Volume 8, Chapter 28: It seems Like I"ve Become a Legend Again, Part 4
h.e.l.lo there. It"s Yurushia again!
With me right now, Sefira is glaring with hatred in her eyes.
No, I"m really sorry! I really don"t mean to. I"m a Demon after all.
No way. Sefira was the [First Hero]? I didn"t think that he had been moving around for this many years for the peace of this world.
“Uhh, thank you for your hard work……?”
“Don"t joke with me!”
How cruel. Did you not get enough calcium and minerals? Would you like some dried seaweed? Ah, I got glared at.
“What are your intentions!!”
Sefira readied herself for combat. Her tone had gone all weird too.
Isn"t subs.p.a.ce storage supposed to be a skill? Sefira"s entire body was covered with a dull, silver armor in a blink, and there she stood, holding a two-handed single-edged curved blade that looked like a katana made of the same material.
“What a good sword. Is that Oricon?”
“……it"s orichalc.u.m!”
Ah, oh no, Sefira"s vein is bulging.
Well, you know, I intentionally made the misp.r.o.nunciation just to see if Sefira was a modern earthling.
I"m sorry. That was a lie. My fantasy knowledge is just a lot less than the game-playing Yuuki-kun.
As Sefira silently swung down, a shockwave erupted from her blade. She aimed straight for the opening I had left, being deep in thought, without thinking.
As expected of the [First Hero]. Her power is several stages better than Kan-chan. She would definitely even give my attendants trouble. I"m glad that there are no other spirits here. They might have gotten hurt. Well, everyone else left just because I came here, so……
Either way, my attendants couldn"t come here, since they were [Arch Demons], but that"s inconsequential. That"s just how terrible this place is.
It"s in-between the [Material World] where the humans lived, and the [Sprit World], one of the Spiritual Realms.
It"s so full of magic that human souls couldn"t get here, and it"s so close to the spirit world that Demons like myself weren"t compatible with it.
To give an example…. It"s like getting suddenly thrown out of a city into the desert, or a snowy mountain?
I"m slightly better-off than other Demons since I have fully formed [Human] attributes, but as Sefira is a [Hero] with the light attribute, her power was doubled like an athlete who had suddenly transitioned from hill climbs to flat land.
“My purpose is to clear my friend"s name. Everything else was just “consequence”.”
“For such a reason, you ruined my plans!”
“[Night"s Spear.]”
The jet black spear I created and Sefira"s blade touched, sparks flying.
“Dark magic!”
“Sefira, do you really think that making everyone equal will achieve real equality?”
“Wh”
“You can"t make everyone average. Those with luck survive, and those with ability are victorious. That"s all there is to it.”
“That"s not true! I…… I will guide all of mankind!”
“So you will be the privileged cla.s.s, then?”
I smiled at Sefira, whose eyes went wide.
“You"re the only person who can save humanity? What about the livestock you eat? Do they not have the right to live freely too? Just because you don"t understand their words, they"re not intelligent, and hence they"re not [Equal]? Living creatures all have to oppress others to live, you know?”
“……th…that"s”
“Even plants are alive. There are intelligent plants in this world. What would you do if they asked for [Equality] by asking you all not to eat vegetables that are of the same family as them?”
“Yes…… Even if you don"t kill every living thing, you might not need to fight at all if everyone had enough food for their needs.”
“That"s not true……”
“It"s not possible. All people seek “more”. Progress stems from desire. To be rid of all conflict, you must fulfil all their desires. But how do you satisfy the sweetest desire of humanity, for “victory”? The moment you satisfy it, the decline would begin again.”
There is no equality to be found in the plant or animal world.
If you were born in a good place, you would survive, and if you weren"t, you would be trampled on, and die.
“That"s why people struggle. They all want to live better, and hence they fight desperately. They desperately try. An equal world is a “world without freedom”, denying their efforts to live.”
Sefira"s sword dulled. The heart of a hero who had been fighting for more than a thousand years was shaken.
Not all weak people were unhappy.
Not all of the strong were happy.
“Even if you had an Acup size, you could make efforts by drinking soy milk every day to work towards a bombastic figure. Even those with large chests would have stiff shoulders from the weight, and it wouldn"t necessarily be good, to be stared at so much……”
And suddenly, Sefira"s attacks became harsh again.
Captain, I failed to talk down the target!
What"s wrong!? She"s being so narrow minded even though she has those giant things.
…… ah, was that chest fake?
“……What"s wrong?”
Anxious over Sefira"s chest melons, I moved to poke them.
“D-don"t touch them!!!”
Sefira sharply raised her voice when I started to move.
However, I was the fastest demon in all of the Demon realm. Hohoho, here I comeee! I wasn"t trying to, but I"d come before the giant crystal – the [Skill Use Agreement].
“Stoppppppppppppp!!!”
“……[Shatter]……”
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACK………
The [Skill Use Agreement] shattered under my fingertips.
And in that instant, the world shook. [Skills] had been taken from this world, [Tess].
Those [Special Skills] which could not be completely erased just by messing with the replica were also disappearing.
Well, mostly. I don"t think those skills that had been the results of their own effort or had been given directly by the Great Spirit of Light would disappear completely, but those cheat-like skills that the heroes had acquired would.
And whatever little remaining skills would almost certainly disappear in a hundred years.
“………AH,… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
Oh? Sefira seems to be acting strangely.
