner?”

As she asked, he took on an apologetic look.

“............”

But still, he said nothing.

Once again, she looked at him intently and then asked.

“...... what in the world...... happened between the two of you during the three years when I was away from the country?”

On hearing that, he first looked in this direction, then turned his head to look outside the window at the falling rain,

“...... it’s because I didn’t make any effort at all, which resulted in Sion being driven to the wall.”

He then filled Kiefer in on the events that had taken place during the three years when Kiefer was away.

About the report that Ryner had written in prison.

That was a report about Rule Fragment --- no, according to Ryner’s terminlogy, Heroes’ Relics.

About Sion becoming king during that time and making Ferris accompany Ryner on a journey in search of the Heroes’ Relics.

About Ryner returning to the country and working alongside Sion.

But those were quiet, peaceful days and he was unaware that Sion had already been driven to the wall.

Without Ryner’s knowledge, Sion had carried on Roland’s past human experiments and completed them.

And on the final day.

About Sion wanting to kill Ryner.

About him weeping while he wanted to kill Ryner.

About him saying incomprehensible things such as if he didn’t kill Ryner, he won’t be able to save him.

About Sion not killing Ryner in the end in spite of that.

About how Sion appeared to be possessed by something strange, and how his appearance had changed.

And finally about Ryner being thrown into prison, and Ferris rescuing him thereafter, and now that they were leaving the country.

“............”

While Ryner was talking, he smiled.

With a half-crying look, he smiled mockingly at himself.

"It’s because I didn’t make any effort."

"It’s because I didn’t notice Sion’s distress."

He smiled as he said that.

But, he would save him, he said.

To compensate for him running away all this while, he shall strive seriously this time, and save him, he said.

“............”

All that had happened were things beyond Kiefer’s imagination.

After asking, in the end, Kiefer also could not comprehend why things had come to such a state.

However.

There was a person who had predicted this.

Riphal.

Before sending off Kiefer to Roland, the king of Gastark Empire, Riphal Edea had said the following.

"I want you to save Ryner from the monster of the south --- Sion Astal."

Initially, Kiefer did not understand what he meant by that.

That was a matter of fact.

Since Sion was a friend and classmate from the same academy. And besides, in the past, Ryner and Sion were very good friends, and she couldn’t fathom how their friendship could have changed.

But Riphal said something different.

With a serious gaze, he looked straight at Kiefer and said something different.

And then, following that, the story which Riphal told her was something beyond Kiefer’s comprehension.

Even though they were talking about Ryner and Sion, Riphal suddenly started telling a very old fairy tale of the past.

What kind of story are you telling me? , Kiefer had asked but Riphal just ignored her and continued.

“............”

Kiefer started recalling that particular story.

That was truly a very old story written in ancient text.

By now, no one could guess how long ago was that. It was an ancient story that was even further back in time than before this continent, Menoris, was born.

Herself, Ryner, Sion, Riphal, no, in fact, everything that existed in this world right now, could not be traced nor linked back to the time of that story.

A legend or a myth, it had become.

But, Riphal continued.

Even when Kiefer asked what kind of story is this, Riphal merely ignored and continued.

The characters were Goddesses , Mad Black Hero , and the sacrificial Lonesome Demon . It was a story about them.

As Riphal intentionally brought out the tomes in which the story was written in indecipherable ancient text and showed them to Kiefer, he told the story.

To summarize the main points of the story, this was how it went.

Long, long ago, there were Goddesses who had lived since the primordial days.

The Goddesses were protecting Something' .

That Something was at the centre of this world, and was the source of energy for all that was in the world, and it was everything to everything that existed.

As the Something was truly a thing of importance, if Something was hurt, everything would turn to nothingness.

Therefore, day by day, the Goddesses took great care to protect Something .

But at that point, a single Hero was born.

He was born with great power.

The Hero blessed with God’s love, was shown love and affection by everyone, and grew up.

But because that power of his was too great, he was wrapped by this thing called solitude.

Before long, drowned in his own power, the Hero sunk deeply into madness and darkness.

This darkness was pitch-black and enshrouded everything.

“Let’s turn everything into nothingness.”

The Mad Black Hero was mad.

He was mad.

While raving in madness, he sunk even deeper.

First to paint the world black.

With his sword, he would paint the world black.

But that was not enough.

Even if he ate everything, it was not enough.

It seemed like he wanted to further go on to kill and eat the Goddesses .

It seemed like he wanted to lay hands on the Something that the Goddesses were protecting.

Every single Goddess was to be killed.

But the Goddesses resisted with everything they got.

And somehow, they managed to give birth to a means of sealing the Mad Black Hero .

The result was something called Human .

Consequently, the Mad Black Hero was successfully sealed far away, in the southern part of the land.

After he was sealed, his power only extended to the southern part of the land.

And for a long time, the world was quiet, ensued with peace.

But the Mad Black Hero had yet to give up.

I’m going to paint everything black.

He continued chanting.

He was truly mad.

However, no matter how much he rampaged on, he could not break the seal of the Goddesses .

The peace continued.

For a long time.

But during that peace, a problem, unnoticed by the Goddesses , arose.

At the extreme end of the south, lived another monster.

A sole demon resided there.

During the time he was born, all by himself, in loneliness, he was crying out in tears.

But that voice reached no one.

That was how he was born.

His form was too hideous, and no one could see it.

His voice was too repulsive, and it reached no one.

All alone, all alone, all alone, to the point where he felt like dying.

But that solitude, seemingly unseen by anyone, was what he was born into.

That was exactly the reason why the Goddesses failed to notice the solitary demon.

Right from the start, that demon’s form could not be seen.

But in that place where the demon dwelt --- the back side of the world, a single monster arrived.

It was the Mad Black Hero .

He was completely mad.

He kept on wailing about he was going to turn everything into nothingness, for a long, long time.

He wailed that he was going to paint everything black.

But the demon in solitude was delighted to see that Mad Black Hero .

He never thought that someone would come to his dark dwelling.

He thought he would continue crying as he spent eternity in solitude.

But now, right before him, was the Mad Black Hero .

The Mad Black Hero felt his own loneliness caused by the great power he possessed, and was wailing with tears in his eyes.

Upon seeing that, the demon greatly sympathized with him.

The demon had experienced solitude after all.

"We can definitely become friends", he said.

And he danced joyfully to the side of the Mad Black Hero .

Singing songs.

Talking a lot.

The Mad Black Hero just kept on saying how he would turn everything into nothingness, but yet, the demon felt that he was no longer alone, and he was both grateful and blissful.

"A friend!"

"I have a friend!"

"I have a friend here!"

"I'm no longer alone!"

He shouted as he kept on dancing.

And that weakness his feelings bore.

Those pitiful feelings.

Were made used by the Mad Black Hero .

The Mad Black Hero said.

<< I want to get out of here. You have the power to help me do that. Can I devour half of you? Would you let me devour half of you? >>

And the lonesome demon, whose name was All Equations , said.

< >

And then the lonesome demon, who was called All Equations , split into two parts, the Weaver of All Equations and the Solver of All Equations .

Immediately, the Weaver of All Equations was devoured by the Mad Black Hero .

Even though the demon felt excruciating pain, he smiled.

< >

At last, after the Mad Black Hero obtained the power from devouring the Weaver of All Equations , he successfully gave birth to a means of breaking the barrier deployed the Goddesses .

That was a magic known as Human Alpha .

That was almost the same type of magic created by the Goddesses .

Controlling the Human Alpha", he broke the Human .

Immediately, the Human Alpha started killing the Human .

The Human Alpha made countries, grew up, and then started invading the world created by the Human .

And before long, the Human Alpha , once again, arrived at the center of the world.

At the centre where the Goddesses were.

At the centre where the Something was.

The Human Alpha killed the Human , they killed, they killed, they killed and arrived there, creating a path in the process, and this was the path that the Mad Black Hero walked.

The cries of anguish and despair along the path he walked through was buried in darkness.

Throughout his path, the Goddesses were crying out in agony and resisting the Mad Black Hero .

But they died.

They all died.

The Mad Black Hero devoured them.

The Mad Black Hero laughed as he devoured them.

Finally, he lay his hands on Something .

Of course, that was also devoured by the Mad Black Hero .

But the problem arose from there.

The Something possessed too great a power which the Mad Black Hero could not hold in his hands.

The Mad Black Hero hollered once again.

Help me.

Even though he wanted to turn the world into nothingness, he was going to die before accomplishing that.

Help me.

Can someone take on this darkness and pain in place of me?

On hearing the cries of his best friend, the lonesome demon took pity on him again. And he thought of taking on the suffering in place of his friend.

The lonesome demon said that he was going to give up his other half, the Solver of All Equations .

< >

And then the Mad Black Hero ate the remaining half of the lonesome demon.

And he took from within himself, the bad portion of Something and pushed it into the lonesome demon.

And that was the end of the lonesome demon.

Even though the demon hollered in agony, all his cries were devoured by Something .

Like some lowly lifeform, the anguish of the lonesome demon, his cries, his eyeballs, his heart, his innards, his grey matter, were all devoured, devoured, devoured, even when everything was devoured completely, his pain did not disappear.

No matter how much time had passed, it did not disappear.

It just went on for eternity.

The hell of eternity started once again.

Pain and loneliness.

Solitude.

His solitude went on.

But even so, the lonesome demon had no regrets.

He had made a friend even if it was only for an instant.

He had lived for a friend even if it was only for an instant.

The lonesome demon was a fool.

A fool till the very end.

And then everything ended.

The Mad Black Hero , while laughing, turned the world into nothingness.

The world that had existed till now came to an end.

Once again, the world was reborn into a different one.

Only the lonesome, solitary, foolish demon was reborn without any change, and for eternity, he continued hollering in anguish and suffering.

Kiefer recalled that fairy tale-like story which, after Riphal finished telling, left a strangely bad aftertaste.

That was the tale which Riphal read out to her though the details were still lacking in accuracy (for example, the actual glyph that Something was written in could not be deciphered by Riphal and the other scholars, that’s why for now, it was just termed as Something ...... something to that extent), but the story in that tale was roughly along those lines.

It was an incomprehensible tale that did not seem to have anything to do with herself.

But, Riphal said that this would be something that was going to happen again.

And the characters appearing this time would be Ryner and Sion.

Ryner is the Solver of All Equations --- in other words, the half of the lonesome that would be made used of, and devoured.

Sion is the Mad Black Hero .

Initially, when Kiefer heard the story, she was doubtful about Riphal’s sanity. What in the world is this guy talking about, she thought then.

Indeed, Ryner was just a slightly special person. As an Alpha Stigma bearer...... but yet, he was just slightly different from the other "Alpha Stigmas".

But she did not think that there would be a link between him and someone from a fairy tale.

It was the same with Sion. He was a capable person with outstanding results in the same academy that Kiefer was attending, and on top of that he had royal blood flowing in his veins.

By ‘special’, that was what she thought.

Although that was what she thought, they were still humans after all.

Just like Kiefer, they were humans who fretted and brooded over things in their own lives.

At the very least, they weren’t monsters that were capable of moving the world.

But yet, Riphal said otherwise.

He looked at Kiefer with sorrowful eyes and said.

The two people that Kiefer saw, they were humans...... but the story has already started. It is not the fault of those two. It is not the fault of Ryner Lute and Sion Astal. If Ryner was not born with those eyes...... if Sion did not open that door, if he have not wanted to open it...... but he did. He was going after something that made him have to open it...... and the moment he laid hands on what’s inside, the story started."

That was what Riphal said.

But she still could not comprehend the full meaning of he said. Kiefer listened with an expression that said, what in the world is this person talking about .

And he smiled at that.

Well, you will find out if you go to them. Though it’s already too late for many things."

And that was the end of their conversation.

And then, with a great deal of doubt, Kiefer left Gastark and returned to Roland.

And right now.

“............”

Kiefer looked intently at the somewhat sad face of Ryner before her.

She looked at the face of Ryner, filled with sadness for not being able to save Sion.

Even though Sion was after his life, he was making a I did not realize Sion’s distress lonely look.

Even though Sion wanted to devour him, he said, To compensate for all that running away up till now, this time I’m going to give it my best and save him .

Kiefer looked at Ryner who still called Sion a friend in spite of being betrayed by him.

And then she thought.

Kiefer thought.

Isn’t this just like...... , she thought.

Isn’t this just like that story in that fairy tale? , Kiefer thought.

“............”

Solitary, lonely, foolish, yet kind demon.

That mad, sorrowful hero pressing on hurriedly.

All Equations .

Mad Black Hero .

Ryner.

Sion.

“............”

I have to do something , she thought.

What should I do, I have to do something , she thought.

But, how?

To bring Ryner back to Gastark as told?

But Kiefer knew in her heart that she couldn’t do that.

That’s just not possible. Even now, Kiefer still could not believe completely in that incredulous fairy tale-like story.

And after hearing Ryner out, despite...... Sion’s betrayal, his lies, Ryner still see him as a friend and would never agree to leaving all this behind and running away to Gastark.

No, perhaps, in order to save his best friend, he might even be willing to sacrifice himself.

Just like that demon in that story.

Just like that lonesome demon.

But she couldn’t allow that. She couldn’t allow that.

I can’t allow Ryner....... I can’t allow my Ryner to be devoured by Sion.

Well then, what should she do?

What should I do then?

“............”

Kiefer looked at Ryner.

He was again looking at his unconscious partner who was attacked by pursuers sent by Sion.

The actions taken by Sion already demonstrated his lack of mercy.

To kill Ryner, and to kill his partner as well.

“............”

How did things come to this? , she thought.

After coming back to Roland, together with Ryner and Sion, the three of us could reminisce on the good old days , she had had some of those thoughts before.

Even though Toni, Tyle, and Fahl were dead, and it was no longer the same as before, but still, the three of them could still meet and laugh together, she had carried some of those thoughts all by herself.

“............”

She needed to amend the image of Sion in her memory, she thought.

Although the conversation earlier did spark off a desire to save Sion for an instant, she could only do so much within her limitations.

First, she needed to save Ryner.

Then, she would think of what’s next.

She looked at Ryner and said.

“You know, Ryner.”

“Hn?”

“Does Ryner know of Gastark......”

As she said that, suddenly.

“............”

Abruptly, the sleeping peerless beauty before her sat up.

She opened her clear blue eyes and looked around her surroundings restlessly.

And Ryner began,

“Yo, Ferris. You are finally awake.”

He said with a kind voice.

He said with a gentle, caring voice to the awakened princess.

That again, sparked off a pain within Kiefer’s chest. As she thought, the two of them are in that kind of relationship, she thought.

And then the princess, once again, with a seemingly bewildered expression, looked around her surroundings restlessly.

And then said.

“Yeah. I’m awake.”

“Are you feeling any pain anywhere?”

“...... pain?”

And then Ferris appeared to think for a while.

“...... hm. While I don’t feel any pain in my body, I do recall some painful memories.”

That was what she said. She had a half-asleep and dazed look on her expressionless face.

That face was a beautiful and cute one, and Kiefer seemed to groan out, Hah-ooh ~ m .

Ryner looked intently at Ferris's face.

"Painful memories?"

Ferris nodded.

"Yeah. Painful memories."

Her behaviour created a spur of anxiety in Kiefer and she started thinking earnestly. This Ferris girl's behaviour did not match what Ryner said to be.

Just a while ago, Ryner,

You are tricked by what you see, you need to experience it for yourself. She truly is a demon down to the core."

That's how he had described her, but that didn't seem to be the case however.

She's like an obedient cute kid who had just woken up.

Ferris stared at Ryner.

"I remembered some painful memories."

As if she was using a matching response to being comforted, she said it in a very sweet, lovely manner.

And Ryner promptly took in that sweetness.

"Hm. Well then, why don't you tell me about those painful memories of yours?"

He said.

Eh, wait a minute, wait a minute , Kiefer thought.

What.. so the two of them do have that kind of relationship? They are already on such intimate terms, and am I acutally the one who is coming in between them?

As she was on the brunt of that thought.

Something unbelievable took place before her very eyes.

Ferris propped her body away from the bed and leaned close towards Ryner. Is Ferris going to hug Ryner, that was the first thing Kiefer thought of.

Eh ~ wait a minute ~!!

She was about to cry out.

She thought her heart was going to stop.

But in the next instant.

"This is for my painful memories!"

And, for some unknown reason, Ferris swung her fist towards Ryner with an unbelievable force.

Instantly.

"Woah, I've thought that this would happen somehow."

Having predicted her move, Ryner stopped her punch.

And he smirked.

"Hahhun. With that strangely disgusting sweet voice, I could see this coming......"

But he was cut off there and then.

Ferris lifted her left arm, and pressed her elbow towards Ryner's face, and he,

"I'm stopping this one too!!"

And he stopped it in a frantic manner.

But that was the end of his resistance.

Ferris launched her knee upwards at a speed that was beyond Kiefer's ability to follow. And it connected with Ryner's chin.

"Arghh."

Following a cry of pain, Ryner's whole body was lifted into the air, and with a sharp crashing sound, Ryner's head broke through the tea-house ceiling, which was made of wood, and was stuck there.

Ryner's body hung from the ceiling of the tea-house, seemingly about to fall off anytime.

"............"

Kiefer was at a complete loss for words.

But the thing is, isn't Ryner that, erm? Isn't he super strong?

Formerly known as the Greatest Magician of Roland , there should not be anyone in Roland who could come close to his power, isn't that how strong he was?

And that.

What was all that about?

What's with this woman?

No, aside from that, why is she doing this all of a sudden?

She couldn't understand a thing.

"............"

While Kiefer could only stare at this incomprehensible scene in which Ryner was attacked suddenly and sent crashing into the ceiling in which he was now stuck in, Ferris, with satisfaction,

"Good!"

She exclaimed.

As she did that, Ryner pulled his head out of the ceiling,

"This is nothing gooooooooddddddddddddddd! Damn you, were you trying to kill me!"

He bellowed.

And Ferris,

"Ohh, you've returned to life, Ryner!"

"I didn't die, duh!"

"Then die. Come back to life after you die."

"Wha.. I don't get you! What's this all about...... wait, don't draw your sword!"

Even with Ryner shouting, Ferris did not stop. With her slender arm, she picked up the large sword placed in the corner of the room, which to a stranger, might seem too much for her to handle, and swung it skillfully back and forth around her.

She swung the sword swiftly around a few times as if she was slashing at wind. As she did that, everything around her was sliced into fine pieces.

The bed, the chair, the stand, everything was sliced into unbelievably fine pieces without a sound.

That swordsmanship was abnormal. Among the things she sliced were objects made of iron as well, and yet, she sliced them apart effortlessly.

That was a truly majestic sight to behold.

It was such a majestic sight that anyone who was witnessing it would easily gasp out in amazement reflexively.

But Ryner instead,

"...... wha, what are you doing swinging that sword around in this cramped room? It was kind of scary...... so what in the world is the meaning of this?"

Kiefer applauded silently at his question.

A peerless beauty, emotionlessly, expressionlessly, swinging her sword around.

Looking at the scene before her, Kiefer once again, thought back to Ryner's words earlier.

"You are tricked by what you see, you need to experience it for yourself. She truly is a demon down to the core."

Ah, so it was true......

Kiefer thought.

It did seem to her now that there was no special relationship, love relationship to be precise, between the two of them......

But, at that moment.

".................. hm."

Finally satisfied, Ferris sheathed her sword at her waist.

And then, as Ryner and Kiefer breathed out a sigh of relief, Ferris looked at both her hands and wriggled her fingers, ascertaining their movements.

"...... seems like I can move them as usual."

She said.

Ryner dropped down from the ceiling. And then looked intently at Ferris.

"Ah ~ so that's what it was all about."

He said.

While Kiefer could not understand Ferris's actions, it seemed like Ryner had understood.

Kiefer asked Ryner,

"What was all that?"

In response, he replied.

"...... probably like what Iris mentioned earlier, Ferris had incurred severe wounds from the assault of our pursuer that Sion had sent. But now......"

However, just with those words, Kiefer already knew what he was going to say.

Ferris should be bearing severe wounds from that attack by her pursuer, but as far as Kiefer could see, she had not a single wound. In fact, she seemed perfectly fine.

She swung her sword around in order to ascertain that.

At that moment, Ryner continued. And looked at Ferris.

“...... so, what happened when I was not around? Iris thought you had died from incurring severe wounds.”

Ferris nodded.

“My tendons in both my arms and legs were severed and my limbs were almost torn apart.”

At those words, Kiefer looked at Ferris’s figure again.

However, Ferris’s arms and legs looked perfectly fine to her and on top of that, her clothes were in perfect condition.

With a slender, nice body with a great style, she was wearing a one piece dress with a short skirt portion and cute logo of three polka-dots lined up in a straight line. Her belt and boots were of the same brand and fitted her nicely.

After seeing that, Kiefer became flustered and started looking at her own clothes.

Even though the insignia was removed, what she was wearing was a light armour from Gastark Empire. Somehow, Riphal had prepared it to be somewhat cute and revealing, specially for her personal use, but still, it was not a girly one piece.

Looking at her own light armour, ahh geez, why didn’t I change my clothes before stepping into Roland , she thought.

Even though I’ve already prepared a number of clothes for the reunion with Ryner, what the heck am I doing?

But but, it can’t be helped I guess. I never would have thought that I would see Ryner so soon, right after entering Roland.

And besides, I never would have thought that such a beautiful woman is by the side of Ryner.

“...... uuw.”

Ahh, but still, it’s my mistake. It’s my mistake for not dressing properly before coming into the country where the person I like is in. Stupid me. I’m so stupid.

“...... uuuww ~”

Even as she fretted, fretted, it changed nothing.

Ferris’s limbs were perfectly fine and her clothes were in perfect condition, with no evidence of her being attacked.

In other words, there was not a single scratch on her.

Ryner then said.

“...... were you under an illusion spell of sorts?”

But Ferris shook her head.

“That fella did not use any magic.”

“That fella......? In other words, Froaude?”

Ferris’s face darkened slightly at his words and looked intently at Ryner.

“......did you hear that from Iris?”

“A black man in black clothes calling forth black ghosts, kapu ~ =(equals) that fella right? But, that damn Froaude, despite telling us he was from Stohl Empire, so he was actually Sion’s subordinate...... when was the first time we meet him again?”

“I’ve forgotten.”

“Don’t forget duh.”

“Mm? Then do you remember?”

Ryner nodded at that question.

“If I remember correctly, it was at Toale’s place, I think. Wait, you do remember Toale, don’t you?”

Ferris promptly replied,

“Nope.”

“Wait wait, remember at least that much!”

In the midst of their bantering, Kiefer spoke without reservation.

“...... erm, you are talking about Toale Nelphi? The one currently fighting alone against Roland in Imperial Nelpha.”

Ryner nodded.

“Orh, right right, You are pretty well informed, Kiefer.”

Following that, Ferris, for the first time, looked towards here.

“............”

For some reason, she seemed to be staring at her. With her almond-shaped, clear, blue eyes, she was staring this way at her.

“..................”

Kiefer thought she was going to say something, but she did not.

Without saying a word, she stareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed this way at her.

“..................”

And then.

“..................”

Unable to bear the silence anymore, Kiefer said.

“Ah, ah, erm...... sorry for the late greeting. This is the first time we meet. I’m a friend from the same Royal Military Special Academy that Ryner studied in, Kiefer Knolles is my name.”

She said.

Then Ferris looked in the direction of Ryner,

“An acquaintance?”

“Ah, yeah. Kiefer is a classmate friend of mine. The same with Sion as well.”

“Sion too?”

“Yeah.”

After Ryner nodded, she looked towards here once more. She looked at her face, then her body, then at her face again, and said.

“...... I see. So Ryner, this is the rumored girl whom you’ve always been talking about?”

At those words,

“...... eh?”

Kiefer’s heart skipped a beat. Feeling surprised, without thinking, she turned towards Ryner.

Rumored girl?

What’s that?

Does Ryner speak of me often with this person?

Eh, does that mean......... does that mean......

Erm, I’ll be really happy if they were nice rumors, but if he told her of that incident where I forcibly kissed Ryner like a moronic woman wellll, that kind of rumor would be, erm, I’m erm, I, ahh wahh wahh.

While she was fretting and getting flustered all by herself, Ryner, with a weary face,

“Doh, I have never once mentioned anything about Kiefer to you. You are starting that troublesome parallel fantasy againnn......”

But Ferris cut him off and continued.

“No no, at this juncture, there is no need to hide it anymore. The person called Kiefer, is that girl right? The next girl after you forcibly attacked Milk Callaud one night and caused that pitiful girl to become pregnant, she’s that second victim right?”

After she said that,

“Pre, pregnant!?”

Kiefer cried out, and Ryner faced her, with a tired voice.

“Right, over there, don’t react so naturally to weird things.”

“Bu, but, pregnant...... I didn’t know, during all this time, Ryner already has a kid......”

“Hell like I do!”

On the side of that exchange, Ferris continued with her parallel story.

“Having a desire to seduce and lay their hands on the young girl Kiefer who’s still a student, the wild beasts Ryner Lute and Sion Astupidl one night, while reeking of alcohol, carried out such a conversation, "Let’s do that girl!" .”

On hearing that, Kiefer looked at Ryner again.

“Tt, tthat so!?”

“No waaayyyyyyyy, wait, shouldn’t you know best that this isn’t true?”

Ignoring the yelling Ryner, Ferris continued on.

“However, the two of them who normally appeared to be buddies are the type to show their true colors when it comes to woman.”

“What type are you talking about, doh.”

The story continued, rendering Ryner’s rejoinder useless.

“Before long, the two of them started quarrelling. Ryner said. 'I was the first to set my eyes on that girl! I should be the first to attack her!' But Sion did not give in. 'Fool, who do you think is the king of this country? Me, you know? It’s not you, you know? That’s how it is. I shall go first'.”

Ryner, with a resigned expression,

“No wait, Sion wasn’t king yet then.”

Ferris nodded as well.

“That’s right. Even though Sion wasn’t king yet then, but he was a fool who has already assumed the air of one.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

“You see.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Well then, I’m going to go on.”

“No, this is the place where you are going to stop that stupid story, thankfu...... ugh-arghhhh.”

Ryner was sent flying.

And Ferris continued further.

The contents of the story talked about how Ryner in the end assaulted Kiefer, made her pregnant, and ran away hollering how he would not take responsibility, which made Sion so angry that he sent out pursuers, and these pursuers, just a while ago, almost killed Ferris; and that was how it was forcibly connected to the current state of affairs,

“In other words, it’s all thanks to you that I got embroiled in a huge troublesome thing, and that’s how I ended up here in this manner!”

Looking at that peerless beauty who said that,

“............”

Kiefer was dumbfounded.

She had a completely dumbfounded expression.

Because this was the first time she had met such a person.

Even though Riphal could be overbearing at times in his conversations, but this was the first time she met someone who would beat up the person who makes a comeback and actually carry on her own meaningless story after that.

And right now, she had that self-satisfied expression.

Looking at her,

“............”

Kiefer, once again, recalled the words from Ryner.

Demon at the core .

This.

Isn’t this fine?

She thought.

She had thought that, with such a beautiful and cute face, Ferris would have been a strong love rival, but perhaps, not so with that kind of personality?

As Kiefer looked in the direction where Ryner was sent flying, he got up with a tired expression, looking as if he was already used to such developments.

“...... so, are you satisfied?”

He asked.

As he did so, Ferris nodded with lots of vigor. She nodded vigorously, apparently feeling good.

“Uh-huh. Satisfied.”

“Then can we continue this seriously?”

“No way.”

“Eh ~. What more do you still want?”

On hearing that, she looked in the direction of Kiefer and said.

“So, what does the old friend of Ryner want from us now? Were you sent by Sion?”

Kiefer shook her head frantically.

“No, I’m not. I have not seen Sion in years. And I’ve not been back to Roland for years as well.”

“Then what? Why did you appear at this kind of timing?”

“Eh...... ah, no, that is......”

As Kiefer fumbled with her words, Ryner also looked towards here,

“Ah right. I’ve not asked you earlier since my hands were full. Where did Kiefer go after leaving the country and why did you come back?”

On hearing those words.

“...............”

Kiefer was somewhat hurt by those words.

"Why did you come back?"

Was it really bad to come back just because I want to see Ryner? , she thought a little.

The truth was that there was no other reason for her to come back anyway......

She set off on a journey in order to save Ryner, in order to save Ryner......

In order to see him again, she came back.

Other than that, there was no meaning to coming back here.

That’s why Kiefer said.

“...... that, erm.”

Both Ryner and Ferris looked at her.

Even with blood rushing to her head, and feeling her face flushed, she did her best.

“...... err, erm, I came back...... to see Ryner......”

That was what she said.

Even though she was about to scream out Kyaaaaaaaaaaa , she held it in, and just screamed silently in her heart.

As she took a glance at Ryner, he had that face again.

The troubled withdrawn look.

But even if he were to take a step backwards, she was determined to pay no heed and come back anyway. Even if he thought of himself as a monster and ran away, she was determined to give chase and stay by his side.

That was why she set off on a journey.

In order to save him from solitude, she set off on a journey.

That’s why Kiefer added one more line.

“Erm...... I, I, I.......”

She took one more step forward.

“...... ever since, in the past, till now...... I have liked Ryner.”

One step forward.

Instantly.

“............”

Ryner did not say anything. He only made a troubled expression. A lonely, tired expression.

Just like three years ago.

If she drew near him, he would definitely take a step backward. Maintaining a distance where he would not hurt her. Maintaining a distance where he would not kill her.

He would place a distance between himself and the other party so that his cursed self would not cause any hurt to the other party.

His reaction was just the same as before.

That was an expected reaction.

That’s why she went no further than that.

But.

“............”

But beside him.

She saw a very faint change in what should have been a normally expressionless face from the peerless beauty beside him.

That was truly a subtle change that occurred for merely an instant, and would probably have gone unnoticed by someone who was not involved nor interested in the current state of affairs between them.

But Kiefer saw it.

An almost instantaneous look of surprise had flashed across Ferris’s fair, beautiful and what should have been a normally expressionless face.

And then.

“............”

And then Ferris,

“...... ah, I......”

She said in a seemingly shaking voice. But that was all she said. Which was more than enough. Kiefer understood everything just from that alone.

Ahh, so that’s how it is.

She thought.

Ahh, so that’s how it is. Just as I thought, she also, towards Ryner......

“............”

Her thoughts trailed off.

All of a sudden, Ferris’s face underwent an even greater change than before. Surprise, teary, happiness-filled face.

And then, with a shaking voice,

“Da...... da, da......”

She started off.

And Ryner began,

“Huh? What’s up? What’s going on?”

He asked.

But as usual, she ignored him,

“Da, da, dango’s aroma, why?”

She said.

And then Ryner,

“Huh? Dango? Ah, that, because this is that place. The place where we were supposed to meet up, Asohld dango tea-house......”

Before he could finish, suddenly.

“Why didn’t you say so earlieeeeeer!!”

“Gyaaaaaa.”

She beat him up again. Ryner was sent flying with cries of anguish again. But she ignored all that and started running.

And she stepped on Ryner who was in her path,

“I’m leaving for a bit!”

And she rushed out of the room with an incredible speed.

Her actions were already beyond Kiefer’s comprehension.

“Eh? Eh? Eh?”

That was the only thing she could utter.

But, but, that was definitely weird right?

I just confessed to Ryner.

And Ferris probably liked Ryner as well, she thought.

And a stand off between two love rivals might possibly suddenly ensue!

Even though it was such an intense situation.

And Ferris suddenly shouted I smell dango , which was pretty much incomprehensible, and then she beat up Ryner and rushed out of the room.

“...... what, what in the world happened to her?”

Kiefer asked.

On hearing that, Ryner, with a 'this is nothing new' tone, answered.

“...... she’s a person who places as much importance on dango as life itself.”

“Wait, that doesn’t tell me anything.”

“No no. I’m serious. It’s always like that with her, you see. She would always shout I like dango , and beat me up to death, and beat Sion up to death.”

“Eh, then she really went off to eat dango?”

Ryner nodded at Kiefer’s query.

And then she went on,

“Eeeeeehhhhh, bu, but, but the conversation just now, it wasn’t really the time to eat dango......”

But Ryner shook his head.

“That’s the kind of person she is.”

“Bu, but......”

“No really, if you follow after her seriously, you might die.”

“...... is, is that so?”

“Yup yup.”

“............”

Ryner then got up.

“Well, for now, let’s go downstairs as well, shall we? There are things I need to talk to Kiefer about, and there are things regarding Ferris’s attacker that we need to talk about...... and since we are currently really pursued by Sion, we need to discuss our next step, and we can do that while we eat dango...... then again, even though we might be safe for the time being, I doubt we could stay here for long......”

While saying that, he was making his way out.

But Kiefer did not go after him.

She was, dumbfoundedly, thinking about what just happened.

Perhaps, Ferris was exactly the type of person Ryner said to be.

Perhaps, she’s really not interested in the affairs of the heart, more like a child, she seemed to prefer dango to flowers?

That was evident.

Having no interest in Ryner. Placing more importance on dango than Ryner. That’s why even when a girl came here to declare her love for Ryner, she’s completely not bothered at all.

That was evident.

At the very least, that was evident to Ryner.

But.

“............”

Kiefer sighed softly and took a small whiff at the aroma floating around in the room.

Just as Ferris said, the room was filled with the aroma of dango.

But this aroma had been present all along since they entered the room. It was an aroma that a person who likes dango would have noticed upon waking up.

But it was only during Kiefer’s love confession, that Ferris, with an apparently confused and flustered face, suddenly went talking about how she smelled the aroma of dango.

And rushing out of the room, as if she was running away.

That’s right.

She was running away.

Even when she was such a strong person. Even when she was such a violent person. Even when she was such a willful person, she ran away with an apparently flustered face.

That was her.

“............”

That was her pure innocence which made her really cute, and Kiefer,

“.................. uwah, what a strong opponent she might be.”

She said with a small groan.

Then Ryner turned around,

“What’s up?”

He asked.

He asked in a thoughtless manner.

And Kiefer looked intently at Ryner’s face.

Looking intently at the face of the person she had wanted to see all along.

Looking at the face of the person who had caused much distress to various girls,

“Geez, it’s all because of Ryner’s fault.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. It’s noth~ing. Well, let’s go down. I’d also like to have some dango.”

As she said that, she closed in on Ryner. She then started to entwine her arm around Ryner’s arm.

“............”

It was an easy thing before.

She had linked arms with Ryner before during maneuvering exercises, and also during pinning exercises as well. And she had always been with him then. Always right by his side. Making bento for him. But that was a long time ago.

That’s why, right now, just like before, she would cross her arm over Ryner’s effortlessly.

“............”

But, she couldn’t do it.

At the point where she was about to do it, her heart was in her mouth, and threatened to jump out. That was how nervous she was.

No, rather, just by standing right beside the Ryner she had wanted to see for so long, was enough to make her heart burst.

Uwah , she thought.

This is bad , she thought.

If this keeps on, I’m going to lose. Even though nothing was happening, she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

Since it had been a while ever since she had stepped into Roland, she really want to make her feelings known to him.

It was no longer the same as before.

The world had changed.

Sion had changed.

Her former place beside Ryner was gone.

And on top of that, a beautiful woman, a cute rival had appeared.

She had to do her best.

She had to strive further.

More.

Put in more effort.

“...... eehhh!”

She grabbed hold of his arm.

“Orh?”

He said.

“Hehe ~ hn.”

She said.

Even though inside her mind, she felt that she did not have the leisure to go hehe ~ hn , but she did it anyway. And she hugged his arm tightly.

“Kiefer.”

“...... hn?”

“You are a little heavy.”

Instantly.

“Huuhh!? How can you say that to a girl!?”

While Kiefer yelled angrily, she gave a knock to Ryner’s head. And puffed up her cheeks, pouting angrily.

And again, Ryner had that troubled look on his face.

“............”

It was the same scene as three years ago.

Three years ago, the very same scene, while it was still not too late for many things.

The admired honours student Sion, the good-for-nothing idiot Ryner, the busybody Fahl who was enthusiastically interested in the love affairs of others, the Toni who appeared to be in love with Fahl, and the easygoing Tyle who always cheered everyone up.

Among those.

Among those people, Kiefer would be the one telling Ryner not to take afternoon naps, and knocking his head while telling him to go for lessons quickly.

Kiefer started reminiscing.

“Kind of nostalgic.”

She said, and laughed.

But even while she said that, she was a little nervous.

Because she might be the only one thinking that. Ryner didn’t seem to remember much about me. It seemed like he could care less about what happened those days. I’m afraid I’m the only one getting pumped up on things.

Well, it’s been truly a long time since I came back, and Ryner-tteba, he just keep on making that troubled face, so terrible.

I’m coming close to my limits.

Even though I’m finally back.

Even though I’ve kept doing my best in order to see him again.

If he still doesn’t smile one bit, I shall dash out and run away, hide myself in a corner and cry.

Uhn, I shall do just that.

Kiefer was committed to that ---

Instantly.

Ryner said.

While patting the head of Kiefer who was clinging to his arm,

“...... ahh, it’s really nostalgic. After all this while, Kiefer finally came back, and it would be really nice to reminisce about our stupid past together with Sion, I guess.”

That was what he said.

And with a smile directed here,

“Welcome back, Kiefer.”

Ryner said.

“............”

At that moment, Kiefer’s plan of dashing out to hide herself to cry was completely terminated.

Ryner had said “welcome back”, he had smiled, and finally all those unsettled feelings she had had were erased by his whole-hearted smile.

But yet, for some reason, Ryner started having a flustered expression,

“Wh, why are you crying Kiefer!?”

He said.

“I’m not crying.”

“You are!”

“These are tears of joy! I’m just overwhelmed with emotions at being able to see Ryner again.”

“Se, seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“.................. is that so? Erm, so what shoud I do?”

“Just for a little while.”

“...... uh?”

“Just stay like this for a little while.”

Kiefer buried her whole face into Ryner’s chest. Burying all those three years in which she had not seen him, ascertaining the warmth of his chest.

As expected, Ryner adopted his usual troubled expression, looked around him, then looked up at the ceiling, appearing busy with something, but she didn’t care about that anymore.

Squeeze.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeze, that was due to her embracing him once.

“Alright!”

Kiefer said.

“Recharging completed!”

And she pulled away from Ryner.

As she did that, it seemed like he still had that troubled expression, unable to accept her feelings immediately, but even so, that was enough for her right now.

Because she knew that this was not the time for this.

That’s why Kiefer said.

“Alright! Now, let’s go plan out our next move!”

All of a sudden, Ryner made a face that seemed to be thinking of the various bothersome things that he had to deal with and said,

“...... ahh, seems like it’s going to be suuuuppeerr botherso......”

But Kiefer interrupted him,

“Right right, stop complaining! The next lesson is already starting!”

She pushed Ryner from the back and they started descending to the first floor of the tea-house.

And while Ryner was being pushed, he began,

“Uweh ~, lessons, what a super unpleasant wooooord.”

He groaned, making a truly unpleasant face.

And in response to that nostalgic face.

“............”

Kiefer laughed again.

### 005. Chapter 4: And Then The Balance Scales Used By The Demon

He looked down at the bodies.

At the cruelly chopped up bodies.

Countless bodies scattered around the hall, which was stained with a sea of blood. Looking at that.

“............”

Sion said nothing.

He was now in the throne room of the castle of Roland Empire. In this place where the King of Roland Empire presides..... filled with numerous bodies scattered around, which was an unusual occurrence, yet,

“............”

Sion --- the king of this country said nothing.

With his piercing golden eyes, in which a strong will was embedded, he merely looked upon the pile of brutally broken bodies before him.

“............” He looked up slightly into the hall. No, rather, much deeper inwards, he is looking at something that is squirming.

Something he could not see clearly.

The attached magical lights that used to light up the hall were destroyed, and on top of that, a storm was beating against the window, making it extremely dark.

Yet in that darkness, he can sense something is squirming.

But there is no sound. Neither is there any visible presence seen.

He could only sense that something strange is squirming about. And that it was the same thing that caused the pile of bodies.

No, this is not something new.

This situation where Sion had merely closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, to find before him, before he knew it, a pile of bodies --- a pile of bodies belonging to the guards protecting this hall, with something creeping in within the same breath.

“....... again?”

Sion muttered as he fixed his gaze onto the something within that darkness.

“...... no matter how many times you try, you have no chance of winning in this land.”

"......"

A voice seemed to cry out from within the darkness. But it was too soft. Too feeble. Not quite audible.

“...... I can’t hear you. But there’s no need to. Lucile.”

In an empty space in the hall, an unusually beautiful man appeared immediately out of thin air. Lucile.

“...... ahh.”

Lucile mouthed before asking.

“Kill?”

Sion nodded.

“Ahh. Then, I’m going to do it.”

Immediately after saying that, in the very next instant, Lucile disappears and reappears in the depths of the darkness in the hall.

And a smile floated to his lips,

“...... there’s no use in hiding.”

He thrust a hand into one of the bodies scattered in the hall. He gouges into the bowels of the body, and appears to catch hold of something.... which he then forcibly pulls out.

A strange-looking monster was pulled out from the belly of the body. With a scaly face of a snake, smooth hands of a human, feathery wings of a bird, and gnarly legs of a spider. Skin which seemed to be festering with burns covering its entire body from the head to toe. What Lucile holds in his hand is the head of a monster, so hideous that it will cause a nauseating feeling to well up in any normal human beholding it.

“Gyu-ri-ru-e-ru-e-ru-e-ru-e!”

The monster gives off an ear-splitting howl. As it did that, the snake head stretched out and attempted to bite on Lucile’s shoulder.

“Disgusting.”

Lucile brushes it aside and just like that, the snake head disintegrates into nothingness.

But the monster’s movements does not stop; despite losing its head, it does not stop, and this time round, from its chest which clearly appears to be that of a spider, a jaw opens with fangs potruding out attempts to swallow Lucile.

Unfazed, Lucile just smiled happily.

“...... ha, haha, hahaha. What’s that. You wish to devour me? With your level of power, you wish to devour ME?”

As he says that, a different face appears at the shoulder of that monster. It is the face of a bird, and it replies to Lucile’s mocking query.

“...... do not be haughty. Descendant of Eris Reed. Your rampage ends here. The Goddesses’ rage has already reached their limit......”

The bird stops mid-sentence at that moment because Lucile proceeds to snap its head off.

“...... the mad Goddesses, come again?”

And he crushes the birds head in his hand.

But still, the monster does not stop. The spider’s fangs came thrusting again towards Lucile.

But Lucile appears to be unconcerned. He stretches out his hand quietly, and murmurs softly.

“Let me end this farce.”

Instantly, he releases his power and everything ---

Should have ended..... But at that moment instead

“...... huh?”

Lucile’s expression changes. A strange, small light appears from within the spider’s mouth.

“...... darn......”

He couldn’t continue.

The light, all of a sudden, explodes from the monster’s body towards Lucile. No...It is exploding towards Sion, who is behind him. As he is being swallowed by the light, Lucile’s body disappears and just as the light nears to swallow Sion’s body, at that moment once again, Lucile reappears in front of Sion.

Holding a dark sword in his hand, Lucile swings at the light. As he does it, the light is split into two parts, even as it is being absorbed by the darkness of the sword.

“............”

This time round, everything is really over.

Once again, darkness and silence descends upon the hall.

“...... Lucile.”

Sion called out.

He looks upon the beautiful man before him, a man who should not lose to any kind of monster, a man who should be darker than any form of darkness,

“...... wasn’t that a little bad?”

Lucile turned around replying,

“No. There wasn’t any problem really.”

He is smiling.... smiling with his beautiful face. However what is smiling, is merely the right part of his face. The left part of his face...... no, his left hand, his left leg as well, the entire left part of his body is gone. Burned off by the light released from the mouth of the spider.

Sion, with a dubious face,

“It doesn’t seem that way to me though.”

But, Lucile merely shrugged his only shoulder.

“No problem at all.”

After saying that, with his remaining right hand, he give a knock on his own body.

The moment he does that, the remaining half of his body starts regenerating. The inner flesh of his body bulges out, and in a twinkle, his body returns to his former beautiful form.

That, in itself, is disgusting to behold.

Sion smiles wryly.

“Damn monster.”

To which Lucile mockingly replies,

“Hahaha. You hate your own kind?”

In other words, he means that Sion is a monster just like him. But Sion did not rebuke those words. For it is just as he says. At this moment, he is indeed kin with this disgusting monster --- or rather, he’s in the process of becoming something even worse than that.

“............”

Without saying anything, Sion once again looks at the hall.

However, there is no longer any sign of that hideous monster resembling a combination of a snake, bird, and spider. It probably self-exploded.

In order to kill Lucile. No, in order to kill Sion --- who is the Mad Black Hero .

“But, this is actually the first time I've see you wounded in such a manner.” Sion says to Lucile, who is still looking in the direction of the hall.

“...... ahh. I let my guard down for a while. I didn’t expect the real thing would take the trouble to show up.”

Sion opens his eyes upon hearing Luciles words.

“...... the real thing? You mean the Goddess ?”

Lucile nods.

“That was probably a part of Kukanohst [Goddess of Tranquility]. She sent in a part of her body by hiding it in the body of the familiar we just saw. But for her to have come all the way over such a great distance at this kind of timing, the Goddesses seem to be in a fluster......”

Suddenly, at that moment,

< >

A high-pitched, an incomprehensibly high-pitched, ear-splitting woman's voice reverberated across the room. No, the voice probably did not reverberate across the room in reality. But, rather, the voice appears to be reverberating across the world, being delivered directly to their heads.

Sion turns to Lucile

“...... isn’t it still here?”

Lucile smiled.

“That’s right. Since I haven’t killed it yet. What I erased earlier was merely an attack of the Goddess .”

Once again at that moment,

< >

The same words was heard again. But this time, something seems different in those words. More accurately, something else is embedded in those words. A magical spell of fear is embedded in those words.

The Goddess had embedded a power that would erode the will and destroy the minds of her enemies, within those words.

In the past, perhaps Sion's sanity would have been destroyed, leaving him fearful and raving in madness.

So to speak, it was the voice of a god; a divine message from God.

Man could only prostrate in fear and obey.

“Well, since I’m also a monster, it has no effect on me however......” Sion murmured, as he shifted his eyes to search for the source of the voice within the hall.

“...... ah, I can’t do it. I can’t find it with my eyes, Lucile.”

Lucile had already found the fragment of the Goddess and while looking intently at a single point on the ceiling,

“...... what, Sion? You want to see her face?”

Sion nodded at his query.

“Yes, I’d like that. All this while, Goddess -sama has only sent her familiars here. Now that she has finally come forth herself, I have to show her proper hospitality.”

Lucile turned his head around,

“But if you do that, you will regret it, you know?”

“What do you mean by that?” Sion asked as he tilted his head.

Lucile merely smiled an icy smile; darker, colder, and more mocking than usual.

“Naturally I’m referring to the fact that, considering that she’s called Goddess , her appearance is surprisingly unbefitting of her title.”

With that, he lightly waved his hand in front of Sion’s eyes. And in that instant, the color of the world changed. Darkness became darker just as light became brighter, overwhelming beholding eyes.

And within that darkness.... Within that darkness on the ceiling of the hall, where Lucile was looking up at, was a being, a female being clad all in light......

A woman seemingly clad in a shining robe of feathers.

Gazing upon that form,

“...... ohh.”

Sion gasps without thinking.

At her form...

Sion’s face contorts instinctively at the Goddess ’s form; as her form is abnormally hideous.

Attached to the ceiling on all fours, her face had no eyes. Merely hollow pools drowned in darkness, within its depths, abyss of darkness extends further. Occasionally, in that darkness, small bodies that looks like insects, can be seen moving in and out in a disgusting manner.

She has no nose, and her mouth is different from that of a human, stretching across vertically instead of horizontally with hundreds of teeth potruding outwards from that mouth. Adding to her bizarre appearance, below her grotesque head she has the same form as a human; no, her appearance encompasses everything that’s revolting to humans.

And then, her vertically aligned mouth starts opening and closing, and her voice reverberates once again.

< >

She says in an incomprehensibly high-pitched earsplitting voice.

“See? It’s better not to see it, isn’t it?” Lucile says.

“............”

Sion merely shrugged his shoulders without answering. No, he had roughly expected this outcome. He had long wondered about the appearance of the Goddess that had kept sending her monster minions one after another. Well, so it was something that looked like that, he thought.

A book that Lucile had shown him...

After having read that book in which the light and darkness of this world were chronicled, a story in which the Goddesses appeared, it was within his expectations that they were hideous.

As an example, a story in which they appeared went like this...

After living for too long, the desires of the mad Goddesses could not be stopped. They couldn’t be stopped even after they had obtained everything.

Devouring the light they created, devouring the darkness they created, devouring the human they created, even that was not enough.

They want to devour more.

They want to devour.

They want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour, want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour want to devour.

And in the end, they broke the greatest taboo.

The source of everything.

The source that gave birth to them.

They devoured the parent that gave birth to them.

Devouring their parent finally satisfied them.

And then everything ended.

Anything and everything about the world up till then ended.

Once again, it was born into a different one.

"But," Sion says as he looks up at the fragment of the hideous Goddess on the ceiling “...this time round...... things won’t go according to the way you all want. The ugly story that you all had created shall end here.”

The goddess, with her darkness embedded hollow eyes, looks his way and says,

<< Again. Again, a-g-a-i-n, again. Are you worms mad? Mad, m-a-d, m-a-d? Hero, my lovely hero...... deceived by ω[omega], deceived by α[alpha], deceived by the demon, are you intending to sell out this world again? >>

Upon hearing those words, Sion merely smiles thinly.

“So to speak, I know that there are already a number of versions of stories that are convenient to you circulating around the world......”

That’s right.

With regards to that ancient story, there were several patterns to it.

A story about a hero destroying the world.

A story about a demon destroying the world.

And a story about goddesses destroying the world.

Every one of them had some degree of authenticity, but simultaneously, every one of them was also inserted with convenient lies.

Even though it is not known who, nor for whose sake, created those stories. Or which strands of the story is real. Or who are the true protagonists of the story..... However, each and every one of them agree to one common point.....

Destruction of the world.

Well, in any case......

At that moment, the voice of the Goddess reverberated again.

<< Accept our salvation. Accept our salvation. This is also for your sake. Now, accept it, accept it, and become the hero who saves the world...... >>

“Shut up...... you ugly Goddesses .” Sion says irritably.

Instantly, Lucile jumped.

“Jade Emperor’s tongue.”

He muttered raising his right hand. However, nothing came forth from that right hand; nothing could be seen.

But, even though there shouldn’t be anything there, the ugly face of the Goddess contorted in fear, making it even uglier.

<< Jade...... Jade Emperor, you mean......? Impossible...... you, did you devour God Pursuing ’s power? But that shouldn’t have been...... ω[omega]...... sword saint Eris Reed’s bloodline should not possess such a power...... >>

But, a smile floats to Lucile’s lips,

“Don’t think that I’ll always let the elderly...... the ancient gods do as they please. God , God Pursuing , and even Goddess , I shall devour everything.”, and then he swung down his hand at the Goddess .

The Goddess could do nothing. She could only make a surprised, fearful face as her body start disappearing.

<< …... this...... my body...... is really being devoured...... what in the world are you...... >>

Her words trailed off.

The Goddess disappears and darkness returned.

Lucile lands in the center of the pile of bodies, he turns around.

“It has ended......”

Immediately his knees buckles and he falls to the ground.

“............”

Sion says nothing; he has seen this scene before. During the time when Lucile devoured a goddess and obtained her power. No, during the time when he devoured the power of God , God Pursuing , and obtained those powers, he was constantly tested.

Whether it was appropriate for him to possess those powers...

Whether it was appropriate for him to possess those powers to change the world...

Whether it was appropriate for him to rewrite the plot of that story that had continued endlessly...

He was being tested, had his power been lacking, he’d die. As long as he lived, he would move forward.

A simple matter.

Lucile, as well as Sion, is aware of that level of danger, and continues moving forward. Throwing away anything and everything. Laughter, sorrow, bliss, happiness, friends, family, comrades, life... sacrifices which would render a normal person to weep inconsolably; yet they continue forward.

People might say that’s madness.

God might say that’s madness.

Goddesses might say that’s madness.

It might indeed BE madness. IS madness.

But, still, even so......

“............”

If they live.

If they live, they would encompass this world in light, sundering all darkness.

That’s why.

“............”

At that moment, Lucile got up.

“...... any problem?” Sion asks.

On hearing that, Lucile looks towards him and smiles. A smile darker, colder, and more empty than before.

“None.”

“Then.”

Sion says and Lucile nods.

“Ahh. Let’s continue.”

And Lucile disappears.

Once again, Sion is alone in the hall. He looks intently at the piled up bodies and sea of blood in front of him,

“...... mad, black hero, huh......”

He moaned softly in a breaking voice that seemed on the verge of crying.

Suddenly,

“...... Your Majesty” a voice calls out.

Sion looks up. He looks across to the other side of the empty shells of his comrades, where a solitary man stands.

It is a man with a considerably strict, frowning face. Slightly more than thirty years in age. Wearing a sparkling clean military uniform, he stand tall and straight.

Major Rahel Miller.

The man responsible for the Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squad . The superior of Milk Callaud. No, the superior of that genius, Luke Stokkart; a very capable and intelligent man of this country. To say that the current Roland was made by Miller is not an overstatement. During the time when Sion was thinking of carrying out a revolution, Miller had already more or less set in place all the necessary pieces to start one. Sion merely became a gear in Millers plan and moved accordingly.

But, now...

Miller looks towards Sion with a stern, troubled face; a face that betrays he witnessed something beyond his understanding and imagination.

Sion smiles at that.

“...... you want to talk?”

On hearing that, Miller nods.

“Yes. I came here to inquire more details concerning the present situation of Roland......”

After saying that, he looks around the hall, his gaze sweeping across the mountain of corpses before settling on Sion. Then his piercing eyes once again drifts about the empty space of the hall.

Is he looking for Lucile, or for the devoured Goddess ? Sion wonders returning Millers gaze before asking.

“...... so, when did you start watching?”

On hearing that, Miller once again fixes his eyes on Sion and replies.

“From when, you say? To that question, I shall answer that I saw nothing. I cannot think of commenting on anything without the proper knowledge. That’s why today, I came here to you with a single question.”

Sion nods before answering.

“Then I shall change my question. What is the question, I wonder?”

On hearing that, with his piercing eyes, he looks straight at Sion, no, more than that, he looks straight into Sion.

“...... tell me everything, Sion Astal. Everything from the beginning.” He says with a low voice.

He gave orders to the cells in his brain.

Move. Move. Move.

Think. Think. Think.

He desperately gave orders to the cells in his brain.

What to do? what to do? what to do?

What’s the situation?

What are the circumstances?

“............”

But, from the core of his brain, a different command was issued.

Bothersome. Bothersome. Bothersome.

Time to sleep. Time to sleep. Time to sleep.

Of course, the situation was such that, even if he acted sluggishly, it was tense and he was already too late for various things; and, even though he couldn’t sleep, the brain tissue of the lazy fellow was screaming.

Yes, goodnight! Yes, goodnight! Already sluggishly sleepy. Want to go bye-bye. Want to go bye-bye in my bed, into my fluffy fluffy dreams, not wanting to wake up, and that’s it. Please take care of things, goodbye...

Postscript.

Please don’t look for me.

A stupid order along those lines.

“............”

Gu , while enduring, Ryner stifles a yawn and looks up to the clock hanging from the wall. Noon. He is sleepy..... sleepy as he had not slept a wink since escaping prison yesterday morning. Since then, he has been running back and forth the streets of Roland for the last 30 hours checking out the current situation here. Finally it is time... to leave the country. He went to the appointed place but Ferris was not there, then Kiefer came back, then Ferris lost consciousness.

And now... now, Ryner and gang are at Ashold dango tea-house. He was supposed to meet up with Ferris at eight-thirty in the morning and cross the border by noon, leaving Roland, entering Nelpha, yet...

“............”

Silently, Ryner looks at the peerless beauty eating dango in front of him.

Ferris looks worry less as she digs into her dangos continuously without a care in the world.

“............”

Ryner then shifts his attention to the person beside Ferris, her sister, who is also eating dango. The two of them are eating dangos in a very carefree manner. He stares at the huge amount of discarded dango sticks...

Who is going to pay for all that? Ryner trembles in cold fear Well, when that happens, there’s always the desperation move ‘eat-and-run’. So, I’ll try not to think about it for now .

“............”

On top of that his red haired childhood friend sitting beside him, Kiefer, is also eating dango. She makes a comment on how delicious the dango tastes to which Ferris eye widens in response.

“Ohh!! You can tell the taste!?”

Upon hearing that, Kiefer managed a response with a pressured look. “Eh, yeah, erm...... yes. I thought that this is something different from other dango......”

“You can tell that much!?” Ferris squeals in delight.

“Fohfohbabakaludo!”

Iris, with her mouth stuffed with dango, shouts the incantation-like words.

“...... er, erm, yeah. Probably......” Kiefer replies.

“Oyaji! She’s a sharp one! Bring in another thirty sticks!”

“Thirty ~ sticks!”

“Ehhhh, thirty sticks!? No, well, er, eating only dango......”

Instantly, both Ferris and Iris has a shocked look on their faces...

“Kid-, kidding, kidding...... I really want to eat dango you know......”

“Right!”

“Fohloh!”

Ryner makes a sidelong glance at Kiefer who is being playfully tossed around by the troublesome sisters. He fights against his sleepiness, trying to think.

So to speak, the fact is, there is really no time to slack around like this. Yet, He and Kiefer listen to Ferris's story while eating dango.

Firstly, with regards to Kiefer, ahh ~, what’s that again. Erm, the reason why she came back......

At that moment, Ryner remembers her words earlier in the room.

With her entire face red, Kiefer had said, “...... erm, I came back...... to meet Ryner......”

Woah! Woah! Woah! Wait, stop remembering it. Well, anyway, the reason she came back is something along those lines, eh ---, it’s troublesome to deal with it so let’s leave it at that. Yup. Then again, if that’s the real reason why she came back, then she won’t enter the current Roland anyway.

Erm, what about Sion, who’s also her childhood friend?

“............”

Ryner looks across the pile of thirty dango sticks, stacked on the table, at the half obscured face of Kiefer and asked,

“You know, Kiefer...”

“Hn?”

“Do you want to meet Sion......”

On hearing that, she looks a little sad and shakes her head.

“...... erm, I do want to meet him, but...... But, it’s not like I came back to see Sion. For Ryner I..."

Instantly, Ryner panics. “Right, okayyy, I got it! You don’t really want to meet Sion?”

“Yeah. After talking to Ryner, in the current situation, even if I were to meet him......”

On hearing that, Ryner nods. “I think so too" he says as he returns to his thoughts

That’s right.

Even if Kiefer were to meet the Sion now, she would be disappointed, I guess. At any rate he, the current Sion, even refused to meet Ferris, who had been part his everyday company not long ago.

Even if Kiefer were to head towards the castle now, it would be strange if he actually grants her an audience.

As he was thinking, Kiefer......

At that moment, as if she completely sees through his thoughts, says

“...... I’ll go together with you.”

“Eh?”

“Ryner, you are leaving Roland, aren’t you? Then, let me go with you. It’s for this reason I......”

Just as she was about to make another declaration,

“Oi, woman! If you don’t hurry and eat up, the most tasty instant will escape from the dango, you know!” Ferris interrupts with a raised voice suddenly.

Hearing that, Ryner looks in Ferris direction and met her eyes. As always, she wore an expressionless face. Queerly, it seems even more expressionless than usual. Rather, what is this? Isn’t this the same look as when I first met her? Eh, what’s with her?

“...... are you angry?”

On hearing Ryner’s words, Ferris tilts her head.

“Hn? What are you talking about?”

“No, I thought your face was a little expressionless.”

“I always have that face on.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then it’s fine I guess.”

“It’s fine.” Saying that, Ferris starts eating her dango again.

Somehow, it felt different than usual. If it were as usual, she would start an extremely bothersome moronic story...... ah wait, was she always this quiet whenever she eats dango? Ryner ponders.

Was she?

“............”

As he was pondering about all these things, he suddenly stopped, remembering that this isn’t the time to do that, and returns to his original thoughts. Before long he notices that beside him, Kiefer has a troubled nervous expression, and so he asks gently.

“...... what’s up?”

“Not-, nothing.” she shook her head quickly.

“Ah, is it because you’re at a loss for not being able to stop eating dango? Don’t worry about it too much. If you play along with Ferris, you will never have enough lives for that, you know?”

Hearing that, Kiefer has that troubled look again, she looks nervously at Ferris, then turns to Ryner,

“...... erm” she murmured.

Oh well, whatever. Ryner proceeds with his own thoughts again.

In any case the thing on the top of the priority list that he has to think about, is the matter regarding the attack on Ferris.

Clearly speaking, she’s strong. He wouldn’t be able to predict the outcome of a serious one-on-one fight between him and her, that’s how strong she is; that strength put her in the top ranks of Roland. Even if several members of those mage knights, officially known as the strongest unit of the country, were to be assembled, they would be no match for her. On top of that, if she was running away instead of fighting, even if say Iris was taken hostage, she was capable of retrieving her and escaping --- well, then again, even with a squad of mage knights as her opponents, she could still triumph over them.

But yet, there was a person who could single-handedly take her on. No, according to Ferris she was almost killed, it seemed. Just a while ago she was in a situation where both her arms and legs were torn, and she could only wait for death to claim her.

“............”

On recalling that... on recalling that story, even now, Ryner feels like shivering. If she had actually died... If she were to disappear, and not be eating dango in front of him now.

What should I do?

He feels like shivering in fear.

He wants to save Sion. That’s what he decided and subsequently embarked on a journey with that in mind. Yet the pursuer sent out by that same Sion almost killed Ferris. No, whether that was something undertaken as an order from Sion is still not clear. But, at the very least, a subordinate of Sion almost killed Ferris. In response to that thought.

“............”

In response to that thought, Ryner had a ‘you-got-me’ look as he grimaced. He felt a little afraid. The reason being what happened this time round might happen again in future.

Since he had decided to move forward from hereon.

Since he had decided to move forward from hereon to save Sion.

And in the course of that, any sacrifices incurred along the way would be his responsibility.

That was...

A realization that hit him pretty early on in the course of his journey.

A realization that hit him at the expense of his most important partner’s life.

If Ferris hadn’t come and save me. If she’s not leaving the country with me. If she’s not saving Sion with me.

No, even not for those reasons. If Ryner hadn't decided that they should act separately, she wouldn't have been almost killed.

This time round it was coincidental that her brother, Lucile Eris, had appeared to save her. Or so it seems. But they can't count on being so lucky the second, or third, and time again. There wouldn’t be a next time, hopefully.

Or if there’s a next time, Ferris would be killed and he won't be able to see her stupidly eating dango like this in front of him again.

“............”

No, not just Ferris... Iris, Kiefer, Arua, Kuku as well, and also any new comrades who would be joining Ryner’s company from hereon as he moves forward. If he makes a mistake, they might be killed.

By Sion.

By Roland.

He realized just a moment ago.

While he was listening to Ferris’s story as they were eating dango, Ryner showed a seemingly normal, ‘everything-is-fine’, sleepy looking face.

“............”

But the truth was totally different. Involuntarily Ryner nearly shouts out.... from the rising fear within that grips him.

He thought that he had already made a seriously determined decision, but he was still a little naive. This was the path he had sought to walk.

Against Sion.

The path that leads to making Sion, the man committed to becoming the supreme ruler of the southern continent, his enemy.

Ryner remembers that day, when Sion wept while pulling out a knife despite...

...Even though Sion is really a gentle person.

...Even though Sion is more innocent than anyone else.

But yet he recalled the face of Sion, determination to move forward engraved on it. With the heavy burdens he shouldered as he walked ever forward.

Ryner is fed up with it; he is fed up with himself who has his hands full just trying to escape.

“...... he was in pain all this while.”

But, Sion was always smiling. Sometimes he did put on a tired face, a face that seemed on the verge of crying, but in the end, he would still be smiling. Even though he was in so much pain that he could die; even though he was in such despair, he always smiled in the end.

“............”

Through the earlier incident, Ryner finally understands. Ferris was attacked and almost killed, and the one who attacked her was Froaude.

Miran Froaude.

Descendant of the holy knight Halford Miran. However, he (Frouade) was too dark to be called a holy knight. He was a killer demon who obliterated anything that stood in the way of his lord, his supreme ruler. Clearly speaking, he was the worst.

Ryner had always thought that the king who had Froaude in his employment would be the worst.

To which Froaude, with a look full of contempt for Ryner, replied...

"Humans are animals who struggle and fight to survive. To eat, to protect their pride, to lead better lives, to protect their loved ones, and also to save themselves from getting killed by someone else...... humans struggle and fight.

To have no sacrifices, to have everyone smiling as they live...... that’s delusional. Such a world doesn’t exist. The world is not as naive a place as you think.” Frouade concluded.

The world is not as naive a place as you think.

But those words...

Whose words were those?

Who the hell was the one driven up to a corner, despaired with the world, and still kept on moving forward?

“............”

Ryner recalled. He recalled the first time he met Froaude. It was at the house where the children of the first prince of Nelpa and his commoner mistress were putting up at, Toale’s house.

Froaude appeared to kill Toale, who was of royal blood and highly regarded by the populace.

But that was a long time ago. During the time when Sion became king, Ryner was released from prison and just began on a journey with Ferris, it was during then. In other words, since then, that detestable Froaude was already working for Sion.

Ever since then Sion had already started bearing the darkness within his heart, which was not shown to Ryner.

That was definitely.

“............”

That was definitely incredibly painful, he thought. Well,

“...... it’s too late to notice it only now.”

Ryner said stupidly as he looks out the window of the tea-house. The window was not facing south, an unusual thing, but instead was facing north, a place where Sion was not at. That direction do not point to where Roland was but instead where Imperial Nelpha should be.

Ryner looked intently outside the window. The rain appeared to have lightened considerably compared to the morning. Unexpectedly, after killing time in this tea-house, this might be a good time to leave the country. Crossing the border in the rain would indeed prove bothersome, and if they start now, by the time they cross the border, the sun would have set. Meanwhile, the rain would probably continue to fall at this intensity.

A rainy twilight.

It was a convenient time to slip past the border guards with the reduced visibility. And well, after crossing the border and entering Nelpha, what should they do next?

“............”

At that moment, he recalled the current situation of Imperial Nelpha which Luke had shown him earlier this morning. Well, the main points of the situation are as follows.

Roland, in this war of attrition, was carrying out large-scale massacres as a show to destroy the fighting spirit of the other countries.

If Roland failed, it would be taken lightly by the other countries, and as a country that had broken an alliance, Roland would have to stand against a coalition composed of the other countries in the southern continent.

That’s why Roland had to, through the large-scale massacres, completely crush Imperial Nelpha, in order to minimize the loss of lives in the war.

Once Nelpha’s massacres were shown to the rest of the world, the other countries, having their desire to fight crushed, would surrender without fighting, well, those were Roland’s real intentions.

And, in order to achieve all that, Roland will kill off all the royalty of Nelpha, and after displaying that to the other countries, it will tell them that if they were to surrender now their royalty will be spared and welcomed into the ranks of Roland nobility, that’s the strategy.

With that strategy, if all went well with killing off Nelpha’s royalty, and displaying the might of Roland, everything will go well after that. That was the power that Roland held, as the greatest nation in the southern continent. Even if Roland were to attack head on without resorting to any such means, Sion would still be able to subjugate the entire southern continent, but that will probably take up a lot of time. Moreover, what he wanted was to achieve that goal in the shortest amount of time, with the least amount of sacrifices. Well, so to speak, that is how it is with Roland’s current situation.

On the other hand, what was happening in Imperial Nelpha?

“............” As Ryner pondered, he grimaced involuntarily.

Nelpha is currently in the worst possible scenario. Firstly, the only person who could end this war, Gread Nelphi

”By offering my head and the imprisonment of my son, Prince Starnel...... in exchange for that offer, will you stop massacring Nelpha’s people?”

That was the offer he had decided to present to Roland...

..But his stupid son Prince Starnel,

”I don’t care what happens to the country! I don’t want to be captured by Roland.”

And with that, he killed King Gread Nelphi. With this, Roland could no longer achieve the outcome of ending the war with a minimum loss of lives. However, the stupidity of the Prince Starnel did not end here. Starnel then ordered ten thousand soldiers to repel Roland’s army that was advancing northwards, and on top of that, he took command of the remaining troops, and started massacring and looting the populace from within Nelpha. After looting, he intents to escape to some place.

That’s why it is the worst possible scenario. With this, Nelpha no longer has anyone who could legitimately surrender to Roland.

In other words, in order to put on their original show to the other countries, Roland would have to decimate the ten thousand abandoned troops, and furthermore, before reaching Starnel’s personally led army, they had to completely raze the streets they would pass through, and finally finish off the remaining troops which Starnel, who had no intention of surrendering, had taken over in a bid to save himself. With this however, even more losses would be sustained than if they were to just fight a head-on war.

However, things were already heading towards that bothersome direction.

But, at this juncture, in this worst case scenario, a ray of hope appears and that is Toale.

The son of the King Gread Nelphi and a commoner mistress, Toale had helped the bewildered Ryner and Ferris by giving them access to the library and putting them up at his house. The kind, good kid loved by the people of Nelpha. Toale Nelphi had taken command of the ten thousand abandoned troops and stopped them from engaging Roland. That is the best of the best news to Roland.

With this turn of events, the possibility of Roland achieving its original goal of minimizing the loss of lives, appears once more.

It is highly likely that the subsequent development will becomes as follows, Toale,

”If I surrender, will you let the ten thousand troops and people off?”

That would probably be his offer but of course Roland would reject that.

You are not Nelpha’s king, correct? If you want to save the ten thousand soldiers, go take the throne from the current Nelpha king, from that stupid prince.

We’ll accept your surrender once you’ve done that.

And of course, in order to finish the show to the other countries, Roland would then execute Toale, the Nelpha king.

This series of developments are probably unfolding even now. So to speak, taking Toale’s personality into consideration, this line of development would definitely happen. Doing his best and sacrificing his own life in exchange for that of the people and soldiers, that might even please him. He is that kind of people-loving idiot.

Ryner folded his arms.

Well, that being the case, in the current Imperial Nelpha, Toale Nelphi’s great battle is just beginning. That should really be an unreasonably great battle. Toale’s ten thousand troops will clash with the sixty-eight thousand troops led by stupid Prince Starnel.

And even if Starnel’s forces, which were about seven times larger, were miraculously defeated and the throne was taken, next Toale would immediately surrender to Roland.

Then, with a smiling face, he would be executed.

That miracle, so to speak...

Was sacrificing himself.

This worst case fate was an irony in itself for such a man of righteousness.

With regards to that,

“............”

If Ryner were to head towards Nelpha; there was only one thing to be done. That is to save Toale, and defeat the stupid prince. On top of that, surrendering Nelpha to Roland and presenting Roland in a good light for now.

But, he wouldn’t let Toale die.

He had to, at the same time, accomplish all that with the least amount of lives lost.

By a method in which nobody would get hurt.

“............”

Geez, isn’t this damn difficult?

Ryner frowned to himself. Ever since he read the documents regarding Nelpha which Luke handed him this morning, on top of saving Nelpha, he had been thinking about how to save Toale, but somehow, he just couldn’t come up with a good idea.

No, to say that he couldn’t come up with any ideas at all would be a lie. He had thought of several. But with those methods,

“............”

The number of sacrifices would not be zero. No, it’s not even about whether the number of sacrifices could be brought down to zero or not.

After all, this was a war.

If Ryner made a mistake, an unbelievably large number of lives would be lost. Even if he did not make a mistake, the number of life losses that he had to bear was not insignificant as well.

This is what Sion had had to bear all along.

He had to bear them all alone.

So, what am I to do?

“............”

What I am supposed to do?

“............ shit.”

Ryner mutters.

Shit, shit, shit , he groans silently.

To fight the Roland army led by the red-haired monster Claugh Klom.

To fight the close to seventy thousand troops led by the stupid Prince Starnel.

To feign ignorance at everything and take Toale away and escape.

Whichever way he decides on, it isn’t good enough. Lots of people would die.

That’s why Ryner gave the order. While groaning shit, shit, shit , he ordered his non-working brain. The brain which did nothing and continued to slug until things had turn into such a stupid situation.

While saying bothersome bothersome , in the end, it had come to such a worst case situation that he was driven to a corner and had to give orders to his own brain.

Move move move .

Think think think .

What in the world could he do to achieve a breakthrough? What could he do to get a good outcome?

The balance moved. The balance in his head moved. On the plates hanging from each side of the balancing scale, were the lives of people.

The side with many lives, and the side with, not too few lives.

If we were talking about sacrifices, of course the less the better. Therefore, the plate which was heavier would be discarded.

“............”

That should have been the case, but the scales in Ryner’s head was not moving. Both the plate with many lives and the plate with not too few lives were equally heavy.

The scales are in equilibrium.

That’s why he couldn’t choose.

Shit , he groaned again.

As he did that, his brain teased...

Weakling. You weakling. Just kill and move forward. The sacrifices can’t be helped, can they?

That’s right , he thought. He’s not a magician who could create any kind of miracle. If it can’t be done, it can’t be done. But still, if there’s some way......

As he started thinking again, his brain starting talking again.

It’s useless it’s useless. Stop thinking about such bothersome things, won’t you? It’s useless. Don’t think that your arrogance can save everyone. The world is not as naive as you think. Let it go, people will die, just quickly move forward.

But...

No buts. As you are fretting here, people are dying. Look at the reality. Didn’t you always refuse to look at it and just keep on running away. Now, take a look. Take a good look. Take a look at the scenery that Sion has seen. Take a good look at the scenery of despair that he has seen, and make your choice.

Without running away, make you choice properly, and take responsibility.

Get on with the killing and move forward.

Now, which one will you choose?

“............”

Now, which plate of lives on the balance will you sacrifice?

“............”

Now.

Now, decide quickly.

“............”

In response to that voice.

“...... shut up.”

That’s what Ryner answered. In response to the voice born from his own weakness, that’s what he answered.

Then he looked up. As he did that, he saw Ferris, Iris, and Kiefer. After being told to shut up, all three of them were looking at Ryner’s face with a look of surprise on their faces.

Kiefer said.

“Eh. Ah. I’m sorry. Was I too noisy? Ryner has a lot to think about, isn’t it?”

Following that, Iris said.

“Eh --- --- --- --- was I not quiet throughout the whole time? Right? Nee-sama?”

Moving on to the last person, Ferris said.

“............”

No, as expected, she said nothing.

She just stood up without saying anything, looking straight at Ryner. With her blue pupils, she gazed intently into Ryner’s eyes. As she looked at him, she lifted the chair that she was sitting on and...

“...... telling me to shut up. What do you mean by thatttttttttttt!”

The chair flew.

It came flying so fast that it disappeared from sight momentarily.

“It can’t be.”

As he said that, Ryner promptly attempted to dodge, but his reaction speed just after he broke out of his deep thoughts was pitiful,

“I won’t make it...... gyaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

It smacked into his face. The corner of the chair smacks right into his face, setting off an intense pain, and his body flew backwards.

He fell onto the ground. He clutched his face. The pain invaded his whole face. Just as the pain subsided slightly, he looked up, Damn you, what the hell are you doing , he wanted to say.

But!

“...... eh? You’re not serious right?”

Ryner uttered without thinking, forgetting what he originally wanted to say because right before his eyes...

Ferris continues on and went to stand on top of the table and jumped. She jumped towards him. She lifted her foot backwards. And adopted a kicking stance, aiming at Ryner’s face.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, erm, it’s my bad, you don’t need to go to such an extent really......”

He said, but, his words stopped.

The reason was because Ferris was not wearing her usual armor. She was wearing a strangely cute one-piece dress, with a short skirt portion, with that, wasn’t it difficult to move in? In that short moment, Ryner was concerned about that.

She raised her foot backwards. Raising it backwards to the fullest, and revealing the inside of her skirt......

“Oi, it’d really be bad if you keep that on. The inside of your skirt is completely visible......”

As he spoke those words, it was already too late. She launched her kick.

The face again.

“Argh!?”

As he shouted, Ryner flew. He spun in the air.

Even if he is done in in this manner, the close-up view was indeed magnificent,

“Ry, Rynerrrrr!?” Kiefer screamed in anguish.

“Kyaaaaa.” Iris screamed in anguish...... no. It was clearly a squeal of total delight.

Well, in any case, under the gaze of the three girls, Ryner flew. His head shattered the window. His upper torso passed through. It was still raining moderately heavy outside and his head was drenched immediately. This time round, he was definitely going to say, Damn, Ferris, what are you up to! You’ve gone too far! I ain’t forgiving you today, I’m so going to kill you , he intended to shout out but.

“............”

He gave up.

Since the rain brought cold relief to his face which was burning from the pain. Since the rain cleared his senses after having gone without sleep for the entire night.

With that, he looks at the sky of Roland.

Despite that it is already noon, he looks up at the sunless sky.

As if it was trying to mimic the feelings of a particular someone, the rain continued falling.

“Now.”

He thought.

Now, what should I do, let’s get back thinking.

Sion, while weeping, had decided to make the sacrifices and move forward.

But, what about me?

In the end, I’m taking the same path......

At that moment, all of a sudden.

“...... has your head cooled? Ryner.”

He was asked.

Ryner looked up. He propped himself up and looked into the room.

As he did that, he saw Ferris, with her usual emotionless expression, looking towards here.

“...... eh?”

As he pondered, she spoke

“...... I’m asking you whether your head has cooled. Jeez, for someone without any brain matter, you had that look of concentration, worrying about something...... think about the feelings of those around you!” She yelled angrily.

On hearing that, Ryner, with a look of surprise.

“Eh? Me? Was I so deep in concentration?”

Ferris nodded.

“You were.”

“Seriously ~”

“Damn you! You don’t believe my words......”

“Ugh, why are you drawing your sword......”

But she didn’t stop. With her sword drawn, she rushed forward.

“Wah, wah, wah.”

Ryner wanted to run away, but he was too slow.

She smashed the sword into Ryner.

“Gyaaa.”

As he shouted, his whole body flew out of the window.

But her violence did not end here. She jumped out of the window as well and grabbed hold of Ryner’s head. With that, she dragged him across the ground and ran for a while.

As the ground was wet from the rain, it was not really painful to be dragged across, but the occasional stones that he brushed across grazed him.

“Gah, painful. It’s painful, Ferris. Wait, I’m asking you to stop...... aren’t you going too far?”

He called out, and on hearing that.

“............”

She finally stopped.

Grabbing his neck in a strangling fashion, she pushed him against the ground.

He looked up at her. He looks up at her golden hair, which has already dried after so long but is now soaking wet again, then he looks at her face.

Looking at that face.

“............”

Ryner frowned involuntarily.

Because he saw a face which could not described as expressionless.

Just now, inside the tea-house, for some reason, Ferris had an even more expressionless look, with no tinge of emotions, than the old days.

On top of him, with his neck held down by her, the face he saw now could not be described as expressionless.

So as to speak.

“............”

She now had a face that was on the verge of crying.

While pressing him down in a strangling fashion, she looked down at Ryner with a face that was on the verge of crying.

That’s why, on seeing that, Ryner frowned involuntarily.

And then he asked. In a half-joking manner, with a light tone, he asked.

“...... could it be that I’m the cause of that face you’re making now?”

“............”

With her face that was on the verge of crying, but yet, with a glowering face, she held back her tears and looked intently towards here, and nodded sharply.

Ryner, holding his gaze on her,

“...... was it because of Kiefer?”

However, she quickly shook her head.

“Then.”

Ryner said.

“...... then, was it because the brainless me was making a face that was deep in concentration?”

She did not reply.

She only stared at Ryner.

And he asked.

“...... what kind of face was I making?”

Then she said softly.

A single sentence.

Just one sentence, she murmured.

“...... a face like Sion’s.”

She glowered as she said that. She was really on the verge of crying.

In other words, it was that.

She was once again unsettled.

Because Ryner made the same face as Sion. Not consulting with anyone, merely bearing everything alone, moving forward, that same face.

And then, Sion disappeared. All of a sudden, he became mad, weeping sorrowfully, he disappeared.

And on top of that, Ryner also disappeared. Captured by Sion and imprisoned, he disappeared before Ferris.

All alone, she shivered in fear.

Despite knowing that.

Just yesterday morning, she found Ryner in his cell and was crying, despite having seen that scene before him, he still didn’t get it.

There were so many friends around him, who worried about him, there was no real need to bear everything by himself.

He didn’t have to bear all the responsibility from hereon all by himself, that was something he didn’t understand promptly.

The very same thing.

“............”

Even though it was the very same thing that Sion didn’t understand.

If he’s troubled, he could consult with the rest.

Before being driven to the wall, he could have consulted with the rest, even though that was the very same thing Ryner had thought of Sion,

“............”

She was on the verge of crying.

Even though Ferris was someone who would be so happy that she could rise up to heaven just from eating dango, she was on the verge of crying at a dango shop.

He was stupidly being fed up all by himself.

From hereon, these people will be with me as I move forward, yet I was fretting by myself, being fed up with things.

It’s just as what she said.

Just as what she said, I’m a brainless guy indeed.

Without understanding anything all that, who can I save?

Ryner looked up at Ferris.

With a cornered face, he looked up at her.

The he said.

“...... you know, Ferris.”

“What.”

“I had been thinking about a lot of things, can I talk about them?”

On hearing that.

On hearing that, Ferris returned to her expressionless face.

But embedded within that expressionless face, was a tinge of emotion which Ryner once again was able to decipher. It was not the same face she had a while ago.

Her face was displaying a proper emotion.

A somewhat satisfied, somewhat pleased face.

“Talk about them? With me?”

“Yeah.”

As Ryner acknowledged, she seemed to be even more pleased.

“Won’t do. You’re dying here.”

She tightened her grip on his neck,

“Ehhhhhh, wait...... gyaaaaa.”

In the end, the same development unfolded.

Just before he really die, he broke free from that position,

“You, you, you’re seriously killing me!!”

“Of course.”

“Ugh, as I’ve always said, at that juncture, you’re supposed to dispute that!”

It became the usual antic.

And Ryner, in response to that,

“...... ha, haha.”

He started laughing by himself.

“What’s so funny?”

Even as she said that, he continued laughing for a while, and then he looked up at the sky again.

The rain was still heavy. Though not as heavy as this morning. With that strong wind blowing, those large clouds would be blown away, and it would probably stop.

At that moment, he noticed that the wind was blowing northwards,

“Oi oi, even though we are heading into Nelpha, yet it’s also raining in Nelpha.”

He said wearily.

But, even so, it was fine. Things would definitely work out somehow.

He thought.

The reason was because he’s not going to run away.

“............”

Because he had friends.

Because he was not alone, and he’s not running away.

Ryner looked at Ferris.

Then he turned towards the tea-house. Kiefer, with an umbrella in her hand, was about to rush towards here, but beside her, with a look of delight, Iris dashed out into the rain.

“Ah, ah, Iris-chan, if you don’t take an umbrella, you’re going to catch a cold!”

Kiefer chased after her frantically.

Looking intently at that, Ryner said (to Ferris).

“Even if I have an umbrella now, thanks to you, I might catch a cold. My clothes are all drenched.”

As he said that, he looked at his shirt and pants that he borrowed from the tea-house.

On hearing that, Ferris suddenly seemed to remember something important, with a ‘you just reminded me’ face,

“Ah! I forgot!”

“Huh? What?”

“Right! I’ve forgotten all about it after being attacked en route, but I’ve prepared some clothes for you......”

She was interrupted.

“Denied!”

Ryner said.

“Hm?”

She looked here with a look of displeasure.

In response to that, Ryner scowled,

“You did it eh? The knapsack that Iris was carrying had a pair of pants with a mouse embroidered at the crotch area, and other than that, it was completely naked-looking, and with the shirt that hides only the navel, making a complete stupid set of clothes, eh?”

As he said that, she nodded her head sharply.

“Orhh, you saw that? So, given that you are going full speed on the pathway to hentai-dom, naturally, underneath those pants you are wearing, you can put on those hentai......”

“I’m not wearing that! Stop talking about foolish things. Let’s get inside? We’d seriously catch a cold. Even not so, there’s no reason for us to stay here. Let’s get back inside the tea-house and get changed, and we’ll set off immediately. Just a moment ago...... a pretty good idea just came to me.”

Ryner said.

And then, he once again, looked through the veil of rain towards the lands in the north.

After passing through the highway, and crossing the borders and entering Imperial Nelpha, there would only be bothersome things to deal with.

But even so, he might actually have arrived at a solution that could solve everything.

It was in the instant when he was smashed by Ferris’s sword.

In the instant when his sleepy head was bashed.

“...... am I a masochist?”

A good idea which made him think of making a comeback at himself.

A way to fight the Roland army led by the red hair monster Claugh Klom.

A way to fight the close to seventy thousand troops led by stupid Prince Starnel.

A way to feign ignorance at everything and save Toale.

Now, where should he start?

“............”

At that moment, Kiefer finally came up to them.

She sheltered the drenched Ryner and Ferris with an umbrella.

For some reason, she had a slightly sulking face.

“Geez, jumping out here with all this rain, did the two of you have some kind of secret conversation~?”

On hearing that, he smiled.

He looked at Kiefer, then at Ferris.

“...... nothing secretive. I’ll tell you all everything. I’ll no longer bear everything all by myself and tell you all everything. Everything about the superrrrrrrrrr bothersome strategy I have to execute in Nelpha. That’s why, with me......”

But what he was about to say was something that was kind of embarrassing, so he averted his eyes from them. He looked again in the direction of Nelpha.

Then he told them straight.

To the two of them.

To his first comrades who would follow this cowardly, languid guy who makes lots of mistakes.

“...... will you all follow me?”

As he said that, the two of them answered at the same time.

Speaking at the same time.

With a truly unwavering, strong voice.

“Yeah!”

“Nope!”

“............”

Ehhhh? No, erm...... just now, I heard a ‘nope’?

No, well, suddenly speaking together at the same time, can’t really expect it to be in unison.

But.

“...... well, shall we go?”

Ryner smiled wryly as he turned around.

As he did that, Ferris and Kiefer were looking this way at him. Behind them, Iris was rolling on the rain-soaked ground.

They were his first comrades.

The enemy was the Hero King with the strongest army in the southern continent.

And the seventy thousand soldiers led by the stupid prince of Nelpha.

On the other hand, the group here comprised of a sluggish guy and three girls.

To anyone seeing this, it seemed like they have no chance of winning at all. Others would probably call them idiots and fools.

But for him.

For him,

“...... it’s enough.”

Ryner murmured and smiled faintly.

And he did think so. Not on the orders of Sion or anyone else, it was really an incredible thing for them to follow him like this.

There were people who believed in him and thus following him.

If so.

If that’s the case, then without any fear or thought of running away, he could move forward, couldn’t he?

“............”

Once again, he looked at the sky. He looked up at the sky from which rain continued to fall. And then towards the south where Sion was at. And then towards the north where the red hair monster, the stupid prince, and Toale were at.

After looking at all that, he looked at the faces of his comrades again, then said.

“...... well, let’s do it.”

With a clear voice.

“Firstly, to start off, let’s clean up the mess in Nelpha.”

That was what he declared.

Several days later.

Deep into the night.

At a Roland camp erected within Imperial Nelpha.

A short distance away from that, on a hill, was Claugh Klom ---

The black hand death god was standing there alone.

With stern eyes, he surveyed Nelpha’s scenery.

“............”

Even though it was already late into the night, bright reddish lights were shining from the town-scape. But there was no longer anyone there. Earlier at dusk, the Roland army led by Claugh had arrived here, destroying and setting everything on fire, razing all in sight.

Only ruins lay there.

Even though the magical fires were still burning in the remaining houses, giving them a red shine, before long, that too would disappear.

And after that, the only things remaining would be corpses, ruins, and despair.

Despite seeing all that.

“............”

I’m already more or less used to this , he thought.

It had been a few weeks since he entered Nelpha.

All he saw were such devastating scenes. These were devastating scenes which he knew well.

Scenes of war.

Killing people. Killing people. Killing people. Blood spewing, screams booming, but yet, he went on killing people, endlessly.

He had heard someone asking for help.

He had heard someone cursing him.

He had heard cries of vengeance.

And in response to all that, Claugh,

“............”

He killed.

He killed without any hesitation.

But the war did not end.

The war did not end.

It should not have come to this, according to their initial expectations.

They had expected Nelpha to completely surrender much earlier. The people should have been saved after the deaths of the royalty of Nelpha. And thereafter, they also should have been able to avoid fighting the other countries.

But that did not come to pass.

A number of problems came up, and in the end, that did not come to pass.

What would Sion think of that, he thought for an instant. He, who wanted to move forward with the least number of sacrifices, would probably be greatly hurt by this never ending war.

And then Claugh thought it was a good thing that he had come here. It’s a good thing that such unpleasant work was not carried out by others.

That’s why it was a good thing that Sion was not here.

It was a good thing that Calne was not here.

Perhaps, it was also a good thing that Luke and his other comrades were not here, he thought.

“............”

At that moment.

He thought of something somewhat unpleasant. He thought of Noa’s face when he said that he was going to war again. She, who was left behind in Roland, with rare navy blue hair, and a show of resoluteness but occasional innocence within her blue eyes, which vanished in an instant as well.

Which was due to tears flowing out of her eyes, and as if to dispel that memory of her, he shook his head.

She should just forget about everything and attain happiness. This. For this murderer me, there was no need for her to think about me and weep for me.

He looked intently at his black hand. His right hand which was imbued with a curse and colored black.

The right hand which had already taken countless lives.

For a murderer like him, it would be laughable for only him to attain happiness.

It was just not possible.

That’s why he got used to it quickly. With killing people. With throwing away his own happiness.

And he turned his eyes to the darkness that lay beyond the burning streets, a flashy work of his.

And started considering.

Right now, he was thinking about how he could continue to show off Roland’s brutality to the other countries without killing the populace and wrapping things up, what should he do? That was what he was pondering.

In order to do that, the most important thing now was to get in touch with Toale Nelphi, the son of Gread Nelphi.

But his location was unknown. Despite the fact that Toale was leading ten thousand troops, his intelligence could not yet get hold of where he was.

If he could somehow succeed in doing that, things could take a better turn......

“............”

At that moment.

Claugh suddenly turned around. Behind where he was standing on the top of the hill, was a forest, which was dark in comparison to the burning streets.

He could feel something moving in that darkness.

But in response to that, he did not react much.

Since he had come to this land.

Since leaving the territory of Roland, and coming to Nelpha, the same type of situation had occurred again and again.

Destroying the streets. Listening to the curses. And attacked assassins wielding knives and swords, men, women, children, bearing hatred for their comrades or family who were killed.

Die. Die. Die. I will let you taste my hatred for killing my comrades!

And Claugh had always answered them. He killed every one of them. Those were his orders, and Claugh had thought that was necessary as well.

That’s why he was not surprised.

He was not surprised at noticing that someone was clearly peeping at him from the forest.

He only looked in that direction,

“...... come forward if you want to die.”

He said.

The presence in the forest moved as if it was reacting to his words. The killing intent was closing in straight on towards here.

But Claugh did not make any stance.

The reason was because the enemy’s killing intent was too weak.

No, not that it was really that weak. A normal soldier might not even emit that much. But, with this level.

It was not possible to kill the death god of the battlefield --- Claugh Klom.

With a sad look in his eyes, he looked at the darkness in that forest.

The enemy would probably lose his life once he comes out of the forest. He had no intention of letting him feel any pain or agony.

He would end it in an instant.

Claugh lifted his black, cursed right hand.

In an isntant.

The enemy appeared.

But in response to the movements of the enemy,

“...... wha.”

Claugh uttered without thinking.

As the unknown hidden assailant dashed out of the forest, he released a killing intent that was ten times stronger than before.

His movement was considerably fast as well.

No, it was not just fast. Moving almost as fast as Claugh, he rushed toward here in a straight line.

The enemy’s figure was visible to Claugh.

Clad in black, and his face veiled in black. Clothes used by assassins to blend into the darkness. A knife in his hand, he reached out for Claugh’s head.

“...... this is bad.”

He promptly dodged it. But yet, he was slightly grazed. No, he had allowed it to happen. As the knife came slicing towards his head, while barely dodging the line of attack,

“Shit!”

Claugh swung his left arm. He had intended to make a grab at the enemy’s face but failed. He had wanted to unveil him, but as expected, the enemy did not yield.

The enemy swung his knife, aiming for Claugh’s arm. Specifically at the artery of his wrist. From just that moment of exchanges, this was clearly a high level fight. A detestable level of skill in handling the knife.

In response to that, a smile floated on Claugh’s lips. The opponent’s strength pretty much rival his own.

No, perhaps, he was stronger than himself. Of course, he wouldn’t really know until they fight it to the end.

“............”

But even so, he was smiling in delight.

Since this was the first real enemy he had met in this lands.

Ever since he came to Nelpha, he had only massacred endlessly, and now, this was the first opponent who might be able to kill him.

Claugh daringly forced his arm towards the knife that was aiming for his artery. With that, the knife missed the artery and pierced through his arm, stolen from the opponent as a consequence.

In that instant, the enemy was surprised.

In that instant,

“I shall take your life here.”

Claugh churned up his arm that was pierced through by the knife. In an attempt to hit his opponent with his palm.

However, with abnormal reflexes, the enemy dodged that.

But Claugh had read that. The enemy dodged right. But, with that level of strength, the enemy would probably have barely dodged it. And then the next attack began.

However, Claugh’s attack did not end with his palm-face move. With that, his arm continued to stretch forward. As he did so, the knife that had previously pierce through his arm was being aimed at the enemy’s head,

“............”

With that, everything should come to an end.

It was executed with perfect timing.

If he could dodge this, then,

“............”

Then, he would have to be a monster.

However, the enemy somehow dodged it. While the knife managed to come slicing into the veil, what came after was empty space.

This is bad , he thought.

The next attack came. But, since he thought it had ended with the knife, he let his guard down a little.

He set his sight on the enemy. As he did that, the enemy’s kick was about to fly in. In response to that, Claugh used his fist to receive the attack.

The kick and his fist clashed. Normally, the kick would have won. If Claugh had lost, he would have died. If he got struck back from this amount of force, what would followed would be the severance of his head.

But,

“Don’t take me lightly!”

And he won against the kick. With his fist, he deflected his opponent’s kick.

The enemy fell back a few steps away from Claugh as a result of the impact.

And at that moment, the enemy called out for the very first time.

Looking intently at Claugh.

Looking straight at him.

“Monstrous strength.”

That was a voice that he had heard before.

A sleepy, languid, unmotivated voice which he had heard before.

An annoyed voice that didn't take life seriously.

Claugh’s grin became even wider on hearing that. I see. That’s how it was.

“......... Ryner Lute.”

As his name was called, the enemy threw away the sliced end of the veil as a result of the previous exchange.

It was indeed a languid, annoyed face.

“Already found out?”

He said lightly. He seemed relaxed.

But, his killing intent remained.

What did he come here for But he (Claugh) wasn’t going to ask. With that amount of killing intent, it was clear why he had come. But,

“...... if I get serious, do you seriously think you can beat me?”

Claugh said, and Ryner made a troubled face.

“...... is that so? Difficult to say perhaps?”

Even with a perplexed face as he asked, he should be very well aware of the answer.

If they fought seriously, who would be stronger?

It was a matter of the occasional luck .

Their strength were well matched. This was the second time they fought. The first time was for fun. This time round, it was for real.

But from the series of exchanges just now, they could already tell each other’s strength.

So in the end, it was a matter of the occasional luck. Both sides couldn’t afford to go easy.

That’s why,

“...... whoever dies first, there’s something I’d like to ask you, what’s the meaning of this? What did you come here for?”

Claugh asked.

On hearing that, Ryner,

“Eh? Well, about that......”

He seemed about to answer.

But, as expected, there was no need for that. It wasn’t necessary right from the start. After having felt the killing intent from Ryner, it was clear what he was here for.

That’s why it was a feint. A feint of words.

As Ryner was replying, Claugh pulled the knife out of his arm. He threw it. And Ryner had a look of surprise on his face. And he promptly attempted to dodge.

But it was too late.

He was too slow.

Claugh released his right arm.

He released his curse.

He was going to put everything to an end.

But what was it for?

What was he taking the lives of people for?

However, the answer was a simple one.

This was a battlefield.

And Ryner Lute was an enemy.

Then there was only one answer.

Only one thing to do to Ryner.

“............”

One thing to do to his enemy, and that is,

“...... kill!!”

While releasing the curse of his right arm, Claugh Klom shouted.

## 03. Volume 3 - The Great Plan Of The Azure Breath

### 001. Afterword

Geez, I'm so busy!

So busy!

What am I busy with? Thanks to the mischief from a cat, I'm busy with buying a new car to replace my destroyed car...... my bishoujo editor-in-charge went "Write the damn manuscript, heeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ☆"

Erm, I'm writing.

I'm writing you know!

And so ~.

This is Kagami, who's desperately writing the manuscripts for the afterword and the short story to be used for the awakening campaign present which is already due in the very same morning, among other things.

The truth is today,

"I-I-I'm sorry, for some reason, whether it is because I'm in a slump, or a trump, or due to my relatives' misfortune which were not, there's no manuscript ...... won't you extend the deadline? Ah, of course, it's not because I couldn't sleep from the excitement of buying a new car you know, really you know?"

Of course I can't possibly have such a phone conversation.

Because today!

Today there's a meeting in the editorial department on the plans for Toyota-san's interview and Denyuuden comic to be used for the July issue of DM alrightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ---

A ad on the comic adaptation of Denyuuden! (LOL)

Well --- so joyous.

Toyota-san already has a 4-koma, and following behind, the plans for a comic adaptation of Denyuuden has started.

Even though I don't know how the world of Denyuuden will be drawn, but since there's going to be a presentation done by the editorial department, I can't possibly go there with a sullen face as a result of not meeting my deadline, so consequently, I woke up at five in the morning to write this afterword.

The sun hasn't come out yet.

Well, the details about this book have already been revealed, I think.

Erm, anyway, before that, as usual.

"Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 3 The Great Plan Of The Azure Breath"

How's it?

This is how I've been starting afterwords all this while. Why do I always use so much space, well, the afterwords space this time is not half-assed.

My editor-in-charge told me that there will be 13 pages for the afterword.

But since I can't write 13 pages, I think I will use up all my energy halfway, but I'll do my best!

Please support me!

I shall proceed the use up the space extravagantly.

### 002. Afterword Part 2

Once again, how did you find "Daidenyuuden 3"?

Of course, those who have already read this should know by now, this time round, we have a serious volume that we have never had before.

A volume in which Ryner's perspective changed greatly.

A volume in which his burdens changed greatly.

On top of that, right from the start, it was climax after climax, to the reader, it might be kind of an extremely fast paced development, are you guys alright with this?

Even my bishoujo editor-in-charge K-san has commented that, the development in this volume is fast , and

"You take it slowly next volume you know!"

In Denyuuden, this kind of rare (LOL) developments might be strangely fast, but, for the rest of Daidenyuuden, it will be along these lines.

There are still many things to do to tie up the last part of the plot tightly.

Everyone, please continue to support this ongoing avalanche!

And so, next.

Editor K-san said,

"Anyway, just write about this in the afterwordddddddddddddddddd ☆"

To me and regarding the promotion.

Right now.

Inside the Dragon Magazine which has just undergone a renewal, is the once only revival of Denyuuden!

And it's going to be launched on the same day as this book, on May 20!

Denyuuden revives with its cover and opening special.

The cover appears to be demon king Ryner.

I haven't seen it myself yet, but the editorial department has judged the dark Ryner to be cool.

You, who are reading this book from the afterword in the bookstore.

Buy the Doramaga at the magazine corner as well! (LOL)

By the way, about the short story in the Doramaga --- then again, I wrote so much that it can't be called a short story though ---

What!

Seems like the contents are a rough continuation of "Dai Denyuuden 3". In the long chapter, the contents are pretty much crossovers.

Frankly, a long chapter is installed.

The core of the mystery behind Denyuuden, even I was trembling, completely moved to tears!

Me and my editor-in-charge, we would never have thought that the mystery will be unveiled in Doramaga! Wait, is this really ok? Is this really ok? The two of us moved to tears over the phone.

Those who are interested, please do buy it, read it, and send in the questionnaire.

Next, I shall tell you about the details of the Denyuuden manga adaptation, which I still know nothing about, as well as the Denyuuden Great Special Edition, lots of info, so please read on!

Denyuuden will probably not revive in Doramaga again except for occasionally, so this is valuable!

The symbol is Demon King Ryner.

Please support me!

That's what my editor-in-charge told me and that's all I have to write.

But still, there's something I need to go back to.

Umu.

13 pages is sure long ---.

Ah, that reminds me, I have to say thanks with regards to "The Legend of the Fallen Black Hero" where Sion is the protagonist.

For some reason, the "Ochiden" series has sold more than the already published "Toriden".

Normally, for a book, it definitely won't go past the accumulated numbers for the previous volume, but, maybe it's because from hereon, "Ochiden" will starting the Roland Revolution chapter, so it might feel like a new series, and with everyone's support, this impossible miracle has been accomplished.

Not just a volume before, but even two volumes before, super surprised.

Well, the truth is, I was really afraid. Since last time, the ad for the post "Toriden" series, "Denyuuden SHOW" was done, I forcibly pulled the plug on it and said I want to do the revolution chapter! Let's do "Ochiden"! I was really getting ahead of myself and trembling.

Thanks to everyone's encouragement, the higher ups answered to my willfulness and the editorial department and sales department even held a strategic meeting and many others really worked hard, and somehow I managed to get on this track.

That's why, together with the protagonist of Ochiden, Sion-kun, let us say our thanks.

Thank you.

So, please continue to support Daiden and Ochiden.

I ended it beautifully.

There are still enough pages left to kill me! (CRY)

I'm sorry to put in ads.

I shall continue to work hard.

Shall I write about my recent situation?

Speaking of recent situation, I've never written that many manuscripts before. I've been writing and writing. But writing manuscripts is normal, so I'll talk about something else.

I wrote about cars and cats in the opening section, erm, what's next?

Recently, at my workplace at 11.30pm, my fellow authors asked me to go to a Hanami . (By the way, I was writing this afterword during the Hanami season).

So on that night,

"Oh ~ little Taka."

And I was already having a sleepy face.

"Uwah, I'm already so sleepy and going to go back, and you called me?"

"No no, the night is still young right?"

"No, I want to go back already."

"Me too."

"Me three."

"Then don't call me during this houuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

I yelled out, but in the end, everyone got along till morning.

No one appeared at the workplace the next morning.

Well, as expected, work can only get done at the workplace! (LOL)

So, that's how I have fun in the workplace, together with four authors from Fujimi, and four authors from Dengeki.

Initially, there were only three of us, and before I knew it, it became like that.

Being an author can be a lonely thing, and when from the seat beside or the seat aside comes,

"Uwah ~, I want to die ~"

I don't feel that lonely anymore.

If you want to know about this, I've uploaded it in my homepage, Kagami Takaya's healthy lifestyle.

Somehow, I managed to finished 80% of the pages ~.

Time to go into the summing up!

By the way, if I don't conclude this soon, I won't make it in time for the next manuscript!

The deadline for this is one hour later!

Shall I end this with a short section!?

So, that's how it feels like, I'm tying things up.

But, before I conclude, there's something I always say.

Everyone, thank you as always.

With this volume, counting Elwin, Denyuuden, Kagami Takaya has written 39 books.

The next one will be the 40th!

Even though I felt like I've been swept to here, but the reason for that is because of everyone's encouragement.

A work can't be established without its readers. So really, thank you.

And to the bookstore peeps, thank you.

I've seen those signages.

As well as the displays of the books.

I'm amazed each time.

It's not just my effort, but everyone else, that this work can continue.

Thank you.

And, please continue to support me!

And somehow, as I'm writing this, the truth is, the editorial department has already sent me the manga adaptation as a present ~.

Information about the manga adaptation.

In July issue of the monthly Dragon Age (selling on 9-June (Monday)), an announcement comic for "Denyuuden" will be in!

In the August issue of Dragon Age, (selling on 9-July (Wednesdat)), the manga "Denyuuden" will start serialization!

The manga artist will be Nagakura Hiroko-san. At this point of time, I've not met him yet, but the Age editorial department sent me the drawings, the rough, and the name .

Somehow. It's awesooooommmmeeee!

The drawings, the name as well! I've seen the serious scenes of the long chapters, and it's really awesome!

On top of that, he sent his gratitude and about how much he likes Denyuuden, so everyone, please look forward to it!

So, we come to the conclusion again.

And also, after the end of this year, there are even more awesome things.

But, with regards to this awesome thing, it will start in September.

And, the start of that will be the launching of "Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 4" in September.

Speaking of that, I have to release a long story in September as well...... really dying...... (LOL)

So as to speak, the next time we meet, will be in Dragon Magazine's Denyuuden opening special, which will be sold at the same time as this volume.

And then, the next time will be Daiden 4 in Septemeber!

Please continue to support me!

### 003. Chapter 1: Towards North-Northeast

Die!!

If just saying that one word will cause someone to die, then no matter how many lives one has, it will never be enough.

That’s why, at the instant when,

“...... die!!”

Was shouted at Ryner Lute,

“Hn ah~?”

He groaned while scowling.

With messy black hair, and lazy black eyes,

However, his habitually sluggish, tall, lean, slouched figure, was entirely tensed up.

The reason was because, right now,

“...... oiy oiy spare me that would you ~”

He was attacked by a monster.

And with his lazy eyes, he looked at the monster in front of him.

“............”

Looking at the red haired "muscled brain" who shouted ‘die’ at him.

Currently, the person before Ryner was a man who had fiery red hair, and sharp gleaming eyes.

Ryner knew his name.

Field Marshal Claugh Klom.

The monster sent by Roland Empire’s Hero King, Sion Astal, to destroy Imperial Nelpha.

Claugh Klom.

The death god of the battlefield --- Claugh Klom.

That name was notoriously famous.

A man who once appears on a battlefield, will paint the ground red as the blood falls like rain and cause his enemies to scream in fear.

Everyone is afraid of his name.

Everyone will shake in fear at this name.

That was the name of Claugh Klom, one who can completely change the scenery of a battlefield.

And Ryner, in response to that,

“............”

How idiotic can this be.

He made a comeback at himself with his inner voice.

No matter how strong Claugh is, how can just the appearance of one man turn the tide of a battle? It can’t be as simple as that , he thought.

That’s why he made light of that, thinking that eighty percent of the rumors were exaggerations, and came here as a result.

With Ryner alone, he thought he could render one, two or three Claughs helpless and capture them.

On top of that, Ryner already had a grasp of Claugh’s strength, for he had sparred lightly with him once before.

At that time, Claugh’s movements were really terrific. He was strong and fast. Furthermore, contrary to him being a muscle brain, he was quick-witted and deployed his magic at a high speed.

If you don't consider him as a monster, then who can you call a monster?

That was how strong Ryner, a former member of the covert ops group called The Greatest Magician of Roland , thought of and ascertained Claugh.

But, but still.

“............”

Ryner thought he could win.

I’m probably a little stronger than Claugh Klom , he thought.

That’s why he came here.

In order to capture Claugh, he came to the campsite erected by Roland army who came to invade Imperial Nelpha.

And then he attacked Claugh.

He attacked the Claugh who was standing carelessly on top of the hill a small distance away from the campsite.

And Ryner would easily defeat and capture Claugh Klom with an overwhelming strength......

“............”

That should have been the case however.

Claugh pulled out a knife.

As he did so, with an incredible speed and accuracy, he aimed at the center of Ryner’s chest.

“Woah.”

Ryner groaned. If he tried to dodge, he wouldn’t make it.

Thus he knocked it away with his hand.

But, at that moment, Claugh was already moving. A move for killing Ryner.

Every bit of his movement was very much faster than the moves that they had exchanged previously.

On seeing that.

“............”

Shit, I was tricked , Ryner scowled.

The sparring that happened previously was in preparation for this instant.

A year ago.

Meaninglessly, Claugh had come to spar with Ryner. He came to attack Ryner, whom he disliked.

After having fought for about two, three rounds, and deploying their magic then --- Ryner had thought.

Claugh was indeed strong, but nothing like what the rumors had said, Ryner had thought.

But that was what he was made to think.

With a fed-up face, he glared at Claugh.

“What a swindler.”

On hearing that, Claugh grinned.

“You are the one to blame for being deceived.”

On hearing that, That’s quite right , Ryner thought.

In a battlefield, the one who’s deceived and killed has only himself to blame.

That was the first thing that Ryner had learned when he was undergoing battle training at the Germer Kleisrole Training Institute.

Every battle starts with deception and ends with deception.

"Now, how will you deceive me in order to stay alive?"

That was Germer Kleisrole had said.

"Now, how will you deceive the world in order to stay alive?"

That was what Ryner’s master had said.

While remembering those words,

“...... seems like I’ll be the one deceived and killed, Germer.”

He muttered softly.

Claugh said,

“Die.”

His right hand moved in his direction.

That arm was covered in a pitch-black color.

Pitch-black scribblings and patterns crawled around the surface of his arm.

So what in the world was that? Just by looking, Ryner understood.

A forbidden curse . An abnormally unthinkable sinister forbidden curse was implanted into that arm.

However, that was not a matter that could be considered sane.

This was just knowledge Ryner knew about; in experiments where the forbidden curse was placed into human bodies, ten thousand out of ten thousand people experimented on died --- it was the kind of experiment in which the odds of success were insanely low.

But yet, this fella had it implanted into his arm.

Despite the strength he possessed, in order to seek a new power, he further went on to implant the curse into his arm.

And Ryner understood what in the world the curse might be.

He closed and opened his eyes again.

With vermillion pentacles floating above his black pupils, he saw through the entirety of the curse attached to Claugh’s arm.

On that arm of Claugh.

“............”

Blue-black dragons cursing the world were sealed in it.

The eight cursed dragons that release blue flames.

Looking at that,

“............”

As Ryner was looking at that,

“...... isn’t there something wrong with your head?”

He muttered without thinking.

That was how abnormal the curse sealed in Claugh’s arm was.

On releasing the curse, the dragons will fly from Claugh’s arm all at once.

And then attack the enemy.

Anyone who’s bitten will be engulfed by the curse in an instant, and have his life force seeped away.

However, he won’t die immediately. Despite having his life force seeped away, he won’t die. Without dying, he will become a puppet of the person who has afflicted him with the curse, and live for ten hours.

After ten hours have passed, the curse will run its course and disintegrate his body, killing him.

“............”

On seeing that effect alone, Ryner understood how convenient the curse was. A magic that can kill and make the victim his puppet.

If it’s used on the battlefield, it will be an extraordinary powerful and convenient magic.

However, it’s not practical.

The forbidden curse that’s sealed is not something that can be used.

Why is that so?

The reason is simple.

This magic has too many flaws.

First, the burden on the user is too heavy. During its use, the user’s body will have to go through an excruciating amount of pain. The intensity of pain is so great that it’s impossible for one to retain his consciousness --- no, if it doesn’t go well, it won’t be strange even if he dies from shock.

But yet, why was Claugh, who was about to activate his curse, able to retain his consciousness? This was something Ryner could not understand.

On top of that, on activating the magic, even if all eight dragons can be released, only at most three of them can be controlled.

The remaining five will attack their surroundings indiscriminately.

In other words, if there were comrades around, it can’t be used. No, in that case, there was a chance that the remaining dragons will attack their user.

And if he’s bitten, death will surely come pay a visit.

“............”

No matter how he looked at the Claugh who was about to activate his curse before him, he could only see that it was a foolishly flawed magic.

Such a magic should not have been usable.

“............”

But Claugh released that magic which should not have been usable.

“You're kidding right.”

As Ryner groaned, Claugh’s arm was clad in blue black fire and the eight dragons came forth.

And then three out of those looked around their surroundings. After ascertaining that there was no target, they went after Claugh’s shoulder, waist, and foot, devouring them.

A sure-death curse.

The most terrible curse.

A curse of despair.

And Claugh should have readily died --- from his own curse that was invading him.

“............”

But that red hair muscle brain seemed completely fine and a smile floated on his face. And he ignored two other dragons which further went on to bite at his neck.

Looking at that, Ryner,

“...... are you immune to the curse?”

“............”

But Claugh did not answer. Only a smile of delight floated on his face. Embedded with killing intent, his piercing eyes looked towards here .

And then Claugh said.

“Now, the preparations have been made. Let’s kill each other seriously, shall we? Greatest Magician of Roland -kun.”

In a flash.

Two dragons were released from Claugh’s arm.

“Woah.”

Ryner uttered as he dodged.

One came from his right.

The other came from above.

Their movements were not that fast. It was possible to dodge.

But, on top of that,

“...... what I seek is iridescent destruction......”

On hearing Claugh’s voice,

“Seriously!?”

Ryner shouted as he looked towards Claugh. Claugh was drawing out a magical inscription with his left hand. The magic being deployed was Kuuri .

Firing spears of light, among Roland’s magic, it was one with the most destructive power.

It was of a high difficulty level, and not usable by one without a good mind.

To say it clearly, if a muscle brain, who can already move fast and has great strength, could use such a spell, he will be way too powerful! As he wanted to make a comeback, he turned to the Claugh who was wielding both a powerful magic and a forbidden curse at the same time,

“Isn’t this too unfair!”

Ryner hollered.

But a smile floated on Claugh’s face again,

“Who in the world was the one who said that you have to play fair?”

At that moment, Claugh had completed his Kuuri .

But, on seeing that, Ryner frantically drew his magic inscription in the air,

“What I seek is iridescent destruction...”

He chanted the same magic as Claugh.

And then.

" Kuuri "

Their magic were activated at the same time.

Light started to gather at the center of both their magic inscriptions. And then, for the sake of killing the enemy, the multi-colored beams that were conjured were fired, and clashed with each other.

Instantly.

A strong eye-dazzling light was dispersed into their surroundings, but, in such a dangerous situation, if he were to shut his eyes from the blinding light even for an instant, he would be killed. So he squinted his eyes to ascertain his surroundings, and with all his might, he retreated backwards.

Towards the forest where he was hiding earlier from Claugh, who was on top of the hill.

But,

“I won’t let you escape.”

He heard the voice of Claugh --- the monster called the death god of the battlefield.

While he was pursued by a monster with a power which he never encountered before,

“Ahh noww, this is terriblyyyyyyyyy bothersomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Ryner withdrew into the forest.

The forest of the deep night.

Today’s weather was fine, and though the moonlight lit up the surroundings, it did not reach the inside of the forest.

Despite the fact that it should have been advantageous to escaping.

Just a casual glance towards his back yielded a sight of flaming blue-black dragons coming from behind, right after Ryner,

“Shit!?”

He rolled onto the ground and dodged them. Immediately after that, he stood up, kicked the tree to his left, and jumped. He further went on to grab hold of a branch of a tree in front of him, then used it as a foothold, and went further up.

Up.

And then he turned his head around.

As he turned his head around in order to ascertain where his enemy was on the ground,

“Slow.”

Immediately, just right behind him, Claugh’s left fist came flying towards Ryner,

“How the heck can you be so fast!”

Ryner moaned as he pushed the fist aside.

Following that, he avoided the oncoming dragons and sent a kick towards Claugh’s face, but it was dodged.

At the same time, Ryner grabbed hold of another tree branch near him, and pulled himself towards a different tree, and then jumped.

Of course, Claugh was following right behind him, but Ryner could no longer turn his head around as that would surely get him chomped up by the dragons behind him.

Flying from tree to tree, and while doing that, Ryner drew a glowing magical inscription in the air.

And he completed it.

He chanted.

“WHAT I SEEK IS BURNING FIELDS >>> KURENAI”

Instantly, exploding flames burst out from the Ryner’s magical construct and sprung in the direction behind him, and then coming from behind him,

“WHAT I SEEK IS WATER MIST >>> MISUMI”

He heard the incantation of a magic that would bring forth an exploding jet of water.

As the flames and water clashed, the hissing sound of water turning into steam could be heard, but yet, Ryner did not look back.

But, Ahhhh, dang, he got me, what kind of monster is this! He complained silently.

“............”

Dang, he really got me.

The plan was to quickly defeat Claugh, restrain him, and use him as a hostage for many things.

But yet, what’s this?

What the hell is this?

Ryner gave a quick glance towards the monster that was chasing him from behind.

He looked at the form of Claugh, who was sending his cursed dragons towards him while in pursuit.

“............”

And then he started to believe somewhat. He started to believe somewhat in the rumor of him being able to turn the tide of a battle all by himself as he appears on a battlefield.

This really is a monster.

Using the forbidden curse , with a higher level of physical ability than Ryner, and on top of that, he readily deployed a counter magic to neutralize Ryner’s Kurenai .

That was some kind of an impossible strength.

It was a strength that would make one want to get away in a flash.

“............”

But, he couldn’t run away.

No matter what it took, it was necessary for Ryner to make this fella a hostage.

It was necessary to make this monster whom god may even fear a hostage.

It was for the sake of stopping the most terrible war that was going on in these lands.

Capturing Claugh was absolutely necessary for the sake of stopping this war started by his best friend, the Hero King of the largest country in the southern part of the continent, Roland Empire, Sion Astal.

“............”

Ryner once again gave a quick glance behind him, looking intently at the red haired monster who was closing in . And then.

“...... it seems like it’s completely impossible to restrain him......”

Ryner said with a exasperated voice.

He was way too naive. To have thought of restraining this fella all by himself, he was so naive that he wanted to beat himself up.

If he was seriously wanting to kill him, this could end up in a draw, he thought. But if he were to end up killing him, then it would become meaningless.

It was necessary to keep this red haired monster who was known as Sion’s right hand man, alive, restrain him, and on top of that, threaten him, and make him a hostage.

And once again,

“Ugh ~ super bothersome.”

Ryner groaned as he said.

“So as to speak, I really hate this kind of bothersome stuff.”

He lamented.

“In the first place ~, getting chased by this monster, working hard in order to stop the war, creating world peace, to say this clearly, I'm not the least interested at all, let some other hero-wannabe take on such bothersome stuff......”

At that moment, from behind him, the blue black dragons again come biting,

“Woah, that’s really dangerous, no, someone save me please, I seriously hope this will stop! I really hate working hard like this!”

He yelled, and from behind him, Claugh said.

“Then, get on with it and die.”

“You are right. If I just die, I can relax and struggle no more, isn’t it.”

“I’ll lend you my hand.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I shall accept your kind offer, will you kill me ~”

Even as he said that, Ryner’s feet kept moving. While jumping from tree to tree, he drew glowing words in the air.

That was a magic which he had previously stolen from the mage knight battalion of the Kingdom of Estabul. Looking back, this was something from a long time ago. It was during the time when he and Sion were still students and fighting the mage knight battalion of the Kingdom of Estabul; a magic he copied when he was in danger of getting killed.

He’s using that magic now.

“I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN”

Instantly.

Ryner’s body appeared to shimmer. At the same time, his speed increased.

The magic he chanted was one that released the limiter in his mind, and allowed his physical abilities to increase dramatically.

And then a smile floated on his face,

“Alright. Preparations done. With this, it’s time to fight a little with the monster......”

In the midst of saying that.

He once again heard the voice of Claugh from behind him.

The voice of Claugh chanting.

But, in response to those words, Ryner,

“............”

His eyes widened and he turned his head around in shock.

As he did that, Claugh’s spell was completed.

The glowing words that appeared from his left hand were the same as those drawn out by Ryner seconds ago.

The same construct.

The same magic.

But that was something impossible.

Because it was Estabul’s magic.

It was a pretty high level magic, which only pretty excellent magic scholars, after studying the basics and architectural constructs of Estabul’s magic, could acquire after three or four years.

A normal soldier couldn’t possibly use it.

No, even if the soldier is a capable one, he shouldn’t be able to use it.

And besides, it was not even two years since Estabul had been absorbed by Roland. Even if both sides were to exchange and share magical knowledge they possess, many years should have been needed before a soldier could use it.

Of course, it was a different story for people like Ryner who could copy magic with their special eyes, but he had never heard that Claugh was an Alpha Stigma bearer.

Then, how was it done?

How did this fella accomplish it?

“You...... how in the world did you manage to learn Estabul’s magic?”

On hearing Ryner’s question, Claugh shrugged his shoulders readily,

“...... hard work?”

“Huhh? It’s not something you can achieve by hard work alone, isn’t it?”

“It might be so for a normal person. But it seems like I’m a genius, you know?”

“Uweh ~, a person who calls himself a genius has to be an ordinary person...”

However, Claugh was undoubtedly a genius.

It was something he had already recognized.

Even when Ryner was active in Roland’s covert ops group, he had never quite seen any monster like that.

On top of that, those geniuses who were not spoiled and actually put in hard work simply didn’t exist.

Ryner,

“This could be bad.”

As he groaned, Claugh laughed ‘haha’. As he laughed, he chanted.

Estabul’s magic.

“I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN”

As he did that, the magic really activated.

The magic which should not have been usable by a Roland soldier was activated.

Claugh’s body started shimmering faintly, and in one breath, his movement speed increased.

He closed the gap.

Those movements of his were even faster than the magically sped-up Ryner.

Ryner was already at a loss.

Ryner was at a loss of what to do with such a monster all by himself.

And Claugh delightfully,

“What’s this. Just running away, isn’t that boring? Or is this all you’ve got? Perhaps, this Estabul magic was your trump card? If that’s the case......”

At that moment, he further went on to increase his speed. He kicked a tree with all his strength, closed in the gap between him and Ryner, side by side with him, he looked at him and said.

“...... can I finally kill you now?”

Ryner looked at Claugh’s face,

“You can’t.”

He replied.

“Alright. Then I shall kill you.”

“Didn’t I say that you can’t!”

“Haha. You’re noisy.”

As he said that, Claugh swung his right arm. Three blue-black flaming dragons were about to attack Ryner.

On seeing that, Ryner,

“Ahh ~”

He said.

Ahh , he said it with a really exasperated voice.

Ahh, I can’t take this anymore .

“...... if I don’t fight seriously, I’ll really get killed......”

He said.

His opponent was fighting seriously with an intent to kill. It’s time for him to get serious and do the same as well.

His original plan to defeat his opponent and restrain him had to be changed.

No, well, he had another plan that could have settled things without fighting, but it seemed like it wouldn’t come through in time.

If, there’s a one in million chance that Claugh is insanely strong --- no, he is in fact strong --- and Ryner could no longer cope with it; there was in fact another plan for such a situation, but,

“...... if I wait for that, I might be killed. Then.”

At that moment, Ryner's eyes changed into a sharp piercing gaze.

Following that, in his head, a battle plan against Claugh started unfolding.

There were three parts to it.

First, sidestep his opponent’s attack.

Second, trick him.

Third, kill him.

“...... shall I get started?”

At that moment, Ryner stepped onto a large branch, and turned and changed the direction he was facing.

In response to that, Claugh also stopped in his tracks on the large branch. And then,

“Orh, at last, you’re getting serious?”

As he said that, he made a guarded face, having realized that Ryner’s aura had changed.

On seeing that, this fella is really a tough nut to crack , Ryner thought as he scowled again.

If he were to let his guard down, it would be possible for Ryner to take advantage of an opening without killing him.

However, there was entirely none at all.

Even though from appearances, he seemed to be enjoying the fight from his broad grin, he was certainly not fooling around.

That’s why, with a sad and tired looking face, Ryner said.

“Geez, I really don’t want to kill you, you know.”

On hearing that, as expected while looking as if he was enjoying himself, Claugh,

“An interesting joke.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Furthermore, you won’t be able to kill me.”

“Perhaps. But, you won’t know till I try.”

“I know.”

“Really, I wonder?”

“Yeah.”

“I see...... well, it’d be a bother, but let’s get on with it.”

“Hurry up and get on with it.”

“Yeah.”

After he nodded, Ryner, for once, drew out all his strength. And he turned off the switch. That was the switch in his head. He released the inhibition in which he would unconsciously take it easy on his opponent. Following that, he gradually lowered his stance. While drawing soft breaths, he gathered power into his body.

And then,

“Here goes.”

At the same time he spoke.

He released all the built-up energy in his body.

In a breath, he lunged at Claugh.

Even though Claugh set two of his dragons on him, he readily dodged. While dodging, he drew out magical inscriptions in mid-air.

A complex construct. As he quickly drew out an elaborate magical construct, Claugh reacted.

The magic that Ryner drew out was the same as before. The flame magic which Claugh had counteracted with Misumi previously, Kurenai .

He chanted that once again.

With a relaxed expression, Claugh began,

“That’s the same one as before.”

He said, and then started chanting Misumi .

But that was a fake.

Rather, the Kurenai Ryner had cast earlier was a fake.

Earlier, Ryner had intentionally activated Kurenai at a slow pace. His real magical construction ability was at a speed so fast that there was no way Claugh would have time to finish chanting a counter-spell.

But, earlier, he had chanted his magic slowly.

In order to make Claugh think that he was superior in his magical construction ability, and induce a mistake from him, he had chanted his magic slowly intentionally.

And Claugh had fallen into his trap.

On seeing Ryner’s Kurenai , Claugh started chanting Misumi at a relaxed pace.

But he was too late.

He was entirely too late.

From here on, in the time before Claugh could finish constructing his Misumi , he would already be done with Kurenai’s inscription, and on top of that, he would be able to thrust his hand into the magical inscription of Misumi that Claugh was drawing, and change the construct.

That’s why,

“It’s the end.”

As he said that, he immediately completed Kurenai , and further went on to thrust his hand into Claugh’s magical inscription of Misumi .

On seeing that, at last, Claugh’s expression changed.

“Damn you.”

As he said that, he gave up on working on his magical construct, and started attacking Ryner instead, but he was too late.

The Kurenai behind Ryner had started activating.

Flames had gathered in the center of the magical inscription, and was aimed in Claugh’s direction,

“Shit.”

Claugh groaned. Following that, he extended a dragon from his right arm, which bit onto a tree some distance away from him, and subsequently, he was reeled towards it.

With that, he somehow managed to evade the flaming missiles, but that was the end.

Ryner had completed changing the Misumi drawn out by Claugh, forcibly changing it to Kuuri .

And aiming it towards Claugh,

“WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>>......”

As he was chanting the spell, and just as he was about to fire off Kuuri , his hand stopped moving.

Following that, he slowly.

“............”

He slowly shifted his line of sight, and looked at the dragon shrouded in blue-black flames, which was about to bite into the back of his neck.

Before he knew it, a dragon, with an instant death curse embedded within its fangs, had encircled him from behind and was in position to bite into his neck.

If Claugh were to order it, in a flash, Ryner would be killed.

However, it was the same the other way round.

Kuuri was almost completed. What’s left was the incantation --- just one more line to utter, once the incantation was completed, Claugh would be impaled by Kuuri and die. At this kind of near distance, no matter how his body movements had been sped up, he wouldn’t be able to dodge.

It was one more step for the both of them.

Both of them were in a position to kill each other in just about a tenth of a second.

Ryner turned his eyes to face the Claugh who was hanging from his dragon clinging on to a tree some distance away.

“...... damn. After getting so serious, it’s a tie.”

“............”

But Claugh did not answer.

Ryner shrugged his shoulders,

“So, what’s next? If we end it in a tie like this, it’d be a little fruitless, I think.”

As he was staring at Ryner, Claugh said.

“I don’t think so. You are strong enough to make me think that it’s better to kill you here even if it’s a tie.”

“Ah-rah? Are those words of praise?”

“You can take it that way.”

“Then shall we call it a tie?”

“............”

Claugh glowered at him. And his killing intent further swelled up.

An intent to kill.

An intent to kill by sacrificing himself.

And there was no way the both of them could evade each other’s attacks.

It was the worst.

It was the worst kind of situation.

But still, even so,

“............”

A smile floated on Ryner’s face.

A relaxed smile. It was his usual languid, unmotivated smile.

On seeing that, Claugh raised his eyebrows in puzzlement.

“Why did you smile?”

But Ryner,

“No, I think in the end, it’s my win.”

“Huh? How so? Where did your chance of winning come......”

However.

At that point, Claugh stopped his words. And then Claugh’s sharp expression contorted.

Ryner looked at him and smiled.

“Ah, you’ve noticed?”

“............”

As expected, Claugh did not answer.

But, it didn’t matter anyhow.

Then Ryner turned his gaze to behind Claugh.

He was looking in the direction of the place where the original alternative plan of capturing Claugh, the plan that he was previously waiting for, had activated.

Behind the Claugh who was hanging from a tree.

Below him, a peerless beauty was looking up at them.

With long golden hair, and clear blue eyes. An extraordinary well featured face. Wearing a one-piece with a short skirt portion that was unsuitable for a battlefield. At the waist portion of that one-piece, she wore a long sword which those slender arms of hers do not seem capable of wielding, and as usual, in her right hand was a skewer of dango.

Ryner’s partner, Ferris Eris.

Ferris was looking up at them with an uninterested look.

“What? Didn’t you say Single-handedly, I’ll win effortlessly puppu ~ in a high and mighty manner, and you’re still fighting like an idiot?”

She said.

On hearing that, Ryner smiled wryly,

“I never did say I’ll win effortlessly puppu~ .”

“Then it’s poppo -?”

“No, there’s not where the problem is...... this fella is a thousand times stronger than I thought, you know.”

“Isn’t it because you’re weak?”

“No, to fight such an opponent till this point, I would even praise myself for it.”

As he said that, Ryner looked at Claugh.

As always, he had a stern face. No, it was a face of someone desperately thinking about how to break out of this situation.

It was the face of a fellow who refuses to give up no matter how bad the situation was.

Seeing that, Ryner frowned and began,

“But, it’s useless, you see, Claugh? Your loss is set. No matter how strong you are, you won’t be a match for both me and Ferris, besides......”

At that moment, Ryner looked at Ferris again. No, he was looking at the trump card of his plan, which she had been dragging along with her left hand.

“............”

Trump card --- gripped at the nape of the neck and dragged along by Ferris, an unconscious, young, blond man.

This was another plan that Ryner had devised.

In the situation where he were to carry out negotiations with Claugh, in order to make him listen to his demands and on top of that have him accept them, it was necessary to have an advantageous leverage of such an extent.

What could he do to bring about this?

One.

Ryner to beat down Claugh and capture him. But there was a danger to that. If Claugh was stronger than he thought --- well, as a matter of fact, he’s really a thousand times stronger than he thought --- in reverse, Ryner might be killed instead, and on top of that, even if he could capture Claugh, there was also the possibility that he would not submit and say something like Kill me! , and not listen to Ryner’s demands. Furthermore, fighting him with Ferris at the onset was also not an option. If they did that, then it’s possible that Claugh’s comrades would reinforce him and with a large army against them, they would have no chance of winning at all.

That’s why, so as to speak, Ryner had another plan prepared.

Ryner would attack Claugh alone, and draw him away from the camp, and in the meantime ---

“............”

At that moment, Ryner looked down at the man dragged by Ferris,

“Well, is that the guy?”

Ferris nodded.

“The vice officer of that red haired man. The name is Shuss Shirazz. If I’m to become a burden to Field Marshal Klom, I’ll kill myself , as he was saying that, I knocked him out.”

Ferris said.

Ryner began delightedly,

“I see ~. You sure have an excellent subordinate, don’t you, Claugh-chan ~.”

As he said that, he looked at Claugh.

Without saying anything, he glared at Ryner.

But, Ryner appeared indifferent. He only had to move according to his plan.

He grabbed hold of the dragon which was about to bite into his neck.

“Well now, first, dismiss this dragon. Just killing me alone, and in exchange for that, losing the lives of the famous Claugh Klom-sama, and the capable vice officer Shuss Shirazz, that won’t make it too worthwhile right?”

He said.

On hearing that, while Claugh continued glaring at him,

“...... what do you want?”

He said in a low, menacing voice.

However, in response to those words, a smile surfaced on Ryner’s face.

All this while, he had been working hard at getting those words out from his opponent.

And there was only one thing he wished for.

Can you give me some time?

That was it.

Even for him, he was well aware of the current situation in Roland Empire.

The fact that Roland was currently invading Nelpha, and carrying out large scale massacres as a show to kill the other countries’ spirit of putting up a resistance.

After showing the massacre in Nelpha, it would strike a dent into the other countries’ will to resist, and Roland could get them to surrender without fighting.

That was a necessary path to a minimum loss of lives and the fastest way to end the war.

That was what Sion had seemingly considered.

Even though he hated wars, he hated people dying, and he hated causing grief to others, that was the path that Sion had seemingly considered, choosing to shoulder all the burden upon himself.

And Ryner also understood the need for such a war.

Even though he couldn’t accept it, but on this Menoris continent where the flames of war were spreading fiercely, he could understand how that was the only available choice.

That’s why would you give some time to Nelpha? , that’s what Ryner had come to negotiate about.

What’s transpiring in Imperial Nelpha right now could be said to be the worst case scenario for both Nelpha and Roland.

Sion’s plan was probably to invade Nelpha with an overwhelming force and secure a swift surrender.

No, that really did happen.

The benevolent king of Nelpha, Gread Nelphi,

"I shall offer my own head and the confinement of my son, Prince Starnel...... so in exchange, would you stop massacring Nelpha’s people?"

That was the proposal he had intended to put forth to Roland.

However, just before that, the stupid son Prince Starnel, caring only about his own life, went berserk.

First, he killed his own father, Gread Nelphi, and slammed down the declaration of surrender.

On top of that, in order to buy time for his own escape, he sent forth ten thousand soldiers to clash with Roland’s forces, ordering them to repel Roland.

Furthermore, he commanded the remaining sixty eight thousand troops himself and started massacring and looting his own people.

That was a worst case scenario that was already beyond anyone’s expectations.

With this, until Roland had killed the unyielding stupid son, the war had to continue.

Destroying all the cities, killing all the soldiers, completely obliterating Nelpha, and the need to show all this to the entire world.

The reason was because, thanks to the stupid son who valued his life more than the country and people, Nelpha would never surrender.

However, in such a dreadful worst case scenario, it was not without a glimmer of hope.

That would be Toale Nelphi.

The son of that stupid prince Starnel and his commoner mistress, who one year ago, extended his hand to help Ryner and Ferris, who should have been strangers to him and had somewhat drifted to Nelpha while they were searching for relics, a kind, nice kid, that Toale, who of course was much more popular than the stupid prince Starnel among the populace, had stepped out to take command of the abandoned ten thousand troops and stopped them from advancing.

He stopped a pointless clash between Roland and Nelpha’s armies.

And Roland should be happy about that as well.

Since with the appearance of Toale, Roland’s original goal of minimizing the loss of lives and making Nelpha submit was once again possible.

And the wise Toale would definitely,

"I will surrender, so could you let the ten thousand soldiers and people off?"

He would request.

Of course, Roland would refuse. Since if Roland were to let them off, then it would not be able to make a display to the other countries.

That’s why Roland would tell Toale,

"Go take the throne from the current king of Nelpha, from that stupid prince. After that, if you make a surrender to Roland, we will accept it. Of course, in order to make a show to the other countries, Toale Nelphi of royal lineage will be executed......"

And Toale would definitely accept. If he’s able to save everyone with his life, Toale would accept.

However, regarding that demand, it would be a pretty unreasonable one.

The reason was because right now, Toale only had ten thousand soldiers with him.

On the other hand, Starnel was commanding a sixty eight thousand troop army.

Roughly seven times.

No matter one thought about it, not a single chance of winning could be seen.

On top of that, even if Toale were to win, what was going to come after that would be his execution.

And furthermore, Toale would accept that execution with a smiling face.

And there’s no way he could be saved, something at the level that would make one cry out what the hell’s that ,

That’s why.

“............”

Could you please wait a while , that’s the bargain Ryner wanted to strike.

With even less sacrifices.

In order to advance in the direction of a scenario with even less people getting hurt, Ryner had come to strike a deal with Claugh.

The time for Ryner to go capture Prince Starnel alone.

And the time for Toale to escape out of the country before the situation whereby the royalty of Nelpha gets killed arose.

In order to accomplish these two things, he needed the time.

Even though Ryner came here to ask for more time, there was no way he could say that he needed more time and expect it to be given to him.

That’s why Ryner said.

“For now, could you leave your troops here and return to Sion’s side?”

On hearing that.

Claugh, while glaring at Ryner,

“...... I see. You’re trying to buy time.”

He said.

With only one sentence from Ryner, Claugh could get roughly what Ryner was thinking about.

Furthermore, Claugh said.

“But, why are you supporting Nelpha? It has nothing to do with.......”

But, Ryner interrupted there,

“Toale is my friend. And, I can’t betray my friends...... well, it’s some ultra naive talk, can you agree to it?”

On hearing those words,

“............”

A slight smile floated on Claugh’s face. But it’s not a mocking smile.

“Are you agreeing to it?”

“............”

But, as expected, Claugh did not reply. And without replying to that question,

“However, what’s in it for me to cooperate with you in saving your friend? Are you going to abduct Starnel and bring him to me?”

“Yeah.”

Ryner nodded, and Claugh laughed.

“Ha. That’s an unnecessary thing. If it’s just that, we could do it as well. Supporting Toale Nelphi, killing Starnel, and executing Toale after that. The only difference our methods lies only in whether Toale is going to die or not. However, in order to make a demonstration to the other countries, we need to kill Toale. Roland is no longer a cowardly country that will let someone of royal lineage and who has commanded an army once live.”

“Is that Sion’s view?”

“That’s right. Sion’s different from you, he wouldn’t sacrifice the lives of others just for the sake of saving one life.”

“............”

That’s right, Ryner thought.

Claugh’s words.

The path that Sion was taking.

There was nothing more right than that.

But even if this was said to be right, it didn’t mean that everyone would follow along with it, Ryner thought.

Even if this was said to be right, it didn’t mean that everyone would achieve happiness, Ryner thought.

At the very least, if Toale were to die.

If he were to die, Ryner would be sad.

No, not just Ryner. Toale is a well-liked person. He is well-liked by the people of this country. To kill the Toale who is well-liked the people of this country was not really a good choice for the Roland that’s subjugating Nelpha from here on, Ryner thought.

Of course, it would be good for an instant. To overwhelm Nelpha with fear, and to overwhelm the neighbouring countries, and to further overwhelm their neighbouring countries, if it were to sweep across everything with its might alone, then that choice might be the correct one, but was there really a need to move forward in such a hurry?

A little.

Wouldn’t it be a good thing to take things a little more slowly, and move forward along a path that could bring a smile to everyone.......

“...... that’s how the naive stupid me thinks though.”

He murmured as he was looking southwards, in the direction where Sion was, the direction of Roland.

And Claugh who could hardly hear him,

“Huh?”

He said, but Ryner appeared indifferent to that.

He turned to face Claugh again,

“Well, I’ve already known right at the start that you are going to reject my offer though.”

“Then, that’s the end of our talk. Let’s get on with the killing.”

“That’s why I was saying, if we do that, it’ll be unfavorable against you......”

But, a smile surfaced on Claugh’s face again,

“I have the confidence to evade your Kuuri . The one’s who’s gonna die is only you.”

He said something scary.

On hearing that, Ryner,

“...... even for me...... erm...... I also have the confidence to probably dodge your dragon barely, you know?”

“Right.”

“No, I’m serious. Anyway, even for you, it’ll be by a hair’s breadth to dodge Kuuri .”

“We’ll know for certain once we try it.”

“No no, that’s why I say, once we try it, we can’t take our actions back anymore. And besides, if we do that, what’s going to happen to Shuss? I’ll dodge the dragon. You’ll dodge Kuuri . But the hostage Shuss......”

But, while smiling, Claugh said.

“For a soft, naive person like you, can you kill a hostage, I wonder?”

On hearing those words.

A wry smile surfaced on Ryner’s face,

“...... ah-rah, you really hit where it hurts. But, to go against such a naive opponent, do you really need to fight so frenziedly? Do you really think such a naive guy will become a threat to you in the future?”

This time round, it was Claugh’s turn to smile wryly.

“...... no, I don’t think so.”

“Isn’t it? Then, why don’t you listen to me till the end? At any rate, the things we say will just be nonsense, unsophisticated stuff that can’t pose a threat to you, so if you’re willing to listen to me with a magnanimous heart, I’ll be really happy, I guess.”

On hearing those words.

Claugh appeared to consider those words for a moment. Seconds later, appearing to have reached a decision, he closed one eye and,

“Disppear, < >.”

He issued some kind of command, and the dragon that was poised to bite into Ryner’s neck disappeared.

On top of that, the dragons that were surrounding Claugh also disappeared and he dropped to the ground.

In response to that, Ryner,

“Ferris.”

He called out, but even before he had even done so, Ferris was already moving towards him, dragging Shuss alongside, but.

“Hey hey, leave Shuss here.”

Claugh called out from behind Ferris, stretching out his hand.

In response to that, Ferris,

“You’re hindering me.”

As she said that, she drew the sword at her waist at an unbelievable speed. And that was already at a speed which Ryner could not follow with his eyes.

The sword was drawn at a timing which should have been impossible to evade, but,

“Woah.”

Claugh uttered as he dodged it. And following that, he caught hold of Shuss’s head. And on top of that, he picked up a fallen branch from the ground and attempted to thrust it towards Ferris.

“Hm?”

Ferris turned her body, and sidestepped it. At that instant, Claugh straightened his stance. While hauling Shuss towards him, his right hand started drawing a glowing magical inscription.

And as Ferris was about to slice at that magical inscription with her sword.

At that moment, Ryner,

“That’s enough Ferris. Come back for now.”

He said.

Immediately, Ferris reacted and jumped a step backward. She further went on to kick the ground, then kicked a tree trunk, and landed on the branch next to the branch that Ryner was standing on.

For some reason, she had a dissatisfied look on her face,

“That red head...... he’s much stronger than the last time I fought him.”

“Hn? Even Ferris had a go with him before?”

“Yeah. It was three years ago. It was on Sion’s orders, I recall.”

“I see. So, did you win?”

“We didn’t manage to finish it.”

“Then, can you win now?”

I wonder? , Ferris tilted her head in such a manner in response, after which, a faint smile, which would have been indecipherable by other onlookers, floated on her face,

“But, together with you, he won’t be a match.”

She said.

Ryner nodded and smiled thinly.

And then, he looked down at Claugh.

“Well then, are you ready to listen to what I have to say now? Even with Shuss returned to you, the situation hasn’t changed one bit. You won’t be a match for the both of us. Even if there are moves we can’t use because of our naivety, the situation won’t change. That’s why, there is no good reason for you to easily dismiss what I have to say...... so will you listen to me right till the end?”

“What if I refuse?”

“Then Ferris and I will make lots of holes in you and slowly, I shall say what I want to say right next to your ear.”

On hearing that, Claugh grimaced.

“How annoying.”

He said and Ryner smiled.

“Really? Are we really that annoying?”

“Uwah, these guys are really annoying...... that’s why I’ve told Sion this, don’t mix around with that dubious Alpha Stigma bearer ...... well, it seems like I don’t have a choice. So, speak. At any rate, I won’t be listening to your bullshit, but somehow, right now, since you guys have the upper hand, I’ll just stay still and ignore you for a while.”

“Alright, I did it. Well then, please hear me out.”

“Though even if I hear you out, things won’t go the way you want, and nothing will change.”

That was what Claugh said, but a smile floated on Ryner’s lips.

Since things were moving along according to his plans.

Ryner said.

“You know, Claugh. Sion is trying to show the might of Roland to the world right?”

On hearing that, Claugh scowled with an annoyed face,

“I told you I’m ignoring you, and didn’t say that I’ll answer your questions one by one.”

“You’re mean.”

“Whatever, just move on.”

Ryner shrugged his shoulders and continued.

“In other words, this invasion against Nelpha must succeed at all costs.”

“............”

“To achieve that perfectly. In order to make Nelpha and the other countries shake in complete fear of Roland’s might, and kill their spirit to resist Roland, it is necessary for Roland to overwhelm Nelpha.”

“............”

“However, if say, in the midst of it, a rumor about Roland’s army losing somewhere spreads, what will you do?”

At that question, Claugh finally responded. With piercing eyes, he looked at Ryner,

“...... what on earth are you scheming? In this southern part of the continent, there’s no longer any country that has the power to go against Roland......”

But Ryner interrupted.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

He said.

And that was the truth.

Nelpha, and Roland’s ally Runa Empire, as well as the Cassla north of them, not one of these countries would probably have a fighting force that would be a match for Roland.

Roland was blessed with an excellent king. A king who would not rest, who would not slack, and on top of that possesses a brilliant mind, a king who would not make a mistake in his decisions.

That’s why he’s called the Hero King.

One who would definitely not stop moving forward, the saviour of the country, the one called Sion Astal.

As long as Sion remained as the king, the current Roland was probably peerless in power in the southern part of this continent.

But still, even so.

“...... even so, if Roland were asked whether it has enough energy to deal with both Nelpha and Runa together, what would be the answer, I wonder.”

“............”

“No, that’s not right. Perhaps it can really stand up to the both of them. The current Roland probably has that kind of power. But having the ability to deal with both countries at the same time and whether it’s necessary to deal with both countries at the same time are two separate matters, isn’t it? If you do that, there will be too many sacrifices. To become the supreme ruler of the south with the least sacrifices and in the fastest amount of time...... in other words, Sion’s plan may fall apart if he had to deal with both Nelpha and Runa at the same time. If possible, I’m sure Sion would like to absorb and integrate the might of Nelpha and Runa into Roland, am I right?”

On hearing all that, Claugh already more or less had an idea of what Ryner was planning, and he glared angrily at him,

“Damn you, are you going to instigate Runa to start a war with Roland?”

He said and in response to that, Ryner smiled. He smiled delightedly.

And then,

“No, I’m going for something more distasteful.”

He said.

Ryner was brewing a really bad-ass plan.

It was bad-ass to Roland.

No, even to Nelpha, to Runa, to everything, it was a bad-ass plan.

Ryner told him of that plan.

“Didn’t you guys lose track of the location of Toale and his ten thousand soldiers?”

On hearing that, Claugh glowered at him and said.

“So, it’s your damn doing?”

“You can say that.”

“What the hell are you trying to accomplish?”

“Well now, what is it indeed?”

“Hurry up and spit it out. Otherwise, I’ll kill you.”

“But the current you can’t kill us.”

On hearing that, Claugh’s red eyes were filled with a scarlet hatred, and Ryner could tell they were redder and deeper, but he appeared unconcerned.

Claugh was already dancing in his palm.

Ryner knew the location of Toale, a piece of information which Roland most wanted to get hold of.

For the matter to progress, Claugh would now have to listen to what Ryner had to say.

With a smile of satisfaction, Ryner continued.

“So, where on earth did the ten thousand soldiers disappear to?”

“............”

“The answer is at a location further east of the place where your scouts had thought where they should have been...... at a dangerous position just touching the borders of Runa, and they are still on the move in fact.”

On hearing those words, Claugh’s expression changed.

However, as expected, Ryner continued indifferently.

“And on top of that, for some reason, the ten thousand army led by Toale is carrying a Roland flag we’ve prepared...... now, what will that be for, I wonder?”

At that point, there was no longer a need to further explain it to Claugh.

Claugh had a dark look of despair and despondency on his face. That was how distasteful Ryner’s plan was.

In other words, this was what Ryner had been shooting for.

Toale would lead his ten thousand soldiers to attack Runa while carrying Roland’s flag.

Of course, Runa would mistakenly think that Roland, which had acquired power and had grown impudent, had broken their alliance and come to attack them.

Runa and Roland would then probably end up being plunged into a war. Even if not so, the fact was, in order to make an example of Nelpha to the world, Roland had carried out some unseemly acts against Nelpha.

Afraid of suffering the same fate as Nelpha, Runa would do its utmost to stand up to Roland.

And it’s probable that Runa would join forces with Nelpha and start to fight back against Roland.

They might even request aid from Cassla to their north.

The tyrant Sion Astal has run amok, lend us your hand in defending against Roland , such a development might unfold.

That would be the most extreme case that Roland needed to prepare itself against, that’s why it’s making an example of Nelpha now.

Imperial Nelpha, Runa Empire, and the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, and the other counties in the southern part of the continent, in order not to have them gang up together, Roland had to make an example of Nelpha by crushing it.

But all that would come to naught.

All that would come to naught if Ryner and Toale were to attack Runa by masquerading as Roland’s forces.

To top it off.

“...... the army we’re leading, that is ten thousand soldiers masquerading as Roland’s forces, will run away in fear upon meeting Runa...... that’s the act we’re going to put on, you know? What will happen then, I wonder? The guys from Runa, as well as from Cassla, will start thinking, Hey, aren’t the Roland fags surprisingly weak? Is there a need to fear them? , something like that......”

At that moment.

“Enough.”

Claugh said. And he continued looking at Ryner.

“...... I get your shitty plan. So, what is it that you want? In exchange for not carrying out that idiotic plan to spread this war in an idiotic way, what do you want from us?”

Once again, Ryner smiled.

With his plan moving on perfectly, he smiled.

“Hadn’t I said it right at the start? Won’t you give me a little time? Won’t you give me a little time to capture Starnel and hand him over to you, and furthermore, enough time for Toale to get out of the country, that is.”

On hearing those words,

“............”

Claugh was about to say something, but Ryner shook his head.

“Ah, but you don’t have the authority to decide, I already knew that...... for now, just go back to Sion, and tell him my proposal, that’s what I meant, so how does that sound?”

Continuing to look intently at Ryner, Claugh,

“...... so, during this time, you’re going to catch hold of Starnel?”

“Exactly.”

“Can you do it?”

“Well, please wait for me till I get it done.”

Once again, Claugh appeared to consider. He averted his eyes from Ryner and looked behind him at his camp and then,

“...... fine. I will go ask Sion. But as to how Sion will reply.”

But, that was interrupted by Ryner.

“Sion will agree to my plan. Since this is the path to the least number of sacrifices. That’s the kind of guy he is.”

He said.

He had come to understand Sion well after spending the past few years with him.

Sion would definitely jump at the proposal that Ryner had put forth in this current situation.

On the surface, Roland could not save Toale outright. Since this would show a weakness of Roland to the other countries.

However, if a third party --- for example, in this case, Ryner --- a person who had no affiliation with Roland were to save Toale, what would happen?

In that case, it would not show Roland as being soft. That’s why Ryner had the confidence that Sion would jump onto his proposal.

And Claugh should also understand that. Claugh’s expression relaxed slightly.

He turned to face Ryner.

“...... but from now on, you should know that you will be carrying the lives of a pretty large number of people on your shoulders right?”

He said to Ryner.

On hearing that, Ryner,

“............”

He smiled with a slightly weary look and shrugged his shoulders.

Since he had already known this a long time ago.

The lives of the ten thousand soldiers led by Toale.

The lives of the hundreds of thousands of people of Nelpha to be massacred by Roland in its campaign.

The almost seventy thousand lives of the troops led by Starnel.

The tens of thousands of victims on Roland’s side.

Sion could not save them.

Carrying everything upon himself alone, crying and hollering in anguish, and even so, Sion had to continue moving forward and could not save them.

That’s why, those lives exceeding hundreds of thousands rest on Ryner’s plan.

For the first time, the lives of other people rest heavily on Ryner’s shoulders.

In response to that,

“............”

He truly felt like running away.

It was frightening, heavy, and painful enough to make him feel like crying, he thought.

But, he could no longer.

“............”

He could no longer run away from it anymore.

He had always let Sion carry the heavy burdens, and he himself had been running away all this while, so he could no longer run away from it anymore.

He had to fight alongside him.

If the next time he met him, he would still want to call himself a friend, he could no longer afford not to fight; it would be inexcusable.

That’s why Ryner looked down at Claugh and said.

“...... I shall carry them properly, I think. Since I had been letting Sion carry them all this while, I shall carry them properly. That’s why, could you tell Sion about it. The words I’ve said earlier......”

“Huh? The words you’ve said earlier? What words? Regarding giving you more time?”

On hearing that, Ryner grimaced and,

“No...... ermm, that, it’s that, you know. The same reason for saving Toale that I was mentioning about, it’s the same for Sion...... tell him that for me.”

He said.

The same reason behind him saving Toale.

That was,

"I can’t betray my friends."

Those words.

Those stinking words that were embarrassing to the point that one could die if he hears them from the other party himself, but currently, it was necessary.

In order to make this plan succeed.

In order to stop the Sion who was running amok all by himself, shouldering everything upon himself.

That’s why, Claugh scowled.

“Why do I have to say such embarrassing words!”

“Ah, ah, they are really embarrassing huh?”

“Beyond embarrassing, gross!”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“But, still tell him that for me.”

“Don’t shit me!”

“Ehh, if you don’t do it, this plan won’t succeed, so c’mon, please ~”

On hearing those words, Claugh’s scowl increasingly deepened.

And then, from beside Ryner,

“Yeah. And one more thing, tell Sion to immediately send two thousand cases of dango skewers from Wynitt dango shop......”

“As if I can tell him that!”

Claugh shouted angrily, and then sighed in exasperation.

“Seriously, why is it that I can actually overlook all the annoying things that you guys put me through throughout our entire meeting...... I’m really shocked for a change.”

On hearing those words, Ryner and Ferris,

“Hahhahha.”

“Fuffuffu.”

“Duh, super annoy......”

Once again, Claugh sighed.

Following that, he picked the fallen Shuss up,

“Well, since the proposal you’ve put forth does have some benefits to our side, I’ll properly transmit it to Sion. So, in exchange for that, make sure you succeed, get it?”

Ryner nodded.

“Well, I’ll put my best foot forward --- please tell that to Sion Ahotaare.”

“...... Ahotaare, hm. Well, I’ll tell that to him. So, where do you want me to send you the reply? It’s not like it’s guaranteed that things will go according to your plan yet...... well then again, you did say you will be near the borders of Runa. Then, I’ll send it there.”

Ryner nodded.

“Thanks.”

“Ahh. Well, I’ll get going. You guys should disappear as well. If not, I’ll bring some men here with me later.”

“Ehhh ~, you still have energy to fight?”

As Ryner said that in a weary voice, a smile floated on Claugh’s face.

“Well, I wasn’t being serious earlier.”

“You’re joking again.”

“Well, whether it’s a joke or not, you’ll find out the next time we meet on the battlefield.”

After saying that, with Shuss slung over his shoulder, Claugh left.

After seeing his figure disappearing into the darkness of the forest, Ryner murmured softly,

“...... in the end, wherever I go, he would be an enemy......”

Following that, he turned to face the beauty beside him.

As usual, while munching away on her dango, she was looking in Ryner’s direction as if she was watching somebody else carrying out a conversation.

“Hn. Is it finished?”

“It’s finished.”

“Well well, did it go well?”

“Uh~n. I wonder. I can’t really say for sure until the outcome is clear...... But, it probably went forward in a good direction, I guess.”

As he said that, she nodded, but for some reason, she made a complicated expression,

“But don’t let your guard down, Ryner. At any rate, this plan was concocted by the number one blockhead of the blockhead industry, Ryner Blockhead. In the end, Aahh, as I thought, I’m a blockhead wah ~ , that kind of development........................”

But, for some reason, at that moment, she stopped and once again put her dango into her mouth and started munching,

“Aahh, as I thought, dango is delicious.”

“Duh, why did you stop in the middle?”

“I got sick of it in the middle.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Yeah.”

As they were carrying out their meaningless talk, they started moving.

Towards north-northeast.

So as to speak, they had to move real quick. The reason was because, Ryner had yet to meet Toale.

In the conversation with Claugh earlier, it seemed like Ryner had already linked up with Toale, and it was Ryner who had given the order to the ten thousand soldiers to move close to the Runa border, however, the truth was that he had yet to meet Toale.

On top of that, Ryner had not yet told Toale of his plan.

Well, how Toale and his ten thousand soldiers had escaped detection from Claugh and Roland’s army was thanks to a capable comrade of Ryner.

Ryner’s comrade had went on ahead to persuade Toale to move his troops, but the actions to be taken from here on were not something that his comrade could talk Toale into single-handedly.

That’s why they had to hurry, and Ryner descended from the tree branch.

And then,

“...... Kiefer, will she be ok?”

He said, and following that, Ferris who also got down,

“That cutesy girl will probably do fine. She seems to be good with men.”

She said.

And Ryner started,

“Cutesy girl......”

“Huh? What?”

“No, nothing...... erm, ahh, well, nevermind......”

He took in a breath.

Currently, the comrades Ryner had brought along were Ferris, Kiefer, and Iris, and among the three of them, Ferris and Kiefer, well, to say they are not on good terms, or to say they are on good terms, that's kind offff .

“...... I’m not going to think about it anymore......”

Ryner said in a tired voice, and Ferris turned to face him,

“What are you mumbling about?”

“Nothing nothing.”

“Are you hiding something from me!?”

“No, it’s not something that needs to be hidden......”

But, as usual, Ferris, without listening to Ryner,

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooo! A hentai, while hiding something perverted, is running about naked in the forestttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!”

She started yelling.

Ryner, with a weary face,

“...... I’ve always wonder about that, is it fun?”

On hearing that, she nodded in an exaggerated manner,

“Yup!”

In response to that, Ryner also nodded,

“I see...... if it’s fun, well, I’ll leave it at that.”

As he said that, their pace quickened.

Their destination was the border dividing Nelpha and Runa.

Heading towards Toale, the single man who had taken ten thousand soldiers under him, and to go give Kiefer a hand.

### 004. Chapter 2: The Burden He Shoulders

“Why are Ryner and Ferris-san together, and I’m aloneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Suppressing her heated emotions, Kiefer Knolles walked alone.

With shoulder length red hair, and strong, dignified red eyes.

With a girlish body, feeling a little uncertain to be travelling alone as a girl, having a lovely appearance, and on top of that, wearing a one-piece dress that has a short skirt length.

The truth is, it would have been more convenient for her to wear the light armor made for travelling, but right now, there was no way she would wear that useful armor.

The reason was because, the strongest and worst love rival, peerless beauty Ferris Eris, for some reason, was wearing a one-piece dress for travelling!

For a girl with such an expressionless face!

For a girl who has no interest in fashion at all!

Wearing such a cute one-piece dress!

And if.

And if I don't wear a few one-piece dresses as well, and because of that,

(Ah-reh, Kiefer doesn't look very womanly, not cute at all)

Ryner might mock me privately like that, and that is something I don't want happening, geez,

"Idiot!"

Kiefer let out a soft incomprehensible holler.

By the way, currently, Kiefer was on a wilderness trail a short distance away from the highway of Nelpha.

She had heard from the villagers whom she had dropped by en route to here that there were bandits in the vicinity,

"Hey, hey Miss, if a girl like you wears such 'flashy' clothes, you will get abducted for sure! Even if not so, for a cute girl like you, it's better to be more careful you know!"

The part on "even if not so, for a cute girl like you" , however much she wanted Ryner to hear that,

"Why is Ryner never by my side during crucial times like this!"

She ranted loudly all by herself.

And when Kiefer was done with her rants after some time,

"Wait, this isn't the time for this......"

She retorted at herself.

During these few years.

While Kiefer was travelling alone in search of a way to nullify Ryner's Alpha Stigma with the hope of saving him, she had acquired a bunch 'self-conversing' techniques to pass the time.

On this day as well, after leaving the village, getting off the highway and while walking along the wilderness trail, she had been talking to herself and fantasizing all this time, and consequently, she did not feel any boredom in the slightest.

"Wait, isn't it a little sad that I've gotten used to talking to myself?"

She muttered and followed that with a chuckle.

And then, she looked up at the clear sky.

"............"

Since morning, the weather had been good, giving off a comfortable air that made her wonder whether the current dark situation in Nelpha was really happening.

But the truth was things had become rather serious. It appeared that the chaos of the war was about to sweep across the country.

During her travels these past few years, she had witnessed such landscapes numerous times.

Attacked by neighboring countries, the people who had neither power, money, nor information to aid them in escaping got swallowed up the ambitions of other countries.

The ordinary people who knew nothing, were the ones who got sacrificed first.

Even the villagers at the village which Kiefer had made a pit stop at earlier seemed ignorant of when the Roland army would reach this vicinity and turn it into a battlefield, but yet, the only thing they were worried about was Kiefer travelling in a one-piece dress by herself.

No, most of the people who could escape had already escaped northwards. The only ones left were those elderly who did not have the strength to run, and they had clearly already given up and continued living here calmly.

"............"

Thinking of those calm faces made Kiefer feel like crying.

Wars had always been like this, she thought.

As always, there was no salvation anywhere.

Only destruction and despair.

It was the same during the time when Kiefer's sisters got killed.

And there was nothing she could do to change that. No, rather, she had also never have thought about doing something about it.

War is always cruel, but, it'll be fine as long as the people precious to her did not get caught in it, she would only think.

"...... in the end, everyone died......"

She murmured with a sad looking face.

But, this time, it was different.

Her journey this time was different.

The thing she was going to accomplish this time through her journey, was to stop this unproductive war.

It was a plan thought out by Ryner.

It was a plan thought out after much mulling by Ryner, who was always so kind, and always only thinking about sacrificing himself to save everyone.

It was a wonderful plan.

And the most important part of it was entrusted to Kiefer.

And that gave her a little sense of pride.

"............"

And at that moment, she recalled the words of Ryner.

"Kiefer, I'm leaving the most important part to you though, but, I think you are the only one who can pull it off. That's why, I'm entrusting it to you."

He had said.

You are the only one who can pull it off. That's why, I'm entrusting it to you.

That was what Ryner had said.

He had said it with a serious face.

She recalled that moment when Ryner had entrusted this to her, believing in her.

After having betrayed everyone again and again, when she recalled the moment when Ryner had entrusted this to her, believing in her,

"........................ uwufufu."

She laughed again, all by herself.

Despite the fact that her being all alone had bothered her when she thought about it, since this made her happy, it couldn't be helped, she thought.

That's why, even when she should be traveling alone enthusiastically, whenever she thought about the fact that the beauty Ferris-san was by the side of Ryner, uwuuu ~ , she would get depressed, but whenever she thought about how Ryner was believing in her, depending on her, uwufufu ~ , she would cheer up again; anyway she was a solitary busy woman right now.

"But, well."

She looked at her surroundings.

She then spread the map of Nelpha in her mind.

Entered into her head was most of the map, starting from Roland then northwards, past Imperial Nelpha and the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, and even further past the central continent, up till the northern continent all the way to Gastark.

She was generally aware of the situations of roughly each and every country.

While she had accumulated all this knowledge after three years of traveling, she had never thought that this would be something useful to Ryner, but somehow, it was currently the most useful thing to him.

Kiefer looked in front of her.

A hill that was as small as her left hand was ahead of her, and beyond that would be a river.

But, further up the river, it opens up into a plain, and if Toale Nelphi's ten thousand troops were to hide themselves from the army of Roland, and prepare themselves from surrounding attacks, they might be lurking on the side of the woods there were beyond the plain, and with that supposition, Kiefer had come all the way till here.

Then.

"...... seems like my guess was right."

She looked at the ground.

On the ground were almost faded traces of campfires. If there were bandits, they would not bother erasing the traces of the fires they built. Then, who was responsible for all these?

"............"

Kiefer crouched down and touched the remnants. She brushed off the ashes, attempting to find out how long ago were the fires extinguished.

This was probably the work of scouts sent by Toale to find out the place where Roland's army was concentrated at, she thought.

Maybe Kiefer and them had just passed each other.

If that's the case, then it might be faster if Kiefer were to just go after the scouts and ask them the location of Toale.

"............"

At that moment, Ryner's face surfaced in her mind again.

His rare serious, drawn face.

"Before you manage to meet up with Toale directly, avoid contact with any contact with Nelpha soldiers alright? Toale isn't the type of person who will do anything to a woman without first listening to her, but with regards to the soldiers of Nelpha, due to the hostility posed by Roland's army, they might act violently, and attack you without listening to your story, thinking that you might be a spy, so you must move cautiously."

He had said.

And Kiefer had laughed at that.

"Oh, Ryner, so you're worried about me?"

On hearing that, he had made a strange face,

"That's natural right. I'm sending you alone into the enemy's base. There's no way I won't be worried. Kiefer, please be careful no matter what."

He had said.

Upon thinking about that.

"............"

Kiefer's face softened again.

However, she was also aware of how dangerous this mission was.

In this current situation, it was certain that the Nelpha soldiers would act hostilely against others. And they were not limited to outsiders, but included past comrades of the this very country as well.

The truth was, Prince Starnel had made use of these ten thousand troops to cover his escape, abandoning them. Before Toale appeared to lead them, the abandoned troops must have felt disheartened, she thought.

That's why, right now, this place was unbelievably dangerous.

But of course, compared to the plan that Ryner was executing now, which was to beat down the number one monster of Roland's forces --- Crimson Finger Claugh Klom, and use him as bargaining chip, this was nothing.

"But, my success or failure will also determine the fate of Ryner, so I have to give it my best......"

And she started walking again.

Paying heed to her surroundings, she erased her tracks so as not to set up an unfortunate encounter with the scouts of Nelpha while she advanced forward.

This was a specialty of hers.

Traveling alone, infiltrating other countries.

Alright, she shall do her job properly this time as well,

"In order to get praised by Ryner."

She murmured and at that moment.

"............"

A faint sound riding on the wind reached her ear.

Instantly.

She lowered her body.

It was really a faint sound that could be attributed to mishearing, but still, she tensed herself up and lowered her body.

While crouching down, she moved to a place where grass grew, hid herself there, and erased her presence. She listened intently.

However.

"............"

She could no longer hear anything. The only thing she could hear were the sounds of the grass rustling in the wind. Perhaps, she really had misheard.

But still, even so,

"............"

She kept still.

Her sixth sense, that had protected her all this while she journeyed alone, told her not to move.

Something was there.

She could feel it.

No, even if there wasn't, there wasn't a need for her to move for a while. If there wasn't, then so be it.

However, the problem would arise if there was something there and she were to let her guard down and move. That would be fatal.

Compared to Ryner and Ferris, she was not that strong. Even though she could take care of one or two soldiers who have not received a lot of training, but she could not afford to let her guard down just because of that.

She might just die if she even let her guard down one bit.

"............"

That's why she continued to conceal her presence.

At that moment, she could once again catch hold of a faraway sound riding on the wind.

"......ig.........................re."

This time round, she was certain of it.

It was the voice of a person.

And it was coming closer towards here.

This time round, she was pressed to make another choice. Whether to ascertain who was heading here or not.

Now, which one should she choose?

"............"

Kiefer considered as she held her breath.

In the meantime, the owner of the voice was getting closer. From the sounds, she could tell the number of people.

The hooves of horses.

Three of them.

From the sounds of the hooves, they were moving fast.

Seems like they are in a hurry.

From their hurried motion, the possibility of them being scouts is high, Kiefer thought.

"...... now, what should I do?"

Hidden in the grass, she peered through the gaps with her red eyes.

She could see the sand stir up from the south.

The sand stirred up by the horses.

Three horses galloping towards here.

However.

However, the people riding on the three horses were clearly strange.

"............"

Without thinking, Kiefer almost cried out in surprise. With her eyes widening, what's that! She withheld her impulse to almost cry out.

But, the scene that was unfolding before her was clearly a strange one.

There were three horses that were galloping at an extremely fast pace, but yet, only the one at the center was ridden by people.

And for some reason, that horse at the center was ridden by three people.

On top of that,

"Yahorh!!"

The one who was sitting right in front, leading the three horses and shouting loudly, was but, a ten year old, no matter how one looks at it, a bishoujo with golden hair and blue eyes.

On seeing that, Kiefer stood up.

"I-Iris-chan! You can't be so loud here!"

It was hard to tell whether she had said that in a loud or soft voice.

Following that, Iris turned.

Looking at Kiefer with a happy face, she waved without thinking,

"Wah Kiefer-neechan, here we are!!"

"Dduh, as I was saying, hush! Hush!"

She put a finger to her lip, gesturing to Iris to keep quiet.

In response to that,

"Hush?"

Iris raised a finger.

"Hush hush."

And then, on top of making a 'V' sign, she said,

"Yay!"

"Dang, nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Somehow, the stupid thing that it had become made Kiefer flare up in anger without thinking.

As the horses reached her, Iris called them to a halt, and dismounted,

"Eh? Eh? What's wrong?"

On hearing that, Kiefer could only smile.

She let her tension leave her body and patted Iris's head,

"Nothing. It's ok. But, Iris-chan, you did manage to come from Roland safely huh."

Iris then made a triumphant face,

"I came back!"

She acknowledged loudly.

With golden hair resembling that of her big sister Ferris, and with her big, round, blue eyes, it seems like she will grow up to become an incredible beautiful woman.

She was wearing a dress with a lot of frills, and carrying a large backpack behind her, like always.

However, for a small girl like her, she was given an extremely mission this time.

That's how few comrades Ryner has beside him, to the point that even a girl like her need to do her best.

"............"

They have to fix this, Kiefer thought. It would be quite tough to go up against the Hero King Sion Astal. Of course they were not considering about waging a war against him or anything of that sort, but still, they should try to gather a few more allies as soon as they can, she thought.

If Ryner is already determined to carry this forward, then the sooner they do that the better.

Well, this might be too premature to think about now.

In any case, the girl right before her, Iris Eris, little sister of Ferris, was given an important mission just like Kiefer.

That was.

"............"

Kiefer then looked at the two horses which were riderless.

Strapped onto their backs, were backpacks which were similar in shape as the one carried by Iris, but much larger in size.

Looking at that, she asked.

"So, inside those packs."

Iris nodded.

"Yep, I've brought the flags. Roland's flag flag ~!"

Following that, she pointed to the pack behind her,

"But, this one right here is Onee-sama's dango dango ~"

She said.

Well, who cares about the dango, but with regards to Roland's flags, it's an indispensable item for them to carry out their strategy.

Nelpha troops carrying Roland's flags and attacking Runa.

Of course, it will be best if it doesn't come to that, but in truth, faced with that possible threat, it's necessary to hoist those flags.

That's why, with a slightly serious face, Kiefer approached the horses. Following that, she opened up the backpacks and ascertained the contents.

Inside it, were a few flags which had the symbolization of Roland, a spear with a snake twirling around it, drawn on them.

"Orh ~, Iris-chan, this is perfect!"

She smiled gently and turned around.

Iris then raised both her hands,

"Iris is a perfect kid!"

She said happily.

And that was one of the missions that Iris had to accomplish.

On top of that, there was one more mission that Iris was entrusted with.

"............"

Just by looking at the faces of the pair of young man and girl, she knew that Iris had completed all her missions properly.

She had managed to safely bring along two more of Ryner's comrades from Roland.

Well, even though she had called them comrades, they were merely seven, eight year old kids.

She looked at the pair on the horse, a cute-looking girl with light brown hair looking a little unsettled, and behind her, holding her as if he was protecting her, a black hair, chivalrous-looking young man who had an air which somewhat resembled that of Ryner around him.

Just by one look, she knew that these were the two who Ryner had left behind in Roland.

Previously captured by the Nelpha military and tortured, Alpha Stigma bearer Arua, and his childhood friend, Kuku.

Arua looked at Kiefer and said.

"...... then you must be Kiefer-san right?"

He used a polite manner of speech unthinkable for a child. While, from the messy black hair and black eyes of an Alpha Stigma bearer, she could feel that there's some resemblance to Ryner, Arua's mannerisms also gave the impression of him as an orderly and disciplined person.

His movements, very much un-childlike, also had no openings.

Showing traces that he had clearly undergone some sort of training. According to Ryner, after he had brought them out of Nelpha, they had been putting up at the famous swordsclan house, with the Eris family, and Arua had probably received some training there.

But even so, it was strange for a seven-eight year old boy like him to be that calm. It was as if he had seen through various things in life from his gruesome past.

"............"

Kiefer's face contorted in sadness for a moment. But immediately after, she shook her head and adopted a gentle smile, and then said.

"Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Kiefer Knolles. I've been traveling around various countries, and finally ended up as Ryner's comrade. And so, you are......"

Upon her saying that, Arua puffed his chest out and said,

"I'm the disciple of Ryner-sensei."

Disciple --- when Arua said that, he had a sense of pride in his tone, oh, Ryner I say, you are loved even by children huh , Kiefer became a little happy.

Following that, Kuku who was in front of him said,

"I'm Kuku, the fiancee of Arua!"

Instantly.

Arua's face turned red suddenly.

"Eh? Wait, fiancee!? Hey, Kuku, erm......"

"Eh? I'm wrong?"

"No, that aside, we're not even ten yet......"

"Eeeeeeeehhhhh? Then, then, when we were leaving Roland, when you said that you're going to protect me for life, was that a lie?"

"No, it's not."

"Then we're engaged right!"

"Really?"

"Of course! You did say for life right? When you say for life, it means forever right?"

"Yeah but."

"Then we'll have to get married right!"

"Really?"

"Of course! So in other words, I'm Kuku, Arua's fiancee. Pleased to meet you, Kiefer-neesama!"

She said cheerfully.

On hearing that,

"Uwu ~?"

His face turned red.

That face was different from the earlier feeling it gave off, no matter how dark Arua's past was, right, he's smiling right from the bottom of his heart; Kiefer could see that, and she smiled.

Then, she thought.

Just like the time when Ryner saved Kiefer, he had saved Arua, she thought.

Around the world, there are other Alpha Stigma bearers, but most of them have a sad face of misfortune and will eventually die in the end.

Kiefer had witnessed those sad faces a number of times.

But Arua was different from them.

Having been blessed with a bothersome-looking sleepy-head teacher like Ryner, right now, he was really smiling cheerfully.

Just by seeing that, Kiefer knew that what they were about to do was the right thing to do.

What Ryner wanted to accomplish was the right thing to do, Kiefer thought.

Because he was always trying to save someone.

And right now, Ryner was attempting to save a comrade who was crying in anguish.

He was trying to save his best friend whom he had walked with all this while.

He was trying to save Sion Astal.

What will happen in the end?

"............"

Kiefer didn't know.

When Kiefer left Gastark Empire, the king of Gastark, Refal Edia had told her this.

"I'd like you to go save Ryner from the monster of the south --- Sion Astal."

I'd like you to save Ryner from getting devoured by Sion.

If you don't, the foolish, sad, Lonesome Demon will gladly let himself get devoured by the Mad Dark Hero .

Refal had said that.

He had said that he would like her to prevent that.

The fairy tale which had repeated itself again and again, told to her by Refal, was too large a scale for her to comprehend, but yet, somehow, she understood.

The Lonesome Demon who thinks about his friend.

The Alpha Stigma bearer who's too kind and too sad.

That kindness of Ryner will get betrayed.

But still, even so, Kiefer couldn't tell Ryner to abandon his friend.

Since I.

"............"

Since I love that part, that kindness of Ryner.

That's why, she would be putting her faith in Ryner, and try saving him. As to what will happen in the end, she did not know.

With the hope of saving Sion, and the desire to rescue Ryner, she will try moving forward, she thought.

And after that, if something that will cause Ryner to weep happens, even if she needs to sacrifice herself, she will save him, that's what she has decided. Even if she has to beat Ryner up, and get hated by him, she will take him to Gastark and save him, that's what she has decided.

But, until then.

Until she has seen it through to the end, she decided that she will devote herself to his cause wholeheartedly. She decided that she will save him from his destiny.

And in order to do that, the plan for the upcoming event must succeed.

Kiefer said.

"Well, now that we're done with the introductions, let's get going. It'll be dangerous if we tarry around here for too long."

On hearing that, Arua nodded and looked around him,

"...... Toale-sama's troops are probably hiding somewhere ahead."

He said.

In response to that, Kiefer nodded as well.

"Oh, as expected from someone born to Nelpha. I'm also of the same opinion. In terms of terrain, what's ahead of here would be the best."

"Yeah. But, since it's too much of a best place, Roland's troops will probably find them soon. We need to quickly get to the place that Ryner-sensei wants us to move to, but...... if the four of us move together, it may not be such a good thing. More importantly, it'll be dangerous if we get into contact with Nelpha troops with the Roland flags that we are carrying. That's why we should split up into two groups here. Iris-neesama, Kuku, and I should first proceed to near the Runa borders."

What he said was exactly the same idea that had unfolded in Kiefer's head.

This child is really sharp like his teacher.

Kiefer smiled and looked in the direction of Kuku.

"What an awesome fiance, isn't he?"

She said and yeah! , Kuku nodded.

Arua's face turned red again.

For some reason, Iris was eating dango while standing on one of her hands.

"............"

Hey, isn't this girl already ten plus years old, then why is she acting so childishly......

As Kiefer pondered about that, she remembered the cute mannerism of Ferris, who is around her own age, and perhaps this girl is just like her big sister, she thought.

Just when she was thinking about how adorable those two are, once again, uwuu, Ryner you idiot, are you already head over heels in love with Ferris-san huhhhhhhhhhhhhh? , she thought but now's not the time, let's get moving, and so Kiefer also has her own troubles brewing.

For a few seconds, those complicated thoughts ran amok in Kiefer.

"Now."

She said.

Once again, she looked towards the north.

A hill that was as small as her left hand was ahead of her, and beyond that would be a river. And upstream along that river, was a plain, and beyond that a forest, and past that, would probably be the place where Toale's ten thousand army was encamped at.

If she is to ride that distance, it will probably take less than two days.

In order not to get discovered, she had been slowly searching for the place where Toale's troops were, but right now, she already had a clear idea of where that was, so it would be better if she just head straight there by horse.

Of course, if she rides, it'll increases the danger of her getting discovered, but, the appointed time with Ryner was getting closer.

The appointed time to move nearer to Runa's borders and link up with Ryner. And there was not much time left to that appointed time.

At that moment, Arua dismounted and so did Kuku.

Then.

"Please use this horse. We'll bring the flags and proceed ahead to Runa's borders first."

Kiefer nodded.

Following that, she mounted the horse. She patted its head and turned around,

"Well then, Arua-kun. Take care of Kuku-chan and Iris-chan."

Upon saying that, Arua suddenly had a bewildered expression,

"Eh, erm but, Iris-neesama is much stronger than me......"

But, at that moment, Iris, who was still standing upside down said,

"Arua Arua!"

"Yes?"

"Please take care of me!"

She shouted cheerfully as if she had understood nothing, and in response to that, Arua looked troubled,

"...... y-yeah. I'll do my best."

He nodded.

Kiefer smiled, and with that,

"Alright, everyone, take care."

She said and started her horse forward.

The scenery started to flow.

The destination was getting closer.

A mission to persuade the Toale Nelphi she had yet to meet, and the abandoned ten thousand soldiers, and to coax them into becoming their allies.

A dangerous mission which could get her killed if she did it badly.

But.

"............"

But, Kiefer merely smiled at that thought.

And while facing straight ahead,

"...... this is something I'm good at."

She murmured softly.

The location shifts to somewhere further north.

Somewhere off the midstream of the Grydl River, inside a small tent erected in a clearing.

"But, no matter how many times I've worn this, it still feels tight."

Toale Nelphi said as he loosened the neck of the military uniform he was wearing.

With brown hair and gentle eyes. However, embedded deep within those eyes, a single-mindedness, air of nobility could be seen.

Nineteen years old.

Being born of the current king of Imperial Nelpha, Starnel Nelphi and his mistress, he was abandoned because of his commoner blood, and while living in an ordinary town while his half brothers and sisters were raised within the royal compounds, he was not involved in politics nor given any authority.

"............"

However, right now, he was followed by ten thousand soldiers, as well as over two thousand commoners who had joined up by themselves, and made the king of people.

"...... they've gotten me."

Toale murmured.

He stood up, and exited the tent.

Outside, filled to the point where he could hardly see anything else, were people, people, people.

Mixed in the group of people who were wearing the military uniform of Nelpha, were men, women, elderly, and children.

The children who saw Toale come out of the tent shouted,

"It's Toale-sama!"

Then, all the rest looked at him and waved.

There were also those who lowered their heads.

There were also those who prostrated.

On seeing that, more from just the tightness of his uniform, it became harder to breathe.

However, he couldn't show that on his face. The people who were gathered here were more unsettled than Toale himself.

That's why he smiled and waved his hand. As he did that, the soldiers and people started cheering. He then nodded with a confident expression on his face and murmured,

"...... this shouldn't be happening."

In response, from behind him,

"This is all because of Toale-sama's benevolence."

Said a familiar face, the master of the library that Toale had always hung out at, Gainel.

Toale grimaced and turned around.

"That'll be troubling, Gainel-jiisan. In the first place, I didn't want you to be following me here as well. To put it frankly, this is a journey of suicide you know?"

He said.

That was the truth.

He had desperately come all the way here to save the ten thousand troops that were thrown away by Prince Starnel as sacrificial pawns from getting crushed by Roland's forces, but for some reason,

"Finally, our star, the true ruler, Toale Nelphi, has decided to rise up!"

"Everyone, follow Toale Nelphi-sama!"

Incomprehensible things like that happened and after this and that, he was set up as king.

And right now, the soldiers and people who were here were filled with hope on their faces.

Even though it should be a situation that was hopeless beyond hopelessness, but yet, everyone was making a face as if they had found a beacon of light.

"............"

However, in response to that, Toale sighed.

The reason was because this light wouldn't continue for sure.

The life of their beacon of light that they had put up, Toale, would not remain for long.

Right now, the overwhelming large forces of Roland Empire were heading northwards. They were so mighty that the entire Imperial Nelpha had been sent into a panic.

And his father had gone nuts. Without consideration for the people, he took his troops, plundered the people and escaped.

However, that act itself was meaningless.

Roland will probably crush the whole of Nelpha.

When that happens, where in the world will Starnel run to?

Runa?

It can't be.

There was no way Runa, as Roland's ally, will accept him.

Then, to Cassla in the north?

That's also impossible.

There was no way he can enter with seventy thousand soldiers. Bring soldiers across the borders. That means war. On top of that, Starnel had massacred his own people and plundered them. Cassla will definitely not accept such a fella.

Then, what's left?

"............"

There is only one answer.

Imperial Nelpha will disappear. The humongous Roland Empire will oppress Nelpha and take her lands.

If you're weak, you lose.

That was a natural result and his grandpa --- the wise king Gread Nelphi was fully aware of that.

That's why he wanted to surrender.

His grandpa had thought of how to minimize the sacrifices and move forward to the best conclusion.

"............"

But, in the end, things had taken a turn for the worse.

However, Toale wanted to resume those plans.

He wanted to resume his grandpa's plans. That was his duty, the duty of a person who is connected to the royal blood, he thought.

That's why he rose up.

And the first thing he had to do was to save the sacrificial ten thousand soldiers, and following that, send Roland a letter telling them of his intention to surrender.

But, in order to do that, he must not resist the Roland's forces, and it was necessary to display his intention strongly.

That he was different from Starnel and won't go crazy. That he had no intention of going against Roland. That's why, In exchange for my life, can you please stop the war? In exchange for my life, can you please let the ten thousand soldiers and the people of Nelpha off?

He had to proclaim that.

And from his proclamation, a percentage of the seventy thousand soldiers who were following Starnel will probably surrender as well, and that should reduce the number of meaningless killings.

Of course, the remaining soldiers who choose to stay on with Starnel will probably get decimated by Roland in the end, but this should already be the most ideal way to minimize the number of sacrifices.

That's why, this was definitely a suicidal journey.

A suicidal journey where salvation will start with Toale's execution.

However, in reality, things were starting to get worse.

Once the rumor that Toale had taken command of the ten thousand troops had spread, people who declared their intention to follow him appeared one after another. Not just the commoners. Even the bandits operating in this area were now in his camp.

On top of that, there were several nobles who had served under Gread Nelphi who had made the declaration as well. As well as soldiers who should have been following Starnel.

Right now, his location had yet to be found out by the people of Nelpha, so not that many were gathered yet, but in due time, this place would be found out.

Toale, who was going to give up his life, might end up having tens of thousands of people assembled under him.

This state of events can really be described as the worst possible situation.

With this, even if Toale were to proclaim that he has no intention of fighting, Roland will not believe him.

If such a thing were to come to pass, then the whole country will be plunged into war.

And it will be a war where they have no chance of winning, an all-out war that will only increase the number of sacrifices.

"...... this is troubling."

On hearing Toale's words, Gainel's confident, bearded face became agitated,

"Not at all. With this tide, Toale-sama shall become the king of Nelpha!"

He said.

"The people are the allies of Toale-sama."

He said.

"............"

Toale became gloomy on hearing that.

What is the king of Nelpha?

This king is going to die soon!

He wanted to cry out.

However, instead, with his troubled face,

"...... even so, I can't do a thing like abandoning everyone."

Upon saying that, he looked around him. He looked at the faces of the commoners and the ten thousand soldiers who had assembled for his sake.

Everyone was smiling at him.

But the scene of everyone smiling happily was the most awful scene to Toale.

The refugees who were abandoned by Nelpha and had been driven off their lands by Roland numbered more than thirty thousand.

The matter on giving out rations and feeding this large number of people was a serious problem.

From hereon, if they don't resort to plundering, it will be impossible to sustain them.

But if he were to do that, then he will be the same as his father --- Starnel.

But if he doesn't do that, then over thirty thousand people will not even last two months and starve to death.

Now.

"......now...... what should I do about this?"

As he muttered with a serious expression on his face, he looked intently at the crowd of people who had assembled for his sake.

The solemn faces of the soldiers.

The still lean, and hesitant faces of the soldiers.

The boys who were running around.

The elderly and the woman who were chasing after them.

And from behind all that, from behind the waves of people, the face of a woman poked out. And she looked at him.

She stared straight at him.

"............"

Toale noticed her.

A pair of charming, red eyes looking straight at him. With red hair reaching her shoulders. A beautiful girl, Toale thought. Her age was probably the same as his own right?

While the somewhat cute looking girl looked straight at him,

"...... you are Toale?"

She said.

As Toale nodded to that, she broke into a cheerful smile. That smiling face disappeared from his view for an instant. She was making her way forward,

"Orhh ~. Somehow, with the large number of children and women, it was easy to infiltrate into here ~"

She said and smiled again. That smiling face was definitely bewitching, a smiling face that seemed to bring happiness to those around her --- but, Toale's expression hardened.

"............"

The word she just said.

The word 'infiltrate'.

Toale's whole body tensed up.

Just a while ago. He had thought that such a person would come, but it was earlier than he had expected.

An assassin sent by Roland who had viewed Toale, who had attracted a following of people, as a menace.

Or perhaps, an assassin sent by Starnel who saw his son as an obstacle.

Whichever the case, this was no doubt a killer. Since right now, to the factions that were present in Nelpha, Toale was seen as the largest obstacle.

However, right now, Toale could not afford to get himself killed here. Before he could send a surrender proclamation to Roland, he could not afford to be killed.

That's why, he wanted to retreat hurriedly and shout Guards while doing so.

But, she was faster than him.

With a smiling, beaming face, she was faster than Toale, and took another step forward,

"Aah, aah, wait a minute, don't run. I'm here to help you guys."

"Liar."

"It's true."

"Then why are you chasing after me?"

"Because you're running away right?"

"I...... I can't afford to be killed here."

"I know. That's why I'm here to help you."

"Don't mess with me. Right now, in this country, the factions who will help me......"

Don't exist at all. Even though he was about to say that, she was faster than him and finished after him.

Staring straight at him with her red eyes.

"It is Ryner, who will be giving you a hand."

Instantly.

Toale's feet stopped, and following that,

"Eh?"

He uttered.

He knew that name. But, the last time he met him was a long time ago. More than a year ago. However, he remembered clearly.

A strange, sleepy-looking man by the name of Ryner Lute.

He and his partner, Ferris Eris, had rescued his little brother from getting assaulted by some hoodlums.

Following that, they became friendly with him, put up at his place for a while, and after that, they had set off on their journey again.

"............"

Toale looked intently at Kiefer. He stared at her in an attempt to read her, and search to see whether anything was hidden behind her smiling face.

Then, her smiling face became a little nervous,

"...... who on earth are you?"

"Orh, finally, you are willing to listen to me?"

"...... who knows. Well, at the very least, I know that you are not an assassin."

If she had wanted to kill Toale, she wouldn't have started a conversation, and would have stealthily come straight for the kill.

If a single woman like her had wanted to infiltrate a camp full of Nelpha soldiers to carry out an assassination, she wouldn't have time to tarry around like that.

However, she had come here to talk to Toale. Then, perhaps, she's here to bring a message?

Or is she a messenger who has come to threaten him, if you don't submit, we'll kill you ?

Whichever the case,

"...... if you don't have any intention of killing me, I'm willing to listen to you."

She grinned again. That smiling face stole Toale's gaze.

Then, dangerous , he thought.

Her charm is dangerous. If she is a spy from another country, she is one capable spy.

That's why Toale tensed up and looked intently at her.

While she continued to smile,

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kiefer. Kiefer Knolles."

"...... hm. So, Kiefer-san, where did you come from?"

Asked Toale.

Rather, Toale did not even know where the man known as Ryner Lute came from, and where he is now.

For some reason, a year ago, he had told him that he was looking up old legends and fairy tails from across the different lands, and had asked to have access to the national library of Nelpha.

And Toale had no clue as to what purpose and intent he had in doing that.

However, right now, the girl before him said that she had come as a messenger from Ryner to help him.

Who in the world are these people?

What do they intend to accomplish?

There's a need to see through all of this, and upon thinking that, Kiefer said.

"Er~m, if you want me to talk about where I came from, where I will be going, and why I've appeared here, it'll be a little too long, so, right now, since we don't really have much time for that, I'll just pass you Ryner's message first."

"Ryner-san's message?"

"Yeah."

"So, what did Ryner-san say?"

Kiefer then looked up at the sky, appearing to recall something, and following that, she looked intently at Toale, and for some reason, while adopting a sleepy, languid, but yet somehow gentle face resembling that of Ryner, she said.

"Orh ~ Toale, long time no see ~. Seems like you're in a pinch huh, even though it's bothersome, I'll help you out. The reason is because we're friends. Ok?"

On hearing those words.

The reason is because we're friends. Ok?

On hearing those light-hearted words.

"...... haha."

Toale couldn't help but laughed.

Following that, he looked intently at Kiefer,

"...... uwah ~, somehow, that's very persuasive."

He said while laughing.

As he did that, she then made a relieved face,

"Ah, this really worked. Ryner, you know, had said that if I told you that, it would work, and I was getting nervous about what if it doesn't work."

"That's certainly quite nerve-wrecking."

"Isn't it? Assuming it might fail, I ended up thinking out seven types of persuasion methods. But, it's great that it worked, so, are you ready to listen to me?"

"Of course. Ah, let's go into the tent."

Toale prompted for Kiefer towards the tent but, she shook her head.

"Unfortunately, we don't have that time. We need to get moving soon."

"Get moving?"

"Yeah. If we stay here, Roland's scouts will find us soon. We have to move."

"But, sooner or later, they will find us right? With this many people moving, there's no way the enemy won't......"

"Ryner has taken care of that. We're going to move to a place where both Nelpha soldiers and Roland soldiers wouldn't get close, allowing us to at least buy some time before getting discovered."

Toale tilted his head.

A place where Nelpha soldiers and Roland soldiers wouldn't get close.

"Where on earth would such a place be?"

A smile surfaced on Kiefer's face at that question. Once again, nervousness was mixed into that smile.

Following that, she pointed to the East with a finger.

"To the borders with Runa Empire."

On hearing those words.

On hearing those words of hers, Toale started to tense up.

Then, he gradually understood roughly what Ryner Lute's plan entailed.

Indeed, if they were to do that.

If they were to do that, there might indeed be a slight chance that they can break free of this worst case scenario.

However, that was way too dangerous.

An overly dangerous gamble.

A gamble that could put the lives of the commoners into danger, a gamble so dangerous that he hesitated.

However, his tension seemed to have reached Kiefer, and her initial smiling face disappeared, replaced by serious expression as she spoke to him.

"...... I can understand your hesitation, but there's no other way that can reduce the number of sac......"

Cutting her off,

"I understand."

Said Toale.

Indeed, it was so.

Right now, even if Toale gets executed, there is still a high chance that Roland won't stop their massacre.

If whatever he did wouldn't help the situation at all, sink or swim, perhaps, it wasn't that bad an idea to ride on Ryner's plan.

That's why Toale looked up and said.

Glaring at Kiefer,

"But, if there's any indication that you are going to betray us......"

Kiefer cut him off again.

"There's no merit for us to betray you."

"But there's no merit in helping us as well right?"

"That's true but...... but, Ryner is idiotically gentle, so he'll help you. Do you believe that? Well, if you don't believe, I will have to unveil those seven types of persuasion patterns."

"............"

On hearing that.

Toale waved his hand as a smile floated on his face.

"No, it's fine. I believe in Ryner-san."

There isn't any other way I can take anyway --- he couldn't say that.

But Kiefer smiled and nodded.

"Well then, I hope you can start moving your soldiers immediately though."

Once again, she looked around her.

"But, the situation's kind of different from what I've thought. I've heard that you have ten thousand troops following you but...... there are clearly more than ten thousand...... and on top of that, more than half are commoners......"

Toale looked around him. He scanned the crowd of commoners who had come following him.

And then.

"...... if you're telling me that they can't follow along, then, regarding this plan......"

But, immediately, Kiefer said,

"It's fine. Ryner will definitely keep complaining, what a bother what a bother , and in the end, he will save each and everyone."

On hearing that, Toale recalled.

He recalled the time when he first met Ryner.

When Toale's little brother and sister were being assaulted by hoodlums, Ryner passed by and while he kept complaining how bothersome things were and how he didn't want to get involved in it, in the end, he still saved them.

"............"

So as to speak, perhaps Ryner is just that kind of person.

While he didn't know what has Ryner become right now, perhaps.

Perhaps, it might be interesting for him to entrust what may be his final suicidal fate to a friend, Toale thought.

"Well then, let's get moving."

After saying that, he turned to face the several commanders of the ten thousand strong army who had been looking at him inquiringly with nervous looks on their faces.

He then nodded,

"Get your butt moving. Get up. Don't move like a slug!"

He started yelling.

After ascertaining their responses, Toale turned to look at Kiefer. She smiled and nodded.

Once again, that smile took his eyes away.

He gazed at those red eyes in which embedded a strong will, but yet in which surfaced a fleeting shade of weakness.

I have never met such a beautiful girl , those words floated in his mind.

At that moment, she returned his gaze with a curious look on her face and said.

"What's wrong?"

"Eh? Ah, no ~...... erm...... I was just thinking it's going to be tough from here."

She then nodded with a straight face.

"Yeah. But, for the sake of the people gathered here, we need to manage somehow."

"Erm, ah ~, yeah."

Toale made an appropriate response and turned his gaze away from Kiefer.

And then, he became exasperated with the strange feelings that had been born inside of him.

Fool , he chided himself.

No matter where I run to, in the end, I'll just get executed, what the hell am I thinking about?

"...... aah, damn."

He shook his head, and started moving.

He really didn't have time to think about foolish things.

He had to move.

Carrying the lives of tens of thousands of people, he had to move.

He had no time to wrestle with strange feelings.

"Commanders, tell this to Major Selues. Set up a vanguard of five thousand troops and move towards the Runa borders. But, make sure they don't get too close to the Runa borders. Otherwise, we'll end up fighting Runa. And we have to avoid that at all costs. The commoners will follow next, and with the remaining five thousand troops will follow me and we'll erase our traces here and follow along. We'll disappear from here steadily but rapidly. Get it?"

On hearing that, the commanders bowed and left.

After a while, the soldiers started moving. And following that, the commoners also started moving.

With that, the over thirty thousand people led by Toale started moving in masses.

Looking at that,

"...... I pray to God that this decision is a right one......"

He murmured and Kiefer smiled,

"I thought that there're no religious groups in Nelpha?"

She said.

On hearing that, as much as possible, without looking back at her, Toale replied.

"Indeed. That's why I just prayed to the God of Runa. I prayed to that God of the religious country of Runa Empire...... I prayed for the outcome that even as we get close to the borders of Runa, it won't result in a war."

While saying that, he looked to the front of the moving crowd. The commoners were moving at a slow speed. With this pace of movement, it will probably take them three days to reach their destination.

Three days.

"Three days huh...... that's long."

He groaned.

And if they were to be discovered by Roland forces in these three days, everything would come to an end.

And that would be a very tough fight, he thought.

But, even so,

"...... I have to make this work......"

While murmuring that softly, with a bitter face, he looked up to the southern sky above the Roland forces which were making their way northwards here.

He knew that the world was moving.

In a completely different direction than before.

He could hear the sounds of the moving world, giving birth to a completely different scenery.

"............"

In the whirlpool of the sounds, Sion Astal bent over slightly.

With silver air that has an air of nobility, and golden eyes in which a strong determination was embedded.

Those eyes were not now looking at his throne room but at a completely different world.

It was a dark, dark, scenery which was completely dark in its entirety.

Occasionally, a light would be given off but it would disappear immediately. In the overly dark world, the dim light would disappear immediately.

That was the scenery that he was looking at now.

It was a scenery seen by the former hero.

It was a scenery seen by the former demon.

Recently, it has overlapped with the real world.

"...... most terrible."

Muttered Sion.

Most of the madness inside him was about to awaken.

Most of the ecstasy within him could no longer be suppressed.

Change.

Everything will.

Be changed.

The world.

It starts right from here.

The door starts from here.

Looking at that door.

Looking at the door that connects to the darkness on the other side.

What's left is to open the lock of that door with a key.

Key.

The sacrificial demon.

If Ryner's life becomes mine......

"............"

And at that moment.

"Your Highness."

He was called.

Sion dispelled the darkness before his eyes. His consciousness returned to reality and he turned his gaze to the front.

A man stood there.

With long beautiful black hair, and frozen, dark, dark blue eyes.

Before him, was Lieutenant General Miran Froaude.

Those dark eyes looked intently at him.

"Your Highness."

Sion answered.

"What is it?"

"...... no, it's because you didn't seem to notice me when I entered the throne room...... are you tired?"

To that question, Sion replied.

"No, no problem at all."

But, Froaude had a worried look, which didn't seem to suit him, on his face,

"Is that so? When I'm not around, it's good to get some sle......"

But, Sion cut him off,

"Did you come here just to talk about that?"

He said.

Froaude stopped his words. With a troubled looking face, he looked intently at Sion,

"No. I have a few reports to make."

"Then speak."

"Yes. Firstly...... regarding the capturing of Ryner Lute......"

But, Sion said instead.

"You want to tell me he escaped? I know that. He went to Nelpha."

Froaude's eyes widened in slight surprise.

"I see. Your Highness is aware of that. Was someone assigned to spy on me......"

But, Sion shook his head.

"No."

"Then, how is it......"

"I'd know if Ryner leaves the country. Since he's the key to open the door. If a thing of necessity disappears from this country, I'd know. Aah, besides that......"

Sion turned to face his back, looking up at the empty space,

"Lucile has also praised you. He's a wonderful pawn, so treat him well , he said."

While saying that, he looked at Froaude once more.

A thin smile formed on his deep red lips.

"...... well well, I'm really honored at his praise. Then, I presumed you've heard from him with regards to the matter?"

Froaude said, but the truth was different.

It was really as what Sion had said earlier.

That's the extent to which the Mad Hero inside of Sion had started encroaching on him.

He was starting to get dominated by the Power inside of him to the effect of attaining awareness of whether the target he wanted to devour was still nearby or not.

Occasionally, his consciousness would get blended in.

Really, by now, he should have already opened the door with the key, and become True , but because of the delay, the Power has started meandering off into a strange direction.

For some reason, Lucile had said that it was interesting.

Moving forward without devouring Ryner, without repeating that screwed-up past; that is an interesting development, he had said.

"............"

No, now's not the time to think about that.

Sion looked at Froaude.

He was once again looking at him with a worried look on his face.

Sion smiled wryly.

He could tell that he had returned slightly to his former humanity with that wry smile.

"...... no...... aah, I'm sorry, Froaude. I was paying a little too much attention to another place. I haven't slept a lot in this place. Like you said, I'm a little tired."

Froaude nodded and said.

"...... there's still a long way to go. No, it might be more apt to say that your domination journey has just started. You have to take care of your body."

"I understand."

"Perhaps, you'd like to take a little rest?"

"...... you're right. But right now, I can't rest yet. Before that, let's hear about the situation in Nelpha."

"It's going well."

On hearing those words,

"Hah."

Sion laughed.

If it was going well, that means the war should come to an end soon. Nelpha will surrender soon and everything should end smoothly but.

"...... I've heard that Gread Nelphi died."

Sion said, to which Froaude nodded.

"He was killed by his son."

"It couldn't be prevented huh?"

A cynical smile then surfaced on Froaude's face.

"Nelpha's upper echelon was foolish beyond our expectations, it seems......"

"So, it will become an all out war?"

"Yes."

"Is Claugh agreeable?"

"...... no. Field Marshal Claugh has sent another message."

Upon saying that, Froaude handed over a piece of paper that he had held in his hand.

Sion took it and let his gaze fall onto the paper.

It was yet again another message from that fella. From the one who had escaped from this country, Ryner ---

A message from his best friend.

"............"

And in that message, was written a plan which he had come up with, on how to break through this worst case scneario.

"............"

Sion squinted his eyes.

Furthermore, at the end,

"Because Sion Astal is my friend, I won't abandon him, that's the disgusting message that the sleepy-headed man gave, now, what will you do, Sion?"

Such a line was scribbled by Claugh, in his not so beautiful handwriting.

"............"

Sion looked at that message.

Following that, he looked up at the ceiling once as if to consider the words.

Ryner's plan is a pretty interesting one, Sion thought. It might be interesting to go along with it, he thought.

Ryner has come up with this plan for my sake, isn't it? He thought.

Just as he thought, Ryner had moved to save Roland --- to save Sion, without Nelpha surrendering nor having Roland move backwards to where it has been before, he thought.

Because they are friends.

Because they are best friends.

Even though I have betrayed him in the worst possible way, Ryner still said that.

With his usual kind and sleepy face, he had said that.

"............"

However, in response to that.

Sion crushed the piece of paper in his hand.

And said.

To the man with a devil-like smile before him.

"Froaude."

"Yes."

"What do you think of this message?"

"...... a cowardly prank."

On hearing that,

"That's right."

Said Sion.

"The Roland now is not a country that can stop at this juncture."

He said.

"We have proclaimed that we'll conquer the world. With the least number of sacrifices, in the shortest possible way, in the fastest amount of time, we'll reach the center, central Menoris. For that reason, we need to show our absolute might here. Save the life of Toale Nelphi? To reduce the number of sacrifices, even if it's only a little? Fool. The gears are already spinning. It's no longer possible to stop them. If we don't move forward, the sacrifices will just keep mounting up, more than ever. In the first place, if we stop here, what shall we say to the lives that have already been lost up till this point? What shall we say to the lives that have been lost along our route of advancement? The dice have been cast. The landscape of this world is starting to change. If so, what is it that we must do? What is the best choice we must make?"

On hearing Sion's question, Froaude smiled happily. With a happy, devil-like smile floating on his face,

"...... Your Highness, I understand your feelings. Then, let's kill everyone. In order not to have anyone stand up again. In order not to have anyone want to bare their fangs again."

With that, he turned on his heel. And started walking.

Sion said his leaving back.

"Bring along Bayuuz as well. Take care of everything in a flash."

Without turning around,

"Your wish is my command."

Said Froaude, and he walked out of the throne room.

And once again, the room returned to silence.

Sion was alone again.

Shouldering the quiet world.

Shouldering the lonely world.

Shouldering a world in which he could not even take the hand of his best friend, Ryner, even when he had held it out to save him, a world with so much despair that he wanted to cry.

To that.

"............"

To that, Sion smiled.

A sad smile.

But even so, the gears spun.

But even so, the landscape moved forward.

That's why once again, he closed his eyes quietly.

In order to erase this reality, and turn his consciousness back to the other side.

In order to sink himself into the darkness, to kill each and every of the gloomy Goddesses .

Then, at the time when he opened those eyes once more......

"........................"

### 005. Chapter 3: The Burden I Shoulder

The horse galloped.

At full speed.

"My butt huuurrrtttttsssssss!"

While yelling, Ryner rode, he rode, for four days, he rode.

Beside him, Ferris, who had also been galloping for the past four days without sleeping, went,

".................................. mumyu ~"

"Hey, don't sleep while ridingggggggggg!"

Ryner yelled at the Ferris who seemed about to slip off her horse.

On hearing that, she opened her eyes suddenly, looked up, and wiped off the little drool from her mouth,

"Hm? What? It's morning?"

"No, it's evening though. Wait, that's not the problem, don't sleep on the horse! It's dangerous."

"I wasn't sleeping."

"I think you were sleeping with half of your body about to fall off."

"I was practicing body-bend riding."

"You're lying!"

"Yeah. A big lie!"

"And you're admitting to it so quickly!"

"Of course. I'm sleepy. And since I'm at my limits, I'm going to nap a little. Let me know when we reach."

"No, I was telling you not to sleep duh."

Ignoring Ryner's holler, she closed her eyes, and with that, she seemed about to slip off the horse again.

"That's why I was saying, don't sleeepppppppppppppppppp!"

Ignoring him, she fell off the horse, and in a splendid manner, she spun a few times in the air and landed on the ground. On top of that, with a soft plod, good night , she said and entered the world of dreams.

Following that, the horse which Ferris had been riding on suddenly became energetic due to the lightened load, and whizzed off.

"Jeez, that fella's such a botherrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

While yelling, he whipped his horse. With that, he caught up to the horse which Ferris had discarded, and grabbed hold of its reins. And pulled. He stopped the horse, turned it around, and returned to the place where Ferris was sleeping.

Then.

"Hey."

"............"

"Hey, we don't really have time to tarry around. We're already one day late from the appointed day that we're supposed to link up with Kiefer."

"............"

"Hey, we only need to ride for another half a day before we reach our destination, so c'mon? Hey? Ferris. Please."

Without looking at him, she said,

"...... shut up. I'm sleepy. I'm sluggish. Bothersome. Go by yourself."

"Hey, are you me! I'm also sleepy to the point of dying, but, if we don't get our act together, Toale's life will be in danger. So let's do our best for a little bit more, ok?"

On hearing that, Ferris finally got up. She looked up at him with a pained expression,

"But Ryner. For the past four days, I haven't eaten a dango you know? As a person who is a hundred million, two thousand, eight hundred, and ninety-two percent made up of dango, do you think I can continue without any dango?"

At that question, Ryner, with a tired face,

"Wait, so how many percent does your entire body constitute?"

He asked back squarely,

"Who cares about that, just listen to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

She became really angry.

Ryner smiled wryly and said.

"...... erm, no, well, I know that it's been hard on you to not have eaten any dango for four days, but right now, it's an emergency so bear with it."

"I can't bear with it."

"No, but......"

"I can't bear ----------------------- it! By the way, there's a nice dango shop nearby."

Upon saying that, she suddenly got up energetically, which was unthinkable for a person who was tired from going without sleep for four whole days.

Looking at that, Ryner exclaimed,

"Huuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Eh? Eh? What's this? Is this that? All that ranting about being sleepy and falling off the horse was an act?"

Ferris promptly replied,

"Of course!"

"Don't 'of course' me!"

"Whatever you think about that is not the main issue here!"

Ferris said vehemently.

"............ hahh."

Ryner sighed out.

Even without that, he was already drained. Having fought with that red-haired monster, getting them horses, and riding crazily without sleep.

Riding crazily without sleep on the horses which he had sneaked out of a noble's stables along the way.

He already felt like dying. Not just from the lack of sleep, but more from the pain in his butt.

Indeed, it seems like they would need some rest soon, but......

So as to speak, after working so hard till this point, isn't it ok for him to take about two hundred years' worth of afternoon naps right? Isn't it ok for him to just disappear somewhere and take a long afternoon nap right? A temptation like this started to grow in him, but, Ryner stomped it out and said.

"...... b-but you know Ferris. At the appointed place, Iris will be waiting for us with Wynitt dango......"

But Ferris said.

"Nelpha dango and Roland dango are different things altogether."

Her tone became stronger than before,

"...... you're right I guess. Then, erm...... let's take a short break......"

Ryner gave in.

Let's take a short break , Ryner relaxed.

Instantly.

"Woah."

As his strength left him, he almost fell off his horse. Ferris supported him with a hand.

Then.

"See. You're also tired."

"Well...... it's obvious that I'll be tired after riding for four whole days......"

But, he had never thought that he would be so tired. He didn't realize it since he had been keeping his body tensed up all this while, but his body had become abnormally heavy. He immediately understood how it came to be so. It was a consequence of the Estabul magic which he had used to accelerate his movements during his fight with Claugh. That magic, in exchange for granting a period of increased bodily reflexes and ability, will cause the user to feel its weariness later. On top of that, this time round, in order to do something about that red-haired monster, he had seriously overused his body. It was probably the burdens from that which had come to assail him.

However, even those words alone were not enough to convey how heavy his body currently was. Right now, his entire body was enveloped with a level of fatigue that could make him pass out.

Seeing that, Ferris said.

She looked up at him, and somehow, with a slightly angry face, she averted her eyes and said.

"Jeez...... you've overdone it this time. I understand how you feel, but even so, there's a limit to what one person can do. Don't push yourself too much."

In other words.

"............"

It seems to be that.

It seems like all of Ferris's acting, and her willful behavior of wanting to go to a dango shop, were all for the purpose of saying this.

Aah ~ , Ryner thought.

He stroked his disheveled bed-hair,

"Aah ~...... erm, sorry."

"Umu."

"Well then, let's go to that dango shop and rest up in the village."

Ferris then said,

"Idiot. There's no dango shop."

"Eh?"

"That's why you're a real idiot."

Upon saying that, for some reason, her face blushed, and in order to mask that, she made an angry face.

Looking intently at that.

"............"

Looking intently at her face,

"...... aah, I see."

Ryner smiled with a troubled look.

Ferris then jumped onto the horse, the horse that Ryner was now riding. With that, she took the reins away from his hand,

"Alright. If your overly stupid brain has understood, it's time to move. We don't have much time. Once we reach there, there will be work waiting for you again. That's why, the idiot can just sleep. I'll wake you when we reach there."

Upon saying that, she started to kick into the horse.

Ryner then frantically said,

"Eh, but Ferris, you haven't slept a wink as well......"

But at that moment,

"Don't worry about that, just sleep, idiot."

Upon saying that, she made a chopping stance with her hand and started sending it into the back of Ryner's neck,

"Eh, no wait, that's bad......"

"Shut up."

"Gyafu."

Instantly.

Ryner lost consciousness.

Darkness spread.

Deep darkness spread.

In that deep darkness.

Ryner was visited by dreams which had missed him for quite some time.

Strangely, they were cheerful dreams.

Sion appeared, and with a face full of mischief,

"Alright Ryner ~. Nap time's over. It's time to get working."

He said.

For some reason, Ferris, who was munching on dango beside him, drew her sword for no good reason,

"Die, you pervertttttttttttt."

She shouted and came beating him.

That was the scenery that was repeating again and again.

With Sion, and Ferris, the three of them.

A dream in which the three of them were making merry in that small office.

There was nothing to worry about there.

There were no lives nor troubles from others to shoulder.

Only a bunch of fools laughing happily.

And he thought.

It'd be nice if such days can go on forever, he thought.

No, he had believed that it would be so.

Such days would go on, even when he was complaining about how unpleasant or bothersome things were, as long as he worked hard, the world would be alright, he had thought.

That's why he was laughing like that.

He had never thought that it would end.

Laughing like an idiot.

Even when he was made to work throughout the night. Even when he was bashed up by her sword.

Ryner had always been laughing happily.

"............"

And he felt a little blessed.

Even though up till now, he had only been laden with tiresome things.

But, after seeing that dream, he felt like doing his best for a little longer and looking forward.

Since in his dream, he had been laughing like an idiot with them.

He had been laughing like an idiot from the bottom of his heart.

But, the dream came to an end.

Suddenly, it ended, he realized.

No, perhaps he had realized that right from the start of the dream.

That dream.

"............"

Sadly, that dream was nowhere close to reality.

"............"

But, he wished, for a little bit.

Each time he saw that dream, he'd wish.

Ryner would wish that, if only this bothersome reality could be the dream instead when he open his eyes, and that he could wake up to that noisy office, he would be willing to pay any price.

If he were to open his eyes right now.

If he were to awake from his dream.

And the nightmare would have ended and he could wake up to that noisy office again.

He would not make the same mistake again.

He would not leave Sion to his solitude again.

In order to laugh together.

In order to move forward together, this time round, without feeling bothersome, he would do his best, he thought.

And so, Ryner opened his eyes.

Wishing that he could wake up to that office.

"............"

He opened his eyes......

"............"

When he opened his eyes, they had already reached their destination.

On the land that was very near to the borders between Nelpha and Runa.

There, were gathered tens of thousands of people.

Ryner opened his eyes and straightened his body,

"...... hn? You've awakened?"

From behind him, Ferris, who had been doing the riding, said.

Ryner turned around,

"...... eh? Ah, yeah. I had a good sleep. Thanks, Ferris."

"Umu. I also had a good sleep."

"Hey, what would have happened if you have slept as well."

Upon making that jab, with a slightly tired face,

"Fufufu."

She laughed.

From her face, it was clear that she hadn't really slept at all. Quite unbecoming of her, there were dark circles beneath her eyes. She was clearly very tired. Ryner then began,

"This time, it's your turn to sleep. Leave the rest to......"

But, before he could finish,

"............"

She rested her head on the back of Ryner, and slept.

Ryner smiled, and without letting her body fall off, he supported her with his left hand and once again started the horse galloping.

However, with the throngs of people gathered, they couldn't move very fast.

"............"

He then looked around him.

He looked at the faces of the people gathered here.

Clearly, the people here did not just comprise of soldiers.

Originally, Kiefer was supposed to guide the ten thousand soldiers, who were thrown away as sacrificial pawns by Starnel and later saved by Toale, to this place.

"What on earth is this?"

Ryner said with a troubled face.

Clearly, the commoners who were present here greatly outnumbered the soldiers.

Women, children, as well as the elderly.

A throng of people who couldn't contribute to the fighting strength.

Well, he could probably make a guess as to why they were here.

"...... Toale, that guy sure is popular."

While muttering that, he moved the horse forward.

The people all looked up in a dumbfounded manner at the riders on the advancing horse, at Ryner and the peerless golden hair beauty behind him.

He then asked a question to someone who was clad in military uniform among the people.

"...... ah ~, erm, you are one of the soldiers following Toale right? I have some business with Toale, so do you mind leading us to him?"

On hearing that, the soldier looked up. And he glared at Ryner.

A man who had a piercing gaze. With long light brown hair tied up at the back, and perhaps, due to his unshaven face, he looked to be in his mid-twenties.

He looked up at them and squinted his eyes.

"...... are you Ryner Lute?"

Ryner was surprised at hearing his own name.

"Oh? To know my name, am I perhaps famous around here?"

On hearing that, the man's face contorted,

"I'm Kazaal Selues. A Major. I was given command of ten thousand troops from Prince Starnel and ordered to fend off Roland's forces, but I went against that and am now following Toale-sama."

On hearing those words, Ryner looked again more carefully at this man called Kazaal Selues.

He was of medium build and medium height. A well-trained body with no opening. He's probably quite strong. Well, of course, he can't be compared to that abnormal killing intent from that red-haired muscled idiot though.

However, just from his appearance, he could tell that this fella has some ability. To elaborate on that, to have become a Major in his twenties, this fella must have achieved a number of accomplishments on the battlefield.

That was the reason why Starnel had assigned ten thousand troops to him, and abandoned them.

He had probably thought that this fella would be able to fend off the Roland forces for a while and buy him more time to escape.

Considering that.

A smile surfaced on Ryner.

"...... I'm grateful to Starnel's idiocy."

On hearing that, Selues looked at him with a look of surprise,

"What did you say?"

"No, I was just giving thanks to Starnel's idiocy for throwing away someone as capable as you without even batting an eyelid. Thanks to the foolishness of Starnel, the plan I came up with might just go well. By the way, are you popular among your subordinates?"

He asked.

"............"

Selues did not answer. However, even without answering, it was clear.

Ryner looked around him once more.

The soldiers around him all had brightly lit faces. There was not the slightest drop in morale.

After getting abandoned by Starnel, and on top of that having Roland's soldiers on their heels, their current brightly lit faces could not just be attributed to Toale's popularity alone.

Ryner's grin broadened increasingly.

"Unexpectedly, things may just move ahead even without us doing anything."

Toale is popular with the commoners. If both Starnel and Toale were to claim their names to the throne, most of the people would probably follow Toale.

However, this Selues appeared to be very popular with the soldiers.

With this, if Starnel was to continue with his oppression, he would probably end up destroying himself.

If Toale were to rise up, supported by Selues at his side, there was a possibility that the rest of the power-wielding nobles, soldiers, and people would follow him.

If that were to happen.

"............"

Starnel's life would probably be no more. Even without Ryner, Toale, or Roland doing anything.

Thanks to his own foolishness, Starnel would be killed by Imperial Nelpha.

If that were to happen, then there would be no need for Ryner to take the trouble to capture Starnel.

However, the real problem will start from there.

After Starnel's death.

After Toale becomes king.

At that time, Roland will probably be asking for Toale's life.

The current Roland will definitely not allow Toale to live.

That's why in order for Toale to live, there are two choices.

First.

Escape to outside of the country.

Second.

Lead Nelpha's soldiers to fight Roland.

"............"

But the latter was out of the question.

Right now, there was no longer any country in the southern part of the continent with enough power to fight the military might of Roland.

Ryner was very well aware of that.

For the past one year, he had always hung around Sion's side.

Working hard together in that office to strengthen Roland.

And in just one year, Roland was totally transformed to something different from before.

Roland was reborn.

Even though Ryner was not directly involved in the military affairs, he could still imagine roughly how much power the current Roland wielded.

To the Nelpha right now, it would be like hitting a rock with an egg.

Well, however, if they were to ally with Runa Empire to resist Roland, then it would be a different story.

"............"

Even for Roland, it would be difficult to face two countries as its opponents, he thought.

However, Runa was an ally of Roland.

As such, Nelpha no longer had any chance of winning. There was no other way other than to surrender.

In other words, for the short term, there was no way but for Toale to first capture Starnel, become the king, and issue a surrender, and before Roland catches him, escape out of the country.

As he unfolded the various development scenarios in his head,

"Aah, this is bothersome."

Upon groaning, Selues nodded.

"Yeah. It's extremely bothersome. That's why there's not much time left. According to Kiefer Knolles, you are supposed to have arrived yesterday. What in the world were you doing?"

Ryner's face turned serious at that and he looked at Selues.

"Sorry we're late. Even though we were already rushing all the way here, it was my calculation mistake. But, I'm not going to make another mistake hereon. I'll save this country, and save Toale's life. So can you lead us to Toale?"

Selues then grabbed hold of the reins of Ryner's horse and led them.

"Here."

"Right."

Once again, the horse started off slowly.

Ahead of where Selues was leading them, was a small tent. Outside of that tent, was a familiar group, made up of a golden hair girl, a black hair boy and his childhood girl friend, playing.

Iris, Arua, and Kuku.

At that moment, Iris noticed Ryner's group.

"Ah ~! Wild Beast-kun ~!"

She shouted.

Arua then turned towards here as well,

"Ryner-sensei!"

Following that, the tent opened, and out came Kiefer, with her hand waving.

Ryner then waved back at her, and lastly......

A man around the same age of Ryner came out of the tent. With brown hair and a kind face. However, compared to the time he met him a year ago, the face was more drawn. It was filled with more fatigue.

Just from that, he could see what he had been through for the past few weeks.

Ryner smiled at Toale.

And in response to that.

"............"

Toale returned with a wry, troubled smile.

Ryner then turned around.

"Hey, Ferris."

"............"

"Ferris, wake up. We have reached. There should be a bed somewhere, go sleep there."

On hearing that, without opening her eyes,

"Hah ~, then, carry me there."

"Walk on your own."

"Carry me there like a princess."

"Huuuuhhhhhhhh? Huuhhhhhh? You, with so many people looking......"

But, upon saying that, she grabbed hold of Ryner's neck. And while strangling him,

"You're so annoying. If you dare wake me again...... I'll kill you, get it?"

As she said that, her fingers seemed to be really crushing Ryner's neck,

"Hey, I get itttttttt! Whether is it like a princess or groom, I'll carry you so don't kill me."

"Um. Then, please carry on. I'll be going back to sleep."

"......................... jeez."

Ryner sighed out loudly, and following that, he dismounted the horse. After that, he brought down Ferris, who had descended into deep sleep.

Then, in her desired princess cradle fashion, he carried the bothersome princess,

"A princesssssssssssssss!"

Iris made a jab as she clung to Ferris's chest.

The weight of the two people on Ryner's hip. His hip seemed about to sprain. He really felt like killing the two troublesome sisters.

But.

"...... uhwu, I have to bear with it until I get her to a bed. Do your best, Ryner. I'll be able to relax when she sleeps......"

He encouraged himself, and started walking.

Following that, Kiefer came to him.

"............"

While staring at him, she smiled kindly.

But, somehow, it was different from the smile just now. She was looking intently at him with a somewhat, transfixed, biting gaze, and softly,

"...... princess cradle."

"Eh? What?"

"Nothing."

"But you know, these two people are really heavy...... hey, Kiefer, can you help me?"

Ryner asked, to which Kiefer said,

"Nope."

"Eh?"

"No way."

"Erm......"

But, at that moment, she grinned,

"Just kidding ~. It was a joke, a joke. I'll help you. The past few days have been tough on you guys right? You're tired right?"

While saying that, she supported Ryner's arms, and pushed upwards. With that, his burden lessened.

"Oh, that really helps."

"That's great."

"Thanks."

"Yeah!"

Kiefer acknowledged happily.

Following that, Ryner once again looked in front of him, at Toale.

For some reason, with a seemingly bad mood, he was looking at him --- rather, at Kiefer.

"Hn? What's wrong, Toale?"

On hearing Ryner's words, his face turned to one of surprise,

"Eh? Umm...... ah ~, no, nothing. Long time no see, Ryner-san."

"Long time no see."

Upon saying that, Ryner wanted to wave his hands, but realizing that both his arms were encumbered, he merely nodded his head at him.

Toale then rushed up to him.

"Do you need help?"

"Yeah, can you help me with the top one."

Toale nodded, and lifted up Iris, who had been clinging to Ferris's chest.

Iris's face then lit up,

"Wah! It's high, are you bringing me higher!? Iris loves that!"

On hearing that, Toale lifted Iris up and down. Following that, he looked at Ryner,

"Well Ryner-san, I would have never expected to reunite with you under such circumstances."

Ryner nodded as well. He smiled wryly at the tight-fitting, seemingly unsuitable military uniform that Toale was wearing.

"Yeah. I've never thought so either. So to speak, it became something real bothersome."

Following that, Toale opened the entrance to the tent. Inside was a simple bed, and he pointed to it,

"Over there."

"Yeah."

Ryner nodded as he carried Ferris there. He put Ferris down on the bed, and hugging the pillow, she slept comfortably.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Ryner then said smilingly.

Following that, once again, Kiefer looked at him with a slightly angry face.

Ryner cocked his head to the side.

"So, what's wrong?"

"N-o-t-h-i-n-g."

"Hey, those words sounded rather thorny."

"No they don't."

"Yes they do."

"I said no, they don't"

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Well ok...... forget it then."

"No way."

"Eeeehhh?"

"Humph."

Kiefer turned her face away from him and went out of the tent.

With an incomprehensible look on his face,

"...... what the hell was that?"

Ryner asked Toale.

On hearing that, for some reason, he also made an unpleasant face,

"Please don't ask me."

"Toale, why are you angry as well?"

"I'm not angry."

"Really?"

"Yes. More importantly......"

Upon saying that, he looked at Ryner.

And smiled.

"Really, long time no see. Ryner-san, I'm really happy to hear that you are coming here to help me. I'm coming here to save you. The reason is because we're friends. Ok? , those words, frankly speaking, made me want to cry."

He said, to which Ryner smiled.

"Was that a little too mushy?"

"Nope. It was a great thing to me, who was depressed from getting cornered in all directions."

"Is that so. That's great then."

Ryner nodded, pulled up a nearby chair and sat down.

Toale then said,

"Should I brew some tea like what we did in the past?"

"Ah ~, the tea you brewed was really good. But, forget it now. There's really not much time left. Erm, so the situation we are now in......"

"I have already heard everything from Kiefer-san. As to where did you come from, and why are you here now......"

Upon saying that, Toale looked at Ryner with a pair of somewhat reproachful eyes,

"...... jeez, Ryner-san, you really had me with all those lies. You are a person from Roland right. And on top of that, the best friend of that hero king, Sion Astal. And to top if off, a year ago, you introduced that Sion-san as your cousin and ate in my house......"

On hearing that, Ryner nodded with a somewhat apologetic face.

That's right, that's how it was.

Ryner had met Toale and withheld his true identity then.

During that time, as a spy from Roland, he had to hide his identity while searching for the Heroes' Relics together with Ferris.

They had then visited Imperial Nelpha, Runa Empire, and Iyet Republic before returning back to Roland again.

On top of that, Toale had met Sion.

At that time, Sion was on a formal visit, calling on the grandfather of Toale, the previous king of Imperial Nelpha, Gread Nelphi, and had asked Ryner to become his bodyguard.

And so, Sion then went to the place where Ryner was at, which was Toale's house, and they had dined together on the same table.

"............"

During that time, he couldn't possibly have imagined that the relationship between Sion and Toale would have become such a bothersome thing.

Ryner nodded, and said.

"...... yeah. When we met you, Sion was masquerading as my cousin."

Toale then smiled vexedly.

"That fine young man is the hero king huh...... a powerful enemy indeed."

"Well, yeah. He's really a workaholic...... it will be a troublesome thing to surpass him."

"But we're going to surpass him right?"

"If not, you will be dead."

"Yeah. But, can I trust you? Ryner-san, you are the best friend of Sion-san right? I am a little doubtful that you will betray him and truly come here to help me. Perhaps, this is just Sion-san's ploy......"

However, Ryner shook his head immediately,

"No way."

He denied it outright.

But still,

"Even if you say that, I don't have enough information to make an assessment though. Now, with the lives of tens of thousands of people on my shoulder, will I be able to see this through correctly......?"

Said Toale.

Ryner then looked intently at Toale,

"Are you pressuring me to explain everything to you?"

Toale nodded.

"Yes, that's right. Even if it's me, I can't move too carelessly while carrying the lives of so many others."

"Well, you're right though. So, what do you want to know?"

"The first thing I want to ask is about the time when you first made contact with me. Was all that an act? Did you send that hoodlum to put up an act in order to get to me, who has royal blood flowing inside my veins?"

Said Toale.

When he said that.

Ryner felt a number of extraordinary killing intent from the surroundings outside of the tent. The tent was probably surrounded by soldiers.

"...... woah, Toale-chan I say, you're pretty cautious."

Ryner said in a light manner.

Following that, Ferris's eyes opened in response to that killing intent,

"...... hey Ryner."

But immediately, Ryner said,

"Go sleep, Ferris. There's no problem. I just need to explain things a little."

"But."

"I said it's fine. You're tired right? Just sleep. In the first place, with this level of opponents, I can take care of them myself. In the worst case, I'll take Toale hostage."

Ferris then replied,

"...... well, you have a point."

"That's right."

"Got it. But, if something......"

"I said it's fine. You should know that Toale and I are good buddies right? So, don't worry and sleep."

After Ryner said that, Ferris nodded and went back to sleep.

After ascertaining that, Ryner looked at Toale. With a troubled face. Then,

"Withdraw your troops. I told you I'm your ally right?"

However, without taking his eyes off him, Toale said,

"...... but you're the best friend of Sion."

Best friend --- Toale had said.

Ryner made a sad face on hearing that,

"Yeah."

And he nodded.

"Yeah, that's right. But, for Sion's sake as well, I won't let him kill you."

"For Sion's sake, you say?"

"Yeah. His way of thinking is already different from mine. We're looking in different directions now."

While saying that, but, isn't it because we have been looking in different directions right from the start , Ryner thought.

Even when he was shouldering everything, suffering, and on the verge of tears, he was a fool who would not even confide in his best friend.

Even when he had already been looking in a different direction, he had hidden his weeping face, and had kept on smiling perhaps.

That's why this had happened.

That's why things had progressed to this unrecoverable state.

However, he could more or less understand his thought process.

"...... he...... Sion probably wants to use the shortest amount of time to eradicate fighting in the world. Choosing the path with the least number of sacrifices, and advancing along that path. But I'm a little different. I can't distinguish between many lives and few lives, I think. Whether it is sacrificing you to save hundreds of thousands of lives, or sacrificing Sion to save millions of lives, I can't forgive something as stupid as that. At the very least, I don't want that. If you die, I'll cry, if Sion dies, I'll cry. But I hate crying."

Toale then smiled wryly.

"You're so willful."

"...... perhaps. But, that's probably what's different between me and him."

"Ryner-san, because you're too willful right?"

Ryner smiled,

"That's right."

He said.

"But, he should have the same kind of thinking as me. At any rate, he's the type of person who hates fighting, a person who hates crying, but yet, since there was no one who could save that rotten country, he became king even though he didn't really want to you know? So there's no way a gentle person like him, could kill you, or the people of Nelpha without batting an eyelid, just because this is something necessary, he isn't the kind of person who can decide this so easily with a smiling face, you know?"

Well, the truth was that he wasn't the kind of person who can come to such decisions easily. Otherwise, Ryner would not no longer be alive by now.

An Alpha Stigma bearer is an accursed creature who would end up killing others. Then, in order to save many other lives, he should have killed the Ryner, who's in danger of going berserk anytime, right away, in order to avoid such a calamity.

But yet, he didn't kill him.

Holding a knife while yelling how he would kill him, but yet, in the end, he didn't kill Ryner.

"He's really...... a fool. He's always carrying everything by himself and weeping by himself. But still, he started moving forward...... because he had no choice. But, I want to stop him. And I want to look for another way with him. I want to tell him that he's not alone, and doesn't need to shoulder everything by himself. But, I'm no longer by his side. My voice can no longer reach him. That's why I'm aiming higher. I want to reach a place where my loud voice can reach him. For that purpose, I......"

At that juncture, while looking intently at Ryner, Toale began,

"For that purpose, you've come to save me."

Ryner nodded.

"...... both of you are my friends. I've already said this earlier, but I hate to see my friends cry or die."

"...... I see. But I heard that Sion-san wants to kill you...... and you still want to save Sion-san in spite of that?"

But, to that question,

"Don't make me repeat myself please."

Ryner replied promptly.

Toale then smiled.

"......even when you are faced with that, you hate to see your friend cry...... and because I'm a friend, you will risk your life to protect me? That's quite reassuring huh."

Ryner shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, if you keep annoying me by making me say those lines again and again, I won't be your friend anymore."

On hearing that, haha , Toale laughed out loud. Following that,

"Then, during the first time we met......"

"That was purely a coincidence. I didn't know about your identity then, and even if I did, it didn't matter. However, that's not the case with Roland. They see your popularity as a threat. You were asleep then so you didn't know this, but a year ago, when we were putting up at your house, Roland had sent an assassin, but got driven off by us. Well, during then, I didn't know that he was an assassin from Roland as well......"

At that moment, Ryner recalled the time when the assassin came to kill Toale.

He remembered the unpleasant guy called Miran Froaude, who had eyes cold like the devil, and wielded a Heroes' Relic.

The first time he fought him was in the backyard of Toale's house.

He never would have thought that Froaude was the subordinate of Sion.

Was that also.

Was that assassination attempt also carried out on the orders of Sion? If that's true, then right from the start, he was already looking in a different direction from Sion.

"............"

Well, even if he worried about it now, there was nothing he could do about it, so he brushed those thoughts aside.

Meanwhile, Toale had an expression of surprise on his face at hearing that.

"I didn't hear about it."

"We didn't tell you."

"You should have told me."

"Even if I had told you, it wouldn't amount to anything."

"Eh? No, that's true but...... but doesn't that mean my life got saved twice by you guys?"

But, Ryner waved his hand to brush that aside.

"You gave us food, a place to sleep, and on top of that let us into the library, we are even."

"Erm no, that can't make us even right."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

"Then, trust me this time. That will make us even."

"But, aren't you doing this to save me......"

However, Ryner shook his head.

"That's not it. I'm also asking you to lend me a hand to save Sion."

Upon saying that, Ryner held his hand out to Toale.

And said.

"Can you lend me a hand?"

He looked intently at Toale with a serious expression on his face.

Then, wasn't this how Sion held his hand out to me? , Ryner thought in the corner of his mind.

Let's go together , Ryner thought back to the time when Sion had held his hand out to him.

That really saved him. Having been engulfed in loneliness and thinking that he was better off dead, that one line really saved him.

But it was different now.

He was no longer the one being saved, but the one who will try to save, he thought.

Of course, he didn't think that he could do it as well as Sion.

"............"

