Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

—Now then, it’s time for my new life.

Akuto awoke. He had checked the day before, and it seemed most of the students – that is, everyone but Junko, Hiroshi, Keena, and the others – did not remember that Akuto was the demon king. In other words, he had been freed from his previous life.

—My life"s goal may have changed, but I still want to study hard so I can reform society from within. Ahh, an oddly worriless morning is a wonderful thing.

“Good morning,” said a voice from a shelf above his head.

Korone had spoken from her standard sleeping spot.

“Good morning. By the way, what happened to your job observing me?”

“The order no longer exists. At this rate, I will become a stray L’Isle-Adam. I could always ask Markt what to do, but sadly, that may mean we must say goodbye,” said Korone plainly.

—I see. So it isn’t all good.

“Tell me when you’re going to ask. I don’t want to have to say goodbye too suddenly.”

“I will. I plan to remain like this for a while. I am the only L’Isle-Adam to notice the large scale data alteration, so I would like to investigate it for a bit.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Akuto opened his window and looked outside.

“Wow,” he said without thinking.

The school building was half destroyed and the schoolyard was filled with holes. On top of that, the remains of the aircraft carrier were still lying around.

“I can definitely tell that fight was no dream.”

He opened a mana screen and watched the news. Naturally, they were talking about the incident.

The news reported on the damage done, the effects the destruction of the G.o.d would have on the system, and the serious influence that would have on society. But most importantly…

—So they really do think that. It looks like this is all over.

Akuto finished changing while filled with a hint of sorrow and a great refreshing feeling. He walked outside and Keena soon ran up to him.

“A-chan, good morning!”

“Good morning.”

Akuto nodded and looked toward Keena. She was acting the same as ever.

—It couldn’t be…

He had suspected that she might have been the one to cause this. In fact, he was almost certain of it.

“H-hey, about yesterday…”

“Yeah, yesterday was rough!” said Keena innocently.

“Well… Yes, it was. But were you the one that did that?”

“Did what?”

“The changes to everyone’s memories.”

“That wasn’t me. But it was me.”

Keena’s nonsensical comment left Akuto staring blankly at her.

“Eh? What…?”

“It doesn’t matter. Everyone’s fine, right? I haven’t seen Bouichirou-san since then, but I’m sure he’s okay. Ah ha ha.”

Keena laughed and Akuto decided that a lot of things really did not matter.

“You’re right. Everyone is fine, so it doesn’t matter. At the very least, I don’t need to think too much about it.”

Another voice then called out to them.

“Hey, hurry it up. The dorm students have a health inspection before breakfast because of the turmoil yesterday.”

It was Junko.

“Oh, Junko-san, about yesterday…”

“You idiot! Forget everything about yesterday! And why are you calling me Junko-san? Why are you starting to call me by my given name now?”

Junko continued to mutter complaints as she walked away from Akuto and Keena.

“Sorry, Hattori-san,” apologized Akuto as he followed her toward the infirmary.

“N-no…um… If you want to use my given name, you can do so. Yes,” said Junko without turning around.

“Th-thanks,” said Akuto in honest grat.i.tude.

“Y-you idiot. If you are not the demon king, I can approach you honestly. S-so, from now on…”

She trailed off.

“From now on?”

“D-don’t make me say it!”

Junko avoided the question and they arrived at the infirmary.

—I see. If I am not the demon king, there is so much more I can do. Leaving the issue of marriage aside, I can at least study with Hattori-san’s family.

As Akuto thought on that, his turn for the medical examination arrived. He only needed to sit in a chair and listen to an artificial spirit speak, so he continued thinking.

—And I won’t have to worry about my demon king powers during cla.s.s. It’s sad, but Peterhausen is gone now.

—Right, the demon king. With that power gone, I can redo my education and…

—Right. And speaking of the demon king… Wait.

Akuto raised his head as he realized everyone around him was muttering amongst themselves.

Everyone was staring at him.

said the infirmary’s artificial spirit, Yatagarasu.

“Th-the demon king!?”

“He’s been reborn after a single day?”

“No, he must have been the demon king from the beginning.”

“Ahh, and we were friends up until now. Come to think of it, he did have a cruel side to him!”

—W-wait a second!

Akuto’s chair clattered as he hurriedly stood up.

The only one looking at him in the same way as before was Keena. For some reason, even Junko looked like she was about to cut him down.

“D-d.a.m.n you! How many times must you betray me!? If you were not the demon king, I was even thinking I could share everything of myself with you!”

Junko was so worked up that she accidentally exposed how she truly felt.

Naturally, this caused a commotion among the other students.

“What!? He was toying with that straight-laced cla.s.s rep!?”

