Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

After falling into the jungle, Akuto groaned in pain while holding Keena.

“That isn’t something to mimic on the fly like that…”

“Ah ha ha ha! You were surprisingly good at falling on the leaves.”

Nonimora laughed happily as she watched Akuto. She had landed on the ground with almost no impact at all by gradually jumping down from leaf to leaf while softening the impact with each tall leaf.

Akuto had tried to mimic her, but he had been holding Keena and most of the branches had broken under his weight. He had fallen straight to the ground, so he might have been seriously injured had it not been after the fall that the mana had cut out.

“Are you okay, A-chan?”

Keena was clearly worried about him.

He did not want to too readily say he was fine, so he moved his body a bit before nodding.

“It seems so. The lack of mana is really obvious. These trees really must be absorbing it.”

“That means the hard part is only just beginning.” Keena sounded worried. “And we only have the rice I brought with me.”

Korone fell from the sky after a slight delay because she had used a parachute.

She landed a short distance away, and after they waited a little longer, she appeared through the trees with the parachute wrapped around her hands.

“It seems I cannot use mana,” she said. “I can use my internal battery, but combat is out of the question. For the same reason, I cannot produce any tools. If I eat like the rest of you, I can convert it into energy, but I will not last more than two weeks.”

“That makes this difficult. We really are going to have to walk out of here.”

Realizing this might be more serious than he though, Akuto placed a hand on his chin.

But Nonimora spoke up cheerfully.

“Don’t worry. The island is small enough to walk from one side to the other in just a few days. And the trees here were modified long ago.”

She ran forward, shinnied up a nearby tree, and jumped down while holding what looked like a large ball.

“You can eat this fruit. They grow all around, so we won’t have trouble finding food. Also, some trees glow at night and some produce water.”

She threw the spherical fruit toward Akuto.

When he caught the fruit and looked closely at its hard skin, he saw thin lines much like the stiches on a soccer ball. When he put some pressure on it, the skin easily broke open and he found a white fruit inside. Nonimora’s expression made it clear he should eat it, so he tore off a piece of fruit. It did not seem to have much moisture and it felt like tearing off a piece of a sponge. He put it in his mouth and found it was halfway between bread and potato.

“I see. So it’s a ma.s.s of carbohydrates.”

“Yeah.” Nonimora nodded in satisfaction. “It’s the blessing of nature.”

“Can you really call this natural after modifying it so much?”

He was simply honestly speaking his thoughts, but she pouted her lips angrily.

“It’s more unnatural to think the work of humans isn’t natural. Whether you’re talking about buildings or L’Isle-Adams, they’re natural as long as they’re functioning as they were designed to.” She pointed at Korone. “What isn’t natural is when they don’t do what they’re supposed to. Forcing yourself to do something or going too far is the one unnatural thing. Taking more food than you can eat, continuing to work when you’re tired, continuing to attack someone who has surrendered, or fighting back after you surrender and they stop are all unnatural. If you don’t live naturally, you’ll overlook the blessings of nature.”

“I pride myself in my natural behavior,” said Korone calmly.

Akuto was not sure what to say about Korone’s comment, but he understood what Nonimora meant. And he wanted to understand that thinking even further.

“Then even a theme park is natural?”

Nonimora nodded.

“It was created to be an enjoyable place and that’s what it is. Enjoying your life there is natural. A lot of people think that we’re believing a lie, but what exactly is truth? We naturally want to know what is true, but taking that too far is unnatural. We can only know the truth as far as science can teach us. Thinking about the truth of anything beyond that is going too far.”

Akuto had a feeling she was criticizing him, but he understood her point. He needed more flexibility in his thoughts.

“Even so, there are a lot of people who fully believe lies,” he said.

She nodded again.

“That may be the case, but if we live naturally we can talk it out. Spending more than a day alone is unnatural. The problem with you main islanders is that you always live alone and force yourselves to meet other people.”

“You’re right about that,” said Akuto with a nod.

Keena then spoke up sounding displeased.

“Hey, A-chan. We shouldn’t be sitting around like this.”

It was not like Keena to say that, but she was right. Akuto raised a hand and spoke to Nonimora.

“I apologize for cutting our conversation short, but we do have to start moving.”