That's why Ryner held his hand out to Toale. Moreover, he didn't know whether he could be saved. No, to have taken this path, he didn't know whether he could save Toale, and after that Sion.

But, he could no longer bear seeing others get hurt and not do anything about it.

He had to move forward.

Whatever the result might be, he shall shoulder all that and move forward, Ryner thought.

Just like what Sion did.

Just like how he has saved the me who has been running away all this while.

That's why Ryner stretched his hand straight out to Toale.

Toale then looked at that hand. He looked intently at it with a troubled face.

It was difficult to make a determined decision. He was carrying tens of thousands of lives on his back. If he made a mistake, there was a possibility that all those lives would be lost.

He was probably fearful of that.

He was fearful of carrying all that.

A weight that was as heavy as the one as Sion, who was enduring everything like an idiot and screaming in anguish.

That was why Toale looked at Ryner's hand silently for a while.

But in the end,

"...... jeez, you got me. Coming at me straight in that manner with my troops surrounding the tent, doesn't that make me feel embarrassed?"

While saying that, he took Ryner's hand. And then,

"I understand. I shall trust you. You won't be falsifying your identity again, right?"

He smiled upon saying that.

To which Ryner smiled as well,

"No, I'm still fake this time you know? The truth is the hardworking me you're seeing now is a fake, the real me really wants to dump everything and take an afternoon nap."

On hearing that, Toale said,

"I know that, you know? I also want to dump everything and take a nice afternoon nap."

"You said it."

"Yes. But, we can't run away from troublesome things...... and what should our future plans be?"

On hearing that question, Ryner released Toale's hand. He scratched his head and started thinking again.

Originally, Ryner's plan was like this.

To look for valuable, capable people to protect the commoners with the soldiers.

In the meantime, Ryner will bring along Toale to subdue Starnel.

If however, Roland breaks its agreement and attacks while Ryner and Toale are not around, then the plan will change.

The Nelpha troops will carry the flags of Roland and attack Runa, then pretend to lose and run away.

This act should create a powerful threat to Roland.

At any rate, if things go badly, the alliance relationship between Runa and Roland could sour terribly.

Of course, since Runa and Roland are allies, there was a possibility that Runa has already been alerted to this plan of Ryner's, but that would not pose a problem.

The problem was how other countries would view the troops carrying Roland's flags getting beaten off by Runa.

Say for an example, what will happen if that is known to Cassla?

No, even if not other countries.

What will happen if this news reach the troops led by Starnel?

What if the soldiers of Runa were misled into thinking that their ally, Roland, was fearful of them?

The rumor would spread easily.

It's even better if it's a bad rumor.

And if that kind of rumor were to spread, the image of a mighty Roland that Sion was trying to paint would crumble. In this way, the image of nobody being able to resist against Roland who held an absolute amount of overbearing power, would easily crumble.

The other countries in the south would form an alliance and there was a possibility that Roland would no longer be able to advance northwards easily.

That's why the plan should work easily.

Since Sion is a gentle person who will choose the path with the lowest number of sacrifices.

That's why, just by doing the things they ought to do, even without attacking Runa, the plan should succeed.

Ryner was then about to explain the plan to Toale.

It's fine.

He was about to explain it to him and tell him it's okay to follow him.

But, at that moment.

Before Ryner could explain the plan to Toale.

"............"

Abruptly, everything started going crazy.

Suddenly, the entrance to the tent opened.

"Hn?"

Ryner turned his gaze there.

Standing there, was the face of a familiar man.

Golden hair tied up behind him, a calm face.

That was the man who Ferris took hostage when Ryner attacked Claugh a few days ago.

His name was Shuss Shirazz, if he remembered correctly.

An excellent vice-commander of Claugh.

Ryner looked at Shuss with tinge of surprise,

"Oh, they sent a messenger at a surprisingly early time. Have you already told Sion my suggestion?"

On hearing that, Shuss nodded. Then,

"...... we did."

As he said that, for some reason, his face looked dark and a little pained.

On seeing that, Ryner asked with a puzzled look.

"...... so, what did he say? You've come here to give a reply because he accepted right? At any rate, he should not have any a choice other than to accept this plan......"

But, cutting his words off, Shuss said.

"No. The reply has not come yet."

"Huh? There's no reply?"

"Yes."

"Then, what did you come here for? If there's no reply, there's no meaning in you coming here right?"

On hearing Ryner's words, Shuss made an even more pained expression,

"...... the truth is that I came here not on His Majesty's orders, but to pass a message to you from Field Marshal Claugh Klom."

"From red-hair?"

"Yes."

On hearing that, Ryner face became increasingly more puzzled.

As if he had entirely no clue.

He had never expected that in this situation, it was not a reply from Sion, but a message from Claugh. That's why he could not guess what kind of message it would be.

But.

He knew that it would not be something good. He knew that immediately just by looking at Shuss's face.

Looking at the dark expression on Shuss's face, Ryner asked.

"So, what is it? What did that muscle idiot red-hair want to tell me? Did he say I'm annoying and that he wanted to kill me?"

Following that, in a grave voice unmatching of that light tone of Ryner, Shuss said.

"No. Field Marshal, his Honor, told you to...... 'Run away'......"

Run away.

Ryner cocked his head at those words.

"Huh? Run away? What is the meaning of that? Why do I have to run away? We are the ones threatening Roland right? Right now, you shouldn't be able to take on both Runa and Nelpha right. In order to prevent that, Sion definitely has to accept my idea......"

However, Shuss cut him off there,

"...... Roland has already started invading Runa Empire."

He said.

Ryner's eyes widened at that,

"...... what."

He could only utter.

But, Shuss continued.

"His Majesty made no reply to your message. He ignored it totally. And, Roland has already passed the southern borders of Runa, and advancing northwards at an overwhelming speed. The commander is Marshal Bayuuz White and, Lieutenant General Miran Froaude. Without accepting Runa's surrender, they are now massacring people. And we have also received our orders. Until we have killed both Starnel Nelphi and Toale Nelphi, do not relax on your attacks. Show them Roland's might --- it said."

On hearing that.

On hearing that, Ryner.

"............"

Was at a loss for words.

He then desperately turned over what Shuss had said in his head. Unable to breathe, his face pale, he thought desperately.

Shuss had said.

"His Majesty made no reply to your message."

Shuuss had said that.

But, he thought otherwise.

The reply had already come.

Sion had already made his stand on Ryner's plan.

I'll not accede to your wise plan. Roland shall, without borrowing your power, challenge the world with its might, speed, fearsomeness, and massiveness.

In order to do that, I don't care how much sacrifices there will be. Even if it amounts to hundreds of thousands, or even millions of lives.

The balance Sion was using has become a gigantic one.

On realizing that, Ryner uttered,

"............ damn."

He spat.

He had made another mistake.

He had made another mistake in his calculations.

Because of that, large numbers of people will die.

Because of my stupidity, foolishness, and my lack of consideration, many people will die.

Because my resolve has yet reached the level of Sion's, large numbers of people will die once again.

Upon thinking that,

"...... damn damn damn."

He wanted to cry.

He wanted to run away.

He wanted to run away to a faraway place right now.

But there was no place to run to. He was already shouldering large numbers of lives.

Even if he was slapped with sudden despair, and wanted to scream in anguish.

"............"

He could only move forward like what Sion did.

He could only move forward like him.

Since the gears were spinning.

Since they were spinning crazily, intensely.

That's why Ryner.

"............"

Looked up.

He glared at Shuss, and with a low, cracked voice,

"...... Roland already has the power to crush both Nelpha and Runa at the same time?"

He asked.

However, that was a foolish question.

The results had been proven.

Runa had already declared their surrender, but Roland did not accept it and continued to raze them.

And that performance was probably creating a dramatic effect. As a result of having razed and crushed two countries, Nelpha and Runa, with overwhelming might, Roland has created an image of itself to other countries as a fearsome country that will not accept any kind of surrender once it starts waging war.

It would be able to make other countries tremble in fear with that image.

So the next time when it moves again, others will proclaim a surrender without even putting up a resistance, allowing Roland to proceed unhindered.

For that purpose.

"............"

For that purpose, there was meaning to the massacre this time.

This was the best choice to minimize the number of sacrifices in the future.

In order to take the path of least sacrifices, Sion had again taken the lives of large numbers of people.

In order to take the shortest path, Sion had again chosen the lives of large numbers of people.

The one who had yet the resolve.

The one who had yet to make his resolve,

"...... is me."

Ryner said groaningly with a face that was on the verge of crying.

But, he had really never thought that Roland would be able to acquire such overwhelming power to be able take on both Nelpha and Runa at the same time. It was beyond his expectations.

"...... damn. That's also my calculation mistake."

Ryner muttered.

Even when he had been spending that same time with Sion, he had never noticed it.

He had never once noticed the depth of the darkness he bore.

He regretted it.

Even when the regrets did not help him, he regretted.

Ryner said.

"...... I understand now what Sion is doing. So, Claugh is asking me to run away?"

Shuss nodded.

"In two more days, we'll start advancing our troops again. The next time we meet on the battlefield, we intend to kill all of you. But for just two days...... we'll stop at our current location. In the meantime......"

Ryner continued from there.

"...... in the meantime, you want us to run away? In other words, this time, Claugh is unsatisfied with Sion's order?"

But, Shuss said.

"No, he didn't say that. Field Marshal, His Honor, will definitely not go against the orders of His Majesty."

Even if he said that, Claugh would not be setting off immediately, and would be delaying things for two days. On top of that, he even told Ryner about the current situation, where Sion had started attacking Runa.

If this is not going against his orders, then what else is?

But Ryner instead said,

"I see."

Shuss nodded again.

"That's right. And my mission ends here. The next time we meet will be......"

"On the battlefield?"

"Yes. The next time I will be killing you. I won't be so easily defeated like the last time, so brace yourself."

Upon saying that, Shuss turned on his heel. With that, he started exiting the tent.

To his back,

"...... tell Claugh thanks for his help."

On hearing that, Shuss merely waved lightly and left the tent.

Looking after his departing figure,

"............"

Ryner took a deep breath and breathed out. As if he were letting go of the built up despair in his body, he breathed out with all his strength.

And once again, he looked at the Toale beside him.

Toale was making a complicated face. Looking at that face,

"I'm sorry Toale. The plan's all messed up."

"I've heard."

"So, with regards to what's next......"

Upon saying that, a tired smile surfaced on Toale's lips,

"I shall show myself to Roland, and get executed publicly......?"

But Ryner shook his head.

"That's useless. Roland is not even willing to accept the surrender of Runa, we don't know how far they will go with the massacring until they are satisfied...... well, at the very least, the soldiers who followed you will be killed."

Toale then smiled sadly.

"Uwah, that is a little...... too much for me. It's all because of my fault to have led these soldiers......"

"No, that's not it. If you hadn't stopped these soldiers, they would have already been killed by Claugh. You have saved their lives."

"It's just for a few days though...... but, then, what should we do?"

On hearing those words, Ryner kept quiet again.

As he pondered, he looked up at the roof part of the tent. The sunlight that was passing through the tent top was red.

The sun was already setting.

Night was falling.

When night comes, they won't be able to move.

However, there was not much time left.

Roland's troops were pressing in from the south, as well as from Runa's side.

If they don't run, they'll get killed.

Everyone'll get killed.

Realizing that.

"............"

Realizing that, Ryner called out,

"Major Selues."

The entrance to the tent opened. Selues entered.

"What is it?"

Ryner said to the solemn face of his.

"My plan has failed. Roland's troops will be attacking from Runa's side. We need to escape now. So mobilize the troops. We're running."

Selues then stared at him,

"What about the commoners?"

"Scatter them, to the west. We shall go north, straight through the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla. Roland's forces will probably come after us."

"I see. So we are the decoy for the commoners to get away. That's a great way to die."

On hearing his words, Ryner's face contorted.

"...... sorry."

However, on the solemn face of Selues, a thin smile surfaced for the first time.

"No, you made the right choice. I can trust you a little more with this."

Upon saying that, he turned around. Then,

"The situation has changed! We need to change locations again!"

While yelling, he went outside.

After ascertaining that, Ryner turned towards Toale.

"Then, let's go, Toale. There's already no more time left. Let's get going quickly. Since you are the one being targeted, you should be moving right at the front."

However, for some reason, Toale smiled sadly,

"....... no, I can't do that. I shall stay back."

As he said that, Ryner's face contorted again.

"Huh? Why? What are you going to do here?"

Toale then said,

"...... I shall remain here and buy some time by negotiating with Roland......"

However, before he could finish, Ryner said,

"Idiot!"

He yelled.

"Use your head Toale! If you were to remain here, most of the troops who have followed you will also remain here right. What will then happen to them? Do you want everyone to die with you? You're leaving. Take the soldiers and flee to Cassla."

To which Toale made an unsettled face,

"Will Cassla take in the soldiers of Nelpha?"

However, Ryner promptly replied,

"I don't know. But, other than that, there's no other way. At any rate, if you stay here, everyone will get killed. We have no choice but to try. Now that we're going to do it...... now that we're going to do it, I'll...... definitely not let you die. Even though we were talking about decoys earlier there's no need to die. Before Roland catches up to us, we'll pass through Cassla. You'll live and get away. Everyone will get away and laugh in the end. So don't foolishly talk about dying again. Get it?"

In response to that strong tone of Ryner, Toale looked intently at him and said,

"....... got it."

And nodded. Then, with a somewhat delighted smile,

"And thanks for coming here to help me...... Ryner."

He said.

Not Ryner-san, he dropped the honorifics and called him Ryner.

On hearing that, with a somewhat embarrassed and vexed face, Ryner began,

"Aah jeez, don't worry about stuff like that. Now, go to where Major Selues is. If you take command, the soldiers will probably move faster. Get a thousand troops to remove their military uniforms to protect the commoners and disperse them. The remaining soldiers shall head north......"

But, at that moment before he could finish ---

Instantly.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

Screams rang out from their surroundings.

Following that, a thunderous roaring noise which made their heads spin sounded.

In response to that.

"............"

In response to that, Ryner's eyes widened in shock.

"No way......"

He murmured.

But, once again.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllppp."

Screams rang out.

Following by another thunderous roar, again and again.

Ryner then said again,

"...... no way, how could this......."

He murmured dumbfoundedly.

This shouldn't be happening.

So quickly.

There was no way the enemies could have reached them so quickly.

But, as before, thunderous roars reverberated.

Flickering lights that dazzled even the eyes of those in the tent.

Following that, another thunderous roar.

Ryner knew about all that.

It was a large-scale magic used by Roland.

"...... what the hell is happening!?"

Ryner yelled as he rushed out of the tent.

At the instant he exited the tent.

The night sky, the dark night sky was lit up.

Before Ryner's eyes, tens of people.

"............"

Were reduced to ashes in an instant.

Screams were heard from men, women, children, and the elderly who were roasted from the high temperatures caused by magic.

Screams rang out.

And then they got roasted.

The people who were roasted by the intense fire died.

"...... uwah...... damn, shit......"

Ryner trembled as he saw that. He couldn't move.

However, from the hell-like scene, Kiefer came dashing over.

"Ryner! Roland's troops are approaching from the borders at Runa's side......"

She was also on the verge of tears. In her arms was a four, five year old girl who was injured.

Looking at that.

Looking at Kiefer's teary face,

Ryner was brought back to his senses. Looking intently at her,

"...... I got it. Let's run away immediately. Selues! Protect everyone and make for the north! Move the troops! Get them to counter Roland's large-scale magic attack!"

At that voice of Ryner, Selues gave out orders and the soldiers started moving.

Following that, Toale came out of the tent as well and he told him.

"Toale, you go lead the people and escape."

"But."

"No buts. If you're not there, no one will move. Don't just stand there and get moving! I'll do something about the rear somehow, you just focus on getting everyone out of here!"

On hearing that, Toale wanted to say something again, but he relented, nodded once, and ran off.

Ryner looked at his departing figure, then said to the unsettled Kiefer beside him,

"Kiefer."

"Yes."

"Take Iris, Arua, and Kuku with you and follow Toale."

She then made an anguished face. She made a face as if wanting to say that she wants to fight with him here. But instead, her face contorted painfully and she said,

"...... got it."

She then carried the girl in a hugging fashion, and said,

"I'll do my best in supporting Toale to help him get into Cassla. But, Ryner also......"

However, at that juncture, he stopped paying attention to her words. He didn't have the luxury of time to listen to that anymore.

If he tarried further, the next large-scale magic attack would come. If that were to happen, tens of people, hundreds of people would die again.

He needed to defend against that.

Ryner looked in the direction of where the magic came from.

He looked in that direction and widened his eyes.

Following that, red pentacle shapes surfaced on the center of his black pupils and glowed.

Cursed eyes known as Alpha Stigma .

With those eyes of his, he tried to locate the faraway large-scale magic spell formation.

But, he couldn't see it.

He couldn't see the construct of the magic.

Was it because they had yet to start creating the large-scale magic, or was it because the troops were charging straight towards here without deploying the large-scale magic?

"Damn, if I can't see it, I can't come up with the counter spell......"

But at that moment.

"I say, Ryner!?"

His face got punched heavily from the side.

"Uoh?"

Ryner uttered.

Following that, he turned towards the one who punched him.

The same tearful Kiefer was standing there.

"Erm, eh? Why did you punch me?"

To his question, she said with an angry face.

"Because you are not listening to what I'm saying!"

"Erm, what you're saying?"

"Yeah!"

"B-but, this is not the time......"

But, she cut him off,

"It's precisely because of that, that I'm telling some seriously important stuff right! So listen up properly!"

She said menacingly.

On hearing that,

"...... erm, ah ~, alright. I'm sorry......."

Uhm , Kiefer then nodded at Ryner's apology.

"It's great that you understand."

"Er, erm, so Kiefer, what do you want to tell me?"

Kiefer looked once to the sky from which the large-scale magic was invoked, and then looked back at Ryner.

Then, with a serious-looking face,

"Since there isn't much time, I'm going to say all the important stuff that Ryner needs to know in one breath, ok?"

She said.

Ryner nodded in response.

She then exhaled softly, following that, she took a deep breath.

"...... here goes. Ryner. If say, you are unable to stop Roland's forces here and Nelpha's people and soldiers get massacred, it'd not be your fault. So don't go throwing away your life to save them, get it? I think from hereon, you'll be someone who will save a lot more lives. That's why you can't afford to die here. If you were to die easily here, then you're merely a brainless fool. A fool who won't be able to save Sion. But if you're not a fool, and really want to save a lot more lives...... it's forbidden for you to die here. Get it?"

On hearing those words, Ryner became flustered,

"Erm, but......"

"Buts are also forbidden. If you die, I'll commit suicide as well. I'll definitely do it you know?"

"Eeeeeeeeeh, hey, Kiefe......"

But, with a serious-looking face that was really on the verge of crying, she continued.

"I'm serious ok? I don't want to live in a world without you. So if you end up being unable to stop Roland's forces, run away. Get it?"

On hearing those words.

"............"

While Ryner was yet unable to reply, Kiefer started again,

"I'm asking you whether you get it or not!!"

She yelled loudly.

He trembled a little,

"......I-I, got it."

"Alright! Then go!"

"...... erm."

"Hurry up! If not, I'm really going to cry!!"

While shouting, Kiefer had in fact started crying. In response to that, Ryner frantically turned his face away,

"Erm, er ~, sorry."

"Uh-huh."

"Then, I'm off."

"Right...... you must definitely not die."

Kiefer said from behind.

Ryner then nodded,

"Kiefer, don't die as well."

"Uhn. Then...... see ya."

"Aah. See ya."

Upon saying that, Ryner started running.

Firstly, back to the tent. Ferris was already awake.

"What's happening?"

"Roland is attacking."

On hearing those words, her face became a little dazed and she said,

"...... horh. So, what are you planning to do?"

"Go receive them for a bit while the others escape. Wanna join me?"

A thin smile floated on her face. She then drew the sword at her waist.

"...... well, if I'm not around, you will be trembling in fear like a weak worm, pee in your pants and die. Jeez! You're already an adult and still pee in your pants, aren't you ashamed of yourself!"

"Hey, what are you talking about?"

Another smile appeared,

"I'm lending you a hand so that you don't pee in your pants."

After saying that, she swung her sword, and sliced apart the tent flaps.

Then, beyond the sliced portion. Far beyond that.

"............"

Ryner could see a light construct forming up.

It was a large scale lightning attack magic, Raguru (Lightning Falling Lighting).

There were three of them.

"...... three, huh."

Too little. Ryner thought.

If Roland's main forces were closing in, there will be ten times more Raguru (Lightning Falling Lighting).

In other words, right now, the ones that were attacking them were a smaller vanguard.

A force to hold them here while the main forces arrive.

So that none of them could escape.

"............"

In other words, they were attacking in order to massacre all the soldiers and commoners, without letting any one of them escape.

"...... damn. You're going to this extent huh, Sion."

Ryner groaned while he looked intently at the forming Raguru (Lightning Falling Lighting).

If these three Raguru (Lightning Falling Lighting) were completed, hundreds of people would be killed again.

However, they had only just started to form up. And Ryner knew how to shut down that magic. No. Even if, say, he didn't know, with his special pair of eyes he would be able to discover the way to shut it down.

A smile surfaced on Ryner.

"...... well, but, at this level, it's still possible to barely counteract them."

Upon saying that, he looked around him. And as expected, he found a group of Nelpha soldiers who were about to make a large scale magical attack,

"Hey you guys, that won't do. More importantly, don't you have any water-based magic?"

At that question, a soldier answered.

"Water, you say? We do...... but the power......"

But, cutting him off, Ryner said.

"We don't need power. We just need something simplified. Focus on the speed. The next coming attack would be lightning magic, you guys just render that ineffective......"

At that moment, from beside him, Ferris broke into a run.

Towards the enemy.

In the direction where the Roland soldiers appeared to be.

After looking at her back, Ryner once again turned to the soldiers and said.

"...... you guys just stop their large scale magical attack once, in the meantime, we'll keep them in check, can you do it?"

But the soldiers appeared to be flustered,

"B-But, how did you know that the enemies are launching a lightning magical attack on us......"

But Ryner cut him off,

"I'm an Alpha Stigma bearer. I can tell what kind of magic the other side is using and where they will be coming from."

He said.

On hearing that.

On hearing his words.

A look of fear appeared on the soldiers' faces. And they peered into the eyes of Ryner.

At the red pentacles floating above the center of his black eyes ---

Following that, their faces became increasingly contorted with fear.

The killer eyes.

The massacring cursed eyes.

Once those crazy eyes go berserk, a scene of carnage and despair will ensue.

That's why everyone hated those cursed eyes.

Hated the people who possess those eyes.

Hated Ryner.

That's why he ran away.

Since he didn't want to be looked upon in that manner again.

Since he didn't want to be looked upon by those fearful, loathing, demeaning eyes again.

"............"

But, at that moment, the soldier said.

Looking at him, looking at him with fearful eyes,

"...... I, I see...... t-that's really reassuring under such circumstances......"

Said the soldier in a trembling voice, to which Ryner said,

"...... isn't it?"

And he smiled.

Following that, he started giving instructions.

"So listen to me, and defend against their magic. Defending is enough. We'll do the attacking."

"Understood. So, which way......"

With that, Ryner pointed in two different directions with both his hands.

"One from this direction. And another one from this direction. And also one from there. They'll be invoking three rounds. From the current constructing speed, you have probably another five minutes. So, how long do you need?"

That soldier then turned around.

And another soldier behind said,

"For the simplified version, in two minutes."

"Then get to it now."

"Yes."

As the soldier acknowledged, the soldiers and commoners who were heading north had started to move.

"Oh, finally, the preparations to escape are done huh."

Ryner turned towards the crowd who were starting to move.

Aaarrrggghhh, sloooowwwww , Ryner wanted to holler at the moving crowd.

But it couldn't be helped.

There were both children and elderly. They were not trained soldiers.

Even if the vanguard sent out by Roland were to retreat, the main forces would probably catch up in no time.

However, even so, they couldn't give up. Even if it was only for a little while, they needed to escape northwards.

That's why.

"............"

That's why he fought.

At the battlefield.

Not only that, at last, he had to fight the soldiers of his own country.

His finger danced in the air, and started carving out glowing words. And then.

"I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN."

He chanted.

His body sparkled and his movement speed increased......

But, at that moment.

"Ryner-sensei!"

A voice sounded from behind him. It was the voice of Arua.

Ryner frowned and turned around.

"What are you doing! Hurry up and get out of here!"

But, Arua said,

"I......"

"I can't bring you along! This is not a situation where you can be useful! Go protect Kuku, Kiefer, and Iris!"

After saying that, he was about to ignore Arua and run off, but,

"No! I won't be a burden to Sensei! I've come here to bring you these."

On hearing those words,

"Huh?"

Ryner turned around.

Arua handed him a bunch of cloth-like objects that he was hugging against his chest,

"...... if you are going to fight Roland soldiers, won't it be easier to get close to them if you bring these along?"

He said.

Ryner took them. And opened them up.

They were the Roland flags which he had gotten Iris to prepare for him earlier.

Ryner then said,

"Ohhh, aren't you a smart one!"

Arua then smiled happily.

"Was I useful?"

"Very! As expected of my disciple!"

On hearing those words, Arua blushed and smiled, ehhehe like a kid.

"Well then, go back, and protect Kuku, Kiefer and Iris."

Arua then made a slightly worried face,

"What about Sensei......"

Ryner shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll be right back. Kiefer said that she'll get mad at me if I die, so I'll come back alive."

"...... is that a promise?"

"Yeah. It's a promise. Ok, I'm off."

"Alright."

"See you."

After saying that, Ryner started running.

He went in the opposite direction of the waves of people. Before long, he left the crowd. And on the other side.

On the side of the open field, was Ferris riding a horse.

While riding on a horse, with her left hand, she was holding onto the reins of another horse running alongside her.

Ryner tried to catch up to her with everything he got, and gradually, gradually, the tiredness from the acceleration started seeping in,

"Ah, hey, Ferris! I can't do this! It's tiring to chase you! Could you stop for a little while?"

But,

"........."

Ferris ignored him.

"Heeeeeeeyyyy, you can hear me right! I'm telling you to stop!"

And at last, she turned around. And gleefully, pahn pahn , she clapped her hands,

"Mr Ogre, I'm here ♪, the sound of my hands......"

"Shuutttt uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!!"

Yelled Ryner as he accelerated even further. He ran at his full speed where he felt as if his legs were rupturing, and as the horse got closer, he kicked the ground.

With that, he got onto the back of the horse.

Zeh zeh , he groaned as he gripped the reins. Getting meaninglessly tired, his entire body was covered in sweat in an instant.

Looking at that, Ferris said,

"Ooh, you can do it if you try."

"Shut up. And, don't make me waste my energy like that......"

"Hm. But there's no time right? Before the enemy launches their next magical attack, we have to......"

"No, it'll be fine. The Nelpha soldiers will do something about that. Even though it'll indeed be terrible if they managed to invoke it next time......"

But, at that moment, Ferris faced the front and squinted her eyes. Ryner followed her sight.

He could tell that they were nearing the enemy squads. If the horses were to run at full speed, at this rate, they would probably be able to charge right in the enemy formation in three to four minutes.

Ferris said.

"Before the next magical attack, we can charge into the enemy it seems. But the problem is the enemy numbers. Do you think we can render them ineffective with just the two of us?"

On hearing those words, Ryner folded his arms.

"Uhn ~, I wonder ~"

The large scale magic, Raguru (Lightning Falling Lightning) that was about to be invoked would need at least thirty casters.

In order to bring the greatest amount of power smoothly, they would need a hundred people.

In other words, for the enemy to invoke the three rounds of Raguru (Lightning Falling Lightning), they would need at least ninety mage soldiers and at most three hundred of them.

But normally, with respect to the practice of Roland, the large scale magic squads are protected by four times more troops than the casters. Once the casters start to invoke the large scale magic, they will not be able to move for five minutes, and during that time, they will be completely defenseless, so in order to protect them, a substantial number of troops are needed.

In other words, on the other side of this open field, the number of Roland troops would number at least more than five hundred.

In the worst case, there could be a thousand people.

Of course, it was not a number that could be handled by just two people.

"Strategy?"

On hearing Ferris's words, Ryner nodded.

"I've got one."

"What should we do?"

"...... I'll tamper with the large scale magic on their side."

"Horh. So in other words...... we have to bust right into the enemy, and you'll forcibly change the magic formations made by the enemy?"

"Yes."

"While being completely surrounded by a ton of enemies, I shall hold them off while you change their magic formations right?"

"Yes."

"...... hm. I see. And, there's something I want to ask."

"What?"

"...... can you call that moronic strategy a strategy?"

Ryner smiled wryly at that question.

"...... yeah you can't call that a strategy at all. We might die. Then again, shall I think of another plan...... I'd rather just risk my own life, but to get you caught up in it......"

But Ferris said to that,

"But, there's no time to come up with another strategy right?"

To which Ryner nodded.

"While coming up with one, others will die."

"Then, we have no choice but to do it."

"...... yeah. Sorry."

"No need for apologies. In the worst case, I'll just abandon you and escape."

On hearing those words of hers,

"It'll be great if you can do that."

Said Ryner, but, even though she said that, she won't just abandon me and escape, how troublesome , he thought.

It was just as Kiefer had said.

There was no reason for Ryner to die here.

He could not succeed in his strategy all by himself. He would definitely need Ferris's cooperation.

However, if things come to a point where they can't do anything, Ferris will definitely.

"............"

She will definitely not abandon me and escape.

That's the type of person she is.

In other words, if Ryner were to die, Ferris would also die.

That would be terrible.

He didn't want that.

In other words, this time,

"...... I have to do my best......"

He moaned out.

He was exasperated at the fact that even though he had already been working hard up till here, but, why did he have to work even harder?

However, if he doesn't work even harder, he won't be able to protect the things that are important to him.

And they include Ferris, Kiefer, Iris, Kuku, Arua, Toale, and also Sion.

So, even while feeling exasperated,

"............"

He looked ahead.

They were nearly upon the enemy.

As to the enemy numbers ---

"...... ah ~, that's around three thousand."

"Uhm."

"A few thousand more than what I've thought."

"A calculation error."

"Yeah. With the two of us, we can take on about twenty to thirty of them......"

She nodded. And for some reason, she looked delighted,

"...... in the past, we also charged into a swarm of troops before. This time round, let's do the same."

On hearing those words, a smile surfaced on him.

"Yeah ~, that incident huh."

And he recalled.

That was an incident which had taken place in Nelpha.

He had just met Ferris not long ago then.

It was an incident which had taken place when they were just starting to search for the Heroes' Relics, and had just entered Nelpha from Roland.

The Nelpha troops had captured Milk, and they had gone to save her.

However, the enemy numbered fifty then. And it was tough even with just fifty of them. Rather, they were risking their lives there.

But the enemy numbered three thousand this time.

"...... somehow, I feel like running."

"The scared Ryner wants to call out to Mama while he pees in his pants huh?"

Ferris said lightly as usual, but Ryner nodded readily.

"Yeah, I'm about to. If the strategy fails, and if you were to die, I will definitely be unable to take it, and pee from my eyes. So......"

At that moment, he looked at her.

"So Ferris. If things become really bad, get away."

She then looked at him as well,

"...... uhm. You too......"

"Uhn."

"Then, let's go."

Upon saying that, Ferris sped up her horse even further.

At the same time, Roland completed its large scale magic attack.

It was Raguru (Lightning Falling Lightning).

And they fired it towards the Nelpha soldiers.

As they did so, a large scale magic for counteracting that was invoked from Nelpha.

Different from individual magic, one by one, three bouts of lightning that was powerful enough to blind the eyes were fired, but, they were received by a wall formed by large amounts of water erected by the Nelpha soldiers and rendered ineffective.

A buzz then started among the Roland soldiers. As Ryner expected, the enemy's attention was drawn to that wall of water. Nobody noticed their presence.

Looking at that,

"Let's go."

Upon saying that, Ryner spread the Roland flags. With that, he jumped off the horse, and charged into the Roland forces.

At that moment.

"W-What's happening?"

A person noticed him. And his face turned to one of surprise.

Ryner then showed the flag,

"I'm an ally. I carry an order from Field Marshal Claugh Klom from the south."

The soldier then started frantically,

"His Grace, Field Marshal Klom?"

"Yeah, that's right. It's an emergency. Who's the one commanding this force?"

As Ryner asked that, he tensed up a little.

It'll be bad if it's him , he thought.

That monster who was entirely covered in black, and a user of a Hero's Relic.

It'll be bad if it's Miran Froaude , he thought.

According to Shuss, currently, the ones attacking Runa were Lieutenant General Miran Froaude and, the former military man from the Kingdom of Estabul, Marshal Bayuuz White.

The one called White might be worse. While Ryner had never really met him before, he had heard from Sion that his ability is the real deal.

But the soldier said,

"The commander is Captain Terohm. He's right at the center."

Upon saying that, he pointed to behind him.

Ryner then,

"...... hm."

Sighed out softly.

It's not White nor Froaude. The two of them were probably with the main body.

With that, the situation was very much easier.

Ryner did not look in the direction where the soldier pointed. It was not like he had any business with the commander.

The ones whom he had business with were.

"............"

He looked at the left, right, center of the forces where new large scale magic were starting to get deployed.

The next spell they were invoking was once again Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs). The magic that was first used to burn the soldiers and commoners of Nelpha.

He would tamper with them.

Ryner pointed to the closest Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs) that was in the process of getting invoked to the right. Ferris then nodded.

At that moment, a number of soldiers started,

"Hey, don't you find it strange? Why aren't they wearing any military uniforms......"

However, without waiting for them to finish, the two of them started running.

Pushing through the soldiers, they dashed towards the Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs).

In the midst of that.

One of the soldiers looked at them,

"...... don't tell me they are enemies? Hey, report this to Captain Terohm......"

As the man was speaking, Ferris struck him down.

Seeing that, a number of soldiers said,

"Hey, did you see that!"

"It's the enemy!"

"The enemy has come!?"

While yelling that.

Ryner invoked his magic.

Drawing the magic inscription in the air at a high speed,

"WHAT I SEEK IS SILENCE >>> ANTE"

He murmured.

Instantly.

The sounds around them were gone.

With Ryner at the center, the sounds in the surrounding area were gone. A blanket of silence fell on them.

This is a simple magic that stops the vibration of the air and stops sounds from getting transmitted, however, when people are in a completely soundless environment, their hearts will become unsettled. Especially in the case of noisy battlefields.

Previously, when he used this magic against Nelpha soldiers, it caused a great panic among them. However, this time round, the reactions should be a little different.

The reason was because ---

"............."

The reason was because this was Roland's magic.

At that moment, sounds returned.

Immediately.

"What!? What's the meaning of this!? Someone extinguished the sounds!?"

"Who was the one who used Ante!"

A commotion started among the soldiers.

Gazing at that, Ryner started drawing another magic inscription. And then,

"WHAT I SEEK IS WATER MIST >>> MISUMI"

Instantly.

A large amount of water became a raging stream and rained upon the soldiers,

"I-It's the eneeeeeeeeemmmmyyyy!"

"No, wait! This is Roland's magic! It's a traitor! There's a traitor!"

This time round, a panic ensued.

And that's not the kind of panic caused by the desperate searching of the enemy. It was the kind of panic caused by the possibility of having everyone around oneself as an enemy.

And by that time, Ryner and Ferris had finally reached the invocation location of Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs).

Ferris drew her sword and started mowing down the mage soldiers who were casting Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs).

And as Ryner reached what was behind them,

"Now, here I go ~, ohrhya."

With a tremendous force, he started tampering with the Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs).

And around that time, the surrounding soldiers started realizing who the enemies were.

"Stop those two!"

With that yelling, a single person started drawing a magic inscription while facing them.

"I won't allow it."

Ferris beat him down with her sword.

Following that, a number of others drew their swords and came attacking her, but in an instant, they were sent sprawling onto the floor.

On top of that, a number of other soldiers drew their swords and came attacking Ryner,

"Damn."

Ferris said as she came back to him and somehow sent them flying.

But the enemy waves did not stop. A number of soldiers started drawing glowing magic inscriptions simultaneously.

Ferris frowned,

"Ryner!"

"Huh?"

"How long are you going to take?"

"Three minutes."

"Make it one."

"Impossible."

"Then, just hurry up and get on with it!"

While saying that, she jumped out again. After striking down one, two, three of the soldiers who had started inscribing magic circles, she returned to Ryner's side.

At the same time, the soldiers completed their magic.

Three bouts of Kurenai .

One Kuuri .

The streaking light of Kuuri that was fired off first was sliced apart by Ferris.

Following that, she snatched the Roland flags away from Ryner, knocked off some of the flaming shells from Kurenai , and repelled the rest with her sword ---

Then, in the nick of time, she jumped towards the last remaining flaming shell flying towards Ryner and......

"...... gah."

She knocked it off with her bare hand.

Ferris's left arm got scorched and hung loosely. Unable to move.

"............"

"Ferris......"

Ryner uttered but,

"Don't worry about me, just finish what you need to do!"

She yelled angrily and jumped out again.

She then further went on to kick the face of a man who was about to start drawing a magic inscription, and swung her sword with just her right hand.

However, bit by bit, she was no longer able to defend against the enemy's attacks.

And Ferris's body became,

"............"

Covered in blood.

"...... damn, damn, what am I doing...... faster, I need to finish this faster......"

While saying that, Ryner hastened his hand.

He couldn't go help her. He wouldn't be able to do much by helping her.

That's why he stopped looking at her.

The last time his eyes were on her, she was cut by a sword from behind. She couldn't dodge that. Blood was spurting. Her cries of anguish could be heard.

But, even so, Ryner did not go help her. He merely,

"...... please...... please, don't die, Ferris!"

Yelled as he focused on the magic inscriptions before him.

And continued tampering with its composition. With an abnormal fast speed, he changed the structure of the complex puzzle that was constructed by many people.

A little bit more.

"I just have a little bit more, so Ferris! Keep on going!"

At the same time he shouted that, he completed it. In the center of that large scale magic's giant inscription, which could not have been drawn by a single person, on the platform, a billow of black smoke formed, and the smoke spread to the surroundings in just a moment.

Then, it penetrates into the magic inscriptions of the other Iigisu (Flaming Crimson Fangs) that were concurrently in the process of getting invoked, and altered their structure.

What was invoked was a little curse. A curse that stopped the activity of the spirits in this area.

With this, for the next fifteen minutes, it would not be possible to use any magic near these magic inscriptions.

And this was not the magic of Roland. Rather, it was not a magic of any country. This was a special magic that Ryner had researched for the past few years, that's why, once again, unable to comprehend what was happening, panic descended upon the Roland soldiers.

At any rate, they could not use magic.

On the battlefield, if they could not use magic, they would not be able to pursue their enemies.

In the next fifteen minutes.

The Nelpha soldiers would have an overwhelming advantage.

Since Ryner had invoked that magic,

"...... I'm done! Now, let's get out of here, Ferris!"

He turned around to look for her.

However.

"............"

Covered entirely with blood, Ferris was on her knees.

Her entire body was full of wounds. Blood flowing. Even on her face. Even on her abnormally well-featured, beautiful face, there were wounds.

She looked at him.

She looked at him with a troubled face.

Then.

"...... I'm sorry, Ryner. I'm dy......"

At that moment, from beside her, a sword was about to swing down. As if to behead her, a sword was about to swing down.

Seeing that.

"............"

Seeing that,

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!?"

Ryner broke into a sprint.

But, his movements were terribly slow. Due to the magic invoked by Ryner which stopped the activity of all spirits, the acceleration magic which he had cast on himself had been terminated.

It seemed like he couldn't make it. Even while the sword was about to swing down on Ferris's neck, it seemed like he couldn't make it.

But, still, Ryner ran. With everything he got.

And he jumped.

He jumped into the space between the sword and Ferris and embraced her.

Instantly, the enemy's sword slashed deep into his left shoulder and struck his bone. And he was sent flying from the pain and impact. His left arm could no longer move.

But he did not let go of Ferris. While hugging her, he fell onto the ground.

She then looked up at him, and following that, looked at his slashed left shoulder.

"A-Are you an idiot!? What the hell are you doing!? Y-You...... want to die!?"

As she said that, Ryner carried her and started running again.

"T-That's...... my line, idioooooooootttttttt!"

He hollered.

With his face on the verge of tears, he looked intently at her,

"Uwaaahhhh, that was close! I thought you were going to die! I thought you were going to die! And cut it out already! Do you really want to die so badly! Didn't you say that you'll run away when it looks like you're going to die! But yet, why were you still guarding me while you were on the verge of dying! Didn't I tell you that if you were to die....... if you were to die, I'll cry! Don't shit with me, jeez!"

He yelled uncontrollably with anger, and embraced her strongly.

"............"

She looked up in a dumbfounded manner, and for some reason, her face turned red. It's probably because she lost too much blood and was gradually weakening, he thought.

With a troubled face that appeared to be red from blushing, she said,

"...... ah? Errmm, don't...... don't get so angry, Ryner."

"Of course I'm angry."

"I-Is that so...... sorry."

"This is not something you can just make up by apologizing!"

"Uuu? Then, what should I do......?"

While running, Ryner said to that.

"That'd of course be to live on and get out of here. The two of us. We can't become, we can't become sacrifices in some godforsaken place......"

But, at that moment, Ryner's words stopped. A number of enemies were again upon them.

However, the Ferris who Ryner was carrying, swung her sword with her still movable right hand and mowed them down.

Ryner then said,

"Oh, that's pretty good."

"Umu."

"With this, it seems like we can still go on. Can you continue moving your right hand for a while?"

A weak smile then surfaced on her,

"Who do you think I am?"

"A troublesome rampaging dango girl."

"I'm going to kill you."

"Save that for later. If we survive, I'll let you kill me as much as you want later...... well, shall we go?"

Ryner asked, to which,

"Uhm."

Ferris nodded.

And the two of them started making their escape with everything they got.

While Ferris, who was carried by Ryner, was mowing down the enemies, they moved straight on.

Most of the enemies around them had already realized where they were. Rather, that commander called Terohm or Parohm, well, forget about the name; he should already have realized where they were.

Gradually, groups of the enemies came.

If this were to continue, they would definitely be killed.

He thought.

They couldn't make it.

They couldn't reach the place where they had left their horses earlier.

Just as he was thinking about that.

"............"

The enemy's attacks stopped.

With the yell from a soldier, the enemy's attacks stopped.

That soldier had yelled out,

"Ne-Nelpha is launching a large scale attackkkkkkk."

On hearing that, the eyes which had been trained on Ryner and Ferris turned together towards where the Nelpha forces were.

There, gigantic flames were gathering.

Massive flames used for slaughter were gathering.

Ryner's eyes widened.

Nelpha was about to launched their large scale magic here.

And there were around ten bouts of them.

Someone shouted.

"Deploy a counter magic!"

Someone shouted.

"Why!? Why doesn't our magic activate!?"

Someone cried out tearfully.

"Are we going to be killed!? Are we all going to die!?"

With that, terror descended upon the Roland soldiers, and completely ignoring Ryner and Ferris, they started making their escape.

No, Ryner also had to get away. The current wounded Ryner and Ferris wouldn't be able to dodge that many rounds of large scale magic attacks.

This was the worst possible situation.

It was a good thing if they were not to get killed by Roland's soldiers, but at this rate, it was not unlikely for them to get killed by their own allies, Nelpha's soldiers.

To get cornered into such a pressing situation.

"............"

But a frail smile surfaced on Ryner. He was looking at Nelpha's large scale attack magic which was quickly being deployed with his Alpha Stigma eyes.

It was a strange type of magic.

For some reason, it was a somewhat strange magic that appeared to be a combination of Roland and Nelpha's magic technology.

On top of that, the magic merely had a flashy appearance; the truth was that flames were not going to come flying towards here, and no attacks were going to come, they were merely flashy balls of fire.

In other words, what Nelpha was invoking now was magic for the purpose of threatening Roland.

A total deception magic, whereby two or three invocations could be performed by merely ten casters.

"............"

However, that alone had a tremendous effect. To the unsettled Roland soldiers who were not able to use any magic, upon seeing that fake large scale attack magic, everyone of them started retreating.

Looking at that.

Looking at that magic made up of a combination of Roland and Nelpha magic, Ryner smiled wryly.

"...... damn. We got saved by Arua......"

The only person who could do that was him.

Using the casters of Nelpha, by intermingling with Roland's magic, through improvisation, he devised a new type of magic.

That was a capability which could only exist in an Alpha Stigma bearer, who could read the construct of a magic and use it immediately.

And on top of that, to do it at this kind of timing.

After seeing Ryner invoked a magic used for disabling the use of magic, Arua had activated that large scale magic used for threatening Roland's troops.

He was probably looking at them all this while with his Alpha Stigma .

In order to save Ryner.

In order to save Ferris.

As kids, you'll just get in the way! , he wanted to brush him off, but yet, in the end, at the most crucial moment, he was saved by him.

He smiled,

"...... seems like he has grown a lot...... I have to praise him later......"

Upon saying that, they reached the horses which they had ridden earlier. And while carrying Ferris, he mounted on one of them. Immediately after that, he galloped off.

There were no longer any Roland soldiers around them. They had all started retreating.

That was the right move, he thought. If they could not understand the situation they were in, they should retreat. On one hand they could not use any magic, on the other hand, the enemy appeared to be about to use a large scale attack magic on them, then they should just escape from the range of the enemy's magic for now.

To have as few casualties as possible --- that was the right decision. The commander here appeared to be pretty capable, he thought.

And once again, Ryner thought,

...... fortunately, the commander is not Froaude.

If it were him, then he might not care about the lives of his allies, and proceed on to attack. After all, the soldiers here were meant to delay the enemy. And even if all his troops were to die, he would continue to attack to slow down the enemy.

If that were to happen, all of Ryner's plans would have been thwarted.

However, the result this time,

"...... it's our win. We managed to buy time."

It was largely a meaningful thing.

For what reason did Roland send a group of soldiers to slow them down? It was easy if one thought about it.

If they didn't come to slow them down, then Roland wouldn't be able to catch up to the Nelpha forces who already had started moving.

In other words, if the delaying attack on Nelpha's soldiers this time round failed, then it meant that the situation had turned favorable.

They had managed to buy time to escape.

Ryner then said,

"...... ahh, somehow, this is really tiring."

As the horse galloped on.

Upon saying that, in front of him, Ferris, who was sitting facing him, looked up,

"Uhm. Thanks to your thoughtless plan, our bodies and heart are in shambles......"

As she said that, she suddenly had a 'that's it!' face,

"Th-Thanks to your violent behavior after getting drunk, my body and heart are in shambles! I'll sue you! I'll definitely sue you! And thus, the trial starts...... cough cough......"

In the midst of saying all that, she started coughing.

Ryner then frantically said,

"Jeeeezz, don't start spouting nonsense when you have all those wounds."

While saying that, he stroked her back. Ferris then made a unsatisfied face.

Looking at that, Ryner smiled faintly. Even as he smiled, his shoulder hurt, but compared to Ferris's wounds, this pain didn't bother him.

Looking at her bloodied body, he said softly,

"...... damn. I'm sorry."

"Hn?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing, I said. It's just that, after having put you through this much this time, I was thinking of giving you a dango treat."

On hearing his words.

"............"

She stared intently at Ryner for some reason, and said.

"Hey Ryner. Don't be too conceited."

She said all of a sudden.

"Huh?"

Ryner then said. Unable to understand her words, he was a little bewildered.

She was still staring at him.

And then, she said. With a somewhat angry voice,

"...... whatever others may think, my wounds are not the fault of yours. The deaths of the Nelpha's commoners are not the fault of yours. So what's with that apologetic look? Are you omnipotent and right in everything, and will always succeed? Are you God? Stop getting conceited. You've already more than done your best. For a useless scumbag who only attacks girls night after night, you've already done your best. So be proud of yourself. Don't make such a face. Don't talk about treating me to dango, fool. Understand?"

Ferris said all of a sudden.

To that, Ryner.

"............"

Couldn't say a thing. He could only look at her with a surprised face.

But Ferris buried her face into Ryner's chest,

"That's all I wanted to say. I'm going to sleep. I'm a little tired."

"Ah, er~m, ok. I got it. Wait, you......."

But, she immediately said,

"Ah, but I think it's better to treat me dango anyway. Ok, I'm sleeping. I'll leave the rest to you."

Without saying anything further to Ryner, she lost consciousness. Her strength left her and she started to fall off the horse,

"Owah, crap."

Ryner frantically caught her. However, she did not react to his touch at all. She was really covered with terrible wounds. He had to link up with the Nelpha troops quickly and render medical aid to her.

But yet.

"............"

Even when she was covered with such terrible wounds, she was still worried about others like a fool.

Even when she always had a serious face while acting violently and causing trouble to others, at such a time, she only worried about others.

Ryner then,

"............"

Wanted to say something to Ferris.

He wanted to say something softly to Ferris, and at that moment.

Suddenly, the light started to disappear.

"Wha......"

Ryner was surprised.

That was not a metaphor, but truly, all the light of this world was disappearing as if it was being sucked away by something.

The sky, the atmosphere, the land, swiftly before his eyes, the light disappeared and the world was plunged into darkness.

A dizzying darkness.

And then, that darkness ---

"Don't tell me......"

Ryner knew of that darkness.

But that shouldn't be. If that was really the thing that Ryner knew of, then things had become troublesome.

No, not just troublesome.

Rather, it was the worst possible situation.

But clearly, that was the thing that Ryner knew of.

It was the same scene when the necklace Hero's Relic, which he and Ferris had gotten hold of while they were visiting Runa, went on a rampage.

The light disappeared from the world.

And the light gathered behind Ryner.

In the direction where the Roland soldiers were running away, the light was sucked towards there and gathered.

He turned around.

And looked.

"............."

He looked at the intense bright light gathering at a distance away behind him.

Ryner had seen that before.

It was indeed the same gathering of light by that necklace in Runa.

Looking at that, Ryner trembled.

"...... you're kidding me."

Murmuring that, Ryner trembled.

That light gradually enlarged as it gathered the surrounding power.

Last time, when the light burst off and unleashed its power outwards, the scenery had changed entirely.

An entire mountain was leveled from the abnormally powerful light.

But, the necklace had disappeared at the same time. For some reason, once it was used, it would disappear it seemed, and Ryner had used it by mistake, and should not have brought it back to Roland.

But yet.

"............"

Why did Roland have it?

And why did they use that abnormal power against humans?

That's not something one should use against humans right?

That is......

That power is......

"...... what in the world does Roland....... what in the world does Sion want to do......."

But, in the next instant.

The world was bathed in light, the darkness sundered.

He could not see anything.

He could not dodge.

Ryner could only stand there, stunned at the end of everything.

And everything ended.

"............"

Ryner opened his blinded eyes.

The land beside him started hollowing.

Away from Roland, along the direction towards the Nelpha soldiers, the land started hollowing.

The scale of the destruction was smaller than the time Ryner invoked the necklace. It might be another type of the same relic perhaps.

But still, even so.

"............"

Even so, that was not a power to be used by humans.

"............"

Ryner turned around.

The thirty thousand over Nelpha soldiers and commoners who were running away was down by a third.

The rest had died.

In that instant just now.

With just a burst of light, over ten thousand people had died.

And.

"............"

And, Kiefer and the rest might have been among those.

Iris, Toale, Arua, Kuku, might have gotten caught up in it.

On seeing that.

On seeing that,

"....... y-you're kidding me."

Ryner started urging his horse forward.

"......... this must be a joke, a joke, a joooooooooooooooooookkkkkkkkeeeeeeeee."

Towards where Kiefer and the rest were. Towards his comrades, Ryner urged his horse to gallop at full speed.

However, once again.

The light started disappearing from the world again.

The light was stolen from the sky, the atmosphere, the land, and darkness started to spread.

Ryner turned around.

He glared at a distant place where the light was being sucked towards.

Then.

"...... d-don't shit with me...... don't shit with me Sion!! What the hell is this. What the hell is this! I didn't write that report for this purpose! I didn't gather the relics for this purpose!!"

He hollered.

But that voice reached no one.

That voice did not reach his best friend.

Since he was too far away.

Since the path he tread on was far too different.

The light just gradually disappeared.

And the light of despair gathered at Roland's side.

The immensely huge destructive power that could take away thousands, tens of thousands of lives gathered at Roland's side.

The next time when this were to be unleashed, it would probably wipe out nearly all the humans.

Adults, children, men, women, everything would be erased into oblivion.

Everything would go to nothingness.

It was like the lightning of God.

It was like the flames of the Devil.

It was not the power of a human. Such a power was not a power used by humans.

But, Roland was using that power.

Sion was using that power.

It was like God passing His divine judgement.

It was like the Devil using a forbidden power.

"Why...... why did it come to this? Why did it turn out like this?"

Ryner could only murmur while on the verge of tears.

At his own powerlessness.

At his own worthlessness.

There was nothing he could do.

The Alpha Stigma is unable to see the construct of a Hero's Relic . He could come up with no countermeasure.

But, death was definitely near.

A certain death was near.

The gathering of light was done.

"...... please stop."

But the despair didn't stop.

"...... I beg you, please stop."

But the darkness didn't stop.

And once again, across the surroundings of Ryner, the light flashed......

Shrouding everything in despair ---

In that very instant.

"...... wah ~, seems like you are really in a dire situation, Ryner-san. If I save you guys here, I should become popular with little girls as well as mature women right?"

A light-hearted voice sounded suddenly from beside him.

"Huh?"

Ryner turned towards the voice.

But, just in the instant he was turning, the light from the necklace of Roland burst forth.

And Ryner could only say,

"Crap......"

But, at that moment,

"Horh. It seems like Roland is using Ellearms (Demonic Beast Destroyer). Then we shall use this.

--- devour and disperse that light, Euloss Elma (Divine Parasite Bugs)."

Instantly.

From beside Ryner, for some reason, the sounds of countless insect wings could be heard, flickering in seven colors, fluorescent-glowing tiny bugs appeared and flew ahead.

They probably numbered in tens of millions.

Like a swarm of locusts, the flickering bugs filled the sky in a moment, and collided against the light unleashed by Roland.

At that moment.

< >

From the tens of millions of the insects, ear-splitting screeches started filling their ears, and then.

And then, they started devouring the light.

"W-What......"

Upon seeing that abrupt bizarre scene, Ryner could only utter that.

But, before his eyes, it unfolded.

The tens of millions of flickering bugs devoured the light, completely devoured, completely devoured, as they advanced.

The bugs devoured the divine lightning unleashed by Roland, and before long, everything disappeared.

The light did not reach here.

They were saved. Without anyone dying, the light was devoured by the bugs and disappeared.

But, what on earth.

"What on earth was that?"

Immediately after Ryner said that.

< >

The bugs screeched loudly, in an ear-deafening manner.

"Uwah."

Ryner groaned as he covered his ears.

Before his eyes, the bugs spun around in circles. As if they were looking for prey. As if they were looking for the next sacrifice.

No prey?

No other prey?

And after circling for a while, they turned around. And with that. They started moving towards Ryner.

"...... d-don't tell me now they want to eat us......"

Ryner said, and once again,

"No way. They don't like human flesh."

The voice sounded again.

Ryner remembered that voice. That's right. All this while, since the pressing situation earlier, he felt that someone was speaking to him. On top of that, he seemed to recall hearing that voice before.

"W-Who is it?"

Sitting on top of his horse, Ryner looked at his surroundings.

But there was no one.

Some distance away, he could see the Nelpha soldiers and the commoners, but he didn't feel that the voice had come from there.

Then, where on earth......

At that moment.

"No no, lower your line of sight a little, Ryner-san."

On hearing those words, Ryner dropped his gaze. And before he knew it, there was a smiling young man standing there.

A single young man who seemed to be around thirteen, fourteen years of age.

With beautiful black hair, and intelligent looking black eyes. A beautiful young man who was wearing an outfit that resembled the clothes of a Miko .

Looking at his face.

And the face surfaced from his memories,

"Y-You..... aren't you Vois!?""

Shouted Ryner.

He knew that young man.

The name of the young man is Vois Fiurelle.

While Ryner and Ferris were searching for Heroes' Relics, after passing through Nelpha and Runa, they met him at their last stop, in the country of the Iyet Republic.

And in that Iyet Republic, this fella reigned like a king.

"............."

No, rather than a king, it is more apt to describe him as the head of a mafia.

Despite being a brat, he is the head of the Fiurelle Group that forcefully governed a country with power and information.

Every time he saw him, he was always exploding with Hentai tendencies, a troublesome fellow creating plenty of troublesome matters, a fellow who numbered first in the ranking list of the people he didn't want to meet, but, when the Iyet Republic crumbled from the rampaging of a Hero's Relic, he disappeared.

That's why he had not seen him for the past year.

But that same Vois was before him right now.

As he looked at Vois's face, Ryner said.

"W-What did you do just now?"

And Vois replied.

"What, you say, Ryner-san, I'm here to save you...... ah, do you want to thank me? That's it isn't it? It's only right to show gratitude when receiving favors from someone. This is just basic manners right. Is ok right? To give me around twenty cute girls......"

"HEY, aren't you the same as before!"

Vois then said happily.

"Ryner-san, I'm so happy to see your usual Hentai antics. Ferris-san seems to be full of wounds! Your bedroom play sure is intense as usual......"

"What the hell are you talking aboooouuuutttttttttttt!"

Ryner hollered at Vois, who was full of his usual antics.

Vois then smiled cheerfully, and said,

"Well, we shall save our reunion for now......"

Upon saying that, he reached into his bosom. And took out something resembling a necklace.

A necklace with a scarlet orb.

Upon seeing that necklace,

"Uwah."

Ryner uttered without thinking.

The reason was because, that necklace was clearly that.

The one Ryner saw in Runa.

The necklace that has an extraordinary destructive power.

Grasping that necklace, like a child, a smile surfaced on Vois,

"Let's finish our work for now, Ryner-san. Let's kill everyone in the direction of Roland. It's troubling that they have gotten hold of something like Ellearms (Demonic Beast Destroyer). Let's kill them first and we'll talk later......"

As he said that, he held out the necklace......

"Hey, wait a minuteeeeeeeeeee!"

Ryner snatched away the necklace.

Then,

"You, what the hell are you trying to do?"

"Huh? I'm just trying to teach the arrogant Roland to know their place. Now, hand that back please. Then, I'll just kill them all in a blink......"

"No, like I said, you can't!"

On hearing Ryner's yell, Vois cocked his head incredulously.

"What do you mean by I can't?"

"Killing! Isn't it terrible to just kill them like insects?"

But Vois's face just became more and more bewildered at his words,

"Huh? What on earth are you talking about, Ryner-san? This is war you know? It's about killing each other. If we don't kill, we'll get killed. Am I wrong?"

On hearing that sensible rebuttal, which was unthinkable to have come from a brat, Ryner said,

"Ah, no, that's true, but...... but......"

"Alright alright, since you got it, let's kill them first then talk. Please give me back the necklace."

"No no, like I said, you can't do that. Especially with regards to using this necklace that's embedded with such an insane power, that's a definite no no. If we use such a thing to wage a war, it will just end up dreadfully with both sides in despair......"

Said Ryner.

Rather, that should be obviously a no-brainer.

It was an enormous power that was unattainable through the intellect of Man. It was an abnormally mysterious power to the extent which no one knows how to activate nor stop. If that were to be used in wars, the end result would definitely be the worst possible one.

Countries getting wiped out, no, perhaps the entire world would be wiped out. What would be left would just be dead bodies and despair. To wage a war using that, was too much of a foolish thing.

That was what Ryner thought, but,

"..........."

As expected, Vois's face clearly showed that he did not comprehend.

On realizing that, he made an exasperated face,

"...... aah well, forget that. More importantly, why have you come here? Did you really come to save me?"

To that question, Vois promptly replied,

"You won't be getting any free help from me. That's the teaching of the Fiurelle family."

On hearing those words, Ryner frowned,

"...... you really haven't changed...... then why are you saving me? In the first place, where have you been and what have you been up to all this while, and what did you come here for?"

After saying that, Ryner looked intently at the necklace that he had snatched away.

The swarm of bugs which had been flying in mid-air earlier probably belonged to him as well.

Both items were clearly Heroes' Relics.

What has he been using these for all this while, and what did he come here for?

Ryner glared at him, but, with his childish face, a cruel smile surfaced as he said.

Looking straight at him.

"No, I just came here to give a somewhat interesting suggestion."

"Suggestion?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

Vois's intelligent looking eyes narrowed further. Then,

"No, well, it's not something that I have to stand on ceremony about. The truth is, Ryner-san, I was thinking of having you become the King."

He said.

Ryner's eyes widened,

"Haah? King? Hey, what the hell......"

But Vois cut him off.

His eyes became narrower, until his eyes could hardly be seen, and he smiled.

"...... I was thinking of having you become the King of the Anti-Roland Coalition which I've created......"

At the same time he said those words.

Vois raised up his hand.

At his signal, all of a sudden, a little further away from where the soldiers and commoners of Nelpha were, a few hundred soldiers wearing strange armor appeared.

Not the brown armor of Nelpha, not the white armor of Roland, but pitch black armor.

Ryner looked at those soldiers,

"...... what's that?"

To those words, Vois smiled again.

"Like I said, they are the Anti-Roland Coalition forces. I've put it together in this one year. Well, in name, it's actually a force built with the small country in the southeast part of the central continent, Belis, as its center, but I'm the one who holds the true authority over it. So, right now, three countries have joined the Anti-Roland Coalition, and I'm seeking out the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, which is the strategic point for stopping Roland from swallowing up Central Menoris, as its fourth member......"

In the midst of his proclamation,

"Hey wait a minute wait a minute! Huh? Eeh? What the hell are you talking about? You've made the Anti-Roland Coalition?"

Vois promptly nodded,

"Yes."

Ryner had an increasingly bewildered expression,

"For what purpose?"

Once again, a smile surfaced on Vois. An increasingly cruel, inhumane, cold smile surfaced,

"...... that's simple. Because the world needs it."

"Aah? The world? What the hell are you talking about? About the world needing the Anti-Roland Coalition?"

On hearing Ryner's question, Vois shook his head. And he said in a low, cold voice.

"That's not it. What is needed is the power to kill the cursed monster called Sion Astal. The power to destroy the mad sword known as Lucile Eris. Right now, the world doesn't want a hero king. It doesn't want a Sion Astal. The world doesn't want that mad demon. Excessively tremendous power, and overly huge ambitions, are hindrances. That's why I have come to pick you up. I've come to pick up the one that has the power to kill him, you. Now, let's kill him together. Let's kill that mad devil. He's the one who will topple the world's balance. He's the one who will take away the light from everything.

But, that cannot be forgiven.

The Goddesses cannot forgive that.

So Ryner-san, join up with me. No, that's not it. I'll follow you. I'll lend you a hand. So, by your hand...... by the hand of his best friend......"

Vois said as he held out his hand with his usual grinning, cheerful face.

"...... please kill Sion Astal with your hand."

He said.

"............"

But Ryner frowned.

His face contorted.

For some reason, Vois's words made the depths of his heart feel hollow.

However, that was not because of the fact that he was told to kill Sion. It's not because of the fact that Sion was called the mad devil. Even though he was bothered by what Vois had said all of a sudden. Rather, he was bothered by what what was happening in the central part of the continent.

But, those were not at the top of his mind right now.

The only word which made Ryner's chest hollow.

A word which made Ryner feel terribly, terribly, terribly unpleasant.

He thought about it.

That word from Vois which made him feel nauseous.

Goddesses .

Just by hearing that word, Ryner could no longer move. Even though it wasn't a word that was out of the ordinary, nor did it bear any particular connection, but yet, Ryner could no longer move.

"W-What in the world......"

He said in a groaning tone. But his voice was also trembling. Trembling uncontrollably.

He could no longer think of anything else.

Only the word Goddesses kept reverberating in his head.

Goddesses .

The word reverberated in his head.

Goddesses .

The word resounded in his heart.

A surge of nauseousness.

A surge of anxiety.

What on earth is this?

What the hell is this?

Goddesses .

And at that moment.

"Aah, they are here."

Said Vois.

And at his feet.

In his shadow extended by the moonlight, a creepiness started moving.

Ryner looked down at them. He could tell from his instinct that something that was terribly awful was about to rise up.

But, he couldn't move. He couldn't move for some reason. The only thing he could move were his eyes. Only cursed eyes which were overlaid with bright red pentacles.

Only his eyes were resisting something.

Only his eyes were resisting some power.

Ryner looked at Vois's shadow with his cursed eyes. He could see something squirming in that shadow. Something black. No, something darker than black.

"...... what on earth...... what on earth are you talking about? They? Goddesses ? What on earth, are you......"

But at that moment.

Ryner's words stopped.

Suddenly, in his head,

< >

A voice descended into his head.

On hearing that voice,

"...... uwah."

Ryner groaned out softly, and fell off the horse. Together with Ferris. She was unconscious. As he attempted to help her up, once again,

< >

The voice descended upon him.

It was like the voice of a god.

It was like the holler of a devil.

Reacting to that voice, his body started moving on its own. Ryner squatted down onto the ground, and then prostrated. His face pressed painfully against the ground.

He couldn't resist.

He couldn't resist at all. His entire body was dominated by that voice, as if he was a puppet that was being manipulated, his body moved on its own.

What the hell!?

What the hell just happened!?

He cried out silently.

The only things he could move were his eyes.

His own cursed eyes.

But with those eyes. Those eyes that were glowing bright red like the color of blood, with those glowing pentacles that seemed to be resisting against everything in this world, he looked at Vois.

No, he looked at the black shadows at Vois's feet.

Then, from inside the shadow --- it came out.

The owner of the voice.

The owner of the voice that sounded like a god, crept out of that darkness which was darker than black, and deeper than the abyss.

Ryner looked at that.

And then.

"............"

Ryner looked straight at that figure.

"............"

And cried out in anguish.

### 006. Interlude - Him and Her and

That day.

That night.

'Why did it come down to this?'

You said while crying, but I couldn’t answer, since I was crying as well.

'Really, why did it come down to this?'

You said with a shaking voice and cried while clinging to my chest, but I didn’t know, so I couldn’t answer.

You love me.

And I love you. Really, everything should’ve been fine with that.

Why did it come down to this?

Why is the darkness expanding like this?

I looked around me.

But as expected, all I saw was darkness, and I gave up.

The two of us gave up.

And we knew.

We knew that we couldn't turn back time no matter how much we cried.

The light wouldn't return.

But still.

“…”

You said.

You raised your face.

You raised your tear-stained face, and said to me.

“…if we’re born again.”

“Hmm.”

“Make sure you kill me.”

“Hmm.”

“If not, then everything will come down to this again.”

“Hmm.”

“I mean…this is just too painful.”

“Hmm.”

“You have to kill me, you know?”

“Hmm.”

“…………liar. You’ll refuse to kill me again.”

“Hmm.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Then make sure you kill me.”

“…”

I couldn’t respond to that, and she cried again.

“I won’t kill you because I love you.”

“Idiot.”

“Hmm.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“That’s right.”

I said, and I embraced her body.

But she’d already lost her body.

No, my body is beginning to disappear as well.

Everything is covered in darkness.

The entire world is being covered in nothingness.

And she, using what little time she had left, said again.

“Promise me.”

“…”

“Say that you’ll kill me.”

“…”

“Please.”

“…”

“Hey, promise me. Make sure you kill…”

“…”

And her words stopped.

She disappeared with a sad expression.

In the end, I couldn’t respond to her words.

'Promise me.'

'Promise that you’ll kill me.'

She said.

But that’s impossible.

It’s impossible for me to kill someone I love.

That’s why I can only curse god.

Why did he make it this way?

Why did he make everything this way?

I’ll kill you, I thought.

If you existed.

If something like god existed, then I’ll definitely kill you – I cursed.

But those damning words of mine never reached god.

No, they didn’t reach anyone.

Because they were erased right away.

Because they disappeared right away.

And I’ll disappear as well.

I’ll disappear along with her.

Come now, the world is collapsing.

And the next one will begin.

Will I be able to choose properly in the next one?

Will I be able to choose to kill her?

It’s still impossible, I… I…

But everything disappeared right then.

And the next one began.

### 007. Afterword

Geez, I'm so busy!

So busy!

What am I busy with? Thanks to the mischief from a cat, I'm busy with buying a new car to replace my destroyed car...... my bishoujo editor-in-charge went "Write the damn manuscript, heeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ☆"

Erm, I'm writing.

I'm writing you know!

And so ~.

This is Kagami, who's desperately writing the manuscripts for the afterword and the short story to be used for the awakening campaign present which is already due in the very same morning, among other things.

The truth is today,

"I-I-I'm sorry, for some reason, whether it is because I'm in a slump, or a trump, or due to my relatives' misfortune which were not, there's no manuscript ...... won't you extend the deadline? Ah, of course, it's not because I couldn't sleep from the excitement of buying a new car you know, really you know?"

Of course I can't possibly have such a phone conversation.

Because today!

Today there's a meeting in the editorial department on the plans for Toyota-san's interview and Denyuuden comic to be used for the July issue of DM alrightttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ---

A ad on the comic adaptation of Denyuuden! (LOL)

Well --- so joyous.

Toyota-san already has a 4-koma, and following behind, the plans for a comic adaptation of Denyuuden has started.

Even though I don't know how the world of Denyuuden will be drawn, but since there's going to be a presentation done by the editorial department, I can't possibly go there with a sullen face as a result of not meeting my deadline, so consequently, I woke up at five in the morning to write this afterword.

The sun hasn't come out yet.

Well, the details about this book have already been revealed, I think.

Erm, anyway, before that, as usual.

"Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 3 The Great Plan Of The Azure Breath"

How's it?

This is how I've been starting afterwords all this while. Why do I always use so much space, well, the afterwords space this time is not half-assed.

My editor-in-charge told me that there will be 13 pages for the afterword.

But since I can't write 13 pages, I think I will use up all my energy halfway, but I'll do my best!

Please support me!

I shall proceed the use up the space extravagantly.

## Afterword Part 2

Once again, how did you find "Daidenyuuden 3"?

Of course, those who have already read this should know by now, this time round, we have a serious volume that we have never had before.

A volume in which Ryner's perspective changed greatly.

A volume in which his burdens changed greatly.

On top of that, right from the start, it was climax after climax, to the reader, it might be kind of an extremely fast paced development, are you guys alright with this?

Even my bishoujo editor-in-charge K-san has commented that, the development in this volume is fast , and

"You take it slowly next volume you know!"

In Denyuuden, this kind of rare (LOL) developments might be strangely fast, but, for the rest of Daidenyuuden, it will be along these lines.

There are still many things to do to tie up the last part of the plot tightly.

Everyone, please continue to support this ongoing avalanche!

And so, next.

Editor K-san said,

"Anyway, just write about this in the afterwordddddddddddddddddd ☆"

To me and regarding the promotion.

Right now.

Inside the Dragon Magazine which has just undergone a renewal, is the once only revival of Denyuuden!

And it's going to be launched on the same day as this book, on May 20!

Denyuuden revives with its cover and opening special.

The cover appears to be demon king Ryner.

I haven't seen it myself yet, but the editorial department has judged the dark Ryner to be cool.

You, who are reading this book from the afterword in the bookstore.

Buy the Doramaga at the magazine corner as well! (LOL)

By the way, about the short story in the Doramaga --- then again, I wrote so much that it can't be called a short story though ---

What!

Seems like the contents are a rough continuation of "Dai Denyuuden 3". In the long chapter, the contents are pretty much crossovers.

Frankly, a long chapter is installed.

The core of the mystery behind Denyuuden, even I was trembling, completely moved to tears!

Me and my editor-in-charge, we would never have thought that the mystery will be unveiled in Doramaga! Wait, is this really ok? Is this really ok? The two of us moved to tears over the phone.

Those who are interested, please do buy it, read it, and send in the questionnaire.

Next, I shall tell you about the details of the Denyuuden manga adaptation, which I still know nothing about, as well as the Denyuuden Great Special Edition, lots of info, so please read on!

Denyuuden will probably not revive in Doramaga again except for occasionally, so this is valuable!

The symbol is Demon King Ryner.

Please support me!

That's what my editor-in-charge told me and that's all I have to write.

But still, there's something I need to go back to.

Umu.

13 pages is sure long ---.

Ah, that reminds me, I have to say thanks with regards to "The Legend of the Fallen Black Hero" where Sion is the protagonist.

For some reason, the "Ochiden" series has sold more than the already published "Toriden".

Normally, for a book, it definitely won't go past the accumulated numbers for the previous volume, but, maybe it's because from hereon, "Ochiden" will starting the Roland Revolution chapter, so it might feel like a new series, and with everyone's support, this impossible miracle has been accomplished.

Not just a volume before, but even two volumes before, super surprised.

Well, the truth is, I was really afraid. Since last time, the ad for the post "Toriden" series, "Denyuuden SHOW" was done, I forcibly pulled the plug on it and said I want to do the revolution chapter! Let's do "Ochiden"! I was really getting ahead of myself and trembling.

Thanks to everyone's encouragement, the higher ups answered to my willfulness and the editorial department and sales department even held a strategic meeting and many others really worked hard, and somehow I managed to get on this track.

That's why, together with the protagonist of Ochiden, Sion-kun, let us say our thanks.

Thank you.

So, please continue to support Daiden and Ochiden.

I ended it beautifully.

There are still enough pages left to kill me! (CRY)

I'm sorry to put in ads.

I shall continue to work hard.

Shall I write about my recent situation?

Speaking of recent situation, I've never written that many manuscripts before. I've been writing and writing. But writing manuscripts is normal, so I'll talk about something else.

I wrote about cars and cats in the opening section, erm, what's next?

Recently, at my workplace at 11.30pm, my fellow authors asked me to go to a Hanami . (By the way, I was writing this afterword during the Hanami season).

So on that night,

"Oh ~ little Taka."

And I was already having a sleepy face.

"Uwah, I'm already so sleepy and going to go back, and you called me?"

"No no, the night is still young right?"

"No, I want to go back already."

"Me too."

"Me three."

"Then don't call me during this houuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

I yelled out, but in the end, everyone got along till morning.

No one appeared at the workplace the next morning.

Well, as expected, work can only get done at the workplace! (LOL)

So, that's how I have fun in the workplace, together with four authors from Fujimi, and four authors from Dengeki.

Initially, there were only three of us, and before I knew it, it became like that.

Being an author can be a lonely thing, and when from the seat beside or the seat aside comes,

"Uwah ~, I want to die ~"

I don't feel that lonely anymore.

If you want to know about this, I've uploaded it in my homepage, Kagami Takaya's healthy lifestyle.

Somehow, I managed to finished 80% of the pages ~.

Time to go into the summing up!

By the way, if I don't conclude this soon, I won't make it in time for the next manuscript!

The deadline for this is one hour later!

Shall I end this with a short section!?

So, that's how it feels like, I'm tying things up.

But, before I conclude, there's something I always say.

Everyone, thank you as always.

With this volume, counting Elwin, Denyuuden, Kagami Takaya has written 39 books.

The next one will be the 40th!

Even though I felt like I've been swept to here, but the reason for that is because of everyone's encouragement.

A work can't be established without its readers. So really, thank you.

And to the bookstore peeps, thank you.

I've seen those signages.

As well as the displays of the books.

I'm amazed each time.

It's not just my effort, but everyone else, that this work can continue.

Thank you.

And, please continue to support me!

And somehow, as I'm writing this, the truth is, the editorial department has already sent me the manga adaptation as a present ~.

Information about the manga adaptation.

In July issue of the monthly Dragon Age (selling on 9-June (Monday)), an announcement comic for "Denyuuden" will be in!

In the August issue of Dragon Age, (selling on 9-July (Wednesdat)), the manga "Denyuuden" will start serialization!

The manga artist will be Nagakura Hiroko-san. At this point of time, I've not met him yet, but the Age editorial department sent me the drawings, the rough, and the name .

Somehow. It's awesooooommmmeeee!

The drawings, the name as well! I've seen the serious scenes of the long chapters, and it's really awesome!

On top of that, he sent his gratitude and about how much he likes Denyuuden, so everyone, please look forward to it!

So, we come to the conclusion again.

And also, after the end of this year, there are even more awesome things.

But, with regards to this awesome thing, it will start in September.

And, the start of that will be the launching of "Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 4" in September.

Speaking of that, I have to release a long story in September as well...... really dying...... (LOL)

So as to speak, the next time we meet, will be in Dragon Magazine's Denyuuden opening special, which will be sold at the same time as this volume.

And then, the next time will be Daiden 4 in Septemeber!

Please continue to support me!

## 04. Volume 4 - The Great Fascination Of Wiles And Tricks

### 001. Interlude - About Another Hero

"You really like books, don't you?"

A voice suddenly rang out.

The voice of a lovely girl.

I looked up.

And there, I saw a young girl.

A very beautiful girl.

She was probably around the same age as me, around fifteen, sixteen years old?

She had a high nose and well-ordered features.

And long wavy blond hair.

"............"

That's right.

She had blond hair.

Blond hair that did not exist in the country that I was born in.

I narrowed my eyes a little as I stared at those waves of blond hair. Then, I looked into her eyes, snapped the book in my hands shut and said.

"...... not really, I hate reading books, you know?"

She then smiled.

Looking at that smile, I found it.

I found it to be a really, really innocent smile.

"Jeez ~, you are always lying. In that case, why are you coming to this library every day?"

I shrugged my shoulders and said,

"Because there's no other place for me to go."

"No other place to go? Ah-ha. In this greatest country of the northern part of the continent, Stohl Empire, this is the first time I've heard someone say he has no place to go."

"Really?"

"Yeah. There are plenty of places where you can play."

"Plenty huh?"

"Yup. Plenty."

I smiled wryly at that. I looked at her innocent smiling face, and smiled wryly.

"Well then, in this Stohl where there are plenty of places to play, why are you here at this library?"

"...... that is because."

At that juncture, her eyebrows knitted as she looked a little troubled. Following that, she looked back at him intently, smiled with a tinge of embarrassment and said.

"...... you seem to be my type, I guess."

"Heehh."

"Hey, what's with that reply?"

"Nothing, I'm interested. You are cute, and your hair is beautiful."

She smiled again. With an innocent smiling face. Not having a single bother, she had a really innocent smiling face.

A face that showed that she fully understood her own beauty and the value of her own beauty.

She touched her blond hair and said happily,

"You are the first to compliment my hair. Is it that......"

"Beautiful."

I said.

"The dress you are wearing looks really good on you."

I said.

Her face turned a little red. Her eyes became moist. I looked at her face. At her blond hair. At her navy colored dress that looked beautiful against that hair of hers.

Then.

"............"

Then I recalled.

About my hometown.

A small settlement that was even further north of the northern continent.

In that settlement, people were born with a somewhat rare colored hair. Most of the children were born with peach colored hair.

Of course myself, my family and friends mostly had peach colored hair.

Conversely, there were no kids born with blond hair.

As to why that was so, I did not know, but in my hometown, I had never seen anyone with blond hair.

Ever since I was aware of things around me, I had never seen a human with blond hair.

That was why I was fascinated by her.

I was fascinated by the beautiful golden hair she had.

And when I looked upon her blond hair, I remembered.

"............"

A large army suddenly invaded our settlement suddenly, and my father, who was the headsman, had his head sent flying, and my mother and other girls of the village got raped, carried off, and killed, and we were ordered to surrender, those were my memories of that blond haired man.

The face of the king of the Stohl Empire, Fennen Dalas.

"............"

It appeared that the royalty of this Stohl empire often gave birth to people with blond hair. It seemed like such a hair color was often seen in those of nobler blood.

In other words, she was a girl of the nobles. The clothes she wore, as well as the accessories, were of very very high, precious value.

She said. Looking at me with an enraptured look on her face, she said.

"...... your hair color is the real rare one. This is the first time I see someone with pink hair.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Is it strange?"

"No. I find it very beautiful."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I see. I did it. I got praised ~!"

I raised both my hands lightly as I said that,

"Ah-haha. You are really an interesting person."

She smiled.

I also smiled.

Looking at her innocent smile, I also smiled.

"............"

I smiled at that ignorant, stupid woman, who from looking at my peach colored hair, seemed not to know who I was and what you all did to me.

I was a hostage.

I was that son of the Northern Group’s leader, Royle Edea. I was a pawn that Stohl was using to control the people of that area. The eldest sons of the famous Pentest and Orla families were kept hostages along with me, we had been here for three years. On the outside, we were treated as nobles, on the outside.

“…We aren’t even like ants.”

“Ah?”

“No, nothing, then this means your history studies have not been good.”

At this, the girl revealed a puzzled expression.

“Why would you think of that?” She asked.

“Do you know of Gastark?” I asked in return.

“Gastark?”

“It seems like you don’t know of it.”

“No, that’s not it, I know a little. It was the place that the noble Royle Edea extorted heavy taxes on isn’t it? They were freed by the Stohl army years ago. I heard before that, the people were always suffering.”

A warped version, it was written in black and white in the history book that was well-known by the Stohls.

It is the book I am reading now, shamelessly, a book that recorded lies.

Father’s death, the humiliation of the women, the slaughtering and ransacking of families, the ones who did the evil deeds were clearly the Stohl army.

In the Gastark before that time period the life that everyone lived in was only, was only, a warless, peaceful, normal group of manors.

At this moment, the girl said with a strange expression

“But, what is this to do with anything?”

“Nothing, now, that is what I am reading on.”

Saying that, I extended the book that was written with nonsense to her.

Her eyes widened, as if understanding something, said

“Ah. Don’t tell me you are the legendary historian?”

Hearing this, I shook my head

“Definitely not! From any angle I hate history.”

“Ah~?!”

Seeing her doubtful face, I continued

“Yes, no matter which history book, they all write about the same boring things, they spend thousands of chapters talking about the people who caused the war, then people died, in the end who died all of this. But humans are foolish. They don’t learn from their mistakes, they only follow their lusts, human’s desires are limitless. I want, I want, I want more.” I finished in a breath, feeling as if I had removed a heavy stone from my chest.

At this moment, the silly girl in front of me, a rare slightly stern expression appearing on her face, using a happy tone to say:

“So that’s it, just by thinking about complicated matters you will be called a historian.”

“Eh is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then, maybe that is true. So? You must be thinking that I am a boring person, and feel utmost disappointment to me.”

But the progression of affairs were not what I expected, she shook her head. Looking at me with a serious expression

“No, I feel that you are very special, the men by my side, only know how to enjoy themselves every day, causing trouble like idiots everywhere, only thinking of chasing girls every day… I, I feel that someone who is as solemn as you this is my first time seeing it.” Hearing her say this, I laughed.

“Actually as long as I think about chasing girls, I will become excited, especially a cute girl like you in front of me, it makes me think of those matters.”

Saying that, I extended my hand to her.

The girl in front of me reddened.

“I, I don’t even know your name…”

“Riphal, Riphal Edea, then, milady, what is your name?”

“My name…”

Suddenly a voice spoke up at that moment.

“Ri~ph~al” the man’s voice, so that person was in the same library.

But I decided to ignore this voice.

“Then, could you tell me your name…”

“Alright. Alright. Look towards me, from now you have to listen to what I say, Riphal”

“Your name…”

“Alright, listen to me”

“Your…”

“I say, quickly look towards me, Ripha, Riphal. Riphal!”

“Ahh, nooiiiiiisssssssssssy!” I yelled angrily and looked at that person.

Then I saw a youth sitting in the last row of the library reading about Stohl’s magic.

It was a beautiful boy with porcelain skin and a pair of eyes that would make one feel pleased.

Wearing blue clothes, clothes like the military, a boy who had the same peach-coloured hair as me.

He was the eldest son of the well-known Pentest family who was a hostage like me, my friend—Rigwaltz Pentest.

“What is it. Rize, now is the important moment”

That person called Rize used his beautiful eyes to look over here, then his eyes landed on the blond beauty behind me.

“…I say Riphal, your flirting skills will never hook up that girl” His words made me angry,

“Huuuuuuuuuuuh?!”

At this moment, the girl behind me whose name was still unknown spoke

“Hey. I say Riphal, who is that person.”

The girl’s voice was slightly unsatisfied

Looking at this scene, I was slightly panicked

“That… ignore this person…”

I decided to ignore him first.

Upon seeing this scene Rize yelled unhappily,

“Is that acceptable? Riphal? We are the nobles of Gastark, but what about you? You deal with stupid women whose brains~are~filled~with~nothing, don’t you feel embarrassed? Your reputation?”

The girl’s flush immediately reached her neck, this was different from the shyness from earlier, this was clearly an expression that one would have when they were so angry, obviously those words had stirred her temper. Her angry face turned to Riphal

“Huh? Wha, what, you, you you, aren’t you Gastark people, aren’t you, you are the hostages sent from there? That, what is that broken land counted as before me, I, I am the daughter of Earl Sapullo. You have no right to speak to me so arrogantly!”

Saying this, her angry face twisted, even so. Her face was still cute.

Then she walked away angrily, without looking back.

Now, our originally modest and lowly standing would be even worse because of the earl’s revenge.

We would throw away this completely petty position.

So I chased after her. So that this could be amended, I frantically chased after her.

“That, please listen to me, don’t take note of that person’s words…”

My voice was quickly drowned out by Rize’s words

“Ah, you finally reveal your vixen-like personality, see that, Riphal, she revealed her true colours, this kind of shrew is not suitable for you.”

“I say, can you not keep your mouth shut…”

“Un, unforgivable, you group of hooligans, I definitely will not forgive you!”

“My word. Can you not make your decision so quickly, eh… this is a misunderstanding.”

“Since I can’t forgive you, then I should kill you, yes, I will let Father kill this group of dirty people!”

She screamed this scary matter, with a face as if she were about to cry, she escaped from the library.

I stood there in a daze, watching this happen, I suddenly remembered something, turning to glare at Rize angrily.

“You~! Bas~tard~!”

Hearing this, Rize had an innocent face, as if what had happened earlier had nothing to do with him, talking to himself.

“Ya~ that’s good, Riphal wasn’t eaten by that shrew who had a bad personality, this is really good!”

“it’s good for you!”

Ignoring my anger, Rize continued to say,

“I say you should keep your hands. After coming to Stohl, your specialty in playing with women has been overboard. You have to know, the women who are of this country who we want to avenge ourselves on. Where is the entertainment in that, it’s completely an unhealthy obsession.”

His tone carried concern. But now I was using a completely annoyed expression to look at Rize.

“What? …What? I have an unhealthy obsession? The one who is flirting with girls every day is you, after coming to this country, how many girls have been tricked by you?”

Suddenly, Rize carried a contemplating expression as he raised his fingers.

“It’s 0, I think.”

“That is completely a lie.”

“Don’t be so frantic, it’s very little, lesser than Riphal.”

“So I said you’re lying, if you compare with me, you have done it a couple of times more than me, a couple of time, understand? You pervert!”

Hearing this, Rize had a smug evil smile as he said,

“Ah~ I understand, you are jealous of me, you are jealous that the girls like me better~”

“Nonsense! I say you bastard, your words really make me angry. Let us settle this, let’s see who is more welcomed, we’ll use this competition, do you dare to fight against me? You bastard?”

Towards me angry yells, Rize still had an unaffected expression as he stood up, nodding in agreement.

“Ah, that’s good, from today onwards, three days after this, let’s see who can steal the hearts of the girls, let’s compete on this.”

I stood up too.

“That’s interesting.”

The two started to confront each other. At this moment, a voice spoke up from the side.

“What is the point in that? I say, you two perverts?”

Rize and I looked toward the source of that voice.

Immediately, in the entrance of the library, we saw the man who we expected, he also had peach-coloured hair that the Gastarks had.

He was a man who was older than Rize and I by one or two years.

A strong body that was strengthened by his training. Smiling features. But this smile could not hide the sharp eyes that would decipher everything.

He was brought to Stohl for the same reason as us, a hostage.

And, as the child was born for the constitution for “ God’s Accordance ”. The eldest son of the Orla family— Lir Orla.

Lir, Rize and I were good friends since we were young. We grew up together. And only we were living together in this strange land. Who would be willing to approach us, accept us, live with us here?

We were helplessly faced with our parents dying.

We were helplessly faced with our relatives dying.

We were helplessly faced with our friends dying.

We were helplessly faced with our loved ones dying.

We were helplessly faced with our country’s name being stolen.

We were helplessly faced with our land being stolen.

In the end, we were helplessly faced with ourselves being sent over as hostages.

Now, looking at the similar faces of these people every day, we were already tired of it. But not long ago there was an incident that made Lir disappear in front of us.

So, when we saw him at this present moment Lir had already disappeared for three months.

Seeing his face Rize smiled too.

“Ah, really, so slow. Lir, it was a really long wait, that you could play missing was relaxing, we were very troubled by it though, we had to think really hard of a plan to display our uselessness. We also had to display our preferences for wine, being perverted, and had to pretend that we liked to gamble, really, if we continued to play like that our bodies would be laid to waste sooner or later.”

Hearing this, Lir laughed too.

“You must have been very happy.”

“Yes yes, but it was only normal, the girls in Stohl are only foolish and they only know how to look after their faces. Isn’t that so?”

Rize laughed as he talked nonsense and approached Lir, patting Lir’s shoulder, suddenly the light expression on his face disappeared. Seriously using a low, small voice to say:

“Then, the process was smooth enough, you shouldn’t have returned empty-handed?”

Saying things that bystanders would not understand, Lir nodded

“No problem, it has all been settled.”

Saying that, he turned in my direction

“Alright, Riphal, we should step on that road that we cannot turn away from, are you prepared?”

Hearing this, a smile appeared on my face. A smile that said that I had been enlightened long before.

“…” Had I prepared?

Was there any need to ask? The preparations that Lir referred to.

I had already started on them long ago. From since my parents were killed, our land was snatched away from that day, I had already started to prepare.

“…”

But, this was not accurate.

It should be that ever since I had been born, I had been waiting for this day to descend.

As the eldest son of the Gastark Edea family, from the day I had been born I had been waiting for this day, this was my destiny.

Edea family—this cursed family.

Ever since we chose to take up the holy sword that could devour life Glovil , our family had taken on this curse. That sword that could devour the lives of people.

That sword could devour the hopes of people.

That sword could devour the dreams of people.

No, not only humans.

Divinities, demons, goddesses. And everything in this world nothing would be spared.

Naturally, this was a power that would not benefit the world in any way.

This power was not meant to be in this world.

But this sword was truly stabbed in here.

The power that should not be in this world was stabbed into the ground here.

Ever since I was a young child, Father had used this story to lure me to sleep.

A story that carried the ugly truth.

“…That, the power that should not exist on this world originated from the periphery of the world Erelle .”

“ Erelle ? What kind of place is Erelle ?”

“Ah, Father doesn’t know this too, but, it is said that that place exists.”

“Eh~”

“Do you still want to listen?” Father said, then discovered that I was already snoring.

Father told me stories. The wording was very complicated, so it was very hard to understand.

But Father, every day, every day, told it to me without being impatient. Because his father had done so since young, and this was the story that was passed down every generation of the Edea family.

Father continued to speak as if he were carrying out a duty.

“The scenery split into half from the middle, from the side of the split the Priests appeared, that was a Priest that had no human appearance, it was easy to see that the Priest were another entirely different organism, although they were glowing, but there were not divine. In contrast they made one feel chilled, the missionaries from the other world Erelle had unpleasant bodies and they descended, they walked into the middle of us and began to choose those who could withstand the power.

“In searching for the people who could withstand this power, nearly all the people who accepted the test died. In the end, a young man was chosen, a young man called Riphal Edea was chosen.”

“He has the same name as me so the reason we have the same names!”

“Ah, it’s like that, your name was to honor the First Ancestor , so we picked it.”

“Was he an amazing person?”

Father hearing this, shook his head. “He was a tragic person.”

“Tragic?”

“Yes, why was he chosen? He became the first cursed person in this world. When the Priests chose him they said this. – Riphal Edea. You have been chosen, come and sign the contract with us.

– Ripal answered like this – No, I don’t want to sign any blasted contract with your group of odd people!

– Hahaha, hahahaha. –

– Who, who can come and save me!

That young man called Riphal Edea shouted weakly, shouted helplessly, shouted weakly, shouted unknowingly. The weak power of the young man was unable to defeat what had been destined. How could he win.

The Priest threw a dark and long—so long that it was not possible to be a sword down at the young man’s feet. It stabbed into the ground beneath the young man’s feet. Immediately, the ground began to wail. As if predicting the end of this world, the ground shook, contorted, collapsed.

The ' Priest said again

– Alright. See this sword, take it up, Riphal Edea. Take up this sword, Riphal, take up this Sword of Regeneration , Riphal Edea. Then restart this world.

– No, I wouldn’t take it. I hate this place.

Riphal yelled helplessly, but that was not helping. His body was as if it did not belong to him, his hands were moving, his feet were moving, his whole body was moving towards that sword, then he picked up that cursed sword.

– No. Enough. I can’t stand it. Is there anyone, is there anyone who can save me! Riphal yelled in agony. But now, there was no one who could save him. Because the other people who were with him were undergoing a mass slaughter. Riphal’s important people were completely killed by the Priest . Not only that, they also used their blood, meat, bone, spirits, dreams, hopes, despair to forge this sword. Using the sacrifices of thousands of living people to make this Sword of Regeneration . The humans before Riphal’s eyes, people, friends, lovers, all were ripped into shreds, completely destroyed. The despairing screams faded into nothing, but, the Priest said that this had not ended. This was not enough to save the world.

The Mad Goddess and

The Demon from the Otherworld and

The Fallen Black Hero .

If this land that was under heavy corrosion and was about to be destroyed had to be resurrected, this power was not enough.

So the Priest said.

– Quickly take up the sword Riphal Edea, then restart. Let this world restart. You become the true Hero . The Hero that will save the world. Create a happy world where there would be no fighting. So, you need our help, we will help you for this, then, quick pull out the sword, complete this ritual.

The Priest gave this order.

– Take up the sword, let your arm be devoured by that woman, let the sword be completed.

Riphal was unable to resist this order. If he rebelled against it he would die. His body also seemed to receive this order and it refused to listen to his commands. Riphal had no choice, he pulled out the sword, the contorted ground was still trembling, he pulled out the sword. It was as if the sword was a part of his body. Roots grew on his hand. At that moment, his whole body felt an indescribable joy. The voice in his mind seemed to tell him that he could never leave this sword. A kind of indescribable joy, from his brain to his whole body, a happiness that numbed all pain. Even so, Riphal still screamed. Resisting this happiness. Riphal screamed.

– No! Stop. Enough, stop it. What have you done? Why don’t you just kill me?!

But his wish was not accepted, the Priests only laughed. No, was that laughter? Or was it something else, no one know. But, the happiness was roiling in his body. He could no longer feel any other feelings. Riphal raised the sword, according to the Priest’s order, he turned to the woman who was sobbing in front of him.

The woman who was in front of him.

It was Riphal’s mother.

– Riphal.

His mother was crying and calling his name, but she smiled at Riphal.

– Don’t be sad, Riphal, this is not your wrong doing. All this is not your fault.

His mother smiled as she said.

He desperately struggled, frantically tried to stop his moving to the front, desperately trying to stop the stabbing sword, desperately trying to stop the movement that would kill his mother.

– Ah, aaaaaaahhhh, no, can’t, definitely cannot, I definitely cannot kill Mother, he yelled in despair. But, he continued to walk forward, as if the decision to kill his mother was already set.

He cried helplessly, no, he definitely could not cry. He gritted his teeth, he tried to use all his strength to reject this, but, this was meaningless.

– What, why do you have to do this.

– For your world

– The world changing has nothing to do with me!!

– Hahaha, hahaha.

– Me. To me, what the world changes into does not matter, so stop. Stop.

But, nothing changed.

His feet still continued to walk forward step by step.

His sword, that black and long sword was reaching toward his mother’s neck.

– St, stop, save me! Save me! Everything, everything, is mad! …

He screamed, desperately screaming, but, now it was too late for anything, he knew, it was too late for anything to be done. It had already been done.

And, the worst thing had happened.

He had ended his mother’s life with his own hands.

His mother’s sad, lonely, but smiling and concerned face appeared in front of him.

– Don’t worry, Riphal, it’s alright, you didn’t want to kill me deep down in your heart, so this is enough, don’t cry. In your heart you didn’t want to bear this burden. You don’t want to bear this cruel matter, that is correct, so don’t cry.

Mother’s words, Mother’s expression, were like the past. Carrying a kind smiling face, appearing in front of Riphal’s eyes.

– But, but, Mother, I can’t stand it, my body wouldn’t listen to me. If this continues, if this continues, even Mother…

My voice had not finished speaking. Then it was drowned out by Mother’s gentle voice, Mother still had that gentle caring smile.

– Don’t worry. You won’t kill me, I didn’t bring up that kind of child. So, please rest assured.

–But.

– It doesn’t matter. But, I’m sorry, Riphal. From today onwards you will be alone, I’m sorry, I apologise. You will have to face this world that has lost everything by yourself. I’m sorry. But you have to remember, the gift that I left for you, can be felt in your heart forever… The love that I always had for you from the moment you were born. Other than letting you live happily, I had no other requests for the rest of my life. So, even if I die, everyone dies, you have to continue living. No matter what kind of pain you face, no matter what kind of trouble, no matter what kind of despair you can’t give up, you have to continue living.

– I don’t want to, I don’t want to be alone.

Riphal shouted. But at this moment, the sword had already touched Mother’s neck, that black sword that had brought about this misfortune had already touched Mother’s neck, Riphal was shocked, terror gripped his throat.

Mother also saw the sword reaching to herself, but why, towards the moment where the Death God was present she still smiled happily.

– Don’t worry, I won’t let you kill me. After saying that, she used her hands to grip the edge of the sword. Then said

– I love you forever, Riphal.

Saying that she thrust the sword toward herself.

– Ah…

Riphal was unable to let out any sound then. Another impossible matter had happened, the sword had pierced through his mother’s body, the splashing blood was completely absorbed by the sword. His mother still smiled at that time, using that smiling face that was tear-stained, using that loving eyes to look at Riphal. As if saying something, but there was no voice, her voice had been sucked away by the sword.

But, what Mother wanted to say he understood, he knew what his mother would say.

That was a phrase that would never change.

I will love you forever, Riphal, I will love you forever, Riphal, I have loved you since forever, Riphal.

So.

So, live strongly.

Then, Mother disappeared.

Riphal could no longer say anything. In the end, the hand holding that sword slowly disappeared, the sword dropped to the ground, piercing into the ground again. Now the earth did not contort like it did earlier, the last unstable part of the sword that had been made in the Other world, after sucking up his mother’s blood had resumed stability.

Seeing the scene before them, the Priests spoke

– It is done.

Looking at the same thing Riphal opened his mouth too

– I will kill you.

The Priests heard this and laughed.

– Hahaha, hahaha

– Don’t laugh, I will kill all of you.

– The person who you want to kill isn’t me.

– Then kill

– The darkness that you have to cut open, is somewhere else.

– Receive your death sentence.

– Don’t be so obstinate. You still can’t use this sword. You were only chosen to use this sword. This sword has only been completed, your role has not ended.

The Priests spoke but Riphal could not understand, what did that matter? Kill them, kill this pack of bastards. Kill this group of monsters who could do nothing but create a corrupted and lonely world, Riphal’s mind was filled with this.

He picked up the sword, he picked up the cursed sword.

He picked up the cursed sword that had been created with the blood, flesh, hopes and desires of his loved ones, swinging the sword, cutting at the Priests .

But the sword stopped mid-way, his body refused to listen to him once again.

The Priests’ voices spoke again

– Don’t be in a hurry, brat, your role is not over yet, you still can’t use this sword, but the day where you can use this sword is not far off. The day where the ugly and evil Hero can be purified, and the day when the Goddess and the Demon will devastate this world is not far off. Before that, you are only a minor character, there wouldn’t be any great destiny.

They finally finished speaking, the surrounding scene began to change. A door to the other world opened. Then the Priests slowly left.

– Stop!! Don’t run away!! Riphal yelled loudly.

But the Priests did not heed him.

– Stop!! Immediately, I’ll kill you soon!! Stop!!

Riphal yelled angrily, but, the Priests didn’t even turn back, disappearing on the other side.

Leaving only Riphal in this world, the other people had been devoured by this mysterious sword.

Just like what his mother had said, there was only Riphal left in this world.

In this Gastark continent the only living person was Riphal Edea.

Riphal shouted

– Everyone wait for me!!

Riphal Edea shouted

–Don’t leave me behind!!

The ancestor of everything, the hero who was as weak as an ant was shouting

– Don’t tell me you will abandon me alone in this decaying place?

But, no one could reply.

At this moment the sky suddenly split open, the place where the Priests usually appeared in was a crying girl.

It could be seen from first glance that she was not human, no, it should be said that she had beautiful features that could not be compared to a human’s.

The girl in front of Riphal shocked him, he looked at this girl in a daze, looking at this girl with pink hair

– Who are you?

Hearing this, the girl immediately smiled, saying something surprising.

– I am here to help you complete your mission. Come, mate with me, then I will give birth to children, make children with me.

Giving birth to children who could kill demons, children who could destroy Goddesses . And children that could bring despair to the Hero—complete the mission with me” That was the complete story that his father would tell him every night.

Then, the ending was that the Riphal Edea who was the Original Him never used the Sword of Regeneration ever again for the rest of his life.

No, it should be said, after that in this world, Glovil was never reawakened as the Sword of Regeneration . That peach-coloured hair girl from the other world had children with Riphal and they built a village, streets, living on for generations. In this period of time there was no one who would have the chance to reawaken this sword.

So—

Father said

“So I gave you the name Riphal, like the Original Him , after experiencing the despair of death, tolerating the loneliness of living alone on this world, like him who never used the sword in the end. I hope that you can live without fighting with the world, playing with your friends every day, marry a pretty wife, then having a group of children, living a happy life that will be happy even till the end, I wish that you will become a person who will have a normal but happy smile, so I gave you his name. That is the meaning of your name, understand? Riphal?”

Then, every night after I heard this story I would hum. Then ask

“But. I want to be like Father, I have to be polite to the girls. Never betray my friends, never remembering the bad of others, doing what I think is right, isn’t that so!”

Hearing what I said, Father smiled, that was a happy smile. Every day, Father who had brought me up would smile gently.

Father was actually an amazing person, he was polite to the women, on good relations with his friends, not jealous of anyone, everyone living in Gastark trusted in Father.

His strength made me proud.

This strength always made me as a son feel proud.

Then Father told me a story that was too dark, too long, too deep for a child of my age that had a completely continuation.

“this is that last, I am going to tell you a very important story.” His face turned serious.

“…If say… I am saying if this happens to you. …If there is the situation where it is truly necessary for you to pull out that sword”

“You must escape, escape with all your might. This is not something that is to be laughed at. Protecting the world? Purifying the world? That is only speaking. You, you only need to protect the people important to you. Protect your wife, friends, children that’s fine. The world and whatnot. Do you know what the world is? You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for nothing, for this world that does not acknowledge your efforts.”

Father who I was so proud of, actually used a slightly trembling voice to tell this matter.

“So, you definitely cannot pull out that sword in the holy cave. You can’t even touch it. If you pull out that sword, then everything cannot be taken back. You will lose everything, so…”

At this moment I revealed a serious expression for the first time

“I know, so I am called Riphal. Right? I will definitely live up to this name that never—used, never letting the sword reawaken.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I will never touch that sword. Because it is scary. I’m scared.”

“Your words will really embarrass yourself.”

“I understand, if I touch that sword, and break that promise I made with Father then it’s even more embarrassing.”

“Good boy…”

“Heh heh.”

“Then, sleep precious child.”

“Right. Good night, Father.”

“Good night, Riphal.”

This would be how my conversation with Father would end every night.

That promise was engraved in my heart, it is known that before the Stohl army invaded, before father died, it was also the day before my twelfth birthday, I remembered it all.

Then, father died, mother died too.

I was captured as the hostage of the Stohl army, I still kept the promise with Father.

Be polite to the girls. Be close with my friends, don’t hate anyone, believe in what you think is right.

Lastly.

Don’t touch the sword that would make me go mad.

Father died, I inherited the leadership of Gastark at the age of twelve, inherited the ancient destiny of the name Edea.

Even if I was a child I still had to face my fate. To me, if that sword could gain justice from the Stohl for us, if using that sword that had strong, evil, mysterious power that slept in the cave, then the revenge on the Stohl could be anticipated.

But I still kept the promise with Father, I never touched that sword.

No, it should be said, there was no need to touch that sword.

Revenge or anything of the sort was something meaningless.

Because it was written in black and white in history, war was a meaningless thing. No matter what kind of strong country, in the end they would not be able to put off the fate of being destroyed by a stronger country with more ambitions. There was nothing that could last in this world forever, so, snatching at these things that would disappear sooner or later wasn’t it ludicrous?

Couldn’t we live every day laughing, having a group of children, living happily like fools?

According to what Father said, no one would hate each other, walking on our own path.

Then, shouldn’t the path that we the Gastark citizens be walking on be the same?

“…" Then I passed on thoughts to everyone in these three years, then we became slaves.

No matter what unreasonable request that Gastark gave us, we always agreed, then we lived every day happily.

Then, the three of us, Rize, Lir and I, were given to the Stohl to keep under their control as hostages.

“…”

But, that thought stopped there. In the end, I realized that the idealistic world that I had was so naïve that it was laughable.

The world that Father wished for, was so pitifully innocent.

The gears that had run wild had started turning. As of today I could hear this creak creak sound in my mind.

Was this evidence that I was the chosen person?

I—just because the blood of the Edea family flowed in me, I had to bear the destiny that had been set by the Priests of the other world?

This I could understand. But I could hear it.

That destructive creak creak sound had already started to pile all this on the tracks.

So

“…”

So, I looked to Lir, then said

“… Have you heard of anything?”

Lir used his attentive, serious eyes to look at me, saying

“… Not unexpected. Just like what we predicted, the king of the Stohl Empire, is not human.” Not human!! I carefully chewed on Lir’s words, my face immediately froze.

“—Don’t tell me it’s a Goddess ?”

“It probably is, when I saw it, that evil and ugly Goddess was eating a child.”

I listened to Lir’s words with a stiff expression, then said

“It’s a good thing you weren’t eaten.”

“Ah, yes, it’s all thanks to the Rhule Fragmei that I was able to disguise my actual body. But… even if there was that object I seemed to have been noticed.”

Rize’s face suddenly changed. Charging between me and Lir, as if wanting to protect me he stood in front of me.

“…Noticed? How could you return alive? This can’t be possible… Don’t tell me you have become a puppet controlled by the Goddess?” Rize used his body to shield me guardedly.

“It’s not that, these Goddesses completely don’t care about our existence. Useless humans, foolish humans, only permitted to live as their nourishment, they are domestic animals, something like that, never mind I shouldn’t talk about this…”

Lir’s words finally made me laugh,

“Those fellows still don’t understand, these domestic animals already have the power to kill them.”

Saying that, I walked to the entrance to the library behind Lir, the Stohl capital was reflected in my eyes.

Then, I finally made my decision.

It was time to break the promise between Father and I. I made my decision. The promise between father and I to not touch that sword that would make one mad.

It was now time to break that promise.

Looking at the capital of the strong country that was not controlled by a human, but a monster. Softly murmuring

“…Bastard… It seems like I have been born in a most tragic time period. Father”

Then, Lir and Rize came to my side, I opened my mouth.

“…I am going to use that sword, I am going to pull out Glovil .”

Lir and Rize were shocked, they looked at me with stern faces, but they did not say anything.

I continued.

“Of course this has no link with revenge. Father told me, there is no meaning in revenge. But if the Goddesses interfere then it is another matter. Simply said. These greedy people are destroying this world. They once wanted to devour this world until there weren’t even dredges left, although the only Hero that could stop all of this had sacrificed himself, but that person had been tempted by the demon and had gone mad, becoming an evil presence, now things were progressing in the worst direction. So the gears of fate were starting to collapse. The only thing that can stop all of this, that can stop this awful script from being acted out… Damn it. Although it is troublesome. But it seems there is only us.”

I finished saying this, stopping. Carrying a self-mocking smile. Looking at the two friends who had played with me ever since I was a child.

“…Ah, this way the days after today will be difficult. If we do this, we may not be able to have this kind of life where we can spend every day playing, chasing girls, then playing the whole night, even so… even so, are you still going to follow me?”

As I finished speaking Rize opened his mouth.

“Done.”

Then Lir spoke too.

“I have no opinions.”

At that moment, I laughed and said skeptically,

“O~K”

The two laughed too, Rize continued.

“No matter what, we will always be involved unwillingly, because this is what Riphal does usually.”

Lir concluded it, saying,

“That time when he peeked at the women bathing, I said I was not going to look, but wasn’t I involved unwillingly? In the end we were discovered, but the one who was injured was me.”

“Right.”

Why were their tones on this topic the same, I laughed.

“When was that. I say, that time when you two looked didn’t you have nosebleeds?”

“Ah? I am not the divinity of peeking at women bathing.”

“Me too, me too.”

Although they said that, a different scene appeared in front of my eyes.

Lir and Rize stepped on Riphal’s shoulders and got onto the wall. They looked in excitedly.

“Wow. This is marvelous. Don’t you think so, Lir.”

“Yeah, yes, I agree, Riphal come see quickly.”

What are you thinking, I replied helplessly at that time.

“Huh? You haven’t pulled me up, didn’t we say so before, I would be the ladder, then when you got up you would pull me up?”

“Was there such a thing?”

“I don’t recall anything of that sort.”

“You monkeys!”

“Ah, if you can’t see such a beautiful scenery, Riphal is so pitiful.”

“Yes, ah, look there, that lady is really beautiful.”

“Eh? Eh? Where where?”

“Really. The two of you, don’t look anymore, pull me up first…”

At that moment we were blocked by the people who had just finished bathing. It was that scene at that time, because of my relation with the two perverts, I was also lectured. Although I didn’t see it.

“…What is it, don’t change the topic, alright, that time you two owe me, from now own, you have to board the same boat as me.”

Rize said interestedly as he finished speaking

“This time we’re going to look at the Goddess ’s bath pool, is it”

But Lir did not find it funny,

“Don’t, it’s horrifying, that monster’s bathing pool. Ah, forget it, there’s no use, just as long as it’s to free me from the boredom, going anywhere is fine.”

Rize continued,

“Riphal you’re a big idiot, leaving us will do nothing. We should help him.”

No matter how they tease me, I don’t feel unhappy. In contrast I laughed. I laughed happily.

Then I remembered of what we had to do after today, my happiness turned to sorrow.

When I thought of the most troublesome, most evil matter, I thought that I would not be able to laugh from my heart after today.

Now the main point of our attention was that sword.

We had to revive that mad Sword of Regeneration .

Reviving it was easy.

It just needed ten of the people who had peach-coloured hair like Lir, Rize and I to be the sacrifices, injecting the blood and life into the sword. Using their lives and their spirits to inject into the sword and it would reawaken.

People, the spirits of those of the same race, would increase the evil aura of that evil sword. It would increase the power of the sword. It would take down the monsters—

No matter if it were the Goddess , Hero or the Demon there would be power needed to kill them.

Lir said,

“All of the aged have decided to sacrifice themselves. They have avoided the notice of the Gastark months ago, they have started to make their move.”

After confirming that the monarch of Stohl was not human, they stepped on the path, returning to their home land, the path to reawaken the evil sword.

“… so that the young and strong people can survive, if we old bones are still of use, then we will not step down from this position. They were all saying this.” Rize continued,

“…I heard my grandmother also participated.”

I discovered that there was an unspoken loneliness in his face.

His parents had been killed by the Stohl soldiers. If his last relative his maternal grandmother died, then he would have no relatives left in this world. So I looked at him.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything. Only, seeming to be thinking about something and kept quiet.

“… Ah, yes. Let’s not talk about it, everything has been prepared now, only waiting for us to set out.”

It was a path filled with thorns.

It was a disgusting path.

For the sake of moving forward he had to kill friends.

For the sake of moving forward he had to decapitate his friends. Then let the blood flow onto the path he was walking on.

That kind of path, I originally couldn’t stand it.

That kind of path, how could I tolerate it?

But I have to do this.

That crazy. Ignorant. That matter that just by hearing it would make one cry and scream, I have to do it.

From today onwards, the matters that can make me laugh from my heart, there will be none.

If I can escape this, I will think of running away to a far place.

As I shout, I will escape. If these matters really have to be done by me, I really will think of escaping.

But, that is an impossible matter.

The Goddess appeared, messed everything up.

Devouring people, devouring the world, then the monster that devoured everything appeared. So, now the place that he could escape to did not exist.

So, so

“…Alright, let’s get moving.” I said to the two of them.

The two nodded.

For moving forward. My hands were about to be stained with the stains of my friend’s blood.

If I moved forward there would be no chance to turn back. So that my friends would not die for nothing, I could not turn back.

But, but, at this moment I still laughed, although I was laughing, but from my heart I felt a pain that really made me want to cry in pain, but I still laughed and said

“… From today onwards, I am the king, Gastark’s king, conquering other countries, slaughtering the women, for the sake of becoming Gastark’s king, you have to help me.”

Rize laughed too, indeed he was trying hard not to cry, carrying a forced smile he said,

“… Then, from today onwards, I’ll have to call you Your Majesty—Your Majesty.”

Followed by that, Lir laughed too.

“… Your Majesty, heh, annoying, a stern address.”

I looked at the face of this friend who liked to complain and said

“Alright. Let’s move out, leave this country, return to Gastark. The pursuing soldiers will immediately catch up, but, we are not in the mood to be caught back. Our Gastark Empire, from today onwards…”

Speaking until here, I stopped, then breathed in, loudly saying.

“From today onwards, the war where the world will be our enemy begins.” Then, everything began, according to the worse script, everything began. No, to be more accurate, so that the worst script could improve somewhat, the war of the Gastark Empire will start. At this moment, Rize interjected

“Ah, yes, just to note that the wise King has carelessly mixed up an affair, may I ask for the permission to correct it?”

I immediately turned up my face.

“Don’t use that kind of tone to say things, how disgusting.”

He still had a childish smile as if he were carrying out some kind of prank.

“May I ask for the permission to correct it?”

His lowly tone slipped out from his mouth, it could only be said, I wanted to vomit.

“What is it? What do you want to correct?”

Then, Rize continued.

“…Earlier, you said that when we had to help. The reason was that we betrayed you when we were peeking on the women’s bathing area, to return the favor, we had to help you, right.”

“Yeah. I did say that.”

“That. Actually, it is you who owe us.”

Ah. Why is Rize talking about something I can’t understand, I moaned.

“Ah. What kind of saying is that?”

Then Lir spoke.

“…That’s because there were none at all.”

“Eh? None of what?”

“Yeah. In actuality that female bathing pool was filled with people like aunties.” They said.

At that moment I laughed

“…I know that.”

I said.

Lir’s expression was shocked.

“You knew? How could you have known that inside…”

I shook my head.

“I didn’t know about the aunties, I’m saying that I knew that the two of you liked to joke but you were very kind.”

So, this was the blessing that the heavens had bestowed on me, I had thought.

Having this kind of good friends walking on this path with me, this was a really big favor.

Yes, the people living in Gastark, there was no shortage of this kind of good people.

So I definitely could not fail.

The first sacrifices had already paved the road for us.

So we definitely could not fail.

Rush to the front. Definitely could not fail, remember about the pass. No regretting, moving forward according to my will.

This awareness. It had long been implanted in my heart.

I had to have a strong will. Even if my companions died, family died, I could not turn back, the awareness that I had to have a strong will and rush towards battle, it was implanted in my heart.

Then I took the first step, saying

“Let’s set off!”

Then they followed after me.

The devastating battle was starting.

The despairing battle was beginning.

Everything was beginning, but God, please give me the power to win this battle and bear everything.

This is my wish.

### 002. Chapter 1: Cursed α

There was a scream.

Ryner was screaming.

That was because he had seen despair.

Ah, no, it was because he had seen a darkness that was worse than despair.

“…”

He tilted his head as if he were going berserk.

But he had no other option but to face that despair. Although it was an extremely tragic scene, he could not look anywhere else.

So he could only look at the monster before him.

The monster was a human.

It had emerged from Vois Fiurelle’s shadow.

For unknown reasons, Ryner knew her name. Even though Ryner had never seen her before, he knew her.

The Goddess.

The Goddess of Unsurpassed Vileness.

“…”

How he know her name, Ryner didn’t know. But Ryner knew it.

No, to be more accurate, it wasn’t Ryner who knew but something in Ryner that knew her.

Something in Ryner’s body knew it.

Something that was the cause for the five-pointed star in Ryner’s eyes.

He opened his eyes.

He opened his eyes completely.

When he opened his eyes, the five-pointed star turned red as if he had gone mad and glowed.

Then those eyes turned on the Goddess’s face.

Because she had no eye balls, there were two holes where her eyes should be. From those empty holes, worm-like creatures crawled out. She had no nose. Her mouth was like a slit. Long teeth hindered her from closing her mouth properly.

But, because he saw this face, Ryner screamed. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was looking at a face that definitely wasn’t human, or like another creature, he wouldn’t have screamed.

Of course, he had other reasons for screaming.

That was because he felt as if his eyes were about to rupture.

His eyes were about to rupture.

My eyes are about to rupture.

It wasn’t only like that. The pain was almost as if his eyes had ruptured and fallen out of his skull.

Then, something almost dropped out of his eyes. It was something that made himself feel extremely uncomfortable.

Ryner wanted to block his eyes so that that thing would not drop out.

He tried his best.

But his hands could not move.

His body could not move either.

He could only endure the pain in his eyes, then…

“…This is outrageous. You were late, Goddess of Unsurpassed Vileness.”

Suddenly, a voice descended from the sky.

This wasn’t the voice of the goddess. The voice of the goddess, who had been abusing the land and fighting Ryner, had been so high-pitched that it almost deafened Ryner.

This voice was very deep and dark, almost like the one that rang in Ryner’s mind, and whenever it spoke, the pain in Ryner’s eyes would peak.

At this moment, the Goddess laughed. That laugh sounded ugly as it emerged from her torn mouth.

Then a worm-like creature crawled out from her shriveled eyeholes. Those creatures looked in the direction of the voice.

“α? … So you’re here. It’s a little inconvenient that you actually appeared here.” The Goddess said.

As if replying to the Goddess, Ryner’s eyes spoke. “The situation is different. The Demon has already betrayed the Hero.”

The Goddess, who had no eyeballs, widened her eyeholes.

“Oh? …Then this host is the real body, not the Alpha Stigma we met before.”

“Ah, that’s right. This guy has signed a contract with the Demon’s half, the Solver of all Equations.”

Ryner could not understand the conversation. Although he knew that this was something important, the things he knew were extremely limited and so he could not completely understand them. All he knew was that the red, five-pointed star in his eyes and the Goddess knew each other. But who was the host they were talking about?

Unless?

“It’s me?” Ryner muttered softly.

The conversation continued.

Not human, but a conversation between inhuman creatures.

“Goddess,” the conversation continued.

“But why is that fellow still alive? Weren’t you given the task of destroying this world’s Weaver of All Equations? Why aren’t you accomplishing your mission?”

“… I said the situation has changed. For the sake of protecting his life, this guy’s mother disrupted the contract between us. Under the magic of Artofaru, I cannot work normally.” Ryner’s eyes said.

Hearing this, Ryner stopped breathing in surprise. Mother? This fellow just talked about his mother?

Even more mysterious was Artofaru this word. Ryner felt like he vaguely knew about it. This was before he was killed by that weird guy, when he was in a dream-like place, and was under attack from a bloody monster with wings.

The woman said a word. In his memory, the woman said a word.

For the sake of saving Ryner and allowing herself to be eaten by the monster that shared the same shade of red as his Alpha Stigma, this woman had said this word when she was about to die.

“Leave this place quickly. Lieral should have been able to completely suppress this monster by using the Arofaru’s power, even so, escape quick…”

It was what they had said. Now, hearing it from his eyes and the Goddess, it was her, there was no mistaking it.

“…That person was my mother? That, that woman was my…”

Suddenly, Ryner felt the impact hit him, almost as if it was smashing his body apart.

It wasn’t literally, though. In reality, nothing had happened to Ryner’s body, only that he could feel something in his body change.

The alarm in his mind went off and a foreign feeling gripped his body. He could feel that he had found an important memory of his. It was a sealed memory.

It was a person’s name.

It was a familiar person’s name.

And it was the name of someone close to Ryner.

It was Lieral Lieutolu and his wife, Iruna Lieutolu.

“…”

Those two people's name triggered a resonance in Ryner’s mind.

“… That, that’s my parents’ names…”

He mumbled. His lost memories flooded his mind.

These memories were about his parents who he had thought to be gone. These memories were before he was five years old.

They were memories before the memory of standing in the middle of a blood-stained battle ground, staring at the corpses surrounding him.

It was the memories about his kind father who was a noble of Roland and, with his father, his mother who loved him very much.

Those memories, those long forgotten memories made him want to yell.

Yell as he cried.

But he could not move.

Because of his eyes.

These cursed eyes were controlled by a monster.

The monster spoke, “And now everything has been complicated. All of the legends have been broken. Even Ω who was devouring Eris Litel met some trouble and was absorbed instead.”

Hearing this, the ugly expression of the Goddess became even more contorted.

“Ω was absorbed? Only the Weaver of All Equations has that power. What is going on?”

“I’m not sure. I only know that the monster that ate all the surrounding magical power—Lucile Eris is not of the same clan as the Eris Reed we know. I don’t think that guy is the other half of my host, The Weaver of All Equations. That power cannot be handled by that guy.”

What his eyes said made the Goddess cross her arms as if she was thinking. Even though she had a grotesque face that should not exist in this world, that action made her as if she were slightly humane.

The Goddess spoke again, “Then what shall we do now? If we kill him now, the consequences would be disastrous. For your information, everything can be ended if we kill him. The Mad Hero can eat this Solver of All Equations then consume the Weaver of All Equations. If we do this, the cycle will be completed.”

His eyes protested, “No. The situation has been changed. The power of the Weaver of All Equations has increased abnormally. And this guy is my host… he has lost all love towards the Mad Hero. He is allying with the heroes and fighting with the script. He has started to save him and he wants to pull the fallen hero from the depths of destiny.”

“… Ha, saving that hero? Then, is this guy standing on our side?”

“Yes.”

“Unbelievable.”

“But this is the truth.”

“Wu…”

The Goddess looked towards the sky, using her shriveled eyeholes to look at something that we could not see.

“So, this slave has sent us the information… that everything has progressed beyond what is written in the script? Human.” The Goddess said. Vois nodded.

“Yes, Goddess-sama. I received the news that this person, Ryner Lute, was coming with me to kill Sion Astal.”

“Eh, so this person is at my disposal?”

“I think so.”

“… That’s good. I believe that the betrayal of humanity is wise. You have come to seek refuge with me… because we have a contract. (You cannot lie to me)”

Hearing the Goddess’s tone, Vois nodded. “Please be assured. Sooner or later, I will present Sion Astal’s head to Goddess-sama.”

“Yes. Then I’ll leave first. I will treat this person as an ally—α, I’m ordering you do to something else.”

“Another order? What is it?”

“Keep a close eye on this person. If need be, lend him strength.”

“Ha ha ha ha… Lend him strength? I am to help a Demon? I see. I understand, this is also good. This world is crazy.”

At this moment, when the Goddess entered Vois’s shadow, she said, “… When is the world not crazy?”

As she said this, the Goddess disappeared.

The rupturing blood red and intensely glowing five-pointed star disappeared at the same time.

The invisible bonds that held Ryner also disappeared.

“…”

But Ryner could not stand up. It was as if the strength in his body had been sapped away.

Reasons. He thought of them immediately.

The reason was because of excessive blood loss. His left shoulder had been cut by a Roland soldier and it had damaged the bone.

And he had lost a dangerous amount of blood.

No wonder.

“… This is bad.” Ryner groaned softly.

He almost fainted. His vision dimmed slowly.

This was really bad.

Suddenly, his brain was unable to handle the large influx of events. His consciousness was slowly fading and his senses dimmed.

Vois’s voice said, “… Even if they faint, it’s fine. I can still handle Ryner’s and Ferris’s wounds. So rest well. If there’s anything, you’ll have to wait until you’re awake.”

Vois’s voice faded.

Losing all consciousness, maybe I’m dead, maybe I died like that .

Even if he was about to die, how could Ryner keep this calm attitude?

Maybe it was because he had remembered something.

He remembered something that was always elusive to him.

He had finally found the answer to that blank space in his memories, about his family and background, and the reason why he had these cursed eyes.

All of this lingered in his heart. To prevent the memories he had forgotten from being lost again, they lingered in his heart.

“…”

Then he lost consciousness completely.

Time passed.

Ferris woke up and opened her eyes.

Immediately, a lovely scene greeted her eyes.

It was the night sky. The pretty clouds moved across it, even though there wasn’t any wind.

Looking closely, she discovered that it wasn’t a cloud but it was herself.

She was jolting and moving.

She looked around herself and discovered that she was on a delivery truck. She was being transported to a place she did not know.

“…wu.” She said softly.

“What is the situation now?” She muttered and tried to sit up. Instantly, her body exploded with pain.

“…”

But she didn’t cry in pain. She carried that emotionless expression, void of character and checked the wounds that was left from the battle with Roland.

Then she discovered that her wounds had been wrapped up. Even the most serious wounds had been bandaged and it had stopped bleeding.

But looking at the wound under the bandage…

“…”

She revealed a surprised expression, softly saying, “…Strange.”

Indeed, this was strange. The wounds that she had were bandaged, so that they would heal, but they were not minor wounds.

They needed treatment such as stitches or using fire to kill the bacteria.

But the wound under her bandages had no burns or stitches. They had been perfectly healed. Even the scar that would be left behind by the wound was not there.

And…

“…”

Ferris narrowed her eyes and studied her surroundings again. What attracted her attention was the delivery truck. She could not see the face of the man who was driving but he was a soldier wearing black armor.

“… Who are these people? Who captured me?”

Roland soldiers? Or another country or organisation?

It wouldn’t be Roland’s soldiers. Their soldiers wore white armor.

But these people seemed to be against Roland.

So who were these people? What situation am I in?

“…”

She tried to remember what had happened before she lost consciousness.

She could barely remember what happened. She knew that she had taken the blow that was meant for Ryner and lost her ability to fight. But they had won that battle and defeated the Roland army. Then, she had escaped with Ryner.

She could only remember that much. They had ridden a horse and fled in the direction of the Nelpha army. Because she had lost too much blood, what happened next was dealt with by Ryner. After that, she could not remember anything else.

What had happened?

“…”

What had happened after that? And what was the purpose of these black soldiers?

Putting that aside, where was Ryner?

Where was that man?

“…”

That thought flashed in her mind and she felt her heart thump hard. She suddenly had a bad feeling and started to get dizzy.

No matter what, that person should be injured badly. For the sake of protecting me. That perverted, shameless foolish man had his brain wired wrongly. He actually allowed his shoulder to be cut deeply in order to protect me, who had lost my fighting ability.

“…”

That wound he had gained was dangerous. If it was not treated to, it could cause the death of Ryner.

If it was not dealt with immediately, it could take the life of a person.

Her mind was filled with this.

“… That bastard. He left me here and disappeared? Where did he run to?” She mumbled softly. Then she sat up.

She didn’t let out any sound. She sat up slowly, so that she would not alert the soldier who was driving. She sat up, crouched on the truck and studied her surroundings. At this moment, a voice spoke.

“… Ah, you’re awake, Ferris.”

Ferris knew that she had heard this voice before.

Ferris turned to the direction of the voice and looked to her side.

“…”

There was a vaguely familiar teenage boy traveling beside the truck.

He seemed to be fourteen or fifteen years old. He had a mop of black hair, a weird face and a pair of sly black eyes. He was dressed like a witch.

Vois Fiurelle.

This should be this bratty kid’s name.

Due to Sion’s order, she and Ryner had gone on a mission to find the Heroes’ Relics. They had came to a country called Iyet Republic.

They had to bring along this perverted boy so as to cooperate with the largest organization in the country.

At this moment, Vois stuck his head into the truck and asked, “… So how’s the wound? After all, Ferris used a Rule Fragment that has healing powers. If it was used properly, the effects would be good, but if it was used with a body that was incompatible, the person would die… What is wrong? You wouldn’t be destroyed just by wearing a pair of short pants.”

As he talked, he reached towards Ferris’s skirt.

“… What. You bastard, what are thinking of doing?”

Ferris avoided him quickly. She kicked Vois in the face.

“Wowww”

Then, Vois flew off with a happy face. After checking that he had been kicked away, Ferris got off the truck.

The surrounding black-armored soldiers emanated a killing intent when this happened and turned to her. Some unsheathed the swords at their waists. Ferris looked at these soldiers.

“…”

Ferris coldly looked at these soldiers and emanated her own killing intent. A smile lifted to Ferris’s face when she discovered how weak they were.

“…What are you thinking of, Vois? Using these weak scum to deal with me?”

As she spoke, she reached for her waist.

But. Her sword was gone.

She didn’t know whether Vois had taken it or if it were lost on the battlefield. All in all, she was presently without a weapon.

But this problem wasn’t a serious problem to Ferris.

If there was no weapon, she would just have to snatch one.

Snatch a sword and take Vois, who commanded these soldiers, as a hostage. Then get news of Ryner’s location.

She thought of this quickly and knew that this would be an easy win. The soldiers were weak and victory was in her reach.

So she immediately put her plan into action.

She put more power into her slender shapely body. She did not overly rely on strength. She relied on jumping. A perfect combination.

Then she calculated the air resistance, friction, resistance, weight, speed—she took all these factors into consideration and used them to accelerate her movements until it was the fastest. Faster and more efficient.

More powerful. Her body was moving so fast that the naked eye could not catch her actions—

“…”

At another side, “Alright, Ferris, stop that. I wouldn’t be so foolish as to start a fight with you.” He had not finished speaking when she had snatched a soldier’s sword like she planned, then held it to Vois’s neck.

Vois looked at the sword. The sword that could kill him before he reacted was on his neck.

But the faint smile still remained on his face.

He was still smiling.

“… Ah, Ferris is still as S as before. She wants to kill me because I took a peek at her panties…” Ferris pressed the sword to his throat.

“… Shut up. You’re a hostage now. I have the power to kill you, so reply to my questions honestly.”

The soldier beside them interrupted, “Let go of Vois-sa…”

Before he finished what he was about to say, Ferris sent him flying with a powerful kick. The other soldiers reacted. Just as they were about to crowd her, Ferris raised Vois’s body.

“…Can’t you see the hostage? Your master’s body and head are about to have a divorce.” Hearing this, the soldiers dared not to approach them. Vois raised his hands.

“…She’s joking. Everyone, sheathe your swords~. It’s alright, we know each other. Anyway, you don’t have to worry.” He said.

But Ferris’s sword did not move.

“… I don’t remember having a friend like you.”

“My my, that sentence really gave me a shock, you’re not joking, are you?”

“I’m serious. And you’re saying this nonsense only to buy more time. Answer my question now.” Hearing this, Vois continued to smile.

“Alright, alright. Ask your questions.”

Ferris asked the question that had been troubling her since earlier.

“Ryner… Where is Ryner?”

That question had been revolving in her mind for some time.

Why, why was she getting a foreboding feeling. Ryner had received a fatal blow. For unknown reasons, or maybe a dangerous matter, that had caused him to vanish. She couldn’t think like that.

The more she thought about it, the more anxious and foreboding she felt.

But it was because she was not strong enough. She felt responsible.

Why? What was it that made her so anxious?

“…”

It seemed as if something bad happened.

She could only confirm this.

Yes, something scary must have had happened. She didn’t know why she thought of this. So she narrowed her eyes and glared at Vois and said,

“…Answer me quickly. Where is Ryner and what is he doing?”

Vois raised his brows in surprise, an expression that said, ‘what-is-this-about’ on his face. He said, “… Heavens, it looks like the person Ferris is most concerned about is that… Ah, how annoying, it’s still the same person as before. Your relationship with him is very good. It makes me jealous. Although my preferences are younger, around seven year old Lolis…”

“Shut up, brat. If you continue to speak useless nonsense, I’ll make your life become something like your nonsense.”

At this moment, Vois looked rather disturbed.

“…Wa, you’re for real, huh? Alright, although I’d like to continue this game, my brain might move house if I continue to play. I’ll speak the truth.”

“…”

“If it’s Ryner, then he’s still on the truck. See, he’s right behind you. Relax, Ryner has been seen to…”

He was interrupted by Ferris, who grabbed Vois’s hair and leapt onto the truck.

“Ow…ow, ow!”

Ignoring Vois’s cries of pain, Ferris continued in the direction of the truck.

But at this moment, the agitation in her heart could not be soothed.

Why did she feel uneasy?

An ominous feeling rose in her mind. This thought made her body momentarily gripped her body.

It was bad.

It was really bad.

It was worse than death. It was a monster that seemed like a monster. It was a scary scene of her possessing Ryner, as if she controlled his body.

“…”

Why did this strangely foreboding scene appear in her mind? Why would she imagine such a ridiculous event? She didn’t know.

But it was better now.

At least she could see Ryner and hear that usual, foolish-sounding, sleepy voice and his ranting that would last the whole day. Ah, it was troublesome, that annoying ranting.

So she increased her speed. She rushed towards the truck that Vois had pointed to and jumped up.

“…”

It was like Vois had said, that fool was on the truck.

That mussed hair and the unmotivated face.

This was her companion, Ryner Lute.

This lazy person who talked of not sleeping enough was on the delivery truck. He slept with a silly look on his face.

Ferris could see Ryner.

Ryner was right in front of Ferris.

Then.

“…”

Ferris released Vois and rushed to Ryner’s side. She checked his wounded shoulder. That wound had been obtained when he protected her from the Roland solider. But now this wound was healing.

The serious wound and the one on his rib were like minor scrapes. They had become a minor wound. Seeing this, she breathed in relief.

“…”

The worry she had felt, and all those dreadful things that she had been thinking of, and her feelings of unease had never happened.

Looking at this, Ferris could not help herself.

“…”

She could not help herself but say, “…I’m relieved…”

She said this from the bottom of her heart. Then, she smiled slightly and silently touched Ryner’s rumpled hair.

She slowly released the surprised breath she had taken. The worry in her heart dissipated like a cloud.

For unknown reasons, whenever she looked at this silly face, she would feel at ease.

“…”

She found back her calm. Turning her head, as if protecting Ryner, she pulled Ryner to her side and said,

“… Then. What is going on? Vois. What is the situation now? Why are you here? And who are those black-armored soldiers working for? And what you said earlier, you know the term 'Rule Fragments'… Don’t tell me you are Gastark’s companion?”

That was right.

Vois had used the term 'Rule Fragments' earlier. Ferris called them Heroes’ Relics. And the northern Gastarks called these Heroes’ Relics, Rhule Fragmei.

That was to say, this person’s way of referring to those dangerous objects was the same as the people from Gastark. It was difficult not to suspect him of allying with Gastark.

So Ferris tensed and glared at Vois, then asked, “Answer me, Vois. Are you friend or foe?” Hearing this, Vois smiled. “… Will an enemy help you to heal your wounds? Am I right?”

“Then what are you planning to do now?”

“Yes, what will I do now?”

“If you don’t say, I’ll kill you.”

“Ha ha ha, kill me? You’re the same as ever. I give up. Then where shall I start from?”

“From the beginning.”

“From the beginning?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’ll start from the beginning. Ah, right. Should you first explain why you were so uneasy?” Vois asked.

Ferris narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. “… What are you saying?”

Vois shrugged.

“You didn’t accomplish anything just now. You were frustrated from just now and you were frustrated about what to do, weren’t you? Ryner’s fine. He didn’t meet any trouble. What, you were thinking about this so you didn’t know what to do, right?”

This seemed to offend Ferris and she glared at Vois.

“… What are you talking about? No… Who are you?”

Vois laughed lightly. “… I. I’m me, of course. Ferris, Vois Feurel, fifteen years old, carrying the mantle of the Feurel Organisation and now the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition—of course I’m joking. After all, Ferris knows all this, right?”

Ferris mumbled, wasn’t this the annoying person who kept lying?

But even though she had recognized his lies, why did Vois had such a smug expression?

“Ha, what I’m saying is all lies. Towards friends, the world and the gods—did you know? This world actually does not have the existence of real gods?”

Hearing Vois’s proclamation, Ferris’s expression turned grim.

“…You have some sort of neurotic problem…”

Vois shook his head instantly.

“No no no, that’s not true. If my brain had some sort of problem, then that would be bliss. That way, I wouldn’t have to see this messed-up world lose its direction in its progress. I wouldn’t have to see this world fall into despair. But this is not reality, it is impossible to get any links to relate to the world’s truth. So I can only lie to escape everything. Right? It’s fortunate that lying is my forte.”

“… You… What are you talking about…?”

But she was interrupted by Vois. His eyes were filled with wisdom, as if he wasn’t that brat who like to lie anymore.

“The unease that you are feeling now is true, Ferris. Ryner has been cursed by the Goddess. His special ability—Alpha Stigma has been cursed. But even so, please look at this.”

As he spoke, he reached into his lap and brought out a glass ball the size of his thumb.

Ferris received it and said, “…What is this?”

Looking at the glass ball, she could say that there was nothing special about the glass ball. It was just an ordinary glass ball. Ferris glared at Vois and said, “… What are you up to?”

Vois said, “Please use this glass ball to look at Ryner.”

“Glass ball?”

“Yes, this way, you’ll be able to see many things. I will explain to you in detail after you’ve seen through the ball.”

Ferris looked at Ryner with the glass ball, half-suspicious and half-trusting.

At first, the glass ball showed a muddled reflection. She couldn’t see anything.

But as Ferris concentrated, the ball started to get a little transparent.

Then.

“…”

Finally it became clearer.

The Ryner that was reflected in the glass ball still had that lazy expression. Like usual, he remained asleep. A 120% lazy specimen.

But looking at this Ryner, Ferris whispered, without thinking, “… What, what is this?”

Why did this happen?

On the body of Ryner who was sleeping peacefully, was a terrible scene. It was made of thousands and thousands of naked women who were dancing. They were like a crowd of spiders continuously emerging from the main body. These small, naked women ran all over his body. They let out a high-pitched “chi chi” sound. Reaching out their scaly arms, they grabbed on to every part of Ryner’s skin.

It was as if they wanted to forever withhold Ryner’s freedom from him by tightly holding on to him.

But Ryner remained unknowing of this. Yes, without this magical ball, Ferris would never have seen this.

But this.

“…”

The scene the magical ball showed was like a scene from hell.

Then, she passed the ball back to Vois.

“W-what are those creatures?”

Hearing Ferris’s question, Vois answered, “That is α. You might find this tiresome, but let me tell you everything I know. α is something the Goddesses made in order to destroy an unknown power in Ryner’s body and so they cursed him.”

Ferris aimed the magical ball at Ryner again. The bondings of those thousands of women were revealed again.

“If it’s the Goddess, then what are these creatures imprisoning Ryner’s body?”

But Vois shook his head, "No. These are only the curse the Goddess placed on Ryner. It is not the true body of the Goddess—although it might be argued. But α has the power to kill the Solver of All Equations. In a fight, α has the same amount of power as the Goddess…”

Ferris did not understand what he was talking about.

“Stop. Shut up first. What do you mean by that?”

Ferris knew that Vois wanted to use this interlude to change the topic. But she stopped him.

I don’t want to stop this. There are more important things that could be confirmed later.

So Ferris continued to ask, “You… Tell the truth. Who are you?”

Hearing this, he revealed that childish, innocent smile. “…Didn’t I say this before? I’m a liar. But this. This time, I’m a fool who can even lie to the gods.”

Looking at the monsters in Ryner’s body, Ferris asked again,

“… These disgusting monsters… Goddess whatever, are they the enemy?”

“… About this, huh. Currently, it seems as if they are on our side.”

“Then, they’re on our side?”

“It should be.”

“Ha. That’s unbelievable.”

“Ah? Then, I’ll change what I said. I… I’m the only ally of myself. I’m only helping you because I can benefit from it. Can you accept this?”

“… Huh. This can be more or less accepted.”

“That’s great.”

“So this means you’ll help Ryner?”

Vois nodded his head. “Of course. But this means you owe me. I won’t help people for nothing—this is what my family taught me.”

But Ferris smiled faintly, “… If one uses the sword to exterminate the person who they owe a favour to, then there’s nothing to owe—this is the teaching of the Eris family.”

Hearing this, Vois’s eyes rounded in surprise.

“Wa, such a violent way, it’s really Ferris’s style, how nostalgic.”

Ferris only shrugged her shoulders and said

“I don’t think so. I see that not many people will lament over you.”

“Ah!? For real?”

“Ah.”

“I see. It seems as if my love is unrequited. After all, towards someone humane like you, even if I reveal my honest side, you wouldn’t feel anything. Ah, there’s no point indulging in these meaningless sad feelings. Let’s return to the topic we were talking about earlier.”

Vois looked around after he said that.

“Even though I said that, this isn’t a good place to talk about business. If we don’t go now, I’m afraid that the Roland soldiers will catch up to us. Let’s walk and talk at the same time. I should explain all the details of the story…”

“Explain in detail, but you wouldn’t tell me your mini plot.”

Ferris said.

Vois laughed, “Of course I wouldn’t say.”

Then Ferris sat down on the delivery truck that carried the sleeping Ryner.

“Then sit tight, everyone, we’re setting off. We’ll be chasing after those Nelphians. Then we’ll meet up with army from the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla. Let’s go!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the black-armored soldiers yelled, "Yes!"

Then, the delivery truck began to move.

It drove into the darkening night.

When the light signaling the next day broke over the horizon, they had already caught up with the Nelphan soldiers. Even the progress of the army could be vaguely seen.

Ferris softly mumbled, “…Wu.”

She looked at Ryner again. She smoothed out that rumpled hair of his, then she grabbed it and hit Ryner hard. But Ryner did not wake up. He continued to sleep with a satisfied look on his face. He never reacted.

“…” Seeing this, she smiled faintly. Then, she resumed her strict expression.

“… So Vois. Let’s start talking about business.”

### 003. Chapter 2: Human α

The colour of the sky was changing.

It never stopped changing.

From the sky above Ryner, or to be more accurate, the sky above Ferris started to change as if it changing from afar.

Far, far away. To a place where many overwhelming events had happened. Finally, it changed until the sky in the southern continent. The sky of the grey southern continent. A sky that was choked with hopelessness.

Under this sky.

Under this sky, stood a girl.

She had long red hair and a shapely body. She wore a peach-coloured blouse and skirt.

The girl looked to her side. Her face was flushed with embarrassment.

“That… That, Sion… I, If it’s Sion, then you can do whatever you want to me.”

She said this in embarrassment and pressed a hand to her chest.

“My body belongs to Sion-sama.” She said.

Then Sion Astal looked at her.

His golden eyes gleamed under his silver hair. He looked at the girl’s body with his determined eyes.

“Hey, then I can really do whatever I want to you?”

What was this.

But the girl looked at Sion and blushed harder. She replied, almost whispering, “To me… It’s your choice.” Her voice could hardly be heard.

Then he walked towards her and touched her neck. When Sion touched her neck, the girl’s body trembled. She was clearly nervous and excited, and her whole body felt as if it were on fire. Sion said softly, “Then, I can really do whatever I want?”

“Yes. It’s your choice.”

“I understand. Then…”

Sion’s expression changed as he said, “Then… Die. Monster.”

Sion gripped the girl’s neck. He twisted it. There was an unpleasant “Crack!” Sion knew that the monster’s neck was broken.

Under these circumstances, that person would have died immediately.

A normal girl would have died immediately.

But the girl laughed.

Although her neck was broken, but she still could move. She grabbed on to Sion’s shoulders and hugged him tightly.

“…Aha, Ahahaha. Sion is so childish. But you used to like my behavior. Please, use more strength and fall into the entangled web of love with me… Fall with me and land in this kind of abyss. Never turn back. Be passionate, release yourself, Hero!”

As the girl said this, she widened her eyes. She stared at Sion.

Her eyes became wider. And wider. In the end, her eyeballs fell out but the girl still continued to laugh.

Sion’s face tightened.

“… My ears.”

He used his other hand to clench the girl’s head hard and attempted to twist her head off completely to stop that voice that was making him crazy.

But no matter how hard he tried to twist or to break, the sounds of the girl’s laughter continued. To make matters worse, the hair he gripped in his hands started to wriggle and squirm. They crawled to Sion’s wrist. The areas where the moving hair touched caused a numb feeling to spread throughout his body. Sion momentarily lost conscious.

Then the scary voice of the girl said.

“Ahahahaha. It’s no use. As long as it is a human, if they are touched by my body, they will lose their sense of self. Your life ends here. This is your end. You will become part of me, and fall into the darkness with me. Just like the previous king. Just like your father.”

As she related the horrible affair, her hair reached towards the rest of Sion’s body. No, that could not be called hair any longer. Sion released her hair because that thing had melted, as if it were a liquid and stuck to Sion’s hands and wrists.

She slowly, slowly eroded Sion’s body.

“…Wu…”

Sion groaned in pain.

He tried to think of a plan to escape from her control, but he could think of none.

She started to invade his body.

She started to take control of his body.

It was like there was no defense against her actions.

Sion’s face tensed.

“…Bastard.”

It was obvious. He could only subject himself to his fate.

In the deep abyss of despair, he suddenly heard a voice.

“…Hmm. It seems to be more troublesome than I thought it would be. How tiresome.”

Sion looked towards the source of the voice.

A man with an interested expression stood behind the girl. It was not known how long he had been standing there.

He was a blond man and his beauty attracted the envy of others.

He was the Head of the Eris Family, who had the ancestral duty of serving the King of the Roland kingdom, Lucile Eris.

Therefore, in order for him to fulfill his role as Sion Astal’s protector, he immediately attacked the monster that had placed Sion in danger.

“… But, if you need my power to deal with this kind of lowly creature, then you have no future. Won’t you work harder? Sion?”

What was happening? Why would he said something like this?

At this moment, Sion was fighting against the invasion of the monster. He looked at Lucile.

“…Gu gu, wu. Wa… This, this is bad.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can die first.”

“But that was what I told the monster.”

“Ha ha. Really?”

“Yeah.”

“I see. Then work hard. If you can’t deal with this standard, then you have nothing worth my protection.”

“…”

Sion thought that what the unpleasant character said made sense.

Yes, the enemy in front of him was not suited to be his enemy.

In these few months, Sion had constantly encountered their enemies—if it was not the creatures that called themselves Goddesses , it was monsters from outside their habitat.

The opponent Sion was facing was a copy of a Goddess . They only needed to use a part of their body as a medium. From there, many monsters could be created. Moreover, the real body of the Goddess was not here. If his battle with this copy took up much effort, then it would be unacceptable.

Thinking of this, Sion concentrated.

He started to build the curse in his body.

The curse that was created for the sake of destroying the Goddess .

His concentration increased and the Curse of the Mad Hero started to progress quickly. Then he spoke like he was casting a spell,

“… Get out of my sight, Goddess .”

In a second, many black swords appeared around Sion.

They were so black that they seemed to absorb the darkness.

They were so black that they seemed to eat the darkness.

They were darker than black.

Looking at these swords, the monster that was preparing to eat Sion became desperate.

“Wait…Wait—”

Without waiting for her to finish speaking, the swords plunged towards it.

They pierced through the monster’s body slowly and agonizingly.

The areas that the swords pierced became more transparent and colour began to fade from its body. Finally, it disappeared.

The cries of the monster had yet to be unleashed when the curse devoured it. Then everything finally…

“…”

Finally, there was calm.

The monster had been eliminated. Sion double-confirmed it.

“…Wu…”

Groaning softly, Sion kneeled on the ground.

He was tortured by the sensations of being burned.

But this pain did not originate from the monster’s attack.

It was because he had used a power that he had no wish to use.

It was the after-effects of using the curse of the Mad Hero .

Sion felt as if he was being corroded away by the curse of the Mad Hero . His human personality was slowly fading away.

That heart-wrenching pain was displayed on his face.

“… Thanks, I can depend-”

The pain reached its peak.

But Lucile smiled at him and said something strange, “You did well.”

Sion suppressed his pain and forced himself to laugh.

“… What is that? Are you expecting me to go, Thank you, Mama~ ? Really, I'm too old for that praise.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Then how do you wish to praised next time?”

Sion raised his head, his tense face carrying an expression of pain and stood up.

“…No, I’m not doing this for the sake of praise.”

His whole body hurt, as if it were about to fall apart. Aside from this, Sion felt a part of his most precious feelings and important memories had been lost.

Of course, he did not think that this was because of who had praised him.

This was something he had to do and only he could do. It was just like that.

Lucile said. “But if I don’t praise you now, then there will be no one else to praise you. Wouldn’t you be lonely?”

Sion replied, “… Don’t say such silly stuff.” He smiled faintly.

He looked at his surroundings and checked the condition of his body.

“…”

What an amazing place.

There was a blood-red ground and a white sky with nothing in sight.

A world with only red and white.

There was no noise.

There was no light.

Only this world that was red and white.

It was a world beyond human comprehension.

If one spent too much time in this place, they would go mad.

No, even if they stayed here for an hour, they would go mad too.

“…”

What am I thinking, he thought as he touched his chest and felt his remaining humanity.

He smiled sadly, as if mocking himself.

“… Then we should return, Lucile.”

As he said that, Lucile’s figure disappeared. Like usual, he only appeared when he wanted to, and disappeared when he wanted to.

Sion forced a smile upon his surprised face before he closed his eyes.

The red and white world that belonged to him disappeared.

The ugly world that the Goddesses made faded out as well.

He opened his eyes again.

“…”

The world had regained its usual scenery.

He could see the capital of the Roland kingdom before his eyes. He was sitting beside his throne. Sion could sit on the respected chair that only the loneliest person could sit on.

“…”

But when he sat on the throne, he could see the similarities between this scenery and the gory world that the Goddesses had created.

He could only see pain, despair and darkness.

Killing family, betraying friends and offering his body as a sacrifice. After experiencing this, he had finally managed to get to the position he held today.

“…”

So he could see the decaying scenery.

The Mad Hero ’s laughter.

The voices of grotesque Goddesses and uncomprehending humans.

Sion would be tortured by these voices and he would thinking of crying.

When he was alone, he felt like crying.

His personality was slowly disappearing.

His rationality was slowly fading.

This was bad.

Terrible.

“… so lonely.” He muttered softly.

He leaned into his chair and watched the crimson rays of dusk shine through the window.

“…”

In the past, there were people who would stay by his side and relieve his boredom.

It was a long time ago. Every time Sion said he was lonely, Ryner would blurt, “Huh? Haaaaaa. You dare say that you’re lonely when you ordered me to stay by your side? You’re kidding. What kind of joke are you trying to pull off? If you don’t want me to die, then let me leave. I don’t even have the strength to yell “Aaaahhhh”. So, can I leave now?”

Ferris, who was sitting to one side, said, “Mm-hmm, hearing you say this, I feel a little lonely too. Let’s go buy dangos together.”

Although this was a strange conversation, Sion still felt happy when he heard this.

“…”

Thinking about that piece of happiness he had enjoyed not too long ago, Sion smiled sadly again.

“…”

But those days of happiness would never return.

When the colours of the world changed, they could no longer return to their original colours.

Every time he thought of this, he always.

Always.

“… This really makes one feel lonely, Ryner.” Sion murmured.

Even so, he would continue to progress.

Sion would work hard so that if the cogwheels of fate started to veer into a hopeless future, his actions would at least hinder the developments of this future and lighten the impact. He struggled desperately. As a result, he had no more time to rest.

If he stopped, the whole world would be thrown into chaos.

So he breathed in and destroyed his weaknesses. He destroyed the weakness he had of reminiscing the past and wallowing in pointless angst.

There was already no more time.

He had no time to recall the past.

So he thought that he’d put his efforts into progressing into his future.

Killing his biological father, betraying his friend, abandoning his humanity— this was all for the sake of progress. He lifted his head again—

“…”

Sion turned to see a girl standing in the hall. It was not known how long she had been standing there.

In that moment, he thought that it had come again.

The monsters released by the Goddesses .

Lately, the Goddesses had been increasing the frequency of their attacks.

From the human world or from the Other Side.

Although the monsters created in the human world were weaker than the monsters created in the Other Side, but the assassins that the Goddesses sent had a power that was more than what a human would have.

So Sion tensed, ready for battle.

But when the girl walked in, he relaxed.

He knew this girl.

“…”

He watched the girl who had entered the Hall.

She was younger than Sion by around two or three years. She was sixteen years old.

A wavy, amber pony tail and large eyes. She wore the Roland army uniform that did not match with her petite body.

Sion recognized that appearance.

Milk Callaud.

That was her name.

Sion had used this girl to make sure that Ryner would stay by his side.

This girl was Ryner’s childhood friend.

The girl stood in front of him currently.

Sion looked at her. Then he erased the roiling darkness in his body. He erased the pain, hopelessness and sadness that was released from the Mad Hero from his body.

Then he gave her a fake smile, “… Isn’t this Lieutenant Milk Callaud? It’s been a long time since we met. Is there anything I can do for you?”

For unknown reasons, Milk looked at him with a slightly serious expression. “… There’s something I’d like to ask Your Majesty.”

That adorable voice carried an undercurrent of solemnity.

Sion replied, “…Some things? What is it?”

Although he phrased it that way, he understood why she was here.

The reason why she was here.

She was here to ask about what was happening in this country.

She was here to ask what had happened to the world.

She was here to ask about the country that had launched war on the world.

She wanted to ask Sion Astal, who was the Hero King and supposedly a good man, why he had continued with the human experiments secretly; and the reasons for the invasion of other countries as well as why he had betrayed his friend.

“…”

Was Ryner Lute a traitor?

Milk was here to ask this.

This was the first person to save Ryner.

This was the first person to stop Ryner’s Alpha Stigma from going berserk.

This person was the childhood friend of Ryner but she did not follow him and came here instead.

For Ryner.

For the sake of helping him out.

She clearly wanted to leave with Ryner, but she came here—

Came here to keep an eye on the man that had betrayed Ryner.

“…”

Sion could withstand the accusing look Milk was aiming at him.

He could withstand her feelings.

For a moment, there was a slight pain deep in his chest.

But it was only for a moment.

Sion smiled warmly immediately, “If you have any questions, you can ask them.”

So she continued in a determined tone. “No, there aren’t so many problems. I just wanted to ask one thing.”

A straight-forward tone.

It was different from his first impression of her when they first met.

It was noticeably different from his impression of her when he first thought to make use of her.

Then, she gave him the impression of being adorable and inexperienced, but now he could feel the intensity of her thoughts.

She was determined to change something.

Anyone who wanted to save something had a similar expression.

She had decided on something and came here with that strong determination.

He could feel it, just by looking at her expression.

“…”

But towards this.

Sion felt that it was meaningless.

No, interrogating Sion now was really meaningless, he thought.

She would interrogate Sion and get some information from him and pass it on to him, or for Ryner’s benefit, she would persuade Sion.

No matter which side…

“…”

Everything seemed to be foolish, to Sion.

It was too late.

It was too late because all the saddening events had already occurred.

Even Ryner’s and Sion’s relationship.

Even Sion’s relationship with the world.

It was already at a stage where the darkness was overwhelming and there was no hope for any chances of redemption.

Then, suddenly.

“…”

Sion felt the darkness in his body ache. He felt the pain stab through his body, the Curse of the Mad Hero was starting again.

He couldn’t help but scrunch his face.

This was bad, he wanted to softly groan.

That was starting again.

In another universe different from their world, the Mad Hero and the Goddesses were starting their ugly battle between each other.

In that moment.

The scene distorted.

The entrance to the Hall where Milk Callaud was standing—this image.

A dark corridor where a subordinate of the Goddesses stood—that image.

The two images overlapped each other so that they would both be seen at the same time.

The different images started to move. He thought furiously of ideas to deal with both sides, and felt nauseous and dizzy.

This was the after-effect of using the curse of the Mad Hero .

Sion had to exist in both worlds and then react to both situations at the same time.

The real world and the Other World.

“…”

In the dark corridor.

The subordinate of the Goddesses started to shake its head with a gurgling sound.

Gu lu gu lu, gu lu gu lu, it started to shake as if it were mad.

Then it walked towards him.

< >

It shouted as if got nearer.

Its hair swung in his direction.

Her surroundings would decompose as she walked past. It chased after him, emanating a foul stench and decaying.

He only needed to look at it to understand that this monster was stronger than its predecessor. It was very obvious that its nature was far more vile than the previous one.

If he didn’t deal with it immediately, he would be killed.

It he didn’t deal with it immediately, the world would be eliminated.

“…”

But towards this, Sion’s expression remained calm.

He was already accustomed to this kind of situation.

“Lucile.”

Sion, who was in the Other World, said to the human world.

Then, in front of him…

A blond, beautiful man appeared in the middle of the dark corridor.

He turned towards Sion.

“…Yes, alright. I shall devour this fellow. So you can be that cute girl’s opponent.”

He nodded towards Sion.

In the next second, Lucile disappeared and the monster’s head was retrieved.

Then the monster that had lost its head,

< >

But Sion ignored that voice.

He ignored the images of the Other World.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he smiled. As if nothing had happened, he smiled warmly.

But in truth, nothing had happened in the real world.

Even if it was a large magical attack.

Even if the mad Goddesses caused trouble.

For now, that power was unable to interfere in the affairs of this world.

Though it was only for now.

“…”

Because of that, he pretended that nothing had happened.

He smiled warmly as he looked at the girl before him.

Then.

“… Then, I’ll listen to your question now.”

He said.

Therefore, Milk could ask what she wanted to ask. It was probably the boring question that Sion had predicted.

What happened to you and Ryner?

What has happened to our country?

This kind of question, compared to the current situation and the depressing script, was able to make one laugh foolishly but happily.

Towards Sion who felt like crying and was invaded by the Mad Hero and the Goddesses , this was a simple trouble made him feel like laughing.

Towards this kind of question, Sion had many answers and excuses prepared.

He only needed to choose one from these, an answer that could she could accept and feel at ease.

There was no need to tell her the truth.

There was no need to tell her the despair in this world.

Only he was needed to sink into that despair.

“…”

So Sion smiled, watching Milk.

He smiled that usual, calm and youthful smile and watched Milk.

Then said, “Ah, ask away.”

So Milk nodded her head and thanked him. Her round, big eyes looked straight at him as she asked, “… What has happened to this country?”

This… She had asked the question that Sion had predicted…

But at this moment.

She continued. “I wanted to ask Your Majesty this. And about Ryner… What has happened between Your Majesty and him? I wanted to ask Your Majesty this. But after seeing Your Majesty… After seeing you, I understood that it was meaningless to ask that. So I decided to ask something else.”

She suddenly said this.

Sion narrowed his eyes at this.

“… Another question?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

So she asked.

Her face appeared to be a little worried, although Sion did not know why.

“…Your Majesty, what are you fighting with?”

She said.

What she wasn’t looking at Sion.

She was looking at Sion’s chest.

As if she wanted to look into his inner mind, she looked at Sion’s chest.

Sion looked at his chest.

But there was nothing there. There was nothing particularly eye-catching.

But Milk kept looking at his chest. As if she could see through Sion’s chest. She looked at Sion’s chest seriously.

An expression as if she could see something Sion couldn’t see.

No, that was not right.

It was an expression as if she was able to see another world that only Sion could see.

He felt a little nervous at this.

“…What are you saying?” he asked.

But towards this,

“…” Milk did not reply.

She only looked at Sion’s chest. She looked towards him with that expression as if she was so scared that she was about to cry.

“Miss Milk?” Sion said.

“…”

“About that, what’s wrong?”

“…”

“Eh…”

Sion stopped speaking.

Because Milk’s body seemed to lose strength and collapsed.

“What-” Sion exclaimed in surprise.

For unknown reasons, Milk seemed to lose consciousness and her head was about to collide with the floor…

“Danger-”

Sion stood up from his throne. He ran towards the Hall. Although it was clear he would not reach her in time, but he still rushed forward.

But when Milk’s head was about to strike the floor.

“…”

Her body was supported by someone.

Outside the Hall.

A man appeared from behind Milk, gently carrying her.

“…”

Sion stopped then looked at the man who was carrying Milk.

Although he was still quite young, he had long white hair. He had a gentle and experienced expression. He wore the Roland Army uniform.

Sion recognized this man.

Sergeant Luke Stokkart.

He always had a smiling, calm expression. He was a man who was as gentle as a nursery teacher and who followed Milk. But he was a man who had helped Sion secretly during the revolution. He was like Rahel Miller’s right-hand man.

The right-hand man of Miller came here.

No, ah, it was possible that it was this man who brought Milk here.

After all, only a small number of people were able to enter this Hall.

Only an exceedingly small number of people were able to approach this Hall that would be under attack from the Goddessess any time. These people were prepared to face anything odd from this Hall.

He had also placed security measures around this Hall.

And Milk Callaud was not on his approval list.

So she would be unable to get here alone.

That meant, “…It was you who brought her here? Luke.”

Luke raised his head when he heard Sion’s question. He still had a warm, smiling and calm expression. But if he was tricked by that face, he would suffer greatly, Sion understood that.

This man was the hardest to command amongst Sion’s subordinates. From the time they had met until now, it had always been the same.

His performance during the revolution was equal to Claugh Klom and Rahel Miller… No, this man was better, but he would never appear on the stage.

He would always be backstage, carrying out top-secret missions and sneakily executing them. He seemed to smile happily, but he was always able to make things proceed his way.

It was impossible to guess his thoughts just by looking at him.

He was a man who was intellectual and powerful but it was incomprehensible why this man would decide to follow Sion and Miller.

Ah, on this point, Claugh who had some dealings with Luke had said, “No, that man is not thinking of anything. He’s just someone who is competitive but has a strong sense of justice which is worthless. He is an idiot who just wants to do what he thinks is right. So that guy just simply wants to follow you. There’s no need to worry about something strange.”

That was what he had said.

But.

“…”

Sion looked at Luke.

As expected, this man had a calm, cheerful but unfathomable smile. Sion tried to guess at what he was thinking but he gave up quickly.

He didn’t understand the reason why Luke had brought Milk to see him.

So Sion asked honestly, “… What have you come here for?”

Luke’s eyes were creased because he was smiling. He turned to Sion, “What have I come here for; what a cold attitude. Because I haven’t seen Sion-san recently, I decided to come and pay a visit… Did I interrupt you?”

Sion wrinkled his brow when he heard this. “No… but why did you specially take Milk Callaud along with you?”

“Is it strange? Captain Milk is my direct superior. I just had the admirable desire to come with my superior to inquire about Your Majesty's health, that’s all.” Luke said.

Sion wanted to laugh at this.

Pay a visit?

Inquiring about his health?

That Luke Stokkart?

If there was no profit to it, if he personally didn't need to appear, then he was the sort of man who wouldn't do such a thing.

Really, it made one want to laugh.

Sion looked at Luke who was lowering Milk to the ground and said, “… Well, jokes aside, what are you here to investigate?”

Luke still smiled, “Uwa, Sion is as straight-forward as ever. But truly, there's nothing in particular I wish to investigate. At any rate, even if I did ask, you wouldn't answer, would you? The world has changed. You have become the king. A perfect king that is well-liked by the people. What complaints would I have?”

Towards this, Sion laughed, “Don’t speak nonsense.”

But Luke still had an indifferent expression. “No, no, this isn’t nonsense. It’s the truth. But, well, I feel that the problem is that you have too many secrets…Well, forget about that. There’s no human who has no secrets.”

Towards this, Sion looked at Luke and said, “… That’s strange. How could I have a secret that even you are unable to understand?”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. And, about what is happening to my body, I have already told that to Miller. About The Hero . About the Goddesses . I have told Miller about all of this and he understood. So about this you…”

Luke nodded.

“I heard it too.”

“Then what other problems are there? What have you come here for?”

Luke laughed at Sion’s question.

“I don’t believe a topic that has been passed on by someone else.”

“Eh? So you’re saying that unless I tell you directly, you wouldn’t accept it?”

But Luke shook his head.

“Your words can’t be trusted. Personally, I only trust what I've seen for myself.”

Sion felt a little troubled by these words.

“... As always, you’re a troublesome person.”

Luke laughed, “That’s not the case, right? If you leave me be and let me do as I please, everything will end by itself…”

Saying this, he gently let Milk rest on the ground. Then he stood up. Raising his head, he turned to Sion.

Looking at Luke’s face, Sion said.

“I's troubling to let you do as you please.”

“It wouldn’t be too troublesome.”

“Huh. Well, that aside… Then what are you here for?”

Luke still smiled even after Sion asked that.

“… I came to conduct a small test.”

“Test?”

“Yes. I came to test you.”

“Test me?”

Luke nodded. Then he spread his hands with a I’ll-explain-to-you expression and started to speak.

“The king of the largest country in the southern continent, the young Hero King of Roland Kingdom, Sion Astal. Gentle, clever- really, you are a monarch who has saved the country and are praised by everyone. But suddenly you declared war on other countries. You even secretly continued the human experiments and carry secrets that many of your subordinates do not know of. Then, what has happened to the young Sion? Or have you become mad, like your foolish father, drowning in your power? For this…”

Sion smiled when Luke said this.

“You’re here to test me?”

Luke nodded his head. “Yes.”

“Hmm. But how am I to be tested?”

Sion asked this, but Luke shrugged.

“No, like I said, I have already tested you. And I felt that you are a wonderful king, and though you have many secrets, that is fine.”

Sion tilted his head when Luke said this.

“Huh? Already tested? When was that…”

Luke looked at the sleeping Milk and said. “Didn’t Sion frantically try to help Captain Milk who was dizzy because of my actions? Since you can make that kind of expression, then I can be at ease now. You still possessed a degree of humanity that was beyond my expectations.”

Sion’s face tensed when he heard this.

When Milk first appeared until now, all this was the test that Luke had carried out. It seemed as if he had passed that test.

About the results of the test, Luke had said. “And you still possessed a degree of humanity that was beyond my expectations.”

He still had his humanity. That was what Luke had said.

But towards this, Sion muttered.

“… A boring farce.”

Luke nodded. “Yes. But it was an important matter to me. As someone who is to be used by others, I have to carefully choose the people whom I follow…”

“Then, because I still have my humanity, you will follow me?”

“Yes.”

“Really, I'm touched. But what does this tell me about the man who knocked out his own superior to test me?”

Sion said this. Luke revealed a slightly sad expression,

“… No, there is a reason for that… but what that reveals is confidential.”

Sion exclaimed, “What does that mean? Don’t you have your own secrets too?”

Luke resumed smiling and said, “I do not matter. At my roots, I operate via secrecy.”

“That’s despicable.”

“Ahaha. I specialize in being despicable.”

Luke laughed as he spoke.

Then he observed his surroundings.

He could only see Sion, himself and Milk in the Hall.

Then.

“Ah, he… the monster near you—Lucile Eris-san is here too?”

Luke asked.

“…”

Sion was already frustrated.

Whenever he spoke with this man, he would feel a genuine feeling of exhaustion.

How many secrets did Luke know, what kind of plan was he coming up with; he could not completely predict Luke. If he was unable to predict Luke’s thoughts, he would be unable to respond to Luke.

So Sion did not want to become enemies with this man.

Even more than Claugh and Miller.

He had to make this man his ally.

Amongst humans.

This man was the most dangerous character amongst humans—because Sion truly thought like this.

So he looked at Luke and said, “… Really, what have you come here for? If you have anything to ask, you can ask it directly. I will answer your questions.”

But Luke assumed a calm expression, “ As I told you, I would not believe anything that you have said about yourself.”

Sion really felt frustrated when he heard this.

“Yeah, you are such a troublesome man. Then Miller shall explain everything to you. I have told him everything. After that, he understood. No, so that he could understand, I told him everything. Which means that I have no more secrets that you can exploit.”

Sion said.

Yes.

He had told Miller most of his secrets.

He remembered that he had told Miller about now, Roland, the world, the situation Sion was in and that depressing script.

His description of the context had been something like this.

About this world, there was an inhuman, greedy existence called the Goddesses that wanted to consume everything.

As the Goddesses maintained their greedy and ruthless methods, they violated and caused a shortage of food in the world. It planned to bring the world to its demise.

There was another inhuman existence called the mad Hero who destroyed these Goddesses .

But in order to destroy the Goddesses , the power of that mad Hero was needed. So Sion had accepted that power.

However, if one wanted to use the Mad Hero ’s power to destroy the Goddesses , then the barrier in this world that had been created by the Goddesses had to be destroyed.

The worst thing was that the barrier that the Goddesses had erected was actually the ‘ Humans ’ living on the Menoris Continent.

That meant that every organism that was named human, was a magical power created by the Goddesses to seal the Mad Hero .

But only the blood of the royal family of the Roland Empire was not that of the ‘ Human ’ that the Goddesses had created. Instead, the Mad Hero had created a different magical power that could break the Goddesses ’ barrier, Human α .

And the curse of Human α could over-rule the ‘ Human ’ and transform others.

That meant that before the rule of the king of Roland who had the blood of ‘Human α’ , all of the people in Roland were no longer ‘ Human ’, but were transformed by the curse of ‘ Human α ’.

The citizens of Estabul who had been conquered by Roland had been transformed by ‘ Human α ’.

Moreover, the people of Imperial Nelpha and Runa Empire that had been invaded by King Sion, who was born with ‘ Human α ’ were slowly becoming not ‘ Human ’.

As ‘ Human ’ decreased, the barrier of the Goddesses would weaken.

If the barrier became weaker, the power of the Mad Hero would become stronger.

When that power reached the west side of the central Menoris Continent.

That meant that when the Roland territory had expanded to the west side of the central Menoris Continent—opposite the desert where humans were unable to live for long. When the world where the Goddesses lived in would become Roland territory where ‘ Human α ’ lived on—Sion would be able to kill all of the Goddesses, that would be gratifying.

Sion had told Miller this completely ridiculous, insane nonsense.

But Miller had believed him.

Because he had seen it.

The grotesque, ferocious appearance of the Goddesses .

And the mountain of corpses that were Sion’s subordinates that had been eaten and ripped apart by the Goddess .

Even so, the Goddess had been unsatisfied.

It yelled that it had was not enough, not enough, it hadn’t eaten enough.

It had yelled crazily.

Miller had seen that horrible form.

So he understood.

Then he confirmed that he would cooperate with Sion to the best of his abilities.

He had confirmed that he would lend his strength to Sion so that the Goddesses would be exterminated.

As Miller’s most capable subordinate, Luke should have heard this before.

But this man came here. He had came here to exploit Sion’s secrets.

Of course, without visual evidence and this nonsense was passed on from someone else, it would be hard for someone to believe him, this much was clear…

At this moment.

“I did believe it.”

As if he were peeking at Sion’s thoughts, Luke said. Then,

“The things that Miller-sama showed to me. And what you said to him, about the Goddess and the Hero. I did believe it. You wouldn’t tell him lies.”

Luke said.

Sion looked at Luke with a surprised expression and said. “… Then what was there to inquire? For what purpose did you come here…”

But Luke interrupted Sion. He opened his eyes that had been creased into slits because of his smile, ‘…But how much of your secrets is the possible truth that you told Miller-sama? Twenty percent? Thirty percent? Then what is the rest of the seventy percent? If we only look at one part, only look at a tiny portion of what seems true… Ah, then what would happen if it becomes an entirely different story after we see the whole truth? After all, this kind of situation happens often. So I came here on Miller-sama’s behalf to investigate this…. That is my job.”

Saying this, Luke looked towards Sion.

Even though he was smiling, but his eyes were very sharp and keen as they probed for the truth.

Towards this. “…”

Sion couldn’t help but smile.

No matter how Luke tried to search for that truth, it was a truth that could not be completely attained, anyway.

Yes, what he had told Miller was not the whole truth.

What he had told Miller about the Goddesses and the Hero was not complete.

No, towards this, the legend of the Goddesses and the Hero , even Sion who was personally involved had some parts that he could not understand.

The sources of the legend were different so the context of each ‘truth’ was different.

There was a version of the Goddesses going crazy and there was a version of the Hero going crazy.

Well, no matter which side had gone crazy—Sion thought that anything was possible now.

No matter what, he only had to concentrate on the things that he could do.

Regardless of who it was, even if it was a mistake, he could only do what he was able to do.

So he had already made a choice.

Sion Astal had already made a choice.

He had chosen the road that he had thought most suitable.

He made the choice to kill his biological father, betray his best friend and sacrifice his own life for the sake of progress.

So he could let Luke do this.

If there was any other ‘truths’, if he thought there were other appropriate routes, then he could go and find them.

So Sion said.

He smiled and said to Luke. “…Well, do as you like. No matter how you struggle, the ending will always be the same.”

Luke smiled at this too. “Yes, I will do that. How about I say… I have already done that. Preparation for another experiment…”

Towards this, Sion asked, “…Experiment?”

In the next second.

There was a whooshing sound. Then he felt as if an invisible thin thread entangled his head.

He wanted to slide his finger between his head and the thread, but it was too late.

“Gu.”

He released a soft sound, but his voice was cut off.

The thin thread encircled his neck tightly, making him unable to voice anything.

Luke pulled that thread. He had set up the thin thread in the Hall without Sion noticing.

Luke gently pulled on the head of the thread.

The thin line tightened.

“…”

He couldn’t release a sound.

Luke continued with an elated expression and said,

“Yes, then let the experiment begin~. Following this, I will kill you… Then the monster that protects you will come and kill me, right?”

Sion wanted to shout, ‘stop this!’ when he heard this. But he was unable to utter a sound. He was strangled too tightly and so he was unable to make a sound.

“…”

But even though it was like this, Sion still wanted to shout: stop this quickly, don’t do such a foolish thing. Or else that man, Lucile will, will come and kill you…

He wanted to shout this.

But he was unable to voice it.

This was bad, he thought.

It was not because he could feel himself dying.

This was really bad.

If this continued, Lucile would come out and kill Luke.

Luke was an important human towards this country.

He would fight against the Goddesses from today onwards.

He was a necessary character who would help to expand Roland’s territory the west of central Menoris Continent.

So Sion wanted to shout, ‘stop this, quick!’.

But he was unable to speak.

The thin line tightened and started to cut into the skin.

He would die, Sion though.

Then in that moment.

“…”

Suddenly.

“…”

Lucile did not appear.

Sion widened his eyes.

This was impossible.

It was impossible that Lucile did not appear.

So Sion looked at Luke with an expression of surprise.

Then Luke said.

“…Ah, looks like he won’t be appearing. Then the first experiment was a success.”

Saying this, he gathered the line in his hands.

A whooshing sound followed and Sion was released. The thread of unknown design returned to Luke’s hands.

Sion coughed and heaved, recovering from his strangulation and then he stared at Luke.

“…What… what did you do?”

Luke shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s a secret.”

“…That thread, is it a Heroes’ Relic? How did you get it?”

“That’s also a secret.”

“Don’t kid me. Don’t think that because you can ask about other people’s secrets without explaining any of your own.”

Luke laughed at what Sion said.

“…So I won’t ask you. I will exploit your secrets by myself…”

Saying this, he continued to stare at Sion. Luke laughed, a little troubled, then said,

“Regardless, the fact that I am your ally won’t change. As I said, you’re a wonderful king. I believe that you are a heroic savior who will be able to change this country and this world. But in order for that to be accomplished, I think I ought to help out a little. Well, as for the secret experiment that I'm doing right now, you’ll know what it is soon. So please don't glare at me.”

He said.

But Sion continued to glare at Luke,

“…”

As if he wanted to say something.

But he said nothing.

Because like what Luke had said, it would be soon.

He would know about the secret experiment that Luke was carrying out.

Like what he had said, Sion would soon understand the contents of that experiment.

That was, with the scene that Sion was looking at, something else that would happen in a different place.

In a different place from the Hall that Sion, Luke and the unconscious Milk were in.

Human world, the Other World.

In the Other World where Lucile was supposed to be destroying the monster released by the Goddess, that had happened.

Sion turned his attention back there.

Sion was standing in the dark corridor.

Not far from him was the corpse of a strange body.

It was the corpse that the Goddess had released to kill him.

It should have been thrown there after Lucile had killed it.

But when monsters died, they would disappear from this world.

This was the space created by the monster, so when its master had disappeared, this world would immediately collapse and disappear.

But this world continued to exist.

Its creator had died, but it had not collapsed.

This meant that there was the existence of a magical creature.

It could be another monster that had taken over the control of this world or the Goddess.

No, unless it was Lucile who had decided to maintain this place for some reason…

“…”

Although he thought of that, this view immediately disappeared.

Because Lucile was further ahead in the dark corridor.

And Lucile.

That Lucile Eris was pinned against the black wall of the corridor by his neck.

Lucile looked to him, an expression of pain that did not belong on his face.

He uttered, “Don’t come over, Sion…”

But he could only speak until here. Because the grip around his throat had tightened.

“Ga, ah… u.”

Lucile moaned.

Sion was unable to move.

That Lucile was pinned down by a power.

That Lucile bordered on being killed.

Under these circumstances, Sion was helpless.

But the events were progressing.

The person strangling Lucile turned around.

Seeing that appearance, that person’s identity was easy to figure out.

“Is it the real… real, Goddess …”

Sion muttered dumbly.

The Goddess smiled.

Dazzling hair that was coloured with the colours of the rainbow and beautiful eyes. It was as if all the beauty in the world was coalesced into that single being.

Sion’s gaze was fixed on that extraordinary beauty.

He was captivated by her.

Then the beautiful woman spoke. She used that beautiful and adorable voice that could charm anyone, “Ahh, Sion Astal, you still continue to move forward.”

Even though he was gripped by the throat, Lucile still managed to say,

“Do, Don’t listen, Sion… this person, has the magic to brain-wash…”

But the Goddess looked at Lucile and said:

“I won’t use magic on you, Lucile Eris, only I stand on your side… I am the only woman who loves you… Have you forgotten even this?”

“Shut up, mad Goddess …”

Upon hearing what Lucile said, the Goddess ’s expression became sad and lonely, as if she were about to cry.

When Sion saw this expression, he wanted to walk over and let her depend on him.

He wanted to walk over and hug her.

No, that was not right.

It was something in his body that wanted her.

It was the something in his body—it had to be the power of Asruld Roland, the Mad Hero , that strongly, very strongly wanted her.

Wanted her.

Wanted to embrace her.

The curse in his body was shrieking to obtain all of her.

But Sion did not move.

He frantically tried to control his movements and suppressed the power in his body.

Because that woman.

That Goddess was a woman he couldn’t touch. So Sion frantically tried to withstand the urge.

He frantically controlled the urge that swelled within him.

He frantically suppressed the shrieks of the mad hero in his body.

He roared ‘Shut up!’ to the voice that shrieked ‘Embrace her!’

He roared ‘Shut up!’ to the voice that shrieked ‘Own her!’

Then he looked.

He looked in the direction of the Goddess .

She was so beautiful.

He looked at the beautiful Goddess who had almost the same features of Milk Callaud.

“Darn it,” Sion muttered.

Then the Goddess smiled and said, “Is it painful? Asruld Roland.”

She asked.

She approached Sion.

Sion’s features twisted. He frantically tried to suppress the overwhelming desire to ‘hug her, own her’.

Then he said, “Don’t come near, monster. If…if you come nearer, I…I…”

But the Goddess with Milk’s face said, “You can hug me, you can possess me, that is all that I exist for.”

Sion glared at the Goddess, “What… are you?”

It was obvious that she wasn’t a normal Goddess . He could tell this from the moment he had seen her.

Because that unknown power in his body had reacted excessively to this woman.

The mad hero in his body, Asruld Roland, had reacted differently to her than how he had reacted to the other fragments of the Goddesses .

So Sion was questioning the woman in front of him. He stared at this monster that had almost the same features as Milk Callaud.

“What exactly are you?”

The woman smiled again.

“You already know the answer, don’t you? You know it in your heart. How did you feel when you saw me? Why don’t you follow that feeling…”

Suddenly she stopped talking.

Then she faced the sky.

In that space where the monster had created the dark corridor.

Following her movements, a big hole appeared above the corridor. On the other side of the hole appeared another dimension.

She silently looked there, watching the hole above the corridor.

Suddenly, her expression morphed to one of sadness and she said, “Ah, the demon that you released has now met with the Goddess of Unsurpassed Vileness . To us, this is not a good development. This way, Alpha will disappear and the shackles containing the Solver of All Equations' will be lessened. This should have been done by you, Asruld Roland.”

The woman said.

She said that the Solver of All Equations and the Goddess of Unsurpassed Vileness had met.

Sion asked, “Are you… Are you referring to Ryner?”

“… Yes. Yes, it’s like that. Ryner whom I love. The Lonely Demon whom I love. Because you didn’t quickly catch his heart, he has landed into the hands of the ugly Goddess . Even though I helped you. Even though I was always mesmerized by the love between the both you... even though I was always mesmerized by the insane friendship between the two of you… even though you're always, always crazy for love. Isn't it so? Eris Reed, the weakness your beloved hero has is disturbing, right?”

She asked Lucile who was pinned against the wall.

“But you are in the wrong too, Eris. No matter how you increase your powers, you aren’t the genuine article, not if you don’t become one with Ryner. That’s why you lost to me, that’s why you, the powerful demon lost to me…”

Lucile glared at the woman, “…That’s only for now. You can be smug but that’s only for now. I will gain the power to leave the script you have written.”

Hearing this, the woman was sad, “It was not written by me.”

“Shut up… shameless woman.”

“I can shut up, but this is the truth, Eris. I cannot interfere in this script, nor can the Goddesses . Truthfully, the ones who wrote this depressing script were you. Though even if I say this, as of now, you wouldn't accept my message...”

Then the woman released Lucile.

Lucile collapsed to the ground, weak.

She seemed to show no interest in Lucile and spread her hands, looking at Sion.

Then her voice turned lively, “But maybe it’s because of that, that I like the both of you. Because of this, I like the both of you. Because of that very sad, too short and always unpredictable love… Let me help you. I will definitely kill those greedy Goddesses who love to cause trouble for you frequently. This time, in this world, I will help you so that the two of you will be able to be loved.”

Saying this, she approached Sion.

She was approaching Sion.

The power in Sion’s body reacted.

He could hear the wails of the mad hero in his body.

Embrace her.

Possess her.

Possess this Goddess ’s power.

If he did this.

If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this. If he did this.

To him.

To Ryner.

Maybe he wouldn’t need to kill that beloved demon.

Maybe there was no need to kill him in order to change this decaying world that was poisoned by ‘light’.

The hero yelled.

As if she could hear the hero’s yells, the Goddess smiled.

“Come, embrace me, Asruld. Come, embrace me, Roland. Come, embrace me, Sion Astal.”

Hearing this.

Sion widened his eyes.

Staring.

Staring at that Goddess .

Staring at that Goddess of Reincarnation that was so alike Milk Callaud.

Then.

“If I embrace you, what will you gain from it?”

The woman smiled, devastatingly beautiful.

“…”

She smiled, she didn’t reply.

But Sion knew. Even though he didn’t understand what she had told him, he knew.

What she would gain was the darkness.

That deep, inky, unfathomable darkness.

She was mesmerized by that darkness.

She was mesmerized by that deep darkness that could cause anyone to go mad.

In his body, the fragment of Asruld Roland stirred.

Wanted her.

But at the same time, the hero shouted:

She was scary.

That cheerfulness behind her smile was scary.

So he couldn’t touch her.

Wanted her.

Don’t touch her.

Want…

But that stopped.

“Shut up!!”

Sion shouted and struck his chest.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I will choose the path that I walk, so shut up, you monsters!”

Sion yelled.

Like this, the voices in his body stopped. The voice that desired this woman stopped. The mysterious voice that feared this woman stopped.

Then he could finally look at the monster in front of him calmly.

Look at the stunning beauty in front of him.

Look at the monster who had the face of Milk Callaud.

Sion asked, “Why do you imitate Milk Callaud’s appearance? Why do you use her face?”

Hearing this, she turned sad again, “Ah, you still won’t go mad… But that strong rationality will destroy your heart one day…”

“Anyway, just answer my question. Why do you use her face?”

Towards this, she replied, “This is my true appearance. For the sake of reincarnating into someone who you cannot harm, for the sake of reincarnating into someone who you will not harm if you don’t go mad—this is what I have done to myself—I am the one who made you fall, Sion. This is for the sake of freeing you from the mayhem, for the sake of letting you fall and become mad, for you to live, free from worry.”

Hearing this, Sion’s expression tensed.

“Then, from the beginning, Milk Callaud was…”

“Yes, she was me… but she was born as a human, so she had a human personality…”

“Then Milk Callaud, she… she’s now…”

“She’s here. In me. And she’s looking at this right now. She’s frantically shouting ‘Save me, save me, Ryner’ because she does not want to be embraced by you. Unfortunately, you have to embrace me. No matter what, you have to embrace me. This is so that he can be saved. This is to save beloved Ryner.”

Saying this, she became more sad, as if she was about to cry. No, she really cried, tears cascading from her eyes.

She continued, “Ah, ah. How ironic. If you can be tempted by my power now, if I can force you to embrace me… This chance has been lost. We have lost another chance again. Now you have the immunity, the immunity towards my power… This way, when you are forced to embrace me after today… you will come and hug me of your own will. You will obtain me by your willpower and it will be devastating. That is too sad, too painful… Because you will cry when you embrace me. You will cry, why is this world so insane. So I wanted you to embrace me here because I don’t want you to be in even more pain…”

She sobbed and sobbed. Her tears evaporated and disappeared into the air. Sion did not know if those tears were real.

But he knew the meaning of her words.

“…”

She was letting him make a decision.

Advance forward or run away.

Letting him make the decision.

She said, “It’s not too late, make me…”

But Sion shook his head.

“No.”

“But…”

“No, I won’t embrace you. Even if I did not have your help, I would continue. Isn’t it like this?

Lucile.”

After he said this, Lucile stood up from where he had been at the Goddess ’s feet. He raised a hand to wipe at the wound that the Goddess had left on him when she had pinned him to the wall. Then the wound disappeared, as if it had not been there.

But even so.

“…”

The wound in Lucile’s heart would not disappear.

It was still not enough.

He still did not have enough power to kill a genuine Goddess .

Even if he had devoured hundreds of divine creatures.

Even if he had devoured thousands of devils.

But it was still, still not enough.

Sion felt like that was depression.

Sion felt that was an endless depression.

Because it was proof that what they had done up until now was a meaningless struggle.

But even so.

“…”

A strong and confident smile appeared on Lucile’s slightly tired face, and said, “I don’t have any intentions to become the demon that I once was, Goddess of Reincarnation . If it is still not enough, I will continue to move forward. If that’s still not enough, then I will put in more effort in my progress. Even if means that I have to unleash everything forbidden, sacrifice my body, worship the soul… I will finally devour all of you.”

He said and laughed.

It was an empty laugh.

It was a sad laugh.

The Goddess said with an expression as if she were about to cry, “But there is only destruction at the end.”

Lucile laughed harder, “So what? So what? We have already decided. Sion and I… we have decided to step on this path. We will walk on this path without borrowing anyone’s strength. It’s just like what you said, Goddess of Reincarnation . The script is written by us. I… no, Sion Astal, the new hero who devoured the fragment of Asruld Roland will create it.”

Hearing this, the expression of the Goddess changed. She widened her adorable eyes, “…What…Asruld… you have devoured him? What are you saying? How can, how can, a mere human, cannot possibly…”

Lucile laughed and continued, “It’s impossible, it’s impossible. Yes, anyone would think so. But is that right? Is that true? In fact you can feel it, can’t you? You can feel the faint presence of the Hero ’s consciousness; the power that the Hero is releasing is so weak. Why would such a strong magical presence be so quiet?”

She stared at them with a wavering expression, “Isn’t, isn’t he asleep…”

Lucile laughed.

“He’s awake. He has always been awake for the past hundred years. He has caused every generation of the royal family to become mad… but now he doesn’t have that power. He does not have that power to cause Sion to go mad. Why do you think this is happening? Why would the Hero who has the power to destroy the world let people think that he is still sleeping?”

This question,

“…”

The Goddess was unable to respond.

She was unable to respond to this question.

“Sion is devouring him. Sion is devouring Asruld Roland’s power.”

“How can that…”

“Ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha, unbelievable? Isn’t it unbelievable? But this is the truth. And everything has started. Everything has started, the script, the story. Everything has started changing beyond your expectations.

Hearing this, the Goddess looked at them again and asked, “What…what has happened here? Asruld.”

Sion replied, “I am not Asruld Roland. I am Sion Astal.” Her expression became sad, it wasn’t the pitying expression she had earlier, but it was one of genuine sadness and depression.

“Is…is that so. You are really devouring Asruld.”

“Yes.”

“But whose power are you relying on? Just you… Just by you who are a human, it is impossible overwhelm Asruld. Whose power did you use to do this?”

Sion replied, “No. We did not use anyone’s power. It was Lucile who killed the people who were possessed by Asruld. He continued to kill, kill, kill, until he came to me.”

Lucile replied, “Yes. I chose the strongest person who could devour the Hero . Sion is that person. That’s all. But because of this, everything will change. The destiny of the world, our destiny, and your destiny will change. Now, which side will you stand on? There’s no need for Ryner Lute to become the Lonely Demon . Sion, and I, will write the new script. Do you still want to join after that?”

The Goddess was silent for a moment, as if thinking about something, the sad expression still on her face.

But she quickly smiled that beautiful smile again, “Mere humans can actually struggle to this stage. Alright, I will stand on your side. I will look at the empty future that you will create.

But, but even if it is like that, I will make this prediction.”

She reached out her hand, as if summoning, as if wanting to pull Sion over. She reached towards him and said, “What will wait for you at the end is despair. What you wish for will never occur… You will beg me, you will say that you want to embrace me, crying…”

“I won’t.”

“You will. But, that’s fine. Now I will look at the future that you will be creating. I will help you for the sake of the future that you will create. The empty future that you desire—no devouring Ryner’s life, no hugging my soul, no harming anyone—except for yourself, you will walk down that lonely, sad and foolish path so that no one else will be harmed. You can temporarily believe in it.”

A smile appeared on her mesmerizing face.

A smile appeared on her attractive face.

It was so charismatic.

Sion felt that she was very charismatic.

He didn’t know whether if that was the Mad Hero’s feelings or his own feelings.

But he just felt like that.

“…”

This Goddess .

Milk Callaud was so beautiful.

Then the Goddess said, “Good bye.”

She disappeared. She vanished, leaving behind the dark corridor and the hole in the roof.

Leaving behind Lucile and Sion. Sion looked at Lucile. He looked at the beautiful man that was facing him.

He laughed and said, “Really, don’t lose in a place like this.”

Lucile turned his head to look at him and said, “…My apologies.”

That emotionless voice. It was an emotionless voice that was very alike to Ferris.

But in truth, that voice masked some feelings.

In that emotionless voice, there was anger, reluctance and despair.

Sion stared at this sad ‘ Human ’ who had given up on being a human and said, “Eh, forget it. You always put up with my weakness. You’re forgiven this time.”

Hearing this, Lucile looked at Sion in surprise.

“Ha, ha ha. What was that, two weak people licking their wounds for one another?”

Sion shrugged. “Yes. There’s only the two of us now. We have to reassure each other.”

“…”

“Because we are truly weak, so we have no choice. But next time it will be different, next time will be more…”

Lucile stopped Sion, “I know. Next time, I will do better. I won’t let you see something like what happened today.”

He said.

Sion looked at Lucile.

For the sake of not involving his little sister in the darkness.

For the sake of not involving his family in this despair.

For the sake of rescuing this country, this world from the hands of an irrational monster and giving up his humanity—

This was the half of the over-friendly— so friendly that it made one sad—the Lonely Demon.

Looking at Lucile, Sion said, “…Yeah, no problem. I trust you.”

Lucile did not reply but smiled sadly.

“…”

He disappeared.

Then the world started to collapse.

The person who maintained this world had disappeared. His surroundings started to collapse.

Sion watched this by himself.

As the fallen mad hero eroded him.

He devoured the hero at the same time.

Sion watched the world collapse.

“…”

He closed his eyes.

Then the darkness became like the images surrounding him. In that moment, he felt like never waking up from the darkness.

Even if he opened his eyes, he would be facing another boring day.

Even if he opened his eyes, he would be facing a boring life.

But even so he could not continue to close his eyes.

He could not continue to close his eyes.

Because Man had to progress.

He could not stay in the same place.

So he opened his eyes.

Ryner and Ferris were no longer by his side. He himself would not become the human he once was.

Even so, he opened his eyes so that he could continue.

“…”

Then the images reverted to the original world.

The hall in the palace.

In this hall, there were two other people apart from him.

Luke and the still unconscious Milk Callaud.

Sion looked at Milk. He looked at her adorable sleeping face and turned his attention to the man who was hugging her.

That man, Luke looked in his direction and spoke. He was still smiling and gentle. “…It was a success. You have passed, Sion.”

Sion creased his brows at this, “...Passed?” he asked.

Luke nodded. “Yes. You’ve passed.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? Of course I’m talking about the experiment. After that, the second experiment was carried out. Then the result was that you passed.”

“What are you saying…”

But Luke smiled, his eyes piercingly sharp, “…Shouldn't you know best about this kind of matter? You resisted the temptation. Until the end, you still didn’t do anything to my captain.” Luke said, as if he had witnessed the meeting of Sion and the Goddess of Reincarnation .

Sion frowned. “…What…”

But Luke interrupted Sion, as if seeing through his thoughts.

“… Ah, let me explain first, I didn’t see where you were or what you encountered. I didn’t see anything at all. Because I’m different from the three of you, I’m only a normal ordinary human… but what happened. I know what happened. So I said you—Sion passed. You didn’t do anything to our captain and continued to move forward. But if you did something to Captain Milk, then you would have met your end.”

Towards this, “…My end?” Sion asked in surprise.

Luke nodded. “Yes. It would have ended. Because a curse like this was applied.”

Sion finally understood.

He finally understood what Luke had been doing.

That man had said curse. He had said so that the curse would be used.

But what curse was that? What was that curse that was able to kill that monster—the Hero?

“…”

Something like that did not exist.

Something like that could not be used by mere humans.

But this man had said it.

Luke had said it.

“Because a curse like this was applied.”

So Sion finally understood.

Why this man would understand what had been happening.

Why this man was so confident in coming to meet with Sion and Lucile.

So Sion glared at Luke.

“… I see, so the one who has been controlling you is Lieral? Is Lieral Lieutolu controlling you?” He asked.

Lieral Lieutolu.

The man who had been a baron in the Roland Empire.

The man who had led the magical scholars of this country.

He was the man who had created the fundamentals of KUURI. He was the man who had created the fundamentals of RAGURU. He was the man who had constructed the majority of the magical spells used in this country.

Ever since he had became the leader of the researchers of magic, the magical structures of this country had developed rapidly.

He was a genius. He was a genius that other magic scholars could not understand.

Because he was an exceptional genius, he gained too much knowledge—in the end, he did the forbidden.

He had contacted something outside of this world.

The other side of the logical human world.

The Hero .

The Goddesses .

The Other World where the mad divinities resided in.

“…”

He had gone mad too.

He had desperately tried to save something that could not be saved.

He had desperately tried to save someone who could not be saved.

He had made his son, Felna, into the Demon (Ryner) so that his son could be saved. Because his son had the Alpha Stigma.

The contract had been signed.

That insane contract had immediately been signed.

Felna would not go mad and die of his Alpha Stigma. He would not suffer from the poison of the Alpha Stigma.

Because he had became the genuine article.

He had became the genuine despair.

Felna had became the Demon .

But even though he could escape from the violent death and curse of the Alpha Stigma, what awaited him was even more despair.

The Demon could become the prey of the Hero .

The Lonely Demon would become the prey of the Hero sooner or later.

Once he became the prey, he would fall into that prison forever. That prison where all the prey of the Hero went to.

But Lieral would not allow something like that to happen.

He would not allow something like that to happen.

So he had gone even more crazy.

He had done something forbidden again. He had sacrificed his wife to save his son and he was hunted down by the country. His son, Felna had disappeared.

Even the signs of him being in this country had been erased.

“…”

That was all Sion knew about him.

For the sake of saving his son, he was the man who had sacrificed the world and his wife.

“…”

Sion looked at Luke.

He looked at the man who was the subordinate of that crazy man and said, “… Are you being manipulated by that Roland spirit?”

But Luke shook his head. “No no, I’m not controlled by anyone. With him… I only made a deal with Baron Lieutolu.”

“Deal?”

“Yes.”

“Huh. That what did you offer? What have you given that man for the price of information?”

“Nothing much. I didn’t give him anything important. Firstly, I helped Baron Lieutolu to escape so that he would not be caught by Sion, and the location of Ryner so that he could catch up to Ryner… Only this. Are there any problems with that?”

“…”

Sion was unable to reply to this.

Luke continued, unheeding, “Well, there can’t be any problems. You want to save Ryner. And Baron Lieutolu wants to save his son. Both of your interests are the same, so there aren’t any problems… If there’s anything wrong with what I did, please tell me.”

Towards his question, Sion glared at Luke and said, “…No, there isn’t.”

There was nothing wrong. Luke’s words were reasonable. He was very clear and there was nothing to complain about. So there couldn’t be anything wrong.

There were no problems.

But even so, looking at that man’s smile—looking at that innocent, but unfathomable smile, he felt an unease in his heart.

It was as if he had been lied to. It was a colourless, formless, invisible trick that made him suspicious.

Luke continued to smile. He smiled innocently but his expression was undecipherable.

Then.

“That’s good. Since Sion has accepted this, let’s continue.”

Sion frowned, troubled by this. “What’s there to talk about?”

He laughed again. “Of course. Anyway, it should be you we’re talking about now, right? Sion. You have been carrying this alone and hiding it from us. What we’re going to talk about…”

Luke gently set Milk down on the floor again and stood up. Looking towards Sion, he said, “… From now on, I will be explaining my secrets to you, the first king that I have approved of. The secret I have been carrying. The secret I have been holding.”

Sion looked at Luke, annoyed. He looked at Luke with an expression of resignation. There was no need for any more secrets.

“…After all you’ve said, what secrets are there? It sounds a little scary.”

“Right? But please listen.”

“If I don’t want to?”

“You don’t want? Hmm. Well, it’s okay if you don’t listen, but you’ll regret it later.”

Sion sighed tiredly. “…You are a truly troublesome person.”

“Is it like that?”

“Yeah.”

“But I’m useful, right?”

“It’s troublesome if you’re too useful.”

“There we go, there we go~ You should be elated that you have a useful subordinate like me.”

Sion looked at him through half-lidded eyes.

He looked at this smiling man who was too useful, who could be friend or foe.

Then he sighed again.

This man would continue to talk about this secret. So he breathed in deeply. Then Sion said. “… Then? What is that secret of yours?”

Finally, Luke stopped smiling. He wiped away that innocent smile and narrowed his sharp eyes.

Then.

“…Though it's not so much a secret… it’s about a monster that you and the Goddesses do not know about. It is about the person who is controlling this script from the backstage. It is about the monster who truly controls the Hero and the Goddesses .”

Luke said.

He said that it was about the real person who was controlling the script from the backstage.

He said the monster who was controlling everything.

Sion looked at him in surprise. “…What are you saying…”

Luke interrupted Sion. Then he said, “They call themselves ‘ Priests ’.”

“‘ Priests ’? What are they?” Sion asked. Luke shrugged.

“Who knows? It's probably a world that we are unable to understand, an existence that we are unable to understand, like the Hero and the Goddesses … But there are some issues that can be understood. There are some matters that I can understand. Like, what you’ve started to discover? Why can a mere human, Baron Lieutolu, wield the power to curse you—the Hero ? How does he know how to summon the Goddess ?”

Sion nodded his head at this.

“I see. So those ‘ Priests ’ are the ones controlling Lieral.”

But Luke shook his head.

“Not only Baron Lieutolu. They were the ones to give the Rhule Fragmei to the Gastark Empire. Then, giving you the protector… Lucile Eris, allowing the Goddesses to have astounding powers were caused by them.”

Suddenly, in response to what Luke had said, a man suddenly appeared in front of Sion. A beautiful blond man appeared.

Then Lucile Eris said, “…What you said just now, what does it mean?”

Luke laughed when he saw Lucile who had suddenly appeared. “Ah, I finally meet with you… the foolish Sword who thought he had signed a contract with a thousand demons by his own power—Lucile Eris-san~”

He laughed when he said that. Luke laughed, as if he were mocking everything about Lucile.

“…”

Nothing was said.

Lucile just looked at Luke.

Sion also stared at Luke.

They watched this man who was always laughing and unpredictable.

“…”

Then Luke replied. When he had ensured that everyone’s attention was fixed on him, he said, “…Then. All the actors have arrived… let us start talking. How we will escape from the monster that is controlling the Hero and the Goddesses . The plan to escape from those creatures’ plans. Let us talk about this—King Sion Astal.”

Luke said this after he laughed mockingly. And then he knelt on the ground.

### 004. Chapter 3: Beginning α

His memory was not complete.

Although he had finally found the answer to what he had always been seeking, but he had been unable to recall everything.

“…”

But this was enough.

That missing memory.

It was good enough that the empty hole in his chest that had always been torturing him was filled.

“…”

Ryner could remember it now.

That missing memory.

He could remember that what had filled that empty space in his memory- those memories that had been shackled with the chains of forgetfulness.

They were the memories of him before his fifth birthday.

They were memories that existed long before he opened his eyes in that battlefield filled with corpses.

In his memory, his black-haired and gentle mother had said this.

“… love you, Felna. I love you.”

In his memory, his father with tired eyes that were filled with intelligence said.

“I will always protect you. No matter what happens, I will always protect you.”

They had seemed like they were about to cry. Ryner was unable to understand why they seemed like they were about to cry. And the two of them had called him Felna.

Felna.

After the second and third time they called him by that name, he finally recalled the meaning of that name.

Felna Lieutolu.

That was his, Ryner’s real name. But that had disappeared. It had vanished from this world. Because it was taken as a ‘sacrifice’.

His name, memories, personality- everything had been offered to the monster living in the other world.

Towards this, Ryner had said,

“I’m scared.”

He had said.

“I’m scared to forget about Daddy and Mommy.”

So his mother had almost seemed like she wanted to cry. Her expression was an extremely lonely one.

But, as if she waved away that sadness, a smile appeared on her face and she stroked Ryner’s head.

“It’s alright. It’s alright, Felna. This is all for you…”

“But”

Father interrupted what Ryner wanted to say.

“… Don’t worry. Even if you forget us, we won’t forget. We will definitely rescue you and welcome you. One day, when all difficulties have been dealt with, we will come to get you. So don’t worry.”

He had said that.

Ryner had relaxed. Because Father was a person who would definitely not lie to him, so Ryner felt relieved at his words.

But he was still a little uneasy, he asked, “…Definitely?”

His father had smiled gently and nodded.

“Definitely. Sleep quickly. Everything will end when you awake.”

As he said this, Father stroked Ryner’s head too.

Father’s hand was very warm and Mother’s hand was very smooth. They overlaid their hands on Ryner’s head and held on to each other tightly. Ryner felt very happy and comforted by this. He felt as if he could finally be at ease and slowly dozed off.

Then Father said.

“… It will be fine, Felna. This way, you won’t have to fear the curse of the Alpha Stigma anymore.”

Mother continued.

“… I will always, always protect you here. No matter what disaster you encounter, I will always protect you.”

The two of them started crying when they said this.

At that time, he was unable to understand why they were crying.

But now he understood.

He could understand what the two of them wanted to do at that time.

And the contract with the Other World.

His mother’s sacrifice so that the Goddesses would be tricked.

His father’s despair at sacrificing his wife so that his son could be saved.

“…”

But that didn’t matter now.

Compared to this.

Compared to this, what was more important to him was—

That.

“…I…”

He whispered.

“…I… A monster like me was loved when I was brought into this world.”

He whispered.

In that moment.

He woke up.

“…”

Ryner opened his eyes. But his vision was blurry.

“…Ah.”

He moaned.

Then he noticed that he was actually crying. He wanted to wipe the tears away, but he continued to weep ceaselessly.

Towards this.

“…Ah, eh, um—”

After two or three tries, he finally managed to wipe away his tears.

He confirmed that he was not crying and then lightly breathed in. Then he got up and surveyed his surroundings.

Looking at his surroundings, Ryner softly said,

“…Rain, huh.”

Then he kneeled on the floor of the carriage and tried to reach out of the shelter. It seemed as if the rain was as heavy as expected.

Then,

“Aish.”

Ryner followed the sound and walked out.

It was extremely dark outside. Maybe it was because of the dark clouds or because it was evening.

Ryner looked at the dark, rainy scene.

There were Nelpha soldiers and citizens surrounding him. And it seemed as if they were still moving.

Everyone looked tired and they were still travelling under these weather conditions, it meant that they couldn’t throw off Roland’s pursuit.

Ryner walked to an elderly person nearby,

“Hey, hey, can I ask something?”

The elderly person looked his way, then asked,

“What is it?”

Ryner nodded,

“No, about that… I was injured and I slept for a while, so I don’t have any idea of what time it is now… What time is it? Night? Morning?”

“It’s morning.”

“Morning, huh. Hey hey, it can’t be we travelled through the night.”

But the elderly person shook his head.

“How can that be? We just started moving. We don’t have to worry about the pursuit soldiers from Roland if we’ve reached here.”

Hearing this, Ryner frowned, “…Heh, the situation has changed drastically since I slept. Don’t have to worry about the pursuit soldiers from Roland? Does that mean we’ve crossed the boundaries?”

The elderly person nodded, “Crossed two, it seems.”

“Two!? Wait, ha? Then, this isn’t Cassla.”

The elderly person shook his head. “How long did you sleep for? This is the northern side of Cassla, the Southern Country of Ali. Ma, we can cross over today. Vois Fiurelle-san is at a country called the Republic of Belis, making preparations to welcome us.”

Hearing what the old man said, Ryner slowly remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness.

Yes.

Roland. Sion had foolishly used a Heroes’ Relic to start a massacre, but he was stopped by Vois.

Then, a monster had appeared from under Vois’s feet…

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes when he thought of this.

He remembered the monster that had appeared under Vois’s feet.

That thing had called itself ‘Goddess’.

Ryner knew that Goddes. That was the name of the monster from the Other World that had made the contract with his father, Lieral.

Of course, his father had not told Ryner who was still a child about the detailed process—he had said, ‘Anyway you’ll forget everything quickly’, so even though he did not get a detailed explanation, but he had still remembered this point.

The second opponent his father had contracted with—that was the Goddess.

After remembering that, Ryner murmured,

“… Talking about which, who was the first person that father made a contract with?”

He suddenly thought of that.

His father had not spoken of that.

He had only said, in order to rescue Ryner, he had made two contracts with monsters. Then who was the first person he had made a contract with?

Ryner wanted to remember this. He wanted to remember from his recently recovered memories, but he still could not remember it.

So he frowned,

“… Ah~, well, it’s only regaining memories, it can’t be that easy to understand everything, huh.” He said softly.

Talking of which, he did not understand how he had suddenly regained those forgotten memories.

Before losing consciousness, from the conversation between the Goddess and that monster, α, that wanted to emerge from Ryner’s eyes, it seemed as if Ryner had a connection with them, so he had done something like that to himself.

“…Talking about which, this is too sudden, so I can’t completely understand what is going on.” He said in frustration.

The old man nodded his head.

“Exactly. Not too long ago, we were still living peacefully under King Gread Nelphi’s reign. That group of arrogant people from Roland… Roland’s…” But the old man stopped here. He stopped, as if trying to hold back his emotions from overwhelming him and his voice trembled.

Then.

Then the old man tightly held the hand of a girl who had one side of her face bandaged. She was probably his granddaughter.

Seeing this, Ryner asked, “…Your granddaughter?”

The old man shook his head.

“No. My family has been killed because of that beam of light.”

Ryner’s contorted slightly at this. But he suppressed it. Because the ones who felt the real pain was this old man and everyone else. So he continued.

“… Is that so. Then this kid?”

“This child’s family has, has died too.”

“…”

Towards this.

Towards this, Ryner could only say,

“… Is that so.”

Besides the pity for that old man and girl, a feeling of unease arose in his heart.

Because that light.

Because that Heroes’ Relic—because that beam of light, a light that caused the cruel massacre, was something not to be used by humans.

Because Kiefer, Toale, Arua, Kuku- couldn’t they have died too.

“…”

An unease permeated him.

If they still survived, then that would be good. Even though this old man’s family had died and this girl’s family had died, he still wished that his companions had survived—he started to think about the most disappointing matters.

“…”

His body started to tremble.

He looked around for his companions’ silhouettes. He checked whether his companions had survived. But he couldn’t find them.

There were only tired soldiers and citizens moving here.

Ryner asked, “…Hey, Ojii-san.”

“Eh?”

“The leader of this group… Who is the person in charge of these people from Nelpha? Is it Toale?”

Hearing this, the man’s face contorted. Like earlier, his face was filled with anger.

Seeing this, Ryner said, “… It can’t be.”

He couldn’t stop himself. “It can’t be, this kind of situation… You’re lying.”

He looked around again. He looked at who was at the front of the people from Nelpha. He ran towards the soldier who was leading the group. He caught up quickly.

Facing the soldier, he asked, “Hey, you. Who is the man in charge of this group?”

The soldiers turned towards him. Upon seeing Ryner, their faces brightened.

“Ah, you-you are Ryner-san who chased away the Roland soldiers!! We have heard of what you did…”

Ryner interrupted them and continued. “Enough with the nonsense, tell me. Who is the leader of this group?” He shouted. The soldiers were rather frantic.

“… It’s Major Cyrus.” They replied.

Major Cazer Cyrus. He was capable Imperial Nelpha army officer was following Toale. But why would Cyrus be in charge of the army? The leader here should be Toale. So why was it Cyrus and not Toale who was leading them?

Then Ryner thought of something. It couldn’t be.

It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

Toale, he.

“…”

Toale couldn’t have died, could he?

Thinking of this, Ryner almost collapsed to the ground. How could this-how could this be.

Something like this could never happen.

Because.

Because, because Kiefer was with Toale? Arua and his girlfriend, Kuku were with them too?

What if.

If Toale died.

Because if the light that the Heroes’ Relic held by Roland killed my companions, I.

Then I can no longer.

“…”

Forgive Sion.

That would mean I cannot forgive that guy. Ryner thought.

The terror and despair swamped Ryner and he felt like crying.

Then he asked the soldier that seemed a little timid in facing Ryner who was overly nervous, “…Then where is Cyrus?”

The soldier pointed up further ahead.

“Major Cyrus is at the front because we are going to cross the boundary…”

Ryner didn’t wait for him to finish. He had started running. He passed the group of soldiers and citizens.

There was some distance to the front of the group.

Although the killing light from Roland had killed a large number of people, there were still two thousand people. There were people, people, people. He had been running for some time, but he still couldn’t see the front.

Even so, he continued running. He ran desperately. All the while, he yelled, please give way and excuse me, as he continued running.

Finally, he saw the group that seemed to be leading the refuges.

The black armored soldiers that were commanded by Vois were in the head of the army and a group of men wearing the Nelpha army uniform seemed to be on the guard to protect the Nelpha citizens.

At the head of these Nelpha soldiers was Major Cyrus.

The first time he had saw him, those sharp eyes were slightly tired. He did not look well and his tea-coloured hair was streaked with dirt and mud.

Seeing him now, Ryner couldn’t help but think that he had missed several fights while he was asleep. He felt even more depressed.

If there had been a fight, then the chances of his comrades being injured were increased.

“…Damn it.” Ryner moaned and started running again. He passed by the Nelpha soldiers and approached Cyrus.

Cyrus quickly noticed him, “… Ah, you’ve finally woken, huh. You were injured badly…”

He looked to Ryner’s left shoulder as he said that, “…Hmm. Even that kind of wound can be healed… The army doctor said there was no choice but to amputate it. I see. That annoying brat wasn’t lying about everything.”

Hearing this, Ryner remembered. His arm had been slashed by the Roland soldiers and had injured his bone too.

Ryner had felt that, apart from amputation, there was nothing else to be done for that wound. In that kind of place where there were no medical facilities, there was no way for him to heal it. The blood would not stop unless it was amputated and cauterized.

But now his shoulder was only slightly bandaged and it didn’t hurt when he moved it.

Ryner tried moving his left arm then looked at Cyrus. “… Is that annoying brat Vois?” he asked. Cyrus turned to the black armored group that was walking in front of the soldiers and citizens, and nodded.

“Yeah. He brought you who was near death and Ferris Eris here. He said he was the reinforcement that you called… Well, is that true?”

Saying this, he looked at the Nelpha soldiers formation. That formation was so that he could attack the rear of Vois’s black-armored soldiers and then spread out.

Looking at Ryner thinking, Cyrus nodded.

“…If anyone trusts him on the battlefield, then they don’t have the right to live.”

“Yes. You’re really capable… I can slightly understand why everyone trusts you.”

But Cyrus ignored Ryner and said. “Don’t talk nonsense. Answer my question. Is that guy really your companion?”

Hearing this, Ryner looked at the black-armored group walking in front of them. In front of them was a simple and roofless carriage that seemed like a palanquin where Vois was sleeping on.

“… Who knows. It’s not inaccurate to say that we know each other… but he can’t be easily trusted. That guy is a liar. But.”

Hearing this, Cyrus nodded in agreement. “…Yeah. Under these kind of circumstances, we can only depend on him. I am already unable to return to Nelpha. There is no country that is willing to accept a few thousand soldiers and citizens. If that man is really able to prepare accommodations for everyone, then we can only depend on him.” He said.

Ryner nodded his head.

“Has Vois prepared for us to be welcomed in the Republic of Belis?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, he wants us to join the Anti-Roland Coalition he created?”

“Yeah.”

Watching Cyrus reply, Ryner asked with a trembling voice, “Then, Cyrus… Who was it who accepted Vois’s proposal?”

No, actually he asked with a voice trembling with fear.

Then he held his breath. He held his breath because he was too nervous.

Because what if.

What if the one who accepted Vois’s proposal wasn’t Toale. What if it wasn’t Toale who was supposed to be leading these Nelpha citizens and soldiers.

“…”

That would mean that Toale had really died. If Toale had died, then Kiefer was dead too. Kuku was dead too. And he didn’t know why Ferris who was supposed to be with him was missing. From the dirt on Cyrus’s body, it seemed as if two or three fights had occurred.

At that moment.

At that moment, the possibility of Ferris dying because she was unable to treat her wounds—

“…Wu.”

Towards his own imagination.

Ryner wanted to vomit at his own imagination. He wanted to yell out loud. He wanted to cry.

But he frantically forced himself to calm down. Even though he forced himself to calm down, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t breathe. Just like that. If Cyrus didn’t answer, Ryner would die because of lack of air, he thought. At this moment,

“…Toale-sama said… if it’s someone you know, then we can trust him.” Cyrus said.

As he said that, “……Puaaah.”

Ryner released his breath. Then he scrunched his face but he couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“…”

What, he was still living, what kind of joke was that, don’t make everyone worry. He wanted to laugh. But he forced himself to stop.

He was a terrible person for being able to laugh because his comrades were still alive.

But even so.

Even so.

“…That’s great.” Ryner said. He said that’s great with a little sob.

Then, “…Where’s Toale now?” He asked.

Cyrus pointed behind him to a large carriage that had was covered to prevent others from looking in.

“In that carriage.” He replied.

“But I have something to tell you first.” He said.

Ryner asked, “What?”

Cyrus looked to the carriage with a steady expression that a twenty-year old person should not have.

“…Toale-sama’s body has been harmed by that strange beam from Roland. Half his body has been injured. With such a big wound, he can’t be saved.” He said.

Ryner had difficulties understanding what Cyrus had said, “…Ah?” He could only reply.

But Cyrus continued, “But the people haven’t been told this yet. Before we reach the Republic of Belis, we will tell the people that Toale-sama is in charge of everything—this mental relief is needed. The current situation is not very steady. If there are more rumors of Toale-sama dying in battle, then the people will be unable to progress. So after you see Toale-sama, don’t go around crying. You have already revealed too much from your earlier expressions. Do you think you’re the only one who wants to cry? Don’t be naïve. I have already succeeded in leaving Nelpha and stepped on this journey—there are no obstacles on the path we are taking. So, laugh. Laugh when you go to see Toale-sama. Don’t spread that meaningless unease among the people who have lost their family and companions, but still continue to strive.” Cyrus said this in a calm, steady manner.

Towards this.

Towards this, Ryner.

“……Ah… Ah, yes. I apologize.” He replied quietly.

He understood what Cyrus had said. He had completely understood. There were children among the citizens. There were some children who had seen their family disappear right in front of them. Everyone was struggling against their pain and continuing.

He couldn’t be so naïve.

So.

“…….Ha, ha ha.” Ryner laughed quietly. He laughed with an expression that was about to cry.

Cyrus nodded when he saw this, “…Toale-sama is in that carriage, thinking of a battle strategy. You can go greet him.”

He said this with a different, resounding voice that even the surrounding people could hear it.

So Ryner replied, “I understand.” Then he walked away. He walked towards the carriage- the carriage that was transporting Toale.

He opened the cloth door of the carriage and looked in. Toale, Kiefer, Arua, Kuku and even Ferris were in there.

Everyone looked to him. Looked at Ryner.

Then.

Kiefer said with tears in her eyes, “…Ry-Ryner…”

She held a strange stone in her hand. She frantically pressed that stone to Toale’s shoulder.

No, it was the part of his body that used to have a shoulder.

“…”

Yes.

His right shoulder was gone. No, it wasn’t only his shoulder. The right side of his chest, his right wrist and his right leg, too. The right side of his body, one third of his body, had disappeared, as if it had never existed in the first place.

Kiefer spoke to him with a trembling, hoarse and nearly inaudible voice, “…To-Toale he… Toale he tried to protect me from that beam of light…”

But she didn’t continue.

But this was already enough for him to understand.

So Ryner said, “……Yo.”

“… You seem to be rather energetic, Toale.”

Toale seemed to be conscious and heard this. He turned to Ryner, “…That joke is not funny.”

Although he said that, he still laughed.

Ryner climbed onto the carriage and got near to Toale. Ferris stood up, “Come here, Ryner.” She said as she offered her seat.

Ryner nodded his head, “Thanks.”

He sat on the left side of Toale and looked at his pale face, “…Protecting…Kiefer, huh?”

Hearing this, Toale laughed and said, “…Protecting girls is expected, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“So tell Kiefer-san too. Tell her not to cry. At any rate, I would have died on the battlefield, after all…”

But Kiefer still frantically pressed the glowing stone on Toale’s body. “But, but.” She could only say that. Because her voice was choked with tears and sobs.

Ryner looked at the stone she was holding, “… That’s Vois’s?” he asked. Ferris nodded.

“…He said it is a healing stone. It’s a Heroes’ Relic. He said—although it has its limits, but it can heal fatal wounds.”

Hearing this, Ryner looked at the stone again. Then he looked at the wound that the stone was pressing on. Surprisingly the blood had already stopped. The wound was starting to heal. The flesh was starting to regenerate and his body was healing.

But.

“…”

Even so, Toale’s life was slipping away.

Probably.

Probably because Toale’s wound was fatal.

Toale said, “…It’s because of this stone that I was able to stay alive until Ryner-san woke up.” He said with that tired and pained voice.

Hearing this, Ryner started, “…What are you saying.”

But he was interrupted, “I’m about to die. Personal matters… I know them the best.”

“It’s like that, huh.”

“Yes.”

“Is it painful?”

But he shook his head. “… Compared to the children who have lost their parents but have no one coming to save them… no righteo… no righteous companions to come and help them, who can only move forward while crying, this pain is nothing at all.”

He had a sad face while he said this and looked out of the carriage. Of course, so that no one would be able to look in from outside—no one would be able to see Toale’s dying image, so there were curtains on the window but this wasn’t what he was seeing. He was looking at the suffering in the people’s hearts outside the carriage.

Towards this, Ryner,

“… Yeah. That’s right.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

He said. Then he looked at Toale. He looked at those eyes that were slowly losing their life.

Then.

“… Then?” Ryner asked.

Toale looked towards him and smiled, “… I was waiting for you to wake up.”

Hearing this, Ryner scrunched his face up in annoyance, “Ah~, that face says that you want to push something troublesome onto me again~”

“Ha ha, you gu-guessed right.”

“I don't wanna? Whatever it is that you want me to do for you, I don't wanna do it? You can continue to live yourself and go do it yourself. I can’t bear the burden of so many people’s lives.”

But,

“Please, Ryner-san. There's no longer anyone but you that I can count o…” Toale stopped when he reached here.

Suddenly.

His words stopped suddenly.

That something important was quickly fading away from within his body and disappearing, Ryner knew.

“Wait, hey.” Although Ryner said that, Toale was already simply smiling instead,

“…W…Well, forget it. Either way, Ry…ner-san, will definitely do it…. Ah, at last… I can see you all…”

He said only that much.

Then he stopped.

Everything ended.

It all ended.

One person’s life had ended so easily.

Toale’s life had surprisingly ended so easily.

Towards this.

“No… Wait, you’re lying… No, nooooooooo!” Kiefer yelled.

Arua and Kuku cried.

Ferris didn’t look towards them. She looked into the distance emotionlessly. She looked into the distance despite the fact that there was a piece of cloth blocking her view to the outside view.

And Ryner.

“…”

He held Toale’s hand. He held Toale’s remaining hand, his left hand that had not disappeared.

Then, “…Here it is again… He pushed an extremely troublesome job onto me again. I’m not doing it. I don’t want to bear the burden of people’s lives. Do that kind of troublesome matter on your own.” He said that softly and tightly held Toale’s hand.

He could feel his face contorting. He could feel the tears almost flowing out. But he desperately forced them back. He tolerated the pain so that his tears would not flow out. Because like what Toale had said. There were people who were more unlucky than him. The people outside this carriage who were carrying a greater pain and even more people who were grieving because of this foolish war.

So.

So he held back his tears, “…Ah, damn it… Aaaaaaaah, damn it! I know. I’ll do it, okay. I’ll do it. I’ll bear the burden of these people’s lives. Yours too. Everyone’s. So…so.” Ryner looked at Toale’s face as he said this. He looked at the still smiling face of Toale, who was dead.

He closed his eyes. He helped Toale to close his warm, gentle eyes.

Then.

“…So. I will do this… So sleep peacefully, you simpleton.” He said and stood up.

Ferris looked at him and said something that did not suit her, “…Are you alright? Ryner.”

So Ryner asked in return, “You?”

Towards this, she was still emotionless, “No.”

Ryner nodded. “I see.”

“Yeah.”

“I understand. Then, let’s exchange. When I slept, everyone worked hard. Leave the rest to me and stay here for the moment. I…” He opened the flap to the carriage as he said this, “I’ll go see Vois.”

He walked out.

Then he passed by the Nelpha citizens and soldiers and the soldiers that Vois commanded.

He moved towards the front of the procession.

“…”

At the front, Vois stood, as if waiting for Ryner to arrive.

He looked at the carriage where Toale had passed away in, smling.

Looking at Vois’s face.

“…What’s there to be happy about?” Ryner used a slightly harsh tone to ask.

Vois shrugged, “Ya~, what a touching speech. Carry the burden of these people’s lives—what a touching phrase.” He said rather insincerely.

So Ryner glared at Vois, “…You bastard, are you mocking me?”

So.

“Yes.” Vois nodded. Then he smiled, “Yes. Talking about that, even if someone useless like Toale Nelphi died, it won’t affect our situation much. If you panic over such petty things, then you’re are really pitifully stupid…”

Ryner ran towards Vois when he heard this, his fist curled and raised, swinging to Vois’s face.

Vois still used that smiling, mocking face to look at Ryner’s actions.

Just as the fist was about to hit him.

“…Anyway, Toale-san is not dead yet.” Vois suddenly said.

Towards this, Ryner released a dazed sound, “…Heh?” Then he frantically stopped his punch. He managed to stop his fist from hitting Vois’s face. But Vois turned his face so that his fist made contact with Vois’s face.

“Yaaaaa~n” He pretended to be thrown to the side by the punch and landed on the ground. He pretended to land on the ground with a ‘umph’. Then he pressed his uninjured face and said, “You-you-you hit a kid who did nothing wrooong~!? You owe me, so please return this favour in the future…”

But Ryner interrupted him, “Hey, don’t bother about that. Compared to that, what did you say just now? To-Toale he… he didn’t die…”

Hearing this, Vois nodded his head. “He didn’t die, you know?”

Ryner gaped in surprise, “Ai, ai, but I witnessed it? Toale’s death… His pulse… his breathing…”

“Stopped?”

“Yeah.”

Then Vois said, “I was the one who stopped his heart and breathing. Then if I want him to move, it’d be simple. Anyway, to Derunio ‘Death Transference’—ah, that’s the healing stone that I gave Kiefer-san—if it’s that, that kind of wound is easily healed. Ma, although the price is quite large.”

Towards this, “Th-then… Toale, he—”

“So he might still be living.”

Hearing this, Ryner turned around, thinking to return to the carriage.

At this moment.

“…But if he is to live or die, that depends on my mood.” Vois said.

Hearing this, Ryner stopped and turned around. He glared at Vois. “… Ah? What is that. You did this to force me to help with your plan?” He asked.

But Vois shook his head. “No no. But I feel that even if I don’t take Toale-san as a hostage, you will still help me.”

“Then, why did you do this.” Ryner asked. Vois laughed. He laughed mockingly, as if he were looking down on Ryner.

Then he said. “That’s simple. Because Ryner-san, you—you’re much weaker than what I had expected.” He said.

Ryner was unable to understand the meaning of these words.

Ryner was unable to understand the meaning behind Vois’s words.

Weak.

“…”

Perhaps he was really weak. He had been unable to do anything in front of the Goddess that had came from Vois’s shadows. So, he wasn’t able to become the power that this guy had expected.

But Ryner could not understand what this had to do with Toale.

He couldn’t understand what Vois was thinking about.

Vois said. “…Isn’t it like that? You witnessed Roland killing many Nelpha citizens—but you stopped me from using the Rhule Fragmei to stop the Roland soldiers. What does that count for? What did that accomplish? This is a war, you know? But you still said we couldn’t use such dangerous weapons? Something dangerous like that couldn’t be used by humans? Please stop joking. It was the other party who attacked first. Then we can only counter-attack. The other party wants to kill us. So we can only kill the enemy. You don’t even understand this, yet you want to bear the burden of other people’s lives? Bear the burden of the lives of the citizens? Not using weapons? Ha ha, ha ha ha, really, even if Ryner-san is a person who can only sleep, please leave your daydreaming to when you’re sleeping.” Saying that, he stopped smiling. He wiped away his cheerful smile and looked at Ryner.

“But on the battlefield, you can’t joke about this. Do you want to cause all your comrades to die just because of that naïve thinking?” He said.

Towards this.

“…”

Ryner could not reply.

Because what Vois had said was too true. Because what he had said was too true.

Checking Ryner’s face, Vois continued. A smile appeared again, “This is why I did this. I wanted to let you the experience the terror of losing your companion. This was quite troublesome, you know? I had to think up of quite a few reasons to change the place where you were undergoing healing.”

Hearing this, Ryner finally understood why he wasn’t together with Ferris, Kiefer and Toale when he woke up.

Vois had arranged for him to wake up in a different place so that Ryner would not be able to understand the current situation.

To awake in a battleground.

But be unable to see his companions.

It can’t be-it can’t be that everyone’s dead. He wanted Ryner to be anxious.

At that time. Because he had stopped Vois from counter-attacking, so he had caused many companions to die. Vois wanted to trigger this kind of fear in him.

Everything was planned by Vois. All this was his meddling.

So Ryner tensed, “…You are still very…”

Vois happily interrupted Ryner and said, “Cute?”

“Annoying…”

Hearing what Ryner said, Vois was even more happy, “Then, this situation has four effects.”

“… Didn’t I say, you’re very annoying.”

But the more he said that Vois was annoying, the happier Vois was.

“First, I said this earlier. Let you personally experience your companion’s death. And hope that you will understand that you will continue to cause others to die if you don’t attack the enemy because you are so gentle and weak.”

Saying this, Vois stepped forward and leaned towards him, “Then second. Let you experience, that even if you are prepared to attack the enemy… Even so, the fact that your companions will still die. This time he didn’t die. Actually, this time he didn’t die. But next time, he will die. He will die surprisingly quickly and easily. This is war—and humans are extremely frail.” Vois said this sadly. He was pretending to be sad as he said that. Then he continued, “But you said that you would take the responsibility of the people’s lives. You said you would take the responsibility of the people’s lives. Then even if your companions die, you don’t have the right to stop. Even if Kiefer-san is decapitated. Even if Ferris-san dies, there won’t be time to cry. You don’t have the privilege to cry. This is a test.”

Hearing this.

Ryner imagined Kiefer dying.

Ryner imagined Ferris dying.

He only imagined it.

“…”

Just by imagining it, he felt fear and it seemed as if he were unable to stand.

But, like what Vois had said.

He could only continue.

He had no choice but to continue. His comrades would die. Important and precious people would die. Then the reason for those deaths was—

Because Ryner had chosen this path.

“…”

Because Ryner had chosen this path, so his comrades who followed him would die.

This was expected. Even if he did not think about it, this was an expected and understandable matter. No, he had experienced that not long ago.

Ferris had almost been killed because she was protecting Ryner.

Toale lost half of his body because of that light released by Roland.

No, Kiefer, Arua and Kuku to, they lived because they were lucky. It was miraculous. Everyone could have died in that split second.

Even so.

“…”

Even so, if he still wanted to continue.

He had to be prepared for that.

He had to be prepared for the fact that his comrades would die.

Ryner glared at Vois, feeling hatred.

Seeing this, Vois shrugged, “It’s not my problem if anyone dies.”

“I know. I’m only speechless because I had to be lectured by a brat like you in order to realize my stupidity.”

“…Hmm. Well, anyway, everyone except me is an idiot so you don’t have to mind that.”

“You jest.” Ryner said with a tired smile.

But Vois still continued, “Then.”

“Hey, there’s still more.”

“Didn’t I say there were four effects?”

“Four. Four. Alright, then what are the remaining two?”

Vois nodded and continued. “Through the hoist of having Toale Nelphi die, Toale-san should personally understand the situation. Before he died, he thought the best method of action was to leave the Nelpha soldiers and citizens to Ryner-san… Which means, when he wakes up later, the king here will not be him. But you, Ryner-san—this effect.”

But to this, Ryner said, “Even if you didn’t do something like that, Toale’s relationship with me…”

But Vois interrupted Ryner, “Your relationship with Toale-san can be anything. I meant it so that the Nelpha soldiers can successfully integrate into my army. Well, when Toale-san awakes, he will definitely want to be one of you personnel… He will definitely let the Nelpha soldiers integrate successfully into the Anti-Roland Coalition that Ryner-san and I established.” He said.

He made it seem as if Ryner had helped him to create the Anti-Roland Coalition. Talking about which, what had this guy said, for the sake of allowing Ryner to kill Sion, so he had made Ryner the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition, and had come here.

From birth, Vois Fiurelle had had everything belong to him, but this time, he actually wanted to let Ryner be the king and said that he would be Ryner’s subordinate.

“…”

He tried to figure out Vois’s intentions.

No, he thought about all the lies that this guy had told him.

He thought about the Goddess hidden in his shadow, and the reason for the existence of an organization like the Anti-Roland Coalition.

But he was unable to figure out Vois’s intentions based on the intel he had now.

So.

“… Then what is the fourth one?” Ryner continued.

So Vois said, “The fourth is… after this incident, to hope that you can understand the fact that you have chosen lives.”

“Ah? Chosen lives?” He asked. Vois nodded. He took out a stone that was similar to the stone that Kiefer had pressed to Toale’s body. It was a Heroes’ Relic called Derunio.

“I have four pieces of stones like this. If you want to use this stone, you have to pay a price. The more healing needed to be done, the greater the price. Do you know what the price is?”

Of course, he didn’t know. So Ryner shook his head.

“It’s blood. Human blood. In order to heal Ferris-san’s wounds, I needed all the blood from two people. For yours, I needed all the blood from one person and half the blood of another. And Toale-san needed all the blood from eighteen people…”

Hearing this, Ryner widened his eyes.

“Wa-wait, do-do you mean, in order to heal our wounds, we have to kill other people…”

But Vois laughed, “Do you feel surprised just by hearing that? No no, I didn’t kill anyone. Well, if I needed to kill anyone, killing ten or twenty pawns would be fine. But if I killed more than that, no one would be willing to sacrifice themselves. I let hundreds of soldiers donate some of their blood. This way, no one would need to die.”

Even after hearing this, Ryner was still uneasy. Because this person always told lies.

If there was a need to, this person would kill ten or twenty people without hesitation. So,

“Did you really not kill anyway?” Ryner asked seriously.

