400 Years Old Virgin Demon King
Chapter 11 - That Time I Befriended a Hero but Made an Enemy of the Church
Why is Suzuna here? For a second I couldn"t understand why, but after thinking about it, Suzuna once saw my another-world teleportation magic, she even knows this world"s world number. As long as her world has mana, it should not be too difficult for Suzuna herself to use magic in order to come here.
The problem is what her reason for coming is.
"Suzuna, it hasn"t been long enough to say that I missed you, even as flattery. But let us celebrate this reunion. And now, what brings you here?"
"Ah, sorry. I wanted to test the another-world teleportation magic and also wanted to get some advice about the future.
"Oh, advice?"
Well, I could understand her desire to test the another-world teleportation magic. But what could she mean about wanting advice for the future? I am not especially knowledgeable about her world.
"Yes. I suddenly became a witch, so I"m a little bewildered. Afterall, I had thought that Heroes who are summoned to another world would lose any magical abilities they got in that world after they return. I thought the magical power would disappear or become unusable. But the thing is, I can still use it. All of it!"
"Hmm, of course, you can. That another-world summoning magic circle…well the circle itself was fake so it should probably be called a tool…but the magic that was imbued into it was for "the release of magical apt.i.tude." It released the apt.i.tude you already possessed, so it would, of course, remain even after you returned to your own world."
"And that"s why I"m in trouble! No one in my world can use magic, and who knows how many weird looks I would receive if I did use it. But even then, it"s too good a power to just not use at all!"
Hmm, it was hard to understand what her main point was, as Suzuna was confused herself, but I now had an idea of what the problem was.
"I see, in other words, you want to use magic, but you do not know how you can use it without attracting attention. And so you want me to teach you."
"Yes, that"s it!"
"It thoroughly pains my heart to tell you this, but I do not think I can help you there."
"Why!?"
"I don"t hide the fact I can use magic."
"Ah…"
Suzuna was dumbstruck when I laid this truth out. However, she came all the way here. I would be very much lacking in empathy if I didn"t give her anything.
"But, well, there are a few things that I can think of. Though I cannot a.s.sure you that they will be of any use."
"That"s fine, just tell me!"
Suzuna said, moving forward in desperation.
"Well, you could become a Demon Lord and conquer the world. You have powers that are equal to mine. A world without magic will not be able to find ways to resist you, so world domination should be easy. Then you will have no need to hide."
"Rejected!! Yes, Heroes descending into Demon Lords is a cliche development, but I don"t even have any reasons to take over the world! Also, that goes again my most important wish of not wanting the spotlight!!"
After being troubled by this for a while, I asked Suzuna about it, and she came up with a solution that I hadn"t even thought of.
"Why don"t you make a dam?"
"A dam!? And just what is that?"
"It stops the river upstream and creates a manmade lake. You can open and close the sluice to adjust how much water to let through. I think the current will become calm if you only let a little water through. It will protect against flooding during heavy rains and against droughts when you have had too many sunny days. However, measures will have to be taken for people who live near the lake, there is also the destruction of the environment to think about. If you want, we could go take a look at a real one?"
I accepted her invitation to teleport to her world and inspect this dam which was known as Kurobe Dam. And well, I was struck with wonder at its size. The technology of Suzuna"s world must be incredible for them to have built such a gigantic structure without magic. I used magic to inspect the mechanisms as well, but it was clear that it would be difficult to replicate them in my world. However, I did understand the logic behind it, so I should be able to install a much simpler sluice without a problem. In fact, my world too had dams to separate irrigation ca.n.a.ls. It would be hard to create a dam big enough to stop a great river, but it should be possible with my magic.
I promptly returned to my own world and this time discussed the issue with the king and ministers. We carefully chose a location to make the man-made lake and after asking the opinions of the surrounding inhabitants, compensated them and then started with the construction work. Of course, the dam was made upstream of where the water transportation company worked in order to prevent us from hindering their operations.
This was not the kind of construction job that could be finished in two or three days, but with my power, we were able to finish it in half a month, resulting in an impressive dam. The dam was used to reduce the amount of water that pa.s.sed, making the current calmer so that the water transportation companies could operate as before. And while heavy rain would mean that we would have to increase the amount of water released, the water transportation companies had previously stopped all transportation in these times due to the danger of the increased water level anyway, so there was no problem.
In other places where the flood control construction had caused problems, we repeated the same measures and solved them. And for a while, we put a lot of effort into domestic affairs, but at the same time, the plans for world domination were slowly moving forward. Thanks to our diplomatic efforts, behind the facade of peace, little by little more countries were now under my rule. Even ones that wouldn"t join would surrender in a day once I paid them a visit.
And just when I had conquered one-third of the west side of the continent that I was born in, an unexpected enemy appeared.
The Church.
The Pope who ruled all the churches of the countries on the west side of the continent had declared me an "enemy of G.o.d" and excommunicated me.
Hmm, so that was not going to work. Well, it"s not too surprising.
"Well then, I have a different idea. Number two, you can use mind control magic to alter the memories of anyone who has seen you using magic."
"Whaa!? …but thinking about it, that"s not a bad idea… No, I can"t do that! Altering a person"s memories, that is the ultimate invasion of privacy!!"
Privacy, I believe it meant something like personal information or about secrets. Suzuna"s mother tongue is quite difficult to understand due to the vocabulary incorporating so many different languages.
"Hmm, if this is ethically unacceptable in your world, then we best think of a different solution."
"Eh, you still have more ideas?"
"The contrary is also true. Number three, before you use magic, use a light spell to make yourself invisible. Refract the surrounding light and have it bypa.s.s your body so you will not be visible to those around you."
"That"s it! Oh, but, it won"t be good either if I use this method and disappear while someone is watching me, so I can"t use it until I"ve hidden… just like Ultraman! No, Ultraman doesn"t hide his ident.i.ty anymore? …Nevermind! But anyway, this is the least terrible of the ideas so far, I might be able to use it."
While she seemed to be very confused, she at least thought that the idea was usable.
"And then you just need to think about how to implement it."
"Yes, now that you"ve told me that I just need to stay out of sight, I can figure the rest out by myself. Thank you. I wish that I could repay you in some way."
Oh, repay me?
"In that case, I would like you to tell me all about your world. I saw just a little bit before, and it seemed incredibly advanced. If I used your world as a point of reference, I could make this world so much nicer to live in."
I am well aware that I am a fool, and I would be very happy if a good counselor could teach me.
"Oh, domestic affairs cheats! I love those kinds of things, I have a lot of ideas. You can count on me! The canons of the battleship Yamato could reach Ofuna from Tokyo! I don"t need the help of a tenshiki!!"
Ah, I don"t quite understand some of those words, but she seems incredibly confident.
In any case, I now had a good counselor. It seemed that it was currently during a long holiday known as summer vacation, and she was quite busy with homework and studying and fellowship with friends. But whenever she could find the time, she would visit me and ask about this world, or instead teach me about hers.
And Suzuna"s council ended up being quite useful.
A problem had arisen at a large river that had been worked on for flood control. There was no problem during construction, but the water transportation company who used the river to transport things started to complain. They said that because the curves of the river had been smoothed out, the current became faster, making it hard to go against it.
This was quite the unexpected development for me. I had only thought of the safety of the area and not really considered those who used the river itself.
But I couldn"t return the river to its original state, considering that it was a measure against flooding. I did think about using magic to cast a forward propelling ability to the water transportation companies boats. This method would help the current companies, but it would hinder any newcomers, making it unideal in the name of fair compet.i.tion.