“That’s right,” said Nonimora. “Wherever we might be, we just have to head west. Once we see a tall tower, we’ll know where the village is.”

“A-chan, take the luggage.”

Keena called over Akuto while standing next to a suitcase she had thrown out during the crash.

“Fine. By the way, do you have the Jewel Branch of Hourai?”

She pulled the Jewel Branch of Hourai’s box out from her own bag she carried.

“Here it is. Don’t worry.”

As she returned the box to her bag, she let out a quick shriek.

“What is it?”

“A bug flew toward me.”

“A bug? Hey, are there bugs around here?”

Akuto found it odd since this was an artificial jungle.

“Even if this place is artificial, the plants are still alive, so they need insects to carry pollen. There’s nothing that attacks people, so don’t worry.”

“I see.”

As Akuto lifted up the suitcase, Keena wrapped her arm around his.

“Let’s go.”

“Sure.”

He nodded and she began walking while pulling on his arm. But she almost fell forward because he did not move.

“C’mon, A-chan. You have to come with me.”

She puffed out her cheeks.

“Um, Keena? I think that’s east.”

“Eh?”

“That’s right.” Nonimora smiled. “The direction all the tree branches are growing is east.”

“Do not worry. I have a compa.s.s installed,” said Korone while pointing accurately to the west.

“Mhh. Then let’s go that way.”

Keena began walking.

Normally, Keena would have been the most cheerful one. Even in this situation, she would have been walking along while singing.

“Is something the matter?” asked Akuto.

“Nothing,” she answered.

But she refused to let go of his arm. Akuto was already restricted from flying and this made it all the more difficult for him to walk.

“Why don’t you move away a bit?” he asked.

He was not being bashful and he was not annoyed with her. He simply felt it was inefficient to have her there. However, Keena did not seem to take it that way.

“Uuh… Don’t say it like that.”

She complained while looking up at him with teary eyes.

“What is with you?”

He was unsure what to do, so he simply walked west without saying anything more.

After a while, an obviously inorganic tower came into view through the trees. The only other tall objects on the island were trees, so it made a perfect landmark sticking up well above everything else.

“That’s the tower, right?”

“Yes. It contains the ship to the star.”

“It’s there? How tall is the tower?”

“Less than a thousand meters I think.”

The tower was a straight cylinder colored a shiny silver. They could not make out the details from a distance, but something like a glowing jewel was located at the very top.

“Even if we can see it now, we must still be pretty far away. What is that glowing thing on the top?”

“That is a sign. It’s made to change color when the Formless Power is being used. The Formless Power produced good power only when being used by a good heart. Otherwise, it will eventually destroy the user’s entire race. That sign lets us know if it’s being used by a good heart.”

Nonimora began climbing up a tree a short distance away.

“It will take two days if we keep walking this slowly. Night will fall soon, so find a sleeping tree. Also find something to eat and drink.”

Given the height of the tower, she was probably right.

“Understood.” Akuto shouted up to Nonimora. “What do you mean by a sleeping tree?”

“The trunks of some trees glow and they have big leaves. You just have to take some of those leaves.”

That reply was followed by a few fruits flying toward Akuto.

Some were large and some were small, but he caught them all. Nonimora then dropped down and landed on his shoulders.

“I’m impressed you caught them all,” she said with a smile.

“Did you throw them at me a.s.suming I couldn’t?” He smiled too. “That’s a problem.”

“What kind of fruit is this?”

Keena half climbed up Akuto’s arm and peered at the fruits he held.

“The small ones are food and the big ones have juice inside.”

Nonimora stood up and ran ahead, but she soon turned back and called toward the others.

“I see a glowing trunk over here. Let’s get some sleep.”

They followed and did indeed find a strange tree that gave off a faint light from its trunk. The straight trunk looked like that of a palm tree, but it also looked like a fluorescent light sticking vertically from the ground.

“Is this made to help anyone who gets lost here? It seems a little too convenient to me.”

“If too many people lived here, the trees would be gone before long.”

“Does your village have a restriction on children?”

Akuto tried to continue the serious conversation, but Keena tugged on his arm and cut him off.

“Forget about that. I want to eat.”

Keena looked unexpectedly troubled, so he put down the suitcase to create a place for Keena to sit and began peeling one of the fruits.

“Sorry. Are you hungry?”