Vois shook his head. “If you still feel suspicious, you can go and count, you know?”

“I don’t know how many soldiers you brought.”

“Ah ha. Then you have no way to investigate.”

“You—”

But Vois still smiled. “I’m joking. I really didn’t kill anyone. But even so, you have chosen human lives. Because of the light the Demonic Beast Destroyer, Ellearms, released, many people were killed. But there were survivors. Even though they had serious injuries, but there were people who survived. If there was Derunio… if there was this stone, then they could continue to live. But there are only four pieces of this stone. There are only four pieces of this stone. Ai ya ai ya, what should we do~” Vois said as he dangled the stone in the air.

But Ryner was very clear about what he was about to say. “… Are you saying that you didn’t help them but saved us?”

Vois nodded his head. “Exactly. But you would say that you didn’t ask for this, right? So anything could have been done towards saving you. I’m talking about others. Ferris-san and Toale-san. And a child. This time, I only used this to save those who you wanted to save. What do you think this means? Of course, I was the one who used the stone, but the one who made the decision was…” Vois stopped and threw the stone towards him.

Ryner caught the stone.

He caught the Heroes’ Relic that used human blood to heal wounds.

Confirming this, Vois continued. “… The one who made the decision about who to save was you, Ryner-san. Or I should say, you’re very clear about this? Ever since you woke up in that truck, your surroundings has been like hell. There were people who lost their parents. There were people who lost their children. Some people lost their precious people. But, but but but but but, you still wished for you companions to survive—you thought of this, didn’t you?”

Hearing this.

Hearing what Vois said, Ryner’s face tensed.

Because he had thought of that.

Because he had thought of that, in actuality.

Because Vois’s words pierced deeply into Ryner’s body, pierced Ryner’s heart.

Seeing Ryner, Vois said with a happy and cheerful expression. “…It isn’t anything to feel troubled about. That is human. Arrogant and sly, yet gentle, then suddenly warm—you are sadly human. But you are unable to continue being an ordinary human. You are unable to be an ordinary human because you have decided to carry the burden of human lives. Right, this way, hasn’t your weakness lessened? Hasn’t your naivety lessened? Are you prepared to be a king who is in charge of a large number of human lives?”

Towards this question, Ryner.

He shook his head. “… I’m sorry. I haven’t…”

But he was interrupted by Vois.

“Then please make your preparations now. Your best friend, your opponent has already started walking on that path. He has put the lives of humans on the horizon and is walking forward in despair. Then, what about you? What do you want to do? Do you want to continue with no sacrifices? Haven’t you decided to save him? Then you should progress. You should continue. Come, come come, throw away those useless dreams, progress…”

But he only spoke until halfway.

“…Enemy attack!?”

A voice rang out from the front of the procession.

Vois turned in that direction. “A la la. I was interrupted when I was about to finish speaking. Ma, but my words have mostly been etched into your mind. Then please give me permission to let the story continue…” He walked out as he said that.

A black-armored soldier came to him, “… The enemy is an assassin from ‘Azure Princess Mercenaries’.”

Hearing this, Vois said with annoyance, “Those guys again.” Then he turned back.

“Alright, Ryner-san. It should be time for you to show your face. This is the first reason for you to become our king.”

Hearing this, Ryner tilted his head. “…What does that mean?” As he said this, he looked to the direction where the enemy was. They had probably crossed over from the boundary of the Republic of Belis.

But the enemy was from the Republic of Belis.

That meant that that there were enemies in Belis where the Nelpha citizens would be staying.

So Ryner said, “… It’s a little different from what you said?”

Vois laughed, “No no, there’s no difference? Right now, the one attacking isn’t what you suspect is a soldier from Belis. It is an assassin from a smaller but nasty organization. I was nearly killed by the assassin from that organization recently…”

Hearing this, Ryner finally found something believable in what this person was saying. “Ah, so you allowed me to be the king so that you would not be targeted by that assassin?”

“Mostly. Well, although it’s not only that… Anyway, Your Majesty Ryner Lute—please go and deal with that assassin.” He said.

Your Majesty.

So Your Majesty, please deal with the assassin—hearing this, Ryner smiled wryly, “This is the first time I’m seeing a subordinate saying this to the king.”

“Doesn’t it suit you?” Saying this, Vois flicked his finger.

In a moment.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—”

From the carriage where Toale’s corpse was supposed to be, Kiefer’s cries were heard loudly.

Ryner looked at Vois tiredly with half-lidded eyes and asked, “He’s revived?”

Vois nodded. “That was very energetic. Let me prepare Toale-san’s prosthetic arms and legs.”

Ryner said softly, “How should I say this…”

Then the flap of the carriage opened and Ferris looked out, “Ry-Ry-Ry-Ryner!? Toale’s ghost, haunting…”

“Ah yes yes. He isn’t haunting you. Toale is still alive.”

“Still alive?”

He was about to explain what Vois had told him to Ferris, who was tilting her head.

But.

From the front of the procession, there was an explosion.

A bright light.

With no time to rest, another battle had started.

Ryner turned his eyes to the directions of the battle.

“Ferris.”

“Eh?”

“Anyway, let’s defeat the enemy before we talk about this. Let’s go together.” He said.

She jumped down from the carriage and looked in the direction of the battle. She reached to her waist and looked at Vois, “Vois, return me my sword.”

“Yes, of course. Relca.” He said. A black-armored woman pulled out Ferris’s sword where it was on the carriage and threw it towards her.

Ferris caught it and fastened it to her waist. Then she nodded her head, “… Then let’s go.” She looked at Ryner.

Ryner nodded in reply, then looked to the front.

There were sounds of an intense battle from the front.

Explosions. Roaring. Cries.

Their attackers seemed to have come from a mercenary group called the Azure Princess.

Azure Princess.

A mercenary group called the Azure Princess.

“…I’ve never heard of it before.” He muttered. He flexed his injured left wrist to check if there was any lingering pain. Then he patted his waist and told Ferris, “Do you need to prepare?”

Ferris replied, “I’m waiting for you, idiot.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I see. Alright. Then…”

Ryner said, “Although it’s extremely troublesome, but we still have to work hard.”

He walked towards the battlefield again.

In a far northern plane.

He opened the map.

“…”

On the map was a drawing of the powers on the Menoris Continent.

First, in the south of the map was the name of Roland that had conquered the whole of the southern continent by claiming the Estabul Kingdom, Imperial Nelpha and the Runa Kingdom.

Then in the north of the map was the name of the Kingdom of Gastark that had defeated Imperial Stohle and was continuing to expand into the south. Its power had already started to reach into the central continent.

Lastly, in the centre of the map.

It was called the Central Continent, it was the largest territory in the Menoris Continent.

There were thirteen adjacent countries and three countries called the Three States were drawn to the north of these countries.

No, they were the three strongest countries in the Central Continent.

The names of the Three States were—

Geihlficlant Empire.

Ertolia Republic.

Remrus Empire.

These three countries ruled together and competed amongst themselves. They decided everything that happened in the Central Continent. And these small countries were controlled by these Three States.

So he had written down which countries currently belonged to which state.

Looking at this.

He looked at this.

The young monarch of the northern continent, Riphal Edea, king of the Gastark Empire looked at the map with his one eye, “…Fu. It looks like we’ll be fighting with Geihlficlant first.” He said lightly.

Long pink hair. His right eye was filled with determination and charisma, drawing everyone in and—the left eye that had been eaten by the cursed sword, Glovil.

But even so, he still carried that sword. He put that big black sword that was longer that what humans used behind his back and carried the map in one hand as he stood on the plain.

Behind him were tens of thousands of soldiers.

Although he carried the responsibility for these tens of thousands of lives, but he did not back down and happily looked at the map.

Right now, he was looking at the boundary lines on the map.

He was looking at the boundary line that separated the northern continent and the central continent.

But there were two coundary lines. There were two boundary lines between the north Gastark Empire and the Central Continent.

The east—belonged to a country in Geihlficlant Empire, Eilosendo.

The west—belonged to a country in Ertolia Republic, Deriljael Kesla.

Riphal Edea narrowed his visible right eye and looked at the two countries on his map.

No matter which was nearer or more easily attacked, he had to count in Eilosendo. And if he were to attack Deriljael Kesla first, then Geihlficlant who was nearer could attack him. This way, he would be having a war with two empires at the same time.

That would be bad.

No matter how he thought about it, it was better to defeat Eilosendo first—then move on the Geihlficlant Empire.

“Well, Deril—, ah~, whatsitsname, I can’t remember. Alright. We should still attack the one with the easier name, Eilosendo first.” He said, then he threw the map to one side carefully.

A man standing behind him caught the map.

It was a man around the same age as Riphal—around twenty-two or twenty-three year old.

He had the same pink hair as Riphal and a pair of bright blue eyes. As if matching his eyes, his uniform was also blue.

He was Riphal Edea’s right hand man and the military advisor of the Gastark army, Rigwaltz Pentest.

That Rigwaltz—Rize said. “…You can’t remember the name. Isn’t it because you have insufficient brain cells?”

Hearing that, Riphal turned around, “Because there’s no need to, so I’m too lazy to remember the name, Rize. Anyway, isn’t it a country that is about to be eliminated by us and about to vanish?”

Rize laughed. “Well, that’s true.”

“Then, what do you think. It’s fine if we go to Geihlficlant first?”

Rize looked to the southern sky and nodded. “There’s no problem. Geihlficlant Empire is a country that has the sea on its east. That means that when we fight Geihlficlant, we don’t have to worry about the east side. And there’s the plan to ally with the Republic of Ertolia and invade.”

But Riphal shook his head. “Ertolia wouldn’t respond. Because they will betray us quickly. Compared to their life-long enemy, Geihlficlant, Gastark that has recently emerged will be more dangerous. But when they discover that, it will be…”

“Too late… So let’s begin quickly. We have to let the name that I have been waiting for resound through the Central Continent.” Saying this, Rize raised his hand.

By only doing this, the thousands of soldiers behind responded. These soldiers consisted of mixed groups. What had originally be the six northern countries had been conquered by Gastark, then organized to this army.

But with six different kinds of magic and the soldiers of six different countries now, they moved as if they were from the same organism.

This was Rize’s power.

He was able to provide the soldiers who had lost their countries with evidence for a new existence, give them a new reason to live and then control them.

He had more or less used the brain-washing powers of the Rhule Fragmei, but the management of the army strongly depended on Rize too.

Rize ordered. “… Everyone.”

At this moment.

“Wuah, impressive. You’re able to easily command so many soldiers. The brain-washing Rhule Fragmei doesn’t even have this effect. We have to learn from you.” A woman’s voice spoke from in front of them.

Hearing this, Rize stopped his orders.

Riphal turned his eyes to the voice. Then he tensed. Because that woman’s voice had been too near to him.

He could not feel her presence at all.

He could not feel her presence approaching at all. On this wide plain where there were tens of thousands of soldiers, there were no figures approaching him, nor any presence that could be felt.

But that voice was right by their side.

And Riphal had turned to where that voice had been.

“…”

He couldn’t see any figure.

What exactly was it.

“What is this, who…” He spoke until there.

“Here, young Hero King of the North-san.” The voice was right by his ear. A breath blew gently and then a dagger shot to Riphal’s neck—

“Riphal!?” Rize yelled then pushed him away. Riphal used that force to jump away. Then he rolled on the ground and pulled out his sword as he got up. He pulled out Glovil and swung it.

He finally saw his enemy.

Looking at his enemy.

“…Wh-what is this, what exactly” Riphal said softly.

Because his enemy was very beautiful.

A beautiful woman.

She was about eighteen or nineteen years old?

She had a pretty face and adorable, challenging eyes.

She had long ice-blue coloured hair which was a rare colour and evidence that she was a holder of ‘Congenital Magic Abnormality’.

‘Congenital Magic Abnormality’—this referred to people with abnormal magical abilities. They had magical powers that were greater than even what their bodies could hold. A large number of ‘Congenital Magic Abnormality’ holders would always drown in their power and were controlled by it, resulting in them losing their magical compatibility and becoming magic deficient.

Even if they were deficient humans who were unable to control their spirits—this was the name for the ‘Congenital Magic Abnormality’ holders.

But.

“…”

The woman in front of him did not seem to be anything like that.

Although she seemed a little stubborn, but she had intelligence in her eyes.

But those rational eyes clashed with the butterfly-patterned dress that she wore, making people confused.

A butterfly-patterned uniform and a dagger in her hand.

She stuck out her adorable tongue, “A la la, your reaction is unexpectedly fast. I actually slipped…” She hadn’t finished speaking when she threw the dagger towards him. She used a slight action and threw the dagger towards him.

The dagger flew viciously towards him. Riphal was unable to dodge. No, he couldn’t even react.

Monster, he couldn’t help but think.

This was a really dangerous monster, he couldn’t help but this.

The dagger flew straight towards him.

The dagger flew straight towards his heart.

“…”

But his sword responded. The sword that Riphal held—Glovil reacted and knocked aside the dagger.

Seeing this, the woman’s eyes widened slightly.

“Oh~, you can even avoid this? Impressive.” She said and narrowed her eyes slightly. “Or I should say, it seems to be the sword defending by itself~ just now. That is Glovil, right? That was amazing. It shows that you are a ‘True Hero’. I’m not so stupid to challenge a Hero, so I should retreat first.”

As she said this, Rize pulled out his sword and swung it at the woman.

But the woman didn’t even look at him.

She lightly pushed his sword and then used Rize’s strength to push him away.

Rize’s posture was messed up and after he was kicked, he collapsed. Rize’s sword fell at near his lower body, “Wuah.”

Rize quickly rolled away to avoid it. Then he quickly stood up and retreated two or three steps and ran towards Riphal. He stared at the woman nervously and said. “…Riphal.”

“What?”

“Use the time I take to distract this woman and escape. We have no power to deal with that kind of opponent.”

“Ah? What are you joking about? How can you face that monster…”

But he was interrupted, “Of course I can’t win. But the both of us can’t die here. With our comrades—the promise we made when we sacrificed our comrades with the Sword of Regeneration has not been completed, we can’t die like fools… right? So please escape quickly. Then call Lir here. Only Lir can deal with her properly.”

As he said that, Rize started to weave a light square. Gastark’s magic. Compared to physical battle, Rize was more suited to long-range magic.

But.

But that woman looked at that magic happily, “Ai~, are you going to use magic? If it’s using magic, I wouldn’t be merciful, is that fine?” She said.

The holder of the ‘Congenital Magic Abnormality’ who was abnormally strong in magic said.

So Riphal stopped Rize’s hand that was about to complete the magic.

Towards this, Rize said, “What are you doing…”

Riphal shook his head, then looked at the woman.

“…Earlier you said, you were merciful. Then you had no intentions to kill us from the beginning?”

Hearing this, the woman smiled, “No. If I could kill you, I would feel very lucky, but… if you are the one that Glovil chose, it's impossible for me right now. I don’t have enough tools to kill you.”

Hearing this, Riphal was more nervous. “…Why do you know this sword? Don't tell me you're Goddess’s subordinate?”

“You’ve guessed wrongly~ Anyway, can’t you tell just by looking. How can a beautiful girl like me be that monster.” She said.

She called the Goddess a monster.

That mean that she knew about the existence of the Goddess . No, not only that. If she knew about Glovil, then she would also know about the ‘Priests’ that brought the sword over to this world.

But what power would know so much about this?

“Who are you?” Riphal asked.

But she smiled beautifully and perfectly, “I’m someone with a warning, Riphal Edea.”

“… Someone with a warning? Warn me about what?”

“Someone with a warning about your future. You can’t come here. If you want to move forward, then head to Deriljael Kesla. Don’t come to Eilosendo. I won’t get my money if you go there, after all.”

Hearing this, Riphal finally knew who this person was. “… You’re the mercenaries that Geihlficlant hired. I heard the rumors about you, Azure Princess. I see. You are the leader of the mercenaries who have been destroying those small countries in the Central Continent, Pia Varliere.” Riphal said.

Hearing this, she smiled.

Pia Varliere smiled.

Then she said. “Not leader, it’s queen, strong and arrogant Hero-san.” Then she smiled again.

“Then, listen to what I say, Hero King of the North. Or else—” She emanated a strong killing intent. She emanated a strong killing intent that could make one’s heart stop beating.

Then she said.

She said. “Or else I’d have to kill you.”

But towards this.

Towards this Riphal laughed. He looked at her, emanating his own killing intent.

No, he was looking at his other subordinate who was standing behind her.

It was Lir.

It was Lir Orla.

Looking at Lir, Riphal said. “Kill that arrogant woman.”

Lir replied. “Of course.”

Then he raised his hand. He wore a golden ring on his finger. It was a Rhule Fragmei that only those Chosen by the gods could use—the Ring of Lightning Beasts.

He waved the ring, “Appear, Lightning Beasts!”

A few lightning forms appeared around Lir as he yelled that. They slowly formed into beasts and surrounded Pia.

But even after seeing Lir, Pia still smiled, relaxed.

“Ah, I see. You’re pulling this on me?”

Riphal nodded. “Yeah. Then surrendering would be better? Because I’m not a person who will kill women. After you surrender and give us your information, then I can release you.”

“Ara, you’re so gentle.”

“Can’t you tell by seeing?”

“Aha.” She laughed. That was a relaxed laugh. In this kind of situation, that woman was still able to laugh, relaxed.

Then.

“… If I were to kill such gentle boys, then I would feel sad, so forget it, forget it. I did warn you already? Don’t attack Geihlficlant. Understand?”

Saying this, she lowered her stance.

Seeing this, Lir said, “I won’t let you escape.” And raised his ring. The lightning beasts ran towards her.

But Pia still laughed, “Muoh~!” She shouted adorably.

A red light appeared from her fingers—no, it appeared from the red-coloured fake nails that she was wearing on her five fingers and sliced apart the lightning beasts that Lir had summoned.

Then,

“Then goodbye. If I meet you on the battlefield after this meeting—then I’ll really kill you.”

Then she took something that was like a small marble and threw it into the sky. The marble released a bright light.

“…”

She could not be seen anywhere.

The three of them looked at where Pia had been speechlessly for a moment.

Then.

“… the Azure Princess. Huh.” Riphal said softly.

Then he looked into the sky.

The Queen of the Azure Princess, Pia Varliere had said that they could not attack Geihlficlant. She had said they could not attack Eilosendo. If they attacked, she would kill them.

He remembered that sentence.

He remembered her words.

After remembering that, he said, “Really, what was that. Even though she had a cute face, she was a monster on the inside…” Riphal turned to his childhood friends who had experienced the same burdens as he had.

“Alright, what do we do? What do you feel about what happened? Do we face them later?”

Rize replied, “If we don’t do it then we can’t start anything. And the number of enemies using the Rhule Fragmei will increase. Even if it isn’t like this, Roland is already using them. Fighting with the Azure Princess can be a preparation for fighting with Roland.”

Lir shrugged, “If we can win. The sacrifice will be huge.”

But Riphal laughed. “Large sacrifices didn’t begin now. Isn’t that right?”

The two of them nodded. “Yes.”

“Then,” Riphal said. “Then let’s go. We wasted a little time. Let’s head towards Eilosendo—then Geihlficlant. Rize, give the command.”

So Rize raised his arm and waved.

“Advance!”

Then he started to order the army.

Gastark Empire had started to move towards the Central Continent.

Riphal looked at this scene.

Then he turned around and looked in the direction they were heading towards.

In front of them was Eilosendo, the Geihlficlant Empire and the mercenaries, the Azure Princess that Geihlficlant had hired.

And then even more in front of them was the Fallen Dark Hero was looking from the south.

Looking at this.

Riphal looked at all of this.

“…Alright, this is the beginning. The beginning of our story.” He told this to Rize, Lir and his companions.

## 05. Volume 5 - The Descent Of The Demon King

### 001. Chapter 1: Inside of The Falling Rain

Something amazing had happened.

The light flashed and then there was a loud explosion.

Ryner looked to that side as he ran, “… What is that? What has happened?”

Now, he was at the south of the Southern Country of Ali. Up further south was the boundary of the Republic of Belis.

The citizens and soldiers of Imperial Nelpha that Toale had been leading and the soldiers led by Vois had gathered together to form this army of mixed groups. They were now under attack from an unknown attacker.

The attacker had been from the south, so they had almost thought that they were under attack from the Republic of Belis. But Vois had said that one attacking now was a mercenary group known as the Azure Princess.

Even though they did not know why the mercenary group was attacking them, but they were under attack, so they needed to prepare for battle.

After all, this was a group that had been attacked by the Roland army.

They had been attacked from the side, so they had no reason to allow the damage to spread.

To defend against this attack, Ryner and Ferris were running.

As Ferris ran, she asked with her usual emotionless expression, “What is it?”

“No, that… I can’t tell for certain without using the Alpha Stigma…”

“Mm-hmm.”

“The magic that those people used to attack us, that probably was Roland’s magic.”

Ferris seemed to widen her eyes at Ryner’s words and looked at him. She looked at Ryner’s face with her clear and big eyes.

“…Roland? That means there are soldiers who purused us to the Republic of Belis?”

But Ryner shook his head.

“No, Vois said that wasn't the case. It seems to be an unknown mercenary group attacking us.”

“Mercenary group?”

“Ah, it seems to be a mercenary group called the Azure Princess … Have you heard of it?”

“No.”

“I haven’t too. But if they're capable of ambushing the mixed army of Nelpha and Vois’s soldiers…”

At this moment, there as another flash of light and an explosion.

A few soldiers under Vois’s command that had been in the front of the group were caught in the explosion.

Because of this scene, Ryner’s eyes widened.

“…”

Then a strange red five-pointed star started to shine in his black eyes.

That was the cursed eyes called the Alpha Stigma.

It was the cursed eyes that were able to read all kinds of magic.

Using those eyes, Ryner stared at the explosion ahead of them.

“Ah~ That is really Roland’s magic. And it has been altered greatly.”

“Altered?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it powerful?”

“… Well, I wonder.” Ryner stared at the glowing magic again and tried to analyze its structure, strength, specialties and range of effect.

“Ohhh, this is pretty amazing. It's a lot more powerful than Roland’s magic. Or rather, it seems to have a rather difficult formation… I bet this complicated magic can’t be used by that red-haired muscled idiot?”

Because of what Ryner said, Ferris seemed to be slightly unhappy, “Are you competing with that person called Claugh or something like that?”

“Yes yes.”

“Hmm. That means that someone who's stronger than him is attacking us, right?”

Towards this, Ryner shook his head.

“No, well~ That red-headed idiot’s physical strength is impressive, so it's debatable which side is stronger, but…” He stopped, reaching the side of where the battle was occurring. “…But, if I’m not prepared like I was then, I might be killed…”

Saying this, he tensed and examined his surroundings, confirming the events that had happened here.

“…”

In front of him, Vois’s black-armored soldiers were desperately fighting against the assailants.

No, though they were doing their best, their assailants were far stronger—it was that sort of hopeless situation.

Then he looked at the people who were attacking them.

“…Talking about which, what is this? Isn’t it obvious that they have gone bonkers? What exactly is after Vois’s life?” Ryner said with an annoyed expression.

Then he started to stare at the fighting invaders in front of him.

Although he had said that, but one person was heading towards them.

Only one person.

No, behind this one person, there were many soldiers that looked like this person, but they did not participate in the fight. So only one of them was heading to attack them.

That soldier charged into the midst of the mixed army of the Nelpha and Vois’s soldiers.

“…”

Ryner stared at that lone person that was overwhelmingly powerful.

A metal mask and red battle uniform. There was a red butterfly insignia on the chest of the soldier. It seemed to be the insignia that represented the Azure Princess mercenaries .

Looking at that insignia, Ryner said something idiotic like “…that isn’t blue at all!”

Then Ferris unsheathed her sword and asked, “Not blue?”

“Yeah, um, aren’t they called the Azure Princess mercenary…”

“Oh. But I haven’t heard of it.”

“Me neither.”

“Unless they become famous only recently?”

“Well, who knows. But…” Ryner looked at that red figure.

Then said, “If they have a monster like that, then they'll become pretty famous soon.”

At this moment, the attacker that had defeated Vois’s chosen soldiers said, “Yes yes, the game ends here~ You've realized by now, right? Come, look at my movements, you must have thought ‘Ah, this is no good, the genius has come~! The genius-sama who will defeat us ordinary humans has come~, right? Then hurry up and escape. Because it's one of my rules to never go easy on my opponent, I'll kill any idiots who don’t understand what situation they are in~”

As the person said this, the person caught the wrist of Vois’s subordinate who was attacking. Broke that wrist. Threw the person aside. Then continued, “If you don’t want to die like this fellow, then escape. I’ll count to five~! Those who haven’t escaped in five seconds will be my enemies and be killed by me, understand~?”

As the attacker said this, Ryner finally reached Vois’s soldiers who had been ambushed.

Ferris successfully managed to link up from somewhere else.

It seemed as if the time needed to reach the enemy from the soldiers would take about ten minutes…

But the enemy said that they would begin the massacre in five seconds.

“Ai~ I can’t make it in time. Well, I should first engage the enemy first.”

Ryner seemed to grumble. As he ran, his fingers started to trace glowing forms in the air.

The special magic that Roland had, drawing the magic formation.

At this moment, the attacker started to trace the magic formation in the air too. At that, Ryner frowned and said, “Damn it, it’s really Roland’s magic…” As if asking why would there be a Roland soldier in this place.

“…”

But he stopped speaking.

The attacker started drawing the magic formation far more quickly than what Ryner had expected.

The person’s speed was almost as fast as Ryner’s, no, to be more accurate, even the accuracy too.

Upon looking, it seemed to be a magic formation for KUURI. KUURI was a high-class magic in Roland that released spears of light to kill the enemy.

It was a complicated magic that normal mages had difficulty wielding.

But now, the magic formation being drawn out did not seem like a simple KUURI.

In the magical formation, seven glowing blocks that seemed to combine with KUURI appeared and something that seemed like eyes appeared in the blocks. These eyes moved around, as if they had their own conscience and were surveying the enemy.

Ryner looked at this magic that he had never seen before and muttered, “What is that…”

The attacker said, “Hey hey~ five seconds are up. Then if those who didn’t listen to my warning and attack…”

But in the middle of what he was saying, a soldier pulled out the sword at his waist and charged towards the attacker yelling “Die!”

But the attacker didn’t look in the direction of the soldier, only softly said “WHAT I SEEK IS THE TUMBLING TRUTH OF IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUUKURA!”

A spell, magic formation and activation sequence that had never been heard before.

Then one of the eyes in the magic formation responding to the approaching soldier and released a killing beam that was very similar to KUURI.

“I wouldn’t let you gain the advantage. WHAT I SEEK IS THE TUMBLING TRUTH OF IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUUKURA!” Ryner finished drawing the magic formation and chanted the incantation. A block of light appeared in the middle of the magic formation and released a light beam.

The KUURIs released by Ryner and the attacker collided and neutralised each other.

“…Hmm. After separating the magic strength into seven parts, the impact for each beam has seemed to decrease… But, well, even so it is quite impressive. Let me try this next time…” Ryner looked at the scene and muttered.

Then he bent down and started to run.

The attacker looked in the direction of the magic that had neutralised his own magic, “Ohhhh, what was that earlier? An outsider has entered this fight. And earlier, that was KUURI, right? Why would there be a Roland mage in the Anti-Roland Coalition~?” as he said that, he looked towards where Ryner had been.

The six eyes that appeared in the magic formation looked in the same direction, as if reacting to what was happening.

They looked around, as if trying to find Ryner’s figure that had released KUURI.

But they couldn’t find him.

No, to be more accurate, Ryner had hidden his presence so that they would not find him.

Although his speed had decreased because he had erased his presence. But he quickly reached the place.

He was about to reach the place where the enemy was.

At this moment.

“Found you!” the attacker yelled loudly.

The eyes made of light turned from the left to the right.

Ferris stood in the sight of these eyes. She was quicker than Ryner and had ran out from Vois’s soldiers, swinging her sword.

“Idiot. It’s too late.”

As she said this, she reached the attacker.

“Wa wa wa wa , what… what is up with this person? She’s too fast… Trouble trouble trouble, but this is not enough to deal with the genius me who is like a god reincarnated!” the attacker said and raised two fingers, pointing to Ferris.

Two eyes in the remaining six eyes swiftly released the light beam that was KUURI towards Ferris.

Seeing this, Ryner smiled, “…This is useless towards Ferris.”

At that moment, Ferris stopped. She looked at the two beams of light emotionlessly and calmly.

“Hmm.” With that soft sound, she used a speed that only Ryner was able to see and swung her sword, cutting apart the two light beams.

The attacker let out a stunned,

"Eh?"

And then in a surprised voice,

"It can't be."

At this moment, Ryner charged out from the soldiers.

He said, “As of now, it is too late to be surprised.” And started to draw a magic formation. In a moment, he finished the structure for KUURI.

Seeing this, the attacker said in a surprised tone, “Wa~ what is this, so it’s you…”

“And using KUURI at this moment is a little despicable~” He quickly pointed his right hand in Ryner’s direction.

The four remaining eyes looked in his direction.

“Release.” The attacker said. A light beam shot towards Ryner and another headed for his magic formation.

“Wuah…” Ryner rolled onto the ground and dodged the attack.

Although his completed magic formation had been destroyed, but it was alright.

Because he had managed to decrease the distance between him and the attacker again.

“Ferris.” Ryner said.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Which side will you be backing me up on?”

“I’ll cut away those two remaining light blocks.”

“Ok, then…”

Ryner looked at the attacker.

Surprisingly, the attacker revealed a troubled expression, “You…you, isn’t two against one a little mean?”

Ryner laughed, “Ha ha, I’ve been a despicable person since I’ve been born.”

He shortened the distance between him and the attacker as he said this. He wanted to use his right fist to hit the person’s face, but he knew that it would be painful if he tried to strike the metal mask, so he cast that thought aside. Instead, he used a karate chop and struck at the neck that was between the mask and the uniform, “Did it hit?”

Unexpectedly, the person fell back and avoided the attack. Then he pointed in Ryner’s direction, “Release!”

“Eh?” Ryner raised his head, and looked in the direction where the magic formation that should have been dealt with by Ferris.

As expected, the magic formation drawn by the attacker had been dealt with by Ferris.

Upon discovering Ryner’s actions, Ferris shouted, slightly frantically, “Idiot Ryner. Don’t move your eyes from your enemy. This is a trap!”

At the moment, Ryner felt the killing intent and he pressed his lips together tightly, “Damn it.” He muttered then bent back and leapt back. If he had remained in his original position and looked at in front of him, he would have been pierced in the neck.

If Ferris had not warned him, he would have probably died. Definitely would have died.

But Ryner breathed in a small breath, as if calmly breathing. Then he muttered: “I must be an idiot. Don’t relax… This is a battleground. The foolish things that I do…” he said this to himself. Then he straightened himself again and looked at the attacker.

The attacker that he had chased with much difficulty had increased the distance between them and raised both his hands.

“Ah, I apologize, everyone. I thought that I could kill one or two dogs of the Goddess by myself… But an unexpected enemy has appeared. So, please take care of the reinforcements~”

As he said that, the hands of the red-garbed soldiers raised and started to trace glowing magic formations in the air. And everyone was activating their own different forms of magic. It really was a mercenary group. It looked like the Azure Princess was made from people of different countries.

Even if he did not care about this, it seemed like the magic would attack at the same time.

No, it seemed that even the area where Toale’s people who were resting behind them would be attacked too.

Ryner tensed his face and shouted to Vois’s subordinates, “Damn it, defend!”

But they ignored Ryner’s yells and started to form offensive magic.

Of course, everything was offensive magic.

“Huh? Hey hey, stop joking! If the offensive magic collides in a short range, there will be too many sacrifices…” But Ryner quietened down. This could not be stopped by anyone. This battle that had already been started could not be stopped. Anyway, Vois’s subordinates were not Ryner’s subordinates.

So they had no reason to listen to Ryner’s orders.

The only way to stop this was the attacker that had used the altered KUURI and seemed to be the leader of the opposition.

But that person had already seemed to understand that he was unable to defeat him and Ferris so he had started to escape.

If he allowed that person to escape, then there would be no way to stop this massacre.

Ryner looked at the attacker who was trying to escape but was being chased by Ferris. It seemed like he would be unable to use magic to capture that person.

The attacker’s movements seemed to be faster that what they had expected. Just be looking at his movements, one could understand that not only magic, but this person’s physical condition was excellent. And his judgment of the current situation was good.

It seemed as if he had wanted to make them lose their will to fight, but after meeting Ryner and Ferris, he had understood that this could not be remedied immediately.

“…Ah, damn it, this is bad, huh?” Ryner mumbled.

That person was probably very powerful.

A one-on-one fight would be hard. It would definitely be difficult. He thought.

But he breathed in deeply and used his loudest voice to shout, like an idiot, at the soldiers who were about to use magic on one another, “Stop, you bastards! Don’t continue this meaningless massacre, this will be left to a one-on-one by your leaders!”

In a moment, Vois’s soldiers slowed on their magic formations.

However the enemy’s magic formations did not stop. But Ryner used a challenging tone to yell at the escaping attacker, “What do you say? Are you escaping because you’re scared of me? Ha ha, if you would run away with your tail tucked between your legs, then you shouldn’t have charged in on your own!”

“… Ah?” Hearing this, the attacker stopped escaping, turned around and raised his left hand. In a moment, the red-armoured soldiers stopped their magic formations.

Ryner contorted his expression slightly. He became slightly melancholic as he saw the soldiers that had been so well-conditioned that they stopped their movements just by seeing their leader raise his hand.

Although he did not know how well trained Vois’s soldiers were, but if they really started to fight against each other, they would be greatly damaged.

This was plainly seen.

But this was the same to the other side. If they fought, then they would not be able to retreat unharmed. After all, his side had the advantage of overwhelmingly powerful soldiers. Furthermore, aside from Vois’s soldiers, there were thousands of Nelpha soldiers.

So the enemies allowed one person to attack first, to make his side lose their will to fight after seeing that person’s power. Although there were a great number of soldiers on his side, they were also with a crowd of people who had no fighting experience. And these people had already been attacked by the Roland Empire, their families and companions had been killed. As their spirits were crumbling, they were in an uneasy situation.

If a surprise attack was launched, then up until the point where the soldiers lost their will to fight, as long as this anxiety spread throughout the people, chaos would ensue.

Those people probably wanted to use that panic to do something.

“…”

But if the other side won this one-on-one fight, there might be a similar effect.

So, the other party had to accept Ryner’s proposal. This way, the fight here could be prevented—

“Well, although that’s what I’m thinking.” Ryner muttered, not confident.

If this failed, there would be a magical battle and an unbelievable number of people would die.

So…

“Please.” Ryner said softly.

The attacker looked to him, “What did you say?”

It worked! Ryner thought and tried to suppress his crow of triumph. Then he looked at the attacker, “I said let’s have a one-on-one? But talking about which, didn't you actually want a one-to-one fight? Didn’t you want to kill our leader so that we would lose our fighting will, hence why you came in alone? I only said that I would take on your challenge.”

Hearing what Ryner said, the attacker snorted, “Ha? What is that? Don’t tell me you think that you can defeat me?”

“Who knows.”

“Got no confidence?”

Ryner nodded at that.

“... It's not a fair fight, right? Don't you have the advantage in this transaction right now? So just accept."

Then,

"Hmm,"

The assailant said, crossing his arms. He fell silent, apparently thinking about something for a while. And,

"... Well, thanks to you, the situation's changed a bit, huh...? Though it's fine even if I accept."

In response to those words, Ryner looked at the assailant. He peered at the metal mask. He stared at his eyes.

From this conversation, it seemed that somehow, he knew of Ryner.

Or rather, well, if he was from Roland, and on top of that, with that level of magic skill and martial arts, he might have been from the Hidden Elites or Emirel Private Forces or someone from one of those special organizations in Roland's underworld. In that dark side, the name of Ryner Lute was hailed as The Greatest Magician in Roland , a title that many aimed after, so perhaps he knew him from there.

But.

Ryner stared at his opponent and narrowed his eyes. He felt that the voice of the man in front of him was slightly familiar.

But the owner of that voice should have died.

It was the voice of that idiot who had fought with Ryner over the position of The Greatest Magician in Roland .

That guy’s name was Zohra Rom, if he wasn’t wrong.

He used to be an assassin for the Roland Empire and had said he wanted to try to assassinate Ryner but, because he was an assassin who did not kill women and children, he was unable to kill Ryner who was thirteen years old then. He was a enormous idiot who had betrayed Roland and had become a traitor.

But that person was already dead.

When he felt that Sion was starting to go mad, he had challenged Lucile and had died in the end.

Ryner had seen the dissimilated body.

So the person in front of him now could not be Zohra.

Ryner stared at the attacker in front of him. Then said: “You… are you someone I know, by any chance?”

“How can I know someone as silly as you?” The attacker replied.

“Ha~ Is it like that?”

“Yes.”

“Then, Zohra.”

“What is it?”

“Hey, you’re really Zohra!”

Hearing what Ryner said, the attacker shrugged and pulled off his mask, revealing his face.

Tea-coloured hair and determined blue eyes that would not admit defeat. Just by seeing his confident face, anyone would feel annoyed.

Then that smirking mouth said: “Ah, even if I wear a mask, I’m discovered? It seems that I should give up being an assassin because I’m unable to hide this heroic air of mine.”

Even his way of talking was exactly like Zohra Rom, who he had met in the past.

Ryner frowned and said, “What? Why are you alive? Weren’t you killed by Lucile?”

Zohra shrugged casually, “The hero of the story wouldn’t die.”

“So you’re the hero?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm. No, I didn’t think you would easily retreat from that monster, unharmed.”

“Ha. That’s a guess from your perspective? My abilities have surpassed the abilities of a god, so I can do this kind of thing easily.”

“Oh?”

“You bastard, are you looking down on me?”

“No no~”

“I’ll kill you!” Zohra clenched his fist.

But Ryner didn’t reply to him and asked, “So why did you appear in this mercenary group called the Azure Princess? Talking about that, why did you attack us?”

“I'm not obliged to answer you. Anyway, what are you doing in this place?”

Are~, why was he here? Ryner thought about this for a moment then he shrugged, “Um, well~ I met a lot of trouble and then unknowingly came here.”

“Unknowingly, hey, do you understand what kind of place that is?” Zohra asked impatiently.

“…”

What kind of place… Towards this, Ryner thought about the place and situation he was in now.

He had escaped from the Roland army with Toale, the soldiers and the citizens. Under the situation where they had been unable to escape, they had been saved by the Anti-Roland Coalition that Vois had created.

And heard that Vois could control an inhumane grotesque monster called the Goddess.

Well, because this was what Vois had said himself, he did not know whether that was true or false, even if he had asked Vois seriously, he would have gotten a vague excuse so he still couldn’t understand whether the Goddess was an enemy or an ally.

That meant that he had a companion who he still did not know whether was he an ally or an enemy.

Ah~ that meant.

“…Well~ How do I say this. A lot of things happened so there's been a lot of changes going on. So don’t ask about the details.” Ryner replied honestly.

Zohra had an ‘are you an idiot’ expression, “Huh!?”

Ryner could only laugh bitterly, “No, well~ that’s what I think as well.”

At this moment, Ferris walked over and sheathed her sword, “What, Ryner? You know this guy?”

“I suppose so.”

“Is he an enemy?”

“Who knows~? Our relationship wasn’t too good in the past…” Ryner turned his eyes back to Zohra and asked, “Are you our enemy?”

Zohra looked back and said, “…From your position, it seems so. If you're in the Anti-Roland Coalition leader, then that means that you've left the mad Hero in Roland, right?”

“Mad Hero? Are you referring to Sion?” Ryner asked.

Zohra laughed, “Sion… Sion, huh? I told you to choose your friends more carefully…”

“I did.”

“You didn't. I told you to stop with Sion, didn't I?”

“You did say that.”

“In the end, you were betrayed by that fellow?”

“…”

“So that’s why you’re here right now?”

“…”

“After Sion Astal betrayed you, the companion you met while escaping was Vois Fiurelle. Why don't you stop for a while? Vois Fiurelle is a piece of rubbish who sold this world to the Goddess.”

Hearing this, Ryner revealed a troubled expression, “No, well~ Although I agree with your view that Vois Fiurelle is a piece of rubbish… But if we explain, there are many other reasons besides that.”

“I don’t care about your reasons.” Zohra quickly replied.

“Let me explain!”

“I don’t want to know.”

“Then what do you want to do?”

Hearing Ryner’s question, Zohra raised his face to the sky, turned around and confirmed the expressions of his companions. Then he said, “Yeah~ One on one, then.”

“Eh~ I don’t want that. This is like a reunion among old friends, there’s no sense of urgency.”

Zohra laughed, “We’re clearly not friends.”

“Eh~”

“Anyway, I don’t know if you still have the time. I’m also taking other things into consideration.”

“Hmm, like?”

“For example, if you still possess enough strength that I could consider making you my ally, or if it'd be okay to talk to you on friendly terms like old times, things like that. Then I should simply take you to my leader, things like that.”

“Oh~. Then do I live up to your standards?”

Zohra shook his head, “Not at all.”

“Really?”

“Really. After seeing the mistake you made in your fight, I was quite disappointed. You haven’t been training yourself, have you?”

“…” Ryner was silent.

Zohra revealed an enlightened expression and said, “Like what I expected. And I feel that you’re weaker than what I had expected? So I have no interest in a weak person. In this cruel world, weak people can only be treated like rubbish. No matter what kind of causes, they are only reasons, so weaklings can only die. Depressed people can only die. Which one are you? You're always talking about how friends are important and you have that face that says you don’t want anyone to die, so do you have that power to protect the people who you want to protect? I only want to know this.”

From the beginning, this person had particularly liked to know who was it who was powerful, who was the first, I’m the genius etcetera, he had not changed from the past, always displaying that confident face that made people depressed and saying this kind of stuff.

But Ryner could not reply.

He was very clear that he did not have that powerful strength to protect his comrades.

No, it was clearly understood if one looked at the results.

Most of his important people were already dead.

The king who he had thought was his best friend had left, crying.

At that time, what did I do? What did I do?

Ryner thought of mumbling “Damn it… It’s troublesome” to those matters.

Then he gathered his strength and settled his body.

Then Zohra smiled again, “Oh, you really want to fight?”

Ryner replied, “If I don’t fight with you, you wouldn’t be satisfied, I suppose?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I can only fight. Well, even though I have known them only for a short while, even if it is Vois’s subordinates or the Imperial Nelpha’s citizens, they are my comrades.”

“So you want to protect them?”

“Yeah.”

“Ha ha. You seem to be a bit more responsible than before.” Zohra said.

But Ryner revealed a sad expression, “Because I’ve lost too much.”

“Heh. What, you want me to sympathise with you?”

“I don't need you to.”

“True. Then, let’s start.”

“Yeah. Because you’re strong, I won't go easy on you.”

Zohra laughed as he charged, “Ha~ha~~ Who are you talking to?”

Ryner stepped back in reflex and started to trace glowing words in the air, his hands dancing.

It was the magic he had gotten from the Estabul mage in the past, it could release the limits of the mind and enhance the body’s strength.

“Ah, that is a convenient magic. I also have people who were born in Estabul using this. But being too slow is a weakness.” Zohra threw a small knife at him.

The knife struck the magical formation Ryner was drawing and twisted it slightly. As Ryner was frantically trying to redraw it, Zohra reached him.

Zohra reached his right hand into the magical formation, thinking to steal the magic.

To resist Zohra’s actions, Ryner increased his speed of his magic formation and said, “Wuah, you are despicable, this is my magic.”

“If it’s stolen away, then it isn’t yours.”

“I won’t let you steal it.”

“I’ll steal it for you to see.”

“Impossible.”

“You are impossible.”

“Then die!” The two of them shouted at the same time and used their hands that were uninvolved in forming the magic to punch each other.

“Guaaaah, that hurts!! But I completed the magic faster! I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.” Ryner started to chant the spell incantation.

A glow enveloped his body and his movements became faster.

But at the same time, Zohra snatched the half of the glowing words that Ryner had drawn, “I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.” He enhanced his speed in a breath and laughed, “It’s ended.”

Zohra’s movements were slightly faster than Ryner. His fist was already nearing Ryner’s face. Although Ryner wanted to dodge, he found that he could not dodge. And Zohra threw the small blade in his hand towards him. He felt a sharp pain from his ear, as if he had been scratched, but there was no time to think about that any more.

Ryner lifted his foot, thinking to kick Zohra’s chest, but he did not succeed.

“Too slow!” Zohra said, then he kicked at Ryner’s face swiftly.

“Ah, damn it. If it’s physical activity, then you’re stronger.” Ryner determinedly blocked the kick, then used the time to jump back, pulling apart the distance for the magical battle.

From what had happened, he knew that he was faster in magic, so he could probably pull something off if he used magic.

And if he used Alpha Stigma that could analyze all magic, he could win.

So he yelled, “Prepare for my next blow.” Then he prepared to kick and focus all his strength on the place he was about to kick.

“…”

But Zohra's kick stopped. No, not only that, the killing intent from Zohra disappeared.

Ryner couldn’t help but release a surprised “Ah?”

But Zohra ignored this, put down his leg and sighed. As if there was no need to fight anymore, he turned around.

“Eh? Eh? Why?” Ryner said.

Zohra didn’t turn around. He raised his right foot. Then he swept it back and a small blade flew out from his boot. On the blade of the small knife was a red liquid.

It was probably poison.

Looking at the knife, Ryner said, “…Ah… if it had continued I might have died… That means I lost?”

Zohra looked back with a bored expression, “As I thought, you don't have the right to be our comrade.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then, what do we do?”

Zohra looked away without replying to Ryner’s question. Then he pointed to one of the soldiers and said, “It was a draw. We met a little trouble, so this was a draw. Report to the princess.”

“But the Queen told us to kill Vois Fiurelle…”

Zohra interrupted the soldier and said, “Idiot. Then will you fight with that black-haired man who looks like he is about to sleep? Or can you match up with that emotionless blond woman’s speed? There are unexpected powers on the enemy’s side. If we continue to force our attack we will suffer more damage than what we had expected. Anyway, that guy…” He looked at Ryner, “That guy is someone who is important to the Princess. If we kill him now, the Princess will kill us.”

Ryner stared at Zohra and asked, “… Talking about which, who is the Princess who you’ve been talking about since just now? Well, because the mercenary is called Azure Princess, so she should be your leader… But who is it that can command you, who hates taking orders?”

Zohra laughed and replied, “I am Love’s slave.”

“Annoying.”

Zohra laughed even more happily, “It doesn’t matter if I’m annoying. I can even die for her.”

“Oh~?”

“She said not to kill you, so this is a draw.”

Ryner lowered his head, “Hmm. So that means your lover is someone I know?”

“Yeah.”

“Who is it?”

Zohra laughed as he replied, “That annoying brat called Vois on your side knows. Up until now, we've been clashing constantly, after all.” Then he walked to the back, “Then, it’s a draw, it’s a draw. Let’s temporarily return to the city.”

Zohra said and got up on a horse that was prepared and left. His subordinates started to retreat immediately.

Vois’s followers seemed to want to chase after them, but they were stopped by Ryner, “Let them go. Even if we chased after them, we would be throwing our lives away.”

Zohra was that strong.

He was stronger than what he had been.

At this moment, Ferris walked over to him. She reached Ryner’s side in a step.

Then she knocked Ryner’s head for unknown reasons.

“Owwww….?! Hey, why are you doing that suddenly?”

Ferris replied angrily, “Why did you lose that easily!”

Ryner rubbed his head and replied, “But that guy was powerful…”

Even so, Ferris revealed an angry expression and said, “But he wasn’t so strong that you would be unable to defeat him, were you? Why were you merciful?”

Ryner looked at Ferris, then he turned his eyes to look at the blurred silhouette of Zohra.

“Because that guy was also merciful…” Ryner said.

Yes, he had felt that from the beginning. The movements of Zohra who had stood in front of him were not powerful, he wasn’t using all this strength. If he moved back one side, the other side would move back one step too. That was what Ryner thought.

At this moment, a child’s voice spoke from behind Ryner, “… If that was the case, I would be troubled, Ryner.”

Ryner turned around and found that a thirteen, fourteen year old boy had walked out from amongst the black-armoured soldiers. He had beautiful black hair and intelligent black eyes, and he wore clothes that seemed like what a witch would wear.

This was the person who Zohra wanted to kill, the person who had created the Anti-Roland Coalition and had made Ryner the king of the rebels, Vois Fiurelle.

Vois had said that.

The intelligent eyes that held wisdom that a child should not have looked at him, “You are already a leader of an organisation, you know? If you lose easily as the leader of the organisation that would be troubling. And it would demoralise the soldiers.”

Ryner frowned and said, “That’s what you claim. Anyway, your soldiers don’t take me as your leader, you know? I told them to use the defensive magic, but they ignored me…”

Vois looked at his subordinates and asked, “Is that so?”

The soldiers looked at Vois with respect, unlike how Ryner had been treated and lowered their heads, “We apologize.”

Vois nodded, “But I also think that your judgement was right. The one who was wrong was Your Majesty.” Then he looked at Ryner.

Ryner frowned deeply. “So can you stop calling me Your Majesty. Anyway, you’re not showing me proper respect.”

Vois laughed, “If you want me to respect you, then please don’t be merciful to the enemy. Even if the enemy is a young child, you have to kill them mercilessly to be powerful…” Ryner interrupted Vois, “I don’t want to be that kind of powerful.”

“You don’t want it?”

“No.”

Vois nodded, “I see. Then those children that you let go because you were sympathetic will kill your companions after a few years.”

“…”

“Please don’t make me repeat this again. We aren’t playing any games. The road you’re going to take isn’t those kind of—ah, do we add bananas on the dessert?—kind of picnic where you ask fools questions. Because of your meaningless games, many comrades may die. If they die meaningfully, then it’s fine. But if it’s a meaningless choice that you chose because you were weak, then please disappear. If you’re so weak, then you don’t have the right to stand against Sion Astal. Because he is so strong that he is able to kill the children in front of him. He is so strong that he is able to kill while crying. Then what about you? Are you going to say that you don’t have the preparation to kill anyone, but you want to save people?”

This kind of question was evidently a continuation of the lecture Vois was giving him earlier.

Towards what Vois wanted to say, Ryner had already understood it. He sighed and said, “…But, I have my own views on Zohra being merciful.”

“Views?”

“Yeah. Not only the views on my opponent being merciful, but also views on my opponent, and I am unable to fully comprehend the current situation. I didn’t even know that the person who was attacking, Zohra, was with the Azure Princess. But you knew, didn’t you? You knew that Zohra was someone I knew but you still allowed me to go on the frontlines?”

Vois nodded and replied, “Yes, I know.”

“You wanted to let me kill someone who I knew?”

Vois smiled, “Because I knew that to Ryner who was weak, you could not kill him. But even if you didn’t kill him, that didn’t matter. I’m looking forward to a time where, if you fight with people whom you’re familiar with, you can fight for time and I can search for a way to stop the enemy. Because I know that if the enemy listens to what I say, I cannot lie to the other side no matter how many methods I try.” This was indeed what a leader of the Fiurelle clan, who had been generations of masterful liars, Vois would say.

Ryner used a resigned expression to say, “Then what I did can’t get 100 marks.”

“Yes.”

“Then stop grumbling.”

Hearing Ryner’s sigh, Vois shrugged, “But what I said was from my heart. If you are a person who can easily kill Zohra, then the path ahead will be slightly interesting… But, now, ma, forget it. You’ll change, anyway. If you meet anything unfair, you’ll change.”

Ryner sighed again, hearing Vois’s unpleasant words.

Looking at Vois’s soldiers and the Nelpha soldiers and citizens who were clearly exhausted, Ryner remembered the figures of the Roland soldiers who had pursued after them, Ryner mumbled softly, “Maybe that’s true…”

Ryner mumbled that with a tired voice that clearly told of the many deaths he had witnessed so far.

He had only left Roland and Sion for a short period of time, but everything had changed.

Even if it was the scenery in front of him, or the expressions of the people, everything had changed.

Maybe he himself had changed slightly, but he couldn’t tell. No, maybe he had started to change earlier than that.

But even if he thought like that, he would not be able to understand these kind of matters.

He only knew that the situation was slowly, slowly changing.

Because Sion wasn’t smiling by his side anymore.

Even Ferris and Kiefer had bitter memories.

Some of his companions had died, Toale had died too.

Only he himself had not changed—how could something this good exist.

Everything had started changing from long ago.

The more the situation in front of him changed, the more he changed.

But even so.

“…I wouldn’t change into something like what you said.” Ryner said.

“If you gave up that easily… I would have given up a long time ago.” He said.

Then he thought that if it was so easy to give up, then there wouldn’t be any need for him to escape yelling that he hated killing.

He could have become a killing machine like what the Roland Empire had wished.

He could laugh like an idiot while he killed.

If that had happened, maybe Sion could have killed me without any hesitation. Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill those comrades who told that monster ‘Let’s go’ and those friends who thought that they would be happy with that monster.

But I can’t do that.

Because I can’t do that, so I’ve come to do this.

You want me to give up on whatever I’ve been doing and become strong? If there was a need to, then I would have to kill these desires? Don’t joke with me!

If that was the case.

If that was the case, then I would have given up a long time ago.

I would have been like what I was before, not doing anything, saying it was troublesome then escape, escape, always escaping. And then dying easily in an unknown place. No, it’s better to say I should always think of dying.

But Sion will cry.

Because he is bearing that burden alone, so an idiot like Sion will cry, so I should try starting to fight.

Unless you want me to let go of everything and start killing? Admit that not killing is a weakness?

Ryner thought then he laughed sadly and stared at Vois, saying, “…The king that you wish for, isn’t there one like that in Roland? So I won’t walk the same road as that man.”

“That is a weakness.”

“Is it?”

“It is.”

“But bearing that weakness is not easy, you know?”

Towards this, Vois revealed a slightly defeated expression, laughing, “Ha, haha. Ma, that’s true… You really are an idiot. Choosing you was right.”

“Oh, because I’m too stupid, so I can be your marionette?”

Vois narrowed his eyes and replied, “Hmm~ Who knows?” Then he muttered something. He muttered something that Ryner couldn’t hear, “…Ma, it’s like what I thought… It is a demon who fears being lonely…”

“What?”

“Nothing, I was just talking to myself.”

Ryner stared at Vois and said, “Anyway, if you want me to be your companion, then you should stop hiding things from me. I didn’t ask you about Zohra and I didn’t ask about the details about the monster called the Goddess. And, ah, what~ you know the person called Princess who leads the Azure Princess? Who is that? And the person called Princess seems to know me, who is it?”

Vois didn’t reply Ryner’s questions but turned around and said, “I’ll tell you that when we reach the camp. According to what I know, the Runa Empire has surrendered, Roland Empire is starting to move there and operate from there.”

“Huh?” Ryner couldn’t help but yell, “Wait…wait a moment. That means that Sion is going to Runa…?”

But Vois didn’t reply and continued, “And the two Generals Bayuuz White and Claugh Klom are leading the soldiers and preparing to invade the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla. This is faster than what I had expected. They probably used the Rhule Fragmei to progress… Ma, no matter what, the territory of the Roland Empire has already reached the Southern Country of Ali already. Now there isn’t any power in the southern continent to stop Roland’s power. So we don’t have any time to stay here any longer. Although the Republic of Belis will stand on our side for now, they will change their minds when they see Roland’s power. Before that, we have to cross through Belis and enter the Central Continent. There isn’t much time left. Can we talk as we move?” Vois finished and walked away without waiting for an answer. He started to give orders to the surrounding troops. It was almost impossible to view him as a fourteen or fifteen year old child.

Ryner looked at this, stunned then he turned to Ferris, who was very calm despite what had happened and said, “…No matter how you look at this, it seems as if I’m obviously the subordinate, right?”

Ferris nodded, “You have a natural face that looks like a slave.”

“Haha, I thought of that too. I only want to have no responsibility and live simply…”

Ferris hit Ryner’s back as he mumbled that.

“Ah, ow… What is it this time?” Ryner asked.

Ferris complained, “Really, what are you doing. You lost to an assassin of unknown origins and you can’t argue against a brat who can’t say anything but perverted things… Even if you embarrass yourself, you have to have some kind of standard.”

Ryner smiled bitterly, “I’m sorry.”

But for unknown reasons, Ferris turned her eyes away and said suddenly, “But I… that… I don’t hate this side of you that is like an idiot, annoying and completely useless…”

“…Eh?”

Ferris continued to look away, “Anyway, you don’t have to mind becoming a marionette. Zohra? Vois? Who knows about that. Sion and I have already approved of you. Then we should only proceed in the direction of our path. So you should have some confidence in yourself, you idiot. Don’t lose to anyone apart from me. I will be unhappy.” After saying these things, she walked away.

Ryner looked at Ferris’s back and ran his hand through his rumpled hair, laughing lightly, “…That, this, if I made you unhappy, then I apologize.”

“If you are apologizing, then you shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

“Yes yes~”

“Then, let’s go.”

As she said ‘let’s go’, Ryner thought about the events that would happen after today and sighed.

They had escaped the pursuers with much difficulty, but there still was a mountain of things to do.

Behind them were the pursuing soldiers from Roland Empire.

In front of them was the mercenary group called the Azure Princess.

And there were other countries.

In this mess, how was he going to bring the Nelpha soldiers and people, and escape to safety?

“Really, this is really difficult.” Ryner said as he turned to face the sky.

Like earlier, the sky was covered with a thick layer of rain clouds and appeared to be very dark. In this rain, he had to lead the tired people forward.

He had to lead the children who had their parents killed by Roland.

He had to lead the old people who had lost their families.

He still had to continue.

“Damn it, this is really difficult.” As he said this, Ryner started to walk.

Because he knew that if he did not continue, nothing would change.

And he understood that the more he tried to escape, the more saddening things would happen.

“…”

So he started to walk down the difficult path in the rain.

### 002. Chapter 2: In the Mire

Unknowingly, his feet were already dirtied.

He knew that it wasn’t there just now, but he had somehow managed to step into a muddy piece of land and now he found that he was unable to move his feet.

“…”

So he looked at his feet so that he would be able to pull his feet out of the swamp.

But he found that his feet had not sunk into any mire, even his shoes were clean.

Just that there was a lot of blood.

There was a large amount of fresh blood flowing out from where he stood.

The blood flowed and became a path.

It was like the blood was paving the road that he should take while flowing all over the ground.

He stared at this road.

“…”

Sion Astal used his golden eyes to look at the fresh blood.

No, if he was more accurate, the blood wasn’t flowing out.

At least in reality, no one would see the blood.

But Sion looked at the blood.

He looked at the scene that was in the Other World.

It was a world where there was the Goddess, Hero and Demon.

It was a world where Sion who was being devoured by the Mad Hero belonged to.

It was a world that changed constantly around him.

From where he was standing, red, red, no, because it was so red that it had started to turn black, the curse was eroding the land.

The curse had covered all of Roland, devastating the old Estabul Kingdom and continuing to spread to Imperial Nelpha and Runa Empire.

This curse made the people living on these lands submit to Sion Astal.

This curse spread to the ‘Human’s living on these lands, making them become ‘Human α’.

Then, even if it was Nelpha or Runa, they would be done for.

One of the bonds shackling the Fallen Mad Hero in Roland would be broken.

Towards the Central.

They could already head towards the Central.

But.

“…”

Sion closed his eyes and pulled his consciousness back to reality.

He was now riding on a horse.

They had crossed over the boundary between Runa and Roland, heading towards a new land that the Hero had never stepped on before.

Then invade the new lands.

For this, he had moved his operation grounds to Runa Empire.

Surrounding him were tens and thousands of soldiers.

But he couldn’t hear their voices.

He couldn’t hear their footsteps.

He could only hear his own voice.

“…”

I am using fresh blood and the curse to muffle this world’s sounds.

Hearing the sounds of the world changing.

That is the world that I wished for.

That is the mad world that I wished to change.

But he didn’t know why, but he felt quite sad.

“…Sad?” Sion softly said.

“The me who isn’t human any longer, feels sad?” He muttered softly, then started to laugh.

He laughed with a bitter voice.

But Sion Astal could only continue.

The Roland King could only continue.

The Fallen Mad Hero laughed sadly and continued to progress to the north.

For the sake of changing this world.

For the sake of changing this mad world, he—

He suddenly found that he had dirtied his feet.

Fresh blood.

The ocean of blood had dirtied his feet.

“Damn.” Riphal Edea muttered. Then he raised his eyes to observe the current situation.

He was currently preparing to invade a small country called the Divine City of Elon.

Although the Divine City of Elon was the first obstacle that the Gastark ran into when they started to attack the Central Continent, but there was a large difference between the armies of Gastark and the Divine City of Elon.

So, according to common logic, there wouldn’t be a war. Only Gastark sending out the warning to surrender and then the Divine City of Elon would surrender and the war would end.

That was basically what had happened when they had fought with the smaller countries up north.

So this time, they tried sending a warning to surrender to the Divine City of Elon.

“… Are they idiots.” Looking at the mountains of corpses around him, Riphal said, “Didn’t I say I would protect you from Geihlficlant? Why did you give up your lives for nothing?”

As he said that, a pale and calm man standing behind him—Rigwaltz Pentest said, “…There’s no choice. These countries are dependent on the Geihlficlant Empire. If you compare us, who appeared recently with the Geihlficlant Empire, anyone would choose that side.”

He frowned, then turned towards the mountains of dead bodies. There was a torch on the walls of that country. So that even if it was evening, they could still see the situation clearly.

This city, Aislon was the only place where the Divine City of Elon could block Gastark. If they managed to break through this are, then they would gain direct access to the center of Aislon.

Of course, the Divine City of Elon dispatched nearly all of its soldiers to this city Aislon. And the Aislon soldiers were resisting Gastark’s attacks.

It was obvious that they would fail in battle, resisting futilely, shouting and crying, and then dying.

A frighteningly large number of people had died.

This scene was so saddening that it almost seemed funny.

There were people dying.

Riphal walked over these bodies.

He encountered some soldiers resisting and meeting drastic ends, sacrifices on his side. And their progress seemed to be slightly slower than expected.

But.

“It’s ended.” Riphal said.

The foundations of the wall had exploded due to their efforts and it had started to collapse, preventing the soldiers from making any further action to use magic to attack them.

Rize nodded, “Yes, Aislon has collapsed. This way, the Divine City of Elon has ended.”

“If I knew that we were going to have such a stubborn resistance… I would have used Glovil.” Riphal said, looking at the unbelievably long black sword on his back.

It was a cursed sword called the Sword of Regeneration. It needed to eat its owner’s body- namely Riphal’s body- to release a strong destructive power that was equal to that of the god’s.

But Rize shook his head and said, “If it were so easy to use that sword, then it would be troublesome. If we use it so easily, then even if you have many bodies, it won’t work… Even if it wasn’t like that, please don’t use that sword for more than three times in the future…”

Hearing this, there was an ache in Riphal’s left eye that had been eaten by Glovil.

“…”

There were three more times… he thought.

That was the number that he could use Glovil to collapse the three states in this central continent.

Riphal examined the powers in the Central Continent again mentally.

In the Central Continent, there were thirteen countries, including the Divine City of Elon and three states. Although it was put like that, but those thirteen countries were vessel countries of the three states, so it could be said that there were only three countries in the Central Continent.

And the names of those Three States were—

Geihlficlant Empire

Republic of Ertolia

Remrus Empire.

These three countries had a larger land mass than the northern continent and were therefore more powerful than them.

If it included the powers of the vessel countries, then perhaps their combined power would be stronger than the Gastark Empire that had unified the Northern Continent.

As a side note, the country, the Divine City of Elon that was about to surrender to Gastark was a country in the east of the Central Continent, and it was a vessel country of the Geihlficlant Empire.

Although Gastark had sent warnings to the Divine City of Elon at the start of the war, but it had rejected it as they feared Geihlficlant.

After they allowed the other party to witness Gastark’s power, Gastark had sent another warning, but they were rejected again.

Then Gastark sent people to investigate why the Divine City of Elon was rejecting them so vehemently.

They found out that the royalty and nobles had already fled to Geihficlant. Nearly all the nobility and cadres of armed forces had escaped to Geihlficlant. Only the people and soldiers left behind were ordered to buy time so that Geihficlant could arrange an army to deal with Gastark.

That meant.

“…”

At this moment, the wall collapsed.

Then yells came from the soldiers, even though they had been abandoned by their leaders. Even though sadness appeared on their faces, but the soldiers of Divine City of Elon continued to fight.

But.

“…It’s ended.” Rize said.

Riphal nodded, “Yeah. And they didn’t manage to buy enough time for Geihficlant.”

Rize laughed, “That, before Glovil, what preparations do you think they can make? Even before that cursed sword, the Rhule Fragmei can’t even influence it…”

But Riphal used his right eye that had not been eaten to stare at Rize, “If we had allowed them to prepare, then the soldiers that would have sacrificed their lives in front of Glovil would have increased.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, more people would die for nothing, right?”

“Yes, that is true.”

“I hate seeing people die.”

Hearing what Riphal said, Rize smiled calmly and said, “I hate it too. So you can rest assured.”

But Riphal laughed bitterly, using that helpless smile and unhappy eyes to look at Rize, “… Can Geihlficlant like Stohl, using Glovil to make them surrender?”

“Who knows? This is the first time we’re fighting with such a strong country. And our opponent has even hired the Azure Princess. And that Azure Princess can use Rhule Fragmei. This situation, compared to previous occasions, is more…”

“Is it troublesome?”

But Rize laughed. Then he bent down and put his hand on the ground. He touched the red earth that had been stained with the blood of the soldiers of the Divine City of Elon with a sad expression.

“…I will work hard to prevent the situation from progressing to that stage. That means that where would we use that Glovil. Anyway, if we use that sword, we will pay a great price. Because we are using Your Majesty’s body as a sacrifice, so we can’t overuse that sword’s power. So, where can we use it? The important thing is that we make the enemy have disappointing results. I also hate seeing people die. But we need to use it in an area where the enemy would definitely despair when they see it. Then, where should we use it? Because this time, the enemy can use the Rhule Fragmei, so we need to practice devouring that power, giving the enemy despair…” As if talking about his own views to himself, he stood up, laughing and said, “Well, no matter, we can’t lose now.”

Riphal nodded, “If we lose, then I should have died with those comrades who sacrificed their lives for this sword.”

“Yes.”

Riphal stepped to the front, although his foot sank into the soil that was mixed with blood, he didn’t mind it. Because my hands are stained with my comrades’ blood.

I have finally come to a place where I can see my sacrificed comrades’ blood in the Gastark Empire, this has already cursed my soul.

So there is no way to not progress because I am stained with my enemy’s blood, after all that has happened.

So Riphal looked at the collapsed wall of the city and said, “Then, let’s go the next place. If we don’t attack the central hub of the Divine City of Elon and attack the Geihlficlant Empire, then what would the other powers do?”

Rize replied, “No problem. There is still a large distance from here to the Remrus Empire. There is probably nothing they can do now. As for the Republic of Ertolia, according to the information from Sui and Kuu now, there does not seem to be any intentions in helping Geihlficlant. Well, these two countries have not been on good terms. That means if you want to, we can probably attack Geihficlant and Ertolia at the same time…”

At this moment, Riphal raised his hand and interrupted Rize, “You can do anything about that. Anyway, we have to fight with Ertolia sooner or later. After we defeat Geihlficlant, we can plan to attack any other countries. Talking about which, how about the movements of the users with magical eyes?”

“There have been no leads.”

“You didn’t catch sign of anything.”

“Yes. Although Sui and Kuu have already infiltrated the Republic of Ertolia, they haven’t discovered anything… Perhaps they have moved their operation grounds.”

“Don’t tell me they went to Remrus?”

“I don’t know about that. No matter which country, they all hate people with the magical eyes, so maybe they have hidden in a country without any permission?”

Riphal thought about the figures of those users with the magical eyes. He thought about the figures of those sad people who had been living a cursed life because they had been born with those cursed eyes.

And those figures overlapped with his own body.

They overlapped with himself who had been born in despair and who had been cursed with this destiny and sword.

But even so, he would not sympathise with them. Because they were definitely a group of people who had been cursed. A group of people who would make everything strange just by living in this world.

Although he said it like that, ma, even if it was Iino Dwoe, Ebula Crypt, Wilno Heim, Alpha Stigma or the number of Rhule Fragmei that the Gastark held, thinking about it should not be too much of a problem.

But.

“But if they appear now, it would be very troublesome.” Riphal said.

According to his sources, the king of all the magical eyes, the ‘Solver of All Equations’ had left Roland. If this happened, then all the people with magical eyes could gather at his side.

His name seemed to be Ryner Lute.

At this moment, Rize said, as if seeing through Riphal’s thoughts, “Riphal does not have the ability to choose women.”

“Idi~ot. Kiefer will definitely return.”

“I don’t think so.”

“That woman has already fallen in love with me, ai?”

“Ai~ I can’t see it at all~”

“You’re lying?”

“Really. Anyway, you know it’s true, don’t you? The one she loves is Ryner Lute. She is a pitiful woman who has fallen in love with a ‘monster’. So I said, if you don’t kill her, then you’ll have to snatch her away, right? Even if you forcefully make her love you, she will still be happy by your side. But why did you let her go?”

Riphal looked at Rize and then suddenly laughed, saying honestly, “Because I really love her.”

Rize revealed a defeated expression and said, “You’re always like this.”

“Idi~ot. If you don’t really fall in love with a woman, then what else can you do?”

“Yes yes. As long as Riphal says he has completely fallen in love with a woman, he will definitely be dumped.” Rize said. He didn’t use ‘Your Majesty’, but Riphal.

Riphal laughed, “If I am dumped again, then accompany me and get drunk.”

“Ha ha ha, but before that, we have to drink a celebration toast to defeating Geihlficlant. Then, we should clean up.” As he said this, Rize walked to the front. He commanded a few of his subordinates and started to arrange for what they would do after the war.

Riphal looked at all of these and then looked to the southern sky, thinking of Kiefer, who he had allowed to return to Roland and said softly, “… Well, anyway that person will return one day.”

If she wanted to save Ryner Lute—this ‘Solver of All Equations’, then she would definitely need my help. So Kiefer will definitely bring the Demon here.

And she will come back while crying.

Because she would come back crying with despair and begging me to help.

Save Ryner.

Save him.

Please kill him so that he could be released from this curse.

Kiefer will definitely beg Riphal to do that.

“…”

He didn’t want to see her crying face. He thought. No one would like to see the woman that they loved crying. So it was best that before things like that happen, I kill that guy.

And then to the source of the distortion of the world.

Kill Sion Astal too.

“…”

If Kiefer likes Ryner, then I will create a world where Kiefer and Ryner can happily smile and live in.

Then.

“Well, even so, I can only continue to progress in the end…”

He said, then he walked to the front.

He walked to the mountains of corpses.

He hid the sad expression behind his eye patch and announced his tyranny over this piece of the Central Continent.

And the one to be their first victim would be the Geihlficlant Empire.

### 003. Chapter 3: Inside of Hope

After the surrender of the Divine City of Elon, the Gastark Empire began its advancement to the Geihlficlant Empire.

Around the same time, Ryner continued to further advance his postition.

Currently Ryner, riding the carriage prepared by the Republic of Belis, continued heading north to the Geihlficlant Empire.

The carriage was suprisingly spacious; riding inside including Ryner were, Toale, Kiefer, Ferris, Vois, and said to be the Vois's close aide, the female soldier in black armor. Fixed to the center was a table they surrounded and yet there still was space leftover.

On the table were three maps spreaded out. They were prepared by Vois, maps of the Menoris Continent detailing the state of affairs, mountain ranges, rivers, up to the names of the countries and a brief rough figure of military strength.

Including Vois's movement plans from hereafter, these three maps were laid out.

While studying the brief map of military strength, Ryner ran over in his head the current situation of the continent that Vois informed him of along the road.

Just by examining the movements of five countries, you can grasp almost all of the circumstances.

The first is the Gastark Empire that has completely unified the northern continent.

Another is the Roland Empire that has engulfed the entirety of the southern continent.

And then in the middle continent, surpassing all of the southern continent's combined territories, were three massive countries —

— The Geihlficlant Empire, the Republic of Ertolia, and the Remrus Empire, known as the three major countries of the middle continent.

Apparently, at the mercy of the movement of the five countries, are all the still existing smaller countries.

Well for now, even putting aside Roland and Gastark, in a situation like this, with the three major countries so immense, the smaller countries would have to become vassal states or they will be soon crushed.

So even the alleged Anti-Roland Coalition organization formed by Vois, centered in the Republic of Belis, is no exception and was backed up by a major power.

By the way, when the coalition was just created they originally had the Remrus Empire's backup; however at Vois's decision, they rejected their assistance and are now searching for a new lead.

So now, they are continuing the negotiations with the Geihlficlant Empire to receive their backing and yet,

"Those guys from the 'Azure Princess' are getting in the way."

Vois said.

In other words, the Anti-Roland Coalition army and the "Azure Princess" are competing over who gets the support of the Geihlficlant Empire.

To that, Ryner faced Vois,

"So you made me your comrade to do something about the 'Azure Princess'?"

Nodding, Vois answered,

"Thats right. You are acquainted with the leader of the 'Azure Princess.'

"And you're keeping the identity from me right? Just who is it, and why the heck wont you tell me?" asked Ryner.

"It's not like I'm keeping it from you. It's just that there were too many things we had to do and I couldn't find the right timing to tell you," replied Vois.

Well, there was that too, nodded Ryner.

Certainly there was a mountain of things to do the last two weeks, and it was quite tiresome.

To start with, they just couldn't keep moving with the refugees from Nelpha, and would the Republic of Belis accept them? Would they properly receive them? They've been running about mostly because of this.

Toale who just recently had his prosthetic arm and leg attached with magic still cant use it well, yet he participated in the negotiation with the leaders of the Belis Republic for several days and nights.

To the point Toale became completely exhausted.

Although negotiations came close to breaking down, for now as a result, the refugees were accepted into Belis as official citizens. This brought up the problem of what to do with the soldiers that followed Toale up to this point.

If the soldiers cannot just enter the middle continent while maintaining their Nelphian nationality, then under which power should they go to? Would they remain in the Republic of Belis with the citizens and fight with the oncoming Roland army? Or should they disband for now and join the Anti-Roland Coalition army? However to that the soldiers were unwilling, asserting that they will not follow anyone other than Toale-sama and Major Seruesu. Then where does Toale and Seruesu stand? "If you guys treat Toale-sama and Major Seruesu badly we wont forgive you!" -kind of volatile atmosphere spread among the soldiers.

Somehow, the discussion took a further four more days.

In conclusion, Toale was accepted as an executive staff of the Anti-Roland Coalition, and former Major Kazaaru Seruesu, as a direct subordinate of Toale, was given the ranking of Major General.

Well, even if you say executive staff or major general, it's not very convincing since it's not clear just what kind of organization the Anti-Roland Coalition is. However, because Toale was received with a favorable treatment, the Nelphian soldiers gave consent.

And so, currently led by Major General Seruesu the soldiers, taking a different route than Ryner's group, are also heading towards Geihlficlant. Incidentally, Ferris's little sister Iris, Arua, and Kuku are also traveling with that group. Well, anyhow setting that aside.

Facing Vois, Toale said,

"Nevertheless, no matter how much you say you've been busy, you wouldn't give us a proper explanation at all. Although I am thankful the Anti-Roland Coalition has accepted the Nelphian soldiers and citizens, just what kind of organization are you? You call yourself Anti-Roland yet why did you send our Nelphian soldiers to Geihlficlant? Shouldn't they be fighting the Roland army approaching north?"

There was much more to it. Toale had left the people who followed him up to the Republic of Belis. If the Roland army were to attack Belis now, the citizens would be sacrificed along with them. In which case, it would make bringing the citizens desperately across the countries meaningless.

Obviously, it would be better for the Anti-Roland Coalition army to stop the Roland Empire oncoming north. Even if it's not so—

As Ryner developed his thoughts, whether Toale thought the same, he continued.

"Even if it is not so, the soldiers are exhausted. Attacked by the Roland troops, losing many comrades, and yet, while stressed, still desperately marching foward day and night to this point. Despite this, without a rest the whole army advances to Geihlficlant. I wont be satisfied until I receive an explanation for such recklessness."

Toale strongly exclaimed.

Vois then looked towards Toale, smirking.

"............"

However, he only laughed without answering.

Then Toale narrowed his usually peaceful brown eyes sharply. As if to yell something he opened his mouth,

But interrupting,

"Most likely..."

Kiefer muttered.

"Most likely we are moving because, even if left Bellis in this condition, the military force we have here isn't enough to win against Roland, right? However, I don't see the reason to move all the Nelphian troops to Geihlficant. I understand that we are going to there to receive the backing of Geihlficant, but isn't it enough for just us to go? If Ryner is the aquaintance of the leader of that mercenary group, the 'Azure Princess', isn't it a matter of Ryner going there to settle it? I don't understand the reason to purposely waste effort to move the tens of thousands Nelphian soldiers. Unless......"

She continued,

"Unless, does Vois-kun intends to have a war with the 'Azure Princess' at our destination?"

However to that question as well, Vois turned towards Kiefer,

"............"

Maintaining his irritating smirk, he gave no reply.

Hearing that, Kiefer's lovely face darkened a little as she looked at Vois with distrust. Toale has long since been making an indignant expression.

To that Ryner thought,

(Well, this guy's always like this you know? Always aloof, and thinks of nothing but deceiving people, kind of guy. I mean, he was born into a clan of swindlers back in the no longer existing Iyet Republic. I thought I ought to explain this but, I stopped.

Either way, as long as Vois doesn't give a proper explanation, we can't keep following him.

Actually, working with this guy would be way too troublesome.)

Wearily, Ryner asked,

"Well, most of the questions have been accumulated, but do you intend to answer any of them?"

Vois nodded and replied,

"Of course, but rather than that, these are all the questions right? If there is anything else you want to ask, please go ahead and speak up. After all, everything is related. It would be the quickest to answer all the questions in one go, right? If I answer Toale's, Kiefer's and Ryner's questions just now, will everyone be satisfied?"

At that moment,

"No, that's still not enough,"

Ferris spoke.

In response, Vois turned towards Ferris,

"Of course, there are tasty dango shops in Geihlficlant too."

And for some reason, to that Ferris nodded strongly,

"Then it's fine. You understand quite well don't you."

"Don't I?"

"Umu"

Like that, the two exchanged a stupid conversation. Presumably too tired, no one retorted.

Eyes half-closed, Ryner stared at Ferris and then surveying his surroundings,

"So, no one has anymore questions right?"

Everyone nodded.

After confirming that Ryner continued,

"Well then Vois, begin your explanation. Ah, by the way, if you use those lies you're so good at, right away Ferris's sword will spout flames."

Again Vois laughed, while saying something like,

"Although, I rather like being hit by Ferris."

Then Ferris nodded,

"Without getting hit, your head's gonna fly."

"Eh~♡"

And to Vois, who for some reason had a ♡ (<3) mark attached,

"You know, even though we've been ridiculously busy lately, you're still energetic eh~. I guess it's the age difference,"

Ryner somewhat sighed.

"Well, for now it's about time you continue."

Vois nodded.

He then looked towards his close aide, the female soldier sitting besides him.

According to her, as she boarded the carriage, her name is Relca Redehna.

With bright brown hair, and contrasting, a pair of dark eyes. A beautiful girl, with a bit loli-ish face, that Vois seems to favor.

Although, sitting close by was the abnormally beautiful Ferris, and the once boasted academy's most popular Kiefer, so you can't simply say, "beautiful girl." Well, it's really up to preference.

Contrasting her young appearance however, her eyes glinted sharply. Since boarding the carriage, she remained silent. With a pen, she simply continued to write on the papers she held.

Facing her, Vois spoke to Relca,

"The preparations?"

Without lifting her head from the papers, Relca answered,

"In about eight seconds."

"I see. Then within that time, the debut of a dirty joke I recently saved for everyone—"

"It's completed."

"Ehh~, wasn't that too early? That was only about two seconds you know?"

At Vois's words, Relca giggled as she looked towards him.

Although he did not respond to her smile, it seems Relca is not dissatisfied with Vois.

Besides.

"............"

Whatever, it's just two kid's love affair— no wait, Vois is no option right? That guy's a real pervert you know? Well, it really doesn't matter so I'll just keep quiet.

Ryner thought for a bit.

After placing the papers she was frantically writing in on the desk, Relca then announced,

"...... I have complied most of everyone's questions into this report. Please speak up if the information here is insufficient. As everyone is reading the report, in addition, I will write it up."

Ryner then cast his eyes down at the report spread across the desk. The report was written smoothly with tidy penmanship and the various information was organized to be understood easily.

For example, it had an organization chart of the Anti-Roland Coalition, the route they took from the establishment to the present, Vois's idea of how should the Three Major Powers and the Anti-Roland Coalition interact from now on, and so on.

Within this information, Ryner found the answers to Toale and Kiefer's inquiry earlier.

Why is it necessary to unreasonably press the Nelphian soldiers to the Geihlficlant Empire instead of engaging the Roland Empire forces ongoing north to the Belis Republic?

Written were Toale and Kiefer's questions, and the response was as follows.

1. With the current strength of the Anti-Roland Coaltion army, we are able to defend several attacks from the north going Roland army. But we do not hold enough power to defend continuously from this point.

2. In other words, in order to crush the Roland army head-on, an even greater force will be needed. In this case, with the backing of the Geihlficlant Empire.

3. However, the Geihlficlant Empire currently has their sights set on heading to war with the northern continent's Gastark Empire heading south with tremendous momentum.

4. As a mercenary group, the "Azure Princess" is participating in the war. Seeking to increase their war gains, they intend to obtain an exclusive support contract with the Geihlficlant Empire.

5. Similarly, wanting the support of Geihlficalnt, the Anti-Roland Coalition cannot let the "Azure Princess" monopolize rights of Geihlficlant relations.

6. Therefore it is necessary for the Anti-Roland Coalition to proceed towards the war against the Gastark Empire. Naturally, as an adaptable fighting potential, the Nelphian soldiers that have recently fought against the Roland army, will need to participate.

Such was written.

With his voice trembling a little, Toale spoke,

"...... Again....... do you intend to make war again?"

Vois responded, laughing,

"Aha, did you think there was another path for soldiers who've lost their country other than the battlefield?"

Ryner grimaced at those words and said,

"Wait, that maybe be so but...... we've been continuously fighting lately, they're exhausted. The way you put it......"

Glancing at his way, Voice interrupted,

"We don't have the leisure to select our words, Ryner-san. The middle continent is moving rapidly. The same way as a business that loses an opportunity will not succeed, you cannot win a war if you've lost your chances of victory. But we can still do it. According to my investigations, Gastark is quite dangerous. Boasting an overwhelming strength, they are a much more severe opponent than Roland. Furthermore, the only chance to take advantage of them is in this war."

At those words Ryner looked over to Vois,

"Ah~"

and said,

"Ah, somehow I finally get what you're trying to do. In other words, it's that right? You intend to use both sides, both Geihlficlant and the 'Azure Princess,' right?"

On hearing that, Vois grinned happily,

".......Ah, does Ryner-san finally feel like using his brains a bit?"

and said such a thing.

Ignoring him, Ryner continued,

"Even though you guys already have enough power to hold off the attacks from Roland, you guys are turning all that power to the war with Gastark. Now, I wonder why? The answer is, because we can only deal with Gastark now. The timing to use Geihlficlant, the 'Azure Princess,' and the Anti-Roland Coalition army, these three forces, to oppose Gastark is only now. According to your predictions, unless we attack Gastark with multiple forces, we can't stop them, is what you're thinking, right?"

To that question,

"............"

As always, maintaining a cheerful face, Vois said nothing.

Ryner carried on, disregarding Vois.

"Because they are the same as you, Gastark is also using the Rhule Fragmei. You want to completely crush the opponent that uses the same power. So you thought, how would you be able to thoroughly destroy Gastark? And your conclusion was this. With the timing of when Gastark attacks Geihlficlant, you'll lend a hand. As for the 'Azure Princess'......."

With a cheerful face, Vois spoke,

"I was the one who approached them first. After all, while being small scaled, they hold tremendous power. Moreover, they also have conducted research on the Rhule Fragmei, I thought that I could use them to fight together with us when we collide with Gastark...... So, in small amounts, I gave them the info that Gastark was dangerous, except midway what I was doing was exposed to their leader. To make matters worse, they were much nastier than I expected. I was already almost killed several times."

He placed his hand on his chest while saying, 'oh so scary'.

Ryner gave a bitter smile as if tired.

"So you thought, ah this is bad, and handed me the position as the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition to avoid getting killed?"

"Yeah."

"And you also picked me, because apparently I'm an acquaintance of the leader of the 'Azure Princess?'"

"That's right. Well, those aren't the only reasons...... But let's keep it at that shall we? Leaving that aside......"

Vois stretched his hand out to the desk placed in the center of the wagon. He then turned over the map with the whole continent of Menoris drawn out.

On that side he turned to, another map was depicted.

It was a map of the entire Menoris continent dyed black, and written in the middle was "Gastark Empire."

Looking at that,

"............"

Looking at the map completely unified by Gastark, the atmosphere in the wagon became strained at once.

After confirming this, Vois spoke up.

"I did not make this map as a joke. As of now that wannabe hero, Riphal Edea, has that much power. If we miss this timing, Gastark posses enough power to obtain this whole continent. It's not as if I can't continue business no matter what kind of world, however...... considering the death count in order to achieve this map, Ryner-san don't you feel like stopping it?"

Vois laughed, “Although it is generally spoken like that, but there should be several great powers checking the limits of each other. Bargaining is like that too. If you completely defeat all the opponents on the market, winning completely, the game ends too. And there is no way to expand because of competition… And we are going to stop this matter from happening in the world~! That is our situation now.”

But Ryner was unable to accept this saying, although he wanted to try to accept it, but he discovered that he couldn’t accept it.

“Although I roughly understand what you’re saying… but even so there are several parts that are unclear. Combining these three elements can push back Gastark—up till here, I understand. But what will happen after that? Accept Geihlficlant’s help and push back Roland? But there is the matter where the Azure Princess will not allow us to gain Geihlficlant’s help, right? How should we handle this point…”

Vois simply answered: “There is no need to deal with it.”

Ryner asked: “Ah? Then what should we do?”

Vois frowned, troubled, staring at Ryner, “That, Ryner.”

“EH?”

“Relca wrote out that report with much difficulty, could you read all of it first before you proceed with questioning? Everything about that has been written, so if you have questions regarding these matters, no matter how many I will reply to then… But we don’t have the time to spend talking here. Because we are going to war soon.” Vois said.

We are going to war.

This matter made Ryner depressed.

We are going to instigate the war—because Ryner had already decided to stop the war where Roland would instigate it, so we can’t help but go and instigate another war.

But…

But, he felt that there was a little strange sense of violation.

“…”

At this moment Vois suddenly stood up, saying: “Then, let’s go. We have two days before we reach Geihlficlant Empire. After that we will go to the palace, meet the king and negotiate with him, to let us participate in this battle against Gastark. Then perhaps there will be two weeks before we encounter with the Gastark army. Anyway before that, I will have to gather the rest of the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers. So I will leave here first.”

Ryner looked at Vois, asking: “Oh? Then what should we do?”

Vois answered: “Relca will follow you, so please listen to her instructions. But the authority of the load of Geihlficlant Empire and Azure Princess will be handed to Ryner.”

“That means? What? Isn’t that the most important thing…”

Vois interrupted Ryner, “It’s expected of the king to go and handle the most troublesome matters?”

“What king! You’ve clearly been pushing the most troublesome matters to me starting from just now…”

But Vois ignored Ryner, opening the door to the carriage, thinking of jumping off the moving carriage.

“Wait, stop Vois. You, don’t talk to yourself…”

But he was ignored again.

“Then Relca, everyone will be under your care.”

Relca nodded, “Yes. Vois-sama please take care of yourself.”

“Yes yes. Relca must take care of herself too. Then…” Vois jumped out, although he nearly fell when he landed, but a subordinate stationed around the carriage helped him.

That subordinate was also a beautiful girl, Vois smiled happily, waving in their direction, using a frivolous tone to say: “Then, the rest will be left to you.”

Everyone watched this scene speechlessly.

Gently sighing, closing the carriage door, sitting down, Ryner crossed his arms depressedly, looking around the interior of the carriage, then saying: “So we can only go and negotiate with the king of the Geihlficlant Empire.”

Although it seemed to be a matter that could not be helped with, just by hearing it.

Because, it’s like that? A youngster of uncertain origins and a king of an unfamiliar large country negotiating, it was an abnormal behavior no matter how you looked at it.

At this moment Kiefer looked to Relca who had been left behind by Vois, “That… Vois-kun of course has already…”

Before she finished speaking, Relca nodded, “Yes. Vois-sama has already sent a letter requesting for an audience to the king of Geihlficlant, Gulafed Abuleld.”

“The reply from the other party?”

“He has decided to meet the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

Hearing this Ryner “Ahh?” cried out loud, “Wait… give me a moment. But the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition jumped off the carriage earlier…”

Relca interrupted him, looking at Ryner, continuing: “Now, on the surface, the representative of the Anti-Roland Coalition is you, Your Majesty Ryner Lute. You’ll understand just by reading the report that I handed in just now, Vois-sama is only the general and head of state.”

“Eh?” Ryner turned his eyes to one of the pages of the report on the table, “But, from what you said, the general should be the leader, right? But saying that I am the leader…” At this moment, his speech stopped.

After looking carefully at the map of the organization, he discovered that there truly was a detailed explanation of the structure of the Anti-Roland Coalition.

It was an organization that was larger than what Ryner had imagined.

It held four small countries, governing all matters and armies in them.

Then on this map where Vois-kun had the highest position of general or head of state that seemed great no matter how you looked at it, although it felt like Vois was the leader no matter how you looked at it, but above that, in a place that was slightly far away and did not seem to be governed, and had little influence on the Anti-Roland Coalition, Ryner saw a string of words—

The king in name: Ryner Lute

“You’re teasing me!”

Relca nodded, “Yes.”

“Hey hey.”

“But Ryner’s job is very important too. If it’s to be described then it’s something like a ninja existence that would distract the enemies’ attention from Vois-sama. We have also been instructed to display the proper respect towards your performance.” Relca said with a serious expression.

Ryner hearing that, looking around.

He looked at Ferris’, Kiefer’s and Toale’s faces.

“…I’ve completely been used by Vois. Then, what should I do?” Ryner said.

But the three people remained silent.

That was natural, Vois had created this situation where they could not reject and left.

Because Ryner was unable to guarantee the living quarters and rations for the tens of thousands of Nelpha refugees and army.

And Vois had prepared these, then he had pushed this lousy condition of work over.

So Ryner and the others couldn’t reject it.

Ryner yelled, “…Ah~ Damnit, that guy is troublesome~” as he picked up two or three sheets of paper from the report on the table, lying on the floor, starting to read it.

Ryner asked Relca: “Then, for the negotiations with the king of Geihlficlant, what do I need to remember?”

Hearing this question, Relca smiled. That smile seemed to give off a feeling as if saying that so you have bowed your head to Vois-sama, making Ryner feel that the troublesome MODE was turned up.

Then she replied: “In the two days before we reach Geihlficlant, you will have to remember to death many things. And first you have to correct that habit you have of slouching and cast away that impolite fashion of speaking.”

Hearing this, Ryner couldn’t even sigh.

But in truth, he did slouch slightly, and he was unable to talk to royals politely.

As he thought that, Ryner focused his attention on the report.

And he discovered that there were a few things that Vois had never spoken of, but Ryner had his own suspicions when they started conversing.

Like why Vois rejected the help of the Remrus Empire, but suddenly accepting the help of the Geihlficlant Empire? A few reasons to this question were written.

The first reason was, to stop Gastark Empire from extending into the middle of the continent, they needed to combine forces with Geihlficlant. Because Geihlficlant did not have a good relationship with Remrus, so if they accepted Remrus’ help, they could not hold Gastark off with Geihlficlant, so Vois suddenly rejected Remrus Empire’s help.

But only like this, the explanation was still not enough. If they continued to accept Remrus’ help, they could fight with Roland. And Remrus Empire was a large country in the middle of the continent that was near the southern areas.

To Roland who was expanding its territories from the south, this location made it very suitable.

But Vois decided to cut short Remrus’ help, and changed to Geihlficlant.

Then, why was that? The real reason was written on the report.

There had been a huge political reform in Remrus Empire in half a year, from the country that was called the Holy Land of Veiohl it suddenly changed to Remrus Empire.

The Holy Land of Veiohl was a country that was built on a religion called Veiohl, but half a year ago, there was a strange hero that appeared, grabbing the authority of the country.

But there was no war.

From another country’s point of view, they may only think that the name of the country merely changed, there was no ruckus raised.

In addition that hero’s name was Remrus Remuld Aarqued.

According to this hero’s name, the country’s name changed to the Remrus Empire.

The country that had Veiohl as their country’s religion changed to Remrus as the new divine religion.

It was truly only using half a year’s time, the stage where he changed the whole country made one feel horrified. And when Remrus Remuld Aarqued became the king, the Anti-Roland Coalition cut off their ties with the Remrus Empire.

Then that reason was—

“…”

At the same time Ryner’s eyes narrowed. Staring that what the report wrote, the reason why the Anti-Roland Coalition cut off their ties with the Remrus Empire, he became slightly nervous.

The report, wrote this.

Using Relca’s neat calligraphy, it was written like that. Remrus Remuld Aarqued was not human. And it was something that had bad relations with the Goddesses, an organism that had come from somewhere, so if they continued to deal with the Remrus Empire, they would gain the ire of the Goddesses living in the desert. So, they had temporarily cut their ties with the Remrus Empire. These things were written in the report.

Ryner looked to Relca, handing the report that he was reading to her, asking: “This is?”

Relca shook her head, saying: “I basically wasn’t notified about information regarding ‘theology’, so for the detailed information, please ask Vois-sama directly.”

Ryenr suddenly felt like laughing.

Relca said ‘theology’.

The matters regarding the Goddess who seemed to be connected to a monster no matter how you looked at it, calling it ‘theology’.

Theology.

Theology… was it…? Ryner muttered softly without being heard, then continued to think.

Relca was not notified about information regarding ‘theology’, this point was probably trie. No matter what even if Vois had to be careful in order to manipulate those monsters that didn’t seem like human that were called Goddesses . So that had to be an extremely dangerous behavior.

No matter that the other party were monsters that had been given a divine name.

Then, he couldn’t reveal the information so easily to his subordinates.

But although this was a little bit, Ryner thought that way.

“…”

It seemed like the world was much more troublesome than what he had thought. He thought.

When he saw Sion changed, when he heard the voice that descended from the sky when his eyes went berserk, he had thought that.

Then when he saw an ugly monster called the Goddess appear from Vois’ shadow, he had thought that.

And it seemed that the most troublesome thing in this world was that there was someone in this world that could control this monster that should only appear in children tales.

Even if it were Remrus, Roland or Gastark, the famous countries in this world seemed to more or less have some connection with these monsters.

And Sion who had been swallowed by that darkness turned strange.

Then Ryner who had been swallowed by that darkness was always tortured by these cursed eyes.

So it seemed that if he continued that darkness, he would be unable to continue walking forward.

But, that wasn’t human, it was a monster.

It was a monster that had a strong power that could make it a divinity, what should we as humans do? Ryner was suddenly a little unsettled.

Then he looked to Ferris, Kiefer and Toale.

He looked at these human companions who were not monsters.

He looked these companions who were only weak humans and would die easily in front of the power of the Heroes’ Relics.

“…”

How should I proceed forward? He thought.

At this moment he suddenly remembered what Vois had said not long ago. He remembered what Vois had said, after they had seen that act where Toale was almost killed.

Vois seemed to say this.

“Although this time he didn’t die. Although this time he really didn’t die. But, next time he will definitely die, he will die a shockingly simple death. Because in war—humans are not able to be so strong.”

But

“…This is not a normal war.” Ryner muttered softly.

Yes.

This was not a normal war between humans.

It was a strange war that involved monsters from childhood tales.

And he didn’t understand what war the monsters would create.

But even though he didn’t understand, even if were Sion, Gastark or Vois, then Ryner could only start moving.

He obviously was not clear about who and which army he should fight against, but he still started to act.

Then, the moving gears could not be stopped.

People would die, people would die, people would die, but even so the gears would not stop.

Vois had said that. He had said that to Ryner.

“You said you would bear the responsibility of people’s lives. You said you would bear the lives of the citizens. Then, even if companions die, you have no right to stop. Even if Kiefer is beheaded, even if Ferris dies, you don’t have the time for crying. You don’t have the leisure to cry.”

Although he had though how could something so stupid exist, but, this was the truth.

Ryner looked at Kiefer and Ferris and Toale. Apart from Ferris, everyone was reading the report on the table seriously.

We have already been involved in this strange war.

Then if we continue to be involved, then there is a possibility that we will die.

Everyone, could all die.

Die because of the war.

Die because of the Heroes’ Relic .

Die from the monster’s attacks.

It was simple.

It was easy, humans could die.

Even if Ryner shouted everyone is important to me, I don’t want to fight with anyone , these nonsense, no one would listen to it.

It was like yelling you are my close friend , but Sion did not stop.

Then.

“…”

Then, what should he do? If his expectations could come true, if he wished that he could save his important people, not letting his companions cry, what should he do?

The answer was simple.

“…”

It was to become strong.

He had to gain enough knowledge that he would not lose to anyone.

He had to have a strong knowledge that would make the Goddess , the monsters, the logic in the world seem like idiots.

“What, if it were so simple it would be fine…” Ryner said to himself as he laughed bitterly.

But it seemed that no matter what he needed that power.

No, once he had thought of doing this. But in the end it had turned into a battle ground where he had killed his companions, Kiefer was crying, Sion was crying, everything was all useless.

At that moment, Ryner had done that.

So even if it was a little, it was good if he could slowly change this world, Ryner thought, the two years he had spent in Roland’s prison, he had always proceeded with researching this.

But even so time passed quickly.

Sion decided to challenge this world alone.

The world turned into a place where monsters moved in the darkness.

Then, there were people who died too.

Companions died.

When Ryner thought to move slowly, everything ended.

Every time he saw everything, he always thought that he was too lazy. The world clearly would not change even if he worked harder, I clearly didn’t do anything, I only spent the days lazily, he thought.

“…”

At this moment, the right wrist that was holding the report touched his left wrist. He touched his arm.

He touched his body that was said to be as weak as an idiot by Zohra.

Then, he thought.

Perhaps compared to the past, his body was much more relaxed. Although his magical knowledge had increased, but because Sion had been protecting him, so he left that bloody life that was filled with killing people or being slaughtered.

At least the present him, had no power to protect all of his companions.

Then Ryner thought, ah? That means I have to train myself again?

Wuah what is that, how troublesome. Seriously training and whatnot, he had never done that after Germer’s serious training.

But, even so.

“…”

Even so.

“…I will still have to do it.” He thought.

If there is the need, if this can protect my companions, I will work hard.

Although that was too late, although I have been spending my days like an idiot so it may be too late—but, if because I didn’t do it and caused someone to die, then it will leave regret and I will never be able to climb up again.

So.

“…Ah~, I’ll go out for a moment.” Ryner said, standing up.

Because of his sudden movement, everyone in the carriage raised their heads.

“What is it?” Toale asked, “Is there anything wrong?”

Ryner frowned, “No, actually there isn’t anything…”

Ferris suddenly said: “What, you want to go to the toilet.”

Ryner nodded, “Yes yes, toilet toilet.”

Then Relca said: “Then, stop the carriage.”

But Ryner shook his head, “No no, there isn’t much time left before the war with Gastark, right? It’s fine if you don’t stop the carriage. I have something else to do besides going to the toilet, if it’s completed, I catch up.” Saying that, he took the report on the table, opened the carriage door, jumped off.

“Ah? Wait.”

“Ryner?”

Although he heard those voices, but Ryner chose to ignore them, then came to the outside, dropping on the ground. Because the carriage did not stop, so if this continued they would be further away.

Ryner didn’t do anything, only temporarily watching the carriage leave. Then he slowly used his finger to trace something in the air.

In the glowing air, he wrote words.

It was a difficult magic from the Estabul Kingdom that could release the mental limits placed on the body and maximize its abilities.

Then, he chanted “…I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.” A blinding glow surrounded his body, increasing his speed. At the degree where it would shatter his whole body if he did anything more, he increased the speed of the magic.

He confirmed the effects, then breathed in, “Ah~ how troublesome.” He said that, as he tried to use the fundamental high speed attacks that Germer Kleisrole had taught in the training for war, and discovered that after he had increased his speed his body was unable to move flexibly. “Oh oh, my body has really gone slack…” Saying that, he practiced with seven different moves, doing them ten times in a row before he ended it. His whole body was already aching from the magic, only like this, he held his breath as if he were about to vomit.

“Oh no.” Ryner shouted as he did not stop his movements. Without releasing the magic for his increase in speed he started to chase after the carriage. Using a surprising aura, chasing after the carriage.

Then as he chased after it, he yelled, “Urrrrrgggh I really want to vomit. I really feel like vomiting. I clearly had no bonds with hard work and tolerance when I was booorn!” Although he said something as silly as that, but he did not stop. Only when he almost caught up with the carriage did he slow his pace, continuing to run. To gain back his body strength that had been diminishing because he was too relaxed, he continued to run. He was clear that he could not gain back all of his strength before the war with Gastark, so he suppressed the urge to sleep afternoon naps, running like an idiot.

Then as he ran he read the continuation of the report.

And he discovered a place that he had his suspicions about.

It was information about the Azure Princess.

It was a record about the leader of the Azure Princess that Ryner knew.

It was written like that.

Mercenary squad—important personnel of the Azure Princess. The leader called the Queen.

Pia Varliere.

20 years old.

Female.

User of Congenital Magic Abnormality . Was under the same training with Ryner Lute in the training facility of Germer Kleisrole. When she was six years old, she escaped from Roland Empire. Very strong.

Peria Peruula.

20 years old.

Male.

Seems to be a sacrificial lamb from Roland’s magical experiments. Body strength is unknown.

Like Pia Varliere he was under the same training programme with Ryner Lute at the Germer Kleisrole training academy… After escaping from Roland, he has always been moving with Pia Varliere. Very strong.

Zohra Rom.

20 years old.

Male.

Originally Roland Empire’s assassin.

Once after Ryner Lute defeated Kuwonto Kuo who had been called the “Greatest Mage in Roland”, then left Roland, becoming a traitor that was chased after, in the end he joined Pia Varliere’s Azure Princess, standing with Peria Peruula by her side. Continuously writing about these impressive matters.

Then looking at this, looking at Pia and Peria’s names, Ryner’s face was if possible, it crumpled as if it weren’t able to be more contorted, then shouting: “It’s them!”

Talking about which, Peria’s personality was still steady so that would be put aside, but now Pia’s existence had become the most troublesome matter, he thought depressedly.

No matter what, her personality was most troublesome. It could even be said to be as bad as Ferris. (Ryner corrected, Ferris was becoming more and more proud.)

From young she had a queen-like quality. She was more imperious than their teacher Germer.

And because they had too much power, so they were unable to control their powers and hearts. This person with congenital magical abnormality clearly had a mental weakness, but she had self-control, and she was able to analyze the situation very well, it was only under the situation where they were fighting, then she really let him see her genius-like power.

It was an oppressive power that no matter how strong Ryner became, even if he used the Alpha Stigma to fight her he would not be able to defeat her.

In the end she had even surpassed their teacher’s Germer Kleisrole’s power, taking Peria with her and escaped the country.

No, she had actually called Ryner to come with them, but he did not follow.

Because he had always been escaping. Because he thought that if he had a connection with someone, these cursed eyes would hurt them, so he could only escape. So Ryner had esaped from Pia and the others side.

Then he had never met them every again.

But until Ryner was twelve or thirteen years old, they would send a letter every two years.

But the contents of the letter was always the same. “To the cowardly Ryner. Haven’t you had the thoughts of coming over to us? It’s clear that if you always stay in Roland you will never open your destiny. Miller, Germer, they both think that you should go out of the country because you have become weak due to despair. If you say something we will come help you, so come to my side quickly. Because we already have the power to save you. In the two months when you receive this letter we will be at XXXX, you have to come. Understand? If you don’t come I’ll kill you.

Your queen forever, Pia Varliere

Well, we will really wait for you. If you want to come, come.

Your friend Peria Peruula.” He would always receive this letter. In addition in the XXXX there would be a different location written there every time.

But.

“So Azure Princess was Pia and the others…” Ryner groaned softly.

Thinking about his fellow comrades who he had been separated from in the distant past, he had an expression that was happy but also unhappy.

Furthermore people who had Congenital Magical Abnormality had a different hair colour from normal people, their hair would turn to the colour of water, so Pia had beautiful long blue hair.

And now the mercenary squad that he had to carry out the successful negotiations with was called Azure Princess too.

“Talking about which, why didn’t I notice it…” Softly murmuring.

Then he tilted his slightly depressed face to look at the sky as he proceeded towards Geihlficlant.

He looked to the northern sky that had probably had more troublesome opponents than the Geihlficlant king, sighing, saying: “…Urgh~ I have always ignored the invitations, then Pia upon discovering that I have suddenly become the enemy must be very angry…”

Then he started to train his body with more vigor. If he did not do that, if the situation became one that he had to fight Pia no matter what, the present him probably wouldn’t even be able to say anything.

She is a genius of that stage, just because they admired this strong person, Peria, Zohra, would follow her.

Talking about which, Zohra had been dumped horribly by a woman in the past, from then on he became strong in order to get the girl’s acknowledgement, and started to train himself. Although I remember Zohra saying this when I met him, then that is because of Pia… Ryner started to reconsider.

Well, no matter what, like what Vois said, the people in Azure Princess were people that Ryner knew.

But it wasn’t that kind of good relationship that Vois had wished for, but they were companions whose connection was a little strange.

“…I feel that that was too negative just now…” Just as he softly muttered that, he saw a woman standing in front of him.

Golden hair and blue eyes and expressionless.

She seemed to be born to be a queen, probably she was a woman that would argue with Pia the moment they met.

That person asked: “…Why didn’t you return to the carriage?”

Ryner couldn’t help but sigh, “Huh…”

Ferris’ expression darkened slightly, “You saw my face, then sighed?”

“No… no no, there isn’t anything of that sort…”

But Ferris had already unsheathed her sword quickly, putting up her sword, then said: “I’ll kill you.”

“Wait… wait a moment…”

But Ferris didn’t pause like she did before, but she stabbed the sword over with a speed that could not be seen.

“Uaah?!” Ryner dodged, frantically dodging, as he yelled aaaaaaaahhh and dodged, shouting: “You, Ferris, what are you doing! Just now you swung that sword at me!”

But she looked over expressionlessly, “Eh? I can’t do that?”

“Of course you can’t do that!”

But even so she tilted her head as if she did not understand, saying: “But this is training, right? It’s rare that you want to work hard by your own motivation, so I wanted to help you… am I being a busy body?”

Ryner looked at Ferris’ face as she said that. Indeed she revealed no expression, but he couldn’t help but feel that she was a little shy.

Then Ryner smiled, “No, sorry. I think you should continue doing that. If I do it alone my success rate may not be good. Then, I’m going to be serious? How about you receive training from me?”

Ferris snorted uncaringly, “Come on.”

“Yes~yes~ you have only known the relaxed face that I have before I’m serious, right?”

“Oh? You mean to say that you have never let me see your serious face?”

“No.”

“Then let me see it.”

“Yeah, I’ll let you see it now.” He said. Then he checked his body’s condition. Simply said, because of the training for the increased speed due to magic, his muscles no longer ached. And he knew Ferris for a long time, actually he had displayed several of his own serious moods in front of her, but, he tried to increase his magic abilities. Using a speed where he clearly did not move, but could hear his muscles creaking from the strain, forcefully adding burden to his body.

Then.

“Then Ferris, please be my opponent.”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.”

“Just start quickly.”

“Yes yes. Then shall we fight while we chase after the carriage?”

“Although the one who will die is you.”

“Haha. Then… I’m coming!”

Saying that, Ryner rushed towards Ferris.

There was two days left before they reached the palace of Geihlficlant.

In these two days, he started to struggle. In that distant direction back there.

Vois who had jumped down from the carriage raised his head, looking at the sky to arrange his emotions.

One of his subordinates said softly: “Vois-sama.”

“Be quiet. I’m thinking about many things now.”

“…Yes, I’m very sorry.” Although his subordinate apologized, but he did not look over. Only raising his head to look at the sky. The sky was blue. It was so blue that it was stupid. Although he had once read in a book the blue sky was the representation of peace, but what did that mean? Vois tried to sigh in his mind.

Even if the sky was blue, war would still erupt, people would still die, but what reason did that book have to write that the blue sky was the representation of peace? He thought.

Then.

“…Well, even if people die, even if war erupts, this is a petty matter compared to the blue sky, anyway this kind of rash thoughts about peace peace~ and the likes, I would agree with them…” He muttered, then laughed lightly.

As he laughed, he thought slowly about the things that he needed to do from today onwards.

Then.

“…Hey, Harmit.”

“Yes.”

“Roland will continue north, right?”

“Yes.”

“When will it reach Belis. When we chase away Gastark, and head back, Belis would most likely have fallen right?”

Harmit nodded, “Just by Roland’s current army, it is only a matter of time before they claim the whole of the southern continent…”

Vois nodded, then raised his eye brows, “Then, that means we have abandoned those Nelpha citizens who were accepted by Belis.”

“…”

“Then then, if I decide to abandon them, Ryner will be angry?”

Harmit looked over, saying: “Our king is only Vois-sama. Everyone will listen to your judgement.”

But this wasn’t the answer that Vois wanted to hear. So he did not look at Harmit, only continuing to look at the sky, “…But things have not extended to that stage. Because by my predictions, from today onwards Ryner will become someone important in this world… I want to satisfy his thoughts as much as possible. Ah~ how difficult. Which portions to abandon, which portions to pick up, this kind of choosing will always be difficult.” He said softly, looking towards the southern sky.

From here, he could see a trace of the clouds in the northern sky. He always felt that the wind did not blow towards Roland.

Ma but now was not the time to go against the south.

Now, what the Anti-Roland Coalition should do is—

“Harmit.”

“Yes.”

“Gather the soldiers. Abandon Belis. If we’re lucky, Sion Astal probably wouldn’t do anything towards the Nelpha citizens. Because in the end he is not someone who would bear to do that. So abandon all the countries in the southern continent. Then retreat the soldiers scattered in the Southern Country of Ali and the Ertolia Republic. Split the gathered soldiers into two squads, one will go with me to participate in the war against Gastark, and will you take control of the other one, wait for a chance on Tael plains?”

Hearing that, Harmit revealed a slightly nervous expression, “That means, it’s going to start?”

“Yeah. It’s beginning. Follow our plan. Take the chance of the confusion of war when we have combined powers with the Azure Princess and Geihlficlant and are fighting against Gastark, you will take the troops to ambush Geihlficlant’s south.” Vois ordered.

“Now~, there isn’t much time. Move it. All of the opportunities are lives. If this plan succeeds, we can become one of the three large countries in the middle of the continent. We can truly gain the power to fight with Roland and Gastark. No…” At this moment, Vois pulled out a map from his grasp, this was a cloth map of the powers if his plan succeeded.

In the north was Gastark, south was Roland.

What would be left was Geihlficlant with half of their territory left and the Anti-Roland Coalition who had the other half and the surrounding small countries.

And the Ertolia Republic and the Remrus Empire.

If Vois’ plan succeeded, this would be the era where the Menoris Continent would be separated between six countries.

So if they missed this chance, they could not increase their small influence anymore. If the gears of the world started to turn quickly, then they could not make a move anymore.

So this was the last chance.

And, “We can make it!” Vois said lowly.

Then he looked towards the western sky.

That side was the Remrus Empire where it was ruled by an organism that was not human, and towards the further west was the eternal desert where humans would not be able to enter, casting his eyes to a place further in the west, he said: “Well, although this is planned without sticking to the rules, it is a monster that is not human…”

“But if we think that this situation will continue, then we’re wrong. If they think that humans will always be more silly than gods, then they are wrong. Even if god really exists on this world, controlling all life, I will try to trick them. By me who was born from a family who are tricksters for all generations…”

But he stopped.

Staring at his wavering shadow, he stopped.

It was here again.

The Goddess was here again.

Was it for surveillance?

Did it want to pass any order to him?

But Vois smiled, revealing an expectant smile.

“…Well, even if I am your slave now it’s fine. Because I will betray you soon, then stab your ugly face.”

Saying that, he raised his head.

“Then, let’s begin. Prepare the horses. I will gather the scattered army then go to war with Gastark.”

Vois ordered his subordinates.

### 004. Chapter 4: Inside of that Complication

Actually, she was not that patient.

To be more exact, all the children who had the Congenital Magic Abnormality were very impatient.

“…”

Thinking about this, Pia Varliere stroked her blue hair. Her blue hair was extremely soft.

With her pleasing features, she was a pretty sight.

She reached the capital of the Geihlficlant Empire, wearing a modest but attractive dress.

She had come to negotiate with the king of the Geihlficlant Empire, Gulafed Abuleld.

This was the first time that she had received permission to meet the king of the Geihlficlant Empire.

Up until today, Pia who was leading the Azure Princess had made three such requests, but she had been rejected by Geihlficlant. Lastly, through the pressure from other surrounding countries and by continuing their spy activities in the Republic of Ertolia, she had managed to get the chance to see the king of the Geihlficlant Empire and had been summoned to the capital.

“…How long does the stupid king of Geihlficlant want me to wait? Doesn’t he understand what kind of person I am?” She complained softly.

As she took note of not to step on the hem of her evening dress, she walked around the capital unhappily around the large capital.

If someone were to ask her what she had been doing for these few days, she would reply that she had been walking around the capital. Even if she had requested for a meeting with the king, but she was given the reason that the king was extremely busy now and he couldn’t see her. But they had specially prepared a guest room for her, even the two thousand subordinates she had brought along were treated well, so it did not look like they weren’t preparing to be reinforcements, so there was no reason to return.

Anyway, for many reasons, Pia had been extremely bored these few days.

“…Really, when am I going to walk until?”

She walked out of the courtyard. There were a few nobles standing outside and smiling and talking leisurely.

Pia found that one of the men looked at her with a flattering expression.

“…Isn’t this Pia-san. You’re still as beautiful as ever.” He said something obvious.

Pia smiled her perfect smile and said, “Well, Baron Leist-sama. You are very flattering.”

That weak, unimpressive noble flushed and quickly replied, “I’m not worshipping you. I can fly to the sky if I see your face every day.”

“You really know how to joke, please don’t flatter me that much. I’ll be embarrassed.” So I can say something idiotic… She thought as she bid farewell to the noble.

She was that different.

She was different from the other users of the Congenital Magic Abnormality who were so powerful that they lost the ability to coordinate with other people. She had a strong sense of self-discipline, and that was how she had managed to integrate into the higher-class society in Geihficlant.

After that, she greeted a few nobles who were in a stable position in life. Greeting, greeting, after going around the courtyard once, she came to the water fountain.

Then in front of the water fountain, she sighed ‘huuu…’ and her adorable brows creased.

“Tired~” she tried saying that, and then sat on the edge of the fountain before she raised her head to look at the capital that seemed to be built to look powerful.

“…Well, but that means that this country has the power to keep this palace going~” As she said, she touched the dress that was the exact same shade of blue as her hair, she touched the dress that was made of such high quality material that princesses from other countries could not wear, “The clothes that I bought are also very nice…”

Then a man’s voice spoke from behind her.

“Then you should just be the princess of this country and forget about everything?”

Pia turned around and looked in the direction where the voice was coming from.

A man stood there, he seemed to be around the same age as Pia.

He wore the red uniform that only the elite of the Azure Princess were allowed to wear and he had shoulder-length soft golden hair and steady eyes.

Looking at the insignia of the phoenix in flight on his chest, she smiled and replied, “I’m not any princess, I want to become the queen, Peria.”

Peria laughed, “I know. Because I’ve been watching you since young.”

Although he said that, but his eyes reflected nothing. No, actually, he was deaf. Because he was the experiment of the Roland bastards, his sight, hearing and touch had been stolen away.

But although this was so, he had been tattooed with a special enchantment spell called “All Enchantment”. Through this enchantment, he could feel the wide surrounding world that his normal senses could not sense. He could touch this world through that enchantment.

So Pia said, only jokingly, “Aside from me, there is nothing else worth looking at in this world~”

Although he didn’t let out any sound, Peria knew that he had passed on his message to Pia, he happily smiled, “But I really think so too.”

“Ah ha, I like Peria’s flattering.”

“It’s not flattering, you know?”

“Yes, I know that.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s good.” Peria said.

Peria nodded and then she turned her eyes back to the capital.

“Then…” she asked, “Have you checked on why the king of the Geihlficlant Empire does not want to see us?”

As if he were slightly ashamed, Peria replied, “There seems to be a slight problem.”

“Problem?”

“Yes.”

“Will I be angry after I know of this problem?”

“Who knows~~ Maybe.”

“Then try and tell me the problem in a manner where I will not get angry.”

Hearing this, Peria said, “Zohra, he…”

Hearing this, she turned to look at Peria, “Ah la la, he didn’t get rid of Vois Fiurelle?”

Peria nodded, “It seems he didn’t succeed.”

“Is that so.”

“If I had went, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

Hearing this, Pia laughed, “Here goes Peria, you’re thinking of raising your points when Zohra is not here~~”

He smiled calmly, “I’m saying the truth?” As he said, he moved his eyes to someone behind them. There, Zohra was walking towards them with a rebellious and unhappy face.

As a side note, even if it was Peria or Zohra, both of them had not gained the permission to enter the capital.

So the two of them had evaded a large number of soldiers and easily defeated the many magical enchantments surrounding the capital and entered illegally.

Looking at the figures of her two capable companions, Pia smiled lightly. Then she spoke to Zohra, “But you aren’t hurt, that’s good. Belis was far, was it?”

Zohra looked at her and suddenly blushed, his eyes wandered around, as if not sure where to look, and said, “Wear… You look extraordinarily cute wearing a dress…”

Hey, what was this, saying something when he just saw her? Although Pia thought of that, but she knew that Zohra was always very straightforward, he wouldn’t say anything insincere, so compared to the Geihlficlant nobles, this sentence made her happy.

So Pia curtseyed, “Thank you. This is a very expensive dress, you know~~ Can Zohra give me this sort of present?”

He viciously nodded, “If the Princess wishes.”

“Then, give me that palace.”

“I understand! I’ll go assassinate that king now!”

At this moment, Peria who was standing by their side said, “Again~ What is it what needs to be dealt with by assassination~ If it was using power to deal with the problem, Pia would have…” Zohra interrupted him and took out a small blade, he placed the blade on Peria’s neck and shouted, “I’m not talking to you!”

Then Peria stepped back and pushed away Zohra’s hand that was holding the blade, using a slightly distressed expression to say, “Really. Why does Zohra want to kill me?”

“I kill the enemies of love.”

“Ho ho~ Then, do you want me to give you a little information that would make you want to kill me more?”

“No—!”

“Just now, Pia said she liked my praising of her.”

In a moment, Zohra’s face changed, he yelled, “Haaaaaaaaaaaa?!” then he looked to Pia, “Then, then what about mine?”

Hearing something so childish, Pia laughed and said, “I like Zohra too.”

Then, this time it was Peria who let out “Ai~~” and appeared to be unhappy.

Seeing the two acting childishly, Pia laughed again. This kind of situation had recurred for many years. Although they had saved each other’s lives on the battle field many times, but once they had the time, they would act as if they had a bad relationship.

So she had given up on stopping their fights. Although they continued to argue loudly, but their relationship was surprisingly good.

And Pia liked watching the two of them quarrel.

She also liked beautiful clothes.

She liked beautiful ornaments.

She liked beautiful palaces.

She liked the beautiful world.

So she wanted to claim everything for her own.

She wished to rescue those beautiful things from those over-lustful nobles.

She wanted to rescue those beautiful things from Roland who had stole Peria’s sight and hearing.

Then she would rescue this world from the ugly, dreadfully ugly Goddess.

In order to achieve my goal, I need power.

I need more power.

And Geihlficlant is that stepping stone.

But there is an annoying person who exists to make use of Geihlficlant’s power that I must get rid of.

That person is obviously a human, but he became the dog of the Goddess, Vois Fiurelle. It seemed as if he wanted to snatch the power of Geihlficlant from the Azure Princess and had created a secret group. If she did not kill Vois, then the Azure Princess’s road would not be lit.

But it seemed as if the plan to assassinate Vois had failed.

So Pia asked, “The Goddess that Vois is relying on is only Unsurpassed Vileness, right? It’s not any powerful monster. The Rhule Fragmei I gave you should have been enough to kill him…”

Zohra revealed an apologetic expression and said, “No, actually if I wanted to, I could have killed…”

“But you didn’t kill him?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Hearing this, Zohra revealed an expression that said that he did not know how to explain this in words.

Pia looked at him and said, “I like that straightforward side of yours. So you only need to tell me the events as they happened. What happened? Did you fight with the Goddess?”

But Zohra shook his head, “The Goddess didn’t appear.”

“Oh? The Goddess didn’t appear?”

Zohra nodded.

But this way, she still couldn’t understand the reason why Zohra didn’t kill Vois. Vois was a mad person who wanted to sell this world out, he wasn’t a human but a monster. If they didn’t deal with this, there would be a problem.

And Zohra should understand this.

So Pia continued to ask, “Then, why didn’t you kill Vois Fiurelle? If it was you, you could have easily…”

But he suddenly said, “No, if it’s about that, there was a more troublesome character who appeared.”

“More troublesome?”

“Yeah.”

“More troublesome than the Goddes… what is it? The Mad Hero from the South?”

But Zohra still shook his head.

“Then, what is it?”

When he heard her asking that, he replied.

He only said a name.

“Ryner.”

“…” In that moment, Pia lost her ability to speak, when she suddenly heard Zohra say the name of a distant companion that she had been separated from a long time ago, her mind blanked out.

Then she couldn’t help but turn to look at Peria. She found that he was just as shocked.

It was expected, after all, Ryner and Peria had underwent the same training from the same instructor.

Timid Ryner Lute.

Ryner Lute who had always wished to die.

Why was that companion now with the subordinate of the Goddess? As she started to ask Zohra about it, another subordinate approached them. It was a female subordinate who had received the permission to enter the capital with Pia, Tam. She wore the serving uniform and said, “…Princess-sama.”

“Eh?” Pia looked at her subordinate.

Tam said, “There was a courier. He says that Gehlficlant will see Princess-sama tomorrow night.”

Pia widened her eyes, Zohra and Peria looked at Tam.

“That means… The envoy from the Anti-Roland Coalition has reached?”

Tam nodded.

“Geihlficlant has specially allowed to give one side assistance…”

Pia smiled lightly, “Ha. Does he mean to say that we will have to fight with the Anti-Roland Coalition? Wait a moment, isn’t this different than what we talked about?”

Tam apologized, “I’m terribly sorry…”

“No, you don’t have to apologize.” After saying that, Pia looked at the seemingly impressive capital, “They’re treating us as fools. That’s fine. Let’s fight face-to-face. Oh yes, was the envoy from the Anti-Roland Coalition Vois himself? Do you mean that he is already in the capital? I want to go over and punch him and threaten him, so tell me his address.” Pia asked Tam.

She replied, “No, that, the envoy from the Anti-Roland Coalition does not seem to be Vois Fiurelle himself.”

Pia frowned tightly, “Ha? Then who is it? Does he mean to push everything to the messenger? Although he said he would fight with us, the Azure Princess, but the person himself did not appear? But this can’t continue. They say that the king of Geihlficlant is to be respected, but if it’s through the messenger, then he can’t talk to the king at all.”

Towards this, Tam said, “No, that… it seems that the envoy holds a position much higher than Vois Fiurelle, it is the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

“King?”

“Yes.”

“Ai? Wait… wait a moment. But the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalitions is Vois Fiurelle, right?”

But Tam shook her head, denying this, “No. Recently, Vois Fiurelle gave the leadership position to the new king.”

“Gave?”

“Yes.”

“Then who did he give it to?”

Tam replied, “A man called Ryner Lute, he seems to be the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

“…”

At this moment, Pia, even Zohra and Peria, did not know what to say. The enemy approaching from the south was actually Ryner. Because of this reality, everyone grew silent.

And that Ryner was about to reach. He was about to reach the capital of Geihlficlant.

Then Pia let out a “Oh~” and smiled. It was still that perfect smile. But it revealed a devil-like charisma.

It was a smile that could let everyone feel the kingly air around her.

She smiled like that and turned to the capital, muttering softly, “…Does that idiot Ryner want to fight with me? That is really… interesting.”

She licked her forefinger and lifted it to the wind.

Then.

“Hey, hey, what is this~~ I feel that the direction of the wind is suddenly changing. Let’s start to gather the information. Before Ryner reaches here, let’s gather all the information. What does Ryner and Vois want? How will this world change? We have to check this clearly first…”

Then she snapped her fingers.

“We still have to welcome our stupid childhood friend.”

She said.

### 005. Chapter 5: Inside of Fate

“Ah~ah~ah~” Ryner yelled.

Then he touched the tight collar of his clothes, displaying a pained expression, asking: “Is it really necessary to wear this kind of tight fitting clothes?”

Relca who was standing behind him and serving him revealed an annoyed expression when she heard this, saying: “What does Ryner treat this place like?”

Ryner looked around him.

This was one of the guest rooms in the Geihlficlant palace. Even though it was called a guest room, it was so big that it was not even the standard of a guest room. It was at the stage that if it were slightly larger, it would be around the same size as the throne room in Roland.

Looking at the large guest room, Ryner muttered softly, “…It really is a large country in the mid-Continent. The border state Roland can’t even compare…”

Relca nodded to express her agreement.

“That’s true. Then you will be meeting with the king of this country as the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition. Of course you can’t wear the dirty clothes like a pariah to see him, right?” As she lectured, Relca patted Ryner’s back, “Alright alright, straighten your back.”

And she pulled Ryner’s face.

“Your expression has to be more refreshed!”

Then she forced his eye lids open.

“Your eyes that seem like sleeping must open wider!”

“Ouch, ow ow ow, your finger is touching my eye…. Wuah don’t pluck my eye brows!” Pulling Relca’s hand away, Ryner yelled: “Ah, enough enough, I know. I will do it properly so don’t use your finger to **** my eyes.”

Saying that, anyway he had to straighten his back according to the request. Opening his eyes wide, looking at himself in the mirror.

And he discovered that after his messy hair was trimmed and tied back, wearing suitable clothing, a smile that was mysteriously confident, even though he didn’t know what there was to be confident about, appeared.

“Disgusting.”

Ryner remarked, then frowned.

But this expression was hit by Relca who was standing beside him, “You have to smile widely.”

“Wait… you don’t have to hit me…”

Slap.

“Sm~ile~”

“…...Eh … … Yes yes, I know~” Ryner said, trying to smile.

Relca finally nodded her head in satisfaction. Alright, this wouldn’t embarrass Vois-sama. She muttered.

Then Ryner continued to keep his smile, looking at the mirror again. His figure appeared in the mirror, even if he looked, he didn’t see anything to complain about.

He didn’t know if it was because his figure was slightly taller, the formal attire was very suitable. Even though he did not give the same feeling like Sion, ma, he wouldn’t be thought as a third rate noble. Looking at his figure, Ryner thought, clothes do make a man.

At this moment, the door to the room was opened, someone walked in.

“Ah, Ryner, you look handsome.” Kiefer’s voice spoke.

She seemed to have to change into a dress that was suitable for the palace or something, so she was taken to another room by Relca’s subordinates two hours ago.

“…”

Ryner turned around, discovering that Kiefer seemed to have changed. A low-cut red dress, her red hair was pinned up prettily, her make-up was more elegant than usual, it looked as if she was an elegant lady.

“Oh oh~ Looking like this, Kiefer is really a great beauty.” Ryner said.

Kiefer’s face turned red, “Is, is that so? It’s not strange?”

“It’s completely not strange? Isn’t that right, Relca?”

Relca nodded, saying: “Very beautiful. If the negotiations fail this time, and we’ll need to tempt the king, we’ll leave it to Kiefer.”

That, although Vois’s subordinate’s way of speaking was a little odd, but the fact that Kiefer was beautiful was true.

So Ryner crossed his arms, staring at Kiefer, saying firmly: “Yes, really pretty.”

Kiefer smiled happily, then turned back, saying: “But, Ferris is more beautiful.”

Another woman appeared from behind Kiefer.

It was Ferris.

She was wearing a white dress, she had a light dab of blusher, pink lips, her gleaming blond hair was pinned up with a bow-like beautiful gem pin. Her appearance, was even more beautiful than her usual other-worldly beauty.

But this Ferris, looked there, saying a strange sentence, “Eh? Where’s Ryner?”

“Aren’t I in front of you?”

“Ehh? You’re Ryner?”

“If I’m not Ryner who am I?”

She seriously considered this, “Hunch your back slightly.”

“Eh? What is it. How troublesome.”

“Make your eyes more sleepy.”

“So I’m saying why?”

“Then give out that kind of defeatist atmosphere that you usually have.”

“Who is the defeatist?” Ryner yelled angrily.

But after hearing Ryner’s angry yell, Ferris looked to him, revealing a relieved expression, “Ah, it’s indeed Ryner.”

“Hey, I say you are… Well, never mind never mind. Anyway I didn’t think I would fit this image.” Ryner said, then looked at the mirror again.

The mirror reflected Ryner wearing formal attire and two beauties wearing dresses.

Bringing these two along with him, me, even if he appeared in front of the Geihlficlant King and the nobles, anyway he wouldn’t be looked down on. Ryner thought.

At this moment, Relca said: “Then, it’s about time. Go and greet the Geihlficlant king—Gulafed Abuleld-sama. Ah yes, Ryner, the biography about King Abuleld…”

Ryner nodded and said: “Yeah, I remembered. I only need to remember the information on the documents you gave me yesterday?”

It should be mentioned that on the report that was given to him yesterday, something like this was written—

Gulafed Abuleld.

Thirty eight years old.

Four years ago his father Biert died because of the Rhule Fragmei, he inherited the throne. Beofre inheriting the throne, he took the army and fought a war. On the battle grounds he left a great achievement, that made his royal siblings admit that he should be the one to inherit the throne.

His personality is also a militaristic calm and strong. And he pays great attention to the difference between the upper levels and lower levels, probably he would not have a good impression of people who had light-hearted attitudes.

So to people who were unsuitable in society since they were unable to address their higher ups respectfully and was forever like a child—Ryner Lute, in front of King Abuleld, he must practice his usage of honorifics.

These troublesome matters were written.

And after he finished reading the report, he had this conversation.

“Honorifics are no use to me?”

“I’ll send you flying?”

“No, I’ll work hard? But even if I work hard, if indeed we have to really properly use honorifics to negotiate with the royals, it should be left to Toale who is of royal birth would be better…”

But Relca shook her head and said: “Toale Nelpha will not see King Abuleld. If it were known that he was from the Nelpha royal family that was destroyed by Roland, the fact that he was the royal family of the country that was destroyed and was destroyed by a border country will put him at a disadvantage. So you should obediently give up, practice using those honorifics in front of me. Anyway I will pretend to be the Geihlficlant king, so we can proceed with conversation.”

So until yesterday late at night they had been practicing using honorifics.

But to Ryner who was finally able to say “I’m really happy that I can see Your Majesty”, Relca was finally disappointed, and she had given up and ended this exercise on several fronts.

Ma, putting these aside.

Ryner looked at the large ornate clock that was as big as the room that was hanging in the room.

It was nearly seven o’clock.

They had arranged to meet the Geihlficlant king around seven o’clock.

Then Relca said again with a slightly worried tone: “It’s almost time, let’s confirm it again. Ryner the things that you need to accomplish here…”

But Ryner waved his hand, interrupting her, “I understand. I already know what I should do.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Don’t be so worried. Even I am nervous. I have to stand in front of a king of an admirable country, and negotiate with him? Furthermore I have my important companions with me. If I made a mistake and caused the plan to fail, everyone would be in trouble right? So that that will not happen, I will work hard slightly.” Ryner said.

At the same time, someone knocked on the door. A familiar male voice said, “You can meet with His Majesty, please prepare quickly.”

Ryner replied: “We’re prepared.”

Relca reminded: “Posture.”

“Ah~ yes yes. And I have to smile and use honorifics?”

“I already have no expectations for you to use honorifics.”

“No no no, perhaps I may unexpectedly be able to use them?”

Because of this sentence, not only Relca, even Ferris narrowed her eyes and made sounds of suspicion at the same time.

“Is that so?”

“Really?”

So Kiefer hurriedly said: “I… I trust Ryner!”

Ryner lowered his head and smiled bitterly, “…I’m not trusted~”

Then he straightened his back again. He examined his image in the mirror.

Then, thought.

He thought about the things that he would have to do from today onwards.

To tell the truth, he actually wasn’t very worried about the negotiations with the Geihlficlant king. Because to the Geihlficlant king, he only needed to mention the matter and it would be fine.

Let us join in with the war against Gastark Kingdom.

The Geihlficlant king would probably accept it happily. At the present when war was approaching quickly, the number of free soldiers increasing, there shouldn’t be any reason to decline.

But this time Ryner’s task did not stop here.

He had to deal with the Azure Princess that was probably in the palace.

He not only had to make the Azure Princess join the war against Gastark Kingdom, for the benefit of the Anti-Roland Coalition he had to stop them from gaining Geihlficlant Empire’s help, and he had to ask them whether they would help them in the war against Roland Empire? He had to plead them to accept these conditions that seemingly were only beneficial for his side—

“Definitely—it will annoy the other part… This kind of solution that will only help my side, I’m afraid no one will accept it.” Ryner moaned.

Furthermore the leader of the Azure Princess was a woman who hated to be used by anyone in this way.

Ma, although they had not met for ten years, he didn’t know what kind of person she would have turned into, ne.

“Anyway~ personalities wouldn’t change.” He said softly.

“Then let’s go.” The Geihlficlant messenger said.

Ryner nodded, looking at Ferris, Kiefer and Relca, the trio nodded.

So, they walked out of the room.

Walking along a corridor that was like a tunnel, entering the palace. Several figures of maids and officials appeared. Seeing Ryner and his party behind the messenger, they bowed deeply.

Towards this Ryner felt uncomfortable as he continued to walk forward.

The more he walked forward, the structure of the corridor and the quality of the decorations increased, even him who was an amateur in this could see the difference in the quality.

Slowly, the people passing by them began to decrease, and the people wearing beautiful and bright outfits increased. Probably they were nobles.

But, even if they still had not reached the meeting room to see the king, it seemed as if they had not even moved any nearer to him.

He couldn’t help but feel like complaining how large is this place, but even this would need the usage of honorifics, Ryner walked as he thought about these strange matter.

This place was big enough that he could throw all thoughts of Roland palace at the back of his mind. And this country still wanted to fight with Gastark, Ryner thought, gaining more understanding of what a huge country Geihlficlant was. Ma, but he still had to add the factor that Gastark would use the “Rhule Fragmei” in.

Thinking that even the negotiations were complete, what followed next was the war with Gastark, Ryner couldn’t help but feel a little depressed.

War.

It was war.

“I clearly worked hard to this point to avoid this situation, but why did it turn to this…”

After hearing Ryner mutter, the Geihlficlant messenger turned around, asking: “I’m sorry, is there something wrong?”

Ryner shook his head, “No, nothing.”

He just finished speaking, Relca quickly punched Ryner’s back, so he quickly changed his tone, “No, that… there’s nothing wrong.”

He tried to turn around and complain, were they properly using honorifics from this point on?

Relca displayed an expression as if disappointed again.

Kiefer was trying hard not to laugh…

Ferris was just looking at him scornfully.

“I say you all…” Ryner groaned.

Then they walked forward again. The messenger walked out of the corridor, walking towards the central staircase in the hall.

Following that they saw another group of people walking towards the stair case.

The other party had six people.

The first person to enter their sight was the messenger who was leading the way, then three soldiers who did not allow any openings walked by. They gave off an atmosphere that made Ryner vaguely feel that if he first fought with the three of them, probably they would enter a hard competition.

But it didn’t matter about these three people. Most important were the three people behind them that these three seemed to be protecting.

Especially the woman in the middle, that was the largest problem.

Ryner knew that face of the woman who was in a blue dressed and giving off a confident aura.

Pretty features, an elegant atmosphere. Then the long blue hair that was set apart from everyone that only the users of the Congenital Magic Abnormality would have, stubborn red eyes.

When those eyes landed on Ryner, she said: “Ara?”

Ryner raised his eyebrows, staring at her, saying: “Oh oh~”

Staring at the person who had once been one of his comrades, Pia Varliere.

And behind her, was a steady man whose eyes were closed. It was indeed Peria Peruula who had undergone the same training under Germer with him.

Then opposite him was Zohra Rom who he had met just recently.

Looking at these three people, Ryner smiled and that gave him a slight headache, trying to greet that, “That… Yo~ It’s been a long time since we last met.”

Peria smiled too, saying: “Yeah, it’s been a long time since we met. I’ve missed you, Ryner. You’ve grown a lot.”

Followed by Zohra who said: “I don’t even want to see you and that was it.”

After that Pia didn’t look at Ryner, but she looked in the direction of Ferris, Kiefer and Relca who were behind him, saying: “Ah~ what’s that, what’s that. That Ryner who had no friends and was always depressed actually brought these beauties along. And the three of them… ne, Peria, Zohra, them and me, who is prettier?”

Peria continued to smile: “There is only Pia in my eyes.”

Zohra followed: “Of course it is the Princess.”

Just by looking at these actions, Ryner could feel that he roughly understood what stage had Pia progressed to. Her actions and words were like their teacher Germer, then, although she was saying these kind of challenging words, but there was a gleam in her eyes that was examining the truth and false of his side.

Then Ryner suddenly remembered. He remembered she had once shown him that she had an ability that was like a genius in conversation.

At this moment Ferris suddenly said: “Hey Ryner, what is wrong with that woman?”

But Ryner stopped Ferris from speaking, “Ah, don’t move Ferris. That is a challenge. If we are insulted, it will become very troublesome.”

“But.”

“Alright, leave it to me.” Saying that, Ryner turned to look at Pia, “… It’s been some time since old friends were able to meet, so can you not release that killing intent to test my companions?”

Pia smiled as she asked: “Aha, do you want me to treat them more warmly?”

“Yes.” Ryner nodded his head honestly.

But Pia laughed even more, “But, I am not able to be more warm~ Because they are your companions, I haven’t killed them yet? Originally, if I saw the dogs of the monster I would kill them immediately.” Saying that, she released her killing intent. Her killing intent made their bodies tense uncontrollably. Perhaps it was because this killing intent was so strong, that people here couldn’t even feel it.

But, Ferris reacted. Her body had a reaction towards the killing intent that Pia emitted, entering a battle mode.

Pia looked at everyone’s reaction, suddenly laughing again, “Ahaha.”

Ryner immediately understood the reason for her laughter. She laughed because she discovered that the only ones who had a reaction to her killing intent was only Ryner and Ferris. That meant that the other party knew that if they had a head-on fight, the only ones who would fight were only Ryner and Ferris.

But the other party had Peria and Zohra besides Pia.

In plain words, if there were a fight here, his side had no chances of winning.

If he had to protect Kiefer and Relca, even if Ferris were helping him, they would be killed before they escaped.

This was almost as if the snake had made the frog its target. Ryner thought in his heart as cold sweat appeared.

But Pia suddenly opened her mouth and said: “What, all of them are useless. Thinking to fight me with that kind of battle power, Ryner-chan is as cute as before.”

Ferris muttered: “…You said useless, right?”

Ryner frantically said: “So don’t pay attention to her. All these are challenges. Furthermore you don’t have your sword, right? So you can’t fight now, give up.”

“Does that mean, you think I’m weaker than that woman?”

“No no, I didn’t say that…”

But, what would it be, he thought.

To tell the truth, Ryner was unable to imagine how powerful Pia would be now. But Zohra who he had fought with lately had a surprising increase in strength, then Pia who could let Zohra bow to her, should be really troublesome.

And, he had seen Peria mutter something by Pia’s ear.

Ryner couldn’t help but frown.

The whispered conversation between Ferris and Ryner had probably been heard by Peria.

No, instead of saying he heard it, it should be that he felt it.

Even if it were voices, feelings, smells, everything could be felt through the Zenkekkai tattoes that were on his body.

And that Peria, was now whispering to Pia.

Ryner looking at this, said: “…Hey hey Peria. We’re friends right? Don’t be so chummy with Pia.”

Peria smiled, closing his eyes as he looked over, “Friends? Friends would write even a single letter to me.”

“No, there are many many things happening.”

“Many many things. Although Ryner is not those kind of people who would specially write letters, but this time you’ve gone overboard. You even became the subordinate of a monster…”

But Pia said: “Peria keep your mouth shut. Only I can play with this long lost slave?”

So Peria shrugged, smiling: “Ah, I should mention that it was Pia who told me to write to Ryner. So she must be angry at Ryner who ignored her, so you’ll have to prepare yourself~”

Hearing this, Ryner was slightly scared.

Seeing the smile appearing on Pia’s face. Seeing that smiling face that clearly no longer had that small degree of harassment.

Oh no, this job is more troublesome than I thoooought? Ryner trembled.

Pia looked at Ryner, then happily turned her eyes to Ferris and Kiefer who were behind Ryner, moving lightly.

She wore a heavy dress, but it didn’t seem to cause any trouble for her, only using a step, she stepped in front of Ryner, putting her hands on his chest, tip toeing, drawing near to Ryner’s face.

When her face was so near that there were barely inches to spare between his mouth and hers, she said: “… Even if it’s a joke there has to a limit. In the past your goddess was clearly me? But now you’re flirting with other girls?”

In a moment there was a slight killing aura behind him, Ryner quickly used his hands to stop Ferris, and wanted to push Pia away, “Wait a moment, I say you, what are you doing so suddenly? Don’t pull this kind of act that would make people misunderstand…”

But Pia interrupted him, hugging Ryner’s neck when he tried to escape, decreasing the distance between the two of them, putting her lips by his ear, as if whispering she said softly: “… Ma, I am very forgiving, so if you flirt with one or two people I can forgive you. But even if your interests are bad, if you flirt with those women—those ugly “ Goddesses ”, I cannot forgive you. Sa~, so you have to explain clearly to me. If you don’t explain clearly, I will be really angry and kill those cute girls behind you?” Saying that, her hand twisted inwards, a small dagger appearing in her hand. Ryner who discovered this, grabbed her hand that had the dagger.

“Wait, Pia, stop…”

But at this moment, Pia suddenly smiled: “Annoying, Ryner~? Grabbing other people’s hand so suddenly, you’ve really become an adult, but, I understand it’s because of those passionate feelings you have for me.”

“Wuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaa? You, so that was…”

But she ignored Ryner’s words, returning to Peria and Zohra’s side with the same speed she had when she approached him, “Alright, the message has been passed~ because I have said what I wanted to say, so we’ll go first. We can’t let the Geihlficlant king to continue waiting.” Then ignoring his side, walked away.

Towards her retreating figure, Ryner shouted: “Wait, Pia?”

But she didn’t turn around, Peria and Zohra didn’t look back, leaving with Pia.

Ryner looked at this scene stunned.

At this time Kiefer who was behind suddenly asked: “…That, flirting or something… did Ryner date that girl before?”

Ryner revealed a tired face, turning back and said: “That, the previous conversation, would you think so?”

“No. It couldn’t be seen.”

“Right? From before she was this kind of woman who would play with her surrounding people with this attitude~” Ryner said.

Kiefer looked towards Ferris with an unsettled expression, then said softly: “But… but Ryner likes that kind of girls right…” (Because Ferris and the Azure Princess are the same type.)

“Eh?”

“No, it’s nothing. That… she was called Pia? What did she say? Because she was whispering to your ear, I didn’t hear it.”

But for some reason, Ferris answered this question. It seemed like she had heard the conversation between Pia and Ryner.

She said: “… Taking out a knife, then saying she would kill us. Then saying if he wanted to save his companions, then explain to her clearly. Explain to me why you have become the dog of the “Goddess”… But, before explaining to her, explain to me first. What is that thing called “ Goddess ”? Lately when I walk everywhere I would hear Goddess, Megami, nu shen these words. Vois, that person has also constantly said some matters about some strange monsters… What are you hiding from me? I always thought that you would tell me on your own so I didn’t really bother about it, but if you are planning to never explain it properly, before being killed by that woman, I will kill you first?” Even the queen herself on this side was starting to become angry.

Ryner stared at her, discovering that she did not really look angry. No, although it was said that she was always emotionless, she basically wouldn’t display her emotions on the outside, but now on her face, there was an expression that was more of unsettled than angry.

“…” Ryner seemed to frown as if he was troubled, then said: “Ah~ Sorry.”

“… No, actually I don’t quite understand so I never explained…” He turned to look at Pia and the others who had walked up on the landing, “But it seems that no matter where it is always hated, so the “ Goddess ” should be an evil person. Talking about which, has Ferris heard something from Vois?”

Ferris nodded, “Vois said your… your eyes were cursed by the “ Goddess ” so they became strange.”

Ah, so that was it. Ryner thought. So she revealed that unsettled expression.

“Vois that bastard, I knew that he had that information…” Ryner gritted his teeth as he spoke, then turned to Kiefer, asking: “What about Kiefer? Have you heard anything about “ Goddess ”?”

Kiefer shook her head, “I haven’t heard Vois-kun say anything about it… but, about the “ Goddess ”, I heard some rumours. After leaving Roland, I heard rumours from all over the world, no, it should be said as legends.”

Ryner looked at her, asking: “Eh, then what kind of legends are they? What are the “ Goddesses ”?”

She replied: “There are a few sayings in the legends.”

“Yes.”

“But no matter what the endings are, the “ Goddesses ” always swallow the world.”

“Is that so. So that means the “ Goddesses ” aren’t anything good?”

But, she revealed an uncomprehending expression. Then for some reason she slightly, really slightly revealed an expression that was like a dead end. But Ryner didn’t understand why she was revealing that expression.

But talking about which, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about Kiefer’s change in expression.

Ryner moved his eyes away from Kiefer, then said: “Well, anyway the information that we know is only a small bit, right?”

Ferris looked over to him, then said: “Eh? Are you talking to me?”

Anyway he would ignore this problem, Ryner continued: “Then, if what Vois said is true, then Vois may be preparing to trick that “ Goddess ”? Well, but because that person is a liar we can’t trust him completely… But, ma~, I’ll trust him a little this time. Because although that person will not tell us the truth, he will similarly not reveal his personality to the “ Goddess ”.”

Towards this, this time it was Kiefer who looked to him, “Wait, Ryner. That, this, are you talking to us?”

When he was asked this, he didn’t reply. He only slightly looked at Relca, using a voice that she would not hear, softly saying: “Furthermore, even if this point is put aside, we have no reason to abandon Vois right? I don’t know if it’s because the Anti-Roland Coalition has accepted the “ Goddess ” help, from the establishment till the current developments the speed has been quite odd. If it is not noticed, I don’t know what kind of things that person would do. So I pretended to be used by him, deciding to use him in return… If I explain it like this, what about it? Because I have Vois’s subordinates by my side I cannot explain it out loud, but anyway I plan to use the “ Goddess ” and Vois this way, is this explanation enough?”

Ryner said that. But he should not have been heard by anyone. His voice was so soft that it was like he was just breathing out, so even Ferris and Kiefer who were by his side couldn’t hear it.

But, after he finished muttering, he looked towards the stairs. He looked at Pia and the others who were so far away that even if he yelled and shouted they would not be able to hear it.

Then said “…If it’s you you can hear it through Zenkekkai, Peria. Then, pass on what I said just now to Pia.”

After hearing him say that, Peria turned slightly. From this position it seemed as if he were making a hand signal to Pia, then covering his ears, shrugging.

That action meant—“Even though I want to tell her, Pia is unwilling to listen.”

It conveyed this message.

“Ha? Don’t joke. Pass it on to her properly.” Ryner murmured.

Peria revealed a troubled expression, then patted his chest.

“Ha? What does that action mean?” Ryner asked.

Peria pointed over again.

But, he still did not understand the meaning of that action. So Ryner tilted his head, continuing to ask: “So I said I don’t understand. What is that? What are you trying to say?”

Peria still pointed over, then pointed to his chest.

“Eh? Chest? What’s with your chest?”

Peria shook his head, making a signal that said it’s not me.

“Not your chest? Then, it’s mine?”

Peria nodded.

“I already said it’s very troublesome so don’t hand signal to me. I’ll go over to your side now, talk to me properly…”

But Peria interrupted him, making a sign that said don’t come over. Then he made a signal for him to look at his chest.

“Ha? What does that mean…” As he said that, Ryner looked at his chest. He looked at his chest that was wrapped with that tight formal suit. And he discovered that a card that was as big as his palm had been snuck in there.

“Oh?” Ryner said, then remembered, it should have been placed there when Pia touched his chest.

This was a perfect surprise attack of a standard that Ryner didn’t even notice that a card had been snuck into his clothes.

“…” Ryner couldn’t help but frown.

If that card had an explosive talisman that would explode after a certain period of time, perhaps he would be dead by now.

No, even Ferris, Kiefer and Relca by his side would be affected.

“… How troublesome.” He groaned.

He felt that the ten years that had had been separated from Pia and the others, between the two of them there was an even greater gap between the levels of their powers, he couldn’t help but stiffen his face.

And.

“…”

Ryner pulled out the card, looking on the words on it.

To Ryner-chan of the dark magical waste house.

Although I heard from Zohra, but you really didn’t even discover the card, your abilities have declined compared to the past. Unless you have become a useless person than what I had expected? So I wanted to test you slightly.

Under these words, there was a face of Pia’s drawn in green ink. This face of Pia, after Ryner had read the words, there was a slight distortion. Then it became a complicated magical structure—

In the process of changing, Ryner shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.

In the middle of his eyes, there was a red five-pointed star.

Special eyes.

This was the cursed eyes called Alpha Stigma, it was able to see through all magical structures.

And it could completely duplicate the same structure, but the understanding of everything in that moment after that, proceeding with progress, using it in the end, it still needed special abilities.

And now the magic progressing in front of his eyes was to test his abilities.

Just by looking it was clear that this was a magic that would explode and destroy his surroundings. Then he understood that there were four seconds left to its activation. And he understood that to stop this magic, it would need a complicated, an equation that would change as if to solve the riddle, this was definitely unsolvable. Even if it were the high leveled magical scholars, would be unable to solve this riddle easily.

But Ryner looked at the magical formation, “…Eh. That, it’s like this here, there is that, it’s like this right?” He murmured, using his finger to draw on the card, easily solving the magic.

“How was it?” Ryner raised his head, looking in front, but found that Pia and the others were gone. In replacement, on the card that had the magic trap, there was another message. There were many words that made the head ache just by looking at them.

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes, looking at it.

It was written like this.

Ara ara, you passed.

It was good that you didn’t explode~

It was clearly a magical structure that Zohra made with much effort to scare Ryner, that you could solve it, you indeed are the same magic otaku as you were before. But, it seems that the point that you are still useful is more important than anything. Alright, I’ll let you live. But what you understand what you have to do after this? Apology and explanation. You completely ignored the letters from us, so this time you have to come before us personally. Before you come to our castle, kneel down and explain the situation, I will not listen to your explanation. And, if you continue to hinder our matters after today, I will not forgive you. Although I think you understand, Ryner you can never defeat me? If you don’t want to be killed, listen obediently to me.

Ah, I’ll tell you something, from our investigations it seems like Vois Fiurelle is planning to let the Ertolia Republic attack Geihlficlant? What is going on? Unless he wants to take the chance when Geihlficlant and Gastark are fighting, to attack this place with Ertolia? It would be troublesome if that happens. I clearly wanted to let this country become my possession, this way wouldn’t people be coming to hinder me. But, I don’t want to be deliberately be used by the conditions you set, so I’ll go back first. If you want to fight with Gastark, it’s fine if you go yourselves.

Ah, and one more thing.

If you knew of Vois’s plan and came here to use us, then you should understand the difference between our abilities? So don’t make your move.

But if you were tricked by Vois, then he isn’t your companion anymore.

Your true companions are us, Ryner.

Don’t do such foolish things and come quickly to our side.

Forever your Queen-sama Pia Varliere and her happy companions—

The card actually wrote something like this.

But, the matter about Vois planning to let Ertolia attack Geihlficlant—

“…Hey hey what is this?” Ryner said, then raising his head, starting to run to chase after Pia and the others who had walked up the stairs.

But the Geihlficlant messenger made a stop as if trying to stop Ryner, “Ah, wait.”

And Ferris and Kiefer made asked uncomprehendingly.

“Hey.”

“Ryner?”

Although he heard the two of them call his name, Ryner did not turn back, he only threw the card with Pia and the other’s message to explain the situation, then continued to run. Climbing up the stairs, running in the direction where Pia and the others had disappeared to.

But even as he ran he did not discover them. In his hurry he discovered the Geihlficlant messenger who was leading them who had a troubled expression on his face as he turned around, Ryner asked: “Hey it was you, where is Pia Varliere?”

The messenger turned around, with the same troubled face he said: “Th, that, they suddenly said they were tired of this country so they went back…” saying that as he looked at one of the doors in the corridor.

Ryner opened that door, discovering that strangely, there was a gust of cold wind blowing, so he looked in the direction of the wind.

And he saw that the windows of the room were open, the curtain and lace were swaying in the wind.

“…”

And the only things moving in the room, were only these. Pia, Peria and Zohra were no longer here. They had probably jumped out from the window.

That meant, the motive for them coming to this place was…

“…They came here to see me…” Ryner muttered.

Perhaps it is said that they came here to threaten me. And they came here to test me.

They wanted to investigate if we would yield after we knew that we were tricked by Vois.

Ryner frowned, “Vois that bastard, he actually treated me…”

At this moment, someone spoke from behind him, “No, I don’t think I’m lying to you.”

Ryner turned around, discovering that Ferris, Kiefer, Relca and Vois who had somehow chased after him were standing in the corridor.

Ryner stared at Vois, saying: “Not lying? Whose mouth has the right to say that?”

Vois shrugged, “If me not telling everything to you is counted as lying, ma, then indeed perhaps I lied to you…” He said as he walked closer. A small body drifted over, lightly peeking at the room where Pia and the others had disappeared from. Then opening the window, asked: “Arara, the people from Azure Princess are gone?”

Ryner looked at Vois, saying: “You clearly appeared because they left, and you dare to pretend to be stupid.”

Vois laughed, “Well, although that is true. But no matter what they want to kill me. But it’s a heartache that we didn’t manage to persuade them. Originally if it were possible I wished for them to help us proceed with the plan.”

Ryner thought of the contents of the card that Pia gave them, “…The plan to attack and gain Geihlficlant while it’s fighting?”

Vois raised his head and looked over, saying simply: “Don’t you think it is a good plan to quickly stop Roland’s power?”

“Even if I think that’s a good plan, but you clearly said that we would accept Geihlficlant’s power and go against Roland.”

“That’s true.”

“That means, you lied to me.”

“No, you’re wrong.”

“Where am I wrong.” Ryner said.

Vois pulled out several reports from his arms, then handed one over.

“This is a proposal to accept Geihlficlant’s help and fight against Roland.”

Then he handed over a second piece of paper, “This is the proposal to effectively snatch a few of Geihlficlant’s territories and fight against Roland.”

Lastly was a third piece of paper, “This is the proposal that under the situation that Azure Princess gains Geihlficlant’s power and assistance, accepting the help of the Ertolia Republic—Well, no matter what situation we can’t become exhausted, so I prepared a few proposals at the same time. It’s just that I did not tell Ryner the plans that would affect your mood the most. So actually I didn’t lie.”

Ryner was so angry that he felt that even scolding Vois as a **** bastard was even troublesome, but when he thought that this person was like this all the time, so he didn’t know why but he felt very tired, giving up on specially complaining, only looking at Vois with a tired face, saying: “… If you always tell lies, you won’t get friends?”

Vois laughed as he replied: “I didn’t need friends even from the beginning?”

“Well, you speak so straight-forwardly, I can’t even say anything… but, if it’s like this, I won’t help you again?”

“Why?”

“Why… Hey, I say, you completely tell me the truth?”

“If I told you, would you help me?”

“Depends on the situation. But, I already cannot find reasons to continue being with you. Talking about which, I didn’t understand why we had to help Geihlficlant defeat Gastark in the first place.” Ryner said.

Although he didn’t think of stopping this war, because even if there wasn’t war here, it would occur in other places.

For instance the war Roland was waging in the southern part of the continent. And the land in the central continent was quite big, so the places that didn’t know about, should have some conflicts too.

So, he who had taken into account of the other wars, it wasn’t for the sake for the sake of world peace, he didn’t have the thought that he had to stop the war between Geihlficlant and Gastark ahhhhh—this kind of thought.

Although, he had seen the actions of the people from Gastark when they were hunting down the cursed eyes, it also meant that they killed all the people who had special eyes like Ryner no matter whether they were man, girl, old or young. So he knew that they weren’t good people. But, this matter and that were two different matters.

Furthermore because the Nelpha people were Vois’s hostages, so he had no choice but to listen to Vois’s orders.

Although there was this reason.

But, even if there was going to be a war going on in spite of this, indeed there was something wrong.

“Vois.” Ryner said.

Vois turned to him, “What is it?”

“That.”

“Yes.”

“You, although you have taken the Nelpha of people as hostages, making us listen to your orders, but actually that can be easily retaliated, you know?” Saying that, Ryner raised his right hand, making a fist as if he were about to punch him.

Well~ although the other party was a child so threatening him like this would be strange, but there was no other plan, Vois looked at Ryner’s fist, replying: “Ara, has that been found out?”

“No, actually I discovered it in the beginning… I was only thinking about when to do it.”

“Ahaha, it’s really a good opportunity. As long as you punch me until I’m half dead and make me a hostage, you would be able to control the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

“Yes, no matter what you are of high prestige. So you can be a good hostage.” Ryner looked at Relca behind Vois who looked frantic.

Although she seemed to want to rush over when Ryner clenched his face, but she was easily stopped by Ferris grabbing her neck, stopping her.

But Vois did not react, only laughing as he said: “But, Ryner wouldn’t do this right?”

“That may not be?”

“No no, you definitely wouldn’t do it. Simply saying after you do that, what would happen? Making me a hostage, then grabbing the authority position of the Anti-Roland Coalition… But, after that? Gaining the control of an organization that would be unable to balance out Roland, what do you want to do?”

“Eh? That…”

“You will definitely do the same things as me. So that we will have the power to attack a country, then accepting a country’s help. No matter what, if you don’t take away someone’s power, the organization will be unable to grow.”

Ryner nodded, “Well, although that’s true. But why must the Anti-Roland Coalition grow? I don’t understand this point. Originally I didn’t leave the country so to fight with Roland. It’s the same with Gastark. I want to use my methods…”

Looking for a way to save Sion—although he wanted to say this, but he gave up. Anyway Vois never thought about saving Sion, even if he said it it was useless.

So he changed his words, “I would use other methods… new methods, to try and change the world.”

Vois continued to smile: “Yes. That was what you wrote on that report, right?”

Ryner looked at Vois’s smiling face that made people feel unhappy, asking: “…Why do you know about that?”

“I investigated it.”

“But that report should be with Sion…”

But Vois interrupted him, saying: “It wasn’t found when we investigated about you. That report appeared when we were investigating Sion Astal. I spent quite a bit of effort into finding that. Sion Astal seemed to treasure that a lot so he put it in the treasury. But it was really great that I was able to find it after that much effort. Because that report was filled with your feelings. And after reading that report, that made me really want to become companions with you.” Saying that, Vois reached into his arms, pulling out a few papers again. Because from the beginning he had been pulling out a few pieces of paper, so if it were the past he would want to complain how many things have you hidden.

But now he did not.

No matter what, he had controlled that country through grasping all of Eteggong.

Vois pulled out a few papers, passing it over.

“That, this is a copy of the part that I was most touched about. Do you want to read it?”

Ryner moved his eyes to it, the letters on the paper entered his eyes.

But, there was no need to read it. Not only was it because this was something he had written, and actually the memories of its contents were as fresh as it had been.

The contents appeared in his mind again a long time after he wrote it.

That report, its content was roughly like that.

In history, there were several demon kings who had the power to destroy the world, or demons, evil divinities. These demon kings wielded strong power that was unimaginable in the whole of the magical body. Even if it were an army made of strong Mage Knights and soldiers, they were not the opponents of the demon kings. Then the world would be pushed into the brink of extinction by these demon kings every time. But every time at this moment the heroes from the legends would appear, they were called the knights of light, they were human knights that had the power to go against the demon king and defeat them. Then, here’s the question. What are the heroes? At the moment we won’t go and question the existence of the demon kings and heroes… the “humans” who had the power to defeat these monsters, what was going on? A monster that even an army could not go against—if the records in the history books were truth, even if hundreds of strong magicians were sacrificed they would not be able to destroy the monster easily, but what was the hero that could destroy it just by himself? There were vestiges of legends regarding the heroes all over the world. Although no one saw those scenes… but there were records of where the weapons that the heroes used were hidden. Although it was a pity that the book that recorded the secrets of the demon king’s strength could not be found… but even so, if the remains of the heroes that were stronger than those monsters could be found, couldn’t they be used as a strong military weapon? In addition… did the demon kings and heroes actually exist… this could be explained with the Alpha Stigma. Although it wasn’t understood whether this was something vile or the heroes’ items… but abnormal power actually existed. Then, there would be the existence of other things that had this power too. On this point there seemed to be a great lot worth investigating. Because towards the strong power, according to the different ways of using the weapons, it could be ended before the war erupted.

“…”

Looking at Ryner who had vaguely recalled the contents of the report, Vois raised his head, saying: “You seem to have a sleepy appearance, but your mind is very scary. In this report you wrote that, to gain a strong weapon that no one in the world could go against—this kind of thinking right? But if the person who had this weapon lacked in character, what would it become? Having the oppressive power that the whole world could not go against, but instead he is a mad king. If something like that appears, what should we do?”

“…” Ryner did not comment.

In actuality, at the stage when he was writing that report, he had already predicted something like that. But, because too many people had died in front of him, because the ceaseless scary war had taken away too many lives, killed too many comrades, loved ones, family, friends.

Then, I have to at least do something, Ryner had carried that thought, writing the report.

Then he had started on the path to look for Heroes’ Relics with Ferris.

But, in the end—

“…”

Vois continued: “… You wanted to give that weapon to someone, right? Give it to your friend Sion Astal?”

“…”

“So this time you are searching for a weapon with a divine power to stop Sion Astal—are you planning that? Is this the plan that you talked of to change the world?”

Ryner nodded, “…Well, although I don’t think it would succeed so easily.”

Vois replied simply: “It wouldn’t succeed.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“But, this isn’t something you can decide.”

“That’s true, this isn’t something I can decide. But, I already know what would be the ending of this. Your plan, will never succeed.”

“You’ve already said that you can’t decide…”

Vois interrupted Ryner, saying: “Or I should say, it’s too late. Gastark already has gained that kind of weapon that will make the world bow to them in a moment.”

Ryner froze because of this sentence.

Staring at Vois, his whole body was frozen. If they were talking about why they were saying this, it could only be said that Vois was also a person who had a Heroes’ Relic. Vois easily accepted the Heroes’ Relic that the Roland army used to kill thousands of soldiers. So this fellow also should have other Heroes’ Relics—using their lingo it should be called Rhule Fragmei.

And then watching these people with Rhule Fragmei battling, Ryner despaired.

Towards the reality that using those kind of things would worsen the war, he despaired. Then thinking, if he didn’t do anything, it would really be too late.

But Vois said that. Vois who had the Rhule Fragmei said that.

“…That is a kind of Rhule Fragmei, whose power is close to a divine being’s, which is very powerful. And they already have gained this power. So they would not stop. I’m afraid that Geihlficlant will not triumph over Gastark in this war. Even if we the Anti Roland Coalition which uses Rhule Fragmei help, even if there is the Azure Princess, the results will be the same. Not only with the number of soldiers, the standards between the soldiers are too great.” Vois said.

But even so, Ryner was still unable to understand his meaning.

Ryner muttered: “The Heroes’ Relics… are unable to match up to it?”

“Yes. There’s practically no way to compare it.”

“What exactly is that?”

“Sa? I don’t know, they are using a strange weapon. A strange thing that has the power to surpass the Rhule Fragmei. Then using this thing they made the strongest country in the northern continent, Stohl kneel for them. At that time the death toll, was actually more than eight hundred thousand people.” Vois said.

Saying such strange things.

Ryner stared at Vois’ face in a daze, not saying anything, only watching as Vois continued to say mildly.

“So I said it before? If we don’t stop Gastark here, it would become a bad situation. If to Gastark, we don’t… no, if we don’t proceed with warning the world that ‘using something as unfair as that kind of weapon could be dangerous so stop”, it would really become very bad. So Ryner you must participate in this battle, even if you are unhappy with me, even if you have to kill people, even if you hate to participate in war, you must participate in this battle. You must let the other party of low-class people who have made a move to the weapon that should not be used by humans know that that power cannot be handled by them.” Vois said something that was even more confusing.

“What exactly, have you been saying from just now…”

But suddenly, he felt a weak killing intent.

“Eh?” He turned to the place where the killing intent was originating from.

Right.

The deepest corner in the corridor.

But, there wasn’t anyone there.

But, that place was empty.

So Ryner yelled: “Ferris.”

And feeling that Ferris had already reacted. Turning in her direction, he found that she had done what he wanted to do.

Ferris grabbed Kiefer’s collar, dragging her into the room that Pia and the others had disappeared from.

Kiefer let out an uncomprehending, “Ah? Ah? What what?”

Ignoring Kiefer’s present confusion, what was needed more was to investigate the area where the killing intent was originating from—

At the moment Ryner discovered that something glowing weakly had appeared in front of him.

“Oh oh~” Ryner stepped back in reflex. Then widened his eyes, activating the Alpha Stigma. Then he saw a magical structure that he had never seen before blossom in front of him.

It was a magic that would use the reflection of light to let the opponent hallucinate. This was probably Geihlficlant’s magic.

“…” Ryner stared at the magic, in a moment, reaching out a finger to the magical structure, starting to interfere, quickly changing the activated Geihlficlant’s magic.

“Alright, it’s done.” When he muttered that, the magic in front of them dissipated like mist.

Then three soldiers’ silhouettes appeared. Three soldiers wearing green armor. These soldiers charged towards Ryner and the others.

Their movements were fairly quick.

Probably he would not be able to dodge—but Ryner didn’t care. When he had dealt with the magic, his work had been lessened by half.

Towards the daggers that were thrown with an air that could not be avoided, Ryner said: “Too slow.”

And Ferris who used a speed that was faster than the daggers’ by several times jumped up, with one swing of her big sword the daggers were embedded in the wall. Then picking Ryner up, throwing him out.

So that they could dodge Ryner, the soldiers’ defensive formation crumbled, at this moment, Ferris quickly used her karate chop.

The person who received the strong impact on the neck fell unconscious just like that, the enemy was lessened by one.

Although the next person wanted to ambush Ferris, but he wasn’t her opponent. No, it should be said that even if she were wearing a dress that was hard to move around in, the enemies were not able to match up to her speed.

Another soldier was struck on the head, then fell unconscious.

The remaining person, because of this extremely unbeneficial situation, starting to think of running.

“I wouldn’t let you escape.” Ryner said, then grabbed that person’s wrist, tightening his joint, flipping it upwards, placing him on the ground. Followed by that Ferris planted a kick on the enemy’s head.

The last enemy lost conscious too.

“…”

The fight ended like that simply.

But.

“…I say, wouldn’t we really be in trouble this time?” Ryner murmured.

“These people are Geihlficlant soldiers, right? Then this is the Geihlficlant palace… why did they want to attack us?”

But suddenly a voice sounded, interrupting Ryner’s words, “…Oh~. Even if three Mage Knights are the enemy, you can make them silent easily without dealing any fatal wounds… this is really reliable.”

The place where the voice came from, was the deepest corner from where the three soldiers on the ground had appeared from.

Standing there, was a tall man in his late thirties. He wore green armour on his strong body. But his outfit was slightly different from the soldiers who had attacked. There were a few noticeably useless ornaments on the armour, it could be seen that this person should be someone who had a high position. He was probably the leader of the Mage Knights, no, possibly it could be—

At this moment the man said again: “This Alpha Stigma bearer is the trump card against Gastark that you told me about? Vois Fiurelle.”

Vois bowed his head, saying: “Indeed. Your Majesty Gulafed Abuleld.”

Ryner considered the man standing in front of him again.

Sharp eyes, strong body. Just be seeing the confidence and aura from this person’s body, he could understand that he was stronger than the Mage Knights who had attacked Ryner earlier. No, although he had heard that the king of Geihlficlant was a military man, but the fact that the king of a country was much stronger than the Mage Knights was a little—

“…It seems like he is different from the king that I had in mind.” Ryner muttered.

The royals that he knew were corrupted people who were addicted with power, or it would be someone who had work-poisoning like Sion, he never thought that he would meet a new kind of king here, so he was slightly surprised.

“Alright, bring those fellows along. Those border countries have already started to invade my territory. It seems that they have started to kill my people in great numbers without any consideration. Take up my troops, go defeat them.” That king told Vois that, then turned to leave, disappearing into the long corridor.

Ryner narrowed his eyes and looked towards Vois, saying: “…Why~ do I feel that I have been tricked again? You seemed to have said that you have never seen the king of Geihlficlant? Isn’t that why you handed the negotiations over to me?”

Vois turned around, “Eh, before I told Ryner to go to the negotiations, I certainly never saw him before.”

“Then why did you two using a tone as if you had met him before to converse?”

“That’s because there was a slight change to the situation, so I needed to talk with the Geihlficlant king immediately.”

“Is that so?”

“This is true?”

Seeing Vois say that, Ryner revealed an expression that clearly said that he did not believe in anything he was saying, saying: “Then, what happened to the situation?”

“Eh.”

“What’s the situation.”

“That is Gastark is stronger than what I had imagined—this reason. And they are strong enough that even the Azure Princess has given up on helping Geihlficlant…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes: “Eh? What’s that? Pia and the others only decided to go back because they were tired of being used by you?”

“Oh, did she tell you like that?”

“No, even though she didn’t tell me face to face… but she left that kind of information.”

Vois laughed, “That’s a trick. If according to her personality, shouldn’t she fight with us on the battle ground, then letting us lose? But she didn’t do that. That reason is because the power of the Gastark army is much stronger than what I had imagined, than what Pia had imagined. So she went back.”

Ryner said: “… Is Gastark really that strong?”

Vois nodded, “Very strong. Didn’t I say that before? Besides using the Rhule Fragmei, Gastark has a weapon that is stronger than that. A normal country would not be their opponent.”

“Then doesn’t that mean that we are helpless too?”

“Yes.”

“Then, of course this battle too…”

But Vois shook his head, “No, we have to join in. And doesn’t Ryner want to join in too? Now, Gastark is killing Geihlficlant’s soldiers and people without differentiating between them. You should want to stop this, right?”

“No, but…”

“And, Nelpha’s soldiers and Toale and Iris are almost reaching the front lines. So if you want to delay here, your companions will die easily…”

“Hey you, don’t joke anymore! What are you thinking of!” Ryner grabbed Vois’ collar, glaring at him as he yelled furiously. As if wanting to see through all the plans that were hidden deep in Vois, he glared at him.

But he still completely couldn’t understand what Vois was thinking about.

He had clearly talked about the obvious power difference, even Pia and the others had given up on fighting with Gastark, but why did this fellow want to fight with them? It was clear that there were no chances of survival against that monster, but why did this person want to fight despite that? He completely couldn’t understand the reason for that.

So Ryner glared at Vois, asking: “What are you thinking about?”

Vois indeed had that smile that made people feel unhappy, “I wasn’t thinking of anything strange?”

“Huh? It’s clearly strange. Gastark has a weapon that is stronger than the Heroes’ Relic, right? Then how are we supposed to counter that thing?”

“That’s not a problem. Because we will also be using a weapon stronger than the Rhule Fragmei.”

“Ah? You have something like that?”

Vois shook his head, “I don’t.”

“What? Aaaaaahh, I already don’t understand aaannnyything!! You, I will really kill you? So don’t go in circles, tell me straightforwardly. What is that? What is going on? Who has that weapon?”

Hearing Ryner’s question, Vois pointed a finger at Ryner’s eyes, simply answering: “You.”

“What?”

Vois continued: “Your cursed eyes are the weapon I’m going to use. If we use this, we can kill the people from Gastarl.”

Ryner laughed, “Ha? You, what foolish things are you talking about? Indeed my eyes are the cursed Alpha Stigma, if it goes berserk, it will become something powerful. But truthfully speaking there is nothing great about that scale. The scale of Alpha Stigma going berserk, at most it can only stop a few Mage Knights…”

But Vois said: “If it were the normal Alpha Stigma, that would be true. If it were the normal Alpha Stigma, with only a group of soldiers experienced in hunting Alpha Stigma, they would be easily killed. But, you once killed the whole of the Mage Knights of Estabul with those eyes, right?”

Vois continued to say: “And after the normal Alpha Stigma goes berserk there would be no chance for them to resume their original selves. Before they are killed by others, they will continue to be berserk until they become a monster. But you still continue to keep your rationality up till now. You clearly went berserk a few times, but you still remain conscious. Why is that? The answer is, you are the genuine that. You aren’t human… but you are the real monster.”

Monster.

Bakemono.

Guai wu.

Towards the phrase that he was used to hearing—

“…” For some reason, Ryner was unable to say anything.

But Ferris who was by his side said “If you have to be arrogant then there should be a limit to that, brat.” as she started to pull Vois away from Ryner.

But Ryner said: “No, wait Ferris.” Then he looked at Ferris, indeed she still had her usual emotionless expression, but it was clear that she was concerned for his feelings.

But, now was not that situation.

Furthermore, towards this kind of matters he was already accustomed to it.

And he had always been cursing himself for being a monster that would only harm others just by living.

But because Ferris, Sion, Kiefer told me that it’s fine even if I am a monster, so I lived till now.

And I’m thinking of slowly progressing forward after today.

So.

“…”

So, I wouldn’t move my eyes from the truth that I am a monster.

And I wouldn’t continue to escape.

I wouldn’t escape, I will face it head on.

I want, to face it—

So he asked: “…Because… because I am not human… and I am a monster that can be used against Gastark’s weapon… so you made me your companion because of that?” Ryner asked Vois.

Vois nodded simply, “That’s true.”

Ryner’s face contorted slightly, suddenly thinking of escaping from here. But he suppressed that urge, asking: “…What… What exactly am I?” The moment he asked that, he felt his voice trembling.

Because this was the answer that Ryner had always been searching for. So that he could find that answer, he had lived till now.

But truthfully speaking, perhaps it was not certain that he wanted to find that answer. If he knew that answer, then what if it were a truth that was too cruel and he was unable to accept? Every time he thought of that, some thought shining in a corner of his heart, he would always want to escape from it.

But now, the answer appeared in front of his eyes.

Vois clearly knew something. No, this person already understood something. When the Goddess appeared in that fellow’s shadow. When that Goddess talked with something that had appeared from Ryner’s eyes, he had already understood.

But Ryner never asked about it before. It was clear that it was a matter where he could simply ask “What exactly do you know?” and it would be fine, but he never asked.

Once again, escaping.

He didn’t want to know the truth, so he escaped again.

But.

“…”

But he couldn’t escape all the time. Because he knew that the more he escaped, the more he would hurt the people who were treating him gently.

Because he already understand that escaping would only hurt those companions who still tell me that they like me, even though they know I am a monster.

So now.

“…”

If these eyes had the power to go against the power of Gastark.

Then, there is a need to know how to use them.

Before more innocent sacrifices are made.

He had to keep the soldiers and people from this boring battle… more importantly he had to end the battle before Toale, Iris, Arua and Kuku died.

Ryner stared at Vois, asking: “What exactly am I? Tell me, my real identity.”

Vois smiled, “…This kind of matter will be decided by yourself.” After he said that, he pried Ryner’s hand away from his collar, arranging his clothes with much pain, then suddenly asking: “For example, Ferris and Kiefer what do you think?”

“…” Ryner thought, he really was an idiot.

If he had to say why, that was because when Vois asked that, his body tensed up, he could not move.

He clearly knew what Ferris would answer, but he didn’t know why but his body was trembling with fear, making him unable to move.

If, she—

If Ferris said something that she felt like he was a disgusting monster, what should he do? – He only thought about something that would never happen.

“…”

He really was an idiot, he was so scared that he couldn’t even look at her.

Then he started to hate himself who was a coward. He started to hate himself who was trembling like a child.

At this moment.

“I…” Ferris opened her mouth. Simply opening her mouth.

According to Ryner’s prediction, her answer would be the same as usual—he is my slave, a lazy bum who only thinks of sleeping for ten thousand years, he is almost becoming the pervert that would cause trouble for the world and something like that—she would reply with this.

Then every time…

Every time Ryner would be rescued by her who never said the truth that he was clearly an Alpha Stigma monster who killed people and made people feel disgusted.

So he trembled as he waited.

He waited for Ferris to express herself.

Ferris said.

Using her usual emotionless, but clear and steady voice to say: “…Even if Ryner is called a monster by anyone anywhere… but to me, he is my most important companion forever.”

Then she continued: “Next time if you call this person a monster, I wouldn’t forgive you?”

That Ferris.

That Ferris who usually did what she liked, only causing trouble for people, suddenly said something like this.

So.

“…”

So he was unable to move once again. No, not only that, he even wanted to cry a little.

Towards her obvious confirmation, but him always sinking into depression it was the stage where he was so tired of it that he wanted to cry.

Vois said: “Yes. That means in Ferris’ world, Ryner isn’t any monster. Then next we’ll ask Kiefer.” He turned his eyes to the other side.

Ryner still was unable to look at the other side.

Vois said: “But it seems that there is no need to ask. Seeing you, you’re angry that I called Ryner a monster?”

Kiefer said angrily: “Of course?”

“Of course… right… Clearly almost everyone takes the Alpha Stigma bearers as disgusting monsters, retreating from them, but in Kiefer’s heart Ryner is not a monster…”

Vois turned around, looking at Ryner who was frozen like a fool, then said: “So you see, Ryner. Even if it is Ferris or Kiefer, they don’t think of you as a monster. And to me, I only treat you as a convenient weapon that can be used. But my thoughts, can be anything. The problem is what do you think of it, right? That is the only answer. How do you think of yourself? That is your true colours.”

“…”

Ryner tried to think about the problem of how he thought of himself.

But actually this wasn’t something he needed to think about. Because he had always thought himself as a cursed existence. From the moment he was born, he had been living in this curse. Then one day, Sion, Ferris, Kiefer, Milk, companions, suddenly told him that you’re not so bad. Was it really like that? That was a lie, right? I will become a monster that will kill people when I go berserk? But why do you treat me so gently? – At that time he had been stunned like he was now.

He had always hesitated in believing those words, because it was truly too troublesome, and everyone said that, so unknowingly his thoughts started to have a slight change.

Perhaps he wasn’t as bad as he had thought, then if he continued to live it would be alright—he started to have these kind of thoughts.

He started to be able to accept himself.

But, even so, he also needed to know how dangerous he was, what kind of power he held, and why was he standing here.

So that he would not hurt anyone.

And so that he would not be hurt by anyone.

So Ryner replied: “…I… I always thought that I was a monster…”

“Ryner!” Ferris shouted angrily.

She always yelled when Ryner was depressed.

But this time I am not depressed. Because I have decided to move forward.

So Ryner ignored Ferris’ voice, continuing to say: “…But, if it is possible, I want to be a monster that can be used. After all no matter what I will always be a monster that would trouble people, but even so I want to have to the power to protect the people who say they want to stay beside me. So reply me, Vois. Who am I? Why was I born with these cursed eyes? Why does Sion want to kill me even though he is crying? Why… Why does that monster called the Goddess know about me? Answer this, Vois. For what reason—”

Ryner asked: “For what reason, am I standing here?”

Vois smiled as he replied: “These answers, are now on the battle ground that we are heading to.”

Using a satisfied expression that said the topic has come till here, “The answers that you are seeking, are in the battle against Gastark. You will awaken there. The power in you will awaken. So there is a need for you to participate in this battle. And there is a need for the whole world to see that power. There is a need to let Gastark, Roland, the three states in the middle of the continent, Azure Princess and this world that had become so messed up because of the chase after power, to see that power. But it can end like that. After this war, you wouldn’t be called a monster by anyone…” Vois said that as he walked out.

But, as if wanting to stop Vois from leaving, Ryner said: “Wouldn’t be called a monster by anyone? What is…”

Vois answered simply: “Because through this battle, you will rescue this world, you will become the hero that would rescue hundreds and tens of thousands of people in this world. Towards that kind of hero, who would call them a monster? Until that moment, no matter how you see yourself, in the eyes of the rest of the world, you cannot be called a monster—ma, although I said that if you want things to progress to that stage, there isn’t any time to be talking nonsense here. If we delay here, Toale and the others will really die?” He turned his back to that side, walking out as if he were saying hurry up.

Looking after Vois’ back, Ryner asked: “Then my question—”

“There is no need to answer, isn’t that so? Because I said it earlier, these answers you can find them on the battle. And even if I don’t answer, the monster in your body will answer them for you. Even the things I don’t know about, it will tell you everything. Furthermore, the question about who you are, you should be most clear about that than anyone else. So don’t ask that kind of lame question, let’s go, we’re going to the battle field.”

Vois turned around, “…And we can change everything in this world. Although we are slower than Gastark and Roland, but we should be starting our story about now. Let us write our names in the minds of those who do not know about us.” After saying that, he continued walking.

Then he gave Relca two or three orders. Relca hurriedly left. Vois looked after Relca’s figure, nodded as he walked towards the corridor.

Ryner only looked at this speechlessly, giving up on continuing to ask his questions.

Indeed, everything that Vois had said was true. Only he would know best about his own matters, besides, before asking someone else about who he was, he should have a better person to ask.

For example, the voice that had descended when the Goddess appeared—the voice of Alpha Stigma.

He should have tried to ask the monster that was living in his body instead.

So Ryner, tried to talk to himself softly: “…Hey.” Although it looked a little stupid, but he continued to talk to his cursed eyes, saying: “Hey, Alpha Stigma, you know something right. The monster living in my body, give me a reply.”

“…”

But there was no reaction.

“Don’t ignore me, hey.”

“…”

“I want to ask you something. So give me a reply.”

“…”

“Mushi mushi~? Can you hear me?”

“…”

Although he tried to mutter softly, but there was no reaction.

“…”

But Vois had said that.

The answers, were on the battle ground.

If he joined in the battle against Gastark, he would find his answers.

Although he didn’t understand if that was true, but Vois was also good at lying. He looked at Vois’ figure, murmuring: “Damnit, there’s no other way. Then I’ll try and participate in the war.”

He clearly shouldn’t have heard Ryner muttering, but Vois turned around, seeming to be very happy for some reason, saying: “It seems it will be an interesting war.”

“Huh? I never heard that war could be interesting.”

“If you win, no matter what time it is interesting.”

“Win… ma. Do you have that confidence?”

“About there.”

“So you didn’t have it, hey!”

“Then then then, if I am picked by the Goddess of Luck, perhaps we can win. But, there would be no problem, after all I am very popular.”

“What is that?”

“Haha. Well, anyway let’s go first. If you feel like you can’t do it you can escape.” Vois said and then walked forward again.

He walked with a seemingly happy expression.

But even if he seemed to be happy, the path would lead him to a battle ground.

A battle ground where people would die.

A battle ground where companions would die. A battle ground where family would die, loved ones would die.

Towards the battle ground where people would pray never to experience in their lives, Vois proceeded.

“Ferris, Kiefer.” Ryner called his two companions.

“Eh?”

“What is it?”

The two answered.

Ryner looked at their two faces, “… Although I don’t really understand, but because of these reasons, so I have to go and confirm what kind of person I am. But you two…” It’s dangerous so don’t follow me,

Ryner wanted to say that.

Or he should say that the people participating in this war were idiots. No matter what, the opponent that they were going against had caused Pia and the others to choose to escape. And Vois had said it, even if it were the most popular country in the middle of the Menoris Continent, it was a battle that they would definitely lose, and we are joining in the war as companions who would defeat that country.

Wasn’t that the same as going to their deaths? So there was no meaning to bringing his comrades along. And Ryner only wanted to confirm who he was that was why he was going. It was only because he was stubborn, that he would go to the battle field.

There was no reason for them to gamble their lives, just because of his words.

There should be definitely no meaning to that…

But Ferris said: “… If you are planning to say something boring, I’ll kill you?”

“Hey, you’re saying that immediately!”

“I’ll kill you.”

“That… that means to say, you want to join in this battle?”

Ferris displayed an ‘of course’ face as she said: “Are you an idiot? Vois said it earlier, my little sister is in the process of joining this war. Of course I have to rescue her.”

“Ah, that’s true. But if I can go alone, Iris can escape as well…”

She interrupted Ryner, saying: “And I planned to escape with you if the situation deteriorated.”

“No, but…”

“There are no buts. If you meet something that would cost you your life… If there is something like that, I will be very angry and I will kill you!” Ferris shouted angrily, and walked off. She seemed to be really angry, turning her face aside, walking away.

Kiefer suddenly said: “…It’s no surprise that Ferris is angry, Ryner.”

Ryner looked to Kiefer, finding that she had a sad expression.

“…Because everyone likes Ryner, they are concerned for you, but you don’t even care about yourself.”

“…No, but…”

Kiefer shook her head, saying: “There are no buts, didn’t Ferris say it just now? So you can’t say but. If I said that I wanted to go to a war where it would be clear that I have no chance at winning, what would Ryner do?”

“But that and this…”

“But is prohibited~”

“Although…”

“Although is unaccepted too. But~, then let me say but. Ryner definitely doesn’t want us to go to the war. But, we will go. Because we are worried about Ryner. We are worried that when you are alone you will be able to force yourself even more easily, it’s like you will almost die.” Saying that, she tiptoed, patting Ryner’s hair. Untying the hair tie that was used to keep his hair up, caressing the hair that had returned to its original messy state because of his bad sleeping posture.

“So Ryner has to protect us who are going to the battle grounds with him. If you feel that it is dangerous, escape with us. If you can’t do that… we will not let you go to the battle field.” Kiefer said these words that were hard for him to accept.

But, even if it were hard for him to accept it, even if it were Ferris or Kiefer, it seemed like they were prepared to go to war.

So Ryner said: “…If Kiefer comes with us I…”

She shook her head again, “That won’t do. Because I feel that this is an important turning point for Ryner, so everyone should go together. Then we can see the truth of the world… like what Vois-kun said, if there is something in this war that can heal the deep wound in Ryner’s heart… if something happens that can stop other people from calling you a monster in the future… I feel that there is a need to participate in this war.” Saying that, Kiefer walked out. She wore that dress and walked out like that. Her current appearance was clearly more suitable than the usual leather armour that she wore, but she was walking towards the battle field once again.

“Lastly, Ryner. If you work hard with everyone, there will be no problems. Let’s go and fight against the world.” Saying that, she walked out.

“…”

In the end, the one who was left, was only Ryner.

Was it because he had always been escaping, so he was slower by a few steps when he walked forward? Ryner thought.

Then.

“…”

Then, he started to walk.

He started to walk towards that war where people would die.

But, a small smile appeared on his face. There was truly a small trace of a smile. But that smile, revealed an emotion as if he were about to cry. If his eyebrows scrunched together slightly, he would be thought to be crying.

“…”

But he wasn’t thinking of crying because he was sad, nor was he thinking of crying because he was in pain.

Looking at the companions walking in front of him.

Looking at himself who had started from some point in time, to not allow himself to die alone.

“…Then, I’ll work harder…”

Using that expression as if he were about to cry, he smiled happily.

Then the war started.

The crazy war started.

Although war held the things that were happy and depressingly crazy, but this war was different.

This was different from a normal war.

If he had to say why, that was because there was truly only madness.

Because this was one of the gears in the world’s madness.

So.

“…”

So, Vois Fiurelle laughed.

“Ahah.” He muttered, laughing.

Then from here.

Starting from here.

He continued to mutter.

Here.

A darkness would descend upon this place.

A sharp darkness that seemed to be able to dig a hole in people’s hearts would descend.

Then everything would change.

Everything in the world would change.

Then with this war as a differentiating factor, no one would call Ryner Lute a monster ever again.

Because he would awaken.

His true self would awaken.

Then.

Then he would scatter a large scale slaughter and despair that no one had ever seen before, and he would be called a demon by others from now on.

“The king… of demons… is it” he muttered, Vois used a slightly sad expression, laughing alone.

### 006. The Various Forces Surrounding Ryner Lute

#### Ryner Lute

Possesses the cursed eyes Alpha Stigma which allows him to decipher all forms of magic. "Bothersome" being his favorite word, experienced much hardships, currently moving together with the Anti-Roland Coalition......

### Anti-Roland Coalition

Currently a relatively unknown faction created with the purpose of defeating Roland. One of its achievements was saving the people of Nelpha when they were on the verge of being massacred. Vois, the head of this coalition, is in the midst of maneuvering in the background to push Ryner to become king of the Coalition.

#### Supreme Head

Vois Fiurelle

### Azure Princess Mercenary Group

A mercenary group employed by Geihlficlant Empire. Actively crushing small nations in Central Menoris. The group leader, Pia, has deep ties with Ryner.

#### Queen

Pia Varliere

### Roland Empire

Subjugated the whole of Southern Menoris, in the process of further expansion. The king, Sion Astal, is the best friend of Ryner.

#### Hero King

Sion Astal

### Gastark Empire

Unified the whole of Northern Menoris, with the ambition of unifying the whole continent. Currently invading the divine city of Eron. The king, Refal, seems to be in the role of saving Ryner from Sion, but......

#### Hero King

Riphal Edea

### 007. Conflict - Regarding that Report

It wasn't as if he hadn't grown accustomed to the deaths of people.

He knew enough about the cruelty of the world. That no matter how much naive nonsense a person can shout out, in the end it can only be foolishness, Ryner understood well enough.

Someone shouted out love.

Shouting that he wanted to protect the girl he had discovered he loved.

Yet, in front of his eyes, she died.

So readily, she died.

While crying, her body was torn apart.

And the murderers were laughing.

He howled his resentment.

Yet, he could do nothing.

Within the everlasting despair, he continued to scream.

And so, those screams led to the next revenge. As you kill, the more you kill, the more the world steadily advances into the depths of the deep darkness.

That was what Ryner observed every day.

"............"

Day after day, he continued to gaze upon it.

Ever since he could remember, he was gazing upon it.

Roland, the country he was born in, was completely engulfed with madness.

Ruled over by war, greed and madness.

Even though it would be good enough to pass the days with a small smile; in a blink of an eye, the madness would pervade those days.

In a blink of an eye, the greed would pervade.

And the screams would start again.

Despairing at the world, howling in resentment.

Even if you scream how much you can't bear it, reality will continue, indifferent.

Choosing the most unbelievably cruel path, reality will continue.

And now—

"............"

All his comrades died.

They died, yet until just yesterday they were smiling.

"............"

But having already grown accustomed it, Ryner, weakly muttered,

"So again this world...... would kill humans in such a way....."

And he believed it was a matter that couldn't be helped.

It couldn't be helped that he could do nothing.

Because it was always the same, since then until now.

And surely it would be the same from now on.

Anything and everything was too cruel, and to do anything about it, even thinking about it, was impossible.

And so again, people died.

The girl who said she loved him, died.

The friends who told him to become comrades with them, died.

Died.

"............"

While eternally gazing upon those deaths, suddenly, he could bear it no longer.

He felt, at this rate he could no longer live.

He was running away.

The world's cruelness was in front of his eyes

Because it could not be helped, the world's cruelness before his eyes. Because he could not do anything, he continued to run away.

One day abruptly, in the cup of the depths of his heart, the despair accumulated reached the limit and overflowed.

"............"

And so, while knowing it was but a pipe dream, he wrote that report.

But he has already lost that report. Left behind in the darkness of Roland, he had already lost that report.

Yet he still remembers the introduction.

Not expecting for it to be shown to anyone, to an embarrassing extent he poured out the feelings he kept hidden into the introduction.

"............"

Even though it felt like such a long time has passed since he wrote it, he began to recall the contents.

"............"

The beginning of the report went something like this.

People hate dying.

They hate killing as well.

They don’t like making others cry, or cry themselves.

How would it feel to not be able to choose one’s own life?

What about having one’s family dead?

What about having one’s lover dead?

No one should have wished for all that, but yet why is the world smiling and desiring only such senseless sorrow?

I have never thought of forcefully changing anything. But if I don’t, it will be sorrowful, and neither do I want to lose any more things......

Such bothersome talk......

It’s about time to move on. All this while, I’ve averted my eyes, but if needed, I shall try looking at my own past.

And.

In order to create a world where no one loses anything.

A world in which that child, and Kiefer don’t have to cry, in which Tyle, Toni, and Fahl don’t have to die, in which Sion doesn’t have to brood.

A world in which everyone can laugh and just take afternoon naps.

Ryner Lute

"Ryner Lute."

He softly whispered.

He softly whispered his own name.

Then, he began to remember that report full of embarrassing things that he foolishly wrote.

That he wanted to obtain a world where he would no longer lose anyone or anything.

That because he did not want to lose anything, he would move forward.

At that—

At those words,

"............"

Just what-

"...... What am I saying?"

He whispered.

And then, he opened his eyes,

Faced the scenery spread before him,

And thought.

Just what can I do, I who did not notice Sion's despair? Just what can I do, I who could not save those who were precious to me? Just what can I do, I who spread such twisted despair?

"...... Just what am I trying to accomplish?"

That's right, he whispered—

A demon will descend.

A demon so cunning, so austere, enough to empty the deep, dark hole in the hearts of the people, will descend.

A king, not human— but a demon will.

And so, finally this story will begin.

### 008. Chapter 1: Inside of the Falling Rain

## Chapter 1: Inside of The Falling Rain

Something amazing had happened.

The light flashed and then there was a loud explosion.

Ryner looked to that side as he ran, “… What is that? What has happened?”

Now, he was at the south of the Southern Country of Ali. Up further south was the boundary of the Republic of Belis.

The citizens and soldiers of Imperial Nelpha that Toale had been leading and the soldiers led by Vois had gathered together to form this army of mixed groups. They were now under attack from an unknown attacker.

The attacker had been from the south, so they had almost thought that they were under attack from the Republic of Belis. But Vois had said that one attacking now was a mercenary group known as the Azure Princess.

Even though they did not know why the mercenary group was attacking them, but they were under attack, so they needed to prepare for battle.

After all, this was a group that had been attacked by the Roland army.

They had been attacked from the side, so they had no reason to allow the damage to spread.

To defend against this attack, Ryner and Ferris were running.

As Ferris ran, she asked with her usual emotionless expression, “What is it?”

“No, that… I can’t tell for certain without using the Alpha Stigma…”

“Mm-hmm.”

“The magic that those people used to attack us, that probably was Roland’s magic.”

Ferris seemed to widen her eyes at Ryner’s words and looked at him. She looked at Ryner’s face with her clear and big eyes.

“…Roland? That means there are soldiers who purused us to the Republic of Belis?”

But Ryner shook his head.

“No, Vois said that wasn't the case. It seems to be an unknown mercenary group attacking us.”

“Mercenary group?”

“Ah, it seems to be a mercenary group called the Azure Princess … Have you heard of it?”

“No.”

“I haven’t too. But if they're capable of ambushing the mixed army of Nelpha and Vois’s soldiers…”

At this moment, there as another flash of light and an explosion.

A few soldiers under Vois’s command that had been in the front of the group were caught in the explosion.

Because of this scene, Ryner’s eyes widened.

“…”

Then a strange red five-pointed star started to shine in his black eyes.

That was the cursed eyes called the Alpha Stigma.

It was the cursed eyes that were able to read all kinds of magic.

Using those eyes, Ryner stared at the explosion ahead of them.

“Ah~ That is really Roland’s magic. And it has been altered greatly.”

“Altered?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it powerful?”

“… Well, I wonder.” Ryner stared at the glowing magic again and tried to analyze its structure, strength, specialties and range of effect.

“Ohhh, this is pretty amazing. It's a lot more powerful than Roland’s magic. Or rather, it seems to have a rather difficult formation… I bet this complicated magic can’t be used by that red-haired muscled idiot?”

Because of what Ryner said, Ferris seemed to be slightly unhappy, “Are you competing with that person called Claugh or something like that?”

“Yes yes.”

“Hmm. That means that someone who's stronger than him is attacking us, right?”

Towards this, Ryner shook his head.

“No, well~ That red-headed idiot’s physical strength is impressive, so it's debatable which side is stronger, but…” He stopped, reaching the side of where the battle was occurring. “…But, if I’m not prepared like I was then, I might be killed…”

Saying this, he tensed and examined his surroundings, confirming the events that had happened here.

“…”

In front of him, Vois’s black-armored soldiers were desperately fighting against the assailants.

No, though they were doing their best, their assailants were far stronger—it was that sort of hopeless situation.

Then he looked at the people who were attacking them.

“…Talking about which, what is this? Isn’t it obvious that they have gone bonkers? What exactly is after Vois’s life?” Ryner said with an annoyed expression.

Then he started to stare at the fighting invaders in front of him.

Although he had said that, but one person was heading towards them.

Only one person.

No, behind this one person, there were many soldiers that looked like this person, but they did not participate in the fight. So only one of them was heading to attack them.

That soldier charged into the midst of the mixed army of the Nelpha and Vois’s soldiers.

“…”

Ryner stared at that lone person that was overwhelmingly powerful.

A metal mask and red battle uniform. There was a red butterfly insignia on the chest of the soldier. It seemed to be the insignia that represented the Azure Princess mercenaries .

Looking at that insignia, Ryner said something idiotic like “…that isn’t blue at all!”

Then Ferris unsheathed her sword and asked, “Not blue?”

“Yeah, um, aren’t they called the Azure Princess mercenary…”

“Oh. But I haven’t heard of it.”

“Me neither.”

“Unless they become famous only recently?”

“Well, who knows. But…” Ryner looked at that red figure.

Then said, “If they have a monster like that, then they'll become pretty famous soon.”

At this moment, the attacker that had defeated Vois’s chosen soldiers said, “Yes yes, the game ends here~ You've realized by now, right? Come, look at my movements, you must have thought ‘Ah, this is no good, the genius has come~! The genius-sama who will defeat us ordinary humans has come~, right? Then hurry up and escape. Because it's one of my rules to never go easy on my opponent, I'll kill any idiots who don’t understand what situation they are in~”

As the person said this, the person caught the wrist of Vois’s subordinate who was attacking. Broke that wrist. Threw the person aside. Then continued, “If you don’t want to die like this fellow, then escape. I’ll count to five~! Those who haven’t escaped in five seconds will be my enemies and be killed by me, understand~?”

As the attacker said this, Ryner finally reached Vois’s soldiers who had been ambushed.

Ferris successfully managed to link up from somewhere else.

It seemed as if the time needed to reach the enemy from the soldiers would take about ten minutes…

But the enemy said that they would begin the massacre in five seconds.

“Ai~ I can’t make it in time. Well, I should first engage the enemy first.”

Ryner seemed to grumble. As he ran, his fingers started to trace glowing forms in the air.

The special magic that Roland had, drawing the magic formation.

At this moment, the attacker started to trace the magic formation in the air too. At that, Ryner frowned and said, “Damn it, it’s really Roland’s magic…” As if asking why would there be a Roland soldier in this place.

“…”

But he stopped speaking.

The attacker started drawing the magic formation far more quickly than what Ryner had expected.

The person’s speed was almost as fast as Ryner’s, no, to be more accurate, even the accuracy too.

Upon looking, it seemed to be a magic formation for KUURI. KUURI was a high-class magic in Roland that released spears of light to kill the enemy.

It was a complicated magic that normal mages had difficulty wielding.

But now, the magic formation being drawn out did not seem like a simple KUURI.

In the magical formation, seven glowing blocks that seemed to combine with KUURI appeared and something that seemed like eyes appeared in the blocks. These eyes moved around, as if they had their own conscience and were surveying the enemy.

Ryner looked at this magic that he had never seen before and muttered, “What is that…”

The attacker said, “Hey hey~ five seconds are up. Then if those who didn’t listen to my warning and attack…”

But in the middle of what he was saying, a soldier pulled out the sword at his waist and charged towards the attacker yelling “Die!”

But the attacker didn’t look in the direction of the soldier, only softly said “WHAT I SEEK IS THE TUMBLING TRUTH OF IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUUKURA!”

A spell, magic formation and activation sequence that had never been heard before.

Then one of the eyes in the magic formation responding to the approaching soldier and released a killing beam that was very similar to KUURI.

“I wouldn’t let you gain the advantage. WHAT I SEEK IS THE TUMBLING TRUTH OF IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION >>> KUUKURA!” Ryner finished drawing the magic formation and chanted the incantation. A block of light appeared in the middle of the magic formation and released a light beam.

The KUURIs released by Ryner and the attacker collided and neutralised each other.

“…Hmm. After separating the magic strength into seven parts, the impact for each beam has seemed to decrease… But, well, even so it is quite impressive. Let me try this next time…” Ryner looked at the scene and muttered.

Then he bent down and started to run.

The attacker looked in the direction of the magic that had neutralised his own magic, “Ohhhh, what was that earlier? An outsider has entered this fight. And earlier, that was KUURI, right? Why would there be a Roland mage in the Anti-Roland Coalition~?” as he said that, he looked towards where Ryner had been.

The six eyes that appeared in the magic formation looked in the same direction, as if reacting to what was happening.

They looked around, as if trying to find Ryner’s figure that had released KUURI.

But they couldn’t find him.

No, to be more accurate, Ryner had hidden his presence so that they would not find him.

Although his speed had decreased because he had erased his presence. But he quickly reached the place.

He was about to reach the place where the enemy was.

At this moment.

“Found you!” the attacker yelled loudly.

The eyes made of light turned from the left to the right.

Ferris stood in the sight of these eyes. She was quicker than Ryner and had ran out from Vois’s soldiers, swinging her sword.

“Idiot. It’s too late.”

As she said this, she reached the attacker.

“Wa wa wa wa , what… what is up with this person? She’s too fast… Trouble trouble trouble, but this is not enough to deal with the genius me who is like a god reincarnated!” the attacker said and raised two fingers, pointing to Ferris.

Two eyes in the remaining six eyes swiftly released the light beam that was KUURI towards Ferris.

Seeing this, Ryner smiled, “…This is useless towards Ferris.”

At that moment, Ferris stopped. She looked at the two beams of light emotionlessly and calmly.

“Hmm.” With that soft sound, she used a speed that only Ryner was able to see and swung her sword, cutting apart the two light beams.

The attacker let out a stunned,

"Eh?"

And then in a surprised voice,

"It can't be."

At this moment, Ryner charged out from the soldiers.

He said, “As of now, it is too late to be surprised.” And started to draw a magic formation. In a moment, he finished the structure for KUURI.

Seeing this, the attacker said in a surprised tone, “Wa~ what is this, so it’s you…”

“And using KUURI at this moment is a little despicable~” He quickly pointed his right hand in Ryner’s direction.

The four remaining eyes looked in his direction.

“Release.” The attacker said. A light beam shot towards Ryner and another headed for his magic formation.

“Wuah…” Ryner rolled onto the ground and dodged the attack.

Although his completed magic formation had been destroyed, but it was alright.

Because he had managed to decrease the distance between him and the attacker again.

“Ferris.” Ryner said.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Which side will you be backing me up on?”

“I’ll cut away those two remaining light blocks.”

“Ok, then…”

Ryner looked at the attacker.

Surprisingly, the attacker revealed a troubled expression, “You…you, isn’t two against one a little mean?”

Ryner laughed, “Ha ha, I’ve been a despicable person since I’ve been born.”

He shortened the distance between him and the attacker as he said this. He wanted to use his right fist to hit the person’s face, but he knew that it would be painful if he tried to strike the metal mask, so he cast that thought aside. Instead, he used a karate chop and struck at the neck that was between the mask and the uniform, “Did it hit?”

Unexpectedly, the person fell back and avoided the attack. Then he pointed in Ryner’s direction, “Release!”

“Eh?” Ryner raised his head, and looked in the direction where the magic formation that should have been dealt with by Ferris.

As expected, the magic formation drawn by the attacker had been dealt with by Ferris.

Upon discovering Ryner’s actions, Ferris shouted, slightly frantically, “Idiot Ryner. Don’t move your eyes from your enemy. This is a trap!”

At the moment, Ryner felt the killing intent and he pressed his lips together tightly, “Damn it.” He muttered then bent back and leapt back. If he had remained in his original position and looked at in front of him, he would have been pierced in the neck.

If Ferris had not warned him, he would have probably died. Definitely would have died.

But Ryner breathed in a small breath, as if calmly breathing. Then he muttered: “I must be an idiot. Don’t relax… This is a battleground. The foolish things that I do…” he said this to himself. Then he straightened himself again and looked at the attacker.

The attacker that he had chased with much difficulty had increased the distance between them and raised both his hands.

“Ah, I apologize, everyone. I thought that I could kill one or two dogs of the Goddess by myself… But an unexpected enemy has appeared. So, please take care of the reinforcements~”

As he said that, the hands of the red-garbed soldiers raised and started to trace glowing magic formations in the air. And everyone was activating their own different forms of magic. It really was a mercenary group. It looked like the Azure Princess was made from people of different countries.

Even if he did not care about this, it seemed like the magic would attack at the same time.

No, it seemed that even the area where Toale’s people who were resting behind them would be attacked too.

Ryner tensed his face and shouted to Vois’s subordinates, “Damn it, defend!”

But they ignored Ryner’s yells and started to form offensive magic.

Of course, everything was offensive magic.

“Huh? Hey hey, stop joking! If the offensive magic collides in a short range, there will be too many sacrifices…” But Ryner quietened down. This could not be stopped by anyone. This battle that had already been started could not be stopped. Anyway, Vois’s subordinates were not Ryner’s subordinates.

So they had no reason to listen to Ryner’s orders.

The only way to stop this was the attacker that had used the altered KUURI and seemed to be the leader of the opposition.

But that person had already seemed to understand that he was unable to defeat him and Ferris so he had started to escape.

If he allowed that person to escape, then there would be no way to stop this massacre.

Ryner looked at the attacker who was trying to escape but was being chased by Ferris. It seemed like he would be unable to use magic to capture that person.

The attacker’s movements seemed to be faster that what they had expected. Just be looking at his movements, one could understand that not only magic, but this person’s physical condition was excellent. And his judgment of the current situation was good.

It seemed as if he had wanted to make them lose their will to fight, but after meeting Ryner and Ferris, he had understood that this could not be remedied immediately.

“…Ah, damn it, this is bad, huh?” Ryner mumbled.

That person was probably very powerful.

A one-on-one fight would be hard. It would definitely be difficult. He thought.

But he breathed in deeply and used his loudest voice to shout, like an idiot, at the soldiers who were about to use magic on one another, “Stop, you bastards! Don’t continue this meaningless massacre, this will be left to a one-on-one by your leaders!”

In a moment, Vois’s soldiers slowed on their magic formations.

However the enemy’s magic formations did not stop. But Ryner used a challenging tone to yell at the escaping attacker, “What do you say? Are you escaping because you’re scared of me? Ha ha, if you would run away with your tail tucked between your legs, then you shouldn’t have charged in on your own!”

“… Ah?” Hearing this, the attacker stopped escaping, turned around and raised his left hand. In a moment, the red-armoured soldiers stopped their magic formations.

Ryner contorted his expression slightly. He became slightly melancholic as he saw the soldiers that had been so well-conditioned that they stopped their movements just by seeing their leader raise his hand.

Although he did not know how well trained Vois’s soldiers were, but if they really started to fight against each other, they would be greatly damaged.

This was plainly seen.

But this was the same to the other side. If they fought, then they would not be able to retreat unharmed. After all, his side had the advantage of overwhelmingly powerful soldiers. Furthermore, aside from Vois’s soldiers, there were thousands of Nelpha soldiers.

So the enemies allowed one person to attack first, to make his side lose their will to fight after seeing that person’s power. Although there were a great number of soldiers on his side, they were also with a crowd of people who had no fighting experience. And these people had already been attacked by the Roland Empire, their families and companions had been killed. As their spirits were crumbling, they were in an uneasy situation.

If a surprise attack was launched, then up until the point where the soldiers lost their will to fight, as long as this anxiety spread throughout the people, chaos would ensue.

Those people probably wanted to use that panic to do something.

“…”

But if the other side won this one-on-one fight, there might be a similar effect.

So, the other party had to accept Ryner’s proposal. This way, the fight here could be prevented—

“Well, although that’s what I’m thinking.” Ryner muttered, not confident.

If this failed, there would be a magical battle and an unbelievable number of people would die.

So…

“Please.” Ryner said softly.

The attacker looked to him, “What did you say?”

It worked! Ryner thought and tried to suppress his crow of triumph. Then he looked at the attacker, “I said let’s have a one-on-one? But talking about which, didn't you actually want a one-to-one fight? Didn’t you want to kill our leader so that we would lose our fighting will, hence why you came in alone? I only said that I would take on your challenge.”

Hearing what Ryner said, the attacker snorted, “Ha? What is that? Don’t tell me you think that you can defeat me?”

“Who knows.”

“Got no confidence?”

Ryner nodded at that.

“... It's not a fair fight, right? Don't you have the advantage in this transaction right now? So just accept."

Then,

"Hmm,"

The assailant said, crossing his arms. He fell silent, apparently thinking about something for a while. And,

"... Well, thanks to you, the situation's changed a bit, huh...? Though it's fine even if I accept."

In response to those words, Ryner looked at the assailant. He peered at the metal mask. He stared at his eyes.

From this conversation, it seemed that somehow, he knew of Ryner.

Or rather, well, if he was from Roland, and on top of that, with that level of magic skill and martial arts, he might have been from the Hidden Elites or Emirel Private Forces or someone from one of those special organizations in Roland's underworld. In that dark side, the name of Ryner Lute was hailed as The Greatest Magician in Roland , a title that many aimed after, so perhaps he knew him from there.

But.

Ryner stared at his opponent and narrowed his eyes. He felt that the voice of the man in front of him was slightly familiar.

But the owner of that voice should have died.

It was the voice of that idiot who had fought with Ryner over the position of The Greatest Magician in Roland .

That guy’s name was Zohra Rom, if he wasn’t wrong.

He used to be an assassin for the Roland Empire and had said he wanted to try to assassinate Ryner but, because he was an assassin who did not kill women and children, he was unable to kill Ryner who was thirteen years old then. He was a enormous idiot who had betrayed Roland and had become a traitor.

But that person was already dead.

When he felt that Sion was starting to go mad, he had challenged Lucile and had died in the end.

Ryner had seen the dissimilated body.

So the person in front of him now could not be Zohra.

Ryner stared at the attacker in front of him. Then said: “You… are you someone I know, by any chance?”

“How can I know someone as silly as you?” The attacker replied.

“Ha~ Is it like that?”

“Yes.”

“Then, Zohra.”

“What is it?”

“Hey, you’re really Zohra!”

Hearing what Ryner said, the attacker shrugged and pulled off his mask, revealing his face.

Tea-coloured hair and determined blue eyes that would not admit defeat. Just by seeing his confident face, anyone would feel annoyed.

Then that smirking mouth said: “Ah, even if I wear a mask, I’m discovered? It seems that I should give up being an assassin because I’m unable to hide this heroic air of mine.”

Even his way of talking was exactly like Zohra Rom, who he had met in the past.

Ryner frowned and said, “What? Why are you alive? Weren’t you killed by Lucile?”

Zohra shrugged casually, “The hero of the story wouldn’t die.”

“So you’re the hero?”

“Of course.”

“Hmm. No, I didn’t think you would easily retreat from that monster, unharmed.”

“Ha. That’s a guess from your perspective? My abilities have surpassed the abilities of a god, so I can do this kind of thing easily.”

“Oh?”

“You bastard, are you looking down on me?”

“No no~”

“I’ll kill you!” Zohra clenched his fist.

But Ryner didn’t reply to him and asked, “So why did you appear in this mercenary group called the Azure Princess? Talking about that, why did you attack us?”

“I'm not obliged to answer you. Anyway, what are you doing in this place?”

Are~, why was he here? Ryner thought about this for a moment then he shrugged, “Um, well~ I met a lot of trouble and then unknowingly came here.”

“Unknowingly, hey, do you understand what kind of place that is?” Zohra asked impatiently.

“…”

What kind of place… Towards this, Ryner thought about the place and situation he was in now.

He had escaped from the Roland army with Toale, the soldiers and the citizens. Under the situation where they had been unable to escape, they had been saved by the Anti-Roland Coalition that Vois had created.

And heard that Vois could control an inhumane grotesque monster called the Goddess.

Well, because this was what Vois had said himself, he did not know whether that was true or false, even if he had asked Vois seriously, he would have gotten a vague excuse so he still couldn’t understand whether the Goddess was an enemy or an ally.

That meant that he had a companion who he still did not know whether was he an ally or an enemy.

Ah~ that meant.

“…Well~ How do I say this. A lot of things happened so there's been a lot of changes going on. So don’t ask about the details.” Ryner replied honestly.

Zohra had an ‘are you an idiot’ expression, “Huh!?”

Ryner could only laugh bitterly, “No, well~ that’s what I think as well.”

At this moment, Ferris walked over and sheathed her sword, “What, Ryner? You know this guy?”

“I suppose so.”

“Is he an enemy?”

“Who knows~? Our relationship wasn’t too good in the past…” Ryner turned his eyes back to Zohra and asked, “Are you our enemy?”

Zohra looked back and said, “…From your position, it seems so. If you're in the Anti-Roland Coalition leader, then that means that you've left the mad Hero in Roland, right?”

“Mad Hero? Are you referring to Sion?” Ryner asked.

Zohra laughed, “Sion… Sion, huh? I told you to choose your friends more carefully…”

“I did.”

“You didn't. I told you to stop with Sion, didn't I?”

“You did say that.”

“In the end, you were betrayed by that fellow?”

“…”

“So that’s why you’re here right now?”

“…”

“After Sion Astal betrayed you, the companion you met while escaping was Vois Fiurelle. Why don't you stop for a while? Vois Fiurelle is a piece of rubbish who sold this world to the Goddess.”

Hearing this, Ryner revealed a troubled expression, “No, well~ Although I agree with your view that Vois Fiurelle is a piece of rubbish… But if we explain, there are many other reasons besides that.”

“I don’t care about your reasons.” Zohra quickly replied.

“Let me explain!”

“I don’t want to know.”

“Then what do you want to do?”

Hearing Ryner’s question, Zohra raised his face to the sky, turned around and confirmed the expressions of his companions. Then he said, “Yeah~ One on one, then.”

“Eh~ I don’t want that. This is like a reunion among old friends, there’s no sense of urgency.”

Zohra laughed, “We’re clearly not friends.”

“Eh~”

“Anyway, I don’t know if you still have the time. I’m also taking other things into consideration.”

“Hmm, like?”

“For example, if you still possess enough strength that I could consider making you my ally, or if it'd be okay to talk to you on friendly terms like old times, things like that. Then I should simply take you to my leader, things like that.”

“Oh~. Then do I live up to your standards?”

Zohra shook his head, “Not at all.”

“Really?”

“Really. After seeing the mistake you made in your fight, I was quite disappointed. You haven’t been training yourself, have you?”

“…” Ryner was silent.

Zohra revealed an enlightened expression and said, “Like what I expected. And I feel that you’re weaker than what I had expected? So I have no interest in a weak person. In this cruel world, weak people can only be treated like rubbish. No matter what kind of causes, they are only reasons, so weaklings can only die. Depressed people can only die. Which one are you? You're always talking about how friends are important and you have that face that says you don’t want anyone to die, so do you have that power to protect the people who you want to protect? I only want to know this.”

From the beginning, this person had particularly liked to know who was it who was powerful, who was the first, I’m the genius etcetera, he had not changed from the past, always displaying that confident face that made people depressed and saying this kind of stuff.

But Ryner could not reply.

He was very clear that he did not have that powerful strength to protect his comrades.

No, it was clearly understood if one looked at the results.

Most of his important people were already dead.

The king who he had thought was his best friend had left, crying.

At that time, what did I do? What did I do?

Ryner thought of mumbling “Damn it… It’s troublesome” to those matters.

Then he gathered his strength and settled his body.

Then Zohra smiled again, “Oh, you really want to fight?”

Ryner replied, “If I don’t fight with you, you wouldn’t be satisfied, I suppose?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I can only fight. Well, even though I have known them only for a short while, even if it is Vois’s subordinates or the Imperial Nelpha’s citizens, they are my comrades.”

“So you want to protect them?”

“Yeah.”

“Ha ha. You seem to be a bit more responsible than before.” Zohra said.

But Ryner revealed a sad expression, “Because I’ve lost too much.”

“Heh. What, you want me to sympathise with you?”

“I don't need you to.”

“True. Then, let’s start.”

“Yeah. Because you’re strong, I won't go easy on you.”

Zohra laughed as he charged, “Ha~ha~~ Who are you talking to?”

Ryner stepped back in reflex and started to trace glowing words in the air, his hands dancing.

It was the magic he had gotten from the Estabul mage in the past, it could release the limits of the mind and enhance the body’s strength.

“Ah, that is a convenient magic. I also have people who were born in Estabul using this. But being too slow is a weakness.” Zohra threw a small knife at him.

The knife struck the magical formation Ryner was drawing and twisted it slightly. As Ryner was frantically trying to redraw it, Zohra reached him.

Zohra reached his right hand into the magical formation, thinking to steal the magic.

To resist Zohra’s actions, Ryner increased his speed of his magic formation and said, “Wuah, you are despicable, this is my magic.”

“If it’s stolen away, then it isn’t yours.”

“I won’t let you steal it.”

“I’ll steal it for you to see.”

“Impossible.”

“You are impossible.”

“Then die!” The two of them shouted at the same time and used their hands that were uninvolved in forming the magic to punch each other.

“Guaaaah, that hurts!! But I completed the magic faster! I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.” Ryner started to chant the spell incantation.

A glow enveloped his body and his movements became faster.

But at the same time, Zohra snatched the half of the glowing words that Ryner had drawn, “I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.” He enhanced his speed in a breath and laughed, “It’s ended.”

Zohra’s movements were slightly faster than Ryner. His fist was already nearing Ryner’s face. Although Ryner wanted to dodge, he found that he could not dodge. And Zohra threw the small blade in his hand towards him. He felt a sharp pain from his ear, as if he had been scratched, but there was no time to think about that any more.

Ryner lifted his foot, thinking to kick Zohra’s chest, but he did not succeed.

“Too slow!” Zohra said, then he kicked at Ryner’s face swiftly.

“Ah, damn it. If it’s physical activity, then you’re stronger.” Ryner determinedly blocked the kick, then used the time to jump back, pulling apart the distance for the magical battle.

From what had happened, he knew that he was faster in magic, so he could probably pull something off if he used magic.

And if he used Alpha Stigma that could analyze all magic, he could win.

So he yelled, “Prepare for my next blow.” Then he prepared to kick and focus all his strength on the place he was about to kick.

“…”

But Zohra's kick stopped. No, not only that, the killing intent from Zohra disappeared.

Ryner couldn’t help but release a surprised “Ah?”

But Zohra ignored this, put down his leg and sighed. As if there was no need to fight anymore, he turned around.

“Eh? Eh? Why?” Ryner said.

Zohra didn’t turn around. He raised his right foot. Then he swept it back and a small blade flew out from his boot. On the blade of the small knife was a red liquid.

It was probably poison.

Looking at the knife, Ryner said, “…Ah… if it had continued I might have died… That means I lost?”

Zohra looked back with a bored expression, “As I thought, you don't have the right to be our comrade.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then, what do we do?”

Zohra looked away without replying to Ryner’s question. Then he pointed to one of the soldiers and said, “It was a draw. We met a little trouble, so this was a draw. Report to the princess.”

“But the Queen told us to kill Vois Fiurelle…”

Zohra interrupted the soldier and said, “Idiot. Then will you fight with that black-haired man who looks like he is about to sleep? Or can you match up with that emotionless blond woman’s speed? There are unexpected powers on the enemy’s side. If we continue to force our attack we will suffer more damage than what we had expected. Anyway, that guy…” He looked at Ryner, “That guy is someone who is important to the Princess. If we kill him now, the Princess will kill us.”

Ryner stared at Zohra and asked, “… Talking about which, who is the Princess who you’ve been talking about since just now? Well, because the mercenary is called Azure Princess, so she should be your leader… But who is it that can command you, who hates taking orders?”

Zohra laughed and replied, “I am Love’s slave.”

“Annoying.”

Zohra laughed even more happily, “It doesn’t matter if I’m annoying. I can even die for her.”

“Oh~?”

“She said not to kill you, so this is a draw.”

Ryner lowered his head, “Hmm. So that means your lover is someone I know?”

“Yeah.”

“Who is it?”

Zohra laughed as he replied, “That annoying brat called Vois on your side knows. Up until now, we've been clashing constantly, after all.” Then he walked to the back, “Then, it’s a draw, it’s a draw. Let’s temporarily return to the city.”

Zohra said and got up on a horse that was prepared and left. His subordinates started to retreat immediately.

Vois’s followers seemed to want to chase after them, but they were stopped by Ryner, “Let them go. Even if we chased after them, we would be throwing our lives away.”

Zohra was that strong.

He was stronger than what he had been.

At this moment, Ferris walked over to him. She reached Ryner’s side in a step.

Then she knocked Ryner’s head for unknown reasons.

“Owwww….?! Hey, why are you doing that suddenly?”

Ferris replied angrily, “Why did you lose that easily!”

Ryner rubbed his head and replied, “But that guy was powerful…”

Even so, Ferris revealed an angry expression and said, “But he wasn’t so strong that you would be unable to defeat him, were you? Why were you merciful?”

Ryner looked at Ferris, then he turned his eyes to look at the blurred silhouette of Zohra.

“Because that guy was also merciful…” Ryner said.

Yes, he had felt that from the beginning. The movements of Zohra who had stood in front of him were not powerful, he wasn’t using all this strength. If he moved back one side, the other side would move back one step too. That was what Ryner thought.

At this moment, a child’s voice spoke from behind Ryner, “… If that was the case, I would be troubled, Ryner.”

Ryner turned around and found that a thirteen, fourteen year old boy had walked out from amongst the black-armoured soldiers. He had beautiful black hair and intelligent black eyes, and he wore clothes that seemed like what a witch would wear.

This was the person who Zohra wanted to kill, the person who had created the Anti-Roland Coalition and had made Ryner the king of the rebels, Vois Fiurelle.

Vois had said that.

The intelligent eyes that held wisdom that a child should not have looked at him, “You are already a leader of an organisation, you know? If you lose easily as the leader of the organisation that would be troubling. And it would demoralise the soldiers.”

Ryner frowned and said, “That’s what you claim. Anyway, your soldiers don’t take me as your leader, you know? I told them to use the defensive magic, but they ignored me…”

Vois looked at his subordinates and asked, “Is that so?”

The soldiers looked at Vois with respect, unlike how Ryner had been treated and lowered their heads, “We apologize.”

Vois nodded, “But I also think that your judgement was right. The one who was wrong was Your Majesty.” Then he looked at Ryner.

Ryner frowned deeply. “So can you stop calling me Your Majesty. Anyway, you’re not showing me proper respect.”

Vois laughed, “If you want me to respect you, then please don’t be merciful to the enemy. Even if the enemy is a young child, you have to kill them mercilessly to be powerful…” Ryner interrupted Vois, “I don’t want to be that kind of powerful.”

“You don’t want it?”

“No.”

Vois nodded, “I see. Then those children that you let go because you were sympathetic will kill your companions after a few years.”

“…”

“Please don’t make me repeat this again. We aren’t playing any games. The road you’re going to take isn’t those kind of—ah, do we add bananas on the dessert?—kind of picnic where you ask fools questions. Because of your meaningless games, many comrades may die. If they die meaningfully, then it’s fine. But if it’s a meaningless choice that you chose because you were weak, then please disappear. If you’re so weak, then you don’t have the right to stand against Sion Astal. Because he is so strong that he is able to kill the children in front of him. He is so strong that he is able to kill while crying. Then what about you? Are you going to say that you don’t have the preparation to kill anyone, but you want to save people?”

This kind of question was evidently a continuation of the lecture Vois was giving him earlier.

Towards what Vois wanted to say, Ryner had already understood it. He sighed and said, “…But, I have my own views on Zohra being merciful.”

“Views?”

“Yeah. Not only the views on my opponent being merciful, but also views on my opponent, and I am unable to fully comprehend the current situation. I didn’t even know that the person who was attacking, Zohra, was with the Azure Princess. But you knew, didn’t you? You knew that Zohra was someone I knew but you still allowed me to go on the frontlines?”

Vois nodded and replied, “Yes, I know.”

“You wanted to let me kill someone who I knew?”

Vois smiled, “Because I knew that to Ryner who was weak, you could not kill him. But even if you didn’t kill him, that didn’t matter. I’m looking forward to a time where, if you fight with people whom you’re familiar with, you can fight for time and I can search for a way to stop the enemy. Because I know that if the enemy listens to what I say, I cannot lie to the other side no matter how many methods I try.” This was indeed what a leader of the Fiurelle clan, who had been generations of masterful liars, Vois would say.

Ryner used a resigned expression to say, “Then what I did can’t get 100 marks.”

“Yes.”

“Then stop grumbling.”

Hearing Ryner’s sigh, Vois shrugged, “But what I said was from my heart. If you are a person who can easily kill Zohra, then the path ahead will be slightly interesting… But, now, ma, forget it. You’ll change, anyway. If you meet anything unfair, you’ll change.”

Ryner sighed again, hearing Vois’s unpleasant words.

Looking at Vois’s soldiers and the Nelpha soldiers and citizens who were clearly exhausted, Ryner remembered the figures of the Roland soldiers who had pursued after them, Ryner mumbled softly, “Maybe that’s true…”

Ryner mumbled that with a tired voice that clearly told of the many deaths he had witnessed so far.

He had only left Roland and Sion for a short period of time, but everything had changed.

Even if it was the scenery in front of him, or the expressions of the people, everything had changed.

Maybe he himself had changed slightly, but he couldn’t tell. No, maybe he had started to change earlier than that.

But even if he thought like that, he would not be able to understand these kind of matters.

He only knew that the situation was slowly, slowly changing.

Because Sion wasn’t smiling by his side anymore.

Even Ferris and Kiefer had bitter memories.

Some of his companions had died, Toale had died too.

Only he himself had not changed—how could something this good exist.

Everything had started changing from long ago.

The more the situation in front of him changed, the more he changed.

But even so.

“…I wouldn’t change into something like what you said.” Ryner said.

“If you gave up that easily… I would have given up a long time ago.” He said.

Then he thought that if it was so easy to give up, then there wouldn’t be any need for him to escape yelling that he hated killing.

He could have become a killing machine like what the Roland Empire had wished.

He could laugh like an idiot while he killed.

If that had happened, maybe Sion could have killed me without any hesitation. Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill those comrades who told that monster ‘Let’s go’ and those friends who thought that they would be happy with that monster.

But I can’t do that.

Because I can’t do that, so I’ve come to do this.

You want me to give up on whatever I’ve been doing and become strong? If there was a need to, then I would have to kill these desires? Don’t joke with me!

If that was the case.

If that was the case, then I would have given up a long time ago.

I would have been like what I was before, not doing anything, saying it was troublesome then escape, escape, always escaping. And then dying easily in an unknown place. No, it’s better to say I should always think of dying.

But Sion will cry.

Because he is bearing that burden alone, so an idiot like Sion will cry, so I should try starting to fight.

Unless you want me to let go of everything and start killing? Admit that not killing is a weakness?

Ryner thought then he laughed sadly and stared at Vois, saying, “…The king that you wish for, isn’t there one like that in Roland? So I won’t walk the same road as that man.”

“That is a weakness.”

“Is it?”

“It is.”

“But bearing that weakness is not easy, you know?”

Towards this, Vois revealed a slightly defeated expression, laughing, “Ha, haha. Ma, that’s true… You really are an idiot. Choosing you was right.”

“Oh, because I’m too stupid, so I can be your marionette?”

Vois narrowed his eyes and replied, “Hmm~ Who knows?” Then he muttered something. He muttered something that Ryner couldn’t hear, “…Ma, it’s like what I thought… It is a demon who fears being lonely…”

“What?”

“Nothing, I was just talking to myself.”

Ryner stared at Vois and said, “Anyway, if you want me to be your companion, then you should stop hiding things from me. I didn’t ask you about Zohra and I didn’t ask about the details about the monster called the Goddess. And, ah, what~ you know the person called Princess who leads the Azure Princess? Who is that? And the person called Princess seems to know me, who is it?”

Vois didn’t reply Ryner’s questions but turned around and said, “I’ll tell you that when we reach the camp. According to what I know, the Runa Empire has surrendered, Roland Empire is starting to move there and operate from there.”

“Huh?” Ryner couldn’t help but yell, “Wait…wait a moment. That means that Sion is going to Runa…?”

But Vois didn’t reply and continued, “And the two Generals Bayuuz White and Claugh Klom are leading the soldiers and preparing to invade the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla. This is faster than what I had expected. They probably used the Rhule Fragmei to progress… Ma, no matter what, the territory of the Roland Empire has already reached the Southern Country of Ali already. Now there isn’t any power in the southern continent to stop Roland’s power. So we don’t have any time to stay here any longer. Although the Republic of Belis will stand on our side for now, they will change their minds when they see Roland’s power. Before that, we have to cross through Belis and enter the Central Continent. There isn’t much time left. Can we talk as we move?” Vois finished and walked away without waiting for an answer. He started to give orders to the surrounding troops. It was almost impossible to view him as a fourteen or fifteen year old child.

Ryner looked at this, stunned then he turned to Ferris, who was very calm despite what had happened and said, “…No matter how you look at this, it seems as if I’m obviously the subordinate, right?”

Ferris nodded, “You have a natural face that looks like a slave.”

“Haha, I thought of that too. I only want to have no responsibility and live simply…”

Ferris hit Ryner’s back as he mumbled that.

“Ah, ow… What is it this time?” Ryner asked.

Ferris complained, “Really, what are you doing. You lost to an assassin of unknown origins and you can’t argue against a brat who can’t say anything but perverted things… Even if you embarrass yourself, you have to have some kind of standard.”

Ryner smiled bitterly, “I’m sorry.”

But for unknown reasons, Ferris turned her eyes away and said suddenly, “But I… that… I don’t hate this side of you that is like an idiot, annoying and completely useless…”

“…Eh?”

Ferris continued to look away, “Anyway, you don’t have to mind becoming a marionette. Zohra? Vois? Who knows about that. Sion and I have already approved of you. Then we should only proceed in the direction of our path. So you should have some confidence in yourself, you idiot. Don’t lose to anyone apart from me. I will be unhappy.” After saying these things, she walked away.

Ryner looked at Ferris’s back and ran his hand through his rumpled hair, laughing lightly, “…That, this, if I made you unhappy, then I apologize.”

“If you are apologizing, then you shouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

“Yes yes~”

“Then, let’s go.”

As she said ‘let’s go’, Ryner thought about the events that would happen after today and sighed.

They had escaped the pursuers with much difficulty, but there still was a mountain of things to do.

Behind them were the pursuing soldiers from Roland Empire.

In front of them was the mercenary group called the Azure Princess.

And there were other countries.

In this mess, how was he going to bring the Nelpha soldiers and people, and escape to safety?

“Really, this is really difficult.” Ryner said as he turned to face the sky.

Like earlier, the sky was covered with a thick layer of rain clouds and appeared to be very dark. In this rain, he had to lead the tired people forward.

He had to lead the children who had their parents killed by Roland.

He had to lead the old people who had lost their families.

He still had to continue.

“Damn it, this is really difficult.” As he said this, Ryner started to walk.

Because he knew that if he did not continue, nothing would change.

And he understood that the more he tried to escape, the more saddening things would happen.

“…”

So he started to walk down the difficult path in the rain.

### 009. Chapter 2: Inside Of The Mire

## Chapter 2: In the Mire

Unknowingly, his feet were already dirtied.

He knew that it wasn’t there just now, but he had somehow managed to step into a muddy piece of land and now he found that he was unable to move his feet.