I thought that she was stunned from the crystal breaking, but her figure began to shift. I can"t stop it at all even if I hit the B b.u.t.ton repeatedly, but is that a slender boy? a girl? A rather androgynous young man turned towards me with hatred in his eyes.
Was Sefira"s previous figure a [Skill]……? I was supposed to report to Tina about the chest, but what will I tell her now?
No, no, that"s not it.
“You……”
I could only see Sefira as a “girl”. But Fannie said that Sefira was a “man”.
Why did she see that? While it might have been a [Skill], could it possibly be strong enough to mislead the eyes of a [Devil] and an [Archdemon]?
Even now, I still don"t know if the skills have entirely disappeared. But this feeling…… Somewhat…… no. In that one instance of consciousness, my knowledge as a [Devil] arrived at an answer.
“A hermaphrodite…… no, rather, I should call you a s.e.xless being?”
Sefira did not answer. But I could see the hatred in his eyes deepen.
That"s……… it, huh.
Because she"s neither man nor woman. Did you equip those fake chest pieces to represent the “weak” who was being discriminated by everyone in search of your “equal world”?
“……I hate them.”
“……Nn?”
As Sefira muttered under his breath, and I responded, his face looked up.
“……I hate humans. I hate school. I hate my parents. I hate everything that discriminates in this world. I hate Kyoji, who only sees women as tools. I hate Kanzo, who was born a man but wants to be a woman. I hate Minkichi, who was born a woman but threw her femininity away.”
Sefira harshly hissed, cursing the world on her knees, and jolted up.
“Every hero is the same! They are all hot-blooded idiots with no brains of their own who look down on others. That"s why I killed the hero who appeared in the war, and deprived him of his magic power, and lived for so long! The same goes for that hero of wind. Born and blessed with everything, did they ever struggle for their strength? No! So I made all of the other heroes kill him! And I took his pure magic and increased my own! This is no true equality!”
So that"s why…… Yuuki-kun had died for such a reason.
“………Ah?”
Sefira"s face froze and his expression hardened.
The look she gave me gradually stiffened, and then turned to fear.
What are you looking at? What"s so terrifying?
“Goodbye.”
And as I whispered to her, Sefira"s body shattered, and her black soul was sucked into me, disappearing.
……*burp*. Excuse me. Thank you for the meal.
What kind of expression did Sefira have towards me? Hmm. It was the visage of a Demonic smile, maybe. I"m sure.
Well, I"m done with my errands, but I think I forgot something……
“……UUOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
And at that instant, the existence I"d clean forgotten about jumped out at me with a yell.
“YurushiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
Holding the sword of Sefira was Keiji, the hero of water, attacking me the instant I was off-guard.
Was Keiji able to recover here as the hero?
Ah…… Tdaaa! Something caught my eye. And it was difficult to evade in time.
But, you know……
“Welcome home.”
I smiled softly towards him.
It wasn"t a smile for Keiji. This embarra.s.sed smile that I wouldn"t even dare to show myself was only for [Him].
“I"m back.”
The sword fell with a clang from Keiji"s hands, as a small brown hand pierced his chest from behind.
“I"ve received the [Pure magic ] and the [Souls] of the two heroes you"ve given me, Yurushia.”
“I"m so glad you"re moving again, Rinne”
Rinne and I smiled gently at each other, even as Keiji was twitching.
Rinne had the appearance of a beastman who was about 4~5 years old. He"s got cute cat ears too.
Still, the magic jewels filled with pure magic and the souls of the two heroes seems to have given him enough strength to come to this point between worlds.
“Now then, let"s finish this.”
Rinne, who was floating a little since he was tiny, made the “Demon"s whisper” in Keiji"s ears.
“Let me make your wish come true. Don"t you want great power?”
“……ah………”
As Keiji turned his eyes towards me for help, I was holding a box of laundry powder.
“Thank you for your consent.”
As I refreshed myself smiling at him to my heart"s content, Keiji"s eyes were dyed in despair, and his body was absorbed by Rinne.
He will become one of the strongest in histoy, but there"s no clause at all in his contract that his consciousness will remain.
“Is this it?”
“Oh my.”
As I watched, Rinne"s body grew to that of a 20-year-old. Was that something in between Keiji"s age and being a baby?
He"s pretty tall now. I think he"s one head taller than I am now, and his face no longer had the babyish looks of the beastmen, but was slightly j.a.panese.
His skintone was a rich olive tone, and he gave off the atmosphere of a “prince” from the middle east.
But, it doesn"t matter.
“Rinne, your cat ears are gone!!!”
“…… is that so important?”
He was stunned.
But paying close attention, it seems that his ears would grow out when he switched from his [Human mode] to his [Devilish Mode]. It"s good work.
Rinne was able to completely [Manifest] as a demon. Good, good.
“It"s not good. It"ll be very bad if we don"t go back soon. I"m not as strong as you are here. And there"s also multiple greater spirits coming towards us. And time flows strangely here. It may have been several months in the world below.”
“Wah, then let"s go back.”
If I took any longer, it would take me even longer to return to the Holy Kingdom.
Rinne offered his hand to me like a n.o.ble, and I took it, and together we returned to the world where my attendants awaited.
Author"s Notes:
Rinne took quite a while to become humanoid
I was worried about his body"s age, but it"s relatively close to Yuru"s.
Next time, the final chapter of this second series?
App"s Notes:
And here we are! We"re getting to the end of the second series, with only one more to go!
Piro"s Notes:
*squeeing like a teenage girl*