“That’s a demon king for you! How horrible can he be!?”

—W-wah! No… That isn’t it!

“N-no. Please, wait everyone!” Akuto raised his voice. “In this context, the term demon king refers to the one who will destroy the system of society. You could also say it is another name for a G.o.d slayer. And we now know that it means nothing for an individual to be the demon king. Isn’t that right?”

Akuto spoke articulately and without hesitation. For that reason, the other students listened to him, but the fact that it was so easy to listen to meant they fully grasped his argument.

One of his cla.s.smates asked, “But doesn’t this mean you are objecting to the G.o.ds’ decision?”

“Wait…no… That isn’t what I meant. The G.o.ds are nothing but a system and they can be used for arbitrary reasons. Even so, I believe using that system is necessary for the sake of the future. However, I must support a path of gradually reducing the number of people using that system.”

Akuto frantically tried to smooth things over. However…

“Isn’t that the theory held by the black magicians?”

“So that’s what he meant when he said it means nothing for an individual to be the demon king. Now that the demon king is dead, he plans to start a terrorist group.”

Akuto truly started to panic now.

“No! You are all saying too much when you do not understand what the demon king is. The demon king is a human with modified mana that the G.o.ds themselves create so he can kill the G.o.ds. That means he is forced to take actions opposed to the G.o.ds, but that does not in itself mean that he must do evil or destroy the system of society!”

“He’s started to contradict himself…”

“And isn’t he a little too knowledgeable about the demon king?”

—c.r.a.p. That information hasn’t been made public.

“Please wait! What I ultimately want to say is that the dead demon king has taught us that the G.o.ds are an illusion. And that means the demon king himself was an illusion as well. Look at reality! The G.o.ds are a system and I, the one telling you this, actually exist in front of you!”

Akuto puffed his chest out with pride.

Silence fell over the infirmary. However, that silence did not come from the crowd being impressed by Akuto’s words.

—H-huh?

He looked around to find his cla.s.smates completely afraid of him.

“I get it… He’s announcing that the demon king never really died.”

“If the demon king from yesterday was an illusion… that means he isn’t dead!”

—I-I feel like this has happened before.

Akuto felt a cold sweat on his brow.

And…

“Akuto! You always do such unnecessary things!”

Junko had drawn the Sword of Sohaya. It was no longer under the effects of Suhara, but it was still an item of tremendous power. Junko began striking Akuto with the back of that rainbow-glowing sword.

“Wah!”

Akuto blocked with his arms and focused mana in them. Yesterday, that would have been an easy task. However…

“Ee!”

“Eh? W-w-wah!”

Akuto could not control the power leaking form his arms and an explosion burst out.

—N-no… Something is wrong…

The cold looks everyone was giving him hurt. He had half-destroyed the infirmary and the entire school knew about him by this point. He had somehow made it to cla.s.s, but even Mitsuko-sensei, his homeroom teacher and the school doctor, was giving him a cold look because of the damage to the infirmary.

“Let’s see. A demon king has appeared in our cla.s.s, so I think there will be a bit of confusion for a while. However, he has been allowed to stay in our cla.s.s because he has yet to do anything evil,” said Mitsuko-sensei as if complaining.

“I am the L’Isle-Adam sent as the demon king’s observer. Please call me Korone. You may feel as if I was already a part of this cla.s.s, but that is just your imagination,” said Korone while standing beside the teacher’s lectern and wearing a school uniform.

Akuto was fed up trying to say anything, so he just lay his head down on his desk.

But then Mitsuko-sensei continued speaking.

“Um, I apologize for interrupting during the confusion of gaining a new friend, but allow me to introduce another transfer student. She is a scholarship student from overseas. Please get along well with her. Come in, Keena-chan.”

—A transfer student in the middle of all this confusion? I hope it’s someone who won’t be too afraid of me… Wait? Keena?

Akuto looked up.

A blonde girl with a cute and innocent smile walked in.

Akuto’s eyes were glued to her.

But not because of her looks. A hair decoration with a bird design glittered in her hair.

—Th-that’s the hair decoration I gave Keena when I left the orphanage.

Akuto stood up without thinking and the girl’s gaze stopped on him.

“I-it’s you!”

She ran past the lectern and all the way to Akuto’s desk in the very back. She then wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Do you remember your promise from the orphanage? My name is Keena! I’ve wanted to see you for so long!”

The blonde girl going by the name Keena spoke with a foreign accent.

—Eh? There are two Keenas?

Akuto looked over at the red-haired Keena. She was sitting in her seat and was looking up at Akuto and the blonde Keena with a look of surprise.

“Ahh, I will never let you go, my darling!” said the blonde Keena.