“…”

So he looked at his feet so that he would be able to pull his feet out of the swamp.

But he found that his feet had not sunk into any mire, even his shoes were clean.

Just that there was a lot of blood.

There was a large amount of fresh blood flowing out from where he stood.

The blood flowed and became a path.

It was like the blood was paving the road that he should take while flowing all over the ground.

He stared at this road.

“…”

Sion Astal used his golden eyes to look at the fresh blood.

No, if he was more accurate, the blood wasn’t flowing out.

At least in reality, no one would see the blood.

But Sion looked at the blood.

He looked at the scene that was in the Other World.

It was a world where there was the Goddess, Hero and Demon.

It was a world where Sion who was being devoured by the Mad Hero belonged to.

It was a world that changed constantly around him.

From where he was standing, red, red, no, because it was so red that it had started to turn black, the curse was eroding the land.

The curse had covered all of Roland, devastating the old Estabul Kingdom and continuing to spread to Imperial Nelpha and Runa Empire.

This curse made the people living on these lands submit to Sion Astal.

This curse spread to the ‘Human’s living on these lands, making them become ‘Human α’.

Then, even if it was Nelpha or Runa, they would be done for.

One of the bonds shackling the Fallen Mad Hero in Roland would be broken.

Towards the Central.

They could already head towards the Central.

But.

“…”

Sion closed his eyes and pulled his consciousness back to reality.

He was now riding on a horse.

They had crossed over the boundary between Runa and Roland, heading towards a new land that the Hero had never stepped on before.

Then invade the new lands.

For this, he had moved his operation grounds to Runa Empire.

Surrounding him were tens and thousands of soldiers.

But he couldn’t hear their voices.

He couldn’t hear their footsteps.

He could only hear his own voice.

“…”

I am using fresh blood and the curse to muffle this world’s sounds.

Hearing the sounds of the world changing.

That is the world that I wished for.

That is the mad world that I wished to change.

But he didn’t know why, but he felt quite sad.

“…Sad?” Sion softly said.

“The me who isn’t human any longer, feels sad?” He muttered softly, then started to laugh.

He laughed with a bitter voice.

But Sion Astal could only continue.

The Roland King could only continue.

The Fallen Mad Hero laughed sadly and continued to progress to the north.

For the sake of changing this world.

For the sake of changing this mad world, he—

He suddenly found that he had dirtied his feet.

Fresh blood.

The ocean of blood had dirtied his feet.

“Damn.” Riphal Edea muttered. Then he raised his eyes to observe the current situation.

He was currently preparing to invade a small country called the Divine City of Elon.

Although the Divine City of Elon was the first obstacle that the Gastark ran into when they started to attack the Central Continent, but there was a large difference between the armies of Gastark and the Divine City of Elon.

So, according to common logic, there wouldn’t be a war. Only Gastark sending out the warning to surrender and then the Divine City of Elon would surrender and the war would end.

That was basically what had happened when they had fought with the smaller countries up north.

So this time, they tried sending a warning to surrender to the Divine City of Elon.

“… Are they idiots.” Looking at the mountains of corpses around him, Riphal said, “Didn’t I say I would protect you from Geihlficlant? Why did you give up your lives for nothing?”

As he said that, a pale and calm man standing behind him—Rigwaltz Pentest said, “…There’s no choice. These countries are dependent on the Geihlficlant Empire. If you compare us, who appeared recently with the Geihlficlant Empire, anyone would choose that side.”

He frowned, then turned towards the mountains of dead bodies. There was a torch on the walls of that country. So that even if it was evening, they could still see the situation clearly.

This city, Aislon was the only place where the Divine City of Elon could block Gastark. If they managed to break through this are, then they would gain direct access to the center of Aislon.

Of course, the Divine City of Elon dispatched nearly all of its soldiers to this city Aislon. And the Aislon soldiers were resisting Gastark’s attacks.

It was obvious that they would fail in battle, resisting futilely, shouting and crying, and then dying.

A frighteningly large number of people had died.

This scene was so saddening that it almost seemed funny.

There were people dying.

Riphal walked over these bodies.

He encountered some soldiers resisting and meeting drastic ends, sacrifices on his side. And their progress seemed to be slightly slower than expected.

But.

“It’s ended.” Riphal said.

The foundations of the wall had exploded due to their efforts and it had started to collapse, preventing the soldiers from making any further action to use magic to attack them.

Rize nodded, “Yes, Aislon has collapsed. This way, the Divine City of Elon has ended.”

“If I knew that we were going to have such a stubborn resistance… I would have used Glovil.” Riphal said, looking at the unbelievably long black sword on his back.

It was a cursed sword called the Sword of Regeneration. It needed to eat its owner’s body- namely Riphal’s body- to release a strong destructive power that was equal to that of the god’s.

But Rize shook his head and said, “If it were so easy to use that sword, then it would be troublesome. If we use it so easily, then even if you have many bodies, it won’t work… Even if it wasn’t like that, please don’t use that sword for more than three times in the future…”

Hearing this, there was an ache in Riphal’s left eye that had been eaten by Glovil.

“…”

There were three more times… he thought.

That was the number that he could use Glovil to collapse the three states in this central continent.

Riphal examined the powers in the Central Continent again mentally.

In the Central Continent, there were thirteen countries, including the Divine City of Elon and three states. Although it was put like that, but those thirteen countries were vessel countries of the three states, so it could be said that there were only three countries in the Central Continent.

And the names of those Three States were—

Geihlficlant Empire

Republic of Ertolia

Remrus Empire.

These three countries had a larger land mass than the northern continent and were therefore more powerful than them.

If it included the powers of the vessel countries, then perhaps their combined power would be stronger than the Gastark Empire that had unified the Northern Continent.

As a side note, the country, the Divine City of Elon that was about to surrender to Gastark was a country in the east of the Central Continent, and it was a vessel country of the Geihlficlant Empire.

Although Gastark had sent warnings to the Divine City of Elon at the start of the war, but it had rejected it as they feared Geihlficlant.

After they allowed the other party to witness Gastark’s power, Gastark had sent another warning, but they were rejected again.

Then Gastark sent people to investigate why the Divine City of Elon was rejecting them so vehemently.

They found out that the royalty and nobles had already fled to Geihficlant. Nearly all the nobility and cadres of armed forces had escaped to Geihlficlant. Only the people and soldiers left behind were ordered to buy time so that Geihficlant could arrange an army to deal with Gastark.

That meant.

“…”

At this moment, the wall collapsed.

Then yells came from the soldiers, even though they had been abandoned by their leaders. Even though sadness appeared on their faces, but the soldiers of Divine City of Elon continued to fight.

But.

“…It’s ended.” Rize said.

Riphal nodded, “Yeah. And they didn’t manage to buy enough time for Geihficlant.”

Rize laughed, “That, before Glovil, what preparations do you think they can make? Even before that cursed sword, the Rhule Fragmei can’t even influence it…”

But Riphal used his right eye that had not been eaten to stare at Rize, “If we had allowed them to prepare, then the soldiers that would have sacrificed their lives in front of Glovil would have increased.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, more people would die for nothing, right?”

“Yes, that is true.”

“I hate seeing people die.”

Hearing what Riphal said, Rize smiled calmly and said, “I hate it too. So you can rest assured.”

But Riphal laughed bitterly, using that helpless smile and unhappy eyes to look at Rize, “… Can Geihlficlant like Stohl, using Glovil to make them surrender?”

“Who knows? This is the first time we’re fighting with such a strong country. And our opponent has even hired the Azure Princess. And that Azure Princess can use Rhule Fragmei. This situation, compared to previous occasions, is more…”

“Is it troublesome?”

But Rize laughed. Then he bent down and put his hand on the ground. He touched the red earth that had been stained with the blood of the soldiers of the Divine City of Elon with a sad expression.

“…I will work hard to prevent the situation from progressing to that stage. That means that where would we use that Glovil. Anyway, if we use that sword, we will pay a great price. Because we are using Your Majesty’s body as a sacrifice, so we can’t overuse that sword’s power. So, where can we use it? The important thing is that we make the enemy have disappointing results. I also hate seeing people die. But we need to use it in an area where the enemy would definitely despair when they see it. Then, where should we use it? Because this time, the enemy can use the Rhule Fragmei, so we need to practice devouring that power, giving the enemy despair…” As if talking about his own views to himself, he stood up, laughing and said, “Well, no matter, we can’t lose now.”

Riphal nodded, “If we lose, then I should have died with those comrades who sacrificed their lives for this sword.”

“Yes.”

Riphal stepped to the front, although his foot sank into the soil that was mixed with blood, he didn’t mind it. Because my hands are stained with my comrades’ blood.

I have finally come to a place where I can see my sacrificed comrades’ blood in the Gastark Empire, this has already cursed my soul.

So there is no way to not progress because I am stained with my enemy’s blood, after all that has happened.

So Riphal looked at the collapsed wall of the city and said, “Then, let’s go the next place. If we don’t attack the central hub of the Divine City of Elon and attack the Geihlficlant Empire, then what would the other powers do?”

Rize replied, “No problem. There is still a large distance from here to the Remrus Empire. There is probably nothing they can do now. As for the Republic of Ertolia, according to the information from Sui and Kuu now, there does not seem to be any intentions in helping Geihlficlant. Well, these two countries have not been on good terms. That means if you want to, we can probably attack Geihficlant and Ertolia at the same time…”

At this moment, Riphal raised his hand and interrupted Rize, “You can do anything about that. Anyway, we have to fight with Ertolia sooner or later. After we defeat Geihlficlant, we can plan to attack any other countries. Talking about which, how about the movements of the users with magical eyes?”

“There have been no leads.”

“You didn’t catch sign of anything.”

“Yes. Although Sui and Kuu have already infiltrated the Republic of Ertolia, they haven’t discovered anything… Perhaps they have moved their operation grounds.”

“Don’t tell me they went to Remrus?”

“I don’t know about that. No matter which country, they all hate people with the magical eyes, so maybe they have hidden in a country without any permission?”

Riphal thought about the figures of those users with the magical eyes. He thought about the figures of those sad people who had been living a cursed life because they had been born with those cursed eyes.

And those figures overlapped with his own body.

They overlapped with himself who had been born in despair and who had been cursed with this destiny and sword.

But even so, he would not sympathise with them. Because they were definitely a group of people who had been cursed. A group of people who would make everything strange just by living in this world.

Although he said it like that, ma, even if it was Iino Dwoe, Ebula Crypt, Wilno Heim, Alpha Stigma or the number of Rhule Fragmei that the Gastark held, thinking about it should not be too much of a problem.

But.

“But if they appear now, it would be very troublesome.” Riphal said.

According to his sources, the king of all the magical eyes, the ‘Solver of All Equations’ had left Roland. If this happened, then all the people with magical eyes could gather at his side.

His name seemed to be Ryner Lute.

At this moment, Rize said, as if seeing through Riphal’s thoughts, “Riphal does not have the ability to choose women.”

“Idi~ot. Kiefer will definitely return.”

“I don’t think so.”

“That woman has already fallen in love with me, ai?”

“Ai~ I can’t see it at all~”

“You’re lying?”

“Really. Anyway, you know it’s true, don’t you? The one she loves is Ryner Lute. She is a pitiful woman who has fallen in love with a ‘monster’. So I said, if you don’t kill her, then you’ll have to snatch her away, right? Even if you forcefully make her love you, she will still be happy by your side. But why did you let her go?”

Riphal looked at Rize and then suddenly laughed, saying honestly, “Because I really love her.”

Rize revealed a defeated expression and said, “You’re always like this.”

“Idi~ot. If you don’t really fall in love with a woman, then what else can you do?”

“Yes yes. As long as Riphal says he has completely fallen in love with a woman, he will definitely be dumped.” Rize said. He didn’t use ‘Your Majesty’, but Riphal.

Riphal laughed, “If I am dumped again, then accompany me and get drunk.”

“Ha ha ha, but before that, we have to drink a celebration toast to defeating Geihlficlant. Then, we should clean up.” As he said this, Rize walked to the front. He commanded a few of his subordinates and started to arrange for what they would do after the war.

Riphal looked at all of these and then looked to the southern sky, thinking of Kiefer, who he had allowed to return to Roland and said softly, “… Well, anyway that person will return one day.”

If she wanted to save Ryner Lute—this ‘Solver of All Equations’, then she would definitely need my help. So Kiefer will definitely bring the Demon here.

And she will come back while crying.

Because she would come back crying with despair and begging me to help.

Save Ryner.

Save him.

Please kill him so that he could be released from this curse.

Kiefer will definitely beg Riphal to do that.

“…”

He didn’t want to see her crying face. He thought. No one would like to see the woman that they loved crying. So it was best that before things like that happen, I kill that guy.

And then to the source of the distortion of the world.

Kill Sion Astal too.

“…”

If Kiefer likes Ryner, then I will create a world where Kiefer and Ryner can happily smile and live in.

Then.

“Well, even so, I can only continue to progress in the end…”

He said, then he walked to the front.

He walked to the mountains of corpses.

He hid the sad expression behind his eye patch and announced his tyranny over this piece of the Central Continent.

And the one to be their first victim would be the Geihlficlant Empire.

### 010. Chapter 3: Inside Of Hope

## Chapter 3: Inside of Hope

After the surrender of the Divine City of Elon, the Gastark Empire began its advancement to the Geihlficlant Empire.

Around the same time, Ryner continued to further advance his postition.

Currently Ryner, riding the carriage prepared by the Republic of Belis, continued heading north to the Geihlficlant Empire.

The carriage was suprisingly spacious; riding inside including Ryner were, Toale, Kiefer, Ferris, Vois, and said to be the Vois's close aide, the female soldier in black armor. Fixed to the center was a table they surrounded and yet there still was space leftover.

On the table were three maps spreaded out. They were prepared by Vois, maps of the Menoris Continent detailing the state of affairs, mountain ranges, rivers, up to the names of the countries and a brief rough figure of military strength.

Including Vois's movement plans from hereafter, these three maps were laid out.

While studying the brief map of military strength, Ryner ran over in his head the current situation of the continent that Vois informed him of along the road.

Just by examining the movements of five countries, you can grasp almost all of the circumstances.

The first is the Gastark Empire that has completely unified the northern continent.

Another is the Roland Empire that has engulfed the entirety of the southern continent.

And then in the middle continent, surpassing all of the southern continent's combined territories, were three massive countries —

— The Geihlficlant Empire, the Republic of Ertolia, and the Remrus Empire, known as the three major countries of the middle continent.

Apparently, at the mercy of the movement of the five countries, are all the still existing smaller countries.

Well for now, even putting aside Roland and Gastark, in a situation like this, with the three major countries so immense, the smaller countries would have to become vassal states or they will be soon crushed.

So even the alleged Anti-Roland Coalition organization formed by Vois, centered in the Republic of Belis, is no exception and was backed up by a major power.

By the way, when the coalition was just created they originally had the Remrus Empire's backup; however at Vois's decision, they rejected their assistance and are now searching for a new lead.

So now, they are continuing the negotiations with the Geihlficlant Empire to receive their backing and yet,

"Those guys from the 'Azure Princess' are getting in the way."

Vois said.

In other words, the Anti-Roland Coalition army and the "Azure Princess" are competing over who gets the support of the Geihlficlant Empire.

To that, Ryner faced Vois,

"So you made me your comrade to do something about the 'Azure Princess'?"

Nodding, Vois answered,

"Thats right. You are acquainted with the leader of the 'Azure Princess.'

"And you're keeping the identity from me right? Just who is it, and why the heck wont you tell me?" asked Ryner.

"It's not like I'm keeping it from you. It's just that there were too many things we had to do and I couldn't find the right timing to tell you," replied Vois.

Well, there was that too, nodded Ryner.

Certainly there was a mountain of things to do the last two weeks, and it was quite tiresome.

To start with, they just couldn't keep moving with the refugees from Nelpha, and would the Republic of Belis accept them? Would they properly receive them? They've been running about mostly because of this.

Toale who just recently had his prosthetic arm and leg attached with magic still cant use it well, yet he participated in the negotiation with the leaders of the Belis Republic for several days and nights.

To the point Toale became completely exhausted.

Although negotiations came close to breaking down, for now as a result, the refugees were accepted into Belis as official citizens. This brought up the problem of what to do with the soldiers that followed Toale up to this point.

If the soldiers cannot just enter the middle continent while maintaining their Nelphian nationality, then under which power should they go to? Would they remain in the Republic of Belis with the citizens and fight with the oncoming Roland army? Or should they disband for now and join the Anti-Roland Coalition army? However to that the soldiers were unwilling, asserting that they will not follow anyone other than Toale-sama and Major Seruesu. Then where does Toale and Seruesu stand? "If you guys treat Toale-sama and Major Seruesu badly we wont forgive you!" -kind of volatile atmosphere spread among the soldiers.

Somehow, the discussion took a further four more days.

In conclusion, Toale was accepted as an executive staff of the Anti-Roland Coalition, and former Major Kazaaru Seruesu, as a direct subordinate of Toale, was given the ranking of Major General.

Well, even if you say executive staff or major general, it's not very convincing since it's not clear just what kind of organization the Anti-Roland Coalition is. However, because Toale was received with a favorable treatment, the Nelphian soldiers gave consent.

And so, currently led by Major General Seruesu the soldiers, taking a different route than Ryner's group, are also heading towards Geihlficlant. Incidentally, Ferris's little sister Iris, Arua, and Kuku are also traveling with that group. Well, anyhow setting that aside.

Facing Vois, Toale said,

"Nevertheless, no matter how much you say you've been busy, you wouldn't give us a proper explanation at all. Although I am thankful the Anti-Roland Coalition has accepted the Nelphian soldiers and citizens, just what kind of organization are you? You call yourself Anti-Roland yet why did you send our Nelphian soldiers to Geihlficlant? Shouldn't they be fighting the Roland army approaching north?"

There was much more to it. Toale had left the people who followed him up to the Republic of Belis. If the Roland army were to attack Belis now, the citizens would be sacrificed along with them. In which case, it would make bringing the citizens desperately across the countries meaningless.

Obviously, it would be better for the Anti-Roland Coalition army to stop the Roland Empire oncoming north. Even if it's not so—

As Ryner developed his thoughts, whether Toale thought the same, he continued.

"Even if it is not so, the soldiers are exhausted. Attacked by the Roland troops, losing many comrades, and yet, while stressed, still desperately marching foward day and night to this point. Despite this, without a rest the whole army advances to Geihlficlant. I wont be satisfied until I receive an explanation for such recklessness."

Toale strongly exclaimed.

Vois then looked towards Toale, smirking.

"............"

However, he only laughed without answering.

Then Toale narrowed his usually peaceful brown eyes sharply. As if to yell something he opened his mouth,

But interrupting,

"Most likely..."

Kiefer muttered.

"Most likely we are moving because, even if left Bellis in this condition, the military force we have here isn't enough to win against Roland, right? However, I don't see the reason to move all the Nelphian troops to Geihlficant. I understand that we are going to there to receive the backing of Geihlficant, but isn't it enough for just us to go? If Ryner is the aquaintance of the leader of that mercenary group, the 'Azure Princess', isn't it a matter of Ryner going there to settle it? I don't understand the reason to purposely waste effort to move the tens of thousands Nelphian soldiers. Unless......"

She continued,

"Unless, does Vois-kun intends to have a war with the 'Azure Princess' at our destination?"

However to that question as well, Vois turned towards Kiefer,

"............"

Maintaining his irritating smirk, he gave no reply.

Hearing that, Kiefer's lovely face darkened a little as she looked at Vois with distrust. Toale has long since been making an indignant expression.

To that Ryner thought,

(Well, this guy's always like this you know? Always aloof, and thinks of nothing but deceiving people, kind of guy. I mean, he was born into a clan of swindlers back in the no longer existing Iyet Republic. I thought I ought to explain this but, I stopped.

Either way, as long as Vois doesn't give a proper explanation, we can't keep following him.

Actually, working with this guy would be way too troublesome.)

Wearily, Ryner asked,

"Well, most of the questions have been accumulated, but do you intend to answer any of them?"

Vois nodded and replied,

"Of course, but rather than that, these are all the questions right? If there is anything else you want to ask, please go ahead and speak up. After all, everything is related. It would be the quickest to answer all the questions in one go, right? If I answer Toale's, Kiefer's and Ryner's questions just now, will everyone be satisfied?"

At that moment,

"No, that's still not enough,"

Ferris spoke.

In response, Vois turned towards Ferris,

"Of course, there are tasty dango shops in Geihlficlant too."

And for some reason, to that Ferris nodded strongly,

"Then it's fine. You understand quite well don't you."

"Don't I?"

"Umu"

Like that, the two exchanged a stupid conversation. Presumably too tired, no one retorted.

Eyes half-closed, Ryner stared at Ferris and then surveying his surroundings,

"So, no one has anymore questions right?"

Everyone nodded.

After confirming that Ryner continued,

"Well then Vois, begin your explanation. Ah, by the way, if you use those lies you're so good at, right away Ferris's sword will spout flames."

Again Vois laughed, while saying something like,

"Although, I rather like being hit by Ferris."

Then Ferris nodded,

"Without getting hit, your head's gonna fly."

"Eh~♡"

And to Vois, who for some reason had a ♡ (<3) mark attached,

"You know, even though we've been ridiculously busy lately, you're still energetic eh~. I guess it's the age difference,"

Ryner somewhat sighed.

"Well, for now it's about time you continue."

Vois nodded.

He then looked towards his close aide, the female soldier sitting besides him.

According to her, as she boarded the carriage, her name is Relca Redehna.

With bright brown hair, and contrasting, a pair of dark eyes. A beautiful girl, with a bit loli-ish face, that Vois seems to favor.

Although, sitting close by was the abnormally beautiful Ferris, and the once boasted academy's most popular Kiefer, so you can't simply say, "beautiful girl." Well, it's really up to preference.

Contrasting her young appearance however, her eyes glinted sharply. Since boarding the carriage, she remained silent. With a pen, she simply continued to write on the papers she held.

Facing her, Vois spoke to Relca,

"The preparations?"

Without lifting her head from the papers, Relca answered,

"In about eight seconds."

"I see. Then within that time, the debut of a dirty joke I recently saved for everyone—"

"It's completed."

"Ehh~, wasn't that too early? That was only about two seconds you know?"

At Vois's words, Relca giggled as she looked towards him.

Although he did not respond to her smile, it seems Relca is not dissatisfied with Vois.

Besides.

"............"

Whatever, it's just two kid's love affair— no wait, Vois is no option right? That guy's a real pervert you know? Well, it really doesn't matter so I'll just keep quiet.

Ryner thought for a bit.

After placing the papers she was frantically writing in on the desk, Relca then announced,

"...... I have complied most of everyone's questions into this report. Please speak up if the information here is insufficient. As everyone is reading the report, in addition, I will write it up."

Ryner then cast his eyes down at the report spread across the desk. The report was written smoothly with tidy penmanship and the various information was organized to be understood easily.

For example, it had an organization chart of the Anti-Roland Coalition, the route they took from the establishment to the present, Vois's idea of how should the Three Major Powers and the Anti-Roland Coalition interact from now on, and so on.

Within this information, Ryner found the answers to Toale and Kiefer's inquiry earlier.

Why is it necessary to unreasonably press the Nelphian soldiers to the Geihlficlant Empire instead of engaging the Roland Empire forces ongoing north to the Belis Republic?

Written were Toale and Kiefer's questions, and the response was as follows.

1. With the current strength of the Anti-Roland Coaltion army, we are able to defend several attacks from the north going Roland army. But we do not hold enough power to defend continuously from this point.

2. In other words, in order to crush the Roland army head-on, an even greater force will be needed. In this case, with the backing of the Geihlficlant Empire.

3. However, the Geihlficlant Empire currently has their sights set on heading to war with the northern continent's Gastark Empire heading south with tremendous momentum.

4. As a mercenary group, the "Azure Princess" is participating in the war. Seeking to increase their war gains, they intend to obtain an exclusive support contract with the Geihlficlant Empire.

5. Similarly, wanting the support of Geihlficalnt, the Anti-Roland Coalition cannot let the "Azure Princess" monopolize rights of Geihlficlant relations.

6. Therefore it is necessary for the Anti-Roland Coalition to proceed towards the war against the Gastark Empire. Naturally, as an adaptable fighting potential, the Nelphian soldiers that have recently fought against the Roland army, will need to participate.

Such was written.

With his voice trembling a little, Toale spoke,

"...... Again....... do you intend to make war again?"

Vois responded, laughing,

"Aha, did you think there was another path for soldiers who've lost their country other than the battlefield?"

Ryner grimaced at those words and said,

"Wait, that maybe be so but...... we've been continuously fighting lately, they're exhausted. The way you put it......"

Glancing at his way, Voice interrupted,

"We don't have the leisure to select our words, Ryner-san. The middle continent is moving rapidly. The same way as a business that loses an opportunity will not succeed, you cannot win a war if you've lost your chances of victory. But we can still do it. According to my investigations, Gastark is quite dangerous. Boasting an overwhelming strength, they are a much more severe opponent than Roland. Furthermore, the only chance to take advantage of them is in this war."

At those words Ryner looked over to Vois,

"Ah~"

and said,

"Ah, somehow I finally get what you're trying to do. In other words, it's that right? You intend to use both sides, both Geihlficlant and the 'Azure Princess,' right?"

On hearing that, Vois grinned happily,

".......Ah, does Ryner-san finally feel like using his brains a bit?"

and said such a thing.

Ignoring him, Ryner continued,

"Even though you guys already have enough power to hold off the attacks from Roland, you guys are turning all that power to the war with Gastark. Now, I wonder why? The answer is, because we can only deal with Gastark now. The timing to use Geihlficlant, the 'Azure Princess,' and the Anti-Roland Coalition army, these three forces, to oppose Gastark is only now. According to your predictions, unless we attack Gastark with multiple forces, we can't stop them, is what you're thinking, right?"

To that question,

"............"

As always, maintaining a cheerful face, Vois said nothing.

Ryner carried on, disregarding Vois.

"Because they are the same as you, Gastark is also using the Rhule Fragmei. You want to completely crush the opponent that uses the same power. So you thought, how would you be able to thoroughly destroy Gastark? And your conclusion was this. With the timing of when Gastark attacks Geihlficlant, you'll lend a hand. As for the 'Azure Princess'......."

With a cheerful face, Vois spoke,

"I was the one who approached them first. After all, while being small scaled, they hold tremendous power. Moreover, they also have conducted research on the Rhule Fragmei, I thought that I could use them to fight together with us when we collide with Gastark...... So, in small amounts, I gave them the info that Gastark was dangerous, except midway what I was doing was exposed to their leader. To make matters worse, they were much nastier than I expected. I was already almost killed several times."

He placed his hand on his chest while saying, 'oh so scary'.

Ryner gave a bitter smile as if tired.

"So you thought, ah this is bad, and handed me the position as the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition to avoid getting killed?"

"Yeah."

"And you also picked me, because apparently I'm an acquaintance of the leader of the 'Azure Princess?'"

"That's right. Well, those aren't the only reasons...... But let's keep it at that shall we? Leaving that aside......"

Vois stretched his hand out to the desk placed in the center of the wagon. He then turned over the map with the whole continent of Menoris drawn out.

On that side he turned to, another map was depicted.

It was a map of the entire Menoris continent dyed black, and written in the middle was "Gastark Empire."

Looking at that,

"............"

Looking at the map completely unified by Gastark, the atmosphere in the wagon became strained at once.

After confirming this, Vois spoke up.

"I did not make this map as a joke. As of now that wannabe hero, Riphal Edea, has that much power. If we miss this timing, Gastark posses enough power to obtain this whole continent. It's not as if I can't continue business no matter what kind of world, however...... considering the death count in order to achieve this map, Ryner-san don't you feel like stopping it?"

Vois laughed, “Although it is generally spoken like that, but there should be several great powers checking the limits of each other. Bargaining is like that too. If you completely defeat all the opponents on the market, winning completely, the game ends too. And there is no way to expand because of competition… And we are going to stop this matter from happening in the world~! That is our situation now.”

But Ryner was unable to accept this saying, although he wanted to try to accept it, but he discovered that he couldn’t accept it.

“Although I roughly understand what you’re saying… but even so there are several parts that are unclear. Combining these three elements can push back Gastark—up till here, I understand. But what will happen after that? Accept Geihlficlant’s help and push back Roland? But there is the matter where the Azure Princess will not allow us to gain Geihlficlant’s help, right? How should we handle this point…”

Vois simply answered: “There is no need to deal with it.”

Ryner asked: “Ah? Then what should we do?”

Vois frowned, troubled, staring at Ryner, “That, Ryner.”

“EH?”

“Relca wrote out that report with much difficulty, could you read all of it first before you proceed with questioning? Everything about that has been written, so if you have questions regarding these matters, no matter how many I will reply to then… But we don’t have the time to spend talking here. Because we are going to war soon.” Vois said.

We are going to war.

This matter made Ryner depressed.

We are going to instigate the war—because Ryner had already decided to stop the war where Roland would instigate it, so we can’t help but go and instigate another war.

But…

But, he felt that there was a little strange sense of violation.

“…”

At this moment Vois suddenly stood up, saying: “Then, let’s go. We have two days before we reach Geihlficlant Empire. After that we will go to the palace, meet the king and negotiate with him, to let us participate in this battle against Gastark. Then perhaps there will be two weeks before we encounter with the Gastark army. Anyway before that, I will have to gather the rest of the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers. So I will leave here first.”

Ryner looked at Vois, asking: “Oh? Then what should we do?”

Vois answered: “Relca will follow you, so please listen to her instructions. But the authority of the load of Geihlficlant Empire and Azure Princess will be handed to Ryner.”

“That means? What? Isn’t that the most important thing…”

Vois interrupted Ryner, “It’s expected of the king to go and handle the most troublesome matters?”

“What king! You’ve clearly been pushing the most troublesome matters to me starting from just now…”

But Vois ignored Ryner, opening the door to the carriage, thinking of jumping off the moving carriage.

“Wait, stop Vois. You, don’t talk to yourself…”

But he was ignored again.

“Then Relca, everyone will be under your care.”

Relca nodded, “Yes. Vois-sama please take care of yourself.”

“Yes yes. Relca must take care of herself too. Then…” Vois jumped out, although he nearly fell when he landed, but a subordinate stationed around the carriage helped him.

That subordinate was also a beautiful girl, Vois smiled happily, waving in their direction, using a frivolous tone to say: “Then, the rest will be left to you.”

Everyone watched this scene speechlessly.

Gently sighing, closing the carriage door, sitting down, Ryner crossed his arms depressedly, looking around the interior of the carriage, then saying: “So we can only go and negotiate with the king of the Geihlficlant Empire.”

Although it seemed to be a matter that could not be helped with, just by hearing it.

Because, it’s like that? A youngster of uncertain origins and a king of an unfamiliar large country negotiating, it was an abnormal behavior no matter how you looked at it.

At this moment Kiefer looked to Relca who had been left behind by Vois, “That… Vois-kun of course has already…”

Before she finished speaking, Relca nodded, “Yes. Vois-sama has already sent a letter requesting for an audience to the king of Geihlficlant, Gulafed Abuleld.”

“The reply from the other party?”

“He has decided to meet the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

Hearing this Ryner “Ahh?” cried out loud, “Wait… give me a moment. But the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition jumped off the carriage earlier…”

Relca interrupted him, looking at Ryner, continuing: “Now, on the surface, the representative of the Anti-Roland Coalition is you, Your Majesty Ryner Lute. You’ll understand just by reading the report that I handed in just now, Vois-sama is only the general and head of state.”

“Eh?” Ryner turned his eyes to one of the pages of the report on the table, “But, from what you said, the general should be the leader, right? But saying that I am the leader…” At this moment, his speech stopped.

After looking carefully at the map of the organization, he discovered that there truly was a detailed explanation of the structure of the Anti-Roland Coalition.

It was an organization that was larger than what Ryner had imagined.

It held four small countries, governing all matters and armies in them.

Then on this map where Vois-kun had the highest position of general or head of state that seemed great no matter how you looked at it, although it felt like Vois was the leader no matter how you looked at it, but above that, in a place that was slightly far away and did not seem to be governed, and had little influence on the Anti-Roland Coalition, Ryner saw a string of words—

The king in name: Ryner Lute

“You’re teasing me!”

Relca nodded, “Yes.”

“Hey hey.”

“But Ryner’s job is very important too. If it’s to be described then it’s something like a ninja existence that would distract the enemies’ attention from Vois-sama. We have also been instructed to display the proper respect towards your performance.” Relca said with a serious expression.

Ryner hearing that, looking around.

He looked at Ferris’, Kiefer’s and Toale’s faces.

“…I’ve completely been used by Vois. Then, what should I do?” Ryner said.

But the three people remained silent.

That was natural, Vois had created this situation where they could not reject and left.

Because Ryner was unable to guarantee the living quarters and rations for the tens of thousands of Nelpha refugees and army.

And Vois had prepared these, then he had pushed this lousy condition of work over.

So Ryner and the others couldn’t reject it.

Ryner yelled, “…Ah~ Damnit, that guy is troublesome~” as he picked up two or three sheets of paper from the report on the table, lying on the floor, starting to read it.

Ryner asked Relca: “Then, for the negotiations with the king of Geihlficlant, what do I need to remember?”

Hearing this question, Relca smiled. That smile seemed to give off a feeling as if saying that so you have bowed your head to Vois-sama, making Ryner feel that the troublesome MODE was turned up.

Then she replied: “In the two days before we reach Geihlficlant, you will have to remember to death many things. And first you have to correct that habit you have of slouching and cast away that impolite fashion of speaking.”

Hearing this, Ryner couldn’t even sigh.

But in truth, he did slouch slightly, and he was unable to talk to royals politely.

As he thought that, Ryner focused his attention on the report.

And he discovered that there were a few things that Vois had never spoken of, but Ryner had his own suspicions when they started conversing.

Like why Vois rejected the help of the Remrus Empire, but suddenly accepting the help of the Geihlficlant Empire? A few reasons to this question were written.

The first reason was, to stop Gastark Empire from extending into the middle of the continent, they needed to combine forces with Geihlficlant. Because Geihlficlant did not have a good relationship with Remrus, so if they accepted Remrus’ help, they could not hold Gastark off with Geihlficlant, so Vois suddenly rejected Remrus Empire’s help.

But only like this, the explanation was still not enough. If they continued to accept Remrus’ help, they could fight with Roland. And Remrus Empire was a large country in the middle of the continent that was near the southern areas.

To Roland who was expanding its territories from the south, this location made it very suitable.

But Vois decided to cut short Remrus’ help, and changed to Geihlficlant.

Then, why was that? The real reason was written on the report.

There had been a huge political reform in Remrus Empire in half a year, from the country that was called the Holy Land of Veiohl it suddenly changed to Remrus Empire.

The Holy Land of Veiohl was a country that was built on a religion called Veiohl, but half a year ago, there was a strange hero that appeared, grabbing the authority of the country.

But there was no war.

From another country’s point of view, they may only think that the name of the country merely changed, there was no ruckus raised.

In addition that hero’s name was Remrus Remuld Aarqued.

According to this hero’s name, the country’s name changed to the Remrus Empire.

The country that had Veiohl as their country’s religion changed to Remrus as the new divine religion.

It was truly only using half a year’s time, the stage where he changed the whole country made one feel horrified. And when Remrus Remuld Aarqued became the king, the Anti-Roland Coalition cut off their ties with the Remrus Empire.

Then that reason was—

“…”

At the same time Ryner’s eyes narrowed. Staring that what the report wrote, the reason why the Anti-Roland Coalition cut off their ties with the Remrus Empire, he became slightly nervous.

The report, wrote this.

Using Relca’s neat calligraphy, it was written like that. Remrus Remuld Aarqued was not human. And it was something that had bad relations with the Goddesses, an organism that had come from somewhere, so if they continued to deal with the Remrus Empire, they would gain the ire of the Goddesses living in the desert. So, they had temporarily cut their ties with the Remrus Empire. These things were written in the report.

Ryner looked to Relca, handing the report that he was reading to her, asking: “This is?”

Relca shook her head, saying: “I basically wasn’t notified about information regarding ‘theology’, so for the detailed information, please ask Vois-sama directly.”

Ryenr suddenly felt like laughing.

Relca said ‘theology’.

The matters regarding the Goddess who seemed to be connected to a monster no matter how you looked at it, calling it ‘theology’.

Theology.

Theology… was it…? Ryner muttered softly without being heard, then continued to think.

Relca was not notified about information regarding ‘theology’, this point was probably trie. No matter what even if Vois had to be careful in order to manipulate those monsters that didn’t seem like human that were called Goddesses . So that had to be an extremely dangerous behavior.

No matter that the other party were monsters that had been given a divine name.

Then, he couldn’t reveal the information so easily to his subordinates.

But although this was a little bit, Ryner thought that way.

“…”

It seemed like the world was much more troublesome than what he had thought. He thought.

When he saw Sion changed, when he heard the voice that descended from the sky when his eyes went berserk, he had thought that.

Then when he saw an ugly monster called the Goddess appear from Vois’ shadow, he had thought that.

And it seemed that the most troublesome thing in this world was that there was someone in this world that could control this monster that should only appear in children tales.

Even if it were Remrus, Roland or Gastark, the famous countries in this world seemed to more or less have some connection with these monsters.

And Sion who had been swallowed by that darkness turned strange.

Then Ryner who had been swallowed by that darkness was always tortured by these cursed eyes.

So it seemed that if he continued that darkness, he would be unable to continue walking forward.

But, that wasn’t human, it was a monster.

It was a monster that had a strong power that could make it a divinity, what should we as humans do? Ryner was suddenly a little unsettled.

Then he looked to Ferris, Kiefer and Toale.

He looked at these human companions who were not monsters.

He looked these companions who were only weak humans and would die easily in front of the power of the Heroes’ Relics.

“…”

How should I proceed forward? He thought.

At this moment he suddenly remembered what Vois had said not long ago. He remembered what Vois had said, after they had seen that act where Toale was almost killed.

Vois seemed to say this.

“Although this time he didn’t die. Although this time he really didn’t die. But, next time he will definitely die, he will die a shockingly simple death. Because in war—humans are not able to be so strong.”

But

“…This is not a normal war.” Ryner muttered softly.

Yes.

This was not a normal war between humans.

It was a strange war that involved monsters from childhood tales.

And he didn’t understand what war the monsters would create.

But even though he didn’t understand, even if were Sion, Gastark or Vois, then Ryner could only start moving.

He obviously was not clear about who and which army he should fight against, but he still started to act.

Then, the moving gears could not be stopped.

People would die, people would die, people would die, but even so the gears would not stop.

Vois had said that. He had said that to Ryner.

“You said you would bear the responsibility of people’s lives. You said you would bear the lives of the citizens. Then, even if companions die, you have no right to stop. Even if Kiefer is beheaded, even if Ferris dies, you don’t have the time for crying. You don’t have the leisure to cry.”

Although he had though how could something so stupid exist, but, this was the truth.

Ryner looked at Kiefer and Ferris and Toale. Apart from Ferris, everyone was reading the report on the table seriously.

We have already been involved in this strange war.

Then if we continue to be involved, then there is a possibility that we will die.

Everyone, could all die.

Die because of the war.

Die because of the Heroes’ Relic .

Die from the monster’s attacks.

It was simple.

It was easy, humans could die.

Even if Ryner shouted everyone is important to me, I don’t want to fight with anyone , these nonsense, no one would listen to it.

It was like yelling you are my close friend , but Sion did not stop.

Then.

“…”

Then, what should he do? If his expectations could come true, if he wished that he could save his important people, not letting his companions cry, what should he do?

The answer was simple.

“…”

It was to become strong.

He had to gain enough knowledge that he would not lose to anyone.

He had to have a strong knowledge that would make the Goddess , the monsters, the logic in the world seem like idiots.

“What, if it were so simple it would be fine…” Ryner said to himself as he laughed bitterly.

But it seemed that no matter what he needed that power.

No, once he had thought of doing this. But in the end it had turned into a battle ground where he had killed his companions, Kiefer was crying, Sion was crying, everything was all useless.

At that moment, Ryner had done that.

So even if it was a little, it was good if he could slowly change this world, Ryner thought, the two years he had spent in Roland’s prison, he had always proceeded with researching this.

But even so time passed quickly.

Sion decided to challenge this world alone.

The world turned into a place where monsters moved in the darkness.

Then, there were people who died too.

Companions died.

When Ryner thought to move slowly, everything ended.

Every time he saw everything, he always thought that he was too lazy. The world clearly would not change even if he worked harder, I clearly didn’t do anything, I only spent the days lazily, he thought.

“…”

At this moment, the right wrist that was holding the report touched his left wrist. He touched his arm.

He touched his body that was said to be as weak as an idiot by Zohra.

Then, he thought.

Perhaps compared to the past, his body was much more relaxed. Although his magical knowledge had increased, but because Sion had been protecting him, so he left that bloody life that was filled with killing people or being slaughtered.

At least the present him, had no power to protect all of his companions.

Then Ryner thought, ah? That means I have to train myself again?

Wuah what is that, how troublesome. Seriously training and whatnot, he had never done that after Germer’s serious training.

But, even so.

“…”

Even so.

“…I will still have to do it.” He thought.

If there is the need, if this can protect my companions, I will work hard.

Although that was too late, although I have been spending my days like an idiot so it may be too late—but, if because I didn’t do it and caused someone to die, then it will leave regret and I will never be able to climb up again.

So.

“…Ah~, I’ll go out for a moment.” Ryner said, standing up.

Because of his sudden movement, everyone in the carriage raised their heads.

“What is it?” Toale asked, “Is there anything wrong?”

Ryner frowned, “No, actually there isn’t anything…”

Ferris suddenly said: “What, you want to go to the toilet.”

Ryner nodded, “Yes yes, toilet toilet.”

Then Relca said: “Then, stop the carriage.”

But Ryner shook his head, “No no, there isn’t much time left before the war with Gastark, right? It’s fine if you don’t stop the carriage. I have something else to do besides going to the toilet, if it’s completed, I catch up.” Saying that, he took the report on the table, opened the carriage door, jumped off.

“Ah? Wait.”

“Ryner?”

Although he heard those voices, but Ryner chose to ignore them, then came to the outside, dropping on the ground. Because the carriage did not stop, so if this continued they would be further away.

Ryner didn’t do anything, only temporarily watching the carriage leave. Then he slowly used his finger to trace something in the air.

In the glowing air, he wrote words.

It was a difficult magic from the Estabul Kingdom that could release the mental limits placed on the body and maximize its abilities.

Then, he chanted “…I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.” A blinding glow surrounded his body, increasing his speed. At the degree where it would shatter his whole body if he did anything more, he increased the speed of the magic.

He confirmed the effects, then breathed in, “Ah~ how troublesome.” He said that, as he tried to use the fundamental high speed attacks that Germer Kleisrole had taught in the training for war, and discovered that after he had increased his speed his body was unable to move flexibly. “Oh oh, my body has really gone slack…” Saying that, he practiced with seven different moves, doing them ten times in a row before he ended it. His whole body was already aching from the magic, only like this, he held his breath as if he were about to vomit.

“Oh no.” Ryner shouted as he did not stop his movements. Without releasing the magic for his increase in speed he started to chase after the carriage. Using a surprising aura, chasing after the carriage.

Then as he chased after it, he yelled, “Urrrrrgggh I really want to vomit. I really feel like vomiting. I clearly had no bonds with hard work and tolerance when I was booorn!” Although he said something as silly as that, but he did not stop. Only when he almost caught up with the carriage did he slow his pace, continuing to run. To gain back his body strength that had been diminishing because he was too relaxed, he continued to run. He was clear that he could not gain back all of his strength before the war with Gastark, so he suppressed the urge to sleep afternoon naps, running like an idiot.

Then as he ran he read the continuation of the report.

And he discovered a place that he had his suspicions about.

It was information about the Azure Princess.

It was a record about the leader of the Azure Princess that Ryner knew.

It was written like that.

Mercenary squad—important personnel of the Azure Princess. The leader called the Queen.

Pia Varliere.

20 years old.

Female.

User of Congenital Magic Abnormality . Was under the same training with Ryner Lute in the training facility of Germer Kleisrole. When she was six years old, she escaped from Roland Empire. Very strong.

Peria Peruula.

20 years old.

Male.

Seems to be a sacrificial lamb from Roland’s magical experiments. Body strength is unknown.

Like Pia Varliere he was under the same training programme with Ryner Lute at the Germer Kleisrole training academy… After escaping from Roland, he has always been moving with Pia Varliere. Very strong.

Zohra Rom.

20 years old.

Male.

Originally Roland Empire’s assassin.

Once after Ryner Lute defeated Kuwonto Kuo who had been called the “Greatest Mage in Roland”, then left Roland, becoming a traitor that was chased after, in the end he joined Pia Varliere’s Azure Princess, standing with Peria Peruula by her side. Continuously writing about these impressive matters.

Then looking at this, looking at Pia and Peria’s names, Ryner’s face was if possible, it crumpled as if it weren’t able to be more contorted, then shouting: “It’s them!”

Talking about which, Peria’s personality was still steady so that would be put aside, but now Pia’s existence had become the most troublesome matter, he thought depressedly.

No matter what, her personality was most troublesome. It could even be said to be as bad as Ferris. (Ryner corrected, Ferris was becoming more and more proud.)

From young she had a queen-like quality. She was more imperious than their teacher Germer.

And because they had too much power, so they were unable to control their powers and hearts. This person with congenital magical abnormality clearly had a mental weakness, but she had self-control, and she was able to analyze the situation very well, it was only under the situation where they were fighting, then she really let him see her genius-like power.

It was an oppressive power that no matter how strong Ryner became, even if he used the Alpha Stigma to fight her he would not be able to defeat her.

In the end she had even surpassed their teacher’s Germer Kleisrole’s power, taking Peria with her and escaped the country.

No, she had actually called Ryner to come with them, but he did not follow.

Because he had always been escaping. Because he thought that if he had a connection with someone, these cursed eyes would hurt them, so he could only escape. So Ryner had esaped from Pia and the others side.

Then he had never met them every again.

But until Ryner was twelve or thirteen years old, they would send a letter every two years.

But the contents of the letter was always the same. “To the cowardly Ryner. Haven’t you had the thoughts of coming over to us? It’s clear that if you always stay in Roland you will never open your destiny. Miller, Germer, they both think that you should go out of the country because you have become weak due to despair. If you say something we will come help you, so come to my side quickly. Because we already have the power to save you. In the two months when you receive this letter we will be at XXXX, you have to come. Understand? If you don’t come I’ll kill you.

Your queen forever, Pia Varliere

Well, we will really wait for you. If you want to come, come.

Your friend Peria Peruula.” He would always receive this letter. In addition in the XXXX there would be a different location written there every time.

But.

“So Azure Princess was Pia and the others…” Ryner groaned softly.

Thinking about his fellow comrades who he had been separated from in the distant past, he had an expression that was happy but also unhappy.

Furthermore people who had Congenital Magical Abnormality had a different hair colour from normal people, their hair would turn to the colour of water, so Pia had beautiful long blue hair.

And now the mercenary squad that he had to carry out the successful negotiations with was called Azure Princess too.

“Talking about which, why didn’t I notice it…” Softly murmuring.

Then he tilted his slightly depressed face to look at the sky as he proceeded towards Geihlficlant.

He looked to the northern sky that had probably had more troublesome opponents than the Geihlficlant king, sighing, saying: “…Urgh~ I have always ignored the invitations, then Pia upon discovering that I have suddenly become the enemy must be very angry…”

Then he started to train his body with more vigor. If he did not do that, if the situation became one that he had to fight Pia no matter what, the present him probably wouldn’t even be able to say anything.

She is a genius of that stage, just because they admired this strong person, Peria, Zohra, would follow her.

Talking about which, Zohra had been dumped horribly by a woman in the past, from then on he became strong in order to get the girl’s acknowledgement, and started to train himself. Although I remember Zohra saying this when I met him, then that is because of Pia… Ryner started to reconsider.

Well, no matter what, like what Vois said, the people in Azure Princess were people that Ryner knew.

But it wasn’t that kind of good relationship that Vois had wished for, but they were companions whose connection was a little strange.

“…I feel that that was too negative just now…” Just as he softly muttered that, he saw a woman standing in front of him.

Golden hair and blue eyes and expressionless.

She seemed to be born to be a queen, probably she was a woman that would argue with Pia the moment they met.

That person asked: “…Why didn’t you return to the carriage?”

Ryner couldn’t help but sigh, “Huh…”

Ferris’ expression darkened slightly, “You saw my face, then sighed?”

“No… no no, there isn’t anything of that sort…”

But Ferris had already unsheathed her sword quickly, putting up her sword, then said: “I’ll kill you.”

“Wait… wait a moment…”

But Ferris didn’t pause like she did before, but she stabbed the sword over with a speed that could not be seen.

“Uaah?!” Ryner dodged, frantically dodging, as he yelled aaaaaaaahhh and dodged, shouting: “You, Ferris, what are you doing! Just now you swung that sword at me!”

But she looked over expressionlessly, “Eh? I can’t do that?”

“Of course you can’t do that!”

But even so she tilted her head as if she did not understand, saying: “But this is training, right? It’s rare that you want to work hard by your own motivation, so I wanted to help you… am I being a busy body?”

Ryner looked at Ferris’ face as she said that. Indeed she revealed no expression, but he couldn’t help but feel that she was a little shy.

Then Ryner smiled, “No, sorry. I think you should continue doing that. If I do it alone my success rate may not be good. Then, I’m going to be serious? How about you receive training from me?”

Ferris snorted uncaringly, “Come on.”

“Yes~yes~ you have only known the relaxed face that I have before I’m serious, right?”

“Oh? You mean to say that you have never let me see your serious face?”

“No.”

“Then let me see it.”

“Yeah, I’ll let you see it now.” He said. Then he checked his body’s condition. Simply said, because of the training for the increased speed due to magic, his muscles no longer ached. And he knew Ferris for a long time, actually he had displayed several of his own serious moods in front of her, but, he tried to increase his magic abilities. Using a speed where he clearly did not move, but could hear his muscles creaking from the strain, forcefully adding burden to his body.

Then.

“Then Ferris, please be my opponent.”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.”

“Just start quickly.”

“Yes yes. Then shall we fight while we chase after the carriage?”

“Although the one who will die is you.”

“Haha. Then… I’m coming!”

Saying that, Ryner rushed towards Ferris.

There was two days left before they reached the palace of Geihlficlant.

In these two days, he started to struggle. In that distant direction back there.

Vois who had jumped down from the carriage raised his head, looking at the sky to arrange his emotions.

One of his subordinates said softly: “Vois-sama.”

“Be quiet. I’m thinking about many things now.”

“…Yes, I’m very sorry.” Although his subordinate apologized, but he did not look over. Only raising his head to look at the sky. The sky was blue. It was so blue that it was stupid. Although he had once read in a book the blue sky was the representation of peace, but what did that mean? Vois tried to sigh in his mind.

Even if the sky was blue, war would still erupt, people would still die, but what reason did that book have to write that the blue sky was the representation of peace? He thought.

Then.

“…Well, even if people die, even if war erupts, this is a petty matter compared to the blue sky, anyway this kind of rash thoughts about peace peace~ and the likes, I would agree with them…” He muttered, then laughed lightly.

As he laughed, he thought slowly about the things that he needed to do from today onwards.

Then.

“…Hey, Harmit.”

“Yes.”

“Roland will continue north, right?”

“Yes.”

“When will it reach Belis. When we chase away Gastark, and head back, Belis would most likely have fallen right?”

Harmit nodded, “Just by Roland’s current army, it is only a matter of time before they claim the whole of the southern continent…”

Vois nodded, then raised his eye brows, “Then, that means we have abandoned those Nelpha citizens who were accepted by Belis.”

“…”

“Then then, if I decide to abandon them, Ryner will be angry?”

Harmit looked over, saying: “Our king is only Vois-sama. Everyone will listen to your judgement.”

But this wasn’t the answer that Vois wanted to hear. So he did not look at Harmit, only continuing to look at the sky, “…But things have not extended to that stage. Because by my predictions, from today onwards Ryner will become someone important in this world… I want to satisfy his thoughts as much as possible. Ah~ how difficult. Which portions to abandon, which portions to pick up, this kind of choosing will always be difficult.” He said softly, looking towards the southern sky.

From here, he could see a trace of the clouds in the northern sky. He always felt that the wind did not blow towards Roland.

Ma but now was not the time to go against the south.

Now, what the Anti-Roland Coalition should do is—

“Harmit.”

“Yes.”

“Gather the soldiers. Abandon Belis. If we’re lucky, Sion Astal probably wouldn’t do anything towards the Nelpha citizens. Because in the end he is not someone who would bear to do that. So abandon all the countries in the southern continent. Then retreat the soldiers scattered in the Southern Country of Ali and the Ertolia Republic. Split the gathered soldiers into two squads, one will go with me to participate in the war against Gastark, and will you take control of the other one, wait for a chance on Tael plains?”

Hearing that, Harmit revealed a slightly nervous expression, “That means, it’s going to start?”

“Yeah. It’s beginning. Follow our plan. Take the chance of the confusion of war when we have combined powers with the Azure Princess and Geihlficlant and are fighting against Gastark, you will take the troops to ambush Geihlficlant’s south.” Vois ordered.

“Now~, there isn’t much time. Move it. All of the opportunities are lives. If this plan succeeds, we can become one of the three large countries in the middle of the continent. We can truly gain the power to fight with Roland and Gastark. No…” At this moment, Vois pulled out a map from his grasp, this was a cloth map of the powers if his plan succeeded.

In the north was Gastark, south was Roland.

What would be left was Geihlficlant with half of their territory left and the Anti-Roland Coalition who had the other half and the surrounding small countries.

And the Ertolia Republic and the Remrus Empire.

If Vois’ plan succeeded, this would be the era where the Menoris Continent would be separated between six countries.

So if they missed this chance, they could not increase their small influence anymore. If the gears of the world started to turn quickly, then they could not make a move anymore.

So this was the last chance.

And, “We can make it!” Vois said lowly.

Then he looked towards the western sky.

That side was the Remrus Empire where it was ruled by an organism that was not human, and towards the further west was the eternal desert where humans would not be able to enter, casting his eyes to a place further in the west, he said: “Well, although this is planned without sticking to the rules, it is a monster that is not human…”

“But if we think that this situation will continue, then we’re wrong. If they think that humans will always be more silly than gods, then they are wrong. Even if god really exists on this world, controlling all life, I will try to trick them. By me who was born from a family who are tricksters for all generations…”

But he stopped.

Staring at his wavering shadow, he stopped.

It was here again.

The Goddess was here again.

Was it for surveillance?

Did it want to pass any order to him?

But Vois smiled, revealing an expectant smile.

“…Well, even if I am your slave now it’s fine. Because I will betray you soon, then stab your ugly face.”

Saying that, he raised his head.

“Then, let’s begin. Prepare the horses. I will gather the scattered army then go to war with Gastark.”

Vois ordered his subordinates.

### 011. Chapter 4: Inside Of The Complication

## Chapter 4: Inside of that Complication

Actually, she was not that patient.

To be more exact, all the children who had the Congenital Magic Abnormality were very impatient.

“…”

Thinking about this, Pia Varliere stroked her blue hair. Her blue hair was extremely soft.

With her pleasing features, she was a pretty sight.

She reached the capital of the Geihlficlant Empire, wearing a modest but attractive dress.

She had come to negotiate with the king of the Geihlficlant Empire, Gulafed Abuleld.

This was the first time that she had received permission to meet the king of the Geihlficlant Empire.

Up until today, Pia who was leading the Azure Princess had made three such requests, but she had been rejected by Geihlficlant. Lastly, through the pressure from other surrounding countries and by continuing their spy activities in the Republic of Ertolia, she had managed to get the chance to see the king of the Geihlficlant Empire and had been summoned to the capital.

“…How long does the stupid king of Geihlficlant want me to wait? Doesn’t he understand what kind of person I am?” She complained softly.

As she took note of not to step on the hem of her evening dress, she walked around the capital unhappily around the large capital.

If someone were to ask her what she had been doing for these few days, she would reply that she had been walking around the capital. Even if she had requested for a meeting with the king, but she was given the reason that the king was extremely busy now and he couldn’t see her. But they had specially prepared a guest room for her, even the two thousand subordinates she had brought along were treated well, so it did not look like they weren’t preparing to be reinforcements, so there was no reason to return.

Anyway, for many reasons, Pia had been extremely bored these few days.

“…Really, when am I going to walk until?”

She walked out of the courtyard. There were a few nobles standing outside and smiling and talking leisurely.

Pia found that one of the men looked at her with a flattering expression.

“…Isn’t this Pia-san. You’re still as beautiful as ever.” He said something obvious.

Pia smiled her perfect smile and said, “Well, Baron Leist-sama. You are very flattering.”

That weak, unimpressive noble flushed and quickly replied, “I’m not worshipping you. I can fly to the sky if I see your face every day.”

“You really know how to joke, please don’t flatter me that much. I’ll be embarrassed.” So I can say something idiotic… She thought as she bid farewell to the noble.

She was that different.

She was different from the other users of the Congenital Magic Abnormality who were so powerful that they lost the ability to coordinate with other people. She had a strong sense of self-discipline, and that was how she had managed to integrate into the higher-class society in Geihficlant.

After that, she greeted a few nobles who were in a stable position in life. Greeting, greeting, after going around the courtyard once, she came to the water fountain.

Then in front of the water fountain, she sighed ‘huuu…’ and her adorable brows creased.

“Tired~” she tried saying that, and then sat on the edge of the fountain before she raised her head to look at the capital that seemed to be built to look powerful.

“…Well, but that means that this country has the power to keep this palace going~” As she said, she touched the dress that was the exact same shade of blue as her hair, she touched the dress that was made of such high quality material that princesses from other countries could not wear, “The clothes that I bought are also very nice…”

Then a man’s voice spoke from behind her.

“Then you should just be the princess of this country and forget about everything?”

Pia turned around and looked in the direction where the voice was coming from.

A man stood there, he seemed to be around the same age as Pia.

He wore the red uniform that only the elite of the Azure Princess were allowed to wear and he had shoulder-length soft golden hair and steady eyes.

Looking at the insignia of the phoenix in flight on his chest, she smiled and replied, “I’m not any princess, I want to become the queen, Peria.”

Peria laughed, “I know. Because I’ve been watching you since young.”

Although he said that, but his eyes reflected nothing. No, actually, he was deaf. Because he was the experiment of the Roland bastards, his sight, hearing and touch had been stolen away.

But although this was so, he had been tattooed with a special enchantment spell called “All Enchantment”. Through this enchantment, he could feel the wide surrounding world that his normal senses could not sense. He could touch this world through that enchantment.

So Pia said, only jokingly, “Aside from me, there is nothing else worth looking at in this world~”

Although he didn’t let out any sound, Peria knew that he had passed on his message to Pia, he happily smiled, “But I really think so too.”

“Ah ha, I like Peria’s flattering.”

“It’s not flattering, you know?”

“Yes, I know that.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s good.” Peria said.

Peria nodded and then she turned her eyes back to the capital.

“Then…” she asked, “Have you checked on why the king of the Geihlficlant Empire does not want to see us?”

As if he were slightly ashamed, Peria replied, “There seems to be a slight problem.”

“Problem?”

“Yes.”

“Will I be angry after I know of this problem?”

“Who knows~~ Maybe.”

“Then try and tell me the problem in a manner where I will not get angry.”

Hearing this, Peria said, “Zohra, he…”

Hearing this, she turned to look at Peria, “Ah la la, he didn’t get rid of Vois Fiurelle?”

Peria nodded, “It seems he didn’t succeed.”

“Is that so.”

“If I had went, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

Hearing this, Pia laughed, “Here goes Peria, you’re thinking of raising your points when Zohra is not here~~”

He smiled calmly, “I’m saying the truth?” As he said, he moved his eyes to someone behind them. There, Zohra was walking towards them with a rebellious and unhappy face.

As a side note, even if it was Peria or Zohra, both of them had not gained the permission to enter the capital.

So the two of them had evaded a large number of soldiers and easily defeated the many magical enchantments surrounding the capital and entered illegally.

Looking at the figures of her two capable companions, Pia smiled lightly. Then she spoke to Zohra, “But you aren’t hurt, that’s good. Belis was far, was it?”

Zohra looked at her and suddenly blushed, his eyes wandered around, as if not sure where to look, and said, “Wear… You look extraordinarily cute wearing a dress…”

Hey, what was this, saying something when he just saw her? Although Pia thought of that, but she knew that Zohra was always very straightforward, he wouldn’t say anything insincere, so compared to the Geihlficlant nobles, this sentence made her happy.

So Pia curtseyed, “Thank you. This is a very expensive dress, you know~~ Can Zohra give me this sort of present?”

He viciously nodded, “If the Princess wishes.”

“Then, give me that palace.”

“I understand! I’ll go assassinate that king now!”

At this moment, Peria who was standing by their side said, “Again~ What is it what needs to be dealt with by assassination~ If it was using power to deal with the problem, Pia would have…” Zohra interrupted him and took out a small blade, he placed the blade on Peria’s neck and shouted, “I’m not talking to you!”

Then Peria stepped back and pushed away Zohra’s hand that was holding the blade, using a slightly distressed expression to say, “Really. Why does Zohra want to kill me?”

“I kill the enemies of love.”

“Ho ho~ Then, do you want me to give you a little information that would make you want to kill me more?”

“No—!”

“Just now, Pia said she liked my praising of her.”

In a moment, Zohra’s face changed, he yelled, “Haaaaaaaaaaaa?!” then he looked to Pia, “Then, then what about mine?”

Hearing something so childish, Pia laughed and said, “I like Zohra too.”

Then, this time it was Peria who let out “Ai~~” and appeared to be unhappy.

Seeing the two acting childishly, Pia laughed again. This kind of situation had recurred for many years. Although they had saved each other’s lives on the battle field many times, but once they had the time, they would act as if they had a bad relationship.

So she had given up on stopping their fights. Although they continued to argue loudly, but their relationship was surprisingly good.

And Pia liked watching the two of them quarrel.

She also liked beautiful clothes.

She liked beautiful ornaments.

She liked beautiful palaces.

She liked the beautiful world.

So she wanted to claim everything for her own.

She wished to rescue those beautiful things from those over-lustful nobles.

She wanted to rescue those beautiful things from Roland who had stole Peria’s sight and hearing.

Then she would rescue this world from the ugly, dreadfully ugly Goddess.

In order to achieve my goal, I need power.

I need more power.

And Geihlficlant is that stepping stone.

But there is an annoying person who exists to make use of Geihlficlant’s power that I must get rid of.

That person is obviously a human, but he became the dog of the Goddess, Vois Fiurelle. It seemed as if he wanted to snatch the power of Geihlficlant from the Azure Princess and had created a secret group. If she did not kill Vois, then the Azure Princess’s road would not be lit.

But it seemed as if the plan to assassinate Vois had failed.

So Pia asked, “The Goddess that Vois is relying on is only Unsurpassed Vileness, right? It’s not any powerful monster. The Rhule Fragmei I gave you should have been enough to kill him…”

Zohra revealed an apologetic expression and said, “No, actually if I wanted to, I could have killed…”

“But you didn’t kill him?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Hearing this, Zohra revealed an expression that said that he did not know how to explain this in words.

Pia looked at him and said, “I like that straightforward side of yours. So you only need to tell me the events as they happened. What happened? Did you fight with the Goddess?”

But Zohra shook his head, “The Goddess didn’t appear.”

“Oh? The Goddess didn’t appear?”

Zohra nodded.

But this way, she still couldn’t understand the reason why Zohra didn’t kill Vois. Vois was a mad person who wanted to sell this world out, he wasn’t a human but a monster. If they didn’t deal with this, there would be a problem.

And Zohra should understand this.

So Pia continued to ask, “Then, why didn’t you kill Vois Fiurelle? If it was you, you could have easily…”

But he suddenly said, “No, if it’s about that, there was a more troublesome character who appeared.”

“More troublesome?”

“Yeah.”

“More troublesome than the Goddes… what is it? The Mad Hero from the South?”

But Zohra still shook his head.

“Then, what is it?”

When he heard her asking that, he replied.

He only said a name.

“Ryner.”

“…” In that moment, Pia lost her ability to speak, when she suddenly heard Zohra say the name of a distant companion that she had been separated from a long time ago, her mind blanked out.

Then she couldn’t help but turn to look at Peria. She found that he was just as shocked.

It was expected, after all, Ryner and Peria had underwent the same training from the same instructor.

Timid Ryner Lute.

Ryner Lute who had always wished to die.

Why was that companion now with the subordinate of the Goddess? As she started to ask Zohra about it, another subordinate approached them. It was a female subordinate who had received the permission to enter the capital with Pia, Tam. She wore the serving uniform and said, “…Princess-sama.”

“Eh?” Pia looked at her subordinate.

Tam said, “There was a courier. He says that Gehlficlant will see Princess-sama tomorrow night.”

Pia widened her eyes, Zohra and Peria looked at Tam.

“That means… The envoy from the Anti-Roland Coalition has reached?”

Tam nodded.

“Geihlficlant has specially allowed to give one side assistance…”

Pia smiled lightly, “Ha. Does he mean to say that we will have to fight with the Anti-Roland Coalition? Wait a moment, isn’t this different than what we talked about?”

Tam apologized, “I’m terribly sorry…”

“No, you don’t have to apologize.” After saying that, Pia looked at the seemingly impressive capital, “They’re treating us as fools. That’s fine. Let’s fight face-to-face. Oh yes, was the envoy from the Anti-Roland Coalition Vois himself? Do you mean that he is already in the capital? I want to go over and punch him and threaten him, so tell me his address.” Pia asked Tam.

She replied, “No, that, the envoy from the Anti-Roland Coalition does not seem to be Vois Fiurelle himself.”

Pia frowned tightly, “Ha? Then who is it? Does he mean to push everything to the messenger? Although he said he would fight with us, the Azure Princess, but the person himself did not appear? But this can’t continue. They say that the king of Geihlficlant is to be respected, but if it’s through the messenger, then he can’t talk to the king at all.”

Towards this, Tam said, “No, that… it seems that the envoy holds a position much higher than Vois Fiurelle, it is the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

“King?”

“Yes.”

“Ai? Wait… wait a moment. But the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalitions is Vois Fiurelle, right?”

But Tam shook her head, denying this, “No. Recently, Vois Fiurelle gave the leadership position to the new king.”

“Gave?”

“Yes.”

“Then who did he give it to?”

Tam replied, “A man called Ryner Lute, he seems to be the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

“…”

At this moment, Pia, even Zohra and Peria, did not know what to say. The enemy approaching from the south was actually Ryner. Because of this reality, everyone grew silent.

And that Ryner was about to reach. He was about to reach the capital of Geihlficlant.

Then Pia let out a “Oh~” and smiled. It was still that perfect smile. But it revealed a devil-like charisma.

It was a smile that could let everyone feel the kingly air around her.

She smiled like that and turned to the capital, muttering softly, “…Does that idiot Ryner want to fight with me? That is really… interesting.”

She licked her forefinger and lifted it to the wind.

Then.

“Hey, hey, what is this~~ I feel that the direction of the wind is suddenly changing. Let’s start to gather the information. Before Ryner reaches here, let’s gather all the information. What does Ryner and Vois want? How will this world change? We have to check this clearly first…”

Then she snapped her fingers.

“We still have to welcome our stupid childhood friend.”

She said.

### 012. Chapter 5: Inside Of Fate

## Chapter 5: Inside of Fate

“Ah~ah~ah~” Ryner yelled.

Then he touched the tight collar of his clothes, displaying a pained expression, asking: “Is it really necessary to wear this kind of tight fitting clothes?”

Relca who was standing behind him and serving him revealed an annoyed expression when she heard this, saying: “What does Ryner treat this place like?”

Ryner looked around him.

This was one of the guest rooms in the Geihlficlant palace. Even though it was called a guest room, it was so big that it was not even the standard of a guest room. It was at the stage that if it were slightly larger, it would be around the same size as the throne room in Roland.

Looking at the large guest room, Ryner muttered softly, “…It really is a large country in the mid-Continent. The border state Roland can’t even compare…”

Relca nodded to express her agreement.

“That’s true. Then you will be meeting with the king of this country as the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition. Of course you can’t wear the dirty clothes like a pariah to see him, right?” As she lectured, Relca patted Ryner’s back, “Alright alright, straighten your back.”

And she pulled Ryner’s face.

“Your expression has to be more refreshed!”

Then she forced his eye lids open.

“Your eyes that seem like sleeping must open wider!”

“Ouch, ow ow ow, your finger is touching my eye…. Wuah don’t pluck my eye brows!” Pulling Relca’s hand away, Ryner yelled: “Ah, enough enough, I know. I will do it properly so don’t use your finger to **** my eyes.”

Saying that, anyway he had to straighten his back according to the request. Opening his eyes wide, looking at himself in the mirror.

And he discovered that after his messy hair was trimmed and tied back, wearing suitable clothing, a smile that was mysteriously confident, even though he didn’t know what there was to be confident about, appeared.

“Disgusting.”

Ryner remarked, then frowned.

But this expression was hit by Relca who was standing beside him, “You have to smile widely.”

“Wait… you don’t have to hit me…”

Slap.

“Sm~ile~”

“…...Eh … … Yes yes, I know~” Ryner said, trying to smile.

Relca finally nodded her head in satisfaction. Alright, this wouldn’t embarrass Vois-sama. She muttered.

Then Ryner continued to keep his smile, looking at the mirror again. His figure appeared in the mirror, even if he looked, he didn’t see anything to complain about.

He didn’t know if it was because his figure was slightly taller, the formal attire was very suitable. Even though he did not give the same feeling like Sion, ma, he wouldn’t be thought as a third rate noble. Looking at his figure, Ryner thought, clothes do make a man.

At this moment, the door to the room was opened, someone walked in.

“Ah, Ryner, you look handsome.” Kiefer’s voice spoke.

She seemed to have to change into a dress that was suitable for the palace or something, so she was taken to another room by Relca’s subordinates two hours ago.

“…”

Ryner turned around, discovering that Kiefer seemed to have changed. A low-cut red dress, her red hair was pinned up prettily, her make-up was more elegant than usual, it looked as if she was an elegant lady.

“Oh oh~ Looking like this, Kiefer is really a great beauty.” Ryner said.

Kiefer’s face turned red, “Is, is that so? It’s not strange?”

“It’s completely not strange? Isn’t that right, Relca?”

Relca nodded, saying: “Very beautiful. If the negotiations fail this time, and we’ll need to tempt the king, we’ll leave it to Kiefer.”

That, although Vois’s subordinate’s way of speaking was a little odd, but the fact that Kiefer was beautiful was true.

So Ryner crossed his arms, staring at Kiefer, saying firmly: “Yes, really pretty.”

Kiefer smiled happily, then turned back, saying: “But, Ferris is more beautiful.”

Another woman appeared from behind Kiefer.

It was Ferris.

She was wearing a white dress, she had a light dab of blusher, pink lips, her gleaming blond hair was pinned up with a bow-like beautiful gem pin. Her appearance, was even more beautiful than her usual other-worldly beauty.

But this Ferris, looked there, saying a strange sentence, “Eh? Where’s Ryner?”

“Aren’t I in front of you?”

“Ehh? You’re Ryner?”

“If I’m not Ryner who am I?”

She seriously considered this, “Hunch your back slightly.”

“Eh? What is it. How troublesome.”

“Make your eyes more sleepy.”

“So I’m saying why?”

“Then give out that kind of defeatist atmosphere that you usually have.”

“Who is the defeatist?” Ryner yelled angrily.

But after hearing Ryner’s angry yell, Ferris looked to him, revealing a relieved expression, “Ah, it’s indeed Ryner.”

“Hey, I say you are… Well, never mind never mind. Anyway I didn’t think I would fit this image.” Ryner said, then looked at the mirror again.

The mirror reflected Ryner wearing formal attire and two beauties wearing dresses.

Bringing these two along with him, me, even if he appeared in front of the Geihlficlant King and the nobles, anyway he wouldn’t be looked down on. Ryner thought.

At this moment, Relca said: “Then, it’s about time. Go and greet the Geihlficlant king—Gulafed Abuleld-sama. Ah yes, Ryner, the biography about King Abuleld…”

Ryner nodded and said: “Yeah, I remembered. I only need to remember the information on the documents you gave me yesterday?”

It should be mentioned that on the report that was given to him yesterday, something like this was written—

Gulafed Abuleld.

Thirty eight years old.

Four years ago his father Biert died because of the Rhule Fragmei, he inherited the throne. Beofre inheriting the throne, he took the army and fought a war. On the battle grounds he left a great achievement, that made his royal siblings admit that he should be the one to inherit the throne.

His personality is also a militaristic calm and strong. And he pays great attention to the difference between the upper levels and lower levels, probably he would not have a good impression of people who had light-hearted attitudes.

So to people who were unsuitable in society since they were unable to address their higher ups respectfully and was forever like a child—Ryner Lute, in front of King Abuleld, he must practice his usage of honorifics.

These troublesome matters were written.

And after he finished reading the report, he had this conversation.

“Honorifics are no use to me?”

“I’ll send you flying?”

“No, I’ll work hard? But even if I work hard, if indeed we have to really properly use honorifics to negotiate with the royals, it should be left to Toale who is of royal birth would be better…”

But Relca shook her head and said: “Toale Nelpha will not see King Abuleld. If it were known that he was from the Nelpha royal family that was destroyed by Roland, the fact that he was the royal family of the country that was destroyed and was destroyed by a border country will put him at a disadvantage. So you should obediently give up, practice using those honorifics in front of me. Anyway I will pretend to be the Geihlficlant king, so we can proceed with conversation.”

So until yesterday late at night they had been practicing using honorifics.

But to Ryner who was finally able to say “I’m really happy that I can see Your Majesty”, Relca was finally disappointed, and she had given up and ended this exercise on several fronts.

Ma, putting these aside.

Ryner looked at the large ornate clock that was as big as the room that was hanging in the room.

It was nearly seven o’clock.

They had arranged to meet the Geihlficlant king around seven o’clock.

Then Relca said again with a slightly worried tone: “It’s almost time, let’s confirm it again. Ryner the things that you need to accomplish here…”

But Ryner waved his hand, interrupting her, “I understand. I already know what I should do.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Don’t be so worried. Even I am nervous. I have to stand in front of a king of an admirable country, and negotiate with him? Furthermore I have my important companions with me. If I made a mistake and caused the plan to fail, everyone would be in trouble right? So that that will not happen, I will work hard slightly.” Ryner said.

At the same time, someone knocked on the door. A familiar male voice said, “You can meet with His Majesty, please prepare quickly.”

Ryner replied: “We’re prepared.”

Relca reminded: “Posture.”

“Ah~ yes yes. And I have to smile and use honorifics?”

“I already have no expectations for you to use honorifics.”

“No no no, perhaps I may unexpectedly be able to use them?”

Because of this sentence, not only Relca, even Ferris narrowed her eyes and made sounds of suspicion at the same time.

“Is that so?”

“Really?”

So Kiefer hurriedly said: “I… I trust Ryner!”

Ryner lowered his head and smiled bitterly, “…I’m not trusted~”

Then he straightened his back again. He examined his image in the mirror.

Then, thought.

He thought about the things that he would have to do from today onwards.

To tell the truth, he actually wasn’t very worried about the negotiations with the Geihlficlant king. Because to the Geihlficlant king, he only needed to mention the matter and it would be fine.

Let us join in with the war against Gastark Kingdom.

The Geihlficlant king would probably accept it happily. At the present when war was approaching quickly, the number of free soldiers increasing, there shouldn’t be any reason to decline.

But this time Ryner’s task did not stop here.

He had to deal with the Azure Princess that was probably in the palace.

He not only had to make the Azure Princess join the war against Gastark Kingdom, for the benefit of the Anti-Roland Coalition he had to stop them from gaining Geihlficlant Empire’s help, and he had to ask them whether they would help them in the war against Roland Empire? He had to plead them to accept these conditions that seemingly were only beneficial for his side—

“Definitely—it will annoy the other part… This kind of solution that will only help my side, I’m afraid no one will accept it.” Ryner moaned.

Furthermore the leader of the Azure Princess was a woman who hated to be used by anyone in this way.

Ma, although they had not met for ten years, he didn’t know what kind of person she would have turned into, ne.

“Anyway~ personalities wouldn’t change.” He said softly.

“Then let’s go.” The Geihlficlant messenger said.

Ryner nodded, looking at Ferris, Kiefer and Relca, the trio nodded.

So, they walked out of the room.

Walking along a corridor that was like a tunnel, entering the palace. Several figures of maids and officials appeared. Seeing Ryner and his party behind the messenger, they bowed deeply.

Towards this Ryner felt uncomfortable as he continued to walk forward.

The more he walked forward, the structure of the corridor and the quality of the decorations increased, even him who was an amateur in this could see the difference in the quality.

Slowly, the people passing by them began to decrease, and the people wearing beautiful and bright outfits increased. Probably they were nobles.

But, even if they still had not reached the meeting room to see the king, it seemed as if they had not even moved any nearer to him.

He couldn’t help but feel like complaining how large is this place, but even this would need the usage of honorifics, Ryner walked as he thought about these strange matter.

This place was big enough that he could throw all thoughts of Roland palace at the back of his mind. And this country still wanted to fight with Gastark, Ryner thought, gaining more understanding of what a huge country Geihlficlant was. Ma, but he still had to add the factor that Gastark would use the “Rhule Fragmei” in.

Thinking that even the negotiations were complete, what followed next was the war with Gastark, Ryner couldn’t help but feel a little depressed.

War.

It was war.

“I clearly worked hard to this point to avoid this situation, but why did it turn to this…”

After hearing Ryner mutter, the Geihlficlant messenger turned around, asking: “I’m sorry, is there something wrong?”

Ryner shook his head, “No, nothing.”

He just finished speaking, Relca quickly punched Ryner’s back, so he quickly changed his tone, “No, that… there’s nothing wrong.”

He tried to turn around and complain, were they properly using honorifics from this point on?

Relca displayed an expression as if disappointed again.

Kiefer was trying hard not to laugh…

Ferris was just looking at him scornfully.

“I say you all…” Ryner groaned.

Then they walked forward again. The messenger walked out of the corridor, walking towards the central staircase in the hall.

Following that they saw another group of people walking towards the stair case.

The other party had six people.

The first person to enter their sight was the messenger who was leading the way, then three soldiers who did not allow any openings walked by. They gave off an atmosphere that made Ryner vaguely feel that if he first fought with the three of them, probably they would enter a hard competition.

But it didn’t matter about these three people. Most important were the three people behind them that these three seemed to be protecting.

Especially the woman in the middle, that was the largest problem.

Ryner knew that face of the woman who was in a blue dressed and giving off a confident aura.

Pretty features, an elegant atmosphere. Then the long blue hair that was set apart from everyone that only the users of the Congenital Magic Abnormality would have, stubborn red eyes.

When those eyes landed on Ryner, she said: “Ara?”

Ryner raised his eyebrows, staring at her, saying: “Oh oh~”

Staring at the person who had once been one of his comrades, Pia Varliere.

And behind her, was a steady man whose eyes were closed. It was indeed Peria Peruula who had undergone the same training under Germer with him.

Then opposite him was Zohra Rom who he had met just recently.

Looking at these three people, Ryner smiled and that gave him a slight headache, trying to greet that, “That… Yo~ It’s been a long time since we last met.”

Peria smiled too, saying: “Yeah, it’s been a long time since we met. I’ve missed you, Ryner. You’ve grown a lot.”

Followed by Zohra who said: “I don’t even want to see you and that was it.”

After that Pia didn’t look at Ryner, but she looked in the direction of Ferris, Kiefer and Relca who were behind him, saying: “Ah~ what’s that, what’s that. That Ryner who had no friends and was always depressed actually brought these beauties along. And the three of them… ne, Peria, Zohra, them and me, who is prettier?”

Peria continued to smile: “There is only Pia in my eyes.”

Zohra followed: “Of course it is the Princess.”

Just by looking at these actions, Ryner could feel that he roughly understood what stage had Pia progressed to. Her actions and words were like their teacher Germer, then, although she was saying these kind of challenging words, but there was a gleam in her eyes that was examining the truth and false of his side.

Then Ryner suddenly remembered. He remembered she had once shown him that she had an ability that was like a genius in conversation.

At this moment Ferris suddenly said: “Hey Ryner, what is wrong with that woman?”

But Ryner stopped Ferris from speaking, “Ah, don’t move Ferris. That is a challenge. If we are insulted, it will become very troublesome.”

“But.”

“Alright, leave it to me.” Saying that, Ryner turned to look at Pia, “… It’s been some time since old friends were able to meet, so can you not release that killing intent to test my companions?”

Pia smiled as she asked: “Aha, do you want me to treat them more warmly?”

“Yes.” Ryner nodded his head honestly.

But Pia laughed even more, “But, I am not able to be more warm~ Because they are your companions, I haven’t killed them yet? Originally, if I saw the dogs of the monster I would kill them immediately.” Saying that, she released her killing intent. Her killing intent made their bodies tense uncontrollably. Perhaps it was because this killing intent was so strong, that people here couldn’t even feel it.

But, Ferris reacted. Her body had a reaction towards the killing intent that Pia emitted, entering a battle mode.

Pia looked at everyone’s reaction, suddenly laughing again, “Ahaha.”

Ryner immediately understood the reason for her laughter. She laughed because she discovered that the only ones who had a reaction to her killing intent was only Ryner and Ferris. That meant that the other party knew that if they had a head-on fight, the only ones who would fight were only Ryner and Ferris.

But the other party had Peria and Zohra besides Pia.

In plain words, if there were a fight here, his side had no chances of winning.

If he had to protect Kiefer and Relca, even if Ferris were helping him, they would be killed before they escaped.

This was almost as if the snake had made the frog its target. Ryner thought in his heart as cold sweat appeared.

But Pia suddenly opened her mouth and said: “What, all of them are useless. Thinking to fight me with that kind of battle power, Ryner-chan is as cute as before.”

Ferris muttered: “…You said useless, right?”

Ryner frantically said: “So don’t pay attention to her. All these are challenges. Furthermore you don’t have your sword, right? So you can’t fight now, give up.”

“Does that mean, you think I’m weaker than that woman?”

“No no, I didn’t say that…”

But, what would it be, he thought.

To tell the truth, Ryner was unable to imagine how powerful Pia would be now. But Zohra who he had fought with lately had a surprising increase in strength, then Pia who could let Zohra bow to her, should be really troublesome.

And, he had seen Peria mutter something by Pia’s ear.

Ryner couldn’t help but frown.

The whispered conversation between Ferris and Ryner had probably been heard by Peria.

No, instead of saying he heard it, it should be that he felt it.

Even if it were voices, feelings, smells, everything could be felt through the Zenkekkai tattoes that were on his body.

And that Peria, was now whispering to Pia.

Ryner looking at this, said: “…Hey hey Peria. We’re friends right? Don’t be so chummy with Pia.”

Peria smiled, closing his eyes as he looked over, “Friends? Friends would write even a single letter to me.”

“No, there are many many things happening.”

“Many many things. Although Ryner is not those kind of people who would specially write letters, but this time you’ve gone overboard. You even became the subordinate of a monster…”

But Pia said: “Peria keep your mouth shut. Only I can play with this long lost slave?”

So Peria shrugged, smiling: “Ah, I should mention that it was Pia who told me to write to Ryner. So she must be angry at Ryner who ignored her, so you’ll have to prepare yourself~”

Hearing this, Ryner was slightly scared.

Seeing the smile appearing on Pia’s face. Seeing that smiling face that clearly no longer had that small degree of harassment.

Oh no, this job is more troublesome than I thoooought? Ryner trembled.

Pia looked at Ryner, then happily turned her eyes to Ferris and Kiefer who were behind Ryner, moving lightly.

She wore a heavy dress, but it didn’t seem to cause any trouble for her, only using a step, she stepped in front of Ryner, putting her hands on his chest, tip toeing, drawing near to Ryner’s face.

When her face was so near that there were barely inches to spare between his mouth and hers, she said: “… Even if it’s a joke there has to a limit. In the past your goddess was clearly me? But now you’re flirting with other girls?”

In a moment there was a slight killing aura behind him, Ryner quickly used his hands to stop Ferris, and wanted to push Pia away, “Wait a moment, I say you, what are you doing so suddenly? Don’t pull this kind of act that would make people misunderstand…”

But Pia interrupted him, hugging Ryner’s neck when he tried to escape, decreasing the distance between the two of them, putting her lips by his ear, as if whispering she said softly: “… Ma, I am very forgiving, so if you flirt with one or two people I can forgive you. But even if your interests are bad, if you flirt with those women—those ugly “ Goddesses ”, I cannot forgive you. Sa~, so you have to explain clearly to me. If you don’t explain clearly, I will be really angry and kill those cute girls behind you?” Saying that, her hand twisted inwards, a small dagger appearing in her hand. Ryner who discovered this, grabbed her hand that had the dagger.

“Wait, Pia, stop…”

But at this moment, Pia suddenly smiled: “Annoying, Ryner~? Grabbing other people’s hand so suddenly, you’ve really become an adult, but, I understand it’s because of those passionate feelings you have for me.”

“Wuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaa? You, so that was…”

But she ignored Ryner’s words, returning to Peria and Zohra’s side with the same speed she had when she approached him, “Alright, the message has been passed~ because I have said what I wanted to say, so we’ll go first. We can’t let the Geihlficlant king to continue waiting.” Then ignoring his side, walked away.

Towards her retreating figure, Ryner shouted: “Wait, Pia?”

But she didn’t turn around, Peria and Zohra didn’t look back, leaving with Pia.

Ryner looked at this scene stunned.

At this time Kiefer who was behind suddenly asked: “…That, flirting or something… did Ryner date that girl before?”

Ryner revealed a tired face, turning back and said: “That, the previous conversation, would you think so?”

“No. It couldn’t be seen.”

“Right? From before she was this kind of woman who would play with her surrounding people with this attitude~” Ryner said.

Kiefer looked towards Ferris with an unsettled expression, then said softly: “But… but Ryner likes that kind of girls right…” (Because Ferris and the Azure Princess are the same type.)

“Eh?”

“No, it’s nothing. That… she was called Pia? What did she say? Because she was whispering to your ear, I didn’t hear it.”

But for some reason, Ferris answered this question. It seemed like she had heard the conversation between Pia and Ryner.

She said: “… Taking out a knife, then saying she would kill us. Then saying if he wanted to save his companions, then explain to her clearly. Explain to me why you have become the dog of the “Goddess”… But, before explaining to her, explain to me first. What is that thing called “ Goddess ”? Lately when I walk everywhere I would hear Goddess, Megami, nu shen these words. Vois, that person has also constantly said some matters about some strange monsters… What are you hiding from me? I always thought that you would tell me on your own so I didn’t really bother about it, but if you are planning to never explain it properly, before being killed by that woman, I will kill you first?” Even the queen herself on this side was starting to become angry.

Ryner stared at her, discovering that she did not really look angry. No, although it was said that she was always emotionless, she basically wouldn’t display her emotions on the outside, but now on her face, there was an expression that was more of unsettled than angry.

“…” Ryner seemed to frown as if he was troubled, then said: “Ah~ Sorry.”

“… No, actually I don’t quite understand so I never explained…” He turned to look at Pia and the others who had walked up on the landing, “But it seems that no matter where it is always hated, so the “ Goddess ” should be an evil person. Talking about which, has Ferris heard something from Vois?”

Ferris nodded, “Vois said your… your eyes were cursed by the “ Goddess ” so they became strange.”

Ah, so that was it. Ryner thought. So she revealed that unsettled expression.

“Vois that bastard, I knew that he had that information…” Ryner gritted his teeth as he spoke, then turned to Kiefer, asking: “What about Kiefer? Have you heard anything about “ Goddess ”?”

Kiefer shook her head, “I haven’t heard Vois-kun say anything about it… but, about the “ Goddess ”, I heard some rumours. After leaving Roland, I heard rumours from all over the world, no, it should be said as legends.”

Ryner looked at her, asking: “Eh, then what kind of legends are they? What are the “ Goddesses ”?”

She replied: “There are a few sayings in the legends.”

“Yes.”

“But no matter what the endings are, the “ Goddesses ” always swallow the world.”

“Is that so. So that means the “ Goddesses ” aren’t anything good?”

But, she revealed an uncomprehending expression. Then for some reason she slightly, really slightly revealed an expression that was like a dead end. But Ryner didn’t understand why she was revealing that expression.

But talking about which, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about Kiefer’s change in expression.

Ryner moved his eyes away from Kiefer, then said: “Well, anyway the information that we know is only a small bit, right?”

Ferris looked over to him, then said: “Eh? Are you talking to me?”

Anyway he would ignore this problem, Ryner continued: “Then, if what Vois said is true, then Vois may be preparing to trick that “ Goddess ”? Well, but because that person is a liar we can’t trust him completely… But, ma~, I’ll trust him a little this time. Because although that person will not tell us the truth, he will similarly not reveal his personality to the “ Goddess ”.”

Towards this, this time it was Kiefer who looked to him, “Wait, Ryner. That, this, are you talking to us?”

When he was asked this, he didn’t reply. He only slightly looked at Relca, using a voice that she would not hear, softly saying: “Furthermore, even if this point is put aside, we have no reason to abandon Vois right? I don’t know if it’s because the Anti-Roland Coalition has accepted the “ Goddess ” help, from the establishment till the current developments the speed has been quite odd. If it is not noticed, I don’t know what kind of things that person would do. So I pretended to be used by him, deciding to use him in return… If I explain it like this, what about it? Because I have Vois’s subordinates by my side I cannot explain it out loud, but anyway I plan to use the “ Goddess ” and Vois this way, is this explanation enough?”

Ryner said that. But he should not have been heard by anyone. His voice was so soft that it was like he was just breathing out, so even Ferris and Kiefer who were by his side couldn’t hear it.

But, after he finished muttering, he looked towards the stairs. He looked at Pia and the others who were so far away that even if he yelled and shouted they would not be able to hear it.

Then said “…If it’s you you can hear it through Zenkekkai, Peria. Then, pass on what I said just now to Pia.”

After hearing him say that, Peria turned slightly. From this position it seemed as if he were making a hand signal to Pia, then covering his ears, shrugging.

That action meant—“Even though I want to tell her, Pia is unwilling to listen.”

It conveyed this message.

“Ha? Don’t joke. Pass it on to her properly.” Ryner murmured.

Peria revealed a troubled expression, then patted his chest.

“Ha? What does that action mean?” Ryner asked.

Peria pointed over again.

But, he still did not understand the meaning of that action. So Ryner tilted his head, continuing to ask: “So I said I don’t understand. What is that? What are you trying to say?”

Peria still pointed over, then pointed to his chest.

“Eh? Chest? What’s with your chest?”

Peria shook his head, making a signal that said it’s not me.

“Not your chest? Then, it’s mine?”

Peria nodded.

“I already said it’s very troublesome so don’t hand signal to me. I’ll go over to your side now, talk to me properly…”

But Peria interrupted him, making a sign that said don’t come over. Then he made a signal for him to look at his chest.

“Ha? What does that mean…” As he said that, Ryner looked at his chest. He looked at his chest that was wrapped with that tight formal suit. And he discovered that a card that was as big as his palm had been snuck in there.

“Oh?” Ryner said, then remembered, it should have been placed there when Pia touched his chest.

This was a perfect surprise attack of a standard that Ryner didn’t even notice that a card had been snuck into his clothes.

“…” Ryner couldn’t help but frown.

If that card had an explosive talisman that would explode after a certain period of time, perhaps he would be dead by now.

No, even Ferris, Kiefer and Relca by his side would be affected.

“… How troublesome.” He groaned.

He felt that the ten years that had had been separated from Pia and the others, between the two of them there was an even greater gap between the levels of their powers, he couldn’t help but stiffen his face.

And.

“…”

Ryner pulled out the card, looking on the words on it.

To Ryner-chan of the dark magical waste house.

Although I heard from Zohra, but you really didn’t even discover the card, your abilities have declined compared to the past. Unless you have become a useless person than what I had expected? So I wanted to test you slightly.

Under these words, there was a face of Pia’s drawn in green ink. This face of Pia, after Ryner had read the words, there was a slight distortion. Then it became a complicated magical structure—

In the process of changing, Ryner shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.

In the middle of his eyes, there was a red five-pointed star.

Special eyes.

This was the cursed eyes called Alpha Stigma, it was able to see through all magical structures.

And it could completely duplicate the same structure, but the understanding of everything in that moment after that, proceeding with progress, using it in the end, it still needed special abilities.

And now the magic progressing in front of his eyes was to test his abilities.

Just by looking it was clear that this was a magic that would explode and destroy his surroundings. Then he understood that there were four seconds left to its activation. And he understood that to stop this magic, it would need a complicated, an equation that would change as if to solve the riddle, this was definitely unsolvable. Even if it were the high leveled magical scholars, would be unable to solve this riddle easily.

But Ryner looked at the magical formation, “…Eh. That, it’s like this here, there is that, it’s like this right?” He murmured, using his finger to draw on the card, easily solving the magic.

“How was it?” Ryner raised his head, looking in front, but found that Pia and the others were gone. In replacement, on the card that had the magic trap, there was another message. There were many words that made the head ache just by looking at them.

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes, looking at it.

It was written like this.

Ara ara, you passed.

It was good that you didn’t explode~

It was clearly a magical structure that Zohra made with much effort to scare Ryner, that you could solve it, you indeed are the same magic otaku as you were before. But, it seems that the point that you are still useful is more important than anything. Alright, I’ll let you live. But what you understand what you have to do after this? Apology and explanation. You completely ignored the letters from us, so this time you have to come before us personally. Before you come to our castle, kneel down and explain the situation, I will not listen to your explanation. And, if you continue to hinder our matters after today, I will not forgive you. Although I think you understand, Ryner you can never defeat me? If you don’t want to be killed, listen obediently to me.

Ah, I’ll tell you something, from our investigations it seems like Vois Fiurelle is planning to let the Ertolia Republic attack Geihlficlant? What is going on? Unless he wants to take the chance when Geihlficlant and Gastark are fighting, to attack this place with Ertolia? It would be troublesome if that happens. I clearly wanted to let this country become my possession, this way wouldn’t people be coming to hinder me. But, I don’t want to be deliberately be used by the conditions you set, so I’ll go back first. If you want to fight with Gastark, it’s fine if you go yourselves.

Ah, and one more thing.

If you knew of Vois’s plan and came here to use us, then you should understand the difference between our abilities? So don’t make your move.

But if you were tricked by Vois, then he isn’t your companion anymore.

Your true companions are us, Ryner.

Don’t do such foolish things and come quickly to our side.

Forever your Queen-sama Pia Varliere and her happy companions—

The card actually wrote something like this.

But, the matter about Vois planning to let Ertolia attack Geihlficlant—

“…Hey hey what is this?” Ryner said, then raising his head, starting to run to chase after Pia and the others who had walked up the stairs.

But the Geihlficlant messenger made a stop as if trying to stop Ryner, “Ah, wait.”

And Ferris and Kiefer made asked uncomprehendingly.

“Hey.”

“Ryner?”

Although he heard the two of them call his name, Ryner did not turn back, he only threw the card with Pia and the other’s message to explain the situation, then continued to run. Climbing up the stairs, running in the direction where Pia and the others had disappeared to.

But even as he ran he did not discover them. In his hurry he discovered the Geihlficlant messenger who was leading them who had a troubled expression on his face as he turned around, Ryner asked: “Hey it was you, where is Pia Varliere?”

The messenger turned around, with the same troubled face he said: “Th, that, they suddenly said they were tired of this country so they went back…” saying that as he looked at one of the doors in the corridor.

Ryner opened that door, discovering that strangely, there was a gust of cold wind blowing, so he looked in the direction of the wind.

And he saw that the windows of the room were open, the curtain and lace were swaying in the wind.

“…”

And the only things moving in the room, were only these. Pia, Peria and Zohra were no longer here. They had probably jumped out from the window.

That meant, the motive for them coming to this place was…

“…They came here to see me…” Ryner muttered.

Perhaps it is said that they came here to threaten me. And they came here to test me.

They wanted to investigate if we would yield after we knew that we were tricked by Vois.

Ryner frowned, “Vois that bastard, he actually treated me…”

At this moment, someone spoke from behind him, “No, I don’t think I’m lying to you.”

Ryner turned around, discovering that Ferris, Kiefer, Relca and Vois who had somehow chased after him were standing in the corridor.

Ryner stared at Vois, saying: “Not lying? Whose mouth has the right to say that?”

Vois shrugged, “If me not telling everything to you is counted as lying, ma, then indeed perhaps I lied to you…” He said as he walked closer. A small body drifted over, lightly peeking at the room where Pia and the others had disappeared from. Then opening the window, asked: “Arara, the people from Azure Princess are gone?”

Ryner looked at Vois, saying: “You clearly appeared because they left, and you dare to pretend to be stupid.”

Vois laughed, “Well, although that is true. But no matter what they want to kill me. But it’s a heartache that we didn’t manage to persuade them. Originally if it were possible I wished for them to help us proceed with the plan.”

Ryner thought of the contents of the card that Pia gave them, “…The plan to attack and gain Geihlficlant while it’s fighting?”

Vois raised his head and looked over, saying simply: “Don’t you think it is a good plan to quickly stop Roland’s power?”

“Even if I think that’s a good plan, but you clearly said that we would accept Geihlficlant’s power and go against Roland.”

“That’s true.”

“That means, you lied to me.”

“No, you’re wrong.”

“Where am I wrong.” Ryner said.

Vois pulled out several reports from his arms, then handed one over.

“This is a proposal to accept Geihlficlant’s help and fight against Roland.”

Then he handed over a second piece of paper, “This is the proposal to effectively snatch a few of Geihlficlant’s territories and fight against Roland.”

Lastly was a third piece of paper, “This is the proposal that under the situation that Azure Princess gains Geihlficlant’s power and assistance, accepting the help of the Ertolia Republic—Well, no matter what situation we can’t become exhausted, so I prepared a few proposals at the same time. It’s just that I did not tell Ryner the plans that would affect your mood the most. So actually I didn’t lie.”

Ryner was so angry that he felt that even scolding Vois as a **** bastard was even troublesome, but when he thought that this person was like this all the time, so he didn’t know why but he felt very tired, giving up on specially complaining, only looking at Vois with a tired face, saying: “… If you always tell lies, you won’t get friends?”

Vois laughed as he replied: “I didn’t need friends even from the beginning?”

“Well, you speak so straight-forwardly, I can’t even say anything… but, if it’s like this, I won’t help you again?”

“Why?”

“Why… Hey, I say, you completely tell me the truth?”

“If I told you, would you help me?”

“Depends on the situation. But, I already cannot find reasons to continue being with you. Talking about which, I didn’t understand why we had to help Geihlficlant defeat Gastark in the first place.” Ryner said.

Although he didn’t think of stopping this war, because even if there wasn’t war here, it would occur in other places.

For instance the war Roland was waging in the southern part of the continent. And the land in the central continent was quite big, so the places that didn’t know about, should have some conflicts too.

So, he who had taken into account of the other wars, it wasn’t for the sake for the sake of world peace, he didn’t have the thought that he had to stop the war between Geihlficlant and Gastark ahhhhh—this kind of thought.

Although, he had seen the actions of the people from Gastark when they were hunting down the cursed eyes, it also meant that they killed all the people who had special eyes like Ryner no matter whether they were man, girl, old or young. So he knew that they weren’t good people. But, this matter and that were two different matters.

Furthermore because the Nelpha people were Vois’s hostages, so he had no choice but to listen to Vois’s orders.

Although there was this reason.

But, even if there was going to be a war going on in spite of this, indeed there was something wrong.

“Vois.” Ryner said.

Vois turned to him, “What is it?”

“That.”

“Yes.”

“You, although you have taken the Nelpha of people as hostages, making us listen to your orders, but actually that can be easily retaliated, you know?” Saying that, Ryner raised his right hand, making a fist as if he were about to punch him.

Well~ although the other party was a child so threatening him like this would be strange, but there was no other plan, Vois looked at Ryner’s fist, replying: “Ara, has that been found out?”

“No, actually I discovered it in the beginning… I was only thinking about when to do it.”

“Ahaha, it’s really a good opportunity. As long as you punch me until I’m half dead and make me a hostage, you would be able to control the Anti-Roland Coalition.”

“Yes, no matter what you are of high prestige. So you can be a good hostage.” Ryner looked at Relca behind Vois who looked frantic.

Although she seemed to want to rush over when Ryner clenched his face, but she was easily stopped by Ferris grabbing her neck, stopping her.

But Vois did not react, only laughing as he said: “But, Ryner wouldn’t do this right?”

“That may not be?”

“No no, you definitely wouldn’t do it. Simply saying after you do that, what would happen? Making me a hostage, then grabbing the authority position of the Anti-Roland Coalition… But, after that? Gaining the control of an organization that would be unable to balance out Roland, what do you want to do?”

“Eh? That…”

“You will definitely do the same things as me. So that we will have the power to attack a country, then accepting a country’s help. No matter what, if you don’t take away someone’s power, the organization will be unable to grow.”

Ryner nodded, “Well, although that’s true. But why must the Anti-Roland Coalition grow? I don’t understand this point. Originally I didn’t leave the country so to fight with Roland. It’s the same with Gastark. I want to use my methods…”

Looking for a way to save Sion—although he wanted to say this, but he gave up. Anyway Vois never thought about saving Sion, even if he said it it was useless.

So he changed his words, “I would use other methods… new methods, to try and change the world.”

Vois continued to smile: “Yes. That was what you wrote on that report, right?”

Ryner looked at Vois’s smiling face that made people feel unhappy, asking: “…Why do you know about that?”

“I investigated it.”

“But that report should be with Sion…”

But Vois interrupted him, saying: “It wasn’t found when we investigated about you. That report appeared when we were investigating Sion Astal. I spent quite a bit of effort into finding that. Sion Astal seemed to treasure that a lot so he put it in the treasury. But it was really great that I was able to find it after that much effort. Because that report was filled with your feelings. And after reading that report, that made me really want to become companions with you.” Saying that, Vois reached into his arms, pulling out a few papers again. Because from the beginning he had been pulling out a few pieces of paper, so if it were the past he would want to complain how many things have you hidden.

But now he did not.

No matter what, he had controlled that country through grasping all of Eteggong.

Vois pulled out a few papers, passing it over.

“That, this is a copy of the part that I was most touched about. Do you want to read it?”

Ryner moved his eyes to it, the letters on the paper entered his eyes.

But, there was no need to read it. Not only was it because this was something he had written, and actually the memories of its contents were as fresh as it had been.

The contents appeared in his mind again a long time after he wrote it.

That report, its content was roughly like that.

In history, there were several demon kings who had the power to destroy the world, or demons, evil divinities. These demon kings wielded strong power that was unimaginable in the whole of the magical body. Even if it were an army made of strong Mage Knights and soldiers, they were not the opponents of the demon kings. Then the world would be pushed into the brink of extinction by these demon kings every time. But every time at this moment the heroes from the legends would appear, they were called the knights of light, they were human knights that had the power to go against the demon king and defeat them. Then, here’s the question. What are the heroes? At the moment we won’t go and question the existence of the demon kings and heroes… the “humans” who had the power to defeat these monsters, what was going on? A monster that even an army could not go against—if the records in the history books were truth, even if hundreds of strong magicians were sacrificed they would not be able to destroy the monster easily, but what was the hero that could destroy it just by himself? There were vestiges of legends regarding the heroes all over the world. Although no one saw those scenes… but there were records of where the weapons that the heroes used were hidden. Although it was a pity that the book that recorded the secrets of the demon king’s strength could not be found… but even so, if the remains of the heroes that were stronger than those monsters could be found, couldn’t they be used as a strong military weapon? In addition… did the demon kings and heroes actually exist… this could be explained with the Alpha Stigma. Although it wasn’t understood whether this was something vile or the heroes’ items… but abnormal power actually existed. Then, there would be the existence of other things that had this power too. On this point there seemed to be a great lot worth investigating. Because towards the strong power, according to the different ways of using the weapons, it could be ended before the war erupted.

“…”

Looking at Ryner who had vaguely recalled the contents of the report, Vois raised his head, saying: “You seem to have a sleepy appearance, but your mind is very scary. In this report you wrote that, to gain a strong weapon that no one in the world could go against—this kind of thinking right? But if the person who had this weapon lacked in character, what would it become? Having the oppressive power that the whole world could not go against, but instead he is a mad king. If something like that appears, what should we do?”

“…” Ryner did not comment.

In actuality, at the stage when he was writing that report, he had already predicted something like that. But, because too many people had died in front of him, because the ceaseless scary war had taken away too many lives, killed too many comrades, loved ones, family, friends.

Then, I have to at least do something, Ryner had carried that thought, writing the report.

Then he had started on the path to look for Heroes’ Relics with Ferris.

But, in the end—

“…”

Vois continued: “… You wanted to give that weapon to someone, right? Give it to your friend Sion Astal?”

“…”

“So this time you are searching for a weapon with a divine power to stop Sion Astal—are you planning that? Is this the plan that you talked of to change the world?”

Ryner nodded, “…Well, although I don’t think it would succeed so easily.”

Vois replied simply: “It wouldn’t succeed.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“But, this isn’t something you can decide.”

“That’s true, this isn’t something I can decide. But, I already know what would be the ending of this. Your plan, will never succeed.”

“You’ve already said that you can’t decide…”

Vois interrupted Ryner, saying: “Or I should say, it’s too late. Gastark already has gained that kind of weapon that will make the world bow to them in a moment.”

Ryner froze because of this sentence.

Staring at Vois, his whole body was frozen. If they were talking about why they were saying this, it could only be said that Vois was also a person who had a Heroes’ Relic. Vois easily accepted the Heroes’ Relic that the Roland army used to kill thousands of soldiers. So this fellow also should have other Heroes’ Relics—using their lingo it should be called Rhule Fragmei.

And then watching these people with Rhule Fragmei battling, Ryner despaired.

Towards the reality that using those kind of things would worsen the war, he despaired. Then thinking, if he didn’t do anything, it would really be too late.

But Vois said that. Vois who had the Rhule Fragmei said that.

“…That is a kind of Rhule Fragmei, whose power is close to a divine being’s, which is very powerful. And they already have gained this power. So they would not stop. I’m afraid that Geihlficlant will not triumph over Gastark in this war. Even if we the Anti Roland Coalition which uses Rhule Fragmei help, even if there is the Azure Princess, the results will be the same. Not only with the number of soldiers, the standards between the soldiers are too great.” Vois said.

But even so, Ryner was still unable to understand his meaning.

Ryner muttered: “The Heroes’ Relics… are unable to match up to it?”

“Yes. There’s practically no way to compare it.”

“What exactly is that?”

“Sa? I don’t know, they are using a strange weapon. A strange thing that has the power to surpass the Rhule Fragmei. Then using this thing they made the strongest country in the northern continent, Stohl kneel for them. At that time the death toll, was actually more than eight hundred thousand people.” Vois said.

Saying such strange things.

Ryner stared at Vois’ face in a daze, not saying anything, only watching as Vois continued to say mildly.

“So I said it before? If we don’t stop Gastark here, it would become a bad situation. If to Gastark, we don’t… no, if we don’t proceed with warning the world that ‘using something as unfair as that kind of weapon could be dangerous so stop”, it would really become very bad. So Ryner you must participate in this battle, even if you are unhappy with me, even if you have to kill people, even if you hate to participate in war, you must participate in this battle. You must let the other party of low-class people who have made a move to the weapon that should not be used by humans know that that power cannot be handled by them.” Vois said something that was even more confusing.

“What exactly, have you been saying from just now…”

But suddenly, he felt a weak killing intent.

“Eh?” He turned to the place where the killing intent was originating from.

Right.

The deepest corner in the corridor.

But, there wasn’t anyone there.

But, that place was empty.

So Ryner yelled: “Ferris.”

And feeling that Ferris had already reacted. Turning in her direction, he found that she had done what he wanted to do.

Ferris grabbed Kiefer’s collar, dragging her into the room that Pia and the others had disappeared from.

Kiefer let out an uncomprehending, “Ah? Ah? What what?”

Ignoring Kiefer’s present confusion, what was needed more was to investigate the area where the killing intent was originating from—

At the moment Ryner discovered that something glowing weakly had appeared in front of him.

“Oh oh~” Ryner stepped back in reflex. Then widened his eyes, activating the Alpha Stigma. Then he saw a magical structure that he had never seen before blossom in front of him.

It was a magic that would use the reflection of light to let the opponent hallucinate. This was probably Geihlficlant’s magic.

“…” Ryner stared at the magic, in a moment, reaching out a finger to the magical structure, starting to interfere, quickly changing the activated Geihlficlant’s magic.

“Alright, it’s done.” When he muttered that, the magic in front of them dissipated like mist.

Then three soldiers’ silhouettes appeared. Three soldiers wearing green armor. These soldiers charged towards Ryner and the others.

Their movements were fairly quick.

Probably he would not be able to dodge—but Ryner didn’t care. When he had dealt with the magic, his work had been lessened by half.

Towards the daggers that were thrown with an air that could not be avoided, Ryner said: “Too slow.”

And Ferris who used a speed that was faster than the daggers’ by several times jumped up, with one swing of her big sword the daggers were embedded in the wall. Then picking Ryner up, throwing him out.

So that they could dodge Ryner, the soldiers’ defensive formation crumbled, at this moment, Ferris quickly used her karate chop.

The person who received the strong impact on the neck fell unconscious just like that, the enemy was lessened by one.

Although the next person wanted to ambush Ferris, but he wasn’t her opponent. No, it should be said that even if she were wearing a dress that was hard to move around in, the enemies were not able to match up to her speed.

Another soldier was struck on the head, then fell unconscious.

The remaining person, because of this extremely unbeneficial situation, starting to think of running.

“I wouldn’t let you escape.” Ryner said, then grabbed that person’s wrist, tightening his joint, flipping it upwards, placing him on the ground. Followed by that Ferris planted a kick on the enemy’s head.

The last enemy lost conscious too.

“…”

The fight ended like that simply.

But.

“…I say, wouldn’t we really be in trouble this time?” Ryner murmured.

“These people are Geihlficlant soldiers, right? Then this is the Geihlficlant palace… why did they want to attack us?”

But suddenly a voice sounded, interrupting Ryner’s words, “…Oh~. Even if three Mage Knights are the enemy, you can make them silent easily without dealing any fatal wounds… this is really reliable.”

The place where the voice came from, was the deepest corner from where the three soldiers on the ground had appeared from.

Standing there, was a tall man in his late thirties. He wore green armour on his strong body. But his outfit was slightly different from the soldiers who had attacked. There were a few noticeably useless ornaments on the armour, it could be seen that this person should be someone who had a high position. He was probably the leader of the Mage Knights, no, possibly it could be—

At this moment the man said again: “This Alpha Stigma bearer is the trump card against Gastark that you told me about? Vois Fiurelle.”

Vois bowed his head, saying: “Indeed. Your Majesty Gulafed Abuleld.”

Ryner considered the man standing in front of him again.

Sharp eyes, strong body. Just be seeing the confidence and aura from this person’s body, he could understand that he was stronger than the Mage Knights who had attacked Ryner earlier. No, although he had heard that the king of Geihlficlant was a military man, but the fact that the king of a country was much stronger than the Mage Knights was a little—

“…It seems like he is different from the king that I had in mind.” Ryner muttered.

The royals that he knew were corrupted people who were addicted with power, or it would be someone who had work-poisoning like Sion, he never thought that he would meet a new kind of king here, so he was slightly surprised.

“Alright, bring those fellows along. Those border countries have already started to invade my territory. It seems that they have started to kill my people in great numbers without any consideration. Take up my troops, go defeat them.” That king told Vois that, then turned to leave, disappearing into the long corridor.

Ryner narrowed his eyes and looked towards Vois, saying: “…Why~ do I feel that I have been tricked again? You seemed to have said that you have never seen the king of Geihlficlant? Isn’t that why you handed the negotiations over to me?”

Vois turned around, “Eh, before I told Ryner to go to the negotiations, I certainly never saw him before.”

“Then why did you two using a tone as if you had met him before to converse?”

“That’s because there was a slight change to the situation, so I needed to talk with the Geihlficlant king immediately.”

“Is that so?”

“This is true?”

Seeing Vois say that, Ryner revealed an expression that clearly said that he did not believe in anything he was saying, saying: “Then, what happened to the situation?”

“Eh.”

“What’s the situation.”

“That is Gastark is stronger than what I had imagined—this reason. And they are strong enough that even the Azure Princess has given up on helping Geihlficlant…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes: “Eh? What’s that? Pia and the others only decided to go back because they were tired of being used by you?”

“Oh, did she tell you like that?”

“No, even though she didn’t tell me face to face… but she left that kind of information.”

Vois laughed, “That’s a trick. If according to her personality, shouldn’t she fight with us on the battle ground, then letting us lose? But she didn’t do that. That reason is because the power of the Gastark army is much stronger than what I had imagined, than what Pia had imagined. So she went back.”

Ryner said: “… Is Gastark really that strong?”

Vois nodded, “Very strong. Didn’t I say that before? Besides using the Rhule Fragmei, Gastark has a weapon that is stronger than that. A normal country would not be their opponent.”

“Then doesn’t that mean that we are helpless too?”

“Yes.”

“Then, of course this battle too…”

But Vois shook his head, “No, we have to join in. And doesn’t Ryner want to join in too? Now, Gastark is killing Geihlficlant’s soldiers and people without differentiating between them. You should want to stop this, right?”

“No, but…”

“And, Nelpha’s soldiers and Toale and Iris are almost reaching the front lines. So if you want to delay here, your companions will die easily…”

“Hey you, don’t joke anymore! What are you thinking of!” Ryner grabbed Vois’ collar, glaring at him as he yelled furiously. As if wanting to see through all the plans that were hidden deep in Vois, he glared at him.

But he still completely couldn’t understand what Vois was thinking about.

He had clearly talked about the obvious power difference, even Pia and the others had given up on fighting with Gastark, but why did this fellow want to fight with them? It was clear that there were no chances of survival against that monster, but why did this person want to fight despite that? He completely couldn’t understand the reason for that.

So Ryner glared at Vois, asking: “What are you thinking about?”

Vois indeed had that smile that made people feel unhappy, “I wasn’t thinking of anything strange?”

“Huh? It’s clearly strange. Gastark has a weapon that is stronger than the Heroes’ Relic, right? Then how are we supposed to counter that thing?”

“That’s not a problem. Because we will also be using a weapon stronger than the Rhule Fragmei.”

“Ah? You have something like that?”

Vois shook his head, “I don’t.”

“What? Aaaaaahh, I already don’t understand aaannnyything!! You, I will really kill you? So don’t go in circles, tell me straightforwardly. What is that? What is going on? Who has that weapon?”

Hearing Ryner’s question, Vois pointed a finger at Ryner’s eyes, simply answering: “You.”

“What?”

Vois continued: “Your cursed eyes are the weapon I’m going to use. If we use this, we can kill the people from Gastarl.”

Ryner laughed, “Ha? You, what foolish things are you talking about? Indeed my eyes are the cursed Alpha Stigma, if it goes berserk, it will become something powerful. But truthfully speaking there is nothing great about that scale. The scale of Alpha Stigma going berserk, at most it can only stop a few Mage Knights…”

But Vois said: “If it were the normal Alpha Stigma, that would be true. If it were the normal Alpha Stigma, with only a group of soldiers experienced in hunting Alpha Stigma, they would be easily killed. But, you once killed the whole of the Mage Knights of Estabul with those eyes, right?”

Vois continued to say: “And after the normal Alpha Stigma goes berserk there would be no chance for them to resume their original selves. Before they are killed by others, they will continue to be berserk until they become a monster. But you still continue to keep your rationality up till now. You clearly went berserk a few times, but you still remain conscious. Why is that? The answer is, you are the genuine that. You aren’t human… but you are the real monster.”

Monster.

Bakemono.

Guai wu.

Towards the phrase that he was used to hearing—

“…” For some reason, Ryner was unable to say anything.

But Ferris who was by his side said “If you have to be arrogant then there should be a limit to that, brat.” as she started to pull Vois away from Ryner.

But Ryner said: “No, wait Ferris.” Then he looked at Ferris, indeed she still had her usual emotionless expression, but it was clear that she was concerned for his feelings.

But, now was not that situation.

Furthermore, towards this kind of matters he was already accustomed to it.

And he had always been cursing himself for being a monster that would only harm others just by living.

But because Ferris, Sion, Kiefer told me that it’s fine even if I am a monster, so I lived till now.

And I’m thinking of slowly progressing forward after today.

So.

“…”

So, I wouldn’t move my eyes from the truth that I am a monster.

And I wouldn’t continue to escape.

I wouldn’t escape, I will face it head on.

I want, to face it—

So he asked: “…Because… because I am not human… and I am a monster that can be used against Gastark’s weapon… so you made me your companion because of that?” Ryner asked Vois.

Vois nodded simply, “That’s true.”

Ryner’s face contorted slightly, suddenly thinking of escaping from here. But he suppressed that urge, asking: “…What… What exactly am I?” The moment he asked that, he felt his voice trembling.

Because this was the answer that Ryner had always been searching for. So that he could find that answer, he had lived till now.

But truthfully speaking, perhaps it was not certain that he wanted to find that answer. If he knew that answer, then what if it were a truth that was too cruel and he was unable to accept? Every time he thought of that, some thought shining in a corner of his heart, he would always want to escape from it.

But now, the answer appeared in front of his eyes.

Vois clearly knew something. No, this person already understood something. When the Goddess appeared in that fellow’s shadow. When that Goddess talked with something that had appeared from Ryner’s eyes, he had already understood.

But Ryner never asked about it before. It was clear that it was a matter where he could simply ask “What exactly do you know?” and it would be fine, but he never asked.

Once again, escaping.

He didn’t want to know the truth, so he escaped again.

But.

“…”

But he couldn’t escape all the time. Because he knew that the more he escaped, the more he would hurt the people who were treating him gently.

Because he already understand that escaping would only hurt those companions who still tell me that they like me, even though they know I am a monster.

So now.

“…”

If these eyes had the power to go against the power of Gastark.

Then, there is a need to know how to use them.

Before more innocent sacrifices are made.

He had to keep the soldiers and people from this boring battle… more importantly he had to end the battle before Toale, Iris, Arua and Kuku died.

Ryner stared at Vois, asking: “What exactly am I? Tell me, my real identity.”

Vois smiled, “…This kind of matter will be decided by yourself.” After he said that, he pried Ryner’s hand away from his collar, arranging his clothes with much pain, then suddenly asking: “For example, Ferris and Kiefer what do you think?”

“…” Ryner thought, he really was an idiot.

If he had to say why, that was because when Vois asked that, his body tensed up, he could not move.

He clearly knew what Ferris would answer, but he didn’t know why but his body was trembling with fear, making him unable to move.

If, she—

If Ferris said something that she felt like he was a disgusting monster, what should he do? – He only thought about something that would never happen.

“…”

He really was an idiot, he was so scared that he couldn’t even look at her.

Then he started to hate himself who was a coward. He started to hate himself who was trembling like a child.

At this moment.

“I…” Ferris opened her mouth. Simply opening her mouth.

According to Ryner’s prediction, her answer would be the same as usual—he is my slave, a lazy bum who only thinks of sleeping for ten thousand years, he is almost becoming the pervert that would cause trouble for the world and something like that—she would reply with this.

Then every time…

Every time Ryner would be rescued by her who never said the truth that he was clearly an Alpha Stigma monster who killed people and made people feel disgusted.

So he trembled as he waited.

He waited for Ferris to express herself.

Ferris said.

Using her usual emotionless, but clear and steady voice to say: “…Even if Ryner is called a monster by anyone anywhere… but to me, he is my most important companion forever.”

Then she continued: “Next time if you call this person a monster, I wouldn’t forgive you?”

That Ferris.

That Ferris who usually did what she liked, only causing trouble for people, suddenly said something like this.

So.

“…”

So he was unable to move once again. No, not only that, he even wanted to cry a little.

Towards her obvious confirmation, but him always sinking into depression it was the stage where he was so tired of it that he wanted to cry.

Vois said: “Yes. That means in Ferris’ world, Ryner isn’t any monster. Then next we’ll ask Kiefer.” He turned his eyes to the other side.

Ryner still was unable to look at the other side.

Vois said: “But it seems that there is no need to ask. Seeing you, you’re angry that I called Ryner a monster?”

Kiefer said angrily: “Of course?”

“Of course… right… Clearly almost everyone takes the Alpha Stigma bearers as disgusting monsters, retreating from them, but in Kiefer’s heart Ryner is not a monster…”

Vois turned around, looking at Ryner who was frozen like a fool, then said: “So you see, Ryner. Even if it is Ferris or Kiefer, they don’t think of you as a monster. And to me, I only treat you as a convenient weapon that can be used. But my thoughts, can be anything. The problem is what do you think of it, right? That is the only answer. How do you think of yourself? That is your true colours.”

“…”

Ryner tried to think about the problem of how he thought of himself.

But actually this wasn’t something he needed to think about. Because he had always thought himself as a cursed existence. From the moment he was born, he had been living in this curse. Then one day, Sion, Ferris, Kiefer, Milk, companions, suddenly told him that you’re not so bad. Was it really like that? That was a lie, right? I will become a monster that will kill people when I go berserk? But why do you treat me so gently? – At that time he had been stunned like he was now.

He had always hesitated in believing those words, because it was truly too troublesome, and everyone said that, so unknowingly his thoughts started to have a slight change.

Perhaps he wasn’t as bad as he had thought, then if he continued to live it would be alright—he started to have these kind of thoughts.

He started to be able to accept himself.

But, even so, he also needed to know how dangerous he was, what kind of power he held, and why was he standing here.

So that he would not hurt anyone.

And so that he would not be hurt by anyone.

So Ryner replied: “…I… I always thought that I was a monster…”

“Ryner!” Ferris shouted angrily.

She always yelled when Ryner was depressed.

But this time I am not depressed. Because I have decided to move forward.

So Ryner ignored Ferris’ voice, continuing to say: “…But, if it is possible, I want to be a monster that can be used. After all no matter what I will always be a monster that would trouble people, but even so I want to have to the power to protect the people who say they want to stay beside me. So reply me, Vois. Who am I? Why was I born with these cursed eyes? Why does Sion want to kill me even though he is crying? Why… Why does that monster called the Goddess know about me? Answer this, Vois. For what reason—”

Ryner asked: “For what reason, am I standing here?”

Vois smiled as he replied: “These answers, are now on the battle ground that we are heading to.”

Using a satisfied expression that said the topic has come till here, “The answers that you are seeking, are in the battle against Gastark. You will awaken there. The power in you will awaken. So there is a need for you to participate in this battle. And there is a need for the whole world to see that power. There is a need to let Gastark, Roland, the three states in the middle of the continent, Azure Princess and this world that had become so messed up because of the chase after power, to see that power. But it can end like that. After this war, you wouldn’t be called a monster by anyone…” Vois said that as he walked out.

But, as if wanting to stop Vois from leaving, Ryner said: “Wouldn’t be called a monster by anyone? What is…”

Vois answered simply: “Because through this battle, you will rescue this world, you will become the hero that would rescue hundreds and tens of thousands of people in this world. Towards that kind of hero, who would call them a monster? Until that moment, no matter how you see yourself, in the eyes of the rest of the world, you cannot be called a monster—ma, although I said that if you want things to progress to that stage, there isn’t any time to be talking nonsense here. If we delay here, Toale and the others will really die?” He turned his back to that side, walking out as if he were saying hurry up.

Looking after Vois’ back, Ryner asked: “Then my question—”

“There is no need to answer, isn’t that so? Because I said it earlier, these answers you can find them on the battle. And even if I don’t answer, the monster in your body will answer them for you. Even the things I don’t know about, it will tell you everything. Furthermore, the question about who you are, you should be most clear about that than anyone else. So don’t ask that kind of lame question, let’s go, we’re going to the battle field.”

Vois turned around, “…And we can change everything in this world. Although we are slower than Gastark and Roland, but we should be starting our story about now. Let us write our names in the minds of those who do not know about us.” After saying that, he continued walking.

Then he gave Relca two or three orders. Relca hurriedly left. Vois looked after Relca’s figure, nodded as he walked towards the corridor.

Ryner only looked at this speechlessly, giving up on continuing to ask his questions.

Indeed, everything that Vois had said was true. Only he would know best about his own matters, besides, before asking someone else about who he was, he should have a better person to ask.

For example, the voice that had descended when the Goddess appeared—the voice of Alpha Stigma.

He should have tried to ask the monster that was living in his body instead.

So Ryner, tried to talk to himself softly: “…Hey.” Although it looked a little stupid, but he continued to talk to his cursed eyes, saying: “Hey, Alpha Stigma, you know something right. The monster living in my body, give me a reply.”

“…”

But there was no reaction.

“Don’t ignore me, hey.”

“…”

“I want to ask you something. So give me a reply.”

“…”

“Mushi mushi~? Can you hear me?”

“…”

Although he tried to mutter softly, but there was no reaction.

“…”

But Vois had said that.

The answers, were on the battle ground.

If he joined in the battle against Gastark, he would find his answers.

Although he didn’t understand if that was true, but Vois was also good at lying. He looked at Vois’ figure, murmuring: “Damnit, there’s no other way. Then I’ll try and participate in the war.”

He clearly shouldn’t have heard Ryner muttering, but Vois turned around, seeming to be very happy for some reason, saying: “It seems it will be an interesting war.”

“Huh? I never heard that war could be interesting.”

“If you win, no matter what time it is interesting.”

“Win… ma. Do you have that confidence?”

“About there.”

“So you didn’t have it, hey!”

“Then then then, if I am picked by the Goddess of Luck, perhaps we can win. But, there would be no problem, after all I am very popular.”

“What is that?”

“Haha. Well, anyway let’s go first. If you feel like you can’t do it you can escape.” Vois said and then walked forward again.

He walked with a seemingly happy expression.

But even if he seemed to be happy, the path would lead him to a battle ground.

A battle ground where people would die.

A battle ground where companions would die. A battle ground where family would die, loved ones would die.

Towards the battle ground where people would pray never to experience in their lives, Vois proceeded.

“Ferris, Kiefer.” Ryner called his two companions.

“Eh?”

“What is it?”

The two answered.

Ryner looked at their two faces, “… Although I don’t really understand, but because of these reasons, so I have to go and confirm what kind of person I am. But you two…” It’s dangerous so don’t follow me,

Ryner wanted to say that.

Or he should say that the people participating in this war were idiots. No matter what, the opponent that they were going against had caused Pia and the others to choose to escape. And Vois had said it, even if it were the most popular country in the middle of the Menoris Continent, it was a battle that they would definitely lose, and we are joining in the war as companions who would defeat that country.

Wasn’t that the same as going to their deaths? So there was no meaning to bringing his comrades along. And Ryner only wanted to confirm who he was that was why he was going. It was only because he was stubborn, that he would go to the battle field.

There was no reason for them to gamble their lives, just because of his words.

There should be definitely no meaning to that…

But Ferris said: “… If you are planning to say something boring, I’ll kill you?”

“Hey, you’re saying that immediately!”

“I’ll kill you.”

“That… that means to say, you want to join in this battle?”

Ferris displayed an ‘of course’ face as she said: “Are you an idiot? Vois said it earlier, my little sister is in the process of joining this war. Of course I have to rescue her.”

“Ah, that’s true. But if I can go alone, Iris can escape as well…”

She interrupted Ryner, saying: “And I planned to escape with you if the situation deteriorated.”

“No, but…”

“There are no buts. If you meet something that would cost you your life… If there is something like that, I will be very angry and I will kill you!” Ferris shouted angrily, and walked off. She seemed to be really angry, turning her face aside, walking away.

Kiefer suddenly said: “…It’s no surprise that Ferris is angry, Ryner.”

Ryner looked to Kiefer, finding that she had a sad expression.

“…Because everyone likes Ryner, they are concerned for you, but you don’t even care about yourself.”

“…No, but…”

Kiefer shook her head, saying: “There are no buts, didn’t Ferris say it just now? So you can’t say but. If I said that I wanted to go to a war where it would be clear that I have no chance at winning, what would Ryner do?”

“But that and this…”

“But is prohibited~”

“Although…”

“Although is unaccepted too. But~, then let me say but. Ryner definitely doesn’t want us to go to the war. But, we will go. Because we are worried about Ryner. We are worried that when you are alone you will be able to force yourself even more easily, it’s like you will almost die.” Saying that, she tiptoed, patting Ryner’s hair. Untying the hair tie that was used to keep his hair up, caressing the hair that had returned to its original messy state because of his bad sleeping posture.

“So Ryner has to protect us who are going to the battle grounds with him. If you feel that it is dangerous, escape with us. If you can’t do that… we will not let you go to the battle field.” Kiefer said these words that were hard for him to accept.

But, even if it were hard for him to accept it, even if it were Ferris or Kiefer, it seemed like they were prepared to go to war.

So Ryner said: “…If Kiefer comes with us I…”

She shook her head again, “That won’t do. Because I feel that this is an important turning point for Ryner, so everyone should go together. Then we can see the truth of the world… like what Vois-kun said, if there is something in this war that can heal the deep wound in Ryner’s heart… if something happens that can stop other people from calling you a monster in the future… I feel that there is a need to participate in this war.” Saying that, Kiefer walked out. She wore that dress and walked out like that. Her current appearance was clearly more suitable than the usual leather armour that she wore, but she was walking towards the battle field once again.

“Lastly, Ryner. If you work hard with everyone, there will be no problems. Let’s go and fight against the world.” Saying that, she walked out.

“…”

In the end, the one who was left, was only Ryner.

Was it because he had always been escaping, so he was slower by a few steps when he walked forward? Ryner thought.

Then.

“…”

Then, he started to walk.

He started to walk towards that war where people would die.

But, a small smile appeared on his face. There was truly a small trace of a smile. But that smile, revealed an emotion as if he were about to cry. If his eyebrows scrunched together slightly, he would be thought to be crying.

“…”

But he wasn’t thinking of crying because he was sad, nor was he thinking of crying because he was in pain.

Looking at the companions walking in front of him.

Looking at himself who had started from some point in time, to not allow himself to die alone.

“…Then, I’ll work harder…”

Using that expression as if he were about to cry, he smiled happily.

Then the war started.

The crazy war started.

Although war held the things that were happy and depressingly crazy, but this war was different.

This was different from a normal war.

If he had to say why, that was because there was truly only madness.

Because this was one of the gears in the world’s madness.

So.

“…”

So, Vois Fiurelle laughed.

“Ahah.” He muttered, laughing.

Then from here.

Starting from here.

He continued to mutter.

Here.

A darkness would descend upon this place.

A sharp darkness that seemed to be able to dig a hole in people’s hearts would descend.

Then everything would change.

Everything in the world would change.

Then with this war as a differentiating factor, no one would call Ryner Lute a monster ever again.

Because he would awaken.

His true self would awaken.

Then.

Then he would scatter a large scale slaughter and despair that no one had ever seen before, and he would be called a demon by others from now on.

“The king… of demons… is it” he muttered, Vois used a slightly sad expression, laughing alone.

## 06. Volume 6 - The Fallen Alpha In The Battlefield

### 001. Afterword

From what you have seen, this is “Daiden 6”

I believe that the readers who have read the whole volume will understand, this story has finally entered the climax. This volume is moving one step to the ending of Ryner’s large story. Really, although I quickly progressed with the events, but that I was able to successfully volt line was thanks to Sion and Ryner, so please support them.

Other than that, although this volume has had a large reform, but I still feel, that I shouldn’t talk about the work in the afterword. Because this is probably the thickest volume in the densetsu no yuusha no densetsu series, so there are few pages for the afterword! And last month, the thickest volume “Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi 4” was published, why do I always continue to write such thick things! I have to get into the habit of writing less! Although I thought that, but no matter what I was unable to stop so unknowingly it became so thick! And a densetsu and ochita densetsu was unable to have short chapters published on both sides, it has a thick foundation and there are still short stories recorded, in the end it caused “Itsuka Kuro Usagi 4” and “Dai Densetsu 6” combined together made use of more than 1000 pages of manuscript paper, there’s actually 1000 pages!?

But, this time’s remaining pages are very little so let’s put the small talk aside.

First is a large announcement! The readers who have brought the first edition of this book has probably already seen on the coloured tag—

Dai densetsu already has a game!

And it’s on PSP! (Play Station Portable!)

And it’s RPG!

Seeing Toyota drawing new pictures until she’s about to die, so it’s released with new drawings! And this is what Toyota said.

“I like games, so no matter how many I will draw!”

“Really!”

“Oh oh!”

“Then if you can draw these pages—”

“Do you want to kill meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Ma, although this kind of mannish tone wasn’t exposed, but Toyota really completed many unbelievable drawings at the speed of light, so I swore to quickly hand up the manuscript in my heart. And the game’s plot seems quite interesting, so please look forward to it!

Next announcement.

“Dai Densetsu” is starting a new card game called “Project Revolution”!

“DRAGON MAGAZINE Block” on 19 September recorded “Dai Densetsu”.

Again! I’m going to request Toyota to draw Ferris for the illustrations! (Good luck illustrations!)

Although I feel like there are many things that I still want to say, but because there are not enough pages this time so I’ll stop here. And the manga on Densetsu series uploaded on dragonage has sold two volumes, my editor says it’s becoming more and more interesting, eh it’s really great that finally it’s becoming popular. Seeing Chozo-san’s Densetu manga series that is filled with love, I am really happy. It’s really interesting, it’s clearly what I wrote in the past, but I feel it’s not bad. (Stupid)

Ma, I’ll stop here. (Ne, there are really no pages left)

But this is still in progress.

This is the second book, there should be “Itsuka Kuro Usagi 5” next month, then the following month is “Ochita Densetsu 5”, you want to kill meeeee! Actually I had this mood when I wrote this afterword, but when this volume is selling I should already be handing in the manuscript!

Should be!

So as everyone complain that wouldn’t you have no books next month, as—

“Heeeeeeey!”

“Ara, editor-san. This time there is no page number for the afterword, so we’ll end with heeeeeeey! Ha ha ha~!”

So it’s like that.

It’ll be fine if the publishing for “Itsuka Kuro Usagi 5” goes smoothly next month~!

Takaya Kagami

### 002. Chapter 1: The Demon King

The sound of the earth trembling could be heard.

And the sound of horses running could be heard.

The sounds of the soldiers marching.

And, the sounds of people dying.

“…”

Everything, Ryner felt that they were all familiar.

“…The war, is beginning.”

He said in a low voice.

Narrowing his eyes, looking at the land in front. Those black eyes were like their usual unmotivated self as if they would sleep forever and never wake. The black hair was as messy as usual.

He slowly bent his slightly slouching frame, touching the ground.

The faint trembling of the ground passed onto his fingertips, passing on the message that the fight had started in a place not far away.

But anyway, if it was this feeling, probably it was a battle that was so large-scale that Ryner had not seen it before.

“Hey, Ryner.”

At this moment, a person called Ryner from behind.

He turned around, discovering that behind him, his partner was standing there.

Beautiful long blond hair, an emotionless face, but beautiful features that no one could compare to. A long sword hung at her slim waist.

But now, the armour that she wore was different from usual.

And the leather armour and skirt that she wore not long ago under Roland, were completely different.

She now wore a battle armour that had white and green as the basic colours.

Although he still didn’t know how that armour had been made, so Ryner asked: “… Is that the battle uniform that Vois assembled using gold and magic skills?”

Ferris nodded, “Yeah.”

“Is it convenient?”

“Well, because I just wore it. But talking about which it is really light.”

“Is that so, that’s not bad.”

“Yeah.”

“And, it suits you. White really suits you.”

Hearing Ryner say that, Ferris nodded harder, “Of course, who do you think I am.”

“That’s true.” Ryner smiled. Then he moved his eyes from her body, looking ahead.

Looking in the north where there was a possibility that Gastark might attack from in the end.

The place where they were now, was a northern state that was very far from the Geihlficlant capital.

Although it was a small state, but this plot of land used to be the capital of a small country before Geihlficlant overtook it, so this large capital had been kept with its original appearance, with the large population.

The population was so large until the degree that it was hard to completely avoid disaster.

So they definitely couldn’t allow the surroundings to be taken by the war.

If the northern castle that was near here could not stop the advance of the Gastark army as the center point of the defense line, the sacrifices of the people would probably be devastatingly more than what they had expected.

“…Perhaps, before the Gastark people reach the palace, we should ambush them and stop them from advancing…” He murmured softly.

Then he tried to imagine the situation where his people ambushed the opposition.

The advantages of the geographic location should be on his side.

Geihlficlant had a relatively accurate map of its country’s situation, if they went to war depending on the land form, they could come up with many battle strategies.

And there were several castles nearby that could be used as a base, the number of soldiers were larger than the enemy’s.

It probably was a war, that they wouldn’t lose.

At least the citizens living near the Famur place would think so.

But the Gastark Empire had reached here now, and they had defeated those countries that were not thought to be easily defeated along the way here.

That was because they had used the Heroes’ Relics’ power, and they had used something that was more lethal than the Heroes’ Relics.

Killing thousands, tens of thousands of people, coming here.

Ryner turned to Ferris who had suddenly come to stand by him, saying: “…Hey, Ferris.”

She didn’t turn her head, saying: “Eh?”

“That.”

“Yes.”

“As expected I still feel that it’s terrible joining this war. Especially, you, Kiefer, Toale and Iris have no need to be standing here?”

“…”

Ferris didn’t say anything. Only quietly looking straight in front. Looking at the place where war had probably already erupted, in the place where the killing had begun.

So Ryner continued: “…Me, what, because Vois that idiot said if I joined this war, I would know the secret about my eyes something like that, although I don’t know if it’s real, ma… But, because he said something like there was no wrong in joining, so there is a meaning to joining.”

“…”

“But you… it’s fine it all of you don’t come to participate in this idiotic battle…”

At this moment, Ferris suddenly interrupted Ryner: “Why do I have to listen to your advice?”

Ryner looked at Ferris’s beautiful side-profile, saying: “…This isn’t an order, it’s a request?”

“Request?”

“Yeah.”

“Then kneel and beg.”

“Eh? If I kneel, you’ll accept my request?”

“I wouldn’t listen to your request.”

“Ahhh~?” Ryner smiled slight troubled, then stared at her and said: “But, I’m not joking. Can you take Iris and leave this place?”

Ferris nodded, “That’s right, we’ll have to let Iris escape from this crisis.”

“No, you too…”

But Ferris interrupted him again, continuing: “Even if it is Kiefer or Toale, I just told them earlier not to treat a pervert like you as the center of the world, so they probably will leave.”

“Hey, although that is good news… but if you can leave together it will be a great help…”

Before Ryner finished speaking, Ferris said: “I won’t listen to your order or anything.”

“So~ I’m saying.”

“I’m definitely not listening.”

“Eh… Then, about that. That, if you’ll listen, I’ll buy you a pile of dangos next time.”

In the moment she heard this, Ferris’s body trembled slightly.

“A…a pile?” she asked.

Ryner nodded as he smiled, “Yes.”

“Really? To me a pile is more than one hundred boxes? You have that much money…”

“Yeah, even if I don’t have it, I’ll work hard to treat you.”

“You’re not joking?”

“Yes. So, this time will you listen to me for a little? Temporarily escape danger, then meet up with me again, how about it?” Ryner asked.

Ferris turned around, raising her head, using her slim blue eyes, saying: “Ryner.”

The eyes that never had any emotions, never had any change suddenly narrowed sadly, “Stop joking. If you plan to say those things that will make me leave you, I’ll kill you.”

She continued: “And what are you talking about? If I go to a place where I will be in constant danger alone, you will leave me too, escaping by yourself?”

“…No, but this and that are two matters…”

“It’s the same.”

“It’s not the same. This war is really dangerous…”

“I understood that a long time ago. But I still want to be by your side. Is there a problem?”

“…No, but because of me…”

At this moment, Ferris suddenly said: “…You are a monster.”

“…” Ryner didn’t say anything. Because he had never thought that she would say that word, his body was unable to move in that moment.

But she continued, “A monster that would kill people. A monster that will spread the killing to his surroundings… You have always thought that right?”

“…What, what are you saying so suddenly…”

Ferris continued: “Answer me. You have always, thought that right?”

Ryner nodded, “Yeah.”

Ferris’s eyes had an even more sad expression, “Then you—your eyes, are the monster.”

“Yes.”

Ferris nodded, “Then, as expected there is a need for me to follow? Have you forgotten the promise between us? The next time you go berserk—I will kill you. Don’t tell me you forgot that you had asked this of me?”

She said slowly.

And Ryner remembered.

The most evil promise, that he had ever made with her.

An evil promise, that would only leave painful memories for her.

So that it would revive me that was incredibly disappointed with myself, myself who kept escaping, she had made that promise.

Ryner who remembered this promise, stared at Ferris and asked: “…As expected I will go berserk in this battle?”

She displayed an expectant face, saying: “Because you are a monster. If you meet any problems, no matter where you are you will go berserk. And Vois said before that the secret of your eyes would be uncovered in this battle. Then, the possibility of going berserk has increased.”

Hearing Ferris’s words, Ryner’s face twisted slightly, then there was a slight smile, “That’s true.”

“So, indeed. I still need someone to kill me when I go berserk on the battle field.” He said.

And it looked like, she was prepared to properly fulfill this promise.

So that the monster would not kill people.

So that the murdering monster would not kill people after it went berserk.

For these reasons.

“…So Ferris came to kill me.” Ryner said.

But Ferris looked toward him, suddenly saying: “No, I came to protect the berserk you.”

“You probably may be a monster. You probably can be a murdering monster. But that does not matter to me. No matter how many people you kill, no matter how many killings you have done, these have nothing to do with me. I said it before right? You are my important partner. Even if something in your body changes in this battle, even if you become a real monster, so what? Even if you really are a monster, I don’t care. I will stay by your side always.”

Ryner looked at Ferris who had said something surprising. He used a frantic expression, staring at her. If this tenseness slackened slightly, he would definitely cry, so he desperately resisted it, staring at her and said: “But… but if you stay by my side…”

But Ferris interrupted him, “And I am happy staying by your side. So I will accompany you. Is there a problem?”

“…”

“So you don’t have to reveal that kind of expression like you’re about to cry when you are called a monster by someone else. You should be proud. Or else it would seem that I’m like an idiot for being happy even though I am at a monster’s side? You are the best partner that I have chosen. No matter what other people say, my opinion will never change. If what I say is not enough… if it is not enough…” Ferris stopped, then as if wanting to come up with more words she rolled her eyes, revealing a slightly troubled and sad expression, saying: “…If that is not enough… then what should I do? What should I do to persuade you not to leave me? What should I do… so that your scars can be smoothed out?”

With a troubled expression from the depths of her heart, she said that.

Ryner stared tightly at her figure. He stared at her figure as she looked as if she had no more ideas.

This person who ignored people the whole day, whose brains were stuffed full with the dango family, was actually revealing a sad expression.

And this was all because of his stubbornness and weakness.

So Ryner lowered his face, saying: “…Sorry.”

“…And my scars have already healed a long time ago.” He said.

“You are by my side. Even if it were Sion, Kiefer, Toale… Everyone accepted me, so I noticed—it’s alright if I’m living… even if a monster like me lives it doesn’t matter… I’ve already understood this.”

Ferris looked over, “Then…”

But Ryner interrupted her, continuing: “But even so, I still need to participate in this battle. But that is not for myself. And it is not to confirm whether I am a monster.”

Ferris asked: “Then, what is it for?”

Ryner raised his right hand, looking at his palm, answering: “To gain power.” He said, then raised his face, looking behind Ferris, looking at the wide southern sky behind her.

“…I am going so that I will gain enough power to stay by the people who can accept people like me.”

Ferris looked over, “The power to save Sion?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I will help you.”

“No, but, this battle is very dangerous like I thought.”

“So I will protect you.”

“That…”

“Ah, and I have to say something before this, even if you go berserk, I wouldn’t kill you?”

“Hey, ah? That, isn’t that different from what you promised me…”

“I don’t care.”

“Something like I don’t care… hey I say you…”

“Anyway I wouldn’t kill you. And if someone comes to attack you who goes berserk, I will protect you too. Then those humans will know it. The person who reared this monster Ryner Lute, was actually the big demon king Ferris Eris-sama.”

Ryner looked at the slightly smug Ferris, finally seeming to sigh as if he had given up.

Even if you say that.

“…”

Even if you say that to me, but if it really reached that moment, she would still act properly.

No, perhaps it should be said that she had to move.

These eyes.

Because this pair of cursed Alpha Stigma , once it started to go berserk, it would ignore his consciousness, destroying everything around him.

If this destructive power affected her body, affected the things important to her, she would not be able to remain unmoving as she had chosen.

But, even so.

“…”

Even so hearing what she said, Ryner was still happy.

Hearing her say that no matter what.

Even if he was a monster, she would treat him as a partner.

Hearing her say that, he really was happy.

Then this gentle partner who had said these surprising words, although he really didn’t want to bring her into such a dangerous battle field, but…

“…You, even if I say don’t follow, you wouldn’t listen?”

She nodded, “Of course.”

“Then, there’s no other way…” Ryner said.

Of course this wasn’t something that could be solved with a sentence like there’s no other way. No, to be thorough, the matter about participating in a completely needless war was seen as a stupid act.

“Ryner~, come and look at this quickly.”

Suddenly someone called his name.

Ryner looked in the direction of the voice.

Kiefer’s body came out of the carriage on the other side. Shoulder-length red hair, gentle red eyes. She wore a different battle uniform from Ferris’s. But it couldn’t be told if it were a battle uniform now. That seemed to be a cute uniform with fresh red as the main colour, that was made for Kiefer.

She wore this clothing, looking over happily.

Ryner nodded, “Very cute.”

Kiefer seemed to be happier, slightly embarrassed, smiling.

But that clothing was a battle uniform in the end.

The battle uniform, that Vois had prepared.

Clothings so that they could rush into the battle field.

It was clear that even if it were Kiefer or Ferris, there wasn’t a need to fight, but they wore battle uniforms to join Ryner in the battle.

Even if he allowed them to escape, they completely didn’t listen to it, only saying that they would continue to stay by the side of a monster like him.

He revealed a helpless expression, muttering: “…This, could be troublesome.”

Then he looked to the north again.

Looking at the northern lands that should be under attack from the Gastark army.

Then he thought of the words that Vois had said before.

Gastark had a strong weapon that had more power than the Heroes’ Relics , that could change the world in one hit, and they were using that weapon to defeat the countries on their way, coming here.

It seemed that when they fought a large country called Stohl, Gastark had used that weapon once to destroy Stohl’s army that had numbered eighty thousand.

Eighty thousand.

Eighty thousand, humans.

That scale of destructive power, according to the current magical skills could not be created.

Then was that a Heroes’ Relic ? But this probably wasn’t accurate. Even the current magic academics were unable to explain the Heroes’ Relics , and they could not have such a strong power.

But Gastark had that abnormal power.

Gastark had the strong power that could change the world in one swing.

So what are we going to do to fight with this monster?

“…”

If that monster appeared on the battle field, how was I going to protect my companions?

There wasn’t even a plan that would feasibly be successful.

Because the enemy wouldn’t even use battle tactics or strategies to deal with their opponenets.

The enemy had too many weapons that were stronger than this side’s.

If that weapon was activated, the companions on this side would definitely be killed.

Then there wasn’t any war.

There wasn’t even a fight.

It was only suicide.

If they didn’t escape this battle ground, it would be same as committing suicide.

So he couldn’t possibly take his important companions, to that kind of place…

At this moment.

“Then then Ryner, the carriage has already been emptied. Please change too Ryner.”

A voice spoke from somewhere else.

Looking in the direction of the voice, he found that Vois was standing here.

Vois Fiurelle.

Beautiful black hair, wise and sly black eyes. A thirteen, fourteen year old body, wearing something that was akin to the clothes of a witch.

That body looked over and said: “Ryner’s uniform has already been prepared in the carriage. Please change.”

“That, Vois. I want to talk to you about something.”

But Vois interrupted him, “Ah, Ryner Ryner. You’re too late.”

“Ah? I haven’t even said anything.”

Vois smiled, “Anyway you’re thinking of saying something like please let everyone escape? Or something like you can’t bring your comrades into such a dangerous place as battle.”

Hearing Vois say those chilling words, Ryner couldn’t help but tense his face.

Vois seemed to smile even more happily, “So that’s true. But I’m sorry. It’s too late. Because actually this is already within the range of the weapons of Gastark.”

“What…?!” Ryner couldn’t help but yell.

Ferris who was standing by him seemed to be surprised, saying: “But we haven’t even seen the silhouettes of the enemy?”

Vois nodded, “This is true~ They can even activate the weapon even though you can’t see it, the power that can kill the people in this area, in all the districts. Ah~ Really, this is really sly. I am already angry. Ya--!! Like that.” He seemed to say happily.

But, this wasn’t something that could be ended with a joke. If this place was really within the range of the enemy’s weapon…

“Then in the moment now we could…” Ryner said.

Vois still had that happy appearance, saying: “We could die but that’s not determined. Ah~ How scary~”

“Hey I say, this isn’t a carefree topic…”

But Vois continued, “But, this is actually a normal matter? In this moment now we could probably die because our hearts are paralysed. You can even be knocked down by a carriage when you are walking on the streets and die. There are other options like perhaps you sneezed in front of a noble with a bad personality, probably you’ll be killed in Roland? The situation then would be the same as now. Anyway death can be seen everywhere, it is no longer a new affair.”

Ryner stared at Vois and said: “…But dying here is different from being knocked down by a carriage.”

Vois tilted his head, asking: “Is it?”

“It’s completely different. You clearly knew that this was within the range of the enemy’s firing range, but you didn’t tell us.”

Vois shrugged, “If I told you would you have followed me?”

“Nonsense. At least if we knew that this was within the firing range of the enemy’s weapon, then we could have changed the battle strategy that we were about to use…”

But Vois laughed loudly, interrupting Ryner, “Ahaha, please don’t make me laugh. In front of that weapon that can destroy eighty thousand soldiers, a battle strategy? If there is such a powerful battle strategy, please tell me secretly. Then we’ll use that miraculous, divine place, and go conquer the world from now on.”

He laughed as he said those words to tease Ryner.

But these words, were not wrong.

If they were able to stop the army of the Gastark, then they could go and conquer the world just like that.

Gastark now had the power to do that.

Seeing Ryner fall silent, Vois pointed to the carriage, “Then please don’t say such foolish things and go change. Geihlficlant will start the war with Gastark in the afternoon. The enemy will probably use the weapon there. If it can’t be stopped, don’t even talk about us, the people living in this area will all vanish. So that the events don’t progress to that stage, we have to work hard…”

Ryner tensed his face, saying: “Is there any space for us to work hard?”

Vois smiled as he replied: “No. I said it before, if the power hidden in your eyes is weaker than Gastark’s weapon, we will be committing suicide in this way.”

“Hey you…”

“But, the information that I have, says that your power should be enough to go against Gastark.”

“Hear… you, that…”

Before Ryner completed his sentence, Vois said: “It’s what the Goddess told me. α —the destructive power hidden in your body, is the most powerful kind of power.”

Ryner looked at Vois, then asked: “…Then?”

He asked about information concerning his eyes.

The in that moment, he felt himself become slightly nervous.

In the moment he asked about his eyes.

In the moment that he wanted to know about the information regarding his eyes, a deep terror would swell in his chest, he desperately tolerated that feeling, asking: “…Then?”

Vois looked over, “Then, what’s that referring to?”

Ryner stared at Vois who was acting dumb, saying: “Don’t pretend. There must be some other information than that? I already know that the Goddess said that a very powerful power is hidden in my eyes. But, what is this powerful thing? Under what conditions will this activate, what kind of destructive power does it have, what these eyes are, you actually know all about that? Or else you wouldn’t have come along to a dangerous place like this.” He moved his eyes away from Vois, turning to the place where the Gastark soldiers should be.

Although he couldn’t see Gastark’s shadow, but like what Vois said, this place was already within the firing range of those weapons.

That meant that now, in a moment after that weapon was activated, there was a probability of the people here all dying.

In a dangerous place like this, this lying swindler, Vois Fiurelle would not come over to confirm the doubtful information that “Ryner’s eyes seems to be pretty powerful”.

That meant that this person, should have more information.

He had to have that information…

“…Tell me what you know, Vois. Or else I wouldn’t help you again.”

Vois raised his head to look over there, then smiled again, “Arara, we’re already here, do you have to be so troublesome…”

“You will definitely say it.” Ryner interrupted Vois: “No matter what I brought a few important companions here too. I am responsibly for my companions’ lives. So if there is no evidence, only a foolish suicidal act, I need to escape from here with my companions.”

Vois made a surprised face, “Oh~ You’ll escape?”

“Yes.”

“This is a rare decisive statement that goody-two-shoes Ryner has made. And you said that to protect your companions, you would not rescue the people and soldiers of Geihlficlant?”

But Ryner was not wavering, “That point is different, Vois. I only think that even if I participate there is no way to defeat Gastark. At least in this situation where we don’t know anything at all, if we go into that dangerous battle…”

“It’s a foolish act, right?”

“Yes. But if you can explain more in detail to me…”

Interrupting Ryner, Vois simply said: “No, there’s nothing to explain clearly.” “I really believe what the Goddess said, the sentence that your eyes have the strongest destructive power, then I came here.”

“How can that be…”

Vois interrupted Ryner, smiling, “That’s true. It’s really an impossible matter. But this is more interesting right?” The boy who was born from a family of liars said.

“Having a life mixed with foolish jokes is more interesting.” He said those foolish words.

But this silly words didn’t have a link with people with common sense. So Ryner stared at Vois, saying: “Don’t joke, you. I have no reason to bet my companions’ lives on your joke...”

But Vois broke in, saying: “I didn’t say anything about betting your companions’ lives. What I’m gambling, is only my life.” He pressed a hand to his chest, “Understand? I’m standing here too, I’m standing within the firing range of Gastark’s weapon. But even so, I’m betting my life on you. I’m gambling my life on compared to Gastark’s weapon, maybe your eyes will have a greater power~ this point. Isn’t that explanation enough?”

He looked at Ferris and Kiefer who were standing behind Ryner, “Actually compared to Kiefer and Ferris, I gained more detailed knowledge about Ryner’s eyes. But I feel that I don’t have a need to explain any further. If you ask me why, because compared to the unknown weapon that Gastark is using, whether your eyes are stronger, this point, not even me, even the Goddess don’t know about it. But even so I still trust you and bet on you. Even an outsider like me gambled my life on you, so these companions who like you would stay by your side.” Vois said to the two, Ferris and Kiefer nodded.

But Ryner frowned, “No, even if you gamble your life by your choice, I can’t respond to that…”

Vois smiled: “If you can’t respond everyone can only die. But because they will vanish in an instant, so no one will blame you. Relax.”

“…I say, you”

“Then then, there really isn’t any time to waste. Even I am very scared. What if I gambled on the wrong person—I was so scared from just now that I nearly wet myself. Ah, but wetting myself in front of everyone seems interesting…”

“What are you talking about!”

“Of course it’s a shy PLAY…”

“So~ I’m~ saying!”

“Ah~ Yes yes, change the topic. Ryner is really troublesome, but I’ve been saying that I want to go to the toilet since just now.”

“…”

“Give a response~”

Staring at Vois who didn’t seem so nervous that he wanted to go to the toilet, but in fact he was smiling very happily, Ryner sighed.

“Talking to you is tiring. Not only do I have trouble differentiating what is true, what is false, and you will definitely go off topic.”

“Remove faeces?”

“Go die.”

“Ahaha, isn’t this more relaxing?” Vois said, breathing out, then deeply breathing in again. Then he smiled. He revealed an innocent, child-like smile that they had never seen.

“It seems that I will get engrossed in saying disgusting jokes, but because I really am very nervous too, so please forgive me. No matter what, this is really rare that I need to gamble my own life.” Vois said, then looked to the north where Gastark was.

“Swindlers putting their lives in danger and whatnot, there has to be a limit to my going against the family rules—although I will be lectured by my grandmother… but if the plan goes successfully…” He stopped, then smiled, “No, let’s talk about the matters later after we’ve survived. Anyway Ryner, please work hard.”

Ryner stared at Vois saying: “How should I work hard?”

Vois had his usual sneaky smile, “When the moment comes you will understand.”

“So I’m telling you to explain it clearly to me now.”

“Even if I explain it, it wouldn’t do any good. And didn’t I say it before, this is about your eyes? Then, you should be the one who knows best, try asking your eyes yourself.”

Ryner frowned, “…That’s because my eyes, can’t speak at all.”

“Ahaha.”

“But, forget it, that’s true.” Ryner muttered.

Then he narrowed his eyes slightly. Anyway it wouldn’t talk to him so he was also lazy to try talking to his eyes.

“Then Vois, about the matter that you aren’t clear about the specific details of these eyes…”

“That’s true. At least I don’t have any knowledge that can be used.”

“That means, I have to work harder.”

“That’s right. If we can’t stop Gastark here, everyone in the world would be killed by Gastark.”

Ryner hearing Vois say that, remembered something.

He remembered Gastark’s cruelty.

The Gastark soldiers that he had seen so far, were forever acting violently.

The people who were hunting for the bearers of magical eyes, then killing them after they gained information. And they even killed the children who didn’t do anything, but tremble as they hid in a corner.

And they killed Lafra and Pueka.

“…”

If someone like that descended from the sky, it wouldn’t be anything good.

So like what Vois said, they had to stop Gastark’s invasion here. Although they didn’t know what they should do, but there was no reason to allow them to continue with their invasion.

So.

“Well… then let’s go.” Ryner muttered.

Then he turned around to look at Ferris and Kiefer, and discovered that Toale, Iris, Arua, Kuku were standing there.

The companions that Ryner had brought over here, were all assembled.

And he was going to be responsible for these people’s lives, as he went to war. He was going to the battle ground where the possibility of dying was higher than ever.

Ryner looked at his companions’ faces, “I, came to a conclusion about bearing responsibility for your lives…”

He completely couldn’t do it—although he wanted to say that.

But Kiefer interrupted him, smiling: “Even if Ryner can’t do it, I have already made the decision to hand my life to Ryner, so it’s alright~”

And Toale too—that Toale who had his right arm and leg replaced with prosthetics, when the bright light released from Roland’s Heroes’ Relic destroyed them, smiled as he said: “I’ve already died once. So I’m in your hands too.” Then he revealed a foolish face that, no matter what Ryner said, he would definitely not back down.

Ryner couldn’t help become slightly despressed. I clearly said that I am unable to be responsible for your lives, but no one didn’t listen to me.

Even Arua said: “Although Kuku wouldn’t be on the battle ground, but I will help Ryner-sensei.”

And Iris said happily, as she jumped around: “Wherever Onee-sama goes I’ll follow along!”

But Ferris said: “No, you can’t go.”

“Ah~?”

“You have to help me investigate the dango situation in the neighbouring countries…”

The two started this conversation.

But, anyway.

“…"

This was a serious situation.

It really was a very serious situation.

On that battle ground where the probability of death was undeniably higher, trust me who cannot be determined as a human or monster, to participate in the battle. Something as ridiculous as that, wouldn’t appear somewhere else.

So Ryner said softly: “…Ne, Vois.”

“What?” Vois replied equally softly.

“The one that you need on this battle field, is only me right?”

Vois nodded, “Yes.”

“Then can you tie up these people, and take them away forcefully?”

Vois smiled as he looked over, “I can, but…”

“But?”

“They can’t escape? I said it earlier, this is within the firing range of the enemy’s weapons. If the enemy fires their weapon while we’re escaping, then this land will be blasted away. If you escape now…”

“Is it too late?”

“If you escaped yesterday it would be a different matter.”

“That means, you knew of it beforehand?”

“Yes.”

“You already knew, but you still brought Arua and Iris who are still children?”

Vois nodded his head simply, saying: “The more things you need to protect, the more motivation Ryner has right?”

Ryner didn’t look at Vois, he only lowered his voice, a killing intention appearing in his voice, “I’ll really send you flying this time.”

But Vois still had that sly smile, “You can. If you survive, I’ll let you hit me. But now you have to find the way to survive.” He pointed to the carriage, “Then, please change into the uniform that I have prepared. Well, although I think a large character like Ryner called the ‘Roland’s Greatest Magician’ wouldn’t die so easily, but who knows what will happen on the battle ground. If you are killed by a normal soldier before Gastark’s weapon is released, the plan will go to pieces. So, our preparations have to be complete…”

Ryner lowered his head to look at Vois, “Even though you suddenly brought us to a strange battle ground, you still are well-prepared.”

Vois smiled, he smiled as he pointed to the carriage, “Then go and prepare, Ryner. There is not much time. It’s about time that we enter the war conference with Geihlficlant, after that we will…” He temporarily stopped, then as if surveying everyone’s faces, said: “We the Anti-Roland Coalition, will be participating in the war against Gastark.”

They would join the war.

Although Vois seemed to say it very easily, but, this was a real war.

A war, where people were killing each other.

A war where people were killing each other, fresh blood and cries echoed.

A war like that was playing out on the Menoris Continent.

There was the Roland army that Sion was leading in the south.

There was the Gastark army with the mysterious army in the north.

And in the middle was—

“…”

Ryner looked at Vois.

This thirteen, fourteen year old boy, had used Ryner as a dummy king, and lighted the fires of war.

So Ryner said: “I hate wars.”

No, he should say that no one would like war.

It would be painful if you were hit, and it was painful for the fists if you went to hit someone else.

Killing enemies, them killing your companions, then killing enemies for revenge, and the enemy would come back to kill them for revenge, wasn’t this cycle too foolish? He thought of these problems with no solutions.

It was clear that anyone would hate this, but why didn’t the war completely vanish.

Not only that there were the hints of a world war, on this piece of the Menoris Continent.

And—

Ryner looked at Vois, finding that he was saying happily: “But in the history records I read, if it goes successfully you can gain a large sum of money in war.”

“It’s because of the existence of such people, that war doesn’t stop.”

“Well, although that can be said, but I regret that it’s not me who’s stirring up this war. This war was started by Gastark and Roland. We came in too late. It seems that I have to be more careful, it’s best that I instigate a war with me at the center then control the flow of money…”

Looking at Vois who was reflecting on that, Ryner lowered his face as if in resignation, “…Is it really okay for me to be with someone like this.” As he said that, he walked away.

He walked towards the carriage. To change into the uniform that Vois had prepared.

Then he would wear that uniform, and walk towards the battle grounds.

He would walk towards that battle ground where people would be killed.

He opened the carriage door, discovering that a set of uniform had been prepared.

A uniform for Ryner.

The clothing was elaborately made.

It was made with a pink thin material.

It was a little like the underwear of a woman…

And that thing that seemed like a woman’s underwear—no matter what it looked like a triangular clothing was placed on the seat of the carriage, with a piece of paper beside it.

Vois had written this on the paper

“If you wear this on the battle ground, Ryner will definitely become everyone’s idol—”

“Hey Voooooooiiiiis!”

Looking at Ryner who had poked his head out and yelled, Vois started laughing in the distance.

“Ah, you should like it…”

“What liiiiiiiike iiiiiit! No, I’m really angry! Didn’t you say there was no more time?”

Vois continued laughing, “Really~ Ryner likes to get angry…”

“Shut up!”

“You really like being angry~ ♥~”

“…You, you’re really…”

“Ah, anyway the real uniform is under the table in the carriage. I did prepare it properly, so don’t worry.”

Ryner went back to the carriage, and looked under the table.

This time he saw a reasonable uniform placed under it.

It was a uniform similar to Ferris’s, it was made of some material.

The colours were green, white and black. The white outfit was very thin, if examined closely there were magical structures found there that were not easily seen, this added defense against spells.

And there were magical items and small knives tucked in the interior of the elbow and knee, there were several small knives at the waist too. And the hard armour over his chest to protect his chest—simply said, just by these garments they had far surpassed those white uniforms that Sion had for the Magic Knights, it was genuine heavy-duty armour.

But it was lighter by half of Roland’s Mage Knight’s armour.

Ryner stared at this uniform, then shut his eyes. When he opened them again, a strange red five-pointed star appeared in his eyes.

These were a pair of special eyes, called the Alpha Stigma .

Although it was a convenient power that was able to see through all magic, but because it would spread the fire of killing if went berserk, so it had always been forbidden by everyone. But lately for some reason, curious people like Sion, Ferris, Kiefer had slowly increased, and now it had become a pair of troublesome eyes that were not forbidden.

“…”

Ryner smiled bitterly as he thought of this.

Then he used that pair of special eyes, to look at the uniform.

And in a moment he could understand the magic cast on the outfit, even the small unattractive parts on it became familiar to him.

But the functions of the magic were not much different from those of the Mage Knights, it was all counter magic, to ward against attacking magic. Of course because it was not from the magical system of Roland, so the structure and activation methods were different, but basically it was defense magic that was almost the same as Roland’s.

But there should be a magic that would lighten weight cast here. Or else there was no other way for this armour’s weight to be so greatly reduced. “…”

But, no matter how Ryner looked at it, on that uniform, there were no traces of magic that could control weight.

But talking about which.

“…Magic that can control weight, according to current magic it’s impossible. That also means that this is…”

This uniform could have been made from the skills of the Heroes’ Relic .

How was the relic that could control weight used, or was it that this light uniform itself as a Heroes’ Relic ?

Putting that aside.

“…Even if it’s Roland or Gastark, they are already proceeding with the war with Heroes’ Relics , if I don’t increase my knowledge in this field, I can’t go to war.” Ryner muttered.

The basics of war was to know how much power and weapons one held, then he also needed to know how much power the enemy had. Only by grasping these, that the war would truly begin.

And the people who were going to battle without knowing anything about it, those probably weren’t heroes but idiots.

“I’m an idiot.” He groaned and sighed.

Even if he knew that he was an idiot, he could only go to join in battle. And he had to bear the responsibility of his companions’ lives to join the battle.

Just thinking about these problems made Ryner feel like going to have an afternoon nap.

But.

“…Ah, ah, really, it always becomes something as troublesome as this.” As he grumbled, he changed into that uniform.

Then he walked out of the carriage.

And he found that outside the carriage, there was another man.

A 30 year old man, who was tall.

Thick green armour hung on that strong body. Piercing eyes. That man was using piercing eyes to look to the north.

Looking to the north where the Gastark army were.

Looking at this man—the king of one of countries in the mid-continent Geihlficlant, Gulafed Abuleld, Ryner said: “I say, having the king-sama of a large country being here is alright?”

Abuleld looked over, then smiled, “You need to use honorifics when you talk to someone above your position, brat.”

Just as Ryner was about to retort, Vois bowed to Abuleld, “I’m very sorry, Abuleld-sama. But even so he is still our king.”

“Eh? You’re trying to say as king, our positions are equal? The leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition who does not have any land and me who is born as the Geihlficlant king?”

Vois seemed as if he wanted to say something. His face became slightly nervous, preparing to say.

But Abuleld interrupted him, saying: “Never mind. I was only joking. Perhaps you may think that since I was from the military I must be very particular about social statuses, but I’m not so traditional. Everyone is equal on the battle field. The dead people are losers, and the people who remain standing till the end are winners. Easy right?” Abuleld said, then looked back to the north.

“And if in the war that is about to begin, that brat who is the bearer of magical eyes can be used, then it doesn’t matter how he talks. If he can kill the most Gastark soldiers who trample on the Geihlficlant people.” He said, then looked over. Staring at Ryner’s eyes. No, staring at the evidence of the monster that was deep within his eyes, asking: “Then, how about it? Can you do it?”

But Vois answered for Ryner again: “Of course, Your Majesty. We said it before, we would defeat the Gastark weapon that was used to defeat Stohl…”

“Can that thing be stopped?”

“Yes.”

“In the past, the Alpha Stigmas that I dealt with in the army weren’t this strong…”

Vois nodded, “That’s true. But this can’t be explained in normal terms. Because our king is a special existence.”

“…Special, huh.” The Geihfliclant king looked at Ryner with piercing eyes again.

Then.

“Vois Fiurelle.” He called Vois’ name.

Vois bowed his head, “Yes?”

“If this thing about special is false.”

“Yes.”

“I will kill you. The group that you brought along will also be killed.”

Vois smiled, “I’ll remember that.”

“Yes. That means you have the confidence.”

“Yes.”

Abuleld looked at Ryner again, “Even though he’s a lowly bearer of magical eyes, but he gained such a large trust. But, this is good. If you don’t have that confidence then you can’t join in this accursed battle. That means you have the chances of winning.”

Vois said: “There is the presence of Geihlficlant’s army defending, so we can’t lose.”

But Abuleld stared at Vois, saying: “I have already investigated about Stohl’s battle. So this battle isn’t something easy.”

“Yes, so we came here.”

Abuleld smiled, looking at Vois he said: “That’s true. You came here because of that. Because I accepted what you said about being able to stop Gastark’s weapon, so you came here. So although you said that you wanted to join in this war, but you were preparing to attack Geihlficlant from the south and came to me.” As he said that, King Abuleld raised a hand.

And they were surrounded by the Geihlficlant Mage Knights wearing green armour.

Ryner looked at Vois and said: “You…”

In the moment that he spoke, Abuleld continued, “Oh, it seems like the bearer of magic eyes didn’t know about this? Well, humans wouldn’t trust bearers of magic eyes. So you’re only a puppet king? Then you don’t have to speak anymore. I’m talking with the last heir to a line of swindlers.” As he said that, Abuleld lowered his head to look at Vois. Those eyes were giving off a killing intention. His opponent was clearly only a child, but he didn’t give a hint of weakness, the pressure strengthened to a scary killing aura.

But Vois very simply accepted that killing aura, his face did not change, saying: “Ara, are we exposed? Then losing contact with my subordinates was because…”

Abuleld nodded, “The soldiers gathered in the south, have been arrested.”

“Arrested? Then I’m grateful. You didn’t kill them.”

“I’m not killing them now. But if you are unable to stop Gastark’s weapons, then I will simply kill all of them.”

Vois smiled, “But if I don’t stop Gastark’s weapon, you will…”

“Die?”

“Yes.”

“That isn’t a problem. Even if I die, my brothers will inherit this country’s throne. Then that brother will kill your companions.”

“Is it.”

“Yes.”

“But that hostage doesn’t really mean anything much. Because even if my companions are killed, I wouldn’t feel much pain.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Or do you need me to prove it? You can kill one of the companions right in front of me now, use that as evidence.”

Abuleld stared at Vois as if wanting to pierce through the thoughts that he had, saying: “…Oh… it doesn’t seem like a lie. You really wouldn’t be bothered by the death of your companions… You really are a brat that makes one unhappy.”

Vois smiled again, “Because it’s a messy world, so a brat like this would be born.”

“Then, why does a brat like you come here? Do you want to mess up Geihlficlant? But that has already failed. The soldiers in the south are already arrested.”

But Vois still smiled, saying: “I never thought of messing up Geihficlant. In the beginning I was planning to attack Geihlficlant that had been weakened by Gastark, then steal away with its land and resources. But Gastark is a more challenging opponent than I had expected, so I wanted to give Geihlficlant more power.”

“Oh, you want me to believe you? Actually you’re a spy from Gastark right?”

Vois didn’t quaver, replying: “Gastark has that weapon that defeated Stohl, do you think that they would send a spy?”

“Then it’s the Ertolia Republic? Or you could be a spy from Remrus Empire. Even if it’s not like that, I heard that this Anti-Roland Coalition had been receiving assistance from Remrus in the past…”

But his words were cut short, Vois said: “Can we not proceed with this boring questioning? Anyway you have already known about our intentions, and my companions in the surrounding would be arrested under your order right?”

“…”

At this, Abuleld quietened.

Confirming this point Vois continued: “But you didn’t do that. That is because you’re anticipating what we have, the power that can stop Gastark’s weapon. Then, continue to anticipate it. We will stop the power of Gastark’s weapon. And using this chance, you Geihlficlant will go and stop Gastark. This way the battle can be won… because most of the army is Geihlficlant’s, so even if you don’t emphasise your ultimate advantage, we understand.”

Hearing this Abuleld’s face relaxed for the first time.

“…Clever brat even if you get too proud you wouldn’t lose.”

“So in the beginning you gave us a threat to test our potential?”

“Yes.”

“That should be a compliment right?”

Abuleld smiled as he nodded.

“Yes. The more I investigate the more confused I am about the actual body of the Anti-Roland Coalition. But even so…”

“It’s not large enough to go against you. I’m clear about this point.”

“If you understand, that’s good. Then we should start soon. My army will collapse the Gastark army. But we can lend a few soldiers to your Anti-Roland Coalition…”

But Vois shook his head, “We have our own methods.”

“Is that so. But I will send some soldiers to keep a watch…”

“Please do that.”

“That’s good, our conversation is over.” Abuleld walked back. He walked back to where the Geihlficlant soldiers were.

Dazedly watching all this, Ryner said softly: “That sneaky plan of yours, not only Pia, even the Geihlficlant king knew about it.”

Vois smiled: “That was dangerous.”

“You can’t end the topic just by saying that it was dangerous. If you made a wrong move, before the battle started with Gastark, everyone would be killed.”

“That’s true.”

“It’s not that’s true.”

“But, we managed to survive. It must be the gods blessing us to go fight with Gastark.”

“Hey, what god is that. You don’t believe in that.”

Vois displayed a surprised face, “I believe. The people who give me money, are my god.”

“Ah~ I see.”

“It’s like that. Then, we should go turn this battle to gold.” Vois said, then looked to the north again.

In the large land before them, they could see dust swirling which they had not seen earlier.

A large amount of sand was swirling. Perhaps opposite the sand, there would be tens of thousands of soldiers.

The tens of thousands of soldiers, from Gastark.

A hundred thousand soldiers, from Geihlficlant.

And three thousand soldiers, from the Anti-Roland Coalition and Imperial Nelpha, that Vois had brought here forcefully.

Close to two hundred thousand people, would kill each other here.

“Really, how many people would die, I don’t dare to predict the numbers.” Ryner groaned, then looked at Vois, asking: “Then, what is the battle plan?”

Vois raised his head and looked over, answering simply: “There’s none.”

“Hey, I’ll really kill you.”

“Ahaha. Well, in such a large scale war, three hundred thousand-strong cannot do much. I can only say, don’t die before it ends.”

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

What Vois referred to, was probably that.

The activation of that weapon that Gastark would use, that was strong enough to kill tens of thousands in a moment—no, it could even be hundreds of thousands of humans.

And before the activation, Ryner needed to use his eyes to do something. As for what he had to do not even Ryner knew it, but anyway he would do something.

This way they could stop the activation of Gastark’s weapon, then the Geihlficlant army would crush Gastark that had lost advantage with its military power, this war would end.

--That should be the plan.

At this moment, Toale walked over, “That mean before things happen, we have to run all over the place and try not to get involved in the fighting, right?”

But Vois shook his head, “That can’t be done. Besides the weapon that Gastark has that can kill ten thousand people, there are several things like the Rhule Fragmei that are similar to ours that can kill many lives. If they use those, then Geihlficlant will be defeated before Gastark uses that weapon.”

Ryner remembered that Heroes’ Relic —what the destructive weapon that was called Rhule Fragmei had done to humans.

It was done not long ago.

To the Nelpha people and soldiers that Ryner and Toale had led, the Roland army only used that Heroes’ Relic .

Then they had easily killed half of the Nelpha citizens.

The half had been blown away.

With only one hit, thousands of lives had been taken away.

“…”

But Vois had said, that power would continue to be released in this battle.

No, it seemed in the following battle, it would be expected for that power to be used.

Even if it were Roland, Gastark, Vois, they would use that Heroes’ Relic . They would imply use that destructive power that should not be used by humans.

And Gastark had a weapon that was more powerful than that.

Before that weapon, humans would be destroyed like rubbish.

“…They’re completely mad.” Ryner sighed softly.

Vois nodded, “That’s right. They’re completely mad. And even in this crazed mess, the power that Gastark has seems abnormal. So we must stop them…” Vois suddenly stopped, then said: “Well, let’s stop with the conversation. The Geihlficlant army should be attacking about now. We should decide what to do after this.”

Indeed between the Geihlficlant soldiers, magical messages were being spread. Then the hundred thousand strong army seemed to move slowly, like a dragon that had raised its head.

Ferris looked at this, asking: “…Is the war starting?”

Ryner nodded, “Yeah.”

“Iris, Arua, Kuku, wouldn’t you let them escape?”

Ryner shook his head and answered: “It can’t be done.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes.”

“Then they can only work hard.”

Ryner nodded and said: “Yeah, that’s true.”

Then he looked at Vois, asking: “Then, I’m the general?”

Vois nodded, “Because you are our king.”

“Hey will the king go to the front lines personally.”

“King Abuleld has also come to the front lines?”

“Because he’s an idiot.”

“Ahaha.”

“Well, anyway, let’s go. If we start moving the troops now, will we meet with Gastark’s troops?”

“We’ll meet them in the afternoon.”

“Afternoon… that means after two hours.”

“According to the movement of the other party, if the other side is moving to meet us, we’ll encounter after two hours.”

Ryner nodded, as he said: “Alright, then in these two hours…”

Vois seemed to understand what Ryner wanted to say, saying: “Yes, I’ll tell everyone about the numbers and the method of usage for our Rhule Fragmei . Then this will become the first case in the world. Countries using Rhule Fragmei to fight for justice, becoming the first battle—” Vois seemed to smile very happily. Although it wasn’t known why he was happy, but he seemed to smile very happily.

Of course because this person was a con artist, so it was completely unknown what he was planning, but at least other companions did not have such a bright expression.

The war was starting.

The war where people would die.

“…”

But for some reason.

For some reason, Ryner suddenly felt nostalgic.

Then he remembered.

At that time when he was the student of Roland’s Imperial Special Military Institute.

When Sion and Kiefer were with him.

Fahl, Toni, Tyle were still alive.

And they had said this.

The war is beginning. But we will be alright. Because Sion is here. If we hand it to Sion, we don’t need to go to the front lines before the war is ended. Ah, it’s good that we’re following Sion… things like that.

“…”

Everyone was clearly smiling as they looked at each other, but why did Fahl, Toni, Tyle, everyone die.

Even Sion seemed to leave him for a faraway place.

But even so, he still tried to remember those memories.

Remembering being rowdy in the inn with everyone, everyone going to carry out boring assignments. Occasionally he would dream of those memories.

And he remembered at that time, Sion’s smile was not darkened by any negative emotions, his quiet smile.

In the end war had dissolved everything.

But.

“…I won’t let those things happen again according to your wishes.” He mumbled.

Although he didn’t know who ‘your’ was referring to.

Unless it was referring to the world that would become worst if left alone, that demanded too much from Sion.

Or was it referring to these humans who would not stop fighting.

Or was it referring to him using the excuse of these cursed eyes, not feeling that close friends were criticized, not feeling that companions were crying, only thinking of escaping.

He didn’t know the answers to these questions, but.

“…This time I will definitely not allow things to happen.” He thought.

At least I have already sworn not to escape.

Of course no matter how strong the promise, his heart would turn soft because of the cruelty of war, making him think of escaping.

But this time.

“I wouldn’t let anyone die.” He seemed to be saying that for the sake of himself.

Vois said: “How reliable.”

Toale nodded, “I will help too.”

Ferris too, although she was unenthusiastic in front of everyone else, but she had thought about many things surprisingly.

Although it was the worst situation where Iris, Arua and Kuku were involved. But, he could only work hard.

And Kiefer too.

“…”

Ryner looked around, for some reason, Kiefer wasn’t by his side.

“Eh? Where’s Kiefer?”

The other people shook their heads, signifying that they did not know.

Vois said: “Did she go to the toilet?”

At this moment, from behind the carriage where Ryner and the others had been changing their clothes, Kiefer jumped out as she blushed, “I didn’t go to the toilet!”

So Vois said: “Your face is red again.”

“No, it’s really not.”

“Then what were you doing?”

“Eh~? There was something I had to do~” Kiefer had a mysterious smile.

Although Ryner wanted to question about what she had been doing, but there wasn’t any time to be casually chatting now.

Everyone needed to remember the ways where the Rhule Fragmei could be used, in two hours, then they needed to be familiarized with the battle plan that they would come up with later.

So.

“Then, let’s go.” Ryner said.

Then he looked to Vois and Toale, saying: “Anyway let’s mix in the middle of the Geihlficlant army, move forward with them.”

Vois and Toale nodded.

Then Vois said to his subordinate Relca.

Toale ordered Major-General Sareiss, they both gave their own orders, starting to move the army.

After confirming these.

“Then, although it’s troublesome, but I should work hard.”

Ryner said.

Then the war started like this, the curtains were opening.

### 003. Chapter 2: The Heroic King

“It seems like the war between Geihlficlant and Gastark is starting.” A subordinate said.

The king of Roland—Sion Astal looked at his subordinate.

Long silver hair that seemed to be very noble, steady but depressed golden eyes.

He used these eyes, to look at his subordinate.

A cold-eyed man stood there. Black hair, and a pair of black eyes that seemed to be as cold as looking into a black abyss.

He was the Lieutenant General of the army, Miran Froaude.

Froaude said: “Finally the seeds of war in the middle have been lit too.”

Sion nodded.

Then he looked at the map on his desk.

It was a map that illustrated the whole of the Menoris Continent.

The northern continent, the central continent, and the southern continent were illustrated in different sections of this map. The northern continent had been taken over by Gastark, and now they had started to invade the Divine City of Elon in the central continent—that was the accurate information that Sion had. But if what Froaude said was true, then Gastark had conquered the Divine City of Elon, and they were marching deeper in.

So Sion asked: “…Is it too late for us to appear?”

But his subordinate shook his head, disagreeing. Then the red mouth smiled, “It should be fine. Anyway Geihlficlant is a large country too. I don’t think Gastark will defeat it so easily.”

“But Gastark will use Rhule Fragmei ?”

“Even so, it’s impossible. Furthermore Geihlficlant has already detected the presence of Rhule Fragmei .”

Sion nodded, “Gastark that is only a small country, had defeated the northern giant Imperial Stohl, this news stunned the world.”

But basically every country had investigated that war. So every country should know of the expansion of the weapon that they had never heard of before, the truth that it could easily change the situation of war.

So the search began.

Everyone had started to search and gather Rhule Fragmei.

So before the other countries found the way to handle the Rhule Fragmei , and strengthened their own countries—

“…”

Sion looked at the map on the table again.

But this time he moved his eyes to the southern side of the map.

Previously other than the Roland Empire, there had been the Estabul Kingdom, Runa Empire, Imperial Nelpha, Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, Southern Country of Ali, People’s District of Urd, the southern continent with these seven countries, had now landed under the control of the Roland Empire.

Before the whole world had discovered about the presence of Rhule Fragmei , things had progressed to this stage.

But it probably wouldn’t be so successful in the days after this.

But.

“…Perhaps we can make it just in time?” Sion murmured.

Then he raised his head.

He was now in the most northern country in the southern continent—this country’s borders were right beside those countries in the central continent.

On the most northern fields of the country that had been called the Southern Country of Ali not long ago.

Further north from here, would be one of the countries in the central continent, the territory of the Republic of Belis. Sion had commandeered Roland’s army to this plain.

Although they had sent a messenger to Belis advising them to surrender, but they had not received any reply.

And the deadline was this afternoon.

If Belis had not surrendered before noon, Roland’s army would attack the central continent.

Even if Belis ignored the advice to surrender and had gained the Rhule Fragmei at the same time, even if they prepared to use the Rhule Fragmei, that wasn’t a huge problem.

In situations where both parties had the Rhule Fragmei, this war wasn’t any different from a normal war.

That meant that which side had more soldiers and stronger soldiers, would win.

Then Belis did not have the power to go against Roland.

No, it should be said that the only one who could fight with Roland that had gained the southern continent, was only the Three States and Gastark.

So what Roland needed to take note of now, wasn’t the Republic of Belis that they were going to defeat, but the Remrus Empire that was by its side.

Of course Sion had made preparations to fight with Remrus, and he had come to the conclusion that there would be a great number of sacrifices.

But for some reason the Remrus Empire had sent a letter that it had no intention of fighting with Roland. And it wished to join hands with a strong country like Roland in the war between the three countries again.

Roland had prepared to accept this suggestion. Because now that it was a time where it was warring against countries that was large countries. Even when they may become enemies one day, but now there was a stronger need to defeat the strong enemy.

Geihlficlant Empire, Ertolia Republic and Gastark Empire.

If they needed to fight against these three countries, Roland and Remrus allying wasn’t a bad decision—Sion had thought.

Furthermore if they allied with Remrus, it would be easier to enter the central continent.

If they entered the central continent without having the need to fight with Remrus, then they could temporarily avoid Ertolia which was in the distant north east, and Geihlficlant was now busy fighting with Gastark. If they allied with Remrus to attack now, it would probably be easy to gain its territory.

Defeating Belis just like that, entering the central continent faster than Gastark.

“…”

Sion used his finger to move the chess piece shaped like a coin on the map.

This chess piece symbolized the army of Roland. Then he moved that chess piece over the Republic of Belis, pushing it towards the Remrus Empire.

Froaude smiled, “Ah, as expected Your Majesty too, towards the request to be allied from Remrus Empire…”

Sion nodded, “It’s probably a trap. Remrus wouldn’t allow us into the central continent so easily…”

“Then what about allying with Belis?”

At this moment another subordinate walked in.

It was a tall, strong man. He had red eyes and hair that were like burning flames. A man called the death god on the battle field.

Field Marshal Claugh Klom.

Claugh looked at Sion, saying: “It’s time.”

Sion looked to the sky.

The sun was shining in the middle of cloudless, blue sky.

“It’s noon.”

“Yeah.” Claugh nodded.

Sion looked back at Claugh, asking: “Then, Belis’s reply?”

Claugh shook his head, “None.”

“Then.”

Sion just finished speaking, when Claugh turned around. Looking at the boundary line that was empty of people, said: “The idiots have started to gather their forces opposite the boundary.”

Froaude smiled too, then used a cold gaze, to look at Claugh’s back.

Two men who were like Claugh, they were field marshals of the army.

One was a man who had once been a major of the Estabul Kingdom. His age was around Claugh’s, around twenty four, twenty five. Slightly green hair, tea-coloured eyes. He looked slightly disdainful.

Field Marshal Bayuuz White.

And a man who was slightly older than Bayuuz and Froaude.

He wore Roland’s army uniform, had a strict face, no, it could be said to be a dangerously sharp expression.

Field Marshal Rahel Miller noticed Froaude’s glance, said: “According to the report from the Remrus Empire’s subordinates, Remrus doesn’t seem to have any intentions of ambushing Roland, but…”

Froaude looked at Miller, “…But, what?”

Miller replied: “But anyone who would trust Remrus in this situation, would be an idiot.”

Froaude smiled slightly, nodding, “I agree. Perhaps they will take the opportunity to suddenly attack us, when we are increasing our forces to fight against Belis. They probably would attack from the lands that used to be the People’s District of Urd. No matter what, Remrus is waiting for us to show a weakness. It can be possible that they allied with Belis…”

But Miller denied his assumption, “No, they didn’t ally with Belis.”

“How do you know?”

“My subordinates gained trustworthy information on this aspect. Although the Republic of Belis has requested assistance from Geihlficlant Empire and Remrus Empire, but the two countries rejected it.”

“That means you trust this source?”

Miller smiled which was rare, seeming to look down on Froaude, saying: “Because the man who told me is better than you.”

But Froaude didn’t get angry, only nodding his head simply, saying; “…It’s Sergeant Luke Stokkart right.” After saying that, he seemed to be thinking about something, turning to Sion as he said: “If Remrus didn’t combine forces with Belis, then it means that they’ll probably attack from the place that used to be the People’s District of Urd…”

But he stopped, suddenly turning his face to the sky.

The blue cloudless sky, had suddenly lost its colour.

The sky, air, land, everything lost colour, their surroundings were starting to be shrouded with darkness.

Sion raised his head to the sky, muttering: “ Demonic Beast Destroyer …”

That was what happened when the Rhule Fragmei that absorbed light, causing destruction was activated.

Sion asked: “What about the counterattack?”

Bayuuz answered: “We can still make it. Are we going to use up a Rhule Fragmei ?”

Sion nodded.

Bayuuz instructed his subordinate, allowing them to counterattack.

After they used Rhule Fragmei to neutralize the Demonic Beast Destroyer ’s power, the sky quickly returned to normal.

Then Sion asked: “…Where did the attack come from? Belis?”

Before his subordinate could answer, the answer appeared in front of their eyes.

The sky, started to turn dark again.

And the center of the darkness, was in the eastern direction.

It probably was from the north east—an attack from the direction of the Remrus Empire.

Claugh said: “The second wave is coming.”

Froaude smiled, “But they haven’t seem to completely grasp ahold of how to use the Rhule Fragmei . If they attack from such a distance, we need some time to prepare a counterattack. If they use the Rhule Fragmei like that, then it wouldn’t be enough no matter how much they have.”

But Miller looked at the darkening sky, saying: “Perhaps they hold such a great number of Rhule Fragmei that they do not regret it even if it’s used for nothing. No matter what, people who underestimate their opponent, will die immediately?”

Froaude looked at Miller, narrowing his eyes, “…That’s true, I will remember that.”

At this moment, Bayuuz looked at Sion. Sion nodded again. The preparations for the counterattack began immediately.

After the darkness was chased away, the sky returned to normal.

But the scene in front of them after the darkness disappeared, was different from earlier.

On the plain that had been empty just now, it was now covered completely with soldiers.

As if moving over from some place in a blink of an eye, the horizon was covered with a large number of soldiers.

Sion said: “Use the Jaded Sight …”

But another subordinate’s voice spoke, “You don’t have to use it. That’s only a mirage.”

Sion turned around, seeing a twenty year old young man, sitting on a horse. Loose curly hair, adorable green eyes.

That was Major General Calne Kaiwal.

Looking at Calne, Claugh said: “Ah? Why are you here?”

Calne stuck out his tongue like a child that had been caught playing pranks, “Ah that, because I lost terribly.”

Sion turned his eyes to Calne’s body.

He found that his uniform was stained with mud and blood. And because of his deliberately bright expression and flighty behavior, it made him seem more depressed.

Calne should have been on orders to deal with the administration in the People’s District of Urd that had been defeated.

Froaude asked: “You wouldn’t have been defeated by the rebels from the people of Urd.”

Calne nodded, “You gave me twenty thousand soldiers, of course I wouldn’t have been defeated by the remnants of Urd.”

“Then it was the Remrus Empire?”

Calne nodded, then looked at Sion apologetically, saying: “I’m sorry, Sion. I lost half of our comrades.”

This was a serious situation.

Calne, who was left in the old People’s District of Urd, not only had Rhule Fragmei but also twenty thousand soldiers with him, had actually been defeated so easily.

And this matter, was not even heard by Luke who had infiltrated Remrus, what was more was that they had not alerted Roland that was in the neighbouring country of the old People’s District of Urd—the old Southern Country of Ali, and had set the soldiers there under their noses. Something impossible as that, wasn’t something that could be done by a human.

Sion said: “That means that Remrus has used Rhule Fragmei that we do not know of?”

Calne nodded, “Yes. And he used many.”

“Many?”

“Yes. Especially many illusion things, so I was defeated.” Calne said with an apologetic face.

But Sion shook his head, saying: “It’s not your fault. It is very fortunate that you were able to report to me alive. Go rest for a while, alright?”

Calne shrugged, “Although I rode for the whole night, I want to rest if I could, but…” After he said that, he turned to the soldiers that had appeared in the east, saying: “…That army is a mirage. But that mirage means that that army is in another place.”

Sion asked: “Where?”

Calne pointed a finger, pointing at Sion, “It’s right behind Sion.”

So Sion turned around, the other subordinates turned to look behind Sion.

But at this moment, Calne’s finger started to glow.

He said: “Goodbye, Sion.”

Calne’s finger released a purple light towards Sion.

“…Damnit.” Sion muttered.

Froaude flew forward, to protect Sion.

But before anyone else had moved, Claugh had moved.

He jumped towards Calne who was on the horse, stepping on the other’s wrist. And he used his hand to chop at Calne’s neck.

But Calne received this attack easily. Using a slim wrist that wasn’t even half of Claugh’s to accept the karate chop.

But Claugh used a hand to grab Calne’s hair and stood on the horse’s neck, smiling hardly, “…Oh~ Amazing amazing. I really wanted to kill this person, but I didn’t think I would be held off. That means, you, aren’t the real Calne, right? Calne couldn’t accept the blow earlier.”

Calne smiled as if playing coy, “That’s annoying, Claugh. I am Calne~” As he said that, he looked at Claugh. A red liquid suddenly flowed out of those adorable eyes, glowing. In the next moment a red beam suddenly flew out from his eyes.

“Oh oh!?” But Claugh dodged with an unbelievable speed.

But Calne pointed his finger at Claugh again, wanting to proceed with the attack.

“I wouldn’t let you gain the advantage.” Claugh raised his foot above the horse’s head, then stomped hard. The horse’s neck bent in a moment, then lost consciousness, falling down.

“Aaaaaaaaaah”

But Calne let out a voice that was devoid of panic, trying to jump off the horse. But Claugh stopped him, pulling his hair, pinning him on the horse. So Calne’s foot was crushed under the horse.

But even so Claugh didn’t stop. Breaking both of Calne’s wrists, grabbing his head and pinning him on the ground, “Then, Calne’s imposter. Tell us what you…” Claugh suddenly stopped.

A perverted smile that would never appear on the real Calne surfaced on Calne’s face, then his skin started to dissolve. In the next moment, a white jade appeared on Calne’s face, giving off a strong light.

Although they didn’t know what effects the jade would have, but thinking about the likely conclusion to this situation, it was easy to guess what would happen next.

So Claugh muttered “damnit, it’s self-destruction” as he checked Sion’s position. Then he grabbed Calne’s neck and the white stone and threw it in the opposite direction of Sion.

And in the moment he threw it out, Froaude chanted: “Darkness, appear.” Then stretching out a slim finger. A glow suddenly appeared from the obsidian ring on his finger.

The shadow beneath Froaude’s feet suddenly lengthened. Then a beast made of shadows that seemed like a wolf appeared.

That beast bit down on the head of that thing that was looked like Calne, ripping the body into shreds.

Claugh used his strength to throw that white stone that was lightened without the burden of the body to the sky.

And Miller and Bayuuz had finished their incantations, releasing their own magic.

“WHAT I SEEK IS WATER MIST>> MISUMI.”

“I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE POWER OF EARTH-CRAWLING SPIRIT SNAKE OVERFLOW.”

A water pillar appeared from Miller’s magic, and Bayuuz’s glowing words made the earth rise suddenly.

At this moment, the jade exploded.

The stone released a strong light in that moment. Then a loud impact and sound was released. Everything in its surroundings was destroyed.

But, Claugh looked at the sky, saying: “…The explosion was smaller than I thought.”

Then Bayuuz’s finger moved slightly, the earth that had acted as their shield fell with a clattering sound, said: “…Calne Kaiwal betrayed us.”

Claugh smiled, “That person, can be drawn back using women.”

“Perhaps surprisingly that person doesn’t like a senpai like you who only has muscles for brains?”

Claugh laughed as he looked at Bayuuz, saying: “Ah? Do you want to quarrel with me?”

Bayuuz replied with a straight face: “I have always wanted to fight with you.”

“Oh? Then let’s fight here…”

But Bayuuz interrupted Claugh, saying: “Your Majesty.”

“Hey hey, you’re talking to me now…”

But Bayuuz ignored Claugh, saying: “It seems that Calne Kaiwal has been captured by the enemy.”

Sion nodded, “…Yeah, that seems to be the case. The assassin pretending to be Calne earlier—” He paused, then corrected his description, “That monster that is some sort of Rhule Fragmei , pretending to be Calne, clearly knew about Calne. That means that Calne has already been caught by the enemy, or he could have been…”

He could have been killed.

“…”

Well, no matter which one, there was no way to verify it. Because what was most urgent, was that Remrus’s soldiers were before them.

They were about to start the slaughter.

They were about to start slaughtering a country that was using an unknown Rhule Fragmei that Sion and the others did not know about.

“Claugh.” Sion called his subordinate that was like his right hand, “we probably don’t have the time to save Calne…”

But Claugh replied immediately: “No need. That person wouldn’t be defeated so easily.” After he said that, he looked in the direction where his own squad would be. The soldiers in the distance had started to pass out warning shouts.

The enemy was coming.

The enemy was before their eyes, without them knowing it.

The army that had hidden themselves like how that person disguised as Calne had used the Rhule Fragmei to disguise himself, had come before them. The soldiers at the frontline were fighting with them already.

Claugh smiled, saying: “Well, Calne’s position, let’s ask the person who was kidnapped himself… Anyway, my team has gone to the frontline. Watch me kill them all.”

Then without waiting for Sion’s reply, he walked towards his own squad.

Froaude used his cold eyes to say: “…That was an unexpected attack. Let us retreat this time…”

But Sion shook his head, “There’s no problem. Anyway we would have met them sooner or later. Let us observe the enemy’s strength this time. But we don’t have to win. Repress the victim to the smallest degree, then confirm what Rhule Fragmei the other party is using.” He ordered.

His subordinates bowed their head, then prepared to return to their positions.

Sion suddenly said: “Wait Miller.”

So Miller stopped, looking back, seeing that Sion seemed to be thinking about something, said: “Going to rescue Calne Kaiwal?”

Sion nodded, “Tell Luke. Calne is probably…”

“In the Remrus Empire?”

“Yeah. If he’s still alive. And also tell him to listen out for more information about Remrus. As expected, Remrus is challenging.”

He said, then thought of the information that Luke had already given him.

That was news about the Remrus Empire.

No, only half a year ago, information about the country when it was a religious country called the Holy Land of Veiohl.

Yes. This country called the Remrus Empire, had been a country called the Holy Land of Veiohl that had built itself upon the religion called Veiohl.

But half a year ago, a large political change occurred in this country.

But it wasn’t invaded by another country, or had a bloody conflict like the normal reforms. Perhaps to another country, this was only a change in the name of the country, everything was still the same. So as if to give this impression to other countries, its name had been changed quickly.

But according to the information from Luke after he infiltrated, no matter how he saw it there were stranger matters, that made people feel like something was wrong.

It was even more abnormal that when he first saw the report he had thought that Luke had been joking with him.

That report that Luke had handed in, was written like this.

One day, a rip in the sky suddenly appeared, and a baby dropped down from there. The priests of the Veiohl religion, had treated this child as the son of god and the hero that would save the world, bringing him up with care.

And the growth of that baby was very fast, within three years, he seemed to be around twenty years old.

Then he inherited the throne.

The people danced in celebration because the son of god had finally became their king.

And the name of this son of god was— Remrus Remuld Aarqued .

The people decided to use his name as the country’s name, in the end even the country’s name had changed.

Then Remrus Empire had become a country had had been chosen by divinities, being blessed with eternal peace.

Because this was a country that was governed by the son of god. A perfect world where there would be no hurt, no pain, had finally appeared in this land—the people had celebrated.

Luke’s report had this thing that was like a fairy tale, no, it should be said to be more of a new modern religion.

And Luke had written this.

“This country is definitely strange. The whole Menoris Continent has clearly sank into war, but this country seems to be separated by a thin space from the rest of the world, submerged in a strange peace. I’m afraid there definitely is some secret. I want to continue to search.”

A peace that seemed to be separated by a thin space.

It was a false steadiness, that made people feel chilled.

Sion had thought.

Perhaps that hero that had graced Remrus Empire had used a Rhule Fragmei that was able to affect the nervous system within a large range.

Or it should be said that that the Holy Land of Veiohl had been grabbed by a person who used Rhule Fragmei .

“And that is a Rhule Fragmei that we do not know about…” Sion murmured.

At this moment, Miller had returned to his place.

Then the whole battle line started to move.

Fights appeared everywhere.

A blinding light and loud sound appeared on the battle field.

Although the war hadn’t approached the degree where devastated cries could be heard.

But definitely, many people would have died.

Many companions died.

Sion clearly knew this point.

Because he knew with the death of Human α , the power of the Hero in his body would decrease.

“…”

Sion closed his eyes, then his subordinates brought over war horses. He mounted a war horse, then looked to the battle ground again.

“…If the Rhule Fragmei that the central holds is different from the cheap objects that the southern continent discovered, then the more we should let them see the power of the Rhule Fragmei we have. So there should be an opportunity…”

But.

Sion raised his head to the sky.

He found that a small light had fallen from the sky.

But that light did not exist in reality.

As expected it was something that had come across from another world.

It was something that had appeared from the space between the two worlds that Sion lived in. The abnormal world that was chilling, where the Goddesses and the Heroes pranced in, suddenly had a light.

Sion who was in reality closed his eyes. “…”

Then that Sion in the other world raised his head to look at the light, calling: “…Lucile.”

There was a reply by his ear.

“Here.”

“What is that?”

“What that is. It’s only a thing that came out from the brain, after your companion’s head exploded.”

Sion’s face tensed, “Calne hasn’t died.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened.”

“…”

“Annyway, the light from that white stone reached here. Only that I don’t know what that is. It seems to be similar to the same wavelength as the Goddess and whatnot.”

As Lucile finished speaking, that light dropped to the ground, giving out a stronger beam. Then in the light, a thing that vaguely resembled a human appeared.

But that human had no face.

No, it should be said that it had no humane face.

The features of that head that seemed like a human had seven eyes, and six arms on the body. Two arms were crossed in front of its chest, the other two were on its hips.

Sion said: “It looks impressive.”

The seven-eyed monster replied: “Ahaha, because I am a king.”

“…Of the Remrus Empire?”

“Although it’s a little late for my self-introduction, but I am Remrus Remuld Aarqued .”

Sion said: “Isn’t that a monster.”

The monster laughed, saying: “You don’t have the right to say that? Asruld Roland .”

He shouted out the name of the monster, that hid in Sion’s body.

Shouting out the name of the Fallen Dark Hero Asruld Roland .

So Sion asked: “You know about me?”

Remrus laughed, but didn’t reply.

At this moment Lucile muttered behind Sion: “You are arrogant.” Then prepared to attack.

But Remrus still laughed, opening his mouth to say: “You can kill me, but I am only an illusion! It’s only a mirage. Because I’m very skilled at using this Rhule Fragmei that can cause illusions.”

“But it’s only an illusion in the end. But to tell the truth I don’t want to fight with you who is a war god tortured with hopelessness. You should understand this point?”

Although Sion heard that, but he didn’t understand.

No, maybe that Asruld Roland in Sion’s body understood it. But now Sion’s consciousness was not completely combined with Asruld ’s consciousness.

So now he still could not understand what Remrus was saying.

But, even so.

“…I understand.” Sion answered.

Clearly towards this person who he did not know whether it was a friend or foe, no, he shouldn't say that he didn’t even know who he was, his present self was too ignorant, he couldn’t understand.

So Remrus smiled again, saying: “No, you completely don’t understand?”

“Although you have been spreading your name just now, but you actually haven’t combined with Asruld .” He said challengingly.

“If you have really become one with Asruld, you wouldn’t talk with me. Because you hate someone as traitorous as me. And you would kill me immediately. Because what I truly specialize in is not illusions, but spells. So if it were you who recognized me, you wouldn’t give me this much time for me to use spells…”

At this moment, Lucile moved.

An unbelievably beautiful blond man suddenly appeared before Sion, moving both hands, muttering: “White song of the corpse.”

Many stems that seemed to have thorns appeared on his hands, these grass stems weaved together to form a long sword, swinging toward Remrus.

Remrus’s head was chopped off easily.

But even so Remrus was still saying as he laughed: “Ah, I’m dead~. But, it’s too late. The curse has been activated.”

Then suddenly, the shadow beneath Sion’s feet was stained white.

“…What…” Sion murmured.

Lucile turned around, saying: “I wouldn’t let you gain the advantage.”

But at this moment, Remrus smiled even more happily, “I tricked you. This is my real motive.”

Suddenly Remrus’s body that had no head suddenly moved. Raising its palm, striking towards Lucile’s chest, reaching into the depths of Lucile’s chest.

And that the head that spun in the air said: “Annoying, I didn’t think that it would go this smoothly, I can only say that it’s great that I got the opportunity. Maybe I’ll become the hero that kills Asruld . Well, anyway it’s not interesting at all…”

At this moment, Lucile released the sword in his hand. The sword split into many sharp points in a moment, flying toward Remrus’s head. Then it easily destroyed Remrus’s head.

But even so.

“…”

The curse didn’t disappear.

Lucile pressed a hand to his chest, revealing a pained expression.

Sion looked at Lucile, asking: “Is it bad?”

Lucile smiled faintly, replying: “Maybe. It takes some time to remove the curse.”

“But it can be removed?”

“Yes… If I concentrate on getting it removed. But in this period…”

“You can’t protect me?”

“Yes… You alone, will you be fine?”

Sion laughed, joking, “If Father’s not here I can’t do it.”

Lucile laughed too, “Hahaha.”

Then Sion moved his eyes away from Lucile, turning his consciousness back to reality.

And at this moment, the situation had been changed greatly.

He heard crying voices.

The soldiers of Remrus had attacked a nearby place.

Sion narrowed his eyes, murmuring: “We have been greatly tricked.”

Lucile said: “It’s my fault.”

Sion smiled, “Yes, it’s your fault. So quickly heal. If it is known by the Goddess that you aren’t protecting me…”

But Lucile said: “They already know. They’re starting to come over. Perhaps this place will be where it all ends…”

But Sion interrupted him, saying: “Enough, heal quickly. I will think of a way to handle it.”

Lucile in the other world had a small smile, “Then, I’ll leave it to you for the moment.” Then his figure vanished.

Sion nodded, then ordered his subordinate: “Tell Froaude and Miller immediately. Then hand all of the arrangements to them…”

Sion suddenly fell silent.

No, he already could not concentrate his attention on reality.

Because in the other world, the figures of his enemy had appeared.

The clones of the strangely-formed Goddess had appeared.

And it wasn’t only one.

Having hundreds of monsters appear suddenly, made Sion lose the luxury of being able to fix his attention to reality.

And there were other problems. He could feel the power of Asruld Roland deep in his chest had been reduced again.

Perhaps somewhere on this battle ground, Roland soldiers had died again.

The number of Human α who believed in Sion were decreasing.

Sion felt that.

He felt the deaths of his companions.

He felt that his strength was decreasing.

But even so.

“…”

Even so he still smiled.

Because there was no way to retreat.

Because there already was no place where he could return to.

Because he had given up on everything, coming here as he cried.

Then, should he stop in this place and not proceed?

In this place…

“Ha, hahaha.”

If he was defeated in this place…

“Come, monsters. Let’s compare which side, me or you, is the real monster.”

Then I will not betray my companions and close friends…

“But know this well. I wouldn’t be defeated in this kind of place.”

And he wouldn’t cry and shout in pain every time he reflected…

“I’m a monster. A monster that will swallow the world. I’ll let you see, the power that I gained after I even betrayed the demon. Come, monsters. All of you—”

He shouted.

As if crying he shouted.

Then.

“Die!!”

The monster called the Hero King (Sion), shouted.

### 004. Chapter 3: The Courageous King

Opposite the slim telescope, they could see a large army.

They could see an astounding large number of soldiers that they had not seen before approaching them.

Looking at the approaching army that was so big that they seemed to be shaking the ground as they came, the young overlord of the northern continent that had entered the central continent—the king of Gastark Empire Riphal Edea said: “Oh oh, oh oh~, it’s magnificent.”

Slightly curly pink hair, one remaining eye.

He moved his eye away from the telescope, turning around, with a troubled smile, “It seems~, they are much stronger than Stohl, that Geihlficlant.”

The companion standing behind him nodded expectantly.

That was a twenty two, twenty three year old man, around the same age as Riphal. He had pink hair that Gastark people had and a pair of uncaring blue eyes. And he wore a blue army uniform that complimented his eyes, and it was also the colour of the uniform for the Gastark Mage Knights.

He was the Chief of General Staff and the Leader of the Mage Knight Squad of Gastark, Rigwaltz Pentest.

Rize spoke blandly: “According to our investigations, the power of Geihlficlant is around three times of Stohl’s.”

Riphal frowned, saying: “Wow, then we can’t win at all.”

Rize nodded, “Yes. And it seems the enemy has a mercenary group called the Azure Princess Mercenaries following them. And that means that they will use Rhule Fragmei.”

Riphal tried to imagine of the scene of Rhule Fragmei going against each other.

He tried to imagine the scene of the mad battle that would grab away thousands of lives in an instant.

No, that was probably a devastating scene that would not be called war.

So Riphal said: “…This time, there will be many sacrifices again.” He looked at Rize’s back, looking at the bottom of the small hill they were on—there, there were the figures of tens of thousands comrade soldiers, from the northern continent.

That means, I have to bet on these companions’ lives, start the slaughter from now.

And the opponent was a large country that had ten times the military power as him.

Furthermore the Gastark soldiers had been fighting all the way till here, they were already very tired.

Even the rations were not enough.

What was worse, this place was the enemy’s territory.

Riphal and the others hadn’t even familiarized themselves with the surrounding geography.

Looking at this battle where they didn’t seem to have a chance of winning, Riphal suddenly muttered to himself: “But we can’t escape.”

They couldn’t escape.

They couldn’t escape, he couldn’t escape—he repeated that continuously in his heart.

Before the battle began he would sink into this mood.

He didn’t want to see his companions’ deaths.

He didn’t want to see humans dying either.

Men dying.

Women dying.

Old people dying.

Children dying.

I don’t want to see the fresh blood stain my whole body red—he couldn’t help but want to shout like this.

But he didn’t have the right to say that.

Because the voices echoing in his mind, the cries of those countless companions following him and died, the cries of the countless people that he had to kill up till today, those voices echoed until it completely covered his own cries, then reverberated in his mind.

So I can’t stop.

And I can’t turn back.

So he looked in front, saying: “Then let’s start.”

Rize nodded too, then he had a sad expression, looking at Riphal, “I’m afraid this battle…”

Riphal already understood what he wanted to say, so he nodded as he replied: “…I know.”

Then he looked at the curse that he bore across his shoulders.

It was a black long sword that was so long that it didn’t seem like humans could use it.

He looked at the black long sword that was cursed and called the Sword of Regeneration .

This sword would activate its power after it had swallowed part of Riphal’s body.

The reason why he had one eye left was because he had offered the other eye as an offering to it.

The reason why he had a prosthetic was because he had offered his leg to it.

Then, probably in this battle, he would continue to offer his body to it.

But, he was never afraid. It was fine if this happened.

What he was afraid of, was after he swung the sword, how many people would die.

He was afraid that he would be bearing the burden of the large number of deaths that he could not bear.

So if possible, he would wish that he would not have to use this sword to end the battle. He wished that the other party would surrender before he had to use this sword.

But it seemed that it was impossible this time.

Because it was clear that the enemy was stronger than him.

Because the enemy was a country that was much stronger than Gastark that had gained the whole of the northern continent.

So it seemed that is was necessary to use this sword.

And there was a need for the other side to see how scary he was.

He had to let the other side see that Gastark had a weapon that could take away tens of thousands of lives in one hit.

He had to let the other side know that if they continued fighting, they would lose, and the humans living on this piece of land, would all be killed, let them know the taste of terror.

One hit.

There was a need to use only one hit, to pull up the curtains of terror on this land.

So for this point, there was a need for the Geihlficlant king to see his strength.

Or it should be said, there was a need to pull this king in to be killed too.

So Riphal called his subordinate—no, the name of a friend who had walked into hell with him, “…Lir?”

Rize answered: “He has already infiltrated the Geihlficlant army.”

“Then from which place, at what timing would using Glovil cause the least amount of sacrifice for the enemy to admit defeat…”

“Lir will tell us. Before that, we only need to minimize the number of sacrifices, pretend to be fighting.”

Although Rize seemed to say as if it were easy, but this was definitely not an easy task.

Because the other party had ten times more manpower than them, and they could use the Rhule Fragmei to attack.

It wouldn’t end with the smallest amount of sacrifice.

The soldiers that were his comrades would die.

Of course the enemy soldiers would die too.

Then in the end Riphal would swing this sword, then a shocking number of humans would die.

Tens of thousands.

No, this time there could even be hundreds of thousands.

But no matter what, this place would become a scary slaughter place.

And there was no way to stop it.

Even if he wanted to shout for them to escape, but it couldn’t be stopped.

So Riphal looked at the soldiers at the bottom again, asking: “…How is the morale of the soldiers?”

Rize had a slightly sad expression, saying: “Everyone trusts Your Majesty.”

“…”

Riphal smiled, he smiled while frowning. Then he used a weak voice that he would only show to Rize his childhood friend to say: “…Really, I really can’t bear it.”

“…”

But Rize didn’t answer, only stood by Riphal’s side. Bearing the deaths of a large number of humans with him.

Then he looked back at the soldiers, saying: “Even if we have to go to hell, I will follow you.”

“Then, it’s about time we left—to walk to hell.”

Riphal smiled as he complained: “Hey this place is already hell.”

Rize smiled too, “It’s hell. Or do you know a more cruel place than hell?”

Riphal’s shoulders dipped, then he hit his palm, raising his voice, so that the other soldiers could hear him and said: “But before, didn’t the brothel that you mentioned, filled with old women in their fifties, seem like heaven to a person like you who likes older people. But no matter how I look at it, it’s hell…”

Rize also raised his voice to deny: “I am not in the mood to talk about something as false and silly like that with you.”

There were laughter from the soldiers who couldn’t help it.

So Riphal nodded, saying: “Alright, the soldiers aren’t so nervous.”

Rize smiled as he looked over, “That’s true. The soldiers are slightly less nervous. As expected of Your Majesty, how amazing. But afterward I will hit you, remember that, idiot Riphal.”

He suddenly used a childish tone to say that.

But Riphal smiled happily, “You think you can win me?”

Rize smiled too, “Until the present, I have won one hundred and twenty seven times out of two hundred and fourty four fights, it’s clear that I have won five times more than you, why do you say those kinds of things that make you seem stronger.”

“Hey I say, you really remembered everything.”

“Of course.”

“Ah, ah why do I feel that you are super pessimistic…”

“I’ll kill you!” Rize tightened his fist.

Riphal laughed again, saying: “Joking. Well, let’s leave this fist until later. After we survive this battle, I’ll fight with you.”

Then he moved his gaze away from Rize, starting to walk down the slope.

Looking at Riphal’s back, Rize returned to his normal tone, saying: “…That’s my line. If we survive, you will still go to that brothel that you like that only has old grannies.”

Because of this sentence, the soldiers laughed again.

Looking at these laughing soldiers, Riphal smiled again.

Although he didn’t know among these people, how many would continue to live, how many would die.

But even so, Riphal still breathed in deeply, letting out a voice as if he were shouting, “Then you guys, it’s about time we let those idiots in the central see how powerful we are!”

His voice fell silent, when there were enthusiastic shouts and cries from the whole army that seemed to be able to shake the earth.

Then Rize who was standing behind him said: “Then Your Majesty, let’s proceed.”

Riphal nodded.

“Men, move forward!”

Rize shouted loudly.

So the war began.

The war that had a mad strong power no matter how you looked at it started, then the world structure would soon change.

Anyone would despair.

Anyone would cry and shout.

The war that could even be covered with cries and blood, was starting now.

### 005. Chapter 4: The People's King

The signal for war could be heard.

The shouts of the opposing soldiers could be heard.

Then an offensive magic that was large-scale enough by several times was activated.

The scenery in front of his eyes was filled with red, blue yellow and other coloured magical activations, as if it were the reflection of the fantasy world, but for some reason, it had a feeling as if it were fake like a mere reflection in the water mirror.

At least up until today there wasn’t the appearance of an activation of a spell that could kill hundreds, thousands of people in a moment.

If it wasn’t using the Alpha Stigma to watch.

If it wasn’t seen with the Alpha Stigma that could see through all magicks, this probably would look like a fire.

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

He was now with the Geihlficlant army, the squad that King Gulafed Abuleld personally led, they were near the rear of the nine hundred and ninety thousand soldiers.

That meant that they were very far away from the front lines.

No, even now, even if it were the soldiers closest to the front lines, they shouldn’t be fighting yet. They were now within the distance where a large-scale magic could be used to decrease the numbers on each side.

And that attack, should clearly show Geihlficlant’s advantage.

No matter what, according to Vois, the numbers of Geihlficlant should be twenty four times the numbers that Gastark bought down from the northern continent. Even this squad was around two times of the enemies’ numbers. And other soldiers were surrounding Gastark.

Then it seemed as if they were going to use a circular large-scale magic.

Under normal circumstances, Gastark had no way to block this magic attack. No, it may even be that this squad didn’t even need to cross swords with the Gastark army.

The difference in strength was so large that there was a possibility that because of Geihlficlant’s large-scale magic, Gastark would be destroyed immediately, and this side wouldn’t even suffer any casualties.

So now the soldiers were not nervous at all. Only following the signal, the mage soldiers started to chant the verse for the large-scale magic. But now they didn’t know if there was a need to release it. Because there was no guarantee that they would be able to bear the magic from Gastark’s lines.

So the soldiers weren’t too nervous, slowly expanding their magic.

“…”

But as Ryner watched them, he said: “…Gastark will immediately use the Heroes’ Relic… Ah no, it’s that, called Rhule Fragmei right? They will immediately use that.”

Vois who was on a horse beside him replied: “Of course. Or else they won’t have a chance of winning.”

“But we are going to stop that Rhule Fragmei ?”

“It seems to be the case. Geihlficlant who started late in collecting Rhule Fragmei passed the collection duty to us Anti-Roland Coalition and the Azure Princess, so not only do they not have limited knowledge on how to use the Rhule Fragmei , their numbers are low too. They have no way to defend against Gastark who knew about the existence of the Rhule Fragmei earlier.”

Ryner looked at Vois, asking: “But you… no, the Anti-Roland Coalition can defend against it?”

Vois smiled faintly, “Possibly not. About the research on Rhule Fragmei , Gastark is the most detailed, and they had a large number of Rhule Fragmeis that we don’t know about, and they have researched thoroughly on the methods on which to use them.”

“Huh? Then the explanation you told us about those Rhule Fragmei …”

Vois nodded, “Yes. If we want to fight with Gastark, that number is not enough. But, as long as we stop a few attacks from the Rhule Fragmei , that is enough. Because no matter what, the difference in manpower is too great. If Geihlficlant can take the opportunity after the attack from Gastark’s Rhule Fragmei to break into Gastark, then victory will be decided.”

“Did you raise this suggestion to the Geihlficlant king?”

Vois shook his head, “No, I told him we would stop all of the Rhule Fragmeis , so please do not worry.”

Ryner frowned, “Isn’t that a complete lie?”

“My job is to con people.”

“I know that, even if you didn’t say it. Then, let us work hard to prevent the Rhule Fragmei of the enemy from killing people.” Ryner said these words that could not be treated as a joke.

So Vois laughed, “Just as long as our companions don’t die, it’s fine. And we only need to defend against a few of the attacks from the Rhule Fragmei , and Geihlficlant will defeat Gastark. After that that would be the main point of this war. That is Ryner you will bring endless despair to Gastark. Ah, that is a wonderful plan. It clearly is a war that can end everything, but our companions are all safe and sound~” Saying this speech as if he didn’t think too carefully about it, Vois looked at Ryner, continuing: “—Then use this motivation to work hard.”

Ryner didn’t look at Vois, saying: “How disgusting.”

Then he stared into the distance.

He discovered that the first wave of large-scale magic had already been released from Gastark.

And so that the waves would neutralize each other, Geihlficlant had released their magic too.

And there were eight spells.

Such a large attack, Gastark definitely would not be able to defend against it.

Then they would definitely use the Rhule Fragmei . And they would definitely release it in a place where these eight large-scale magics would be neutralised.

That meant.

“They would come here.” Ryner said.

Vois nodded: “Then block that. Ryner, according to what I taught use that Rhule Fragmei …”

Ryner pulled out a few things that resembled amulets and rings and a small cylindrical stone that Vois had given him.

These things were all Rhule Fragmei , and they all had different effects. He picked out a ring, then returned the rest into the bag at his waist.

Vois laughed again, saying: “You picked the Rhule Fragmei that specializes in defense again… People who don’t have the courage to kill their enemies wouldn’t be able to protect their companions?”

But Ryner replied without being affected: “What we need to do is to minimize the sacrifices, until the enemy uses the unknown weapon that is stronger than the Rhule Fragmei , right? Then this kind of meaningless slaughter…”

“You wouldn’t do it?”

“Yeah.”

“But if this would ask for your lives as a price, then what would you do?”

“…”

“If, because you are unable to control the attack for the enemy, and cause your companions, Ferris, Kiefer, Toale and rest to die, wouldn’t you regret it?”

“…”

“Well, that doesn’t mean that it would be fine if you regret it if they really died, but if the companion that died were me, then it would be troublesome…” Vois pulled out a red amulet, simply throwing it into the sky.

Then said.

“Explode, Demonic Beast Destroyer .”

In that moment.

The amulet started to absorb the light around it. As if wanting to suck away all the light in this world, strongly, strongly, strongly, that amulet took in all the light, then exploded.

An unbelievably intense light flew towards the place where the Gastark soldiers were.

But at the same time, a rainbow light flashed near Gastark.

Ryner had seen that light once.

It was in the past when the destructive light of Demonic Beast Destroyer that Vois had been using had been devoured by a glowing bug swarm.

Tens of thousands, millions of rainbow coloured bugs danced in the sky, started to devour the Demonic Beast Destroyer that Vois had released.

Vois had a slightly disappointed expression, saying: “Ah, Gastark is using Divine Parasite Bugs ... Then the Rhule Fragmei of the ‘-arms’ series are uneffective. And Gastark will want to test if we have any Rhule Fragmei on this side that can erase ‘-arms’ light…”

At this moment, the sky above the Gastark army darkened suddenly.

Then Vois said: “It seems that it’s here. And the opponents are using five at one go. This isn’t aimed at us. You understand that?”

Ryner was unable to respond.

Only because he was quite familiar with what Gastark had done so far, so Ryner frowned.

What Gastark wanted to do.

It was unquestionably war.

This matter was clearly displayed in front of him. The enemy really wanted to kill everyone here.

Why did they use five Demonic Beast Destroyer but didn’t aim it at the main body of the Geihlficlant troops?

That was because their side had just used Rhule Fragmei .

That meant that the other side could use Rhule Fragmei , and that showed that they had a Rhule Fragmei that could neutralize the Demonic Beast Destroyer like them.

Then, they would use the Rhule Fragmei to attack other areas, attack those troops that did not have Rhule Fragmei and kill all of them.

Besides because Rhule Fragmei had so much power that it could allow one person to overthrow a country, so normally only the higher ups had the authorization to use it.

Well, this was natural.

Because there were idiots who would use Rhule Fragmei to kill each other after entering the dangerous battle field, and possibly they could wipe out their own army.

So now, only the Geihlficlant king and Ryner had those Rhule Fragmei with large-scale destructive powers.

Gastark probably had a few elite people who had Rhule Fragmei too.

So now, Gastark was releasing five Demonic Beast Destroyers to attack the main pillar of their army, and they were unstoppable.

So Gastark could kill Geihlficlant soldiers with a one-sided war.

And even if they encountered a situation where they were blocked, Gastark would immediately know that there was a Geihlficlant personnel who was important enough to wield this Rhule Fragmei .

No matter what situation, Gastark could gain information beneficial to themselves, through the Rhule Fragmei ’s attacks.

And now, the situation in front of them, should be the first case.

The soldiers in the target region of the Demonic Beast Destroyer , moved into a defensive position—

“…”

At this moment, the light exploded.

The strong light exploded.

Then the sky returned to its original brightness.

It returned to the sky that had warm sun rays.

But the situation on the battle field had been changed greatly.

The soldiers who were not nervous until just now, were all crying.

It was to be expected.

Because the Geihlficlant numbers had been decreased by ten thousand in a moment.

More than ten thousand lives were gone in a moment.

This scene was so abnormal that even if the mind could accept it, the body was unable to react.

The power that was so strong that humans should not wield it, was rampaging on this battle ground.

Then Vois raised his face to look over, “Ah, in a moment many of our companions have died~. Although it was lucky that Ferris and the others weren’t there, but no one would know what’s going to happen next. So, go and quickly kill the enemies…”

At this moment a woman spoke from behind, “Shut up, Vois.”

Ryner turned around, finding that Ferris had appeared behind him on a horse. And Toale and Kiefer were behind her.

Seeing his companions appear after ten thousand people had disappeared from the battle field, Ryner’s emotions became heavier.

But Ferris ignored Ryner who was feeling down, telling Vois: “Don’t bully Ryner. Or else the person who would be frustrated because he is depressed will be you. If you bully him too much then what would happen if he escaped again?”

Ryner smiled bitterly, looking at her, “Ah, I don’t deny that point.”

“Because that’s the truth. And you have the history of escaping. When was that? I remember that was when a man called Tiir appeared…”

“Ah~ No, that was…”

But Ferris interrupted him, continuing, “Then the two of you casually ran off to play with women, and you let one get pregnant, in the end you escaped while saying that you didn’t want to take responsibility…”

“Hey, what are you talking about…”

But Kiefer suddenly cut into Ryner’s words, saying with a slightly serious expression: “Ah? Ah? What’s that, I didn’t know about that.”

So Ferris revealed a smug smile that said ‘you people don’t understand it, huh’, and for some reason, Vois seemed to nod, accepting this explanation.

“No, Ryner’s decision was right. Basically, escaping everything can escape responsibility, that’s the motto by which we swindlers live by…”

“Hey, I say! What nonsense are you talking about!” Ryner yelled angrily. Then he looked at Ferris with a defeated expression. He looked at her, even though she had seen thousands of soldiers disappear in front of her, even if the soldiers surrounding her had fallen into confusion, but she was still making these lame jokes, saying: “…Because I can’t escape, so stop teasing me.”

Ferris smiled again, “Bullying you is my hobby.”

“I know.”

“Then tolerate it.” Ferris said happily, but she still had a concerned expression.

Ryner looked at Ferris, nodding, replying: “Yeah.”

Then he moved his eyes from her, turning back to the battle ground, saying: “Well, because there’s nothing worse than you bullying me. So anyway there will be some way…”

Then he started to think of how they should move.

Looking at the battle in front of him that was using Rhule Fragmei in war for the first time in history, he started to think of the direction that they should head in after today.

Anyway for some reason, Vois had handed the command post of the soldiers to Ryner.

Vois’s subordinates and Toale’s soldiers numbered three thousand strong.

Although they had slightly lesser people compared to Gastark and Geihlficlant, but even so there was three thousand people.

Three thousand lives.

This was now Ryner’s burden.

This was the case where he could say “Ah how troublesome so I’ll leave first” and escape.

It was completely different from before.

“…”

It was already different from when he would escape from before Sion and Ferris.

Because I am carrying the weight of many people’s lives.

And I carry the intentions of my companions who believe in me—although it’s slightly irritating since it sounds innocent.

“…”

So he looked behind him again.

Looking at Ferris, Kiefer and Toale’s faces.

Looking at the companions who had come to the accursed battle field with him.

He thought.

At least, I have to let these people leave this place alive.

At this moment, Vois said: “Then we should officially start. The war has already begun. What should we do after this, Your Majesty.”

Ryner frowned, saying slightly accusingly: “What Your Majesty.” Then asked: “Oh yeah, Ferris.”

“Eh?”

“Where are Iris and the others?”

“They’re at the back.”

“Behind us?”

“Yeah. It’s the end of the Geihlficlant army. If it’s there even if we are killed by Heroes’ Relics, even if the soldiers behind us are killed, Iris’s side shouldn’t be too badly affected…”

But Vois interrupted her, “They will be affected. Even if it is the Rhule Fragmei from the ‘-arms’ series, there are types where they can fly a long distance in a straight line. Gastark is clear about the power of Geihlficlant. If they use it, then they will use the strongest one. As long as they are on the battle ground, there is no safe place…”

But this time Ryner interrupted him, “But it will be fine if we block all their attacks. It will be fine if we stop all the attacks from the Rhule Fragmei here, right?”

Vois smiled and nodded, “That’s right. His Majesty has finally said something reliable, I’m so happy.”

“So~ I told you don’t call me Majesty.”

“Ah? Then how should I address you?”

Ferris replied: “How about King Pervert?”

“Let’s use that!”

“Hey so I said, can you be more serious! Although this isn’t the front line, but this is still the battle field? We’re still in the range of the attacks from the Rhule Fragmeis ?”

Vois nodded, telling Ferris angrily: “That’s right Ferris. So be more serious!”

Ferris nodded too, turning to Kiefer and saying: “Yes red-haired woman! This is the battle field! Be more motivated!”

Kiefer widened her eyes, purposefully pretending to be angry, narrowing her eyes, but her mouth still curved slightly with laughter, looking at Toale, “Ah? Me? Then… then… Oh yes Toale! You’d better be energetic!”

Toale smiled gently, looking at Kiefer, then turning to Ryner, “…Then let it be my fault, I’ll let my report be the ending of this topic. Nelpha’s soldiers, have followed Ryner’s orders, they can cover the rear at any time. Even if the Rhule Fragmei continues to reach to the rear, our soldiers probably wouldn’t be too badly affected.”

Ryner nodded, saying: “It’s good that someone can speak seriously.”

Toale had a slightly strict expression, saying: “I’m only frightened. Because someone is actually using the unknown weapon called the Rhule Fragmei to kill many people… just thinking about it makes me tremble… But this thing has happened before me, so I don’t feel like joking around…”

Although Ryner wanted to retort actually I didn’t, but he was unable to say anything.

Because before he opened his mouth, the battle situation changed again. The sky where the Gastark army was darkened again.

With this signal, Ryner threw the ring that he was holding into the sky, then muttering the phrase he learnt from Vois, that could activate this miraculous ring.

“Devour that light, Divine Parasite Bugs .”

In a moment.

The ring that Ryner had threw out exploded. Then the fragments of the ring floated in the air, giving out a rainbow light, before starting to multiply.

The light increased to hundreds and thousands of small fragments in a moment, making a sound of flying insects.

At the same time, the opposite side released the Demonic Beast Destroyer again.

And it was released to this side.

The light of destruction ate away at Geihlficlant’s large scale magic as it attacked.

But this attack was met with the rainbow insect swarm that Ryner had released.

Like locusts the insects flew towards that light.

“Pppsssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!”

Releasing that cry, the insects devoured the light.

It seemed, this attack had been successfully blocked.

But.

Ryner said: “That was to confirm, right? It was to confirm whether we had the means to defend against the Rhule Fragmei from the ‘-arms’ series so they attacked.

Vois nodded.

“And they had the goal of erasing the large-scale magic. But…”

“Seeing that the attack from the ‘-arms’ series wouldn’t work, they probably use another one to attack.”

“Then, what would come next?”

Hearing that, Vois tilted his head, answering: “Who knows… even I can’t make a guess. Ah, but because Gastark has a more superior knowledge about the Rhule Fragmei than us, so perhaps it would be an attack from one that we don’t know about, or one which we don’t know how to properly defend against. Then what should we do?”

“…” Ryner was deep in thought again.

Then he tried to organize the information he had of the other side in his head.

Firstly, the soldiers’ numbers, this side had the advantage. Well, although this was under the situation that Geihlficlant was their companion.

But in this battle, the numbers of the soldiers didn’t hold much significance, although the king of Geihlficlant had some Rhule Fragmei with him, but Vois didn’t teach him all of the activation phrases. Because if Geihlficlant could completely grasp the ways of which to use the Rhule Fragmei , they wouldn’t lose to anyone.

This was why Gastark was so desperate to invade the middle continent. Before the major countries had gained proper information of the Rhule Fragmei , there was the urgency to occupy the mid-continent.

But aside from that, Gastark had another ace.

That was the unknown weapon that had more power than the Rhule Fragmei that terrified Pia and Vois.

And after that was activated, it could destroy hundreds of thousands of humans in a slash, it could only be said to be a detestable weapon.

But because of that weapon’s existence, Vois could make a deal with the Geihlficlant king.

Because Vois had said that he had a mysterious weapon that could be used to stop the unknown weapon that Gastark had, so it could be put to use in this battle, but in actual fact even he didn’t know whether it could be blocked, and that secret weapon was under Ryner’s control.

It was borne by Ryner’s cursed eyes.

Because it seemed like these Alpha Stigma could block Gastark’s weapon—talking about which, just betting thousands of people’s lives on this reason, no matter what it was insane.

“Ah, damnit!” The more he thought about it the more his head ached.

But, we have already come to the battle field, the killing has already started too. Thousands of people have died in front of me, and the battle is becoming more and more intense.

In this mad war, how could he let his companions survive.

“…”

Ryner considered this problem.

Then three possible solutions appeared in his mind.

The first was, after Gastark used that weapon, Ryner would successfully stop it.

But this would be a complete victory.

Because Gastark wasn’t only using Rhule Fragmei , and they had to activate that weapon, this fact in itself would mean that unless Gastark depended on the Rhule Fragmei they would be unable to defeat Geihlficlant, so if that weapon was ineffective, to Geihlficlant that had the distinct advantage in terms of numbers, Gastark would probably be defeated.

But, this solution was probably too hard.

Firstly, Gastark had more knowledge about the Rhule Fragmei than their side, so even if they fought hard with the Rhule Fragmei , there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t lose too.

Furthermore, Ryner was very clear about how strong Gastark was, that it could use the power of the Rhule Fragmei .

Just by remembering the opponents that he had fought against, Sui and Kuu, the Gastarkian soldiers, he could understand this point.

Gastark gave the Rhule Fragmei to a person, so that they could gain the power of more than a hundred soldiers, power that he and Ferris were unable to go against.

Besides that, the opponent they were clashing against, was the main body of Gastark.

There may be people who were more powerful than Sui and Kuu.

Are we only able to suppress these people, and force the Gastarkians to reach the step where they have no choice but to use that weapon?

But now he completely couldn’t come up with a plan.

Anyway if that weapon were activated, could he really block it?

“…”

To this point Ryner himself was so doubtful that he suspected that Vois had taken a wrong step somewhere.

At least towards Ryner, he couldn’t bet all the lives of his companions in this gamble.

That meant that this plan had no possibility of working.

The next plan?

Ryner continued to think.

Actually the other two were very simple.

Ryner only needed to unleash the Rhule Fragmei at where the Geihlficlant king.

This way, it would be easy to deal with that Geihlficlant king, anyway the king himself had probably never thought that his companions would betray him, and he didn’t know how to use the Rhule Fragmei .

And he could kill thousands of soldiers on the inside, letting Geihlficlant enter a state of chaos, abnd according to this they could continue to use the Rhule Fragmei to control the panic, in the end Ryner and the others would surrender to Gastark—

“…”

Well, if it were Vois he would definitely pick that, but I…

That meant, it was the only the third plan left.

The third plan.

But, this was a dangerous plan.

Well, simply saying, it was escape—that plan.

But it wasn’t running away, anyway Geihlficlant definitely wouldn’t allow them to do that, and if what Vois said was true, if the weapon range of Gastark was so large, even if he started to desperately escape, as long as that weapon was activated, they would die.

But, Ryner thought of a place that definitely wouldn’t be hit.

But in any case, if he said that out loud, it was a place that anyone would understand without thinking.

“…”

Gastark’s weapon would probably not be aimed at the place where the Gastark soldiers were when it was activated. No, although they would activate the weapon with the self-destructive feeling of knowing that their companions would be sacrificed, but Ryner had heard from Vois that in the battle against Stohl, Gastark had mostly not suffered much.

That meant…

“…If we go behind the Gastark army, that is the safety region.” Ryner muttered.

But Vois said: “Arara, so you were thinking about something as ridiculous as that?”

Ryner shrugged.

That plan was certainly ludicrous.

No matter what that plan needed him to dodge large-scale magical attacks and attacks from Rhule Fragmei before he could reach the front lines, and he would need to fight with the Gastarkians as he broke past them…

Furthermore there were only three thousand people on this side.

In simple words, this was an impossible plan.

“But the other plans are more ridiculous than this, so this was the best.” Ryner said.

Vois had a face that said ‘here you go again’, saying: “Killing the Geihlficlant king was the best.”

“…”

“But if Ryner you really want to do that, then I will stop you.”

Ryner widened his eyes in surprise, “Oh oh, how rare, I thought this would be your favourite plan.”

Vois continued to smile as he said: “If I wanted to use that plan, I would have acted before we came here. But I didn’t do that, because there is a need for you to be here, to stop the weapon of Gastark’s. If we let the world know that Gastark isn’t the only one with that crazy power, that the other countries have ways to stop that power, then we can allow the countries to bond together…”

Until here, Ryner could truly understand what Vois wanted to do.

It seemed like Vois wanted to completely seal that weapon here.

To clash with that weapon that could kill tens of thousands of people in a moment.

If this continues, then one day the world would be destroyed.

So they had to let the whole world know that this was scary.

“Is this, is your goal…” Ryner said.

Vois knocked on his head, saying: “Of course using some plan to dominate the world is more interesting, just by depending on the strongest weapon to wage war, and having the strongest be the winner, something like that isn’t it too boring? So I want to set the world on a new track.”

“So, you want to use my eyes to seal the enemy’s weapon?”

“Yes.”

“Even if you’re not clear whether my eyes can block it?”

“Yes. But if it really can’t take it, then there wouldn’t be too much to worry about. If anyone is unable to stop Gastark from conquering the world… then it would be too boring, I would rather die and be reincarnated to become an extremely beautiful Loli, then use beauty to conquer the world.”

“…An extremely beautiful Loli?”

“Ah, how impressive Ryner. You’re interested in this!”

“No no no, I’m not interested, please don’t speak nonsense.” Ryner interrupted Vois, then started to think about the meaning of Vois’s words.

That sentence that mentioned sealing Gastark’s weapon, letting the world to return back to its tracks again.

No, even though if he used the Rhule Fragmei in war there wasn’t anything strange.

But as if seeing through what Ryner was thinking, Vois said: “If it is successful, there’s a possibility that the Rhule Fragmei can be banned, or I should saw, I have already prepared for that information to be spreaded.”

Ryner looked at Vois, saying: “…It feels like, for the first time I can see through what you are thinking and then why you do such troublesome matters.”

Vois smiled happily, “…That means my mind is full of beautiful Lolis?”

“…That means, the Anti-Roland Coalition that has a weapon stronger than the Rhule Fragmei , would set the condition that both parties are unable to use that power, right?”

“Ah, wait, why did you ignore the topic about my beautiful Lolis…”

Ryner continued to ignore him, saying: “Then, you probably will tell the world this message. Using the Rhule Fragmei in battle is very dangerous. Then even the two countries that have power surpassing the Rhule Fragmei will decide not to use that power. So you can threaten other countries to stop using Rhule Fragmei , right.”

And the other countries would probably accept that.

The countries that did not have Rhule Fragmei would probably agree with this wholeheartedly.

And those countries that were one step behind in collecting Rhule Fragmei , including one of the three major countries Geihlficlant Empire.

If the country Geihlficlant and Gastark who had maintained the weapon that was stronger than Rhule Fragmei and the Anti-Roland Coalition decided to seal off the use of Rhule Fragmei , then many countries would probably agree.

Although they didn’t know the responses of the remaining two countries—Remrus Empire and the Ertolia Republic, but Vois probably had plans concerning this area.

As for the southern ruler Roland…

“…”

Thinking about that, Ryner’s expression went down.

Would Sion who was poker-faced accept this agreement on Rhule Fragmei usage.

Not long ago he clearly thought that he knew what that person was thinking about, and how he would react, but in a few months’, everything had changed completely.

No, perhaps he had never understood Sion since the beginning.

He had only thought that they had become friends. He had claimed by himself that the two were close friends.

He had mistakenly thought that he was able to save him.

And the result was, in the end Sion had disappeared as he cried.

Sion had clearly bore all the painful memories by himself, not showing any weaknesses to anyone—

“…”

But I completely didn’t feel Sion’s pain.

Before I didn’t understand his heart, now I am even more unable to know what he has been hiding.

I was clearly so close to him.

I was clearly saved by him many times, but I never completely understood him, so I was unable to save him.

If I can really could understand him, then we wouldn’t be on the battle field now.

Even if it reached the point where we had to fight, he would probably be at Sion’s side, helping him fight.

“…”

Ryner looked back at himself.

But there was no one there.

The person that should have been by his side was gone.

There should have been a person who would be like a devil when it came to work, then said to him “Then Ryner work hard for me~”.

And Ferris would definitely come to mess around.

Then, I…

“…”

I would definitely yell you are trooooublesome, but in the end I would work hard.

He would certainly shout you are all anooooying, but he would still work hard.

Because I like Sion, I like Ferris, and I like the people by my side.

So if Sion told me please defeat my enemy.

If Sion told him that the weapon of Gastark’s is very strong so think of something, or said because he wanted to conquer the world so let’s work hard.

Even if Sion raised a ridiculous request, even if it were something that was near impossible, he would definitely…

I would definitely say how troublesome, how annoying, then start to work hard.

But why did this future shatter.

Sion had cried as he disappeared, and used the Rhule Fragmei .

And attacked Ryner’s companions.

Then killed countless Nelpha soldiers and people. And destroyed half of Toale’s body.

So the situation had turned into something like this.

“…”

Ryner moved his eyes from the empty space by his side.

He found that soldiers with different coloured armours filled his vision.

They were Gastarkian soldiers.

This was the northern side of the mid-continent.

It was unbelievably far away from Roland.

This situation where the scenery was changing with different auras, to tell the truth, he couldn’t keep pace with it.

Perhaps Ferris too. Leaving Sion, leaving her country, and coming to a battle field like this.

Kiefer and Toale too. No, Toale had even lost his country. And he had many brothers, but now there was no news of them. Maybe they had successfully escaped, but perhaps they had died before they could contact Ryner and the others.

And, here, we still need to fight.

We need to kill.

And we will still lose companions.

They were clearly tired, but it was still not enough.

Because the world was changing perpetually, so it would force you to change.

Furthermore—

“…”

But, Ryner smiled, then turned to Vois, “…Actually it’s not bad. This is the first time after hearing your words, I feel like accomplishing that motive.”

Vois had a ‘I told you so’ expression, saying: “I thought that Ryner would agree with this thinking too. But, if a ban on the Rhule Fragmei could be made, the reputation of the Anti-Roland Coalition would soar.”

“…” Ryner nodded, expressing his agreement.

If it succeeded, if they could really ban the Rhule Fragmei from war, this news would spread to Roland.

What Ryner was doing, would reach Sion’s ears.

This wasn’t bad, Ryner thought.

It was at least better than doing nothing.

Although he could understand that it wasn’t to the degree that Sion would think ‘I want to see you again’ and leave the country.

“…It could be possible that banning the Rhule Fragmei would be something interesting.” Ryner murmured.

Clearly he had written in his report to change the world so he had went to find Rhule Fragmei —which was Heroes’ Relics , but the more he found the relics, the stranger the world became, so he would work hard to stop this.

Sion who would heard something stupid like this.

“…”

That person, Sion would definitely smile.

Ryner thought.

Vois said: “Well, but no matter what…”

Ryner nodded, “No matter what I need to stop the weapon from Gastark before it can be set up, right?”

“Yes.”

“If I don’t stop it, everyone will die.”

“Yes. So if you want to use that kind of plan—going behind Gastark, then dodging the attacks from Gastark’s weapon, then in the beginning you shouldn’t have come here. We can only face it straight on. Then, if it’s not victory, it’s death.” Vois said.

No victory, meant death.

But at this moment, Toale’s voice spoke from behind them.

“I am betting three thousand lives on my side, so I completely can’t tie myself on the same string as you.”

Vois looked at Toale, saying: “then what do you want to do? I think with only three thousand people, to fight with tens of thousands of people and breaking free, something like that is a suicidal act… Although we are protected by the physical shield of Geihlficlant so it seems safe, but while we’re talking, many people are dying. And it is many people. Although there may not be any screams, so you may not know…”

But Toale interrupted Vois with a strict expression, “The lives of the Geihlficlant soldiers and formerly Nelpha soldiers, I cannot treat them equally.”

Vois raised an eyebrow, “You can’t be as naïve as Ryner?”

“At least I can differentiate between comrades and enemies. You…”

“An enemy, right?”

“Toale’s gently eyes narrowed sharply, staring at Vois as he said: “…At least, I think you are a dangerous person.”

Vois smiled for some reason, looking happily at Ryner, “Annoying, it seems like there is another outstanding person, Your Majesty. Only outstanding characters would appear in chaotic eras. Although I thought that it would be fine if Toale died, but I didn’t think that there would be a person who would honestly call the Geihlficlant soldiers our physical shields. It’s simply uncommon. It’s great that he lived till now.”

Ryner had a slightly frustrated expression, looking at Vois, “The one who called them physical shields was you.”

“But Toale thinks that too, deep down. And he never completely believed me.”

“I didn’t completely believe you, too.”

“Ah?”

Ignoring Vois who was relaxed, Ryner looked at Toale, saying: “Sorry, the Nelpha soldiers are in danger too…”

Toale interrupted him, saying: “It’s not Ryner’s fault. The one at fault is Vois Fiurelle? He clearly could control all information channels, but he didn’t tell us what kind of dangers we would run into, forcefully bringing us here. Then probably until now, he has told us many lies…”

Vois simply replied: “Of course. Because I was born to be a swindler. But until now, most things are like what I predicted, so everything was truth.”

“You think I will believe that…”

Vois continued, “Compared to worrying about the progress of these lives, it would be better to stay here. Of course like what Ryner said, according to the range of Gastark’s weapon, if we can go behind Gastark, we should be able to safely escape. But I’m afraid before that, we will all be destroyed.”

“But…”

Interrupting Toale, Vois had a slightly challenging tone as he continued: “Even if we really successfully survived to go behind them, the remaining troops would be half of the original number. That would be troublesome. Because according to the plan I have for after today, I will need the power of the Nelpha soldiers. If they are wasted to protect Toale’s life here, then that would be very troubling for me.”

But Toale didn’t fall for it, only closing his eyes to think, then softly saying: “…Which side is better…”

This feeling, everyone was familiar with the heart break.

It was the situation where they didn’t know whether Ryner would be able to block Gastark’s weapon, so would it be better to wait for their activation.

Or knowing that there would be a large number of sacrifices, still taking the soldiers to proceed to hide behind Gastark.

This of course wasn’t a problem that could be easily dealt with.

Because three thousand lives were dependent on this problem.

If they were stubborn, then more lives could be lost.

This was a decision that was so painful that it made it hard for people to breath.

And the choices were limited.

The realization that everything could be destroyed packed an impact too.

And if there was the possibility of everything being destroyed, then at least they could anticipate Ryner blocking Gastark’s weapon, staying here and doing nothing?

At this moment, Vois suddenly said: “I think staying here is the best choice. Otherwise everyone, have you checked the battle situation?”

Toale asked in reply: “…Battle situation?”

Kiefer answered from behind him: “…Gastark stopped using the Rhule Fragmei . And the Geihlficlant soldiers are slowly pressed back by the approaching Gastark army, right?”

Ryner raised his head, although he hadn’t completely grasped the situation, but from just now, Gastark had stopped using the Rhule Fragmei .

And Geihlficlant soldiers were moving forward slowly. If they continued to move forward, the Geihlficlant soldiers would clash with Gastark soldiers soon.

If it reached that step, Gastark wouldn’t be the opponent of Geihlficlant who had the advantage of numbers.

So if this continued…

“…Gastark will probably use that weapon quickly, right?” Ferris said.

Vois nodded, smiling: “So everyone don’t argue here, let us bet our lives on Ryner… Although I said that, but if Geihlficlant-kun is easily defeated, then it would be troublesome.

From behind him, two subordinates on horses rushed over.

One of them was a girl called Relca Redehna who was in charge of them when they met the Geihlficlant king.

Shiny green hair, and eyes that were as serene as a black crystal.

Another was a girl who had carried Vois when he jumped off the carriage. Long black hair and green eyes, she wore battle armour on her slim body.

The two of them came to Vois, whispering something in his ear, then Vois smiled.

Seeing this, Toale told Ryner: “Indeed, he’s not reliable at all.”

Ryner smiled bitterly: “Yes. After all he is someone who didn’t tell the truth since the start.”

But what Vois said made sense, Ryner thought.

Stopping the attacks of the Rhule Fragme i on Geihlficlant, perhaps it was to prepare for using that weapon.

Then, even if they moved now, it would probably be too late. Then they could only hand over the war where was either kill or be killed to Geihlficlant, focusing on the actual battle would be better…

“…”

Suddenly at this moment.

“……Ah…”

Ryner made a noise of disbelief.

Then widened his eyes.

His eyes widened quickly.

Then he saw not far from him, there were some strange things flying over.

Although that object was moving too quickly, so he couldn’t see it clearly, but, he could clearly see something activating.

Then, numerous heads flew into the sky.

Countless arms and bodies flew into the air.

Followed by a large amount of blood gushing out.

“…”

But, there were no screams.

The screams were covered by the noise of the soldiers moving forward and the explosions from the large-scale magic, it was muffled.

But the Geihlficlant soldiers shouldn’t have met physically with the Gastark soldiers.

So heads flying into the sky was too strange.

Bodies flying into the air was odd too.

But, heads were entering the air one by one.

Then something jumped up.

This time he could catch a glimpse of that object.

It was golden. It was fast enough that it couldn’t be seen properly, something golden.

Ryner moaned: “…Oh no.”

Then he looked at Vois, shouting, “Vois! Those people didn’t stop using Rhule Fragmei so that they could use their weapon! It was to kill us… it was to kill the people who have Rhule Fragmei and initiate another attack to sort themselves out!”

At this moment, Vois heard the screams nearby.

Then five Geihlficlant soldier’s heads flew into the air.

Among the falling blood droplets, a golden beast was dancing in the air.

“…”

Ryner had seen this beast once.

Because he had fought with this monster once.

It was the ring-shaped Rhule Fragmei that had been used by a Gastarkian assassin called Lir.

Among the three of the Lightning Beasts that was called forth with that Rhule Fragmei , they were dancing in the air that was not the front line.

That Beast looked toward Vois, releasing an ear-shattering cry.

Ryner yelled, “Stupid Vois, be careful of your front!”

But apart from yelling, he couldn’t do anything. The beast was too fast, he couldn’t even react.

And he was too far away.

He couldn’t rescue him in time.

One beast kicked away the surrounding Geihlficlant soldiers.

The second jumped up, opening its mouth.

Just as it was about to bit off Vois’s head, and shred his body…

“Vois-sama!?” Relca who was beside him screamed.

Then she leapt in front of Vois, her arm was ripped off by the beast.

She dropped off the horse with a large amount of blood spewing out. But the last beast continued to move closer to Vois.

But this attack was blocked by Ferris who jumped out from behind with her sword.

At this moment Vois finally reacted.

He seemed to look at Ferris who was blocking the beast with some surprise, then he looked at Relca who was lying on the ground, unmoving.

He looked at his subordinate with a calm but cold expression, like a child.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything.

Relca didn’t move.

But…

“…”

There wasn’t the time for him to be sad.

“Damnit!!”

Ryner muttered, then started to draw the glowing words in the air with all his might. This was the magic that could increase the body’s speed that he had learnt using Alpha Stigma, from the Estabul Mage Knight.

Quickly finishing the magical sequence, Ryner started to incant the words, and so that he would be able to gain the maximum benefit, he tried his hardest, hardest, hardest to activate the magic, “I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.”

In a moment.

His body glowed, and he could accelerate to the point where his muscles nearly tore.

He jumped up from the horse, leaping towards where Ferris was fighting with the Lightning Beast.

He started to draw magical formations in the air again, and he drew two with both hands at the same time.

The magical formations were immediately completed.

Ryner chanted, “WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION>>>KUURI!”

Two glowing cubes appeared in the magical formations of “KUURI”.

Then a beam of light appeared from the cube.

One aimed at the Lightning Beast that had bitten off Relca’s arm.

The other aimed at the beast that was attacking the Geihlficlant soldiers.

The beast that attacked Relca disappeared after being hit.

But the beast near the Geihlficlant soldiers felt the presence of “KUURI”, moving its vision over, then jumped to a side, dodging.

“Damnit, it missed…”

But Ferris interrupted him, saying: “No, it hit.”

Then she waved her sword, sending the suppressed beast flying, then reflecting the “KUURI” beam from Ryner at it.

The beast was burnt by the light of “KUURI”, shaking as it disappeared.

Now there was only one left.

Ryner continued to draw magic formations, reaching Ferris’s side, asking: “There’s one left, can you deal with it?”

Ferris smiled slightly, raising the sword high, saying: “It’s different from the past. Now, I can finish off a few by myself… But, if the opponent is that person…”

Ryner nodded too.

If their opponent was that man called Lir, it would become troublesome.

Because he was the most troublesome opponent, that could use a few types of Rhule Fragmei at the same time.

He was the most troublesome enemy that Ryner, Ferris, Tiir and Luke could only face for five minutes.

This person was probably not far off from them.

And he had come to take Ryner’s and the other’s lives.

The reason was simple.

From where Ryner and the others were, they had used Rhule Fragmei that could defend against Gastark’s Rhule Fragmei —the enemy had already confirmed this point.

Then they decided to defeat the users of the Rhule Fragmei .

And maybe they were planning to grab all the Rhule Fragmei from this side.

No matter what…

“…Then let us defeat this one.” Ryner said.

Then he released the magic of the magic formations he had prepared.

But at this moment, the Lightning Beast leapt up, retreating. It killed the Geihlficlant soldiers around it, roaring.

The beast’s roar.

It was so reverberating that it stifled the heroic cries of the soldiers in the region.

As if spreading the message that there were many prey here, calling its fellow brethren.

Ryner frowned, turning around to look behind him.

He found that Kiefer had already rushed to Relca’s side, pressing her shoulder to stop the flow of blood, yelling: “She’s… she’s still living! She can be saved!”

Toale looked to Vois and called, “Quick, use that healing stone called Death Transference !”

But Vois only looked at Toale blandly, then had a very happy smile, looking at Ryner, “Ah, really, if I were more unfortunate, I would have died? This makes me more battle aware. And it was unexpected, that it could push away the Geihlficlant soldiers so easily, sending the assassin in…”

Toale interrupted Vois, roaring: “This is not the time to be talking about that! Hand over Death Transference quickly!”

Vois shrugged, looking at Toale. Then he moved his eyes to look at Relca who was on the ground.

At this moment Relca struggled to open her eyes, saying weakly: “…Are, are you alright, Vois-sama.”

Vois nodded, replying: “Yes, I’m fine. It’s all thanks to you protecting me, Relca. You did well.”

Relca had a faint smile.

Vois smiled and nodded: “But I’m sorry, we don’t have the time to heal you. The Gastarkian assassin has already confirmed our existence, I estimate that the next wave of attack will come quickly too, and I’m not willing to heal a soldier like you, and it will waste the Death Transference . So I will abandon you here. But if possible, please slow the Gastarkian assassin down…”

He didn’t even complete that, Toale shouted angrily, “What… what are you talking about!”

Relca was losing a large amount of blood, colour was slowly leaving her face.

There was clearly no time to be wasted. If he continued to leave it as it was, she would probably die after a few minutes.

So Toale stared at Vois, clearly saying: “Hurry, give me the Death Transference quickly…”

But Vois narrowed his eyes, turning around to look at his subordinate with black hair, “…Harmit, please inform the others about this situation…”

“Don’t joke around! Give me the healing stone quickly…”

But Vois only pointed a finger at Toale, making an action ‘kill him’.

Following that his other subordinate, that woman called Harmit unsheathed the sword at her waist, stabbing at Toale.

But Ferris moved her large sword faster than her, cutting the black-haired woman’s sword into two pieces.

Ryner took the chance to grab Vois’s hair, saying: “…You, wanted to kill Toale just now, right?”

Vois simply continued carrying that happy smile, simply wanting to acknowledge that.

But before he answered, Ryner tightened a hand in Vois’s hair, saying: “…Don’t look down on us, brat. Hand over the Death Transference quickly.”

Although Harmit wanted to turn around and attack Ryner, but Vois stopped her.

“Stop, Harmit. You’re not Ryner’s opponent…” he said that, raising his head to look at Ryner.

“Will you use the Death Transference no matter what?”

“Of course.”

Hearing Ryner’s reply, Vois had a troubled smile, “…Of course… huh… If it is of course, then there’s no help for it.”

He pulled out a stone that was smaller than a fist, then threw it to Kiefer who was desperately trying to stem the blood from Relca’s shoulder.

Kiefer caught the stone, quickly pressing it to Relca’s wound. But that stone didn’t start to heal Relca’s injury. So Kiefer looked up, staring at Vois and said: “Tell me how to use Death Transference .”

Vois didn’t look at Kiefer, only stared at Ryner, “…You really want to… use it…”

Ryner interrupted him, tightening his grip, saying: “Say it quickly.”

Vois sighed, saying: “…It drinks blood… Let the stone absorb the blood from the corpses of the Geihlficlant soldiers. If there is so much fresh blood, then there should be enough for it to have the power to save Relca…”

So Kiefer quickly soaked the stone in the blood pooling on the ground.

At some point in time, the fresh blood from the Geihlficlant soldiers had gathered into a small puddle, and that stone began to drink that blood.

Ryner looked at this scene.

He looked at this stone that gave him a chilling feeling even though it was going to save Relca’s life by gathering power through sucking up the life of the Geihlficlant soldiers.

Drinking the life of other people, to gain the power of healing.

This was the power of Death Transference .

But.

“…”

But Vois said disapprovingly: “…Although it is commendable that you didn’t care about the deaths of the Geihlficlant soldiers, but Relca isn’t your comrade, there should be a limit to how goody-two-shoes you can be, Ryner.”

Then Vois looked at Relca on the ground, calling: “…Relca.”

Relca opened her eyes weakly, looking at Vois, her lips forming the word ‘yes’, but unable to speak. It seemed that she was so weak that she was on her last breath.

But Vois only looked at her and said: “If we have to heal your wound we’ll need for it to absorb a little more power. But we have to leave this place now. Because we are targeted by the Gastarkian assassin, as we have the Rhule Fragmei . So, the Death Transference treatment, you’ll have to do it yourself.”

Relca nodded softly, then tried to reach out for the Death Transference in Kiefer’s hand. But although she wanted to reach out, but her body couldn’t move.

So Kiefer said: “I’ll stay…”

But Vois told Relca: “If you weigh me down, I wouldn’t want to see you ever again.”

Relca had an expression as if she were about to cry, desperately reaching out. Uncaring about the large amount of blood flowing from her shoulder, she stretched out her hand, grabbing the Death Transference that was soaked in the fresh sea of blood of the Geihlficlant soldiers.

In that moment, the Death Transference gave out a greenish white light, the blood pouring from Relca’s shoulder suddenly slowed.

Vois smiled and nodded, “…Good.”

Then he looked at Ryner again, saying: “Then, can you release your hold on my hair? We don’t have the time to be staying here and doing such silly things.”

Ryner stared at Vois, although he wanted to say many things to this proud brat, but he found that he didn’t know where to start from.

“…”

But, Vois’s words were always realistic—

It was realistic until it made people angry, he was clearly only a brat but he always talked about the painfully realistic truth, so Ryner let go of Vois’s hair.

He was right, there was not much time left.

The Gastarkian assassin—that man called Lir had already reached here.

He had come to take the lives of Ryner and Vois who had the Rhule Fragmei .

Although because his attack was stopped because of the temporary retreat of the Lightning Beasts, but that person would immediately return.

And he would return with reinforcements.

Although he was alone when he had entered Imperial Nelpha secretly, fighting with Ryner and the others alone, but now he had the army of Gastark with him.

Then.

“…”

Then, there was a possibility that there was an enemy as strong as Lir. Ryner knew at least two other Gastark soldiers who had the same large power.

The siblings Sui and Kuu. The two could wield Rhule Fragmei , and they had an overwhelmingly strong power, and had once hunted Ryner and Ferris.

Although up till know he had managed to dodge from their hunting because of his luck, but if those people joined powers and attacked, it would not be a small matter.

That meant, they could no longer spend time here.

So Ryner raised his head, wanting to tell everyone to retreat.

But at this moment, Vois told Ryner: “So as to heal Relca’s injuries, we have wasted a Death Transference here . But we only have four Death Transference , which means that there are only three Death Transference left. I hope that you wouldn’t regret saving Relca, Ryner.”

Ryner stared at Vois, deciding to ignore what he said, saying: “Retreat—” He suddenly thought of something, shaking his head, “No, that’s not right. Let’s separate. Because the enemy is only focusing on Vois and I. Kiefer and Toale leave this place quickly. I will protect Vois…”

But Kiefer said: “I want to stay too…”

Ryner shook his head firmly, saying: “Sorry, Kiefer. You will only slow us down. The enemy is very strong, I will not be able to protect Kiefer as I fight…”

Kiefer pouted.

But Toale patted Kiefer’s shoulder encouragingly, “Retreat with me. Even if we are behind the scenes we can do many things…”

“I understand.”

“…”

“I understand. But, Ryner…”

Looking at Kiefer who was watching him, Ryner smiled, “Yeah, I will try not to get myself killed.”

“You definitely have to work hard.”

“Yeah, then leave quickly. I don’t know when that assassin will reach.” Ryner said.

But Kiefer didn’t want to leave him.

So Toale grabbed her hand, forcefully pulling her back.

After Ryner confirmed that Kiefer and Toale had left, he turned to Ferris and said: “…Ah~ with you, that…”

Before Ryner finished speaking, Ferris opened her mouth to say: “I will stay by your side. If it were not for me, you would die immediately?”

Ryner smiled bitterly.

Then he looked back to the battle ground.

There were devastating cries from the battle field. And in the distance, there were blinking lights.

It seemed that the battle was approaching.

And Lir was probably closer.

And in this direction…

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

In this direction there was the king of Geihlficlant, Gulafed Abuleld.

Because King Abuleld had over fifty Mage Knights stationed by his side, so they were probably in the massacre too.

Ryner said: “The king of Geihlficlant, huh…”

Vois nodded, saying: “Now you’ve at last understood the reason for the enemy’s temporary retreat. King Abuleld is not completely useless. He couldn’t just let those parasites mess around. He probably commanded the Mage Knights to ambush the Gastarkian assassins.”

“Then, if we go over now…”

“Yes, if we combine forces with the Mage Knights, we probably can deal with the assassins. Hurry…”

Before Vois finished speaking, a sharp scream was heard from the back.

Ryner knew who was screaming.

It was Kiefer.

It was Kiefer’s voice, and she had just retreated to the back.

Ryner widened his eyes, finding that his whole body was trembling. He didn’t have the courage to turn around to confirm what had happened, only in that moment he couldn’t move.

He had the annoying thought of whether Kiefer had died.

“…”

He tried hard to dispel this thought, and turned around.

Kiefer was still alive.

But in front of her, a few bodies of the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers went flying.

And in the middle of the commotion, there was a young girl.

She seemed to be around Vois’ age, fourteen or fifteen years old.

Her fringe touched her eye brows, she had the natural pink hair colour of the Gastarkians; she wore a black skirt and her pretty features gave her an aura of a pitiful child.

Ryner knew this girl.

She was the Gastarkian spy that Ryner and Ferris had met when they were travelling through the surrounding countries to search for the Heroes’ Relics.

Her name should be Kuu Orla.

And that Kuu was now holding up the scythe in her hands.

Her slim hands were able to hold up the scythe that was longer than Ryner’s body.

But the girl, as if holding a twig, swung the scythe easily, simply cutting through the bodies of the surrounding Geihlficlant soldiers.

But the bodies that the girl cut did not gush blood. Because those cuts had already froze over with ice.

Yes.

That scythe was one of the Rhule Fragmei .

This Rhule Fragmei called Ailecrono’s Scythe would take away the wielder’s feelings as a price, greatly raising the physical ability of the wielder, and sealing whatever it cut with ice.

And Kuu was now spinning Ailecrono’s Scythe .

Spinning.

As the scythe cut down, she continued to spread the bloodless death.

Then that scythe approached Toale and Kiefer.

“Damnit!!” Ryner yelled, jumping up from the horse, using his magically accelerated body, jumping forward at the speed of lightning.

But Ferris reached Kiefer’s back faster than Ryner, then stepping on Kiefer’s back. So Kiefer’s body narrowly missed the blade of the scythe, and her shoulder struck the handle.

Followed by that her body flew back with an unbelievable speed, crashing to the ground, landing at a distance that it would not be hard to believe if she had died.

But Kiefer only groaned “…Ow… that hurts…” as she climbed up.

Ryner breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, a sharp metallic sound was heard.

It was Kuu’s scythe clashing with Ferris’s large sword.

Kuu looked at Ferris, saying: “…I… recognize you…”

Ferris replied: “Then you should remember that it was you who lost to me? If you don’t want to die, retreat.”

Kuu tilted her head, “…According to my memory… It should have been you who lost…”

“It seems that you have forgotten.”

“…Then…” Kuu said as she raised the scythe again, swinging it down hard, “Make me remember.”

She swung down the scythe so quickly that Ryner couldn’t catch its movements.

But Ferris skillfully blocked her opponent’s countless attacks.

But Ryner understood that if this continued, Ferris would be defeated.

The more she blocked those attacks, the more easily Ferris’s sword would be frozen, then her movements would slow.

So he had to go and help her immediately.

“…”

But Ryner was unable to move.

Only standing on the ground, his nerves tensed, surveying the movements of the surroundings.

Because the enemy—

“…”

If this girl called Kuu appeared, another enemy would definitely appear.

It was the brother of the girl called Kuu—Sui Orla.

And the person called Sui was also one that could use strong Rhule Fragmeis , although he should have been severely injured by the Rhule Fragmei that Froaude used, escaping back to his motherland.

But if he was still alive.

“…”

At this moment, Ryner saw that behind Kuu, there was a group of Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers surrounding a slim man.

He still had that pink hair, it was long enough that it was a little feminine. A steady expression that was completely unsuited for this battle. Then slim eyes that revealed humour.

Sui Orla.

Sui still had that smiling expression, meeting Ryner’s gaze. Then looked at Kiefer who had been kicked out.

“…”

Ryner bent down.

He already knew what Sui was thinking.

He had probably seen him wanting to save Kiefer, understanding that she could be used as a hostage.

So Sui had a happy expression, saying: “Ah, isn’t this Ryner. It’s been a long time.”

During this time, Ferris was still fighting with Kuu. And it had become so aggressive that no one could break in.

Sui looked at this happily, saying: “Talking about which, you understand the situation now, right? Ferris has already been locked down by Kuu. And I’m still able to move. You understand what this means, right?”

Of course he understood.

There were many comrades by his side now. Kiefer, Toale, Vois, Harmit, and Relca who was still being healed, and the Anti-Roland Coalition and Nelpha soldiers.

No one among them could block Sui’s attack. If they were hit, they could only die.

That meant, Sui was actually holding everyone here hostage.

But Ryner smiled, saying: “…That is, on the account that you can attack faster than I can.”

Sui shrugged, “That means you’re stronger than before?”

“Yeah.” Ryner nodded.

This was only a lie.

In truth, compared to the time when he had fought with Sui, there wasn’t too much difference. At least he wasn’t so hard working. So he had a large gap between Pia, Peria and Zohra. Even if he frantically started up his training, there wouldn’t be any effects so quickly.

But, even so.

“…If you think that I’m same as before, you’ll regret it.” Ryner fibbed.

Then so that it would be easier for him to jump, he bent down.

But Sui laughed even more happily, “Then let’s wait for a while. It wouldn’t be too late when Kuu kills Ferris…”

But as he spoke, Vois said from behind Ryner: “Ryner.”

Although Ryner didn’t turn around, but Vois continued, “You can give the order to attack any time. This is the center of our base. Everyone is your comrade. So that person wouldn’t be our opponent…”

But Sui laughed even more happily, pulling out a dagger.

A dagger that did not have a hilt.

That dagger seemed very similar to the one that Ryner had discovered when he was in Nelpha, but the colour was different.

It was blood red.

This was a dagger that was blood red in colour, as if it had been stained with blood.

Sui gripped the dagger, saying: “Doing things like these would only result in more sacrifices. Vois Fiurelle.”

But Vois laughed too, answering: “How uncoincidental, I’m a person who understands who to balance out things. So even if we sacrifice hundreds of our comrades here, if Ryner kills you, it’s my win.”

At this moment Harmit suddenly yelled, “Aisweiar!”

This was probably a secret signal that only the Anti-Roland Coalition knew.

So the surrounding hundreds of soldiers started to draw magic formations in the air.

Vois said: “Even if you can wield the Rhule Fragmei because of you are chosen because of hereditary conditions—you are too self-confident. Attacking the enemy’s base alone, I would only call those people idiots. So die, baka-san.” As he finished speaking, Vois made a gesture.

In a moment, the Anti-Roland Coalition released their magic.

But Sui remained unmoving, only raising the red dagger, murmuring sadly: “…So I said there would be meaningful sacrifices.”

Ryner immediately understood that he said the truth. Because the Rhule Fragmei in Sui’s hand gave off a strong blinding light.

Although he didn’t understand its effects, but even if he didn’t understand, he clearly knew that if that thing was activated, it could easily kill the surrounding soldiers.

“…”

Ryner quickly started to think about what he should do. He thought hard. If he made a wrong move, his comrades would most likely be killed. Not only that, it could even give Sui more of an advantage.

Furthermore Sui had always been aware of Ryner’s movements. If he officially started the battle between Sui now, there would only be Ryner fighting.

So Ryner was unable to move, if he moved too much, he would be caught…

“…”

At this moment he saw something strange out of the corner of his eye.

In the furthest distance where Ryner could still see clearly.

Kiefer who had been hit by the hilt of the scythe stood up suddenly.

Then she frantically wrote a few complicated glowing words. That was a high-level magical formulation that was very strong, if she was not at the level of a Mage Knight she would be unable to control it.

But Ryner knew, Kiefer was unable to use that kind of high-skilled magic. At least according to her knowledge and ability, she was unable to use that kind of first-class magic.

And now she was using that magic. It showed that in the time they had been separated, she had not given up on her self-training, unlike Ryner.

Of course, that magic was slightly unsteady, it was unable to compare to Ryner’s accuracy and speed.

But even so, that magic was about to be completed.

So Ryner smiled, then lowered his voice to the pitch that Sui was unable to hear, telling Vois: “…Vois, after the soldiers release their magic, let them retreat immediately.”

“Do you have a good idea?”

Ryner shook his head, “Although I do not have a good idea, but our comrades have increased.”

“Comrades?”

He nodded, “Yeah, it is a strong comrade…”

“Urgh…!”

At this moment, Ferris who was fighting with Kuu gave a slightly pained noise.

It seemed that her sword had started to freeze because she was going against the power of Kuu’s Ailecrono Scythe .

“Urgh! If, if this continues…”

Before she finished speaking, Kuu’s scythe cut down again, Ferris wanted to raise her sword to block this blow.

But as the weapons clashed, the strong impact made her release the sword. Ferris widened her eyes, saying: “I’m, I’m going to lose…”

“It’s done.” Kuu said, raising her scythe again.

But Ferris smiled faintly: “What. The one who should be done with, is you.” She stepped forward, charging to Kuu who was holding the large scythe.

“I purposefully released the sword.” Ferris said happily, making a karate chop towards Kuu’s neck.

Although Kuu wanted to use her scythe hilt to block this, but Ferris’s karate chop hit her neck faster than she expected. Although the scythe hilt hit Ferris at the same time, but Ferris used her feet to block it, lending its momentum to jump towards Sui.

Sui’s attention immediately focused on Ferris who had appeared in front of him immediately.

The space of a second.

It was only a slight space.

But it was already enough.

Ryner took the opportunity, running over.

Sui hurriedly pointed the dagger-like Rhule Fragmei at him, wanting to say something.

But in the next moment.

Sui said in disbelief: “…Wha…What!?”

This was because the girl who had been sent flying by Kuu, who didn’t look strong at all suddenly rushed over like lightning.

Kiefer who had used the high-grade magic from Estabul to increase her body’s strength, jumped up from the ground, running over, then kicking Sui’s hand which held the dagger.

The dagger left Sui’s hand, spinning into the sky.

Ferris raised her leg too, preparing to kick Sui’s neck.

And Sui couldn’t dodge this attack.

He frowned, muttering: “Oh no!”

Then he moved his body slightly, changing the target position from his neck to his face.

In the next instant, with a smack, he was sent flying.

But because he had avoided his vital position, so he remained conscious, Sui adjusted his landing position, reaching into his pockets, wanting to take something out.

But Ryner immediately decreased the distance between him and Sui. Then he took out a stiletto from his belt and pressed it to Sui’s neck, saying: “Don’t move. Or I’ll kill you.”

So Sui stopped, raising his head, then looked at Kiefer, saying: “…I didn’t think, that she had that kind of ability to move…”

Ryner smiled, “My companions are very strong.”

“Your companions?”

“Yeah.”

“…Your companion… right? I thought Kiefer was our companion…” Sui stared at Kiefer, suddenly something as strange as that.

“Unless you want to betray us? Your mission was to bring Ryner to Gastark, right?”

But Kiefer simply said: “Ah? Did I promise that?”

Ryner was confused by that, so he stared at Sui and Kiefer, asking: “…The two of you know each other?”

Kiefer had a slightly troubled expression, saying: “that, when I was wandering around, I stayed in Gastark for some time, I came to know him there.”

“Is that only it… Riphal, your king always thought that you were dating him…”

Kiefer interrupted him, saying: “That was Riphal’s misunderstanding.”

“…But at least, when Riphal knew that you were here too, he frantically sent us over to rescue you. Because of you, he decided to stop Glovil ’s attack.”

Hearing this conversation, Ryner at last knew what the relationship was between the Gastark king and Kiefer.

No, at least that man called Riphal, towards Kiefer…

At this moment, Sui said again: “His Majesty doesn’t wish for you to die…”

But Kiefer interrupted him, simply saying: “Then attack us.”

Sui had a disbelieving expression, looking at Kiefer in surprise, saying: “You’ll die too, you know?”

But for some reason, Kiefer laughed.

She seemed to laugh happily.

She seemed to laugh joyfully.

Then she said with that uncaring tone: “It doesn’t matter.”

“Dying with Ryner has always been my dream. So it doesn’t matter.”

“Because the one who I like… who I love, is not Riphal, but Ryner.”

She said simply, with clear eyes.

“…”

To this sudden confession, Ryner didn’t know what to say.

Sui said: “Then, you said you would bring Ryner back with you.”

Kiefer still smiled and answered: “I lied.”

“You traitor.” Sui said accusingly.

“You still dare to say that~” Kiefer smiled sadly.

Sui smiled too, his smile was bitter, saying: “…This is troublesome… Our king is always most unwelcome in front of the women that he falls in love with.”

Then Sui looked at Ryner, saying: “…Well, so we don’t have anything here to do… Although we were ordered to protect you and Kiefer Knolles… but because we were betrayed, so I have to go back. Then can you release me?”

“…”

But Ryner was slightly stunned, because too many things had happened, so he didn’t reply.

Kiefer knew the people from Gastark, and she had been ordered to bring Ryner back.

But she had simply betrayed Gastark.

And since she had stayed in Gastark for some time, then she should know the true appearance of the weapon that Gastark had. And she should know what kind of power that weapon had.

She clearly knew better than anyone else that she would die if she came here. It was even possible that she had seen that weapon’s power in Stohl.

But she had simply chose to come here.

She smiled as she chose to come here with Ryner.

And that reason was actually because, I like Ryner, so it’s like that…

An idiotic reason like that.

“…”

At this moment, Kiefer suddenly looked over, saying: “Ryner.”

“…Eh?”

“…Because there’s no guarantee that I would die here, so I wanted to say everything…” She said, then stopped as if she didn’t know how to continue. Then she blushed, but looked like she wanted to cry.

“I like Ryner.” She said.

She said with a voice that everyone could hear.

But Ryner was unable to reply. Towards this sudden development, he didn’t know how to reply.

At this moment.

“…”

There was the sound of something hitting the ground.

Ryner looked to the place where the sound came from. He found that Ferris’s sword had dropped on the ground for some reason, and she was frantically going to pick it up.

No, had she even picked up the sword that she had dropped intentionally when fighting with Kuu? But he had clearly heard that clang sound, Well, it was okay if anything happened, he put that aside.

That, so now, ah~ what should I do?

Seeing Ryner having that silly face, Vois poured cold water: “…What are you acting out. It’s clearly not a development to be surprised about, why is everyone’s reaction so big?”

Then he pointed at Kuu on the ground, ordering the subordinate called Harmit: “Tie her up.”

Harmit nodded, pressing down on Kuu’s body.

Confirming that nothing was missing, Vois dismounted, walking to Kuu who was unconscious and tied up by Harmit, looking at Sui, saying: “The tables have been overturned, now the hostage is on our hands. Then I’ll tell you what you told us when you appeared, ‘you understand what this means, right?’ … Killing so many companions, and still wanting to trick us…”

Vois took out a dagger, smiling happily, “So you want us to let you go back? You must be joking.”

Ryner and Sui yelled at the same time: “Stop!”

But Vois continued to smile, “I was joking. How tiresome, because I have too many good people here, if I really kill this girl here, I will probably be scolded terribly, so I’ll let her go here… But I can’t choose to let you go back. If we still need to fight Gastark, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few hostages.”

Sui tilted his head and said: “…Hostages? I advise you not to do something as useless as that. Because your opponent wouldn’t be Gastark.”

Vois smiled: “Because the weapon you call Glovil will kill us?”

“Ah, that’s true. As long as you stay here, you will definitely die.”

And Vois seemed to have a smile that was so happy, as if he could play with the whole world, saying: “It doesn’t matter.”

He raised his pitch, until he sounded like a woman, “…Because I can die with Ryner, that’s always been my dream, so…”

“I’ll kill you--!!” Kiefer shouted.

Vois ignored Kiefer’s shout, telling Ryner: “I love Ryner~ ♥~”

Hearing this very ‘Vois’-esque speech, Ryner had a slightly irritated expression.

But Vois continued to smile happily, staring at Sui as he said: “…We came here after knowing you had that mysterious weapon Glovil , and we still came. We bet our lives to stand here. If you misunderstood that we came here to try desperately…”

“We didn’t think of that.”

Someone said suddenly from behind them.

Behind Vois, there was a man.

He had the pink hair that only Gastarkians had, a strong, agile body and a confident smile.

Ryner knew this person.

He was the man called Lir Orla.

And he was the person who released those Lightning Beasts.

And this man wanted to release them again. He moved the ring on his finger, saying: “Appear, gathered Beasts!”

In a moment, a large thunder cloud appeared above Vois’s head, a golden Lightning Beast jumped out, wanting to bit off Vois’s head.

This was too sudden, no one was able to react.

Ryner, Ferris, Kiefer, Harmit, no one was able to react on time.

But Toale who had been standing by Vois’s side suddenly jumped up.

So one of the Lightning Beasts bit Toale’s leg, and he grabbed his leg, from his thigh, he pulled off the magical prosthetic, ordering: “Self-destruct.”

Following that order, Toale’s prosthetic limb exploded with the Lightning Beast that had bitten the limb.

One was destroyed just like that.

There were still two left.

Although the other one wanted to attack Toale who had lost one leg, but Ferris had reacted, raising her sword, blocking the Lightning Beast’s attack.

But the other Lightning Beast—

“Harmit, take Vois away quickly, leave that scythe girl!” Toale shouted.

Harmit hearing that, immediately grabbed Vois, leaving the area.

So the other Lightning Beast carefully collected Kuu and the scythe, running back towards Lir.

Ryner could only watch everything, unmoving.

Because if he released the restraint on Sui, the enemy would become Lir and Sui.

If they entered that kind of situation, then just by depending on the people around them, they would be unable to win. Ryner didn’t have the confidence to win two opponents with Rhule Fragmei without any injuries.

Furthermore the man called Lir, was more challenging than Sui and Kuu combined.

So he couldn’t let go of the restraint he had on Sui. Anyway let Sui faint first, then help Ferris and the others—he decided, but as he hesitated, the situation became worse.

Lir moved his ring again, saying again: “Gathered beasts, appear!”

A thunder cloud appeared in front of him, this time five golden monsters stepped out.

Three of them were wolf-like beasts that had mostly appeared.

And two were monsters similar to what Froaude had released before, similar to devils.

Then these five monsters rushed towards Ferris.

The five and the one from the previous round, totaling six monsters were attacking Ferris alone.

“…”

Ferris stepped back, desperately moving her sword, using an unbelievable speed, to block the demon’s attack.

But of course she couldn’t stop everything.

Several gashes appeared on her body, blood flowing. But even so, she tried hard not to let the enemy’s attacks be drawn to Vois, Toale and Kiefer, fighting alone.

At this moment, Toale who was on the ground because he had lost his prosthetic limb, started to draw a crest in the air. He started to construct the offensive fire magic of Nelpha.

Vois reacted too, not only ordering his subordinates, and the surrounding Geihlficlant soldiers, “There’s a Gastarkian soldier…”

And Lir said: “I wouldn’t let you gain the advantage.”

He pulled out a circular disc with a hole in the center, then used his finger to spin it, throwing it towards the sky, saying softly: “Spin, Fabluss’ Moon Circle .”

It was like a curse, taking Lir as the center.

No, so that Sui and Kuu would not be hurt, the circle took Ryner and the others as center, starting to move vigorously.

The small disc moved at an unbelievable speed, spinning. It spun several rounds at which others could not see it.

But, it could be felt that their surroundings had grown quiet.

The dozens of soldiers around them…

No, maybe hundreds of soldiers, had been sliced open in a moment.

They didn’t even have the time to scream, when they were speedily sliced up, becoming corpses as they dropped onto the ground.

The surroundings became empty.

In a radius that wasn’t counted to be small, the living people had all disappeared.

The only ones living, were Ryner, Sui, Kiefer, Vois, Harmit, Toale, Kuu, Ferris and Relca who was on the ground, so she wasn’t harmed by the Rhule Fragmei .

The other soldiers were killed.

Although the Geihlficlant soldiers and Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers had felt this abnormality and wanted to provide them with reinforcements, but they hadn’t caught up.

No, it was lucky that they had not caught up.

Because Lir had a weapon that was able to kill the surrounding soldiers in an instant. The strange disc had returned to Lir’s finger, continuing to spin at a speed that could not be caught by the naked eye.

Even if the soldiers came to help again, they would probably be sliced open by Lir’s disc before they knew that they were dead.

And at this moment, Toale’s magic had completed.

But before Toale could move, Lir pointed to Ferris who would definitely die in the battle with the Lightning Beasts.

Then in his hand there was a green ball that was familiar.

It should be called the Rhule Fragmei called Stone Devourer .

It was a weapon that was able to gouge out the eyes of wielders of magic eyes.

And it was a weapon that could destroy the strong yarn that Luke used.

Because its general usage was broad, so it couldn’t be understood what kind of power that Rhule Fragmei had, but, anyway it was an extremely dangerous weapon.

Then Ryner remembered.

He remembered Lir had simply killed his companions before.

He had killed Lafra. He had killed Pueka. As long as it was wielders of magic eyes, he could even kill innocent children without any hesitation.

And now this person, to Ferris…

“…”

And he wanted to kill Ferris.

“Stop!!!!!!!” Ryner shouted, releasing Sui, jumping up from the ground, running towards Ferris.

But Lir laughed.

He laughed scornfully.

“This is war? How can I stop.” He said, then opened his hand, pushing the green stone in front of Ferris, saying softly, “Devour this person, Stone Devourer .”

So the stone…

The green stone called Stone Devourer immediately exploded.

And Ferris wasn’t able to block this blow.

She had spent most of her energy dealing with the Lightning Beasts, she didn’t have any more energy to block it.

“I definitely, wouldn’t let you succeed!”

Ryner shouted, grabbing Ferris’s hair from behind, pulling her down.

“Ah.” Ferris called, falling back, then looked at Ryner in slight surprise.

Several Lightning Beasts wanted to chase after Ferris, but Ryner blocked them. He reached out his right hand, pushing it in front of a beast that was running over. So Ryner’s wrist was bitten off, but he didn’t stop, using his remaining left hand, to punch Lir’s face.

Although this punch made Lir move back slightly, but everything was done.

The green stone in Lir’s hand exploded, becoming a great distortion in space.

In the next moment, Ryner’s left hand was sliced off into the air, but even so it had not ended.

Lir said with a nervous but determined voice: “Gouge out the crystal, Stone Devourer .”

So the green stone exploded again.

Although he didn’t know what he wanted to do.

But if he didn’t guess wrongly, it should be that he wanted to do the same thing like had he had done to the wielder of Alpha Stigma , Pueka.

To Ryner.

To Ryner’s Alpha Stigma .

And in that moment.

“…”

Ryner lost his vision.

His vision suddenly turned black, he couldn’t see anything.

He completely couldn’t see where he was, what he was doing.

“Ah…” He said.

Then he felt his body suddenly lose strength, kneeling on the ground.

“Ryner!!” Ferris shouted.

Strangely, she shouted with a sad voice that was rarely heard. But because of this shout, he finally understood that he had saved her.

So Ryner sighed in relief.

It was good if she had been saved. But if he continued to remain here, he would be killed. So he needed to tell her to run away quickly. But he couldn’t say anything, all his energy was gone, he couldn’t say a single word.

Then he felt Ferris hug him, hug his body.

She should clearly run away, this wasn’t the time to be doing this, but she strongly, she held him strongly.

“…Hey hey, your crystal has clearly been taken away, but you’re still alive. You really are a monster.” Lir said.

“…You, you, you… I am definitely going to kill you.” Ferris said with a trembling voice.

But no, I must stop Ferris.

Ryner thought.

She can’t win, she definitely can’t win these people. So if she doesn’t escape, I can only beg for mercy.

Even if I die here, it’s fine.

But, my comrades.

The companions who followed me here, no matter what I have to let them escape.

“…”

Hearing Kiefer cry in sadness, then run over.

So Ryner said: “…Li…Lir… I have a favour.”

Lir said: “It doesn’t seem like I have a reason to accept my enemy’s favour, right?”

Ryner forced a scornful smile, “Take it as me begging you…”

But Lir opened his mouth as if knowing what Ryner wanted to say: “You want to surrender at this point in time? Impossible. This is the punishment for the companion who has turned enemy and betrayed us. We clearly came here to save her, but I didn’t think that I would nearly lose my younger brother and sister’s lives. I don’t want to make the same error twice.”

“…”

“But letting you escape is fine. Because we have no more time to waste here. So, hey, the one called Vois Fiurelle.”

Somewhere nearby, Vois replied: “What is it?”

“Give all your Rhule Fragmei to me. This way I will let you live.”

Vois said with a slightly depressed voice: “There’s no choice… Harmit, take these.”

Harmit made a noise of assent, then wanted to pass them to Lir.

Although he couldn’t see, but Ryner still understood what happened.

At this moment, Kiefer suddenly shouted, “Vois, bring the Death Transference to Ryner, quickly!”

Lir said: “The Death Transference if a Rhule Fragmei too…”

But Kiefer interrupted him, saying again: “I definitely wouldn’t let you have it! If you want it, you’ll have to kill me first!”

Don’t say that, Ryner thought. Don’t say that for me, it doesn’t matter if something like dying happened to me.

For a monster who has no meaning in living, don’t die so easily.

At this moment, he felt Kiefer by his side, she stroked Ryner’s face, saying: “Ferris, don’t cry. Hurry! We have to move Ryner to places where soldiers are bleeding… Or else the Death Transference that sucks blood wouldn’t work… I’ll go get Ryner’s wrist.”

Because of this sentence, Ryner’ mind suddenly went blank.

Kiefer said Ferris was crying.

That Ferris, was actually crying.

Ryner sank into a state of self-hatred.

When they left Sion, she cried too, unsettled.

He clearly said that he wouldn’t leave such lonely memories for her, but now it was still the same.

Because he had been too weak, so he had become like that.

And, he understood too.

I will probably die soon.

He could clearly feel something very important in his body dying, and Death Transference probably couldn’t heal it.

Lir said: “…This person can’t be saved. Wielders of cursed eyes having lost their crystals can only…”

At this moment, Sui said: “Onii-san, let’s go. Our work has ended.”

Vois asked: “…Taking away the crystal also means taking away the power of Ryner’s magic eyes, right?”

“Yes.”

“That means, the power of Alpha Stigma , all of it…”

“Yeah.”

“Then Ryner is no longer a wielder of cursed eyes? He has already become a normal… a normal human?”

Lir answered: “Yes. Well, but he’ll die soon.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“I see…” Vois had a disappointed voice.

Of course. Vois had come here because of Ryner’s magic eyes.

He had anticipated that Ryner’s eyes would be able to block Gastark’s weapon and had come here solely for that reason.

But, now he had simply lost those eyes.

And that meant everyone here.

“…”

Everyone would die.

But Ryner was unable to think about this.

His blood loss was severe.

Because he had lost both wrists, a large amount of blood was rushing out.

His consciousness was slowly blurring.

Lost in a distant place.

But he heard Kiefer’s voice. He heard Kiefer’s trembling and hoarse voice.

“I wouldn’t let you die. I definitely wouldn’t let you die!”

Then he felt Kiefer touch his shoulder.

His chest was still being hugged by Ferris. So he could feel her body trembling uncontrollably.

They were probably using Death Transference to heal him. If it were Death Transference, it could probably heal the wounds of both his wrists.

“…”

But, his consciousness became more blurred, more distant.

Then, he felt it.

He felt death.

He felt himself walking into the depths of death.

He felt himself slowly losing the power to live…

Then finally, Ryner’s consciousness, disappeared.

•••••••

“…”

Raising his head to the sky.

Looking at the distant sky.

The weather was very sunny today, so when he woke up he felt that something good would happen.

“…”

After Vois Fiurelle confirmed that the assassins had left, he looked back.

He looked at Kiefer and Ferris frantically try to heal Ryner who had lost his sight and both his wrists.

No, his wrist had already been joined back.

The severed left had had started to join back under the treatment of Death Transference .

The right hand had been torn apart by the beast so it was unable to return to its former appearance, Well, but at least the blood flow had stopped.

No matter what this was war. The blood that was the source of Death Transference ’s power was abundant here.

As long as it wasn’t immediate death, no matter how severe the wound, as long as they used Death Transference , they wouldn’t die.

But.

“…”

Ryner Lute would still die.

Because his ' Alpha Stigma had been stolen.

Because his magic eyes had been crystallised and stolen.

Vois had met people who collected crystallised magic eyes before, so he knew that after the wielders lost the power of their magic eyes, they would die.

They would die immediately.

It was as if having a major organ like their heart or brain being destroyed, they would die immediately.

Probably to the wielders of cursed eyes, these magic eyes were probably the most important organ that gave them their main power.

So Ryner would definitely die.

No matter what, his Alpha Stigma had been stolen.

So…

“…”

Vois raised his head to the sky again, calling his subordinate, “Harmit.”

The black-haired beauty looked at him, replying: “Here.”

Vois smiled, saying: “Ne, so I said today would be a good day, right?”

Harmit tilted her head, not understanding Vois’s meaning, saying: “…Huh?”

But actually there wasn’t any need for her to understand his feelings.

Because today really was a good day.

Looking at the crying Kiefer Knolles.

Looking at the crying Ferris Eris.

Looking at the grim Toale Nelphi.

Only he, smiled happily, then used a light tone, to say to these three people: “Then then, has Ryner died?”

The three looked at Vois at the same time. They looked at him with an unbelievably scary expression, but they didn’t say anything.

But there wasn’t any need for them to answer.

If he died.

Then his heart would stop, his breathing would halt, the Death Transference would stop working.

Because Death Transference wouldn’t react to dead people.

But now that stone was sucking the blood on the floor. It was slurping up the blood.

As if desperately sucking up blood to wake up something else in Ryner’s body.

In normal situation after their magic eyes had been crystallised, they would die immediately, but now something in his body that had allowed to live, was as if about to be awakened.

Vois looked at this, murmuring: “…Ah, anyway, it seems like I win this bet.”

Well, no matter what, he was actually unsettled.

What the ugly Goddess said, how much of it was truth? He had always been unsettled about that.

Furthermore, the Goddesses had described Ryner like this.

No, it should be said they had described the thing in Ryner’ body.

<…We don’t know what it is. And we don’t know what will appear. Up until now something like that has never happened, what has happened to the body of the Solver of All Equations ?>

The Goddesses had said that.

But he only needed this, to Vois it was enough.

The existence that even the Goddesses were unable to fathom.

That thing, that seemed to control all Reason in this world that the Goddesses were unable to understand.

It was in Ryner Lute’s body.

And the strange thing that even the Goddesses were unable to understand, probably wouldn’t appear so coincidentally, Vois had thought.

“…”

It couldn’t appear just for fun, he had thought.

So Vois had thought that if he brought Ryner here, he would let that thing appeared.

If he weren’t a human who had to die.

If her weren’t a monster who was about to die here.

And, he told Ryner that— “ α —the power hidden in your body, seems to be the strongest power.”

That information, was actually a lie that Vois had come up with. It was easy to trick his opponent with a small lie, he had thought, then came up with this lie that seemed to have some meaning, but, from the beginning till the end, that had only been a lie.

The Goddess had never mentioned that.

They only told him that he needed to watch Ryner Lute, and keep a tab on him.

Ryner Lute, and Lucile Eris.

The Solver of All Equations and the Weaver of All Equations .

Now in the body of these two people, there were unknown bodies in them.

Things that could easily twist the rational of this world.

It was something that was unable to be understood by the common logic that they knew.

And the things that lived in their bodies, had always threatened this world—the Goddesses had said, and they were scared.

So Vois thought of betting on this gamble.

He gambled on the thing that was beyond the Goddess ’ understanding.

If that thing really existed, then this person wouldn’t die here.

Was that person a hero from the legends, or a legendary hero, or—

“…There’s also the possibility that he will be a demon that will ruin this world…” Vois smiled.

Then he looked at Ryner who had lost consciousness. He looked at this monster that was on the ground, that had lost his Alpha Stigma .

He still hadn’t died.

He had clearly lost his Alpha Stigma , but he hadn’t died.

The Goddesses didn’t seem to be too clear on the weapon that Gastark had—the information on that weapon called Glovil . Even if Vois had searched through all the information networks in the world, he hadn’t gotten any solid information.

That meant, in this place, there were two giant powers that the Goddesses did not know of.

There were two powers that even those people who controlled the world did not know about.

And these two powers would clash here.

And it was such a sunny weather.

Under this clear sky with no clouds in sight.

This was really—

“…Everything has been decided on since the beginning, don’t you feel as if this were fate?” Vois said.

Harmit had an uncomprehending expression.

Vois smiled.

Of course he was the one to push for this development. It was his careful planning, that had caused matters to develop to this stage.

But everything possibly was decided on since the beginning, he had occasionally thought.

In the fate that had been decided on, followed by the low-grade humans who would follow its joys and despairs.

“…Thinking like that, always feels a little irritating…”

But, even so, only this time, he wanted to think of everything as destined.

He hoped that this situation was also decided since the beginning.

That before Gastark would use that weapon called Glovil , Ryner would lose his Alpha Stigma .

Then, after becoming like that.

The real battle, was from now on.

If everything proceeded in the way that Vois had predicted.

If.

“If I can win this gamble… the world can really change.”

It would change into scenery that not only humans, even Goddesses had never seen.

Up until today, no one had seen that scenery, that would replace everything in this world.

So Vois breathed out a little nervously.

If it weren’t death, it was changing the world.

“…”

He turned around.

The battle continued.

Even if Vois didn’t have three thousand soldiers under him, the battle that wouldn’t be affected by that, continued.

And the Geihlficlant held an overwhelmingly strong pressure.

As if not scared of the destructive power of the large-scale offensive magic and Rhule Fragmei , it slowly pushed the battle line back, then Gastark slowly started to retreat.

If this continued, Gastark would definitely lose.

But of course, that could not happen.

Anyone could see what Gastark was doing.

They were waiting for those assassins who had been sent to retrieve Kiefer and Ryner to return.

And when they returned, Gastark would use Glovil .

No.

“…”

At this moment, Vois felt something interesting.

What those Gastarkian assassins said.

They said they had been ordered to bring Kiefer and Ryner back.

That meant, the Gastarkians, had already felt that something special had existed in Ryner’s body?

Vois thought.

But the Gastarkian assassins didn’t bring Ryner back together.

They left after taking his Alpha Stigma .

Then, what did this mean?

Vois asked himself, then smiled scornfully.

Gastark that had the weapon that even the Goddess didn’t know about, probably didn’t completely understand Ryner.

That meant, Gastark hadn’t grasped the information that Ryner was equivalent to a BUG ?

He thought.

“…If everything were just my imagination, it would be troublesome.” It was rare that he would say a weak point, then he called his subordinate again, “Harmit.”

Hamit replied, in her proper, curt but energetic way: “Is there anything wrong, Vois-sama.”

“How are Relca’s wounds?”

“Although she is unconscious, but she will probably live.”

“That’s good.” He nodded, repeating: “That’s good.”

Then he raised his head to the sky.

Now he only needed to wait.

Or die.

Or wait for the moment when the world would change.

“Harmit.”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you hungry? We have done what we need to do. Let’s have lunch.”

Hearing Vois’s sudden pronouncement, Harmit tilted her head in confusion.

Because she was overly serious, so every time he joked, she would always reveal this expression.

Then after she remained confused for a period of time, she understood what he meant, and smiled faintly, saying—

“Yes.”

•••••••

“…”

Suddenly, a palpitation came from his heart.

So he stopped fighting.

He stopped massacring the monsters around him.

Then Sion Astal focused his attention on that palpitation.

“…”

A strong thundering was coming from his chest.

Something important to his body, started beating strongly.

At first he didn’t understand what happened, but his heart was beating until he wanted to yell loudly.

“…”

He raised his head to the sky.

The blood red sky.

He was now under a sky like this.

But somewhere opposite this sky, there was something strange happening.

Although he didn’t know what had happened yet.

But these monsters—

“…”

These clones of the Goddess , that had attacked Sion, felt this.

Hundreds of monsters that were unbelievably ugly, raised their heads to the sky.

They looked to the northern sky.

They looked to the distant northern sky.

It seemed like something significant had happened there.

So a beast called.

It let out a piercing shout that humans couldn’t bear.

But Sion understood its meaning. Sion who was no longer human could understand their call.

This was the retreat order from the Goddesses to their clones. So the monsters retreated.

Something worse than ambushing Sion here had probably happened.

It seemed like there was some serious problem, so these monsters needed to go and deal with it.

“…”

Sion pulled off the monster that was hanging on to his shoulder, stamping on it, then raising his hands, muttering: “Begone, monsters.”

A black sword appeared suddenly from behind him, piercing through the monster’s head. Followed by a clatter, the monster’s head disappeared.

Confirming this, he turned to the north again.

He looked at the northern sky.

Then closed his eyes.

Opening them again.

“…”

Following that he was back to reality.

The reality where there were no monsters.

He was now in a carriage.

He was in a carriage where there was a simple desk and bed.

He opened his eyes and found he was lying on a bed. His head ached terribly, it was probably because he had hit his head and lost his consciousness in reality when he was attacked by the Goddess.

He rubbed his temples, raising his head, getting off the simple mattress. Then he opened the carriage door. The outside was still as noisy as ever.

It seemed, he was still on the battle field.

Froaude was waiting outside the carriage, he said with a cold but slightly concerned tone: “…Have you work, Your Majesty.”

Sion nodded, getting off the carriage.

Then he surveyed the situation.

In the end he found that the scenery wasn’t much different from when he had lost consciousness at.

“…This is?” He asked.

Froaude replied: “The area between the lands that used to be the Southern Country of Ali and the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla.”

According to what Froaude said, Sion finally understood that his army had seemed to retreat by quite a distance.

“Have we been outmaneuvered by Remrus?”

Froaude nodded, “Because they used a surprisingly strong weapon.”

“So we didn’t win?”

“No no, this is only a temporary retreat to reorganize our army. And now Field Marshals Claugh Klom and Rahel Miller have gathered the soldiers to make a counter-attack. Because we sent out extraordinary pieces, so we probably can stop them.”

Hearing this report, Sion nodded.

Everyone had probably retreated to protect Sion who had lost consciousness. The morale of the soldiers who had seen Sion collapsed must have been badly affected.

But if they were able to regroup the army in such a short time, start the counter-attack, that meant…

Sion smiled, saying: “It seems that even without me, Roland can conquer the world?”

Froaude smiled too, “Please don’t joke about that—then I will go and spread the news that Your Majesty is already awake to the whole army. Because almost everyone followed Your Majesty to come here, so if you’re not with us, including me, everyone is not motivated.”

He finished saying these words that seemed to be offerings, turned around and left.

“…”

But Sion didn’t stop.

He moved his eyes away from Froaude, looking to the sky again.

He looked to the northern sky.

The sky there seemed to be very sunny.

It was so cloudless that it made him feel comfortable.

But for some reason, somewhere deep in his chest—

“…”

Somewhere deep in his chest felt very uncomfortable.

So he understood something important that would cause a change must have happened.

As if hearing something in the far north let out a cry.

But.

“…”

But even so, Sion chose to keep quiet in the end, not saying anything.

•••••••

“We will win!”

The Geihlficlant king yelled.

So as to increase the soldiers’ motivation, he yelled, almost making his voice hoarse.

In actuality, this war had many benefits for him.

Although he had been cautious because of the information that the strongest power in the northern continent Stohl Empire had been defeated, but in the end if you talked about it optimistically, it would be the side with more soldiers that would win.

There was no other path.

No matter what they did there was no other path, the person who stepped firmly step by step would win.

And Geihlficlant was that country.

No matter whether you were royalty or noble birth, people with no talents could not be acknowledged. People with no results couldn’t be recognized.

Even if it were the prince, if he did not have the ability to deal with it, his position would have been snatched away by the other nobles.

So he had never relaxed his demands towards himself. He had worked hard at disciplining himself since young. Because he was a just prince recognized by everyone.

And he wanted this country to become stronger, more peaceful.

But suddenly the country that he had never heard of called Gastark appeared, and focused its sights on Geihlficlant.

It was said that they had weapons that no one had ever seen before, up till today.

No, they had used it a few times on their way here.

And because those weapons spit flames, it had killed tens of thousands of his soldiers.

But, even so.

“…We will win.”

He thought.

The Geihlficlant army was already completely pressing back the Gastark army.

Furthermore they had ten times the power of the opposing army. If they had an opening, the Gastark army would be easily scattered in a moment.

And if it became a chaotic battle, the other side couldn’t use that strange weapon too. Because if they continued with their plan, they would suffer damages too.

So it would end like that—Gulafed Abuleld thought.

The shining conqueror of the north, the legend of the Gastark Empire, would end here immediately.

But they would leave a reputation. No matter what they had conquered the northern continent.

But in the history after today, their name would only pass down as part of the Geihlficlant Empire.

“…”

Gulafed smiled.

Then he pulled out the sword at his waist.

His horse galloped forward.

On the battle field that was filled with a few large-scale magics and deaths, he calmly galloped forth.

He was this kind of king.

A king who took up the lives of his comrades.

That was why everyone chose him.

They choose him who was fearless and courageous.

Because he was a king who was protected by the people and soldiers.

So the soldiers who desperately protect their selfless king who rushed to the front lines.

So the army strength increased in a moment. Thousands of soldiers moved at an unbelievable pace.

Then Abuleld smiled happily, raising his sword.

Raising his sword high in the air.

This sword was going to clash with the swords of the Gastark army.

He flew there in a straight line, roaring: “That’s enough, you guys!”

The Geihlficlant soldiers answered with an ear-splitting yell—

“Yes--!!!!”

Because of this earth-shattering cry, the Gastark soldiers trembled.

The world shook.

The earth shook.

With the progress of these soldiers who shouted that they wanted to kill the Gastarkians, everything shook.

So Rize shouted: “Too slow!”

He scolded angrily: “What are Lir and the others doing!”

“…”

But Riphal did not answer.

He only watched the Geihlficlant army that was slowly approaching in a huge mass.

All he could see were the green flags and armours of Geihlficlant and his soldiers.

“…Definitely.”

That country must have an extremely wonderful king. He thought.

Or else there wouldn’t be so many soldiers following him.

Even that military country Stohl, their soldiers had weakly shuffled their feet. But this was to be expected, because the royalty and nobles who were in high positions, didn’t follow them onto the battle ground.

But here.

On this battle ground, the Geihlficlant king was on its front lines.

In these nights and days, no matter how many northern countries he had defeated, this had never happened. But it seemed that the Geihlficlant king was this kind of king.

Furthermore.

“…”

Riphal frowned.

Then he thought.

If everything had not been distorted.

If the Goddesses had not devoured this world, if the Hero had not gone bad, if everything was not twisted, he would want to live in the country that was ruled by that kind of king.

To tell the truth he had never thought of ruling the world, much less have this kind of meaningless war.

Because he hated seeing people die.

Be it his companions or enemies.

Because he hated seeing people die.

This was completely meaningless.

No matter how many people he killed, the ending would still be the same.

In the end a country would take over the world.

But that country would be ruined one day.

And then a new struggle would erupt.

Leaving blood, screams and despair.

And people would immediately forget these.

They would make the same mistake.

He himself had never thought of entering this boring killing cycle.

Even if Stohl had killed his parents, he had opposed revenge.

Because there was no meaning.

He had even advised everyone in the village to have a peaceful life under Stohl’s governance.

But.

“…”

But why was he standing here.

Killing people here.

And killing many people.

It was clearly the worst action.

If no one was seeing, if there were no companions fighting by his side, he would probably hate it so much that he would cry.

I clearly only want to live in peace, why does that world disallow for such a small hope to exist.

Forcing him to move forward.

Making him move forward.

Making him move forward and kill people.

Or else in the end, the whole world would be devoured by the Goddess or something like that.

“…”

At this moment, his companions finally returned.

Lir, Sui and Kuu.

In the beginning he had only sent them to confirm the position of the Geihlficlant king, but for some reason the spy that had followed Kiefer returned at this time. And said that Kiefer had escaped his notice, coming to this battle field for some reason.

Hearing this news, Riphal had frantically plead for Lir and the others to save Kiefer.

Riphal looked at Lir who had returned empty-handed, asking: “…Why didn’t you bring Kiefer back?”

Lir looked down, saying: “She said she didn’t want to return to your side.”

Rize who was standing behind Riphal said: “Huh? Is that woman an idiot? She clearly knows what will happen.”

But if she was so adamant on not returning, there was no choice.

“Did she say she wanted to die with Ryner Lute?” Riphal asked.

Lir replied: “…No, the Solver of All Equations is already…”

“Dead?”

“Is this better to do this?”

Riphal nodded, “…Yes. That’s the case. Anyway I can’t save the Solver of All Equations … Even if you brought him back, I would probably kill him here. But even so… Even so, I still wanted to let them have more time together for Kiefer’s sake…”

But, Ryner Lute was already dead.

And Kiefer still hadn’t left the side of the dead Ryner.

Riphal smiled sadly, saying: “…I’ve been dumped again~”

Lir didn’t say anything.

Sui and Kuu and Rize were silent.

Because they already understood what would happen.

Riphal would swing that big sword.

He would swing Glovil down.

He would swing that cursed Sword of Regeneration .

Then everything here would end.

Half of the Geihlficlant soldiers would probably die. The crowd covering this area would disappear in and instant, it could be possible that they might even see the horizon.

And among that, Kiefer’s life would be ended.

“…”

He clearly said that he hated seeing people die, but his hand…

His cursed hands still…

“…Don’t tell me I have to kill the woman I love…” He muttered with a voice as if he were about to cry.

But that sentence was murmured so low that no one could hear it. No, that probably was the small, weak voice that was filled with hate and cursed fate, that sounded in the deepest corner of his chest.

Then he raised his head.

Because he couldn’t cry.

Because he couldn’t cry, and he couldn’t escape.

So he faced the front.

He found that the Geihlficlant army had already reached in front of him.

So he said: “…Let our comrades retreat. I will end this war.”

Lir nodded.

Rize yelled: “His Majesty is going to use Glovil ! Retreat!”

The Gastark soldiers yelled happily, the shout to kill all of Geihlficlant soldiers spread.

Both sides were shouting “Kill! Kill! Kill!” as they prepared to clash.

And in the middle of these two armies.

“…”

Riphal Edea stood proudly by himself.

Then he pulled out the large sword on his back.

It didn’t seem like humans could use it—

A long…

Long…

Black…

Cursed sword.

He slowly raised the sword above his head, lifting his soldiers.

Raising his head, looking at the man who was galloping towards him amongst the front line of the Geihlficlant army.

That man who wore elegant green armour. He raised his sabre, leading the Geihlficlant army. There was the possibility that this man was that country’s king.

But.

“…”

In Riphal’s eyes, there was no reflection of the Geihlficlant king’s figure.

He only used that remaining eye, to look into the distance.

He looked at the other side of the enemy army.

He looked at the people he was about to kill.

He looked at the lives of comrades.

“…Kiefer she…” He murmured.

And he stopped, he didn’t continue. He squashed what he wanted to say back into his chest.

Because he didn’t have the right to explain himself anymore. He no longer had the right to explain what he wanted to do to the people he was going to kill.

So he could only shout like he usually did.

He shouted with that voice as if he were about to cry—

“I…I am a murderer! I am a king of slaying! If you want to curse me, then come! But, even so, I will still swing this sword. So that I can save more lives than I am going to kill now, I will kill you all here!!”

So he, Glovil —

The scenery warped.

The world warped with a strangely mushy sound.

And Ryner,

"..."

Had seen this same scene before.

He saw something within the depths of darkness.

The scenery being twisted, crushed, wrapped, and colors melting into each other, staining everything red.

Red.

"..."

This was the same scene he saw when he died a while ago. No, the same scene he saw when he thought he died from being stabbed in the chest with a knife.

Then Ryner looked at his hands.

His hands were being stained white.

Not only his hands – but his feet, his chest, his whole body were being stained white as well.

It almost seemed like his own existence was getting weaker – even the outline of his body was fading away.

"...everything is happening the way it did last time..."

He whispered.

Then he looked around.

Everything within his field of vision was being stained red.

And Ryner knew what kind of red it was.

The same shade of red that the pentacle in his eyes had.

A red ceiling.

A crimson floor.

A vermillion wall.

A scarlet corridor the stretches directly ahead.

And Ryner knew where he was.

He was within himself.

Inside his Alpha Stigma .

A monster called Alpha lived here, and...

"..."

A black-haired woman who tried her best to stop its rampage.

And he remembered the woman's face.

He remembered who she was.

Mother.

His own mother.

He didn't know why, but his mother risked her life to prevent the monster from going wild inside Ryner.

Therefore

"..."

Therefore, his mother should be here right now.

And Ryner whispered softly,

"...mother."

But no response came.

There was only the blood-red corridor, stretching infinitely.

So Ryner began walking. He proceeded through the passageway, and saw what he'd seen before.

Beyond the corridor lay an unbelievably huge room.

If I have such a huge and empty hole within me, won't I die of loneliness? These nonsensical thoughts passed through Ryner's head.

That room was red as well.

The sky; the earth; everything was red and wriggled like human insides.

The same as before.

Exactly the same.

Yet somehow different.

Because...

"...there's no voice..."

He said.

Yes.

Last time, a voice came from the skies.

A low and heavy voice that resounded directly in his brain.

It's the same voice that Ryner can only hear when his Alpha Stigma goes berserk, a voice overbearing like that of a god's – however, he can't hear it now.

The red monster who posed as a deity was supposed to live here.

But it wasn't here.

Ryner tried speaking up,

"Is it hiding somewhere...?"

Maybe when Lir gouged out his Alpha Stigma , that monster got devoured by that stone Spunquel and died?

Regardless, nothing was there.

Ryner emerged from the corridor and stepped into the room. He mused to himself as he walked on,

"...maybe everything's a dream? I'm already dead, so I'm seeing things during my last moments...or..."

Am I in hell?

That's one possibility, he thought.

He killed lots of people when his Alpha Stigma went berserk, after all.

Such a monster could never hope for heaven.

And he failed to protect his friends...

"..."

Ferris and Kiefer and Toale and Voice and Arua and Kuku and Sion and – no, he failed pretty much everyone.

Someone like that wouldn't go to heaven after he died.

So,

"...is this hell?"

He whispered, and something replied.

< >

Something replied.

However, the voice came from the heavens. A voice from the skies that battered directly at his head.

But it wasn't the overbearing voice that resounded when his Alpha Stigma went berserk.

This voice sounded somewhat sleepy and lazy.

Ryner lifted up his face and asked,

"Who is it?"

The voice laughed.

"Just 'ahaha' doesn't tell me anything."

And the voice said,

< >

Ryner scowled,

"Where?"

< >

The voice said.

So Ryner turned to the front again, and discovered that the scenery had changed sometime in between.

Not completely – everything was still stained red -, but two people appeared without his notice.

One of them was a woman.

A woman with beautiful and long black hair. A woman with a gentle face. A face that evoked such nostalgia in him, that he was nearly driven to tears just by the sight of her.

It was his mother.

His mother lay on the red floor, looking like she was asleep.

And a man gently held her in his arms.

Ryner took a look at that man.

"..."

And was at a loss of words.

Because...

"..."

The man was himself.

However, he wore strange clothes. Ridiculous ones like that of a clown, and a tear drop was tattooed below his left eye.

He looked towards Ryner with that left eye and smiled gently.

< >

He said in a friendly tone.

Ryner scrutinized the clown that looked exactly like himself, and said

"Who are you?"

The clown merely shrugged his shoulders in reply.

< >

"Huh?"

< >

"I don't get it..."

However, the clown interrupted his words.

<<It's also correct to say that I'm half of "Ryner Eris Reed"[the Lonesome Demon] – the Solver of All Equations. But in the end, I'm still you.>>

He said.

But Ryner couldn't understand what those words meant. Seeing this, the clown smiled kindly.

< >

"Really?"

< >

"I see..."

Ryner said and looked around him,

"So, where's that monster?"

He asked.

The clown replied,

< >

"Yeah."

< >

That's what he said, but Ryner couldn't understand a word.

But it doesn't matter, because he has more important matters to attend to.

"..."

Ryner gazed at the woman lying before him; at the black-haired and gentle-looking woman.

And said,

"...so"

"So, is mother released now? She has been holding back Alpha for my sake, didn't she?"

The clown nodded, and gently caressed his mother's black hair,

< >

He said.

Ryner's eyes widened at this. Pentagrams no longer appeared in his eyes. He opened his curse-free eyes – looking almost as if they've never been cursed in the first place - and ran towards his mother's side.

But the clown said,

< >

He said.

< >

Those were his words.

And Ryner stopped himself. He looked at the woman on the floor.

His mother.

His mother, who risked her life and continued to protect him all these years, even though he himself forgot her name, her face and even her figure.

"...sh-she died?"

He said.

But the clown didn't answer. He merely looked towards Ryner in sympathy.

"..s-she died..but I, I haven't even said anything to..."

However, the clown replied.

< >

"But..."

< >

The clown said.

Ryner stared at the clown who resembled himself,

"I'm...not dead?"

<<That's right. And you have to protect your friends –no, we have to protect our friends. That's what we've decided, right? We want to save everything we see. If even monsters like us can save someone - then we'd want to save everything – we've decided, haven't we?>>

"..."

Hearing those words, he suddenly remembered.

What he should do.

What he had to do from now on.

And who he is.

So Ryner looked at the clown.

He looked at the clown who was the splitting image of himself, and said.

"You are..."

He felt the depths of his chest shake.

The very insides of his chest trembled.

Then he opened his mouth.

And his voice,

<<...I am...I am a demon who became mad to save Sion, huh...>>

His voice came from the heavens.

"..."

Ryner opened his eyes.

He saw the faces of his friends.

The faces of Ferris and Kiefer.

Both of them looked on the brink of crying.

No, they were actually crying.

They were crying and pushing Derunio onto his body like everything depended on it.

And they hadn't realized that Ryner was awake already.

"..."

On the side, Toale was talking to Vois with a troubled face.

And Ryner tried to say,

"...ah~"

He tried to speak up,

"...I'm beat."

Ferris and Kiefer turned around in an instant. Their eyes widened in surprise.

"Ryner!?"

Kiefer shouted and embraced him.

And Ferris...

"..."

She hurriedly tried to wipe her tears, but her attempts only made it worse. She turned away and shouted in anger.

"I-idiot! You sure took your sweet time!"

Ryner smiled wryly.

Toale came towards him with a happy face and extended his hand.

Ryner took it and pulled himself upright. He now realized that he's standing in a sea of blood. He was probably healed by Derunio absorbing the blood here.

His left arm was attached. His right arm was torn into shreds and missing, but the wound had closed, at least.

Ryner glanced at his arm, and immediately turned towards his two comrades.

As expected, Kiefer and Ferris were drenched in blood from standing in that sea of blood.

"...sorry. I made you worry."

Ryner whispered.

Ferris still refused to turn around and didn't even give him a reply.

"Ah~ That's great. So you did wake up, as expected."

Vois butted in, and Ryner turned towards him.

" 'As expected' my ass. You lied, didn't you?"

Vois smiled at his words, and tilted his head.

"About what?"

"About my eyes and what the Goddess said about them. What was it again? Er, Alpha is..."

Vois gleefully finished the sentence.

"Alpha – the power of destruction that lies within you is one of the most powerful types – was that what you meant? Yes. That was a complete lie."

Vois admitted curtly, even though he lied about an important thing that he really shouldn't have.

Ryner replied with a bored face.

"Don't screw with me. Alpha escaped."

Vois seemed a bit surprised at this.

"Hmm. So Alpha escaped...because it's afraid of Glovil?"

He asked, but Ryner shook his head.

And Vois grinned happily.

"Afraid of you?"

He asked, his expression smug as if he expected everything.

"..."

Ryner was getting more annoyed by the minute, so he stopped replying.

But, Vois kept speaking.

"So, did you find out who you are?"

"..."

"Everything went according to my words, right? If you came here, you'd find out..."

"...ahh geez. Shut up. Stop making such a big deal about it."

Ryner said, and Vois replied

"Well, you're having a talk with me later, but at least answer me this. I'm sure everyone here wants an answer..."

Vois paused. Ryner felt a slightly nervous air around Vois.

So, when Vois said

"...it's about Glovil, can you..."

Ryner interrupted.

"I can deal with it."

He detached himself from Kiefer's embrace and turned around. He stared at the real world he had come back to. A world filled with slaughter.

He gazed at the battlefield with eyes whose sight should've been stolen by Lir.

"..."

A tear shape floated within his eyes. A tear drop that flickered in blue, red, white, and all the iridescent colors.

Reflected in those eyes were things beyond this world.

The composition of all magic.

The composition of all humans.

The composition of all matter.

The composition of all Rule Fragments can be seen.

And he knew how to undo them.

Vois questioned from behind.

"...so, in the end, who are you?"

"A lonesome demon who happened to be very good at solving puzzles."

Ryner said without turning around.

He stared into the distance.

And saw, in the distance, a monster being born.

Perhaps no one else can see this scene. Maybe, not even the Gastarkians who summoned that could see it.

The scene is happening in a world overlapping with reality, but different.

A giant snake descended from the skies. A snake with white scales, whose body is huge enough to cover the entire sky.

The snake opened its mouth. From its mouth, another monster – no, the face of a beautiful girl with long, pink hair appeared and said

< >

The girl cast her voice downwards.

A quiet, quiet, quiet, yet overbearing voice.

A cursed voice that resounds directly in a human's head.

< >

Her voice coaxed.

The monster cast her voice downwards, and coaxed the feeble human.

And the contractor answered. The contractor replied, sacrificing his own body to gain power.

It seemed like the weapon Glovil had to be activated that way.

A human, offering his life to the monster to unlock its true power.

And the girl laughed.

She seemed to be laughing at the foolish antics of man.

She laughed softly, looking down on everything.

And

<<...the contract is finished. Releasing my power.>>

After she said that, a red light appeared from afar.

A light in the shade of blood was released violently into the world.

Ryner began,

"...everyone step back. I'm cancelling Glovil's mag..."

But his words stopped.

Because another voice came from the skies.

<<Ha, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha>>

It was a voice he knew very well.

One that he heard over and over again.

The voice that descended whenever Ryner's Alpha Stigma went berserk.

The voice of the monster that kept tormenting him.

"..."

No, the monster that killed his mother-

" Alpha , huh..."

Ryner said and looked up towards that voice.

And it was there.

The monster that he once met in his eyes.

A beast as big as Glovil's floating body descended towards him.

Red skin in the shade of blood.

Eyes even redder than that.

Vermillion pentacles in the depths of its eyes.

Sharp fangs.

Sharp claws.

Gigantic wings.

However, those wings weren't flapping. They were merely swaying lazily, and the beast ignored gravity as is floated down slowly.

No, the concept of gravity that governs the plane of humans might not even exist in this world.

Ferris, Kiefer and the others probably couldn't see the monster. No, Ryner himself wouldn't be able to see it either if not for the power of the Solver of All Equations in his eyes.

All they heard were voices coming from the sky.

Voices like that of gods' descended from the sky, and humans feared.

However, Ryner looked up at Alpha with bored eyes.

Seeing that, Alpha smiled with its mouthful of teeth.

<<Ha, hahaha, ahahahaha, so you see me, so you see me, demon...so finally, you have stepped beyond the boundaries of man, just like that mad hero...>>

Ryner interrupted.

"Shut up, monster."

<<Bold words. But what can a mere human do by gaining just a bit of power? You're no longer protected by Artofaal. Nothing stands against my power now.>>

The beast finished, and bit into his own wings. He tore out his own teeth and sank his arms into his chest.

And gradually, the seal that had restricted the monster began to break. The restraints that his mother cast on the monster to hold him back – to prevent it from going on a rampage and killing Ryner – were being torn off.

And another monster tried to come out from the beast's body. The beast's chest was ripped apart and torn open,

"..."

And a giant spider with a human-like head emerged from within. Its whole body was red. A giant spider with a blood-red body. The spider opened its mouth and began devouring the body of the beast which looked like the demons in fairytales. It began devouring the Curse of Artofaal that Ryner's mother created.

And the human-like head above its mouth looked towards Ryner.

Actually, the face didn't have eyes, so Ryner didn't know whether it's staring at him or not, but it definitely turned towards him.

Ryner looked back.

At the face without eyes, a nose, a mouth or ears. It was simply an egg-shaped and blood-red head, and infinite amounts of pentacles that shone even redder appeared and disappeared before it.

And that head, with all its flickering pentacles, looked towards him. Looked down on him.

Ryner scowled.

"So that's your true form."

As expected, Alpha laughed. "Hahahahahahaha". It laughed with a powerful voice that made heads spin.

And...

< >

However, Ryner extended his hand.

And with his eyes - eyes that were shining with prism tears -, he looked up at the ugly spider and muttered.

"...how would I call you? Hah! You're just a spider, aren't you?"

He said and moved his fingers slightly. A light appeared at his fingertip.

Then he looked up.

"...the spider's..."

And even turned his gaze towards the snake on the other side.

"And the snake's equations analyzed. Terminating their existences..."

But stopped right there.

He saw something grasping his left arm.

It was woman's arm.

At first, he thought that it belonged to Ferris or Kiefer.

But immediately dismissed that idea.

After all, humans shouldn't be able to come to this unnatural world.

So, who...

Who is it...

"..."

Ryner looked towards the woman grabbing his arm.

But it wasn't a woman.

No, it wasn't even human.

It had a long hair and a nicely shaped body.

But it didn't have eyes. It had eyeholes, but no eyes. Insect-like beings gushed out from its eyeholes, and it bit on Ryner's arm with its horizontal mouth filled with teeth.

"...a Goddess huh."

Ryner scowled and turned his gaze towards the Goddess .

"Terminating existence..."

But stopped again. He felt a great pain in his right shoulder. Something tore into him.

One after each other, his legs, back and neck were being torn into.

Ryner turned around in response.

And saw dozens of the Goddess' monsters.

Then, voices came down again.

Alpha's voice.

Voices of the Goddesses' doubles.

<<Don't get cocky, demon...we've decided to finish you off here...resistance is futile...you...all of you are going to perish here.>>

They said.

And Alpha released one vermillion pentacle from his face.

Not towards Ryner, but the ground.

The pentacle engraved itself on the earth.

And the ground twisted with red.

A hole opened from the distortion, and what looked like brown dirt gushed out. Then came the soldiers with green armor. Then the blue sky. Then the voices of humans.

Everything was being turned inside out, with the hole as the center. The alternate world was slowly transformed into the real world.

However, Alpha was still there.

An unbelievably huge spider monster, whose existence shouldn't even be allowed in the human world, appeared.

Just by raising its leg, soldiers around the spider were blown to smithereens, before they even touched its leg.

Humans were rendered speechless before such an unusual sight.

Speechless before the appearance of a monster that looked like it came straight from a fairytale.

But the screams began immediately.

The screams of madness began immediately.

<<Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaahahahahahahhaaaaaaahahahah know fear, humans! Tremble, humans! I am God, demon, devil, hero, a monster who'll slaughter all of you...come, scream for me!>>

Alpha roared.

It released vermillion pentacles from its face into all directions. When they hit humans, their blood boiled and exploded from within.

It was different from the power that Ryner used before. When he went berserk and released pentacles, the power within them was different.

Most likely, Alpha was merely abusing the power of the Solver of All Equations .

"...now you're just a monster."

Ryner groaned.

Ferris' voice came from behind.

"W-what is that..."

Ryner didn't turn around.

"The monster within me."

"Why is it out here?"

"Because I'm weak. But I'll stop it now."

"But, such a monster..."

However, Ryner interrupted her words.

"Hey, Ferris..."

"Hmm?"

"I've always made you worry, and you were the one who kept protecting me, but this time, I'll..."

He said.

"I'll do the protecting."

With those words, he took at step forward. His body felt incredibly heavy. The Goddess' doubles were swarming around his body and tearing into him in the alternate world, and he found it a bit hard to move.

But he ignored that and moved forward. Then he extended his hand towards Alpha .

Alpha laughed at this.

He laughed madly.

< >

Ryner ignored the words that Alpha cast down, and weaved light patterns in the air with his finger.

However, the spider monster still laughed.

<< I said you can't do it! Your power is too immense, so you can't use it in this world. If you do, you'll erase the entire landscape. So, you won't use your power. That's why I chose this place for your burial. Because you, with your weak and fragile heart, can't kill humans...you can only kill that monstrous snake in the alternate world. You can't kill...>>

Someone spoke up behind him.

"...you can do it. Right, Ryner?"

Vois said.

"You are our king. If you saved us here, then you'd truly be our king, both in name and..."

But Ryner interrupted him.

He cut off Vois' words.

"It's not about big things like that. The spider was right. I am a weak human. Not a monster, just a fragile human. And because humans are sad creatures...because they're weak and sad creatures, they cannot choose everything."

He said, and remembered Sion's face.

Sion, who was smiling as tears flowed down his cheeks in the rain.

He kept making choices.

The ones that are the hardest to make.

And in the end, he cried. He cried, and disappeared.

But if he was really that troubled, why didn't he talk to me? That's what I thought.

Why didn't he tell me to save him? I thought.

He said that I'm his greatest friend.

He said that I'm his companion.

Why did he heave all those burdens upon himself?

"..."

But, I was wrong.

He couldn't have talked to me.

Because I..

"..."

I didn't bear anything.

All I did was run away.

I selfishly proclaimed that I wanted to save everything, but all I did was run away without shouldering anything.

That's why Sion disappeared while crying.

But it's different now.

It'll be different from now on.

I wanted to stand beside him – not just by talk – but truly stand beside him.

But for that, I need to shoulder my own burdens.

I need to move on.

"If...if I'm not a monster, but a human..."

I need to move on.

Because I like Ferris.

Because I like Kiefer.

Because I like Toale.

Vois...well, I wonder?

And Milk, and Lafra, and Arua, and Kuku, and Fahl, Tyle, Toni, and Sion as well.

"Because I like humans...so..."

Ryner said and raised his hand.

He felt something on his face. Felt his own tears flowing down his cheek.

However, he still said,

"So, I'll move on."

And released a light from his fingertip.

A light that undoes all equations.

For an instant, Alpha looked surprised. But it really was for an instant.

Alpha was caught in the light immediately, and its very existence was erased.

But the light didn't stop there.

It couldn't be controlled by Ryner's will anymore. Slowly but surely, like a pandemic, the light spread out into the world.

It expanded in front of Ryner in the shape of a fan.

And the humans touched by the light all turned into sand.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

Hundreds of thousands.

An unbelievable amount of humans were erased by the light and turned into sand.

And the light clashed with the red light that Glovil unleashed.

By that time, almost no one was left in front of Ryner.

Glovil's light and Ryner's light had killed most of them.

Then, Glovil's and Ryner's powers negated each other and disappeared.

"..."

It seems like their powers were almost equal.

And only despair remained.

Nothing that resembled a human figure could be seen.

More than a million people were erased, but the plains merely stretched on as if nothing had happened.

The sky was clear.

Most relaxing.

Ryner looked at the sky

"...I killed..."

He began, but was cut off by Ferris.

"No! You...you just protected us!"

She shouted.

She shouted with all her might.

Ryner smiled bitterly at that.

He smiled bitterly at her kindness. Normally, she'd swing around her sword and never stop yapping about dango, but at times like this, she'd be so kind. He felt like crying. But he won't. Not anymore.

"Yeah..."

He merely nodded.

"Yeah, you're right."

He merely nodded.

And mused to himself.

He killed to protect his friends.

That's...alright. It's a reason that he can accept, he thought.

But it's not something that he should do, whether he accepted it or not. It's not something he can forgive himself for. There's no way he can live on smiling sheepishly after killing more than a million people.

That's why Sion cried.

And even the King of Gastark-

Even Rephael Edea must be moving forward while crying, isn't he? Ryner thought faintly.

But nothing is going to change by just thinking about it.

Ryner closed his eyes.

And moved his consciousness into the alternate world again.

As usual, the Goddess' doubles were biting into his body.

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

"..well, that's that. What are you going to do about it?"

He said.

And the Goddess' doubles shivered in fear.

<<...you monster...>>

They say.

But Ryner smiled sadly.

"Sorry, but I'm a human, saddeningly so."

He said, and grabbed one of the Goddesses that was tearing into him.

" Disappear. "

And it was done.

All the Goddesses detached themselves from Ryner

< >

They said.

"Then go. But tell this to your boss – since you guys bullied Sion, I'm not going to forgive you."

Ryner said. He raised his hands, and lowered his voice

"...tell her that I'll come and kill her one day."

And the Goddess' doubles hurriedly ran away from the alternate world that Ryner had created.

Ryner nodded and looked at the sky again.

The snake monster was still there.

A girl's head emerged from its mouth and smiled. Her hair was the same shade as that of the Gastarkians.

Then

-I thought I could meet you here. Hello, Mister Demon.

She said.

Ryner replied,

"Who are you? The structure of your equation is a bit different from that of the Goddesses or Alpha ..."

The girl answered:

-I am Glovil. The lover of Riphal Edea.

"Lover?"

-Yes. I am a woman sent forth for the sole purpose of crossing with him.

"...sole purpose of crossing...um, I'm not really getting it...but, you're a monster, right?"

-Ahaha.

"Well, 'ahaha' doesn't really tell me anything...ah~ geez. So, you knew you can meet me here, and what did you come for?"

Ryner asked, and the girl answered.

-I just came to see. To see whether we can kill the mad demon. Whether we can kill the mad hero. In truth, the Goddesses aren't the enemy. The ones who mess up this world are always you two.

"..."

Ryner narrowed his eyes at her words.

He couldn't understand what the girl was saying.

"...the ones who mess up the world are always the demon and the hero? That..."

-Don't think too hard about it. You're mad with love anyways, so you won't reach the right conclusion. But...right. It's a bit troubling. Your power is beyond my expectations...

She stopped, and looked like she had a sudden epiphany.

-Well, I'm still glad that I could meet you. I wonder, will I meet you again, or will I meet the hero next? I don't know, but that's it for today. I'm going back to my beloved hero's sword. So, see you.

The girl said and returned to the snake's mouth.

And the snake disappeared.

Ryner looked at the empty space it left behind.

"..."

Suddenly, his body lost all strength. He couldn't even stand anymore. He fell on his knees and onto the ground.

"Ryner!?"

He vaguely heard Kiefer shouting.

Ryner opened his eyes.

And returned to the real world again.

Kiefer and Toale were trying their best to support Ryner, who was crumbling to the ground.

He looked at their faces.

"...ah, sorry. I'm just really worn out, and sorta sleepy..."

He said, and Toale smiled.

And so did Kiefer, who looked to be on the verge of tears.

"Ryner, you're always sleepy."

She forced herself to say in a bright voice.

A voice that conveyed her feelings, that she didn't mind what Ryner just did.

"..."

And Ryner was deep in thought.

Maybe he really isn't a monster anymore, he thought.

Because he was loved and helped by such kind companions, and maybe, simply by being amongst them, he'd become human.

Of course, he had committed an unforgivable sin.

He can't turn back now, for he had opened the gates of hell.

Despite all that, he realized that he was still human.

"..."

He was a weak, sad human that would kill to protect his friends, after all.

"..."

He realized that Ferris was looking at him behind Kiefer. Looking at him with a somewhat incompetent face that spoke of both her desire to come forth and her hesitance to do so.

To think that they'd want to stay at the side of a monster who just killed over a million people..such idiots.

But in the end, all humans are idiots.

Including himself, all of them are idiots, saddeningly so.

Imperfect beings that would hurt one another if they got too close, but would also die of loneliness if they weren't at each other sides.

So, Ryner smiled.

He smiled gently at her.

"..."

And Ferris gladly returned his smile.

And the battle ended.

An unusual battle in which over a million soldiers disappeared in an instant; in which a gigantic spider went on a rampage, had come to an end.

And this piece of news spread throughout the world like fire.

With an impact that far surpassed the news of Gastark defeating the Steol Empire, this piece of information made its way throughout the world.

Accompanied by rumors and highly exaggerated retellings, it was passed on from person to person.

And the entire structure of the world is threatening to change-

"......"

But the leader had realized that it would come to this.

She said that a demon was about to be born.

A sad, lonesome demon who is easily driven to tears.

She said that he was a weak being who'd die immediately if left alone.

A weak being who'd die right away if no one helped him.

Because he was too kind.

He was too kind, and he loved the hero too much-

He'd be driven mad immediately.

That's why

"...I have to come and get you."

He, Tiir Rumibul, whispered.

## A Note that isn’t the Afterword

So this volume, was ended in a super—passionate atmosphere. But this time there is a small chapter called “From Reminiscing to the Future”. Although I was scolded by my editor, I’ve already written 347 pages, what short chapter do you still want to publish, are you an idiot! (Laugh)

But this was mentioned in the previous advertisement, in the process of the story, because the story is progressing too quickly, in the end it wasn’t able to appear in here!

So unknowingly it became “that short chapter wouldn’t be chosen!” this situation, in the end we received many letters requesting for the short chapter to be recorded, and this is one of the volumes that I like, so I requested for the editor to put this in.

About the time, it should be when Ryner and the others just left Nelpha.

Ah, and there is the afterword, so let’s meet later.

## From Reminiscing To The Future

His companions were laughing.

They were laughing seemingly very happily.

Although he didn’t know why they were so happy.

But, everyone was celebrating.

“…”

Ryner Lute looked at his companions, narrowing his eyes as if complaining it was troublesome, but in the end he himself smiled happily.

This was an inn.

An old inn hidden deep in an alley.

It was an inn that he would frequent, when he was still a student of an unknown school the Roland Imperial Military Special Institute.

At that time he would occasionally visit this inn with Fahle, Tyle, Toni, Kiefer and Sion.

And now Fahle, Tyle, Toni and Kiefer were happily celebrating in this inn. As everyone celebrated, Fahle was giving out information as she talked about Tyle falling in love with a girl from somewhere, so their companions were asking about the details.

“…”

After Ryner watched this happy scene, he turned around to leave.

At this moment, there was a sound of a man chasing after him, “Hey Ryner. You’re sneaky thinking of slipping off by yourself.”

Ryner turned around, finding Sion behind him.

Long silver hair, steady golden eyes.

Sion Astal.

Now called the Hero King of Roland Empire, Ryner’s close friend.

He said: “Unless you want me to stay with these drunks by myself?”

Ryner smiled again, “Aren’t you good at drinking.”

“No no, lately I can’t drink that much.”

“Because you lack sleep?”

“Yes, because I’m lacking in sleep.”

Looking at Sion’s tired face, Ryner slumped his shoulders, “Who is the one who told you to work hard like an idiot.”

Sion raised an eyebrow, asking: “Is there?”

Ryner said helplessly: “It’s not the degree of saying is there. Tell me, how many days have you not slept?”

“Eh~”

“Hey, you’ve worked through the night until you forgot how many days. Really, enough enough, today you’ll simply get drunk and go home and sleep. That may be better for you.”

Sion grabbed Ryner’s shoulder as he smiled, saying: “Then, at least you’ll stay with me till the end. Exiting in the middle by yourself, I wouldn’t allow it as your mother?”

Kiefer joined in from behind, “As your father I wouldn’t allow it!”

It seemed that she was quite drunk, her face had even turned completely red. Shoulder-length red hair, red eyes that were glazed because she was drunk, and a blushing cute face. Ryner looked at Kiefer, wanted to complain “Hey hey, who’s my dad, who’s my mum”.

But, he didn’t manage to say this, a red-haired muscled idiot who had been drinking in the middle of the inn shouted, “It’s settled, as the punishment for wanting to escape, you will drink the strongest wine in the shop!”

Ryner wanted to look at the person, but before that, from the other side of the inn, there was an even stranger voice.

“Yes! Then I will eat these dangos at the same tiiiiiime!”

Ryner looked in the direction of the voice.

He found that there was a beautiful blond woman with blue eyes, with dango boxes scattered around where she was.

That was his partner—Ferris Eris.

Unless Ferris had drunk wine too? Her cheeks were red, her slim eyes were drooping, she had a slightly dazed expression, there were several dango strands in both her hands, shouting loudly for some reason: “I love dangos the mooooooooooooooooooooost!”

It was clear that it was an incomprehensible sentence, but for some reason, the whole inn also responded eagerly with “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh”.

It was so enthusiastic that Ryner who was not drunk completely could not keep up with the situation.

And not only Fahl, Tyle, Toni, Roland’s side still had their girlfriend Noa, Eslina there. Not only that, even that impossibly idiotic messenger with a spear, the swindler siblings, Toale, Ferris and Sion were here.

Even more strange, was that Lafra and Pueka who were bearers of god’s eyes like him where there.

Here, this many companions were celebrating happily.

“…”

Ryner had a confused expression as if he did not know what to do, asking: “Really, what’s wrong with everyone tonight. Why are they so happy?”

Sion turned around, looking over with his usual tired expression because of work, answering: “…Because this is what you wanted.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Did I say for everyone to come to this inn?”

But Sion didn’t answer this question, only looking at Ryner’s eyes sadly, then winked at the middle of the inn.

As if wanting to let Ryner confirm what had happened here, he looked in the middle of the inn.

Ryner nodded too, turning to look in the middle of the inn.

He looked at the scene where everyone was celebrating.

Companions, friends, people that he had a bad relationship with that made him annoyed, everyone, everyone, was happily celebrating there.

Just by looking at this scene, Ryner smiled again. Drinking wine with these group of annoying people was really so troublesome~

“…”

But he felt like there was something wrong. There was something about this place that felt like the gears weren’t turning smoothly.

Why, would he feel that?

Why would he have this sense of insecurity now?

He tried to think.

“…”

Then he immediately found the strange spot.

Ah, I see, he thought.

He looked at the faces of a few companions in the inn. Fahle, Toni, Tyle they should have died a long time ago.

On that battle ground.

On the battle ground where even Ryner and these Roland students had been forcefully sent, they were dead a long time ago.

No, not only that.

Lafra should have died too. After he had handed the organization of god’s eyes to Ryner, he had been killed by the bastards from Gastark. But he was now happily talking with his childhood friend. That childhood girl friend should have been killed a long time ago, but now the two of them were happily talking now.

And others, quite a few others, who should be dead, were sitting there smiling happily.

“…”

Looking at this scene.

“…”

Looking at this strange scene.

“…”

Ryner said.

“…Ah, damnit. Yes… this is actually a dream.”

As he said that, suddenly, a feeling of reality returned to his body. Finally understanding that he himself had been abandoned in the distance a long time ago.

Because of the death of companions.

Because of Sion’s leaving.

Because Sion ordered soldiers, to kill thousands of Ryner’s companions.

Because even though how hard he struggled to work hard, but it was still slowly, slowly becoming a world that was becoming worse.

So.

So Ryner murmured: “…I see. It’s a dream.”

He looked at the happy scene that was almost unthinkable, sadly muttering: “…It’s a dream.”

Sion looked over, shrugging. He still had a tired face. Was it because he was still working through the night like an idiot, or was it because while appreciating this scene he had accidentally pressed the ‘sad’ button, causing the world to brush past them?

“…”

It was probably, the latter.

Because clearly not long ago, he had still been smiling by their side.

Clearly not long ago, he had been shouting have mercy on me, as he smiled, because of Ferris’ treatment, Sion’s teasing.

“…”

Ryner said.

“Then, you’re a dream too.”

Sion said: “Next.”

“Am I not wrong?”

Sion moved his eyes away from Ryner, “…I don’t care if it’s not real, it doesn’t have any meaning? Anyway this is only a dream. If you open your eyes, reality will start again. And my connection with you has already…”

Sion stopped.

But Ryner didn’t want to listen to this anymore. He didn’t want to think about this in his dream.

So Ryner looked at the middle of the inn that Sion was looking at.

A scene that was so happy that it was unfair.

It was like an amusement park’s scene.

Sion didn’t turn around, saying: “…Then, Ryner. This it—the world that your heart wishes for.”

Ryner smiled bitterly, “Because it can never appear, so are you preparing to make fun of me?”

But Sion shook his head, turning around, revealing an expression as if he were about to cry, “No…If it can be done just by wishing, I would have wanted a world like this.”

“Is that so.”

“Yeah.”

“Then.”

Ryner said.

“Then, I always feel… it’s very sad.”

Sion nodded, saying: “…That’s true.”

Then the two of them looked into the inn. Looking at the happy faces of those dead people.

Looking at the people who had become enemies but were toasting each other and talking.

No, it should be said.

“…”

It should be said, now Ryner and Sion, had become enemies.

At the center of different powers.

At the center of opposing powers.

And by the side of Sion and Ryner, there were people dying continuously.

Those people had been involved in the war between two people, then died, died, died, died, died—

They were dead!

Dead!!

“…”

That scene seemed to burn up in his mind again.

People being cut open.

People being burnt.

People dying so easily.

Companions dying so easily.

Looking at this scene, Ryner couldn’t help but want to shout “stop joking!”

He couldn’t help but want to shout “this isn’t a joke!”

But before he could speak, people died again.

So what did this count for, he thought.

What does this count for! Ryner thought.

And the one who killed my companions, was actually Sion.

It was actually Sion who was his close friend.

Sion he.

Sion he had cried, as he moved forward.

“…”

Then killing Ryner’s companions.

Destroying Ryner’s important things.

But.

But Ryner said: “…Really, I want to give up…”

“Ha ha.” Sion replied with laughing dryly as if he were about to cry.

“Because I’m tired?”

“…”

“I should say that it’s more like I can’t handle it, it’s so painful that I’m almost crying.”

“…”

“Really, why did it become like this.”

“…”

“I really like you.”

“…”

“Although I never said it in your face… But I was rescued by you so many times, I’ve always treated you as a close friend.”

“…”

“But… but. But… you killed so many of my companions…Even if it were me I couldn’t continue to keep silent?”

Hearing Ryner say that, Sion looked over. He looked at Ryner’s black eyes, a weak smile had appeared on that face that was about to cry, saying: “Then, are you going to kill me?”

Ryner shook his head, “I want to save you.”

“Ha ha.”

“I’m serious?”

“…It seems to be the case. In contrast you’re the most serious when you say something foolish like this.”

Sion turned around at this point, turning his back on him. Even his back, gave of a tired feeling.

Then he said: “…But I will continue to kill people even after today.”

“I won’t let you kill them.”

“I’ll kill your companions.”

“I said I won’t let you kill them.”

“Then in the future. In the place ahead where I will be progressing, progressing, progressing, if I can meet you again, will you still be able to smile at me?” Sion said.

If we can meet again.

Because this sentence.

“…”

Because of Sion’s sentence, Ryner smiled happily.

Then he smiled as he answered: “…I’m sorry, I probably wouldn’t smile.”

“That’s true.”

“Yeah.”

“Then.”

Sion took one step forward, leaving Ryner’s side, following that, his outline slowly, slowly, became fainter.

It seemed like the dream was about to end.

Sion’s figure slowly became faint, until it couldn’t be seen.

In the end, what was left was his farewell.

“Then.”

His figure vanished, the dream should end here.

“Then, the next time I see you, will definitely be on the battle ground.”

Sadly murmuring this, Sion Astal disappeared in front of Ryner.

◆

So Ryner woke up.

“…”

After opening his eyes, the usual reality appeared in front of his eyes.

This was a temporary living quarter that Vois had prepared for the tired Nelpha soldiers and people who were escaping from the Roland army.

It was one of the temporary resting quarters that the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers were using in the Republic of Belis.

No, although it was a hostel, actually it was only a small tent with a few roughly made things like a simple bed.

But even so, to the people and soldiers who had been escaping from the Roland army, who had finally reached the Republic of Belis by passing through the Imperial Nelpha, Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, the Southern Country of Ali, this was a satisfactory hostel.

“…”

Looking at the top of the tent, Ryner thought about the dream he’d just had.

He thought about the tiring dream that he just had.

Then he gave a slight sigh.

“…”

But, he still didn’t know what to say.

“…Ryner?”

At this moment, a woman’s voice spoke in his tent. Ryner remembered this voice.

The voice had appeared in his dream too.

Kiefer’s voice.

So Ryner looked to the owner of the voice.

He found a red-haired woman standing in the entrance to the tent. She looked at him in concern.

Looking at her, Ryner said: “…Ha~ Kiefer, morning.”

She nodded, “Good morning.”

“What is it?”

Kiefer smiled adorably, saying: “Good boy, I’m here to have a secret relationship with you.”

As expected she said it as if she were embarrassed, her face immediately turned red.

Ryner looked at Kiefer, then looked at the bright sunlight outside the tent, saying: “…Starting a secret relationship in the afternoon?”

Kiefer laughed embarrassedly, “I was joking.”

“It would be troublesome if you were serious.”

“Ah? You actually said it was troublesome having a secret relationship with a cute girl~”

Looking at Kiefer who puffed up her cheeks approaching him, Ryner sat up, as expected there was a slight trace of concern on her face.

Because of that, Ryner finally felt that he understood why Kiefer was forcing herself to say that she had come to have a secret relationship with him.

“…That, have I slept for a long time?”

She nodded her head, “Too amazing!”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Looking at Kiefer’s concerned face as she nodded frantically, Ryner smiled bitterly, “…Ah, what is going on~ I had a dream that I was attacked by a terrifying snake monster.”

“Snake monster?”

“Yeah. When I was at the I’ll be killed~ Save me mother~, I woke up.”

Hearing such a foolish dream, Kiefer laughed out loud, “What that~ is like a child’s dream.”

“Right? But it was a really terrifying dream.”

“Oh?”

She nodded, then leaned closer to Ryner, taking out a handkerchief, drying the sweat on Ryner’s face.

Then she said: “Hey, Ryner.”

“Eh?”

“Um.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have to force yourself to say an outrageous lie. Because I heard Ryner yell Sion’s name in his sleep?”

“…Eh…” Ryner could only respond like that.

Feeling like his lie had been seen through, Ryner secretly considered Kiefer.

She was still looking at him in concern, asking: “…Are you alright?”

Ryner frantically said: “It’s nothing. Or I should say, I’m not troubled…”

Kiefer ignored Ryner’s explanation, leaning even more closer.

“Didn’t I say you didn’t need to lie? When you feel pain if you don’t say it honestly, it will be tiring? Ryner is always carrying everything alone. Try to let me handle some of your troubles?” She said, as she touched Ryner’s face, Ryner’s neck, in the end seeming to hug him like that.

Ryner yelled, “Hey waaaaaaaaaaaiiit. That, ah? Ki, Kiefer? That, what is…”

“Hey idiot Ryner! It’s already noon! Get up!”

At this moment, there was another familiar voice, the opening to the tent was swept open.

A beautiful blond woman came in. Her slim clear blue eyes widened as if in surprise.

“…”

Perhaps those blue eyes were seeing, this scene.

Ryner on the bed and Kiefer wanting to hug Ryner—this scene.

So Ryner said: “Ah~ No, Kiefer, this…”

But his words were stopped.

Because that beautiful blond woman who had entered the tent—Ferris Eris said: “D, da, daaaaaaangeeeer!”

Then she rushed forward at a speed where her body disappeared, raising her fist and aiming it at Ryner’s face. Ryner was sent flying with this fist, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh he yelled as he fell on the ground.

“How dangerous. A poor girl almost became a sacrifice of the big pervert demon king. Are you alright, Miss?” Ferris said these strange lines to Kiefer.

Kiefer said with a surprised expression: “This… that”

And Ferris ignored her, continuing: “That man is a scary monster that can make soldiers pregnant regardless of gender just by running on the battle field! Then, please escape! Escape quickly! Escape, escape, and escape, in the end please escape to a dango store by the street called Wynitt, and buy a pile of dangos back for me.”

As expected she was still saying stuff that had no meaning.

“…”

Ryner was lazy to go and argue with her.

He only rubbed his aching cheek, climbing up from the floor, then noticing the people who were frantically running around outside the tent.

Ryner looked at Ferris and Kiefer, asking: “Then, what do the two of you want? You both should be here to call me up, right?”

The two nodded at the same time.

Kiefer said: “Because we have to separate we will temporarily release some of the people from Nelpha—so that it would be easier for the Republic of Belis to take them in. Now they should be starting to disband the organization…”

Ferris continued, “Anyway like what I said, that Wynitt dango store on the street seems to be good. Let’s go eat.”

It was a conversation that completely did not make sense.

“…”

Ryner nodded, looking to Kiefer as he said: “I see. Because Vois and Toale need to discuss about the direction we will take after today so they want me to go over?”

“Yes.”

“Then, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Kiefer and Ryner nodded, preparing to walk out of the tent.

“You’re not allowed to ignore me--!”

Ferris pulled out a large sword like expected, swinging it at Ryner, wanting to strike Ryner’s head.

“Ah, annoying~” Ryner said, as he wanted to dodge the blow.

But he was still unable to avoid it as usual, when the sword’s blade was about to strike Ryner’s face.

It should have struck his face.

“…”

But for some reason, the sword did not touch Ryner’s face, but it stopped one centimeter from his cheek.

“Ah?” Ryner said.

He looked at Ferris, looking at her icy face that revealed no emotions, asking: “Ah? Why?”

“Why did the sword stop? It’s not like your style.”

And Ferris did not say anything, only kept her sword, revealing a little, only a little bored expression.

Anyone else would not be able to feel it, the small change in expression.

With that bored expression, she looked at Ryner, then looked at Kiefer, then looked lastly at Ryner.

“…”

For some reason, she suddenly left without saying anything.

“Ah? Ah? That…” Ryner wanted to stop her, but Ferris didn’t turn back, walking out like this.

“…”

Ryner looked at Ferris’ back dazedly, then asked Kiefer: “…That, what happened just now?”

Kiefer had a slightly troubled expression, it seemed that she should know why, so when Ryner was about to ask about that—

“Ryner, do you have time to spare?”

Someone called him from outside the tent.

This was the original Nelpha Prince, Toale Nelphi’s voice.

Ryner replied: “…Ah, no problem, I’ll come out now.”

After coming out from the tent, Ryner discovered that the outside world was like the wandering nomads everywhere had tents pitched. Now thousands of Nelpha soldiers and people were staying here.

But they weren’t able to leave these people here.

Ryner and the others needed to continue north, they were unable to bring these people on the battle field.

Since they weren’t able to bring them along, they needed to find a plan for them to live properly.

Ryner looked at the tent, looking at Toale.

Brown hair, honest eyes, Ryner looked at Toale, saying: “…Morning, Toale.”

“Good morning, Ryner. You were working late last night, I’m sorry for waking you.”

Ryner put out his hands in an accepting gesture. Talking about this Toale was the one, he didn’t seem to have slept lately.

No, it should be said, everyone here, no one could sleep peacefully. Being chased by Roland, involved in war, family people dying in front of their eyes, companions dying, lovers dying, but even so they were unable to stop moving, they could only continue to escape death, moving from one country to another country.

Of course, there was a need to end this kind of life.

If this Republic of Belis was able to accept the Nelpha people, they wouldn’t need to migrate over long distances.

That meant.

“You’re here to talk about the disbanding of this organization?”

Toale nodded, “Yes.”

“Talking about it didn’t Vois say that he could suggest to the Republic of Belis to temporarily accept the Nelpha people?”

Toale answered with a troubled look: “Yes, although Vois did say that… but, what is the Republic of Belis thinking.”

Ryner nodded too, “Ah, doesn’t this mean that we are going to constantly have communication with Belis?”

“Yes. But before that, I think there are many problems that you and Vois have to talk about.”

“Then, you’re here to talk about that with me?”

“Yes, so.” Toale pointed at Vois’ large tent that was some distance from here. It seemed that they were going to discuss about the plans for after this.

Ryner looked at that large tent.

Then he saw Ferris walking toward that large tent.

Ferris who had given up on bullying Ryner, revealing a bored expression had walked out of the tent, was walking alone towards Vois’ tent.

“…”

Looking at Ferris’ lonely back, Ryner wanted to call her.

At this moment, Kiefer said: “Let’s go, Ryner.”

Then Toale started walking, saying: “Let’s go. The ambassador from the Republic of Belis should be reaching soon.”

“…Eh? Ah, I know.” Ryner nodded.

He only nodded, as he looked again at Ferris’ back. Where did she think she was going, she had clearly passed Vois’ meeting tent, but she still continued to walk forward.

Ryner looked at Ferris’ back, suddenly feeling empty, anyway he felt a little lonely.

He didn’t understand why he would have this feeling, was it because earlier she had not kicked him hard? He thought.

“…Ha, don’t tell me I’ve really become an M.” Ryner smiled slightly bitterly.

But it was probably true.

Clearly all the while she had pulled out her sword, wanting to send Ryner flying, then he would fall out in a moment, then he would yell what are you doooooooing, in the end Ferris would say something strange, entering another dimension that he could not understand—this kind of unfolding of events.

But today didn’t turn out that way.

No, thinking about it carefully, it seemed like this had not happened for several days.

That kind of being bullied by Ferris, being teased by Sion, shouting have mercy on meeeeeeeeeee that definite sequence.

He had always thought that he had been depressed about that scene, but from some point in time, it had already disappeared.

“…”

After truly disappearing, he had felt a little lonely.

And now wasn’t the time to be silently sad.

The situation was changing every hour every minute, if he lost attention and wasn’t able to pull out a solution in time, his companions would die slowly.

So he could only move forward.

Move forward desperately.

So that his hesitation would not cause his companions’ death.

So that he would not cause the death of people because he had lost a chance.

I have to move forward.

Move forward.

So seriously speaking, he didn’t have the time to be having these lame jokes with Ferris…

“…Ah, so that person just displayed a bored face, so she didn’t hit me.” Ryner revealed a slightly troubled look, saying softly.

This is really my fault—something deep in Ryner’s chest ached slightly.

Looking at Ferris’ figure that was very bored, he smiled bitterly again. Indeed he still felt slightly lonely.

Ryner came back to his senses, starting to consider the situation that they were in, considering the badly made tents of those homeless people that they had temporarily picked up, considering the tired faces of the people.

Then he raised his head to look at the sky that was finally clear, but was far away from Roland.

“…”

Ryner said something softly.

But this sentence wasn’t heard by anyone, and there was no need for others to hear it. He shrugged, sighing lightly, it was only for moving forward, he breathed out hard again.

Then.

“Then, we should go to Vois.”

He started to walk.

Heading in front…

Moving in front…

◆

On the other side of the tent that Vois was planning to use as a meeting place.

“…Eh~”

Ferris was silent with a rare dark expression.

Crossing her arms, her mouth pursed, even so she was still beautiful. The men, women, old and young were secretly peeking at her from the surrounding tents, but she didn’t care.

She didn’t care…

“Annoying!”

She suddenly shouted angrily.

The surrounding people were shocked by her, but she shouted without carring.

“Annoying--!”

After shouting she was more comfortable, she nodded her head.

At this moment, in front of the nodding woman, a man appeared. Tea-coloured hair, a pretty beard.

That man looked at Ferris, smiling, “Beautiful lady. Is there something upsetting…”

Before the man finished speaking, Ferris shouted angrily: “You’re noisy!”

Then she balled her hand into a fist, punching the bearded man with an unbelievable speed. The surrounding people seeing this, revealed an “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!” expression, but Ferris didn’t take it to heart.

She only looked at the sky without speaking. It was rare that it was a clear day today, the weather was very good. It was clear that everyone should go to a good dango store early in the day with this clear weather, then as she said “give me every dango in this store”, she would buy all the dangos, then let Ryner that idiot carry it, going to the park to have a dango picnic.

Squabbling with everyone to eat dangos, competing with everyone to see who could eat all the dangos in one breath seemed interesting.

But.

“…”

She turned around, looking at the meeting tent that Ryner and the others were entering. It seemed that Ryner and Toale and Vois were discussing about troubling things like what they would do after today.

Lately they had always been doing this. Running on the battle ground, escaping from one country to another, and many people died, died, died, but even so the journey wouldn’t stop. Just as they thought that they had escaped not easily, there was a mountain of things that appeared, and after these things ended, it seemed as if they had to go to another country.

What was most irritating was that it seemed to be a good dango store, and because those Roland idiots had suddenly started the war, it had closed business.

Ah, she was so angry.

Because the war had caused the store to close, what did that count fooooooooor! She should have exploded in this way.

“…” But, now what was making her annoyed was not this. It was not the dango store closing that made her angry.

Even if Ryner that idiot, it was fine if Ryner that idiot would treat her with some troubling feelings.

Because she understood that that person was working hard in his own fashion.

She understood that that lazy king and idiot Ryner who had never worked hard before since he was born, he had been working slightly too hard lately, so he must be tired.

“…”

So she wasn’t angry because of these reasons.

What made her unhappy, was another reason.

At this moment, she remembered it.

When she went to Ryner’s tent to call him up. She had heard that there was still a dango store still operating even though there was the war, so she wanted to say “hey Ryner, I heard there is a yummy dango store, let’s go eat, so get up now!”—Something that would invite Ryner.

When she entered the tent she found that someone had gotten there first.

That red-haired woman that had suddenly appeared by Ryner’s side and was spinning around him.

She had appeared in Ryner’s tent.

So Ferris had not entered the tent. Because she felt that it would be awkward if she entered the tent, so she didn’t enter. Because she had felt that she had seen something she didn’t want to see, so she didn’t enter the tent. She didn’t understand why she had become like that, but lately, this feeling had occasionally appeared. She herself didn’t understand why, but lately when she would become slightly honest in front of Ryner. Although she didn’t understand why, but in front of Ryner, there were moments when she wasn’t able to act properly.

“…”

Then that time too.

So she had stood outside of the tent, wanting to ask him to go to the dango store after Ryner came out.

Then she had heard voices inside the tent.

It was Ryner’s voice.

It was a voice as if wanting to talk with someone.

But this voice wasn’t talking to Kiefer inside the tent, of course it wasn’t to Ferris.

But Ryner had tried hard to talk.

“…”

Very.

It was a pained, tired voice as if it were struggling for his life.

A voice as if he were about to cry.

A voice as if he were about to sigh.

Ryner said.

Using that pained voice, Ryner called the name of the stupid king that had remained in Roland.

Ferris understood that he must be dreaming. She even understood what kind of dream he was having. And she even understood what he was troubled about.

Then after that person woke up, he acted like nothing had happened, seeming to want to struggle to move forward.

He clearly had no more strength, he was clearly so pained that he wanted to cry out loud.

“…”

Sion used the Heroes’ Relic , then killed thousands of Nelphians in a blink of an eye.

No, it should be said that Sion calmly wanted to kill Ryner, kill Ferris, kill Kiefer, kill the people who had always been his companions.

At that moment where had Sion’s heart gone to, Ferris didn’t understand this point.

No, there was no need to understand it. Because rescuing Sion was Ryner’s mission.

Ryner said he wanted to save that person. Then, I only need to follow Ryner, help him—she had thought.

But, what had Ryner thought?

Sion had used the Heroes’ Relic, killed thousands of innocent Nelphians. And calmly wanted to kill Ryner, Ferris and Kiefer.

When he saw this, what had Ryner thought?

“That person.” She muttered.

“Why does that person always, always, always, not find me to talk about this?” she said.

“Why doesn’t he show his weakness? He’s clearly like a fool even Sion’s figure appeared in his dreams, but why does that person want to continue moving forward with a tired expression?”

So she was angry.

Thinking about these, she got angry again.

Then she looked at the meeting tent again.

She wanted to knock Ryner out simply, drag him to the dango store.

She wanted to simply send Ryner flying with his forced smile, but almost crying expression, then drag him to the dango store.

But at this moment.

“…”

The meeting tent was suddenly opened, then Ryner peeked out, looking around. His gaze finally stopped there, then he walked out of the tent. Dragging those footsteps that had no motivation like usual, like it was very troublesome.

“Yo.” He said.

Ferris also looked at Ryner with her usual emotionless face, saying: “…What is it. Has the meeting ended?”

He shrugged, “It was too troublesome, so I left it all to Toale.”

“Left it to Toale?”

“Yeah.”

“You lazy fellow.”

Ryner smiled and nodded, using that sleepy, lazy face to say: “I’ve been a lazy fellow since I was born~”

Ferris asked with a depressed and bored tone: “Then, why did you come find me?”

Not waiting for Ryner to reply, she added, “I’m very busy.”

Ryner smiled, then seemed to be concerned with his surrounding situation starting to look around him, then had a slightly troubled expression, “Ah… ah, that, didn’t you say you found a delicious dango store. Ah, if you’re busy then I’ll leave it… but that dango store, is it far from here?”

“…”

Ferris couldn’t help…

“…”

Couldn’t help but frown.

She frowned hard.

Because if she didn’t do that, she would feel that her face would turn all red, so to prevent that she frowned tightly, but even so her face seemed to turn red.

“Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Anyway, so that Ryner would not find out, she sent him flying with a kick.

“Ah? Ah? Why did it turn out like thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?” Ryner shouted, as he fell.

She blushed as she watched the idiot flying away.

That idiot.

That idiot that would only be concerned for others. That idiot that was already so troubled by his own matters, but still cared for her feelings, so it really made her angry.

It was rare for her to be so seriously considerate for Ryner’s feelings, but from some point in time it had turned to Ryner thinking for her feelings, so it really made her angry.

And that, what Ryner said.

“…”

To this opportunity, she was angry about her idiotic feelings that she felt happy that she wanted to shout “Then let’s go to the dango store!”

So she said.

As she walked over, she couldn’t help but smile at Ryner, she said: “Alright, let’s go to the dango store!”

Ryner climbed up asking: “Why did you hit me?”

“Noisy.”

“Well, forget it.”

“Noisy.”

“But.”

“Noisy.”

“…Wait, at least help me up.”

“Noisy…”

She turned around, Ryner’s still tired face was reflected in her eyes.

She looked at this Ryner, saying: “Ryner.”

“Eh?”

“I will hit that idiot Sion like this next time.”

“…”

Ryner widened his eyes, looking over, but didn’t say anything.

But Ferris didn’t put it on her heart. She had always been this uncaring of other people’s gazes.

“We can still go back. No matter how many thousands, millions of people we kill, we can still go back. I will send you flying, send Sion flying, then drag you to the dango store. So…”

She said—

“So. So an idiot like you is not allowed to have a stupid dream like that alone ever again.”

Ryner couldn’t help but have a ‘this is troublesome’ expression, trapped between feelings of embarrassment and happiness, he said: “…Don’t eavesdrop on other people’s sleep talk.”

“Your sleep talk is too annoying.”

“You’re lying? My sleep talking was that loud?”

Ferris nodded, “Very amazing. Last night your voice was so loud that the neighbouring village could hear your loud voice ‘aaaaaaah I can’t stand it, I can’t stand iiiiiiiit. I like Toale. I like men. Who can stop my passionate feeeeeeeeeeeeelings!’, in the end Toale cried, you know?”

“Oh?”

“It’s true?”

“Oh~”

At this moment, Ferris pulled out the sword at her waist.

So Ryner frantically said: “Ah, I lied. Actually I believe you, I’ll apologise to Toale later so don’t take out that sword!”

Ryner said with his usual frantic tone.

So Ferris nodded satisfied, “Yes.”

Ryner smiled bitterly, saying: “Ferris… is Ferris indeed.”

Seeing Ryner’s bitterly smiling face as if it were troubled.

Noticing that he had returned to the unmotivated self that he had when he was with Sion, and had not sunk into depression.

Ferris smiled: “Yes~ Of course.”

Then she turned back. She moved her eyes to another direction. In front of where she was looking at, there was a small street called Club, there was a dango store there that seemed to be famous. This was the price to go try it.

So she said: “Then, let’s go eat dangos.”

Ryner nodded, “Yeah.”

“It’s a rare chance, let’s take Iris with us, and Arua and Kuku.”

“That’s true.”

“Then let’s bring that woman called Kiefer and Toale.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re not bringing Vois.”

“Yes yes.”

“Then one day.”

“Eh?”

“If that dango store's dangos are very delicious, one day.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll take that idiot Sion too.” Ferris said.

She didn’t wait for Ryner’s reply, and she didn’t need to.

But, Ryner grabbed the chance in that moment, replying: “Ah… Yes.”

Ferris nodded hard, said with a determined tone: “That’s it.”

Then she walked forward.

In front of the path, was a dango store.

It was a simple dango store.

It was not destroyed.

They were heading for, only a dango store.

So she smiled. She smiled happily.

Because we definitely are not struggling hard because we are walking toward depression.

◆

Raising his head to look at the sky.

The dark sky.

Lately it had been raining. It was clearly not the rainy season, but for the past week, it had been raining.

According to the information they had received, Roland’s side had not rained for a long time, so there was not enough water.

“If the country changes, even the weather changes.” He murmured.

Then he looked around.

This was Runa Empire’s capital.

Everything was different from Roland.

Everything was completely different from Roland.

But this kind of matter was fine.

Because no matter where it was, now it was completely different from the past.

“Your Majesty.”

A voice said.

So he—Sion Astal moved his eyes away from the dark sky, in front of him was Froaude who had attacked Runa Empire.

In the capital of Runa Empire.

In the capital of Runa Empire where all royalty, even the people in the city were killed, Froaude smiled as he said: “…Welcome to the Runa Empire.”

Yes.

This had become Roland’s territory.

It was like Nelpha, and not long after Cassla would probably be the same. No, one day, the whole southern continent would be under Roland.

Roland’s base would change as he moved.

Now the capital of Runa Empire had become the base camp for Sion.

Fresh blood and slaughter and despair covered this southern continent.

Sion looked at Froaude, looking at this subordinate who had emotionless, but determined gold eyes, saying: “It has been hard attacking Runa. After preparing the troops, we’ll continue north.”

Froaude bowed.

But he was already uninterested in that figure. Sion turned away, looking to the sky again.

Looking at this sky that poured with rain.

“Then.”

He thought.

Ahead.

The destination of this journey that continued forward, forward, what would it be?

He couldn’t help but think.

Even though this was necessary, but he had killed so many people.

Spread so much despair.

So at the end of this path, what would it be?

He thought.

“…”

But there was no one that he could ask.

He could only, blandly, allow the war to become more passionate.

“Your Majesty.” Froaude asid: “Then let’s start to attack Cassla.”

But what answered him was another woman’s order, “Go do it, kill all of them.”

Sion looked at the woman, looked at the woman with brown hair, an adorable face.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything.

He only wished deep in his chest.

He wished with an expression as if he were about to cry.

He hoped that he was moving forward on this path that was stained with blood, death and devastated cries.

“…”

That this path did not only have a bottomless despair in front of it.

Sincerely.

Sion Astal wished.

### 006. Prologue I

Why are humans so fragile?

< > laughed.

Why are they so sad?

< > cried.

And today, < > are watching again.

A certain < > who lived up north shouted.

"I am a slaughterer. The king of slaughter. If you want to curse me, then go ahead. But still...still, I'll continue to swing this sword. To save more lives than I am about to destroy."

Watching him crying while shouting these words.

I don't want to kill anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone. I can't bear to continue swinging my sword in this world . He screamed, but still, the < > swung his sword.

The sword that < > bestowed upon him.

He swung it to a saddening extent.

And < > laughed at that.

And < > cried at that.

Then confirmed that the plan they put in place was functioning correctly.

And this time, a certain < > who lived down south shouted.

"If I could go back...go back and regain everything...if I could regain the days I spent with Ryner and Ferris, I would even give up this life..."

He shouted, but the < > still would not stop walking.

He betrayed his friend, he hurt himself and could barely even stand anymore. Still, the < > would not stop walking.

And < > laughed at that.

And < > cried at that.

Then confirmed that the plan they put in place was functioning correctly.

Then confirmed that the plan - in which they used the sad < > and < - was functioning correctly.

But right then, they realized that they could hear a slight noise. And < > knew what the noise was.

It was the same as always. Alway, always, he would inject noises into this perfect plan.

That noise shook.

That noise wavered.

The noise in form of a < > spun round and round.

But he wasn't a < >.

At the very least, he wasn't the same kind of < > that < > knew.

The < > called him a demon.

Demon.

They don't remember ever creating something like that.

Demon.

The demon which should've been slumbering within the depths of darkness slowly opened his eyes-

"...."

### 007. Prologue II

"A demon is about to be born."

She said.

"...demon?"

He asked, and she nodded in reply.

"Yes. A sad demon that fears loneliness..."

At her words, he turned to face her.

A beautiful young girl leapt into his view. She looked to be about twelve or thirteen.

She had a thin, young body that could not grow because she used her power.

Her long hair was stained purple by poison, and she wore a tired expression.

Pale skin and closed eyes.

She looks at scenery with her closed eyes.

A scenery far, far away that nobody should've been able to see. That place is called 'the future'.

The scenes she saw were scenes from the future.

Torch Curse

That's what her cursed eyes are called, and that's what she sees the future with.

And she said that a demon was about to be born.

He asked,

"...by demon, do you mean it literally? The kinds that appear in fairytales, I mean."

Then she opened her eyes - her eyes were stained purple as well. Her originally black eyes were stained by a pale shade of purple - so pale that it looked white. If she kept using her power, she probably didn't have much longer to live.

And he,

"Don't overwork yourself, Ene."

He called her name. Ene smiled and looked at him.

But her eyes did not reflect his figure. She overused her power, and lost her sight - her ability to see reality.

Ten years ago.

Only ten years ago, her beautiful black eyes were still able to reflect his figure, but now, her purple eyes did not see anything.

Despite that, she still looked at him in happiness.

And she said,

"...don't be so kind to me, Tiir. I'll become afraid of death."

Tiir narrowed his eyes at that.

"I'd like you to not die, if possible."

"I said~ Don't be so kind to me. Geez~"

Once again, she smiled sadly at those words. She smiled, despite her tears that threatened to overflow her unseeing eyes.

And Tiir continued his words. "And I'll be troubled if you died now. You have to keep on leading us, the bearers of God's eyes."

Ene smiled and said,

"They'll be fine with you."

"I can't do it. I don't possess the light that can charm others, unlike you."

"You have it."

"I don't."

Ene giggled at Tiir's reply.

"You do, Tiir, you just don't realize. If you didn't, I wouldn't have followed you to a place like this."

She said, and turned upwards as if looking at the sky. She was in a narrow, small room, so she shouldn't be able to see the sky, but her eyes always seemed like they were gazing at a far and distant sky.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

And opened them again.

A strange pattern appeared in the center of her eyes. A vermilion pattern that looked like a bird about to take flight. And she sees.

The future she sees isn't set in stone, and she might not see what she wanted to.

But she can see the future of her companions.

The future of the bearers of God's eyes.

She can see the future of the ones who are called bearers of cursed eyes and despised by humans.

She can see, touch, and - just for a little bit - change their destiny.

And right now, she was trying to see-

"A sad demon will be born."

Ene said.

Tiir asked her,

"Is he the one that you always took notice of?"

She nodded.

"Yes. He's an important person who'll bring about change.

"Ryner Lute?"

"Yes."

"You mean the idiot that remained amongst humans?"

She smiled,

"Yes. That kind person who could not give up on humans. But even now, he's still submerged in despair."

Tiir's face darkened at her words, and he muttered to himself.

"As I'd expected....it was a mistake to leave Ryner amongst humans. That's why I tried to pull him towards our side, even by force..."

Ene shook her head.

"That won't work, Tiir. You're not doing him any good by separating him from humans. Because he won't be filled with despair by humans. No matter how much he's hurt, he won't be filled with despair."

"But what about his heart, then? All Alpha Stigma bearers will continue to be betrayed, and finally die after going berserk. Even Ryner..."

"He will be alright."

"How can he be alright? He alone remained amongst humans..."

Ene interrupted his words and said,

"He'll be alright, Tiir. Because there are lots of humans who support him - who love him. And he'll be the connection between us and humans...."

"We don't need a connection like that. You trusted humans, and what did you go through? No, what did all the bearers of God's eyes here go through? They...the humans always did the same thing. They despised us, made fools out of us, betrayed us, and in the end, they were only using us for our power. I don't think it's necessary to forge a connection with such humans."

Tiir said.

Ene stood up at that. She looked at him with a kind face and began walking towards him. She extended her hand and - though she shouldn't be able to see - touched his cheek.

Then,

"...Ryner will heal even the wounds in your heart."

Tiir grasped her hand touching his cheek, and said,

"....my heart isn't wounded."

However, Ene smiled sadly and said,

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I see...but you need him. All of us bearers of God's eyes need him. We need the existence of Ryner Lute, who will solve all the equations of our despair." And she looked up at the sky again.

She looked up at the future.

Then, she suddenly smiled a bit smugly,

"...hey, you people watching. You're scared of him, right?"

She said.

He didn't know who those words were directed to.

But she continued, facing something that only she could see.

"You're scared of the Demon who Fears Loneliness[Ryner Eris Reed], who cannot give up on kindess, who cannot give up on humans, who cannot give up on friends - right? Because you cannot comprehend him - you cannot comprehend him with your laws, you're so very scared of him, right?"

She said, but Tiir couldn't understand most of what she said.

But she continued alone.

"Serves you right. But, you'll know further fear. Because we'll be helping him. We won't let anything go your way. We'll help him, and tear apart the worthless scenario you envisioned. We won't let you do whatever you want with Sion Astal, with Riphal Edea, and with Ryner Lute. If I could interfere with you, I'd even abandon my life."

She said.

And Tiir asked,

"....just who are you talking to?"

She answered without looking at him.

"God."

She said.

"God?"

"More accurately - the fools who mistakenly think they're controlling the laws of everything."

At her words, Tiir turned to face her, and then looked at the room's ceiling that she was looking at. He said,

"...oh, you mean...the fools who created good-for-nothings like us, who could only cry and blame ourselves?"

She smiled at that.

She looked at him, and smiled.

Then,

"As I thought. Tiir, you're wounded, after all."

She said.

She touched his cheek again.

"We aren't good-for-nothings, Tiir. Us bearers of God's eyes aren't good-for-nothings. We were born for a reason. And I'll prove that to you now."

Tiir smiled.

"By defying God?"

She smiled as well.

"By defying monsters who think they're God."

"And who are they?"

" Priests ."

" Priests ?"

"Yes. And that's all you need to know for now. Tiir, will you go on a journey again? I want you to save him once more."

"Ryner?"

"Yes. Save him. Because he's trying to become the king of humans."

"...king of humans? So I should just prevent him from doing that?"

But she shook her head again.

"On the contrary, I want you to help him with that. And make him the king of both humans and us bearers of God's eyes."

She raised her hand - which had been touching Tiir's cheek - towards the ceiling.

And,

"He stood up from mountains of blood, despair and corpses, but still cannot give up and overwhelm his heart with despair...make him into a gentle king of demons who - if he can save someone - will not hesitate to murder even God-"

She said.

### 008. Influence Map Of Menoris

## Influence Map of Menoris

### Gastark Empire

♦ Riphal Edea

The king of the Gastark Empire. He has a sword that, by offering part of his body as compensation, can unleash destructive power on a large scale. Glouvil's wielder. He has already sacrificed his sense of smell, left eye, and right leg.

♦ Rigwaltz Pentest

The eldest son of the prestigious Pentest family of Gastark. As Riphal's right-hand man, the commander of the Gastark amy.

♦ Lir Orla, Kuu Orla, Sui Orla

As spies from Gastark, the three of them are siblings. They and Ryner have encountered each other before. Each of them in in possession of "Rhule Fragmei".

### Roland Empire

♦ Sion Astal

An illegitimate prince who became the Hero King from starting a revolution, the king of the Roland Empire. Presently, in order to unite the southern continent, he's invading other countries.

♦ Lucile Eris

The head of the family that has protected Roland's king for generations. Ferris's older brother.

♦ Miran Froaude

Sion's close aide. Governs shady business from the "shadows". The descent of the Holy Knight Halford Miran. Bearer of a "Rhule Fragmei".

♦ Claugh Klom

Field Marshal of the Roland army. Sion's ally from the revolution, he possesses the alias of Crimson Fingered Claugh.

♦ Calne Kaiwal

A Major General in the Roland army. Like Claugh, he's an ally of Sion's from the revolution.

♦ Rahel Miller

Field Marshal of the Roland army. He supported Sion's revolution from the shadows.

♦ Bayuuz White

Field Marshal of the Roland army. From the ex-Estabul Kingdom that merged with the Roland Empire. Loyal to Princess Noa of the ex-royal family of Estabul.

♦ Luke Stokkart

A Sergeant in the Roland army. As Miller's subordinate in the Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squad, he's been sent as a spy into neighbouring countries.

### Cursed Eye Bearers

♦ Tiir Rumibul

Previously visiting various countries to gather Cursed Eye bearers. Possessor of the "Iino Doue" that absorbs magical power. Acquainted with Ryner.

### Geihlficlant Empire

♦ Gulafed Abuleld

King of the Geihlficlant Empire. In order to win against Gastark, he's making use of the Azure Princess Mercenaries and the Anti-Roland Coalition.

### Azure Princess Mercenaries

♦ Pia Varliere

The queen of Azure Princess. Bearer of a Congenital Magic Abnormality. Originating from Roland, a childhood friend of Ryner's.

### Anti-Roland Coalition

♦ Ryner Lute

The king of the Anti-Roland Coalition. Possessor of the "Alpha Stigma" that allows him to understand all magic. Was best friends with Sion Astal, the king of the Roland Empire.

♦ Ferris Eris

Ryner's partner. A girl with unworldly beauty who's a master swordswoman. Loves dango, and is a follower of the Dango God.

♦ Vois Fiurelle

Supreme ruler of the Anti-Roland Coalition. For some sort of goal, he elevated Ryner to the king of the coalition.

♦ Toale Nelphi

A member of the royal family of Imperial Nelpha. Depending on Ryner, together with the Nelphan people, he's staying with the Anti-Roland Coalition.

♦ Kiefer Knolles

Ryner's friend. As a former spy, she's knowledgeable about other countries.

Presently, with Gastark, Ertolia, Geihlficlant, Remrus, and Roland's power in equilibrium, smaller countries are paying close attention to these five countries' movements. As Gastark has begun to conquer the central continent, they're at war with Geihlficlant. Elsewhere, in order to unite the southern continent, Roland is invading Cassla.

### 009. Prologue 1

## Prologue I

Why are humans so fragile?

< > laughed.

Why are they so sad?

< > cried.

And today, < > are watching again.

A certain < > who lived up north shouted.

"I am a slaughterer. The king of slaughter. If you want to curse me, then go ahead. But still...still, I'll continue to swing this sword. To save more lives than I am about to destroy."

Watching him crying while shouting these words.

I don't want to kill anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone. I can't bear to continue swinging my sword in this world . He screamed, but still, the < > swung his sword.

The sword that < > bestowed upon him.

He swung it to a saddening extent.

And < > laughed at that.

And < > cried at that.

Then confirmed that the plan they put in place was functioning correctly.

And this time, a certain < > who lived down south shouted.

"If I could go back...go back and regain everything...if I could regain the days I spent with Ryner and Ferris, I would even give up this life..."

He shouted, but the < > still would not stop walking.

He betrayed his friend, he hurt himself and could barely even stand anymore. Still, the < > would not stop walking.

And < > laughed at that.

And < > cried at that.

Then confirmed that the plan they put in place was functioning correctly.

Then confirmed that the plan - in which they used the sad < > and < - was functioning correctly.

But right then, they realized that they could hear a slight noise. And < > knew what the noise was.

It was the same as always. Alway, always, he would inject noises into this perfect plan.

That noise shook.

That noise wavered.

The noise in form of a < > spun round and round.

But he wasn't a < >.

At the very least, he wasn't the same kind of < > that < > knew.

The < > called him a demon.

Demon.

They don't remember ever creating something like that.

Demon.

The demon which should've been slumbering within the depths of darkness slowly opened his eyes-

"...."

### 010. Prologue 2

## Prologue II

"A demon is about to be born."

She said.

"...demon?"

He asked, and she nodded in reply.

"Yes. A sad demon that fears loneliness..."

At her words, he turned to face her.

A beautiful young girl leapt into his view. She looked to be about twelve or thirteen.

She had a thin, young body that could not grow because she used her power.

Her long hair was stained purple by poison, and she wore a tired expression.

Pale skin and closed eyes.

She looks at scenery with her closed eyes.

A scenery far, far away that nobody should've been able to see. That place is called 'the future'.

The scenes she saw were scenes from the future.

Torch Curse

That's what her cursed eyes are called, and that's what she sees the future with.

And she said that a demon was about to be born.

He asked,

"...by demon, do you mean it literally? The kinds that appear in fairytales, I mean."

Then she opened her eyes - her eyes were stained purple as well. Her originally black eyes were stained by a pale shade of purple - so pale that it looked white. If she kept using her power, she probably didn't have much longer to live.

And he,

"Don't overwork yourself, Ene."

He called her name. Ene smiled and looked at him.

But her eyes did not reflect his figure. She overused her power, and lost her sight - her ability to see reality.

Ten years ago.

Only ten years ago, her beautiful black eyes were still able to reflect his figure, but now, her purple eyes did not see anything.

Despite that, she still looked at him in happiness.

And she said,

"...don't be so kind to me, Tiir. I'll become afraid of death."

Tiir narrowed his eyes at that.

"I'd like you to not die, if possible."

"I said~ Don't be so kind to me. Geez~"

Once again, she smiled sadly at those words. She smiled, despite her tears that threatened to overflow her unseeing eyes.

And Tiir continued his words. "And I'll be troubled if you died now. You have to keep on leading us, the bearers of God's eyes."

Ene smiled and said,

"They'll be fine with you."

"I can't do it. I don't possess the light that can charm others, unlike you."

"You have it."

"I don't."

Ene giggled at Tiir's reply.

"You do, Tiir, you just don't realize. If you didn't, I wouldn't have followed you to a place like this."

She said, and turned upwards as if looking at the sky. She was in a narrow, small room, so she shouldn't be able to see the sky, but her eyes always seemed like they were gazing at a far and distant sky.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

And opened them again.

A strange pattern appeared in the center of her eyes. A vermilion pattern that looked like a bird about to take flight. And she sees.

The future she sees isn't set in stone, and she might not see what she wanted to.

But she can see the future of her companions.

The future of the bearers of God's eyes.

She can see the future of the ones who are called bearers of cursed eyes and despised by humans.

She can see, touch, and - just for a little bit - change their destiny.

And right now, she was trying to see-

"A sad demon will be born."

Ene said.

Tiir asked her,

"Is he the one that you always took notice of?"

She nodded.

"Yes. He's an important person who'll bring about change.

"Ryner Lute?"

"Yes."

"You mean the idiot that remained amongst humans?"

She smiled,

"Yes. That kind person who could not give up on humans. But even now, he's still submerged in despair."

Tiir's face darkened at her words, and he muttered to himself.

"As I'd expected....it was a mistake to leave Ryner amongst humans. That's why I tried to pull him towards our side, even by force..."

Ene shook her head.

"That won't work, Tiir. You're not doing him any good by separating him from humans. Because he won't be filled with despair by humans. No matter how much he's hurt, he won't be filled with despair."

"But what about his heart, then? All Alpha Stigma bearers will continue to be betrayed, and finally die after going berserk. Even Ryner..."

"He will be alright."

"How can he be alright? He alone remained amongst humans..."

Ene interrupted his words and said,

"He'll be alright, Tiir. Because there are lots of humans who support him - who love him. And he'll be the connection between us and humans...."

"We don't need a connection like that. You trusted humans, and what did you go through? No, what did all the bearers of God's eyes here go through? They...the humans always did the same thing. They despised us, made fools out of us, betrayed us, and in the end, they were only using us for our power. I don't think it's necessary to forge a connection with such humans."

Tiir said.

Ene stood up at that. She looked at him with a kind face and began walking towards him. She extended her hand and - though she shouldn't be able to see - touched his cheek.

Then,

"...Ryner will heal even the wounds in your heart."

Tiir grasped her hand touching his cheek, and said,

"....my heart isn't wounded."

However, Ene smiled sadly and said,

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I see...but you need him. All of us bearers of God's eyes need him. We need the existence of Ryner Lute, who will solve all the equations of our despair." And she looked up at the sky again.

She looked up at the future.

Then, she suddenly smiled a bit smugly,

"...hey, you people watching. You're scared of him, right?"

She said.

He didn't know who those words were directed to.

But she continued, facing something that only she could see.

"You're scared of the Demon who Fears Loneliness[Ryner Eris Reed], who cannot give up on kindess, who cannot give up on humans, who cannot give up on friends - right? Because you cannot comprehend him - you cannot comprehend him with your laws, you're so very scared of him, right?"

She said, but Tiir couldn't understand most of what she said.

But she continued alone.

"Serves you right. But, you'll know further fear. Because we'll be helping him. We won't let anything go your way. We'll help him, and tear apart the worthless scenario you envisioned. We won't let you do whatever you want with Sion Astal, with Riphal Edea, and with Ryner Lute. If I could interfere with you, I'd even abandon my life."

She said.

And Tiir asked,

"....just who are you talking to?"

She answered without looking at him.

"God."

She said.

"God?"

"More accurately - the fools who mistakenly think they're controlling the laws of everything."

At her words, Tiir turned to face her, and then looked at the room's ceiling that she was looking at. He said,

"...oh, you mean...the fools who created good-for-nothings like us, who could only cry and blame ourselves?"

She smiled at that.

She looked at him, and smiled.

Then,

"As I thought. Tiir, you're wounded, after all."

She said.

She touched his cheek again.

"We aren't good-for-nothings, Tiir. Us bearers of God's eyes aren't good-for-nothings. We were born for a reason. And I'll prove that to you now."

Tiir smiled.

"By defying God?"

She smiled as well.

"By defying monsters who think they're God."

"And who are they?"

" Priests ."

" Priests ?"

"Yes. And that's all you need to know for now. Tiir, will you go on a journey again? I want you to save him once more."

"Ryner?"

"Yes. Save him. Because he's trying to become the king of humans."

"...king of humans? So I should just prevent him from doing that?"

But she shook her head again.

"On the contrary, I want you to help him with that. And make him the king of both humans and us bearers of God's eyes."

She raised her hand - which had been touching Tiir's cheek - towards the ceiling.

And,

"He stood up from mountains of blood, despair and corpses, but still cannot give up and overwhelm his heart with despair...make him into a gentle king of demons who - if he can save someone - will not hesitate to murder even God-"

She said.

### 011. Chapter 4: The People's King

The signal for war could be heard.

The shouts of the opposing soldiers could be heard.

Then an offensive magic that was large-scale enough by several times was activated.

The scenery in front of his eyes was filled with red, blue yellow and other coloured magical activations, as if it were the reflection of the fantasy world, but for some reason, it had a feeling as if it were fake like a mere reflection in the water mirror.

At least up until today there wasn’t the appearance of an activation of a spell that could kill hundreds, thousands of people in a moment.

If it wasn’t using the Alpha Stigma to watch.

If it wasn’t seen with the Alpha Stigma that could see through all magicks, this probably would look like a fire.

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

He was now with the Geihlficlant army, the squad that King Gulafed Abuleld personally led, they were near the rear of the nine hundred and ninety thousand soldiers.

That meant that they were very far away from the front lines.

No, even now, even if it were the soldiers closest to the front lines, they shouldn’t be fighting yet. They were now within the distance where a large-scale magic could be used to decrease the numbers on each side.

And that attack, should clearly show Geihlficlant’s advantage.

No matter what, according to Vois, the numbers of Geihlficlant should be twenty four times the numbers that Gastark bought down from the northern continent. Even this squad was around two times of the enemies’ numbers. And other soldiers were surrounding Gastark.

Then it seemed as if they were going to use a circular large-scale magic.

Under normal circumstances, Gastark had no way to block this magic attack. No, it may even be that this squad didn’t even need to cross swords with the Gastark army.

The difference in strength was so large that there was a possibility that because of Geihlficlant’s large-scale magic, Gastark would be destroyed immediately, and this side wouldn’t even suffer any casualties.

So now the soldiers were not nervous at all. Only following the signal, the mage soldiers started to chant the verse for the large-scale magic. But now they didn’t know if there was a need to release it. Because there was no guarantee that they would be able to bear the magic from Gastark’s lines.

So the soldiers weren’t too nervous, slowly expanding their magic.

“…”

But as Ryner watched them, he said: “…Gastark will immediately use the Heroes’ Relic… Ah no, it’s that, called Rhule Fragmei right? They will immediately use that.”

Vois who was on a horse beside him replied: “Of course. Or else they won’t have a chance of winning.”

“But we are going to stop that Rhule Fragmei ?”

“It seems to be the case. Geihlficlant who started late in collecting Rhule Fragmei passed the collection duty to us Anti-Roland Coalition and the Azure Princess, so not only do they not have limited knowledge on how to use the Rhule Fragmei , their numbers are low too. They have no way to defend against Gastark who knew about the existence of the Rhule Fragmei earlier.”

Ryner looked at Vois, asking: “But you… no, the Anti-Roland Coalition can defend against it?”

Vois smiled faintly, “Possibly not. About the research on Rhule Fragmei , Gastark is the most detailed, and they had a large number of Rhule Fragmeis that we don’t know about, and they have researched thoroughly on the methods on which to use them.”

“Huh? Then the explanation you told us about those Rhule Fragmei …”

Vois nodded, “Yes. If we want to fight with Gastark, that number is not enough. But, as long as we stop a few attacks from the Rhule Fragmei , that is enough. Because no matter what, the difference in manpower is too great. If Geihlficlant can take the opportunity after the attack from Gastark’s Rhule Fragmei to break into Gastark, then victory will be decided.”

“Did you raise this suggestion to the Geihlficlant king?”

Vois shook his head, “No, I told him we would stop all of the Rhule Fragmeis , so please do not worry.”

Ryner frowned, “Isn’t that a complete lie?”

“My job is to con people.”

“I know that, even if you didn’t say it. Then, let us work hard to prevent the Rhule Fragmei of the enemy from killing people.” Ryner said these words that could not be treated as a joke.

So Vois laughed, “Just as long as our companions don’t die, it’s fine. And we only need to defend against a few of the attacks from the Rhule Fragmei , and Geihlficlant will defeat Gastark. After that that would be the main point of this war. That is Ryner you will bring endless despair to Gastark. Ah, that is a wonderful plan. It clearly is a war that can end everything, but our companions are all safe and sound~” Saying this speech as if he didn’t think too carefully about it, Vois looked at Ryner, continuing: “—Then use this motivation to work hard.”

Ryner didn’t look at Vois, saying: “How disgusting.”

Then he stared into the distance.

He discovered that the first wave of large-scale magic had already been released from Gastark.

And so that the waves would neutralize each other, Geihlficlant had released their magic too.

And there were eight spells.

Such a large attack, Gastark definitely would not be able to defend against it.

Then they would definitely use the Rhule Fragmei . And they would definitely release it in a place where these eight large-scale magics would be neutralised.

That meant.

“They would come here.” Ryner said.

Vois nodded: “Then block that. Ryner, according to what I taught use that Rhule Fragmei …”

Ryner pulled out a few things that resembled amulets and rings and a small cylindrical stone that Vois had given him.

These things were all Rhule Fragmei , and they all had different effects. He picked out a ring, then returned the rest into the bag at his waist.

Vois laughed again, saying: “You picked the Rhule Fragmei that specializes in defense again… People who don’t have the courage to kill their enemies wouldn’t be able to protect their companions?”

But Ryner replied without being affected: “What we need to do is to minimize the sacrifices, until the enemy uses the unknown weapon that is stronger than the Rhule Fragmei , right? Then this kind of meaningless slaughter…”

“You wouldn’t do it?”

“Yeah.”

“But if this would ask for your lives as a price, then what would you do?”

“…”

“If, because you are unable to control the attack for the enemy, and cause your companions, Ferris, Kiefer, Toale and rest to die, wouldn’t you regret it?”

“…”

“Well, that doesn’t mean that it would be fine if you regret it if they really died, but if the companion that died were me, then it would be troublesome…” Vois pulled out a red amulet, simply throwing it into the sky.

Then said.

“Explode, Demonic Beast Destroyer .”

In that moment.

The amulet started to absorb the light around it. As if wanting to suck away all the light in this world, strongly, strongly, strongly, that amulet took in all the light, then exploded.

An unbelievably intense light flew towards the place where the Gastark soldiers were.

But at the same time, a rainbow light flashed near Gastark.

Ryner had seen that light once.

It was in the past when the destructive light of Demonic Beast Destroyer that Vois had been using had been devoured by a glowing bug swarm.

Tens of thousands, millions of rainbow coloured bugs danced in the sky, started to devour the Demonic Beast Destroyer that Vois had released.

Vois had a slightly disappointed expression, saying: “Ah, Gastark is using Divine Parasite Bugs ... Then the Rhule Fragmei of the ‘-arms’ series are uneffective. And Gastark will want to test if we have any Rhule Fragmei on this side that can erase ‘-arms’ light…”

At this moment, the sky above the Gastark army darkened suddenly.

Then Vois said: “It seems that it’s here. And the opponents are using five at one go. This isn’t aimed at us. You understand that?”

Ryner was unable to respond.

Only because he was quite familiar with what Gastark had done so far, so Ryner frowned.

What Gastark wanted to do.

It was unquestionably war.

This matter was clearly displayed in front of him. The enemy really wanted to kill everyone here.

Why did they use five Demonic Beast Destroyer but didn’t aim it at the main body of the Geihlficlant troops?

That was because their side had just used Rhule Fragmei .

That meant that the other side could use Rhule Fragmei , and that showed that they had a Rhule Fragmei that could neutralize the Demonic Beast Destroyer like them.

Then, they would use the Rhule Fragmei to attack other areas, attack those troops that did not have Rhule Fragmei and kill all of them.

Besides because Rhule Fragmei had so much power that it could allow one person to overthrow a country, so normally only the higher ups had the authorization to use it.

Well, this was natural.

Because there were idiots who would use Rhule Fragmei to kill each other after entering the dangerous battle field, and possibly they could wipe out their own army.

So now, only the Geihlficlant king and Ryner had those Rhule Fragmei with large-scale destructive powers.

Gastark probably had a few elite people who had Rhule Fragmei too.

So now, Gastark was releasing five Demonic Beast Destroyers to attack the main pillar of their army, and they were unstoppable.

So Gastark could kill Geihlficlant soldiers with a one-sided war.

And even if they encountered a situation where they were blocked, Gastark would immediately know that there was a Geihlficlant personnel who was important enough to wield this Rhule Fragmei .

No matter what situation, Gastark could gain information beneficial to themselves, through the Rhule Fragmei ’s attacks.

And now, the situation in front of them, should be the first case.

The soldiers in the target region of the Demonic Beast Destroyer , moved into a defensive position—

“…”

At this moment, the light exploded.

The strong light exploded.

Then the sky returned to its original brightness.

It returned to the sky that had warm sun rays.

But the situation on the battle field had been changed greatly.

The soldiers who were not nervous until just now, were all crying.

It was to be expected.

Because the Geihlficlant numbers had been decreased by ten thousand in a moment.

More than ten thousand lives were gone in a moment.

This scene was so abnormal that even if the mind could accept it, the body was unable to react.

The power that was so strong that humans should not wield it, was rampaging on this battle ground.

Then Vois raised his face to look over, “Ah, in a moment many of our companions have died~. Although it was lucky that Ferris and the others weren’t there, but no one would know what’s going to happen next. So, go and quickly kill the enemies…”

At this moment a woman spoke from behind, “Shut up, Vois.”

Ryner turned around, finding that Ferris had appeared behind him on a horse. And Toale and Kiefer were behind her.

Seeing his companions appear after ten thousand people had disappeared from the battle field, Ryner’s emotions became heavier.

But Ferris ignored Ryner who was feeling down, telling Vois: “Don’t bully Ryner. Or else the person who would be frustrated because he is depressed will be you. If you bully him too much then what would happen if he escaped again?”

Ryner smiled bitterly, looking at her, “Ah, I don’t deny that point.”

“Because that’s the truth. And you have the history of escaping. When was that? I remember that was when a man called Tiir appeared…”

“Ah~ No, that was…”

But Ferris interrupted him, continuing, “Then the two of you casually ran off to play with women, and you let one get pregnant, in the end you escaped while saying that you didn’t want to take responsibility…”

“Hey, what are you talking about…”

But Kiefer suddenly cut into Ryner’s words, saying with a slightly serious expression: “Ah? Ah? What’s that, I didn’t know about that.”

So Ferris revealed a smug smile that said ‘you people don’t understand it, huh’, and for some reason, Vois seemed to nod, accepting this explanation.

“No, Ryner’s decision was right. Basically, escaping everything can escape responsibility, that’s the motto by which we swindlers live by…”

“Hey, I say! What nonsense are you talking about!” Ryner yelled angrily. Then he looked at Ferris with a defeated expression. He looked at her, even though she had seen thousands of soldiers disappear in front of her, even if the soldiers surrounding her had fallen into confusion, but she was still making these lame jokes, saying: “…Because I can’t escape, so stop teasing me.”

Ferris smiled again, “Bullying you is my hobby.”

“I know.”

“Then tolerate it.” Ferris said happily, but she still had a concerned expression.

Ryner looked at Ferris, nodding, replying: “Yeah.”

Then he moved his eyes from her, turning back to the battle ground, saying: “Well, because there’s nothing worse than you bullying me. So anyway there will be some way…”

Then he started to think of how they should move.

Looking at the battle in front of him that was using Rhule Fragmei in war for the first time in history, he started to think of the direction that they should head in after today.

Anyway for some reason, Vois had handed the command post of the soldiers to Ryner.

Vois’s subordinates and Toale’s soldiers numbered three thousand strong.

Although they had slightly lesser people compared to Gastark and Geihlficlant, but even so there was three thousand people.

Three thousand lives.

This was now Ryner’s burden.

This was the case where he could say “Ah how troublesome so I’ll leave first” and escape.

It was completely different from before.

“…”

It was already different from when he would escape from before Sion and Ferris.

Because I am carrying the weight of many people’s lives.

And I carry the intentions of my companions who believe in me—although it’s slightly irritating since it sounds innocent.

“…”

So he looked behind him again.

Looking at Ferris, Kiefer and Toale’s faces.

Looking at the companions who had come to the accursed battle field with him.

He thought.

At least, I have to let these people leave this place alive.

At this moment, Vois said: “Then we should officially start. The war has already begun. What should we do after this, Your Majesty.”

Ryner frowned, saying slightly accusingly: “What Your Majesty.” Then asked: “Oh yeah, Ferris.”

“Eh?”

“Where are Iris and the others?”

“They’re at the back.”

“Behind us?”

“Yeah. It’s the end of the Geihlficlant army. If it’s there even if we are killed by Heroes’ Relics, even if the soldiers behind us are killed, Iris’s side shouldn’t be too badly affected…”

But Vois interrupted her, “They will be affected. Even if it is the Rhule Fragmei from the ‘-arms’ series, there are types where they can fly a long distance in a straight line. Gastark is clear about the power of Geihlficlant. If they use it, then they will use the strongest one. As long as they are on the battle ground, there is no safe place…”

But this time Ryner interrupted him, “But it will be fine if we block all their attacks. It will be fine if we stop all the attacks from the Rhule Fragmei here, right?”

Vois smiled and nodded, “That’s right. His Majesty has finally said something reliable, I’m so happy.”

“So~ I told you don’t call me Majesty.”

“Ah? Then how should I address you?”

Ferris replied: “How about King Pervert?”

“Let’s use that!”

“Hey so I said, can you be more serious! Although this isn’t the front line, but this is still the battle field? We’re still in the range of the attacks from the Rhule Fragmeis ?”

Vois nodded, telling Ferris angrily: “That’s right Ferris. So be more serious!”

Ferris nodded too, turning to Kiefer and saying: “Yes red-haired woman! This is the battle field! Be more motivated!”

Kiefer widened her eyes, purposefully pretending to be angry, narrowing her eyes, but her mouth still curved slightly with laughter, looking at Toale, “Ah? Me? Then… then… Oh yes Toale! You’d better be energetic!”

Toale smiled gently, looking at Kiefer, then turning to Ryner, “…Then let it be my fault, I’ll let my report be the ending of this topic. Nelpha’s soldiers, have followed Ryner’s orders, they can cover the rear at any time. Even if the Rhule Fragmei continues to reach to the rear, our soldiers probably wouldn’t be too badly affected.”

Ryner nodded, saying: “It’s good that someone can speak seriously.”

Toale had a slightly strict expression, saying: “I’m only frightened. Because someone is actually using the unknown weapon called the Rhule Fragmei to kill many people… just thinking about it makes me tremble… But this thing has happened before me, so I don’t feel like joking around…”

Although Ryner wanted to retort actually I didn’t, but he was unable to say anything.

Because before he opened his mouth, the battle situation changed again. The sky where the Gastark army was darkened again.

With this signal, Ryner threw the ring that he was holding into the sky, then muttering the phrase he learnt from Vois, that could activate this miraculous ring.

“Devour that light, Divine Parasite Bugs .”

In a moment.

The ring that Ryner had threw out exploded. Then the fragments of the ring floated in the air, giving out a rainbow light, before starting to multiply.

The light increased to hundreds and thousands of small fragments in a moment, making a sound of flying insects.

At the same time, the opposite side released the Demonic Beast Destroyer again.

And it was released to this side.

The light of destruction ate away at Geihlficlant’s large scale magic as it attacked.

But this attack was met with the rainbow insect swarm that Ryner had released.

Like locusts the insects flew towards that light.

“Pppsssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!”

Releasing that cry, the insects devoured the light.

It seemed, this attack had been successfully blocked.

But.

Ryner said: “That was to confirm, right? It was to confirm whether we had the means to defend against the Rhule Fragmei from the ‘-arms’ series so they attacked.

Vois nodded.

“And they had the goal of erasing the large-scale magic. But…”

“Seeing that the attack from the ‘-arms’ series wouldn’t work, they probably use another one to attack.”

“Then, what would come next?”

Hearing that, Vois tilted his head, answering: “Who knows… even I can’t make a guess. Ah, but because Gastark has a more superior knowledge about the Rhule Fragmei than us, so perhaps it would be an attack from one that we don’t know about, or one which we don’t know how to properly defend against. Then what should we do?”

“…” Ryner was deep in thought again.

Then he tried to organize the information he had of the other side in his head.

Firstly, the soldiers’ numbers, this side had the advantage. Well, although this was under the situation that Geihlficlant was their companion.

But in this battle, the numbers of the soldiers didn’t hold much significance, although the king of Geihlficlant had some Rhule Fragmei with him, but Vois didn’t teach him all of the activation phrases. Because if Geihlficlant could completely grasp the ways of which to use the Rhule Fragmei , they wouldn’t lose to anyone.

This was why Gastark was so desperate to invade the middle continent. Before the major countries had gained proper information of the Rhule Fragmei , there was the urgency to occupy the mid-continent.

But aside from that, Gastark had another ace.

That was the unknown weapon that had more power than the Rhule Fragmei that terrified Pia and Vois.

And after that was activated, it could destroy hundreds of thousands of humans in a slash, it could only be said to be a detestable weapon.

But because of that weapon’s existence, Vois could make a deal with the Geihlficlant king.

Because Vois had said that he had a mysterious weapon that could be used to stop the unknown weapon that Gastark had, so it could be put to use in this battle, but in actual fact even he didn’t know whether it could be blocked, and that secret weapon was under Ryner’s control.

It was borne by Ryner’s cursed eyes.

Because it seemed like these Alpha Stigma could block Gastark’s weapon—talking about which, just betting thousands of people’s lives on this reason, no matter what it was insane.

“Ah, damnit!” The more he thought about it the more his head ached.

But, we have already come to the battle field, the killing has already started too. Thousands of people have died in front of me, and the battle is becoming more and more intense.

In this mad war, how could he let his companions survive.

“…”

Ryner considered this problem.

Then three possible solutions appeared in his mind.

The first was, after Gastark used that weapon, Ryner would successfully stop it.

But this would be a complete victory.

Because Gastark wasn’t only using Rhule Fragmei , and they had to activate that weapon, this fact in itself would mean that unless Gastark depended on the Rhule Fragmei they would be unable to defeat Geihlficlant, so if that weapon was ineffective, to Geihlficlant that had the distinct advantage in terms of numbers, Gastark would probably be defeated.

But, this solution was probably too hard.

Firstly, Gastark had more knowledge about the Rhule Fragmei than their side, so even if they fought hard with the Rhule Fragmei , there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t lose too.

Furthermore, Ryner was very clear about how strong Gastark was, that it could use the power of the Rhule Fragmei .

Just by remembering the opponents that he had fought against, Sui and Kuu, the Gastarkian soldiers, he could understand this point.

Gastark gave the Rhule Fragmei to a person, so that they could gain the power of more than a hundred soldiers, power that he and Ferris were unable to go against.

Besides that, the opponent they were clashing against, was the main body of Gastark.

There may be people who were more powerful than Sui and Kuu.

Are we only able to suppress these people, and force the Gastarkians to reach the step where they have no choice but to use that weapon?

But now he completely couldn’t come up with a plan.

Anyway if that weapon were activated, could he really block it?

“…”

To this point Ryner himself was so doubtful that he suspected that Vois had taken a wrong step somewhere.

At least towards Ryner, he couldn’t bet all the lives of his companions in this gamble.

That meant that this plan had no possibility of working.

The next plan?

Ryner continued to think.

Actually the other two were very simple.

Ryner only needed to unleash the Rhule Fragmei at where the Geihlficlant king.

This way, it would be easy to deal with that Geihlficlant king, anyway the king himself had probably never thought that his companions would betray him, and he didn’t know how to use the Rhule Fragmei .

And he could kill thousands of soldiers on the inside, letting Geihlficlant enter a state of chaos, abnd according to this they could continue to use the Rhule Fragmei to control the panic, in the end Ryner and the others would surrender to Gastark—

“…”

Well, if it were Vois he would definitely pick that, but I…

That meant, it was the only the third plan left.

The third plan.

But, this was a dangerous plan.

Well, simply saying, it was escape—that plan.

But it wasn’t running away, anyway Geihlficlant definitely wouldn’t allow them to do that, and if what Vois said was true, if the weapon range of Gastark was so large, even if he started to desperately escape, as long as that weapon was activated, they would die.

But, Ryner thought of a place that definitely wouldn’t be hit.

But in any case, if he said that out loud, it was a place that anyone would understand without thinking.

“…”

Gastark’s weapon would probably not be aimed at the place where the Gastark soldiers were when it was activated. No, although they would activate the weapon with the self-destructive feeling of knowing that their companions would be sacrificed, but Ryner had heard from Vois that in the battle against Stohl, Gastark had mostly not suffered much.

That meant…

“…If we go behind the Gastark army, that is the safety region.” Ryner muttered.

But Vois said: “Arara, so you were thinking about something as ridiculous as that?”

Ryner shrugged.

That plan was certainly ludicrous.

No matter what that plan needed him to dodge large-scale magical attacks and attacks from Rhule Fragmei before he could reach the front lines, and he would need to fight with the Gastarkians as he broke past them…

Furthermore there were only three thousand people on this side.

In simple words, this was an impossible plan.

“But the other plans are more ridiculous than this, so this was the best.” Ryner said.

Vois had a face that said ‘here you go again’, saying: “Killing the Geihlficlant king was the best.”

“…”

“But if Ryner you really want to do that, then I will stop you.”

Ryner widened his eyes in surprise, “Oh oh, how rare, I thought this would be your favourite plan.”

Vois continued to smile as he said: “If I wanted to use that plan, I would have acted before we came here. But I didn’t do that, because there is a need for you to be here, to stop the weapon of Gastark’s. If we let the world know that Gastark isn’t the only one with that crazy power, that the other countries have ways to stop that power, then we can allow the countries to bond together…”

Until here, Ryner could truly understand what Vois wanted to do.

It seemed like Vois wanted to completely seal that weapon here.

To clash with that weapon that could kill tens of thousands of people in a moment.

If this continues, then one day the world would be destroyed.

So they had to let the whole world know that this was scary.

“Is this, is your goal…” Ryner said.

Vois knocked on his head, saying: “Of course using some plan to dominate the world is more interesting, just by depending on the strongest weapon to wage war, and having the strongest be the winner, something like that isn’t it too boring? So I want to set the world on a new track.”

“So, you want to use my eyes to seal the enemy’s weapon?”

“Yes.”

“Even if you’re not clear whether my eyes can block it?”

“Yes. But if it really can’t take it, then there wouldn’t be too much to worry about. If anyone is unable to stop Gastark from conquering the world… then it would be too boring, I would rather die and be reincarnated to become an extremely beautiful Loli, then use beauty to conquer the world.”

“…An extremely beautiful Loli?”

“Ah, how impressive Ryner. You’re interested in this!”

“No no no, I’m not interested, please don’t speak nonsense.” Ryner interrupted Vois, then started to think about the meaning of Vois’s words.

That sentence that mentioned sealing Gastark’s weapon, letting the world to return back to its tracks again.

No, even though if he used the Rhule Fragmei in war there wasn’t anything strange.

But as if seeing through what Ryner was thinking, Vois said: “If it is successful, there’s a possibility that the Rhule Fragmei can be banned, or I should saw, I have already prepared for that information to be spreaded.”

Ryner looked at Vois, saying: “…It feels like, for the first time I can see through what you are thinking and then why you do such troublesome matters.”

Vois smiled happily, “…That means my mind is full of beautiful Lolis?”

“…That means, the Anti-Roland Coalition that has a weapon stronger than the Rhule Fragmei , would set the condition that both parties are unable to use that power, right?”

“Ah, wait, why did you ignore the topic about my beautiful Lolis…”

Ryner continued to ignore him, saying: “Then, you probably will tell the world this message. Using the Rhule Fragmei in battle is very dangerous. Then even the two countries that have power surpassing the Rhule Fragmei will decide not to use that power. So you can threaten other countries to stop using Rhule Fragmei , right.”

And the other countries would probably accept that.

The countries that did not have Rhule Fragmei would probably agree with this wholeheartedly.

And those countries that were one step behind in collecting Rhule Fragmei , including one of the three major countries Geihlficlant Empire.

If the country Geihlficlant and Gastark who had maintained the weapon that was stronger than Rhule Fragmei and the Anti-Roland Coalition decided to seal off the use of Rhule Fragmei , then many countries would probably agree.

Although they didn’t know the responses of the remaining two countries—Remrus Empire and the Ertolia Republic, but Vois probably had plans concerning this area.

As for the southern ruler Roland…

“…”

Thinking about that, Ryner’s expression went down.

Would Sion who was poker-faced accept this agreement on Rhule Fragmei usage.

Not long ago he clearly thought that he knew what that person was thinking about, and how he would react, but in a few months’, everything had changed completely.

No, perhaps he had never understood Sion since the beginning.

He had only thought that they had become friends. He had claimed by himself that the two were close friends.

He had mistakenly thought that he was able to save him.

And the result was, in the end Sion had disappeared as he cried.

Sion had clearly bore all the painful memories by himself, not showing any weaknesses to anyone—

“…”

But I completely didn’t feel Sion’s pain.

Before I didn’t understand his heart, now I am even more unable to know what he has been hiding.

I was clearly so close to him.

I was clearly saved by him many times, but I never completely understood him, so I was unable to save him.

If I can really could understand him, then we wouldn’t be on the battle field now.

Even if it reached the point where we had to fight, he would probably be at Sion’s side, helping him fight.

“…”

Ryner looked back at himself.

But there was no one there.

The person that should have been by his side was gone.

There should have been a person who would be like a devil when it came to work, then said to him “Then Ryner work hard for me~”.

And Ferris would definitely come to mess around.

Then, I…

“…”

I would definitely yell you are trooooublesome, but in the end I would work hard.

He would certainly shout you are all anooooying, but he would still work hard.

Because I like Sion, I like Ferris, and I like the people by my side.

So if Sion told me please defeat my enemy.

If Sion told him that the weapon of Gastark’s is very strong so think of something, or said because he wanted to conquer the world so let’s work hard.

Even if Sion raised a ridiculous request, even if it were something that was near impossible, he would definitely…

I would definitely say how troublesome, how annoying, then start to work hard.

But why did this future shatter.

Sion had cried as he disappeared, and used the Rhule Fragmei .

And attacked Ryner’s companions.

Then killed countless Nelpha soldiers and people. And destroyed half of Toale’s body.

So the situation had turned into something like this.

“…”

Ryner moved his eyes from the empty space by his side.

He found that soldiers with different coloured armours filled his vision.

They were Gastarkian soldiers.

This was the northern side of the mid-continent.

It was unbelievably far away from Roland.

This situation where the scenery was changing with different auras, to tell the truth, he couldn’t keep pace with it.

Perhaps Ferris too. Leaving Sion, leaving her country, and coming to a battle field like this.

Kiefer and Toale too. No, Toale had even lost his country. And he had many brothers, but now there was no news of them. Maybe they had successfully escaped, but perhaps they had died before they could contact Ryner and the others.

And, here, we still need to fight.

We need to kill.

And we will still lose companions.

They were clearly tired, but it was still not enough.

Because the world was changing perpetually, so it would force you to change.

Furthermore—

“…”

But, Ryner smiled, then turned to Vois, “…Actually it’s not bad. This is the first time after hearing your words, I feel like accomplishing that motive.”

Vois had a ‘I told you so’ expression, saying: “I thought that Ryner would agree with this thinking too. But, if a ban on the Rhule Fragmei could be made, the reputation of the Anti-Roland Coalition would soar.”

“…” Ryner nodded, expressing his agreement.

If it succeeded, if they could really ban the Rhule Fragmei from war, this news would spread to Roland.

What Ryner was doing, would reach Sion’s ears.

This wasn’t bad, Ryner thought.

It was at least better than doing nothing.

Although he could understand that it wasn’t to the degree that Sion would think ‘I want to see you again’ and leave the country.

“…It could be possible that banning the Rhule Fragmei would be something interesting.” Ryner murmured.

Clearly he had written in his report to change the world so he had went to find Rhule Fragmei —which was Heroes’ Relics , but the more he found the relics, the stranger the world became, so he would work hard to stop this.

Sion who would heard something stupid like this.

“…”

That person, Sion would definitely smile.

Ryner thought.

Vois said: “Well, but no matter what…”

Ryner nodded, “No matter what I need to stop the weapon from Gastark before it can be set up, right?”

“Yes.”

“If I don’t stop it, everyone will die.”

“Yes. So if you want to use that kind of plan—going behind Gastark, then dodging the attacks from Gastark’s weapon, then in the beginning you shouldn’t have come here. We can only face it straight on. Then, if it’s not victory, it’s death.” Vois said.

No victory, meant death.

But at this moment, Toale’s voice spoke from behind them.

“I am betting three thousand lives on my side, so I completely can’t tie myself on the same string as you.”

Vois looked at Toale, saying: “then what do you want to do? I think with only three thousand people, to fight with tens of thousands of people and breaking free, something like that is a suicidal act… Although we are protected by the physical shield of Geihlficlant so it seems safe, but while we’re talking, many people are dying. And it is many people. Although there may not be any screams, so you may not know…”

But Toale interrupted Vois with a strict expression, “The lives of the Geihlficlant soldiers and formerly Nelpha soldiers, I cannot treat them equally.”

Vois raised an eyebrow, “You can’t be as naïve as Ryner?”

“At least I can differentiate between comrades and enemies. You…”

“An enemy, right?”

“Toale’s gently eyes narrowed sharply, staring at Vois as he said: “…At least, I think you are a dangerous person.”

Vois smiled for some reason, looking happily at Ryner, “Annoying, it seems like there is another outstanding person, Your Majesty. Only outstanding characters would appear in chaotic eras. Although I thought that it would be fine if Toale died, but I didn’t think that there would be a person who would honestly call the Geihlficlant soldiers our physical shields. It’s simply uncommon. It’s great that he lived till now.”

Ryner had a slightly frustrated expression, looking at Vois, “The one who called them physical shields was you.”

“But Toale thinks that too, deep down. And he never completely believed me.”

“I didn’t completely believe you, too.”

“Ah?”

Ignoring Vois who was relaxed, Ryner looked at Toale, saying: “Sorry, the Nelpha soldiers are in danger too…”

Toale interrupted him, saying: “It’s not Ryner’s fault. The one at fault is Vois Fiurelle? He clearly could control all information channels, but he didn’t tell us what kind of dangers we would run into, forcefully bringing us here. Then probably until now, he has told us many lies…”

Vois simply replied: “Of course. Because I was born to be a swindler. But until now, most things are like what I predicted, so everything was truth.”

“You think I will believe that…”

Vois continued, “Compared to worrying about the progress of these lives, it would be better to stay here. Of course like what Ryner said, according to the range of Gastark’s weapon, if we can go behind Gastark, we should be able to safely escape. But I’m afraid before that, we will all be destroyed.”

“But…”

Interrupting Toale, Vois had a slightly challenging tone as he continued: “Even if we really successfully survived to go behind them, the remaining troops would be half of the original number. That would be troublesome. Because according to the plan I have for after today, I will need the power of the Nelpha soldiers. If they are wasted to protect Toale’s life here, then that would be very troubling for me.”

But Toale didn’t fall for it, only closing his eyes to think, then softly saying: “…Which side is better…”

This feeling, everyone was familiar with the heart break.

It was the situation where they didn’t know whether Ryner would be able to block Gastark’s weapon, so would it be better to wait for their activation.

Or knowing that there would be a large number of sacrifices, still taking the soldiers to proceed to hide behind Gastark.

This of course wasn’t a problem that could be easily dealt with.

Because three thousand lives were dependent on this problem.

If they were stubborn, then more lives could be lost.

This was a decision that was so painful that it made it hard for people to breath.

And the choices were limited.

The realization that everything could be destroyed packed an impact too.

And if there was the possibility of everything being destroyed, then at least they could anticipate Ryner blocking Gastark’s weapon, staying here and doing nothing?

At this moment, Vois suddenly said: “I think staying here is the best choice. Otherwise everyone, have you checked the battle situation?”

Toale asked in reply: “…Battle situation?”

Kiefer answered from behind him: “…Gastark stopped using the Rhule Fragmei . And the Geihlficlant soldiers are slowly pressed back by the approaching Gastark army, right?”

Ryner raised his head, although he hadn’t completely grasped the situation, but from just now, Gastark had stopped using the Rhule Fragmei .

And Geihlficlant soldiers were moving forward slowly. If they continued to move forward, the Geihlficlant soldiers would clash with Gastark soldiers soon.

If it reached that step, Gastark wouldn’t be the opponent of Geihlficlant who had the advantage of numbers.

So if this continued…

“…Gastark will probably use that weapon quickly, right?” Ferris said.

Vois nodded, smiling: “So everyone don’t argue here, let us bet our lives on Ryner… Although I said that, but if Geihlficlant-kun is easily defeated, then it would be troublesome.

From behind him, two subordinates on horses rushed over.

One of them was a girl called Relca Redehna who was in charge of them when they met the Geihlficlant king.

Shiny green hair, and eyes that were as serene as a black crystal.

Another was a girl who had carried Vois when he jumped off the carriage. Long black hair and green eyes, she wore battle armour on her slim body.

The two of them came to Vois, whispering something in his ear, then Vois smiled.

Seeing this, Toale told Ryner: “Indeed, he’s not reliable at all.”

Ryner smiled bitterly: “Yes. After all he is someone who didn’t tell the truth since the start.”

But what Vois said made sense, Ryner thought.

Stopping the attacks of the Rhule Fragme i on Geihlficlant, perhaps it was to prepare for using that weapon.

Then, even if they moved now, it would probably be too late. Then they could only hand over the war where was either kill or be killed to Geihlficlant, focusing on the actual battle would be better…

“…”

Suddenly at this moment.

“……Ah…”

Ryner made a noise of disbelief.

Then widened his eyes.

His eyes widened quickly.

Then he saw not far from him, there were some strange things flying over.

Although that object was moving too quickly, so he couldn’t see it clearly, but, he could clearly see something activating.

Then, numerous heads flew into the sky.

Countless arms and bodies flew into the air.

Followed by a large amount of blood gushing out.

“…”

But, there were no screams.

The screams were covered by the noise of the soldiers moving forward and the explosions from the large-scale magic, it was muffled.

But the Geihlficlant soldiers shouldn’t have met physically with the Gastark soldiers.

So heads flying into the sky was too strange.

Bodies flying into the air was odd too.

But, heads were entering the air one by one.

Then something jumped up.

This time he could catch a glimpse of that object.

It was golden. It was fast enough that it couldn’t be seen properly, something golden.

Ryner moaned: “…Oh no.”

Then he looked at Vois, shouting, “Vois! Those people didn’t stop using Rhule Fragmei so that they could use their weapon! It was to kill us… it was to kill the people who have Rhule Fragmei and initiate another attack to sort themselves out!”

At this moment, Vois heard the screams nearby.

Then five Geihlficlant soldier’s heads flew into the air.

Among the falling blood droplets, a golden beast was dancing in the air.

“…”

Ryner had seen this beast once.

Because he had fought with this monster once.

It was the ring-shaped Rhule Fragmei that had been used by a Gastarkian assassin called Lir.

Among the three of the Lightning Beasts that was called forth with that Rhule Fragmei , they were dancing in the air that was not the front line.

That Beast looked toward Vois, releasing an ear-shattering cry.

Ryner yelled, “Stupid Vois, be careful of your front!”

But apart from yelling, he couldn’t do anything. The beast was too fast, he couldn’t even react.

And he was too far away.

He couldn’t rescue him in time.

One beast kicked away the surrounding Geihlficlant soldiers.

The second jumped up, opening its mouth.

Just as it was about to bit off Vois’s head, and shred his body…

“Vois-sama!?” Relca who was beside him screamed.

Then she leapt in front of Vois, her arm was ripped off by the beast.

She dropped off the horse with a large amount of blood spewing out. But the last beast continued to move closer to Vois.

But this attack was blocked by Ferris who jumped out from behind with her sword.

At this moment Vois finally reacted.

He seemed to look at Ferris who was blocking the beast with some surprise, then he looked at Relca who was lying on the ground, unmoving.

He looked at his subordinate with a calm but cold expression, like a child.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything.

Relca didn’t move.

But…

“…”

There wasn’t the time for him to be sad.

“Damnit!!”

Ryner muttered, then started to draw the glowing words in the air with all his might. This was the magic that could increase the body’s speed that he had learnt using Alpha Stigma, from the Estabul Mage Knight.

Quickly finishing the magical sequence, Ryner started to incant the words, and so that he would be able to gain the maximum benefit, he tried his hardest, hardest, hardest to activate the magic, “I OFFER THE CONTRACTED WORDS, LETTING THE SLUMBERING MALICIOUS SPIRIT DWELL WITHIN.”

In a moment.

His body glowed, and he could accelerate to the point where his muscles nearly tore.

He jumped up from the horse, leaping towards where Ferris was fighting with the Lightning Beast.

He started to draw magical formations in the air again, and he drew two with both hands at the same time.

The magical formations were immediately completed.

Ryner chanted, “WHAT I SEEK IS IRIDESCENT DESTRUCTION>>>KUURI!”

Two glowing cubes appeared in the magical formations of “KUURI”.

Then a beam of light appeared from the cube.

One aimed at the Lightning Beast that had bitten off Relca’s arm.

The other aimed at the beast that was attacking the Geihlficlant soldiers.

The beast that attacked Relca disappeared after being hit.

But the beast near the Geihlficlant soldiers felt the presence of “KUURI”, moving its vision over, then jumped to a side, dodging.

“Damnit, it missed…”

But Ferris interrupted him, saying: “No, it hit.”

Then she waved her sword, sending the suppressed beast flying, then reflecting the “KUURI” beam from Ryner at it.

The beast was burnt by the light of “KUURI”, shaking as it disappeared.

Now there was only one left.

Ryner continued to draw magic formations, reaching Ferris’s side, asking: “There’s one left, can you deal with it?”

Ferris smiled slightly, raising the sword high, saying: “It’s different from the past. Now, I can finish off a few by myself… But, if the opponent is that person…”

Ryner nodded too.

If their opponent was that man called Lir, it would become troublesome.

Because he was the most troublesome opponent, that could use a few types of Rhule Fragmei at the same time.

He was the most troublesome enemy that Ryner, Ferris, Tiir and Luke could only face for five minutes.

This person was probably not far off from them.

And he had come to take Ryner’s and the other’s lives.

The reason was simple.

From where Ryner and the others were, they had used Rhule Fragmei that could defend against Gastark’s Rhule Fragmei —the enemy had already confirmed this point.

Then they decided to defeat the users of the Rhule Fragmei .

And maybe they were planning to grab all the Rhule Fragmei from this side.

No matter what…

“…Then let us defeat this one.” Ryner said.

Then he released the magic of the magic formations he had prepared.

But at this moment, the Lightning Beast leapt up, retreating. It killed the Geihlficlant soldiers around it, roaring.

The beast’s roar.

It was so reverberating that it stifled the heroic cries of the soldiers in the region.

As if spreading the message that there were many prey here, calling its fellow brethren.

Ryner frowned, turning around to look behind him.

He found that Kiefer had already rushed to Relca’s side, pressing her shoulder to stop the flow of blood, yelling: “She’s… she’s still living! She can be saved!”

Toale looked to Vois and called, “Quick, use that healing stone called Death Transference !”

But Vois only looked at Toale blandly, then had a very happy smile, looking at Ryner, “Ah, really, if I were more unfortunate, I would have died? This makes me more battle aware. And it was unexpected, that it could push away the Geihlficlant soldiers so easily, sending the assassin in…”

Toale interrupted Vois, roaring: “This is not the time to be talking about that! Hand over Death Transference quickly!”

Vois shrugged, looking at Toale. Then he moved his eyes to look at Relca who was on the ground.

At this moment Relca struggled to open her eyes, saying weakly: “…Are, are you alright, Vois-sama.”

Vois nodded, replying: “Yes, I’m fine. It’s all thanks to you protecting me, Relca. You did well.”

Relca had a faint smile.

Vois smiled and nodded: “But I’m sorry, we don’t have the time to heal you. The Gastarkian assassin has already confirmed our existence, I estimate that the next wave of attack will come quickly too, and I’m not willing to heal a soldier like you, and it will waste the Death Transference . So I will abandon you here. But if possible, please slow the Gastarkian assassin down…”

He didn’t even complete that, Toale shouted angrily, “What… what are you talking about!”

Relca was losing a large amount of blood, colour was slowly leaving her face.

There was clearly no time to be wasted. If he continued to leave it as it was, she would probably die after a few minutes.

So Toale stared at Vois, clearly saying: “Hurry, give me the Death Transference quickly…”

But Vois narrowed his eyes, turning around to look at his subordinate with black hair, “…Harmit, please inform the others about this situation…”

“Don’t joke around! Give me the healing stone quickly…”

But Vois only pointed a finger at Toale, making an action ‘kill him’.

Following that his other subordinate, that woman called Harmit unsheathed the sword at her waist, stabbing at Toale.

But Ferris moved her large sword faster than her, cutting the black-haired woman’s sword into two pieces.

Ryner took the chance to grab Vois’s hair, saying: “…You, wanted to kill Toale just now, right?”

Vois simply continued carrying that happy smile, simply wanting to acknowledge that.

But before he answered, Ryner tightened a hand in Vois’s hair, saying: “…Don’t look down on us, brat. Hand over the Death Transference quickly.”

Although Harmit wanted to turn around and attack Ryner, but Vois stopped her.

“Stop, Harmit. You’re not Ryner’s opponent…” he said that, raising his head to look at Ryner.

“Will you use the Death Transference no matter what?”

“Of course.”

Hearing Ryner’s reply, Vois had a troubled smile, “…Of course… huh… If it is of course, then there’s no help for it.”

He pulled out a stone that was smaller than a fist, then threw it to Kiefer who was desperately trying to stem the blood from Relca’s shoulder.

Kiefer caught the stone, quickly pressing it to Relca’s wound. But that stone didn’t start to heal Relca’s injury. So Kiefer looked up, staring at Vois and said: “Tell me how to use Death Transference .”

Vois didn’t look at Kiefer, only stared at Ryner, “…You really want to… use it…”

Ryner interrupted him, tightening his grip, saying: “Say it quickly.”

Vois sighed, saying: “…It drinks blood… Let the stone absorb the blood from the corpses of the Geihlficlant soldiers. If there is so much fresh blood, then there should be enough for it to have the power to save Relca…”

So Kiefer quickly soaked the stone in the blood pooling on the ground.

At some point in time, the fresh blood from the Geihlficlant soldiers had gathered into a small puddle, and that stone began to drink that blood.

Ryner looked at this scene.

He looked at this stone that gave him a chilling feeling even though it was going to save Relca’s life by gathering power through sucking up the life of the Geihlficlant soldiers.

Drinking the life of other people, to gain the power of healing.

This was the power of Death Transference .

But.

“…”

But Vois said disapprovingly: “…Although it is commendable that you didn’t care about the deaths of the Geihlficlant soldiers, but Relca isn’t your comrade, there should be a limit to how goody-two-shoes you can be, Ryner.”

Then Vois looked at Relca on the ground, calling: “…Relca.”

Relca opened her eyes weakly, looking at Vois, her lips forming the word ‘yes’, but unable to speak. It seemed that she was so weak that she was on her last breath.

But Vois only looked at her and said: “If we have to heal your wound we’ll need for it to absorb a little more power. But we have to leave this place now. Because we are targeted by the Gastarkian assassin, as we have the Rhule Fragmei . So, the Death Transference treatment, you’ll have to do it yourself.”

Relca nodded softly, then tried to reach out for the Death Transference in Kiefer’s hand. But although she wanted to reach out, but her body couldn’t move.

So Kiefer said: “I’ll stay…”

But Vois told Relca: “If you weigh me down, I wouldn’t want to see you ever again.”

Relca had an expression as if she were about to cry, desperately reaching out. Uncaring about the large amount of blood flowing from her shoulder, she stretched out her hand, grabbing the Death Transference that was soaked in the fresh sea of blood of the Geihlficlant soldiers.

In that moment, the Death Transference gave out a greenish white light, the blood pouring from Relca’s shoulder suddenly slowed.

Vois smiled and nodded, “…Good.”

Then he looked at Ryner again, saying: “Then, can you release your hold on my hair? We don’t have the time to be staying here and doing such silly things.”

Ryner stared at Vois, although he wanted to say many things to this proud brat, but he found that he didn’t know where to start from.

“…”

But, Vois’s words were always realistic—

It was realistic until it made people angry, he was clearly only a brat but he always talked about the painfully realistic truth, so Ryner let go of Vois’s hair.

He was right, there was not much time left.

The Gastarkian assassin—that man called Lir had already reached here.

He had come to take the lives of Ryner and Vois who had the Rhule Fragmei .

Although because his attack was stopped because of the temporary retreat of the Lightning Beasts, but that person would immediately return.

And he would return with reinforcements.

Although he was alone when he had entered Imperial Nelpha secretly, fighting with Ryner and the others alone, but now he had the army of Gastark with him.

Then.

“…”

Then, there was a possibility that there was an enemy as strong as Lir. Ryner knew at least two other Gastark soldiers who had the same large power.

The siblings Sui and Kuu. The two could wield Rhule Fragmei , and they had an overwhelmingly strong power, and had once hunted Ryner and Ferris.

Although up till know he had managed to dodge from their hunting because of his luck, but if those people joined powers and attacked, it would not be a small matter.

That meant, they could no longer spend time here.

So Ryner raised his head, wanting to tell everyone to retreat.

But at this moment, Vois told Ryner: “So as to heal Relca’s injuries, we have wasted a Death Transference here . But we only have four Death Transference , which means that there are only three Death Transference left. I hope that you wouldn’t regret saving Relca, Ryner.”

Ryner stared at Vois, deciding to ignore what he said, saying: “Retreat—” He suddenly thought of something, shaking his head, “No, that’s not right. Let’s separate. Because the enemy is only focusing on Vois and I. Kiefer and Toale leave this place quickly. I will protect Vois…”

But Kiefer said: “I want to stay too…”

Ryner shook his head firmly, saying: “Sorry, Kiefer. You will only slow us down. The enemy is very strong, I will not be able to protect Kiefer as I fight…”

Kiefer pouted.

But Toale patted Kiefer’s shoulder encouragingly, “Retreat with me. Even if we are behind the scenes we can do many things…”

“I understand.”

“…”

“I understand. But, Ryner…”

Looking at Kiefer who was watching him, Ryner smiled, “Yeah, I will try not to get myself killed.”

“You definitely have to work hard.”

“Yeah, then leave quickly. I don’t know when that assassin will reach.” Ryner said.

But Kiefer didn’t want to leave him.

So Toale grabbed her hand, forcefully pulling her back.

After Ryner confirmed that Kiefer and Toale had left, he turned to Ferris and said: “…Ah~ with you, that…”

Before Ryner finished speaking, Ferris opened her mouth to say: “I will stay by your side. If it were not for me, you would die immediately?”

Ryner smiled bitterly.

Then he looked back to the battle ground.

There were devastating cries from the battle field. And in the distance, there were blinking lights.

It seemed that the battle was approaching.

And Lir was probably closer.

And in this direction…

“…”

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

In this direction there was the king of Geihlficlant, Gulafed Abuleld.

Because King Abuleld had over fifty Mage Knights stationed by his side, so they were probably in the massacre too.

Ryner said: “The king of Geihlficlant, huh…”

Vois nodded, saying: “Now you’ve at last understood the reason for the enemy’s temporary retreat. King Abuleld is not completely useless. He couldn’t just let those parasites mess around. He probably commanded the Mage Knights to ambush the Gastarkian assassins.”

“Then, if we go over now…”

“Yes, if we combine forces with the Mage Knights, we probably can deal with the assassins. Hurry…”

Before Vois finished speaking, a sharp scream was heard from the back.

Ryner knew who was screaming.

It was Kiefer.

It was Kiefer’s voice, and she had just retreated to the back.

Ryner widened his eyes, finding that his whole body was trembling. He didn’t have the courage to turn around to confirm what had happened, only in that moment he couldn’t move.

He had the annoying thought of whether Kiefer had died.

“…”

He tried hard to dispel this thought, and turned around.

Kiefer was still alive.

But in front of her, a few bodies of the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers went flying.

And in the middle of the commotion, there was a young girl.

She seemed to be around Vois’ age, fourteen or fifteen years old.

Her fringe touched her eye brows, she had the natural pink hair colour of the Gastarkians; she wore a black skirt and her pretty features gave her an aura of a pitiful child.

Ryner knew this girl.

She was the Gastarkian spy that Ryner and Ferris had met when they were travelling through the surrounding countries to search for the Heroes’ Relics.

Her name should be Kuu Orla.

And that Kuu was now holding up the scythe in her hands.

Her slim hands were able to hold up the scythe that was longer than Ryner’s body.

But the girl, as if holding a twig, swung the scythe easily, simply cutting through the bodies of the surrounding Geihlficlant soldiers.

But the bodies that the girl cut did not gush blood. Because those cuts had already froze over with ice.

Yes.

That scythe was one of the Rhule Fragmei .

This Rhule Fragmei called Ailecrono’s Scythe would take away the wielder’s feelings as a price, greatly raising the physical ability of the wielder, and sealing whatever it cut with ice.

And Kuu was now spinning Ailecrono’s Scythe .

Spinning.

As the scythe cut down, she continued to spread the bloodless death.

Then that scythe approached Toale and Kiefer.

“Damnit!!” Ryner yelled, jumping up from the horse, using his magically accelerated body, jumping forward at the speed of lightning.

But Ferris reached Kiefer’s back faster than Ryner, then stepping on Kiefer’s back. So Kiefer’s body narrowly missed the blade of the scythe, and her shoulder struck the handle.

Followed by that her body flew back with an unbelievable speed, crashing to the ground, landing at a distance that it would not be hard to believe if she had died.

But Kiefer only groaned “…Ow… that hurts…” as she climbed up.

Ryner breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, a sharp metallic sound was heard.

It was Kuu’s scythe clashing with Ferris’s large sword.

Kuu looked at Ferris, saying: “…I… recognize you…”

Ferris replied: “Then you should remember that it was you who lost to me? If you don’t want to die, retreat.”

Kuu tilted her head, “…According to my memory… It should have been you who lost…”

“It seems that you have forgotten.”

“…Then…” Kuu said as she raised the scythe again, swinging it down hard, “Make me remember.”

She swung down the scythe so quickly that Ryner couldn’t catch its movements.

But Ferris skillfully blocked her opponent’s countless attacks.

But Ryner understood that if this continued, Ferris would be defeated.

The more she blocked those attacks, the more easily Ferris’s sword would be frozen, then her movements would slow.

So he had to go and help her immediately.

“…”

But Ryner was unable to move.

Only standing on the ground, his nerves tensed, surveying the movements of the surroundings.

Because the enemy—

“…”

If this girl called Kuu appeared, another enemy would definitely appear.

It was the brother of the girl called Kuu—Sui Orla.

And the person called Sui was also one that could use strong Rhule Fragmeis , although he should have been severely injured by the Rhule Fragmei that Froaude used, escaping back to his motherland.

But if he was still alive.

“…”

At this moment, Ryner saw that behind Kuu, there was a group of Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers surrounding a slim man.

He still had that pink hair, it was long enough that it was a little feminine. A steady expression that was completely unsuited for this battle. Then slim eyes that revealed humour.

Sui Orla.

Sui still had that smiling expression, meeting Ryner’s gaze. Then looked at Kiefer who had been kicked out.

“…”

Ryner bent down.

He already knew what Sui was thinking.

He had probably seen him wanting to save Kiefer, understanding that she could be used as a hostage.

So Sui had a happy expression, saying: “Ah, isn’t this Ryner. It’s been a long time.”

During this time, Ferris was still fighting with Kuu. And it had become so aggressive that no one could break in.

Sui looked at this happily, saying: “Talking about which, you understand the situation now, right? Ferris has already been locked down by Kuu. And I’m still able to move. You understand what this means, right?”

Of course he understood.

There were many comrades by his side now. Kiefer, Toale, Vois, Harmit, and Relca who was still being healed, and the Anti-Roland Coalition and Nelpha soldiers.

No one among them could block Sui’s attack. If they were hit, they could only die.

That meant, Sui was actually holding everyone here hostage.

But Ryner smiled, saying: “…That is, on the account that you can attack faster than I can.”

Sui shrugged, “That means you’re stronger than before?”

“Yeah.” Ryner nodded.

This was only a lie.

In truth, compared to the time when he had fought with Sui, there wasn’t too much difference. At least he wasn’t so hard working. So he had a large gap between Pia, Peria and Zohra. Even if he frantically started up his training, there wouldn’t be any effects so quickly.

But, even so.

“…If you think that I’m same as before, you’ll regret it.” Ryner fibbed.

Then so that it would be easier for him to jump, he bent down.

But Sui laughed even more happily, “Then let’s wait for a while. It wouldn’t be too late when Kuu kills Ferris…”

But as he spoke, Vois said from behind Ryner: “Ryner.”

Although Ryner didn’t turn around, but Vois continued, “You can give the order to attack any time. This is the center of our base. Everyone is your comrade. So that person wouldn’t be our opponent…”

But Sui laughed even more happily, pulling out a dagger.

A dagger that did not have a hilt.

That dagger seemed very similar to the one that Ryner had discovered when he was in Nelpha, but the colour was different.

It was blood red.

This was a dagger that was blood red in colour, as if it had been stained with blood.

Sui gripped the dagger, saying: “Doing things like these would only result in more sacrifices. Vois Fiurelle.”

But Vois laughed too, answering: “How uncoincidental, I’m a person who understands who to balance out things. So even if we sacrifice hundreds of our comrades here, if Ryner kills you, it’s my win.”

At this moment Harmit suddenly yelled, “Aisweiar!”

This was probably a secret signal that only the Anti-Roland Coalition knew.

So the surrounding hundreds of soldiers started to draw magic formations in the air.

Vois said: “Even if you can wield the Rhule Fragmei because of you are chosen because of hereditary conditions—you are too self-confident. Attacking the enemy’s base alone, I would only call those people idiots. So die, baka-san.” As he finished speaking, Vois made a gesture.

In a moment, the Anti-Roland Coalition released their magic.

But Sui remained unmoving, only raising the red dagger, murmuring sadly: “…So I said there would be meaningful sacrifices.”

Ryner immediately understood that he said the truth. Because the Rhule Fragmei in Sui’s hand gave off a strong blinding light.

Although he didn’t understand its effects, but even if he didn’t understand, he clearly knew that if that thing was activated, it could easily kill the surrounding soldiers.

“…”

Ryner quickly started to think about what he should do. He thought hard. If he made a wrong move, his comrades would most likely be killed. Not only that, it could even give Sui more of an advantage.

Furthermore Sui had always been aware of Ryner’s movements. If he officially started the battle between Sui now, there would only be Ryner fighting.

So Ryner was unable to move, if he moved too much, he would be caught…

“…”

At this moment he saw something strange out of the corner of his eye.

In the furthest distance where Ryner could still see clearly.

Kiefer who had been hit by the hilt of the scythe stood up suddenly.

Then she frantically wrote a few complicated glowing words. That was a high-level magical formulation that was very strong, if she was not at the level of a Mage Knight she would be unable to control it.

But Ryner knew, Kiefer was unable to use that kind of high-skilled magic. At least according to her knowledge and ability, she was unable to use that kind of first-class magic.

And now she was using that magic. It showed that in the time they had been separated, she had not given up on her self-training, unlike Ryner.

Of course, that magic was slightly unsteady, it was unable to compare to Ryner’s accuracy and speed.

But even so, that magic was about to be completed.

So Ryner smiled, then lowered his voice to the pitch that Sui was unable to hear, telling Vois: “…Vois, after the soldiers release their magic, let them retreat immediately.”

“Do you have a good idea?”

Ryner shook his head, “Although I do not have a good idea, but our comrades have increased.”

“Comrades?”

He nodded, “Yeah, it is a strong comrade…”

“Urgh…!”

At this moment, Ferris who was fighting with Kuu gave a slightly pained noise.

It seemed that her sword had started to freeze because she was going against the power of Kuu’s Ailecrono Scythe .

“Urgh! If, if this continues…”

Before she finished speaking, Kuu’s scythe cut down again, Ferris wanted to raise her sword to block this blow.

But as the weapons clashed, the strong impact made her release the sword. Ferris widened her eyes, saying: “I’m, I’m going to lose…”

“It’s done.” Kuu said, raising her scythe again.

But Ferris smiled faintly: “What. The one who should be done with, is you.” She stepped forward, charging to Kuu who was holding the large scythe.

“I purposefully released the sword.” Ferris said happily, making a karate chop towards Kuu’s neck.

Although Kuu wanted to use her scythe hilt to block this, but Ferris’s karate chop hit her neck faster than she expected. Although the scythe hilt hit Ferris at the same time, but Ferris used her feet to block it, lending its momentum to jump towards Sui.

Sui’s attention immediately focused on Ferris who had appeared in front of him immediately.

The space of a second.

It was only a slight space.

But it was already enough.

Ryner took the opportunity, running over.

Sui hurriedly pointed the dagger-like Rhule Fragmei at him, wanting to say something.

But in the next moment.

Sui said in disbelief: “…Wha…What!?”

This was because the girl who had been sent flying by Kuu, who didn’t look strong at all suddenly rushed over like lightning.

Kiefer who had used the high-grade magic from Estabul to increase her body’s strength, jumped up from the ground, running over, then kicking Sui’s hand which held the dagger.

The dagger left Sui’s hand, spinning into the sky.

Ferris raised her leg too, preparing to kick Sui’s neck.

And Sui couldn’t dodge this attack.

He frowned, muttering: “Oh no!”

Then he moved his body slightly, changing the target position from his neck to his face.

In the next instant, with a smack, he was sent flying.

But because he had avoided his vital position, so he remained conscious, Sui adjusted his landing position, reaching into his pockets, wanting to take something out.

But Ryner immediately decreased the distance between him and Sui. Then he took out a stiletto from his belt and pressed it to Sui’s neck, saying: “Don’t move. Or I’ll kill you.”

So Sui stopped, raising his head, then looked at Kiefer, saying: “…I didn’t think, that she had that kind of ability to move…”

Ryner smiled, “My companions are very strong.”

“Your companions?”

“Yeah.”

“…Your companion… right? I thought Kiefer was our companion…” Sui stared at Kiefer, suddenly something as strange as that.

“Unless you want to betray us? Your mission was to bring Ryner to Gastark, right?”

But Kiefer simply said: “Ah? Did I promise that?”

Ryner was confused by that, so he stared at Sui and Kiefer, asking: “…The two of you know each other?”

Kiefer had a slightly troubled expression, saying: “that, when I was wandering around, I stayed in Gastark for some time, I came to know him there.”

“Is that only it… Riphal, your king always thought that you were dating him…”

Kiefer interrupted him, saying: “That was Riphal’s misunderstanding.”

“…But at least, when Riphal knew that you were here too, he frantically sent us over to rescue you. Because of you, he decided to stop Glovil ’s attack.”

Hearing this conversation, Ryner at last knew what the relationship was between the Gastark king and Kiefer.

No, at least that man called Riphal, towards Kiefer…

At this moment, Sui said again: “His Majesty doesn’t wish for you to die…”

But Kiefer interrupted him, simply saying: “Then attack us.”

Sui had a disbelieving expression, looking at Kiefer in surprise, saying: “You’ll die too, you know?”

But for some reason, Kiefer laughed.

She seemed to laugh happily.

She seemed to laugh joyfully.

Then she said with that uncaring tone: “It doesn’t matter.”

“Dying with Ryner has always been my dream. So it doesn’t matter.”

“Because the one who I like… who I love, is not Riphal, but Ryner.”

She said simply, with clear eyes.

“…”

To this sudden confession, Ryner didn’t know what to say.

Sui said: “Then, you said you would bring Ryner back with you.”

Kiefer still smiled and answered: “I lied.”

“You traitor.” Sui said accusingly.

“You still dare to say that~” Kiefer smiled sadly.

Sui smiled too, his smile was bitter, saying: “…This is troublesome… Our king is always most unwelcome in front of the women that he falls in love with.”

Then Sui looked at Ryner, saying: “…Well, so we don’t have anything here to do… Although we were ordered to protect you and Kiefer Knolles… but because we were betrayed, so I have to go back. Then can you release me?”

“…”

But Ryner was slightly stunned, because too many things had happened, so he didn’t reply.

Kiefer knew the people from Gastark, and she had been ordered to bring Ryner back.

But she had simply betrayed Gastark.

And since she had stayed in Gastark for some time, then she should know the true appearance of the weapon that Gastark had. And she should know what kind of power that weapon had.

She clearly knew better than anyone else that she would die if she came here. It was even possible that she had seen that weapon’s power in Stohl.

But she had simply chose to come here.

She smiled as she chose to come here with Ryner.

And that reason was actually because, I like Ryner, so it’s like that…

An idiotic reason like that.

“…”

At this moment, Kiefer suddenly looked over, saying: “Ryner.”

“…Eh?”

“…Because there’s no guarantee that I would die here, so I wanted to say everything…” She said, then stopped as if she didn’t know how to continue. Then she blushed, but looked like she wanted to cry.

“I like Ryner.” She said.

She said with a voice that everyone could hear.

But Ryner was unable to reply. Towards this sudden development, he didn’t know how to reply.

At this moment.

“…”

There was the sound of something hitting the ground.

Ryner looked to the place where the sound came from. He found that Ferris’s sword had dropped on the ground for some reason, and she was frantically going to pick it up.

No, had she even picked up the sword that she had dropped intentionally when fighting with Kuu? But he had clearly heard that clang sound, Well, it was okay if anything happened, he put that aside.

That, so now, ah~ what should I do?

Seeing Ryner having that silly face, Vois poured cold water: “…What are you acting out. It’s clearly not a development to be surprised about, why is everyone’s reaction so big?”

Then he pointed at Kuu on the ground, ordering the subordinate called Harmit: “Tie her up.”

Harmit nodded, pressing down on Kuu’s body.

Confirming that nothing was missing, Vois dismounted, walking to Kuu who was unconscious and tied up by Harmit, looking at Sui, saying: “The tables have been overturned, now the hostage is on our hands. Then I’ll tell you what you told us when you appeared, ‘you understand what this means, right?’ … Killing so many companions, and still wanting to trick us…”

Vois took out a dagger, smiling happily, “So you want us to let you go back? You must be joking.”

Ryner and Sui yelled at the same time: “Stop!”

But Vois continued to smile, “I was joking. How tiresome, because I have too many good people here, if I really kill this girl here, I will probably be scolded terribly, so I’ll let her go here… But I can’t choose to let you go back. If we still need to fight Gastark, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few hostages.”

Sui tilted his head and said: “…Hostages? I advise you not to do something as useless as that. Because your opponent wouldn’t be Gastark.”

Vois smiled: “Because the weapon you call Glovil will kill us?”

“Ah, that’s true. As long as you stay here, you will definitely die.”

And Vois seemed to have a smile that was so happy, as if he could play with the whole world, saying: “It doesn’t matter.”

He raised his pitch, until he sounded like a woman, “…Because I can die with Ryner, that’s always been my dream, so…”

“I’ll kill you--!!” Kiefer shouted.

Vois ignored Kiefer’s shout, telling Ryner: “I love Ryner~ ♥~”

Hearing this very ‘Vois’-esque speech, Ryner had a slightly irritated expression.

But Vois continued to smile happily, staring at Sui as he said: “…We came here after knowing you had that mysterious weapon Glovil , and we still came. We bet our lives to stand here. If you misunderstood that we came here to try desperately…”

“We didn’t think of that.”

Someone said suddenly from behind them.

Behind Vois, there was a man.

He had the pink hair that only Gastarkians had, a strong, agile body and a confident smile.

Ryner knew this person.

He was the man called Lir Orla.

And he was the person who released those Lightning Beasts.

And this man wanted to release them again. He moved the ring on his finger, saying: “Appear, gathered Beasts!”

In a moment, a large thunder cloud appeared above Vois’s head, a golden Lightning Beast jumped out, wanting to bit off Vois’s head.

This was too sudden, no one was able to react.

Ryner, Ferris, Kiefer, Harmit, no one was able to react on time.

But Toale who had been standing by Vois’s side suddenly jumped up.

So one of the Lightning Beasts bit Toale’s leg, and he grabbed his leg, from his thigh, he pulled off the magical prosthetic, ordering: “Self-destruct.”

Following that order, Toale’s prosthetic limb exploded with the Lightning Beast that had bitten the limb.

One was destroyed just like that.

There were still two left.

Although the other one wanted to attack Toale who had lost one leg, but Ferris had reacted, raising her sword, blocking the Lightning Beast’s attack.

But the other Lightning Beast—

“Harmit, take Vois away quickly, leave that scythe girl!” Toale shouted.

Harmit hearing that, immediately grabbed Vois, leaving the area.

So the other Lightning Beast carefully collected Kuu and the scythe, running back towards Lir.

Ryner could only watch everything, unmoving.

Because if he released the restraint on Sui, the enemy would become Lir and Sui.

If they entered that kind of situation, then just by depending on the people around them, they would be unable to win. Ryner didn’t have the confidence to win two opponents with Rhule Fragmei without any injuries.

Furthermore the man called Lir, was more challenging than Sui and Kuu combined.

So he couldn’t let go of the restraint he had on Sui. Anyway let Sui faint first, then help Ferris and the others—he decided, but as he hesitated, the situation became worse.

Lir moved his ring again, saying again: “Gathered beasts, appear!”

A thunder cloud appeared in front of him, this time five golden monsters stepped out.

Three of them were wolf-like beasts that had mostly appeared.

And two were monsters similar to what Froaude had released before, similar to devils.

Then these five monsters rushed towards Ferris.

The five and the one from the previous round, totaling six monsters were attacking Ferris alone.

“…”

Ferris stepped back, desperately moving her sword, using an unbelievable speed, to block the demon’s attack.

But of course she couldn’t stop everything.

Several gashes appeared on her body, blood flowing. But even so, she tried hard not to let the enemy’s attacks be drawn to Vois, Toale and Kiefer, fighting alone.

At this moment, Toale who was on the ground because he had lost his prosthetic limb, started to draw a crest in the air. He started to construct the offensive fire magic of Nelpha.

Vois reacted too, not only ordering his subordinates, and the surrounding Geihlficlant soldiers, “There’s a Gastarkian soldier…”

And Lir said: “I wouldn’t let you gain the advantage.”

He pulled out a circular disc with a hole in the center, then used his finger to spin it, throwing it towards the sky, saying softly: “Spin, Fabluss’ Moon Circle .”

It was like a curse, taking Lir as the center.

No, so that Sui and Kuu would not be hurt, the circle took Ryner and the others as center, starting to move vigorously.

The small disc moved at an unbelievable speed, spinning. It spun several rounds at which others could not see it.

But, it could be felt that their surroundings had grown quiet.

The dozens of soldiers around them…

No, maybe hundreds of soldiers, had been sliced open in a moment.

They didn’t even have the time to scream, when they were speedily sliced up, becoming corpses as they dropped onto the ground.

The surroundings became empty.

In a radius that wasn’t counted to be small, the living people had all disappeared.

The only ones living, were Ryner, Sui, Kiefer, Vois, Harmit, Toale, Kuu, Ferris and Relca who was on the ground, so she wasn’t harmed by the Rhule Fragmei .

The other soldiers were killed.

Although the Geihlficlant soldiers and Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers had felt this abnormality and wanted to provide them with reinforcements, but they hadn’t caught up.

No, it was lucky that they had not caught up.

Because Lir had a weapon that was able to kill the surrounding soldiers in an instant. The strange disc had returned to Lir’s finger, continuing to spin at a speed that could not be caught by the naked eye.

Even if the soldiers came to help again, they would probably be sliced open by Lir’s disc before they knew that they were dead.

And at this moment, Toale’s magic had completed.

But before Toale could move, Lir pointed to Ferris who would definitely die in the battle with the Lightning Beasts.

Then in his hand there was a green ball that was familiar.

It should be called the Rhule Fragmei called Stone Devourer .

It was a weapon that was able to gouge out the eyes of wielders of magic eyes.

And it was a weapon that could destroy the strong yarn that Luke used.

Because its general usage was broad, so it couldn’t be understood what kind of power that Rhule Fragmei had, but, anyway it was an extremely dangerous weapon.

Then Ryner remembered.

He remembered Lir had simply killed his companions before.

He had killed Lafra. He had killed Pueka. As long as it was wielders of magic eyes, he could even kill innocent children without any hesitation.

And now this person, to Ferris…

“…”

And he wanted to kill Ferris.

“Stop!!!!!!!” Ryner shouted, releasing Sui, jumping up from the ground, running towards Ferris.

But Lir laughed.

He laughed scornfully.

“This is war? How can I stop.” He said, then opened his hand, pushing the green stone in front of Ferris, saying softly, “Devour this person, Stone Devourer .”

So the stone…

The green stone called Stone Devourer immediately exploded.

And Ferris wasn’t able to block this blow.

She had spent most of her energy dealing with the Lightning Beasts, she didn’t have any more energy to block it.

“I definitely, wouldn’t let you succeed!”

Ryner shouted, grabbing Ferris’s hair from behind, pulling her down.

“Ah.” Ferris called, falling back, then looked at Ryner in slight surprise.

Several Lightning Beasts wanted to chase after Ferris, but Ryner blocked them. He reached out his right hand, pushing it in front of a beast that was running over. So Ryner’s wrist was bitten off, but he didn’t stop, using his remaining left hand, to punch Lir’s face.

Although this punch made Lir move back slightly, but everything was done.

The green stone in Lir’s hand exploded, becoming a great distortion in space.

In the next moment, Ryner’s left hand was sliced off into the air, but even so it had not ended.

Lir said with a nervous but determined voice: “Gouge out the crystal, Stone Devourer .”

So the green stone exploded again.

Although he didn’t know what he wanted to do.

But if he didn’t guess wrongly, it should be that he wanted to do the same thing like had he had done to the wielder of Alpha Stigma , Pueka.

To Ryner.

To Ryner’s Alpha Stigma .

And in that moment.

“…”

Ryner lost his vision.

His vision suddenly turned black, he couldn’t see anything.

He completely couldn’t see where he was, what he was doing.

“Ah…” He said.

Then he felt his body suddenly lose strength, kneeling on the ground.

“Ryner!!” Ferris shouted.

Strangely, she shouted with a sad voice that was rarely heard. But because of this shout, he finally understood that he had saved her.

So Ryner sighed in relief.

It was good if she had been saved. But if he continued to remain here, he would be killed. So he needed to tell her to run away quickly. But he couldn’t say anything, all his energy was gone, he couldn’t say a single word.

Then he felt Ferris hug him, hug his body.

She should clearly run away, this wasn’t the time to be doing this, but she strongly, she held him strongly.

“…Hey hey, your crystal has clearly been taken away, but you’re still alive. You really are a monster.” Lir said.

“…You, you, you… I am definitely going to kill you.” Ferris said with a trembling voice.

But no, I must stop Ferris.

Ryner thought.

She can’t win, she definitely can’t win these people. So if she doesn’t escape, I can only beg for mercy.

Even if I die here, it’s fine.

But, my comrades.

The companions who followed me here, no matter what I have to let them escape.

“…”

Hearing Kiefer cry in sadness, then run over.

So Ryner said: “…Li…Lir… I have a favour.”

Lir said: “It doesn’t seem like I have a reason to accept my enemy’s favour, right?”

Ryner forced a scornful smile, “Take it as me begging you…”

But Lir opened his mouth as if knowing what Ryner wanted to say: “You want to surrender at this point in time? Impossible. This is the punishment for the companion who has turned enemy and betrayed us. We clearly came here to save her, but I didn’t think that I would nearly lose my younger brother and sister’s lives. I don’t want to make the same error twice.”

“…”

“But letting you escape is fine. Because we have no more time to waste here. So, hey, the one called Vois Fiurelle.”

Somewhere nearby, Vois replied: “What is it?”

“Give all your Rhule Fragmei to me. This way I will let you live.”

Vois said with a slightly depressed voice: “There’s no choice… Harmit, take these.”

Harmit made a noise of assent, then wanted to pass them to Lir.

Although he couldn’t see, but Ryner still understood what happened.

At this moment, Kiefer suddenly shouted, “Vois, bring the Death Transference to Ryner, quickly!”

Lir said: “The Death Transference if a Rhule Fragmei too…”

But Kiefer interrupted him, saying again: “I definitely wouldn’t let you have it! If you want it, you’ll have to kill me first!”

Don’t say that, Ryner thought. Don’t say that for me, it doesn’t matter if something like dying happened to me.

For a monster who has no meaning in living, don’t die so easily.

At this moment, he felt Kiefer by his side, she stroked Ryner’s face, saying: “Ferris, don’t cry. Hurry! We have to move Ryner to places where soldiers are bleeding… Or else the Death Transference that sucks blood wouldn’t work… I’ll go get Ryner’s wrist.”

Because of this sentence, Ryner’ mind suddenly went blank.

Kiefer said Ferris was crying.

That Ferris, was actually crying.

Ryner sank into a state of self-hatred.

When they left Sion, she cried too, unsettled.

He clearly said that he wouldn’t leave such lonely memories for her, but now it was still the same.

Because he had been too weak, so he had become like that.

And, he understood too.

I will probably die soon.

He could clearly feel something very important in his body dying, and Death Transference probably couldn’t heal it.

Lir said: “…This person can’t be saved. Wielders of cursed eyes having lost their crystals can only…”

At this moment, Sui said: “Onii-san, let’s go. Our work has ended.”

Vois asked: “…Taking away the crystal also means taking away the power of Ryner’s magic eyes, right?”

“Yes.”

“That means, the power of Alpha Stigma , all of it…”

“Yeah.”

“Then Ryner is no longer a wielder of cursed eyes? He has already become a normal… a normal human?”

Lir answered: “Yes. Well, but he’ll die soon.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“I see…” Vois had a disappointed voice.

Of course. Vois had come here because of Ryner’s magic eyes.

He had anticipated that Ryner’s eyes would be able to block Gastark’s weapon and had come here solely for that reason.

But, now he had simply lost those eyes.

And that meant everyone here.

“…”

Everyone would die.

But Ryner was unable to think about this.

His blood loss was severe.

Because he had lost both wrists, a large amount of blood was rushing out.

His consciousness was slowly blurring.

Lost in a distant place.

But he heard Kiefer’s voice. He heard Kiefer’s trembling and hoarse voice.

“I wouldn’t let you die. I definitely wouldn’t let you die!”

Then he felt Kiefer touch his shoulder.

His chest was still being hugged by Ferris. So he could feel her body trembling uncontrollably.

They were probably using Death Transference to heal him. If it were Death Transference, it could probably heal the wounds of both his wrists.

“…”

But, his consciousness became more blurred, more distant.

Then, he felt it.

He felt death.

He felt himself walking into the depths of death.

He felt himself slowly losing the power to live…

Then finally, Ryner’s consciousness, disappeared.

•••••••

“…”

Raising his head to the sky.

Looking at the distant sky.

The weather was very sunny today, so when he woke up he felt that something good would happen.

“…”

After Vois Fiurelle confirmed that the assassins had left, he looked back.

He looked at Kiefer and Ferris frantically try to heal Ryner who had lost his sight and both his wrists.

No, his wrist had already been joined back.

The severed left had had started to join back under the treatment of Death Transference .

The right hand had been torn apart by the beast so it was unable to return to its former appearance, Well, but at least the blood flow had stopped.

No matter what this was war. The blood that was the source of Death Transference ’s power was abundant here.

As long as it wasn’t immediate death, no matter how severe the wound, as long as they used Death Transference , they wouldn’t die.

But.

“…”

Ryner Lute would still die.

Because his ' Alpha Stigma had been stolen.

Because his magic eyes had been crystallised and stolen.

Vois had met people who collected crystallised magic eyes before, so he knew that after the wielders lost the power of their magic eyes, they would die.

They would die immediately.

It was as if having a major organ like their heart or brain being destroyed, they would die immediately.

Probably to the wielders of cursed eyes, these magic eyes were probably the most important organ that gave them their main power.

So Ryner would definitely die.

No matter what, his Alpha Stigma had been stolen.

So…

“…”

Vois raised his head to the sky again, calling his subordinate, “Harmit.”

The black-haired beauty looked at him, replying: “Here.”

Vois smiled, saying: “Ne, so I said today would be a good day, right?”

Harmit tilted her head, not understanding Vois’s meaning, saying: “…Huh?”

But actually there wasn’t any need for her to understand his feelings.

Because today really was a good day.

Looking at the crying Kiefer Knolles.

Looking at the crying Ferris Eris.

Looking at the grim Toale Nelphi.

Only he, smiled happily, then used a light tone, to say to these three people: “Then then, has Ryner died?”

The three looked at Vois at the same time. They looked at him with an unbelievably scary expression, but they didn’t say anything.

But there wasn’t any need for them to answer.

If he died.

Then his heart would stop, his breathing would halt, the Death Transference would stop working.

Because Death Transference wouldn’t react to dead people.

But now that stone was sucking the blood on the floor. It was slurping up the blood.

As if desperately sucking up blood to wake up something else in Ryner’s body.

In normal situation after their magic eyes had been crystallised, they would die immediately, but now something in his body that had allowed to live, was as if about to be awakened.

Vois looked at this, murmuring: “…Ah, anyway, it seems like I win this bet.”

Well, no matter what, he was actually unsettled.

What the ugly Goddess said, how much of it was truth? He had always been unsettled about that.

Furthermore, the Goddesses had described Ryner like this.

No, it should be said they had described the thing in Ryner’ body.

<…We don’t know what it is. And we don’t know what will appear. Up until now something like that has never happened, what has happened to the body of the Solver of All Equations ?>

The Goddesses had said that.

But he only needed this, to Vois it was enough.

The existence that even the Goddesses were unable to fathom.

That thing, that seemed to control all Reason in this world that the Goddesses were unable to understand.

It was in Ryner Lute’s body.

And the strange thing that even the Goddesses were unable to understand, probably wouldn’t appear so coincidentally, Vois had thought.

“…”

It couldn’t appear just for fun, he had thought.

So Vois had thought that if he brought Ryner here, he would let that thing appeared.

If he weren’t a human who had to die.

If her weren’t a monster who was about to die here.

And, he told Ryner that— “ α —the power hidden in your body, seems to be the strongest power.”

That information, was actually a lie that Vois had come up with. It was easy to trick his opponent with a small lie, he had thought, then came up with this lie that seemed to have some meaning, but, from the beginning till the end, that had only been a lie.

The Goddess had never mentioned that.

They only told him that he needed to watch Ryner Lute, and keep a tab on him.

Ryner Lute, and Lucile Eris.

The Solver of All Equations and the Weaver of All Equations .

Now in the body of these two people, there were unknown bodies in them.

Things that could easily twist the rational of this world.

It was something that was unable to be understood by the common logic that they knew.

And the things that lived in their bodies, had always threatened this world—the Goddesses had said, and they were scared.

So Vois thought of betting on this gamble.

He gambled on the thing that was beyond the Goddess ’ understanding.

If that thing really existed, then this person wouldn’t die here.

Was that person a hero from the legends, or a legendary hero, or—

“…There’s also the possibility that he will be a demon that will ruin this world…” Vois smiled.

Then he looked at Ryner who had lost consciousness. He looked at this monster that was on the ground, that had lost his Alpha Stigma .

He still hadn’t died.

He had clearly lost his Alpha Stigma , but he hadn’t died.

The Goddesses didn’t seem to be too clear on the weapon that Gastark had—the information on that weapon called Glovil . Even if Vois had searched through all the information networks in the world, he hadn’t gotten any solid information.

That meant, in this place, there were two giant powers that the Goddesses did not know of.

There were two powers that even those people who controlled the world did not know about.

And these two powers would clash here.

And it was such a sunny weather.

Under this clear sky with no clouds in sight.

This was really—

“…Everything has been decided on since the beginning, don’t you feel as if this were fate?” Vois said.

Harmit had an uncomprehending expression.

Vois smiled.

Of course he was the one to push for this development. It was his careful planning, that had caused matters to develop to this stage.

But everything possibly was decided on since the beginning, he had occasionally thought.

In the fate that had been decided on, followed by the low-grade humans who would follow its joys and despairs.

“…Thinking like that, always feels a little irritating…”

But, even so, only this time, he wanted to think of everything as destined.

He hoped that this situation was also decided since the beginning.

That before Gastark would use that weapon called Glovil , Ryner would lose his Alpha Stigma .

Then, after becoming like that.

The real battle, was from now on.

If everything proceeded in the way that Vois had predicted.

If.

“If I can win this gamble… the world can really change.”

It would change into scenery that not only humans, even Goddesses had never seen.

Up until today, no one had seen that scenery, that would replace everything in this world.

So Vois breathed out a little nervously.

If it weren’t death, it was changing the world.

“…”

He turned around.

The battle continued.

Even if Vois didn’t have three thousand soldiers under him, the battle that wouldn’t be affected by that, continued.

And the Geihlficlant held an overwhelmingly strong pressure.

As if not scared of the destructive power of the large-scale offensive magic and Rhule Fragmei , it slowly pushed the battle line back, then Gastark slowly started to retreat.

If this continued, Gastark would definitely lose.

But of course, that could not happen.

Anyone could see what Gastark was doing.

They were waiting for those assassins who had been sent to retrieve Kiefer and Ryner to return.

And when they returned, Gastark would use Glovil .

No.

“…”

At this moment, Vois felt something interesting.

What those Gastarkian assassins said.

They said they had been ordered to bring Kiefer and Ryner back.

That meant, the Gastarkians, had already felt that something special had existed in Ryner’s body?

Vois thought.

But the Gastarkian assassins didn’t bring Ryner back together.

They left after taking his Alpha Stigma .

Then, what did this mean?

Vois asked himself, then smiled scornfully.

Gastark that had the weapon that even the Goddess didn’t know about, probably didn’t completely understand Ryner.

That meant, Gastark hadn’t grasped the information that Ryner was equivalent to a BUG ?

He thought.

“…If everything were just my imagination, it would be troublesome.” It was rare that he would say a weak point, then he called his subordinate again, “Harmit.”

Hamit replied, in her proper, curt but energetic way: “Is there anything wrong, Vois-sama.”

“How are Relca’s wounds?”

“Although she is unconscious, but she will probably live.”

“That’s good.” He nodded, repeating: “That’s good.”

Then he raised his head to the sky.

Now he only needed to wait.

Or die.

Or wait for the moment when the world would change.

“Harmit.”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you hungry? We have done what we need to do. Let’s have lunch.”

Hearing Vois’s sudden pronouncement, Harmit tilted her head in confusion.

Because she was overly serious, so every time he joked, she would always reveal this expression.

Then after she remained confused for a period of time, she understood what he meant, and smiled faintly, saying—

“Yes.”

•••••••

“…”

Suddenly, a palpitation came from his heart.

So he stopped fighting.

He stopped massacring the monsters around him.

Then Sion Astal focused his attention on that palpitation.

“…”

A strong thundering was coming from his chest.

Something important to his body, started beating strongly.

At first he didn’t understand what happened, but his heart was beating until he wanted to yell loudly.

“…”

He raised his head to the sky.

The blood red sky.

He was now under a sky like this.

But somewhere opposite this sky, there was something strange happening.

Although he didn’t know what had happened yet.

But these monsters—

“…”

These clones of the Goddess , that had attacked Sion, felt this.

Hundreds of monsters that were unbelievably ugly, raised their heads to the sky.

They looked to the northern sky.

They looked to the distant northern sky.

It seemed like something significant had happened there.

So a beast called.

It let out a piercing shout that humans couldn’t bear.

But Sion understood its meaning. Sion who was no longer human could understand their call.

This was the retreat order from the Goddesses to their clones. So the monsters retreated.

Something worse than ambushing Sion here had probably happened.

It seemed like there was some serious problem, so these monsters needed to go and deal with it.

“…”

Sion pulled off the monster that was hanging on to his shoulder, stamping on it, then raising his hands, muttering: “Begone, monsters.”

A black sword appeared suddenly from behind him, piercing through the monster’s head. Followed by a clatter, the monster’s head disappeared.

Confirming this, he turned to the north again.

He looked at the northern sky.

Then closed his eyes.

Opening them again.

“…”

Following that he was back to reality.

The reality where there were no monsters.

He was now in a carriage.

He was in a carriage where there was a simple desk and bed.

He opened his eyes and found he was lying on a bed. His head ached terribly, it was probably because he had hit his head and lost his consciousness in reality when he was attacked by the Goddess.

He rubbed his temples, raising his head, getting off the simple mattress. Then he opened the carriage door. The outside was still as noisy as ever.

It seemed, he was still on the battle field.

Froaude was waiting outside the carriage, he said with a cold but slightly concerned tone: “…Have you work, Your Majesty.”

Sion nodded, getting off the carriage.

Then he surveyed the situation.

In the end he found that the scenery wasn’t much different from when he had lost consciousness at.

“…This is?” He asked.

Froaude replied: “The area between the lands that used to be the Southern Country of Ali and the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla.”

According to what Froaude said, Sion finally understood that his army had seemed to retreat by quite a distance.

“Have we been outmaneuvered by Remrus?”

Froaude nodded, “Because they used a surprisingly strong weapon.”

“So we didn’t win?”

“No no, this is only a temporary retreat to reorganize our army. And now Field Marshals Claugh Klom and Rahel Miller have gathered the soldiers to make a counter-attack. Because we sent out extraordinary pieces, so we probably can stop them.”

Hearing this report, Sion nodded.

Everyone had probably retreated to protect Sion who had lost consciousness. The morale of the soldiers who had seen Sion collapsed must have been badly affected.

But if they were able to regroup the army in such a short time, start the counter-attack, that meant…

Sion smiled, saying: “It seems that even without me, Roland can conquer the world?”

Froaude smiled too, “Please don’t joke about that—then I will go and spread the news that Your Majesty is already awake to the whole army. Because almost everyone followed Your Majesty to come here, so if you’re not with us, including me, everyone is not motivated.”

He finished saying these words that seemed to be offerings, turned around and left.

“…”

But Sion didn’t stop.

He moved his eyes away from Froaude, looking to the sky again.

He looked to the northern sky.

The sky there seemed to be very sunny.

It was so cloudless that it made him feel comfortable.

But for some reason, somewhere deep in his chest—

“…”

Somewhere deep in his chest felt very uncomfortable.

So he understood something important that would cause a change must have happened.

As if hearing something in the far north let out a cry.

But.

“…”

But even so, Sion chose to keep quiet in the end, not saying anything.

•••••••

“We will win!”

The Geihlficlant king yelled.

So as to increase the soldiers’ motivation, he yelled, almost making his voice hoarse.

In actuality, this war had many benefits for him.

Although he had been cautious because of the information that the strongest power in the northern continent Stohl Empire had been defeated, but in the end if you talked about it optimistically, it would be the side with more soldiers that would win.

There was no other path.

No matter what they did there was no other path, the person who stepped firmly step by step would win.

And Geihlficlant was that country.

No matter whether you were royalty or noble birth, people with no talents could not be acknowledged. People with no results couldn’t be recognized.

Even if it were the prince, if he did not have the ability to deal with it, his position would have been snatched away by the other nobles.

So he had never relaxed his demands towards himself. He had worked hard at disciplining himself since young. Because he was a just prince recognized by everyone.

And he wanted this country to become stronger, more peaceful.

But suddenly the country that he had never heard of called Gastark appeared, and focused its sights on Geihlficlant.

It was said that they had weapons that no one had ever seen before, up till today.

No, they had used it a few times on their way here.

And because those weapons spit flames, it had killed tens of thousands of his soldiers.

But, even so.

“…We will win.”

He thought.

The Geihlficlant army was already completely pressing back the Gastark army.

Furthermore they had ten times the power of the opposing army. If they had an opening, the Gastark army would be easily scattered in a moment.

And if it became a chaotic battle, the other side couldn’t use that strange weapon too. Because if they continued with their plan, they would suffer damages too.

So it would end like that—Gulafed Abuleld thought.

The shining conqueror of the north, the legend of the Gastark Empire, would end here immediately.

But they would leave a reputation. No matter what they had conquered the northern continent.

But in the history after today, their name would only pass down as part of the Geihlficlant Empire.

“…”

Gulafed smiled.

Then he pulled out the sword at his waist.

His horse galloped forward.

On the battle field that was filled with a few large-scale magics and deaths, he calmly galloped forth.

He was this kind of king.

A king who took up the lives of his comrades.

That was why everyone chose him.

They choose him who was fearless and courageous.

Because he was a king who was protected by the people and soldiers.

So the soldiers who desperately protect their selfless king who rushed to the front lines.

So the army strength increased in a moment. Thousands of soldiers moved at an unbelievable pace.

Then Abuleld smiled happily, raising his sword.

Raising his sword high in the air.

This sword was going to clash with the swords of the Gastark army.

He flew there in a straight line, roaring: “That’s enough, you guys!”

The Geihlficlant soldiers answered with an ear-splitting yell—

“Yes--!!!!”

Because of this earth-shattering cry, the Gastark soldiers trembled.

The world shook.

The earth shook.

With the progress of these soldiers who shouted that they wanted to kill the Gastarkians, everything shook.

So Rize shouted: “Too slow!”

He scolded angrily: “What are Lir and the others doing!”

“…”

But Riphal did not answer.

He only watched the Geihlficlant army that was slowly approaching in a huge mass.

All he could see were the green flags and armours of Geihlficlant and his soldiers.

“…Definitely.”

That country must have an extremely wonderful king. He thought.

Or else there wouldn’t be so many soldiers following him.

Even that military country Stohl, their soldiers had weakly shuffled their feet. But this was to be expected, because the royalty and nobles who were in high positions, didn’t follow them onto the battle ground.

But here.

On this battle ground, the Geihlficlant king was on its front lines.

In these nights and days, no matter how many northern countries he had defeated, this had never happened. But it seemed that the Geihlficlant king was this kind of king.

Furthermore.

“…”

Riphal frowned.

Then he thought.

If everything had not been distorted.

If the Goddesses had not devoured this world, if the Hero had not gone bad, if everything was not twisted, he would want to live in the country that was ruled by that kind of king.

To tell the truth he had never thought of ruling the world, much less have this kind of meaningless war.

Because he hated seeing people die.

Be it his companions or enemies.

Because he hated seeing people die.

This was completely meaningless.

No matter how many people he killed, the ending would still be the same.

In the end a country would take over the world.

But that country would be ruined one day.

And then a new struggle would erupt.

Leaving blood, screams and despair.

And people would immediately forget these.

They would make the same mistake.

He himself had never thought of entering this boring killing cycle.

Even if Stohl had killed his parents, he had opposed revenge.

Because there was no meaning.

He had even advised everyone in the village to have a peaceful life under Stohl’s governance.

But.

“…”

But why was he standing here.

Killing people here.

And killing many people.

It was clearly the worst action.

If no one was seeing, if there were no companions fighting by his side, he would probably hate it so much that he would cry.

I clearly only want to live in peace, why does that world disallow for such a small hope to exist.

Forcing him to move forward.

Making him move forward.

Making him move forward and kill people.

Or else in the end, the whole world would be devoured by the Goddess or something like that.

“…”

At this moment, his companions finally returned.

Lir, Sui and Kuu.

In the beginning he had only sent them to confirm the position of the Geihlficlant king, but for some reason the spy that had followed Kiefer returned at this time. And said that Kiefer had escaped his notice, coming to this battle field for some reason.

Hearing this news, Riphal had frantically plead for Lir and the others to save Kiefer.

Riphal looked at Lir who had returned empty-handed, asking: “…Why didn’t you bring Kiefer back?”

Lir looked down, saying: “She said she didn’t want to return to your side.”

Rize who was standing behind Riphal said: “Huh? Is that woman an idiot? She clearly knows what will happen.”

But if she was so adamant on not returning, there was no choice.

“Did she say she wanted to die with Ryner Lute?” Riphal asked.

Lir replied: “…No, the Solver of All Equations is already…”

“Dead?”

“Is this better to do this?”

Riphal nodded, “…Yes. That’s the case. Anyway I can’t save the Solver of All Equations … Even if you brought him back, I would probably kill him here. But even so… Even so, I still wanted to let them have more time together for Kiefer’s sake…”

But, Ryner Lute was already dead.

And Kiefer still hadn’t left the side of the dead Ryner.

Riphal smiled sadly, saying: “…I’ve been dumped again~”

Lir didn’t say anything.

Sui and Kuu and Rize were silent.

Because they already understood what would happen.

Riphal would swing that big sword.

He would swing Glovil down.

He would swing that cursed Sword of Regeneration .

Then everything here would end.

Half of the Geihlficlant soldiers would probably die. The crowd covering this area would disappear in and instant, it could be possible that they might even see the horizon.

And among that, Kiefer’s life would be ended.

“…”

He clearly said that he hated seeing people die, but his hand…

His cursed hands still…

“…Don’t tell me I have to kill the woman I love…” He muttered with a voice as if he were about to cry.

But that sentence was murmured so low that no one could hear it. No, that probably was the small, weak voice that was filled with hate and cursed fate, that sounded in the deepest corner of his chest.

Then he raised his head.

Because he couldn’t cry.

Because he couldn’t cry, and he couldn’t escape.

So he faced the front.

He found that the Geihlficlant army had already reached in front of him.

So he said: “…Let our comrades retreat. I will end this war.”

Lir nodded.

Rize yelled: “His Majesty is going to use Glovil ! Retreat!”

The Gastark soldiers yelled happily, the shout to kill all of Geihlficlant soldiers spread.

Both sides were shouting “Kill! Kill! Kill!” as they prepared to clash.

And in the middle of these two armies.

“…”

Riphal Edea stood proudly by himself.

Then he pulled out the large sword on his back.

It didn’t seem like humans could use it—

A long…

Long…

Black…

Cursed sword.

He slowly raised the sword above his head, lifting his soldiers.

Raising his head, looking at the man who was galloping towards him amongst the front line of the Geihlficlant army.

That man who wore elegant green armour. He raised his sabre, leading the Geihlficlant army. There was the possibility that this man was that country’s king.

But.

“…”

In Riphal’s eyes, there was no reflection of the Geihlficlant king’s figure.

He only used that remaining eye, to look into the distance.

He looked at the other side of the enemy army.

He looked at the people he was about to kill.

He looked at the lives of comrades.

“…Kiefer she…” He murmured.

And he stopped, he didn’t continue. He squashed what he wanted to say back into his chest.

Because he didn’t have the right to explain himself anymore. He no longer had the right to explain what he wanted to do to the people he was going to kill.

So he could only shout like he usually did.

He shouted with that voice as if he were about to cry—

“I…I am a murderer! I am a king of slaying! If you want to curse me, then come! But, even so, I will still swing this sword. So that I can save more lives than I am going to kill now, I will kill you all here!!”

So he, Glovil —

The scenery warped.

The world warped with a strangely mushy sound.

And Ryner,

"..."

Had seen this same scene before.

He saw something within the depths of darkness.

The scenery being twisted, crushed, wrapped, and colors melting into each other, staining everything red.

Red.

"..."

This was the same scene he saw when he died a while ago. No, the same scene he saw when he thought he died from being stabbed in the chest with a knife.

Then Ryner looked at his hands.

His hands were being stained white.

Not only his hands – but his feet, his chest, his whole body were being stained white as well.

It almost seemed like his own existence was getting weaker – even the outline of his body was fading away.

"...everything is happening the way it did last time..."

He whispered.

Then he looked around.

Everything within his field of vision was being stained red.

And Ryner knew what kind of red it was.

The same shade of red that the pentacle in his eyes had.

A red ceiling.

A crimson floor.

A vermillion wall.

A scarlet corridor the stretches directly ahead.

And Ryner knew where he was.

He was within himself.

Inside his Alpha Stigma .

A monster called Alpha lived here, and...

"..."

A black-haired woman who tried her best to stop its rampage.

And he remembered the woman's face.

He remembered who she was.

Mother.

His own mother.

He didn't know why, but his mother risked her life to prevent the monster from going wild inside Ryner.

Therefore

"..."

Therefore, his mother should be here right now.

And Ryner whispered softly,

"...mother."

But no response came.

There was only the blood-red corridor, stretching infinitely.

So Ryner began walking. He proceeded through the passageway, and saw what he'd seen before.

Beyond the corridor lay an unbelievably huge room.

If I have such a huge and empty hole within me, won't I die of loneliness? These nonsensical thoughts passed through Ryner's head.

That room was red as well.

The sky; the earth; everything was red and wriggled like human insides.

The same as before.

Exactly the same.

Yet somehow different.

Because...

"...there's no voice..."

He said.

Yes.

Last time, a voice came from the skies.

A low and heavy voice that resounded directly in his brain.

It's the same voice that Ryner can only hear when his Alpha Stigma goes berserk, a voice overbearing like that of a god's – however, he can't hear it now.

The red monster who posed as a deity was supposed to live here.

But it wasn't here.

Ryner tried speaking up,

"Is it hiding somewhere...?"

Maybe when Lir gouged out his Alpha Stigma , that monster got devoured by that stone Spunquel and died?

Regardless, nothing was there.

Ryner emerged from the corridor and stepped into the room. He mused to himself as he walked on,

"...maybe everything's a dream? I'm already dead, so I'm seeing things during my last moments...or..."

Am I in hell?

That's one possibility, he thought.

He killed lots of people when his Alpha Stigma went berserk, after all.

Such a monster could never hope for heaven.

And he failed to protect his friends...

"..."

Ferris and Kiefer and Toale and Voice and Arua and Kuku and Sion and – no, he failed pretty much everyone.

Someone like that wouldn't go to heaven after he died.

So,

"...is this hell?"

He whispered, and something replied.

< >

Something replied.

However, the voice came from the heavens. A voice from the skies that battered directly at his head.

But it wasn't the overbearing voice that resounded when his Alpha Stigma went berserk.

This voice sounded somewhat sleepy and lazy.

Ryner lifted up his face and asked,

"Who is it?"

The voice laughed.

"Just 'ahaha' doesn't tell me anything."

And the voice said,

< >

Ryner scowled,

"Where?"

< >

The voice said.

So Ryner turned to the front again, and discovered that the scenery had changed sometime in between.

Not completely – everything was still stained red -, but two people appeared without his notice.

One of them was a woman.

A woman with beautiful and long black hair. A woman with a gentle face. A face that evoked such nostalgia in him, that he was nearly driven to tears just by the sight of her.

It was his mother.

His mother lay on the red floor, looking like she was asleep.

And a man gently held her in his arms.

Ryner took a look at that man.

"..."

And was at a loss of words.

Because...

"..."

The man was himself.

However, he wore strange clothes. Ridiculous ones like that of a clown, and a tear drop was tattooed below his left eye.

He looked towards Ryner with that left eye and smiled gently.

< >

He said in a friendly tone.

Ryner scrutinized the clown that looked exactly like himself, and said

"Who are you?"

The clown merely shrugged his shoulders in reply.

< >

"Huh?"

< >

"I don't get it..."

However, the clown interrupted his words.

<<It's also correct to say that I'm half of "Ryner Eris Reed"[the Lonesome Demon] – the Solver of All Equations. But in the end, I'm still you.>>

He said.

But Ryner couldn't understand what those words meant. Seeing this, the clown smiled kindly.

< >

"Really?"

< >

"I see..."

Ryner said and looked around him,

"So, where's that monster?"

He asked.

The clown replied,

< >

"Yeah."

< >

That's what he said, but Ryner couldn't understand a word.

But it doesn't matter, because he has more important matters to attend to.

"..."

Ryner gazed at the woman lying before him; at the black-haired and gentle-looking woman.

And said,

"...so"

"So, is mother released now? She has been holding back Alpha for my sake, didn't she?"

The clown nodded, and gently caressed his mother's black hair,

< >

He said.

Ryner's eyes widened at this. Pentagrams no longer appeared in his eyes. He opened his curse-free eyes – looking almost as if they've never been cursed in the first place - and ran towards his mother's side.

But the clown said,

< >

He said.

< >

Those were his words.

And Ryner stopped himself. He looked at the woman on the floor.

His mother.

His mother, who risked her life and continued to protect him all these years, even though he himself forgot her name, her face and even her figure.

"...sh-she died?"

He said.

But the clown didn't answer. He merely looked towards Ryner in sympathy.

"..s-she died..but I, I haven't even said anything to..."

However, the clown replied.

< >

"But..."

< >

The clown said.

Ryner stared at the clown who resembled himself,

"I'm...not dead?"

<<That's right. And you have to protect your friends –no, we have to protect our friends. That's what we've decided, right? We want to save everything we see. If even monsters like us can save someone - then we'd want to save everything – we've decided, haven't we?>>

"..."

Hearing those words, he suddenly remembered.

What he should do.

What he had to do from now on.

And who he is.

So Ryner looked at the clown.

He looked at the clown who was the splitting image of himself, and said.

"You are..."

He felt the depths of his chest shake.

The very insides of his chest trembled.

Then he opened his mouth.

And his voice,

<<...I am...I am a demon who became mad to save Sion, huh...>>

His voice came from the heavens.

"..."

Ryner opened his eyes.

He saw the faces of his friends.

The faces of Ferris and Kiefer.

Both of them looked on the brink of crying.

No, they were actually crying.

They were crying and pushing Derunio onto his body like everything depended on it.

And they hadn't realized that Ryner was awake already.

"..."

On the side, Toale was talking to Vois with a troubled face.

And Ryner tried to say,

"...ah~"

He tried to speak up,

"...I'm beat."

Ferris and Kiefer turned around in an instant. Their eyes widened in surprise.

"Ryner!?"

Kiefer shouted and embraced him.

And Ferris...

"..."

She hurriedly tried to wipe her tears, but her attempts only made it worse. She turned away and shouted in anger.

"I-idiot! You sure took your sweet time!"

Ryner smiled wryly.

Toale came towards him with a happy face and extended his hand.

Ryner took it and pulled himself upright. He now realized that he's standing in a sea of blood. He was probably healed by Derunio absorbing the blood here.

His left arm was attached. His right arm was torn into shreds and missing, but the wound had closed, at least.

Ryner glanced at his arm, and immediately turned towards his two comrades.

As expected, Kiefer and Ferris were drenched in blood from standing in that sea of blood.

"...sorry. I made you worry."

Ryner whispered.

Ferris still refused to turn around and didn't even give him a reply.

"Ah~ That's great. So you did wake up, as expected."

Vois butted in, and Ryner turned towards him.

" 'As expected' my ass. You lied, didn't you?"

Vois smiled at his words, and tilted his head.

"About what?"

"About my eyes and what the Goddess said about them. What was it again? Er, Alpha is..."

Vois gleefully finished the sentence.

"Alpha – the power of destruction that lies within you is one of the most powerful types – was that what you meant? Yes. That was a complete lie."

Vois admitted curtly, even though he lied about an important thing that he really shouldn't have.

Ryner replied with a bored face.

"Don't screw with me. Alpha escaped."

Vois seemed a bit surprised at this.

"Hmm. So Alpha escaped...because it's afraid of Glovil?"

He asked, but Ryner shook his head.

And Vois grinned happily.

"Afraid of you?"

He asked, his expression smug as if he expected everything.

"..."

Ryner was getting more annoyed by the minute, so he stopped replying.

But, Vois kept speaking.

"So, did you find out who you are?"

"..."

"Everything went according to my words, right? If you came here, you'd find out..."

"...ahh geez. Shut up. Stop making such a big deal about it."

Ryner said, and Vois replied

"Well, you're having a talk with me later, but at least answer me this. I'm sure everyone here wants an answer..."

Vois paused. Ryner felt a slightly nervous air around Vois.

So, when Vois said

"...it's about Glovil, can you..."

Ryner interrupted.

"I can deal with it."

He detached himself from Kiefer's embrace and turned around. He stared at the real world he had come back to. A world filled with slaughter.

He gazed at the battlefield with eyes whose sight should've been stolen by Lir.

"..."

A tear shape floated within his eyes. A tear drop that flickered in blue, red, white, and all the iridescent colors.

Reflected in those eyes were things beyond this world.

The composition of all magic.

The composition of all humans.

The composition of all matter.

The composition of all Rule Fragments can be seen.

And he knew how to undo them.

Vois questioned from behind.

"...so, in the end, who are you?"

"A lonesome demon who happened to be very good at solving puzzles."

Ryner said without turning around.

He stared into the distance.

And saw, in the distance, a monster being born.

Perhaps no one else can see this scene. Maybe, not even the Gastarkians who summoned that could see it.

The scene is happening in a world overlapping with reality, but different.

A giant snake descended from the skies. A snake with white scales, whose body is huge enough to cover the entire sky.

The snake opened its mouth. From its mouth, another monster – no, the face of a beautiful girl with long, pink hair appeared and said

< >

The girl cast her voice downwards.

A quiet, quiet, quiet, yet overbearing voice.

A cursed voice that resounds directly in a human's head.

< >

Her voice coaxed.

The monster cast her voice downwards, and coaxed the feeble human.

And the contractor answered. The contractor replied, sacrificing his own body to gain power.

It seemed like the weapon Glovil had to be activated that way.

A human, offering his life to the monster to unlock its true power.

And the girl laughed.

She seemed to be laughing at the foolish antics of man.

She laughed softly, looking down on everything.

And

<<...the contract is finished. Releasing my power.>>

After she said that, a red light appeared from afar.

A light in the shade of blood was released violently into the world.

Ryner began,

"...everyone step back. I'm cancelling Glovil's mag..."

But his words stopped.

Because another voice came from the skies.

<<Ha, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha>>

It was a voice he knew very well.

One that he heard over and over again.

The voice that descended whenever Ryner's Alpha Stigma went berserk.

The voice of the monster that kept tormenting him.

"..."

No, the monster that killed his mother-

" Alpha , huh..."

Ryner said and looked up towards that voice.

And it was there.

The monster that he once met in his eyes.

A beast as big as Glovil's floating body descended towards him.

Red skin in the shade of blood.

Eyes even redder than that.

Vermillion pentacles in the depths of its eyes.

Sharp fangs.

Sharp claws.

Gigantic wings.

However, those wings weren't flapping. They were merely swaying lazily, and the beast ignored gravity as is floated down slowly.

No, the concept of gravity that governs the plane of humans might not even exist in this world.

Ferris, Kiefer and the others probably couldn't see the monster. No, Ryner himself wouldn't be able to see it either if not for the power of the Solver of All Equations in his eyes.

All they heard were voices coming from the sky.

Voices like that of gods' descended from the sky, and humans feared.

However, Ryner looked up at Alpha with bored eyes.

Seeing that, Alpha smiled with its mouthful of teeth.

<<Ha, hahaha, ahahahaha, so you see me, so you see me, demon...so finally, you have stepped beyond the boundaries of man, just like that mad hero...>>

Ryner interrupted.

"Shut up, monster."

<<Bold words. But what can a mere human do by gaining just a bit of power? You're no longer protected by Artofaal. Nothing stands against my power now.>>

The beast finished, and bit into his own wings. He tore out his own teeth and sank his arms into his chest.

And gradually, the seal that had restricted the monster began to break. The restraints that his mother cast on the monster to hold him back – to prevent it from going on a rampage and killing Ryner – were being torn off.

And another monster tried to come out from the beast's body. The beast's chest was ripped apart and torn open,

"..."

And a giant spider with a human-like head emerged from within. Its whole body was red. A giant spider with a blood-red body. The spider opened its mouth and began devouring the body of the beast which looked like the demons in fairytales. It began devouring the Curse of Artofaal that Ryner's mother created.

And the human-like head above its mouth looked towards Ryner.

Actually, the face didn't have eyes, so Ryner didn't know whether it's staring at him or not, but it definitely turned towards him.

Ryner looked back.

At the face without eyes, a nose, a mouth or ears. It was simply an egg-shaped and blood-red head, and infinite amounts of pentacles that shone even redder appeared and disappeared before it.

And that head, with all its flickering pentacles, looked towards him. Looked down on him.

Ryner scowled.

"So that's your true form."

As expected, Alpha laughed. "Hahahahahahaha". It laughed with a powerful voice that made heads spin.

And...

< >

However, Ryner extended his hand.

And with his eyes - eyes that were shining with prism tears -, he looked up at the ugly spider and muttered.

"...how would I call you? Hah! You're just a spider, aren't you?"

He said and moved his fingers slightly. A light appeared at his fingertip.

Then he looked up.

"...the spider's..."

And even turned his gaze towards the snake on the other side.

"And the snake's equations analyzed. Terminating their existences..."

But stopped right there.

He saw something grasping his left arm.

It was woman's arm.

At first, he thought that it belonged to Ferris or Kiefer.

But immediately dismissed that idea.

After all, humans shouldn't be able to come to this unnatural world.

So, who...

Who is it...

"..."

Ryner looked towards the woman grabbing his arm.

But it wasn't a woman.

No, it wasn't even human.

It had a long hair and a nicely shaped body.

But it didn't have eyes. It had eyeholes, but no eyes. Insect-like beings gushed out from its eyeholes, and it bit on Ryner's arm with its horizontal mouth filled with teeth.

"...a Goddess huh."

Ryner scowled and turned his gaze towards the Goddess .

"Terminating existence..."

But stopped again. He felt a great pain in his right shoulder. Something tore into him.

One after each other, his legs, back and neck were being torn into.

Ryner turned around in response.

And saw dozens of the Goddess' monsters.

Then, voices came down again.

Alpha's voice.

Voices of the Goddesses' doubles.

<<Don't get cocky, demon...we've decided to finish you off here...resistance is futile...you...all of you are going to perish here.>>

They said.

And Alpha released one vermillion pentacle from his face.

Not towards Ryner, but the ground.

The pentacle engraved itself on the earth.

And the ground twisted with red.

A hole opened from the distortion, and what looked like brown dirt gushed out. Then came the soldiers with green armor. Then the blue sky. Then the voices of humans.

Everything was being turned inside out, with the hole as the center. The alternate world was slowly transformed into the real world.

However, Alpha was still there.

An unbelievably huge spider monster, whose existence shouldn't even be allowed in the human world, appeared.

Just by raising its leg, soldiers around the spider were blown to smithereens, before they even touched its leg.

Humans were rendered speechless before such an unusual sight.

Speechless before the appearance of a monster that looked like it came straight from a fairytale.

But the screams began immediately.

The screams of madness began immediately.

<<Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaahahahahahahhaaaaaaahahahah know fear, humans! Tremble, humans! I am God, demon, devil, hero, a monster who'll slaughter all of you...come, scream for me!>>

Alpha roared.

It released vermillion pentacles from its face into all directions. When they hit humans, their blood boiled and exploded from within.

It was different from the power that Ryner used before. When he went berserk and released pentacles, the power within them was different.

Most likely, Alpha was merely abusing the power of the Solver of All Equations .

"...now you're just a monster."

Ryner groaned.

Ferris' voice came from behind.

"W-what is that..."

Ryner didn't turn around.

"The monster within me."

"Why is it out here?"

"Because I'm weak. But I'll stop it now."

"But, such a monster..."

However, Ryner interrupted her words.

"Hey, Ferris..."

"Hmm?"

"I've always made you worry, and you were the one who kept protecting me, but this time, I'll..."

He said.

"I'll do the protecting."

With those words, he took at step forward. His body felt incredibly heavy. The Goddess' doubles were swarming around his body and tearing into him in the alternate world, and he found it a bit hard to move.

But he ignored that and moved forward. Then he extended his hand towards Alpha .

Alpha laughed at this.

He laughed madly.

< >

Ryner ignored the words that Alpha cast down, and weaved light patterns in the air with his finger.

However, the spider monster still laughed.

<< I said you can't do it! Your power is too immense, so you can't use it in this world. If you do, you'll erase the entire landscape. So, you won't use your power. That's why I chose this place for your burial. Because you, with your weak and fragile heart, can't kill humans...you can only kill that monstrous snake in the alternate world. You can't kill...>>

Someone spoke up behind him.

"...you can do it. Right, Ryner?"

Vois said.

"You are our king. If you saved us here, then you'd truly be our king, both in name and..."

But Ryner interrupted him.

He cut off Vois' words.

"It's not about big things like that. The spider was right. I am a weak human. Not a monster, just a fragile human. And because humans are sad creatures...because they're weak and sad creatures, they cannot choose everything."

He said, and remembered Sion's face.

Sion, who was smiling as tears flowed down his cheeks in the rain.

He kept making choices.

The ones that are the hardest to make.

And in the end, he cried. He cried, and disappeared.

But if he was really that troubled, why didn't he talk to me? That's what I thought.

Why didn't he tell me to save him? I thought.

He said that I'm his greatest friend.

He said that I'm his companion.

Why did he heave all those burdens upon himself?

"..."

But, I was wrong.

He couldn't have talked to me.

Because I..

"..."

I didn't bear anything.

All I did was run away.

I selfishly proclaimed that I wanted to save everything, but all I did was run away without shouldering anything.

That's why Sion disappeared while crying.

But it's different now.

It'll be different from now on.

I wanted to stand beside him – not just by talk – but truly stand beside him.

But for that, I need to shoulder my own burdens.

I need to move on.

"If...if I'm not a monster, but a human..."

I need to move on.

Because I like Ferris.

Because I like Kiefer.

Because I like Toale.

Vois...well, I wonder?

And Milk, and Lafra, and Arua, and Kuku, and Fahl, Tyle, Toni, and Sion as well.

"Because I like humans...so..."

Ryner said and raised his hand.

He felt something on his face. Felt his own tears flowing down his cheek.

However, he still said,

"So, I'll move on."

And released a light from his fingertip.

A light that undoes all equations.

For an instant, Alpha looked surprised. But it really was for an instant.

Alpha was caught in the light immediately, and its very existence was erased.

But the light didn't stop there.

It couldn't be controlled by Ryner's will anymore. Slowly but surely, like a pandemic, the light spread out into the world.

It expanded in front of Ryner in the shape of a fan.

And the humans touched by the light all turned into sand.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

Hundreds of thousands.

An unbelievable amount of humans were erased by the light and turned into sand.

And the light clashed with the red light that Glovil unleashed.

By that time, almost no one was left in front of Ryner.

Glovil's light and Ryner's light had killed most of them.

Then, Glovil's and Ryner's powers negated each other and disappeared.

"..."

It seems like their powers were almost equal.

And only despair remained.

Nothing that resembled a human figure could be seen.

More than a million people were erased, but the plains merely stretched on as if nothing had happened.

The sky was clear.

Most relaxing.

Ryner looked at the sky

"...I killed..."

He began, but was cut off by Ferris.

"No! You...you just protected us!"

She shouted.

She shouted with all her might.

Ryner smiled bitterly at that.

He smiled bitterly at her kindness. Normally, she'd swing around her sword and never stop yapping about dango, but at times like this, she'd be so kind. He felt like crying. But he won't. Not anymore.

"Yeah..."

He merely nodded.

"Yeah, you're right."

He merely nodded.

And mused to himself.

He killed to protect his friends.

That's...alright. It's a reason that he can accept, he thought.

But it's not something that he should do, whether he accepted it or not. It's not something he can forgive himself for. There's no way he can live on smiling sheepishly after killing more than a million people.

That's why Sion cried.

And even the King of Gastark-

Even Rephael Edea must be moving forward while crying, isn't he? Ryner thought faintly.

But nothing is going to change by just thinking about it.

Ryner closed his eyes.

And moved his consciousness into the alternate world again.

As usual, the Goddess' doubles were biting into his body.

Ryner narrowed his eyes.

"..well, that's that. What are you going to do about it?"

He said.

And the Goddess' doubles shivered in fear.

<<...you monster...>>

They say.

But Ryner smiled sadly.

"Sorry, but I'm a human, saddeningly so."

He said, and grabbed one of the Goddesses that was tearing into him.

" Disappear. "

And it was done.

All the Goddesses detached themselves from Ryner

< >

They said.

"Then go. But tell this to your boss – since you guys bullied Sion, I'm not going to forgive you."

Ryner said. He raised his hands, and lowered his voice

"...tell her that I'll come and kill her one day."

And the Goddess' doubles hurriedly ran away from the alternate world that Ryner had created.

Ryner nodded and looked at the sky again.

The snake monster was still there.

A girl's head emerged from its mouth and smiled. Her hair was the same shade as that of the Gastarkians.

Then

-I thought I could meet you here. Hello, Mister Demon.

She said.

Ryner replied,

"Who are you? The structure of your equation is a bit different from that of the Goddesses or Alpha ..."

The girl answered:

-I am Glovil. The lover of Riphal Edea.

"Lover?"

-Yes. I am a woman sent forth for the sole purpose of crossing with him.

"...sole purpose of crossing...um, I'm not really getting it...but, you're a monster, right?"

-Ahaha.

"Well, 'ahaha' doesn't really tell me anything...ah~ geez. So, you knew you can meet me here, and what did you come for?"

Ryner asked, and the girl answered.

-I just came to see. To see whether we can kill the mad demon. Whether we can kill the mad hero. In truth, the Goddesses aren't the enemy. The ones who mess up this world are always you two.

"..."

Ryner narrowed his eyes at her words.

He couldn't understand what the girl was saying.

"...the ones who mess up the world are always the demon and the hero? That..."

-Don't think too hard about it. You're mad with love anyways, so you won't reach the right conclusion. But...right. It's a bit troubling. Your power is beyond my expectations...

She stopped, and looked like she had a sudden epiphany.

-Well, I'm still glad that I could meet you. I wonder, will I meet you again, or will I meet the hero next? I don't know, but that's it for today. I'm going back to my beloved hero's sword. So, see you.

The girl said and returned to the snake's mouth.

And the snake disappeared.

Ryner looked at the empty space it left behind.

"..."

Suddenly, his body lost all strength. He couldn't even stand anymore. He fell on his knees and onto the ground.

"Ryner!?"

He vaguely heard Kiefer shouting.

Ryner opened his eyes.

And returned to the real world again.

Kiefer and Toale were trying their best to support Ryner, who was crumbling to the ground.

He looked at their faces.

"...ah, sorry. I'm just really worn out, and sorta sleepy..."

He said, and Toale smiled.

And so did Kiefer, who looked to be on the verge of tears.

"Ryner, you're always sleepy."

She forced herself to say in a bright voice.

A voice that conveyed her feelings, that she didn't mind what Ryner just did.

"..."

And Ryner was deep in thought.

Maybe he really isn't a monster anymore, he thought.

Because he was loved and helped by such kind companions, and maybe, simply by being amongst them, he'd become human.

Of course, he had committed an unforgivable sin.

He can't turn back now, for he had opened the gates of hell.

Despite all that, he realized that he was still human.

"..."

He was a weak, sad human that would kill to protect his friends, after all.

"..."

He realized that Ferris was looking at him behind Kiefer. Looking at him with a somewhat incompetent face that spoke of both her desire to come forth and her hesitance to do so.

To think that they'd want to stay at the side of a monster who just killed over a million people..such idiots.

But in the end, all humans are idiots.

Including himself, all of them are idiots, saddeningly so.

Imperfect beings that would hurt one another if they got too close, but would also die of loneliness if they weren't at each other sides.

So, Ryner smiled.

He smiled gently at her.

"..."

And Ferris gladly returned his smile.

And the battle ended.

An unusual battle in which over a million soldiers disappeared in an instant; in which a gigantic spider went on a rampage, had come to an end.

And this piece of news spread throughout the world like fire.

With an impact that far surpassed the news of Gastark defeating the Steol Empire, this piece of information made its way throughout the world.

Accompanied by rumors and highly exaggerated retellings, it was passed on from person to person.

And the entire structure of the world is threatening to change-

"......"

But the leader had realized that it would come to this.

She said that a demon was about to be born.

A sad, lonesome demon who is easily driven to tears.

She said that he was a weak being who'd die immediately if left alone.

A weak being who'd die right away if no one helped him.

Because he was too kind.

He was too kind, and he loved the hero too much-

He'd be driven mad immediately.

That's why

"...I have to come and get you."

He, Tiir Rumibul, whispered.

### 012. From Reminiscing To The Future

## A Note that isn’t the Afterword

So this volume, was ended in a super—passionate atmosphere. But this time there is a small chapter called “From Reminiscing to the Future”. Although I was scolded by my editor, I’ve already written 347 pages, what short chapter do you still want to publish, are you an idiot! (Laugh)

But this was mentioned in the previous advertisement, in the process of the story, because the story is progressing too quickly, in the end it wasn’t able to appear in here!

So unknowingly it became “that short chapter wouldn’t be chosen!” this situation, in the end we received many letters requesting for the short chapter to be recorded, and this is one of the volumes that I like, so I requested for the editor to put this in.

About the time, it should be when Ryner and the others just left Nelpha.

Ah, and there is the afterword, so let’s meet later.

## From Reminiscing To The Future

His companions were laughing.

They were laughing seemingly very happily.

Although he didn’t know why they were so happy.

But, everyone was celebrating.

“…”

Ryner Lute looked at his companions, narrowing his eyes as if complaining it was troublesome, but in the end he himself smiled happily.

This was an inn.

An old inn hidden deep in an alley.

It was an inn that he would frequent, when he was still a student of an unknown school the Roland Imperial Military Special Institute.

At that time he would occasionally visit this inn with Fahle, Tyle, Toni, Kiefer and Sion.

And now Fahle, Tyle, Toni and Kiefer were happily celebrating in this inn. As everyone celebrated, Fahle was giving out information as she talked about Tyle falling in love with a girl from somewhere, so their companions were asking about the details.

“…”

After Ryner watched this happy scene, he turned around to leave.

At this moment, there was a sound of a man chasing after him, “Hey Ryner. You’re sneaky thinking of slipping off by yourself.”

Ryner turned around, finding Sion behind him.

Long silver hair, steady golden eyes.

Sion Astal.

Now called the Hero King of Roland Empire, Ryner’s close friend.

He said: “Unless you want me to stay with these drunks by myself?”

Ryner smiled again, “Aren’t you good at drinking.”

“No no, lately I can’t drink that much.”

“Because you lack sleep?”

“Yes, because I’m lacking in sleep.”

Looking at Sion’s tired face, Ryner slumped his shoulders, “Who is the one who told you to work hard like an idiot.”

Sion raised an eyebrow, asking: “Is there?”

Ryner said helplessly: “It’s not the degree of saying is there. Tell me, how many days have you not slept?”

“Eh~”

“Hey, you’ve worked through the night until you forgot how many days. Really, enough enough, today you’ll simply get drunk and go home and sleep. That may be better for you.”

Sion grabbed Ryner’s shoulder as he smiled, saying: “Then, at least you’ll stay with me till the end. Exiting in the middle by yourself, I wouldn’t allow it as your mother?”

Kiefer joined in from behind, “As your father I wouldn’t allow it!”

It seemed that she was quite drunk, her face had even turned completely red. Shoulder-length red hair, red eyes that were glazed because she was drunk, and a blushing cute face. Ryner looked at Kiefer, wanted to complain “Hey hey, who’s my dad, who’s my mum”.

But, he didn’t manage to say this, a red-haired muscled idiot who had been drinking in the middle of the inn shouted, “It’s settled, as the punishment for wanting to escape, you will drink the strongest wine in the shop!”

Ryner wanted to look at the person, but before that, from the other side of the inn, there was an even stranger voice.

“Yes! Then I will eat these dangos at the same tiiiiiime!”

Ryner looked in the direction of the voice.

He found that there was a beautiful blond woman with blue eyes, with dango boxes scattered around where she was.

That was his partner—Ferris Eris.

Unless Ferris had drunk wine too? Her cheeks were red, her slim eyes were drooping, she had a slightly dazed expression, there were several dango strands in both her hands, shouting loudly for some reason: “I love dangos the mooooooooooooooooooooost!”

It was clear that it was an incomprehensible sentence, but for some reason, the whole inn also responded eagerly with “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh”.

It was so enthusiastic that Ryner who was not drunk completely could not keep up with the situation.

And not only Fahl, Tyle, Toni, Roland’s side still had their girlfriend Noa, Eslina there. Not only that, even that impossibly idiotic messenger with a spear, the swindler siblings, Toale, Ferris and Sion were here.

Even more strange, was that Lafra and Pueka who were bearers of god’s eyes like him where there.

Here, this many companions were celebrating happily.

“…”

Ryner had a confused expression as if he did not know what to do, asking: “Really, what’s wrong with everyone tonight. Why are they so happy?”

Sion turned around, looking over with his usual tired expression because of work, answering: “…Because this is what you wanted.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Did I say for everyone to come to this inn?”

But Sion didn’t answer this question, only looking at Ryner’s eyes sadly, then winked at the middle of the inn.

As if wanting to let Ryner confirm what had happened here, he looked in the middle of the inn.

Ryner nodded too, turning to look in the middle of the inn.

He looked at the scene where everyone was celebrating.

Companions, friends, people that he had a bad relationship with that made him annoyed, everyone, everyone, was happily celebrating there.

Just by looking at this scene, Ryner smiled again. Drinking wine with these group of annoying people was really so troublesome~

“…”

But he felt like there was something wrong. There was something about this place that felt like the gears weren’t turning smoothly.

Why, would he feel that?

Why would he have this sense of insecurity now?

He tried to think.

“…”

Then he immediately found the strange spot.

Ah, I see, he thought.

He looked at the faces of a few companions in the inn. Fahle, Toni, Tyle they should have died a long time ago.

On that battle ground.

On the battle ground where even Ryner and these Roland students had been forcefully sent, they were dead a long time ago.

No, not only that.

Lafra should have died too. After he had handed the organization of god’s eyes to Ryner, he had been killed by the bastards from Gastark. But he was now happily talking with his childhood friend. That childhood girl friend should have been killed a long time ago, but now the two of them were happily talking now.

And others, quite a few others, who should be dead, were sitting there smiling happily.

“…”

Looking at this scene.

“…”

Looking at this strange scene.

“…”

Ryner said.

“…Ah, damnit. Yes… this is actually a dream.”

As he said that, suddenly, a feeling of reality returned to his body. Finally understanding that he himself had been abandoned in the distance a long time ago.

Because of the death of companions.

Because of Sion’s leaving.

Because Sion ordered soldiers, to kill thousands of Ryner’s companions.

Because even though how hard he struggled to work hard, but it was still slowly, slowly becoming a world that was becoming worse.

So.

So Ryner murmured: “…I see. It’s a dream.”

He looked at the happy scene that was almost unthinkable, sadly muttering: “…It’s a dream.”

Sion looked over, shrugging. He still had a tired face. Was it because he was still working through the night like an idiot, or was it because while appreciating this scene he had accidentally pressed the ‘sad’ button, causing the world to brush past them?

“…”

It was probably, the latter.

Because clearly not long ago, he had still been smiling by their side.

Clearly not long ago, he had been shouting have mercy on me, as he smiled, because of Ferris’ treatment, Sion’s teasing.

“…”

Ryner said.

“Then, you’re a dream too.”

Sion said: “Next.”

“Am I not wrong?”

Sion moved his eyes away from Ryner, “…I don’t care if it’s not real, it doesn’t have any meaning? Anyway this is only a dream. If you open your eyes, reality will start again. And my connection with you has already…”

Sion stopped.

But Ryner didn’t want to listen to this anymore. He didn’t want to think about this in his dream.

So Ryner looked at the middle of the inn that Sion was looking at.

A scene that was so happy that it was unfair.

It was like an amusement park’s scene.

Sion didn’t turn around, saying: “…Then, Ryner. This it—the world that your heart wishes for.”

Ryner smiled bitterly, “Because it can never appear, so are you preparing to make fun of me?”

But Sion shook his head, turning around, revealing an expression as if he were about to cry, “No…If it can be done just by wishing, I would have wanted a world like this.”

“Is that so.”

“Yeah.”

“Then.”

Ryner said.

“Then, I always feel… it’s very sad.”

Sion nodded, saying: “…That’s true.”

Then the two of them looked into the inn. Looking at the happy faces of those dead people.

Looking at the people who had become enemies but were toasting each other and talking.

No, it should be said.

“…”

It should be said, now Ryner and Sion, had become enemies.

At the center of different powers.

At the center of opposing powers.

And by the side of Sion and Ryner, there were people dying continuously.

Those people had been involved in the war between two people, then died, died, died, died, died—

They were dead!

Dead!!

“…”

That scene seemed to burn up in his mind again.

People being cut open.

People being burnt.

People dying so easily.

Companions dying so easily.

Looking at this scene, Ryner couldn’t help but want to shout “stop joking!”

He couldn’t help but want to shout “this isn’t a joke!”

But before he could speak, people died again.

So what did this count for, he thought.

What does this count for! Ryner thought.

And the one who killed my companions, was actually Sion.

It was actually Sion who was his close friend.

Sion he.

Sion he had cried, as he moved forward.

“…”

Then killing Ryner’s companions.

Destroying Ryner’s important things.

But.

But Ryner said: “…Really, I want to give up…”

“Ha ha.” Sion replied with laughing dryly as if he were about to cry.

“Because I’m tired?”

“…”

“I should say that it’s more like I can’t handle it, it’s so painful that I’m almost crying.”

“…”

“Really, why did it become like this.”

“…”

“I really like you.”

“…”

“Although I never said it in your face… But I was rescued by you so many times, I’ve always treated you as a close friend.”

“…”

“But… but. But… you killed so many of my companions…Even if it were me I couldn’t continue to keep silent?”

Hearing Ryner say that, Sion looked over. He looked at Ryner’s black eyes, a weak smile had appeared on that face that was about to cry, saying: “Then, are you going to kill me?”

Ryner shook his head, “I want to save you.”

“Ha ha.”

“I’m serious?”

“…It seems to be the case. In contrast you’re the most serious when you say something foolish like this.”

Sion turned around at this point, turning his back on him. Even his back, gave of a tired feeling.

Then he said: “…But I will continue to kill people even after today.”

“I won’t let you kill them.”

“I’ll kill your companions.”

“I said I won’t let you kill them.”

“Then in the future. In the place ahead where I will be progressing, progressing, progressing, if I can meet you again, will you still be able to smile at me?” Sion said.

If we can meet again.

Because this sentence.

“…”

Because of Sion’s sentence, Ryner smiled happily.

Then he smiled as he answered: “…I’m sorry, I probably wouldn’t smile.”

“That’s true.”

“Yeah.”

“Then.”

Sion took one step forward, leaving Ryner’s side, following that, his outline slowly, slowly, became fainter.

It seemed like the dream was about to end.

Sion’s figure slowly became faint, until it couldn’t be seen.

In the end, what was left was his farewell.

“Then.”

His figure vanished, the dream should end here.

“Then, the next time I see you, will definitely be on the battle ground.”

Sadly murmuring this, Sion Astal disappeared in front of Ryner.

◆

So Ryner woke up.

“…”

After opening his eyes, the usual reality appeared in front of his eyes.

This was a temporary living quarter that Vois had prepared for the tired Nelpha soldiers and people who were escaping from the Roland army.

It was one of the temporary resting quarters that the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers were using in the Republic of Belis.

No, although it was a hostel, actually it was only a small tent with a few roughly made things like a simple bed.

But even so, to the people and soldiers who had been escaping from the Roland army, who had finally reached the Republic of Belis by passing through the Imperial Nelpha, Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, the Southern Country of Ali, this was a satisfactory hostel.

“…”

Looking at the top of the tent, Ryner thought about the dream he’d just had.

He thought about the tiring dream that he just had.

Then he gave a slight sigh.

“…”

But, he still didn’t know what to say.

“…Ryner?”

At this moment, a woman’s voice spoke in his tent. Ryner remembered this voice.

The voice had appeared in his dream too.

Kiefer’s voice.

So Ryner looked to the owner of the voice.

He found a red-haired woman standing in the entrance to the tent. She looked at him in concern.

Looking at her, Ryner said: “…Ha~ Kiefer, morning.”

She nodded, “Good morning.”

“What is it?”

Kiefer smiled adorably, saying: “Good boy, I’m here to have a secret relationship with you.”

As expected she said it as if she were embarrassed, her face immediately turned red.

Ryner looked at Kiefer, then looked at the bright sunlight outside the tent, saying: “…Starting a secret relationship in the afternoon?”

Kiefer laughed embarrassedly, “I was joking.”

“It would be troublesome if you were serious.”

“Ah? You actually said it was troublesome having a secret relationship with a cute girl~”

Looking at Kiefer who puffed up her cheeks approaching him, Ryner sat up, as expected there was a slight trace of concern on her face.

Because of that, Ryner finally felt that he understood why Kiefer was forcing herself to say that she had come to have a secret relationship with him.

“…That, have I slept for a long time?”

She nodded her head, “Too amazing!”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Looking at Kiefer’s concerned face as she nodded frantically, Ryner smiled bitterly, “…Ah, what is going on~ I had a dream that I was attacked by a terrifying snake monster.”

“Snake monster?”

“Yeah. When I was at the I’ll be killed~ Save me mother~, I woke up.”

Hearing such a foolish dream, Kiefer laughed out loud, “What that~ is like a child’s dream.”

“Right? But it was a really terrifying dream.”

“Oh?”

She nodded, then leaned closer to Ryner, taking out a handkerchief, drying the sweat on Ryner’s face.

Then she said: “Hey, Ryner.”

“Eh?”

“Um.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have to force yourself to say an outrageous lie. Because I heard Ryner yell Sion’s name in his sleep?”

“…Eh…” Ryner could only respond like that.

Feeling like his lie had been seen through, Ryner secretly considered Kiefer.

She was still looking at him in concern, asking: “…Are you alright?”

Ryner frantically said: “It’s nothing. Or I should say, I’m not troubled…”

Kiefer ignored Ryner’s explanation, leaning even more closer.

“Didn’t I say you didn’t need to lie? When you feel pain if you don’t say it honestly, it will be tiring? Ryner is always carrying everything alone. Try to let me handle some of your troubles?” She said, as she touched Ryner’s face, Ryner’s neck, in the end seeming to hug him like that.

Ryner yelled, “Hey waaaaaaaaaaaiiit. That, ah? Ki, Kiefer? That, what is…”

“Hey idiot Ryner! It’s already noon! Get up!”

At this moment, there was another familiar voice, the opening to the tent was swept open.

A beautiful blond woman came in. Her slim clear blue eyes widened as if in surprise.

“…”

Perhaps those blue eyes were seeing, this scene.

Ryner on the bed and Kiefer wanting to hug Ryner—this scene.

So Ryner said: “Ah~ No, Kiefer, this…”

But his words were stopped.

Because that beautiful blond woman who had entered the tent—Ferris Eris said: “D, da, daaaaaaangeeeer!”

Then she rushed forward at a speed where her body disappeared, raising her fist and aiming it at Ryner’s face. Ryner was sent flying with this fist, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh he yelled as he fell on the ground.

“How dangerous. A poor girl almost became a sacrifice of the big pervert demon king. Are you alright, Miss?” Ferris said these strange lines to Kiefer.

Kiefer said with a surprised expression: “This… that”

And Ferris ignored her, continuing: “That man is a scary monster that can make soldiers pregnant regardless of gender just by running on the battle field! Then, please escape! Escape quickly! Escape, escape, and escape, in the end please escape to a dango store by the street called Wynitt, and buy a pile of dangos back for me.”

As expected she was still saying stuff that had no meaning.

“…”

Ryner was lazy to go and argue with her.

He only rubbed his aching cheek, climbing up from the floor, then noticing the people who were frantically running around outside the tent.

Ryner looked at Ferris and Kiefer, asking: “Then, what do the two of you want? You both should be here to call me up, right?”

The two nodded at the same time.

Kiefer said: “Because we have to separate we will temporarily release some of the people from Nelpha—so that it would be easier for the Republic of Belis to take them in. Now they should be starting to disband the organization…”

Ferris continued, “Anyway like what I said, that Wynitt dango store on the street seems to be good. Let’s go eat.”

It was a conversation that completely did not make sense.

“…”

Ryner nodded, looking to Kiefer as he said: “I see. Because Vois and Toale need to discuss about the direction we will take after today so they want me to go over?”

“Yes.”

“Then, let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Kiefer and Ryner nodded, preparing to walk out of the tent.

“You’re not allowed to ignore me--!”

Ferris pulled out a large sword like expected, swinging it at Ryner, wanting to strike Ryner’s head.

“Ah, annoying~” Ryner said, as he wanted to dodge the blow.

But he was still unable to avoid it as usual, when the sword’s blade was about to strike Ryner’s face.

It should have struck his face.

“…”

But for some reason, the sword did not touch Ryner’s face, but it stopped one centimeter from his cheek.

“Ah?” Ryner said.

He looked at Ferris, looking at her icy face that revealed no emotions, asking: “Ah? Why?”

“Why did the sword stop? It’s not like your style.”

And Ferris did not say anything, only kept her sword, revealing a little, only a little bored expression.

Anyone else would not be able to feel it, the small change in expression.

With that bored expression, she looked at Ryner, then looked at Kiefer, then looked lastly at Ryner.

“…”

For some reason, she suddenly left without saying anything.

“Ah? Ah? That…” Ryner wanted to stop her, but Ferris didn’t turn back, walking out like this.

“…”

Ryner looked at Ferris’ back dazedly, then asked Kiefer: “…That, what happened just now?”

Kiefer had a slightly troubled expression, it seemed that she should know why, so when Ryner was about to ask about that—

“Ryner, do you have time to spare?”

Someone called him from outside the tent.

This was the original Nelpha Prince, Toale Nelphi’s voice.

Ryner replied: “…Ah, no problem, I’ll come out now.”

After coming out from the tent, Ryner discovered that the outside world was like the wandering nomads everywhere had tents pitched. Now thousands of Nelpha soldiers and people were staying here.

But they weren’t able to leave these people here.

Ryner and the others needed to continue north, they were unable to bring these people on the battle field.

Since they weren’t able to bring them along, they needed to find a plan for them to live properly.

Ryner looked at the tent, looking at Toale.

Brown hair, honest eyes, Ryner looked at Toale, saying: “…Morning, Toale.”

“Good morning, Ryner. You were working late last night, I’m sorry for waking you.”

Ryner put out his hands in an accepting gesture. Talking about this Toale was the one, he didn’t seem to have slept lately.

No, it should be said, everyone here, no one could sleep peacefully. Being chased by Roland, involved in war, family people dying in front of their eyes, companions dying, lovers dying, but even so they were unable to stop moving, they could only continue to escape death, moving from one country to another country.

Of course, there was a need to end this kind of life.

If this Republic of Belis was able to accept the Nelpha people, they wouldn’t need to migrate over long distances.

That meant.

“You’re here to talk about the disbanding of this organization?”

Toale nodded, “Yes.”

“Talking about it didn’t Vois say that he could suggest to the Republic of Belis to temporarily accept the Nelpha people?”

Toale answered with a troubled look: “Yes, although Vois did say that… but, what is the Republic of Belis thinking.”

Ryner nodded too, “Ah, doesn’t this mean that we are going to constantly have communication with Belis?”

“Yes. But before that, I think there are many problems that you and Vois have to talk about.”

“Then, you’re here to talk about that with me?”

“Yes, so.” Toale pointed at Vois’ large tent that was some distance from here. It seemed that they were going to discuss about the plans for after this.

Ryner looked at that large tent.

Then he saw Ferris walking toward that large tent.

Ferris who had given up on bullying Ryner, revealing a bored expression had walked out of the tent, was walking alone towards Vois’ tent.

“…”

Looking at Ferris’ lonely back, Ryner wanted to call her.

At this moment, Kiefer said: “Let’s go, Ryner.”

Then Toale started walking, saying: “Let’s go. The ambassador from the Republic of Belis should be reaching soon.”

“…Eh? Ah, I know.” Ryner nodded.

He only nodded, as he looked again at Ferris’ back. Where did she think she was going, she had clearly passed Vois’ meeting tent, but she still continued to walk forward.

Ryner looked at Ferris’ back, suddenly feeling empty, anyway he felt a little lonely.

He didn’t understand why he would have this feeling, was it because earlier she had not kicked him hard? He thought.

“…Ha, don’t tell me I’ve really become an M.” Ryner smiled slightly bitterly.

But it was probably true.

Clearly all the while she had pulled out her sword, wanting to send Ryner flying, then he would fall out in a moment, then he would yell what are you doooooooing, in the end Ferris would say something strange, entering another dimension that he could not understand—this kind of unfolding of events.

But today didn’t turn out that way.

No, thinking about it carefully, it seemed like this had not happened for several days.

That kind of being bullied by Ferris, being teased by Sion, shouting have mercy on meeeeeeeeeee that definite sequence.

He had always thought that he had been depressed about that scene, but from some point in time, it had already disappeared.

“…”

After truly disappearing, he had felt a little lonely.

And now wasn’t the time to be silently sad.

The situation was changing every hour every minute, if he lost attention and wasn’t able to pull out a solution in time, his companions would die slowly.

So he could only move forward.

Move forward desperately.

So that his hesitation would not cause his companions’ death.

So that he would not cause the death of people because he had lost a chance.

I have to move forward.

Move forward.

So seriously speaking, he didn’t have the time to be having these lame jokes with Ferris…

“…Ah, so that person just displayed a bored face, so she didn’t hit me.” Ryner revealed a slightly troubled look, saying softly.

This is really my fault—something deep in Ryner’s chest ached slightly.

Looking at Ferris’ figure that was very bored, he smiled bitterly again. Indeed he still felt slightly lonely.

Ryner came back to his senses, starting to consider the situation that they were in, considering the badly made tents of those homeless people that they had temporarily picked up, considering the tired faces of the people.

Then he raised his head to look at the sky that was finally clear, but was far away from Roland.

“…”

Ryner said something softly.

But this sentence wasn’t heard by anyone, and there was no need for others to hear it. He shrugged, sighing lightly, it was only for moving forward, he breathed out hard again.

Then.

“Then, we should go to Vois.”

He started to walk.

Heading in front…

Moving in front…

◆

On the other side of the tent that Vois was planning to use as a meeting place.

“…Eh~”

Ferris was silent with a rare dark expression.

Crossing her arms, her mouth pursed, even so she was still beautiful. The men, women, old and young were secretly peeking at her from the surrounding tents, but she didn’t care.

She didn’t care…

“Annoying!”

She suddenly shouted angrily.

The surrounding people were shocked by her, but she shouted without carring.

“Annoying--!”

After shouting she was more comfortable, she nodded her head.

At this moment, in front of the nodding woman, a man appeared. Tea-coloured hair, a pretty beard.

That man looked at Ferris, smiling, “Beautiful lady. Is there something upsetting…”

Before the man finished speaking, Ferris shouted angrily: “You’re noisy!”

Then she balled her hand into a fist, punching the bearded man with an unbelievable speed. The surrounding people seeing this, revealed an “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!” expression, but Ferris didn’t take it to heart.

She only looked at the sky without speaking. It was rare that it was a clear day today, the weather was very good. It was clear that everyone should go to a good dango store early in the day with this clear weather, then as she said “give me every dango in this store”, she would buy all the dangos, then let Ryner that idiot carry it, going to the park to have a dango picnic.

Squabbling with everyone to eat dangos, competing with everyone to see who could eat all the dangos in one breath seemed interesting.

But.

“…”

She turned around, looking at the meeting tent that Ryner and the others were entering. It seemed that Ryner and Toale and Vois were discussing about troubling things like what they would do after today.

Lately they had always been doing this. Running on the battle ground, escaping from one country to another, and many people died, died, died, but even so the journey wouldn’t stop. Just as they thought that they had escaped not easily, there was a mountain of things that appeared, and after these things ended, it seemed as if they had to go to another country.

What was most irritating was that it seemed to be a good dango store, and because those Roland idiots had suddenly started the war, it had closed business.

Ah, she was so angry.

Because the war had caused the store to close, what did that count fooooooooor! She should have exploded in this way.

“…” But, now what was making her annoyed was not this. It was not the dango store closing that made her angry.

Even if Ryner that idiot, it was fine if Ryner that idiot would treat her with some troubling feelings.

Because she understood that that person was working hard in his own fashion.

She understood that that lazy king and idiot Ryner who had never worked hard before since he was born, he had been working slightly too hard lately, so he must be tired.

“…”

So she wasn’t angry because of these reasons.

What made her unhappy, was another reason.

At this moment, she remembered it.

When she went to Ryner’s tent to call him up. She had heard that there was still a dango store still operating even though there was the war, so she wanted to say “hey Ryner, I heard there is a yummy dango store, let’s go eat, so get up now!”—Something that would invite Ryner.

When she entered the tent she found that someone had gotten there first.

That red-haired woman that had suddenly appeared by Ryner’s side and was spinning around him.

She had appeared in Ryner’s tent.

So Ferris had not entered the tent. Because she felt that it would be awkward if she entered the tent, so she didn’t enter. Because she had felt that she had seen something she didn’t want to see, so she didn’t enter the tent. She didn’t understand why she had become like that, but lately, this feeling had occasionally appeared. She herself didn’t understand why, but lately when she would become slightly honest in front of Ryner. Although she didn’t understand why, but in front of Ryner, there were moments when she wasn’t able to act properly.

“…”

Then that time too.

So she had stood outside of the tent, wanting to ask him to go to the dango store after Ryner came out.

Then she had heard voices inside the tent.

It was Ryner’s voice.

It was a voice as if wanting to talk with someone.

But this voice wasn’t talking to Kiefer inside the tent, of course it wasn’t to Ferris.

But Ryner had tried hard to talk.

“…”

Very.

It was a pained, tired voice as if it were struggling for his life.

A voice as if he were about to cry.

A voice as if he were about to sigh.

Ryner said.

Using that pained voice, Ryner called the name of the stupid king that had remained in Roland.

Ferris understood that he must be dreaming. She even understood what kind of dream he was having. And she even understood what he was troubled about.

Then after that person woke up, he acted like nothing had happened, seeming to want to struggle to move forward.

He clearly had no more strength, he was clearly so pained that he wanted to cry out loud.

“…”

Sion used the Heroes’ Relic , then killed thousands of Nelphians in a blink of an eye.

No, it should be said that Sion calmly wanted to kill Ryner, kill Ferris, kill Kiefer, kill the people who had always been his companions.

At that moment where had Sion’s heart gone to, Ferris didn’t understand this point.

No, there was no need to understand it. Because rescuing Sion was Ryner’s mission.

Ryner said he wanted to save that person. Then, I only need to follow Ryner, help him—she had thought.

But, what had Ryner thought?

Sion had used the Heroes’ Relic, killed thousands of innocent Nelphians. And calmly wanted to kill Ryner, Ferris and Kiefer.

When he saw this, what had Ryner thought?

“That person.” She muttered.

“Why does that person always, always, always, not find me to talk about this?” she said.

“Why doesn’t he show his weakness? He’s clearly like a fool even Sion’s figure appeared in his dreams, but why does that person want to continue moving forward with a tired expression?”

So she was angry.

Thinking about these, she got angry again.

Then she looked at the meeting tent again.

She wanted to knock Ryner out simply, drag him to the dango store.

She wanted to simply send Ryner flying with his forced smile, but almost crying expression, then drag him to the dango store.

But at this moment.

“…”

The meeting tent was suddenly opened, then Ryner peeked out, looking around. His gaze finally stopped there, then he walked out of the tent. Dragging those footsteps that had no motivation like usual, like it was very troublesome.

“Yo.” He said.

Ferris also looked at Ryner with her usual emotionless face, saying: “…What is it. Has the meeting ended?”

He shrugged, “It was too troublesome, so I left it all to Toale.”

“Left it to Toale?”

“Yeah.”

“You lazy fellow.”

Ryner smiled and nodded, using that sleepy, lazy face to say: “I’ve been a lazy fellow since I was born~”

Ferris asked with a depressed and bored tone: “Then, why did you come find me?”

Not waiting for Ryner to reply, she added, “I’m very busy.”

Ryner smiled, then seemed to be concerned with his surrounding situation starting to look around him, then had a slightly troubled expression, “Ah… ah, that, didn’t you say you found a delicious dango store. Ah, if you’re busy then I’ll leave it… but that dango store, is it far from here?”

“…”

Ferris couldn’t help…

“…”

Couldn’t help but frown.

She frowned hard.

Because if she didn’t do that, she would feel that her face would turn all red, so to prevent that she frowned tightly, but even so her face seemed to turn red.

“Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Anyway, so that Ryner would not find out, she sent him flying with a kick.

“Ah? Ah? Why did it turn out like thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?” Ryner shouted, as he fell.

She blushed as she watched the idiot flying away.

That idiot.

That idiot that would only be concerned for others. That idiot that was already so troubled by his own matters, but still cared for her feelings, so it really made her angry.

It was rare for her to be so seriously considerate for Ryner’s feelings, but from some point in time it had turned to Ryner thinking for her feelings, so it really made her angry.

And that, what Ryner said.

“…”

To this opportunity, she was angry about her idiotic feelings that she felt happy that she wanted to shout “Then let’s go to the dango store!”

So she said.

As she walked over, she couldn’t help but smile at Ryner, she said: “Alright, let’s go to the dango store!”

Ryner climbed up asking: “Why did you hit me?”

“Noisy.”

“Well, forget it.”

“Noisy.”

“But.”

“Noisy.”

“…Wait, at least help me up.”

“Noisy…”

She turned around, Ryner’s still tired face was reflected in her eyes.

She looked at this Ryner, saying: “Ryner.”

“Eh?”

“I will hit that idiot Sion like this next time.”

“…”

Ryner widened his eyes, looking over, but didn’t say anything.

But Ferris didn’t put it on her heart. She had always been this uncaring of other people’s gazes.

“We can still go back. No matter how many thousands, millions of people we kill, we can still go back. I will send you flying, send Sion flying, then drag you to the dango store. So…”

She said—

“So. So an idiot like you is not allowed to have a stupid dream like that alone ever again.”

Ryner couldn’t help but have a ‘this is troublesome’ expression, trapped between feelings of embarrassment and happiness, he said: “…Don’t eavesdrop on other people’s sleep talk.”

“Your sleep talk is too annoying.”

“You’re lying? My sleep talking was that loud?”

Ferris nodded, “Very amazing. Last night your voice was so loud that the neighbouring village could hear your loud voice ‘aaaaaaah I can’t stand it, I can’t stand iiiiiiiit. I like Toale. I like men. Who can stop my passionate feeeeeeeeeeeeelings!’, in the end Toale cried, you know?”

“Oh?”

“It’s true?”

“Oh~”

At this moment, Ferris pulled out the sword at her waist.

So Ryner frantically said: “Ah, I lied. Actually I believe you, I’ll apologise to Toale later so don’t take out that sword!”

Ryner said with his usual frantic tone.

So Ferris nodded satisfied, “Yes.”

Ryner smiled bitterly, saying: “Ferris… is Ferris indeed.”

Seeing Ryner’s bitterly smiling face as if it were troubled.

Noticing that he had returned to the unmotivated self that he had when he was with Sion, and had not sunk into depression.

Ferris smiled: “Yes~ Of course.”

Then she turned back. She moved her eyes to another direction. In front of where she was looking at, there was a small street called Club, there was a dango store there that seemed to be famous. This was the price to go try it.

So she said: “Then, let’s go eat dangos.”

Ryner nodded, “Yeah.”

“It’s a rare chance, let’s take Iris with us, and Arua and Kuku.”

“That’s true.”

“Then let’s bring that woman called Kiefer and Toale.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re not bringing Vois.”

“Yes yes.”

“Then one day.”

“Eh?”

“If that dango store's dangos are very delicious, one day.”

“Yes.”

“We’ll take that idiot Sion too.” Ferris said.

She didn’t wait for Ryner’s reply, and she didn’t need to.

But, Ryner grabbed the chance in that moment, replying: “Ah… Yes.”

Ferris nodded hard, said with a determined tone: “That’s it.”

Then she walked forward.

In front of the path, was a dango store.

It was a simple dango store.

It was not destroyed.

They were heading for, only a dango store.

So she smiled. She smiled happily.

Because we definitely are not struggling hard because we are walking toward depression.

◆

Raising his head to look at the sky.

The dark sky.

Lately it had been raining. It was clearly not the rainy season, but for the past week, it had been raining.

According to the information they had received, Roland’s side had not rained for a long time, so there was not enough water.

“If the country changes, even the weather changes.” He murmured.

Then he looked around.

This was Runa Empire’s capital.

Everything was different from Roland.

Everything was completely different from Roland.

But this kind of matter was fine.

Because no matter where it was, now it was completely different from the past.

“Your Majesty.”

A voice said.

So he—Sion Astal moved his eyes away from the dark sky, in front of him was Froaude who had attacked Runa Empire.

In the capital of Runa Empire.

In the capital of Runa Empire where all royalty, even the people in the city were killed, Froaude smiled as he said: “…Welcome to the Runa Empire.”

Yes.

This had become Roland’s territory.

It was like Nelpha, and not long after Cassla would probably be the same. No, one day, the whole southern continent would be under Roland.

Roland’s base would change as he moved.

Now the capital of Runa Empire had become the base camp for Sion.

Fresh blood and slaughter and despair covered this southern continent.

Sion looked at Froaude, looking at this subordinate who had emotionless, but determined gold eyes, saying: “It has been hard attacking Runa. After preparing the troops, we’ll continue north.”

Froaude bowed.

But he was already uninterested in that figure. Sion turned away, looking to the sky again.

Looking at this sky that poured with rain.

“Then.”

He thought.

Ahead.

The destination of this journey that continued forward, forward, what would it be?

He couldn’t help but think.

Even though this was necessary, but he had killed so many people.

Spread so much despair.

So at the end of this path, what would it be?

He thought.

“…”

But there was no one that he could ask.

He could only, blandly, allow the war to become more passionate.

“Your Majesty.” Froaude asid: “Then let’s start to attack Cassla.”

But what answered him was another woman’s order, “Go do it, kill all of them.”

Sion looked at the woman, looked at the woman with brown hair, an adorable face.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything.

He only wished deep in his chest.

He wished with an expression as if he were about to cry.

He hoped that he was moving forward on this path that was stained with blood, death and devastated cries.

“…”

That this path did not only have a bottomless despair in front of it.

Sincerely.

Sion Astal wished.

## 07. Volume 7 - First Love And Death God

### 001. Afterword

Anyway, Denyuuden is finally going to be animated.

Oh—how amazing, it’s going to be animated!

But anyway after placing this aside, how does everyone feeling about “Dai Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu 7”!?

The two people who finally meet, the buried foreshadowing has expanded in a breath. But compared to the foreshadowing, that Ryner has that kind of feeling, not only Ryner, everyone has felt it too. Then, the people who can’t see that probably don’t understand at all! (Laughs)

Although I think this volume should make everyone satisfied, then what about it!?

Then, before revealing anything else, let us end the discussion about this work, and return to the topic about the animation—

Oh—How amazing! It’s going to be animated! (Although I wrote this earlier, laughs)

It feels really great, it’s actually being animated, what should I say, in all I feel very thankful.

In any case my luck is good. To be able to respond proudly to the fans that wished for the animation, this is something really great, I am almost crying.

Because—

The director and the staff, they told me they really like the legends of the heroes! Under this kind of environment, I have enjoyed the benefit of not being asked about this and that.

Although I was asked to help create the script.

Staff: “Is this area fine?”

Me: “Is, is it like that?”

Staff: “Please look at the schedule I made!”

Director: “Talking about which what kind of emotions should this be? This? This?”

Me: “Ah! It’s like that. Then how about writing it like that?”

Director: “Not bad! Then changing this point… and this point, how about it?”

Me: “Ooooooooohhh, amazing!!!! It’s linked! It’ll be good if I did that!”

Director: “No, if I did this as well it would be good…”

Staff: “Alright, please bring a white board over! Because I want you to write the time line down here! Ah ah, there’s no more paper already! Because this is very important, I’ll write this too! But I have already written this, the schedule is going to be as tight, as expected!”

And things like that, we created the script under this feeling.

Everyone listened to my opinions earnestly, and did even better, it even looks pretty amazing as the author of the original work. Not good. Although I said that, what if it were more interesting than the original works… (Laugh)

Talking about which, although I was warned not to write this here, but the director said something like this.

Director: “Ah ah, CG, although I want to pass it to a few people to draw, but if I see my people working so hard, then I’ll have no choice but to draw too…”

Me: “You said that before Director. But CG is drawn all by the director—then let’s write an afterword together!”

Director: “W-wait! I haven’t drawn it! Retort! Where’s the space for retorting!?”

Me: “Ehhhh~”

Doing something like that, everyone worked hard together closely.

So please look forward to this amazing thing!

Or I should say, even though it is animated, it wouldn’t be like this, although this is good too, if it’s not like that, if it doesn’t progress in the best way as dreamed, I would instead feel uneasy. (Laugh)

Anyway before the animation is completed we’ll need many people’s help. We’ll need the help of many people who shout that they like the legend of the heroes. Although there are many difficulties met along the way, but the end is this! It became something good!

And, this ending, was originally because of everyone’s continuous support.

I felt that that was so.

Everyone was able to support me, continuing with such a long story, the love of everyone at Fujimi Shobo, no one gave up. Not only the animation, there were many chances where giving up would not be weird, but everyone didn’t give up, and always helped me.

There were so many people who were passionate about the legend of the heroes!

Every time I saw this, I always felt that my power, was really only one small part of everything.

Every time the completed work left my hands, having people around me read it and expression their thoughts, was no longer only my business.

So, to let everyone laugh till the end, to let everyone who supported me laugh, I will work hard too!

No! I have finally reached this step, first generation super ability and endurance M-san! And Saori-san who has always drawn the illustrations! The first generation undertakers, everyone in Fujimi Shobo who believed in the legend of the heroes and helped me with everything!

And all the readers who have always supported the legend of the heroes!

My power really has been miniscule, thanks to everyone’s help I can come to where I am today, I will work hard, to bring even more incredible things to everyone! It’s time for a celebration, a celebrations! (Laughs)

Other than that.

The game for legend of heroes is going on sale next month too! The reason is because this was already written in the last afterword to let everyone know, Saori made me write it again! Yelling die, die! (Laugh)

In Saori’s diary, it seemed to write “The game for the legend of the heroes quickly…”, he ran the fastest! It seems like he loves the game a lot already!

Although I haven’t done that yet, I’m looking forward to it! Everyone, go try it out too!

Then, I’ll stop here, because the pages for this time’s afterword is shorter, I’ll end somewhere here.

There has been an official announcement on Fujimi Shobo on the animation. Other than that, it’s the special volume, the Legend of the heroes matsuri for messages on Ryner and the related animation, and a few short stories.

Other than that, there is the short story and special volume of the “Itsuka Tenma Kuro Usagi” that I have been working on together with the legend of the heroes.

Ah! And, those that have won prizes in the illustration plan to work with Pixiv and Fujimi Shobo, I will rewrite from the beginning. Although I want to write cyberpunk (note: a type of science fiction novel) as a topic, anyway I will write happily! If possible please come and read my work! Also, I have been praised by an impressive person in Fujimi Shobo! It’s great! (Laugh)

The first every Kagami Takaya festival that Fujimi Shobo is holding is about to start! Not only my original manuscript, around 150 pages!! And the new series in next month. I will continue writing the interesting school life in “Itsuka Tenma”.

But the title was really surprising.

It is “The Student Council Room of A Moonlight Flit”!

A work that has a man’s name in its title, it hasn’t been seen in today’s novel society? (Laughs)

Even though it you haven’t read “Itsuka Tenma” it doesn’t matter, so please read it when you have the chance to.

Then, ma, I hope that this year will be the biggest Kagami Takaya festival ever!

Then please continue to take care!

Then—Happy New Year—! (Although it’s now!)

Then, I will end here as I wish everyone a good new year.

Kagami Takaya

### 002. Chapter 1: The Dream of The Murderer

Shaking.

He could see the roof shaking.

“…”

Then Ryner Lute discovered that he was being transported by a carriage.

Messy black hair, completely unmotivated and bored black eyes.

Those eyes opened slightly, looking at the ceiling of the carriage.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything.

No, actually he wanted to open his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t speak a single word.

He felt very tired and fatigued.

Then,

“…Ah, Ryner, you’re awake?”

Someone’s voice spoke.

A woman’s voice.

A familiar, woman’s voice.

But he was so tired that he was unable to think of whose voice this was.

Anyway he was tired, very tired.

So the woman’s voice spoke again.

“It’s okay, sleep. I will stay by your side, so relax.”

His head was patted, he felt that his head was gently, gently caressed.

“But, Ryner suddenly fainting shocked me.”

“…”

“It must be, you were too tired… something like that happened.”

“…”

“But really, Ryner can sleep without worrying about anything. Because the war with Geihlficlant has ended… the remaining things will be handled by us.”

“…”

I know that my heart is reacting to what she is saying.

Although I don’t want to think because I am very tired, but to what she said—war—this word, I still had a reaction.

Because the dream that I had been having until just now, was a dream about war.

And it was not a normal war.

It was a war where a monster appeared on the battle ground, a dream where he laughed and cried.

It was a monster called a Demon , a dream where as he laughed, as he cried, he killed many many people.

It was an unbelievable sad scene.

A cruel scene.

Anyway many many people had disappeared into dust.

As he had this dream, he thought that it’s lucky that this scene is just a dream, he originally thought that.

Such a cruel scene, it would be good if it were not reality.

It was great that he did not live in such a cruel world, he had thought.

Then.

“…Come, the war has already ended, so sleep.”

That woman’s voice said.

Then Ryner forced himself to open his eyes.

He desperately opened his eyes that wanted to close, looking in the direction of the voice.

A red-haired girl, who was smiling gently sat there.

She looked at him with a loving and worried expression.

It was Kiefer.

Kiefer’s clothes had been dirtied with mud, dirtied with blood, that was the mud and blood from the battle ground earlier.

Ryner looking at these,

“…”

He looked at this, but he did not make a sound.

Kiefer spoke,

“Ryner”

She called his name gently.

But he was unable to respond.

He was truly too tired too fatigued, so he was unable to respond.

He only thought that.

Ah—he thought.

Ah, that dream, so it was reality.

He was a demon, and he had killed hundreds and thousands of people to save his companions—

“…”

But he only managed to think until there, his consciousness was severed suddenly.

Ryner entered a deep sleep.

◆

When he woke up again, he heard another woman’s voice.

At that moment, he was able to judge who it was just by hearing their voices.

That was an emotionless, a monotonous, but because of that it was a clear, beautiful voice.

That person’s voice.

“…”

Ferris’s voice.

That voice said,

“…Really, how long is this fellow going to sleep until?”

Then, Kiefer’s voice said,

“… I don’t know, but the military doctor said that he is only fatigued…”

“Are Doctor Yab’s words accurate?”

“…Yes, I’m very worried… But, it probably really is because of fatigue. After having something like that happen…”

“Perhaps, but this person is an unmotivated man who would laze for thousands of years. Perhaps he has already woken up, but he is thinking of pretending to sleep?”

“… If that’s the case, it can also be done…”

“Anyway, why don’t we try by hitting him?”

“Ah?!!! No, you can’t do that! Wait… Ferris…”

Bang—

“…Eh, he didn’t get up.”

Ferris said with a voice that sounded slightly more concerned from just now.

Then Kiefer said,

“That, I know you’re worried too, but hitting…”

“I wouldn’t stand here and worry for nothing.”

“Eh—”

“Alright, this time I’ll draw on his face.”

“So… I say, why do you have to join the eye brows and the nose hair together… Hahahaha”

Kiefer laughed, using a tired voice to laugh.

Then Ferris said,

“Then, red hair woman.”

“…Red hair woman… That’s irritating, you can call my name~”

Kiefer used a slightly happier voice to say again.

Towards this, Ferris replied,

“This time it’s my turn to look after this pervert, you can go rest for a while. This person has already collapsed for three days, if this continues you will collapse too.”

“But…”

“I don’t want to hear your opinion.”

“Ah…?”

Bang—

“Ah…”

“Good, she’s fainted. Hey, Toale, Toale!”

Hearing the carriage door open, then someone came in.

“Hey, why is Kiefer-san collapsed here?!”

Towards this question, Ferris answered.

“Perhaps it’s because of lack of sleep, when I entered, she had already collapsed.”

“…I see… it’s because Kiefer-san has been taking care of Ryner-san ever since he collapsed three days ago… She really likes Ryner-san.”

“…”

“Then, I’ll go tell Vois-kun’s subordinates, prepare a carriage for her to rest in, then I’ll take care of Ryner-san…”

“No, I’ll stay here.”

“But… but Ferris-san has not slept…”

“It’s alright, let this woman rest first.”

“…”

“Go!”

“…I understand.”

Saying that, Toale carried Kiefer out of the carriage.

There was only the sound of the carriage shaking.

Crrrreeeeaaaakk, shaking.

In the space between the sound of the shaking,

“…Wake up quickly, idiot.”

She said that.

“You are an octopus, slow man, sleeping insect, waste, worthless”

Then,

“…Really, idiot… Don’t make me, worried… Wake up quickly…”

She said that.

Only that, she didn’t say anything again.

The carriage shook.

It swayed.

Although he wanted to open his eyes for her, but as expected his consciousness slowly sank into the deep darkness.

It was as if he could not wake up again.

Although compared to just now, his consciousness was clearer, but even so, he still could not get up.

◆

When he woke up again, he could depend on his will to open his eyes and check his surroundings.

Opening his eyes, then surveying the carriage.

He immediately found that Toale was sitting by his side.

Brown hair, gentle eyes.

The right arm and leg sticking out from under the Anti-Roland Coalition clothes were prosthetics, but he used them well.

He was reading a book.

Although he completely couldn’t see what book he was looking at,

“…That, is that a rated book?”

Being asked that from Ryner, Toale looked over, smiling,

“Of course.”

“Ha ha, how can that be expected.”

“Of course that was a joke, this was received from Vois-kun, it is an educational material for the soldiers of the Anti-Roland Coalition to read.”

“Oh—”

“It’s quite interesting, it has made some work on the good cooperation displayed by the soldiers from different countries and different magical systems, when Ryner-san recovers does he want to read it too?”

Ryner nodded.

“That’s true.”

“Then, how is it?”

“Eh? How is what?”

“Your body’s condition. You have been sleeping for nine days?

“Kiefer-san and Ferris-san have been looking after you without any rest, for that they both collapsed. You’re so welcomed. I’m jealous.”

Hearing that, Ryner smiled wryly,

“…Jealous? Oh? So the prince of Nelpha, a good youth like you, could get jealous too?”

Toale laughed, as he laughed he passed the water canteen over slightly lazily.

After ensuring that Ryner had used the water to wet his lips, he said,

“Because I am human too, so I will get jealous too. And I am more particular about Kiefer-san.”

Ryner widened his eyes in surprise, moving the water canteen away from his mouth, asking,

“…That, is that real? Is that so?”

So Toale smiled again.

“You see, you are so dense that you didn’t even discover it… but, because this is a battle that I cannot interfere in, so I gave up. After all that—large cry, I could hear the intentions Kiefer-san had for you.”

“…”

“Well, because I like Ryner-san too, so I can give up because of you… But, what does Ryner-san plan to do? Accept Kiefer-san’s intentions?”

Ryner looked at Toale through half-lidded eyes.

“…Ah~ before we talk about that, did you say that you liked me? I’m sorry, I don’t have that kind of interest…”

“Using this to direct the topic away~ If you have used that attitude to treat Kiefer-san so far, she will suffer.”

“…”

“How do I say this, bullying Ryner-san while he is sick, I haven’t planned to give up from this side.”

Toale smiled as he said that.

Then Ryner smiled wryly,

“You’re really like this.”

“Ahaha. Then, quickly tell everyone that you are awake and full of energy. Everyone is concerned about you.”

Saying that, Toale stood up.

Then,

“No, can you wait?”

Ryner stopped him.

“…That, because I just sat up.”

Saying that, Toale looked at me worriedly.

“Your body, is it still in pain?”

“No, only tired.”

“…Oh, although the doctor said that you were over-exhausted, but just sleeping without waking for nine days because of exhaustion is really… it seems that, it’s related to using that power on the battle grounds… right?”

Towards this question, Ryner’s expression darkened momentarily.

He remembered himself using the power, the matter of killing an unbelievable number of people.

He remembered the people vanishing like mist.

Was it because he had used that abnormal power, that he had slept for so long as a side effect?

Being asked that by Toale,

“…What is it?”

Ryner muttered.

“Perhaps, it is only because I am a lazy person?”

But Toale was still worried,

“Of course it’s best if you can cure it just by sleeping…”

“I think there should be no problem.”

“Really? Although we say that, we are helpless about the matters that even the doctor don’t understand…”

Then Ryner narrowed his eyes.

Just like that, his eyelids wanted to close, as if entering sleep again.

So Ryner panicked,

“Ah~ Oh no, Toale, I think I’m going to sleep.”

“Ah??”

“But before I sleep I have something that I must know of…”

Although he only managed to speak until half-way, but Toale knew what Ryner was thinking, so he told him,

“What happened in the end in that battle, right? Please don’t worry, Gastark temporarily retreated—after that Vois Fiurelle-kun, as if he had predicted something like that would happen, spun around happily.”

“Vois?”

“Yes.”

“…That, makes me more and more worried.”

Ryner said that, Toale smiled. But Ryner felt, in his smile, there was something hidden behind it.

“What, even if it’s something worse than that…”

Then his speech ended there.

For some reason, Ryner became even more tired,

“This can’t be… I can’t even keep conscious… Damnit, what is going on… I can’t, I’m sorry, slight, ma…”

“Ma?”

“…”

“Well, what?”

“…”

“He’s already asleep… Really, is he alright. He woke up with much difficulty, never mind, he should be recovering slowly…”

But, Ryner could no longer hear what Toale was saying.

His consciousness became blurred, he couldn’t think about anything.

Then, Ryner suddenly thought,

“…”

This is not good, he thought.

Because this feeling of wanting to sleep strongly, Ryner had experienced it once.

That was magic.

And it was Roland’s magic.

Numbness, loose nerves, a magic that forced the opponent to enter sleep.

Because it was a magic only used for medical purposes, as long as the person it was used on rebelled it could be released immediately, so it wasn’t used in military affairs.

Of course the army had researched about using magic to force the enemy into sleep, but it had never succeeded. To people who resisted strongly entering sleep could cause a large stress on their nerves, and cause the person to die.

If it was for the purpose of killing the other person it wasn’t that it couldn’t be tried forcefully, but for that, there could be other simpler, stronger magic that could be used for that purpose.

So that magic was not completed.

But, now, the point wasn’t about whether this magic had been completed or not.

The problem was,

“…”

Now, there was a possibility that he was under a sleeping spell.

But, who was it who had done this?

And, he didn’t know when he had come under this magic.

To be straightforward, why did they want me to enter this forced slumber…

“…”

Then this thought process reached its end.

The human-made sleeping monster had already forcefully engulfed Ryner’s consciousness, he was already unable to think.

Damnit, although he tried to resist in his heart, but it was useless.

The strong sense of sleep attacked his whole body.

The strong sleeping monster collapsed his consciousness.

He could only, sleep.

Sleep.

He was unable to think.

Then he,

“…”

Lost consciousness again.

◆

When he woke up again,

“…”

The ceiling, no longer swayed.

It seemed like the carriage was no longer moving.

Had they reached their destination, or were they resting.

He couldn’t see any light rays shining through the curtained window, he thought that it should be midnight.

He moved his body slightly, most of his body could move now compared to when he first woke up. So Ryner sat up immediately,

“Ow, I overslept, my body aches…”

His face contorted.

And his body was already able to listen to commands, his urge to sleep was gone. To understand what magic he had come under—

“…”

Ryner closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, a strange pattern appeared in his eyes.

But that was no longer a red five-pointed star.

But, it was a pattern of a tear that was shining with all colours.

He didn’t know the name of this eyes too.

But it was through these amazing eyes, he could see himself.

Then, the structure of air, the structure of his body, the structure of the other particles moving in his body, a larger information than before entered his eyes.

But, he didn’t discover the magic that he had come under.

“Unless, I never came under, any spells in the beginning?”

Ryner muttered.

“That means that it could be a side effect because I used the power of these eyes, so I couldn’t move?”

That could be possible too.

Because he had used an unbelievably large amount of energy.

He had used a power that humans should not use.

Then, the scenary changed.

Many people disappeared before they could scream.

Doing that, there could not be no side effects.

At least in the world of magic, whatever power you used, you had to pay a price.

For example increasing the impact would mean sacrificing speed, the area of effectiveness and the mortality effect would be lowered greatly.

Using a large-scale magic, if the number of casters were not enough there would not be enough magic power—things like this happened.

Magicians had to maintain balance, as they created a magic with more practical value.

But,

“…This kind of power is not the problem of just maintaining balance… possibly my life span would be greatly decreased because of this.”

Ryner thought about this matter.

But, he didn’t think that that was scary.

Because he had taken many people’s lives.

Because he had taken away so many people’s lives.

Wanting to live on without paying a price, he had never thought of that from the beginning.

“…”

Then he reached out his left hand, looking at his hand that had killed a large amount of people on the battle ground.

“…Well, doing something like that, my life span would definitely be decreased, it’s a pity it hasn’t reached zero…”

He murmured.

Then he looked at his right arm. He looked at his right arm that had been bitten by the thunder beasts that Lir had released.

But, there was not a wrist there. The wound had been healed, but there was nothing there starting from his elbow.

“…”

Even so, he didn’t feel anything.

Be it his wrist, life span, losing anything didn’t matter.

Because he had protected what he wanted to protect.

Ferris, Kiefer, Toale, companions—because of protecting precious things, anything was fine.

He had come so far, he didn’t plan to find any excuses.

He would not say that he was a monster, a murdering monster, crying, sadly, escaping.

Because, I protected comrades.

Because, I killed people, protecting precious companions.

If that is counted as a monster,

Then, the people scolding that this is a monster must completely be monstrous too.

Then, I,

“…It doesn’t matter if I’m a monster.”

Ryner muttered.

After that, he raised his head, standing up, using his remaining left arm to open the carriage door.

Outside, was night as expected.

The other carriages had stopped.

The tents had been pitched, the soldiers were sleeping.

“…”

Ryner got off the carriage, looking at everything.

It seemed as if they had not reached their destination.

“Well, anyway we don’t know where is our destination… but that fellow Vois what is he thinking of doing?”

He thought about it.

In that war, the Geihlfilant king had died.

A large amount of the Geihlficlant soldiers had died too.

All those were Ryner’s fault.

It was the fault of the Anti-Roland Coalition.

If these failures were revealed, the relationship between the Anti-Roland Coalition and Geihlficlant would deteriorate, if this caused Gastark and Geihlficlant to cooperate, this would push the Anti-Roland Coalition into a bad position.

“Well, because it’s that person, it should be handled very well… From the beginning it seemed he wanted me to affect Glovil… Then, he should have rehearsed the plan to deal with the aftermath.”

He muttered, then wanted to think about what exactly was this, but shook his head, and decided to ask the person in question.

Although he didn’t know whether Vois was still here, but even if he were not, Toale and the others should roughly know about the situation.

Talking about which, earlier when he had been asking about what was the situation, he discovered Toale’s expression was slightly closed off.

“Then, what troublesome matters have occurred?”

Ryner revealed an expression that showed his bland interest.

“Even if it were not like that, there are troublesome matters all over the world.”

As he thought of that, he remembered about more of that war.

The matter about the pink-haired girl who emerged from the mouth of the large snake that had been summoned by Gastark, the matter about α abusing the battle ground.

The matter about the Goddess who had ambushed them to help α, the matter about the Demon living in his body that looked exactly the same as him.

And,

“…”

The matter of the Demon that had looked exactly the same as him hugging his dead mother, to his chest.

“…”

Ryner pressed a hand to his chest, then narrowed his eyes, several tears escaping.

He had clearly forgot.

He had clearly forgot about his mother, why was he so sad.

It was said that his mother had fought desperately to protect him.

It was said that his mother had sacrificed herself to replace him, so that he would not be killed by α.

Then, his mother died.

According to the words of the demon who he had met in the dream-like environment,

“So that she could protect you, she gave up on everything. What a gentle human!”

That sentence, to him, to Ryner…

Ryner wanted to say something, but he noticed something else, his eyes narrowed sharply.

Then,

“…What is this.”

He looked at the night scenary.

Looked at quiet darkness.

He noticed, although there should have been a large number of soldiers nearby, but there was no sound, this strange situation.

“…Damnit, I’m so silly… What bad things have happened…”

At this moment, as if covering this sentence, a voice sounded from somewhere.

“Yes, you’re late in your discovery.”

A voice sounded from behind him.

Ryner frantically spun around.

But there was no one there. There was only the carriage that he had been in just now.

And from that carriage…

“Where are you looking to?”

The voice spoke again.

Ryner turned around again.

“Here.”

From right, left, here, there, the voice continued to echo.

It spoke from everywhere.

Then as Ryner’s whole body went alert, he said.

“…What a boring game… using magic to move the air vibrations caused by the voice? That…”

He closed his eyes, then opened them.

And the power of his eyes was released, the tear pattern appeared in the middle of his eyes. Then he immediately looked clearly at the magic that was around him.

As expected, that was a magic that controlled the air vibrations from the voice. He didn’t know which country’s magic it was, but because it was simple, Ryner could use it just by looking at it once.

So Ryner’s hand started to move, so that he could activate the magic that would touch this magic.

He wanted to use his right hand to draw the magic formation, then he realized that he no longer had a right wrist.

“Ah, damnit, it’s not there.”

Saying that, he moved his left hand, quickly drawing a magical formation.

But when he was about to finish the magic,

“Ah, am I revealed? How capable~”

The voice spoke, then the magic that had been spread out by the enemy disappeared.

So Ryner stopped his magic too, so that he could block the next attack from the enemy, he needed to keep his left hand free.

Then he frowned unconsciously, feeling for the first time that losing his right wrist could truly be a little bad.

If he had a prosthetic limb it probably would be fine, but he had not become accustomed to the feeling of not having a right wrist. So earlier he naturally wanted to use his right hand.

And this kind of natural wrong judgment, in a fight against a strong opponent it could be fatal.

Then,

“…”

He stared at the darkness before his eyes.

No, he stared at the direction in which the darkness was spreading, as if weaved of magic, something that was like a black cloud of magic.

It was a magic he had never seen before.

It was strangely complex, even if it were Ryner who was familiar with magic, was unable to understand the context of the formula in one glance.

That cloud gave off something that was like a mist.

It was a transparent mist that could not be seen except by Ryner’s special eyes.

The effect of that mist was to induce slumber.

If that mist was absorbed into the body, it would act on the nerves, making a person fall asleep.

It seemed to be like until just now, the sleep that Ryner had been under for these few days, until the caster removed the spell, it seemed that the person who took in that mist would continue sleeping.

And it was very generous, so that the person could sleep without eating or drinking, it even provided nutrients.

Although he didn’t know why this magic had to be used, but anyway he had to make this magic—

“…”

That cloud that caused sleep, had already made everyone in Ryner’s vicinity fall asleep.

Probably thousands of people had already fallen asleep because of this.

Normally this kind of magic could not be controlled by one person.

If the area of effectiveness of magic was increased, the power would increase, a single caster would find it difficult to activate the magic.

That meant,

“…It’s a large-scale magic.”

Then Ryner felt that his heart was beating strongly.

Now they were, under attack by an army that had magicians that could cast a large-scale magic.

And all his companions had come under that spell…

But,

“No, Ryner, look carefully, that’s not a large-scale magic.”

A voice said.

The bodiless, steady voice said.

Ryner looked in the direction of the voice, as the magic that caused the position of the voice to shift had vanished, the owner of the voice stood there.

He looked in the direction of the voice,

“Eh? You, how do you know my name…”

Ryner broke off midway, suddenly stopping.

Because the man standing there, he had seen him before.

No, in the deepest corner of his heart.

In the deepest corner of his memory, the figure of that person was strongly engraved there.

“…”

So Ryner looked at that man, trembling.

He didn’t know why he would become like that, anyway his whole body was trembling.

Even so, he looked straight ahead.

Standing there, was a man with a sleepy face.

Golden hair, blue eyes that were sleepy.

A body that was like an unmotivated cat’s, and a black coat that did not blend in with the lazy atmosphere, a well-made leather bag.

He seemed to be in his late twenties, at most he wasn’t over thirty. But, it wasn’t like that. That person didn’t seem to be more than twenty years old. Because the man in front of him, had not changed at all, from the person’s figure in his memory.

He had not changed from the memory he had of him from fifteen years ago.

Like in the past, that person smiled at him with a gentleness that had not changed.

Then, Ryner shook.

Not only that, he nearly cried.

He used a weak and trembling voice to say,

“…Fa, father?”

As he said that, the man in front of him replied.

He had the same voice as he had remembered from his memories.

A gentle, very gentle voice.

“Oh dear, we finally meet… my dear son.”

That person said.

### 003. Chapter 2: The Demon Who Established A Kingdom

The scene changed.

South from where Ryner and the others were, near to the center of the Geihlficlant Empire.

There,

“…Ah~”

Vois Fiurelle groaned.

He was a thirteen-fourteen year old teen who had beautiful black hair, seemingly clever black eyes, wearing something that was like a witch’s outfit.

That boy used a tired expression to look to the side.

“I think we rode too much on the horses, my butt hurts, Relca what about you?”

He asked.

Then, Relca Redehna who was traveling on horseback with him blushed.

She had bright tea-colored hair, and black eyes that did not compliment them; her eyes wandered as if in distress.

“Even, even if you ask me how am I, I…”

“Your butt, doesn't hurt?”

“Th-that… because I practiced…”

“AH? I didn’t know that butts, could be trained.”

“It’s horse, horse riding!”

To Relca’s reaction, Vois sniggered evilly.

“I was joking~ I’m sorry, I was teasing you.”

“Were you teasing me just now ?”

“Yes, anyway, since I worked till now i’m so tired that I want to die~ So i felt frustrated and teased Relca.”

“…That’s, that’s it.”

“Yes.”

“…If V-Vois-sama feels happy because of that, I’m happy too…”

But Vois ignored her, looking in the opposite direction.

Then said,

“Hey Harmit, doesn’t your butt ache?”

A beautiful girl who was as beautiful as Relca was there.

Long black hair, indigo eyes, she wore a battle armor on her tall slim body.

Her name was Harmit Wolf.

Harmit looked over, smiling faintly.

“…After running for such a long distance, it is a little painful.”

She said.

To this answering style, Vois nodded.

“This answering method isn’t sexy at all, so I’ll give you 20 points.”

“Ah? Not sexy? Then, although I don’t understand, does that mean I’m not good?”

Vois shook his head.

“No, no, you only needs to stay this way.”

He smiled.

And his smile, also revealed his tiredness.

Many days after that battle with Gastark, he had been busy with various matters, he had not rested at all. Furthermore he had been on horseback moving, moving, moving.

“…If they make a growing child work like this, he wouldn’t grow tall~”

He smiled as he said that.

Of course, the actual owner of the Anti-Roland Coalition was him. That meant, the one who ordered him to work was himself, so there wasn’t anyone that he could complain about.

“…but, never mind, if I don’t work hard now, when will I work hard ? That’s the situation.”

So, he straightened his body that was slumping against the horse’s head, looking at the scenery unfolding in front of him.

Then that scenery gave off a light.

It was now two o'clock at the night, it was supposed to be dark where the sun rays could not be seen, but it was as bright as it was during the day in his eyes.

If it was asked why, it was because a battle was happening in front of him.

Magic and magic were colliding.

The large-scale magic from Geihlficlant, and the flames of the Rhule Fragmei , released from the Anti-Roland Coalition that had prepared first.

It was clear which side would win.

Under the pressurizing fire power of the Rhule Fragmei that magic scholars were unable to analyze, the Geihlficlant soldiers were unable to resist.

Furthermore, Geihlficlant was now in an utmost mess, because in the battle with Gastark Empire, they had lost their king.

And, it was rumored that the person who had killed their king, was the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition, that they had accepted.

And the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition Ryner Lute was not human, but the reincarnation of a demon, of course the one who had spread these rumors was Vois.

“…”

Anyway, it was said that Ryner Lute was a monster reincarnated as the demon, and just by opening his eyes, he could spread death, depression and disaster.

And, it was said that in the battle between Geihlficlant and Gastark, that demon had opened his eyes.

In the end the king of Geihlficlant, Gulafed Abuleld had died.

And, it was said that the hundreds of thousands of Geihlficlant soldiers had been cursed to become dust in a moment.

According to the people who had escaped from the battle ground due to luck, the demon king Ryner Lute could even control a large spider monster.

It was said that the spider monster spread a red five-pointed star to its surroundings, then the people who touched it; would have their blood boiling and dying exploding.

Then the spider would lay eggs on the corpses, and the corpses where the eggs hatched would become spider people, becoming Ryner Lute’s eternal slave—

“…”

Vois was spreading information like this all over the world.

Of course, no one believed this nonsense.

Demon?

Spider monster?

These things couldn’t exist, anyone would scoff.

But quickly, people came to know, that the king of Geihlficlant had been killed.

They knew about the matter where hundreds of thousands of soldiers had been demolished to dust in a moment.

Of course they still didn’t believe in demons, spider monster and whatnot, but Ryner Lute the nameless king named so, had used some method to simply kill over hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and like so he suddenly became infamous in the central continent; this point had spread around.

“Relca”

Vois said.

Perhaps it was because she had been ignored that Relca said "yes" with a slightly unhappy voice, nodding.

Then Vois while not even looking at Relca said,

“Then, what did the people of the city say? Are they surrendering to us?”

“Yes, although in the beginning they resisted, but now they have already…”

But Vois interrupted her,

“Ah~ No no, they've resisted. Then, kill them all. Our Demon King lord Ryner Lute has a very picky personality… As long as they resist we’ll kill them all~ He wants that done.”

“…Kill them all?”

“Yes, the women, the children, everyone.”

“B-but…”

“But what? Although I don’t want to hear any boring suggestions, then, are there any opinions that can be used as suggestions?”

“…”

“No? Then shut up. No matter what, the soldiers on our side are just a few. We don’t have the luxury of having more. So when we need to threaten we have to threaten; This way Geihlficlant’s lands can be gained with the least damage… Although it is progressing successfully now it's still impossible to gain all of it. No matter what we do, we can only gain four territories…?”

As he said that, Harmit said,

“Two have already…”

“Not enough and too slow. If we wait until Geihlficlant hands over the throne, rearranging their position, we will not be able to gain…”

Saying that, he turned his head to the sky as if he were thinking about something.

Looking to the night sky that was illuminated by the flames from the Rhule Fragmei .

“…No, but being engrossed in attacking it's good… Gaining complete control over the territories we have needs a certain amount of time… If it’s forced too much, other countries will attack Geihlficlant…”

This way, should there be a need for Geihlficlant to be able to regroup itself?

“…”

He thought about these.

If other countries came in to feed on Geihlficlant, then the Anti-Roland Coalition that did not have enough manpower, would be unable to chase them away.

That meant, there was a need for Geihlficlant to combine forces with them to chase them away.

Then,

“…It would be enough if they reach an acceptable stage… Then, where should we stop…”

He said, as he continued to have his tired expression, knocking his head lightly.

There were always various dangers when faced with the road to success, his grandmother who had taught him cunning tactics often said this.

“…Then, what are the degree of the dangers.”

He said to himself.

“Harmit”

“Here”

“The name of that city is…?”

“Sephilans.”

“Is it counted as a large city?”

“In Geihlficlant, it’s the fourth largest.”

“The fourth, the fourth huh… Then, if we obtain this, will we be able to separate Geihlficlant into two parts?”

“Perhaps… If Geihlficlant decides on a new king, attacking from both sides after reorganizing…”

But Vois shook his head.

“Not that. I don’t think Gastark will retreat just like that. The northern half of Geihlficlant has probably been taken over by Gastark already. And the northern country, Ertolia Republic. No matter which side moves; the northern side of Geihlficlant is done for.”

“…”

And the southern side will be attacked by Roland or Remrus Empire. If we separate it, Geihlficlant should be unable to trouble us.”

As he said that, a map unraveled in his mind.

The land of Geihlficlant Empire separated into two parts, and, in the middle, the map of a city called Sephilans.

Then he checked the position of other countries that had strong power.

In the north were Gastark Empire, Ertolia Republic.

In the south were Roland Empire, Remrus Empire.

“…"

It was probably, most suitable here.

If he had to build a country with Sephilans as the center, he had confidence that he would be able to defend it for a certain period of time.

And, where it would be more beneficial for the building of a country, he had already thought much about his movements. Actually long before he met Ryner Lute, he had started with these preparations.

And so that the front line soldiers would reach here, he had already positioned his soldiers before the fight with Gastark.

“…Well, although the Geihlficlant king was unexpectedly sharp, controlling a few teams…”

Vois said a little regretfully.

Actually he had prepared three times more soldiers than he had now, he had almost been able to gain much land, never mind, he had no choice since he had been found.

No matter what game, when all plans did not proceed perfectly, it was the place where it was most interesting.

So, firstly,

“This place, is the limit… If we can get Sephilans, then we can stop.”

He said to himself.

The south, had the three countries occupying it, the separated Geihlficlant Empire, Roland Empire, Remrus Empire, because they have to limit each other, they probably wouldn't move to deal with us.

Then in the north, the northern part of Geihlficlant that has been separated, Ertolia Republic Gastark Empire will face each other.

Of course, because Geihlficlant has lost its king, maybe it would be broken up even more and swallowed by one of the countries, but, this needed some time.

In this time, we can think of plans to expand the country and its strength,

“…Ah~ But, I’m still thinking of gaining more land in a moment… I should let more talented people be in charge… Although it’s no use saying this now, well, there's really no choice, let’s head to the next destination. Harmit, accept Sephilans’ surrender, Pass this intention on to the other party; we agree.”

Then Harmit nodded, riding swiftly towards the fight.

As he checked this, Vois looked at Relca.

“Then, are you still angry?”

“I’m…not… angry…”

“Your angry expression is cute, Relca.”

“This… that…”

Hearing this, Relca immediately turned red, then Vois laughed evilly.

“Then, I’ll play with Relca near here…”

“Play…?”

“Spread this news. A war that uses the Rhule Fragmei is sad, immoral, if this power is continued to be used, one day the world would be destroyed and whatnot, spread it to the whole world. Then for peace, we as the starting country, will suggest the Rhule Fragmei be forbidden from being used in the boundaries of the world…”

Vois’ voice was drowned out by a rumbling sound.

That was the sound of the flames from the Rhule Fragmei that the Anti-Roland Coalition was using, burning the enemy.

This way, a larger number of soldiers died compared to those who were under a normal large-scale magic. Only one hit, changed the battle situation.

Then Vois looked at that strong light that could not have been done by humans.

“See~ The danger of using Rhule Fragmei in battle~? Ah, it’s lucky we are already used to it, it’s great.”

He smiled as he said that.

“So we have to forbid them from using it, so that there will be no countries other than us using Rhule Fragmei for our benefit.”

Hearing this, Relca asked uneasily.

“But will the other countries, listen to us?”

Vois shrugged, saying,

“Some countries will listen, some won’t. Those countries without Rhule Fragmei will listen to us. If we talk about large countries, like the Ertolia Republic that has just started collecting Rhule Fragmei , well... will they agree to our suggestion? Then for those small countries that don’t want to enter war, their opinion will probably be the same as us. Anyway, it’s for peace, right? For peace, give up on using weapons, anyway, the powerless countries wouldn’t disagree. Everyone will spout the word ‘peace’ like idiots.”

Saying that, Vois laughed, he laughed.

“And, we have the Demon King . That is the monster that killed hundreds of thousands of Geihlficlant soldiers and that destroyed the Rhule Fragmei weapon that Gastark was using. Seeing the death of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, it’s a bad and dangerous sight. Then, we will stop using weapons, because it’s too sad, we will stop using them. Although we have the strong power that can neutralize the Rhule Fragmei ’s incredible power, we are very kind, and we won’t use it in our daily lives. This is a little… persuasive right? Don’t we seem to be looking forward to peace too?”

Relca had an uncomprehending expression, tilting her head as she looked over.

Then Vois said,

“Any questions?”

Relca replied.

“…Hearing those words, I feel that lord Vois doesn’t really wish for peace… you don’t want peace?”

To this, Vois tilted his head too.

“Peace?”

He asked.

“Yes, you don’t wish for it?”

Vois said with a slightly troubled tone,

“Eh? Relca, you asked a confusing question? Humans hoping for peace and something like that, doesn’t exist.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, or we should say, perhaps. Imagine now, that you are about to die of starvation.”

“…Going, to die of starvation?”

“Yes, dying of starvation. You’ll die of starvation if you don’t eat in five minutes, that kind of borderline situation.”

“Yes.”

“Then there is someone in the same situation as you beside you, from children to old people there are in total twenty people queuing there, do you understand so far?”

“…Yes.”

Confirming that Relca had nodded, Vois continued. He happily opened his arms,

“Then, then, the gentle god comes to stage. Because the god is very kind, he has prepared a delicious soup in front of you. Then come drink, you’re hungry? Till today you have been suffering? But, the god who was supposed to be kind, why did he only prepare one cup of soup? There are clearly twenty who are about to starve to death, but he only prepared one cup of soup. Is the god silly, or is he bullying you for a laugh? I don’t know too, anyway he only prepared one cup. Then, what to do? Then, what would you do?”

“…”

“Will you say, because I love peace, so I’ll let others drink the soup? Of course you can say that. But what about the people beside you? The people beside them? Or would all of you shout that you love peace, die together?”

“…” “The world turns like that. Of course, I’m not saying there’s no love. Parents exit the stage for their children. They exit the stage for lovers. There is a possibility of these kind of cases. But, there is no peace. In the end someone will drink the soup, and everyone doesn’t think that there is a possibility of increasing the soup. Only thinking of sharing the soup with the people that they see. They will think, if I can prepare Relca’s share, something like that—”

Then, the flames of the Rhule Fragmei shone again.

And people died again.

People died.

The people who weren’t able to drink the soup, died.

As he was illuminated by the flames, Vois said.

“But they never thought of the people who they didn’t see. So, as long as a person has drunk one mouthful of soup, they do not have the right to say ‘peace’, this point is understood by anyone. Understand it, cry over it, proceed onwards.”

Saying that, Vois looked to the south.

Then he thought about the Hero King Sion Astal coming up from the south, and Riphal Edea who was aiming for the south from the north.

No matter what any of them were enlightened rulers.

They were said to be kind kings, who were much loved by their people.

As to what was that, it was probably because they could move onward while crying. Crying, shouting, but even so, they had no right to say something as good as peace.

Because they knew that was a fantasy.

Because they knew that was only a false kindness.

They stained their hands with fresh blood, but even so they desperately progressed.

“…Well, how unlucky, someone like our kind, is an innocent person who gives false kindness.”

Vois said, smiling slightly.

So Relca smiled too.

“Then lord Vois, you like that innocent person?”

“Eh?”

“Lord Vois really doesn’t wish for peace?”

“…”

“Even though you know it’s a false kindness, it’s a fantasy, but does lord Vois really not wish for peace?”

Vois smiled, laughing like he usually did, using a serious expression that couldn’t be felt to look at Relca.

“Why, do you think so?”

He asked.

Relca said,

“Even though lord Vois is not king, then it’s not bad being Sion Astal’s subordinate, or Riphal Edea’s subordinate. But, why did you come up with a new king, I have some suspicions. If it’s only using war to gain money, then you can use any country. But lord Vois went through the risks, choosing lord Ryner. I am thinking, why is that so…”

“Then, do you have an answer?”

Relca shook her head.

“No, someone like me, is unable to keep up with such deep thoughts like lord Vois’s.”

“Oh, is that so? It’s actually surprisingly easy~”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then, can you tell me?”

Being asked that, Vois smiled.

“…”

But he didn’t reply.

He moved his eyes away from Relca,

“Then, we were talking about boring things earlier. We should start work. Relca, spread out the information that I prepared.”

“That…”

“Send out a special emissary to the main countries, suggesting that the whole world be prohibited from using Rhule Fragmei .”

So she nodded, saying “I understand”.

As she prepared to leave, she was called by Vois.

“Ah, Relca!”

Relca stopped, turning around.

“Is there something you need?”

Vois added an order.

“You don’t need to go to Roland Empire and Remrus Empire, because those two countries are already mad… Send useless people, it doesn’t matter if they’re killed.”

“…Alright.”

“You can go to Gastark Empire or Ertolia Republic, the people there are still rational.”

“Then I’ll go to Gastark.”

“Is that so? Gastark… Gastark is probably, I think, fine…”

Vois was slightly troubled, the rumours and information about Gastark spun in his mind.

“…Ma, if we want to improve our relationship with Gastark, it’ll be better if you went. Then, you can go there, anyway don’t die.”

Hearing Vois’ concern for her, Relca smiled happily.

“Yes!”

Then she rode away.

When Relca left, many of Vois’ subordinates appeared behind him to protect him.

“From here let us…”

“Ah, thank you for protecting me~ I’ll count on you.”

He didn’t even look at his subordinates’ faces, saying that. Then he looked to the sky absentmindedly, feeling because he had not slept enough, his head ached when he moved it. Then, he carried a tired expression.

“…Ah~ I’m tired. I want to be surrounded by cute children on a soft bed, sleep after having meat and wine… But I can’t sleep… After separation the south and north Geihlficlant will have their own kings, I can’t give a bad impression on the neighbor above and below me… Otherwise…’

Vois moved his gaze back to the land.

He lowered his head to look at his shadow, that was stretched out on the ground clearly although it was night.

Then,

“…If I don’t put an end to this before the Goddeses get angry…prohibiting the usage of Rhule Fragmei is already useless to those people. Here, we still have lord Ryner…”

At this moment, Vois’ voice disappeared again.

Because the Rhule Fragmei was starting up again.

A light was released in the sky and world, the rumbling sounded.

Then, the mad killing power was released.

Vois opened his sleepy eyes to look at that light that would destroy everything.

“…Alright, let’s enter Sephilans, settle our base.”

He said.

Then he looked at his surrounding subordinates’ faces for the first time.

“Spread the order to the whole army. It’s about time we rest, work harder.

“This will be our base… Let us welcome our king… the Demon King who killed hundreds of thousands of Geihlficlant soldiers here.”

He ordered.

Then Vois kicked the horse’s stomach,

“Let’s go!”

And the horse ran out.

It ran to the dark night that was as bright as day.

As he held on to the horse tightly, he used a tired expression,

“…Then, after we have the land, there’s no need to use the name Anti-Roland Coalition all the time… Then”

The name of the country.

He had to come up with a name for the new country.

Vois thought in his mind.

Suddenly he thought of a good name.

“...How about the Love Woman’s Underwear Kingdom?”

Saying that, his surrounding subordinates did not complain at all.

Then he smiled humorlessly,

“…Or use the name of the Iyet Republic where I was born… Call it the Iyet Kingdom…”

He muttered to himself as the horse ran.

The fire became larger.

The fire, in the city became larger.

Looking in the direction of the strong light,

“…Then, what name should it be?”

He murmured.

Their destination was the city of Geihlficlant, Sephilans.

### 004. Chapter 3: Peace and Karma

The rumours and information that Vois Fiurelle had leaked out, seemed to stir up the world.

As if it had passed through some form of organizing first, the information that the Anti-Roland Coalition released expanded under various sources.

What was added, was the content about the ugly and fierce Demon King .

Regarding the atrocious battle, the content about the huge spider that was dealt away with the demon’s control.

The content about the demon only needing to huffing a curse, and killing hundreds of thousands of Geihlficlant soldiers.

The news about how Gastark, which had been heading south with their strong stance, had been unable to handle the demon.

Looking at the report that was written from rumours and truths, Sion Astal muttered to himself.

A slight grin appeared.

“…The Demon King , Ryner Lute?”

He said.

Under that well-groomed silver hair, was a pair of golden eyes that were currently filled with a little exhaustion.

Wearing the white battle armour that was specially used by the king of Roland and originally designed for the purpose of standing on the battle field, he, by himself, sat on a chair and was reading files in front of the table where they discussed the war.

The place where he was now, was roughly in the middle of the southern part of the continent—a fortress of the area that was originally known as the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla.

He was sitting in the large foyer of the fortress and he was reading reports from various places.

In a place slightly north of here, there was a fierce battle going on.

The place called the People’s District of Urd which was initially governed by Cassla, was snatched away by one of the countries in the middle of the continent, the Remrus Empire.

Claugh and Calne and the others were frantically defending against the Remrus army—that was the current situation.

But,

“…”

Sion looked at the map spread out on the strategy table.

Looking at the territory of Remrus that was encroaching the southern part of the continent,

“…It seems that it wouldn’t be easy, for us to proceed…”

He murmured.

And the Remrus Empire seemed like a slightly, no, it was a very odd country.

Until half a year ago, it was still known as the Holy Land of Veiohl, but in that half a year, there were major changes to the internal system.

It was said that in a place where there was nothing, the son of god was born, and obtained the throne of the king.

With respect to the name of the son of god, the country had changed its name to the Remrus Empire.

And then Remrus Empire, was then said to be a country chosen by god, and was blessed with eternal peace—

“…”

No matter how it was looked at, it was only a country that was supported with words that were lies, suppressing the People’s District of Urd which was protected by twenty thousand Cassla soldiers, moving one step forward in the conflict with the Roland forces that Sion themselves led.

It seemed that they had used some Rhule Fragmei that Sion himself was not aware of, other than that,

“…”

Other than that, in the alternate universe where Sion had been alone, another person had appeared.

It was the person himself who was called the son of god, Remrus.

Of course that person was not human. Like Sion who was not a human, that person was not a human.

He had seven eyes and six arms.

He was a complete monster.

That monster spoke, it seemed to know about Sion, no, it seemed that it even knew about the Hero in Sion.

Lightly calling Asruld Roland .

It said it did not want to fight with a mad war god that only wished for despair.

Then, it said excitedly.

“You, still know nothing, right? Even though you wanted to trap me from earlier. You haven’t completely merged with Asruld . If you really want to merge with it, you would not speak to me. Because you will hate me who is underhanded, then I will subsequently be killed immediately. Because my forte does not lie in illusions, but spells. So you who understands me, wouldn’t give me time to use spells.”

It had said.

Then as that person—Remrus had said.

Sion, and Lucile had made a mistake. Facing the spell that Remrus cast, Lucile became unable to move.

Now, Lucile was moving frantically to release the spell, but in this time period, Sion had become defenseless.

The Goddesses , the monsters that they used, and then, Remrus who had attacked with the spell, now had to be dealt with by Sion alone.

And Sion himself, understood that he couldn’t win Remrus.

Just having the shadow of Remrus causing the situation to become like this, if he fought with the actual body,

“…”

If he fought with that person called the son of god, he had to wait until Lucile was revived.

At least he had to wait until he had gained the power of the Fallen Mad Hero , that Hero —before that, Lucile’s power could not be missed.

And the Goddess had used the curse of Humans to stop the Hero , that was extremely powerful. If the Humans were not weakened, if they didn’t turn into Human α , he would be unable to regain his original power.

Unable to gain the huge power that could destroy everything.

So now, with the Remrus Empire as Roland’s enemy, they had entered a difficult battle.

Even if his subordinates had won on the battle field, but as long as Remrus himself appeared and cast a spell on Sion, everything would end.

Before Lucile got rid of the spell and came back, he could not progress too much.

And in that time,

“…”

In that time, something astonishing had happened in the Middle Continent.

A demon was born.

A Demon King was born.

It was said that that demon, was called Ryner Lute.

It was said that he had the same name as his old friend.

Then Sion,

“…It can’t be, Ryner was faster in establishing his name in the Central Continent… I really didn’t think of that.”

He muttered, feeling genuinely happy.

Then in a moment he thought of it.

Only in that short moment he recalled.

The times he spent with him.

The times when Ryner laughed foolishly, made a ruckus, yelling that he was bored to death every day.

Shouting something like, Sion you bastard, I’m going to kill you.

And Sion laughed.

Looking at the gentle demon making a fuss at his side, he laughed.

Ah, how boring, you bastard, I’m really, absolutely, going to kill yoooooou, Ryner had always shouted this, but in the end he had frantically helped with his work—Sion thought of his friend’s face and laughed.

Then,

“…”

He remembered that the two of them had constantly looked down on this country’s matters, from the highest place in the Roland castle.

The duo had worked tirelessly through day and night for a few days, and because of this, their heads were aching badly. Let’s go to the roof top to relax, he had forgotten who had suggested this, anyway the two of them had climbed up to the roof.

Then, they looked down at this country.

Ryner had his usual sleepy expression,

“This scenery, it really looks like it’s a mirage…”

He said, then apologized to me.

“…I’m sorry.”

In the beginning Sion didn’t know what that person was talking about.

But Ryner continued,

“… What I said in the past, that, I stand corrected.”

“Eh? What did you say?”

Sion had asked, as Ryner looked down at this country, looked down at the capital of Roland, he said.

“…It’s not a mirage.”

Ryner spoke.

This country had changed.

The originally mad country, has changed after you became king.

And Sion, to this,

“…”

I had replied.

As if sighing he had replied.

“…It is a mirage, Ryner, at that time I had said ‘without losing a single comrade’, right. But… But now, only a few comrades have survived? For the sake of the vision I described, exactly, how many comrades have died? Exactly how many…”

But Ryner interrupted me.

“Even if that’s the case… Sion, even if it’s like what you said, this isn’t a mirage. This country has changed, without you, this country would still be in the darkness.”

He had said this, and looked down to the streets of the city, using his usual tired eyes, and seemingly unmotivated, soothing expression.

Then he said,

“…That’s already, enough.”

He spoke.

“You’re already, very hard working. I’m very clear about this point. So, don’t use that kind of working method as if you’re blaming yourself…”

He said.

“It’s already enough, this country has changed a lot. Even if you relax a little, it wouldn’t turn back into what it was like in the past.”

He said.

“So if you make mistakes again, if you can’t do better… it isn’t necessary to make the opposition feel scared. Now, look, me, Ferris, we’re both here… and the others? That, red haired idiot, that pervert who likes older women, there are many companions here… it’s alright, this country, is already fine. You don’t have to worry alone by yourself. This country is changing now, and it is progressing in a good direction.”

Ryner had said.

And that Ryner, that person, was also no longer by his side.

“…”

Sion stared at the battle discussion table unseeingly, using tired golden eyes, to look at the files and maps. But nothing was reflected in his eyes, no image was reflected in them.

The only thing that was in his mind, was the scenes of those happy times.

In that moment, only that scene was imprinted deeply in his mind.

“…”

Naturally, he didn’t plan to say something stubborn like, I want to return to those times.

Because he had abandoned that himself.

Because he had always lied to Ryner, hurting him, and in the end abandoned him.

But, it is said that he doesn’t plan to give up on me even though I’m like this.

It’s said that he didn’t plan to give up on something so depressing.

That person had even wrote a message for me to be well.

Sion now still kept that paper with the message on it.

He kept the message that was written by that person who didn’t like to give up.

Ryner had wrote this.

Even though it was a piece of paper it could pass on that unmotivated air, it was written.

“So now, even though I do not know what you have been caught up in, but I will go to your side. On that rainy day, didn’t I say that? I can’t give up on you. I said I would do it and I will. So in order to save you, I will come to your side, to save you. For this, I am slightly motivated. This is from someone who is born to destroy the word ‘motivated’! I will shout this in the direction of your castle. Is it funny? Do you hear it? Ma, it’ll probably snow tomorrow. Anyway putting this lame joke aside… I will come back to your side. Even though I don’t know how much energy I have to burn up for this, but in order to have something important to me, I will come. So before that, be mentally prepared and wait. I will make you regret that moment when you didn’t kill me. You, have always talked to yourself as you despaired, and took up everything upon yourself. I was by your side as you nearly cried, I, but I… clearly took you as my best friend…”

When he read this letter, he completely didn’t know what this person was planning to do.

How could he return to my side? Someone as unmotivated as him, who would only uncaringly have afternoon naps every day, how could he return to my side? I completely didn’t understand.

But, it was said that Ryner had become a demon in the Middle Continent.

It was said that he had become the Demon King who could kill hundreds of thousands of people.

It was said that someone who clearly hated people dying had killed people, and, had become a king.

What exactly, was that for?

“…”

Of course I wouldn’t be so foolish to think it was for me.

But,

But even if that was the case.

“…Is your path, that one?”

Sion murmured.

“Then, further down that path, will you meet me…?”

He muttered.

“…Even if we’ve become enemies… Even if we will fight against each other on the battle field… Even so, as long as we can meet again… that is something to look forward to.”

He happily murmured.

At this moment,

“…Your Majesty”

A dark, cold voice spoke.

Then Sion looked up, and turned his head.

In the entrance of the hall, Froaude stood there with numerous armed soldiers with him.

Those subordinates were holding a girl. Her arms were tied up, and not only that, her shoulders were held firmly.

“…”

She had curly tea-coloured hair, and tea-coloured eyes, the black armour revealed pale soft and tender skin.

That was a battle armour that was made from a material that Sion had never seen before.

Looking at the girl, and the armour she wore, Sion asked.

“…Is she a spy? Or assassin?”

Froaude replied.

“She says she is an ambassador, she came to negotiate a treaty.”

“An ambassador?”

“Yes.”

“From where?”

As he asked this, Sion thought about it, at least he could confirm it wasn’t a request from Remrus to stop the war.

Because Remrus had already broke the promise once. Before this war, Remrus had requested an alliance with Roland.

And then after that he had attacked when they were unprepared.

Because he had broken the promise once, so he couldn’t have sent an ambassador.

Then, which country was it?

Sion didn’t think she was an ambassador from a small country, because now, Roland was suppressed by Remrus. The small countries had requested to enter the large countries protection range so that they wouldn’t be involved in the war, under this situation, there probably wouldn’t be any country that wanted to join up with Roland’s side.

Roland had already conquered the southern continent, so the ambassador should be from somewhere near Remrus.

Then, “…Is it someone from Geihlficlant?”

Sion asked Froaude.

If that was the case then that would be possible. In the period that they had lost a large amount of manpower from the war with Gastark, the Anti-Roland Coalition led by Ryner had attacked Geihlficlant’s territory.

And they had broken the territory into northern and southern parts.

The southern part seemed to have no one related to the royal family, and because there was some conflict over the issue of the throne, now, Geihlficlant was in a terrible state.

If it was left like this then there would be a self-destructive conflict, and if they were also attacked by the Remrus Empire at this time, now, they would not be able to withstand it.

That meant, Geihlficlant was facing a threat now.

In order to do something, seeking Roland’s strength—this was something easy to understand.

And this opportunity was just right, it benefited the Roland army by allowing them to enter the Central Continent, and enter a difficult battle with Remrus Empire. In order to defeat Remrus, even if it was Geihlficlant that had been split, it was the helping power that Roland wanted.

And because Geihlficlant understood this, so they sent out an ambassador recently, Sion had thought initially.

But,

“…”

But Froaude said.

“She’s not an ambassador from the Geihlficlant Empire, Your Majesty.”

“…She’s not?”

“Yes.”

“Then which country’s ambassador is she?”

At this moment, the girl lifted her head to look at Sion.

Then,

“…I am, an ambassador from the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

She said.

Sion tilted his head slightly.

“…The People’s Republic of Sphelliyet… I haven’t heard of that before… Is it a small country in the Central Continent?”

The girl nodded.

“Yes, it’s a small country, so it’s no problem if Your Majesty doesn’t know about it. And, it was just recently formed.”

“…A new country?”

“If I say it’s the country built by the Anti-Roland Coalition, I think you’ll understand.”

She said.

Sion narrowed his eyes, then glared at her.

“…”

But that girl didn’t take note of Sion’s expression. No, she didn’t even look in his direction. Only, speaking what she had been commanded to say, in order to accomplish her mission as an ambassador.

But, who had ordered her to say that?

Because of whose orders, had she come here?

It was said that the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition was a demon.

It was said that the demon was called Ryner Lute.

Then, this person,

This person was here on Ryner’s orders…

The girl opened her mouth.

As if reading from a prepared script, she said,

“As everyone has heard, the ones who destroyed hundreds of thousands of Gastark’s soldiers that were fighting with the Geihlficlant Empire, was us.

She said.

“The ones who made the Gastark Empire who has been expanding south retreat is also us.”

She said.

“I trust that everyone has heard of these two matters, but we seem to have something that is far more powerful than what everyone can comprehend. By relying on that power, we have decided to build a country using this opportunity. This country is named the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

She said this.

“Then, seizing this chance to build a country, we want to extend a treaty to the world to build peace.”

To this, Sion asked.

“A peace treaty…?”

“Yes, I think many countries have already noticed, on the current battle ground, there is an old weapon that has abnormally strong power called the Rhule Fragmei being used…”

Sion interrupted her.

“You don’t have to explain what is Rhule Fragmei . But, are you explaining this to the countries all over the world?”

He asked.

The girl nodded.

“Yes, in order to stop the usage of such dangerous weapons that can potentially destroy the world on the battle field, we are proposing a peace treaty…”

But, Sion interrupted her again, saying.

“Fools! By allowing the whole world to know of the existence of this weapon, what peace treaty do you want to talk about! If you do this every country will use Rhule Fragmei …”

“No, it wouldn’t become like that, this is the purpose of the peace treaty.”

“Who would follow that treaty…”

But the girl interrupted him.

“At least my country plans to follow it. We will not use such immoral weapons like the Rhule Fragmei on the battle field again. And we hope that your country can do this, for peace.”

“For peace? You say peace? What a joke, you…”

But the girl stopped him, saying.

She said with a shallow smile.

“Your Majesty, what are you shouting about, how can you yell angrily, the whole world is watching”

“…”

“The whole world is watching. Will you enter this peace treaty, or not? Of course it doesn’t matter if you don’t participate. You must think the world is yours, right? From the south and north, the king that will rely on the power of killing. No matter how you are called a hero in the south, if you choose wrongly here, this will decide your image in the Central Continent. Then, if that’s the case, what will it become? The people in the Central Continent will bow under the wild barbaric king who doesn’t want to enter the peace treaty? Do you think, after today you can progress north with only power?”

“…”

“If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter, anyway we didn’t think we could gain the approval of all the countries. But in the Central Continent, there are many countries who have agreed to this treaty…”

But, Froaude said,

“That’s your plan? Every country can’t possible reply immediately to such an important problem. Of course if you thought that something as absurd as rumours about the demon can threaten them then it’s a different story.”

He said sarcastically, but the girl smiled.

“Of course we’ve threatened some. This is obvious. The so-called negotiations, is something that is done after threats. Then timid countries will join in. Progressively, then large countries will also… this treaty has also garnered the approval of the Ertolia Republic.”

Hearing that, Sion was annoyed.

That the Ertolia Republic had approved of this treaty, Sion understood immediately. To Ertolia that had been late in gathering the Rhule Fragmei, of course they were quick in doing this.

Then, the Geihlficlant Empire that had lost power would definitely, give their approval.

That meant, these two great countries would support this treaty.

If that was so, then in the Central Continent, almost two thirds of the countries would agree with this treaty.

In this case that was more than half.

More than half of the countries had entered this treaty under that fake claim of “peace”.

This was under the suggestion of the Anti-Roland Coalition—no, the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.

But what were these people, chasing after? Why, did they want to prohibit the usage of Rhule Fragmei ?

Of course if it were Ryner, he probably hoped for this.

If it were that person, he could suggest prohibiting this weapon.

But, the people of the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet, had used Rhule Fragmei to snatch away the territory of Geihlficlant.

Or it was the previous body, the organization called Anti-Roland Coalition, that had already used the Rhule Fragmei in combat. Naturally using Rhule Fragmei , to kill people. Originally they could use that power to gain Geihlficlant.

That meant, under the excuse of already using the Rhule Fragmei to build their country, they suggested a world-wide prohibition of it.

But, the world that knew of the existence of such a weapon, couldn’t resist using it.

Men, would use Rhule Fragmei .

If a convenient instrument was placed before them, men would be unable to resist and use it.

And, the more hopeless situation they were in, the more they would mistakenly use it.

So before the knowledge of this power spread in the world.

Before using this power to ignite a war, Roland originally planned to progress into the Central Continent.

If they had to use Rhule Fragmei to attack, there would be an unimaginable number of sacrifices, so he had initially wanted to enter the Central Continent, without anyone noticing.

“…”

No, there were already enough sacrifices.

Roland and Remrus had attacked each other because they used Rhule Fragmei , causing a considerable number of sacrifices.

It was same in the north.

It was said that in the battle with the Gastark Empire and Geihlficlant Empire, with only one shot, hundreds of thousands of people had died.

It was said that although something like that had happened before, everything had ended already, but something like that had happened.

Then using that power, these people separated the world.

The world started to desperately search for this power.

Every country, possibly out of fear, or out of lust, or out of rage, or out of sadness, started to frantically search for Rhule Fragmei .

And then, used it.

The used the weapon that could kill.

So people died.

And it became a large number of deaths.

As long as they thought about it they would understand why it had turned out this way.

If every country had such large power, then there wasn’t any power that could suppress this.

So what occurred was a massacre.

An unstoppable massacre.

Perhaps, in the end nothing would be left.

Then Sion glared at the girl.

“…Then, who was the one who suggested the peace treaty? It probably isn’t your king—Ryner Lute who suggested it?”

The girl looked at Sion.

“No, everything is the thoughts of my liege…”

“Shut up!”

“No matter what Your Majesty thinks, the king of the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet is Ryner Lute-sama…”

“I told you to shut up! And you are wrong. If we stop here, we’ll hinder you. If I stop here, the world will be crumble and be swallowed up by the Goddesses …”

But Sion stopped, then used a sharper expression to glare at the girl.

“…Or are you, the subordinates of the Goddesses …? What are you planning to do to Ryner?”

He asked.

To this question, the girl smiled even more happily.

“…Although I do not know of the thing called Goddess that Your Majesty spoke of… But my master informed me, if Your Majesty uttered the phrase Goddess , then he instructed me to say this.”

She said.

Then Sion,

“Before that, tell me the name of your master who ordered you. Your master isn’t Ryner, right? Who is it? Vois…?”

But ignoring his words, the girl continued to speak. It seemed she had memorized what she was supposed to say.

“—I apologize, Sion”

She said.

“You seem to have done too much”

She said.

“You killed my companions, so I, will definitely not forgive you. If you don’t give up on the Rhule Fragmei … If you continue to be mad, if you continue to be mad to this extent because of the curse of the Hero , then I will look to you as an enemy…”

The girl said.

She spoke what her master had ordered to do in one breath.

Then,

“…”

To this, Sion had nothing to say.

If you are mad until this extent.

If you continue to be mad to this extent, then take me as your enemy, Ryner had said that once.

That was the original sentence.

Indeed, he had already killed Ryner’s companions. To the Nelphan soldiers and the squad that was escaping with Ryner, he had used the Rhule Fragmei .

So he understood that Ryner would be mad, he understood he would break his ties with him.

But, even so,

“…The one who would say that, is not Ryner.”

Sion said in a low voice.

But to this question, the girl did not reply.

“Then my mission is completed, release me…”

“No. Tell me you real master’s name. Is it Vois? Or is it, the Goddess ?”

But, the girl looked at him with a pitying vague expression.

“Even if you threaten me, you can’t get answers from me. I came here after accepting a spell. If I tell you something other than what I have been ordered to do, the curse will activate, and I will die.”

“I see. But at least, Ryner will never do that.”

“Ahaha”

“Ryner… that guy…”

But at this moment,

“Your Majesty”

Froaude called out to him.

Sion narrowed his eyes in slight anger and looked to the direction of the voice.

Do not waver without a reason, and give your enemy information.

Then Sion stopped. He felt unhappy that he had revealed the weakness in his heart to his subordinates.

“…Release the girl, we cannot get any other information from this person.”

He ordered, then the soldiers who were restraining her let go of her.

Then she nodded to Sion.

“Will you give me your reply to whether you will participate in the peace treaty?”

To this question, Froaude replied.

“We will keep our opinion. Of course that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t enter. At least let us consider…”

“I’m not asking you, my master ordered me to listen to the reply from the King Sion Astal. Now, please personally reply me, Your Majesty.”

“…”

“Will you enter? Or not?”

“…”

To this, Sion glared at the girl, and after seemingly keeping silent as if he were thinking—

“…We join it”

At this point,

Froaude raised his hand, he held a dagger in his hand, the blade of the dagger pierced the girl’s neck, and she collapsed soundlessly.

Then Sion widened his eyes and shouted,

“Froaude! You?!”

But Froaude coldly, carrying a demon-like dark expression,

“We will keep our opinion, Your Majesty. We still cannot join this treaty.”

“But there is no need to kill…”

“There is. This woman saw Your Majesty waver, if she reported this then it would be bad.”

“…But.”

“Anyway she was already cursed, she was useless to us. But if we sent her head back, then that would show that even if they say Ryner Lute’s name, Your Majesty would be unwavering.”

Sion glared at Froaude and said,

“…Because I wavered, so you killed her?”

But Froaude shook his head.

“No, Your Majesty. Our king, wouldn’t waver because of something as trivial as this.”

“…”

“Then, please let me take care of the issues after this. Let me cover up this matter.”

Froaude said.

To this, Sion asked,

“How are you planning to cover this up?”

Froaude pointed to the girl’s corpse.

“In her body, there was a magic that was supposed to make her self-implode and kill Your Majesty—let us spread this out. Because Your Majesty was attacked, so we killed her. Then warn the kings of various countries to beware of assassins from the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

“But even if we do that it wouldn’t be solved. Every country already know of the existence of Rhule Fragmei …”

“Yes, there’s that. Every country knows of that existence… but we have already been prepared for this. Thus we proceeded with the human experiments—modified soldiers, isn’t that true?”

“…”

“So that even though every country can use Rhule Fragmei , our country can still have the advantage, Your Majesty changed Roland.”

Then Sion looked at Froaude.

“But this too… even if this is the case, small countries will use Rhule Fragmei after today”

“Yes.”

“The sacrifices will increase.”

“Yes.”

“Even if you spread the lie that the girl was an assassin, the countries that have already joined the peace treaty…”

“They can’t possibly read through our intentions. But, this will arouse distrust. It will create confusion. What the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet did to us, we will do it too.”

Saying that, Froaude commanded the subordinates to take care of the girl’s corpse.

Then looking at Sion, he continued,

“They are different from us. We who have gathered under the Hero King Sion Astal, are different. The Anti-Roland Coalition? Vois Fiurelle? Heh, heh heh, anyway it is a troop that was gathered for money, right? Then, a seed of distrust can destroy it.”

So Sion asked,

“Then what do we do?”

Froaude replied mildly.

“…We ourselves, will meet with Ryner Lute. Speaking truthfully, even if it is me, I do not think that the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet is something that Ryner Lute will do. Then the key to breaking the organization lies here. Ryner Lute and the one manipulating from behind the scenes, Vois Fiurelle—the country that has two kings. Pull one of them off the stage.”

Saying that, Froaude bowed to him, turned around, and then quickly walked out of the hall, but stopped again.

He turned around.

“Ahah, speaking of which, Your Majesty, can I do the same thing like Vois Fiurelle?”

Sion asked suspiciously,

“The same thing? What does that refer to?”

Froaude had a shallow smile, a deep, dark smile like a demon.

“…Making use of the love Ryner Lute has for you. Like what the subordinate of Vois Fiurelle did, if I twist your words, and destroy Ryner Lute’s heart. Then make him kill Fiurelle, is that possible?”

He asked this.

Then Sion,

“…”

A smile appeared on his face, he asked.

“If I say no, will you give up?”

Then Froaude had a slightly happy smile,

“No.”

Then he bowed his head again, and walked out of the hall.

Sion looked at his figure.

He looked at the figure of his subordinate who wanted to kill Vois and Ryner.

“…”

But at this moment, another human walked into the hall.

It was a girl.

She was around fifteen years old.

She had pretty features and beautiful amber hair that touched her shoulders.

A slim body, blue eyes—

Sion knew this girl.

She was the younger sister of a youth who had been Sion’s secretary.

Eslina Folkal.

Before the war began she was Calne’s assistant officer, but as of now she was working steadily in the capital of the Runa Empire, slightly down south, as a civil servant in the conquered land.

But why did she appear here?

“…”

No, why she came here, he knew the reason already.

So Sion asked. Before Eslina, who had a tearful expression, entered the hall and opened her mouth,

“…Are you here because of Calne?”

He has asked.

“…I am sorry for leaving Runa and going against your orders. But once I heard the People’s District of Urd that Calne-san had been protecting had been occupied by the Remrus Empire… that all the soldiers situated in the People’s District of Urd had been killed, this rumour…”

“…”

“But, but, Calne-san is here, right? He should have retreated successfully, and joined back with the main army, right?”

“…”

“Please tell me that is the case… is it? Calne-san he… can’t be dead… right…”

Her voice was trembling because of the words she spoke, her expression had contorted too. She pressed her chest forcefully, squeezing out her voice.

An expression as if she were about to cry.

She had an expression that said she would immediately break down here.

Sion looked at her face.

Her brother had been killed, then this time, she could possibly lose a superior who had always accompanied her, she trembled because of this.

No, Calne and Eslina could possibly be dating. Otherwise she wouldn’t waver.

Because the two of them had always been together, so it could be possible that was the case.

Then, she could lose an important person again.

Because of war.

Because of this mad world.

Because,

“…”

Of this, useless king.

Thinking about his lack in power, Sion’s expression twisted too.

He couldn’t protect anyone. It was always because of the lack in power, and he was unable to protect his important people.

Ryner, Kiefer, Toni, Fahl, Tyle, Fiole, Calne, Eslina… Mother… even himself!

Everyone was crying, shouting, as they died, but I couldn’t do anything to protect them.

They were clearly calling for me to save them.

Everyone, had shouted for me to save them, but I couldn’t protect them… He hated himself.

He really hated his helplessness.

But, he couldn’t reveal such an expression.

Because he had revealed such an expression earlier, it had caused a girl to be killed. He only showed his weak side a little, but many things were too late to take back.

So, progress.

So, he could only step over this and progress.

So, Sion looked at Eslina and smiled,

“…Calne, is not dead.”

He said.

And Eslina raised her face, her face shone, at the same time, the tears she had been holding back poured forth.

“Then, then…”

But Sion interrupted her, continuing.

“But, he has been kidnapped by the Remrus Empire.”

“…How can that…”

“But relax, I have ordered my subordinate to infiltrate Remrus and rescue Calne. They are very talented… Because they are extremely talented, so Calne will definitely be fine.”

He said.

But Eslina looked at him with a slightly doubtful expression.

And, Sion said,

So as not to say anything outside of this, he said again,

“It’ll be alright, trust me.”

He smiled as he said.

Of course, Eslina’s expression did not brighten at this.

This was to be expected.

Her lover had been kidnapped by the opposing country.

And Calne was not an ordinary soldier, but a Major General of Roland. In order to gain information from Roland, he would surely undergo intensive torture.

And after that, the useless Calne, would continue to be used, and perhaps be killed as a demonstration?

No matter what, Calne’s future was not optimistic.

A minute… no, even they were late by a second in rescuing him, Calne could possibly be killed.

But,

“…”

Sion was no longer worried about Calne.

Of course, because Remrus Empire was a disgusting country ruled by a monster, wanting to save him was not so easy.

According to the report that Luke had submitted about Remrus, the people of that country could have had been affected by a brainwashing spell.

That meant, if he sent someone who had no ability carelessly, he could be brainwashed in return, causing a backfire in his plans.

But, even if that was indeed the case, Sion was not worried about Calne, because he had sent his best subordinate.

It wasn’t because the most talented spy in the whole of Roland, Luke Stokkart was in Remrus.

It wasn’t because Luke would save Calne.

Luke who was only a human, was not Remrus’s opponent.

But Sion had sent a different subordinate.

Another assassin.

Another spy.

He had sent a different monster into Remrus.

Then,

“…”

Sion smiled.

No, this smile, was fake.

He was always uneasy, fearful of being tortured by pain.

But for the sake of Eslina who was looking into his eyes, looking at him uneasily, he smiled, and looked at the maps on the battle discussion table again.

He looked at the country that Claugh and Miller were fighting now.

He looked at the Remrus Empire that Luke and countless other teams had infiltrated.

◆◆◆◆

Then the scene changed to the north.

Further up north from the former Autonomous Holy City of Cassla and People’s District of Urd where the Roland army was stopped.

In a country called the Country of God in the southern part of the Central Continent.

The country where the chosen people of God lived.

The scenery of this country, seemed to be covered with a layer of fog.

Of course, because it was transparent, although the eyes could not see it, but there was something there.

It was like a thin layer of peace.

A disgusting, fake stability.

Looking at the membrane of the Rhule Fragmei that covered this country,

“…Ah~ A strong magic was cast… It’s really done carelessly. If it’s such a strong power, humans will become abnormal.”

She said.

The place where she was, was on the roof top of a church in the Remrus Empire.

No, it should be said she was on a sharp spire.

From there, she looked down at the entire Remrus.

Because the wind was strong, normally speaking it wouldn’t be possible to stand in that sort of place, but she didn’t care. She looked around, as she was blown at by the wind.

She surveyed the Remrus Empire.

She surveyed this large land that was governed by brainwashing magic.

“…”

Then every time she looked at this scenery, her caramel-coloured ponytail would sway slightly.

Large and round eyes, a small body. On that small body there was something like battle armour.

But, it couldn’t be seen which country she belonged to.

Then, she heard a voice.

“…Captain~”

The voice of a man calling her sounded.

Then she looked down.

They were Human αs .

They were her subordinates, Human α s called Lach, Lear, Moe.

They were looking at her worriedly.

“It’s, it’s dangerous, please come down!”

“Wh-what will happen if you fall!?”

“We’ll be lectured by Luke-senpai!”

Hearing that, she laughed.

She laughed with an innocent expression.

She laughed with a flirtatious expression.

Then she ignored her subordinates’ voices, and surveyed the Remrus Empire again.

“…Then then, although I heard most of it… But this way everything has changed into something strange, what shall we do?”

She muttered.

“What do you think? Remrus Remuld Aarqued? Can you end the show in the end?”

She murmured.

“Sion Astal rejected the seduction and didn’t embrace me… The Lonesome Demon Ryner Eris Reed has been separated into two in the time that we were unaware of… In the end, it’s that. At the same time when we Goddess went mad, this. Ahah, although you are not a Goddess … But, at the same time when we went mad…”

She murmured.

“Who created the Goddess , and after which because it was too troublesome, created the Hero to destroy the Goddess , but the Hero was mad too. In order to stop the mad Hero , they created us Human α… This time Human has gone mad, and new scenarios are developing… and such. What is going on? Although we say it’s mad, mad, but this world, doesn’t it have sensible people?”

She muttered.

Of course this voice didn’t spread. No, so that it wasn’t spread out, she kept control over her voice, controlling how far it spread.

Not only that, she had set up a barrier, so that her presence was not felt by Remrus Remuld Aarqued.

“Ma, even though I am also mad because of love, I have no right to talk about other people…”

She pressed a hand to her chest. She pressed on her small chest. She felt her chest, and could feel her heart beating, the sound of it beating.

Feeling the emotions of the original owner of this body stirring.

This voice was extremely warm, comfortable. And following that voice, was the feelings of this body’s owner, despair, like entered her body.

This body shouted that it loved Ryner.

It yelled that it loved Ryner Lute.

It yelled that it loved humans.

It yelled that it loved every companion.

“…”

This body was frantically yelling useless things.

But even though it was something useless,

“…”

It was also extremely adorable.

It was always like that.

Really, I am always like that.

I can see the important meaning in useless things.

I can see the beauty in useless things.

And in the end even though there is no change, but I betrayed the Goddesses , interfered in the love between the Hero and the Demon .

Although I helped that pitiful love, the body that Humans created,

“…This time, let me support this lady’s love.”

She murmured.

This Human had a strong love that was rare in the current world.

If she were given up on then she would cry out, this body strongly loved the man called Ryner Lute.

If it were for Ryner Lute, she could die.

If Ryner Lute laughed, it didn’t matter if he were snatched away by other women.

Ryner Lute, Ryner Lute. Ryner, Ryner, Ryner… that Human continued to say.

Then her face reddened slightly.

Every time this resounding feeling entered her body, she would have the same feelings as that Human .

She released a small, small breath.

“…Ryner.”

She tried saying.

Immediately her heart had a reaction.

Her heart jumped strongly.

Then she tried sighing again,

“Hah…”

Then she laughed.

She laughed happily.

A flirtatious, innocent, beautiful smile appeared.

“… This Human created me, I can mostly absorb her feelings… This…”

She said.

“…This, is very interesting.”

She said.

“Why can this be controlled, the Goddesses thought. Why can something like this be controlled, the Demon and Hero thought. Why can such a strong emotion… To organisms that can hold such beautiful emotions, they clearly shouldn’t be able to control…”

In the end, the world events had become odd.

Initially the Goddesses wanted to do this.

Initially the Hero wanted to do this.

This time it was the Humans that planned to change everything.

The events that were uncontrollable had expanded, and it was unknown what kind of ending it would have.

It was different from normal.

When had this started from?

I do not know.

Was it started by a man called Lieral, yelling don’t kill my son, who resisted fate?

Or was it started by the eldest son of the Eris family, who ate the Demon Eris in order to protect his younger sister and became the Devourer Lucile ?

Or was it started by the Hero who didn’t kill the Lonesome Ryner ?

I do not know.

No one knows.

But, she thought.

In the end, no one is able to control anything, she thought.

But, everyone is trying to live frantically.

Everyone is desperately yelling about love.

So,

“…Ahah, it’s like this”

She said.

To her chest.

To her heart.

She who had been called the Goddess of Reincarnation , said with a satisfied expression.

“…It’s like that… that you want to stay by Ryner Lute’s side… that must be outside the expected events. No one knows of the story that is being created.”

Saying that, she laughed.

She could already feel that her words were slowly changing.

Her consciousness was being devoured by the Human that should have been controlled completely.

Her consciousness was slowly being devoured, collapsed, and merged with the Human that had been created to be manipulated.

Like how Sion Astal was devouring the Fallen Mad Hero Asruld Roland , this Human is also… devouring me, taking, and merging with my consciousness.

Of course I can defend against this.

It was even easy to erase this Human ’s consciousness, because she had done that before.

But,

“…”

She didn’t resist.

Because this seemed interesting.

Because this seemed pleasant.

Because if she could merge with this girl who was emotionally wealthy and filled with love, it was an extremely satisfying matter.

So she laughed, she laughed happily.

“…Ahah…ahah, I…. I originally thought after being embraced by Asruld , being devoured… becoming Lonesome Ryner ’s thing… This way, Lonesome Ryner and Demon Eris will be unable to become one. If he can gain me, Lonesome Ryner himself will gain everything… That means now, I can change the events. I can change everything. But why is that? Why is that? Why is there something like this? Why can someone like me who is an idiot, turn my back on everything?”

After asking that, she asked herself.

“…Ahahaha, ahaha, it must be, like this. Because I’m mad. I’m mad because of love.”

Saying that, she patted her chest.

Then, the beating of her chest stopped. She stopped the feelings of the Human that were forcefully entering her.

And then started to move.

The movements of the feelings, were even slower than just now.

And even so, even so,

“…One third has already been merged”

She laughed.

Ahaha she laughed.

Using a gentle expression like a child she laughed.

This expression, was something that this Human ’s body had. Innocent, a very cute smile that made everyone want to be gentle to her.

She laughed with that expression.

“But, please hold on. Let me move with my own consciousness for a little longer. Just a little longer, a little longer, I will create a path that is beneficial for the person you love, then your consciousness will take over…”

She said.

Then she turned her head, using that rhythm to make it seem like she was going to fall off the spire because of the strong wind.

“Waaaaaaaaa”

She cried.

Then her subordinates,

“W-we’re coming now, captain!”

“Wait…Moe, go up quickly!”

Hearing that, she laughed, she laughed happily. As she fell from the spire, she used several magics. And her body floated up lightly.

“I tricked you~ Were you shocked? Humans ?”

She landed before her subordinates, and laughed.

Then her subordinates looked at her with wide, surprised expressions, what was she doing? They asked, but they only received laughter that went heh heh as their answer.

“I’m amazing right~”

She raised her chest.

Then everyone praised that she was really amazing, really amazing.

It was only praise, but her body—this Human ’s body, felt satisfied.

To this simple structure, she laughed.

She laughed.

She,

“…”

The Goddess of Reincarnation Milk Ephillet laughed.

“Then, it’s almost time to meet up with Luke. Then after we break out Calne Kaiwal… we’ll cut this country’s king—Remrus Remuld Aarqued into large chunks!”

### 005. Chapter 4: The reason for birth

I had a dream again.

I am frequently dreaming.

I am not dreaming alone.

A dream where he wasn’t abandoned by the world, and did not have cursed eyes, where he was loved by everyone, laughing happily.

But that was a fantasy, if he opened his eyes emerging from dreamland, he was always labelled as a monster.

The Alpha Stigma monster.

The disgusting, cursed monster.

These words had made me very hurt in the beginning.

But what could I do?

I was still a child at that time, a normal child. Then, I thought, why was I a monster?

I was the same as everyone.

Because I’m not able to survive alone, so I want to be by everyone’s side.

I hate to be alone.

I shouted, cried every day.

I cried as hard as I could

But, no one approached me.

They looked at me with expressions of disgust as if they had seen a disgusting insect.

They looked at me as if they were seeing an ugly monster.

“…”

So I slowly stopped crying.

I didn’t say that I was alone anymore.

I didn’t say, but that didn’t mean I was not lonely.

That didn’t mean I didn’t love humans.

That didn’t mean I didn’t want the warmth from others.

But, even so, I still didn’t say that I was lonely.

I shut myself in a shell, building countless, countless walls to prevent others from coming in.

Then, slowly, slowly tolerated the loneliness.

Then lied to myself, always laughing, keeping my distance from others.

Even if someone said they liked me, I didn’t believe it.

Even if someone said they wanted to be my friend, I didn’t believe that too.

Then lastly, learning to be like this was good.

Because I was a dangerous monster, if I went berserk once people would die.

I will destroy all of my important things.

“…”

So I, must keep my distance from everything.

Give up on exchanging heart felt words with other people.

Because the deeper the contact, the deeper the hurt.

Because the deeper the contact, the deeper the pain.

So I, gave up on interacting with people.

“…”

But even so, he would dream occasionally.

My dream self, loved girls.

My dream self, laughed with my friends.

My dream self, was loved by my parents.

“…”

When I woke up I always cried.

I thought that my tears had dried up, but I was always crying in my dream.

How weak.

How terribly weak.

In the end, no matter how I lie to myself, I am still lonely.

Who will come and see me, see me, see me, I cried in my heart, but everything was killed.

“…”

Because of my birth, I hated that I was something like a god.

But, because Roland didn’t have a religion, so I completely didn’t understand what was that thing that was like a god.

I completely didn’t understand the meaning of the birth of such an ugly monster.

Although it was a complete failure.

Although it was a failure that I couldn’t tell anyone about.

“…”

So this time, I started to hate my parents.

I hated my parents who gave birth to something like me.

But I completely didn’t know my parents’ face.

I had lost my memories of when I was before five years old, I completely didn’t have any memories of my parents.

Had my parents abandoned a monster like me?

Or did this monster, have no parents from the very beginning?

I didn’t know.

No matter how I thought about it, because I had no memories, I was unable to find the answer.

But I probably was abandoned, that was because I wasn’t loved. I only knew this point. Of course, such an ugly being that only knew how to hurt others, there wasn’t any need to let him live.

“…”

He had initially always, always thought that.

If he thought of it that way, he wouldn’t be hurt.

If he came up with that sort of theory, he wouldn’t be hurt again.

But even so he would still dream.

A dream where he was loved since his birth.

A dream where everyone anticipated his birth.

There wasn’t anything that needed to be special.

Normal was fine.

A dream where everyone was laughing happily.

“…”

But at this moment, he suddenly found his memories.

His memories that had been sealed for some reason suddenly returned.

Himself in the memory, was like what he had seen in the dream, laughing.

Gentle mother who watched my figure laugh happily, father who always kissed me, hugging me tightly, and found my favourite books to read by my bedside.

He always saw this scene in his dreams.

He only thought that this was something that could be seen in dreams.

“…”

Because of some reason now, he had appeared in front of Ryner’s eyes.

It was night.

A very dark night.

In the quiet night where everyone was sleeping, he saw that person appear.

“…”

He saw the figure of the man he only thought he could see in dreams, in the beginning, Ryner was doubtful about whether he was still dreaming.

In the darkness of the night—a man had suddenly appeared before him.

That person had similar tired eyes as him. Very unmotivated blue eyes. Soft golden hair. He wore a black outfit on his slouching body. He carried a pouch.

That man said.

He looked at Ryner, gently speaking.

“Ah, we finally meet……. My dear son”

That voice, it was indeed the voice that he only heard in his dreams.

The gentle voice of father who always read to me.

Then Ryner narrowed his eyes.

“…….Then, it can’t be you’re my father?”

Then the golden-haired man laughed, opening up his arms.

“Yes~ You can call me father, then come over and hug me~”

He said jokingly.

Then,

“…”

Then, Ryner scowled. Of course, he didn’t plan to run to that chest.

He looked at the back of the man who had the same features as his father, then looked at the cloud-like thing that was maintaining the mist of ‘sandman’.

It was easily seen, that person was attacking directly.

He had anticipated that other than Ryner, the others would be defeated by this mist, and enter a deep sleep.

No, not only that, these few days, the reason why Ryner wasn’t able to wake up, was because of this person.

So he tensed his whole body to maintain his nervous appearance and asked.

“The mist behind you…”

Then, the man who looked like this father replied.

“Yes, it’s created by me. Although Ryner can see it because of those eyes, that structure is very interesting? This, was actually created by me~ I can teach you how to create this…….”

But, Ryner interrupted him.

“Compared to the creation of this, I want to ask you, why are you using this here? Why do you want everyone here to sleep? No, the one who made me sleep, is you?”

Being asked that, the man shrugged.

“……Eh, that’s right. I made everyone sleep because, you see, so that no one interrupts the reunion between me and my son who I have not met for a long time.”

To that, Ryner said,

“Don’t speak nonsense!”

“Eh~? That, is a little surprising. I’m not speaking nonsense, this sort of thing…”

But Ryner continued.

“And you are not my father. Don’t let me see such a boring illusion. Who are you? Are you the companion of the Goddess or the monster called ‘ α ’?

He asked.

Then the man raised his eyebrow with a slightly troubled look.

“Eh? Why would you think that? No matter how you look at it, I am your father……Unless it’s because your memories haven’t returned?”

He asked.

It seemed that this person knew about the fact that Ryner had lost memories of his parents.

And, this person really did resemble his father.

That gentle father.

The appearance of Lieral Lieutolu.

But Ryner looked at this man’s appearance.

“No matter how I look at it, it’s my father’s appearance. And it is the appearance of my childhood memories. But how long do you think it has been since then? It’s been more than ten years. But why do you still look like you are twenty years old”

Saying that, the man who had the appearance of Lieral looked at his hand, then looked at his chest.

“…and, thinking what would happen if we didn’t separate, although I appeared with the appearance of that time…”

“Huh? You searched my memories, right? Then, you copied my father’s appearance…”

“It’s not that”

“How can it not be…”

“It’s not that, Ryner. I am your father. And you, don’t you understand this point? This isn’t an illusion. If it were an illusion, you would see through it. Now your eyes, aren’t the Alpha Stigma of the past. Your beautiful black eyes that are like your mother’s, can see through everything of this world. Then, from what you see, am I an illusion?”

“…”

To this, and, the power of Ryner’s eyes had already been activated. To analyse the sandman’s cloud surrounding them.

So the power of these eyes were already activated.

Then he used these eyes to look at the man before him.

But, that wasn’t an illusionary magic.

Only the man was standing there.

There was only the man who had a lethargic expression.

“…”

That, this was weird.

If this person was really his father, and was not using any magic, then why, was his appearance the same as the past?

This, as if he read his thoughts, that person said.

“…Ahah, of course I used a special power. To become like this, I used power, although it’s not any magic”

“Then, is it the Rhule Fragmei?”

“No no, Ryner’s eyes should be able to see the structure of Rhule Fragmei already.”

“Then, what did you do…”

Then the man questioned in return.

“…Your mother, has she aged?”

Then, Ryner recalled.

He remembered his mother as she died in the demon’s arms. His mother had young, beautiful features too. Like his gentle mother that he had seen when he was younger.

Then,

“…Are you immortal?”

Asking that, the man laughed. He smiled as he snapped his fingers.

Then the man’s appearance changed.

A appearance of a short youth.

An appearance of an old man who was over seventy years old.

A study appearance of over forty five.

Then back to the youthful appearance of over twenty five, smiling gently.

“Because I worked too hard, I became something that isn’t a human… Compared to saying that I wouldn’t age, it should be said I don’t have an actual body anymore. Then, although using various means, I worked hard in Roland… Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway the me now, and Iruna—ahh, that would be your mother. I turned myself into magic, so I wouldn’t turn old.”

He said this.

He turned himself into magic.

To be with his mother, he turned himself into magic.

“…”

Then, mother died.

She had always desperately shielded her son to protect him, and died.

Ryner looked at the man before him and said.

He looked at the man—his father,

“…Then, you don’t have an actual body, it’s because of me too…”

But father shook his head, speaking with a gentle expression.

“It’s not because of you. It’s because I wanted to do that. I wanted to protect my son, to protect the family important to me… Your mother and I thought about it ourselves, and did it ourselves…”

“But”

“Well, listen to me, Ryner. You must listen to your parents’ words”

“…”

Then Ryner fell silent.

Because his father’s voice had turned even gentler.

Because it was as gentle as that in his memory, so he was quiet.

Then Father had a happy smile,

“Good, what a good child. Well, from the past, you have always been the best child in the world to me.”

“…”

“Then, you don’t have to blame yourself for this. What their parents do shouldn’t be held accountable by their child. We gambled our lives on protecting our son, that was a happy matter. This is something that we can raise our chests up, and proudly tell everyone. So you don’t have to blame yourself.”

Father said gently.

Father seemed to say it with a tone that forgave me for what I did so far.

But, Ryner’s expression was still contorted. He looked at his father with a sad expression.

“But, I…”

“Killed many people?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you killed many people?”

“Yeah.”

“But, you couldn’t help it?”

“…”

“If you can’t help it, then you can’t help it. Humans are not gods, they are not so omnipotent and strong. But so what? Because you have special eyes, so you decided to become god?”

“…”

Of course, Ryner wasn’t planning that. Not only that, he had never once felt happy because he had these kind of eyes.

If it weren’t for that. If he didn’t have these eyes then no one would hate him. He wouldn’t kill his companions.

No, compared to that, the lives of his parents wouldn’t be so messed up.

So Father looked at Ryner’s face with a slightly sad expression.

“It seems I let you have painful memories. I’m sorry, for being unable to be by your side.”

“…”

“But I saw what happened to you. And you are always very hardworking. Even though you have been left alone on this world, you have always walked on the most accurate, best path. So, raise your chest!”

“…….But, I did many…..”

“There was a need to do that”

“And for this mother…”

But his father interrupted him.

“I know. Then I thought, your mother would be very proud. You have grown up exceptionally well. You have grown to the stage where you wouldn’t lose to the demon. So, we are very happy.”

He said.

He looked there, he said, because you have grown up exceptionally well so we are happy.

He looked at me who had always been cursed as a monster.

He looked at me who had been called a monster who spread ill omens, he smiled gently.

So Ryner’s expression contorted.

But he couldn’t take it anymore. Although he was unable to resist crying when he reunited with his parents, because he had cried too much, because he was no longer childish, he thought that he could frantically hold it back, but he couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.

But Father didn’t laugh and say I’m foolish.

He only laughed gently.

“You have really, grown gently. Father is very happy. To have bet my life on this.”

“…”

“Well, although it was because if it was too gentle and turned out like this… so I needed to use the magic of sandman. If you had felt guilty because you killed too many people and committed suicide then that would be troubling. Before meeting me, if you died it would be very troubling. But, I have been a little too over-protective. Ryner has already felt it? That he is not a monster, but a human—a human that has parents and companions, loved by everyone, have you felt it?”

“…”

To these questions, Ryner couldn’t reply. His voice seemed to be trembling. It seemed too bad to talk now, his voice seemed to be shaking.

Then father smiled.

Then he raised his head to look at the sky, seeming to give a little time to Ryner to calm down, then opened his arms again

“Ah, talking about which there has been no time to have a hug for our reunion. Come? I’ll hold you tightly, come”

He smiled at Ryner as he said that.

“No”

“Why?! We’ve not seen each other for fifteen years. I don’t think it’s weird to have an emotional hug now”

“But—”

“You’re embarrassed?”

“Yeah.”

Looking at Ryner who said this softly, Father seemed to feel deeply,

“As expected as a person in his youth.”

“No no, I’m not of that age anymore.”

“Ahaha, you’re already twenty years old.”

“Yeah.”

“You grew up well.”

“…Thanks to you two.”

“Talking about which do you have lovers?”

“Huh?! Why did you suddenly mention that… there should be other things that have to be discussed.”

Then Father tilted his head,

“Others, what else?”

Then Ryner replied.

“Ah? Ah~ Like, what have you been doing so far and others… and, what have you done to suppress my Alpha Stigma. Then, I actually don’t know anything about Goddess, α, Demon”

Father heard that, shrugging.

“Those aren’t interesting, are they?”

“No, not being interesting and whatnot…”

“To me, I’m more interested in my son’s love relationship”

“That, so it’s not a question of whether it’s interesting…”

“Then then, that pretty child called Ferris, and that cute child called Kiefer, which one is your real…”

“Hey!”

Father laughed.

“I’ll mention, your Father, I fell in love with your mother when I was nineteen years old!”

“I don’t want to know!”

“No, you want to know. Or are you saying, you don’t want to hear about your parents”

“I was speaking nonsense”

“Ah, what are you doing. Even if you’re suddenly facing Father you shouldn’t… You have grown too much in the time we did not meet, dealing with you is such a trouble”

Ryner sighed, wanting to use his hand to rub at his face that was wet because of his tears, then he noticed again that he had lost his right arm.

Then,

“Ah, it’s inconvenient not having a right arm, right. Who was it, who hurt my darling son”

Father said, raising his left hand. He took his left hand as a knife, and cut his right arm.

Then there was the sound of meat being chopped, then Father’s right arm broke, dropping to the ground in an instant.

Ryner’s eyes widened,

“Huuuuuuuuuuuhh!? What, what are you doing…”

And Father muttered something with a seemingly calm and steady expression as if he couldn’t feel the pain. And a small black thing that looked like an insect appeared from his mouth. But upon closer look it wasn’t an insect. It was something made from complex words that he didn’t quite understand.

Then it stuck to the right arm on the ground, sticking to the part that was severed. Then suddenly, the limb floated up, flying towards Ryner.

“Wh-what?”

Ryner quickly planned to dodge.

But Father spoke.

“Don’t move, Ryner… Ah, you can… Klei, Telude Sierala”

He said something that couldn’t be understood.

In the moment he spoke that, grass grew out from under Ryner’s feet and stopped him.

His body was controlled.

This was probably, all magic.

And if looked clearly, if he used these eyes that could see through everything to look closely, he could understand what this magic was too.

Ryner’s eyes could see through all these complex structures.

But, because everything had progressed too quickly, he didn’t have the time to read what that magic was about.

But, Ryner had been cast on.

He was restrained by the grass, unable to avoid the flying arm.

That arm, father’s severed limb, approached where Ryner had lost his right limb. And the black words on the severed area of the limb crawled up Ryner’s arm, the severed limb starting to invade Ryner’s skin.

“…It, it hurts, this…”

And his words stopped there.

In the next instant, the shoulder implanted on him, moved according to his own consciousness.

Ryner looked at that limb, he looked at the arm that had just belonged to his father.

It was a limb that had skin of a paler tone than his, but it was still similar to his own.

Slim long fingers, even the feeling of the skin was similar to his.

Ryner tried to move the arm and fingers, then found that it moved faster that he thought they would. The movement of the fingers were faster than that when using his own hand.

Looking at his father’s arm that had been forcefully implanted, Ryner said.

“…What is this for…”

So his father who had lost a limb,

“That, is for you. It can cast faster magic than your own limb.”

He said simply.

But Ryner looked at the right arm his father lost.

“No no no, that, your… what about father’s limb”

Father had a surprised expression for some reason,

“Ry—”

“…Ah? Ry? What is that?”

His father replied.

“Ara, Ryner is asking after Father!”

“What? I say, it’s not that topic?!”

“Ahaha. Because it doesn’t matter if I don’t have that arm, so don’t worry, just use it”

“No, it isn’t that sort of problem… That, how did you do it? Transplanting another person’s arm in a moment… this magic, can’t be found if you search the world”

Ryner said, moving the right arm that seemed like his own arm. Then Father said,

“It was created”

He said this.

Then Ryner frowned.

“So, because it can’t be done so simply, so this world hasn’t been able to expand it properly… Well, that sleeping magic too, was that activated by Father alone?”

“Yes.”

“Really, you’re joking… It’s completely, monstrous… Well, there seemed to be something like this, I remember Father was called the genius at magic academics… but it can’t be till this stage”

Then Father held up a finger, saying.

“Hu hu, actually other than the nickname of being a genius at magic academics, I have another more commonly used moniker. If I used power, then magic like this is simple”

“There is another more commonly used moniker?”

“Yes.”

“That is the secret to your power?”

“Probably.”

“Then, can you tell me what that moniker is?”

Hearing Ryner ask that, Father said.

“Of course, do you want to know?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll tell you, I’m called this by everyone.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The gentle father who loves his child terribly…”

“Uh… why are you saying that now?”

Father nodded.

“I want to be spoiled by my son.”

“Die.”

“Then I want to be praised.”

“So I said…”

But, it seemed to slowly become troublesome, Ryner looked at Father with half lidded eyes.

“Ah—Yes, yes, I know. Father is amazing… Will that do?”

Then Father laughed and said.

“Yes, it will, I’m happy”

Then Ryner fell silent.

No, actually he already understood, the man before him, was an unbelievable genius.

Uncovering the secret of Alpha Stigma that no one else was able to understand, tricking the Goddess , α and the Demon , even using complex magic that the modern magic academia was unable to chase after.

The things that this person did, were abnormal.

The things that this person did, didn’t seem to be done by a human.

And he said that everything was for his family.

He said it was for his son.

Ryner didn’t know what sort of expression he should have, when he was told so straight forwardly that he was loved.

He had been so certain of his own birth, and had been frustrated of his birth, and now he was like an idiot.

Then Father looked at him and said,

“Although I’m incomparably happy at meeting my son after a long time… but before this, I have to tell you a surprising news. So to this, can you not be too nervous?”

He suddenly said this.

“Surprising news?”

Ryner asked in return, so Father nodded.

“Yes, but I don’t want you to be too surprised, can you promise me?”

“No, then isn’t the same as not listening…”

“Then I’ll not tell you”

“I say…”

Although it was a little sudden, but it was as if he did not promise then he would really say nothing, so Ryner nodded in agreement.

“…Yeah, but, I understand, then I’ll try not to be too shocked. Although I said that, but you’re going to say something surprising? Then I would really be shocked…”

Father laughed.

“Ahaha, that’s right. It may be a little difficult. I told you not to be surprised, but I think that can’t be done too… so I didn’t want to say”

He had a slightly sad expression, an expression that seemed to consider this, using a slightly strong tone,

“But, withstand it, I think you are a strong child… I trust that you will have no problem, so I’ll say it”

“Why are you becoming more dramatic… It’s fine, tell me quickly. Anyway, it’s something that needs to be said, right?”

“Eh”

“Then you can only say it”

Father nodded at this, then raised his head to look at the sky again, looking at the night sky. In such a dark night, stars couldn’t be seen, and he didn’t know what kind of scene the night sky was reflected in his father’s eyes.

Father looked at the sky, with a dark, sad expression.

“…Actually, it would have been better if we didn’t meet. If I met with you, the monsters would sense your existence, and our relationship. So, it would be better not to meet, but…”

He didn’t understand what those words meant.

Who was he referring to as the monsters? Ryner thought.

Was it the Goddesses ?

Or was it, that snake monster that the Gastark king used, that was called Glovil and activated by using his body?

He completely didn’t understand. Although he didn’t understand, Ryner did not ask any questions.

Everything, this person—Father will probably tell me.

So Ryner looked at Father’s warm expression, listening.

“Then”, he asked.

“I will try not to feel too shocked… tell me.”

He said.

“Generally, Father and Mother, have hidden too many things. To protect me, they have sacrificed their lives by themselves…… Tell me these quickly. You have to tell me quickly. You have to tell me these quickly……Don’t take me as a fool.”

Father smiled after he heard that.

“There are some things that children shouldn’t know about…”

“I’m already not a child”

Ryner interrupted him.

Then Father smiled and nodded, saying that’s right.

Then Ryner looked at Father, saying,

“So, say it quickly. Even if I am shocked I will take it, I’m already used to this kind of things. So, don’t mind it, tell me. Don’t reveal such an expression of suffering by yourself, alright? Although I can’t really talk well, that, I will help too… Ah, damn it, what point are you going to let me talk until”

Ryner pressed his sleep-mussed hair, using the digits he had gained from his father to hold a hand to his head.

Then Father laughed. But even so, Father still had a slightly dark, worried expression.

“…Is it something that hard to talk about?”

Ryner asked, Father muttered, perhaps.

“Because you are very gentle”

“…That means, something that became worse because of the things I did…”

“No, although I said it earlier too, you haven’t done anything wrong. But, there is something that you do not know about. So I came to tell you”

“Something I don’t know about?”

“Yes.”

“There are a lot of things I do not know. Until recently I didn’t even know what my parents looked like.”

“…”

But Father didn’t continue.

He seemed to think about how he should say it.

Then Ryner stopped talking.

But, like what Father said, so that he didn’t waver when he heard it, he prepared himself.

Then, Father looked at him and spoke.

“……In that, battle with Gastark, you used the power? Then your power awakened, the power of the Demon in your body awakened.”

He said.

Then Ryner nodded.

“The matter about the appearance of the clown (jester), the Solver of All Equations ?”

“Yes”

“What is that person?”

To that question, Father replied.

“It is the Demon that I added in. Originally it was a strong monster called the Lonesome Demon . I split this Lonesome Demon into two, and placed it in your body.”

Then Ryner asked.

“That is to ensure that when my Alpha Stigma went berserk, I wouldn’t die…….?”

“Yes”

“If you add in the Demon , the Alpha Stigma wouldn’t go berserk?”

Father raised his eyebrow slightly troubled.

“Because this is a long story, can we leave it till later?”

“Although I do mind”

“But let’s talk about the important things first”

‘The thing that will make me shocked?”

To this, Father had a slightly sad expression.

“Yes, this will be something that will shock you.”

Ryner nodded.

“…It doesn’t matter, I understand, say it”

“All right.”

“I’m sorry for interrupting you, please continue”

Father nodded again, continuing.

“The part placed in you, was the Lonesome Ryner of the Lonesome Demon .”

“Yeah.”

“The power of the Lonesome , is a strong power that can even make Goddesses fear it… Ryner you saw it too, it isn’t easily controlled.”

Ryner nodded, recalling.

What happened on that battle field.

To destroy α who had gone berserk on the battle field.

To destroy the dancing Glovil in the air, Ryner released energy, but was unable to control it. No, before he released it he understood, it couldn’t be controlled at all.

Because his strength was too powerful, so there wasn’t anything that could govern it.

In the end it had,

“……I, used that power to kill many people……Although I knew I would be unable to stop it, I still….”

“I know”

Father interrupted him.

“Then I said earlier, that was something that couldn’t be helped. Because you were doing that to protect your companions. If you didn’t do that, you, and your companions, everyone would have died.”

“…Yeah”

“So, don’t blame yourself”

“No, it’s impossible to stop blaming myself completely……But, I understand. Because of this reason that it couldn’t be helped, I understand.”

Then Father nodded, as if wanting to confirm that I had understood so far he wanted to say something.

That meant, there was something more serious than this.

Something more serious than killing over hundreds of thousands of people.

So Ryner,

“…”

He started to feel a little scared of what his father was going to say next.

Although he had been notified that he had to bear it, but in the end he still felt scared, and wanted to escape.

But, he already couldn’t escape, he had to withstand everything. Although there were many painful things, but he decided to withstand everything. To work hard to progress. Like what Sion had did, like what Mother had done, like what Father was doing.

Even if he was scared, he couldn’t escape.

So, Ryner asked.

“Then?”

Then Father spoke.

“When you were using that magic… After you awakened, and decided to use that power, in actuality you were activating my magic. So as not to let you collapse, I installed a magic in your body.”

“Magic?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of magic?”

“Eh, although there’s a lot, it’s too troublesome to talk of them one by one. Like not letting you die because you blamed yourself for killing too many people before you met me and letting you sleep and the likes.”

Ryner said.

“Yeah, that over-protective magic.”

“Yes yes, that over-protective magic.”

Father laughed as he said.

Then he continued.

“In the future, so that you wouldn’t be devoured by the Demon after you retrieved your memories, I cast a magic that would reduce the Demon’s strength… But that doesn’t seem to have activated. It seems that for some reason, the Demon likes you a lot, it’s allowing its consciousness to be devoured by you.”

Hearing that, Ryner thought of that time again.

The matter of the Demon who had looked exactly like him, dressed in jester’s clothes.

The Demon that had gently hugged Mother’s body to his chest, telling Ryner who was surprised at his mother’s death what he felt.

It said, let me protect my companions.

“Because, wasn’t that what you had decided?”

And,

“Saving everything reflected in your eyes. Myself who is a monster, if I can save people or something, then in that case, I want to save everything, didn’t you decide that?”

The Demon said that.

Then the Demon lent me power.

No, perhaps something like lending me its power, can’t properly express the feeling at that time.

The Demon was already in his body.

Everything about the Demon had merged completely with myself.

Then Ryner seemed to use the Demon ’s power as if he were using his own power.

Then using that abnormally large power.

He killed many people.

“But at the moment you used that power…”

Father said.

“In actuality your memories had been changed slightly. Originally the things that you should be able to understand, have become incomprehensible.”

Father said.

Then Ryner asked.

“…Is that, because of Father’s magic?”

“Yes”

“That changed my memories?”

“So as to not allow you to see the truth—saying this would be better.”

Then Ryner looked at Father’s face, asking,

“What, do you want to hide from me?”

But Father didn’t instantly reply. He seemed to hesitate, and paused.

“…….Because Ryner has already learnt magic theory, you should know that when using large powers you will pay a similar price…….”

Ryner interrupted him.

“Don’t talk about such introductions, quickly get straight to the point. If not, because you told me not to be shocked, I’m all nervous… tell me this straight in one breath.”

Hearing Ryner say that, Father stopped, then went silent. No, perhaps his silence was a slight moment. But because of some reason, Ryner felt this moment was exceptionally long.

Then Father opened his mouth again.

“… Glovil , that the Gastark king uses, will swallow the user’s body to activate power. Have you seen that structure?”

Ryner nodded.

“I saw, that snake will take the user’s body……Wait, then the power I’m using too….”

Father nodded.

“There is a price too.”

“But, but I, haven’t lost anything? When using that power, the structure of what will be taken in exchange didn’t turn me…….”

“It didn’t?”

“Yes.”

“But that’s because it was caused by my magic. So as not to let you see that structure, I cast magic on you.”

“Then, than, I have lost something? When I myself was unaware.”

“Yes.”

“What, is that? That, is it really something like life? Like shortening ten years of my life, something like that?”

Father had a sad expression.

“It’s something worse than that.”

He said.

Then Ryner,

“…..Something, worse….? Even more, than losing my lifespan….?”

“Eh”

“That…….that, what is it. Although I’m very scared…… When Father speaks he’s very hesitant, that, what is, it that I will be really shocked by….”

“…….”

“Ah, no, but, if I don’t listen….worse things…..have been done before…….Ah~ Damn. I don’t care, just tell me. I am mentally prepared, is that okay, tell me.”

Then Father looked straight at Ryner and replied.

“When Ryner uses that power…….”

He said.

“When you use that power, in exchange…. It will take away the life of a human that you deem important.”

Then Ryner was unable to understand his father’s meaning in that instant.

“Ah?”

He foolishly let out that sound, then asked.

“…..The life, of a human, I deem as important?”

“Eh”

“That means…….”

“Under that situation, your mother….”

In a moment,

“It can’t be!?”

Ryner shouted.

Although he was warned to not waver, Ryner was still,

“You’re j-joking… Don’t speak nonsense. Then, then to Mother, I….”

But Father interrupted him, saying.

“No, your mother wished for you to do that, that wasn’t your fault.”

“But”

“It wasn’t your fault, Ryner! So, calm down. You didn’t kill her.”

“….How can this be”

“Your mother herself hoped it would be like this. Before you used that power, use her life first, she had asked me of that. Then I agreed to her.”

Ryner glared at Father.

“Why did you have to do that!?”

He shouted.

Then Father replied.

“To save you.”

He replied that.

Ryner’s expression contorted.

“There’s no such… request as that!? Did I say I want your help!? I, didn’t want you to be that, that… sacrificial to help me….”

But, he couldn’t say anything. He wanted to puke, his chest started to hurt too. His head was aching so much that he couldn’t seem to stand anymore.

He shook.

He shook hard.

He thought what am I doing, as he trembled.

Although I used the power to protect my companions.

Although I used the power to protect important things.

But Mother had died because of this.

I killed her.

“I…. I’ve again……”

Suddenly, Father moved, he stepped out, only a step.

It was only like that, the distance between him and Father had shortened in one breath. Father raised his left arm like that, raising his fist and hit Ryner’s face.

“…….Urgh”

Ryner fell back as he was hit, because of the previous blow, fresh blood trickled out of his mouth.

But he still raised his head to look at Father.

But at this point, he was punched again.

“….”

He was punched even more forcefully than earlier. He nearly lost his consciousness in a moment. But he stood up with all his strength, planning to go forward.

But that was already meaningless. This time, he was hit from the back. His consciousness left in an instant, then he awoke again. This time, he was already collapsed on the floor.

Father sat on his back, carrying a troubled expression.

“…..Yes, it hurts, right, I’m sorry”

Then Ryner raised his head,

“……Get off.”

Although he said that, but Father shrugged.

“Because I haven’t touched with my son who I have seen for a long time, I am very happy, so I won't get off.”

“I said to get off.”

“….Have you already, calmed down?”

“……”

“If you haven’t calmed down, I won't get off.”

“…….”

“Well, but, it isn’t so easy to calm down that simply… then you can continue listening to me talk like this.”

“…..”

“The one who killed your mother wasn’t you. Ryner, it was me. I killed her.”

“……”

“But, I rejected it. I told her, give up on Ryner, let the two of us live on. But, we didn’t have a choice.”

“…….”

“But, this was our choice, we didn’t tell you. You told me earlier, who was it who requested you two to do this… But, aren’t parents like this? Even if not asked, they would still do this. Because we, love you from the bottom of our hearts.”

“……”

Father said.

Then Ryner looked at Father,

“But I… didn’t ask for you to do that”

Father laughed.

“Do you understand~? Because Father is great, so listen to me.”

He said that.

Then Ryner laughed bitterly with an expression that was almost crying.

“….I….I’m still a kid, so I can’t understand…”

Father laughed again when he heard that.

“Yes yes, so I told you to fall in love, then have a child.”

“…..But”

“I’ll say this beforehand, those eyes wouldn’t be passed on”

“……”

“No, or would it saying that it would pass on be better? If your child’s eyes are really cursed, then at that time you will protect them with all your might. Gambling your life and protecting your child would be fine. Then, you should buck up. Being afraid of boring things, life will be have nothing accomplished. Think of what we gambled our lives for. To gain happiness, work hard for me. Laugh every day, give birth to a happy child, be more satisfied than anyone. If you don’t do that, we… we who worked so hard… wouldn’t we seem like idiots?”

Saying that, his head was hit again, then his hair was stroked.

“……”

Indeed he couldn’t say anything.

It was as if he had really become a child, he couldn’t say anything.

Then as Father stroked Ryner’s hair, he laughed again.

“….Seeing this reaction, it seems that is has been passed through”

“……”

“Ryner is really a good child, like Iruna.”

“……”

“Then”

Father stood up, Ryner felt his back become lighter.

“…..Then, the important things are finished.”

He said.

Then Ryner frantically raised his head.

“Wait, don’t tell me you’re already….”

Then Father laughed smugly,

“Ah, the words earlier, you thought I didn’t want to come anymore? Then, are you lonely? Will Ryner be lonely without Father?”

He said that with a mischievous expression, then Ryner’s face tilted.

“…..No, no…… But I still have things I want to know about…..”

Father laughed.

“It’s alright, I will still be by your side for some time. Although it’s only a while.”

He said.

Only a while—although he was slightly particular about the meaning of this sentence, but Ryner didn’t plan to ask about this.

He seemed to be treated as a child since earlier, his own questions hadn’t been answered. And, everything was controlled.

The movement of his heart.

Crying, laughing, feeling shocked, the healing of his wound, everything was controlled.

“…..Parents and such, are really naggy”

Then Ryner said.

“But seeing them makes you happy?”

Father replied.

Then Ryner stood up, patting the dirt from his clothes, knees, waist, chest, as he patted he whispered,

“….Yeah.”

At that moment, what expression was that on his father’s face, he didn’t see because he was too embarrassed.

So he looked at the sky.

The sky was slowly lightening.

Night was about to be broken through soon.

Because he had been continuously sleeping because of the magic, he completely didn’t know how long it had been since that battle, but, the night was ending.

Then Father said,

“…Then, it’s about time to release everyone from the sleeping magic…”

He said.

Then he looked in the direction of the cloud of the sleeping magic mist,

“….Ah?”

He said.

Then Ryner asked,

“Eh? What is it?”

Ryner pointed in the direction of the cloud,

“The magic, is disappearing.”

“Did Father make it vanish?”

“No, I didn’t. As long as I don’t cancel it, then that magic shouldn’t be able to disappear… Why did it disappear”

Ryner looked at the cloud that was producing the mist again.

Anyway the magic was released, who was it who did it?

He saw a man standing there and looking over here.

He seemed to be older than Ryner by two or three years.

Black hair, an outfit like a missionary, tidy black coat.

That man looked over here.

Using his glowing eyes.

A red cross appeared in his black eyes.

Then Ryner understood who this person was.

It was a man who planned to take Ryner away in the past.

The man who gathered Cursed eyes bearers, and took Ryner away.

His name was Tiir Rumibul.

A man who had different eyes than Ryner’s Alpha Stigma .

The red cross in his eyes were called Iino Dwoe .

His eyes could eat people and magic. No, to be more accurate, it could eat the source of magic in human bodies.

Then he could take that as his power, that was his ability.

Father looked at those eyes, then had a slightly irritated expression.

“ Iino Dwoe …… I see, you devoured that sleeping magic”

He said,

Then Tiir laughed.

“Ha, a mere human using those eyes…. To look down on me, us, who do you think you are?”

Ryner heard that, then remembered.

Tiir hated humans a lot.

So he frantically said.

“No no, Tiir, this person is…. That is, this person isn’t like that. That, he’s my….”

But Tiir continued.

“Father, right?”

“Ah? You know?”

“I know, we all know.”

“Then….”

But he interrupted Ryner.

“But, don’t be tricked, Ryner. We don’t have parents. We’re not human. We never had human parents…”

“No, I say”

“Even if it weren’t like that, this person isn’t Ryner’s father”

“Eh?”

“My leader said this person is the worst…. This person is the maddest. So if he’s not killed…. Now, if he’s not killed immediately…. Our important Ryner, can’t let him be tricked….”

Then this time it was Father who spoke.

“Don’t be tricked, Ryner. Or should I say, it’s actually this person, the timing is not good…”

“Wait, I say the two of you, don’t talk about something I don’t understand…”

But the conversation continued.

Father said,

“No, or should I say that girl, found a good timing to send an assassin… After all that person can see the future, that Torch Curse . Then, it is the Torch Curse ’s order to kill me?”

Tiir nodded.

“Yes, monster.”

“Monster, huh… Well, although I was always called that, but, can you do it?”

Then Tiir parted his red lips and laughed.

“I can, because my leader, has already foreseen your death”

In the moment he said that, Tiir moved.

And this movement was too quick that Ryner’s eyes couldn’t catch it. It was truly too fast, even faster than Ferris.

Father frowned.

“…..Damn it, if I knew Iino Dwoe was coming, then I wouldn't have used magic….”

“It’s too late, human.”

The voice spoke from behind him.

Then there was a simple thump sound.

Ryner looked there reflexively.

Tiir’s arm was stabbed through his father’s back and chest.

He had grasped Father’s heart.

“….”

Ryner made a pained sound, he made a pained sound at seeing this unbelievable scene.

But before that, Father spoke.

“….Unfortunately, I wouldn’t die like this, I’m already not a human.”

He said.

“So you wouldn’t die!”

Ryner shouted angrily without thinking, then relaxed slightly.

“That, an-anyway calm down. I don’t think this is a bad situation. Why do you want to fight?”

He asked, but he didn’t get a reply.

Only Tiir clutching Father’s heart.

“I know you wouldn’t die. Your body has already lost its flesh, no one can act against you…. You wanted to do this, but that’s not right, your body is completely made up of magic. Your soul is completely made from magic too. Then, my eyes…. Can devour magic, my eyes….”

Then Father grabbed Tiir’s arm, planning to pull it out from his chest. He seemed to be slightly panicked, wanting to escape.

But, he couldn’t pull it out.

He wouldn’t pull it out.

The arm that was stabbed through his chest, he completely couldn’t pull it out.

“….Isn’t it troublesome? This is the reason why we Iino Dwoe are born, it seems to be so. We are monsters born to kill you who no one can deal with. We are monsters created by the Priests to kill you. Because you are a monster—who caused their whole lives to be crazy. So, we would find you for compensation. Be devoured by me….”

At this moment, Ryner said.

“Tiir! Stop!”

Ryner shouted.

But Tiir didn’t stop, he widened his eyes. And the red cross appeared in his black eyes.

Ryner could clearly see the structure of that cross.

He could clearly see the special structure that devoured the opponent’s magic, and absorbed it as its own.

And that eyes had already started to absorb, the magic and soul from Father’s body.

Tiir went a step further and opened his mouth. Responding to that mouth, the power of his eyes increased. The power devouring Father increased.

“Stop, Tiir….”

“Be devoured by me, disappear, human!”

Tiir said.

Then he pulled his arm out from Lieral’s chest. The arm that pulled out the heart, squashed it in an instant, then absorbed it into his eyes.

In that moment.

“…..”

Father collapsed.

He didn’t say anything.

He didn’t even scream sadly.

He fell down as if his strings were cut—

Then,

“…”

This time Ryner released a real pained moan.

### 006. Prologue - First Love and Death God

I had my first crush at nineteen—when I get until here, everyone would always laugh.

That’s late.

You’re lying.

You must've been playing around.

But, before the crush that I had when I was nineteen years old, I really didn’t have a single scrap of interest for any girls.

Because of that, I was often lectured by my parents.

To the girls of upright birth that my parents presented, I rejected them without looking at them, I handed disinterested expressions to the girls who my friends introduced.

One day, my father told me angrily,

“Lieral, this, it’s almost time. Even if you prefer the same sex, you are the heir to the Lieutolu barony. You should at least have a child.”

Then, I laughed.

Although I was not gay, but I never had the plans to date women, and I didn’t know that the people around me were worried about such a matter.

Even so, I didn’t have any interest in females.

No, if the case were having a girl confess to me and then dating her, there were a few of them.

But, this was also a deception so that my parents would not be worried and chastise me over it.

And at that moment, compared to women or anything, it was something else that was able to strongly attract me.

Magic.

This varied ‘magical system’ that the researchers of the Roland Empire, had stolen my heart.

It was my father who first taught me magic.

It was a very simple magic.

It was only a magic that would produce fireworks.

It was part of the most simple part of the basic foundations of magic.

But to me who was a child, that feeling was a very special and wonderful thing.

As if a miracle had appeared in front of my eyes, my heart was moved.

Although this was only the basics, but to me who had touched magic for the first time, this feeling was very hard to contain, normally it would need more than a couple of months to be able to produce the most simple fireworks.

So Father had said something like this,

“Although it is difficult in the beginning, but if you can’t use magic, then you cannot become the talented heir of the Lieutolu family, work hard.”

But he didn’t know how, the day that he learnt it he succeeded in mastering that magic.

That was coincidence? Or was it luck?

Anyway his parents were very surprised and happy.

The interesting thing about parents was that, they always thought that their children were geniuses. My parents were no exception, they were very happy that I was different from other children. I must be a genius, something, they over-complimented me.

And I thought, that probably is not true.

I became arrogant because of that, truly reaching deeper, deeper, deeper to the degree where I touched what should not be known, thrusting my head into the world of magic.

In this state where I was deeply engrossed, so I had no interest in girls even though I was nineteen years old.

Anyway, I was happy because of the praise, so I read magic books passionately.

And after I read a book, I would show new magic to everyone, everyone was pleased.

Anyone would praise me.

I was happy because of this, and continued to move forward.

Learning more new things for this purpose.

Gradually, when I was four or five years old, I had already flipped through all of the magic books published in Roland Empire numerous times.

My father who was interested by this, had managed to obtain some new magic books that wold absolutely not appear anywhere else through various channels at the Imperial Magic Institute, allowing me to continue on my path to explore magic.

And he had gone one step further to invite a teacher.

At that time Father had asked a powerful mage knight and scholar as my teachers, allowing my knowledge to expand.

Of course, at this rate I had nothing to talk about with nobles who were the same age as me.

In the beginning I only had an interest in the topic of magic, but because my magical knowledge quickly expanded at a rate that my peers could not compare to, that meant that it was hard for me to form friendships with people my age.

Slowly, I began to feel that the magical system in Roland was lacking, and I started my independent research on this.

When my friends were interested in girls, I was only interested in the matters of the delay in the casting of IZUCH, the amount of water from MISUMI and so on.

When I was fourteen, I published an essay about how to control the amount of water from MISUMI.

When I was fifteen, I thought of the ways to improve the casting speed of IZUCHI, causing many people to comment.

And, when I was sixteen—

I became the youngest magic scholar, stepping up to take a position that was never heard of in the Imperial Magic Institute of the Roland Empire.

With that as the beginning, I started to be slightly popular in Roland.

The Imperial Magic Institute of the Roland—commonly called “the Imperial Institute”, was a place where only extremely talented magic scholars were qualified to enter, it was the most powerful research organization to control all the magical systems in this country.

Of course, the me of that time, did not have the necessary knowledge and power to enter there.

But, because my father’s influence as a duke was huge, I was able to enter this top research facility on magic through this path, and I was engrossed with it.

Naturally, at the beginning I tried my best.

I worked hard without resting, but I failed every day, showing that I did not have enough knowledge and was treated as a fool, an idiot that was looked down on because he had entered due to his parents’ relations.

But even so I still continued to work hard, and I didn’t feel much pain. To me, that place was filled with the knowledge of magic that I did not know about, it should be said that I was very happy.

Anyway, I liked magic.

To magic that was able to change the world’s foundations, I liked it a lot.

And I worked hard in my research with this feeling of genuine like, after perhaps a year, there wasn’t anyone who could call me an idiot.

Although I was still called a brat who entered because of my parents’ relations behind my back, but at least I wasn’t called a piece of useless rubbish anymore.

After another year.

When I was eighteen, my knowledge was deep enough that I was able to develop a new offense magic.

I succeeded in designing a magic that would allow the Roland soldiers to use an individual style of the offense magic IZUCHI that would increase the impact.

At that moment, no one in the “Imperial Institute” dared to say anything bad about me.

And in contrast, this time it was my parents who were displeased.

“You’re always caring about researching magic, don’t you have an interest in girls?”

“If you want I can introduce ladies who will like you to you.”

My parents started to say this.

Even so, I was still not interested in things outside of magic.

In the beginning I didn’t think that there would be anything more complicated, more interesting than magic in this world.

Because, magic had the power to change the world.

Magic had the power to change everything.

And having an interest in such a boring organism like girls, it was really foolish, that was what I thought in the beginning.

Until I met her.

Meeting with her, it was when I was forced by my friends to go out as I was always researching in the research facility every day.

We went outside of the quarters where the nobles lived.

Of course, the usual me wouldn’t have done that.

Roland at that time had been having small-scale skirmishes with the Estabul Kingdom for a long time, in additions the abnormal weather that had persisted for years had caused a food shortage, there was much violence among the people.

Otherwise, there was also the replacement of the king.

To Roland where the internal affairs were worsening, anyone would be anticipating the decree of the new king, and the new king was always far more cruel than the previous one.

Rumours were hard to stop, although there was such a saying, but Father had never taught me this one.

And, I didn’t want to know.

This Roland Empire wasn’t a good empire, although I knew of this, but as the son of a duke, I had no understanding towards that.

I only wanted to gain what I wanted.

Food, clothes, books, education, they were the best things that I could put my hands on.

So I never thought that this country was strange, messed up.

Not only that, even going out to see the world, this would be my first time.

Of course, I had seen the capital of Roland and the lands my father controlled.

As my position was in the Imperial Institute in the capital, I spent most of the year in the capital, I only returned to my father’s lands occasionally.

Even so, I had passed by the areas where the peasants lived in.

But that was always under the protection of body guards, and it was hard to look outside.

Father had even forbid me from looking out.

Probably after looking at the lives of commoners, the nobles would be unable to maintain the expected, reckless way of governing.

And the me at that point of time thought, it’s probably like that.

But as they grew older, children slowly started not to listen to their parents orders.

There were several men among my friends who liked to find pleasure who snuck down out of the city to play, and I heard they played happily.

According to them the commoner girls were not like the noble women who were arrogant, if they said that they were nobles they would tremble, and be willing to do anything.

According to them no matter what attitude they had, they would not go against them.

According to them even when they were killed they had no regrets.

The numerous violence cases were probably the ramblings of parents—everyone often thought that.

Once their children went out of the city to play they would not be hard working in their work and studies, that was probably the reason why parents kept this a secret.

The evidence was, the parents themselves also went down out of the city to play occasionally, such rumours started to travel amongst my companions, and it also became difficult to go to the commoner’s area.

Even so, I was still uninterested in the matters outside the city. No, matters about other worlds, let it do as it liked.

His heart was only focused on magic research, he was unable to see the value of other things.

But when he told this to this companions, they were very surprised, they laughed and said you can’t do this.

Anyway you don’t understand women right? Then let us teach you, and then they had pulled me out forcefully.

The first time I saw the outside world, I received a shock.

The quarters other than the nobles, were much worse than I had imagined.

The expressions of everyone on the streets were dark, the entire street—no, the entire country seemed shrouded in darkness.

And seeing the carriage that transported nobles where we were seated in, the people’s faces contorted with terror. There were even people escaping, their whole body trembling.

My companions laughed out loud, haha they laughed.

Was something wrong with me? I completely couldn’t understand the reason why my companions were laughing, but they laughed happily.

And they said this, the commoners are interesting right? Although running people over with the carriage is interesting, but today we must teach you about women, so if we accidentally kill them it’d be bad.

They laughed as they said this.

--Then which one should we choose?

--It doesn’t matter which one right?

--Why not choose this?

--Ahahahaha!

My companions laughed as they spoke.

What they were talking about, I couldn’t understand a single bit of it as expected.

But I could understand this point, this country was already mad.

Why didn’t I notice it before today?

Why did Father forbid me from looking at the outside world?

This was the first time that I understood the reason.

Although I understood, but I couldn’t do anything. This country would continue as it did today.

What kind of attitudes the nobles used to treat the commoners, just by looking at the companions in front of me I could understand.

I had listened to my parents orders and lived till now, they had watched their parents’ postures and behaviors, similarly living until now.

And that meant that this country—

“…”

This country, was that kind of country.

My companions said,

--Then choose.

I rejected that.

Even so they pestered to let me choose, so I prepared a sincere smile, answering that I hated sleeping with commoners.

They immediately accepted this reason.

--Lieral really is a cleanliness freak.

--Well, he’s a baron, he’s different from us second-class nobles.

He wanted to puke.

Just by thinking that he was spending every day with these people, he wanted to vomit.

And he started to have a slight resentment towards his father. Why didn’t you tell me the truth about this country? Why didn’t you tell me the reality about this country even though I had reached this age? No, perhaps he had done that because it was his own child?

“…”

Actually, because of me only living with an interest in magic, so I could be inexperienced, I thought of that.

But, this was still strange.

Father had taught me when I was young about the appearance that citizens should have, the appearance that the country should have, it was a large difference from this country.

I narrowed my eyes, considering this world.

Analysing this world sunken in darkness,

“…Father, what is…”

I was slightly dizzy.

Then I saw the companions who were still laughing happily. They seemed to have found prey, calling that woman, stopping the carriage.

As they got off the carriage, they announced that they were nobles, the women started to tremble.

There wasn’t a hint of rebellion.

My companions turned back to look at me, telling me that it would end soon, stay there for a moment.

I nodded my head smiling, then told the driver to continue.

The driver was surprised in the beginning, but because I was the son of Duke Lieutolu, and they were second-grade nobles, so he obeyed my orders.

My companions who were left in the commoners’ quarters shouted for the carriage to stop, shouting why did the carriage start moving, yelling stop joking Lieral.

What happened to them afterwards, I did not know of it.

If terror and darkness had really sunk into the hearts of the people, they should return happily after their fun.

But if that was an act.

If the peoples’ attitudes were an act, they would probably die.

But never mind, it was fine either way.

To me anything was fine.

What I wanted to know was—

“…Take me to the Lieutolu lands.”

The driver was surprised again.

Because the distance from Roland’s capital to the lands my father governed, the distance was not short.

But I ordered him to set out.

What was Father doing?

That gentle father, what was he hiding from me?

I wanted to know.

In a nutshell, Father had no darker side that he was ashamed of.

Compared to the other districts, the people of the Lieutolu lands that my father presided over were living more peacefully.

Naturally, because of war, the shortage of rations, life may not be as pleasant, but compared to the world’s scenes that I had seen on the way here, the lands that Father looked after had a distinct difference.

The opinions of Father after he changed specially to meet the people, in the end the opinions were not bad.

Towards me who was able to live on the lands that Father governed was a blessing, I could say proudly without stopping that Father was connected to the spirit of the people.

I’d heard that this was a very rare matter.

I’d heard that the country had fallen into madness from a long time ago, maintaining this kind of hellish situation.

No, the king of this country, not knowing why everyone who sat on the throne became mad, and the madness was not only limited to the royalties, even the nobles were affected.

It was said that the nobles who were affected by this madness, their lusts expanded endlessly, doing all the violent acts that they could.

Perhaps this country, was caught up in some strange curse, so it would be this dark, something like this, I had heard it from the commoners too.

Of course this was only a normal peasant saying, the degree of truth was unknown. But about the point that this country was mad, I understood it too.

To the me of that time, just as long as father was not caught up in that madness, that was enough.

And the reason why Father did not tell me this point, I roughly understood it.

I lived in the same place as the other nobles. So that I would be able to deal well with those noble friends who were infected with the madness, it was better to tell me nothing.

I understood this, even so,

“…But, the curse that made the royalty and nobles go mad, what is it?”

Even though such a corrupted world in front of my eyes, my heart was caught by the matter that was related to magic again.

The nobles living in the districts, the palace that the king lived in were surrounded by many magic barriers.

And the gaps of these barriers, were hidden from the magicians from the Imperial Institute, releasing a curse that made people mad, was this possible?

I thought.

But that was quite a large-scale magic.

A curse that infected hundreds, thousands of nobles.

A curse that lasted from decades, centuries.

Was there truly a possibility that a curse like that existed?

“…”

I thought along those lines, then smiled faintly.

“Perhaps it may be a curse that would turn the people who managed to grasp onto power mad in an instant…”

I muttered.

No matter what I was powerless.

No, I didn’t even have an inkling of what to do.

In the distance there were people dying.

But, that was very far away.

The people living in my father’s lands were living peacefully.

If the curse called “madness” that was threatening this country could be avoided, as a magician, naturally I would have to search for a way to deal with the curse.

But,

“…Revolution is not my job.”

I said.

“…What I can do is only this much.”

I said.

Then I returned.

I returned to the place where I should be.

“…”

It was there, that I encountered a beautiful woman.

That woman had beautiful long black hair.

That was a hair colour that nobles of Roland did not have.

Her long hair swayed, she ran with a happy expression.

Then she coincidentally tripped in front of me, shouting that it was painful.

When I looked down with a surprised expression, she raised her head too, looking towards me shyly.

“I say, a girl trips in front of you but you don’t care, what does that count for?”

She said, then I frantically reached out my hand,

“Ah ha, that, you’re right, I apologise.”

So she grabbed my hand, clutching it tightly.

Because her hand was covered with soil when she tripped, so it wasn’t soft.

At least it was completely different from the slim, pale hands of the noble women.

Perhaps it was even more solid than my hand.

Then, she grabbed my soft hand, “Heh!” and she was standing up.

She smiled brightly at me, then, she looked at her white clothes which had been dirtied by the dirt.

“Oh no, that’s not good, it’s dirty.”

“Because you’re always clumsy so you can’t wear white~ Okaa-sama clearly told me that, but I didn’t think that I would dirty it in three days. This will definitely make her angry.”

Although she said that, but she still laughed happily.

I didn’t know why she was so happy, anyway she was laughing.

I was influenced by her, I laughed too.

Then she looked at me mischievously,

“Ah~ You can still laugh after seeing someone fall, your personality must be bad right~?”

“Ah? Ah, yes, I’m sorry.”

I apologized again.

She shrugged happily,

“It’s alright~ Thank you for pulling me up, then good bye.”

Saying that, she turned around simply.

Then she started to run.

Her urgency made it seem like she was going to do something, slowly leaving me.

I watched her back dazedly.

I watched her disappearing figure, dazedly watching.

--That was my first meeting with er.

It was only a simple meeting.

An encounter where nothing special happened.

We didn’t ask for each other’s names, there wasn’t anything that would make anyone feel that it was a destined meeting.

But I,

“…”

I sank entirely into the river of love.

I clearly had no interest in girls before, but I fell in love so simply.

I didn’t understand what event caused this.

But I remembered the feeling of touching her hand just now.

Looking at my hand that had just grasped that hand.

I felt my heart beat increase foolishly.

There was no magic specially used that could specially increase metabolism, but I felt as if my heart was yelling.

In a moment, as if I had a wrong feeling that I had fallen under some magic, I felt the passionate response of my heart.

Then I decided to go to the village that she lived in.

Even if this country were under a curse, even if this country were covered in despair.

Even though magic research had given me much fun, now it didn’t matter.

I had fallen completely in love with her.

I asked around a little, her name seemed to be Iruna Lashwale, she was fifteen years old this year.

She was a girl in the village who was very adept at farming, many men in the village wanted to date her, but they all failed in the end.

Then I, indeed I failed terribly too.

Not only failing, from the beginning she didn’t even want to meet me.

That was to be expected.

I was a man who only met her once and she didn’t know anything about me, suddenly running over to her house and begging for her to date me, naturally it wouldn’t go well.

Why did I suddenly do something like that, now thinking about it, it seemed unbelievable, but probably because I had never seriously dated a woman before.

Anyway I was abnormally useless about her matters, I couldn’t present myself properly.

Furthermore, she would hate a weak man like me.

Although I had received the necessary martial arts training, I was called the strongest magician in this country, I was able to use harder magic than the Mage Knights.

But I heard that she was looking for a person who was strong, used to farming as an ideal husband.

But I did not give up, continuing to chase after her.

And forcefully helped her father with his farming.

After her father who had a troubled expression in the beginning saw me working hard to plant the seeds in the field, he told his daughter even if it is only on the outside try dating him.

Anyway, he is affecting our work too much.

Although I was determined, but it seemed, I was indeed not good at farming.

But because of that I was able to talk with her.

It was different from her smiling face when I first met her, when she came out to meet me, she had a forced expression.

“These kind of actions compared to being asked by men to date them, it is relatively more… but, just now being able to let Otou-sama speak, that was my first time seeing it.”

She said as if it were an impressive matter.

Then I apologized to her again, but it didn’t seem as if she noticed that point.

“You aren’t like a man.”

She said.

“Then I’ll try to be more manly.”

“Is it because I said it?”

“Yes.”

“See, you aren’t like a man.”

This conversation made me have a troubled expression. I didn’t know what to do, but as long as she was by my side I was happy—anyway this point made really made me slightly troubled.

Then, she smiled at me for the first time.

She happily raised her head to look at my troubled face,

“…Ah, but, you don’t have to have that kind of troubled expression.”

She said.

“…That, how should I say this… actually, that you are so serious in wanting to date me… I have received your gesture… that, it’s not that I’m unhappy.” She said this shyly.

She used that dazzling beautiful expression to tell me that.

“…”

Then, that was how we fell in love.

It was a normal love relationship.

No, compared to the normal, this was a slowly progressive romantic relationship.

Anyway, I had my first love was when I was nineteen years old.

A fellow like this can’t fall in love properly.

Slowly, slowly, our relationship became better.

In this period I told her about my status as a noble, she was angry that I had hidden this fact from her, although there was this small scene, but we were still together.

Our parents opposed this, anyone would say that a relationship between two people of completely different statuses could not progress successfully.

And the most troublesome was, Iruna herself was very frustrated, thinking that entering the ranks of the nobles, would be unable to make her happy.

But we still married.

I said we would definitely be happy.

I said no matter what happens, I will protect you.

If you were by my side.

“…”

If you were by my side, my life would be filled with light… so, I will work hard to become something like that to you.

Then she nodded. This was definitely, a hard decision.

A commoner and a noble marrying, it wasn’t such a simple matter.

But, we married.

Then we lived with much happiness in our lives—

Although I want to say that, but it was not so easy.

Because Iruna’s hair was a black colour that nobles definitely did not have, so it was hard to disguise her origins.

She should have suffered much when I was not looking.

But even so, she was able to overcome these, she was always smiling strongly, gently at me.

Anyway to me, I was happy that she was able to be with me.

But occasionally after seeing her hide her tears, I would think of working hard.

So that my treasured wife would not suffer from the contempt of others, I wanted power.

I wanted power that would not let others to look down on the Lieutolu family who had took her in.

So I worked hard in the Imperial Institute.

Then I created many new military magics.

A large portion of these magic was used in the military.

Magic that was for war.

Magic that was for killing people.

The magic that I had created with my hands, was accepted widely by the country, king and military.

And while I worked hard, my position in the Imperial Institute rose with each passing day, in the end I rose to the highest position that governed the whole of the Imperial Institute “the Purple Magician”.

Originally the House of Lieutolu was a duchy, wielding supreme authority, and my position in the Imperial Institute rose quickly.

As the youngest leader of the Imperial Institute, I was rumoured to be the monster that use the forbidden magic repeatedly.

Other than that, we have gained reputation that was on equal grounds with the House of Swords “the House of Eris”, the “House of Lieutolu” who was the Overseer of Magic—a slightly foolish landmark.

Then this power, protected us.

The madness of the new king increased with each day, the darkness covering this country expanded, but we were not affected by this attack of the darkness.

Because our existence, was necessary to this country.

Because as a powerful gear that was able to protect this country, I was able to make use of much needed functions.

So Iruna and I, were able to live happily every day.

At that time, there wasn’t anyone who dared to make fun of Iruna.

Of course, compared to my power, I thought that Iruna’s cheerfulness was even stronger, but she told me,

“Lieral is really, very strong.”

Then I gave her an equally strange answer,

“You’re the one who is really strong.”

So Iruna tilted her head,

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re always very adorable.”

“Ahaha, is that so?”

“Ah, that is the general opinion.”

“What~ you’re speaking nonsense. Actually it’s Lieral who’s strong.

As the youngest “ Purple Magician ” in history, the genius magician that Roland has had in ages… Aha, you’re a genius! My husband is really impressive.”

She said that, saying that with her usual cheerfulness.

Then I shrugged,

“I don’t have any muscles, and I can’t farm.”

Saying that, she laughed again,

“That is a difficulty.”

“Yes~”

“Ahaha, I like you the best, Lieral.”

She said that, caressing my golden hair,

“This blond hair too, those sleepy eyes too, that wise mouth too, that back that’s like a cat’s too, I like all of them!”

Then I replied,

“Me too, Iruna.”

I really loved her.

I loved all of her.

Just by being by her side, my chest was always warm, I felt really blissful.

As long as she was around, I would need nothing, I thought.

Then the things that were equally important to me increased again.

We had a child.

It was a black haired boy, he had the same hair colour like my wife’s.

It was a boy, who had the same sleepy eyes like me.

I gave him the name Felna.

It was a name that combined the ancient language for ‘courage’ and ‘love’.

Then my wife said, “It’s a good name.”

I said isn’t that so, then laughed proudly.

Although this name seemed like it didn’t take much thought, but in actual fact I spent three months thinking of it, because I was embarrassed I kept this a secret from her.

“Because that name has strength, this child will definitely have love and courage, he will become a gentle child.”

“Like you?”

“Yes. Like you, too.”

I laughed.

She laughed too.

Felna cried.

He really was a healthy child who liked crying, just by hearing his cries, I would feel that I was blessed.

I thought, my son’s voice, must be a magic that can make people feel happy.

The me of that time, already had the all the puzzle pieces that could form happiness.

I thought this kind of happiness could last forever, something as foolish as that.

That faultless, perfect thing could not last forever—this was the basics of magical structures in the book, but I did not apply it to real life.

It was probably because of that that I failed.

It was probably because of that, that I was unable to protect our happiness.

Because I was too foolish, thinking of having the perfect things.

Having everything.

Then, everything was destroyed.

It started crumbling when Felna was five years old.

In Felna’s eyes, in his innocent, adorable, black eyes—

A red five-pointed star appeared.

The crimson five-pointed star that appeared in his eyes, was evidence of the monster “ Alpha Stigma ” that would spread disaster.

According to the laws of the Roland Empire, when a red five-pointed star appeared in your child’s eyes, that child would immediately—that monster must be handed over to the army. And the child that was sent over would be used as an experiment, or he would be sentenced to death.

The bearers of “ Alpha Stigma ” was a dangerous monster that would only go berserk once, and before it died it would continuously kill the people around it.

So, if they protected a child like this, its parents would be seen as conspirators, the parents who did not hand them over would be executed.

As expected, Iruna started crying and shouting.

She pulled out a dagger, saying that if her son was killed she would die too.

Was it my fault?

Was I the one who brought cursed blood to the Lieutolu house? She yelled.

Among the people who were related to the nobles, there had not been a single case of a child having the “ Alpha Stigma ”.

And, if it were known that my son was a bearer of the Alpha Stigma , the Lieutolu House could possibly collapse.

My son would not only be killed cruelly, he could even become the specimen of a cruel experiment.

So she was saying that if her son was killed she would die too.

She cried.

She trembled because of despair.

That black hair that was as beautiful as the waves, the gentle black eyes.

Tears streamed out from those eyes.

Behind her, Felna who should have been sleeping was standing there.

His sleep-mussed hair, he rubbed his tired eyes, as he held his most treasured picture book “The story of the Heroes”.

He said this.

“…Daddy, Mummy, I’m awake… Read this book to me again~”

He used that childish, adorable voice to say.

Iruna’s expression contorted, became extremely contorted.

“…Mummy…What is…wrong? Why are you crying?”

Then Iruna said with that depressed expression.

“Kill, I have to kill him… then, with this child, kill me…”

“I can’t do it, to you.”

“…But, but…”

I said.

Then she glared at me,

“We’re cursed! We… have been cursed!! If this continues, it won’t be us! You will be killed too. Your House will collapse!”

She yelled,

“I, I have tainted your blood line… It can't be, in my blood…”

“Don’t say it!”

“My blood has the blood of Alpha Stigma…”

“It’s not your fault!!”

“Then, then whose fault is it! You are a noble. You have your history. Until today your family has never had an Alpha Stigma bearer… It must, it must be my fault. Because I am not a noble, but I fell in love with a noble, this must be my punishment…”

“Don’t say such things! I don’t regret it. I said so when I married you right.

“As long as you are by my side… No, now as long as you and Felna are by my side, I don’t care about anything else. Be it family, position, it doesn’t matter if I lose everything.”

I really thought so.

If I had to give Felna to this country, I would be willing to abandon this country.

To me what was important, was only Iruna and Felna.

But Iruna continued to glare at me, as she pulled out a dagger with her trembling hands,

“I cannot let you do that. For a girl like me who is of common birth…”

And I reached out my hand,

“I have said it many times, I can’t do that to you. Come, give me that dagger quickly.”

But she didn’t hand over the dagger.

She was able to do that, but in her confusion, she did not hand over the dagger. I sighed at this, walking towards her.

“…Surely, you're willing to die for me. Personally, if it were for your sake, I'd die as well. So I understand your feelings. But, for certain, you can't be willing to kill Felna.”

Iruna’s expression contorted once again.

“But, but… either way, we will be killed? If he is known to be the bearer of the Alpha Stigma he will definitely be… and we can’t tell when he might lose control… then, then I might as well…”

But I shook my head, saying,

“You can’t do it. For you… that's impossible. That much is clear. That was the woman I fell in love with. That was why I didn’t care about the opposition and married you. Come, give me the dagger.”

Saying that, I approached her.

I hugged her shoulders that were trembling with despair tightly, taking away the dagger in her hands, throwing it to one side.

She was trembling, trembling in my arms. She couldn’t do anything, she could only tremble.

I tightly, tightly held her shoulders.

Then I said silently in my heart.

I said sorry silently.

I said silently that I clearly swore to make you happy, but I made you cry, I’m sorry.

Then I reached out my other arm that was not hugging her tightly, looking at Felna who was looking at us with an unsettled expression.

As if wanting to erase his unease, I gently, I smiled at him, as gently as I could.

So that he would not see the terror and unease in my heart, I smiled as gently as I could.”

“Felna too.”

Then he nodded, plunging towards me.

His body was still so soft, small, frail.

My wife’s body was also seemingly frail as if it could be broken into two.

So that I could erase their terror, I hugged the two of them.

I hugged them tightly, with all my strength.

Then Iruna said softly,

“But… but surely… it'll be the same in the end… if this continues we will all…”

But, I interrupted her, saying,

“…Even if that happens, don’t worry. I will protect the both of you. I have a plan. Felna will not be killed, you will not be killed.

“No matter what I have to do, I will protect you. It will be fine. Definitely… definitely…”

As I said that, I narrowed my eyes.

Then I plunged into the research of magic that could change the body.

So that I could analyse the secret of the Alpha Stigma, I researched desperately.

This concerned my son’s life.

This concerned my wife’s life.

I truly, desperately analysed the secret of Alpha Stigma.

I repeatedly looked through the ancient texts, used forbidden curses, used sealed killing curses, other than that I also used all of the magic that was forbidden.

But fate would not be so easily changed.

Impossible matters were impossible indeed.

In the normal world, that would be true.

“…”

But I was not normal.

Although I had been called a genius when I was young, but until that moment I didn’t have that awareness.

But, I am a genius.

Regrettably, I am a genius.

So, even if it were a fate that could not be changed, I could touch it.

The other opportunity was Alpha Stigma .

The research on Alpha Stigma had touched the entrance to the truth that humans could not contact.

I touched fate, and with this as the thread that pulled the gears of fate—knew about the Goddess and the Hero —and even the existence of the Priest that had been born from this.

I knew about the existence of the monsters that were moving behind the back of the world.

I immediately understood, this probably was not the territory that humans could come into contact with.

That kind of matter was not allowed.

This world was unable to change, the rotations of the gears of fate relied on the forceful weaving, everything depended on destiny.

If it were destroyed, everything would disappear.

If it were stopped, everything would be destroyed.

So, this was definitely something that should not be touched.

Even the Priests , the Goddesses , the Hero didn't dare to touch it.

But I touched it.

If it were to protect my wife, I had nothing to be afraid of.

If it were to protect my son, I had nothing to be afraid of.

Everything would be destroyed?

So what?

What I wanted to protect wasn't the world.

What I wanted to protect wasn't fate.

It was only my family.

So I advanced forward like a madman.

I continued to absorb new knowledge as if I were dying of thirst.

Continuing to move forward.

Probed deeper in magic.

Got nearer to the truth.

I could feel that I was slowly walking away from humans.

But, I didn’t care about that.

Slowly, the other researchers, subordinates, started to feel that there was something odd about me.

There were rumours that Lieral Lieutolu had gone mad because of magic.

For that, the standing of the Lieutolu House started to become unstable.

Everything that had been built up so far, everything that had been built up desperately, started to crumble.

“…”

But everything, anything was fine.

What I was interested in was a method to save my son.

What I was interested in was a method to protect my wife.

So I touched that .

I touched that which should not have been touched.

The monsters didn't notice.

They were engrossed in their power, thinking that they were able to control the lower-class animals known as humans, and they did not notice this.

They didn’t notice my madness.

The humans that they had created, could approach a madness that was beyond all expectations for the sake of love.

Because they didn’t notice, so I had an advantage.

I betrayed the Priest .

I tricked the Goddess .

I destroyed the Demon .

I used the Hero .

And when each party was still oblivious, I arranged all of the “pieces of the puzzle”.

I arranged it messily, dirtily, so that it could not be kept.

So the world shattered.

But, so what about that?

The world didn't matter.

Such worthless truths didn't matter to me.

What I wanted to protect was…

I wanted to protect…

Felna’s fate was changed.

It was changed by me.

The sacrifice for this was far too great.

I destroyed and used the piece the Lonely Demon/ Ryner Eris Reed , letting him inherit the name Lonely/Ryner , and losing the name Felna.

And to complete this magic, my wife sacrificed her body.

But, even so she was still smiling.

She told me happily as she smiled, you are a genius.

Thank you for saving our son’s life.

Thank you for using my life so that Ryner can be saved, she smiled as she said that.

Then I cried.

“I want you to stay by my side.”

Things had progressed to this stage but I still said that stubbornly.

Then she smiled, she smiled with an expression as if she were about to cry.

“If I can be reincarnated, I still want to be with you in my next life!”

She said,

“I love you, Lieral.”

Then I apologized.

I cried as I apologized.

I clearly said that I would let you be happy.

I clearly said that I would definitely protect you.

“I am sorry.”

I apologized to her.

So her expression turned slightly angry,

“Don’t apologize. Because I have always been happy. Having such a talented husband, and a cute son. What more could I wish for?”

“…”

“Come, don’t cry, raise your chest, my husband whom I have always been proud of.”

Then she spoke to me.

Carrying an innocent expression that she always had and sad expression she smiled.

“Then, for our beloved son, you have to work hard~”

She said that.

Until the end, she was so cheerful.

Before our son became strong and awakened, she would become a spell that would protect our son from the distance.

She would protect our son from the curse that the Goddess had scattered to defeat the Hero—Alpha Stigma.

This would be accompanied with a large suffering.

She would always, be the meal of α ( Alpha ).

But even though I told her that, she only smiled happily.

She smiled happily and said that she was blessed that she would be able to work hard to protect her son’s life.

Then she simply disappeared.

Smiling as she disappeared.

Becoming the magic that would protect our son, she disappeared.

My son left my hands too.

So that the monsters that had noticed my power would not discover my son, I erased my son’s memory, and I did not approach him.

The reason of fate hated me.

Because I had destroyed fate, exceeding logic.

So my existence slowly, slowly became thin.

But before my son’s power awakened, I had to maintain consciousness, no matter what .

When my son retrieved his memories, when he remembered about us, I had to tell him not to blame himself.

Father and Mother did this because they loved you.

If you want to repay us.

If you want to apologise to us, then, don’t betray our hard work.

Live on happily.

That these were sacrifices so that you could be happy—I had to tell him that.

Then, until my son’s power awakened, fifteen years was needed.

I immediately knew about his awakening.

Because that magic disappeared.

That magic that had my wife’s appearance disappeared.

So I narrowed my eyes.

Iruna had disappeared.

She had disappeared from this world.

She had succeeded in protecting Ryner.

She had protected him, until she died.

She was a marvelous woman.

She was a woman who was wasted when she married me.

She disappeared.

She no longer existed on this world.

So I narrowed my eyes.

I narrowed my eyes as if I were crying.

And my tears could no longer flow out from a long time ago.

Only slightly, really it was only a soft,

“…Ah, yes, Iruna, if there is a next life…”

A soft murmur from me.

### 007. Influence Map Of Menoris

## Influence Map of Menoris

### Gastark Empire

♦ Riphal Edea

The king of the Gastark Empire. He has a sword that, by offering part of his body as compensation, can unleash destructive power on a large scale. Glouvil's wielder. He has already sacrificed his sense of smell, left eye, and right leg.

♦ Rigwaltz Pentest

The eldest son of the prestigious Pentest family of Gastark. As Riphal's right-hand man, the commander of the Gastark amy.

♦ Lir Orla, Kuu Orla, Sui Orla

As spies from Gastark, the three of them are siblings. They and Ryner have encountered each other before. Each of them in in possession of "Rhule Fragmei".

### Roland Empire

♦ Sion Astal

An illegitimate prince who became the Hero King from starting a revolution, the king of the Roland Empire. Having united the southern continent, he nows aim to advance into the central continent.

♦ Lucile Eris

The head of the family that has protected Roland's king for generations. Ferris's older brother.

♦ Miran Froaude

Sion's close aide. Governs shady business from the "shadows". The descent of the Holy Knight Halford Miran. Bearer of a "Rhule Fragmei".

♦ Claugh Klom

Field Marshal of the Roland army. Sion's ally from the revolution, he possesses the alias of Crimson Fingered Claugh.

♦ Calne Kaiwal

A Major General in the Roland army. Like Claugh, he's an ally of Sion's from the revolution.

♦ Rahel Miller

Field Marshal of the Roland army. He supported Sion's revolution from the shadows.

♦ Milk Callaud

Grew up in the same Roland's Special Institute #307 as Ryner. Presently the captain of the "Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squad". Has a close connection to the "Goddess of Reincarnation".

♦ Luke Stokkart

A Sergeant in the Roland army. As Miller's subordinate in the Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squad, he's been sent as a spy into neighbouring countries.

### Cursed Eye Bearers

♦ Tiir Rumibul

Previously visiting various countries to gather Cursed Eye bearers. Possessor of the "Iino Doue" that absorbs magical power. Acquainted with Ryner.

♦ Ene

Bearer of the "Torch Curse" that allows her to see the future at the cost of whittling away at her lifespan. Leader of the Cursed Eye bearers.

### Geihlficlant Empire

♦ Gulafed Abuleld

King of the Geihlficlant Empire. In order to win against Gastark, he's making use of the Azure Princess Mercenaries and the Anti-Roland Coalition.

### Remrus Empire

♦ Remrus Remuld Aarqued

A mysterious man who rules over the Remrus Empire as a god's child. At war with Roland.

### Anti-Roland Coalition

♦ Ryner Lute

The king of the Anti-Roland Coalition. Possessor of the "Alpha Stigma" that allows him to understand all magic. Was best friends with Sion Astal, the king of the Roland Empire.

♦ Ferris Eris

Ryner's partner. A girl with unworldly beauty who's a master swordswoman. Loves dango, and is a follower of the Dango God.

♦ Vois Fiurelle

Supreme ruler of the Anti-Roland Coalition. For some sort of goal, he elevated Ryner to the king of the coalition.

♦ Toale Nelphi

A member of the royal family of the ex-Imperial Nelpha. Depending on Ryner, together with the Nelphan people, he's staying with the Anti-Roland Coalition.

♦ Kiefer Knolles

Ryner's friend. As a former spy, she's knowledgeable about other countries.

### 008. Prologue - First Love And Death God

## Prologue - First Love and Death God

I had my first crush at nineteen—when I get until here, everyone would always laugh.

That’s late.

You’re lying.

You must've been playing around.

But, before the crush that I had when I was nineteen years old, I really didn’t have a single scrap of interest for any girls.

Because of that, I was often lectured by my parents.

To the girls of upright birth that my parents presented, I rejected them without looking at them, I handed disinterested expressions to the girls who my friends introduced.

One day, my father told me angrily,

“Lieral, this, it’s almost time. Even if you prefer the same sex, you are the heir to the Lieutolu barony. You should at least have a child.”

Then, I laughed.

Although I was not gay, but I never had the plans to date women, and I didn’t know that the people around me were worried about such a matter.

Even so, I didn’t have any interest in females.

No, if the case were having a girl confess to me and then dating her, there were a few of them.

But, this was also a deception so that my parents would not be worried and chastise me over it.

And at that moment, compared to women or anything, it was something else that was able to strongly attract me.

Magic.

This varied ‘magical system’ that the researchers of the Roland Empire, had stolen my heart.

It was my father who first taught me magic.

It was a very simple magic.

It was only a magic that would produce fireworks.

It was part of the most simple part of the basic foundations of magic.

But to me who was a child, that feeling was a very special and wonderful thing.

As if a miracle had appeared in front of my eyes, my heart was moved.

Although this was only the basics, but to me who had touched magic for the first time, this feeling was very hard to contain, normally it would need more than a couple of months to be able to produce the most simple fireworks.

So Father had said something like this,

“Although it is difficult in the beginning, but if you can’t use magic, then you cannot become the talented heir of the Lieutolu family, work hard.”

But he didn’t know how, the day that he learnt it he succeeded in mastering that magic.

That was coincidence? Or was it luck?

Anyway his parents were very surprised and happy.

The interesting thing about parents was that, they always thought that their children were geniuses. My parents were no exception, they were very happy that I was different from other children. I must be a genius, something, they over-complimented me.

And I thought, that probably is not true.

I became arrogant because of that, truly reaching deeper, deeper, deeper to the degree where I touched what should not be known, thrusting my head into the world of magic.

In this state where I was deeply engrossed, so I had no interest in girls even though I was nineteen years old.

Anyway, I was happy because of the praise, so I read magic books passionately.

And after I read a book, I would show new magic to everyone, everyone was pleased.

Anyone would praise me.

I was happy because of this, and continued to move forward.

Learning more new things for this purpose.

Gradually, when I was four or five years old, I had already flipped through all of the magic books published in Roland Empire numerous times.

My father who was interested by this, had managed to obtain some new magic books that wold absolutely not appear anywhere else through various channels at the Imperial Magic Institute, allowing me to continue on my path to explore magic.

And he had gone one step further to invite a teacher.

At that time Father had asked a powerful mage knight and scholar as my teachers, allowing my knowledge to expand.

Of course, at this rate I had nothing to talk about with nobles who were the same age as me.

In the beginning I only had an interest in the topic of magic, but because my magical knowledge quickly expanded at a rate that my peers could not compare to, that meant that it was hard for me to form friendships with people my age.

Slowly, I began to feel that the magical system in Roland was lacking, and I started my independent research on this.

When my friends were interested in girls, I was only interested in the matters of the delay in the casting of IZUCH, the amount of water from MISUMI and so on.

When I was fourteen, I published an essay about how to control the amount of water from MISUMI.

When I was fifteen, I thought of the ways to improve the casting speed of IZUCHI, causing many people to comment.

And, when I was sixteen—

I became the youngest magic scholar, stepping up to take a position that was never heard of in the Imperial Magic Institute of the Roland Empire.

With that as the beginning, I started to be slightly popular in Roland.

The Imperial Magic Institute of the Roland—commonly called “the Imperial Institute”, was a place where only extremely talented magic scholars were qualified to enter, it was the most powerful research organization to control all the magical systems in this country.

Of course, the me of that time, did not have the necessary knowledge and power to enter there.

But, because my father’s influence as a duke was huge, I was able to enter this top research facility on magic through this path, and I was engrossed with it.

Naturally, at the beginning I tried my best.

I worked hard without resting, but I failed every day, showing that I did not have enough knowledge and was treated as a fool, an idiot that was looked down on because he had entered due to his parents’ relations.

But even so I still continued to work hard, and I didn’t feel much pain. To me, that place was filled with the knowledge of magic that I did not know about, it should be said that I was very happy.

Anyway, I liked magic.

To magic that was able to change the world’s foundations, I liked it a lot.

And I worked hard in my research with this feeling of genuine like, after perhaps a year, there wasn’t anyone who could call me an idiot.

Although I was still called a brat who entered because of my parents’ relations behind my back, but at least I wasn’t called a piece of useless rubbish anymore.

After another year.

When I was eighteen, my knowledge was deep enough that I was able to develop a new offense magic.

I succeeded in designing a magic that would allow the Roland soldiers to use an individual style of the offense magic IZUCHI that would increase the impact.

At that moment, no one in the “Imperial Institute” dared to say anything bad about me.

And in contrast, this time it was my parents who were displeased.

“You’re always caring about researching magic, don’t you have an interest in girls?”

“If you want I can introduce ladies who will like you to you.”

My parents started to say this.

Even so, I was still not interested in things outside of magic.

In the beginning I didn’t think that there would be anything more complicated, more interesting than magic in this world.

Because, magic had the power to change the world.

Magic had the power to change everything.

And having an interest in such a boring organism like girls, it was really foolish, that was what I thought in the beginning.

Until I met her.

Meeting with her, it was when I was forced by my friends to go out as I was always researching in the research facility every day.

We went outside of the quarters where the nobles lived.

Of course, the usual me wouldn’t have done that.

Roland at that time had been having small-scale skirmishes with the Estabul Kingdom for a long time, in additions the abnormal weather that had persisted for years had caused a food shortage, there was much violence among the people.

Otherwise, there was also the replacement of the king.

To Roland where the internal affairs were worsening, anyone would be anticipating the decree of the new king, and the new king was always far more cruel than the previous one.

Rumours were hard to stop, although there was such a saying, but Father had never taught me this one.

And, I didn’t want to know.

This Roland Empire wasn’t a good empire, although I knew of this, but as the son of a duke, I had no understanding towards that.

I only wanted to gain what I wanted.

Food, clothes, books, education, they were the best things that I could put my hands on.

So I never thought that this country was strange, messed up.

Not only that, even going out to see the world, this would be my first time.

Of course, I had seen the capital of Roland and the lands my father controlled.

As my position was in the Imperial Institute in the capital, I spent most of the year in the capital, I only returned to my father’s lands occasionally.

Even so, I had passed by the areas where the peasants lived in.

But that was always under the protection of body guards, and it was hard to look outside.

Father had even forbid me from looking out.

Probably after looking at the lives of commoners, the nobles would be unable to maintain the expected, reckless way of governing.

And the me at that point of time thought, it’s probably like that.

But as they grew older, children slowly started not to listen to their parents orders.

There were several men among my friends who liked to find pleasure who snuck down out of the city to play, and I heard they played happily.

According to them the commoner girls were not like the noble women who were arrogant, if they said that they were nobles they would tremble, and be willing to do anything.

According to them no matter what attitude they had, they would not go against them.

According to them even when they were killed they had no regrets.

The numerous violence cases were probably the ramblings of parents—everyone often thought that.

Once their children went out of the city to play they would not be hard working in their work and studies, that was probably the reason why parents kept this a secret.

The evidence was, the parents themselves also went down out of the city to play occasionally, such rumours started to travel amongst my companions, and it also became difficult to go to the commoner’s area.

Even so, I was still uninterested in the matters outside the city. No, matters about other worlds, let it do as it liked.

His heart was only focused on magic research, he was unable to see the value of other things.

But when he told this to this companions, they were very surprised, they laughed and said you can’t do this.

Anyway you don’t understand women right? Then let us teach you, and then they had pulled me out forcefully.

The first time I saw the outside world, I received a shock.

The quarters other than the nobles, were much worse than I had imagined.

The expressions of everyone on the streets were dark, the entire street—no, the entire country seemed shrouded in darkness.

And seeing the carriage that transported nobles where we were seated in, the people’s faces contorted with terror. There were even people escaping, their whole body trembling.

My companions laughed out loud, haha they laughed.

Was something wrong with me? I completely couldn’t understand the reason why my companions were laughing, but they laughed happily.

And they said this, the commoners are interesting right? Although running people over with the carriage is interesting, but today we must teach you about women, so if we accidentally kill them it’d be bad.

They laughed as they said this.

--Then which one should we choose?

--It doesn’t matter which one right?

--Why not choose this?

--Ahahahaha!

My companions laughed as they spoke.

What they were talking about, I couldn’t understand a single bit of it as expected.

But I could understand this point, this country was already mad.

Why didn’t I notice it before today?

Why did Father forbid me from looking at the outside world?

This was the first time that I understood the reason.

Although I understood, but I couldn’t do anything. This country would continue as it did today.

What kind of attitudes the nobles used to treat the commoners, just by looking at the companions in front of me I could understand.

I had listened to my parents orders and lived till now, they had watched their parents’ postures and behaviors, similarly living until now.

And that meant that this country—

“…”

This country, was that kind of country.

My companions said,

--Then choose.

I rejected that.

Even so they pestered to let me choose, so I prepared a sincere smile, answering that I hated sleeping with commoners.

They immediately accepted this reason.

--Lieral really is a cleanliness freak.

--Well, he’s a baron, he’s different from us second-class nobles.

He wanted to puke.

Just by thinking that he was spending every day with these people, he wanted to vomit.

And he started to have a slight resentment towards his father. Why didn’t you tell me the truth about this country? Why didn’t you tell me the reality about this country even though I had reached this age? No, perhaps he had done that because it was his own child?

“…”

Actually, because of me only living with an interest in magic, so I could be inexperienced, I thought of that.

But, this was still strange.

Father had taught me when I was young about the appearance that citizens should have, the appearance that the country should have, it was a large difference from this country.

I narrowed my eyes, considering this world.

Analysing this world sunken in darkness,

“…Father, what is…”

I was slightly dizzy.

Then I saw the companions who were still laughing happily. They seemed to have found prey, calling that woman, stopping the carriage.

As they got off the carriage, they announced that they were nobles, the women started to tremble.

There wasn’t a hint of rebellion.

My companions turned back to look at me, telling me that it would end soon, stay there for a moment.

I nodded my head smiling, then told the driver to continue.

The driver was surprised in the beginning, but because I was the son of Duke Lieutolu, and they were second-grade nobles, so he obeyed my orders.

My companions who were left in the commoners’ quarters shouted for the carriage to stop, shouting why did the carriage start moving, yelling stop joking Lieral.

What happened to them afterwards, I did not know of it.

If terror and darkness had really sunk into the hearts of the people, they should return happily after their fun.

But if that was an act.

If the peoples’ attitudes were an act, they would probably die.

But never mind, it was fine either way.

To me anything was fine.

What I wanted to know was—

“…Take me to the Lieutolu lands.”

The driver was surprised again.

Because the distance from Roland’s capital to the lands my father governed, the distance was not short.

But I ordered him to set out.

What was Father doing?

That gentle father, what was he hiding from me?

I wanted to know.

In a nutshell, Father had no darker side that he was ashamed of.

Compared to the other districts, the people of the Lieutolu lands that my father presided over were living more peacefully.

Naturally, because of war, the shortage of rations, life may not be as pleasant, but compared to the world’s scenes that I had seen on the way here, the lands that Father looked after had a distinct difference.

The opinions of Father after he changed specially to meet the people, in the end the opinions were not bad.

Towards me who was able to live on the lands that Father governed was a blessing, I could say proudly without stopping that Father was connected to the spirit of the people.

I’d heard that this was a very rare matter.

I’d heard that the country had fallen into madness from a long time ago, maintaining this kind of hellish situation.

No, the king of this country, not knowing why everyone who sat on the throne became mad, and the madness was not only limited to the royalties, even the nobles were affected.

It was said that the nobles who were affected by this madness, their lusts expanded endlessly, doing all the violent acts that they could.

Perhaps this country, was caught up in some strange curse, so it would be this dark, something like this, I had heard it from the commoners too.

Of course this was only a normal peasant saying, the degree of truth was unknown. But about the point that this country was mad, I understood it too.

To the me of that time, just as long as father was not caught up in that madness, that was enough.

And the reason why Father did not tell me this point, I roughly understood it.

I lived in the same place as the other nobles. So that I would be able to deal well with those noble friends who were infected with the madness, it was better to tell me nothing.

I understood this, even so,

“…But, the curse that made the royalty and nobles go mad, what is it?”

Even though such a corrupted world in front of my eyes, my heart was caught by the matter that was related to magic again.

The nobles living in the districts, the palace that the king lived in were surrounded by many magic barriers.

And the gaps of these barriers, were hidden from the magicians from the Imperial Institute, releasing a curse that made people mad, was this possible?

I thought.

But that was quite a large-scale magic.

A curse that infected hundreds, thousands of nobles.

A curse that lasted from decades, centuries.

Was there truly a possibility that a curse like that existed?

“…”

I thought along those lines, then smiled faintly.

“Perhaps it may be a curse that would turn the people who managed to grasp onto power mad in an instant…”

I muttered.

No matter what I was powerless.

No, I didn’t even have an inkling of what to do.

In the distance there were people dying.

But, that was very far away.

The people living in my father’s lands were living peacefully.

If the curse called “madness” that was threatening this country could be avoided, as a magician, naturally I would have to search for a way to deal with the curse.

But,

“…Revolution is not my job.”

I said.

“…What I can do is only this much.”

I said.

Then I returned.

I returned to the place where I should be.

“…”

It was there, that I encountered a beautiful woman.

That woman had beautiful long black hair.

That was a hair colour that nobles of Roland did not have.

Her long hair swayed, she ran with a happy expression.

Then she coincidentally tripped in front of me, shouting that it was painful.

When I looked down with a surprised expression, she raised her head too, looking towards me shyly.

“I say, a girl trips in front of you but you don’t care, what does that count for?”

She said, then I frantically reached out my hand,

“Ah ha, that, you’re right, I apologise.”

So she grabbed my hand, clutching it tightly.

Because her hand was covered with soil when she tripped, so it wasn’t soft.

At least it was completely different from the slim, pale hands of the noble women.

Perhaps it was even more solid than my hand.

Then, she grabbed my soft hand, “Heh!” and she was standing up.

She smiled brightly at me, then, she looked at her white clothes which had been dirtied by the dirt.

“Oh no, that’s not good, it’s dirty.”

“Because you’re always clumsy so you can’t wear white~ Okaa-sama clearly told me that, but I didn’t think that I would dirty it in three days. This will definitely make her angry.”

Although she said that, but she still laughed happily.

I didn’t know why she was so happy, anyway she was laughing.

I was influenced by her, I laughed too.

Then she looked at me mischievously,

“Ah~ You can still laugh after seeing someone fall, your personality must be bad right~?”

“Ah? Ah, yes, I’m sorry.”

I apologized again.

She shrugged happily,

“It’s alright~ Thank you for pulling me up, then good bye.”

Saying that, she turned around simply.

Then she started to run.

Her urgency made it seem like she was going to do something, slowly leaving me.

I watched her back dazedly.

I watched her disappearing figure, dazedly watching.

--That was my first meeting with er.

It was only a simple meeting.

An encounter where nothing special happened.

We didn’t ask for each other’s names, there wasn’t anything that would make anyone feel that it was a destined meeting.

But I,

“…”

I sank entirely into the river of love.

I clearly had no interest in girls before, but I fell in love so simply.

I didn’t understand what event caused this.

But I remembered the feeling of touching her hand just now.

Looking at my hand that had just grasped that hand.

I felt my heart beat increase foolishly.

There was no magic specially used that could specially increase metabolism, but I felt as if my heart was yelling.

In a moment, as if I had a wrong feeling that I had fallen under some magic, I felt the passionate response of my heart.

Then I decided to go to the village that she lived in.

Even if this country were under a curse, even if this country were covered in despair.

Even though magic research had given me much fun, now it didn’t matter.

I had fallen completely in love with her.

I asked around a little, her name seemed to be Iruna Lashwale, she was fifteen years old this year.

She was a girl in the village who was very adept at farming, many men in the village wanted to date her, but they all failed in the end.

Then I, indeed I failed terribly too.

Not only failing, from the beginning she didn’t even want to meet me.

That was to be expected.

I was a man who only met her once and she didn’t know anything about me, suddenly running over to her house and begging for her to date me, naturally it wouldn’t go well.

Why did I suddenly do something like that, now thinking about it, it seemed unbelievable, but probably because I had never seriously dated a woman before.

Anyway I was abnormally useless about her matters, I couldn’t present myself properly.

Furthermore, she would hate a weak man like me.

Although I had received the necessary martial arts training, I was called the strongest magician in this country, I was able to use harder magic than the Mage Knights.

But I heard that she was looking for a person who was strong, used to farming as an ideal husband.

But I did not give up, continuing to chase after her.

And forcefully helped her father with his farming.

After her father who had a troubled expression in the beginning saw me working hard to plant the seeds in the field, he told his daughter even if it is only on the outside try dating him.

Anyway, he is affecting our work too much.

Although I was determined, but it seemed, I was indeed not good at farming.

But because of that I was able to talk with her.

It was different from her smiling face when I first met her, when she came out to meet me, she had a forced expression.

“These kind of actions compared to being asked by men to date them, it is relatively more… but, just now being able to let Otou-sama speak, that was my first time seeing it.”

She said as if it were an impressive matter.

Then I apologized to her again, but it didn’t seem as if she noticed that point.

“You aren’t like a man.”

She said.

“Then I’ll try to be more manly.”

“Is it because I said it?”

“Yes.”

“See, you aren’t like a man.”

This conversation made me have a troubled expression. I didn’t know what to do, but as long as she was by my side I was happy—anyway this point made really made me slightly troubled.

Then, she smiled at me for the first time.

She happily raised her head to look at my troubled face,

“…Ah, but, you don’t have to have that kind of troubled expression.”

She said.

“…That, how should I say this… actually, that you are so serious in wanting to date me… I have received your gesture… that, it’s not that I’m unhappy.” She said this shyly.

She used that dazzling beautiful expression to tell me that.

“…”

Then, that was how we fell in love.

It was a normal love relationship.

No, compared to the normal, this was a slowly progressive romantic relationship.

Anyway, I had my first love was when I was nineteen years old.

A fellow like this can’t fall in love properly.

Slowly, slowly, our relationship became better.

In this period I told her about my status as a noble, she was angry that I had hidden this fact from her, although there was this small scene, but we were still together.

Our parents opposed this, anyone would say that a relationship between two people of completely different statuses could not progress successfully.

And the most troublesome was, Iruna herself was very frustrated, thinking that entering the ranks of the nobles, would be unable to make her happy.

But we still married.

I said we would definitely be happy.

I said no matter what happens, I will protect you.

If you were by my side.

“…”

If you were by my side, my life would be filled with light… so, I will work hard to become something like that to you.

Then she nodded. This was definitely, a hard decision.

A commoner and a noble marrying, it wasn’t such a simple matter.

But, we married.

Then we lived with much happiness in our lives—

Although I want to say that, but it was not so easy.

Because Iruna’s hair was a black colour that nobles definitely did not have, so it was hard to disguise her origins.

She should have suffered much when I was not looking.

But even so, she was able to overcome these, she was always smiling strongly, gently at me.

Anyway to me, I was happy that she was able to be with me.

But occasionally after seeing her hide her tears, I would think of working hard.

So that my treasured wife would not suffer from the contempt of others, I wanted power.

I wanted power that would not let others to look down on the Lieutolu family who had took her in.

So I worked hard in the Imperial Institute.

Then I created many new military magics.

A large portion of these magic was used in the military.

Magic that was for war.

Magic that was for killing people.

The magic that I had created with my hands, was accepted widely by the country, king and military.

And while I worked hard, my position in the Imperial Institute rose with each passing day, in the end I rose to the highest position that governed the whole of the Imperial Institute “the Purple Magician”.

Originally the House of Lieutolu was a duchy, wielding supreme authority, and my position in the Imperial Institute rose quickly.

As the youngest leader of the Imperial Institute, I was rumoured to be the monster that use the forbidden magic repeatedly.

Other than that, we have gained reputation that was on equal grounds with the House of Swords “the House of Eris”, the “House of Lieutolu” who was the Overseer of Magic—a slightly foolish landmark.

Then this power, protected us.

The madness of the new king increased with each day, the darkness covering this country expanded, but we were not affected by this attack of the darkness.

Because our existence, was necessary to this country.

Because as a powerful gear that was able to protect this country, I was able to make use of much needed functions.

So Iruna and I, were able to live happily every day.

At that time, there wasn’t anyone who dared to make fun of Iruna.

Of course, compared to my power, I thought that Iruna’s cheerfulness was even stronger, but she told me,

“Lieral is really, very strong.”

Then I gave her an equally strange answer,

“You’re the one who is really strong.”

So Iruna tilted her head,

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re always very adorable.”

“Ahaha, is that so?”

“Ah, that is the general opinion.”

“What~ you’re speaking nonsense. Actually it’s Lieral who’s strong.

As the youngest “ Purple Magician ” in history, the genius magician that Roland has had in ages… Aha, you’re a genius! My husband is really impressive.”

She said that, saying that with her usual cheerfulness.

Then I shrugged,

“I don’t have any muscles, and I can’t farm.”

Saying that, she laughed again,

“That is a difficulty.”

“Yes~”

“Ahaha, I like you the best, Lieral.”

She said that, caressing my golden hair,

“This blond hair too, those sleepy eyes too, that wise mouth too, that back that’s like a cat’s too, I like all of them!”

Then I replied,

“Me too, Iruna.”

I really loved her.

I loved all of her.

Just by being by her side, my chest was always warm, I felt really blissful.

As long as she was around, I would need nothing, I thought.

Then the things that were equally important to me increased again.

We had a child.

It was a black haired boy, he had the same hair colour like my wife’s.

It was a boy, who had the same sleepy eyes like me.

I gave him the name Felna.

It was a name that combined the ancient language for ‘courage’ and ‘love’.

Then my wife said, “It’s a good name.”

I said isn’t that so, then laughed proudly.

Although this name seemed like it didn’t take much thought, but in actual fact I spent three months thinking of it, because I was embarrassed I kept this a secret from her.

“Because that name has strength, this child will definitely have love and courage, he will become a gentle child.”

“Like you?”

“Yes. Like you, too.”

I laughed.

She laughed too.

Felna cried.

He really was a healthy child who liked crying, just by hearing his cries, I would feel that I was blessed.

I thought, my son’s voice, must be a magic that can make people feel happy.

The me of that time, already had the all the puzzle pieces that could form happiness.

I thought this kind of happiness could last forever, something as foolish as that.

That faultless, perfect thing could not last forever—this was the basics of magical structures in the book, but I did not apply it to real life.

It was probably because of that that I failed.

It was probably because of that, that I was unable to protect our happiness.

Because I was too foolish, thinking of having the perfect things.

Having everything.

Then, everything was destroyed.

It started crumbling when Felna was five years old.

In Felna’s eyes, in his innocent, adorable, black eyes—

A red five-pointed star appeared.

The crimson five-pointed star that appeared in his eyes, was evidence of the monster “ Alpha Stigma ” that would spread disaster.

According to the laws of the Roland Empire, when a red five-pointed star appeared in your child’s eyes, that child would immediately—that monster must be handed over to the army. And the child that was sent over would be used as an experiment, or he would be sentenced to death.

The bearers of “ Alpha Stigma ” was a dangerous monster that would only go berserk once, and before it died it would continuously kill the people around it.

So, if they protected a child like this, its parents would be seen as conspirators, the parents who did not hand them over would be executed.

As expected, Iruna started crying and shouting.

She pulled out a dagger, saying that if her son was killed she would die too.

Was it my fault?

Was I the one who brought cursed blood to the Lieutolu house? She yelled.

Among the people who were related to the nobles, there had not been a single case of a child having the “ Alpha Stigma ”.

And, if it were known that my son was a bearer of the Alpha Stigma , the Lieutolu House could possibly collapse.

My son would not only be killed cruelly, he could even become the specimen of a cruel experiment.

So she was saying that if her son was killed she would die too.

She cried.

She trembled because of despair.

That black hair that was as beautiful as the waves, the gentle black eyes.

Tears streamed out from those eyes.

Behind her, Felna who should have been sleeping was standing there.

His sleep-mussed hair, he rubbed his tired eyes, as he held his most treasured picture book “The story of the Heroes”.

He said this.

“…Daddy, Mummy, I’m awake… Read this book to me again~”

He used that childish, adorable voice to say.

Iruna’s expression contorted, became extremely contorted.

“…Mummy…What is…wrong? Why are you crying?”

Then Iruna said with that depressed expression.

“Kill, I have to kill him… then, with this child, kill me…”

“I can’t do it, to you.”

“…But, but…”

I said.

Then she glared at me,

“We’re cursed! We… have been cursed!! If this continues, it won’t be us! You will be killed too. Your House will collapse!”

She yelled,

“I, I have tainted your blood line… It can't be, in my blood…”

“Don’t say it!”

“My blood has the blood of Alpha Stigma…”

“It’s not your fault!!”

“Then, then whose fault is it! You are a noble. You have your history. Until today your family has never had an Alpha Stigma bearer… It must, it must be my fault. Because I am not a noble, but I fell in love with a noble, this must be my punishment…”

“Don’t say such things! I don’t regret it. I said so when I married you right.

“As long as you are by my side… No, now as long as you and Felna are by my side, I don’t care about anything else. Be it family, position, it doesn’t matter if I lose everything.”

I really thought so.

If I had to give Felna to this country, I would be willing to abandon this country.

To me what was important, was only Iruna and Felna.

But Iruna continued to glare at me, as she pulled out a dagger with her trembling hands,

“I cannot let you do that. For a girl like me who is of common birth…”

And I reached out my hand,

“I have said it many times, I can’t do that to you. Come, give me that dagger quickly.”

But she didn’t hand over the dagger.

She was able to do that, but in her confusion, she did not hand over the dagger. I sighed at this, walking towards her.

“…Surely, you're willing to die for me. Personally, if it were for your sake, I'd die as well. So I understand your feelings. But, for certain, you can't be willing to kill Felna.”

Iruna’s expression contorted once again.

“But, but… either way, we will be killed? If he is known to be the bearer of the Alpha Stigma he will definitely be… and we can’t tell when he might lose control… then, then I might as well…”

But I shook my head, saying,

“You can’t do it. For you… that's impossible. That much is clear. That was the woman I fell in love with. That was why I didn’t care about the opposition and married you. Come, give me the dagger.”

Saying that, I approached her.

I hugged her shoulders that were trembling with despair tightly, taking away the dagger in her hands, throwing it to one side.

She was trembling, trembling in my arms. She couldn’t do anything, she could only tremble.

I tightly, tightly held her shoulders.

Then I said silently in my heart.

I said sorry silently.

I said silently that I clearly swore to make you happy, but I made you cry, I’m sorry.

Then I reached out my other arm that was not hugging her tightly, looking at Felna who was looking at us with an unsettled expression.

As if wanting to erase his unease, I gently, I smiled at him, as gently as I could.

So that he would not see the terror and unease in my heart, I smiled as gently as I could.”

“Felna too.”

Then he nodded, plunging towards me.

His body was still so soft, small, frail.

My wife’s body was also seemingly frail as if it could be broken into two.

So that I could erase their terror, I hugged the two of them.

I hugged them tightly, with all my strength.

Then Iruna said softly,

“But… but surely… it'll be the same in the end… if this continues we will all…”

But, I interrupted her, saying,

“…Even if that happens, don’t worry. I will protect the both of you. I have a plan. Felna will not be killed, you will not be killed.

“No matter what I have to do, I will protect you. It will be fine. Definitely… definitely…”

As I said that, I narrowed my eyes.

Then I plunged into the research of magic that could change the body.

So that I could analyse the secret of the Alpha Stigma, I researched desperately.

This concerned my son’s life.

This concerned my wife’s life.

I truly, desperately analysed the secret of Alpha Stigma.

I repeatedly looked through the ancient texts, used forbidden curses, used sealed killing curses, other than that I also used all of the magic that was forbidden.

But fate would not be so easily changed.

Impossible matters were impossible indeed.

In the normal world, that would be true.

“…”

But I was not normal.

Although I had been called a genius when I was young, but until that moment I didn’t have that awareness.

But, I am a genius.

Regrettably, I am a genius.

So, even if it were a fate that could not be changed, I could touch it.

The other opportunity was Alpha Stigma .

The research on Alpha Stigma had touched the entrance to the truth that humans could not contact.

I touched fate, and with this as the thread that pulled the gears of fate—knew about the Goddess and the Hero —and even the existence of the Priest that had been born from this.

I knew about the existence of the monsters that were moving behind the back of the world.

I immediately understood, this probably was not the territory that humans could come into contact with.

That kind of matter was not allowed.

This world was unable to change, the rotations of the gears of fate relied on the forceful weaving, everything depended on destiny.

If it were destroyed, everything would disappear.

If it were stopped, everything would be destroyed.

So, this was definitely something that should not be touched.

Even the Priests , the Goddesses , the Hero didn't dare to touch it.

But I touched it.

If it were to protect my wife, I had nothing to be afraid of.

If it were to protect my son, I had nothing to be afraid of.

Everything would be destroyed?

So what?

What I wanted to protect wasn't the world.

What I wanted to protect wasn't fate.

It was only my family.

So I advanced forward like a madman.

I continued to absorb new knowledge as if I were dying of thirst.

Continuing to move forward.

Probed deeper in magic.

Got nearer to the truth.

I could feel that I was slowly walking away from humans.

But, I didn’t care about that.

Slowly, the other researchers, subordinates, started to feel that there was something odd about me.

There were rumours that Lieral Lieutolu had gone mad because of magic.

For that, the standing of the Lieutolu House started to become unstable.

Everything that had been built up so far, everything that had been built up desperately, started to crumble.

“…”

But everything, anything was fine.

What I was interested in was a method to save my son.

What I was interested in was a method to protect my wife.

So I touched that .

I touched that which should not have been touched.

The monsters didn't notice.

They were engrossed in their power, thinking that they were able to control the lower-class animals known as humans, and they did not notice this.

They didn’t notice my madness.

The humans that they had created, could approach a madness that was beyond all expectations for the sake of love.

Because they didn’t notice, so I had an advantage.

I betrayed the Priest .

I tricked the Goddess .

I destroyed the Demon .

I used the Hero .

And when each party was still oblivious, I arranged all of the “pieces of the puzzle”.

I arranged it messily, dirtily, so that it could not be kept.

So the world shattered.

But, so what about that?

The world didn't matter.

Such worthless truths didn't matter to me.

What I wanted to protect was…

I wanted to protect…

Felna’s fate was changed.

It was changed by me.

The sacrifice for this was far too great.

I destroyed and used the piece the Lonely Demon/ Ryner Eris Reed , letting him inherit the name Lonely/Ryner , and losing the name Felna.

And to complete this magic, my wife sacrificed her body.

But, even so she was still smiling.

She told me happily as she smiled, you are a genius.

Thank you for saving our son’s life.

Thank you for using my life so that Ryner can be saved, she smiled as she said that.

Then I cried.

“I want you to stay by my side.”

Things had progressed to this stage but I still said that stubbornly.

Then she smiled, she smiled with an expression as if she were about to cry.

“If I can be reincarnated, I still want to be with you in my next life!”

She said,

“I love you, Lieral.”

Then I apologized.

I cried as I apologized.

I clearly said that I would let you be happy.

I clearly said that I would definitely protect you.

“I am sorry.”

I apologized to her.

So her expression turned slightly angry,

“Don’t apologize. Because I have always been happy. Having such a talented husband, and a cute son. What more could I wish for?”

“…”

“Come, don’t cry, raise your chest, my husband whom I have always been proud of.”

Then she spoke to me.

Carrying an innocent expression that she always had and sad expression she smiled.

“Then, for our beloved son, you have to work hard~”

She said that.

Until the end, she was so cheerful.

Before our son became strong and awakened, she would become a spell that would protect our son from the distance.

She would protect our son from the curse that the Goddess had scattered to defeat the Hero—Alpha Stigma.

This would be accompanied with a large suffering.

She would always, be the meal of α ( Alpha ).

But even though I told her that, she only smiled happily.

She smiled happily and said that she was blessed that she would be able to work hard to protect her son’s life.

Then she simply disappeared.

Smiling as she disappeared.

Becoming the magic that would protect our son, she disappeared.

My son left my hands too.

So that the monsters that had noticed my power would not discover my son, I erased my son’s memory, and I did not approach him.

The reason of fate hated me.

Because I had destroyed fate, exceeding logic.

So my existence slowly, slowly became thin.

But before my son’s power awakened, I had to maintain consciousness, no matter what .

When my son retrieved his memories, when he remembered about us, I had to tell him not to blame himself.

Father and Mother did this because they loved you.

If you want to repay us.

If you want to apologise to us, then, don’t betray our hard work.

Live on happily.

That these were sacrifices so that you could be happy—I had to tell him that.

Then, until my son’s power awakened, fifteen years was needed.

I immediately knew about his awakening.

Because that magic disappeared.

That magic that had my wife’s appearance disappeared.

So I narrowed my eyes.

Iruna had disappeared.

She had disappeared from this world.

She had succeeded in protecting Ryner.

She had protected him, until she died.

She was a marvelous woman.

She was a woman who was wasted when she married me.

She disappeared.

She no longer existed on this world.

So I narrowed my eyes.

I narrowed my eyes as if I were crying.

And my tears could no longer flow out from a long time ago.

Only slightly, really it was only a soft,

“…Ah, yes, Iruna, if there is a next life…”

A soft murmur from me.

### 009. Chapter 1: The Dream Of The Murderer

## Chapter 1: The Dream of The Murderer

Shaking.

He could see the roof shaking.

“…”

Then Ryner Lute discovered that he was being transported by a carriage.

Messy black hair, completely unmotivated and bored black eyes.

Those eyes opened slightly, looking at the ceiling of the carriage.

“…”

But he didn’t say anything.

No, actually he wanted to open his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t speak a single word.

He felt very tired and fatigued.

Then,

“…Ah, Ryner, you’re awake?”

Someone’s voice spoke.

A woman’s voice.

A familiar, woman’s voice.

But he was so tired that he was unable to think of whose voice this was.

Anyway he was tired, very tired.

So the woman’s voice spoke again.

“It’s okay, sleep. I will stay by your side, so relax.”

His head was patted, he felt that his head was gently, gently caressed.

“But, Ryner suddenly fainting shocked me.”

“…”

“It must be, you were too tired… something like that happened.”

“…”

“But really, Ryner can sleep without worrying about anything. Because the war with Geihlficlant has ended… the remaining things will be handled by us.”

“…”

I know that my heart is reacting to what she is saying.

Although I don’t want to think because I am very tired, but to what she said—war—this word, I still had a reaction.

Because the dream that I had been having until just now, was a dream about war.

And it was not a normal war.

It was a war where a monster appeared on the battle ground, a dream where he laughed and cried.

It was a monster called a Demon , a dream where as he laughed, as he cried, he killed many many people.

It was an unbelievable sad scene.

A cruel scene.

Anyway many many people had disappeared into dust.

As he had this dream, he thought that it’s lucky that this scene is just a dream, he originally thought that.

Such a cruel scene, it would be good if it were not reality.

It was great that he did not live in such a cruel world, he had thought.

Then.

“…Come, the war has already ended, so sleep.”

That woman’s voice said.

Then Ryner forced himself to open his eyes.

He desperately opened his eyes that wanted to close, looking in the direction of the voice.

A red-haired girl, who was smiling gently sat there.

She looked at him with a loving and worried expression.

It was Kiefer.

Kiefer’s clothes had been dirtied with mud, dirtied with blood, that was the mud and blood from the battle ground earlier.

Ryner looking at these,

“…”

He looked at this, but he did not make a sound.

Kiefer spoke,

“Ryner”

She called his name gently.

But he was unable to respond.

He was truly too tired too fatigued, so he was unable to respond.

He only thought that.

Ah—he thought.

Ah, that dream, so it was reality.

He was a demon, and he had killed hundreds and thousands of people to save his companions—

“…”

But he only managed to think until there, his consciousness was severed suddenly.

Ryner entered a deep sleep.

◆

When he woke up again, he heard another woman’s voice.

At that moment, he was able to judge who it was just by hearing their voices.

That was an emotionless, a monotonous, but because of that it was a clear, beautiful voice.

That person’s voice.

“…”

Ferris’s voice.

That voice said,

“…Really, how long is this fellow going to sleep until?”

Then, Kiefer’s voice said,

“… I don’t know, but the military doctor said that he is only fatigued…”

“Are Doctor Yab’s words accurate?”

“…Yes, I’m very worried… But, it probably really is because of fatigue. After having something like that happen…”

“Perhaps, but this person is an unmotivated man who would laze for thousands of years. Perhaps he has already woken up, but he is thinking of pretending to sleep?”

“… If that’s the case, it can also be done…”

“Anyway, why don’t we try by hitting him?”

“Ah?!!! No, you can’t do that! Wait… Ferris…”

Bang—

“…Eh, he didn’t get up.”

Ferris said with a voice that sounded slightly more concerned from just now.

Then Kiefer said,

“That, I know you’re worried too, but hitting…”

“I wouldn’t stand here and worry for nothing.”

“Eh—”

“Alright, this time I’ll draw on his face.”

“So… I say, why do you have to join the eye brows and the nose hair together… Hahahaha”

Kiefer laughed, using a tired voice to laugh.

Then Ferris said,

“Then, red hair woman.”

“…Red hair woman… That’s irritating, you can call my name~”

Kiefer used a slightly happier voice to say again.

Towards this, Ferris replied,

“This time it’s my turn to look after this pervert, you can go rest for a while. This person has already collapsed for three days, if this continues you will collapse too.”

“But…”

“I don’t want to hear your opinion.”

“Ah…?”

Bang—

“Ah…”

“Good, she’s fainted. Hey, Toale, Toale!”

Hearing the carriage door open, then someone came in.

“Hey, why is Kiefer-san collapsed here?!”

Towards this question, Ferris answered.

“Perhaps it’s because of lack of sleep, when I entered, she had already collapsed.”

“…I see… it’s because Kiefer-san has been taking care of Ryner-san ever since he collapsed three days ago… She really likes Ryner-san.”

“…”

“Then, I’ll go tell Vois-kun’s subordinates, prepare a carriage for her to rest in, then I’ll take care of Ryner-san…”

“No, I’ll stay here.”

“But… but Ferris-san has not slept…”

“It’s alright, let this woman rest first.”

“…”

“Go!”

“…I understand.”

Saying that, Toale carried Kiefer out of the carriage.

There was only the sound of the carriage shaking.

Crrrreeeeaaaakk, shaking.

In the space between the sound of the shaking,

“…Wake up quickly, idiot.”

She said that.

“You are an octopus, slow man, sleeping insect, waste, worthless”

Then,

“…Really, idiot… Don’t make me, worried… Wake up quickly…”

She said that.

Only that, she didn’t say anything again.

The carriage shook.

It swayed.

Although he wanted to open his eyes for her, but as expected his consciousness slowly sank into the deep darkness.

It was as if he could not wake up again.

Although compared to just now, his consciousness was clearer, but even so, he still could not get up.

◆

When he woke up again, he could depend on his will to open his eyes and check his surroundings.

Opening his eyes, then surveying the carriage.

He immediately found that Toale was sitting by his side.

Brown hair, gentle eyes.

The right arm and leg sticking out from under the Anti-Roland Coalition clothes were prosthetics, but he used them well.

He was reading a book.

Although he completely couldn’t see what book he was looking at,

“…That, is that a rated book?”

Being asked that from Ryner, Toale looked over, smiling,

“Of course.”

“Ha ha, how can that be expected.”

“Of course that was a joke, this was received from Vois-kun, it is an educational material for the soldiers of the Anti-Roland Coalition to read.”

“Oh—”

“It’s quite interesting, it has made some work on the good cooperation displayed by the soldiers from different countries and different magical systems, when Ryner-san recovers does he want to read it too?”

Ryner nodded.

“That’s true.”

“Then, how is it?”

“Eh? How is what?”

“Your body’s condition. You have been sleeping for nine days?

“Kiefer-san and Ferris-san have been looking after you without any rest, for that they both collapsed. You’re so welcomed. I’m jealous.”

Hearing that, Ryner smiled wryly,

“…Jealous? Oh? So the prince of Nelpha, a good youth like you, could get jealous too?”

Toale laughed, as he laughed he passed the water canteen over slightly lazily.

After ensuring that Ryner had used the water to wet his lips, he said,

“Because I am human too, so I will get jealous too. And I am more particular about Kiefer-san.”

Ryner widened his eyes in surprise, moving the water canteen away from his mouth, asking,

“…That, is that real? Is that so?”

So Toale smiled again.

“You see, you are so dense that you didn’t even discover it… but, because this is a battle that I cannot interfere in, so I gave up. After all that—large cry, I could hear the intentions Kiefer-san had for you.”

“…”

“Well, because I like Ryner-san too, so I can give up because of you… But, what does Ryner-san plan to do? Accept Kiefer-san’s intentions?”

Ryner looked at Toale through half-lidded eyes.

“…Ah~ before we talk about that, did you say that you liked me? I’m sorry, I don’t have that kind of interest…”

“Using this to direct the topic away~ If you have used that attitude to treat Kiefer-san so far, she will suffer.”

“…”

“How do I say this, bullying Ryner-san while he is sick, I haven’t planned to give up from this side.”

Toale smiled as he said that.

Then Ryner smiled wryly,

“You’re really like this.”

“Ahaha. Then, quickly tell everyone that you are awake and full of energy. Everyone is concerned about you.”

Saying that, Toale stood up.

Then,

“No, can you wait?”

Ryner stopped him.

“…That, because I just sat up.”

Saying that, Toale looked at me worriedly.

“Your body, is it still in pain?”

“No, only tired.”

“…Oh, although the doctor said that you were over-exhausted, but just sleeping without waking for nine days because of exhaustion is really… it seems that, it’s related to using that power on the battle grounds… right?”

Towards this question, Ryner’s expression darkened momentarily.

He remembered himself using the power, the matter of killing an unbelievable number of people.

He remembered the people vanishing like mist.

Was it because he had used that abnormal power, that he had slept for so long as a side effect?

Being asked that by Toale,

“…What is it?”

Ryner muttered.

“Perhaps, it is only because I am a lazy person?”

But Toale was still worried,

“Of course it’s best if you can cure it just by sleeping…”

“I think there should be no problem.”

“Really? Although we say that, we are helpless about the matters that even the doctor don’t understand…”

Then Ryner narrowed his eyes.

Just like that, his eyelids wanted to close, as if entering sleep again.

So Ryner panicked,

“Ah~ Oh no, Toale, I think I’m going to sleep.”

“Ah??”

“But before I sleep I have something that I must know of…”

Although he only managed to speak until half-way, but Toale knew what Ryner was thinking, so he told him,

“What happened in the end in that battle, right? Please don’t worry, Gastark temporarily retreated—after that Vois Fiurelle-kun, as if he had predicted something like that would happen, spun around happily.”

“Vois?”

“Yes.”

“…That, makes me more and more worried.”

Ryner said that, Toale smiled. But Ryner felt, in his smile, there was something hidden behind it.

“What, even if it’s something worse than that…”

Then his speech ended there.

For some reason, Ryner became even more tired,

“This can’t be… I can’t even keep conscious… Damnit, what is going on… I can’t, I’m sorry, slight, ma…”

“Ma?”

“…”

“Well, what?”

“…”

“He’s already asleep… Really, is he alright. He woke up with much difficulty, never mind, he should be recovering slowly…”

But, Ryner could no longer hear what Toale was saying.

His consciousness became blurred, he couldn’t think about anything.

Then, Ryner suddenly thought,

“…”

This is not good, he thought.

Because this feeling of wanting to sleep strongly, Ryner had experienced it once.

That was magic.

And it was Roland’s magic.

Numbness, loose nerves, a magic that forced the opponent to enter sleep.

Because it was a magic only used for medical purposes, as long as the person it was used on rebelled it could be released immediately, so it wasn’t used in military affairs.

Of course the army had researched about using magic to force the enemy into sleep, but it had never succeeded. To people who resisted strongly entering sleep could cause a large stress on their nerves, and cause the person to die.

If it was for the purpose of killing the other person it wasn’t that it couldn’t be tried forcefully, but for that, there could be other simpler, stronger magic that could be used for that purpose.

So that magic was not completed.

But, now, the point wasn’t about whether this magic had been completed or not.

The problem was,

“…”

Now, there was a possibility that he was under a sleeping spell.

But, who was it who had done this?

And, he didn’t know when he had come under this magic.

To be straightforward, why did they want me to enter this forced slumber…

“…”

Then this thought process reached its end.

The human-made sleeping monster had already forcefully engulfed Ryner’s consciousness, he was already unable to think.

Damnit, although he tried to resist in his heart, but it was useless.

The strong sense of sleep attacked his whole body.

The strong sleeping monster collapsed his consciousness.

He could only, sleep.

Sleep.

He was unable to think.

Then he,

“…”

Lost consciousness again.

◆

When he woke up again,

“…”

The ceiling, no longer swayed.

It seemed like the carriage was no longer moving.

Had they reached their destination, or were they resting.

He couldn’t see any light rays shining through the curtained window, he thought that it should be midnight.

He moved his body slightly, most of his body could move now compared to when he first woke up. So Ryner sat up immediately,

“Ow, I overslept, my body aches…”

His face contorted.

And his body was already able to listen to commands, his urge to sleep was gone. To understand what magic he had come under—

“…”

Ryner closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, a strange pattern appeared in his eyes.

But that was no longer a red five-pointed star.

But, it was a pattern of a tear that was shining with all colours.

He didn’t know the name of this eyes too.

But it was through these amazing eyes, he could see himself.

Then, the structure of air, the structure of his body, the structure of the other particles moving in his body, a larger information than before entered his eyes.

But, he didn’t discover the magic that he had come under.

“Unless, I never came under, any spells in the beginning?”

Ryner muttered.

“That means that it could be a side effect because I used the power of these eyes, so I couldn’t move?”

That could be possible too.

Because he had used an unbelievably large amount of energy.

He had used a power that humans should not use.

Then, the scenary changed.

Many people disappeared before they could scream.

Doing that, there could not be no side effects.

At least in the world of magic, whatever power you used, you had to pay a price.

For example increasing the impact would mean sacrificing speed, the area of effectiveness and the mortality effect would be lowered greatly.

Using a large-scale magic, if the number of casters were not enough there would not be enough magic power—things like this happened.

Magicians had to maintain balance, as they created a magic with more practical value.

But,

“…This kind of power is not the problem of just maintaining balance… possibly my life span would be greatly decreased because of this.”

Ryner thought about this matter.

But, he didn’t think that that was scary.

Because he had taken many people’s lives.

Because he had taken away so many people’s lives.

Wanting to live on without paying a price, he had never thought of that from the beginning.

“…”

Then he reached out his left hand, looking at his hand that had killed a large amount of people on the battle ground.

“…Well, doing something like that, my life span would definitely be decreased, it’s a pity it hasn’t reached zero…”

He murmured.

Then he looked at his right arm. He looked at his right arm that had been bitten by the thunder beasts that Lir had released.

But, there was not a wrist there. The wound had been healed, but there was nothing there starting from his elbow.

“…”

Even so, he didn’t feel anything.

Be it his wrist, life span, losing anything didn’t matter.

Because he had protected what he wanted to protect.

Ferris, Kiefer, Toale, companions—because of protecting precious things, anything was fine.

He had come so far, he didn’t plan to find any excuses.

He would not say that he was a monster, a murdering monster, crying, sadly, escaping.

Because, I protected comrades.

Because, I killed people, protecting precious companions.

If that is counted as a monster,

Then, the people scolding that this is a monster must completely be monstrous too.

Then, I,

“…It doesn’t matter if I’m a monster.”

Ryner muttered.

After that, he raised his head, standing up, using his remaining left arm to open the carriage door.

Outside, was night as expected.

The other carriages had stopped.

The tents had been pitched, the soldiers were sleeping.

“…”

Ryner got off the carriage, looking at everything.

It seemed as if they had not reached their destination.

“Well, anyway we don’t know where is our destination… but that fellow Vois what is he thinking of doing?”

He thought about it.

In that war, the Geihlfilant king had died.

A large amount of the Geihlficlant soldiers had died too.

All those were Ryner’s fault.

It was the fault of the Anti-Roland Coalition.

If these failures were revealed, the relationship between the Anti-Roland Coalition and Geihlficlant would deteriorate, if this caused Gastark and Geihlficlant to cooperate, this would push the Anti-Roland Coalition into a bad position.

“Well, because it’s that person, it should be handled very well… From the beginning it seemed he wanted me to affect Glovil… Then, he should have rehearsed the plan to deal with the aftermath.”

He muttered, then wanted to think about what exactly was this, but shook his head, and decided to ask the person in question.

Although he didn’t know whether Vois was still here, but even if he were not, Toale and the others should roughly know about the situation.

Talking about which, earlier when he had been asking about what was the situation, he discovered Toale’s expression was slightly closed off.

“Then, what troublesome matters have occurred?”

Ryner revealed an expression that showed his bland interest.

“Even if it were not like that, there are troublesome matters all over the world.”

As he thought of that, he remembered about more of that war.

The matter about the pink-haired girl who emerged from the mouth of the large snake that had been summoned by Gastark, the matter about α abusing the battle ground.

The matter about the Goddess who had ambushed them to help α, the matter about the Demon living in his body that looked exactly the same as him.

And,

“…”

The matter of the Demon that had looked exactly the same as him hugging his dead mother, to his chest.

“…”

Ryner pressed a hand to his chest, then narrowed his eyes, several tears escaping.

He had clearly forgot.

He had clearly forgot about his mother, why was he so sad.

It was said that his mother had fought desperately to protect him.

It was said that his mother had sacrificed herself to replace him, so that he would not be killed by α.

Then, his mother died.

According to the words of the demon who he had met in the dream-like environment,

“So that she could protect you, she gave up on everything. What a gentle human!”

That sentence, to him, to Ryner…

Ryner wanted to say something, but he noticed something else, his eyes narrowed sharply.

Then,

“…What is this.”

He looked at the night scenary.

Looked at quiet darkness.

He noticed, although there should have been a large number of soldiers nearby, but there was no sound, this strange situation.

“…Damnit, I’m so silly… What bad things have happened…”

At this moment, as if covering this sentence, a voice sounded from somewhere.

“Yes, you’re late in your discovery.”

A voice sounded from behind him.

Ryner frantically spun around.

But there was no one there. There was only the carriage that he had been in just now.

And from that carriage…

“Where are you looking to?”

The voice spoke again.

Ryner turned around again.

“Here.”

From right, left, here, there, the voice continued to echo.

It spoke from everywhere.

Then as Ryner’s whole body went alert, he said.

“…What a boring game… using magic to move the air vibrations caused by the voice? That…”

He closed his eyes, then opened them.

And the power of his eyes was released, the tear pattern appeared in the middle of his eyes. Then he immediately looked clearly at the magic that was around him.

As expected, that was a magic that controlled the air vibrations from the voice. He didn’t know which country’s magic it was, but because it was simple, Ryner could use it just by looking at it once.

So Ryner’s hand started to move, so that he could activate the magic that would touch this magic.

He wanted to use his right hand to draw the magic formation, then he realized that he no longer had a right wrist.

“Ah, damnit, it’s not there.”

Saying that, he moved his left hand, quickly drawing a magical formation.

But when he was about to finish the magic,

“Ah, am I revealed? How capable~”

The voice spoke, then the magic that had been spread out by the enemy disappeared.

So Ryner stopped his magic too, so that he could block the next attack from the enemy, he needed to keep his left hand free.

Then he frowned unconsciously, feeling for the first time that losing his right wrist could truly be a little bad.

If he had a prosthetic limb it probably would be fine, but he had not become accustomed to the feeling of not having a right wrist. So earlier he naturally wanted to use his right hand.

And this kind of natural wrong judgment, in a fight against a strong opponent it could be fatal.

Then,

“…”

He stared at the darkness before his eyes.

No, he stared at the direction in which the darkness was spreading, as if weaved of magic, something that was like a black cloud of magic.

It was a magic he had never seen before.

It was strangely complex, even if it were Ryner who was familiar with magic, was unable to understand the context of the formula in one glance.

That cloud gave off something that was like a mist.

It was a transparent mist that could not be seen except by Ryner’s special eyes.

The effect of that mist was to induce slumber.

If that mist was absorbed into the body, it would act on the nerves, making a person fall asleep.

It seemed to be like until just now, the sleep that Ryner had been under for these few days, until the caster removed the spell, it seemed that the person who took in that mist would continue sleeping.

And it was very generous, so that the person could sleep without eating or drinking, it even provided nutrients.

Although he didn’t know why this magic had to be used, but anyway he had to make this magic—

“…”

That cloud that caused sleep, had already made everyone in Ryner’s vicinity fall asleep.

Probably thousands of people had already fallen asleep because of this.

Normally this kind of magic could not be controlled by one person.

If the area of effectiveness of magic was increased, the power would increase, a single caster would find it difficult to activate the magic.

That meant,

“…It’s a large-scale magic.”

Then Ryner felt that his heart was beating strongly.

Now they were, under attack by an army that had magicians that could cast a large-scale magic.

And all his companions had come under that spell…

But,

“No, Ryner, look carefully, that’s not a large-scale magic.”

A voice said.

The bodiless, steady voice said.

Ryner looked in the direction of the voice, as the magic that caused the position of the voice to shift had vanished, the owner of the voice stood there.

He looked in the direction of the voice,

“Eh? You, how do you know my name…”

Ryner broke off midway, suddenly stopping.

Because the man standing there, he had seen him before.

No, in the deepest corner of his heart.

In the deepest corner of his memory, the figure of that person was strongly engraved there.

“…”

So Ryner looked at that man, trembling.

He didn’t know why he would become like that, anyway his whole body was trembling.

Even so, he looked straight ahead.

Standing there, was a man with a sleepy face.

Golden hair, blue eyes that were sleepy.

A body that was like an unmotivated cat’s, and a black coat that did not blend in with the lazy atmosphere, a well-made leather bag.

He seemed to be in his late twenties, at most he wasn’t over thirty. But, it wasn’t like that. That person didn’t seem to be more than twenty years old. Because the man in front of him, had not changed at all, from the person’s figure in his memory.

He had not changed from the memory he had of him from fifteen years ago.

Like in the past, that person smiled at him with a gentleness that had not changed.

Then, Ryner shook.

Not only that, he nearly cried.

He used a weak and trembling voice to say,

“…Fa, father?”

As he said that, the man in front of him replied.

He had the same voice as he had remembered from his memories.

A gentle, very gentle voice.

“Oh dear, we finally meet… my dear son.”

That person said.

### 010. Chapter 3: Peace And Karma

## Chapter 3: Peace and Karma

The rumours and information that Vois Fiurelle had leaked out, seemed to stir up the world.

As if it had passed through some form of organizing first, the information that the Anti-Roland Coalition released expanded under various sources.

What was added, was the content about the ugly and fierce Demon King .

Regarding the atrocious battle, the content about the huge spider that was dealt away with the demon’s control.

The content about the demon only needing to huffing a curse, and killing hundreds of thousands of Geihlficlant soldiers.

The news about how Gastark, which had been heading south with their strong stance, had been unable to handle the demon.

Looking at the report that was written from rumours and truths, Sion Astal muttered to himself.

A slight grin appeared.

“…The Demon King , Ryner Lute?”

He said.

Under that well-groomed silver hair, was a pair of golden eyes that were currently filled with a little exhaustion.

Wearing the white battle armour that was specially used by the king of Roland and originally designed for the purpose of standing on the battle field, he, by himself, sat on a chair and was reading files in front of the table where they discussed the war.

The place where he was now, was roughly in the middle of the southern part of the continent—a fortress of the area that was originally known as the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla.

He was sitting in the large foyer of the fortress and he was reading reports from various places.

In a place slightly north of here, there was a fierce battle going on.

The place called the People’s District of Urd which was initially governed by Cassla, was snatched away by one of the countries in the middle of the continent, the Remrus Empire.

Claugh and Calne and the others were frantically defending against the Remrus army—that was the current situation.

But,

“…”

Sion looked at the map spread out on the strategy table.

Looking at the territory of Remrus that was encroaching the southern part of the continent,

“…It seems that it wouldn’t be easy, for us to proceed…”

He murmured.

And the Remrus Empire seemed like a slightly, no, it was a very odd country.

Until half a year ago, it was still known as the Holy Land of Veiohl, but in that half a year, there were major changes to the internal system.

It was said that in a place where there was nothing, the son of god was born, and obtained the throne of the king.

With respect to the name of the son of god, the country had changed its name to the Remrus Empire.

And then Remrus Empire, was then said to be a country chosen by god, and was blessed with eternal peace—

“…”

No matter how it was looked at, it was only a country that was supported with words that were lies, suppressing the People’s District of Urd which was protected by twenty thousand Cassla soldiers, moving one step forward in the conflict with the Roland forces that Sion themselves led.

It seemed that they had used some Rhule Fragmei that Sion himself was not aware of, other than that,

“…”

Other than that, in the alternate universe where Sion had been alone, another person had appeared.

It was the person himself who was called the son of god, Remrus.

Of course that person was not human. Like Sion who was not a human, that person was not a human.

He had seven eyes and six arms.

He was a complete monster.

That monster spoke, it seemed to know about Sion, no, it seemed that it even knew about the Hero in Sion.

Lightly calling Asruld Roland .

It said it did not want to fight with a mad war god that only wished for despair.

Then, it said excitedly.

“You, still know nothing, right? Even though you wanted to trap me from earlier. You haven’t completely merged with Asruld . If you really want to merge with it, you would not speak to me. Because you will hate me who is underhanded, then I will subsequently be killed immediately. Because my forte does not lie in illusions, but spells. So you who understands me, wouldn’t give me time to use spells.”

It had said.

Then as that person—Remrus had said.

Sion, and Lucile had made a mistake. Facing the spell that Remrus cast, Lucile became unable to move.

Now, Lucile was moving frantically to release the spell, but in this time period, Sion had become defenseless.

The Goddesses , the monsters that they used, and then, Remrus who had attacked with the spell, now had to be dealt with by Sion alone.

And Sion himself, understood that he couldn’t win Remrus.

Just having the shadow of Remrus causing the situation to become like this, if he fought with the actual body,

“…”

If he fought with that person called the son of god, he had to wait until Lucile was revived.

At least he had to wait until he had gained the power of the Fallen Mad Hero , that Hero —before that, Lucile’s power could not be missed.

And the Goddess had used the curse of Humans to stop the Hero , that was extremely powerful. If the Humans were not weakened, if they didn’t turn into Human α , he would be unable to regain his original power.

Unable to gain the huge power that could destroy everything.

So now, with the Remrus Empire as Roland’s enemy, they had entered a difficult battle.

Even if his subordinates had won on the battle field, but as long as Remrus himself appeared and cast a spell on Sion, everything would end.

Before Lucile got rid of the spell and came back, he could not progress too much.

And in that time,

“…”

In that time, something astonishing had happened in the Middle Continent.

A demon was born.

A Demon King was born.

It was said that that demon, was called Ryner Lute.

It was said that he had the same name as his old friend.

Then Sion,

“…It can’t be, Ryner was faster in establishing his name in the Central Continent… I really didn’t think of that.”

He muttered, feeling genuinely happy.

Then in a moment he thought of it.

Only in that short moment he recalled.

The times he spent with him.

The times when Ryner laughed foolishly, made a ruckus, yelling that he was bored to death every day.

Shouting something like, Sion you bastard, I’m going to kill you.

And Sion laughed.

Looking at the gentle demon making a fuss at his side, he laughed.

Ah, how boring, you bastard, I’m really, absolutely, going to kill yoooooou, Ryner had always shouted this, but in the end he had frantically helped with his work—Sion thought of his friend’s face and laughed.

Then,

“…”

He remembered that the two of them had constantly looked down on this country’s matters, from the highest place in the Roland castle.

The duo had worked tirelessly through day and night for a few days, and because of this, their heads were aching badly. Let’s go to the roof top to relax, he had forgotten who had suggested this, anyway the two of them had climbed up to the roof.

Then, they looked down at this country.

Ryner had his usual sleepy expression,

“This scenery, it really looks like it’s a mirage…”

He said, then apologized to me.

“…I’m sorry.”

In the beginning Sion didn’t know what that person was talking about.

But Ryner continued,

“… What I said in the past, that, I stand corrected.”

“Eh? What did you say?”

Sion had asked, as Ryner looked down at this country, looked down at the capital of Roland, he said.

“…It’s not a mirage.”

Ryner spoke.

This country had changed.

The originally mad country, has changed after you became king.

And Sion, to this,

“…”

I had replied.

As if sighing he had replied.

“…It is a mirage, Ryner, at that time I had said ‘without losing a single comrade’, right. But… But now, only a few comrades have survived? For the sake of the vision I described, exactly, how many comrades have died? Exactly how many…”

But Ryner interrupted me.

“Even if that’s the case… Sion, even if it’s like what you said, this isn’t a mirage. This country has changed, without you, this country would still be in the darkness.”

He had said this, and looked down to the streets of the city, using his usual tired eyes, and seemingly unmotivated, soothing expression.

Then he said,

“…That’s already, enough.”

He spoke.

“You’re already, very hard working. I’m very clear about this point. So, don’t use that kind of working method as if you’re blaming yourself…”

He said.

“It’s already enough, this country has changed a lot. Even if you relax a little, it wouldn’t turn back into what it was like in the past.”

He said.

“So if you make mistakes again, if you can’t do better… it isn’t necessary to make the opposition feel scared. Now, look, me, Ferris, we’re both here… and the others? That, red haired idiot, that pervert who likes older women, there are many companions here… it’s alright, this country, is already fine. You don’t have to worry alone by yourself. This country is changing now, and it is progressing in a good direction.”

Ryner had said.

And that Ryner, that person, was also no longer by his side.

“…”

Sion stared at the battle discussion table unseeingly, using tired golden eyes, to look at the files and maps. But nothing was reflected in his eyes, no image was reflected in them.

The only thing that was in his mind, was the scenes of those happy times.

In that moment, only that scene was imprinted deeply in his mind.

“…”

Naturally, he didn’t plan to say something stubborn like, I want to return to those times.

Because he had abandoned that himself.

Because he had always lied to Ryner, hurting him, and in the end abandoned him.

But, it is said that he doesn’t plan to give up on me even though I’m like this.

It’s said that he didn’t plan to give up on something so depressing.

That person had even wrote a message for me to be well.

Sion now still kept that paper with the message on it.

He kept the message that was written by that person who didn’t like to give up.

Ryner had wrote this.

Even though it was a piece of paper it could pass on that unmotivated air, it was written.

“So now, even though I do not know what you have been caught up in, but I will go to your side. On that rainy day, didn’t I say that? I can’t give up on you. I said I would do it and I will. So in order to save you, I will come to your side, to save you. For this, I am slightly motivated. This is from someone who is born to destroy the word ‘motivated’! I will shout this in the direction of your castle. Is it funny? Do you hear it? Ma, it’ll probably snow tomorrow. Anyway putting this lame joke aside… I will come back to your side. Even though I don’t know how much energy I have to burn up for this, but in order to have something important to me, I will come. So before that, be mentally prepared and wait. I will make you regret that moment when you didn’t kill me. You, have always talked to yourself as you despaired, and took up everything upon yourself. I was by your side as you nearly cried, I, but I… clearly took you as my best friend…”

When he read this letter, he completely didn’t know what this person was planning to do.

How could he return to my side? Someone as unmotivated as him, who would only uncaringly have afternoon naps every day, how could he return to my side? I completely didn’t understand.

But, it was said that Ryner had become a demon in the Middle Continent.

It was said that he had become the Demon King who could kill hundreds of thousands of people.

It was said that someone who clearly hated people dying had killed people, and, had become a king.

What exactly, was that for?

“…”

Of course I wouldn’t be so foolish to think it was for me.

But,

But even if that was the case.

“…Is your path, that one?”

Sion murmured.

“Then, further down that path, will you meet me…?”

He muttered.

“…Even if we’ve become enemies… Even if we will fight against each other on the battle field… Even so, as long as we can meet again… that is something to look forward to.”

He happily murmured.

At this moment,

“…Your Majesty”

A dark, cold voice spoke.

Then Sion looked up, and turned his head.

In the entrance of the hall, Froaude stood there with numerous armed soldiers with him.

Those subordinates were holding a girl. Her arms were tied up, and not only that, her shoulders were held firmly.

“…”

She had curly tea-coloured hair, and tea-coloured eyes, the black armour revealed pale soft and tender skin.

That was a battle armour that was made from a material that Sion had never seen before.

Looking at the girl, and the armour she wore, Sion asked.

“…Is she a spy? Or assassin?”

Froaude replied.

“She says she is an ambassador, she came to negotiate a treaty.”

“An ambassador?”

“Yes.”

“From where?”

As he asked this, Sion thought about it, at least he could confirm it wasn’t a request from Remrus to stop the war.

Because Remrus had already broke the promise once. Before this war, Remrus had requested an alliance with Roland.

And then after that he had attacked when they were unprepared.

Because he had broken the promise once, so he couldn’t have sent an ambassador.

Then, which country was it?

Sion didn’t think she was an ambassador from a small country, because now, Roland was suppressed by Remrus. The small countries had requested to enter the large countries protection range so that they wouldn’t be involved in the war, under this situation, there probably wouldn’t be any country that wanted to join up with Roland’s side.

Roland had already conquered the southern continent, so the ambassador should be from somewhere near Remrus.

Then, “…Is it someone from Geihlficlant?”

Sion asked Froaude.

If that was the case then that would be possible. In the period that they had lost a large amount of manpower from the war with Gastark, the Anti-Roland Coalition led by Ryner had attacked Geihlficlant’s territory.

And they had broken the territory into northern and southern parts.

The southern part seemed to have no one related to the royal family, and because there was some conflict over the issue of the throne, now, Geihlficlant was in a terrible state.

If it was left like this then there would be a self-destructive conflict, and if they were also attacked by the Remrus Empire at this time, now, they would not be able to withstand it.

That meant, Geihlficlant was facing a threat now.

In order to do something, seeking Roland’s strength—this was something easy to understand.

And this opportunity was just right, it benefited the Roland army by allowing them to enter the Central Continent, and enter a difficult battle with Remrus Empire. In order to defeat Remrus, even if it was Geihlficlant that had been split, it was the helping power that Roland wanted.

And because Geihlficlant understood this, so they sent out an ambassador recently, Sion had thought initially.

But,

“…”

But Froaude said.

“She’s not an ambassador from the Geihlficlant Empire, Your Majesty.”

“…She’s not?”

“Yes.”

“Then which country’s ambassador is she?”

At this moment, the girl lifted her head to look at Sion.

Then,

“…I am, an ambassador from the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

She said.

Sion tilted his head slightly.

“…The People’s Republic of Sphelliyet… I haven’t heard of that before… Is it a small country in the Central Continent?”

The girl nodded.

“Yes, it’s a small country, so it’s no problem if Your Majesty doesn’t know about it. And, it was just recently formed.”

“…A new country?”

“If I say it’s the country built by the Anti-Roland Coalition, I think you’ll understand.”

She said.

Sion narrowed his eyes, then glared at her.

“…”

But that girl didn’t take note of Sion’s expression. No, she didn’t even look in his direction. Only, speaking what she had been commanded to say, in order to accomplish her mission as an ambassador.

But, who had ordered her to say that?

Because of whose orders, had she come here?

It was said that the king of the Anti-Roland Coalition was a demon.

It was said that the demon was called Ryner Lute.

Then, this person,

This person was here on Ryner’s orders…

The girl opened her mouth.

As if reading from a prepared script, she said,

“As everyone has heard, the ones who destroyed hundreds of thousands of Gastark’s soldiers that were fighting with the Geihlficlant Empire, was us.

She said.

“The ones who made the Gastark Empire who has been expanding south retreat is also us.”

She said.

“I trust that everyone has heard of these two matters, but we seem to have something that is far more powerful than what everyone can comprehend. By relying on that power, we have decided to build a country using this opportunity. This country is named the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

She said this.

“Then, seizing this chance to build a country, we want to extend a treaty to the world to build peace.”

To this, Sion asked.

“A peace treaty…?”

“Yes, I think many countries have already noticed, on the current battle ground, there is an old weapon that has abnormally strong power called the Rhule Fragmei being used…”

Sion interrupted her.

“You don’t have to explain what is Rhule Fragmei . But, are you explaining this to the countries all over the world?”

He asked.

The girl nodded.

“Yes, in order to stop the usage of such dangerous weapons that can potentially destroy the world on the battle field, we are proposing a peace treaty…”

But, Sion interrupted her again, saying.

“Fools! By allowing the whole world to know of the existence of this weapon, what peace treaty do you want to talk about! If you do this every country will use Rhule Fragmei …”

“No, it wouldn’t become like that, this is the purpose of the peace treaty.”

“Who would follow that treaty…”

But the girl interrupted him.

“At least my country plans to follow it. We will not use such immoral weapons like the Rhule Fragmei on the battle field again. And we hope that your country can do this, for peace.”

“For peace? You say peace? What a joke, you…”

But the girl stopped him, saying.

She said with a shallow smile.

“Your Majesty, what are you shouting about, how can you yell angrily, the whole world is watching”

“…”

“The whole world is watching. Will you enter this peace treaty, or not? Of course it doesn’t matter if you don’t participate. You must think the world is yours, right? From the south and north, the king that will rely on the power of killing. No matter how you are called a hero in the south, if you choose wrongly here, this will decide your image in the Central Continent. Then, if that’s the case, what will it become? The people in the Central Continent will bow under the wild barbaric king who doesn’t want to enter the peace treaty? Do you think, after today you can progress north with only power?”

“…”

“If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter, anyway we didn’t think we could gain the approval of all the countries. But in the Central Continent, there are many countries who have agreed to this treaty…”

But, Froaude said,

“That’s your plan? Every country can’t possible reply immediately to such an important problem. Of course if you thought that something as absurd as rumours about the demon can threaten them then it’s a different story.”

He said sarcastically, but the girl smiled.

“Of course we’ve threatened some. This is obvious. The so-called negotiations, is something that is done after threats. Then timid countries will join in. Progressively, then large countries will also… this treaty has also garnered the approval of the Ertolia Republic.”

Hearing that, Sion was annoyed.

That the Ertolia Republic had approved of this treaty, Sion understood immediately. To Ertolia that had been late in gathering the Rhule Fragmei, of course they were quick in doing this.

Then, the Geihlficlant Empire that had lost power would definitely, give their approval.

That meant, these two great countries would support this treaty.

If that was so, then in the Central Continent, almost two thirds of the countries would agree with this treaty.

In this case that was more than half.

More than half of the countries had entered this treaty under that fake claim of “peace”.

This was under the suggestion of the Anti-Roland Coalition—no, the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.

But what were these people, chasing after? Why, did they want to prohibit the usage of Rhule Fragmei ?

Of course if it were Ryner, he probably hoped for this.

If it were that person, he could suggest prohibiting this weapon.

But, the people of the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet, had used Rhule Fragmei to snatch away the territory of Geihlficlant.

Or it was the previous body, the organization called Anti-Roland Coalition, that had already used the Rhule Fragmei in combat. Naturally using Rhule Fragmei , to kill people. Originally they could use that power to gain Geihlficlant.

That meant, under the excuse of already using the Rhule Fragmei to build their country, they suggested a world-wide prohibition of it.

But, the world that knew of the existence of such a weapon, couldn’t resist using it.

Men, would use Rhule Fragmei .

If a convenient instrument was placed before them, men would be unable to resist and use it.

And, the more hopeless situation they were in, the more they would mistakenly use it.

So before the knowledge of this power spread in the world.

Before using this power to ignite a war, Roland originally planned to progress into the Central Continent.

If they had to use Rhule Fragmei to attack, there would be an unimaginable number of sacrifices, so he had initially wanted to enter the Central Continent, without anyone noticing.

“…”

No, there were already enough sacrifices.

Roland and Remrus had attacked each other because they used Rhule Fragmei , causing a considerable number of sacrifices.

It was same in the north.

It was said that in the battle with the Gastark Empire and Geihlficlant Empire, with only one shot, hundreds of thousands of people had died.

It was said that although something like that had happened before, everything had ended already, but something like that had happened.

Then using that power, these people separated the world.

The world started to desperately search for this power.

Every country, possibly out of fear, or out of lust, or out of rage, or out of sadness, started to frantically search for Rhule Fragmei .

And then, used it.

The used the weapon that could kill.

So people died.

And it became a large number of deaths.

As long as they thought about it they would understand why it had turned out this way.

If every country had such large power, then there wasn’t any power that could suppress this.

So what occurred was a massacre.

An unstoppable massacre.

Perhaps, in the end nothing would be left.

Then Sion glared at the girl.

“…Then, who was the one who suggested the peace treaty? It probably isn’t your king—Ryner Lute who suggested it?”

The girl looked at Sion.

“No, everything is the thoughts of my liege…”

“Shut up!”

“No matter what Your Majesty thinks, the king of the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet is Ryner Lute-sama…”

“I told you to shut up! And you are wrong. If we stop here, we’ll hinder you. If I stop here, the world will be crumble and be swallowed up by the Goddesses …”

But Sion stopped, then used a sharper expression to glare at the girl.

“…Or are you, the subordinates of the Goddesses …? What are you planning to do to Ryner?”

He asked.

To this question, the girl smiled even more happily.

“…Although I do not know of the thing called Goddess that Your Majesty spoke of… But my master informed me, if Your Majesty uttered the phrase Goddess , then he instructed me to say this.”

She said.

Then Sion,

“Before that, tell me the name of your master who ordered you. Your master isn’t Ryner, right? Who is it? Vois…?”

But ignoring his words, the girl continued to speak. It seemed she had memorized what she was supposed to say.

“—I apologize, Sion”

She said.

“You seem to have done too much”

She said.

“You killed my companions, so I, will definitely not forgive you. If you don’t give up on the Rhule Fragmei … If you continue to be mad, if you continue to be mad to this extent because of the curse of the Hero , then I will look to you as an enemy…”

The girl said.

She spoke what her master had ordered to do in one breath.

Then,

“…”

To this, Sion had nothing to say.

If you are mad until this extent.

If you continue to be mad to this extent, then take me as your enemy, Ryner had said that once.

That was the original sentence.

Indeed, he had already killed Ryner’s companions. To the Nelphan soldiers and the squad that was escaping with Ryner, he had used the Rhule Fragmei .

So he understood that Ryner would be mad, he understood he would break his ties with him.

But, even so,

“…The one who would say that, is not Ryner.”

Sion said in a low voice.

But to this question, the girl did not reply.

“Then my mission is completed, release me…”

“No. Tell me you real master’s name. Is it Vois? Or is it, the Goddess ?”

But, the girl looked at him with a pitying vague expression.

“Even if you threaten me, you can’t get answers from me. I came here after accepting a spell. If I tell you something other than what I have been ordered to do, the curse will activate, and I will die.”

“I see. But at least, Ryner will never do that.”

“Ahaha”

“Ryner… that guy…”

But at this moment,

“Your Majesty”

Froaude called out to him.

Sion narrowed his eyes in slight anger and looked to the direction of the voice.

Do not waver without a reason, and give your enemy information.

Then Sion stopped. He felt unhappy that he had revealed the weakness in his heart to his subordinates.

“…Release the girl, we cannot get any other information from this person.”

He ordered, then the soldiers who were restraining her let go of her.

Then she nodded to Sion.

“Will you give me your reply to whether you will participate in the peace treaty?”

To this question, Froaude replied.

“We will keep our opinion. Of course that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t enter. At least let us consider…”

“I’m not asking you, my master ordered me to listen to the reply from the King Sion Astal. Now, please personally reply me, Your Majesty.”

“…”

“Will you enter? Or not?”

“…”

To this, Sion glared at the girl, and after seemingly keeping silent as if he were thinking—

“…We join it”

At this point,

Froaude raised his hand, he held a dagger in his hand, the blade of the dagger pierced the girl’s neck, and she collapsed soundlessly.

Then Sion widened his eyes and shouted,

“Froaude! You?!”

But Froaude coldly, carrying a demon-like dark expression,

“We will keep our opinion, Your Majesty. We still cannot join this treaty.”

“But there is no need to kill…”

“There is. This woman saw Your Majesty waver, if she reported this then it would be bad.”

“…But.”

“Anyway she was already cursed, she was useless to us. But if we sent her head back, then that would show that even if they say Ryner Lute’s name, Your Majesty would be unwavering.”

Sion glared at Froaude and said,

“…Because I wavered, so you killed her?”

But Froaude shook his head.

“No, Your Majesty. Our king, wouldn’t waver because of something as trivial as this.”

“…”

“Then, please let me take care of the issues after this. Let me cover up this matter.”

Froaude said.

To this, Sion asked,

“How are you planning to cover this up?”

Froaude pointed to the girl’s corpse.

“In her body, there was a magic that was supposed to make her self-implode and kill Your Majesty—let us spread this out. Because Your Majesty was attacked, so we killed her. Then warn the kings of various countries to beware of assassins from the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

“But even if we do that it wouldn’t be solved. Every country already know of the existence of Rhule Fragmei …”

“Yes, there’s that. Every country knows of that existence… but we have already been prepared for this. Thus we proceeded with the human experiments—modified soldiers, isn’t that true?”

“…”

“So that even though every country can use Rhule Fragmei , our country can still have the advantage, Your Majesty changed Roland.”

Then Sion looked at Froaude.

“But this too… even if this is the case, small countries will use Rhule Fragmei after today”

“Yes.”

“The sacrifices will increase.”

“Yes.”

“Even if you spread the lie that the girl was an assassin, the countries that have already joined the peace treaty…”

“They can’t possibly read through our intentions. But, this will arouse distrust. It will create confusion. What the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet did to us, we will do it too.”

Saying that, Froaude commanded the subordinates to take care of the girl’s corpse.

Then looking at Sion, he continued,

“They are different from us. We who have gathered under the Hero King Sion Astal, are different. The Anti-Roland Coalition? Vois Fiurelle? Heh, heh heh, anyway it is a troop that was gathered for money, right? Then, a seed of distrust can destroy it.”

So Sion asked,

“Then what do we do?”

Froaude replied mildly.

“…We ourselves, will meet with Ryner Lute. Speaking truthfully, even if it is me, I do not think that the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet is something that Ryner Lute will do. Then the key to breaking the organization lies here. Ryner Lute and the one manipulating from behind the scenes, Vois Fiurelle—the country that has two kings. Pull one of them off the stage.”

Saying that, Froaude bowed to him, turned around, and then quickly walked out of the hall, but stopped again.

He turned around.

“Ahah, speaking of which, Your Majesty, can I do the same thing like Vois Fiurelle?”

Sion asked suspiciously,

“The same thing? What does that refer to?”

Froaude had a shallow smile, a deep, dark smile like a demon.

“…Making use of the love Ryner Lute has for you. Like what the subordinate of Vois Fiurelle did, if I twist your words, and destroy Ryner Lute’s heart. Then make him kill Fiurelle, is that possible?”

He asked this.

Then Sion,

“…”

A smile appeared on his face, he asked.

“If I say no, will you give up?”

Then Froaude had a slightly happy smile,

“No.”

Then he bowed his head again, and walked out of the hall.

Sion looked at his figure.

He looked at the figure of his subordinate who wanted to kill Vois and Ryner.

“…”

But at this moment, another human walked into the hall.

It was a girl.

She was around fifteen years old.

She had pretty features and beautiful amber hair that touched her shoulders.

A slim body, blue eyes—

Sion knew this girl.

She was the younger sister of a youth who had been Sion’s secretary.

Eslina Folkal.

Before the war began she was Calne’s assistant officer, but as of now she was working steadily in the capital of the Runa Empire, slightly down south, as a civil servant in the conquered land.

But why did she appear here?

“…”

No, why she came here, he knew the reason already.

So Sion asked. Before Eslina, who had a tearful expression, entered the hall and opened her mouth,

“…Are you here because of Calne?”

He has asked.

“…I am sorry for leaving Runa and going against your orders. But once I heard the People’s District of Urd that Calne-san had been protecting had been occupied by the Remrus Empire… that all the soldiers situated in the People’s District of Urd had been killed, this rumour…”

“…”

“But, but, Calne-san is here, right? He should have retreated successfully, and joined back with the main army, right?”

“…”

“Please tell me that is the case… is it? Calne-san he… can’t be dead… right…”

Her voice was trembling because of the words she spoke, her expression had contorted too. She pressed her chest forcefully, squeezing out her voice.

An expression as if she were about to cry.

She had an expression that said she would immediately break down here.

Sion looked at her face.

Her brother had been killed, then this time, she could possibly lose a superior who had always accompanied her, she trembled because of this.

No, Calne and Eslina could possibly be dating. Otherwise she wouldn’t waver.

Because the two of them had always been together, so it could be possible that was the case.

Then, she could lose an important person again.

Because of war.

Because of this mad world.

Because,

“…”

Of this, useless king.

Thinking about his lack in power, Sion’s expression twisted too.

He couldn’t protect anyone. It was always because of the lack in power, and he was unable to protect his important people.

Ryner, Kiefer, Toni, Fahl, Tyle, Fiole, Calne, Eslina… Mother… even himself!

Everyone was crying, shouting, as they died, but I couldn’t do anything to protect them.

They were clearly calling for me to save them.

Everyone, had shouted for me to save them, but I couldn’t protect them… He hated himself.

He really hated his helplessness.

But, he couldn’t reveal such an expression.

Because he had revealed such an expression earlier, it had caused a girl to be killed. He only showed his weak side a little, but many things were too late to take back.

So, progress.

So, he could only step over this and progress.

So, Sion looked at Eslina and smiled,

“…Calne, is not dead.”

He said.

And Eslina raised her face, her face shone, at the same time, the tears she had been holding back poured forth.

“Then, then…”

But Sion interrupted her, continuing.

“But, he has been kidnapped by the Remrus Empire.”

“…How can that…”

“But relax, I have ordered my subordinate to infiltrate Remrus and rescue Calne. They are very talented… Because they are extremely talented, so Calne will definitely be fine.”

He said.

But Eslina looked at him with a slightly doubtful expression.

And, Sion said,

So as not to say anything outside of this, he said again,

“It’ll be alright, trust me.”

He smiled as he said.

Of course, Eslina’s expression did not brighten at this.

This was to be expected.

Her lover had been kidnapped by the opposing country.

And Calne was not an ordinary soldier, but a Major General of Roland. In order to gain information from Roland, he would surely undergo intensive torture.

And after that, the useless Calne, would continue to be used, and perhaps be killed as a demonstration?

No matter what, Calne’s future was not optimistic.

A minute… no, even they were late by a second in rescuing him, Calne could possibly be killed.

But,

“…”

Sion was no longer worried about Calne.

Of course, because Remrus Empire was a disgusting country ruled by a monster, wanting to save him was not so easy.

According to the report that Luke had submitted about Remrus, the people of that country could have had been affected by a brainwashing spell.

That meant, if he sent someone who had no ability carelessly, he could be brainwashed in return, causing a backfire in his plans.

But, even if that was indeed the case, Sion was not worried about Calne, because he had sent his best subordinate.

It wasn’t because the most talented spy in the whole of Roland, Luke Stokkart was in Remrus.

It wasn’t because Luke would save Calne.

Luke who was only a human, was not Remrus’s opponent.

But Sion had sent a different subordinate.

Another assassin.

Another spy.

He had sent a different monster into Remrus.

Then,

“…”

Sion smiled.

No, this smile, was fake.

He was always uneasy, fearful of being tortured by pain.

But for the sake of Eslina who was looking into his eyes, looking at him uneasily, he smiled, and looked at the maps on the battle discussion table again.

He looked at the country that Claugh and Miller were fighting now.

He looked at the Remrus Empire that Luke and countless other teams had infiltrated.

◆◆◆◆

Then the scene changed to the north.

Further up north from the former Autonomous Holy City of Cassla and People’s District of Urd where the Roland army was stopped.

In a country called the Country of God in the southern part of the Central Continent.

The country where the chosen people of God lived.

The scenery of this country, seemed to be covered with a layer of fog.

Of course, because it was transparent, although the eyes could not see it, but there was something there.

It was like a thin layer of peace.

A disgusting, fake stability.

Looking at the membrane of the Rhule Fragmei that covered this country,

“…Ah~ A strong magic was cast… It’s really done carelessly. If it’s such a strong power, humans will become abnormal.”

She said.

The place where she was, was on the roof top of a church in the Remrus Empire.

No, it should be said she was on a sharp spire.

From there, she looked down at the entire Remrus.

Because the wind was strong, normally speaking it wouldn’t be possible to stand in that sort of place, but she didn’t care. She looked around, as she was blown at by the wind.

She surveyed the Remrus Empire.

She surveyed this large land that was governed by brainwashing magic.

“…”

Then every time she looked at this scenery, her caramel-coloured ponytail would sway slightly.

Large and round eyes, a small body. On that small body there was something like battle armour.

But, it couldn’t be seen which country she belonged to.

Then, she heard a voice.

“…Captain~”

The voice of a man calling her sounded.

Then she looked down.

They were Human αs .

They were her subordinates, Human α s called Lach, Lear, Moe.

They were looking at her worriedly.

“It’s, it’s dangerous, please come down!”

“Wh-what will happen if you fall!?”

“We’ll be lectured by Luke-senpai!”

Hearing that, she laughed.

She laughed with an innocent expression.

She laughed with a flirtatious expression.

Then she ignored her subordinates’ voices, and surveyed the Remrus Empire again.

“…Then then, although I heard most of it… But this way everything has changed into something strange, what shall we do?”

She muttered.

“What do you think? Remrus Remuld Aarqued? Can you end the show in the end?”

She murmured.

“Sion Astal rejected the seduction and didn’t embrace me… The Lonesome Demon Ryner Eris Reed has been separated into two in the time that we were unaware of… In the end, it’s that. At the same time when we Goddess went mad, this. Ahah, although you are not a Goddess … But, at the same time when we went mad…”

She murmured.

“Who created the Goddess , and after which because it was too troublesome, created the Hero to destroy the Goddess , but the Hero was mad too. In order to stop the mad Hero , they created us Human α… This time Human has gone mad, and new scenarios are developing… and such. What is going on? Although we say it’s mad, mad, but this world, doesn’t it have sensible people?”

She muttered.

Of course this voice didn’t spread. No, so that it wasn’t spread out, she kept control over her voice, controlling how far it spread.

Not only that, she had set up a barrier, so that her presence was not felt by Remrus Remuld Aarqued.

“Ma, even though I am also mad because of love, I have no right to talk about other people…”

She pressed a hand to her chest. She pressed on her small chest. She felt her chest, and could feel her heart beating, the sound of it beating.

Feeling the emotions of the original owner of this body stirring.

This voice was extremely warm, comfortable. And following that voice, was the feelings of this body’s owner, despair, like entered her body.

This body shouted that it loved Ryner.

It yelled that it loved Ryner Lute.

It yelled that it loved humans.

It yelled that it loved every companion.

“…”

This body was frantically yelling useless things.

But even though it was something useless,

“…”

It was also extremely adorable.

It was always like that.

Really, I am always like that.

I can see the important meaning in useless things.

I can see the beauty in useless things.

And in the end even though there is no change, but I betrayed the Goddesses , interfered in the love between the Hero and the Demon .

Although I helped that pitiful love, the body that Humans created,

“…This time, let me support this lady’s love.”

She murmured.

This Human had a strong love that was rare in the current world.

If she were given up on then she would cry out, this body strongly loved the man called Ryner Lute.

If it were for Ryner Lute, she could die.

If Ryner Lute laughed, it didn’t matter if he were snatched away by other women.

Ryner Lute, Ryner Lute. Ryner, Ryner, Ryner… that Human continued to say.

Then her face reddened slightly.

Every time this resounding feeling entered her body, she would have the same feelings as that Human .

She released a small, small breath.

“…Ryner.”

She tried saying.

Immediately her heart had a reaction.

Her heart jumped strongly.

Then she tried sighing again,

“Hah…”

Then she laughed.

She laughed happily.

A flirtatious, innocent, beautiful smile appeared.

“… This Human created me, I can mostly absorb her feelings… This…”

She said.

“…This, is very interesting.”

She said.

“Why can this be controlled, the Goddesses thought. Why can something like this be controlled, the Demon and Hero thought. Why can such a strong emotion… To organisms that can hold such beautiful emotions, they clearly shouldn’t be able to control…”

In the end, the world events had become odd.

Initially the Goddesses wanted to do this.

Initially the Hero wanted to do this.

This time it was the Humans that planned to change everything.

The events that were uncontrollable had expanded, and it was unknown what kind of ending it would have.

It was different from normal.

When had this started from?

I do not know.

Was it started by a man called Lieral, yelling don’t kill my son, who resisted fate?

Or was it started by the eldest son of the Eris family, who ate the Demon Eris in order to protect his younger sister and became the Devourer Lucile ?

Or was it started by the Hero who didn’t kill the Lonesome Ryner ?

I do not know.

No one knows.

But, she thought.

In the end, no one is able to control anything, she thought.

But, everyone is trying to live frantically.

Everyone is desperately yelling about love.

So,

“…Ahah, it’s like this”

She said.

To her chest.

To her heart.

She who had been called the Goddess of Reincarnation , said with a satisfied expression.

“…It’s like that… that you want to stay by Ryner Lute’s side… that must be outside the expected events. No one knows of the story that is being created.”

Saying that, she laughed.

She could already feel that her words were slowly changing.

Her consciousness was being devoured by the Human that should have been controlled completely.

Her consciousness was slowly being devoured, collapsed, and merged with the Human that had been created to be manipulated.

Like how Sion Astal was devouring the Fallen Mad Hero Asruld Roland , this Human is also… devouring me, taking, and merging with my consciousness.

Of course I can defend against this.

It was even easy to erase this Human ’s consciousness, because she had done that before.

But,

“…”

She didn’t resist.

Because this seemed interesting.

Because this seemed pleasant.

Because if she could merge with this girl who was emotionally wealthy and filled with love, it was an extremely satisfying matter.

So she laughed, she laughed happily.

“…Ahah…ahah, I…. I originally thought after being embraced by Asruld , being devoured… becoming Lonesome Ryner ’s thing… This way, Lonesome Ryner and Demon Eris will be unable to become one. If he can gain me, Lonesome Ryner himself will gain everything… That means now, I can change the events. I can change everything. But why is that? Why is that? Why is there something like this? Why can someone like me who is an idiot, turn my back on everything?”

After asking that, she asked herself.

“…Ahahaha, ahaha, it must be, like this. Because I’m mad. I’m mad because of love.”

Saying that, she patted her chest.

Then, the beating of her chest stopped. She stopped the feelings of the Human that were forcefully entering her.

And then started to move.

The movements of the feelings, were even slower than just now.

And even so, even so,

“…One third has already been merged”

She laughed.

Ahaha she laughed.

Using a gentle expression like a child she laughed.

This expression, was something that this Human ’s body had. Innocent, a very cute smile that made everyone want to be gentle to her.

She laughed with that expression.

“But, please hold on. Let me move with my own consciousness for a little longer. Just a little longer, a little longer, I will create a path that is beneficial for the person you love, then your consciousness will take over…”

She said.

Then she turned her head, using that rhythm to make it seem like she was going to fall off the spire because of the strong wind.

“Waaaaaaaaa”

She cried.

Then her subordinates,

“W-we’re coming now, captain!”

“Wait…Moe, go up quickly!”

Hearing that, she laughed, she laughed happily. As she fell from the spire, she used several magics. And her body floated up lightly.

“I tricked you~ Were you shocked? Humans ?”

She landed before her subordinates, and laughed.

Then her subordinates looked at her with wide, surprised expressions, what was she doing? They asked, but they only received laughter that went heh heh as their answer.

“I’m amazing right~”

She raised her chest.

Then everyone praised that she was really amazing, really amazing.

It was only praise, but her body—this Human ’s body, felt satisfied.

To this simple structure, she laughed.

She laughed.

She,

“…”

The Goddess of Reincarnation Milk Ephillet laughed.

“Then, it’s almost time to meet up with Luke. Then after we break out Calne Kaiwal… we’ll cut this country’s king—Remrus Remuld Aarqued into large chunks!”

## 08. Volume 8 - The Future Of The Broken Magician

### 001. Influence Map Of Menoris

## Influence Map of Menoris

### Anti-Roland Coalition = People's Republic of Sphelliyet

♦ Ferris Eris

Ryner's partner. A girl with unworldly beauty who's a master swordswoman. Her love for dango knows no bounds.

♦ Vois Fiurelle

Manipulating the coalition from the backstage, he was originally a leader of a swindler group.

♦ Kiefer Knolles

Originally a spy from a neighbouring country, she's in love with Ryner.

Demon King Ryner Lute

The king of the Anti-Roland Coalition = People's Republic of Sphelliyet. Was best friends with Sion.

### Roland Empire

♦ Lucile Eris

The head of the that has protected Roland's king for generations. Ferris's older brother.

♦ Calne Kaiwal

Sion's ally from the previous Revolution, a Major General in the Roland army. Presently, he's a prisoner in the Remrus Empire.

♦ Milk Callaud

Captain of the "Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squad". Grew up in Roland's Special Institute #307 like Ryner.

Hero King Sion Astal

Putting an end to the tyrannical rule of the corrupt nobles, an illegitimate prince who started a revolution to take the throne. After unifying the southern continent, he now aims to advance into the central continent.

### Other Powers

Azure Princess Mercenaries

♦ Pia Varliere

The queen of the Azure Princess Mercenaries, a bearer of a Congenital Magic Abnormality. Ryner's childhood friend.

Cursed Eyes Bearers

♦ Ene

"Torch Curse" bearer. The one who guides Tiir and the Cursed Eye bearers.

♦ Tiir Rumibul

As one who possess an "Iino Doue"that absorbs magic, now after Lieral's life.

Remrus Empire

♦ Remrus Remuld Aarqued

A mysterious man who rules over the Remrus Empire as a god's child. At war with Roland.

Unknown Affiliation

♦ Lieral Lieutolu

As Ryner's father, the Roland noble Duke Lieutolu. A magic scholar of the highest level.

### Gastark Empire

♦ Reeglewaz Pentest

The commander of the Gastark Empire's army. Riphal's right-hand man.

♦ Lir Orla, Kuu Orla, Sui Orla

As spies from Gastark, the three of them are siblings. Each of them is in possession of "Rhule Fragmei".

Hero King Riphal Edea

Having gained control over the northern continent, the king of the Gastark Empire. He has a large sword that, by offering part of his body as compensation, can unleash large-scale destruction. Glouvil's wielder.

### 002. Chapter 1: The Wound Of The Cross

It was always like this, Ryner thought.

It was always like this for him, he thought.

Just when he'd finally met his father again.

Right when he was finally able to meet the father that he'd forgotten all this time, the worst scene developed before his eyes.

"......"

Before his eyes, a monster came to devour and kill his father.

A monster like him who possessed cursed eyes—

With black eyes in which a glowing red cross appeared, called the Iino Doue , a monster used those eyes to devour and kill his father.

And his father was no longer moving.

That monster—the monster named Tiir Rumibul gouged out his father's heart and absorbed it through those eyes.

And his father was no longer moving.

Fallen to the ground, his father was still.

"......"

Ryner couldn't do anything about it.

It happened so quickly that he couldn't do anything.

Nevertheless, he stared down at his father's motionless body.

No, on the contrary, he looked at the father he'd lost so quickly, absorbed by Tiir's eyes.

"......"

He screamed.

He let out a scream that tore through his throat, before swinging a fist.

He swung his fist, using the right arm he'd received from his father, at Tiir's face.

However, it didn't connect.

As Tiir had devoured his father's magic and, furthermore, his body, his power had been enhanced and so his movements were too quick for Ryner to follow.

At the same time, Tiir's arm reached out in his direction and grabbed his neck with unbelievable strength. Applying enough pressure that it seemed like he could tear off his neck,

"... Calm down, Ryner,"

Tiir said something like that.

But Ryner didn't stop. After seeing what had just happened, he didn't care if he ended up breaking his neck in the process, and so continued to struggle.

"Damn it,"

Tiir said, groaning.

And he let go. So that Ryner wouldn't die. So that his neck wouldn't be broken, Tiir let go of him and took a step back. Like that, Tiir moved away from Ryner's collapsed father.

To that,

"Dad!"

Ryner said, before moving to lift his fallen father up.

Tiir spoke.

"Wait, Ryner! I haven't killed him yet! Don't approach that monster!"

He exclaimed in a frantic voice, to which Ryner glared at Tiir and,

"That monster... The monster here is you!"

He shouted.

He called Tiir a monster.

And at that, for a moment, Tiir's expression became clouded.

But Ryner didn't care about that.

Avoiding Tiir's pursuit, he stood over his father as if to guard him, and as he did so,

"... Dad!"

He called out one more time.

But there was no reply.

However, he desperately continued,

"... Hey, this is a joke, right? You're stronger than this, right? Aren't you a genius at magic? Then, then this kind of thing..."

Interrupting those words,

"No, he'll die here,"

Tiir said.

And then he moved.

As expected, Ryner's eyes weren't able to follow Tiir's movements.

But in response, Ryner changed the purpose of his eyes. Rising in the center of his eyes was a glowing, iridescent pattern that traced the coil of magic within Tiir's body.

The eyes that were supplying Tiir's body with magical power, significantly boosting his physical capabilities—he grasped it.

Tiir was behind him, moving to devour his father's body.

Red crosses blazing, he opened his mouth wide.

And to that,

"Like I'd let you!"

He shouted. He turned around. However, he wasn't capable of stopping Tiir's movements. His strong suit was magic, but even aside from the fact that that guy's Iino Doue would absorb it, he didn't even have time cast a spell.

And so,

"......"

Ryner used his body as a shield to defend against Tiir's attack. If Tiir wanted to attack, he'd have to get through him—

However, there,

"Nnn—"

There was a familiar woman's voice close to his ear.

Suddenly, a blonde woman appeared before him.

It was Ferris.

She swung her sword down at Tiir.

In that instant, a high-pitched metallic sound rang out. Ferris's sword had hit Tiir's mouth.

However, Tiir's mouth easily stopped the attack there.

"......"

No, in reality, Tiir's mouth had been cut by Ferris's sword; however, it immediately healed.

Having devoured his father's magic, Tiir's regenerative abilities were abnormally powerful, so perhaps there was nothing that could harm him.

Looking at that, Ryner thought.

This is bad , he thought.

Right now, right here, how to stop Tiir—he couldn't think of anything.

Nevertheless, he readied his posture—

Tiir spoke.

Furthermore, Ferris also spoke.

On top of that, the father he'd thought to be dead up until then, at the same time,

" Idiot, do you intend to die!? "

They all shouted at him.

"Eh?"

In response to being yelled at by everyone at once, he accidentally let his voice slip.

Moreover, Tiir scowled.

"Damn it, as I thought, he didn't die..."

He swung a fist at his father, which the latter, previously exhausted, grinned at, and,

" Iino Doue bearers are certainly my natural enemies, but... if you alone could kill me, would the Priests need to create so many of you?"

He said that kind of thing.

And then his father disappeared.

Then, a short distance away, he reappeared.

Dusting dirt off of his clothes, he picked up his fallen briefcase.

Already, by that point, the hole that Tiir had left when he'd thrust through his chest and the missing arm he'd given to Ryner had been restored.

Regarding that, Tiir spoke.

"... Monster."

His father—Lieral Lieutolu—smiled and replied.

"I won't deny that."

"I'll kill you."

"That's impossible for you alone. Shouldn't your leader... that Torch Curse girl already understand that?"

"......"

"Hit it right on the head, did I? Then was your aim to prevent me and Ryner from making contact?"

However, over there, Tiir spoke. Sharply narrowing his eyes in which the red cross floated,

"... No, you're to die here."

Lieral shrugged.

"That, I understand."

At that,

"Hey, Dad!"

Ryner said, to which Lieral looked at him kindly.

"You don't understand what's going on?"

He said what was on Ryner's mind, at which Ryner nodded, fed up.

"Geez, how am I supposed to understand!? You died in front of me and then came back to life—I thought I was gonna have a heart attack."

"Ahaha. Ryner loves me..."

"Just die!"

Ryner groaned, to which Lieral laughed again. Then, looking at him with a slightly somber expression,

"... But you shouldn't be so emotional over my death and resurrection. After all, my life is almost over. After all, she... Iruna died just now..."

His words stopped there.

And with a smiling and yet somewhat sad face,

"No, well, that's enough. Now then, moving on, shall we wrap things up here?"

He said.

Then staring at Tiir,

" Iino Doue bearer. For what purpose did you come here?"

He asked.

Tiir looked as if he were going to answer.

"......"

But over there, Lieral stamped his foot.

And he said one word.

"CHIGASHIRA,"

He murmured.

That was a spell from Roland.

However, Lieral didn't recite the incantation.

He didn't draw the magic circle.

Nevertheless, even though he only said one word, the magic activated.

Ryner's eyes looked at that structure. Looking at it, it wasn't something he could imitate at all.

Those complicated magic equations coiled around the inside of Tiir's body.

And then, Chigashira easily activated.

It activated behind Tiir.

Tiir immediately reacted, but it was a second too late. Stakes rose from the ground, as Chigashira pierced Tiir from behind.

"Gah..."

Tiir moaned, as he tried to remove himself from the stakes. But Lieral stamped his foot a few more times. More stakes appeared, as they stabbed through Tiir's entire body.

"......"

The wounds instantly healed. Using the magic he'd devoured from Lieral, the wounds instantly healed.

But, it seemed he'd reached his limit.

Ryner could see that the magic within Tiir was being drained away.

At that, Lieral laughed.

"If Chigashira is activated from the ground, you can't devour it, it seems? Nooow then, shall we see how long your regenerative abilities will last~?"

He said, to which Ryner spoke.

"Hey, Dad, don't tell me you plan on killing him..."

Lieral shook his head at that.

"Not at all. He's a necessary person with his capabilities, after all. However, it's best to weaken him so that he can't follow me..."

Saying that, he stamped his foot against the ground once more.

From behind, another stake flew at Tiir, which he somehow evaded.

And then after lowering his body, he lunged at Lieral.

But in response, Lieral laughed.

"Haha, you can't win. You don't have any power left, do you? Your advantage was that you'd devoured the Sleepiness Cloud that I'd unwittingly created. But that power is already no more."

He said that and then took a step forward.

Upon that, Tiir scowled and took a step back.

At that,

"See now?"

Lieral said and laughed again.

Tiir glared at that face, looking increasingly annoyed.

"... I understand that much. I can't win this anymore."

"How honest of you."

"But don't get any closer to Ryner. You'll drive him mad. I've been given orders to..."

"Protect him from me?"

"Correct."

"You've got it all wrong, you know. I love Ryner."

"That's the worst quality."

"Haha."

"For certain, to Ryner, you'll..."

He began, but then Lieral spoke.

"But that's enough. What I wanted has already been completed. While you were frantically trying to attack me, everything was completed. I—I've already found my substitute,"

He said, laughing.

Then Lieral looked over in Ryner's direction.

No, rather, for some reason, he looked over at Ferris, who was by Ryner's side.

Regarding that,

"... Ryner,"

Ferris said.

He looked at her while she asked,

"What's going on here?"

However, Ryner didn't answer her question.

Or rather, he had no idea why Tiir had chosen now to appear or even why he'd then attacked Lieral.

But then Ferris,

"So, that blond-haired man is your father?"

She asked that sort of thing, to which Ryner looked at her with some surprise.

"How'd you know?"

"Didn't you call him 'Dad' just a while ago?"

"Ah~"

"Furthermore, he has the same listless, half-asleep air as you, doesn't he?"

"Eh~, is it really like that? He and I are alike?"

Ferris nodded.

"You're alike."

"Heh."

"However, it seems that he's far stronger than you."

"... Seems like it, yeah. Apparently, he's some kind of magic genius?"

"Hum. Well, you're still undefeated as the pervert master."

"You're still saying that kind of thing..."

Ryner said, looking at her with an astounded expression.

However, thanks to that pointless conversation with her, he'd calmed down a bit and began to think over the situation.

Well, even if he thought over the situation, he still had no idea why Tiir attacked Lieral.

However, for whatever reason, it felt like neither Lieral nor Tiir was Ryner's enemy. It seemed that they were both fighting to help him.

"Geez, it sure is troubling to be so popular,"

He said while smiling ruefully.

However he looked at it, the worst of the situation had passed. Tiir no longer had the power to kill Lieral. Ryner could see that with his eyes of the Solver of All Equations .

And it didn't seem like Lieral intended to do anything to Tiir.

In that case, it seemed that this fight was over.

That's why Ryner once more wondered, What the hell is going on here ? That was what whirled around inside his head.

However, in front of him, Lieral spoke.

He suddenly turned around, and,

"... What's this—it seems that something's coming from behind... Could it be that more Iino Doue bearers are coming here? So you weren't alone?"

He said.

In response, Tiir groaned.

"Damn it, exposed faster than I thought..."

And again he lowered his body.

At that, Lieral,

"Behind are two people. And from the right there's also someone with the Will Heim . I see. You're serious about killing me here. Then, you were the decoy to let your friends prepare,"

He said that sort of thing; however, in spite of that, he didn't seem tense at all.

Regarding that,

"... Hey, Dad, it'll be bad if you don't escape before Tiir's friends..."

Ryner tried to say, but Lieral interrupted.

And,

"I see. The Torch Curse girl truly foresaw my death. She saw that I would die here, then."

In response, a smile arose in Tiir's face.

"That's what I've been saying from the beginning."

"You'll kill me here?"

"That's correct."

"The Cursed Eye bearers who were born to kill me all gathered here for the sake of accomplishing that?"

"That's correct,"

Tiir said, nodding.

And to that, Lieral made a troubled face as he directed his gaze towards the sky.

"And you're saying that this scene—this was seen by that Torch Curse girl?"

He said, muttering it as if expecting somone to hear his question.

But there was no answer.

No response came down from the sky.

At that,

"Some~how, there are a lot of things strange about this... that Torch Curse girl kills me? For what reason? Why in the world was that seen by her... no, well, it's fine. I'll have to meet with her in person,"

He said, before moving.

He took a step forward.

Then his figure disappeared. At the very least, his movements couldn't be seen by Ryner.

And then in the next instant, he was standing behind Tiir. Only Ferris was able to react.

"Ryner,"

She urged, upon locating Lieral's figure.

From behind, he grabbed the collar of Tiir's neck.

To that, Tiir, in a panic, tried to look over his shoulder.

"Don't move or I'll kill you."

"Then go ahead and kill me."

"Ah, geez, you certainly are troublesome,"

Lieral said while letting go of Tiir. Then, he kicked his back.

And,

"Ryner,"

He called out his name, looking over at him.

Then, while looking at him, he smiled, and,

"You should come home sometime."

He said something like that, to which Ryner asked,

"To where?"

"Well, where, I wonder."

Then, Tiir swung his fist while speaking.

"Are you trying to escape?"

Lieral laughed.

"I'm escaping. You see, you made a mistake. You Cursed Eye bearers gathered here to kill me, correct? Then, the number of guards protecting the Torch Curse girl has decreased, hasn't it? My, my, this is bad. Your precious leader's life is in danger—"

There, Tiir shouted,

"Damn you!"

He swung his fist up at him. However, as expected, it didn't connect.

While laughing,

"Now then, now then, where she did arrive before? I'd best kill her before you return..."

Lieral said, as he suddenly fell back. Jumping back, his figure warped, and in the next instant, he moved back a great distance in one go.

Staring at that,

"Hey, are you really going?"

Ryner asked, to which Lieral nodded.

"Sorry. But we'll meet again."

"When?"

"Soon?"

"Like I said, when exactly?"

However, over there, Tiir called out.

"Kepel! Fire magic at me!"

As if in response to those words, a sash of light was released from somewhere and moved to strike Tiir.

However, Tiir devoured it.

Opening his eyes wide, he devoured the sash of light.

In that moment, magic power flowed through Tiir's body. As his entire body was supplied with that power,

"I'll kill you!"

He said, as his body's acceleration burst. In one movement, he erased the distance between him and Lieral.

But while looking at him with a calm expression,

"... If I take care of you again, you'll bounce back immediately,"

Ryner's father said.

Tiir was just before him.

However, his father held out his briefcase. He opened it. Papers spilled forth from within, moving to swallow up him and Tiir.

However, his father was no longer there.

It seemed that he'd disappeared within that cloud.

On top of that, the structure for how he'd disappeared wasn't visible to Ryner's eyes.

Honestly, it seemed that his father had stopped being human.

His body already wasn't that of a human's.

That was how he was able to so easily disappear.

That was how he had unbelievable power that exceeded that of a human's.

Naturally, he'd had to pay some sort of price. What that was, Ryner wasn't able to see.

"......"

However, at any rate, it seemed that this fight was over.

Ryner looked at Tiir, who'd missed the one he was to devour. Staring at the black-clothed Cursed Eye bearer who stood there, dumbfounded,

"Looks like it's already over, huh?"

He asked, but Tiir didn't turn around.

Regarding that, Ryner shrugged, before looking around. He could see people like Tiir—men with black hair and wearing black robes who'd gathered here at some point.

They were clearly all Cursed Eye bearers.

Two of them had the Iino Doue . One of them had eyes with abilities that Ryner hadn't seen before.

They gathered around Tiir.

"Did you kill him?"

They asked, to which Tiir shook his head and spoke.

"No."

"Then he escaped?"

"Yes."

"But the leader said to kill that monster here..."

"The future changed. Don't you understand that as well?"

"However—"

"The situation's become problematic. To Ene, that man..."

"Her whereabouts were exposed!?"

Tiir shook his head again, and,

"I don't know. But if it's him... In any case, we should return as well. We need to receive Ene's instructions again."

Then he turned around.

Staring at Ryner,

"Ryner,"

Tiir called, to which he responded.

"What is it?"

"Won't you come with us?"

At that, Ryner smiled and answered,

"I don't get what's going on at all, so no way."

Tiir smiled as well.

"Isn't that right? I didn't think our reunion would go so poorly..."

"If you think that was bad, then you should've done a proper greeting first,"

Ryner said, at which Tiir made a slightly troubled face.

"No, there wasn't quite the time for that. I'll explain on the way back. Come with us,"

He said, holding out his hand.

Ryner stared at that, before immediately turning to his partner.

"Well, what do you think?"

To that,

"You don't know?"

Ferris said.

He nodded as well.

"Something like that. At least, I have no clue what just happened here."

"That's because you're an idiot who doesn't understand anything."

"Is that right?"

"It's the truth."

"Well, I guess it's true that I really don't know what happened here..."

Ryner said, staring at Tiir as he contemplated.

Judging by pieces of Lieral and Tiir's conversation, it seemed that Tiir had come here to prevent Lieral and Ryner from making contact.

However, Ryner didn't understand his motivations behind that at all.

Tiir had said something at that time.

"You've been deceived. That's not your father, Ryner."

Furthermore, he'd said something else.

"My leader said that he's the greatest threat... that he's gone mad, more so than anyone else. So if he isn't killed... If he isn't killed right now, our important Ryner will be lured away."

Of course, Ryner had also noticed a few things vaguely off about his father.

No, rather than vaguely, from start to finish, he hadn't seemed human at all. Somehow, his entire body was composed of magic, and he hadn't died even after losing his heart.

But he didn't look like he'd gone mad.

At the very least, he didn't look like the mad monster Tiir spoke of.

I mean, for some reason, Lieral—Dad expressly came to save me.

He expressly came to tell the me who's killed so many and even killed Mom that he loved me.

He insistently told me things like how I was loved when I was born.

But Tiir came to kill that father.

And something like " So that our important Ryner won't be lured away, I have to kill him right now. "

So that he wouldn't be lured away.

So that he wouldn't be lured away by Lieral.

"......"

Of course, he was taken in by his father's words. Each word from him broke down the wall around his heart.

Him, who'd believed himself to be a cursed monster beloved by no one.

To him, who'd believed himself to be a monster who could only hurt others, he'd said such things—

"Seriously, since I was such a hesitant and troubled guy..."

He muttered under his breath.

Well, after suddenly being told he was loved like that, it was difficult to properly grasp matters.

But that's why, for sure, if Dad—if the man calling himself Lieral was an imposter and came here to lure me away with kind words, I'd say he succeeded , he thought.

If that man calling himself his father was an imposter—for example, if he was a monster born as part of the Goddesses , who'd appeared in the war against Gastark, in order to deceive Ryner.

"... Hold on, I haven't been hurt, have I?"

Ryner muttered, groaning slightly.

After all, his heart had already been swayed.

Being told that he was loved when he was born and how it was okay for him to have been born swayed a bit of his heart, again breaking down part of the wall that stretched around it.

But still, the idea that Dad was an imposter—it's possible , he thought.

After all, the Goddesses hated the Demon .

After all, the Goddesses hated Ryner.

Why did they hate him? Why the Goddesses and whatnot existed, etc., he didn't know yet.

When he'd taken in the Lonesome Demon' s power, he'd gotten a hold of some information, regarding how the demon wanted to save the Hero —that was all he knew.

But the Goddesses hated the Demon .

That was because the Demon wanted to kill all of the Goddesses .

To save the Hero , he would kill the Goddesses .

The demon that resided within Ryner's mind continuously muttered that.

So he'd understood immediately that part of the Goddesses had appeared and attacked, sending an assassin after him.

He'd noticed immediately that they wanted to kill him. They, from over there, came to kill him.

And if that was the case Lieral as well—if the man calling himself his father was a monster created by the Goddesses—then Tiir's actions made sense.

Otherwise, it was possible that Tiir had other reasons for wanting his father dead.

"... Well then, this is troubling. Seriously. Who the hell is the enemy?"

Ryner muttered.

He already understood that Tiir wasn't the enemy. After all, Ryner knew that Tiir was the same as him, as a Cursed Eye bearer who'd been persecuted by humans, who carried the same sorrow.

However, if Tiir wasn't the enemy, did that mean that his father was a lie after all?

Or if that wasn't it, then had something gone astray?

"......"

Ryner stared at Tiir.

Tiir, holding his hand out—

"Now, hurry and come with us,"

He said one more time, and then,

"Or else we'll force you to?"

He said that sort of thing.

However, Ryner shrugged, and,

"You'll force me to?"

He asked, at which Tiir smiled faintly.

"For disobedient children, we've learned to rely on force to take them along."

Ryner laughed at those words as well.

"Oh, oh, how scary~. But I have allies everywhere here... do you really think you can take me along by force so easily?"

"I think so, yes."

"Ehhh, you're pretty confident in yourself."

"Of course. You already understand, don't you, Ryner? Compared to humans, we who possess God's Eyes..."

Ryner interrupted him and spoke.

"But these humans have been persecuting us all this time, haven't they? When it comes to how dangerous humans can be... Don't we Cursed Eye bearers know best?"

"......"

Tiir became quiet at that. As he narrowed his eyes, the cross within them began to glow a bright red.

Naturally, he intended to take Ryner along by force.

But Ryner smiled cheerfully, and,

"Well, just hold on for a bit. I'll decide for myself whether to go with you or not."

As expected, Tiir looked troubled at that.

"But—"

He said, to which Ryner shook his head.

"You don't need to explain. Besides, your explanation would only cover whatever benefits your situation, right? Likewise, if Dad were here to explain, he'd only cover what benefits his situation. In that case, I'll decide for myself what to believe,"

He said.

Tiir stared at him; however, he lowered his hand that he was holding out.

And his expression became slightly uneasy.

That guy hated humans and was completely self-assured in that, but he was kind to Cursed Eye bearers.

That, Ryner had already seen many times.

People from Gastark had killed the Cursed Eye bearers Lafra and Pueka, who were dear to Tiir.

Thus, Tiir was likely being sincere.

That he came here to save Ryner—he was saying that from the bottom of his heart.

However, what Tiir believed and the truth were two different things. No, from the beginning, he wasn't sure of what the truth was.

In that case, how should he move forward?

Ryner asked himself that.

And then,

"... Hey, Ferris."

He said, again speaking to his partner beside him.

He spoke to the ever-reliable and violent woman.

She turned to him with her eternally emotionless face.

"What is it?"

To that, Ryner asked,

"Um, I want to ask you something again."

"Hmm."

"Before, how did you know that that blond-haired man was my dad?"

Ferris looked at him with a curious expression.

"You haven't noticed yet?"

He said, to which Ryner smiled, and,

"Just answer the question. How did you know that Lieral—that blond-haired man was my dad?"

Ferris answered,

"His face was..."

"... Like mine?"

"Right."

"But don't you think that's weird? Looking at that guy, he was clearly only in his twenties, right? More specifically... even if I called him my dad, there's no way you'd think that by looking at him."

However, as expected, she easily responded to that question.

"That's simple. In other words, you're the pervert family who, for the last eight years, to married girls..."

"Hey, okay, okay... that's enough already... so? Why do you know the truth? Have you met with that guy before?"

He asked, looking at her as she returned his gaze, before she said something strange.

"Hmm. No, he appeared in my dreams before."

"Haa? A dream?"

"Yeah. As a pervert like you, that blond-haired man forcibly entered my dreams to deliver a message."

"A message?"

"Mmm."

"He specifically entered your dreams to give you a message?"

"That's right. He's quite the nuisance."

"Ehh... so Dad... um, ah, no, that blond-haired man came to you?"

He asked.

At that, a faint smile appeared in Ferris's expressionless face as she spoke.

"He told me about how you were a crybaby."

"Ah? What's with that?"

"Furthermore, that you were an idiot and garbage and thick-headed."

Ryner looked at Ferris with half-closed eyes, and,

"You're lying, aren't you?"

He said, to which Ferris—

"Of course,"

She said.

Ryner smiled at that.

"So I'm a huge idiot, huh?"

"Always."

"No, well, even if I'm always one... uh, then, well, that's true."

"So you're saying that it's the truth."

"Ri~ght... Well, that's enough. So, leaving that aside as the truth—well?"

Ryner asked.

"What was the message?"

In response, Ferris said,

"Just that."

"Haa? So you're seriously saying that he entered your dreams just to say that and then left?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Liaaar."

Ferris shrugged, and,

"Well, in the end, since you're a piece of trash who'll cry if left alone, I have to stay by your side—he told me that as well."

"......"

"He asked that I would stay by your side,"

She said that.

To that,

"... Heh,"

Ryner said.

Then, staring at her,

"... So how did you reply to that?"

He asked.

And in the moment he asked that, he regretted it. After all, there was no need to ask such a question.

But she looked up at him. Staring at him with her usual emotionless face,

"Do you want to hear?"

She said.

At that, Ryner smiled wryly, and,

"No, no. Forget about it,"

He said, shaking his head.

After all, he didn't really need to hear it.

After all, he could already take a guess as to what her reply was.

Her reply was clear by the fact that she'd come here.

At any rate, Ryner was an Alpha Stigma monster. He was a monster who could go berserk at any moment and kill everyone around him.

On top of that, he'd already tried to kill her once.

As an Alpha Stigma bearer who'd gone berserk, he'd tried to kill her.

In spite of that, she always stayed by his side.

Always staying next to him and swinging her sword and beating him up.

"......"

No, it wasn't just her.

There were all of his friends here.

Even though their chances of winning the war against Gastark were almost non-existent, Kiefer, Toale, and Iris and co. were idiots who came with him to this battlefield.

They believed in a monster like him who didn't know how to help, and leapt right into the battlefield with him.

After that much, the answer is already clear, Ryner thought.

No matter how much I run, I don't want to be alone anymore, Ryner thought.

He wasn't sure when exactly this kind of troubling thing, being surrounded by friends, had happened.

He could no longer cry and call out in loneliness or try to run away, what with all these friends here.

And he wanted to help his friends—that was what he thought.

If his power could be of any use to them.

Continuing to be abused as a monster, cursed for his eyes—nevertheless, for Ferris's sake, for Sion's sake, for his friends' sakes, he wanted to be of use to his friends. That was why he was born into this world, he now thought.

And so Ryner spoke.

After looking at Ferris with a faint smile, his expression changed into a wider one as he spoke to Tiir.

"... As I figured, I'm not going with you guys. My friends are right here."

Then to that, Tiir said,

"You've been decei..."

"I haven't been deceived. Or if I have, it's fine. I've decided for myself that I like living like this. Being deceived isn't hurting me,"

Ryner said.

In response, Tiir stared at him with a pitying and sad expression.

"... Alpha Stigma bearers are always like that. Because of that kindness, humans betray them and they lose control."

However, to that, Ryner shrugged.

"I don't possess the Alpha Stigma anymore."

"But you'll still be betrayed."

"That's why it's good to be different."

"... Don't overlook things."

Ryner smiled at Tiir's words, and,

"If that's the case, then let's do this together. That's what Lafra entrusted me with. So..."

And so, he held out his hand.

The same way Sion did for him.

The same way Ferris did for him.

The same way Kiefer, Milk, Toale, and his friends did for a dangerous monster like him, Ryner did for Tiir.

Holding his hand out towards the heart of the wounded Cursed Eye bearer, Ryner spoke.

"Become our ally. If you can come to think the same way I do, then you should become the ally of those I care about,"

He said that.

Tiir stared at him with a surprised expression.

"... What are you talking about, Ryner? Us, allies with humans? That's impossible. You should know that very well..."

Interrupting him, Ryner spoke.

"You don't know until you've tried."

"I know. "

"No, you don't. Rather, up until now, I hadn't done anything either. In reality, I was lonely, hurting, and running away from everything. But that was no good. The more I tried to run away, the more hurt I became. So, already—if you can't endure it, then shouldn't you stop trying to run? Really, you as well..."

However, at that moment, Tiir's expression changed. Glaring at him—

"... I what?"

"......"

"You couldn't be suggesting that I desire to be with humans, could you?"

"At the very least, you desire coexistence..."

However, Tiir laughed. Looking at Ryner as if he were a fool, he laughed, and,

"Ha, haha, what are you talking about? Humans have rejected coexistence. Don't you remember how Lafra was killed? Pueka? They wanted to believe in being kind to humans. They wanted to believe in being kind. And in the end, what happened to them? Who it was that killed them?"

"That's..."

"Two people who were still children? No, Alpha Stigma bearers are always killed as children. Without knowing anything, they're killed. So, Ryner. Do you know? Do you even know exactly how many of our friends they've killed?"

"That, I..."

"You know and you say to coexist with humans? They who laugh as they kill us—you're saying to coexist with those unsightly humans?"

To that question,

"At least with my friends..."

Ryner tried to say, but stopped.

After all, those words wouldn't reach Tiir. With the wall that lay around his heart, firmly in place, those words wouldn't reach him. He was the same as him. Running away from everything, he was the same as him.

That was why Ryner stopped his words.

And how he could reach Tiir's heart, he wondered. How he could get him to have faith, he wondered.

In a troubled voice,

"... It appears that you've already been misled by Lieral Lieutolu's words,"

Tiir said that sort of thing.

"Well then, what should we do now? How can we take you along..."

Ryner frowned at Tiir, and,

"Sorry. I'm not going with you,"

He said.

To that, Tiir narrowed his eyes in sadness.

"No matter what?"

"Yeah."

"You believe in the words of that monster—Lieral Lieutolu—more than mine?"

Ryner shook his head at that.

"No,"

He replied.

And thinking of Lieral's—of Dad's—kind expression, he spoke.

"Back then, whether or not that blond-haired man was really my dad, I still don't know."

Tiir, with a slightly troubled expression, stared his way.

"Then why?"

Ryner answered that.

"That's not the point here. I believe in something different. I believe that we can stay by the side of humans..."

However, interrupting him, Tiir spoke.

"The idea makes me sick."

"Is that so? But isn't good to be surprised once in a while?"

"That's all fake."

"If that's the case, then fine. I'm happy here,"

Ryner said.

Then, looking at Ferris,

"This person is a close friend of mine, in addition to my other friends. And yet I'm still fine,"

He said that.

In response, Tiir, as expected, looked at him with a sad expression.

"......"

Silently, he stared at him.

Slowly, Tiir's surroundings became noisy. People started to awaken. As the Sleepiness Spell cloud that Lieral had cast disappeared, people started to awaken.

And so the each of the other Cursed Eye bearers spoke.

"... Hey, Tiir, what are we going to do?"

"We should leave this place before the humans wake up."

"Just take him along by force. We can talk on the way there."

"Ene's worried. We don't have any more time to waste here."

They said those kinds of things.

Nevertheless, Tiir said nothing and silently stared at Ryner.

With his cursed eyes.

With that red cross, he stared at Ryner.

"......"

Then, he turned around.

And,

"... I understand. Let's go back."

He started to walk.

He was going to leave.

Ryner didn't know what he could do. He didn't have the words needed to open Tiir's heart.

Nevertheless,

"Hey, Tiir,"

Ryner said.

Tiir didn't turn around.

However, Ryner decided to continue.

"Ahh~, um, I know that at this point, you can't believe in humans, but... but, well, it's like this. We can change humans, don't you think? We Cursed Eye bearers... well, not Cursed Eyes , but as you call them, God's Eyes . If, uh, we can be not discriminated against for these God's Eyes —shouldn't we try for that?"

"......"

"I'm not saying that we can change the entire world. But at the very least, we can be by the side of the humans who don't fear us. To not be hated—shouldn't we try for that?"

"......"

"Hey, Tiir. You know already, don't you? No matter how much you run, this world is full of humans. Our side isn't so small either. If that's the case... If it's like that, shouldn't we all try to get along, huh? So together with me..."

Then, Tiir turned around.

"Be quiet,"

He said.

"Please be quiet,"

He said that.

"Why are you saying those kinds of things? Even though all that's left within humans is hatred... in spite of that, you would say such things? Have you forgotten what they did to you? The way humans looked at you with those eyes—have you forgotten those eyes, full of contempt?"

He asked.

And to that,

"I remember,"

Ryner replied.

There was no way he could forget. After all, he was continuously scorned as a monster. After all, as a worthless existence, he was continuously feared as an unsightly monster.

And he stopped coming into contact with people. Because he was afraid that he would get hurt if he did, he stopped moving forward.

Nevertheless—

"But I hate being alone even more."

"......"

"Besides, my friends are good guys."

"......"

"So I want you all to be with us. So come with us? Lafra wished for it... Hey, do you know what Lafra told me before he died? To save you. To save you all—that's what he told me. Together with humans, he wished for the sad Cursed Eye bearers to be saved..."

In a low voice, Tiir spoke.

"Wasn’t Lafra also killed by those humans?"

Ryner nodded.

"Yeah. That’s right. But Lafra wouldn't have resented them for it. Am I wrong?"

"... Ha, haha. Already, you’ve become ill. You Alpha Stigma bearers who believe in humans are always betrayed..."

"Betrayed or not, that’s not important. Stop running away already. Because you might be killed, you’re running away. But at least here, things are different. Against all odds, a Cursed Eye bearer like me has been accepted, and even though it’s pretty troublesome, I’m hailed as their important king. And there's an Alpha Stigma bearer named Arua too who's fighting with us even though he's just a kid. He's cooperating with humans and fighting with us in this war. He’s still a brat, and yet he already has a human fiancée, you know? What do you think about that?"

"......"

"I’m not saying that there isn’t any discrimination, and I know there's still a chance I might be betrayed, but... but is that any reason not to cooperate? Because you don't want to be hurt, you'll run away? Don’t you think that's just a bit weak? Well, I’ve always been running away, so I don’t have the right to say that, but..."

Ryner said.

Tiir stared at him. And as a light smile arose in his face—

"... Weak? We’re weak...? Ah, haha, I see. I understand. Are you trying to provoke me? However, that won’t work, Ryner. I don’t see how I’m confining myself with this, which is what you’re trying to say to me..."

However, in a slightly louder voice, Ryner interrupted and spoke.

"Ah, geez, this isn’t working out. Then, how can I persuade you?"

"......"

"What can I do to make you my ally?"

"......"

"Lafra wished for that. After that, I've always been thinking about it. If going along with you all would be for the better? If going along with humans would be for the better? I can’t say what the correct answer is. I can’t say what the perfect solution is. However, that Cursed Eye bearers and humans don’t have to hate each other, that coexistence is necessary—that’s what I think. Humans have many opinions, so don't you think there's a way? If it doesn't seem possible, then we've got to think about this with everything we've got."

"......"

"Geez, this is reaaaaaaaally bothersome. If humans and Cursed Eye bearers were to be together—I think that would be good. Maybe things aren’t enough right now, but we just need to endure for a bit. So come with us. If you think I'm wrong, then come with us and see for yourself. Not running away... well, ah, um, what is it? That wasn’t said very well, but anyway, this is really troublesome and just hurry up and become my ally already!"

He shouted those words.

And to that,

"......"

As expected, Tiir was silent.

No, he looked at Ryner as if Ryner were a complete idiot—he looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, and then suddenly turned around. With the other Cursed Eye bearers accompanying him, they started to leave the area.

And in that instant,

"As one would expect from Ryner. Great at explaining things to people,"

Ferris said, to which Ryner looked at her with half-closed eyes and spoke.

"... Sion would’ve done a better job, huh?"

"You aren’t him. However, now, now, you put your heart into that speech."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Mmm."

"Don't just nod like that..."

Ryner said, letting out a light sigh. He watched the disappearing backs of Tiir and the others.

He watched the Cursed Eye bearers who were quickly escaping from the awakening humans.

And then again, he thought of the late Lafra’s words.

The moment of his death.

Just before he was killed by the Lightning Beasts of Lir’s—of the Gastark soldier—he spoke.

Knowing that he was about to die, that guy smiled kindly.

"I'm truly glad to have met you."

He said that.

"You'll definitely keep your promise."

He said that.

And then, he died.

Smiling like that, he died.

Entrusting the other Cursed Eye bearers with Ryner, he died.

He thought of Lafra’s expression, and then staring at Tiir’s back,

"... He pushed a seriously bothersome task onto me, huh?"

He muttered.

Looking up at Ryner,

"... So, is it all right not to go with those guys?"

Ferris asked that sort of thing, to which Ryner looked at her.

"Hmm~? Did you want me to go with them?"

Then to that,

"It doesn’t matter either way. I’m only interested in the level of dango the Cursed Eye bearers make,"

She easily said such a thing.

Really, the last time Ryner left, she’d spoken much more forcefully.

Yet she said that.

"......"

To that, Ryner didn’t know what to say. And how she talked about Tiir’s group, he thought about that.

Rather than talk about the prejudiced Cursed Eyes or about humans, she swung her sword and always talked about dango, dango—an annoying woman. If Tiir were to get to know her, then his opinion of humans might change, Ryner thought.

To that,

"You really like dango, huh?"

Ryner said, to which she nodded.

"Of course."

"Of course?"

"Mm-hmm. Of course!"

"... Hum,"

He said, laughing.

He looked up at the sky.

The sky was starting to brighten up, as night faded away.

And with the sun’s rays, he could start to see the Anti-Roland Coalition army and his Nelphan allies.

Furthermore, it became noisier. The soldiers who were supposed to be standing on guard had fallen asleep as well and were now confused over just what had happened to them.

While thinking about how I don't wanna explain , he looked up at the morning sky one more time, and,

"... I really hate having to get up and do work in the middle of the night,"

He muttered.

At that,

"So, in the end, what were those guys fighting over?"

Ferris asked.

By "those guys", she meant Tiir and Lieral, it seemed.

However, Ryner only shrugged in response and didn't answer.

After all, in the end, he didn't know what had happened here.

Really, he couldn’t tell what the relationship between Lieral and Tiir and the other Cursed Eye bearers was.

On top of that, they’d caused a disturbance, but in the end, they left before explaining anything.

"They don't seem to be on good terms, huh?"

He said without thinking.

"No, well, Dad is... Tiir didn’t take my hand, huh? ... Well, I’m starting to think that was pointless. I didn't get a whole lot of information."

At those words, Ferris at his side—

"You’re just a flea, so anything you think is pointless."

"Yes, yes, that's nice."

"So is it really fine that you didn’t go? That’s what I’m saying. Previously, your father too—didn’t they all go back to their leader? If you’d gone with them, you would’ve at least learned their reasons..."

Ryner directed his gaze from the sky to Ferris.

And then behind her, he recognized Kiefer’s figure, and looked at her expression as it became surprised.

Furthermore, he could also see Toale. Ryner-san , he called.

Those two began to run towards him.

Ryner smiled at that. And again, he looked at Ferris.

"... My place is here,"

He said.

"I still don’t know what the situation is, but... there’s still the war with Gastark and Geihlficlant, isn’t there? Let’s not get sidetracked from that."

As he said that, Ferris looked his way.

"......"

For some reason, she smiled.

Her face was normally expressionless; however, she smiled happily.

And to that, Ryner smiled wryly back, and then looked in the direction of Kiefer and Toale, who were running towards them.

With his cursed eyes.

However, reflected in those hated, sleepy eyes , were his friends.

### 003. Chapter 2: Passion And Love

## Chapter 2: Passion and Love

"Ryner!"

Kiefer called out.

Like that, she moved to hug him. At her who was pressing her head and soft red hair into his chest,

"......"

Ryner made a troubled face as he looked down at her.

And,

"... Ah, sorry. You were worried?"

He said.

At that, Kiefer shook her head, still buried in his chest.

"I'm so glad that you awakened,"

She said in a voice that was already trembling as if she were crying, at which Ryner's expression became increasingly troubled.

Then he looked at Ferris to his side. Not even especially looking at Kiefer hugging him, she didn't appear to be thinking anything.

Following that, he looked at Toale.

Brown hair, gentle eyes. However, those eyes were somewhat cloudy. His eyes weren't looking at Ryner, but instead at Kiefer.

"......"

A while ago, he'd come out, and so it seemed that he liked Kiefer. But he was backing down for Ryner.

After all, it was clear to anyone whom Kiefer held feelings towards. In the war, Kiefer had announced the truth before everyone in a loud voice.

That she loved Ryner, she said in a loud voice.

And regarding that,

"......"

Naturally, Ryner had been aware.

He wasn't an idiot. Being treated so favourably, it was obvious. Years ago, back when they were still in the Roland Empire Royal Military Academy, playing around, he'd already been aware.

It was already a long, long time ago. Sion wasn't burdened with anything. Back when Tyle, Toni, and Fahl were still alive, he'd always been aware of her feelings.

He'd noticed; however, he'd pretended that he hadn't.

Because he wasn't qualified to accept her feelings. Because that he wasn't qualified to accept the feelings of pretty, kind, and earnest girl like her was what he'd thought—

That was why he'd always tried to run away.

He ran away from having to respond to her feelings.

Claiming that he was a cursed monster, he'd always been running away.

Despite that, she'd gone on a journey around the world to solve the mystery of the Alpha Stigma .

In order to save him, she'd gone around the world.

He didn't know how he should respond to those feelings.

Even without these eyes , he didn't think he was someone worthy of being considered important by a good girl like her.

At any rate, he was the kind of man that Ferris was always talking about.

A coward, a good-for-nothing, someone who can waste away for an eternity, a worthless man who's always saying that it'd be good if he could sleep for fifteen years after this—whyyyy would she like someone like me, huh? He thought.

She shouldn't choose someone like me, he wanted to tell her.

A good girl like her choosing a monster like me...

"......"

He was again thinking those kinds of thoughts; however, he denied them.

Furthermore, he recalled the words Lieral had told him.

"Those eyes aren't genetic..."

Those words.

Then his father had said this.

"Whether they're genetic or not—why am I talking about that? If your child's eyes are cursed, then shouldn't it be good to protect them with everything you have?"

He said such a thing.

"Being afraid of such trivial things will destroy your life, won't it? We wanted to use our lives for a purpose. We struggled to become happy. To smile each day, to have a beloved daughter and whatnot, to become happier than anyone else—that was what we cried out for."

He'd talked about those kinds of things.

And Ryner thought a bit about that.

—To have a beloved daughter, to have children, and be smiling happily each day.

He wouldn't think those thoughts anymore.

He wouldn't wish that he could be average and live a normal human's life again.

But his father had insisted and spoken.

His father said that he had a duty to be happy.

Plus, he himself had said something similar to Tiir earlier. To not run away and instead move forward—he'd said that in a self-important manner.

And, what that originated from,

"......"

Ryner looked down at Kiefer.

Looking down at the girl who said that she loved him,

"......"

Ah~ , he thought.

What do I do? He thought.

Because he honestly didn't feel that he was suitable for romance, he had no idea whatsoever how to respond, as he scratched his bedhead hair in a troubled manner.

What might be a good way to react to a girl's feelings, what he should do, how he should feel—right now, he didn't know.

That was why he grasped Kiefer's shoulders, and while pulling her away from him,

"Hey, Kiefer. When you get so close like that..."

He began, but then— ah, will Kiefer be hurt by those words? He realized that. Eh, maybe I shouldn't say that... He worried about such things alone, and having sensed his thoughts or some such, Kiefer looked up at him.

"Ah, sorry..."

She said, making a slightly lonely expression. She removed herself from him. She was always like that. Looking at the faces of the surrounding people, she behaved exactly as they did.

And Ryner looked at that expression.

Looking at the expression of Kiefer, who was obviously somewhat hurt,

"......"

No, no, though it's obviously impossible for me to suddenly developing feelings for her... Thinking that, he wanted to groan.

Though he'd always been staying away from people, he wasn't, as expected, able to come up with the right words to quickly shorten that distance at all.

At that, his father's "Your eyes aren't genetic" words—he really didn't know at all about that.

"......"

Though he'd hurt her slightly, he made a cheerful smile as if he were oblivious as he looked at Kiefer.

Then, in a bored manner, he looked at, to the side, the other Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers who were opening their eyes, and then at Ferris's face.

Staring at these two people's faces,

"... Hum,"

Ryner said.

Though there wasn't really any meaning in his hum . On the contrary, he didn't know what he was hum -ing about; however, at any rate, he stopped thinking about it.

This wasn't the time and place for that. On top of that, various things happened last night, and so there was a bit of chaos. Anyhow,

"Toale,"

He said, looking at the prince of Imperial Nelpha.

In response, Toale looked his way, and,

"Yes?"

He said, nodding.

At that, Ryner spoke.

"You're probably wondering about this disturbance. After all, all of the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers standing watch suddenly fainted..."

Toale nodded at that.

"Though I was also standing watch, I fainted. As for what in the world happened here, Ryner-san, you..."

In response, Ryner nodded.

"I know. So, could you tell everyone that there's no need to panic? It wasn't an enemy that came."

Though Toale made a face at him like he wanted a somewhat more detailed explanation, he immediately nodded, and,

"I'll tell all the troops. Then we'll be resuming our march,"

Toale said.

Though Ryner didn't know where the army was headed and wanted to ask about that, he'd have to first bring the uproar to a close, and so he didn't ask.

Toale began moving towards the disorderly soldiers.

After affirming that, Ryner looked at Kiefer.

She—

"Ryner, is your body really..."

However, interrupting that, he answered,

"It's fine. I just need a bi~t of sleep, that's all."

"Geez, after sleeping for so long, you still need sleep~?"

Kiefer said, smiling, but unsurprisingly, she gazed at him with a worried expression.

At that, Ferris replied,

"Idiots don't catch colds."

"Hey, it wasn't that I caught a cold, you know,"

Ryner said, to which Kiefer made a slightly ill-tempered expression as she looked at Ferris.

"Wh~y are you saying such things, Ferris-san, when you stayed by Ryner's side while he slept, nursing him..."

She began, but her words only made it that far.

Ferris kicked Kiefer's chest. At that,

"Kya—"

Kiefer said, being blown off while smiling.

Following that, Ferris glared at Ryner, and,

"That woman is spitting out lies,"

She said.

"I'm not your nurse, after all,"

She said such things.

Ryner smiled at that.

"Ah, yes, yes, I understand,"

He said, nodding.

In reality, that Ferris, Kiefer, and Toale had attended to him who was sleeping for so long and wouldn't open his eyes at all, he knew.

In addition to that, he'd used his power.

In the war, Ryner had killed countless people.

In order to protect his friends, he'd killed an unforgivably large amount of people.

The number possibly surpassed a million.

Like a demon or devil from a fairy tale, which was still putting it somewhat lightly, Ryner had done that.

Furthermore, in order to unleash that power, he'd taken his mother's life.

Though his father told him to be happy, he didn't feel that it was right to accept those words, having taken so many lives.

However, these guys didn't care about that.

Instead, they focused on him with worried expressions.

Regarding that, Ryner became increasingly troubled. Even though he didn't think it was right to accept himself as a monster, he was an unknown being that'd killed over a million people, and yet these guys accepted him.

They said that it was all right to be by their side.

At that, Ryner, while wondering what would be the best thing to do, made a half-crying face, and,

"......"

He looked towards the group of Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers who were beginning to quickly move.

It seemed their direction was to the south, from where the sun was rising.

Regarding that, Ryner asked,

"Hey, Kiefer. Where is this group of soldiers going?"

Kiefer, who'd fallen slightly back after being kicked by Ferris, approached him.

"Though I think Vois probably wants to merge with the main army that he brought along..."

She said.

At that,

"Main body?"

Ryner asked.

"The soldiers here aren't the main army? Didn't we bring along the entire army of the Anti-Roland Coalition here to fight with Gasta..."

He began, but then Kiefer made a slightly dark expression.

And in response, he remembered.

Back when Ryner was still unsure regarding reality and dreams, thanks to Lieral's magic, Toale, who'd been watching over him, had also made that face.

If he recalled correctly, back then, Toale had something like this regarding the present situation.

—Gastark temporarily retreated. And after that Vois Fiurelle-kun, as if he had predicted something like that would happen, spun around happily.

At that, Ryner looked at Kiefer, and,

"Then, Vois isn't here,"

He asked, to which she nodded.

In response, he then asked,

"So, where is he now?"

She responded like this:

"... Um, since Geihlficlant's territory has been weakened from the war with Gastark..."

"He's attacking?"

Kiefer nodded.

To that, Ryner spoke in a groan.

"Damn it, because I killed Geihlficlant's soldiers,"

He began, but she shook her head as if to deny that.

"Ryner, it's not your..."

"I know. That's why I decided to use my power. If I hadn't, then Gastark... Glovil would've killed the Geihlficlant soldiers."

"......"

"But that was Vois's aim? To attack Geihlficlant, weakened from the war with Gastark. On top of that, to attack using Rhule Fragmei . Well, though he'd said as much from the beginning, that he'd really do it..."

He began, but then stopped himself.

"No, he's that kind of guy?"

He said, as Toale returned.

"Everyone said that there aren't any problems. And south..."

However, he then noticed.

He looked at Ryner's right hand.

Staring at the right hand Ryner should've lost,

"Um, Ryner-san."

"Hmm?"

"Your right hand?"

He asked, to which Ryner responded.

"Ah, this? Uh, lots of things happened. Ah~, no, it's a long story, so I'll explain while we move. More importantly, that Vois is running around wildly, isn't he?"

He asked, at which Toale again made a serious face.

Ryner smiled wryly at that, and,

"That was a scary question, huh~? But I have to ask. What the hell is going on now? Right now, our... what's the situation with the Anti-Roland Coalition?"

He asked.

By only what was said, it seemed like the situation wasn't very good. They'd successfully gotten Gastark to temporarily retreat; however, because the soldiers there were protected by Glovil, they hadn't been destroyed. They'd reorganize themselves and return immediately, most likely.

Furthermore, Ryner and co. had killed the soldiers of Geihlficlant, whom they were supposed to be allied with. Of course, they hadn't purposely killed them. Rather, they hadn't had a choice.

However, that kind of excuse wouldn't go over well. Surely, the alliance with Geihlficlant had been revoked. If that were the case, then there might be pursuers as well.

That was why they couldn't stay here like this; however, he didn't recall Toale or Kiefer saying anything about them having to escape immediately.

More importantly, he was troubled by Vois's movements.

"What the hell is going on now?"

Ryner asked, but to that,

"......"

Kiefer and Toale didn't answer.

Then Ferris turned his way, and,

"... What's being kept secret will reach you soon enough anyway. I'll tell you,"

She said such a thing.

At that, Kiefer said,

"But Ferris-san, Ryner just woke up, so just wait for a bit..."

However, then,

"No, she's right. We can't keep it hidden forever."

Toale said.

Somehow, it seemed that something bad had happened.

In response, Ryner looked at the three's expressions.

"Since you're trying to hide it from me, I'm assuming it's something bad regarding me?"

To that, Ferris stared at him, and,

"Yeah,"

She said, nodding.

At that, Ryner asked,

"But even if you try and prolong it, it'll reach me eventually?"

"That's right."

"In that case, hurry up and tell me."

"If I thought that it would be that easy, then..."

"Come on, just stop messing with me."

"......"

Ferris became silent at that. Then she looked towards Toale and Kiefer.

Toale opened his mouth; however, she cut him off and then, staring at Ryner, spoke.

"... You're being called the Demon King,"

She said that.

"No, Vois has been threatening the entire world by saying that you're a demon that spreads death and destruction."

In response to those words, Ryner spoke.

"In other words, I've become a celebrity to the world?"

"That's how it is."

"The people of this world think of me as a demon, then?"

"Correct."

"Then, Vois is using my name to get Geihlficlant to surrender so that he can steal their territory?"

But Ferris shook her head at that.

"... It seems that, including the women and children, all of the people in the territories Vois attacked have been slaughtered using Rhule Fragmei ."

"......"

"And he's been threatening those that won't surrender that they'll be devoured and killed by the demon."

"......"

"But halfway, he suddenly changed opinions. He's divided the Geihlficlant Empire into parts, established the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, and begun to advocate for world peace. No, it's not that he's advocating for it. Rather, for the sake of world peace, he's begun to propose a world-wide ban on Rhule Fragmei ."

To such words.

Ryner said in a low voice.

"Oh?"

He said.

And,

"... Even though we killed the people of Geihlficlant with Rhule Fragmei , now we're talking about world peace?"

"Correct."

"On top of that, he's using my name? He's using my name as a threat so that he doesn't have to use Rhule Fragmei on other countries?"

"Yeah."

"......"

At that, Ryner had to admire Vois's intelligence.

Rather, if he'd planned this entire scenario out in his head from even before the war with Gastark, then he was the real monster, Ryner thought.

Furthermore, if it came down to it, his hand wouldn't waver at all.

He'd rise to the top using the shortest route and, furthermore, with the least amount of sacrifices.

It was completely like Sion.

Sion, who, while crying, invaded the southern continent—Vois was doing the same.

But he was using Ryner's name for that.

For some reason, Ryner became the king of this Anti-Roland Coalition. This was why, in order to do this, Ryner became so.

The same way as Sion did, Ryner established a country, and such things.

"......"

Even though Ryner should've been working hard to save Sion, who seemed to be carrying some kind of burden and had become strange, he'd done the same thing as Sion but to the central continent, going around the world.

Furthermore, Ryner was now apparently the Demon King threatening the world.

Though he'd scattered Rhule Fragmei to kill people, he was now dishonourably calling for world peace.

And in his core, Ryner wasn't like that.

Always wanting to sleep, he wasn't like that.

Regarding that, he smiled in self-deprecation, and,

"... What's with this? Seriously, I'm a complete and utter puppet,"

He muttered.

At that,

"If you're talking about right now, then it seems that way,"

Ferris said.

In response, Ryner looked her way.

"Then are we going south to stop Vois?"

He began, but regarding that,

"No, that's not it. It looks like Vois-kun has called for us to return to the country,"

Kiefer said.

To return to the country.

In other words, to return to the country that Vois had apparently established at some point.

No, there was nowhere else to go. The Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers who'd originally been Vois's allies, and the soldiers and people of Imperial Nelpha that Ryner and co. had brought along—there was nowhere else they belonged to.

In that case, if there was a place that would accept them, they had no choice.

Put another way, Vois had prepared such a place. He'd completely established a new country. In that case, that was the only place they could go.

Regarding that,

"... Seriously, our worst enemies are our own allies, huh?"

Ryner groaned.

In spite of what he'd told Tiir earlier, the leader here wasn't Ryner. Vois was the one who set everything up within the organization, and was only using Ryner as a puppet king.

But, in that case,

"... What should I do?"

He said, murmuring in a voice that couldn't be heard by anyone else.

From this point on, what should I do? He muttered that to himself.

If he didn't bother to think at all and instead merely went with the flow of things without a care, nothing would change, he knew.

Because he'd always been like that.

If he left it all to Sion, that guy would take on all the problems by himself.

If he left it all to Vois, that guy would selfishly use another person's name as much as he pleased.

No, up until now, all his life, he'd been leaving it all to someone else.

Until someone told him that they cared about him, he couldn't move.

Until someone told him that it was okay for him to live, he couldn't even see his own worth.

With this, it's again like that.

With that brat doing whatever he wants, it's like that, he thought.

And,

"... I can't hate that brat too much,"

He muttered.

Then, his thoughts began to whirl around.

He shouldn't just leave all the leadership duties to Vois. In this kind of situation, that was what one was expected to. If they were slightly motivated, that was what was expected of them.

Rather, it wasn't enough to resign himself to do only that much. That was why he'd become this way.

It was only obvious.

For a guy who had doubts about if it was even all right for him to live, it didn't seem like he could do such things as save people or lead them.

But,

"... Toale, is there an available horse?"

Ryner asked.

Toale looked his way.

"To go where Vois-kun is?"

At the question, he nodded.

"Toale, you stay here and lead the people in after me. I'll go meet with Vois first,"

He said, as he began to walk.

At that, Kiefer worriedly began,

"But Ryner, after using your power in that last battle, your body's still..."

Ryner spoke, interrupting her.

"Just because my body's not in the best condition doesn't mean I should go sleep. I've always been slacking off. But if I don't take part in things once in a while..."

After saying that, his thoughts whirled around harder. In what way could he guide things from hereon? How could he take back the reins from that swindling brat? He wondered.

While thinking, he approached a nearby soldier on a horse. Dressed in a black uniform, it was a soldier of the Anti-Roland Coalition—one of Vois's subordinates.

Looking up at him,

"Hey, could I borrow your horse?"

Ryner said.

The soldier looked down at him with cold eyes. He stared scornfully down at Ryner, who was supposed to be the leader of the Anti-Roland Coalition, and,

"What reason do I have to abide by your ord..."

Ryner didn't pay attention to what he was saying and instead pulled the soldier down from the horse.

The soldier glared at him, and,

"You bastard!"

He said.

He swung a fist up at him.

Ryner moved to stop that fist; however, before it could connect, Ferris struck at the soldier from behind.

With only that, the soldier lost consciousness. He collapsed onto the ground.

At that, Ryner looked at Ferris.

"Oh, thanks..."

As he was saying that, Ferris then let out a kick at Ryner's face.

It was incredibly quick.

It was quick to the point where he couldn't dodge it at all.

In response to the kick that was unleashed with all its strength,

"Guah—!?"

He said, as he was sent flying.

However, she paid him no heed and got on the horse. With a satisfied mm-hmm , she nodded. And looking down at him with eyes a hundred times colder than the previous soldier's,

"What are you doing, blockhead? Hurry up and find a horse,"

She said such a thing.

At that,

"Ehhhhhhhh~"

Ryner said, looking up at her with an exasperated expression.

"But that was the horse I was just eyeing."

"So?"

"Um."

"Now, hurry up. We're going to where Vois is, aren't we?"

As she said that, Ryner nodded.

"Yeah."

Kiefer then rushed to the fallen soldier, and,

"A-Are you all right!?"

She said.

Then, to the other Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers,

"Um, everyone's ally fell from his horse..."

She said, rushing over as she did.

It seemed that there was a dispute between the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers and Ryner's group.

No, well, as Vois was likely still making use of Ryner's name and power, there wasn't any real harm in adding more problems to the pile.

However, there was no question of whether or not it was fine to create a dispute.

"... This is bad, Kiefer."

As he said that, she looked up at him with a cheerful face, and,

"It's been like that from the begiiiining, since you became motivated, Ryner,"

She said.

"Buuut, since it's for the best that you've become resolute, I'll allow it~"

At her words, Ryner looked up at Ferris, who looked triumphant over having gotten a horse, and,

"Even though, after stealing a horse, I just got kicked away in the end?"

He said, to which Kiefer laughed.

"That's just because you haven't become resolute enough~"

"Wh~at's that supposed to mean?"

As Ryner retorted that, Toale brought along two horses from the Nelphan forces.

He also seemed to be surprised as he looked in their direction.

"Honestly, I can't even leave for a couple of minutes without everything erupting into chaos."

"Uwah, now we're being lectured,"

Ryner said, to which Kiefer went "This is bad~" and again laughed.

While smiling wryly at that,

"Then, should we get going?"

Ryner said, taking a horse from Toale and straddling it. Then, to Toale,

"Iris, Arua, and Kuku?"

Toale nodded, and,

"I'll bring them along,"

He said.

At that, Kiefer began,

"Then, with Iris-chan and the others, I'll also..."

But in response, Toale for some reason lightly hit Kiefer's back.

"Kiefer-san, please go with Ryner-san as well. I'll be fine here by myself. There are plenty of excellent Nelphan soldiers with me here,"

He said.

Regarding that, Kiefer's eyes widened in curiosity as she looked in Toale's direction.

Toale smiled, and then for some reason looked up at Ryner, who was making a bored face, and,

"I'm too soft-hearted, aren't I?"

He said.

Ryner smiled at that.

"I've thought that since we first met."

Toale smiled, and then looked around.

Looking at the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers dressed in black uniforms,

"But this isn't a place where soft-hearted people can survive, is it?"

He said such a thing.

"There are enemies all around us, huh? If Ryner-san intends to change... I should try and work hard for a bit and stop being a soft-hearted person, shouldn't I?"

He said, as his typically calm face tightened slightly.

Ryner looked down at Toale with half-closed eyes, and,

"If you're saying that you haven't worked hard, then neither have I."

Then Ferris spoke.

"Because you're trash."

"Nooo, that's not the point."

"So you finally feel like acknowledging the truth..."

"Ah, geez, just shut up already, you,"

Ryner said, as Kiefer straddled a horse.

"All right. I'm good to go as well,"

She said.

Ryner nodded at that.

"Then, Vois is..."

He began, and then,

"Wait, where is Vois..."

Then, Kiefer spoke.

"The People's Republic of Sphelliyet. I think the name likely came from a town in the center of Geihlficlant called Sphellilans, though..."

"Kiefer, do you know where it is?"

"Yes. It's quite close to here."

"Then show us the way."

"Understood,"

Kiefer said, as her horse began to move.

At that, Ferris said,

"Trailing a woman from behind, you sneakily approach..."

"Like I said, you need to shut up already,"

Ryner said, to which Ferris laughed with a fufufu , before her horse began to move as well.

Ryner then looked at Toale one more time, and,

"Then, we'll be going. You..."

"Please leave everything else to me. I've checked the map as well. Judging by its location, I think we should be able to head there without being attacked by Geihlficlant soldiers."

At such words, Ryner smiled wryly, and,

"Everyone's so well-acquainted with the map, huh?"

He said, to which Toale smiled.

"Though it seems Kiefer-san knew from the beginning, I studied it while you were asleep, Ryner-san."

"Huuuh. You're as diligent as ever."

"Are you going to become the same from hereon, Ryner-san?"

At those words,

"Meee?"

Ryner replied with an annoyed face, before,

"Well, I'll be going for a bit,"

He said, commanding his horse to gallop. Then he immediately caught up with Ferris and co.

Moving to her side,

"... Hey, Ferris."

"Hmm?"

"Um, could you listen to me for a little bit?"

"What is it?"

"About what Vois did."

"Mmm."

"... Um, about how I've become the Demon King who's killed countless people~, and whatnot, and that indecent ban on Rhule Fragmei and other stupid stuff like that..."

"Mm-hmm."

"Well... Well, Sion's definitely..."

Then, Ferris spoke.

"Naturally, Sion will hear about it."

"... That's definitely the case, huh?"

"But he won't believe it. You, who sleeps from morning until evening without working, would go around killing people and stealing Geihlficlant's territory? You're not capable of such a thing,"

She said.

However, regarding that, Ryner made a slightly vulnerable expression, and,

"But I killed countless..."

"Be quiet."

"But—"

"Did you think that when Sion began invading other countries?"

"......"

"Did you hate him for it?"

"... No."

"Then, you're the same as him. Getting worried over pointless things,"

She said.

Ryner let out a quiet laugh at that, and,

"... Pointless things, huh? Some~how, lately, you've been encouraging me a lot..."

He said in a quiet voice so that she couldn't hear.

Despite that, in response, she—

"Well, I've grown to hate you."

"Eh—"

"Yesterday, you selfishly entered my tent as you pleased. Like a pervert,"

She said such things.

Furthermore, for some reason, her face became red as if embarrassed.

"Haa? Tent? What are you talking about?"

"What we're talking about."

"Huh~? What the hell are you..."

Then Kiefer turned towards them, and,

"Heeey, what are you two talking about amongst yourselves and leaving me out of?"

She said.

At that,

"Why I'm with this pervert?"

Ferris said.

In response, Ryner looked in awe at Ferris who, unsurprisingly, wasn't looking at him.

"I've got no idea what Ferris is talking about. Something about me entering her tent last night... Well, Ferris is always saying random things, but... more importantly, Kiefer."

"Yes?"

"That Sphe... phewha..."

"The People's Republic of Sphelliyet."

"Right, right, the People's Republic of Sphelliyet—hey, ah, that name has part of the name of Vois's native country, the Iyet Republic... Anyway, um, how long will we be moving?"

She then looked up at the sky, making a face as if she were calculating the distance.

"If we hurry, until evening..."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Then, let's hurry it up a bit,"

Ryner said. He kicked the horse's abdomen. The horse began to speed up a little.

And while running, he thought about the earlier topics.

For example, how he should move forward regarding the matter with Vois?

What should he do about Vois, who was using his name to establish the People's Republic of Sphelliyet?

How could he get along with Tiir and the Cursed Eye bearers?

What should he do with Kiefer, Ferris, and his friends?

And Sion—

"......"

As everything he'd known had continued to suddenly change, there were several things to think about.

If he stopped his legs for a little while, it'd be too late for so many things—he was tired of that.

No, with the truth before his eyes, he'd lost several things.

Because he hadn't worked hard.

Because he'd resigned himself and stopped moving.

Because he'd continued to run away.

And so, from hereon, things would be different—if he made a mistake in his judgment, his friends would be hurt, lost, and cry.

"... It's fine, already. Even if I hate working hard."

While saying that, he continued to think.

What would be the right thing to do from here?

Just what would be the right way to move in this world?

With those things turning over and over again in his head,

"Ah, geez, this sucks,"

He complained from the bottom of his heart.

### 004. Chapter 3: A World Without Pain

With a small needle, he stabbed the palm of his hand countless times.

"......"

However, he didn't feel any pain.

No, he didn't feel anything.

As if it'd been completely paralyzed, he didn't feel any pain in the palm of his hand.

His hand moved. The nerves were connected properly. But it was only the needle's contact that he couldn't feel.

The reason was simple.

It'd been stolen.

His sense of touch had been stolen.

No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he gave it up.

He gave his sense of touch up to the sword.

"......"

Riphal Edea stopped stabbing the palm of his hand with the needle, and lifted his head.

Loose, wavy peach-coloured hair, one eye.

With that eye, he looked to his side and looked at a long sword.

So long that one wouldn't think that a person could use it, a jet black sword.

Known as the Sword of Regeneration [Glovil], it was a cursed sword.

By devouring Riphal's body, that sword was able to unleash massive power. It was able to unleash power so great that one wouldn't think a person could use it.

And as compensation, it stole away his sense of touch this time.

Even if he were sliced at by a sword, he'd no longer feel anything.

Even if he were stabbed by a spear, he wouldn't feel anything.

And on the reverse end, even if he were to be touched by someone he loved, he wouldn't be able to feel anything.

"......"

At that, he became slightly uneasy.

If he became someone who felt nothing at all, he'd become unable to feel a person's pain.

He could become someone who felt nothing no matter whom he killed—at the idea, he became slightly uneasy.

Even if it weren't like that, to reach this point, he'd taken an unbelievable amount of lives.

As he swung his sword that possessed abnormal power, he took thousands, tens of thousands of lives.

Of course, he had a just cause.

There was a reason that he had to do what he did.

But, reason or not, murderers weren't to be forgiven. And so, he didn't believe that to be a justification.

Rather, he cursed it. He resented it—that was what he thought.

But if he became someone who felt nothing, then he would no longer be able to perceive resentment and such things—at the idea, he became uneasy.

A monster that felt nothing no matter whom he killed.

A monster that felt nothing even over killing someone he loved.

"... A monster, huh?"

He said, staring at the palm of his hand that felt nothing even though it was dyed red with his blood after stabbing himself.

"... Well, this is for monster extermination. Even if I become a monster, there's nothing wrong, is there?"

He said, smiling sadly.

Then he tightly balled his hand into a fist. Applying pressure to the blood vessels, he stopped the bleeding.

Right now, he was in a church.

In spite of using Glovil after paying a price to it, he wasn't able to destroy the Geihlficlant Empire, and so his soldiers had retreated to the Divine City of Elon.

No, it wasn't as simple as something like retreating, was it?

They fled.

From Geihlficlant's side, there'd been a weapon of abnormal power that Gastark hadn't recognized.

It was a weapon that held tremendous power—enough to counterbalance Glovil.

An weapon of abnormal power that stole tens of hundreds of thousands of lives at once and furthemore altered the terrain.

In the presence of that power, Riphal and his people ran.

After all, if the other party was able to fire such power at random, then they had no chance of victory.

In order to use Glovil, he had to pay a heavy price. However, if the other party could unleash their power without limit, then they had absolutely no chance of victory.

Furthermore, regarding the one who unleashed that power, they knew nothing.

Thus, they ran.

Because they didn't come here to die.

Because they didn't come here to lose all their allies.

And they retreated here, to the Divine City of Elon. During the time it took to arrive here, expressions of panic and despair had arisen in the soldiers' faces.

It was only natural.

To lose a war that they were confident they would win and potentially be pursued—as it was like that, they continued to tremble.

On top of that, if they were pursued, it would all end in an instant.

Without any heed to strategy, tactics, and whatnot, if that weapon were to be used just once more, it would all end.

It was a situation in which there was no way to express the insanity of it all.

No, that was likely what the soldiers of the previous countries had thought of Glovil.

That a person would use such a weapon was abnormal.

They would've thought it to be insane.

And what went around came around. An unknown weapon had been used against them, and while trembling in panic, they ran.

The soldiers' morale had plummeted. Though Rize was currently frantically reorganizing the army, up until the point where they'd retreated to the Divine City of Elon, there'd been a considerable amount of escapees.

But of course, Riphal didn't blame them. After he himself saw that kind of power, he wanted to run. He didn't want to remain in that sort of insane battle for even a moment.

On top of that, in the instant where that unknown weapon cancelled out the power of his sword, he'd felt slightly relieved.

Even though the power he'd sacrificed his sense of touch to invoke had been negated, he'd felt a bit like he'd been saved, nevertheless.

Because he, who up until now had been constantly slaughtering the other side so easily with Glovil, had been stopped.

And furthermore, because of that, he hadn't killed Kiefer.

"......"

Even though he knew he couldn't be making mistakes while advancing into the central continent, he was a bit grateful that Glovil had been stopped.

And as for who had done it, he immediately realized.

Ryner Lute.

Demon King Ryner Lute.

The rumours had spread across the world in the blink of an eye.

In the battle, the personification of a demon, Ryner Lute, had stood, and with a cursed breath, massacred millions of Gastark and Geihlficlant's soldiers.

"......"

This wasn't the truth.

At the very least, in that battle, Gastark hadn't lost a large number of their soldiers.

But it was fine that the truth was meaningless.

When it came to information warfare, those who moved first won.

Ryner Lute moved quickly. By distributing such information, he implanted panic into the world. And taking advantage of the chaos, he laid waste to Geihlficlant's land.

Furthermore, he'd shamelessly established his own country from within Geihlficlant.

And as Riphal thought about Ryner's Lute country that had rapidly grown in the span of ten days—the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, as it was called—he frowned.

Fearing the power that cancelled out Glovil's own, and making what one could call a mistake by escaping here to the Divine City of Elon, he cursed the weakness of his own heart.

Back then, if he'd attacked one more time with Glovil, he would've won.

If he watched the movements of the People's Republic of Sphelliyet in these past ten days, he understood that.

They were moving without relying on Ryner Lute's power. If, as a power that could cancel out Glovil, it could be fired so easily, then despite the possibility of using just that power to take the entire nation of Geihlficlant, they didn't do that.

By taking several parts, they announced the establishment of their country.

At the same time, they now seemed to be calling out for a ban on the use of Rhule Fragmei , etc. and a peace treaty.

In other words,

"... They can't match Glovil, is what's going on?"

He muttered, groaning.

It was likely that Ryner Lute couldn't continuously unleash that power. Furthermore, they weren't in possession of more Rhule Fragmei then Gastark.

That was why those guys called out to the world. By using the results of the battle just now, as they possessed the same power as Gastark, that was more than enough to make an appeal for the ban of such usage.

If they used it, it would be a violation of the peace treaty, and so could bring the situation up until now to an end in one blow.

And that, it would seem, was the path to success. Several countries would begin to approve of this treaty. The countries that had delayed in gathering Rhule Fragmei would begin to approve.

If the state of the world became a consensus of opinion like this, it would become difficult for Gastark to use their power.

As they had to fully expand into the central continent, if they became unable to use their power, that would be considerably bad.

Of course they'd resigned themselves from the beginning to becoming enemies with the world; however, from here on, even if they used Glovil's power, there was a chance the enemy wouldn't surrender.

In the instant Gastark used Glovil, the world would become Gastark's enemy and seek assistance from the People's Republic of Sphelliyet.

They would seek assistance from the Demon King.

Do something about Gastark, who violated the treaty, they would say.

In other words, they were no longer able to advance forward while intimidating others into surrendering with Glovil.

If, by any chance, they wanted to forcibly advance, it would be necessary to do so by slaughtering the enemy.

Regarding that,

"... Definitely a demon, huh?"

Riphal murmured.

After all, because of this treaty, the number of sacrifices that would be made in order for Gastark to advance forward from now on just jumped up.

Enemy countries would no longer be willing to surrender.

In that case, they would have no choice but to kill.

No, that wasn't the only thing. Such like this, many sacrifices would emerge.

People would die.

Even more people would die than up until now.

Why Ryner Lute wished for that sort of thing, he didn't know, but,

"... Demon King... isn't that perfect?"

Riphal said, smiling sarcastically.

Then, the church gates opened, as a sole man entered.

Gastark's unique peach-coloured hair, clear blue eyes. As if to match them, a blue-themed uniform of the Gastark Magic Knight Battalion.

Chief of Staff of all of Gastark Empire and commander of the Magic Knight Battalion, Rigwaltz Pentest.

That Rize spoke.

"Your Majesty."

At that, Riphal turned his head towards him, and,

"What is it?"

"There's an ambassador."

Regarding that, a smile arose in Riphal's face as he spoke.

"Sent by the Demon King?"

"Yes. It appears to be an ambassador from the People's Republic of Sphelliyet. They've come to speak directly with Your Majesty."

"I don't wannaaa."

As Riphal said that, Rize laughed.

"But the ambassador is a woman."

"All right, let's go right now."

"Same as always."

After Riphal laughed at that as well, he asked,

"So, in all honesty, what do you think we should do? If we agree to this ban on Rhule Fragmei , then from here, we won't be able to advance further into the central continent."

"Seems so."

"But we can't afford that. We have to go and kill the Goddesses and the Hero ."

"Yes."

"In that case, what should we do?"

After making a slightly thoughtful face at that, Rize said,

"Participate in the treaty."

"Hoh."

"Then, immediately betray them. One way or another, from hereon, we'll become the villains who use Rhule Fragmei in the war. In that case, at the very least, we can't be unprepared."

"So we'll say that we won't use them, and then immediately use them?"

"Correct."

"Well, you've always been an underhanded guy from the beginning. Seducing girls by saying that you definitely won't do anything, and then transforming into a wolf at night, right?"

As he said that, Rize glared at him, and,

"That's better than being a wolf from morning like you, Riphal, wouldn't you say?"

"Eh~, what are you saying about the virginal me?"

"An amateur virgin?"

" Ah —!?"

"So, the truth of Riphal's shock so far..."

"H-Hey—! What truth? I'll seriously punch you, you know."

While hurling such pointless things at him, Rize tiredly stood up.

And he asked,

"So, is the ambassador sent by the Demon King cute?"

Rize shrugged, and,

"It's troubling how a virgin thinks only of women..."

"Be quiet. So, where is the ambassador? I have to meet with her, don't I?"

Rize nodded, and said,

"Outside the church, the Orla siblings are restraining her and waiting."

"Then, let them enter."

"Understood."

Saying that, Rize opened the gates behind them, and,

"Lir,"

He said.

With that, Lir Orla entered the church. Peach-coloured hair, and a trained, nimble body. A sharp smile overflowing with self-confidence.

Furthermore, his brother Sui and his sister Kuu entered.

Sui wore a calm expression, while Kuu, invoking the power of her scythe right now, had an emotionless expression.

And in the center of the Orla siblings, a lone woman stood.

No, rather than a woman, she was still young enough to be better called a girl.

She seemed to be around sixteen, seventeen years old?

Bright brown hair, and black eyes that didn't match it. With those eyes, she stared straight in this direction.

Receiving that gaze, Riphal smiled as he spoke.

"Hoh, the one sent by the Demon King is rather pretty."

At that, the girl replied,

"You flatter me..."

She began, but interrupting that,

"Ah, ah, you can stop it with the formal speech. After all, you guys are our enemy, aren't you? You've come to plot against us. Despite that, you would thank me for the praise? I'd rather you didn't be insincere,"

Riphal said.

In response, the girl gazed at him, and,

"... As the rumours say."

"Rumours? What kind of rumours?"

However, the girl didn't answer the question.

Riphal laughed.

"Bad rumours?"

"Were you hoping for good rumours?"

"No,"

He said, as a smile spread across his face. Then, staring at the girl,

"So, your name?"

To that, the girl tilted her head in a curious manner.

"Aren't I your enemy? You want to know the name of your enemy?"

"It's my policy to properly ask for the name of a beautiful girl."

"......"

"You don't need to be so tense about it. It's my policy not to kill women. You'll return to your leader in good health. That's why I'm asking for your name. I don't ask for the name of people I'm about to kill."

In response to those words, the girl gazed at him with those black eyes, and,

"Relca,"

She said.

"Relca Redehna."

"Ehh. That's a good name."

"Even if you praise me, I don't feel especially happy about it."

To those words, Riphal laughed and nodded.

"Good. Now that you're acting like that, I'm willing to listen to what you have to say. I wouldn't be willing to listen to someone who knows that they're an enemy and yet tries to delude me, you see? So, talk. What have you come to say to me?"

At that, Relca began talking.

"I thought you might have heard from the kings of other countries already..."

She began, but unsurprisingly, Riphal spoke then.

"That you guys established the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, I know. I also know that you possess some strange weapon that's capable of cancelling out my Glovil. And I know that you're proposing a ban on Rhule Fragmei to the world. All of them are topics that are disadvantageous to us, huh? Well, anyway, that's enough of that, don't you think? So, is there anything else you want to talk to me about?"

At that, Relca said,

"Your intentions..."

However, interrupting that as well,

"We'll participate in the treaty,"

Riphal said.

"If that was the only thing you wanted to talk about, it's fine for you to return now."

"......"

"Or is there something else?"

Riphal asked.

In response, Relca stared at him, and,

"I have one thing to deliver from my leader."

"Hoh. From Ryner Lute?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

However, at that, Relca became quiet. Like she'd skillfully seized the initiative for the first time, a faint smile spread across her face as Riphal's attention was on her.

And she spoke.

What her leader wanted to say, she delivered to him.

"If, by any chance, you choose to use Rhule Fragmei and break the treaty, you will surely regret it."

"Heh. What's that supposed to mean?"

"The power that we possess that can cancel out Glovil's is one we can use freely. Should you oppose us..."

"We'll regret it?"

"Yes,"

She began, but then Riphal laughed, and,

"That's a lie,"

He said.

"If you really could use that power freely, you wouldn't need to make such a threat."

"... Our leader wishes for peace."

"Heh, is that so?"

"It is."

"Then, deliver this to your leader."

"What is it?"

At that, Riphal smiled and placed a hand on the cursed, black sword at his side. However, as expected, he couldn't feel the sensation of grasping that sword. Even though his hand moved, he couldn't feel its touch.

Nevertheless, as he touched the sword, he spoke.

"If you're that confident in yourself, then shall we exchange fire? Until the body of either is destroyed, let's strike at each other with our power. I still have my right eye. Both of my arms. My left leg. Until I reach the end of my life, I'll release my power. What about you? The power of you, who didn't pursue us, that appears to be the same as mine—how many shots can you fire at once? Though I don't know that... shall we put it to the test?"

Riphal said.

And he stared at Relca. He understood that she would say nothing. She was only the messenger. That was why he smiled at her, and,

"And so on and so forth. Sorry for saying something threatening like that. You can return now. Tell him that we'll participate in this treaty."

"... However, what you said just now..."

"And tell him that on top of that."

"......"

"Then, Lir, Sui, Kuu—take her outside."

Lir nodded at that, and then, with Relca, exited the church.

After confirming that, Riphal turned to look at Rize, and,

"Hey, Rize."

"What is it?"

"She was a beauty, wasn't she?"

"And yet that isn't what you honestly want to be talking about."

"Riiight, but still,"

Riphal said, and after laughing, he held up his hand that had been on Glovil and waved it at Rize for him to take a look.

"This hand doesn't feel aaanything, y'know."

In response, Rize looked his way, and said,

"Your sense of touch is?"

"Yeah. Even if I injure it, I don't feel any pain. So, if I happen to get injured and I don't notice—"

"... I'll cover you."

"I'll be counting on you."

At that, Rize was silent for a while, before—

"Riphal."

"Hmmmm?"

"When it comes to sacrifices, only you..."

As he said such a thing, Riphal interrupted him and spoke.

"You're wrong, Rize."

"......"

"You're wrong."

With a sad expression, Rize said nothing.

Riphal smiled at that. He looked at the face of his childhood friend. He thought of the faces of Lir, Sui, and Kuu who had just exited the church.

Thinking of his allies' faces, he smiled.

His allies here, everyone—they'd all paid heavy sacrifices.

Even Rize, as he made irritating expressions and laughed frivolously, for the sake of awakening this sword, he'd already sacrificed his family.

And even though he'd paid such a large sacrifice, they still weren't able to smoothly advance forward.

They weren't able to advance forward at all.

There was the peace treaty.

In spite of being the mad Demon King, he called for a peace treaty.

"... Hey, Rize."

He said again.

In response, his sarcastic childhood friend looked his way, and,

"What is it?"

He replied.

To that, Riphal asked,

"Can I win?"

"......"

"Against the Demon King . Against the Goddesses . Against the Hero , can I win?"

"......"

"If, by any chance, I fall before then..."

However, Rize then spoke.

"Lir, you, and I... whenever we got into fights, was there a time when you lost?"

Staring at Rize,

"Never,"

Riphal said.

Rize smiled at that.

"Then, this time, you'll surely win."

He said such a thing.

He said it so easily.

Even though it wasn't so simple and he couldn't know, Rize, who was the brightest between the three of them, said that so easily.

At that,

"That's right, huh?"

Riphal said, nodding.

Then Rize—

"Well, the worst case scenario for you, Riphal, would be if all that remained of you was between your legs..."

"Die."

"I'm covering you."

"Like I said, you need to die."

"Ahaha."

Rize laughed.

Riphal laughed at that as well.

Then, looking outside the church window,

"Well, though it's not a situation where we should be laughing... the soldiers?"

"Half of them deserted."

"The remainder?"

"If we tell them that we're participating in the peace treaty, they should calm down somewhat."

"But we're going to betray it immediately, right?"

"We'll deal with it when the time comes. Now, shall we get moving?"

Saying that, Rize turned on his heel.

He exited the church.

After watching him leave, Riphal stared at the palm of his hand one more time. He stared at his palm that felt nothing.

Dried blood clung to his palm.

Staring at that blood,

"... A peace treaty, huh?"

Riphal muttered once more.

### 005. Chapter 4: Bewitching

In this world, where was the most dangerous place?

If you were to ask someone that, then surely, this is how they would answer.

"... Right next to a hysterical girl holding a whip, right~?"

Vois Fiurelle muttered, smiling.

Pretty black hair, black eyes in which intelligence seemed to lurk. Donned in miko garb, he was a boy who seemed to be around thirteen, fourteen years old.

If it was him, he should've been surrounded by his guards as usual; however, right now, he stood there alone.

He was in a small country a bit to the west of the Geihlficlant Empire, at an abandoned building in Eidolwo's outskirts.

Though it seemed to have been a fortress or some such before, it was now miserably in ruins and had become a mountain of rubble.

Staring at that rubble,

"... It's good camoflauge, isn't it? There's a hallucination barrier stretched around it, right? Though there should certainly be Rhule Fragmei like that... I can't dispel it. Now, what should I do?"

Vois said, taking a step forward.

He moved to touch the broken-down gates that already seemed as if they couldn't open anymore.

Then,

"... Halt,"

A voice from beyond the gate spoke. To the voice that came from the ruins that shouldn't have been in use any longer, Vois smiled and unsurprisingly continued to move forward as he said,

"Haha, I'm the sort of person who only wants to do something even more when told not to."

"If you don't halt, then I'll kill you."

"A cute child like me?"

"I really will kill you?"

"I would rather not be killed."

"Then halt..."

However, to the place that appeared to be seeing the broken gate, Vois pressed down on his head.

Somehow, in his head, the gate easily slipped away.

Completely like some sort of mist, the gate disappeared, and where that mist faded, a different sight spread out.

Though, with that said, there was, unsurprisingly, a gate there.

Where the mist was, there was a small, prison-like fortress. And keeping watch over that gate were soldiers, dressed in a red uniform.

There were four soldiers.

Even for Vois, who didn't pride himself in combat, he could tell that each of them was overwhelmingly stronger than him just by looking.

"After all, I don't have such charming abs~"

While saying that, he cheerfully moved towards the soldiers.

From within the soldiers, one person withdrew their sword. Pointing it towards him,

"Even though you were told to halt, why have you not?"

They asked.

In response, boldly sticking out his chest, Vois spoke.

"Because I'm a peeping tom."

"Enough with the jokes! Those who know of this place's secret are not to return ali..."

Interrupting the soldier who was saying such nonsense, Vois said,

"There's no point in killing me. All of my allies know that I'm here. This is the fortress of the Azure Princess Mercenaries , correct? I've come because I was called by the queen."

At that, the soldier's expression changed slightly. Glaring down at him,

"... You were called by the Princess ?"

"Yes. In other words, I'm an important guest, an important guest. Pointing your sword at such an important guest..."

Vois began, but then the soldier spoke.

"We have not received any instructions on a guest arriving. At the very least, we weren't told of a brat like you coming."

"Is that so?"

"It is."

"Well, that's how it is. I wasn't actually called."

"... You bastard—"

"But if you were to tell her that I've come, I believe Pia Varliere would like to meet with me, you know. If you were to kill me here, you would be punished?"

"......"

"Now, now, don't make such a tense face, and please tell your boss that Vois Fiurelle is here. Then the situation will change somewhat..."

However, the soldier then swung their sword. They moved to swing it down at him. It seemed they didn't want to listen to him at all.

Perhaps Pia Varliere had given the guards this order regarding anyone who tried to enter the fortress.

Kill any intruders.

The soldiers acted faithfully according to that order.

Regarding that.

"......"

Vois did nothing, however.

Or rather, if he tried to start a fight, he likely wouldn't be able to meet with Pia Varliere any longer.

It would be simple to kill the soldiers and intrude.

It would be enough if he carried Rhule Fragmei that possessed the power for that.

But he did no such thing.

It was necessary to show that he was willing to put his life in danger in order to meet with the leader of Azure Princess face-to-face.

Though it was necessary to show his disposition to the fickle Princess—regarding that,

"... This is a risky gamble, isn't it?"

Vois muttered, smiling in a troubled manner.

Then, the sword swung down.

If it hit him with the blade edge, he would die.

However, if by any chance Pia Varliere was watching the situation, if she was using an observation Rhule Fragmei —

"......"

Then, the sword hit Vois's neck.

And his consciousness easily disappeared.

Some time later.

Vois Fiurelle awakened.

It seemed that water had been splashed on him to wake him up after he'd been forcibly rendered unconscious.

At that, he opened his eyes, and then felt a severe pain at his neck.

"Oh~, they didn't cut my neck. It seems my gamble worked out, hmm?"

He said in a carefree voice.

Then he got up.

He looked around.

He was in a room with a red rug spread across the floor.

In the center was a throne of some sort, and there, donned in a beautiful blue dress, a women sat.

The queen of the Azure Princess Mercenaries , Pia Varliere.

A well-arranged face, unyielding red eyes.

Long, seemingly-impossible azure hair that marked her as a bearer of the Congenital Magic Abnormality .

Incidentally, those who possessed the Congenital Magic Abnormality , in order to wield an incredibly large amount of magic power, were unable to control their emotions—that was how it was supposed to be, but she gazed at him with alluring eyes with intelligence.

Staring at that Pia, Vois spoke.

"Ah, my lady. I'm a slave to those charming red eyes of yours."

As a beautiful smile arose in her face,

"Everyone says the same."

"Because it's true."

"However, seeing as how you are the enemy, you aren't exactly a slave~"

"That's not true~"

"Or better said, I have no interest in a brat like you."

However, Vois smiled at that, and,

"Same as always. Truly, you wouldn't kill me, with this young, desirable body..."

He began, but then his words stopped.

Because suddenly, an intense pain ran through his right shoulder.

In response, Vois looked at his right shoulder. There, from some point ago, a knife was buried deeply in it.

Though Pia, seated on the throne, hadn't appeared to move, she'd thrown the knife at some point, with it now pierced through Vois's shoulder.

While desperately trying to endure the pain, Vois smiled.

"... S-Suddenly going with the SM play, the Queen is quite assertive..."

He began, but then he stopped again.

This time, it was the top of his right foot through which pain erupted. The knife was sticking his foot to the floor.

As expected, Pia hadn't appeared to move.

"......"

Vois became quiet at that.

Then, Pia spoke.

"I despise such vulgar words."

"... But that's simply how I am."

"Your point is?"

Pia said.

Seated on the throne, she spoke with a bored expression.

He didn't feel any killing intent.

He didn't feel any indications of movement when she attacked.

Regarding that, Vois again thought.

In this world, where was the most dangerous place?

To that,

"... Right next to a hysterical girl holding a knife~"

He said quietly.

Pia tilted her head slightly to one side.

"What was that?"

Vois smiled at that and answered,

"No, just a bit of a personal joke."

"That's enough of that. A child shouldn't be thinking about such indecent things~"

"My apologies."

"Then, will you hurry up and talk?"

"... The knives?"

Pia cheerfully laughed with a fufufu at that.

"They're staying in~. You have perhaps fifteen minutes before you die of blood loss. So, to keep this brief and concise, please answer my questions. Ah, incidentally, if I don't like your response, I intend to throw the next knife at your heart."

She said such a thing.

Taking complete control of the situation, she said that.

At that, Vois made a troubled face, and,

"Though I was already aware of this before coming here, I really have to be prepared to risk my life, don't I?"

He said, to which Pia spoke.

"So, why have you come to such a place? Have you come to be on good terms with us?"

"No."

"Then why have you come?"

"To negotiate with you."

Pia laughed at that.

"Don't tell me you've come to have us participate in that ban on Rhule Fragmei that's currently causing a fuss all over the world?"

Vois shook his head at those words.

"No,"

He said.

"In that case, what have you come for?"

To that, Vois anwered,

"To implore something of you."

"Of me?"

"If I were to be precise, I've come to scout the Azure Princess ."

"Ehh. Is it your leader that wants to call for us?"

At the question, Vois became tense.

Pia had said that if she didn't like his response, she would throw a knife through his heart.

And he didn't believe that to be an empty threat. She'd calmly throw the knife and kill him.

In other words, if there was a breakdown in negotiations, his life would end.

While smiling wryly to the stinging sensation,

"No,"

Vois said.

While thinking about the possibility of a knife flying in that instant, he said that.

At any rate, the other party was a Congenital Magic Abnormality bearer who was unable to control her emotions. If it was something she disliked, there was a chance she'd immediately become enraged and throw knives around.

Then, at that moment,

"Heh, you're unexpectedly brave,"

She said such a thing.

Vois shrugged his shoulders that were hurting from the knife stuck in one.

"I'm honoured to be praised by you."

"So? Are you saying that you've become subordinate to me?"

"Yes."

"By your subordinates?"

However, Vois unsurprisingly shook his head at that.

"The organization of which I am a part of..."

He began, but then a shock hit his body. This time it was his left shoulder. Again, a knife had been pierced through it at some point, as it seemed that Vois had picked a fight.

At that, Pia spoke.

"I dislike lies. The People's Republic of Sphelliyet is your organization, is it not? Ryner is nothing more than your puppet king. Exactly what do you intend to do with my adorable Ryner-chan?"

Despite the question, Vois appeared to black out and thus couldn't answer. To begin with, he wasn't that strong against pain. As a member of a swindler family, his grandmother had told to never be in a situation where he would get injured...

Then,

"Are you listening?"

Vois shook his head at that. To clear his head that was hazy from the bleeding, he bit his tongue.

His tongue hurt.

Ah, honestly, I hate getting hurt, he thought.

Like that, he lifted his head and stared at Pia as he spoke.

"... It seems that I don't have much time left..."

"My, but it hasn't even been five minutes."

"... My constitution... isn't that good~"

"Ahaha, then you'll die here, it seems."

Vois was about to make a light-hearted comment to that; however, his head wasn't working very well. Strength steadily leaving his body, he understood that he really was nearly out of time.

And perhaps that was Pia's aim. That she'd never intended to pointlessly bargain.

But Vois was the same as well.

That was why he desperately tried to open his eyes, which were constantly trying to close, as he stared at Pia and spoke.

"... Rather than send a subordinate, I personally came here and risked my life, as you are especially important to us."

To such words, Pia said,

"Even if you didn't say so, I know better than anyone else how important I am. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you said something more truthful."

"... I've sent subordinates to Roland and to Gastark as well. However, for you, it was necessary that I myself come."

"Correct. And? Are you're saying that because the almighty you personally came here, I should be proud?"

To the question, he tried to open his mouth to speak, but the strength left his foot. He fell to his knees.

Regarding that,

"Is it over already?"

Pia said, but he shook his head. As he desperately tried to stare intently at her, a smile broke out across his face.

"... Is there a man in this world who would stop speaking with such a beautiful woman before him?"

"Aha, so you can still talk like that. So?"

"... So... I have a question to ask you."

"What is it?"

"What is it that you're fighting with?"

At that, Pia's expression changed only slightly. Her face becoming a bit more serious, she looked at him.

"What about you?"

"... It's rude to respond with a question."

"But it allows me to seize control of the situation."

"... Yes, that's true."

"And I am beautiful, am I not?"

She said something like that with such self-confidence.

She said that with an expression that suggested that if you were beautiful, then it was fine no matter what you did.

And Vois, at some point, started thinking that it might be fun to surrender to her self-confident expression.

But, as that was impossible right now, he smiled weakly, and,

"... Ahaha, that's certainly true... then, I'll answer first."

After saying that, he stopped his words again.

As expected, his body was losing its strength, and his consciousness was leaving him. With his strength to speak also fading, the idea of speaking to Pia Varliere in such a tone made him slightly uneasy, but nevertheless he mustered up his strength, and,

"... I... am fighting with the fate of this world,"

He said.

At that, Pia's eyes widened slightly.

"Ehh,"

She leaked out.

Then, as a somewhat sarcastic smile arose in her face,

"You, the Goddesses' underling, are fighting with the fate of the world?"

"... Ah, as I thought, that much..."

"That's why we wanted you dead, you see? After all, you are the enemy of humanity. But..."

Pia said.

And looking down at Vois's feet, she—

"Why are those monsters not revealing themselves? Even when their underling is on the verge of death, they won't come out? Even though I went through such pains to prepare Rhule Fragmei to kill the Goddesses ... could it be that you're disliked by the Goddesses?"

To the question, Vois responded with a laugh.

"To tell the truth, I tried to look under the Goddesses' skirts, so they called me a pervert~ and got mad at me."

However, despite the pointless joke, Pia didn't throw a knife.

She already knew that Vois couldn't endure any more.

At that, he smiled, and,

"Ah, I'm glad. Are you allowing my jokes now?"

"Even if I leave you alone, you'll die at any rate, won't you?"

"I'm someone who'll die if I'm not allowed to say perverted things."

"Aren't you a fool?"

"Yes, that's correct. You put it well,"

He said, smiling weakly.

However, he wasn't sure if his face was capable of smiling properly anymore.

Already, he truly didn't have any time left.

That was why he continued.

"... I had no intention of becoming the Goddesses' underling from the beginning."

"It doesn't look that way to me, though?"

"... Then if I say this, will you believe me? I despise being used by other people."

A smile spread across Pia's face at that, and,

"And that's why you're becoming subordinate to me?"

"You and I are the same, aren't we? To ourselves, the most..."

"Correct."

"That's why I've come to ask you to lend your power. I want you to work together as a united front."

"With you?"

"No, with the Demon King Ryner Lute."

At that, Pia's expression became slightly threatening.

"... Those rumours that you're circulating—how much of it is the truth? Ryner is..."

However, interrupting her, Vois spoke.

"The strength to explain that..."

"I would appreciate it if you talked."

"... It's true. Ryner-san, of his own will, killed countless people."

"Ha. Have you come here to tell lies? Ryner wouldn't..."

"But right now, I didn't come here to talk about..."

"Hold on, my topic..."

However, interrupting that, Vois continued.

Already, he was becoming unable to hear her voice. Thus, he continued. Though it was possible that he was getting on her nerves and would be killed, he didn't have any time.

It wasn't just him that had no time.

He wouldn't allow where the time of the world was slowly headed.

That was why he knowingly put his life at risk and came here.

After all, the clock was already moving.

After all, the demon awakened, and in the instant the country was established, every cogwheel had begun to move.

That was why Vois spoke.

"... Already, several countries are approving of the ban on Rhule Fragmei . From now on, Rhule Fragmei won't be used in wars, and instead people will kill one another directly in ordinary wars."

"......"

"... But your group isn't a country. You aren't participating in the peace treaty. Therefore, for a while, even if you use Rhule Fragmei , no one will be able to criticize you."

"......"

"... And so, using that power, please steal as much as territory as you can. Afraid to violate the treaty, the other party won't use any Rhule Fragmei ."

"......"

"... Though before long, the world will join forces and rise up against your group..."

Then, his words stopped there.

Because he suddenly started regaining consciousness. What was happening, he understood. It was likely that Derunio was being used.

A Rhule Fragmei that, by absorbing blood, allowed wounds to regenerate.

Though it was being pressed against his face, he saw.

The one pressing it against him was Pia Varliere. Furthermore, for some reason, her face was drawing closer to Vois's.

That pretty face of hers—

"Have you regained consciousness?"

She asked, to which he stuck his tongue out, and,

"With the lady's kiss, my consciousness..."

"Idi~ot,"

She said, removing Derunio from him.

As the pain returned to his body,

"Guah,"

He moaned.

And then, even as he collapsed onto the bright red rug, he noticed it.

"Even if it's you, talking while collapsed alone, you can't be heard."

"... Ohh, did I collapse?"

"With that degree of injuries after ten minutes—what a weakling."

"Haha, I did say that I have a weak constitution, didn't I? However, thanks to that, I became acquainted with you. The way Pia-san thinks, a good scent..."

Then his face was kicked.

"Kyaun! ♡"

He cried out, but his ability to joke around like that had yet to return to his body.

His shoulders and right foot weren't yet healed. They continued to bleed. Rather, the knives were still lodged in them.

Left alone like this, he'd likely lose consciousness again.

At that,

"... Then, where was I?"

Vois asked, to which Pia replied,

"You can't use Rhule Fragmei , and during the time in which you'll deceive the world for a just cause, we are to attack other countries. So, as you claim to follow the fate of the world and such to the end, we are to merge the land we conquered, correct?"

At such words, a smile arose in Vois's face as he spoke.

"Even though I didn't say it myself, my message was delivered quite clearly... then, what do you think? Do you not believe it to be a good idea?"

He began, but then she shook her head.

"I don't. Or rather, in the first place, I don't believe that you established this peace treaty of yours well enough? Roland has already upset it."

To those words, he said,

"Ah, what Roland is desperately circulating—that our purpose for suggesting this peace treaty is to aim at Sion Astal's life... those rumours?"

"Correct. Because of those rumours, the countries of this world have begun to doubt you."

She began, but Vois smiled at that.

"It's not quite doubt. After all, they never had faith to begin with."

"At the very least, Roland already..."

However, interrupting that, Vois spoke.

"I didn't expect that mad country to participate in the treaty to begin with. No, from the start, I've been desperately stringing along a plot in order to oppose that country... Naturally, we will be a hindrance to them."

"In order to oppose Roland?"

Vois nodded at that.

"Your group should already be aware, correct? You should know of that country's abnormality. Furthermore, as people from Roland, you've always been investigating it."

"......"

"The mad hero of the south. The cursed sword of the north. The Goddesses of the west—and then the atypical god that's descended upon the Remrus Empire. Each of them clearly isn't human. That's why, to this world..."

"Because it's in the hand of these monsters, we should place it back in the hands of humanity?"

To those words,

"Correct,"

Vois said, nodding.

At that, with an expression as if he were an idiot, Pia laughed, and,

"I would expect nothing else from a brat like you. What a knight in shining armour."

To such words, Vois spoke.

"Haha, knight... knight? Well, at the very least, when it comes to my own life, all that I do is just. Of course, though, once we slaughter all the monsters, I intend to reign over all of humanity..."

"Then, I shall reign over that."

"That's fine. But when the time comes to ride on top of me, if you could ride from my chest to my bottom..."

However, interrupting that,

"I'll ride by the heels,"

She said, as a bewitching smile spread across her face.

Vois nodded at that.

"That's also fine~"

"Everyone says the same."

"Ahaha, then an alliance with us..."

In response, she nodded.

"Very well. The Goddesses didn't come to save you when you were on the brink of death. You've been discarded, it seems. In that case, if you've been discarded, then you can be used. Of course, you shall be a slave, and I, your master."

"That's fine with me~. I like being used by a beauty,"

Vois replied, and mentally, added another thing.

That in the end, this beauty who thought she could use him would be the one to cry, and that would be the greatest excitement.

But at that, she suddenly stared at him with cold eyes.

"......"

However, she said nothing.

In response, Vois tilted his head to one side and stared back.

"What is it?"

A cold smile floated onto her face, as she said,

"But this plan—I can do it without you, can't I? If, like this, I choose to kill you by not granting you treatment, I can simply form an alliance with Ryner, can't I?"

Vois easily nodded at that.

"Yes, that's possible."

"Then, what reason do I have to let you live?"

"If you kill me, you'll be hated by Ryner-san?"

"Haha, then I'll keep it a secret."

"My subordinates will tell him."

"If you're talking about your subordinates outside the fortress, they've already been captured, though?"

"I didn't bring along my messenger."

At those words, Pia laughed cheerfully.

"Aha, you're desperate right now, aren't you?"

"......"

"Because you're desperate, you're willing to risk your life. Then, by all means, for our help..."

However, Vois then spoke.

"All this time, I've successfully played the part of the Goddesses' manservant. Because of that, I possess far more information than you. For example, the way to stop Sion Astal—the Fallen Mad Hero [Asruld Roland]..."

He began, but unsurprisingly, Pia smiled and spoke.

"We'll get what you know out of you through torture."

"But you won't do that. You can't kill me, who's still useful with my skill."

"Aha—useful? Skill?"

Vois nodded at that.

"Yes, and what's more, I'm loveable and adorable."

"What a joke."

"So, you won't kill the adorable me. After all, you're someone who'll use me if I can be used. Am I wrong?"

In response, Pia stared at him for a while, and then tossed Derunio at him.

Vois caught it.

Immediately, Derunio activated its power.

It absorbed the blood.

It absorbed the blood that had soaked into the rug at his feet. As Derunio wasn't something that absorbed the other party's blood, the blood currently being absorbed wasn't the blood streaming from Vois.

It was someone else's blood.

He didn't know whether the source of the blood was still alive or had been killed; however, thanks to that blood, Vois's injuries were rapidly mending. Confirming that, he took out the knives in his shoulders and foot. Then, those wounds healed. The pain also became no more.

Vois lifted his head at that, and,

"Has our alliance been established, then?"

He asked that.

She nodded, and said,

"Yes, but it's not because you're useful that I'm letting you live."

"Then why?"

At that, a smile broke out across her face, as she spoke.

"Because I can kill you at any time."

"......"

"And because I can kill you at any time, I won't kill you now."

"How frighteniiing."

"Correct. I am frightening. Remember that."

"Haha. But I already knew that before I came here."

"My, is that so?"

She said, cackling.

Vois also smiled at that.

With this, the alliance was established.

Nevertheless, however, there was no time.

And Pia seemed to understand that as well, as she spoke.

"Then, let's hear about why you're in such a hurry. It's only been ten days since the war with Gastark. Even though you recently established the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, what's your reason for coming here in such a rush? Of course, if it's expanding dominion in one move through Rhule Fragmei , I believe that now is the only time... but if it's about that, then it seems a bit too forcible. Why were you willing to risk your life to come to us? For what reason are you in such a hurry?"

In response to such a question, Vois contemplated. Where should I start? he asked himself as thoughts whirled around in his head.

As for why he had to move in such a rush, there were numerous reasons.

He could think of many reasons.

But one reason was especially urgent and so came to mind.

Staring at Pia Varliere,

"You hail from Roland, correct?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever met the present king—Sion Astal?"

"I haven't. But Zohra... my subordinate seems to have met him."

"Then, what did that subordinate say?"

He asked, to which Pia made a slightly thoughtful expression, and then,

"That he's gone completely mad."

"Haha, that's true. After all, he's no longer human. And out of all the monsters running rampant in the Menoris continent, he's the worst of them. He's to the point where the Goddesses fear him. The Goddesses say that as he expands his territory, his power grows."

At that, Pia made a puzzled expression as she looked his way and spoke.

"Haa? Of course, if he expands his territory, his country becomes stronger..."

She began, but interrupting that, Vois spoke.

"That isn't what I mean. What I meant was that Sion Astal's individual power increases. The humans that dwell in the lands he reigns over will be rewritten into a separate existence, from Human to Human α . Furthermore, he does it unconsciously. As every human who looks up to Sion Astal as their king is recomposed into a separate existence, the source of Sion Astal's power will be transfigured."

"... Now, hold on for a moment. Saying that..."

However, without letting Pia finish, Vois said,

"Even if you wish to hear the detailed version, I can't tell you anything beyond the hearsay from the Goddesses ... However, the Goddesses are very impatient. I understand that the Hero' s power, having already taken control of the southern continent and entered the central continent, has grown to the point where it seems the Goddesses won't extend a hand. That is to say, if we wish to kill him..."

"... It'll have to be while he's within the southern continent, is what you're saying?"

Vois nodded at that, and,

"Well, I can't say how strong the power of the Demon King is either~. As the Goddesses also fear the power of the Demon , even if the Hero comes to the central continent, there might still be a way. But..."

Vois said.

Then he turned around.

He looked towards the entrance of the room. If that direction was the south, he wasn't entirely sure, but at any rate he figured it was, and so looked that way.

He looked towards where the Fallen Mad Hero was.

And then, thinking of the face of the eternally sleepy-looking, afternoon naps-loving man who had become his tentative ally, if one could call it that,

"... But because the Demon can't help but like the Hero , Ryner-san might not lend a hand. Therefore, I'd like it if we could deal with it ourselves as much as possible,"

He said.

Regarding that, if they didn't need to rely on the power of a monster, then, as much as possible, he didn't want to depend on it.

The Goddesses are too arrogant— Humans are nothing more than magic created by them merely for the purpose of sealing away the Hero ? Don't make me laugh, he thought.

The ones filling this continent now are us humans, he thought.

Well, saying that they walk a hundred steps but give in , truly the Goddesses were the founders of humans, so what should they do?

Saying that they were born for nothing, that they were scrap who were forced to have no reason to live.

At any time, in a person's life, the outcome of the dice they cast could change with just one thing.

One word.

One lie.

With one smile in a day, everything could suddenly change.

And surely, that was the same for the lives of those monsters as well.

That was why they cast the dice.

They'll fall to my feet, and until the roll in which they cry out appears, I'll continue to cast the dice.

For that sake,

"Now, Pia-san, please lend me your assistance. Together, we'll take back the future of humanity from those monsters,"

He said.

Pia replied,

"For the sake of the world in which I shall rule over?"

If only I could vomit at those words —while thinking that,

"Yes, for the sake of the world in which you shall rule over,"

Vois smiled with an innocent face.

### 006. Chapter 5: Reunion

The sun was going down.

Clouds that were dyed red from that evening sun slowly drifted in the sky.

While staring at those clouds that seemed determined to airily float by,

"Ah~, my ass hurts,"

Ryner groaned.

Having continued to gallop on his horse since morning, changing once midway and then continuing to gallop, it was expected that his bottom would already reach its limit, and so he fell and was now, still straddling his horse, toppled over and staring up at the sky.

Nevertheless, the horse steadily continued to move forward, despite the shock on its back.

While staring up at the sky with exhausted eyes,

"... I wanna be that cloud."

Ryner said such an idiotic thing.

In response, riding the horse parallel to his,

"Which cloud?"

Ferris asked, to which Ryner replied,

"That cloud."

"Which one? That dango-shaped one?"

"Huh~?"

After searching for a dango-ish shaped cloud, Ryner said,

"Um, what? While I have no clue what dango-shaped cloud you're thinking of—well, it's that one."

"Mm-hmm. Somehow, it seems promising."

"Right? My dream is to be a cloud, floating around without a care in the world."

"And without any usefulness whatsoever."

"Is that what you think?"

At that, Ferris laughed with a fufu .

Though what kind of expression she was making as she laughed, Ryner, who was collapsed and staring up at the sky, didn't know.

Then, riding on his opposite side,

"... Pretty."

Kiefer said.

At that, Ryner asked,

"The sunset?"

"Nope."

"Then, the clouds?"

"Wroooong."

"Then what's pretty?"

He asked, to which she replied,

"Ryner's eyes."

"Huh."

"The sun's reflected in them."

Saying such things cheerfully, she leaned forward slightly and peered at his face.

Kiefer's face took over Ryner's entire line of sight. Her red hair was dyed further red by the sunset.

At that, Ryner said,

"Kiefer."

"Hmm?"

"If you lean forward like that, aren't you gonna fall off?"

"If I fall, will you save me?"

"Saving you would be bothersome, so I'd just sit up properly."

"Ahaha,"

She laughed cheerfully. Then she stared further into his eyes.

"......"

However, she said nothing.

But he knew what she was looking for.

The five-star pentacle.

Up until recently, it should've been a five-star pentacle.

She was looking for what had already disappeared from his eyes.

And her expression became slightly worried. Upon noticing that, she made such a face.

Nevertheless, she said nothing. Merely staring at him, she said nothing.

"I said I'd sit up."

As he said that, she again laughed, and,

"Even though your butt hurts~"

"Yeah, so I'd stand?"

"Right, right. Like Ferris?"

She said, to which Ryner—

"Ferris?"

He said, looking her way again.

There, so that her bottom was raised above the horse, she was standing with one leg placed on the horse's back, as ridiculous as it was.

Rather than say something about how she was going to fall like that, or how it was dangerous,

"Is that some kind of acrobatics training?"

Ryner quipped, to which she looked down at him, and then suddenly,

"It's training to plant my heel against your face!"

She said, swinging a leg down at him.

At that,

"Whoa—"

Ryner said, sitting up to dodge. Ferris's heel struck the rear end of the horse. Letting out a neigh, the horse vigorously galloped forward, the movement of which was causing its back to collide with Ryner's rear end repeatedly.

"O-Ow, owww! Hey, just wait a bit~. It's okay, so whoa, whoa,"

Ryner said, soothing the horse.

Then he turned his head.

At Kiefer, who was in a half-bent position, standing with the stirrup, and at the ridiculous-looking Ferris, who was unsurprisingly standing on her horse one-legged.

He wanted to say something like that, "I'm gonna send you flying~,"

"... But I don't have the energy to cry out~,"

He said wearily.

And he looked.

He looked at the setting sun behind them.

By the way, they were currently on a large, considerably well-maintained road.

This road led to the fourth largest city of the ex-Geihlficlant Empire, so many people came through it.

Embarrassingly enough, already, numerous horses and carriages had noticed Ferris, standing on top of her horse.

"... It really is a big city, huh?"

He said.

Then he looked in front of him again. He looked towards the destination of the road. Kiefer had said that they should be able to arrive by evening, and that didn't seem to be false.

Already, the entrance of Sphellilans--no, the entrance of the city that had become the People's Republic of Sphelliyet could be seen.

As they'd been told by Kiefer along the way, it seemed that this city, for a long time in the Geihlficlant Empire, had been a site of heavy trading between the north and south, and so to have it stolen was likely a significant blow to the Geihlficlant Empire.

And sure enough, right now, there were carriages stacked with large burdens constantly passing by on this road.

Though he didn't know where those carriages came from,

"... Even though it was just captured, trading can resume so easily, huh?"

He muttered.

Then, after closing his eyes for a moment, he re-opened them.

In the center of his eyes, a tear shape of iridescent light arose, and with those eyes, he gazed at the entire street.

With those eyes, he saw the deployed Magic Knights of the town and the locations of their Rhule Fragmei .

Of course, he couldn't see what kind of power they had if they weren't being activated; however, throughout the entire town, several magic traps had been concealed and offensive spells had been prepared.

"Ah, so we really are preparing for war... Well, that's how it is. After all, we still don't know when Geihlficlant's gonna try and take back this place..."

Regarding the carriages that seemed to move back and forth in a hurry,

"... They're carriages under Vois's patronage, right? Transporting military goods?"

Ryner said, as the pattern in his eyes vanished, looking at the carriages with his sleepy expression once more.

Then, Kiefer and Ferris caught up with him.

Maybe because of their smaller bodies, their bottoms didn't protest as much, but they were sitting upright on their horses.

Ferris asked,

"What are you looking at?"

Ryner answered,

"The carriages."

Then Kiefer said,

"Vois-kun's... the Anti-Roland Coalition's carriages?"

"Looks like it. But, well, I didn't think that with this amount of carriages, they could investigate each one by one..."

He began, but Kiefer interrupted him, saying,

"Back when Sphelliyet was a town of Geihlficlant, there were three times as many carriages, and they properly examined each and everyone of them, it seems?"

At such words, Ryner made an amazed face as he looked at her. And,

"Seriously? What a city, huh~?"

He said.

Kiefer laughed, and,

"You know, our previous home of Roland altogether is only a bit bigger than Sphelliyet—that's how big this city is?"

"... Wait, what? This city is that huge?"

"Yup."

"And Vois managed to steal it?"

"Impressive, isn't it?"

"No, calling it impressive..."

Well, in this situation, that wouldn't have been possible without using Rhule Fragmei —thinking that, he again looked towards the city.

And he contemplated.

About how three times this many carriages would come through this city.

In other words,

"... Right now, in order to enter the city, there's defnitely an inspection, right?"

Kiefer nodded.

"It seems so. Even though the soldiers and people of Sphelliyet surrendered, there's still a chance that there might be a civil war."

"And if they could get in touch with Geihlficlant's other cities, they'd come up with a plan to kill Vois?"

"Right, right,"

Kiefer said, nodding.

However, just then, Ferris looked towards Ryner and spoke.

"Perhaps it'd be a plan to kill you."

"Ah, right, I'm this country's king, aren't I? But then why would we be so sneaky about it?"

"Out of a guilty conscience?"

"Guilty about what?"

Again, she randomly blushed, and,

"Sneaking into a person's tent in the middle of the night..."

To such things, Ryner asked,

"Even though you've mentioning that since this morning, what's all this about a tent anyway?"

"This conversation."

"Haa?

"Anyhow, the point is that you're a guilty person!"

While it made no sense, Ryner nodded at that.

"Well, there's definitely something to feel guilty over. I mean, we've come to destroy all of the authority Vois's built for himself all sneaky-like... Though Vois is definitely expecting us to do this... It's gonna be tricky dealing with that guy's pointlessly sharp head,"

He said, before looking once more at the town.

Already, he could begin to see the town's large gate and several hundreds of armed soldiers.

The soldiers were dressed in a black uniform.

It was the uniform that Vois supplied to the Anti-Roland Coalition soldiers.

Looking at that,

"Ah, this really has become Vois's country, huh?"

He muttered.

Furthermore, he could see that every carriage was being carefully inspected.

"Ahhh, it looks like it really won't be easy getting into the town, doesn't it?"

Then,

"Mm-hmm. But for someone who goes around sneaking into women's rooms while in the nude, going uhuehue , isn't this your strong suit?"

Ferris said such a thing.

In response, Ryner looked at Ferris with half-closed eyes.

"I'm too tired to even start with what's wrong about tha..."

" Uhuehue~, by taking off my clothes, I've become invisible~ "

"No, that's why—"

" Kyaa, he's suddenly become invisible, this perveeert! "

"Um..."

"That's why you have to take off your clothes, Ryner. And then, like you've always done it, strike the town in the nude!"

Ferris said, raising both hands. She moved the horse in his direction.

Her eyes were earnest.

Though she was the sort of person who always acted serious about these things.

Like that, she moved to take off Ryner's clothes.

"Haaaaaaaaa? Wait, you, this isn't the time to screw around... Hey, Kiefer, tell her that now's not the time for this..."

Ryner began, before suddenly stopping.

For some reason, Kiefer's eyes were also cheerful as she raised both hands and moved to take off his clothes.

"Traitooooooooooooor!?"

Ryner exclaimed.

At the same time he cried out, he noticed something strange.

It was a sign.

As they approached the city, he noticed several signs.

At that,

"Ah, wait, time out,"

Ryner said.

In response, while raising both hands,

"Uhuehuehue, miss, you can no longer escape—"

Though Ferris said that in her usual monotonous voice, Ryner pushed away her hands, and,

"No, no, look over there. At that sign."

"Sign?"

"Yeah, yeah. Isn't it about us?"

He said.

Ferris stopped her hands.

She looked at the sign.

After confirming that, Ryner also looked at the sign again.

On the first sign, this was what was written.

"In the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, everyone's daily lives will not change. On the contrary, as such a significant merchant town, it's been flourishing up until now. So relax, and please strive in your trading."

On the second sign, this was what was written.

' "The People's Republic of Sphelliyet is a country where everyone works hard. Here, there is no such thing as social identity. If you work hard, then the happiness of simply working hard is all that you need. Now, seize your own future with your own hands!"

The third—

"Presently, for those without work, the Fiurelle Group offers its services. The types of services vary. Depending on your talents, you can jump towards infinite possibilities."

There, Ryner grimaced.

"Hey, isn't the Fiurelle Group the swindler group Vois had back in ex-Iyet? Well, when it comes to dubious things, that guy's always been completely willi..."

He began to say, but stopped.

After all, when it came to dubious things, that guy wasn't going to not do anything dubious again. In that case, he'd decide to go all out when it came to such things.

No, to begin with, the fact that this country was standing here now was dubious.

"......"

However, the signs continued.

Fourth sign.

"The People's Republic of Sphelliyet is protected by the Demon King that frightened even the Geihlficlant Empire and Gastark Empire into fleeing. So relax and spend each day of your life easily. As long as the Demon King protects us, no one will have to deal with war again."

Fifth sign.

"The Demon King is admired by both men and women, up until the Fiurelle Group. The Demon King Ryner Lute is peerless. He is able to respond to everyone's requests, no matter how many. In bed, he is a challenge for everyone. Come on!"

"... I'm gonna kill him,"

Ryner said, groaning.

But at any rate, he also ignored this sign. After all, there was only one sign where it was clear from its cryptic message that it would mean nothing to anyone else.

Ryner looked at that sign.

There, this was what was written.

"This is a message for my underwear thief friend Ry~. Come to the official building of the central army. It's our headquarters. As I'm a bit busy, I likely won't be there when Ry-san arrives, so please wait there. As soon as I return, I'll clear up various misunderstandings. Incidentally, I have no intention of fighting with you. The king is you. ♡ I am your manservant. ♡ Of course, though, if you wish to fight in bed, I accept your challenge! Aha. ♡ With that, back to bed~."

While staring at such a sign, Ryner scowled until he could scowl no further, before he spoke.

"... Geez, though what's written there is a piece of shit that makes a chill run down my spine... Ah, maybe it's a message from Vois?"

As he said that, Ferris nodded with an unusually earnest face, and,

"... It can't be that he's introducing a tax system on dango... Ah, though it's simple to see..."

"Wait, heeeey, are you looking at a different sign?"

"Hmm? Aren't we talking about the sign to the left?"

"Huh? To the left?"

Ryner said, turning in that direction.

There, this sign was present.

"Ferris-saaaan, the People's Republic of Sphelliyet will be adopting a tax system on dango. If you wish to overturn this, please convince Ry-san to join me."

Such a thing was written.

To that, Ferris spoke.

"Hey, Ryner. Become Vois's ally."

"Haa? Geez, you're so easily bribed... But whatever, none of this matters!"

Ryner said, again stopping that line of thought. Then he took in a deep breath, before letting out a sigh with a haa, and then,

"Y'know, lately we haven't been having a lot of these stupid conversations, so it's really wearing me out now."

As he said that, Ferris nodded in agreement.

"So then, you'll become allies with Vois..."

"That's not what I'm saying at all!"

"Mm. It couldn't be that that place is the capital of dango, could it?"

"... Um..."

With exasperated eyes, Ryner looked at Ferris's sparkling expression, and then looked at Kiefer to the side, who was smiling wryly.

She smiled his way, and,

"After fighting so many battles to get here, with so many dying, this is somehow really amusing,"

She said such a thing.

In response, Ryner spoke in a weary tone.

"But I'm tired ."

"Are you?"

"Yeah."

"But you look like you're having fun?"

At such words, Ryner groaned, saying "Lieees."

But,

"......"

Again, Ryner looked around at his surroundings.

He looked at the street where carriages, people, and horses passed by in a hurry.

The faces of the people walking by weren't dispirited.

Even though, as Vois conquered this place, he'd burned the neighbouring towns and villages to ash, the people's faces weren't dispirited.

At the very least, their faces were brighter than those of the people of the previous Roland, a long time ago.

Furthermore, due to the several idiotic signs standing, this place was strangely bright, giving the illusion of peace.

It was like, back when he and Ferris were travelling to various countries on Sion's orders, the Iyet Republic.

Vois's native country.

Operated by the Fiurelle Group, it'd been lacking in laws and rules, and yet was a strangely bright country full of idiots—this place gave off the same atmosphere.

No, it seemed that Vois had purposely made it that way.

A country untouched by the horrors of war, where working hard was your sole reward.

A country of commerce with no social classes.

If that was the kind of country that Vois wanted to create, then there was no need to oppose him, but,

"But the path taken to get there was..."

Ryner murmured.

Though this country had been smoothed over with a bright surface, it was likely that within, flames of resentment and anger were smouldering.

At any rate, what with killing everyone in the surrounding towns and villages, Vois had forced this city to surrender.

Something like simply saying, "Yes, everyone, let's work to create a bright future~" wasn't going to happen in reality.

Well, right now, after an aggresive invasion, something like starting a revolt would be surprisingly gentle—though in spite of such things, the atmosphere was strangely bright...

"......"

However, Ryner then quit that line of thought.

And, he contemplated.

"... I really am naive, huh...?"

At the very least, the people and soldiers of Imperial Nelpha needed a place, and Vois had prepared that.

Though his means of doing so were forcible, Vois had said from the beginning that he would obtain the power to oppose Roland. And quickly, he'd established his foothold here.

And that's the difference between him and me, Ryner thought.

All words and no talk, talking about how he'd save Sion, and if Sion had gone somewhere that his hand wouldn't reach, then he'd stand beside him—that was difference between Vois and him, who said such things and yet still couldn't move forward so easily.

"Well, though using my name to his heart's content pisses me off..."

While saying that, he looked around.

He looked at the faces of the people of the country that Vois had just established.

And regarding the slightly disappointed mood that came forth,

"... Well, if things are like this right now, then we don't have to be in a rush. It seems like Vois isn't here either,"

He said.

Of course, like this, there was no way they could do as Vois said.

"Now then, what should we do?"

At that, Kiefer spoke.

"Aren't you going to do what was written on those giant signs that were there when we entered the city?"

However, with a suspicious face, Ryner said,

"No, let's not. I don't trust a single world that comes from Vois's mouth. Right, Ferris?"

In response,

"Yeah. That's correct. If the time comes when he won't safeguard a tax system that favours dango..."

Saying such a thing, she withdrew part of her sword from its sheathe.

Ryner shrugged at that, and,

"No, dango's not the point here... Seriously, there's no guarantee that they'd just be, 'Nothing'll happen, go on through~' after we pass under the gates, right?"

He said, looking at the city gates.

Naturally, Vois knew of Ryner's power. He knew of the power of Ryner's eyes that, in the fight against Gastark, cancelled out Glouvil's own.

And as it was likely that he wanted to make use of such power, he probably wasn't going to openly a pick a fight with Ryner after witnessing it.

Then, as if she'd been thinking the same thing,

"Ryner,"

Kiefer called his name.

As he looked her way, she asked with some difficulty,

"That... power of yours."

"Yeah?"

"Is it okay if I ask a little about it?"

"Go ahead."

"That power of yours, um—Ryner, how many times..."

She began, but then Ryner shook his head.

"I won't use it."

At that, Kiefer's eyes widened. With a I don't know how to ask this kind of face,

"Umm, do you not know how to use it?"

However, Ryner also shook his head at that.

"That's not it."

"Then... Then, it's because you don't want to use a power that could kill so many..."

"That's not it either,"

Ryner said, interrupting Kiefer.

"It's simple: I won't use it. I don't have the strength left for that anymore,"

He said.

And that was the truth.

Already, he no longer had the strength needed to use that power.

Because he knew the truth.

Because he knew the price that he had to pay to use that power was too great.

It seemed that if he didn't offer the life of someone important to him, he couldn't use it.

And apparently that time, it'd been his mother.

That power had been born from giving up his mother's life as a sacrifice.

And his mother died.

She would no longer come back again.

Though his father had told him that it wasn't his fault,

"......"

Things that complicated weren't solved so easily.

Though back then, he'd used his power without knowing, he knew now.

He knew that if he were to use his power, someone would lose their life.

He knew that furthermore, someone important to him would lose their life.

Knowing that, it wasn't likely that he'd use this power again.

It was a power that slaughtered countless people to protect those he cared about.

At any rate, if he continued to use that power, the people around him would be no more...

"......"

Then, Ryner thought about the name of the monster within him.

Called the Solver of All Equations, he thought of the name of the demon.

That demon had introduced itself to Ryner.

It'd introduced itself as the Lonesome Demon.

Purely to save the Hero, a lonely demon that continously solved puzzles within the solititude of eternity—that was what it said.

Ryner narrowed his eyes at that, and,

"Lonely... huh? In other words, in order to save the Hero, it'd sacrifices the lives of all its friends?"

He thought about such a thing.

Though he still didn't know about what kind of being the demon inside his head was or what it was thinking, he knew that he shouldn't keep on using its power.

It was a power that was far too strong.

It was an aberrant power.

Furthermore, it was a power that would steal away the things important to Ryner.

It was fine if he died. It was fine if he were hurt. But if he couldn't use his power without sacrificing others, then he wouldn't use it.

That was why,

"... I won't use that power anymore,"

Ryner said.

Kiefer seemed strangely happy at that, and,

"I'm glad,"

She said such a thing.

In response, Ryner looked at her face.

"You're glad? But without that power..."

He began, but she interrupted him.

"It's fine if you don't use that kind of power. That kind of power will only bring about suffering."

"......"

"If you couldn't live without using that power, then the reasons why you'd absolutely have to have it would increase. If it's an unnecessary power, then it's fine not to use it. That's what I think,"

She said such things.

In response, Ryner stared at Kiefer, and,

"... Are those the words of Glouvil's wielder, Riphal Edea?"

He was about to ask, but he stopped.

After all, he already understand what was going on with Gastark's king—Riphal Edea.

Rather, he saw with these eyes .

Gastark's king offering up a part of his body as compensation for activating that power to a girl with peach-coloured hair, who'd appeared from the mouth of that serpent—Ryner saw.

Already, Riphal Edea had sacrificed his eye, leg, and sense of smell to that serpent monster that danced through the sky.

Despite that, he continued to offer up more sacrifices.

In that battle, he'd presented his sense of touch.

It'd truly been done so easily.

The serpent that danced in the sky devoured Riphal's sense of touch, and in return, lent its power to him.

It lent its massive power.

However, the price of that was that he would no longer be able to come into contact with others.

He would no longer be able to feel another person's warmth.

Even if he were to be kindly embraced by another, he would no longer be able to feel anything.

"......"

That was a hefty price.

Like that, even if he were to rule over the world, there would be no meaning, Ryner thought.

So surely, his wish wasn't to become king.

It couldn't be about satisfying his own desires.

What his true wish was, Ryner didn't know. However, at the very least, the king of that country was sacrificing himself in order to advance forward.

Without depending on others, offering his own body as compensation, and while crying, he advanced foward.

Ryner knew just that.

And it was likely that Sion was the same.

No, the reality was that Sion cried.

The day of last time they'd met.

Although rain was pouring heavily and so it could've been that streaming down his face, he was crying.

While crying, he tried to kill Ryner.

He said that he would end it all there.

He said that he was sorry for not keeping his promise.

"......"

Whatever it was that Riphal was burdened with, Ryner didn't know.

Seeing as how Sion, the idiot, didn't talk about his own problems at all either, Ryner knew absolutely nothing.

But,

"......"

Ryner looked at his own palms.

He looked at his palms that'd killed over a million people.

Why he had such a power, he didn't know.

Despite that, he'd obtained that power.

He'd obtained a power that could break the world at the cost of those he cared about.

To say it plainly, he'd obtained the worst sort of power where it would be better if nothing happened.

And the first time one gained such a power, surely they would use it.

Sion cried over it.

Riphal cried over it.

And me as well.

"......"

He unfolded the right arm he received from his father, and then refolded it. As he vowed never to use that power a second time, he clenched his hand into a tight fist.

Then,

"... Well, although I say that, I can't trust Vois. At the very least, within the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, until I'm above Vois, I don't have much of a say in things."

Kiefer nodded at that.

"Right. I understand."

Continuing from there, Ferris said,

"Hey, Ryner, if you've decided that, then hurry up and enter the city already."

To such a random thing that didn't follow any chain of reasoning, as far as Ryner could tell,

"Haa? Decided what?"

Ryner asked, to which Ferris made the sort of expression that said that it should be obvious and spoke.

"Enforcing a tax system that favours dango in this country—your decision about that."

"Your point is?"

"Have there be a shop that produces delicious dango."

"Then?"

"How about a dango shop that closes late at night? If you have no complaints, then hurry it up,"

She said, and for some reason, withdrew part of her sword. Then, she slapped the bottom of Ryner's horse. As a result, Ryner's horse again let out a neigh before galloping forward.

"I told you, it hurts like hell when it runs..."

Ryner groaned, but this time, he didn't stop the horse.

After all, either way, he had to enter the city. Unless Vois's message was a lie, it seemed that Vois wasn't in the city right now.

In that case,

"If we get in quickly, then let's do a bit of undercover work before Vois returns."

Then, following behind him,

"That's my strong suit,"

Kiefer said such a thing.

"That?"

Ryner asked, to which she cheerfully replied,

"Undercover work comes with being a spy, doesn't it?"

"Ah~, right, Kiefer, you've had experience with infiltration stuff, huh?"

"That's right. On top of that, it'll be for Ryner's sake. Though, up until now, I've always been working hard for groups I didn't care for, I'll now be working for someone I do care for. Just from that alone, I feel like I can really do this."

For some reason, she spoke in a truly happy voice.

In response.

"......"

Ryner looked at her face.

Having received such courtesy from her in such a straightforward manner, he looked at her face.

She looked a bit embarrassed. As if waiting for his reaction, she had that sort of expression.

And regarding that, what would be the appropriate reaction, he again didn't know. He'd always adopted a manner in which he could pretend that he didn't hear and that he didn't notice.

"......"

But regarding what was the best thing to do right now, he thought a bit about his father—or whoever he was.

Love.

Love, was it?

Somehow, though he'd always felt lonely and that he couldn't come into contact with others, even if now one said suddenly that he was making contact and whatnot,

"Hey..."

Ryner said alone, at which Kiefer shook her head, and,

"Hey?"

"No, kindly ignore me."

"What's with the formality?"

"Ah, um? Ah~, just ignore me, okay?"

"Ahaha, you haven't changed."

"Pretty much, right?"

"Yeah."

"Right,"

Ryner said. Then, surpassing him from behind with great force, Ferris spoke.

"Mm-hmm. You never change."

In response, Ryner looked at her, and,

"I don't wanna hear that from you."

"Perverts don't change."

"Yes, yes."

"By the way, Ryner."

"Don't change the topic."

"Do you have any money to buy dango with?"

"Why do you have to use my money?"

"It's been decided by the law that the one who always goes into debt from buying dango is you, hasn't it?"

To such words, Ryner reminisced.

Of when he went around to different countries with a certain blonde-haired woman.

Of when he returned to Roland afterwards.

Though, in this scene, she was always selfishly using his name to take out loans and he was forced to suffer for her dango habits—

Regarding that, Ryner spoke.

"Ah, but in this country, I'm the almighty king, so I can skip on my bills as much as I like, right?"

Ferris made a surprised face and then pointed at him.

"Perfect!"

At such a gesture,

"Don't say that it's perfect. Honestly, what do you think will happen to the reputation of a king who skips on his bills?"

While saying that, Kiefer took out a purse from her pocket. From inside her purse, she took out a number of slips of paper and held them out.

"Here you go. It's Geihlficlant's currency. As the country is still being established, I don't think the currency has changed yet. So hold onto this."

As Ryner took the money, he spoke.

"For some reason, Kiefer, you're really prepared for everything, aren't you?"

She laughed cheerfully with a fufufu .

"I was praised by Ryner. ♡"

He nodded in response, and,

"Y'know, Ferris. This is the difference between her and a woman addicted to dango like you, huh?"

He said, to which the aforementioned dango-addicted woman replied,

"It's the difference between her and a man addicted to being a good-for-nothing, huh?"

"Geez."

"So, that money is mine."

"Don't say that so easily with such a serious look."

"I look only as serious as my words."

"Heh—oh, is that so? Well, then, um, Kiefer, hey..."

Ryner said, but before he could ask, Kiefer laughed. Taking out some more money from her purse,

"I prepared enough for three people."

"Reall? Then here, Ferris,"

Ryner said, handing the notes over to Ferris.

Then again, he took some money from Kiefer.

"Somehow, it feels kinda like I'm receiving my allowance or something."

As he said that, Ferris pressed her hands against her cheeks in a troubled manner and spoke. For some reason, with a slightly languid expression,

"I'm just a son who doesn't do any work at all, after all. Even though I'm already forty..."

"All right, so let's hurry up and enter the city..."

"Don't ignore me."

"Um, then let's get on with finding the headquarters, or at an inn, regarding the city's circumstances..."

"I said , don't ignore me!"

Ferris again exclaimed. Furthermore, though he hadn't heard it in a while, he then heard a familiar sound that he'd grown to hate, and,

"Seriously?"

Ryner said.

He felt something hit his head—the blunt edge of a sword, wasn't it? It had to be the blunt edge of Ferris's sword!

And as that sword struck his head with all its might,

"Gya—"

He let out a cry, falling from his horse.

Like that, he tumbled down onto the ground, collapsing before the city gates.

The guards keeping a watch over the gate made shocked expressions, and though in that moment, he thought that he was going to be apprehended for certain,

"A-Are you all right!?"

For some reason, they sounded concerned.

At that, not moving an inch from where he was lying on the ground, Ryner replied.

"No, I'm not."

However, in response, Ferris, sitting on her horse, spoke.

"No, he's a masochist who enjoys this."

With surprised faces,

"I-Is that how it is?"

The soldiers said such a thing, to which she nodded.

"Just now, this pervert yelled, 'If somebody doesn't hit me right now, I'm gonna kill myself!' and so I grudgingly hit him."

"Uh, I see?"

Listening to such a conversation, Ryner looked up from the ground with half-closed eyes, and said,

"I swear I'm gonna kill you?"

"Then try it."

"Though how should I put it... this kind of thing really takes me way back."

At that, Ferris spoke.

Without looking at him, as if she were completely ignoring him,

"Mm-hmm. It's a little fun, isn't it?"

She said such a thing.

In response, Ryner looked up at Ferris.

Come to think of it, up until now, they'd been so preoccupied with the war, she'd been surprisingly docile; however, perhaps she'd been purposely holding herself back because of their situation.

He smiled wryly at that.

"It's fun, huh?"

He retorted, to which she nodded with surprising honesty.

"Yeah."

"But now I'm hurt, y'know."

"You're the one who said that there would be problems if I didn't hit you."

"Haa~? When did I ever... well, if you're having fun, then I guess it's fine,"

He said, getting to his feet.

And again, the soldiers asked,

"Are you really all right?"

Ryner nodded at the question.

"I've gotten used to it."

"Eh, you've gotten used to it...? A-Ahhh~, i-is that how it is?"

"Huh? Wait, wait, wait, I think you guys are getting the wrong idea here..."

"No, no, don't worry. There are all sorts of people here... so please relax. Here in the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, we're open-minded..."

"You have the wrong ideaaaaaaaa! Um, uh, well, I guess there's no point in trying to correct things, huh?"

Ryner groaned, at which point Kiefer, who'd apparently disembarked at some point, spoke in a quiet voice.

"What should we do? Do we give our names and enter? Or should we hide..."

She began, but then one of the soldiers—

"We've been waiting for you, Your Majesty."

They said such a thing.

Moreover, the voice was familiar.

It was a sharp, female voice.

The woman emerged before Ryner.

Long black hair, navy blue eyes. A tall, slender body dressed in a combat uniform.

If he recalled correctly, this woman was Vois's close aide, named Harmit.

She spoke.

"Everyone, this is the one who drove away Gastark's soldiers, Ryner Lute-sama. Please treat him with respect,"

She said.

From that alone, all of the soldiers tensed at once. And in a fitting voice, they asked,

"That's him?"

"Certainly, the rumours said that he was a pervert."

"Though Vois-sama did call the Demon King the world's number one pervert, that's the genuine article."

Ignoring them, Ryner turned towards Harmit. And he spoke.

"Ryner Lute-sama? Even though you don't mean that."

She replied,

"I was told by Vois-sama to treat you as a king."

"Heh. As a king, huh? Even though the true king is Vois?"

"The king is you."

"... Ha. Well, it's fine. We've come here to talk with Vois."

Then he looked over his shoulder and spoke to Kiefer and Ferris.

"Seems like we've already been exposed."

While smiling wryly,

"It couldn't be helped,"

Kiefer said.

Though the fact that it couldn't be helped was entirely the fault of Ferris hitting him,

"It's all because of your stupidity that the plan failed,"

As usual, Ferris dared to utter such a thing.

In response, while making an astounded face,

"I guess so,"

Ryner said, letting out a sigh.

And again he turned towards Harmit.

"So?"

He asked.

She smiled, and,

"Allow us to welcome Your Majesty to the throne room."

Saying that, she turned on her heel.

It seemed that she wanted him to follow.

Opening the city gates, she went inside.

At that, while following her, Ryner said,

"Throne room, huh? So is that where I'm gonna be confined?"

Without looking over her shoulder,

"How amusing,"

Harmit said.

In response, after looking behind him to make sure that Ferris and Kiefer were following as well, he questioned further.

"So, according to the signs that we read, Vois isn't here right now?"

"Correct."

"Where is he?"

"I..."

"You don't know?"

"Yes."

"Or is it that you're not allowed to tell me..."

He began, but Harmit shook her head.

"I simply don't know. If you wish to know, then I shall investigate."

However, Ryner waved a hand at that.

"It's fine. I mean, even if I asked, I've got no way of knowing whether or not you're telling the truth. But it looks like Vois really isn't here,"

Ryner said, while looking around at the city.

Again, the city's situation was slightly different from Roland's. Firstly, the roads here were wider than Roland's. The liveliness of the number of people here was also different.

Furthermore, within the streets, there were a great deal of signs.

They seemed to be related to the People's Republic of Sphelliyet's trade, and then about political objectives.

"... All of them are political objectives that I, the mighty, so-called king, know nothing about, huh?"

He said sarcastically, to which Harmit looked over her shoulder with an apologetic expression, and,

"That's on account of it being an abnormal period right now—from now on, I believe that Your Majesty shall also participate in the politics."

"Is that what Vois said?"

"......"

"Did he give you orders along the lines of putting me in a good mood?"

Harmit smiled at that, and,

"Yes,"

She said easily.

Ryner smiled back.

"Ah, just as I thought. Well, since you answered so honestly, I am in a good mood. Then, you can drop the formalities now, got it?"

"All right, though it doesn't matter."

"Then, is there something else you wanna talk to me about that doesn't involve sucking up to me?"

However, she shook her head.

"Nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing at all. Until Vois-sama returns, I was to act as Your Majesty's assistance—as those were my only orders, I have nothing else to say to Your Majesty,"

She said.

And she pointed ahead. In front of them was a sole, still carriage.

"Now, head inside that carriage. It shall guide you to the headquarters."

Saying only that, she again began to silently move ahead.

Staring at her back,

"... Geez, you wouldn't expect a subordinate Vois's to be so diligent. Well, but that Relca girl was like that too,"

Ryner muttered.

Once more, he looked at his surroundings.

At the streets.

Where Ferris stood.

Where Kiefer stood.

And then, at the soldiers around them.

Looking at that,

"If it's us, escaping would be easy, wouldn't it?"

Ryner said, to which Ferris replied,

"Yeah. Are we going to?"

But Ryner shook his head.

"Even though Vois knows just how strong we are, he only put up this degree of defence around us. In other words, he's not trying to keep us here using brute force. In that case, he might actually want to talk things over with us to decide how this country will be run."

Kiefer nodded at that.

"Vois-kun saw that power of yours, Ryner... maybe, right now, when it comes to leadership..."

"It'll be in our hands?"

"Yeah."

"Then, it looks like I can't talk about not wanting to use that power anymore, if I wanna be able to get a hold of any authority in this country,"

Ryner said, again looking around him.

He looked at the soldiers who were obviously once part of the Anti-Roland Coalition who adored Vois.

He couldn't think of a simple way to get those guys to direct their loyalty towards him instead.

It would be the same for the people dwelling here. Regarding the former people of Geihlficlant, if Ryner were to suddenly shout, "I'm the king!" then there was no way they would follow him, just like that.

"... I just don't have the same charismatic aura as Sion. I mean, that's how he became Roland's precious king so easily, isn't it?"

He said, now surprised.

But that guy had worked as hard as he could.

And that was why, Ryner, who'd drifted by each day, had grown so far apart from him.

That's how it's ended up like this. From now on, it's my turn to work hard.

"... But what should I be working hard on? Practice smiling like a seemingly good person?"

While saying such idiotic things, he stepped into the carriage.

Ferris and Kiefer followed suit.

Then Harmit gave the orders to the coachman.

"To the central army residence."

With that, the carriage began to move.

In a slightly different location.

Central continent, eastern edge.

Nobody could discover that place, due to the barrier that stretched around it. However,

"Hey, I've come."

That man easily appeared.

At that, Ene raised her head.

But her eyes were unable to reflect reality.

Because she'd used too much of her power.

Because she'd used too much of her power to see the future, she lost her ability to see reality.

Nevertheless, she knew what kind of figure the man who'd appeared before her had.

She'd already seen it.

She'd seen the scenery of the future.

Beautiful golden hair, a seemingly sleepy face that closely resembled Ryner's.

With eyes that reflected nothing and a tired voice, she turned towards him and spoke.

"Lieral?"

The man replied,

"Yes. You're the Torch Curse bearer?"

She nodded.

"That's right. Ene Lune."

"Ene... Ene-chan? My, I never expected the mastermind behind the Cursed Eye bearers to be a pretty little girl. I only knew that you were female."

At such words, Ene smiled.

"My appearance belies my age."

"Ah, if I remember correctly, with the Torch Curse , each time you use your power, your body dies, right? Your growth stops, and you become blind."

"..."

"With your ability to see the future, you can't avoid the Goddesses that are taboo, right? That backlash is amazing. Is it painful?"

He asked, to which Ene replied,

"Because the likes of you are not touched by such taboo."

"Ahaha."

"Isn't it painful for you?"

"Perish the thought."

"Don't lie. I see you, always crying..."

However, Lieral interrupted her.

"As long as I can save my son, it doesn't matter what happens to me."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"You love him, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Even at the cost of the world?"

"Is that a problem?"

At that, Ene shook her head.

"Though I am no longer able to conceive... Surely, if I had children, I would feel the same way as you."

"Thank you kindly for your understanding... but you're my enemy, are't you? You ordered that Iino Doue —Tiir-kun to kill me."

Ene nodded at that.

"Yes, that's right."

"Why did you do that? Do you see me as a hindrance?"

At that question, though, she simply smiled sadly, and,

"... For whatever reason, the current plot of this world is terrible, isn't it?"

In return, she asked that.

To that, Lieral easily replied,

"Because no one else sees us."

"..."

"We cry, we shout, but no one hears... The world's cruelty knows no limits."

"Is that why you went against it?"

"Yeah."

"You're a celebrity now. Within the world, eyes are on you. Even the Goddesses , Demon , and Priests fear you."

"Is that right?"

"It is."

"Well, that's because I deceived them all. Then, do you fear me as well? Is that why you tried to kill me?"

Lieral asked; however, Ene shook her head at that as well.

"I pity you."

"Heh, and why is that?"

"Because you've been deceived."

In that instant, she felt the air of the man before her change. Though he'd been serene earlier, his air changed to that of a sharp blade.

Lieral spoke.

"Deceived?"

"Yes."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"... Where did I make a mistake...?"

"You were mistaken from the beginning. That..."

"That's not what I'm asking."

Lieral raised his voice slightly.

At that, Ene's expression saddened.

While pitying this man who desperately devoted his life for the sole purpose of protecting his son,

"I tried to protect Ryner from you. You're hurting him."

"That's—"

"You shouldn't have met with Ryner. You're bound by a curse. One with the purpose of destroying him. Though should you die, the curse will be undone... that won't be enough,"

She said.

Then she raised her face. As one who saw the future, she raised her face.

And she spoke.

"There exists a mastermind behind your back. They let you wander freely. They protected you. And they've obtained what they desired. You... you and your wife are pitiable, you know. Even though you did all you could, in the end you hurt your son."

Lieral didn't respond to such words.

He seemed to be thinking hard over something.

"... Curse... a curse? A curse inside of me to hurt Ryner? But who in the world...?"

There, he asked her,

"The Hero ?"

"Wrong."

"The Goddesses ?"

"No."

"The Priests ?"

He began, but Ene shook her head.

And she replied,

"A sole monster who wishes to kill them all. He's the same as you, entirely. A sole being that touched the cogwheels of fate that Humans and Gods should never touch, and is a screw that's lost its place."

"That's..."

"Your son—Ryner, they let him be born as an Alpha Stigma bearer. From the beginning, they were making use of your superior ability..."

"Wha—impossible. That can't... that can't be—then Ryner and Iruna, because of me..."

"It's not your fault—though even if I say that, you'll surely blame yourself. That's why I've been wondering. Why things are like this, why the world is so cruel—I've always been wondering."

"......"

"No one else sees us? Perhaps that's true. If there was someone who was watching this, pulling at the strings, then we should head there immediately and kill them. After all, it's too despicable of a hobby, isn't it?"

Then, Lieral spoke.

"This person manipulating me—who in the world are they?"

"If I tell you their name, what will you do?"

"I'll go and kill them."

"That's impossible for you."

"How so?"

At that, Ene again smiled pityingly.

"Though I can't see your expression right now... you shouldn't make that kind of face. That's why I tried to have you killed as soon as possible. To kill you while you didn't know the truth."

"Hurry up and tell me..."

However, interrupting him, Ene spoke.

"I'll tell you. But there's nothing you can do on your own. Let's work together. To you and to me, Ryner's a very important person. That's why..."

"Hurry up and tell me their name,"

Lieral said. And his hands grabbed Ene's neck.

At this, she—

"If you go, you'll die. I've already seen this outcome."

"Heh, is that right? But you also saw the outcome where Tiir killed me, didn't you? Surprisingly, your eyes were off."

"... They weren't. As long as I tamper with it as little as possible, the future I see doesn't change."

"Well then, you tampered this time? As it seems that I wasn't killed by Tiir-kun..."

"No. I didn't nothing. And as for being killed by Tiir, that will happen afterwards. I want to change that. If you leave now by yourself, you will be killed."

"By Tiir-kun?"

"Tiir is also being manipulated. But I want to prevent that. Just a bit, just a bit more of my time… "

"... Useless,"

Lieral said. Now, though, he sounded as if he were about to cry.

"Honestly, as I don't believe in anyone, I refuse to listen to your words. That I was manipulated... because of me... because of me, Iruna was... what happened to Ryner, and whatnot? In that case, in that case, I..."

"... That's enough. I'll tell you their name. But don't go alone. Together..."

"Rejected."

"In that case, please kill me. I’ll die soon either way. If I'm killed here by your hands, then that was to be my fate. If my life can save you, then…"

"………"

"Now, please kill me."

"………"

However, Lieral's hands didn't tighten around Ene's neck.

He merely shook feebly.

Ene smiled sadly at that. Her hand reached out and touched his hair. Stroking that soft hair,

"… It’s all right. We’ll do something about this,"

She said.

"Even though Ryner has ended up like this, even in his solitude, he has your blood flowing through him."

At that, with a parched voice, Lieral let out a laugh.

And,

"… My bad, I lost control of myself. Now, what was that? Because of me, my son is cursed?"

Ene smiled at that.

Because she could feel the future in her sight change in that moment.

Because she felt the future that she saw before being effortlessly changed, as it began to fade.

But nevertheless, the curse on Ryner didn't disappear.

The plot drawn by the monster whose thirst for endless despair didn't change.

The curse laid on Ryner—

The curse wasn't considerable.

It wasn't something that needed to be worried about on an everyday basis—it was trivial.

Lieral asked,

"What in the world did I do to Ryner?"

And to that, Ene responded,

"Only an instant. In only an instant, Ryner’s eyes were cursed…"

However, then, she opened her eyes wide. In her sight was the scenery of the future, as it began to unfold.

Lieral's future changed, and a new one was laid in its place.

To turn towards that future, she opened her eyes.

She opened them wide.

In their center, a strange pattern arose. Like a bird about to take flight, a vermillion design.

And as she offered more of her life as payment, she saw the future.

In return for sacrificing her own, she was able to see the future.

And reflected in her eyes was—

Three days after Ryner and co. had entered the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, Vois still hadn't returned.

During that entire time, Ryner had been lying in bed in the room prepared specifically for him, clutching his pillow and reading over documents.

In them, talk of which direction this country was going to head in and things about politics and laws were written down, as immediately after Vois returned, Ryner wanted to be able to participate in guiding this country—so this was preparation for that.

While reading those papers,

"... Some~how, it's like the work I did with Sion,"

Ryner muttered such a thing.

Reorganizing the Roland Empire that had always been toyed around by the nobles, the two of them frantically worked on paperwork day after day.

Day after day of "There's way too much paperwork—are you trying to kill me!?"

Reminiscing slightly over that,

"... Don't tell me that once we get this country up and running, I'm gonna have to go through that all over again? That's a joke, right?"

He said, grimacing.

Of course, that wasn't a joke, since as a new country being established, there were several things to be decided on.

He continued reading the documents with an exasperated air.

The country that Vois and co. had established was better than he thought.

At the very least, it couldn't compare to the previous Roland. If it were possible, it'd be nice if it could become the place that he and Sion had dreamed of creating.

"Well, you can pursue as many ideals as you want if they're only on paper... but—"

Nevertheless, if he tried, then it'd be fine even if he could help Vois, he thought.

Of course, if it was Vois, then what was written on these papers was mostly a bunch of lies to Ryner.

"... But still, it seems Geihlficlant is famous for its decent politics, so there's no way the people would follow under a half-assed reign, huh? Geez, things are gonna get pretty busy from here..."

While muttering such things, Ryner turned over the documents.

Furthermore, this country had amassed more than just the people and soldiers of Geihlficlant, with the people and soldiers of Nelpha, and on top of that, the soldiers of the Anti-Roland Coalition, which was formed of people from various countries.

With that kind of diverse collection, treating everyone equally, flourishing—those sorts of things would likely be difficult work.

That alone would take several years.

However, they didn't have the time to develop so slowly.

Right now, the Geihlficlant Empire had been divided into the north and south, which were expanding at a greater rate than the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, and on top of that, Gastark and Roland were also likely to invade.

Out of the three countries in the west side, there was the Ertolia Republic and Remrus Empire.

There was the possibility that those two countries would send in troops to attack the territory of the fallen Geihlficlant Empire.

That must be why Vois was currently skipping around, desperately trying to control the flow of information.

"So, we're seriously doing this? This is gonna suck so much, isn't it?"

He said, again groaning as he read through the documents detailing those kinds of complicated matters. Then he tossed those papers to the side. He buried his face into the pillow. At that point, his stomach began to growl.

"Whoa, I'm starving... but the bed is so comfy, I don't wanna get up,"

He said such idiotic things.

Incidentally, during these last three days that he'd spent in his room, he'd been reading documents and books this entire time.

If he were to fight with Vois for leadership, he couldn't afford to know nothing about this city and country, and so he'd been frantically gathering information.

First were the texts on region investigations, politics, and the situation of the people that Kiefer had borrowed from the library.

Next were the textbooks on Geihlficlant's magic compendium.

Last was the pile of papers Vois had prepared.

"... I'm so tiiiiiiiired—geez, even though I don't have Sion here, forcing me to pull all-nighters, I'm still doing that anyway, aren't I? I've really become a pushover, haven't I?"

He said, sitting up from the bed.

Though the bed was large enough that even if he rolled over three times, there'd still be room, it was covered in books and papers, so he couldn't move around much.

He stretched across the only remaining space on the bed. Then he let out a yawn.

And he looked around the room.

It was a large room. As a room for one person, it was needlessly large, giving off a bit of an uncomfortable air.

In that wide room was only a desk, a shelf that reached the ceiling, and this king-sized bed.

It seemed that it was an office room prepared specially for Ryner.

However, he'd been eating all of his meal and doing work only top of the bed, and nothing else.

"... I really don't need a room this big. They should've just given me a room with only a bed,"

He said such things.

Then, in the space that he'd created in his book-covered bed, he kicked at his surroundings to move them out of the way. Now he was able to roll over in the space that he'd made.

As his stomach growled again,

"Ah, I'm really hungry~. Is it time to eat yet?"

He said, looking up at the clock on the wall.

The time shown there was four o' clock in the morning.

As his breakfast was delivered at eight o' clock, there was still some time left.

Regarding that,

"I could go to the dining hall to eat... but would it be open at this hour? Ah, nope, there was Ferris's dango stock... Ah, geez, I'm getting really sleepy, so whatever. If I'm asleep, then I won't be hungry anymore,"

He said.

And he moved to close his eyes.

Just then, he heard a knocking sound at the door.

However, despite that, Ryner closed his eyes, and,

"......"

He ignored the knocking.

The knocking at the door continued.

"......"

More knocking.

"......"

More knocking.

"... Leave me alone."

More knocking.

"For crying out loud, there's nobody in the room right now!"

Ryner replied.

However, he then thought over it a bit, and,

"Ah, but if you're the food delivery guy, then feel free to come in!"

He said such things.

However, in response, the knocking continued.

Ryner scowled at the sound, and,

"Damn it, fine—who is it?"

He asked.

However, there was no response.

He raised his head at that.

He looked at the door with tired eyes.

"Ferris?"

He asked, but,

"......"

Unsurprisingly, there was no answer.

"Kiefer?"

"......"

"Don't tell me you're an assassin sent by Vois...?"

He said something like that, though he knew that that wasn't the case.

After all, he couldn't feel any killing intent from whoever was on the other side of the door. Their presence was also rough. He really didn't think that whoever it was intended on assassinating him.

In that case,

"Who is it?"

He said, getting up and moving off the bed.

The presence on the other side of the door made itself known again, as the knocking resumed.

Ryner frowned at that, and,

"I said , who is it? It's the middle of the night, y'know? You're being a nuisance to the neighbours,"

He said, to which the other party—

"Haha, what are you talking about? A nuisance to the neighbours?"

They said, laughing.

It was a male voice.

Moreover, it was a voice he recognized.

And regarding that, Ryner—

"......"

He was rendered silence at the man's voice.

Rather, his entire body tensed all of a sudden, and so he was unable to move.

After all, the owner of that voice wasn't someone who belonged here.

After all, there was no way the owner of that voice could be here.

In spite of that, the man spoke.

"Hurry up and open the door. It'll be troubling if I'm discovered by the guards, won't it?"

That voice that was far too familiar spoke.

At that, Ryner said,

"... D-Don't even try to pull that crap. Who the hell are you?"

As he asked that, the man replied.

"It's me, Ryner."

In response, Ryner spoke.

In a trembling voice, he asked this to the man on the other side of the door.

"... Sion?"

The man easily—

"Yeah, it's me,"

He said.

"Surprised?"

He said such a thing in a cheerful voice.

In response,

"......"

Ryner said nothing, however.

It was obvious that this shouldn't be happening. If that guy could come here so easily, then there was no reason for Ryner to work so hard.

It was so that he could meet with him again that he persevered so desperately.

So that Ryner could reach where he was one more time, he persevered.

"......"

Despite that, this guy claimed to be Sion.

On top of that, he introduced himself as Ryner's close friend with a voice that was just like Sion's.

"... What kind of hallucination is this?"

Ryner muttered.

"Someone sent from the Goddesses again?"

He said, gathering his strength as he prepared to fight.

And narrowing his eyes sharply,

"You're an idiot. Mimicking Sion like that... that's a bad joke. Even I get pissed off at something like that..."

He said, but then the doorknob turned, and,

"Ah, sorry, Ryner. The door was open,"

The man said such a thing.

"Can I come in?"

The man said such a thing.

Ryner didn't answer that.

If, by any chance, Sion truly had come here, he didn't know what kind of face he should be making.

On the other hand, if it were an assassin sent by the Goddesses , they should already be aware of Ryner's power, and so it'd be a risky situation as they tried to kill one another.

"......"

Either way, due to his tenseness, Ryner couldn't move.

However, not caring about Ryner's feelings on the matter, the door opened.

Slowly, it opened.

From the other side, a sole man appeared.

Long silver hair that gave off a noble air, and sharp, strong-willed golden eyes.

It was his face.

He was here.

That appearance.

Though Ryner didn't know whether it was the genuine article or not, at the sight of Sion's appeareance, Ryner felt as if he were about to cry for some reason.

Furthermore, as the man looked his way, he smiled happily.

With a look of genuine happiness, he looked at Ryner's face, and,

"Hey, Ryner. Long time no see,"

He spoke with a nostalgic expression.

"......"

Nevertheless, Ryner didn't respond.

He opened his eyes wide. And he invoked the power of his eyes .

He invoked his eyes of the Solver of All Equations that could see through everything in the world.

In the center of his black eyes, a glowing, iridescent tear-shaped pattern appeared.

And with those eyes , Ryner looked at the man's appearance.

He stared at the appearance of Sion.

"......"

But even as he looked with those eyes , it didn't seem as if this man was an assassin sent from the Goddesses .

Without a doubt, this man was Sion.

That work-crazed, almighty bully of a king.

At that, unsurprisingly, Ryner couldn't move.

He looked at the face of Sion who'd suddenly appeared.

He looked at the face of his close friend.

"... Is it really you, Sion?"

"Yeah."

"Why are you here?"

"You ask why—to work Ryner to the bone, of course~."

"Don't screw around."

At that, Sion's expression became somewhat timid, and,

"... Yeah, right. You're right. Sorry,"

He actually apologized.

And in response, Ryner became frantic.

"Ah, no, that's not..."

He began, but Sion shook his head at that.

"It's fine. After all, I know why you're mad, Ryner. But it's too late now, isn't it?"

"......"

"Is it too late for us to be friends again?"

He said such a thing.

Ryner frowned at that. As much as he willed himself not to, he felt like crying again, and so he frowned in order to ward that off.

And glaring at Sion,

"Seriously, what's with you? You just selfishly disappeared from our lives, and now you're waltzing back in at your own convenience? What the hell are you thinking?"

Again,

"I'm sorry,"

Sion apologized.

At that, Ryner spoke.

"Honestly. Do you have any idea how much you made us worry..."

"Sorry."

"Ah, I told you—"

"I'm sorry, Ryner,"

Sion said.

At that, Ryner's words were again lost. With an exasperated expression, he let out a sigh. And,

"... Ah, it's fine. Anyway, so what? Uh, explain yourself. What the hell is going on with you? Actually, wait, why the hell have you chosen now of all times to show up?"

He asked, at which Sion smiled wryly, and,

"A few problems are cropping up. The situation's changed."

"What situation..."

"Ah, can I come in first?"

"That's not important... No, like I said, hurry up and explain yourself."

At that, Sion entered the room. Looking at the bed that was covered in books and documents,

"This is far too messy."

"Because there's too much help."

"Haha, well, it's not that different from my office~. Though you would know, Ryner."

"Geez, didn't I tell you!? Hurry up and explain yourself!"

Ryner said.

In response, Sion looked Ryner's way, and with a gentle smile—

In a slightly different location.

However, only slightly.

Outside Ryner's room.

In the corridor.

Ferris was there.

After locating the best dango shop on the streets, she'd come back with as much dango as she could stock up on for the morning.

"......"

Then, suddenly, she noticed it.

There was something strange in the corridor.

It was to the side of her room.

In front of Ryner's room.

In front of his room, someone stood.

But they weren't a person.

They didn't look anything like a person.

They had seven arms, a round head, and countless eyes.

And one of those eyes looked her way. Below that eye, something tore open. Something closely resembling a mouth tore open, as a smile arose.

One of those arms reached out towards her. It reached out as if it intended to grab her.

She dodged it right away. She withdrew the sword at her waist. She moved to slice off that arm.

However, that didn't happen.

It caught her sword that could cut through iron, and,

"Guh—"

She took a step back.

However, during that entire time, the monster was laughing.

It cackled.

And like that,

"Ah, can I come in first?"

It said something like that.

In response, from within the room,

"That's not important..."

Ryner said something along those lines.

"Just what are you doing with him!?"

Ferris again swung her sword at the arm in front of her. However, as expected, it didn't cut through. An arm moved to grab her neck, which she avoided.

And again, she swung her sword.

This time, it was a stronger, sharper swing.

It met resistance. The arm tore. She continued to swing her sword again. Each time, the arm tore; however, the entirety of what she cut made no progress.

"What is this? This doesn't end,"

She said, ignoring the arm.

Like that, she kicked the wall and ran. Though the arm that was reaching for her again shrinked in size and tried to pursue her, she was too fast.

Like that, she headed into Ryner's room.

During that time, this sort of conversation was taking place.

"This is far too messy."

"Because there's too much help."

"Haha, well, it's not that different from my office~. Though you would know, Ryner."

"Geez, didn't I tell you!? Hurry up and explain yourself!"

Regarding that, Ferris raised her voice.

"Hey, Ryner! Who in the world are you talking to!?"

He should've been able to hear her. She could hear their voices from over there.

In that case, Ryner should also be able to hear her voice.

But Ryner didn't answer.

As if he couldn't hear her voice at all, Ryner didn't answer.

In this period, the conversation continued.

That conversation with this unknown monster continued.

The monster spoke.

"Even if you say to explain, I don't know where to start."

"From the beginning."

"From the beginning, huh? Hmm~, anyhow, Ryner, how do I appear to you?"

"Huh? You haven't changed at all from before, y'know?"

"From before?"

"Just like before, you look like an incredibly annoying, upstanding young man."

The monster laughed at that, and,

"Haha, I see. That's how you see me... Then, that's a relief. I shouldn't be approaching a monster from a different dimension like you. But with this, it's checkmate. I've gotten a hold of the demon—a perfect victory for me,"

It said such things.

Then Ferris finally reached Ryner's room.

Regarding the arm that was still pursuing her, she swung her sword and sliced it.

And she entered the room.

She entered Ryner's room.

"Ryner!"

She called his name.

However,

"......"

Already, Ryner was gone.

Not only that, but the monster that was present before was no longer there either.

Regarding that,

"... Damn it—what in the world just happened?"

She groaned, alone.

## 09. Volume 9 - The Futile Struggles of the Dropout

### 001. Prologue - Stagger

The wind blew.

In this wind, his silver-coloured hair swayed.

On top of his horse, Sion Astal gazed in the direction that the wind was blowing.

The wind was mixed with the stench of blood.

His allies' blood.

People were dying.

His allies were dying.

His enemies were dying.

And above the mountain of corpses that continued to increase, he advanced forward.

"......"

It was a battlefield.

As night had yet to fully disappear, it was a battlefield in the early morning.

Someone called for him.

Amidst the thundering roar and light flickering from the multi-coloured magic,

"Your Majesty!"

Someone called for them.

That voice frantically,

"Your Majesty! Don't stay here for any longer. Please fall back!"

It exclaimed that.

However, he didn't respond.

Instead, he stared ahead.

Staring straight ahead, he continued forward on his horse.

Towards the landscape where people continued to die.

Towards the landscape filled and overflowing with life, death, light, and thunder, he advanced.

"......"

Then, from another location, someone was speaking to him.

He didn't see who.

Rather, in his ear,

"... Do you intend to die?"

A voice sounded, to which Sion replied,

"You'll protect me, won't you?"

"Unfortunately, I currently lack the power for that,"

The voice said.

At that, Sion turned towards the source of the voice. However, as he expected, its owner wasn't there.

Lucile Eris wasn't there.

But to that, Sion spoke.

"You still haven't undone Remrus's curse?"

"It's a troublesome thing, it seems."

"Then, do your best on your own."

"With you having come all the way here, it'd be troubling if you died."

"Ha—how unusual. Are you worried about me?"

As Sion said that, Lucile's figure suddenly appeared.

However, it wasn't from behind, where his voice came from, but in front of Sion.

As if to completely stop Sion from moving forward, he stood in the horse's path.

Glossy golden hair, closed eyes.

An abnormally good-looking appearance.

He gently held out his small hand.

With that, the offensive magic unleashed towards Sion by the Remrus Empire's soldiers was extinguished.

But from that, already, the enemy soldiers were aware what it would mean to immediately approach Sion.

Right now, what was arriving at Sion's location wasn't a large-scale offensive spell.

It was ordinary, short-range magic.

In other words, the enemy soldiers, by destroying Sion's ally soldiers, they were already pushing him directly into their hands, as they drew closer.

Lucile looked around with a troubled expression.

That the Remrus Empire's soldiers were starting to surround him—no, starting to surround Sion, he understood.

As their ally soldiers were being killed by Remrus's soldiers, one by one,

"Your Majesty!"

Someone called.

"We shall hold them back, please esca..."

However, those words didn't continue until the end.

Again, another ally died.

And the soldier that killed that ally now appeared to be forming a spell to fire at Sion—

However, now, that soldier was killed by Lucile.

As he wordlessly swung his hand, the soldier's body was sliced in half and sent dancing through the air.

Looking down at that, Sion spoke.

"What were you talking about? Don't you still have enough power?"

Lucile then looked up at him and replied,

"Right now, if monsters such as the Goddesses or Remrus came here, I would be unable to protect you."

"I see."

"Furthermore, this battle has already been won, has it not? You've accomplished enough of your duty to act as a decoy. Appearing at the frontlines like this has pulled away the enemy. You've already ensured enough that the other divisions may move about freely,"

Lucile said.

Correct.

Sion's movements here were according to that sort of plan.

During the time where Sion was at the frontlines, luring away the main forces of the Remrus Empire's army, Claugh and Bayuuz would strike from behind with their forces.

And that plan was easily accomplished.

At any rate, the end soldiers of the enemy's main force, in an attempt to chase after Sion, had gone too far.

Chances were, with the enemy's military warfront having been spread out, their rear was being lightly guarded, and so Claugh and co. could begin their assault.

Of course, in a normal battle, they wouldn't be able to carry out this sort of tactics.

After all, if Sion were to die here, then it would all be over.

However, Sion managed to dispel his subordinates' protest, and so this plan was put into action.

Because Lucile was here.

Because Lucile of the sword clan had followed him here.

But Lucile spoke.

"My power likely hasn't returned yet. Therefore, I would advise that you not overdo it?"

In response to those words,

"......"

Sion said nothing, though.

Instead, he merely gazed in the same direction as before, without a word.

There, it seemed that a gigantic sphere of light was being formed.

It was a large-scale offensive spell from the Remrus Empire's army.

If it were a power that could negate such a spell, Sion no longer had enough soldiers with him for that.

Already, clashing with the Remrus soldiers in what had become a free-for-all, they wouldn't be able to gather enough mages for a large-scale offensive spell.

In other words, that spell would make a direct hit here.

Furthermore, together with their soldiers in this fight, the enemy's spell would obliterate them all.

It was only natural.

Sion was here.

The king of their enemy country was here.

If they could kill him here, this war would end.

The enemy was also frantic.

As that large-scale spell came to be, Lucile gazed towards the gigantic sphere of light, and,

"Fall back already, Sion. Protecting you any more than this would be difficult."

He said in a sincerely exasperated voice.

"......"

However, unsurprisingly, Sion didn't respond.

Because the wind was blowing.

Because, as the light of the large-scale spell spread throughout the nearby sky, the wind was blowing.

That wind was, as expected, tinged with the scent of blood.

The stench of corpses was present.

But mixed in with that, he sensed something else.

He didn't know what.

But there was some sort of uneasy feeling from over there.

No, perhaps one could call it a sense of loss.

Something important?

He felt as if he'd lost something very important to him.

Over where the light was.

Over where the light of the large-scale spell, cutting through the darkness of the night that had yet to turn into day—it felt as if something deeply unpleasant was occurring there.

"......"

Gently, he held up his hand.

Though Remrus's soldiers were gathering around him and preparing to attack, he, without paying them any heed, held up his hand and murmured,

"Sword."

From within the center of his palm, a black light came forth.

That light took on the form of a sword.

Black.

Blacker than the night, it was a jet-black sword.

Regarding that, Lucile spoke. While killing the people attacking Sion, one by one,

"Exactly what are you doing? In this sort of place, using that power isn't nece..."

However, ignoring him, Sion used that power.

That power was that of The Fallen Dark Hero [Asruld Roland], dwelling within his body.

If he were to use that power before obtaining just enough strength to resist it, he would lose his ability to reason as a human.

Control would be handed over to the Hero [Monster].

Hence why, as much as possible, he gradually advanced forward without such a power.

However, he used that power.

The sword separating from his hand, it flew towards the light of the large-scale spell.

And as the sword pierced through its target, what it struck disappeared.

From this world.

It was as if that magic and all information regarding it had never existed in this world.

As if it'd never existed, its existence disappeared.

The soldiers were in a state of disturbance.

At any rate, though they should have been in the middle of something, the knowledge of what vanished entirely from their minds. Because of that, the soldiers were thrown into chaos.

But that sort of thing didn't matter to Sion.

After all, what he was looking towards was near where that annoying large-scale spell had been, where something should be happening.

Something was happening there, where the night sky had yet to turn into day.

Staring at that,

"... Lucile,"

He murmured.

At that, while slaughtering the surrounding enemies,

"... I already understand what it is that you wish to say,"

He said.

Somehow, it seemed that Lucile, just now, understood the sense of unease Sion was feeling.

In response, Sion asked,

"... What's going on?"

"Who knows? But, likely... nothing pleasant?"

To those words, Sion looked at Lucile, and then looked up at the sky again.

Furthermore, his sense of unease grew stronger.

No, already, it was inaccurate to simply call it unease.

It was something that caused a sense of coldness and chill throughout his entire body. The air and atmosphere that came into contact with his body trembled and pulsed.

And—

"... Just now, the world changed,"

Sion muttered.

That, he felt clearly.

He felt that something there that, uncertain but sternly holding up the structure of the world, suddenly vanished.

Some sort of structure.

He felt some sort of structure change.

Regarding that, Lucile looked up at the sky.

He looked up at the distant, northern sky.

And again,

"... Fall back, Sion,"

He said.

To which Sion said,

"But—"

"What can you accomplish here?"

"......"

"There's someone beyond us who intend to repaint this world. They've come into contact with something."

"......"

"In that case, we must advance as well. For us, our objective..."

However, Lucile's words ended there.

Because surrounding him, a great deal of humans casting magic stopped.

And simultaneously, they began to retreat.

As if having lost all interest in this battle that they'd come here for, they began to retreat.

Staring at that,

"... Did Claugh defeat the Remrus Empire's main force?"

Sion muttered.

Then,

"Do you truly think so?"

Lucile said.

Of course he didn't. There was obviously something strange about the enemy's current state.

At any rate, the situation wasn't one that would call for an order to withdraw. Furthermore, it was clear that right now, this battle was going in the enemy's favour, so they shouldn't need to retreat.

Despite that, they were beginning to withdraw.

And without missing that opportunity, Sion's subordinates started their counterattack.

Where Sion was,

"Your Majesty, please take this chance to escape!"

His soldiers exclaimed things such as that, and then began launching their attacks at the retreating Remrus soldiers.

On top of that, among Roland soldiers, having amended their stance, the mages organized themselves and began preparing a large-scale offensive spell— Raguru .

With countless mages, intertwined with one another, a gigantic magic circle was formed—

"......"

However, even then, the Remrus soldiers didn't defend themselves.

They didn't react to any attack.

Even though they should've had such a capability, they only focused on escaping instead.

They didn't even do something such as prepare a spell to counter Raguru .

If Raguru were to be activated, then hundreds, thousands of soldiers would be obliterated, and yet they didn't do anything at all to defend themselves.

Regarding that scene,

"... Just what is the meaning of this?"

Sion said.

Lucile replied,

"Who knows? But surely, it's a trap, you realize?"

"A trap. A trap... is it?"

At that, he looked towards the state of the fleeing Remrus soldiers.

They had no emotion on their faces. Even as they were being killed by the Roland soldiers, they had nothing on their faces.

It was a hollow sort of expression, as if they were in a trance.

It was different from before.

Before, when the Remrus soldiers were trying to kill Sion, they acted the same as any other ordinary human.

But now,

"... They're completely like puppets,"

Sion said, while staring at the Remrus soldiers who didn't even cry out as they were being killed.

And during that moment, he felt the world being repainted.

The air trembled, as the colour of the landscape changed.

Of course, the others didn't notice.

After all, rather than in the world where people dwelled, it was something that occurred in a different dimension.

After all, it was something that occurred in an unusual place that deviated just slightly from the world where people dwelled.

But for certain, Sion felt the structure of the world change.

Then,

"Your Majesty, we've won the battle!"

One of his subordinates exclaimed.

In a complete change from their earlier, grievous state, the soldiers cried out with strong voices.

Turning towards one of them, Sion spoke.

"Don't lower your guard. Investigate why the enemy has suddenly begun retreating."

His subordinate immediately responded.

"It seems that the force that Field Marshal Claugh Klom was leading executed a surprise attack against the Remrus Empire's main forces. Perhaps that was the enemy's reason for..."

He began, but interrupting him, Sion spoke.

Narrowing his eyes at the Remrus soldiers, who were being killed one by one,

"... Don't pursue them. Fall back."

Though his subordinate looked up at him with a surprised expression, Sion ignored him and turned away on his horse.

Though, despite that, the soldiers didn't immediately halt, he, unsurprisingly, paid that no heed and began mobilizing towards the south.

Furthermore, while following him,

"Are you not advancing forward?"

Lucile asked, to which Sion answered,

"... What do you think?"

"I wonder. In any case, it seems that the country of the Remrus Empire isn't being ruled over by a human. Their reasons for taking part in this fight aren't those of a human's, then. Now then, shall you pursue them, or shall you withdraw?"

Lucile said.

And that was an abnormally difficult question.

The actions of the Remrus soldiers were essentially daring them to pursue them.

Simply laid out, they were actions that suggested that there was a trap waiting for them.

That was why this was a troubling situation.

Did he honestly want to pursue them?

Otherwise, suspecting that there was a trap, did he want to withdraw?

He didn't know.

If one were to look only at the battle situation, then chasing after them would obviously be the correct decision.

Sion acted as a decoy, while Claugh launched a surprise attack—it was that sort of situation.

If they took advantage of this opportunity, they could attack the Remrus Empire with one fell swoop.

But,

"I'll fall back. Lucile, you still haven't undone the curse laid on you, have you?"

He said, looking Lucile's way, to which the latter made a slightly thoughtful expression, and,

"Even if you make that choice, it may be Remrus's aim, perhaps? How troubling. Regardless of whether you advance forwards or fall back, there's a problem. Thus, I shall obey you,"

He said, and with that, he vanished.

But then, on top of that, other subordinates came with further information.

"Your Majesty, I have a report from Field Marshal Claugh Klom."

"Tell me."

At that, the subordinate replied,

"As Field Marshal Claugh Klom's force has launched a surprise attack on the Remrus Empire's main forces, the enemy has surrendered. Furthermore, an envoy from the Remrus Empire has come and apparently proposed that they come under Roland custody. How shall we respond?"

After he said such things,

"......"

Sion frowned.

More and more, he was becoming uncertain.

What was the enemy thinking?

Without putting a fight, they intended to come under Roland's control?

It seemed that monster named Remrus or such knew about Sion—no, about the Hero within Sion.

In that case, he should also know about the secrets of Sion's power.

His power that increased with every person who surrendered to him.

As the Humans created by the Goddesses came into contact with Sion and became Human α , with their inner structure being written, Sion's power multiplied in turn.

In other words, with the proposal that the Remrus Empire become the territory of the Roland Empire, Sion's power should increase tenfold at once, even though Remrus should've been trying to prevent that.

"Just what is his aim?"

Sion muttered, turning around.

The Roland soldiers' assault had yet to stop.

They continued to kill the Remrus soldiers who were trying to escape.

Staring at that,

"... Damn it. What a despicable enemy,"

He said, groaning.

Then he gave an order to his subordinate.

"Cease with your attack. The enemy has surrendered. Tell Claugh to remain on standby where is. I'll be heading there. However, don't enter the Remrus Empire. Don't kill the enemy; capture them. You don't need to pursue anyone who retreats. The battle has been won. Send out the victory call,"

He said all at once.

In response, the subordinate nodded, and then distributed the duties among his surrounding allies.

And immediately, the victory call was sent out.

The Roland soldiers became animated all at once, yelling out in loud voices.

At the same time, they ceased with their attacks.

The Raguru invocation was cancelled.

Though the enemy continued to retreat nevertheless, the Roland soldiers no longer pursued them.

And after confirming that,

"......"

Sion motionlessly thought it over.

What he should do from here.

Where he should move to—

While glaring at the world that had suddenly transfigured, he thought it over.

Just now, this was likely Remrus's doing.

Though, regarding whatever had just happened, Sion didn't know if it was a sign that the world had been repainted in an unpleasant colour or not, Remrus had done something, and furthermore, he was trying to induce Sion into dancing on his territory.

At that, he—

"......"

However, again saying nothing, he narrowed his eyes up at the northern sky.

### 002. Chapter 1: Confusion

Her chest hurt.

Her heart pounding wildly, as she grew tense with impatience, it felt as if her chest were about to split open.

And,

"What should I do?"

She murmured.

In a weak voice,

"What would be the best thing to do?"

Ferris Eris murmured.

Right now, she was at the entrance of Ryner's room.

By a large bed, which was completely covered in a mountain of documents.

However, Ryner's figure wasn't on top of the bed.

After all, he'd been abducted.

After all, he'd been abducted in front of her.

Furthermore, the one who'd abducted Ryner was a monster.

A monstrously strong enemy—not that kind of monster.

Ryner had been taken away by a literal, grotesque monster.

The monster that had suddenly appeared before Ferris was truly odd.

It was to the extent that, in the instant it appeared, she couldn't understand what it was, with a figure so different from a human's, and furthermore, it had an intimidating air to it.

And as it looked her way, it laughed.

It laughed as if there was something foolish.

Like that, Ferris had sliced apart one of the arms it'd extended.

Though she'd cut off that arm right away and tried to save Ryner, the area where the arm'd been sliced winded about and continued to attack Ferris.

And during the time that she was delayed with that arm, the monster spoke.

It spoke to Ryner in the room.

In a relaxed tone as if it were purely a friend of Ryner's,

"Ah, can I come in first?"

It said such a thing.

And Ryner easily accepted that.

Even thought they were clearly the words of a monster, Ryner easily accepted that.

Perhaps, some sort of magic had been used.

Ryner, accepting that monster, began a light-hearted conversation with it.

"This is far too messy."

"Because there's too much help.

Haha, well, it's not that different from my office~. Though you would know, Ryner."

"Geez, didn't I tell you!? Hurry up and explain yourself!"

Moreover, Ferris shouted.

Towards the room where Ryner, with the monster, was in, she shouted.

"Hey, Ryner! Who in the world are you talking to!?"

But there was no response.

Ferris was already so close when she'd shouted, and so there was no way that guy couldn't have heard, and yet that idiot didn't reply.

Nevertheless, Ferris continued to frantically call out to him.

What are you doing?

Who in the world are you talking to? She frantically called out.

But it seemed as if Ryner wasn't hearing her voice.

Instead, he continued to talk with the monster.

Unconcerned, Ryner continued to talk with the monster.

"Even if you say to explain, I don't know where to start."

"From the beginning."

"From the beginning, huh? Hmm~, anyhow, Ryner, how do I appear to you?"

"Huh? You haven't changed at all from before, y'know?"

"From before?"

"Just like before, you look like an incredibly annoying, upstanding young man."

Ryner said.

Regarding what was clearly a monster, Ryner said, "annoying, upstanding young man."

And because of that, Ferris grew further impatient.

After all, there was only one person she associated with the description of an "annoying, upstanding young man."

Sion.

Sion Astal.

That work-loving, bully tyrant king who ruled over the Roland Empire.

And if, by any chance, Sion was here—

If, by any chance, Sion's come here, then I definitely have to open the door too, right? She thought.

Even if Ryner doesn't, someone has to open the door, she thought.

After all, Sion—he was someone very close, and very important to them.

And Ryner easily opened the door.

Somewhere, Ryner's voice trembled. He probably can't handle it and is crying now, isn't he? She thought, if his voice was shaking that much.

And at that.

At Ryner's voice—

"......"

The monster laughed again.

It cackled.

It seemed like that laughter couldn't be heard by Ryner.

It seemed like that laughter of a monster who appeared to be deceiving Ryner couldn't be heard by him.

That was why Ferris desperately swung her sword. She sliced, and sliced, and sliced at the monster's arms, but as she was simply slicing with no end, she ignored the arms and ran through the corridor.

Towards Ryner's room.

Towards the room of the fool who'd been so easily deceived.

But while staring at her with numerous, wide eyes, the monster spoke in a cheerful voice.

Easily, as if confident in its victory, it said this.

"Haha, I see. That's how you see me... Then, that's a relief. I shouldn't be approaching a monster from a different dimension like you. But with this, it's checkmate. I've gotten a hold of the demon—a perfect victory for me,"

It said that.

Then finally, Ferris managed to reach the entrance of the room.

Shredding apart the monster's arms, she managed to reach the entrance of Ryner's room.

But by then, it was already too late.

In the room, neither the monster nor Ryner was there anymore.

All that remained was a dirty room that hadn't been cleaned whatsoever.

"......"

Ferris rushed into the room.

She entered the room with no one in it.

Even as she looked around, Ryner was unsurprisingly absent.

And she looked at the window that was provided in the room.

However, the window wasn't open.

Even the curtains weren't open.

Even though the only way to enter this room, barring the entrance where Ferris was currently standing, should've been the window, it wasn't open.

Despite that, Ryner wasn't there.

The monster wasn't there either.

And where they could've gone, she had no idea.

At that,

"Ryner,"

Ferris called his name.

But of course, there was no response.

"Ryner!"

Though she called his name again, there was only the sound of her own voice futilely echoing in the room, unsurprisingly.

"......"

This isn't good, she thought.

On top of her unease, she felt her chest hurt.

After all, it was clear that that monster wasn't anything pleasant.

After all, as something that shouldn't come into contact with humans, it wasn't anything pleasant.

Furthermore, it'd impersonated Sion. Evidently bearing ill will, it'd impersonated Sion.

This isn't good, she thought.

Ryner's been taken—this isn't good, she thought.

"......"

Alone in the room, she looked around restlessly.

But no matter where she looked, Ryner wasn't there.

Moreover, even though she knew it was pointless, she opened the window curtains.

Opening the window, she looked outside.

However, no one was there either.

As Ryner and co. had already disappeared completely, she didn't even know where to begin pursuing them.

At that,

"Damn it,"

Muttering that with a groan, she turned around.

She exited into the corridor.

But, as if using some sort of trick, the arms had vanished as well.

There weren't any leads.

Information on the enemy, Ryner's whereabouts—she knew nothing at all.

Instead, as if to prove that what had happened wasn't a dream or illusion, dango had fallen onto the corridor floor.

It was dango that she had specifically brought for Ryner, who was working unusually hard to understand the situation of the People's Republic of Sphelliyet.

She'd meant to enjoy that dango together with Ryner.

Quickly discovering the deliciousness of the dango, Ryner would be surprised, and then become excited.

But back when that monster had suddenly attacked, Ferris had dropped the package of dango.

Due to the impact upon falling, the package's wrapping paper had opened, causing the dango to scatter across the floor. Countless dango, having been stepped on by her, left traces behind.

They could no longer be eaten.

Even though she'd gone through so much effort to determine which store in this neighbourhood had the greatest dango, Ryner had been abducted by that strange monster and was no longer there.

At that.

"......"

Staring at the dango that wasn't edible anymore,

"......"

She muttered in a trembling voice.

"What should I do...?"

She muttered in a voice as if she were about to cry.

But as expected, there was no reply.

That idiot, Ryner, didn't respond.

She felt a strong fear take over her entire body.

She felt an intense sense of unease overwhelm her body.

After all, she didn't understand the situation.

Though someone, for some purpose, took Ryner away somewhere, she didn't understand any of it.

Like that, she couldn't go after them.

She couldn't go and save Ryner.

That was why she felt so anxious that it was as if her chest were about to split open.

To the throbbing area within her chest where unease swelled,

"... Damn it, stop that!"

She said, striking her chest.

But the swelling unease didn't stop. Unable to control her emotions, she felt like crying.

Ryner wasn't there—

Why that fact alone made her feel such a way, even she didn't know.

But she frantically pushed down on her chest.

Like this, with unease swelling inside of her, Ryner wouldn't be saved.

She wouldn't be able to chase after that fool.

Even if she didn't have any leads at all.

Even though she didn't know who had taken him or where he'd been taken to.

"... I'll find you, no matter what,"

She said, lifting her face.

Sliding her unsheathed sword back into the scabbard at her waist, she turned towards the end of the corridor.

However, unsurprisingly, Ryner wasn't there either.

Right now, as it was still morning, there were no signs of other people.

Where should she go?

She didn't even know of anyone she could ask if she wanted help.

However, she pushed down the unease in her chest. Replacing her pained expression, she maintained a blank face.

And she began to walk down the corridor.

First, she had to find allies in searching for Ryner.

At any rate, she needed information.

She didn't understand at all what was going on here.

That was why she needed personnel for the sake of gathering information.

And here, in the People's Republic of Sphelliyet that Vois had created, it seemed that she had no choice but to call that woman her ally.

That red-haired woman by the name of Kiefer Knolles.

That was why,

"......"

Ferris headed towards her room.

Kiefer hadn't got a wink of sleep last night.

"......"

Slightly rough, but in a girlish outfit to be seen as cute even if she ran into Ryner, with her bangs fixed in place with a hairpin—that sort of figure.

With that sort of figure, she was sitting at a desk with somewhat tired eyes, reading through documents about the People's Republic of Sphelliyet.

The structure of the country that Vois had created was rather well-organized; however, just from reading these, it seemed that it was constructed so that Vois had by far the advantage.

"... That kid really is sharp, huh?"

She muttered in admiration.

She'd left Roland several years ago in order to understand the mystery behind Ryner's eyes. Though she'd gone through many countries, she'd never seen a country so greedy for commerce the way the country that Vois had created was.

According to the documents on this country's objectives, then with this commerce, trade among territories would be vigorous, and whatnot.

"... Outwitting this kid and giving Ryner the advantage is going to be difficult, isn't it?"

While saying that, she let out a Mu~ , stretching lightly.

"Well, in any case, we have to understand the situation first, and then deal with it afterwards."

Saying that, she again continued reading through the documents. Marking the parts that Ryner would want to read with a red pen, anything unnecessary was crossed out.

Aside from the parts that could be done by them alone, Toale and the remainder of Imperial Nelpha, regarding the matters that they could lend their power for, were being mobilized to places where Toale had displayed his uses.

Then again, new documents were brought forth.

By documents about how this People's Republic of Sphelliyet handled magic—this country had adopted various other countries' magic, at the same time that there was no confidentiality system for the research of magic, etc., and though that sort of thing was written down,

"... With Ryner and his Alpha Stigma that can read the structure of magic, then regarding the exploitation of this magic, Vois-kun intends to use that as a bargaining chip, huh? I'll have to discuss this with Ryner sometime,"

Kiefer muttered.

She circled that document with the pen.

And regarding that document, as she thought about discussing this with Ryner,

"......"

She instinctively felt like letting a satisfied smile spill through.

At any rate, she'd already been apart from him for such a long time.

In truth, she'd been by his side.

Even though she'd always been by his side, she'd been apart from him for over three years.

And during that period that she'd been apart, her feelings towards him had always, always remained inside of her.

Not even a day.

Or rather, there wasn't even a minute where she wasn't thinking of him.

And now that they'd finally reunited, she could act on his behalf.

Was there anything else besides this kind of happiness?

At that,

"......"

Alone, she instinctively smiled.

She was so happy that she smiled frivolously.

And slapping her cheeks with both hands for her lack of discipline,

"Now's not the time for that, self,"

She said to the air, laughing by herself.

Nevertheless, she couldn't help but be truly happy.

Or rather, living for herself like this—this was possibly the first time in her life that she'd felt this way.

When she'd infiltrated Roland as a spy from Estabul with her sisters, her older sister had then been killed, and her younger sister taken hostage.

And from then on, she'd always been living a lie.

Deceiving her friends, deceiving Sion, deceiving Ryner, she put up a cheerful smile every day. Hiding her expression that felt like crying, she forced a cheerfully smiling face.

When she left Roland, it'd been like that as well.

To find the power needed to save Ryner, she'd desperately gathered information.

If it was for that purpose, she lied however much she had to.

Lying about her status as she went from country to country, even to the king of the northern land of Gastark, she'd deceived them all.

But now, she was here.

She was by Ryner's side.

And this time, for his sake—for the sake of Ryner whom she loved, she threw about her power by his side.

If he made a face as if he were about to cry, then she could stay by his side and soothe him.

If he was going through a rough time, then she could stay by his side and support him.

Though her older sister and younger sister had died.

Though all of her friends had died.

But nevertheless,

"......"

Nevertheless, she had never thought that the day would come when she would be glad to be alive.

That was why, at the moment, regarding her circumstances.

At the moment, regarding the circumstances of her, who was blessed,

"......"

She felt so fortunate that it was frightening.

Of course, it wasn't as if everything was going well, though.

For example, when it came to that unbelievably beautiful blonde-haired woman by Ryner's side and how Ryner thought about her, there was plenty to be uneasy about there.

But even in spite of that, she was happy right now.

Thus,

"If I don't work hard, I'll receive divine retribution~"

While saying such a thing, she began to work hard again.

She began to read through the documents.

However, all of a sudden,

"......"

Knock, knock!

There was a wild knocking at the door.

At that, Kiefer gave a start, jumping from her desk. As her entire body tensed, she assumed a combat pose.

It was her habit as a spy who'd been constantly travelling from country to country by herself.

Whenever an unexpected situation cropped up, it was if a vigilance switch had been turned on inside of her.

That said, she wasn't anywhere near Ryner's level, and so even if she assumed a combat pose, if the enemy were strong enough, she didn't know what she could do.

However, despite that, she tensed.

At any rate, this was right in the middle of enemy territory.

Though in the meantime, Vois had said that he was putting Ryner up as leader, she didn't know just how far that extended to.

That was why the situation should always be the same.

She had no allies.

Surrounded by enemies, she had no—

Then,

"No..."

Kiefer muttered.

And, here, there are two people that I can call my allies, right? She thought.

Ryner and Ferris.

Those two were her only allies.

She wasn't alone anymore.

Here, she had allies, and that Ryner's name was amidst them, she smiled faintly.

While glaring her eyes at the the door that was being knocked on heavily, she smiled, and then stuck out her tongue. Tense, she licked her dry, peach-coloured lips, and then held out both hands.

And getting ready to invoke an offensive spell from her motherland of Estabul,

"Who is it?"

She said, replying in a bright voice.

Having already assumed a combat stance, in order to ensure that the other party didn't realize that, she replied in a cheerful voice.

From the other side of the door, there was a voice.

"It's me."

It was a woman's voice.

Furthermore, it was an emotionless, monotonous voice that she knew well.

It was Ferris Eris's voice.

Kiefer's eyes widened at that.

As the tension left her body,

"Ferris-san?"

"Correct. Open the door."

"Ah, sure. I don't mind, but what do you need at this hour?"

"Just hurry up and open the door."

"Okay,"

She said, raising her lowered stance as she stood up. Then she began moving towards the door.

However, suddenly,

"You're too slow. Hurry up,"

Ferris said.

But she shouldn't be able to open the door. It was locked. Of course, this was Vois and co.'s base, in the military residence of the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, so though Vois and co. had the key,

"Ferris-san, the key..."

Kiefer began, but suddenly, her words stopped there.

Out of the blue, before her eyes, there were multiple layers of light being unleashed.

And in the next moment, the door had been cut to shreds.

"Eh—!?"

Kiefer said, shocked.

But paying that no heed, as she held her sword in one hand, Ferris entered the room.

As always, she was a beauty.

Glossy, long blonde hair, ceramic-like white skin.

With her delicate body, she had an abnormally well-featured appearance.

Though Kiefer felt that this kind of beauty was her rival in love, she was overwhelmingly beautiful to the extent that Kiefer already felt like immediately withdrawing.

She looked at Kiefer's face.

Staring at her face that, as expected, had no trace of emotions,

"U-Um, Ferris-san?"

Kiefer said.

"Er... even if you hadn't sliced open the door, I would've opened it,"

She began, but unsurprisingly, Ferris ignored that and looked her way.

Then, with an unusual sort of restlessness, she looked around Kiefer's room as if confirming something.

She looked around at the desk, at the window, at the bed.

And again looking at Kiefer,

"Is Ryner here?"

She said.

Kiefer's eyes widened at that.

Ferris, in a strangely impatient manner, had come to ask something like, Is Ryner here?

On top of that, she'd come here in such a rush that she'd sliced apart the door and barged in the room.

Honestly, it was if she were a wife trying to catch her husband having an affair.

"Umm..."

Kiefer said, flustered.

While she was flustered, her thoughts began whirling around regardless.

Because just from this conversation right now, there were a number of things she understood.

The fact that she would ask, Is Ryner here? suggested that he likely wasn't in his room right now.

And Ferris was looking for Ryner. However, she couldn't find him. Right now, it was nighttime, when most people within the country should be asleep. If Ryner weren't there at such an hour, what did that mean?

It couldn't be that he went to that red-haired woman's place?

Thinking that, with envy overtaking her, Ferris barged into her room—if it were that sort of development,

"... Unfortunately, Ryner hasn't come here. He's not in his room?"

Kiefer said.

Ferris shook her head at that.

"No, he was in his room."

In response, Kiefer's red eyes again widened.

"Ah... hmm. Ferris-san, at this hour... you were in Ryner's room?"

However, to that question,

"I was,"

Ferris replied without any timidness. She said that easily as if she didn't understand at all what those words could imply.

At that,

"......"

Competing with someone as childish as her is going to be difficult, isn't it~? Thinking things like that, Kiefer smiled ruefully in a troubled manner.

However, in any case,

"So, Ryner was in his room?"

Kiefer nodded.

"Yeah."

"Ah, he was there."

"Yeah."

"Hmm. In spite of that, Ferris-san, you came slicing apart my door?"

She asked, to which,

"However, before I went to his room, there was a visitor,"

Ferris said such a thing.

"A visitor?"

"Mm-hmm. It was a monster that had several eyes on its head and seven arms."

"Eh? Um, Ferris-san, what in the world are you talking about..."

She began, but as expected, Ferris ignored what she was saying and continued.

"It seems like it took on Sion's appearance so that it could talk to Ryner. Ryner himself opened the door for it."

"W-Wait a moment, wait a moment. That's..."

However, Ferris said everything at once. Giving Kiefer no chance to respond, she continued.

"And it took Ryner away. That monster took Ryner and vanished into thin air. When I burst into his room, Ryner was no longer there. While I thought that maybe, there was still a chance that he was still in this building, and searched for him, he isn't here. Though I thought that if it was all a dream and he'd gone to your room..."

Ferris said, staring at her, and then looked around the room once more. She looked at the desk, the bed, the window.

"As I thought, that actually happened?"

She said in a frustrated voice.

Regarding that,

"Um, um, hold on a moment. While I can't understand anything when you suddenly start talking like that, let me get this straight: Ryner's been taken away by someone?"

Kiefer asked, to which Ferris nodded.

"Correct."

"And, the one who took him away isn't human?"

"At the very least, it didn't appear human to me."

Ferris said; however, even if she said that, it was hard to believe immediately.

A monster with seven arms had appeared and abducted Ryner—that sort of impossible discussion...

"......"

However, Ferris's manner right now wasn't normal. Incredibly restless and troubled, she didn't look as if she were capable of composed judgment.

Even if she weren't like that, she's barged into Kiefer's room by slicing apart the door.

Already, she didn't look as if she were merely pulling some kind of joke.

In other words.

"......"

In other words, that Ryner had been abducted—that was the truth.

As that hit Kiefer, she began to feel panicked. She felt her entire body start to tremble.

Even though she was finally by Ryner's side, it seemed that something bad had happened to Ryner yet again.

"......"

However, she then killed her heart. She immediately disposed of the unease that was swelling up inside of her. After all, right now, if she were to lose her composure, it would all be over.

It was always like that.

Whenever something bad happened, she'd stop the movements of her heart again, as it was necessary to survey her entire body.

And she began to think.

What should she do?

How should she move?

If she made an error in her judgment, something unpleasant would occur.

Such as when her sisters were killed, when her friends were killed, Ryner being sent to prison, and becoming separated from one another.

Every moment of judgment, conduct, and choices all had to be decided on.

That was why.

"......"

That was why, even though her abilities were trivial, by staying composed nevertheless, by staying calm, by keeping an eye over her body, she'd persevered.

Looking Ferris's way, she asked,

"Ferris-san?"

"What is it?"

"Are you calm right now?"

At such words, Ferris looked at her with a curious face and said,

"I'm always ca..."

"Don't lie. If Ryner's just been captured, then it wouldn't be surprising for you to not be calm."

"......"

"But you need to be. This situation might be a very unfortunate one for us. That's why, between the two of us, we need to stay calm and deal with this,"

Kiefer said.

Though Ferris looked as if she wanted to protest something about that,

"That's why I came to you,"

She easily said.

Kiefer nodded at that.

And she looked past the door that Ferris had shredded apart.

She looked towards the corridor.

It was still as silent as death within the central military building.

It seemed that the matter of Ryner having captured hadn't been relayed to others yet.

However, whether it was because no one else had noticed Ryner's abduction or whether it was done on Vois's orders, they had to figure out, she thought.

At any rate, this was enemy territory.

In that case, right now, confirming where they stood was the most pressing matter.

Thus,

"Ferris-san,"

Kiefer said.

"When you saw Ryner being abducted by a monster—how long ago was that?"

Ferris answered the question.

"Not too long ago."

"Hmm. Ferris-san, what do you think? Do you think it was one of Vois-kun's subordinates that captured Ryner?"

At that, Ferris looked at her with a what are you talking about kind of face, and,

"That thing didn't look like a human at a..."

However, interrupting that, Kiefer spoke.

"But it used magic on Ryner, didn't it? In that case, it might've used magic on itself as well to hide itself from you, Ferris-san."

"......"

"Ferris-san, do you think you could've been subjected to its magic?"

In response,

"... It could have. I don't know much about magic, after all."

Ferris said in a slightly apologetic voice; however, Kiefer shook her head.

"Don't make that face. It's not like you made a mistake, Ferris-san. After all, it even used magic against Ryner... if it's magic that was even used against Ryner, who possesses the Alpha Stigma , then there was nothing an ordinary mage could've done against it. To say nothing of Ferris-san, who doesn't use magic..."

Kiefer said, but then her words stopped there, as she examined the corridor again.

Thinking about how someone was examining their situation and plotting an attack against them, she turned her eyes towards the darkness of the corridor.

If someone had come and eavesdropped on them, then things were simple, though.

If, by any chance, someone were there, then that meant that the other party was human, she knew.

Furthermore, it was likely someone from Vois's side.

To create magic that could be used against Ryner would have been a considerably difficult task. On top of that, he wasn't simply an Alpha Stigma bearer.

During the war, his eyes had again transformed into something unique and strengthened his power further.

That was why, in order to use magic against Ryner, it would be necessary to lay out a comparable, large-scale magic trap.

For example, if everyone within the central military building had drawn out magic traps—

It was likely that even if they'd done that, Ryner's eyes would've seen through it.

That was why it was likely,

"......"

She didn't think that this was the work of Vois's subordinates.

That what had happened here wasn't the work of assassins or pursuers, she knew.

That Vois and co. could do anything against Ryner, let alone inflict any harm on him, or what Ferris had seen—it couldn't possibly be Vois's work.

No, otherwise, they couldn't afford to have Ferris and Kiefer become threats, could they?

There was a decent chance of that.

After all, if a mage around Kiefer's level tried attacking Ferris, there would be nothing they could do in general.

But, regarding that,

"... It's too quiet,"

Kiefer muttered.

Then Ferris looked at her, and,

"Do you want to take a look at Ryner's room?"

She said.

It was a dangerous gamble.

If this kidnapping were part of Vois's plan, then he would be expecting them to return to Ryner's room, where the chance existed that he would then capture Kiefer and Ferris as well. Naturally, though, going with that Kiefer had been thinking about earlier, it was also possible that he couldn't do anything against Kiefer and Ferris.

However, if they really were waiting for them, then that would be fine, she thought.

Because it meant that they'd know who the enemy was.

If they had the person who captured Ryner, then they'd be able to ask what they wanted to do with him.

And it'd be fine if they thought of a countermeasure for that moment.

But the worst development would be—

"......"

Kiefer could imagine.

She could imagine what the worst development would be.

That would be if Ryner truly had been abducted by an unknown monster.

The same as the Goddesses that Vois spoke of earlier, or the giant spider monster that had appeared during the battle against Gastark—a monster that held power such that humans could do nothing against it.

And if Ryner had been taken away by such a being, then already, they wouldn't be seeing him again—that kind of development.

They had to prevent that.

She rejected that line of thinking.

That she'd been separated from Ryner so easily.

Even though she was finally able to be with him again, Ryner suddenly wasn't there anymore.

She absolutely refused to accept that development where they could never meet again.

But then, Kiefer looked at Ferris.

Staring at her, who was unusually disturbed,

"......"

Then, for the first time, she felt like crying. Unease soaring up in the heart that she'd tried to kill, she felt that it'd become harder to breathe.

But, nevertheless, she frantically tried to return her trembling voice back to normal.

"Let's... go to his room. I know more about magic than you, Ferris-san, so I might discover some kind of lead..."

She said.

At that,

"I see,"

Ferris said.

She looked at Kiefer with slightly hopeful eyes.

Kiefer nodded at that, before leaving the room.

The two of them quickly headed over to Ryner's room.

Going through the corridor, they went up one storey.

During that time, they didn't run into anyone.

To begin with, it was clear that there weren't many people on this floor, which seemed to be used as a reception for visitors.

They advanced through that corridor with no signs of human presence or breathing.

And then, they managed to reach Ryner's room.

The door to his room was open.

Inside was terribly messy.

With books and documents were scattered on top of his bed, it was clear that Ryner had been working hard.

It was clear that the typically lazy Ryner had been working hard.

If this were simply a sight seen while Ryner was temporarily absent from his room, she'd probably think something like, Cuuute.

She'd probably think something like, Geez, that Ryner—as soon as I'm not around, he's a slob .

Because it was like that a long time ago.

From when we were in the Roland Empire Royal Military Academy, Ryner was terrible at keeping his room in order, so if I didn't do it for him, it'd get increasingly messy.

"......"

However, now, Ryner wasn't there.

And there wasn't any lead whatsoever.

There weren't even any traces of magic being used. At the very least, nothing that Kiefer could find.

Then,

"How is it?"

Ferris asked.

Her voice sounded uneasy. A voice with both hope and unease mixed in it.

Kiefer shook her head at that.

Then, quietly,

"I see,"

Ferris said.

And she turned on her heel. She moved to leave the room.

Regarding that, Kiefer asked,

"Where are you going?"

Ferris replied,

"I'm going to look for Ryner."

"So like I said, where?"

"Who knows? But I'm going."

Saying that, she left the room.

While staring at where Ferris used to be for a while,

"... That's not what you should do,"

Kiefer muttered.

"When you don't have any leads, that's not what you should do,"

She muttered.

That was her wish.

What she wanted.

If she were to stop moving here, then she'd never be able to see Ryner again. That was why,

"... There—there has to be something that I can do,"

She said, as she began thinking hard.

Repressing the anxiety that would swell immediately if she allowed it to, while feeling like crying, she thought over things with all her might.

Even if she wasn't the sharpest person around, she desperately willed herself to think of something.

"......"

She stared at the room.

Here, there'd been Ryner with, rather than a human, a monster.

A monster with several eyes and seven arms.

It was, without a doubt, an ally of the giant spider monster that had appeared during that battle and of the Goddesses .

Ryner, because of his eyes—because he obtained those eyes with that teardrop pattern—was now being targetted by those kinds of monsters.

In that case, shouldn't I talk with someone well-informed on that sort of monster?

She thought.

Perhaps Vois might already know about the monster that had attacked Ryner.

In that case, if she asked Vois—however, thinking that, she shook her head. In the first place, this was Vois's territory. Thus, it was possible that the enemy was connected with Vois.

Not to mention that we're here to put an end to Vois's authority. I doubt that kid would allow that so easily.

In that case, there was a chance that Vois was an enemy.

Then, is there anyone else I can trust?

Is there anyone else in this world who'd know about atypical monsters like that?

Thinking that, just one person she could count on came to mind.

Riphal.

The Hero King of the Gastark Empire, Riphal Edea.

Someone whom she'd just betrayed.

But, if there was the chance that she could save Ryner.

If there's the chance that I can save Ryner, who's been captured by a peculiar monster, she thought.

Thus, she also left the room.

And she began following after Ferris who'd already left the room. Then, she was able to catch up with her immediately.

Like Kiefer, she was also making a face that suggested that she was deep in thought.

Kiefer spoke to Ferris.

That there was still hope.

That they could still find a way to find and save Ryner,

"Ferris-san! Someone who maybe, just maybe, can save Ryner—I know of someone!"

She exclaimed.

Ferris turned around.

"Oh. How unexpected. I also thought of someone whose help I was thinking about asking for."

She said such a thing.

And Kiefer was surprised at that.

After all, she hadn't considered that there was someone other than Riphal who could figure out what had happened just now.

However, Riphal and Ferris shouldn't be acquainted. In that case, who in the world was she thinking of consulting with?

Whom she did intend on asking for help?

Kiefer asked that.

That said, she could essentially guess what her reply would be.

She was likely thinking of consulting with Vois. If it was Vois, then certainly, more or less, he might have some information on what went on.

But Vois was no good.

Whether he was an ally or enemy, they still didn't know.

That was why consulting with Riphal was—

She thought, but aside from the thoughts that were self-centeredly developing in her mind, Ferris spoke.

Staring at Kiefer,

"I'm going to go to Roland to meet with Sion. If it's him, then without a doubt, he should be willing to save Ryner."

She said such a thing.

WIthout thinking,

"... Eh?"

Kiefer let her voice slip.

After all, that was a name that she wasn't expecting to hear at all.

Sion—at hearing that name and the mention of Roland, Kiefer unintentionally stopped moving.

To her, those two were very heavy matters.

The name of the country that had killed her sisters.

And the name of the friend whom she'd betrayed.

Furthermore, at the moment, that Sion was no longer on speaking terms with Ryner and Ferris, and on top of that, he'd been invading and going to war with other countries.

On the contrary, Sion had launched Rhule Fragmei on the civilians and military forces of Nelpha, whom Ryner now led.

With that, tens of thousands of people had died.

It wasn't just soldiers.

Women, children, everyone.

That wasn't the Sion that Kiefer knew.

No, even for Ryner who'd always been with Sion, that wasn't the Sion he should've known.

What was happening in Roland right now, she had no idea.

No, Riphal had said this. When he'd let Kiefer leave Gastark, he'd told her this.

"Before Ryner's betrayed. Before the gate, drenched in despair and darkness, is opened... I want you to take him away from Roland."

He said that.

At that time, she couldn't understand most of what he was saying.

On top of that, he'd said that Ryner would be devoured by Sion as a sacrifice. He'd said that that was the key for the sake of opening the gate in Roland.

And he'd said that Ryner would become that key and suffer for all of eternity, unable to die.

Each and every word was about how Sion was deceiving Ryner, and whatnot.

And the reality was, it wasn't like that.

Chased out by Sion, Ryner had left Roland.

Despite that, he'd said that.

Ryner had said that.

He said that, nevertheless, he wanted to save Sion.

If, somehow, Sion's fallen apart, then I'll put him back together , he said.

But one wouldn't think that things would proceed so smoothly.

Ryner's voice didn't reach Sion.

It didn't reach him at all.

That was why, right now, even if Ferris and Kiefer asked him for help, one wouldn't think Sion would respond.

No, if it were the Sion that Kiefer knew, he'd definitely help.

If it were the Sion whom Kiefer had spent time together with in the Roland Empire Royal Military Academy.

If it were the Sion who'd spent time togther with Ryner, he'd definitely help.

The Sion that Kiefer knew would never abandon his friends.

But right now.

"......"

Right now, the situation had changed.

Surely, Sion had fallen into some sort of unknown darkness.

He'd fallen in with monsters like the one that had captured Ryner, that humans could do nothing about.

And everything about him had become strange.

Already at the point where he couldn't go back, everything had become strange.

That was why,

"... Would Sion, as he is now..."

Meet with us?

Kiefer meant to ask that.

However, before Kiefer could finish, Ferris spoke.

Without hesitation,

"If we tell him about Ryner's situation right now, he'll help."

"But—"

"He'll help."

Ferris, in a tone that was entirely certain of herself, said that.

In response,

"......"

Kiefer stopped talking.

And thoughts began to arise.

A scene of the past.

Already in the past, it was a scene she yearned for.

Fahl, Toni, and Tyle were there. They were part of the same team in the academy, though they were friends who died because Kiefer betrayed them, they were smiling.

Amidst them, Kiefer was smiling as well.

Sion was also smiling.

And by Sion's side, with a lethargic expression, Ryner loitered around boredly.

"..."

It was a happy scene.

Of course, back then, her younger sister was being held hostage by Roland's nobility, and so she'd always been betraying Sion and her friends, however.

But while looking at the smiling faces of her temporary friends.

While in the Roland Empire that was, for merely a moment, in a ceasefire with the Kingdom of Estabul.

She was happy.

She was at peace.

While her little sister was being held hostage, while Kiefer was faintly aware that she might've been killed—in spite of all that, she immersed herself in the springtime of her life and the happiness of being by Ryner's side.

That was her worst memory.

Being all too aware of her own weakness, it was her worst, yet nevertheless missed, memory.

And she recalled that time.

Then, Sion was also smiling.

Even though, back then, he held absolutely nothing, he was dancing in the nobles' hands, and he didn't have nearly enough power to protect his allies, Sion was still smiling.

Follow me, he said.

I'll change this world, he said.

And in truth, he did.

He became Roland's king, and changed the country.

He changed the world.

Though what kind of face he was making, she no longer knew.

But, if it were the Sion from back then—

"......"

Then,

"So, the person that you thought of who could figure this out—who is it?"

Ferris asked such a thing.

Kiefer raised her head at that.

Away from the scene of her past, her consciousness returned to the world of reality.

And at that, Kiefer looked at Ferris and responded.

"I also..."

She replied.

"I also think it's fine if we head over to Sion. If it's Sion, then for sure... for sure, he'll save Ryner,"

She replied.

At that, with just a slightly relieved expression, Ferris nodded with an mm-hmm , and then turned her back to her.

"All right, let's head to Roland."

"Right. But, um, the journey's preparations..."

"We'll do them along the way."

"What about money?"

However, to that,

"We don't need money."

To such outrageous words, Kiefer laughed, and,

"Well, if we need it, we can always steal it, but I don't think we're going to be able to leave this country so easily~"

She said, taking out the small purse she always carried in her chest. Inside, she had the currency of various countries and her identification papers.

Right now, in this place, Ryner, Kiefer, and Ferris had forged identification papers. Permits for the sake of crossing the borders of other countries, trader issues, permits that allowed them to go from country to country as traders, so that they could immediately enter the People's Republic of Sphelliyet—she'd obtained them.

As she'd always gone around double-crossing everyone in the world, she wouldn't make such an oversight.

She handed over some identification papers and trading permits to Ferris.

Taking them, Ferris looked her way, and,

"Hmm. Pretty good."

She said such things, to which Kiefer smiled sweetly.

"Hurray, I was praised."

At that, staring at her,

"Incidentally, woman, what's your name?"

As she asked that, Kiefer shrugged.

"Eh, from now? Um, I..."

However, at that,

"Putting that joke aside—Kiefer, let's go."

Saying that, Ferris resumed walking.

She, who up until now, had always said "red-haired woman" instead of using her actual name, called Kiefer by her name for the first time.

In response, Kiefer stared at Ferris's back, and,

"... Ri~ght. Even though I've been acknowledged by my rival in love as an ally~"

She muttered.

"But it does make me just a bit happy,"

She said, smiling dimly.

Then she put her purse away. And regarding the rough outfit she was wearing at the moment, This isn't suitable for a journey, huh? She thought. It was practically nightclothes. When it came to stealing clothes and shoes— no, but I can use the combat uniform Vois-kun gave me, right? After thinking about that and whatnot,

"Ah, ah, Ferris-san,"

Kiefer said.

However, Ferris didn't stop.

After staring at her back with a troubled face, Kiefer smiled, and,

"Ferris,"

She said, seeing how it would go without honorifics.

The other party didn't use honorifics either. Therefore, why not? she figured, and dropped them.

Then,

"......"

Ferris stopped.

Even though she easily called Kiefer's name without any honorifics, for some reason she made a slightly unpleased face as she turned around, and,

"What?"

She said, at which Kiefer smiled.

Then beckoning her with her finger,

"Come to my room. We can make preparations for the journey,"

She said.

Ferris shook her head.

"No. We don't have ti..."

"Come on, come on. Come with me, Ferris,"

She said, as Ferris again stared at her, vaguely knitting her eyebrows.

However, Kiefer ignored that and simpy put on a smile. And like that, she began walking. Leaving Ferris's side, she headed towards her room.

At that, without saying anything, Ferris obediently followed.

That reaction of hers was cute.

While brandishing that kind of stubborn attitude, that she would ultimately follow along obediently was cute.

"......"

Kiefer thought.

Ah, so Ferris-san really is—she's a tough rival in love, she thought.

But a conflict was about to start up again.

Right now, they had to search for Ryner.

In order to search for the missing Ryner, towards the Roland Empire—

Kiefer turned around once, and after looking at Ferris,

"......"

All right, she inwardly muttered, determined.

### 003. Chapter 2: Human

"Eh~, good grief, what is this?"

Vois Fiurelle said, raising his voice in a sulking manner.

Pretty black hair, intelligent black eyes. Dressed in miko-like garb, he was a boy who looked to be around thirteen or fourteen.

Right now, that boy was inside the central military building of the capital of the country that he'd quickly established, the People's Republic of Sphelliyet.

While walking down the corridor, Vois, in an oddly troubled manner, scratched at his tidy black hair.

Then he read the report that his subordinate Harmit possessed.

In that report, this kind of thing was written.

—Ryner Lute, Ferris Eris, and Kiefer Knolles have fled.

Staring at those words, Vois knitted his eyebrows, and,

"Why~ has it turned out like this?"

He said, turning around, where a beautiful woman with an apologetic expression was.

Vois's subordinate, Harmit Wolf.

Long black hair, navy blue eyes. A tall, slender body adorned in a combat uniform.

Harmit spoke with a meek face.

"Due to my incompetence..."

"I'm not interested in apologies, you know. Just tell me the truth. What happened?"

"That's..."

"You don't know? You were keeping an eye on them, of course?"

"Yes."

"But they shook you off?"

"... Yes."

"When you noticed that they were no longer there, it was just a short while ago? After I came back?"

"... Yes."

"The investigation?"

"Presently..."

She began, but Vois interjected with,

"Don't bother. I'll do it myself."

With that order, Harmit hurriedly gave commands to a male subordinate in the waiting. Then, the man began running.

But ignoring that,

"Hmm,"

Vois said, while crossing his arms, as he walked down the corridor, pondering.

Where he was headed right now was the one who should be located closest to where they were now: the room given to Ferris.

While heading there,

"... How~ever, this is strange, isn't it? Given the current state of affairs, there shouldn't be anywhere other than here that they would go to, and furthermore, Ryner-san and the others should've seen perfectly that, with the effective government, what a nice place this is, with the information and restrictions given to them... correct?"

He said, looking at Harmit again as if seeking affirmation.

Harmit nodded.

"That was the intention."

"But they've left. Now then, now then, what should we do from here?"

He said, finally reaching Ferris's room.

Unless Harmit's information was incorrect, Ferris had left the country.

And as Harmit had no reason to lie to him,

"... My, my, she really isn't there,"

Vois said in a troubled manner. Then he entered the room.

Inside the room was the wrapping paper of various shops' dango from within Sphellilans that she'd apparently gone around buying, and on the back of each paper, the impressions of that dango were written.

Picking up one sheet,

"... The south Sapruno shopping district's dango shop, Pippi Dango, wasn't stocked up properly, so negative points for them,"

Vois read.

Then looking over his shoulder at Harmit,

"Did you know that Pippi Dango isn't any good?"

He asked, to which she shook her head. Regretting her own faults as always, she made an awkward expression.

Looking at that somewhat weak face of Harmit's,

"... Haha,"

Vois said, grinning.

Always acting gallant, like the difficult-to-fluster Kiefer, having her make an apologetic expression like this,

"Like this, it's something that comes firmly, though. But..."

Right now, the fact that Ryner isn't here anymore is bad, he muttered inwardly.

Though Harmit's face, looking as if she wanted to say something, twisted further— well, that it'd go that far is, as one would expect, pitiful.

But nevertheless, the fact that Ryner Lute was, at the moment, no longer there was especially bad.

After all, right now, Vois was, day by day, spreading out a delicate negotiation with the rest of the world.

Or rather, if one were to look at just what happened here over the last two weeks, then definitely, it would look to them as if, out of everyone in the world, it was him who was the busiest, wasn't it? For example,

- Proclaiming Ryner as the Demon King to the world.

- Conquering and dividing the Geihlficlant Empire's territory.

- Binding various countries through a peace treaty by proposing a ban on Rhule Fragmei .

- Furthermore, getting that queen of the Azure Princess Mercenaries , Pia Varliere, on his side.

And such, already, he'd been working hard day and night and had finally just returned to his own country.

Afterwards, while indulging himself by frequently teasing Ryner, Ferris, and Kiefer, though he'd intended to capture the world at once,

"... Why~ is it that everyone must act on their own without thinking?"

As he said that, Harmit again looked down with a pained expression, at which Vois laughed.

"It's not your fault."

"But—"

"I said that it's not your fault, so it's not your fault. And the leader's words are absolute, aren't they?"

"......"

Harmit, at that, lifted her face to look at him.

Vois smiled at that.

Well, right now, it honestly wasn't her fault. With her power, she wouldn't have been able to stop Kiefer, generally-speaking, and Ryner and Ferris.

No, amidst his pawns, when it came to someone who could stop someone of Ryner and Ferris's level, there was no one.

That was why it wasn't an error on Harmit's part.

In other words, what was strange wasn't that Ryner and co.'s intentions and actions weren't dealt with, so if there was a mistake in his plan, then maybe,

"... Something beyond my predictions, an irregular situation occurred here, hmm~?"

He said, throwing away the dango package and directing his eyes towards Ferris's belongings. Moreover, he pointed towards the room's closet, and,

"Harmit, open the closet,"

He ordered.

At that,

"Understood,"

Nodding as she said that, she moved towards the closet and opened it.

Regarding that, Vois spoke.

"What's inside?"

"Clothes."

"Underwear?"

To the question, after pulling out several drawers, Harmit said,

"They're here."

"What colour?"

"Eh?"

"What colour are Ferris-san's panties?"

"... E-Er, they're white and pink."

"Hmm. I see. It would've been nice if they were black or red, huh?"

While saying such things, Vois looked at Harmit's back with a bored expression. Like that, he exited into the corridor and began walking.

And he thought over things.

He thought over what it meant that Ferris's clothes and underwear had been left behind.

By the time that Harmit had noticed, Ryner, Ferris, and Kiefer were no longer there. Completely evading the surveillance on the second floor, they'd left the area.

In other words, they should have been able to take their clothes and belongings with them. In spite of that, Ferris didn't take anything with her.

At that, again,

"This is bad, huh?"

Vois muttered.

Somehow, Ryner and co.'s disappearance, being unable to stomach this place, didn't seem to have any logic behind it.

Seeing as how they should've taken their belongings with them, it seemed that a situation beyond his predictions had occurred.

Now then, what would that be?

"......"

Slipping through the corridor, Vois headed to Ryner's room.

The door to Ryner's room was wide open.

Inside the room was a mess.

The bed was buried under books and documents, and there were traces of a drink spill here and there.

Looking at the books and documents, because of Harmit, that the information given to Ryner had been manipulated, he knew.

In other words, by the things that Vois was doing, the affairs that he didn't want Ryner to know about shouldn't have been conveyed to him.

"... Hmm,"

He said, looking around the room.

At the bookshelf, the window, the desk, the bed.

However, there were no clues as to where Ryner had gone. Furthermore, all of his belongings had been left behind as well.

If Ryner and the others truly had left the country, then without making any preparations, they would've left empty-handed.

Regarding that,

"......"

Exiting the room with a thoughtful expression,

"All right, I've inspected Ryner-san and Ferris-san's rooms. Investigate as to why there are no leads,"

Vois ordered Harmit.

Harmit nodded, and then turned to a young boy behind them in stand-by. That boy began running.

But unsurprisingly, Vois wasn't interested in that.

Now, he headed over to Kiefer Knolles's room.

The state of Kiefer's room was slightly different from the other two's.

First of all, the door had been shredded to pieces.

On top of that, it was an iron door.

Though it was a door where the lock had been camoflauged so that it couldn't be seen, with the lock actually being on the outside, so that one could lock any guests inside the room.

"... Agaaain, it's been cleanly sliced apart, huh?"

He said, entering the room.

Kiefer's room, unlike Ryner and Ferris's rooms, was tidy.

Prudent in the cleaning, there wasn't a speck of garbage. As if she'd been researching something, books and documents had been sorted and arranged.

Furthermore, amidst that collection was documents on affairs that Vois hadn't wanted them to see.

"Oh~, oh~, this is... heh, Kiefer-san is more capable than I thought,"

Vois said in admiration.

Anyhow, that she'd evaded Harmit's surveillance and had gathered this amount of information,

"She might be an unexpectedly good find."

While saying that, Vois wandered around her room, searching for Kiefer's belongings.

However, she hadn't left her belongings behind.

Neither her clothes nor her underwear remaining, everything had completely disappeared, and conscientiously, her bed had been made.

That was to say, for Kiefer, leaving the country had been of her own will.

"... Now then, what can be understood from this situation?"

He muttered.

Ryner and Ferris had vanished while leaving their belongings behind, but Kiefer had left with preparations for a journey.

Consequently, what in the world was the meaning of that?

While thinking over that, he lay down on Kiefer's bed in the meantime. Sleepiness hitting him immediately, he was aware of his own, notable tiredness.

Regarding that sleepiness, enduring it as he closed his eyes, he spoke to Harmit at the entrance of the room.

"Harmit."

"Yes?"

"Shall we sleep together~?"

"Understood. If that is what Vois-sama desires,"

She said, but to her who was approaching, Vois spoke.

"But, Harmit, as there's still work to be done, I'm not letting you sleep with me~"

"Eh..."

"Look at what's on the desk. Kiefer-san has been escaping your surveillance, Harmit, and investigating the backstage of this country~"

As he said that, Harmit looked at the desk. Looking at the countless documents there, her face paled.

"M-My apologi..."

She began, but without letting her finish, Vois said,

"That's why I'm forbidding you from sleeping with me."

"U—"

"As punishment, Harmit, investigate this room. As it looks like Kiefer-san left of her own will, there might be a clue left behind. As expected, I've hit my limits, just a bit, so I'm going to sleep, but if you don't find anything by the time I wake up, Harmit..."

Suddenly, Vois's eyes opened, as if jolting himself out of a dream, and,

"I'll be angry?"

He said.

At that,

"Au,"

Harmit said in a frightened voice. The sound of her frantically investigating the documents on the desk rang out.

While nodding in satisfaction, Vois embraced the pillow tightly.

"What does Kiefer-san smell like?"

While saying such things, he was about to go to sleep, but then he felt his hand touch something paper-like.

At that, Vois faintly opened his eyes.

"Ah, what's this? The ingenious me found a clue while sleeping,"

He said, taking out a sheet of paper from under the pillow.

It was a sheet of paper that looked to have some kind of message on it.

Likely a message from Kiefer Knolles.

Vois read it.

In that message, this sort of thing was written.

"To Vois-kun. As we are unable to believe in you, we've decided to quietly leave the country. However, if by any chance you intend to help us, then please send a message to the inn in the Sul village of the Heilmuss Republic to the west. There's only one inn. From there, you'll obtain a means of contacting us. Please do not try and tail us. In the event that we notice such a tail, we will be unable to believe in you once more. If you wish to gain our confidence, then please display your good will—"

Reading up until there, Vois spoke.

"Quite a long preface, isn't it...? But she truly is amazing. I'd like for her to be one of my direct subordinates,"

He muttered.

He continued reading the message.

With this, regarding what had just happened, that was written.

Kiefer said this.

"Now then, I'll write only about what occurred here. Ryner has been abducted by a monster. The monster's outward appearance involves a spherical head with countless eyes. It seems that its body has seven arms. Ferris-san was the one who saw it. Though there is a chance that an illusionary spell was being used, there's also the chance that it's a monster in reality. If you happen to know of such a monster or a mage that could cast an illusion over Ryner, contact us. We're pursuing Ryner."

The message ended there.

And Vois, with a frustrated expression, stared at that paper.

Then he looked up at Harmit, who was still desperately searching for clues.

She was looking through the documents and then putting them aside, pulling open the desk drawers, looking inside; however, it didn't seem as if she was discovering anything, and so had a troubled face.

While dimly watching that,

"......"

However, he didn't tell her that he found a lead.

Instead, he thought over the contents of that message.

And he did have some information on the monster written about in the message.

Countless eyes on a spherical head.

A body with seven arms—though that was what was written, he had information on a being resembling that.

Called the Crawling God by the Goddesses , an old god—Remrus Remuld Aarqued.

Reigning over the Remrus Empire, a grotesque monster.

If he recalled correctly, it had seven eyes through which it saw the world and six arms.

"... But the amount of eyes and arms don't quite match up..."

That said, if it took Ryner-san away so easily, then it's likely Remrus, isn't it? He thought.

Though the Crawling God didn't have that much power, there were practically no other myth or folklore-like beings aside from the Goddesses , Hero , and Demon remaining.

"... This is quite the unexpected ambush that's appeared, isn't it? Remrus has gotten involved rather quickly..."

Vois said, rising from the bed.

Harmit looked surprised at that, and then,

"M-My apologies, I've yet to find a..."

Interrupting that,

"No, the clues that have already been found are enough,"

He said, tossing the message in Harmit's direction.

As Harmit caught it, she began reading.

However, unsurprisingly ignoring that, Vois exited the room.

And he thought over things.

Ryner—no, the People's Republic of Sphelliyet's trump card of a weapon [Ryner Lute] had been stolen by Remrus.

That was especially bad.

After all, the fact that Ryner was here was what protected this country of the People's Republic of Sphelliyet's right to speak to the rest of the world.

Obliterating a million lives in an instant, a demon king that possessed enough power to stop the war between the Gastark Empire and Geihlficlant Empire—as the world thought that, then despite the People's Republic of Sphelliyet's small numbers in soldiers, their people were able to take a short rest without being attacked.

However, if Ryner Lute were to be abducted by the Remrus Empire, and if other countries were to learn of this, what would happen?

"......"

It was likely that they'd simultaneously be attacked by neighbouring countries.

First, the Geihlficlant Empire that had been divided into northern and southern divisions would come to reclaim their territory.

Furthermore, the Ertolia Republic and Gastark Empire that had captured territory of the weakened Geihlficlant Empire would come and attack at once.

On the contrary, small countries that had been relying on the three superpowers might also take this chance to participate in the war.

If they knew that the Demon King [Ryner] wasn't here, then the Geihlficlant Empire and the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, exhausting itself with a civil war, was nothing more than a divided country.

Neighbouring countries wouldn't overlook this chance.

Of course, the military forces of the Anti-Roland Coalition that Vois led possessed many Rhule Fragmei , but Gastark was the same.

In that case, there was the possibility that they'd use Glovil against them. Right now, the other party had vastly greater numbers in terms of soldiers. On top of that, it seemed that, as if using a Rhule Fragmei that could control the soldiers' feelings in an instant, even when there was flat-out friendly fire in the war, Vois and co.'s soldiers had no chance at winning with their power.

In other words, it'd be bad if it was leaked out to other countries that Ryner wasn't here. And though, before that was revealed, they had to rescue Ryner from Remrus,

"Now then, how to move when the enemy is a monster?"

He said, narrowing his eyes.

Remrus shouldn't be too great of a foe.

Compared to the Goddesses , the Crawling God should have always been a low-grade, powerless god.

And he also possessed tools that could kill even the Goddesses .

He also possessed god-killing relics known as Rhule Fragmei .

If he used them, then a monster of Remrus's level shouldn't be able to do anything.

But the problem was,

"The problem is that why did Ryner-san get taken away so easily if the opponent was a lowly god of that degree, hmm? Did it lure him away with the panties of a girl as bait?"

While muttering such foolish things, he continued to think with a serious expression nevertheless.

Truly, the incident that had happened just now was beyond his predictions.

The matter of Remrus wasn't one that Vois had seen fit to pay much attention to. No, up until just a short while ago, the Goddesses who meant to make use of him were fools who thought that it was enough to manipulate humans.

Naturally, though, a monster's power far surpassed that of a human's, and while he was aware of that in itself, he still hadn't paid much attention to it.

Rather, aside from the fact that, being located north of Roland, the Remrus Empire had become an obstacle to the other country, he hadn't thought about it.

But Ryner had been taken away.

Ryner, who should've obtained enough power to frighten the Goddesses , had easily been taken away.

Though he didn't know what kind of trap or illusion had been prepared in order to do that, Remrus, who was scorned by the Goddesses , had done that, and he'd certainly have laid out various other plans—

"Damn it. Again, the enemies aside from the Goddesses and the Hero have increased?"

Vois said, groaning.

And he wanted to blame the naivety of his own thoughts. Well, even if he blamed himself, he didn't think he could've stopped what had happened this time.

No, because he knew that enemies who wanted to obtain Ryner's power like himself were gathering, maybe he should've put up some guards.

For example, assigning Ferris as a guard to Ryner who possessed one Rhule Fragmei , or something like that.

But as he hadn't expected Ryner, with his degree of power, to be taken away so simply, he hadn't assigned any such guards.

"I was naive... but even if I regret it now, there's nothing that can be done about it. However, I have to take measures immediately now. Now then, what to do..."

He began, but then suddenly, a different subordinate barged out of a room. And upon locating Vois, in a desperate manner,

"Vois-sama! An enemy has attacked! Please escape imme..."

However, his words ended there.

The upper half of the subordinate's body was devoured and torn to shreds by some sort of black shadow monster, and so became no more.

And that monster turned this way.

Made of shadows, it was a gigantic wolf-like monster.

With only one glance, he could tell that it was a monster born from a Rhule Fragmei .

And upon looking this way, the beast opened its mouth wide, before attacking him.

"Wah, wah, Harmit!"

Vois called out.

Harmit lifted her face at this and reacted. Withdrawing the sword at her waist, she moved to save him.

The monster then looked at Harmit.

Vois took that opportunity to jump back. Furthermore, he took a knife out from his pocket. Then, he flung it to the floor.

In that instant, the knife separated into four pieces and pierced through the left and right walls, the ceiling, and the floor. And with those four pieces in the cardinal points, a thinly translucent film of light was spread out, isolating the monster away from Vois.

The monster was stopped by that film, and,

"Gah—"

In the moment that it let out a cry, its body was already disappearing.

Looking at that,

"Oh~, that was close,"

Vois said, letting a bit of emotion leak into his voice.

Then he turned towards the entrance of the room that the monster had entered from.

There, at the room's entrance, he saw a lone man appear.

It was likely the man manipulating the shadow monsters.

Long, smooth and pretty jet-black hair. A thin, tall body. Though his face was surprisingly well-featured, anyone who saw him wouldn't feel that, with his icy, dark blue eyes.

With eyes as if he were completely looking down at everything, he looked down at Vois, and,

"Ah, how unfortunate that was just now,"

He said in a horribly dark voice.

In response, Vois looked up at the man, and,

"You are?"

He asked, to which the man smiled.

And, with open red lips entirely like a demon's,

"I'm not someone who would introduce himself,"

He said such a thing, at which Vois shrugged and spoke.

"An assassin from Gastark?"

"Ah, I've been expo..."

"No, that's not it, is it? After all, Gastark's Rhule Fragmei user would have pink hair. And to manipulate that shadow beast—that's a type of Rhule Fragmei that can only be used by the chosen bloodline, isn't it? That is, you aren't an assassin from Gastark. In that case, where are you an assassin from?"

At that, while cheerfully smiling, the man caressed his own black hair.

"I dyed it,"

He said such a thing.

Vois smiled in response and spoke.

"Heh. Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Then you must be an assassin from Gastark, huh? In that case, if it's a precious assassin from Gastark, it's fine for me to say this. The film of this Rhule Fragmei separating us cannot be broken by a relic. But rather, there's only one way to break it. Do you know what that is?"

The man looked up at the film of light that spread across the center of the room.

"Now then, what should I do?"

He asked, and so Vois told the man.

"Though this holds up against the laws of nature and against relics, it's weak only to magic, you see. So if you use magic, it'll be troubling~"

He said that.

At that, the man looked his way, and,

"... Do you expected me to be deceived by such nonsense?"

Vois answered,

"That should be my line. Someone from Gastark? You dyed your hair? If that's the truth, then let me see you use magic. Come on, draw your prided grid pattern, and invoke your magic~"

However, at that, the man didn't move to use magic.

Well, he'd known from the beginning that this guy wasn't from Gastark, so it wasn't as if this was a new piece of information.

Vois stared at the man, and,

"So, what does an assassin from Roland want with me?"

He said.

That was the scythe that he applied.

If he reacted to the mention of Roland, then Vois would know where this guy came from.

However, the man's face didn't as so much twitch. Instead, with a cold expression, he stretched out his hand, and,

"Let there be darkness,"

He said.

The shadow at the man's feet stretched, and one beast was formed. Furthermore, it was a beast that was far larger than the previous one.

That beast lunged at the film of light spread across the room.

And that light, for a moment, for only a moment, wavered faintly; however, again, the beast disappeared.

And watching that,

"......"

Not good, Vois thought.

Just now, the film's special trait might have been revealed, he thought.

If this film were struck by a certain level of power or higher, it was possible to break through it.

Of course, if it were attacked by a normal sword or spell, it wouldn't matter much, but.

Then suddenly,

"That messenger girl that you sent to us, of the Roland Empire—I killed her."

The man revealed the country from which he came.

At that, Vois felt increasingly more that this was not good.

This man had already discovered the way to break through the film. And he possessed enough power to kill Vois.

That was why he so easily revealed the country that he came from.

To that,

"......"

Vois, however, made a surprised face as if he hadn't noticed anything, and,

"So, you've willingly revealed yourself,"

He said.

And he became aware of the window behind him. He started simulating a plan to escape from here inside his head.

During that time, the man placed his hand on his chest, and bowing his head slightly,

"I am a messenger hailing from the Roland Empire, known as Miran Froaude. Pleased to make your acquaintance,"

Though he said that, this man called Froaude didn't give off the feeling that he was pleased to make his acquaintance, as Vois knew the instant he saw his demon-like face.

That was why, while smiling, Vois took a step back.

Froaude, looking at his feet, laughed again.

"There's no need to be afraid. It'll only hurt for a moment. No, not even for an instant—you likely won't feel any pain."

While saying such things, he took a necklace out of his pocket.

It was a Rhule Fragmei that would absorb the surrounding light and unleash explosive, destructive power.

Demonic Beast Destroyer [Ellearms].

Vois scowled at that. Though he possessed a Rhule Fragmei that held the power to render Ellearms null, in order to negate Ellearms , it was necessary to take down the film dividing the room.

And naturally, if the film were removed, this Froaude man would attack with his shadow beasts.

Even if he negated Ellearms , he wouldn't be able to defend against an attack from Froaude.

However, if he didn't negate Ellearms , there would be an explosion right in the heart of the country, its destruction exceeding even that of a large-scale offensive spell. If that were to happen, then it would be likely that this country wouldn't be able to rebuild itself.

Vois scowled at that, and shouted.

"If you use that here, then my subordinates within Roland will do the sa..."

He began, but Froaude laughed.

"You will die here. And my lineage will be known to no one. Now, let's end this already. Please resign yourself to your death,"

He said, moving to toss the necklace.

Vois made his decision to deal with it. From his pocket, he took out the Divine Parasite Bugs [Euloss Elma], devoted to devouring the light of the Ellearms .

And like that, turning on his heel,

"Harmit! Exit from the window! Provide back up!"

He called.

And he began enacting his plan from outside the room window.

However, then, Froaude said,

"Now, putting aside that joke..."

Suddenly, saying that, he put the necklace back in his pocket.

"......"

Vois, with a foot on the window, looked over his shoulder.

And narrowing his eyes at Froaude,

"... Don't you think that was a rather poor joke?"

Froaude smiled, and,

"Compared to what your spies, who you were able to send to Roland, did?"

He said such things.

Incidentally, the duty of the spies that Vois sent to Roland was to set fire to their provisions, blow up their armoury, etc.—things one couldn't really speak well of.

Rather, there was also the matter of unleashing a Ellearms at the Roland palace like the one that Froaude had almost activated.

But, even on top of not suffering any damage at all, the dispatched spies also—

"None of them came back, did they?"

Vois said, to which Froaude nodded.

"Because I killed them."

"You admitted it so easily, huh?"

"But you are the same, are you not?"

"Well, perhaps,"

Vois said, removing his foot from the window. Then, turning around, he pointed at Froaude and spoke.

"Or rather, if it were me in your position just now, I'd be attacking with Ellearms ."

"Haha. But you're of a worse nature than me."

"That's right, isn't it? Well, though I'm always hoping that I have a worse nature than anybody else... Otherwise, an adorable child like me would've been immediately attacked all 'nooo' and 'fufu' and whatnot. That's also your true goal, isn't it?"

At such words,

"......"

However, Froaude didn't respond to that.

He looked around, and,

"However, seeing your frantic response just now, this country has yet to erect a barrier to negate Ellearms , hmm?"

He said.

Vois nodded at that.

"My, wouldn't that take about a month? But this country wasn't even established a month ago, if you recall,"

He said, though from the beginning, Vois had no intention of erecting a barrier.

Firstly, when it came to Euloss Elma that existed to negate Ellearms on its own, its numbers were few, so it was precious.

In terms of numbers, Vois had only six in his possession.

And once that Rhule Fragmei was used once, it couldn't be used again, so unless there was a place that had to be protected at all costs, he didn't want to use them.

And as for Sphelliyet here, Vois had plans for it to merely be a temporary establishment.

Though from now on, their army would, with Pia and co. attacking the other towns of the Geihlficlant Empire, be sequentially be migrating the acting capital city—

"......"

However, if they planned to return right after, it would be insane.

First, Ryner, whom they should be celebrating as their king, had been captured by the Remrus Empire.

Furthermore, an assassin from Roland had easily infiltrated the heart of their country.

The state of the world was continuing to spiral past Vois's expectations, and to that,

"... The me who thought about sleeping was a fool, huh?"

He muttered.

Froaude tilted his head to one side at that.

"What was that?"

Though he said that, Vois shrugged.

"No, nothing. Or rather, if you're not using Ellearms , then that means that you've come here with another goal in mind, doesn't it?"

As he asked that, Froaude nodded.

"Correct. I thought I would come and greet Ryner Lute-sama, who'd established this new country, and have him hear my opinions."

Vois laughed at those words.

Directing his eyes towards his subordinate whose upper body had been devoured and whose corpsed had collapsed onto the ground,

"... Greet him?"

Froaude also looked down and smiled.

And easily,

"Yes,"

He nodded.

Staring at Froaude with an astonished expression,

"Even though you nearly obliterated the country with Ellearms ?"

"You would've defended against it, no? You possess Euloss Elma ."

"That may be true, but..."

"And that we both possess Rhule Fragmei is what I confirmed just now. With this, the meaning behind your proposal for the peace treaty has finally been revealed. Using this sort of tool indiscriminately, no one will be left standing at the end—is that it?"

"......"

"And that fear just now, you felt it in your body as well. In that case, perhaps we can both walk the same path. If you throw away your Rhule Fragmei , so will I. Now, please undo this barrier. I will use neither my Shadow Beasts nor Ellearms . Let us compromise. Undo the barrier, so that we may speak, face to face. For the sake of peace, as you said, hmm?"

He said such things.

He said cheerfully.

And in response, Vois looked at the knives that pierced the four corners of the room.

He looked at the Rhule Fragmei that was erecting a barrier in order to divide him and Froaude.

Even if he undid the barrier, this Froaude man wouldn't attack him.

The reason was, earlier, he demonstrated that he held a method to destroy the barrier.

If he unleashed Ellearms and dealt with the fleeing Vois, he was able to kill him, after all.

However, he didn't do that.

Furthermore, acknowledging the risks, he went as far as to reveal his home country.

In other words, this guy hadn't come here with the intention of killing Vois. Here, he'd come for some sort of negotiation, without intending on killing Vois.

So even if he undid the barrier, there wouldn't be a problem—that was how it should be, but.

"......"

Vois didn't undo the barrier.

No, he couldn't undo it.

He couldn't believe in this guy's words and mannerisms.

And Froaude laughed at that.

"Haha, cowering in fear, you won't undo the barrier? Even though you understand that I have no intention of killing you, you're unable to undo the barrier."

"......"

"But I believe that to be an ordinary sentiment. Once a person obtains such a weapon, they are unable to discard it. If you discard it, then what to do if the other fellow discards his, if he outwits you, if he attacks you? Suspicion leads to more suspicion; as long as that is clear, then in the end, people won't discard their weapons. And in that case..."

Staring at Vois, he laughed, with the dark expression of a demon's.

"Ha, haha, in that case, what does that say about you, who is unable to undo the barrier, who won't discard his weapons? That ban on using the dangerous Rhule Fragmei ? A peace treaty? How laughable. Don't you think that raising your seized weapons above your head while crying out for peace is rather amusing?"

To the question, however, Vois didn't think it was particularly amusing.

After all, he'd known from the beginning that it was like that.

Being born into this world as a descendant of a swindler family, about the weakness of a person's heart, about how to take advantange of a person's weakness, about how to destroy a person's heart—from the time he'd been born, he'd always been studying about those things.

That was why, cheerfully smiling, Vois spoke.

"The world shall decide whether it's amusing or not, Froaude-san. If everyone supports that opinion that I've happily put forth, then it will become reality. Raising my seized weapons above my head while crying out for peace is amusing? Haha, please don't laugh about that. This is about human lives, isn't it?"

He said, to which Froaude easily nodded.

"Yes, that's correct."

"In that case, what exactly did you come here to do? I have no interest in that sort of dull, immature speech."

Froaude smiled at that. Then, taking a step back, he exited into the corridor.

The corridor was dyed in blood.

It was likely the blood of Vois's subordinates. There should have been seven guards of Vois's outside the room.

But no one had come to help. There were no indications of reinforcements.

In that case, everyone had presumably been killed.

And Froaude spoke. After directing his eyes towards the corridor once, he again looked at Vois, and,

"No, of course the speech just now wasn't for your benefit, Vois Fiurelle. I said it, did I not? That I've come to greet him. I came to have the one who established the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, the Demon King Ryner Lute-sama, listen to my opinions—though I thought I would come to have him listen to the words of our king, Sion Astal, it seems that it's rather difficult to find Ryner-san—"

He said, and at that point, Vois finally understood what his aim was.

This guy, like Remrus, had come to take Ryner away.

Though his method was different, his way would've been effective. Ryner was someone who would've easily been influenced by the view that Froaude presented just now.

And that was if those were the words of Sion Astal.

Furthermore, if Sion Astal, whom Ryner was seeking to save, had said such things, there was a decent chance that Ryner would've left this place.

Thus, right now, it might actually be a good thing that Ryner had been captured.

In his absence right now, if Vois could tell this guy that they had no intention of meeting with a messenger from Roland, then the significance behind the fact that Ryner wasn't here right now might also emerge somewhat, Vois thought.

"... Well, I'd like to convey that and pull it off, but..."

He muttered quietly.

Then, putting on airs as if he weren't affected by this disturbance, he puffed out his chest with a smile, and was about to say that Ryner wasn't there.

But then,

"Your Excellency,"

A voice rang from the corridor.

It was likely the voice of a subordinate that Froaude had brought along.

Though Vois couldn't see them from where he was, Froaude spoke to them.

"As I expected, Ryner-san isn't there?"

"Yes. Instead, Vois Fiurelle's subordinate was investigating Ryner Lute's room. After torturing them, I was told that it seemed that Ryner Lute had suddenly disappeared from this country this morning."

At hearing that report, Vois wanted to clutch his head.

At the same time, a smile broke out across Froaude's face.

Then looking over at Vois,

"Suddenly disappeared? And Vois-san, you are unaware of his whereabouts?"

Vois's thoughts began whirling at that. They turned wildly. That this information had been leaked was bad.

That Ryner's absence had been leaked was bad.

But Froaude stared at him with an intrigued face, and,

"... This has become an interesting situation, hasn't it? Even though you and Ryner Lute had managed to dig a ditch until now, it seems that the time for you has already come. Everything is over for you. With this, I have no need for such antics."

While saying that, Froaude took a step back.

Froaude was smiling.

Cheerfully smiling.

It was only natural.

Right now, if the information that Ryner was missing was revealed to the outside world, this country would easily come to an end.

Vois's plan that he'd laid out and frantically built up would crumble in an instant.

That was why Vois took out a different Rhule Fragmei from his pocket.

It was the same one that Froaude had taken out earlier.

Ellearms .

It was a Rhule Fragmei that no one would dare to use right in the middle of a city like this.

If he were to use it here, it held enough power to wipe out half the city.

Nevertheless, it was necessary to kill Froaude for certain here.

If Ryner's absence were to be revealed to the outside, then this place would be—

However, at that,

"Though I'd rather not, I also possess the Rhule Fragmei for negating that, you realize?"

While saying that, Froaude took another step back.

Then he gave orders to his subordinate.

"Leave. And tell this to the world. Right now, in the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, Ryner Lute—no, the Demon King isn't there—"

"Understood."

"But be cautious. It's likely that Sphelliyet will do everything it can to kill us. Remain alive, and we'll meet again in Roland. Now, please go."

Saying that, Froaude swung his finger. Again, a shadow beast stretched from his shadow and was formed. And leaving behind that beast there,

"Now, Vois Fiurelle-sama, I bid you farewell,"

He said, before he began running into the corridor.

His figure eventually disappeared.

And at that,

"Damn it,"

Vois groaned, staring at the shadow beast that appeared to be keeping an eye on him.

Then inside his head, he began thinking of a way to pursue Froaude.

Following after him was simple.

He'd jump out the window behind him and call for help.

Though the Rhule Fragmei that Froaude held was a nuisance, the only place that was in ownership of Rhule Fragmei outside of this building was the elite force.

That was why it was possible to capture Froaude as well.

But.

"......"

Just then, Harmit spoke in a strained voice.

"Vois-sama, your instructions,"

She said.

But Vois didn't move. Instead, his thoughts continued to whirl.

He'd already seen Froaude's face. His height had also been confirmed. That was why the possibility that they could chase and capture him existed.

But what about Froaude's subordinate?

He didn't know anything about the other people.

And if even one person escaped, then this battle would be lost.

The news of Ryner's absence would most definitely be revealed to the outside.

That was why Vois kept thinking, searching for the most ideal plan.

A way such that no one would escape.

A way such that, without a doubt, no one would escape.

And he ordered his subordinate.

"Harmit."

"Yes?"

"Gather all of our ally soldiers behind this building within twenty minutes. And if it takes over twenty minutes, unleash seven Ellearms from here towards the south."

"Wha—!? W-With that, the district..."

"We're casting the district away."

"The soldiers also won't be able to move within twenty..."

"Then hurry. Don't be careless. What I think is necessary, when I think it's necessary, it is to be implemented. If you move too slowly, you'll also be cast away."

Harmit's expression changed at those words. It bent with sadness for a moment, before it immediately tightened. And running towards the window, she moved to go outside.

And to her back, further orders were given.

"Just one shot of Ellearms should be negated. Froaude will be there. Squad #13 will pursue him. Apprehending him isn't necessary. Without fail, kill him—tell them that. Following that, Public Relations Squad #1, prepare to spread the news that Roland has violated the peace treaty. The disaster that will occur here was caused by Roland. Tell the world that people from Roland used Rhule Fragmei from within the cities of other countries."

While nodding at that, Harmit leapt out the window.

"......"

He looked again at the corridor where Froaude no longer was, and,

"... Ah~, good grief, what is this? I don't particularly care over people's deaths either, though, right?"

He said such a thing.

And he let out a quiet sigh.

Then he slowly inhaled.

From here, tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands lives would be stolen. He began preparing for that impact.

Then turning towards the shadow beast that was glaring at him utterly as if watching over him, beyond the barrier in front of him,

"Your master is quite gloomy, isn't he? My, he has a face like he's always thinking dark thoughts. What do you think? You must also be fed up with your master, right?"

Though he said such things, the shadow beast didn't make any indication that it understood his words.

But Vois continued.

He continued talking to the shadow beast that had no will of its own.

"Incidentally, I wonder if what I tell this beast is passed onto the owner? Otherwise, as it continues to follow its previous orders, is it a stand-alone relic? Well, though I don't know which one it is, if there's any chance that you can hear me, Froaude-san—prepare yourself. After all, you won't be able to escape. The punishment for smiling so arrogantly at me will immediately..."

While saying that, he again took out a necklace from his pocket.

Called Ellearms , with a level of power that one wouldn't think people should wield, bringing forth brutal destruction—he took it out.

And in an instant.

In just about only an instant, he recalled Froaude's words.

Speaking so arrogantly of humans, he recalled Froaude's words.

Froaude had said this.

Because humans were horribly weak, they were too afraid to let go of the weapons that they'd obtained.

And regarding that, Vois stared at the necklace that he was grasping.

Staring at the weapon that would again steal tens of thousands of lives,

"... Ah~, I really am human, huh?"

He muttered quietly with emotion.

### 004. Chapter 3: Remrus Empire

To go back in time a bit.

The location is the capital of the Remrus Empire—Echran.

The town was filled with life.

In the noisy shopping town, it was overflowing with crowds of people.

Well-maintained, within the streets—no, in the heart of numerous churches within the country, as if built in a circle, the people were gathering at the churches due to it being the weekend, to give praise to the king of the country.

And that,

"... As expected of the greatest superpower within the central continent. But when it comes to countries that seize their people through religion, it's the first time I've seen a country flourish to this extent,"

Luke Stokkart muttered, gazing at the streets.

Still twenty-five, twenty-six, he had long, pure white hair and an eternally smiling, calm face.

Inconspicuously, he inspected the vegetables stall, while looking around and confirming his surroundings, to which,

"Hey, mister, if you're not gonna buy anything, then you're standing in the way, so would you move?"

The shopkeeper said.

In response, Luke put on a frantic appearance, and said,

"Ah, I apologize, I apologize. That the street is so full of people is something that surprised me."

At that, the shopkeeper looked his way. Then, noticing the traveling garb that Luke was wearing,

"Oh, are you a traveler?"

He nodded at the question.

"I'm from the neighbouring country of Hoful and came to find some work away from home... Ah, have you heard of the country of Hoful?"

The shopkeeper shook her head.

"Nope. But it's one of those, isn't it? A vassal country of this Remrus Empire?"

At those words, Luke smiled sweetly and corrected her.

"No. It's one of its allies."

"Ah, did I upset you?"

"No, no, though it's officially an ally country, the truth is that it is dependent on this country... but at any rate, it's not doing very well, so I was hoping to find work outside."

While giving out one lie after another, he picked up a vegetable with yellow leaves.

It wasn't a vegetable found in Roland—no, though it was possibly a fruit—though furthermore he didn't know of how one would cook this, he held it anyway, and,

"As I need to be frugal with my money, I need to properly cook for myself,"

He said such a thing.

The shopkeeper nodded in admiration with a right, right , and said,

"Mister, even though you're still young, you've got a great mindset, don't you?"

"Well, though you say that, today's the first time I've thought about cooking."

"Oh dear, that's bad."

"Isn't it? In this city, I'll be making my first real attempt,"

He said, making an uneasy expression, before looking around again.

The shopkeeper spoke.

"It'll be all right. After all, this town is full of friendly people, y'know? If it comes down to it, you can count on the church. Ah, have you already been to the church? If you end up living in this town, you must meet with the advisors."

Luke nodded at such words.

"The merchant owner who agreed to give me some work said that as well. I'll meet with them tomorrow."

"I see, I see. That's good. If you meet properly with the advisors, then it'll be all right for you to live in this town. You'll live a happy life here,"

The shopkeeper said.

Luke smiled at that and nodded.

"Then, do you have any cheap vegetables today?"

He asked.

The shopkeeper laughed and said,

"It's fine, for today only, I'll do you a service. Pick any ones you like."

Even if she said that, it wasn't like he knew how to cook any of the vegetables, but at any rate, Luke picked out a few fruit-like objects, and,

"Then, I'll take advantage of your generous offer, so is it fine even if I take these?"

"What's this? It's fine if you don't hold back and take more, y'know?"

"No, no, if I took so much that I couldn't finish them, since that'd be an inexcusable waste. If I don't have enough, I can always come back."

"Hey, hey, the next ones aren't free, you realize?"

"Aha."

"Geez, you're just such a likable guy, huh? Well, see you later, then."

"Yes, thank you very much. Then, with this."

"Yes, yes, thank you for your patronage~"

The shopkeeper said.

At that, Luke bowed his head and left the stall.

The shopping town unsurprisingly brimming with people, everyone had bright faces.

A man and a woman were getting married in one place apparently, a stall elsewhere was selling stylish clothing, a grandchild was being born elsewhere—he overheard that kind of thing.

And the men, women, elderly, and children all laughed.

They laughed with cheerful faces from the bottom of their hearts.

Even though, right now, with this country in the middle of a war with Roland, their brethren continued to drop like flies each day.

Even though, as this country had chosen to conscript its soldiers, their family, children, and neighbours were being sent out to war each day and dying, they laughed peacefully.

Incidentally, based on Luke's investigation, right now, the greengrocer lady that Luke had spoken no longer had any family left, apparently.

Her two sons and husband had been conscripted and were currently participating in the war.

No, they likely weren't in this world anymore.

"......"

Luke looked over his shoulder.

There, his eyes met the shopkeeper's.

The shopkeeper smiled and waved a hand at him.

Luke waved back, and,

"As I thought, this is clearly..."

He muttered.

Then at the town's—gazing at the cheerful appearances of the people here, as everyone was so bright that it was unnerving,

"... This is clearly brainwashing magic at work here,"

He said.

Then he looked up at the church at the end of the town.

The church was considerably large, in the shape of a steeple. No matter where one was in the country, they would be able to see that steeple.

And anyone who visited this country absolutely had to visit the church and speak with the advisors, as Luke had been told, though,

"... Now then, it's the church that's casting the brainwashing magic, isn't it?"

Luke considered such a thing.

"Could a large-scale brainwashing magic that covers the entire country exist?"

While saying that, he hit his own head, and then touched his chest. Confirming his pulse with his fingertip, he counted to make sure it was within range of his expectations.

At the very least, right now, it didn't appear that any sort of unique magic had been used on him. There was nothing strange about his mental condition.

In other words,

"As I thought, the church is suspicious, hmm?"

He said while walking.

The town unsurprisingly filled with life, for some reason, things felt slightly happier there.

Leaving the shopping town, he entered an inn that was somewhat in a back alley.

Unsurprisingly, the inn's landlord was also upbeat.

Looking at him.

"Will you be staying the night?"

Luke nodded at those words.

"Do you have a room available for two nights?"

"We do. You fine with paying in advance, though?"

"That's fine."

Luke said, taking out the currency being used in the Remrus Empire from his pocket.

While taking that, the landlord stared at him, and,

"You a traveler?"

Luke nodded at the question.

"From the country of Hoful..."

"Ah~, working away from home, I see. Since this place is cheap, it's a great place to stay for a kid working away from home until they find a home,"

The landlord said such a thing.

Luke smiled at that, and said,

"It seems so. Looking at other places' pricing, I was also surprised."

The landlord nodded with a right, right .

"Well, since it's in a back alley, we don't get a lot of customers, so we gotta keep the price low like this. Even if that weren't the case, this country doesn't get a lot of travelers."

"Hoh."

"But it's a great place to live. Then, will you be looking for a place to work tomorrow?"

"That's the intention, but I'm not sure where a good place would be?"

At the question, the landlord spoke.

"If that's the case, you should discuss it with the advisors. Ah, if you don't know about 'em, in the event that you stay here for ten days or more..."

There, Luke interrupted him and spoke.

"I must tell the advisors. That's how it is, correct? I know."

"Oh, then that's good. Then, have you already met with the advisors?"

Luke shrugged at that, and,

"No, I just arrived, so... I was thinking about doing it tomorrow,"

He said.

However, that was a lie.

It had already been half a month after he entered the Remrus Empire as a spy.

He'd been investigating first the situation of the town, information on the people living there, the territory, how the country was managed.

And as he moved from town to town, he'd already sent many reports to Roland on how this country's organization and the shroud covering it were abnormal.

Though he had yet to visit the church—no, though he'd tried sneaking into it, the church's security was considerably strict, and on top of that, it seemed that from all directions, there was some kind of magic being used to the manipulate the nerves of the people here, and so he had to prepare carefully.

But those preparations had been arranged for tomorrow—no, he planned to sneak in this night.

Staring at him, the landlord spoke.

"In any case, meet with the advisors as soon as possible, all right? If you receive the advisors' guidance, there won't be any problems."

Luke nodded at that.

"When I left my homeland, I was told by my fellow travelers working away from home to go and see the church at the very beginning."

"That's right, that's right. That's a relief,"

The landlord said, laughing.

Luke also smiled at that, and received the key to the room.

"It's the innermost room on the second floor."

"Thank you very much."

Giving his thanks to the landlord, he headed towards his room. While affirming the structure of the inn, he arrived at his room.

The room wasn't locked.

Opening the door that seemed like it'd be easy to break by kicking it open, he entered the room.

It was a small room with a desk, a closet, and a bed.

But he didn't especially care about the furniture of the room.

He looked towards the window. He checked to see whether he could escape from the window.

Outside the window, it was connected to a narrow alleyway.

It was an alleyway narrow enough that he could jump to the neighbouring building.

But, well,

"... Seems like I can escape, hmm?"

He said, nodding as he placed his belongings on the bed.

Then he also sat down on the bed.

Though the window was open, due to how close the distance between it and the neighbouring building was, not much light entered the room.

As there was no lamp, even though it was still around evening, it was dark within the room.

Amidst that darkness,

"......"

He waited for time to pass.

The day fell.

It became darker inside the room.

But he still didn't move.

Because tonight, people weren't sleeping. That was why he turned on the lamp in his room. Then he took out the vegetables he bought earlier and placed them on the desk.

"... Afterwards, I'll have to borrow the kitchen and try cooking with these,"

He muttered such a thing.

Following that, he opened the knapsack that carried the rest of his belongings. Supplied with after he entered the capital of the Remrus Empire—Echran, there was a combat uniform that was easy to move in and several knives. The combat uniform was that of the Remrus Empire's soldier. Furthermore, there was also a rough map of the largest church in Echran, the capital of the Remrus Empire.

Hiding that underneath the bed, he again sat on top of the bed.

He looked outside the window where it was pitch black, and,

"......"

Unsurprisingly, he didn't move.

He would move when it was past midnight.

At that,

"... Would it be fine to sleep for a bit?"

He said, lying down on the bed and closing his eyes.

However, sleep didn't come.

Somehow, it seemed that his nerves were too irritable, and so he couldn't fall asleep.

Regarding that, Luke opened his eyes faintly, and,

"......"

However, as expected, he said nothing.

Instead, he stared at the ceiling above him.

He stared at the plain, empty ceiling of the inn.

There was nothing in the room.

But.

"......"

But, in this air that was filled with no gaps in it, there were monsters that he couldn't see with his eyes.

Though they couldn't be seen by humans, completely filling the air, monsters wriggled around.

For example, the monsters known as Goddesses .

The monster known as the Hero .

The monster known as the Demon .

The monsters known as Priests .

Utterly sneering at the efforts of humans, toying with a person's fate, with everything dancing about in the palms of their hands.

He held his hand out towards that in the air that couldn't be seen, and,

"... No, well, though I've always been vaguely aware,"

He muttered.

Correct.

Regarding that, he'd already realized it since he was a child.

That some kind of special power, structure was operating in the world—it was influencing everything, wasn't it?

He'd always thought that sort of thing.

Rather than some obscure feeling, as he'd continued to analyze the reality of things as it accumulated, he'd reached that conclusion before he knew it.

For example, the Roland Empire—even if one just looked at the existence of such a country, that was something that one would understand.

There was something clearly abnormal about that country.

Like the state of this Remrus Empire, enough that one couldn't be surprised, that place was also a strange country.

For starters, the nobles' tyranny and corruption went on for so long, and yet continued to hold on to overwhelming military power in the southern continent; it was that sort of reality.

The discontent with the king, who was unanimously nothing but a misgovernment, never turned into action—even if it did, that reformation would never succeed; it was that sort of reality.

And if one were to peruse through the history books of that country, it seemed that it had maintained that state for over hundreds of years.

That recently, Sion Astal had created a revolution, changing the country to the point where it was as if it'd been reborn—though that sort of thing had happened, even that revolution, in truth, was trifling.

After all, Sion was also someone who carried the blood of the royal family.

That meant even now, the country was being ruled by someone of the same blood.

On top of that, for such an abnormally long time as hundreds of years, it'd been ruled by people of the same blood.

Naturally, there'd been several revolutions.

It'd always been a terrible country. Amidst the oppressed people, there'd been competent ones, as well as those who gathered allies and tried to start a revolution.

But each and every time, it ended in failure. For hundreds of years, there'd been countless revolutions, and all of them ended in failure.

And the father of Luke's superior Rahel Miller was also a revolutionary.

Likely a middle-aged man, he was a revolutionary who probably possessed greater forces.

It was a revolution that should have succeeded, no matter what. Miller's father was meticulous and reserved his powers for years and months, even getting the primary nobles on his side.

But in the end, they failed.

At the end of it all, it was nothing but tragedy.

Why it failed, no one knew.

Back when Luke first met Rahel Miller, he'd done considerable investigation on the details of what the man's father did, but even then, he couldn't figure out why the revolution had been destroyed.

Even though Miller's father had possessed that degree of power at the time.

And then, there had been something strange about the country.

Everyone thought the country was mad.

Everyone thought the country had to change.

But it didn't change.

Never thinking that something abnormal, unseen by the human eye was controlling matters, history advanced forward.

That was why Miller had set Sion up as their leader.

If, somehow, there's some strange curse or requirements needed for the sake of changing this country, let's start a revolution that fulfills those requirements, and so it wasn't that Sion Astal was especially needed for the revolution, but they set up someone who was still young and carried the blood of the royal family as leader.

And the result was that the revolution succeeded.

No, the fact that Sion became king meant that there might be some problems with calling it a revolution, but Miller had done it.

But ultimately, that country now, from long ago, continued to be ruled by someone who carried the blood of the king.

And the reason for that was because of the several existences in this world.

Gods—though, in the Roland Empire that had no religion, the existence of such things couldn't be felt, that some kind of large, inhuman existence was manipulating the reason of the world was something that Luke had always suspected.

And as if to make doubly sure of that,

"......"

Before him, Lieral Lieutolu, a human who had ceased to be a person, appeared.

Luke recalled that moment.

The moment when, appearing before him, Lieral proposed to have a negotation with him.

About the existences of the Hero and the Goddesses and the Priests who'd created them.

Recalling the proposal of discussing how they, as humans, were to oppose such monsters...

"......"

There, he stopped thinking.

And he looked outside the window.

In this inn, located in an alleyway completely as if it were being hidden, there was little noise.

But looking towards that darkness,

"... My, my, it looks like a guest has come,"

Luke muttered.

Then faintly opening his eyes,

"However, I shouldn't be acquainted with anyone in this country,"

He said, rising.

He looked outside, where the supposed acquaintance was approaching.

Of course, though he'd noticed the presence of the other party, he couldn't see their manner.

With closed ventilation, he moved to close the window, and while putting on that sort of act, he put his hand on the window.

Then he gazed outside.

As for what he could see from the window, there was no hidden spots in a narrow place like this and so he had a view of everything,

"......"

There was nobody else in the alleyway.

Even though he felt someone's presence, he couldn't see anything.

In spite of that, that presence was steadily approaching.

Feeling something approach the second-storey window where Luke was—

"It seems that the ventilation will be enough any moment now,"

Luke said, shutting the window.

Like that, he took a step back.

Then he stared at the window.

If something, by any chance, were approaching.

And if they were to smash through the window, he'd be able to deal with them.

If they were to strike the window with that sort of tangibility, he'd be able to fight with them.

If they were using some kind of spell in this country such that their figure couldn't be seen, or if they possessed a Rhule Fragmei with that kind of ability.

Either way, if the opponent were an ordinary human, then there were means of dealing with them.

But,

"... But here is a country ruled by a monster of some unknown nature called God , isn't it?"

He muttered in a slightly troubled voice.

During that time, the presence steadily approached.

That was why he took another step back, concentrating on the window.

And taking the Latsel Thread out of his pocket, he unleashed it around him. Extending indefinitely, unable to be cut, this thread that possessed those abilities was cast from the front of the window frame as if being suspended.

If the other party was tangible, this thread would also be effective.

Confining the enemy with the thread, he set up an attack in that space...

But then,

"Ah, this is bad,"

Luke groaned.

As expected, the presence was approaching.

No, already, it wasn't simply a presence, but rather one could call it killing intent that was approaching before Luke's eyes.

Easily cast from the window, the Latsel Thread wasn't coming into contact with anything at all, as "that" which couldn't be seen was getting closer to Luke inside his room.

"Damn it, as I thought, it's an intangible enemy?"

Luke said, taking another step back as he opened the room door.

And he fled outside.

The presence chasing from behind him, Luke didn't look back and barged into the neighbouring room on the second floor.

Kicking through the window, he exited to the outside.

As he kicked the opposite building's wall, he dropped into the alleyway and began running.

Unsurprisingly, the presence continued to chase him from behind.

No, the presence was no longer from behind.

It felt as if it were bursting out from all around him in every place.

That killing intent—no, that malice began to surround Luke.

"... This is my bad, hmm? Having my whereabouts discovered so easily by the enemy disqualifies me as a spy, doesn't it? Captain Milk will be angry about this."

While muttering such things, he ran.

He turned through numerous alleyways.

To escape without trouble, as much as possible, as much as possible, he chose the paths without signs of people and so pressed forward.

However, each time, the presence grew.

As much as he ran, the surrounding presence grew.

Even so, he, without hesitating, ran through the streets.

The reason was that, with the location of the presence that he felt combined with the map of the streets that was forming inside his head, he'd noticed a path through which he could properly escape.

The presence's movements weren't especially quick.

Furthermore, the way that the presence was growing in itself seemed to be systematic, and if so,

"I should be able to es..."

But then,

"My mistake,"

He groaned, frowning.

Because he just noticed it.

Because he just noticed that, in the map that spread across his mind, the destination to which he was running right now was the church.

It seemed that the presence chasing him from behind was delivering Luke personally to the church.

At that, Luke stopped running, and,

"Why did I make this sort of error?"

He said in a tone as if he were disgusted with himself.

Unsurprisingly, the presence approached.

Many, many unseen presences approached.

It was likely no longer possible to escape. Moreover, aside from the path to the church, the presence was overflowing from every place.

"This truly is my bad,"

He muttered.

"No, well, it seems as if I'm being guided by some hand to go to the church, though. At any rate, tonight, I've been given permission to intrude,"

He muttered.

"But to go out of their way to have me see the church, that means that even if I were captured by this presence, they're unable to brainwash me, aren't they? It seems that I can consider that possibility. No, though I likely can't indulge this sort of wishful thinking... Well, like this, there's a decent chance that I'll be ambushed there..."

Just then, the presence caught up with Luke.

As if completely wrapping around his mind, something like a clear lump of malice swooped down.

< >

Suddenly, a voice echoed.

Inside his head, as if directly descending upon him, was a voice.

Luke narrowed his eyes at that, and,

"Ah~, as I thought, it's brainwashing magic...?"

He muttered.

However, ignoring that, the voice continued to resound.

< >

At the same time as the voice spoke, Luke's body began to move on its own.

Even though he gave them no such orders, both of his hands and feet moved on their own and began to walk.

"......"

He looked down at his own body. And regarding his hands and legs that were moving on their own, he gave a separate command.

Don't react to any signals from the brain , he ordered.

With that, his body's movements ceased. No, if he didn't continue to give out that order, his body would begin moving again, but,

"This level of brainwashing magic is no different from what a human would use, and so I can deal with it... but they're certainly earnest about having me go to the church, aren't they?"

Luke said.

Regarding those words, there was a response. But rather than the voice descending in his mind, it was a human's voice that responded.

Diagonal from Luke, from inside a private home,

"Considering your standing as a human, you're being quite stubborn, huh?"

A man's voice spoke.

As Luke looked towards the source, a lone man stepped out of the house.

It was a middle-aged man with a beard.

That man looked his way, and,

"Who are you? Why isn't the brainwashing magic working?"

He said such a thing.

Luke was about to answer, but then, from behind him,

"Well, it doesn't matter who you are. After all, in the end, you'll become another one of my devotees... and at our own leisure, we'll investigate your brain,"

A woman's voice sounded out, as Luke turned around.

There, a street stall lady was staring at him. Somehow, it appeared at the words just now were this woman's.

Furthermore, a child walking to his side looked at him, and said,

"Then, shall we end this already?"

And then,

"Let's punish the heretic,"

The mother leading the child said.

And she laughed.

The mother laughed.

"Ahahahahahahahaha."

The child laughed.

"Ahahahahahahahaha."

The middle-aged man from the house laughed.

"Ahahahahahahahaha."

And by then, as if the entire population of the street had gathered there, there were hundreds of people surrounding him, laughing madly. Laughing. Laughing.

And,

< >

At the same time that the voice descended, those hundreds of people rushed in at once.

Looking around at that,

"How remarkable..."

Luke said in a voice of admiration.

"Rather than brainwashing to have them pledge loyalty, it's actually manipulating the entire country...? Certainly, this by far surpasses the level of magic that a human could use..."

While saying that, he released the Latsel Thread towards a building wall.

The thread twined around part of the wall's plumbing.

Pulling on the thread, he raised his body into the air, but,

< >

The voice descended.

His body reacted to that. His brain, in response to the voice, was about to stop moving, to which,

"... Don't listen to the voice. Move your arm,"

Luke ordered his body, in an attempt to defy the brainwashing magic cast by that voice.

Then, his arm that had begun to lose its strength again hardened its will. Pulling on the thread like that, he kicked the ground and jumped.

And leaping away from the flock of people who'd rushed at him, he moved up the four-storey building. Climbing further up, he moved onto the roof.

During that time, more people gathered. Already, hundreds of people were glaring at Luke, and,

"Capture him!"

While chanting that, they filled up the ground, and one by one, they started climbing up after him.

Luke looked down at that.

He stared at the crowd that had gathered. Then again, he formed a map inside his head.

He thought about whether or not he could escape from the roof, and things like that.

But it was an obvious matter.

"... If everyone in this town is my enemy, then escape truly is impossible, isn't it?"

He said in a troubled voice.

No matter which route he escaped from, he would undoubtedly be caught. After all, there were hundreds of thousands of people in this town.

He wouldn't be able to disorient all of the eyes on him and flee, and even if he did somehow find a way to leave this town, he would still be in Remrus Empire territory.

Somewhere, along the way, he'd definitely be caught.

At any rate,

"... There's an almighty god watching from the sky, isn't there?"

He said, looking up at the sky, but that almighty god was no longer responding.

In its stead, the humans that had been brainwashed by that god had reached where Luke was.

And they grabbed his arm.

They grabbed his legs.

They pinned his body to the ground.

Like that, they raised their fists and hit him with all their strength.

"Gah—"

He groaned.

Then, at that, again a voice descended from the sky.

<< Ah, sor~ry, that didn't knock you out very well... Nooo, manipulating so many humans in itself is difficult, you know. The next one should do the trick. >>

As it said such a thing, Luke again looked up at the night sky.

Looking up at the cloudless, pretty sky full of stars,

"... Ha, you're quite a casual god, aren't you?"

He said, as again a fist rained down on him.

"Guh—"

At that, Luke felt his consciousness escape for a moment.

But he wasn't able to fall unconscious.

Again the voice spoke.

< >

It said, as again fists swung down at him.

Fists swung down at him.

Again, and again, and again, fists swung down at him.

And gradually, his consciousness began to fade.

The landscape distorting, steadily, steadily, he felt himself sink into darkness.

As darkness filled his entire line of sight, he felt himself lose consciousness and be pulled into a dream.

And in that dream, he continued his recollection from back then, atop the inn bed.

That was the memory of when, in the Roland Empire, Lieral Lieutolu had proposed a deal to him.

A memory of when he'd made a deal with the human who'd stopped being human.

That, Luke remembered.

It'd already been several months since he made the deal with Lieral Lieutolu.

It was in the place where the nobles of the Roland Empire dwelled.

Having lost its head due to Miran Froaude's purge, it was the room of a noble's mansion that was now abandoned—

"........."

With the Latsel thread, Luke had cut off Duke Lieral Lieutolu's head.

Furthermore, in one part of his chest, he'd stabbed him with a knife coated in poison.

However, in spite of that, Lieral didn't die.

As if he found the situation funny, Lieral's body shrugged, before picking up his head and placing it back on.

However, then, beneath Lieral's feet, the trap that had been placed there beforehand activated.

A magic circle glowed, and from within its center a ball of fire was formed, before exploding. Lieral's left leg was blown off. Furthermore, a trap surrounding Lieral exploded as if in a chain, setting his entire body on fire; however, in the center of the fire, Lieral spoke.

"... Wow, impressive, impressive. What's impressive, though, is that even though you know it's futile, you keep meticulously laying traps like this each and every time. How many times have you attacked me like this by now?"

To that, Luke replied,

"Eight times."

"I see. It's already reached that many? Don't you think you're being a little too stubborn?"

"The fact that you won't die is a problem."

"Eh, it's my fault? I hadn't realized,"

Lieral said, smiling cheerfully.

However, to that, Luke frowned with a troubled expression as he looked at him.

"The knife was of no use. The poison was of no use. The magic was of no use. Burning was of no use. Drowning was of no use—with all these tests, as one would expect, I'm getting worn out by this point."

At those words, again Lieral smiled.

"To try all that against me, you're a complete monster."

"I don't want to be told that by a genuine monster."

"No, no, I'm truly afraid of you. Anyhow, wherever I go, traps have been laid out. It seems that someone is trailing me...?"

To that kind of question, Luke replied,

"I was merely following your traces. Or rather, you've been testing me, haven't you? Even though you could've killed me in an instant, you've overlooked me each time, and furthermore, you've always left only enough traces for me to notice. But I've already grown tired of this farce, so would you tell me what your aim is?"

Lieral stared at him with a slightly surprised expression.

"My, my, have I been exposed?"

To those words, Luke spoke in a frustrated tone.

"I realized it from the beginning."

"No way~"

"Would you stop this farce already?"

Again, Lieral laughed, after which he nodded.

"Well, after seeing your true skill, I think it'll be fine to end this."

Staring at Lieral, Luke spoke.

"I'm glad to hear that. So, what are you after? Though you claimed that you weren't human, what use would you have for me, someone who barely surpasses an ordinary human at best?"

"No, I think that I can find quite a bit of use for you."

"What is it about me?"

"Aren't there plenty of things you want to ask me? If you have a sharp mind, you should have questions about this country."

At that, Luke made a thoughtful expression, before he spoke.

"I'd have to think about which questions to ask."

Lieral smiled.

"Ah, well, this country has many secrets, doesn't it? Then, I'd like to ask something in return. Do you like the current king?"

At that, Luke stared at Lieral and asked,

"Are you talking about Sion-san?"

"That's right."

"I like him?"

"Then, do you believe in him?"

To that question, Luke answered,

"No, I don't believe in anyone."

To that, Lieral grinned broadly and said,

"Then why do you serve Sion Astal?"

"Because isn't that the best thing to do in this situation?"

"Then, if Sion Astal were to be same as the past kings, if he were to become strange, what would you do?"

"Kill him."

"Said so easily, huh?"

"I will do what's necessary when it's necessary—if it were Miller-senpai, I believe he'd say that... Ah, if I recall correctly, you're acquainted with Miller-senpai, are you not?"

"Yeah. From quite a long time ago, though. The one who gave him the clue to his success was me."

"Hmm. However, if you have such a good relationship, then why aren't you making a deal with Miller-senpai? He's far superior to me."

"I wonder. He has too much of a human heart, after all."

"And I'm not?"

Lieral looked at him with a cheerful expression and,

"Do you think you are?"

He said.

"Do you really have any humanity remaining? That white hair is from a military experiment, isn't it? With a magic circle embedded into your brain, you possess high intelligence. In return, you should've lost your emotions. "

"........."

"Your brain is no longer capable of producing complex emotions. You can't love others, you can't cry tears of sorrow. You can only observe the facts as they accumulates. You can only make judgment on what exists."

"........."

"Though earlier, when you made a tedious expression, when you made an irritated expression, you weren't truly feeling anything, were you? As your mind has been torn apart, without any true significance..."

However, then,

"... I know best about myself, without needing you to explain anything,"

Luke said.

Then pointing to his head,

"But it's not quite that I feel nothing. Certainly, through only the accumulation of facts, I cannot judge everything, but... with this accumulation, emotions can be produced. In that way, I'm capable of considering which expression to create and which tone to speak in."

"But in the end, you don't feel anything, do you?"

"........."

"That's why I chose you. You're the same as me, a human who exists outside of the normal framework. And yet, you long to be human. You like Claugh Klom, don't you? You like Milk Callaud. Why is that? Because they possess what you don't. Because they possess the deep emotions that you don't... you stay close to them."

At those words, Luke stared at Lieral not with his typical calm expression, but one devoid of emotions, as he spoke.

"... Since when have you been observing me?"

Lieral gave forth an incredulous answer.

"Since about ten years ago, give or take."

"... That's my mistake. You've always been observing me to see if I could be of any use?"

"You seemed like you could come in handy, after all."

At those words, Luke looked around Lieral. He searched for some sort of means to kill them.

But as expected, there was nothing that he could use, and so Luke said in a fed up tone that he constructed,

"Would it be all right if we discussed one thing?"

Lieral replied,

"What is it?"

"Right now, I possess the intent to kill you."

"Heh."

"Moreover, the truth of the matter is that affection towards Captain Milk and Claugh does exist inside of me."

"Right."

"Don't you think that counts as emotion?"

To that question, Lieral easily nodded, and,

"That's what I think."

"And yet I don't have a human heart?"

To that, while smiling, Lieral spread out both arms and spoke.

"I, for the sake of my son—I sacrificed my wife and the world. In order to save my son, nothing else in this world mattered. Because of the love I have for my son, I no longer make proper judgments. But for you, it's different, isn't it? Claugh Klom and Milk Callaud—if it was necessary, you would easily kill them, isn't that right?"

"........."

"Even Rahel Miller isn't like that. He has a wife and child. Surely, for the sake of his family, he'd sell out the world. He's a sharp man, but to the very end, he's weak. No, that's why he's strong, to put it in another way. But at any rate, to the very end, humans will prioritize their love. Because they're weak. Because they're strong. That's how humans are, I believe."

"........."

"But you're not like that. Because you accept nothing but the truth. Because you don't have emotions, if you deem it necessary, you're able to move forward on the path you've chosen without hesitation."

"........."

"That's why I chose you. As you're someone who no longer possesses human emotions and yet who tries so hard to imitate humans, who yearns to be with humans, I wanted to make a deal with you—"

"........."

"Now, shall we end this long talk? More importantly, there are a few requests I'd like to ask of you..."

In response, Luke stared at Lieral and spoke.

"Is there any merit in listening to your requests?"

Nodding as if it were obvious, Lieral spoke.

"Of course. I'll tell you several things about the state of this country—no, the state of this world. Then, I'll tell you how to undo the brainwashing magic that's been cast on you."

At those words, Luke narrowed his eyes.

"Brainwashing magic?"

"Yeah. Well, since you're clever, I think you've probably noticed, but you're being brainwashed by Milk Callaud, you know?"

"........."

"No, because you're aware of that, you've been by Milk Callaud's side. Because you noticed that she was special. Because you noticed that she's been unconsciously releasing a deceptive magic to the humans surrounding her."

"........."

"That's why I said that you don't have emotions. Though you say that you possess affection towards Milk Callaud, you ultimately stayed by her side because it was necessary. Because you deemed her to be at the heart of this country, you stayed by her side..."

He began, but then, Luke said,

"Like I said, if it's an explanation about me..."

"There's no need?"

"Correct. Let's quickly move on with the deal,"

Luke said.

Then, again constructing a peaceful, smiling face,

"So, you'll tell me a means of undoing the brainwashing over me?"

At that, Lieral nodded.

"Yeah. But before that, it's necessary to talk about this world. It's necessary to talk about the monsters that created humans."

Then Lieral started talking about the existences of the Hero , Goddesses , and the Priests who created them.

But right now, that wasn't important.

What was needed was what he heard back then: the means of undoing the brainwashing magic.

Inside his head.

Inside his heart.

The means of removing the curse deep inside of him.

That was what he remembered.

Because of the gods.

He remembered how to undo the curse placed there because of those monsters—

"........."

Luke opened his eyes.

Though he didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, right now, the place that he was in was the center of a large room.

In that room, there was stand with countless beds, with several humans sleeping on top.

As it seemed that he was the only one who'd awakened, even with this many humans present, he couldn't hear their sleeping breath.

Though he tried to look around, it seemed that his body's movements were sluggish.

It was an unpleasant feeling as if he were trying to move through mud.

And in his head, a voice echoed.

It wasn't something that could be heard from outside.

From deep within his own mind, a voice echoed.

<< You are my entity, my body, my entity, my body. Blessed, here is blessed, be troubled by nothing anymore. Be troubled by nothing anymore. Instead, listen to my voice. The reason you were born, the meaning of your life is to devote yourself to God's voice. You are my entity, my body, my entity... >>

The voice continued to ring endlessly.

In that time, his body was heavy, heavy, as he could barely will himself to move.

However, in defiance, Luke lifted his hand. Rolling up his sleeve, he could see that part of the skin had been torn as if by nails.

From there, a needle came out. Concealed beneath the skin, an ordinary needle came out, and with that needle,

"... Hmm."

He stabbed the side of his head.

Piercing through the skin, he stabbed the joint of his skull.

Lieral said that that was the part that induced one to listen to God' s voice.

So that Humans would listen to them, the Goddesses created that part.

And there, he gouged out with the needle.

At that moment, the voice in his head easily vanished.

"... All right,"

Luke said, nodding.

Confirming that his body had been freed, he stood up.

And then he looked around.

He was in a large room with a high ceiling, and after confirming, the structure, he concluded that he was likely in the church.

Staring at the interior of the church,

"... Now then, I've succeeded in infiltrating as planned..."

However, just then, there was a voice.

Arising inside of his head was a voice.

Even though the brainwashing should've been undone, again inside his head, a voice echoed.

That voice—

< >

It called his name.

However, it was a separate voice, different from before.

A separate god's voice.

< >

It called out.

It was a female's.

A sweet, pretty female voice.

Milk Callaud's voice.

That voice spoke.

< >

That voice spoke.

< >

As if it were sending a suggestion to him, it repeated that.

And to that,

"........."

Luke looked down at the needle that he held in his hand.

Then again, he remembered Lieral's words.

Lieral had said this.

"With this, you'll be able to resist the voice of monsters—although, you won't be brainwashed only if the other party can't manage it. But if it's you... if it's your eternally calm self, then perhaps like me, you won't stray from your path. Perhaps, to escape the curse of the Goddesses and the Hero , you'll seek the correct path to amend this world..."

He'd said that kind of thing.

To that,

"Why would a madman like you, in the end, depend on someone else?"

Luke had complained, to which Lieral had merely smiled sadly and disappeared.

And of that sad expression,

"........."

Luke was jealous.

Driven mad by love, rising to such levels, easily straying from the correct path, like any other human—he was jealous of Lieral Lieutolu.

Because he couldn't be like that.

Because, as he'd lost his emotions and his framework had already been disconnected from humanity, he couldn't be like that.

"........."

That was why Luke stared at the needle.

He stared at the needle he held in his hand.

If he used it, then making the voice echoing inside his head—Milk Callaud's voice—disappear would be simple.

He already knew how, if he pierced the proper part of his brain, to make that voice disappear.

He was being brainwashed.

He was being brainwashed by Milk Callaud.

And furthermore, he was aware of that.

From the moment they'd met, he'd been aware of that.

That was why he'd always been with her.

After all, she was special.

From here on, in the Roland Empire, she was a needed human—no, because of that fact.

That was why he'd acted alongside her.

If it was necessary to kill her—if it was necessary, he could cut her down.

One could say that he'd stayed with her only to make use of her.

He couldn't create emotions like affection or compassion. That part of his brain had been destroyed.

And moreover, he'd obtained the means of escaping Milk's curse.

< >

He'd obtained the means of undoing her brainwashing.

< >

It was obvious that he should undo the brainwashing.

He should do what was necessary when it was necessary. Therefore, he should undo the brainwashing.

< >

However, to Milk's voice, he smiled.

And he casually threw away the needle.

"... No, no, Lieral-san, I'm sorry to say that I'm still a human who possesses emotions,"

He cheerfully murmured.

And again, the voice in his head said,

< >

To that voice,

"... Ah~ yes, yes, Captain, please just wait a little longer,"

He said in a cheerful voice that he constructed.

"Once I find a way to bring down the Remrus Empire, I'll return immediately."

And as he stepped down from the stand, alone in the church, he began to advance forward.

Some time later.

The place was on a road northeast of the Remrus Empire.

On that road, galloping towards the Remrus Empire on horses,

"Why~ the hell do we have to go and save Ryner, huh?"

Zohra Rom complained.

Brown hair, strong and competitive blue eyes.

Dressed in the vermillion combat uniform that only the elites of the Azure Princess Mercenaries were allowed to wear, with the emblem of a bird about to take flight on his chest.

If one saw that armed figure was on a horse, running towards another country, that country's soldiers would immediately begin chasing him; however, he didn’t seem to care about the situation at all, and,

"Though the Princess is always going easy on Ryner, what do you think, stupid brat?"

He said such a thing.

And then, with an irritated expression, Zohra looked over to the idiot on the horse running parallel to his.

At his side was a man unsurprisingly like him, dressed in the uniform of the Azure Princess Mercenaries , on a running horse.

Peria Peruula.

Golden hair rested on his shoulders in a smooth talker’s hairstyle, always seeming like he was putting on airs, and a face with closed eyes.

That face looked over at him, and said,

"Who’s the stupid brat?"

"It’s definitely someone here."

To that, Peria looked around with a restless face, and then,

"Ah, it's Zohra?"

"I’ll kill you."

"The one who rushed forward was you, Zohra, wasn't it?

"Well, fine. More importantly, answer the question, stupid brat."

"What is it, moronic brat?"

"Asshole."

"Now, don’t immediately move to throw that knife at me. Even if that weren't so, you keep making your horse run at full force and it's getting tired, so stop pointlessly using up your energy,"

He said, and certainly, for the last two days, they'd been running their horses at full force, with the fatigue starting to wear down at them.

"Then answer my question, Peria!"

Zohra said, compromising and calling the idiot's name.

To that, Peria replied,

"You mean how Pia’s too nice to Ryner?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Well, definitely. But it's not as if I can't understand how she feels. After all, she, Ryner, and I trained together at the same place, so we’re childhood friends. You're different, Zohra. You don’t have that kind of deep bond, do you?"

"Ah? If you're talking like that, are you trying to pick a fight?"

Peria cheerfully continued,

"And so, seeing as how, with the bond between Pia and me, there's no room for you, Zohra, you should just give up already and stop trying to appeal yourself to Pia..."

Before that idiot could finish that nonsense, Zohra threw his knife.

At an incredible speed, that knife flew towards Peria’s neck.

"Like I said, stop throwing your knives right away."

However, Peria easily caught the knife.

At that, Zohra glared at Peria, and like that,

"It's because you keep spouting out crap, asshole,"

He said, to which Peria shrugged.

"It’s the truth, so it can’t be helped?"

"How the hell is that the truth? You’re not at all close with the Princess, don’t you think?"

"That’s not true. Pia is always saying that she likes me."

"She tells me that too! The other day, she said something like, 'Zohra, you're cute, you know that?' , you know!"

"Eh... ah, b-but she said that she was at peace when she was with me!"

"What!? N-No, she told me that too."

"That's a liiiiiiie."

"It’s not a lie! Geez, the Princess is always consulting with me about stuff like, 'Peria is always such a nuisance, huh?' ..."

He began, but suddenly, Peria threw the knife at him with all his strength.

"Uwa—"

Zohra said, catching it. And then, while throwing the knife back,

"What the hell are you doing!?"

He shouted, as Peria caught the knife, and,

"That’s my line!"

He said, throwing the knife back again.

Like that, the two of them continued to throw the knife back and forth at each other.

Again and again, they continued to throw the knife back and forth.

If it were like the usual, Pia would come and stop them, but right now, Pia wasn’t here, and so the knife continued to be exchanged without limit, as it made about a hundred round trips.

"Geez, enough!"

Peria groaned, putting the knife away in his pocket.

At that, Zohra, while panting for breath,

"Oh, are you admitting defeat? So it’s my victory?"

He said, to which Peria looked his way with an astonished expression.

"........."

However, ignoring him, he said nothing.

Regarding that,

"You’re pissing me off with that."

Zohra said, but Peria then blatantly ignored him and looked the opposite direction, and,

"Weeeirdo."

He said, firing off that word, and then stopped. And he also looked the other way.

From the beginning, the two had a bad relationship. He hated that an idiot like him was always by Pia's side. Why do I have to work with a guy like him , Zohra continued to sulk over.

Thus, while turning his face away, he took a thin sheet of paper out of his pocket.

It was a letter delivered from Vois Fiurelle to Pia.

Zohra read that letter again.

Something like this was written.

"Iyaa, iyaa, Queen-sama, how are you doing? This is Vois Fiurelle who, because of the wild idea of being stepped on by the beautiful Pia-san, hasn't been able to concentrate.

Though this is a letter for the sake of transmitting my hot feelings towards you on this paper, before that, let’s please talk about work for a bit.

The truth is that we have just a few problems here in the People's Republic of Sphelliyet, and so I'll be reporting them.

First:

Ryner-san has been kidnapped by the Remrus Empire~ ☆

Second:

We were visited by a gloomy, black-haired Princess-Cut-kun from the Roland Empire, and, well, though we've been working hard to keep him confined, it seems that nevertheless, the absence of the Demon King has been revealed to the world.

Third:

But because of this, we haven't sent out a rescue team for Ryner-san.

Fourth:

And so, please take care of Ryner-san.

Well, that’s enough about such trivial matters, so I pray our next encounter comes soon~; though I want to say that, unfortunately I'm a bit busy with cleaning up after Princess-Cut-kun, so that was impolite of me~.

From Goddess Princess-sama’s slave ♡ Vois Fiurelle"

As he read such a stupid letter, Zohra frowned.

"Whyyyy the hell are we listening to the wishes of this damn brat?"

He said, wanting to scrunch up the paper and throw it away, but since the fact that Ryner wasn't in the People's Republic of Sphelliyet was something that couldn't be leaked to the outside world, so regarding that letter that he wanted to toss,

"Ah, damn it,"

He said, unhappily putting it back in his pocket.

Then, looking over to Peria who was facing the other way,

"So, why does the Princess goes easy on Ryner like that?"

He said, as Peria looked over at him.

"What's this? Weren't we fighting?"

"Who cares?"

"Geez~. Anyway, that topic's what started it."

"Y'know, Ryner’s attitude also annoys me in general. No matter how much you called him, he didn't come at all, and now that he's shown up after all that time, he's just as pathetic as he was back then, huh?"

Peria smiled wryly at that, and,

"Well, from the start, Ryner was always Timid-kun, after all."

"And now that he’s been kidnapped, we have to go and save him? Haa? I just wanna say to him, 'What are you, some kinda princess!?' !?"

At those words, Peria laughed.

"Ryner is like a princess."

"I already decided from the beginning that Pia is my only Princess."

"Mine as well."

"Then, that’s that. Let's stop with this rescue mission? This sucks... it’ll still take about another two days before we reach the Remrus Empire."

Peria smiled at that, and,

"Good idea. I've been sitting on this horse for a bit too long, so my butt's starting to hurt."

"Ah, mine too, mine too."

"Oh, this is rare. Then, are we really stopping?"

Peria said.

To that,

"Let’s do it?"

Zohra said, nodding.

And so, as the two’s opinion matched completely,

"........."

However, the two of them didn’t stop their horses.

Instead, they continued galloping forward at an abnormal speed down the center of the road.

Furthermore, up ahead, several armed soldiers had become visible. Finally, the presences of those two were revealed to the country's security.

There was no way they wouldn't see them, as they loudly galloped ahead without any attempt to hide themselves.

Looking at those soldiers whom they were ambushing,

"... Not stopping?"

Zohra said, to which Peria smiled and spoke.

"Aren’t you?"

"No, see, unlike you, it's one of my rules to never betray a comrade."

"Haha, me too."

"No, you have a traitor’s face."

"Eh~, what does that kind of face look like?"

"Like yours."

"But I don't want one... ah, Zohra, by the way, there are forty enemy soldiers."

Peria suddenly said that.

They were still at a distance where it should've been impossible to identify the number of soldiers, but Peria easily said that.

But regarding that,

"Got it,"

Zohra said, believing in that.

After all, Peria was someone with the All Enchantment ability.

After all, he was a victim of the experiments that the previous Roland Empire carried out.

In return for losing his sight, hearing, and sense of touch, he could feel things over a wide area that others normally wouldn't be able to sense, thanks to a special magic circle engraved into his brain.

That was why he could see the number of enemy soldiers just now. He was able to sense what the the enemy soldiers were armed with.

And so, after Zohra nodded at that,

"Are they on horses?"

He asked, to which, with closed eyes, Peria said,

"They are."

"Then, let’s steal their horses and move on. This one's already exhausted."

"Sure thing."

"By the way, regardless of what happens to you, I won't be paying attention."

"Oh, but I thought it was one of your rules to never betray a comrade?"

"You’re not my comrade."

"Not truuuue..."

While saying such words, Peria laughed cheerfully.

And during that time, they’d steadily gotten closer to the enemy soldiers.

The guards spoke.

"You bastards are completely surrounded! Stop your horses and drop your weapons this instant..."

They began, but then Zohra moved faster on his horse, and,

"Shut up,"

He said, jumping towards the soldier who'd given out the warning. As he kicked his face, the guy fell off his horse.

And stealing that horse,

"Well then, I’m off~."

He said, but in front of him, Peria had stolen a different horse and was on the move.

"Ah, asshole—"

"What’s thiiis? Zohra-chan’s rather slow, isn’t he?"

To those stupid words, Zohra threw a knife at the idiot.

Peria dodged it.

The knife then pierced the shoulder of an enemy soldier who was behind him and about to activate an offensive spell in their direction.

Peria looked at that, and then,

"Thank you for helping me."

"I wasn’t helping you!"

"Again..."

"You bastard—because this isn't the place to be saying that kinda crap, let’s go. We'll hurry up, quickly save that idiot, and then punch that princess-wannabe in the face!"

Zohra said, to which,

"Sounds good to me~"

Peria laughed.

And so the two cut through the forty enemy soldiers and once again started running towards the Remrus Empire.

And the time returns to the beginning.

It was a place with an ominous feeling.

No, the landscape itself wasn't unusual, being a plain—however.

"......"

Sion had become wary of how far he'd advanced forward.

It looked like the colour of the sky was gradually being coated in a different shade.

He'd advanced forward enough.

Enough time had passed, the colour of the world being coated in a different shade, with a restless feeling arising in his cest.

And what that feeling was, he personally didn't know.

But, because he didn't know, he was that much more anxious.

Regarding that,

"... What is this?"

Sion muttered.

"What in the world is happening?"

He muttered.

Right now, the place he was in was a plain, where Claugh Klom's forces, surrounding the rear of the Remrus Empire's main forces, should've commenced launching a surprise attack.

There, Sion was leading the soldiers.

As what had been reported, there were no traces of a fight there.

There was no blood or the scent of death whatsoever.

In spite of that, having advanced forward enough that his spirit was sinking, Sion had fallen to that sort of mood.

Then,

"Your Majesty,"

A voice rang out.

Sion looked down from on top of his horse. There, a subordinate was speaking to him.

"Field Marshal Claugh Klom—"

Sion nodded at that and spoke.

"He wants to meet with me?"

"Yes."

"Let him through."

"Understood."

Saying that, the subordinate stepped back.

From somewhat behind, pushing his way through the soldiers guarding Sion, a single man atop a horse appeared.

Bright red hair as if it were burning, a body forged like steel.

Claugh Klom.

That Claugh looked his way with a somewhat cheerful smile, and,

"Yo, Sion. Though it seems like the fight here was pretty bad, you survived?"

He said, to which Sion smiled ruefully.

"If you take that kind of tone with me, you're setting a bad example to your subordinates, you realize?"

"Then, should I call you Your Almighty Majesty?"

"That's enough, now,"

Sion said, waving his hand as he laughed.

Claugh laughed as well, approaching him on his horse. Aligning himself with Sion's, they proceeded forward.

Sion asked Claugh,

"So, the enemy's main forces surrendered without a fight?"

As he asked that, Claugh shrugged and said,

"Yeah."

He nodded, and then,

"Speaking of which, there's something I kinda want you to see, so stop the soldiers,"

He said, raising his hand, and then lowering it.

Responding to that, his subordinates ordered the soldiers to stop.

After affirming that, Claugh looked at Sion, and,

"Follow me for a bit,"

He said, to which Sion tilted his head.

"Where do you plan on going?"

"If you come with me, you'll know."

"Just you and me?"

To that, Claugh held out his hand, and,

"If you're worried about an attack from the enemy, relax. I'll protect you,"

He said such a thing.

However, of course, Sion wasn't worried about that. After all, Lucile would be following him.

That was why, right now in this place, the one whose safety was the most guaranteed was Sion.

Of course, though, it was a different story if Remrus himself or the Goddesses showed up.

Sion looked at the hand that Claugh was extending. Then, lifting his face, he looked at Claugh's.

"What is it that you want to show me?"

He asked.

To that, Claugh replied,

"An enemy soldier."

"An enemy soldier?"

"Yeah. One of Remrus's guys who put up no fight whatsoever."

Saying that,

"Well, just hurry up and follow me,"

He said, as he began to move his horse without waiting for Sion.

At that, quietly,

"... Lucile,"

Sion murmured.

By his ear, Lucile's voice sounded.

"I'm here."

"Claugh..."

However, with just that alone, Lucile seemed to understand what Sion was trying to say.

"It doesn't appear that he's being manipulated by the enemy. It'll likely be fine. Even if anything happens..."

"You'll protect me?"

In response, cheerfully,

"I can't make any promises,"

Lucile said such a thing.

"How unreliable,"

Sion said, smiling.

Then, he began to move his horse.

As expected, he'd advanced forward enough that his mood was sinking further.

As they moved further into the Remrus Empire's grounds, it seemed that that feeling only grew larger.

Staring at the northern sky,

"Honestly, what's with this country?"

While saying that, he caught up with Claugh. Then, looking towards where Claugh was headed—an area slightly elevated above the plain—he asked,

"Then, we're going up there?"

"Yup."

"What can you see from there?"

To that, Claugh spoke.

"Explaining would be kinda troublesome. So you should just see for yourself. Up there, Miller-senpai and Bayuuz are waiting."

"Bayuuz and Miller?"

However, Claugh didn't answer the question, as he began galloping forward.

"Now, let's go,"

He said.

In response, Sion also ordered his horse to begin galloping, as he moved forward.

Up on higher ground, towards a place where it was as if they were overlooking the plain, he moved.

As Claugh had said, Rahel Miller and Bayuuz White were there.

Both were equal to Field Marshals within the Roland Empire's military.

Furthermore, up there, as if overseeing something, hundreds of soldiers had set up camp.

Sion looked towards that encampment.

Miller and co. noticed them approaching.

In response, Sion raised his hand. He was about to speak up.

However,

"......"

His voice didn't come out.

Because, on the way, he saw.

Atop that area, on the way to where Miller and co. were, he saw.

To the side of Miller and the others.

In a plain up there, donned in the combat uniform of the Remrus Empire, was a group of soldiers.

Tens of thousands of soldiers.

Each and every one of those soldiers displayed the same appearance.

They were all kneeling prostrate on the ground. Furthermore, their backs looked as if they'd been torn apart from the inside, and from that crack, violent branch-like objects grew.

Seven branches.

"......"

No, rather, they didn't look quite like branches.

They were arms.

Thin arms were growing.

And those seven arms were joining hands with the other arms that grew from the backs of the surrounding soldiers.

Arms grown from the backs of tens and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were mutually joined together by their hands.

Regarding that abnormal sight, without thinking,

"... What is this?"

He leaked out such foolish words.

Even though there wasn't anyone who would have an answer to that.

Even though there wasn't anyone who would've seen this sort of thing before.

However, Miller responded to that. He looked up at Sion, and then looking down at the Remrus Empire soldiers,

"... They became like this one hour ago. Until then, they'd been nothing but ordinary humans,"

He explained.

In other words, during the time it took for Sion to come here, it seemed that the Remrus Empire's soldiers had become like this.

Staring at that, Sion asked,

"Are they alive?"

To that question, it was Bayuuz's turn to respond.

"We're unable to approach them, and so haven't investigated."

"Unable to approach them?"

"Yes. The Roland soldiers who approached them ended up the same way..."

"Wha—? Then, over there, those are also Roland soldiers..."

"Thousands of them fell to it."

"......"

"The reason we called Your Majesty here alone was because of how shocking this sight is. If this were to be seen by the soldiers..."

He began, but then Sion interrupted Bayuuz with a wave of his hand.

"I understand your reasons for calling me here alone. How do you all intend to deal with this?"

Miller answered that.

"With Rhule Fragmei ..."

"Even though you don't know what their situation is, you'll kill them?"

"If there was another option, then I would be willing to choose that instead. However, what other ideas are there? Merely approaching them will affect you. Furthermore, it's likely that that figure has some sort of significance, isn't it? From here on, though we don't know how they might change, we can't afford to leave them be. More importantly, in order to enter the Remrus Empire, we must cross this plain..."

He said.

At that, again, Sion gazed at the Remrus Empire's soldiers.

He gazed at the humans who lay prostrate on the ground, with arms growing from their backs.

And,

"Just what is Remrus trying to do..."

Then, there was a voice from behind him.

Slightly below the elevated area,

"Your Majesty!"

The voice of a subordinate called out for him, as they moved towards the area.

In response, Sion spoke.

"Don't leave this area. To the soldiers who still haven't seen this..."

He began, but at that, Miller said,

"I know. I've already given the orders to my subordinates."

As those words were spoken, Sion's subordinate, on the way to the elevated area, was stopped.

In their place, Miller's subordinate relayed the message.

"Your Majesty, it seems that below, someone has come seeking an audience with you,"

They said such a thing.

At that, Sion asked,

"An envoy from the Remrus Empire?"

However, Miller's subordinate shook their head, and replied,

"That's not it."

"Then who?"

"They refuse to reveal their affiliation. They said that if they gave their names instead, His Majesty would know."

"Their names? Who are they?"

At that,

"The ones who have come are two women approximately the age of twenty. They introduced themselves as Ferris Eris and Kiefer Knolles,"

The subordinate said that.

Furthermore,

"According to them, Ryner has been captured by the Remrus Empire, and so they've come to seek help—that was what they wanted to tell His Majesty..."

They began, but by that point, Sion was no longer listening.

The ones who'd come were Ferris and Kiefer.

And,

"... Ryner... He's been captured by Remrus?"

The moment he heard that, shock hit him as if his heart had been crushed.

Ryner has—

He's fallen into Remrus's hands?

Sion scowled at that. And turning around, he looked up.

At the northern sky.

At the land where countless humans were prostrate on the ground, with arms growing from their backs.

It all seemed so disgraceful.

It all seemed as if that what had kept the world together up until now had been broken.

And finally, he saw their true colours.

He saw what Remrus was trying to do.

Right now, Ryner was in the Remrus Empire, and Remrus—

"... He intends to devour Ryner?"

He said, scowling.

Then, again, he turned around.

And to Miller,

"Use the Rhule Fragmei already. Continue to wipe out the Remrus Empire soldiers and march forward,"

He ordered.

Miller nodded at that and began to move.

But Sion didn't stop. Below where he was standing—to where the Remrus Empire soldiers were, he began to descend.

However, then,

"Your Majesty, what shall we do about the ones who wish to meet with you?"

Miller's subordinate asked such a thing.

In response, he looked over his shoulder. He looked towards the soldiers that he was leading, in an location a short distance away.

Over there, Ferris and Kiefer had apparently come.

At that, remaining silent for a short while as if pondering over it,

"Bring them to me. We'll take them with us to the Remrus Empire,"

He ordered.

The location again moves further up north.

The capital of the Remrus Empire—Echran.

There were no longer any humans remaining in that town.

Even though Echran should have the largest metropolis in the central continent, crowded with millions of people, there were no longer any humans remaining.

Right now, what remained was—

"......"

The Goddess of Reincarnation [Milk Ephillet] gazed at that town.

A flaxen ponytail, and large, round eyes.

Gazing at the sight before her with those eyes,

"... Ah, it's like that. Remrus... You've chosen like so, then..."

She murmured.

Before her, the Humans were, one by one, converting with magic.

The structure inside of them being rewritten, collapsed on the ground, and torn from their backs, violet arms grew.

And those arms linked with their neighbouring Humans' ones.

Moreover, because of that, gradually, gradually, a large procedure spread.

In this country of the Remrus Empire, using the magic power from within all the Humans' bodies, a gigantic procedure was spreading.

At that,

"Just what is this..."

From behind her, her subordinate by the name of Lear Rinkal said.

However, controlling that,

"Don't move away from me, Lear,"

Milk said.

In response, Lear nodded, and,

"Don't worry. I'll protect you, Captain,"

He said, to which Milk felt like laughing.

No, it wasn't because, in this situation, Lear wouldn't be able to protect her and so his words were foolish.

Rather, as she'd become aware of a strange feeling within her, she felt like laughing.

Specifically, right now, she felt as if she had to protect her subordinates.

Even though they were worthless Humans not worth caring over, the human character of Milk within her felt that it was necessary to protect her subordinates.

And that feeling took over her, who should be a Goddess .

"... Aha,"

She laughed.

Feeling that the Human part within her was steadily, steadily growing, she became cheerful.

But over there, Remrus's spell was progressing further.

The collapsed Humans were converting with magic.

And furthermore, already one subordinate, Moe Velariore, was standing before her, and,

"Captain, please step back,"

He said such a thing.

On top of that, Lach Velariore held Milk from behind and spoke.

"What should we do about this, Lear?"

Lear, who always had a calm expression on his face, looked oddly troubled, and,

"All we can do is retreat."

"But to where?"

Moe said.

And that question was justified.

There was no longer anywhere they could escape to.

At least, within the territory of the Remrus Empire, there wasn't anywhere.

It seemed that Remrus had laid a curse over the entire country.

"... This has become rather troublesome,"

Milk thought.

It was likely that a considerable amount of time had passed as the large-scale spell was being developed.

This was the world where Humans lived.

The place where the Hero and Goddesses dwelled was in a slightly different dimension.

There, for Goddesses to wield their power, there was compensation to be had.

Despite that, Remrus was trying to use a large amount of power.

He was trying to use an impossibly large amount of power.

If he used this kind of power.

If he used this kind of ignored power against the framework of this sort of world,

"... His existence would disappear... though a powerless Crawling God like him shouldn't be able to use this kind of power... Nevertheless, it seems that on your own, you've discovered a solution, hmm?"

She murmured.

During that time,

"Run away!"

Her subordinates cried out as they ran.

It was as if she, who had a small build, was being kidnapped as she was carried away by Lach.

While avoiding the Humans who had arms growing from their backs, they advanced through the town.

However, like that, she blankly looked up at the sky.

The sky was clear.

A cloudless, blue sky—a sky that ordinary Humans would see.

But its colour was faintly changing.

From blue to blue.

It seemed that Remrus was dyeing this world's framework, structure, arrangement.

He was wagering his own life.

Holding up his own existence, Remrus was desperately struggling.

For the sake of opening a hole in this closed world.

For the sake of advancing forward in this world that never would.

And narrowing her eyes at that,

"... Everyone, don't go that way. Head towards the church in the center of the town,"

She said.

At that, Lear and the others halted. And looking at her,

"However, the center of the town..."

"Just do as I say. That's the only place where we'll find a way of stopping this,"

Milk said.

Then again she looked up at the sky.

Its colour was changing, moment by moment.

With what method Remrus was moving with, she didn't know.

Though she didn't know,

"... I'll find out. What it is that you're trying to do, and how you're trying to change this world,"

As she said that, Milk's team headed towards the church in the center of the town.

And in that church, in the center of the town.

In the jail constructed underground, Calne Kaiwel was being held captive.

Loose blond hair, charming blue eyes. On his thin body, he wore the combat uniform of a Roland Empire officer; however, that uniform had become a mess.

Brushing his clothes in the arms and stomach areas,

"Ah~, I'm starving,"

He said.

Casually getting up, he looked around.

That said, there wasn't much to learn from the narrow cell.

Then, standing up, he looked towards the iron door that was the only entrance/exit to the prison.

And to that door,

"Um~, could you come here for a bit~?"

He said such a thing.

Furthermore,

"The truth is, I haven't eaten since the day before yesterday—?"

He said, raising his voice, but,

"......"

From the other side of the door, there was no response.

"Hmm. Well, that didn't work,"

He said, crossing his arms.

Like that, he sat back down again on the sorry excuse for a cloth. And,

"... Maybe they've decided to starve me to death?"

He muttered while again examining the prison. He strained to find a place where he could escape.

Although he tried, in the time that he'd spent captured, he'd already schemed five prison breaks, and each time was a failure.

"... By this point, there's no way that I'd find a way to escape, huh?"

He muttered in a troubled manner.

Then, pushing down on his stomach that growled in hunger, he smiled faintly.

When he heard about the disappointing me who got captured so easily, Claugh-san probably asked,

"What the hell is that idiot doing at such an important time?"

Something like that, huh? —as he imagined things like that, he laughed frivolously.

Then, furthermore, a mental image of Eslina arose. Her pretty amber hair, and blue eyes that possessed an air of dignity.

Picturing that,

"... Eslina must be worried, isn't she?"

He muttered, flopping over onto his side.

All he could see was the jet black ceiling.

With no windows, this place was shrouded in darkness.

Furthermore, since the evening of the day before yesterday, he hadn't sensed any sounds or signs of human presence.

His nerves dull after having gone so long without eating or drinking, he listened to the sound of his breathing and heartbeat, but only those.

There was nothing else.

It wasn't that he especially hated the isolation, as he'd also received training in dealing with that, but,

"... So I'm really going to die here, aren't I?"

He said to himself.

"I ne~ver thought that I'd die before Claugh-senpai who charges recklessly into fights,"

He said such things to himself, laughing.

Of course, no one replied.

However, again the mental image of a girl arose. A girl with the sagacious, bright face like Fiole's.

Always following after him, going Calne-san, Calne-san , the smiling, cute face of a girl arose in his mind.

"......"

He smiled.

Remembering her smiling face, he smiled happily.

And,

"... Ah~, just as I thought,"

He said.

"Just as I thought, it was a good idea not to return Eslina's feelings,"

He said, smiling.

"Like I thought, someone like me isn't suited to be with Eslina. After all, a ladykiller who can't even fend for himself will just end up leaving. Not to mention a pervert who likes older women."

While saying such things, he smiled frivolously.

"That's why Eslina should find someone else—nice, diligent guy. Build a family with a guy like that. Not with some idiot who gets captured and left to die in a prison,"

He said, as if he were conversing with someone.

"... If Eslina could just forget about me and meet a guy like that... that'd be good,"

He said, conversing sincerely.

But, unsurprisingly, no one responded to that.

There was no noise around him.

It was eerie.

"......"

He'd likely die in a matter of days.

He'd been provided with no food or water since the day before yesterday. Without water, he wouldn't live for long.

And if it continued like that,

"... Ah~, yeah. When I die, Fiole will praise me for sure, right? He'll thank me for doing a good job of keeping my hands off of his little sister."

Saying that, he laughed.

After laughing, he let out a light sigh.

"......"

Again, it was silent.

All he could hear was just his heartbeat and breathing.

Just his heartbeat and breathing.

And speaking of anything else,

"......"

It was pure solitude.

Though he was about to continue that line of thought, he stopped.

Because there was no point in thinking about it.

Because if he thought about it, then he'd become afraid and start talking about disgraceful, foolish things like how he didn't want to die here, or how he wanted to see Eslina again.

"......"

That was why, without thinking about anything, he closed his eyes.

Like that, he was about to submerge his consciousness into darkness—

All of a sudden.

Though it was echoed from far away, he heard a sound.

It was from beyond the iron door.

A sound rang out from outside the prison.

Furthermore, that sound was getting closer.

Steadily thumping, it was getting closer.

At that,

"This sound is—"

Calne jumped to his feet.

Then he started gathering all of his strength. Though, as he hadn't been eating or drinking properly in this place, he couldn't muster up much strength in his body,

"... Sooooner or later, I have to succeed in a jailbreak, or else it's going to be bad for me, huh?"

He muttered.

Though he didn't know who was coming here right now, it was likely the one in charge of giving him his meals. In that case, first, he should grab the server's arm or something like that.

At the bottom-most part of the iron door, there was a small, iron door where the food would come from, which Calne stared at.

The meal always came from there.

Of course, the other party knew that he would likely be plotting a jailbreak, so they never put their hand through.

On the contrary, they were careful and placed the meal on a tray and pushed it through to the other side with a stick.

However, regarding that, Calne slowly began moving his finger. With his fingertip, he was drawing a magic circle of light in the air.

What he was drawing was Roland's magic.

Called Bakushu , it was a spell to create a rope of light. That thread would expand and contract according to the user's orders, and was able to capture a target—however, the spell wasn't used often in Roland.

First of all, it was abnormally difficult to control the thread's movements, and so the thread wouldn't move towards the targeted place.

Even if it were a considerably skilled mage, they would have difficulty hitting the mark, and so it was a spell that wasn't used often, but,

"If this doesn't work, I'm going to cry,"

While saying such things, he completed his spell.

And quietly, he muttered,

"WHAT I SEEK IS THE LIGHT FIELD >>> BAKUSHU,"

He said, completing the incantation.

A lump of light formed at the center of the magic circle, and then, a thread—or rather, a line with a thickness closer to that of a rope could now be extended.

And he waited.

He waited for the server to come.

Just as predicted, the sound stopped in front of Calne's cell.

"... They've come,"

He thought.

He concentrated.

And inside his head, again and again, the image repeated itself.

—The moment the door that his food came from opened, once he confirmed that, he'd launch the rope. And he'd capture the server's body.

He'd launch the rope and capture the server.

Again and again, he repeated that inside his head.

He heard the sound of the outside door being touched.

Reacting to that, Calne crouched down.

He waited for the meal door to open—

"......"

But then, something outside of his predictions occurred.

The door.

The door before him opened.

Not the small door used for meals, but the prison door.

At that,

"No way,"

Calne groaned.

In that case, what he should do had changed. If it were this door opening, what he should do had changed.

If the one entering was the jailer, someone meant to transfer him, the executor, or possibly a torturer—he wasn't sure—then he'd have to struggle against them and escape.

Despite that, at the moment, he'd prepared a spell meant to capture the enemy.

"Ah, geez, well, it's fine. At any rate, I can use this spell to cause confusion, and then..."

He began, but then his words stopped.

Because standing outside the door, for some reason, was an acquaintance of his.

Because standing outside the door was a single man whose face he recognized.

At that,

"Eh?"

Calne let his voice slip without thinking.

Then, staring at that man's face fixedly,

"Um, why are you here?"

He said.

Standing there was a black-haired man.

Black hair like he'd just gotten out of bed, languid eyes.

A tall, lean figure with a bent back.

Looking at that man,

"Aren't you Ryner Lute-san?"

Calne asked, to which Ryner looked his way, and,

"... Calne? It's a problem for you to be confined here, huh? You can leave already."

"E-Eh? What? The one confining me..."

He began, but ignoring that, Ryner turned on his heel. He turned his back to Calne.

And he exited the prison.

Following him, Calne also exited the prison. And moving through the basement, at Ryner's back,

"What in the world are you doing here?"

He asked, to which Ryner looked over his shoulder.

And with a sad smile,

"......"

He didn't answer the question, however.

Instead, staring at him,

"... Go back, and deliver this message to Sion. I want to talk with him for a bit. I'll be waiting here, so..."

Staring at him with sad eyes,

"Tell him that,"

He said.

## 10. Volume 10 - Hero & Demon

### 001. Prologue - The Time of The King

## Prologue - The Hall of the King

It was a throne.

A throne which the being who governed the entirety of this world sat on.

There, he was seated.

"............."

There was a tower.

A very, very tall tower.

A spire was projected out, almost piercing the heavens,.

He sat there in the highest room of the tower.

"............"

Extending in front of the throne were long sinews of smeared red.

They continued all the way to the entrance of the room.

The door was opened and what was beyond it was air.

Where the heavens, the skys, and the streets no longer occupied by people, spread out.

That's right.

In this town— this country, there are no longer people.

Because in order to set the curse in motion, the life of all the humans here were invoked as an intermediary.

That was why there were no people here.

"...... No, in the first place,"

Always, there had never been anyone around, except for himself.

Always, alone.

Always, in solitude.

That was why always, he had been lonesome.

"............"

With a sad face, he gazed outside.

Looking down on the town below the castle with no living beings.

As he did so, a voice resounded.

Was it echoing throughout the room or was it within his mind?

He was uncertain about that.

However, the voice still resounded.

The voice resounded.

At the sound of the voice, he raised his listless face. His black hair neatly combed back, his black eyes slack yet cold, as if having given up on everything.

As he lifted those eyes, a strange creature appeared there.

Hanging down from the ceiling of the throne room— was a strange monster.

And then, it spoke.

"Hey hey, I can finally have a proper conversation with you, Monster-kun of the Other World."

"............"

"It was quite difficult, getting this far. Would you be able to understand my tribulations?"

"............"

"Well, since I've reached this far, I don't intend to discuss the process of my hardships. Then for now, I'll have you hang out with me for a little while, okay?"

"............"

"Of course its okay, 'cause you are always so lonesome. You'd even want to talk with frail little ol' me, right? 'Cause you can't help but yearn, and yearn, and yearn for someone, right?"

"............"

"That's why you would even lend an ear to unsightly, petty me. Without killing me, you leave me be."

"............"

"Well then, its about time to start— to start our world."

"............"

And then, the monster descended from the ceiling.

With eight arms and twelve eyes.

Amongst the eyes, seven turned towards beyond the doors—

"Before your troublesome best friend comes to take you back, I better somehow persuade you."

— As the remaining eyes turn back to the other person in the room, the monster asked,

"Isn't that right, Ryner Lute-kun?"

To that he gave no answer,

"............"

Ryner—

### 002. Chapter 1: Hero & Demon

Ryner was kidnapped.

He was snatched away by the monster resting in the Remrus Empire.

Thus,

“Damn it!”

Sion Astal wanted to shout that, but his voice was swallowed back.

Then he pressed a hand to his chest.

He felt something was being restless in the depths of his chest.

He didn’t know if that was his own feelings, or the feelings of the Hero that was engulfed in his body.

But the restlessness in his chest was very strong.

It was so restless that he felt like vomiting it out.

But Sion ignored this, looking at the scene expanding beyond his eyes.

The scene of thousands of Remrus Empire soldiers creeping on the ground, moving around with seven purple hands growing out from their backs.

The sky turned from green to blue.

A light and dark scene that turned from blue to light blue.

It seemed that everything was magic cast by Remrus.

To engulf Ryner.

Magic, activated to engulf the demon in Ryner’s body.

Thus,

“…What are you joking about.”

Was muttered softly.

“That’s mine.”

He muttered softly.

“Ryner is, my…”

Food—

He prepared to say this, his face twisted. Then he thumped his chest with a thump. The Hero in his body, that had become quiet in this period of time suddenly awoke, preparing to snatch away Sion’s consciousness.

“…”

His whole body trembled, and resisted.

The pain in his body let up a sharp piercing sound.

Pain that seemed to make his consciousness vanish circulated around his whole body.

But he desperately tolerated this.

He definitely couldn’t lose consciousness here.

This was a battle field.

The center of the enemy’s grounds.

His subordinates felt fearful too.

Of course.

Seeing such an uncomfortable scene, there wouldn’t be anyone who would not be fearful. And the disease that made hands grow out of backs of the soldiers, who were crawling before them, could spread.

He heard that there were numerous Roland soldiers who had become the same as them, because they approached the Remrus Empire soldiers, and weren’t able to move anymore.

And they completely didn’t know the specific effects and effective range of the magic that Remrus had activated.

If they approached now they would be infected, this situation, it was possible that the effects and range would continue to expand.

There was a need to immediately resolve the scene before them.

There was a need to make the correct decision.

So,

“…”

He tolerated the pain.

He desperately resisted the erosion from the Hero/ Asruld Roland .

“Guh.”

He let out a moan as if he were about to lost his breath, placing his right hand on the horse’s neck. Touching the part where the mane was, and grabbing it. As if tolerating pain he grabbed it tightly. Hence the horse let out a sound softly, Sion smiled slightly in apology.

“…I’m sorry.”

Then at this moment he felt the power of the Hero weaken slightly. Knowing that it was unable to snatch Sion’s consciousness, the erosion of the Hero settled down slightly.

So he let out a breath, raising his head.

The unchanging abnormal scene continued to expand before his eyes.

The scene of using people’s lives as sacrifices, as if cursing everything in this world, continued to expand.

Then Sion started from now, using Rhule Fragmei to erase those humans who were sacrifices.

Clearly they were unable to judge if they were alive, or dead, but was prepared to use the flames of Rhule Fragmei to eliminate those opponents who had lost the ability to resist.

Because there was such a need.

Because it was something that had to be done in order to progress.

“…Damn it.”

He said expressionlessly.

“…Damn it, damn it.”

He said with a voice that no one could hear.

Then he prepared to get up on the horse like this.

He was facing it too.

Below that high platform.

Facing the direction where the Remrus Empire soldiers were kneeling.

Just at this moment, Miller’s subordinate who was replacing Miller to prepare the activation of the Rhule Fragmei , reported.

“Your Majesty, what should we do about the negotiators?”

Sion turned around.

Looking in the direction that was slightly apart from him, and the soldiers he led.

Not only that the two of them brought news that Ryner was kidnapped by Remrus.

Ferris and Kiefer.

“…”

Those were names that shouldn’t resound in this place where the cursed scene was continuously expanding.

Names of people who were once comrades.

Names of comrades who he had known once, when the world wasn’t in this state.

Names of a time when he himself didn’t know anything, and laughed together with them like an idiot.

Then Sion let go of these.

Betraying them.

No, betraying everything.

Betraying Ryner, Kiefer, Fahl, Tyle, Toni, Ferris.

Betraying all the comrades that he had met up till then, abandoning them, even so he still progressed.

Then once again.

“…”

Once again betraying them.

From now on he was going to kill enemies who were unable to resist, before Ferris and Kiefer.

Taking the lives of tens of thousands of people without care.

That wasn’t the actions of humans.

Only monsters that were apart from humans would do this.

And he was going to display this image before them.

Kill people, kill, kill.

But he was going to let them see the image of the King/ Monster that wouldn’t even cry.

Hence,

“…Ha ha.”

He laughed.

He laughed happily.

Contorting his face, his face that was about to cry, but even so he still laughed with a happy voice.

So his subordinate,

“Your Majesty?”

Seeking his opinions.

So he wiped his expressions off. Turning around. Ordering his subordinate.

“Bring the negotiators to me. We’ll bring them with us to Remrus Empire.”

So his subordinate bowed his head.

Ran off.

Ferris and Kiefer were here.

They had come to him who had decided to kill a large number of humans.

Thus Sion,

“…”

So as not to let his expression change.

So as to let

But at this moment instantly,

“Sion!”

A voice came.

A woman’s voice.

And he had an impression of this voice.

It was the voice of the woman who was in the Roland Empire Royal Special Military Academy like Sion once was.

The voice of a woman who was always laughing by Ryner’s side.

It was Kiefer.

Kiefer Knolles.

So Sion turned around.

Kiefer was indeed standing there. Red hair, and eyes that were the same colour as her hair that were filled with intellect.

She was always very energetic, very adorable, and she was very popular in school.

But now she was very nervous looking at Sion’s face.

As if being uncertain about whether it was the correct decision to decide to come here, or not, looking here with a slightly guarded expression.

Sion felt that this was the correct expression.

Because she should not.

Because she should not ask help from this inhuman monster.

He continued to look at the golden haired woman behind her.

It was the figure of Ferris Eris.

It was the same face as before that was abnormally but very beautiful, but was expressionless. Clear blue eyes, that did not reflect any emotions.

She used those eyes to look here.

Then for a moment her eyes wavered, but the emotion immediately disappeared again.

Then Ferris said.

“It’s been a long time, idiot king.”

Sion immediately narrowed his eyes, from looking in the direction of Ferris.

“Ah ah, yes. Then, what is it?”

He said with a cold voice.

So Kiefer stopped. He knew she had raised her defenses around her whole body.

But Ferris continued to walk forward as if nothing was the matter,

“I’ve already told you what happened. Ryner has been captured by a strange monster from Remrus. Let’s go save him together.”

She said.

Ferris said with an expression that believed that as long as she spoke the truth that Ryner was already kidnapped, Sion would immediately help them.

Hence Sion’s face twisted slightly, but he still didn’t let any expression reveal itself.

And he looked at Ferris with cold eyes,

“What you want to say, I understand. But why do I have to go save Ryner? Isn’t Ryner the king of the country that is enemies with Roland? Then why…”

Speaking until there Ferris,

“Nonsense. Let’s set out quickly.”

She said that.

Then she approached this place.

Thus Sion made a slightly annoyed expression, sighing. Revealing an expression that forcefully treated the other party as an idiot,

“…Nonsense, is it. Haha, Ferris is still the same as before. But, are you misunderstanding something. We are already enemies. To someone like me who is the enemy, giving me this information that, Ryner—currently the Demon King of the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet is not present, what are you planning with this. To your king, what…”

But Ferris still ignored that, saying.

No, she suddenly shouted.

“I said it’s nonsense! Stop your drama. Ryner is kidnapped by a monster! Then, you should go to save him! At least the Sion that I knew was someone like that. Am I not right?”

“…”

“Am I not right!?”

“………The present and the past, the situations are different.”

Sion said. Using a weak voice that even he himself would be surprised to hear to say it.

But Ferris still hadn’t stopped. Walking straight there with a face that was not dazed.

Thus Sion said.

“Stop.”

But she didn’t stop.

“Don’t come near me.”

But she didn’t stop.

So Sion reached out,

“If you don’t stop, I’ll kill you.”

He said.

So Ferris said mildly,

“Then kill me. But, at that point in time you have to replace me, you have to take up the responsibility to save Ryner.”

“…”

“Annihilate me kill me. Kill me. Then quickly save Ryner.”

“…”

“There’s no time. Hurry.”

“…”

“I told you to hurry!”

She shouted.

But to this,

“…”

Sion twisted his face and put down his hand.

Ferris said when she saw this,

“What, you can’t do it. If you can’t do it then you shouldn’t have said in the beginning that you wanted to kill me. It’s clear that the weak can do it, so don’t force yourself with an expression as if you are about to cry.”

Being talked to like that by her, Sion again, laughed. Because of the softness of himself which was too weak. Because he was too useless, he laughed.

Then he raised his face. Planning to retort “I didn’t have a face that I was about to cry”.

But at this moment, another ambassador came.

That was Miller’s subordinate. Riding a horse to Sion’s side to report.

“The Rhule Fragmei has been prepared already. We are waiting for Your Majesty to give the command, to release Demonic Beast Destroyer .”

So Sion nodded,

“Go immediately.”

He replied.

But another subordinate who also had something to report came. He took out a letter from his hold.

Sion asked.

“What is this?”

His subordinate replied.

“It is a letter for Your Majesty.”

“Where is it from?”

“It seems to be from the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet.”

“…Vois Fiurelle right…”

Sion muttered.

Probably this time Ferris’s and Kiefer’s actions ignored Vois’s plan.

Because the truth that Ryner was not in the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet should definitely not be information that could be leaked out.

The risks of passing this to the Roland king, Vois Fiurelle couldn’t possibly allow it.

That meant that now Ferris and Kiefer should be chased after by the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet. But the two still trusted Sion, coming here.

So Vois had sent a letter to find an excuse.

I’m afraid that Ferris and Kiefer have gone to you in order to find Ryner, but Ryner Lute has already been found by Vois Fiurelle, he is now in the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet—planning to restrict the actions here with that sort of false information.

So Sion accepted the letter. Asking his subordinate.

“The ambassador is?”

“We caught them, behind the troops.”

“Bring them over.”

“Yes.”

So the subordinate retreated.

At this moment, Ferris who was already nearby said.

“What is it?”

Followed by Kiefer,

“Is everything alright?”

She asked.

But Sion ignored them, opening the letter.

But the letter was written like this.

“To Sion

I am Kiefer Knolles. I am now with Ferris.

Ah that, that, because there truly were too too many things that happened, I also don’t know where to start from so I’m a little troubled, but please let me pass on my feelings.

At that moment. In that dark country—my elder sister was killed, my younger sister was caught as a hostage, and I betrayed everyone… But, now, I still recall things like meeting with Ryner, and then meeting with you, then laughing together with everyone, crying together with them.

Things about us training together. Things about the time when we laughed together in the pub. Things about the times when we talked together in the dormitories.

Things about the times when I laughed cried, loved like a normal girl.

And, things about when you were still a child, powerless… but still desperately trying to protect us.

Things about the time when everyone desperately lived on.

Although it has been a considerable number of years and months since that time has passed. We have lost many things too, but I don’t know why it turned out this way.

But, even so I still trust you.

Ferris says she trusts you too.

Ryner just thinks about things about Sion, it even makes me feel jealous.

So I wrote a letter to you.

Please help us.

Now Ryner has been framed by Vois Fiurelle, it’s very dangerous. But just depending on our powers we are unable to go to Roland. So please come and help us. Now Ferris and I have asked the restaurant of the Silk Road Village of the Hainlums Republic road to help us pass on the message.

Please contact this place. There is only one restaurant here. From there you can contact us.

I trust that you will come.

Let’s once again.

Although I am a traitor, but if you can come, I still want to fight the world together with you again.

I look forward to your reply.

Kiefer Knolles.”

The contents of the letter were written like that.

Ryner was framed by Vois Fiurelle, he was currently in a dangerous situation.

He wasn’t kidnapped by Remrus, but framed by Vois Fiurelle, please help, it was written.

And the contents of this letter were trustworthy.

Kiefer’s words touched his heart. Recalling Tyle and Toni, Fahl. Recalling the times when he laughed with Ryner and the others.

Before he knew about what the world’s darkness was, believing in his green ideals.

“…”

No matter what was said, Ryner encountering danger because he was framed by Vois Fiurelle—this composition, seemed more like Kiefer’s style.

Kiefer’s brain was good. When they were in the Roland Empire Royal Special Military Academy, all her subjects could evenly score the highest marks.

And that Kiefer would honestly come here, even if Ryner were kidnapped by Remrus?

Now the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet was depending on the name of the Demon King Ryner Lute who had snatched away hundreds of thousands of lives of Geihlficlant Empire’s soldiers, defending against invasions from other countries.

But the truth that Ryner wasn’t in the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet now, would Kiefer easily tell Roland that?

No matter that she was his classmate in the past, no matter how much she trusted him, would she immediately pass out that truth?

If she were only asking for help, the contents of this letter were enough.

If Ryner were framed by Vois Fiurelle, Ryner would be still in the People’s Republic of Sphelliyet, but he would be in a dangerous situation so they would ask for his help.

In addition Vois, and the Goddesses had a contract. They could also pass on the information here that Ryner had been framed by the Goddesses , this information. This would be enough, enough to attract the attention from here.

If even though he had been brought to the Remrus Empire, it was for the sake of gaining contact with Sion, then there wasn’t any need to say it so clearly.

So this letter must definitely be real.

This was the letter that Kiefer wrote.

But, if that was so,

“…”

Sion raised his face, looking down.

The bodies of the two women were close enough to be within touching distance of the horse.

He looked at Ferris and Kiefer.

So Kiefer laughed and said.

“Ara, your face has turned into one that is no longer gentle… Although I don’t know why, unless… we’ve been discovered?”

Following that Ferris said.

“But it doesn’t matter. It’s already too late~”

Saying that Ferris pulled out a sword from her waist. But what emerged from the sheath was not a sword.

It was a hand.

A purple, slim hand.

The purple hands that were growing from the Remrus Empire soldiers’ backs, several of them were plucked out from the sheath as if dancing, aiming towards Sion’s direction.

“Ah, damn it.”

Sion reacted.

He kicked the horse, then jumped back. Rolling onto the ground, but immediately righting his body.

Facing the front.

But the attack just now had completely destroyed the upper body of the horse.

But no blood flowed out from the upper body.

Only multiple purple hands grew out from the area that had been cut, dancing about. Swaying about as if finding something to link hands with it.

At this moment his subordinates noticed the situation over here.

“Your Majesty!”

They shouted.

Sion raised a hand as if stopping them,

“Don’t come near! I’ll handle this place!”

He shouted.

“But”

“I said don’t approach!”

He shouted in a loud voice. Finally his subordinates stopped moving. After confirming that, Sion stood up.

Then he looked at the horse that had hands growing out from it and had no upper body, and Ferris and Kiefer who were standing beside it.

The two of them were laughing. Using an expression that Sion had never seen before, laughing happily.

So,

“…Remrus, is it?”

He asked,

So, Kiefer—no, the things that had Kiefer’s face replied.

“Yes—”

“…Then, what do you want with me?”

Ferris laughed. She laughed ahaha. Using Ferris even though this hard to imagine to happily laugh and say,

“What do I want, today, for this day I have cast many many plans? So there are many things~”

He said this. Then spinning the sword that had grown out from the hand. So the hand became a shape of a straight sword, once again keeping it into the sheath.

Sion looked

“Keeping the sword also means you have no intentions of fighting?”

To this question, Ferris shrugged,

“Of course. I don’t think that I can win a battle god like you straight on. Even though you haven’t become one with Asruld…”

Following that Kiefer,

“But it’s already, you are already caught in my magic. Look at that.”

Saying that she raised her hand. Then pointed to the Remrus soldiers creeping along the ground before the plateau,

“Amazing, right? For the sake of using magic and using all of the Humans in Remrus Empire as sacrfices. Do you know how long I spent to reach this step?”

He said that.

But Sion glared at Kiefer,

“I’m not interested.”

He replied like that.

So Ferris laughed again,

“That’s right--. You’ve always been like that. Not being interested in the words of a lowly god like me. Because this is the result of my many years of work.”

“…Lucile.”

“The year 990. From the start of this world till now, these times have been used for today.”

“…Lucile, answer me. Take care of this fellow.”

“Because the limit is 1000 years, although I wondered if I would make it in time, but it progressed smoothly. And today is a day with good weather. If the gods or something are watching this world… and if anything mysterious, different from the Hero , Demon , Goddess is watching this world, make this green, blue, light blue sky as my blessing…”

“Can’t you hear me Lucile! Lucile Eris!”

Sion shouted.

But there was no reply.

So Kiefer—no, Remrus Remuld Aarqued laughed.

“So didn’t I just say it? I was born for today. Really only for this day? So it means that you can’t grab it first. Even if you wield such a strong power. Even if you carry such a crazy despair—today, only for today it will not progress as you expected—saying it in such a long winded way, anyway, maa, it means Lucile-kun wouldn’t appear?”

He said that.

Sion stared at Remrus,

“…Is that so. But even if Lucile is not around, I can still kill you.”

He said.

Reaching out a hand.

Then gathering the mad air in his body around his hand.

So a black sword was created in his hands.

A cursed sword.

A sword created to destroy everything.

But Remrus still laughed.

“What are you going to use that sword for?”

“To kill you.”

“I’m not here though? Like the fake Calne-kun that came earlier. The only thing here is my illusions. Only destroying the illusions, will you smile because you won?”

“…”

And this figure—the figure of Ferris and Kiefer, is information from the storage in your mind when I previously attacked you with Calne’s figure. So it looks really real, right? No matter what, because it is the image of Ferris and Kiefer in your mind~. And they will say the things that you anticipate. The words that you want to make them say. Do you want me to say it again? I’ll say the words that you anticipated once again…”

Until there, Sion said.

“Sword.”

So the black sword that was created flew.

It flew in the direction of Kiefer who was sprouting boring words.

The sword touched her.

Then Kiefer’s body disappeaered.

But at this moment Ferris who was beside her laughed again,

“Then I’ll use Ferris’s voice to say the words earlier, I’ll say it again~ -- I already said don’t talk about useless things! The drama has ended. Ryner is kidnapped by the monster! Then, you should go to save him! At least the Sion I recognized was someone like that! Is that not so? Is that not soooooo~, annihilate me. Do you want to be talked to like that?”

“Shut…”

“Ahahahahahahahahahaha, you clearly are a coward, so don’t distance yourself from everyone and pretend to put on an act~? You clearly want to get along well with everyone, but desperately force…”

“I told you to shut up!!”

He shouted, reaching out again. Generating power once again. That was a power even more powerful than just now. It was a power so strong that it wiped the scene before his eyes.

Then the more that power was used.

The more he used the power of the Fallen Black Hero/ Asruld Roland , the more he became not human.

He lost the smell of a human.

He turned into something that was not human.

It was clear.

It was clear he had progressed far from a human, why,

“…”

He didn’t know why his chest hurt so much.

He didn’t know why the words that the monster with Ferris’s appearance said, would make his heart feel so painful.

So Sion desperately tolerated it.

His face almost contorting, desperately tolerating it.

Then reaching out a hand,

“Sword, destroy that fellow!”

He shouted that.

So the sword flew. Touching Ferris. Ferris, horse, and the surrounding space twisted and disappeared.

But from behind

“Didn’t I say that is useless. Because this place is my illusion.”

A voice sounded.

But that was not Ferris’s voice, and it was not Kiefer’s voice.

A man’s voice.

I was the voice of an important comrade, that he was familiar with.

Ryner’s.

Using Ryner Lute’s voice.

“…”

Sion turned around.

Ryner was there.

Black hair that was mussed up because he didn’t sleep properly, and soft eyes that seemed a little tired. A face that was unmotivated, seeming to have given up on everything.

Sion was attracted by that face. He yearned for that figure.

He clearly was gentle.

He clearly wanted to be loved by people.

But his figure that had given up on everything, because of his cursed eyes.

His figure that clearly gave up on everything, but was still gentle.

He looked at Ryner,

“…”

Sion already couldn’t say anything.

Thus Ryner laughed. Remrus who maintained Ryner’s figure laughed.

“Aha, even though you know it’s fake, you still have this kind of reaction. This really surprises me.”

“…”

“Then if I say the things that you wish for using this appearance, wouldn’t you be so touched that you would want to die?”

“…”

“Do you want me to say it? I’ll say it for you…”

“Shut up.”

“I’ll say it for you to hear.”

“Shut up shut up!”

Sion raised his arm. Wanting to swing it to let Ryner shut up.

But his arm was caught by Ryner, then laughing,

“It’s already enough, Sion. You don’t have to work so hard alone. I’ll handle the affairs later. All your troubles will…”

“Shut…”

“Let me carry everything for you, rest.”

Ryner said that.

He said rest.

He said he didn’t have to work so hard.

And Ryner was smiling when he said it.

But that already wasn’t Ryner’s voice. It was Remrus’s voice. It was the voice of Remrus Remuld Aarqued that was slightly sharp.

“…Weak, you are too weak. But Sion-kun, I don’t think your weakness is a bad thing. You’re not a god anyway. So perfect destruction, perfect love, perfect lust, perfect desire, it doesn’t exist in this world. Everything is weak. Especially humans—ah, that is you, but you humans, for some reason in that weakness you maintain the strongest power. It is so strong that you can almost distort the logic in the world.”

Sion raised his face, staring at Remrus with Ryner’s face,

“…What, do you want?”

He said as if spitting it out.

But Remrus only shrugged,

“I want to save you.”

“Save?”

“That’s right. I want to save you who is so tired due to over-working—ah no, not only you. And Ryner. The heavy burdens on you and Ryner’s bodies, let me help you carry them. So you can already rest.”

Remrus said that.

Using Ryner’s face.

Then his words resounded in his mind

Rest, rest, rest.

Then.

Progress, progress, progress.

The whirlwind of words resounded in his mind alternately,

“…”

Why was the power in his body seeming to gradually disappear. Why would he feel so dispirited, by the joke that this monster told, almost kneeling on the ground.

But he desperately hid this, raising his face. Then staring at Ryner, said.

“I don’t plan to negotiate with a monster.

“Ahaha, forget it, I guessed that you would say that. Because you have always been like that.”

“Then, why did you come here?”

Thus, Ryner released Sion’s arm. Ryner’s hand left his. Then he stepped back like that.

And using the unmotivated expression that was tired, as if taking him as an idiot said,

“I want to invite you to my castle.”

Then taking out a piece of paper from his hold. Then throwing that paper towards there.

“I am there. So you have to come see me.”

Sion took the paper. A map was drawn on the paper. It was probably the map of the Remrus Empire. There was a tower in the center of the map, a red circle was circled on the tower, and the word ‘here’ was seriously written there, even an arrow was drawn.

Sion looked at the map with a seemingly bored expression, then,

“How many times do you want me to say it. Making a deal with an ugly monster…”

When he was about to say, I don’t plan to do it.

“Liar. You already know, right? Ryner has been caught by me as a hostage.”

“…”

“Look, this sky, you’ve already felt it, right? Although normal Humans can’t see it, but you should be able to feel it. Feel that the colours of the world are changing. Feel that the rules and logic up till now are changing. So you are so weak. Because you feel it. Because you feel that I’m preparing something now. If you don’t come, I’ll make Ryner…”

At this moment Sion said.

“…Are you planning to eat him?”

So Ryner laughed again. Then using his finger, pointing behind Sion said.

“The one behind you. That curse that is using all the Humans living in Remrus—that is a curse for this. A curse to engulf a strong demon, to engulf a demon, these powers are necessary.”

“…”

“Then, to guard against this you have to come to me. Alone. If you don’t come alone, I wouldn’t see you again.”

“…”

“Maa, even if you bring human companions, you wouldn’t reach my side too~”

“…”

“That means, I will wait on top of the tower for you. We’ll chat there then. You and Ryner, and me us three. Then I’ll see you later.”

Saying that Ryner waved in this direction.

Then he turned, leaving.

Ryner slowly left.

Remrus slowly left.

Sion stared at his leaving back wordlessly,

“…I”

He wanted to say I wouldn’t go.

But Ryner didn’t wait for him to finish and said again,

“Will come.”

“…”

“You will come. Because Ryner is very very important to you, isn’t that so? Because he has something you don’t have.”

“…”

“Or are you saying you don’t believe the information that I kidnapped Ryner? You think that this is a trap that I designed to harm you? If you think so then it’s fine if you don’t come. Because you are very clever, so you can possibly not come. But unfortunately, Ryner has already fallen into my hands.”

Ryner turned around.

But when he turned around that person no longer had Ryner’s face.

A man with long silver hair, and very tired gold eyes stood there.

It was himself.

Sion Astal was there.

Then that fake Sion said.

“After I met him with this appearance, Ryner fell easily into my trap, following me.”

He said that.

“Your relationship is very good. You clearly have an enemy status now, why are you two always always like that.”

He smiled.

The fake him smiled.

The fake Sion Astal smiled.

Then,

“Maa, if you don’t come it’s also fine that you don’t come. I will engulf Ryner, then it will end. Because if possible I hope you can participate in this plan, so I invited you. What you should do is up to you to decide. If you want to save Ryner then come. If you feel that it doesn’t matter…”

His words stopped there, the fake Sion looked over there,

“…You, are so strong that it makes people feel sad.”

He smiled seemingly lonely.

Then that smile quickly started to melt. The skin and clothes became liquid, falling to the ground like that, rolling to the ground like a ball.

It was the same as that time with Calne. It was brought here by that ball filled with Remrus’s illusion.

Sion stared at this ball.

At this moment,

“Your Majesty!”

The worried voice of his subordinate sounded again.

He raised his hand to signal, saying.

“There are no problems, the monster has been dealt with.”

Although he didn’t know if his subordinates had seen his current unacceptable appearance, whether his subordinates would accept his words, but his subordinates’ voices stopped.

He looked at the two pieces of paper in his hands again.

One was a map.

A map illustrating where Remrus and Ryner were.

Another was a letter.

The letter from Kiefer.

“I trust you” was written on the letter.

Repeatedly writing I trust you, I trust you, I trust you.

So he,

“…Who on earth, do you trust.”

Sion groaned.

The Sion in the letter was.

The Sion Astal in Kiefer’s memories clearly no longer existed.

“What on earth, made you two so trusting?”

Then he clutched Kiefer’s letter,

“It’s troublesome.”

He murmured softly.

“Don’t put anything else on me.”

He murmured softly with a voice that was about to cry.

“Trust? Who is that. I’m not such a capable person. Like what Remrus said, I am very weak. I am so weak that I feel gloomy just standing here…”

He strongly, strongly, twisted the letter in his hand, as he used a voice that was almost crying,

“…I, I am not so strong that I can always choose the right path… Don’t tempt me by trusting me without thinking so much…”

His head hurt.

He had problems breathing.

What should he do.

He completely didn’t know what to do.

Ryner was kidnapped.

Remrus planned to eat Ryner.

Then with Ryner as bait, he designed a trap for Sion.

Then, he shouldn’t go.

There was no need to walk into the trap with eyes wide open.

First, what about Roland? What about my companions who trust me, chase after me? I clearly abandoned everything. Abandoned everything that I thought was important.

Abandoned Ryner, abandoned Ferris, abandoned companions, abandoned humans, even so I.

“Lucile”

I…

“Lucile! Are you there!?”

I, Ryner…

“Help me. Stop me!?”

He shouted like that.

But there was no reply.

Today was the day that Remrus had spent a long time to lay his plan, he couldn’t win.

Only for today, everything would progress according to Remrus’s plan.

Everything will progress according to Remrus’s intent.

Then it was already,

“…I, even if I rest…”

He stopped there.

Then he raised his head.

Indeed there was another uncomfortable atmosphere expanding here. The hands growing on the backs of the poor humans who had the curse cast on them, grew in the direction of the Remrus Empire.

So, he.

The Hero King, Sion Astal—

“…Continue to move forward. Release the Rhule Fragmei .”

He ordered his subordinates.

## 11. Volume 11 - Human Representative

### 001. Chapter 3: 『Human』' s Representative

## Chapter 3: 『Human』's Representative

The location changed.

It changed just slightly.

But it was the tower.

The outer wall of the tower.

Wrapping the Latsel Thread around the tower, where he clung, Luke Stokkart hid.

No, saying that he was hiding might be inaccurate. After all, Remrus should already be aware of the fact that he was here.

In fact, from the eyes that Remrus had brought into being, even the voices echoing inside the tower could be heard clearly.

And what he was hearing was the topic of the Hero .

The topic of the Demon .

And the topic of this world, and of humans' weakness.

Furthermore, inside that tower at the moment, Sion Astal had appeared on the stage.

"......"

Luke frowned with a slightly troubled expression. And he took out the coin concealed in his sleeve that Lieral Lieutolu had given him.

And he stared at that.

This coin was something that the power to kill several Goddesses .

It was a Rhule Fragmei that could kill the gods.

But,

"... Judging from the conversation just now, Lieral is also another pawn...?"

Saying that, Luke flipped over the coin in his hand.

Once, twice, three times.

And inside his head, thoughts were whirling around.

About the situation right now.

About what Remrus was doing.

About what Remrus intended to do with him.

He again looked behind him.

As this tower was the tallest building among those in the Remrus Empire, he felt that he could see all of the streets—no, it felt as if the landscape of the entire country was spread out behind him.

And behind him, he felt some kind of power.

It was the power of his leader.

The power of the Goddess brainwashing him.

He felt that the power of Captain Milk was extremely close by.

Confirming the presence of that Goddess , Luke lifted his head towards higher up in the tower, where he confirmed the presences of the Hero and the Demon .

"......"

And it was a rather interesting scene.

What Remrus was doing.

No, what he'd done was considerably amusing.

Luke again looked at his own hand.

The power in his hand—he looked at the coin.

And he spoke.

"... But what does Remrus want with me, I wonder?"

At that, the eyes before him responded.

"If it's you, who's so smart, you already know, right?"

Regarding that, Luke stared at the eyes, and spoke.

"You're Remrus-san?"

"Yup. Ah, by the way, if you look down, you’ll see my real body."

As it said such a thing, Luke looked down.

At his feet.

A short distance away from Luke's feet, Remrus stood.

Literally, rather than clinging onto the tower, as if disregarding the law of gravity, Remrus stood perpendicular to the surface of the tower wall.

Regarding that, Luke asked,

"What kind of trick is this?"

Remrus laughed.

"Aha, you’re asking about the tricks of gods?"

"Is it magic? Otherwise, are gods able to ignore gravity?"

In response, Remrus stared at Luke, and,

"If I give you a little bit of info, you'd be the most bothered, right?"

Luke shrugged at that.

"Even if it's information, you'd only have a one-sided conversation with yourself. Which parts are the truth and which parts you conveniently made up is something that I can't discern. Therefore, I don't need that information."

"But all of it is the truth."

"That's what every liar says."

"Ahaha. That's true,"

Remrus said, laughing.

"So, you really won't believe anything I say, huh?"

Luke easily nodded at the question.

"There isn't a single thing that you've said that could be considered reliable."

"Well, I guess."

"The entirety of what you say surpasses belief."

"A human might see it that way,"

Remrus said.

Unsurprisingly, Luke nodded at that.

"Yes, and as a human myself, I might laugh at suddenly hearing such things from a god."

"Heh. Even though you don't possess the emotions needed for genuine laughter?"

At Remrus's words, Luke narrowed his eyes.

Because in the middle of what Remrus uttered, a strangely reliable piece of information had entered.

That a magic circle had been buried in Luke's brain, him being unable to operate his emotions well, and whatnot was information that shouldn't be known by a single human in this world.

First, the staff behind the experiment that buried magic circles in people's brains—the Stokkart Project weren't in this world.

After all, with his own hands, he'd killed every last one of them.

And then he'd burned all of the research data.

Therefore, there no longer should've been any existence of reports on him.

As each and every one of the others who'd had a magic circle buried in their brain and called themselves by the name of Stokkart suffered different disabilities due to the magic circle in their brain, there should be no way to know anymore as to what kind of disability Luke had.

Of course, it was a different story if it were someone like Lieral Lieutolu, who had been observing him since long ago.

"......"

However, Remrus seemed to know about Luke's secrets.

Furthermore, judging by the earlier conversation, he'd been born before Lieral, and had observed and manipulated Lieral. Thus, the possibility that he'd heard from Lieral was there. There was also the possibility that he discovered that information while watching Lieral.

There was also the possibility that he'd been observing Luke all this time.

He didn't know which one was the correct answer, but more than anything a god said, information in which the basis and evidence was easy to guess had emerged, at which Luke narrowed his eyes.

"......"

Then again, he became aware of the coin he held in the palm of his hand.

He didn't look at it.

He didn't want the other party to know how much he understood.

Of course, when the other party was a monster that called itself a god, he didn't know how much good his poker face would do.

However, he became aware.

He became aware of where the coin's origins were.

Remrus, likely.

The timing of this, that Luke would come here in possession of this coin, was likely all part of his plan.

It began from before Luke was born.

It began from before Lieral was born.

But just what did he want with Luke?

Staring at Remrus, Luke arranged his face in a frown.

Compared to his wisdom, he has far too much information, doesn't he? Luke thought, arranging his face in a frown.

Of course, it wasn't as if he sincerely felt troubled and so instinctively wanted to frown.

As Remrus said, he was incapable of sorrow, or such emotions.

Instead, when encountering a troubling event, that he would make a troubled face at the same time was something that he'd continuously rehearsed, until it became a habit.

Remrus spoke.

"Well, anyway, even if you don't believe in me, I'm going to proceed with the story that I've created."

But Luke ignored him.

No, he didn't feel that there was any point in talking with him any longer.

To begin with, everything that that guy had prepared was in this place.

All of the affairs that had been prepared to his liking were in this place.

In other words, any conversation that was had and any action that was made—all of it had been laid out beforehand by him, as he'd pleased.

In that case, should there be anything that he wished to tell Luke, it wouldn't as so much be a conversation as him telling Luke what he wanted, at his own pace.

And if he was thinking about making use of someone, then by conversing with him, the possibility that they would become his pawn existed.

"......"

That was why Luke stopped looking at Remrus. And again, he covered up the coin in his hand.

And he considered the meaning behind the coin that he possessed.

About how this coin could kill the gods.

About how it was something that concealed the power to kill gods.

But how did it come to be that he of all people now possessed this power?

As the fact that he was here right now in itself was all according to the scenario that Remrus had set up, what kind of role was he expected to play?

"......"

The answer to that was simple.

To kill.

To kill the gods.

And in this place, there were three gods.

Remrus.

The Hero .

The Demon .

Confirming that situation,

"... Kill the gods, kill the gods, hmm?"

Luke muttered inside of his head.

But there was no reason to kill the gods.

Even if, hypothetically, he chose to believe in the nonsense that Remrus was talking about earlier, about how the world would end in ten years, he didn't feel that there was a need to be frantic.

After all, they still had ten years.

They had time to come up with counter-measures during that period.

Therefore, Sion Astal wouldn't devour Ryner Lute.

He wouldn't kill him.

Even though he knew it to be necessary, he wouldn't act so decisively.

Because there was still time.

Because there was still time to possibly choose another course of action.

"......"

As his thoughts moved forward, behind him, Remrus spoke. As if he could completely see through Luke's thoughts, he fired off his next words.

"There are ten years. Correct. There are still ten years. For humans, that's a long time, isn't it? More Humans will be converted into Human α , and more power will be amassed. But his heart won't change. Already, no matter how many humans the Hero takes a hold of, after devouring their souls, the weakness of his heart won't change. And he'll cry out. I won't kill my friends. I won't kill my allies. I can't eat them. I'm the worst king. Unable to save anyone, the worst... "

Then, Luke turned his head.

Looking at Remrus, who was happily chatting away,

"Even though I’m not listening to you, you’re certainly talkative."

At that, all of Remrus's several eyeballs on his head laughed.

"The truth is that the script has already been written. So properly listen to me."

"If I’m to be frank, your third-rate play fails to interest me."

"Come on, come on, listen, listen. It’s your last chance, after all. If the Roland Empire advances into the central continent—"

He began, but interrupting him, Luke spoke.

"Even if you don't explain, it's fine. The number of Human α will increase, and this coin will then no longer be able to kill the Hero . That's why I have to hurry and kill him now, correct?"

Remrus nodded in satisfaction.

"Yup. That's right. If he escapes today, Sion Astal will no longer be able to be controlled by anyone's hands."

He said such a thing.

And to that, Luke replied,

"If it comes down to that, that would be fine by me? Sion-san is my king."

"Haha, king? You can stop with the pretenses. You’re not capable of thinking that way."

"Oh, is that right? I hadn’t realized. As one would expect from such an almighty god. You know everything, don’t you? And since you know everything, there’s no need to discuss anything with me. So let’s end the conversation here, if we may,"

Luke said.

Like that, he looked away from Remrus, and redirected his attention towards the top of the tower.

At any rate, whatever this guy wanted to say, he'd say it without any regard for Luke's wishes. In that case, there was no need to respond to each and every one of his vague comments.

Then, as usual, from behind him,

"Nooo, if you can see me, then I want you to talk to me, you know? It's not just a script, but a choreography too."

He ignored him.

"Anyway, putting that joke aside, I'll be continuing."

He ignored him.

"Right now, if you kill the Hero , a new Hero will be born. And that Hero definitely won’t hesitate to devour the Demon . Things have already been planned to turn out that way."

He ignored him.

"And if you do that, then surely, you'll save Sion as well. At any rate, he’ll have to devour Ryner for the sake of the world, and so if you kill him, you’ll be freeing him from that heavy burden. He'll be fine with dying. However, he won't die by his own doing. Because he’s has to 'save the world' and everything, because he carries that task, he can’t run away. And so, you’ll be saving Sion-kun."

Remrus selfishly said such things.

But he couldn't do that kind of thing. From the beginning, there was no proof that what these monsters who called themselves gods said was the truth.

As long as there was no proof, he couldn't do something like kill Sion.

Because the way things were right now, if one assumed everything Remrus said was a bunch of nonsense, then it was possible that he saw Sion as a hindrance.

But Remrus should know what Luke would think of that. After all, he'd plotted everything since before Luke was born.

Judging by his attitude, he should know full well about Luke.

Then why, in spite of that, would he give him this kind of nonsense?

He should know that, with those sort of words, he wouldn't be able to mobilize Luke, so then why, in spite of that, would he tell him something like that?

Luke thought about that.

No, he thought about the entirety of the situation that he'd ended up in right now.

First, Remrus's request that he kill Sion.

If one flipped that on its side, that meant Remrus didn't have the power to kill Sion—or rather, the Hero .

That was why he arranged for Luke to be in this place. Even expressly making sure that he would have a Rhule Fragmei to kill the gods, he arranged for him to be here.

Regarding that,

"Could it be that only Humans can use this coin?"

Luke considered such a thing.

There was a decent chance of that.

That it was only Humans who could use a weapon with the power to kill the gods.

That the Hero couldn't be killed by Remrus.

But he could prepare a weapon to kill the Hero .

However, that weapon could be invoked only by Humans .

If that condition were set, then Luke understood the reason why he was brought here.

But nevertheless, he didn't understand why he'd been chosen.

Even if this Rhule Fragmei could be used only by Humans , it wasn't as if Luke especially was necessary.

It wasn't necessary to choose this kind of difficult human.

In that case, why had he been chosen?

By chance?

Or—

"......"

However, he had no intention of asking this to Remrus. If Remrus wanted to tell him, he'd willfully say it on his own, and if he didn't, then this guy definitely wouldn't say.

Someone like him who'd laid out a giant trap even here definitely wouldn't let anything slip out carelessly.

That was why Luke didn't ask.

Instead, his thoughts continued to whirl.

For the sake of understanding what Remrus was thinking. For the sake of what he should do to, once he understood, break free from this scenario and create a development such that he had the advantage—he focused on that.

Then,

"Anyway, I realize that talking about saving Sion-kun won't appeal to you, who doesn't possess emotions. But that's why I chose you... because you don't possess a human heart."

Remrus said such things.

And at those words, Luke reacted just a tad. It wasn't really that he was angry or anything like that, or that they got on his nerves, but because they were similar to what Lieral had said, as Luke recalled.

Lieral had also said this to Luke.

— You don't possess a human heart. That's why I chose you.

And such.

And Luke had denied that.

Inside of him, a little bit of emotion existed.

Feelings akin to fondness towards Claugh Klom and Milk Callaud were present within him.

However, Lieral had smiled at that. He'd cheerfully smiled. And after refuting that such a thing was a human heart, he said this.

"I, for the sake of my son—I sacrificed my wife and the world. In order to save my son, nothing else in this world mattered. Because of the love I have for my son, I no longer make proper judgments. But for you, it's different, isn't it?"

Lieral had said.

"Claugh Klom and Milk Callaud—if it was necessary, you would easily kill them, isn't that right?"

He'd said.

And that normal humans weren't like that. Without facing reality, they were led by their love and emotions. And, that was their weakness. They were unable to move forward.

That was why Lieral chose Luke, according to him.

"As you're someone who no longer possesses human emotions and yet who tries so hard to imitate humans, who yearns to be with humans—"

He'd said that.

And regarding that.

Regarding that Lieutolu's words,

"... Were the words of Duke Lieutolu's your words?"

Luke replied.

And he looked over at Remrus.

However, Remrus shrugged at that, and,

"No, I know more about you than Lieral, so our opinions are a bit different."

"Heh. Is that so? In that case, what do you think about me?"

Luke asked.

Even though he shouldn't have.

Even though there was no meaning to this conversation.

Even though he didn't need to know what kind of person others thought he was, Luke asked that.

In response, Remrus cheerfully spoke.

He spoke cherishingly.

Staring at Luke,

"The fact that you'd ask that, out of your yearning for human emotions, is quite human-like in itself. it's because you yearn for that that you act more human than anyone else. You may be calm, you may be composed, but you're driven mad by your love for humans more so than anyone else."

"......"

"That's why I chose you, as you are."

"......"

"You have no interest in friends. You have no interest in family. Nor your loved ones—no, you have no interest in even your own life. Instead, your entire life is dedicated to merely observing the truth before you; however, you hold a heart that feels empty for it. That's why I chose you, you know? No matter what the situation, if you deem something to be correct, you'll choose it without faltering, right? And that, precisely, is love. Because you don't feel love, you're more human-like than anyone else, and try to act out of love. That's why I chose you alone as the decisive piece. You will be the one to decide things."

At that, Luke asked,

"Alone as the decisive piece? In other words, outside of me..."

"No comment."

"Ha, just as I thought, I have no desire to speak with you,"

He said.

But without paying any heed to the situation, Remrus continued.

"Kill Sion. That's the simplest option. Right now, I've stolen away all of Ryner and Sion's powers, so even if you decide to kill Sion, there shouldn't be any obstacles. But if you won't accept that as an option, another one exists. That is..."

"To kill Ryner-san?"

Remrus nodded at that.

"Right. Regardless, it'll be fine. Sion-kun will probably get in the way, but, well, if you use that coin inside the tower, then you'll win. If you kill Ryner, then you'll have saved Sion. Because he wouldn't have been able to kill himself, right?"

He said such a thing.

And staring at Remrus, Luke spoke. Holding up the coin between his fingers,

"So I'm to kill the obstacle that is the Demon or the Hero so that you can profit?"

He said.

I could fire this coin at you—that option exists as well , he was essentially threatening by saying that.

However, in response, while staring at the coin, Remrus easily—

"Well, well, don't be so impatient. I was going to talk about that, anyway."

"Eh?"

"Where rather than kill the Demon or Hero , you kill me—that option exists as well. Though I think that if you do that, then this time, the world will probably reset on the 1000th year again, but what? There's also that. Everyone accidentally dies after ten years. How unlucky—that's all there is to that."

"......"

"What will happen to me if the 1000 year's reset doesn't happen? What will happen if I flee the word of the Priests and curse them? Though I'm curious about that, it's not like there's a law that demands progress. The status quo is being maintained. Is that really okay? Humans live, and then die. With that, enough options exist. And if you choose to kill me, then that's fine."

He said such things.

But each and every word failed to resound in Luke's heart at all. As all of them were said at Remrus's convenience, they didn't appear to hold any persuasive power.

That was why,

"And the option where I don't kill anyone right now..."

He tried to say that.

But before he could finish,

"It exists,"

Remrus replied.

Spreading his arms apart,

"And to me, that would be the most interesting option. You don't kill anyone. If it comes down to that, no one would be an obstacle to me. And when that happens, as for what I'll do, I'll activate my number one trick. I'll use the lives of all the humans in this Remrus Empire, and furthermore, I'll even use the power of the Hero and the Demon inside this barrier, and activate a spell that uses all that."

At that, Luke asked,

"Just what is..."

He began, but again,

"No comment,"

Remrus said.

Luke frowned at Remrus's attitude.

"Isn't that strange? If you won't tell me what sort of magic you'll use, then I can't choose that option."

"Oh, is that so? But isn't that normal? Nobody knows the future. Even if they decide to do something, they don't know whether it'll end in success or failure. But that's why there's meaning in those decisions. There's meaning in trusting dreams and hopes, and making decisions only when something's at stake. While fearing the possibility of failure, we make these decisions—"

He began, but Luke interrupted.

"Are you trying to change the subject? The moment I mentioned the option where I kill nobody, you became rather long-winded. In other words, you're trying to confess that you personally don't wish for that option?"

He said.

But while grinning broadly, Remrus said,

"Seems that way, huh? I knew you were clever, you know? I knew you would read into that. On top of that, I know that if I said that I was trying to make you read into that, you would doubt me. Now, which one is it? Is the one I want the one where you don't do anything, or where you do...? In the end, even you don't know, do you?"

"......"

"Why don't you know? Because I wasn't leading you to it. Honestly, I think any option would be fine."

Regarding those words, Luke spoke.

"Because in the end, no matter which option I choose, the end result won't change?"

But Remrus smiled at that, and,

"No, that's not it. I think the end result might differ."

"Might?"

"Might... no, I don't know either. I didn't set up the scenario from this point on at all. After all, no matter how you choose, I intend to die."

"......"

"From the start, the barrier and magic that's been developing here right now is something so great that it'll obliterate the likes of me. That's why I'll soon die. Moreover, I won't be reincarnated into the next cycle. I'll become seirei . I'll sink into the endless stream of suffering. Ah, how scary. What misery, don't you think? Suffering for eternity, I mean. I don't even want to think about it."

"......"

"But that's why I don't know what stands at the end. What I do know is that even here... I entrust the future to all of you."

He said such a thing.

And the apparent sincerity behind those words resounded within Luke.

He didn't know why he thought that.

There was no basis behind it.

Despite that, he saw that Remrus was being genuine when he said that.

Was it because he said he'd give up his life for it? If that was it,

"Did you, by any chance, use brainwashing magic?"

Luke asked that.

However, Remrus seemed cheerful at that, and,

"My, could it be that my words resounded in your heart?"

"......"

"That would be amazing. In this current situation, you don't know what's going on. Just as I thought, in this moment, it was important to emphasize how I'm going to give up my life, huh?"

"......"

"By the way, I didn't use brainwashing magic—well, I say that, but I don't know whether you'd believe me or not,"

He said.

And that,

"... No, I believe you,"

Luke said.

Remrus fixedly stared at him, and then spoke.

"I thank you for that."

He said such a thing.

Then he spread apart his hands, and,

"Then, this conversation is over, huh? Afterwards, you can do whatever you like."

Saying that, Remrus's figure suddenly became pale, as if he were turning into mist and vanishing.

To that disappearing Remrus, Luke spoke.

"Why, at the very end of things, did you decide not to do it yourself?"

He asked that.

"If it's you, you could have done it, couldn't you? Kill Sion-san—or kill Ryner Lute. Or, instead, you could've forcibly made me decide as well. Even if you wanted the solution where no one is killed, it would've been fine if you hadn't called me here. In spite of that, you still did and left the final decision to me. Just what was your reason? What meaning is there in letting me decide?"

He asked that.

In response, while fading away, Remrus again spoke while smiling.

"No, don't I need someone to tell this story after I die? And I'd say that it's fine for Humans to be the one to decide the rest of this story. Humans are the one who should decide the future of this world that belongs to Humans ."

"And so you chose me, the one who's least like a human? That sounds like a comedy more than anything else,"

Luke said, making a self-deprecating expression.

By that point, Remrus's figure was no longer visible. Only his voice echoed.

That voice spoke cheerfully.

"Whether it's a comedy or not, I can't say. Well-said, hmm? Because the tone is light, its sincerity can't be seen."

"By whom?"

"Aha, you're asking me, who has no friends? Well, jokes aside, would you be satisfied if I told you that you're the first person I've seen in nine hundred and ninety years whose character is suitable for deciding the future of humans?"

"No, that's not enough."

"Ahaha, then what else? Ah, right. It's because you resemble me."

"Heh. I don't have eight arms, though."

"Ahaha, I'm not talking about appearance."

"Naturally."

"But you do. I like Humans , after all. Because I'm the same as you, as someone who admires Humans , who are capable of being driven mad by worthless matters like love and friendship. Are you satisfied with that as to why I chose you...?"

At those words,

"Yes,"

Luke said quietly.

"That's why?"

He said.

Remrus spoke.

"Yeah. That's it. Now then, I'll leave everything from now on to you. You have four options. Kill the Hero . Kill the Demon . Kill me. Kill nobody. Now, choose whichever. I'll look forward to it."

At those words, Luke stared at the coin in his hand once more.

And,

"... Even if the end result of whichever I choose goes poorly, please don't complain,"

He said, but,

"......"

There was no longer any response from Remrus.

Luke confirmed that, and then,

"But there are other decisive pieces besides me, aren't there? In this situation, who is there, aside from me? There has to be someone, right? If what Remrus said earlier is true... If what he said about wanting to entrust the future to humans is true, then that would be all of humanity, though."

He again looked to the top of the tower.

At some point, a door had opened.

It was left open in such a way as if it were telling him to enter immediately.

To kill, or not to kill?

After thinking about that for a while,

"......"

In one movement, Luke advanced to the top of the tower.