“That’s not it…”

Keena’s odd lack of energy worried Akuto.

“If anything is bothering you, just tell me.”

“Mh,” she groaned. “I’m fine.”

He was unsure how to respond to that.

“Fine, but do tell me if there is something.”

He tried to be as kind as possible, took the soft, futon-sized leaves that Nonimora carried over, and cleared the rocks from the ground.

“The sun is setting, so let’s eat and go to sleep.”

Nonimora called over Keena and Korone and then sat down.

“This might be hard for you if you’re not used to it, but it’s only for one more day,” she said. “You can rest easy knowing this is the only night you’ll have to do this.”

“I’ll be fine, so worry about Keena,” said Akuto. “But if we eat like this for too long, we might not get enough sodium, so we can’t keep this up. And in Keena’s case, the lack of rice might be the problem.”

He turned toward Keena, but she restlessly ate the fruit and said nothing.

Once Nonimora finished eating, she immediately lay down to sleep.

“It isn’t cold, but you can place the leaf over you if you want. I’d like to have hem-hem, but we need to preserve our strength.”

She was snoring in no time.

“That’s kind of amazing. Should we get to sleep too?” asked Akuto.

Keena nodded, but then said “excuse me” and walked off.

Akuto a.s.sumed she was using the bathroom and Nonimora had told them how to recognize the trees meant for that purpose.

“By the way…”

After Keena disappeared into the trees, Korone brought her face in toward Akuto after remaining fairly inconspicuous up to that point.

“Wah! What is it?”

“Now that the empress is not here, I would like to point out that she seems worried about something.”

“I agree. I just wish she would tell me what the trouble is.”

“I know what it is. It is you.”

This answer surprised Akuto.

“Really?”

“It is because you are giving Nonimora-san too much attention,” declared Korone.

“Well, I am talking with her a lot now, but that’s because-…”

“I know you are not doing so maliciously. But please try to remember that the throne is a burden to her. Right now, you are behaving more like the demon king than a normal person. Of course, that is due to who you are, so it is unavoidable.”

“That’s going a little too far… But it is true I may have been too focused on trying to do something about everything that’s going on. Normal people don’t talk about entire nations like that.”

He was a little confused, but he somewhat understood.

“Precisely. But it is also true that the empress must think about the larger world for a while. And that larger world may even go beyond the level of nations.”

“You mean the Formless Power?”

“That power seems to be connected to her, so it is only natural she would feel uneasy. Unlike you, she does not have the confidence needed to wield such great power.”

“You may be right.”

Akuto felt embarra.s.sed over his own nature. Nonimora had a sort of philosophy and he had something similar, even if it had a different focus. On top of that, he could sympathize with Nonimora’s way of thinking. He sensed something in her that could reform the empire. But he now realized that Keena wanted him to move away from that. All of the girls around him were unusual in some way or another. Keena was especially unusual, but her lifestyle was not all that different from a normal girl’s.

“I need to apologize.”

“Apologizing is not enough.”

Korone readily rejected Akuto’s suggestion.

“Eh? Then what am I supposed to do?”

“That is simple. You make love to her. Or as we seem to be calling it recently: hem-hem.”

“C’mon, stop joking.”

Akuto waited for Korone to reply, but she never spoke up to admit it was a joke.

“You aren’t joking?”

“I am fairly serious.”

“Fairly?”

“About 90%. The remaining 10% is s.e.xual teasing.”

“Y’know…”

“At any rate, the empress wishes to reduce her unease. I am not telling you to penetrate her. I doubt that is what she wants right now.”

“Penetrate…?”

“That word choice was 90% s.e.xual teasing. But be that as it may, please love her. Even embracing her would work.”

“Hm…. You might be right.”

Akuto began to seriously worry about the issue.

“I will now enter power-saving mode, aka sleep. Please take your time and deal with this.”

Korone sat next to Nonimora and closed her eyes. She seemed to be restricting her own functions.

That was when Keena returned.

“The toilet tree is amazing.”

She sounded excited and more like her usual self.

“You don’t have to get into the details.”

Akuto replied as he always would and rolled on his side. Keena lay down next to him and they remained silent for a while.

The sun had fully set and the glowing tree covered Keena’s face in pale light. The leaves of the trees completely hid the sky and the occasional glowing tree in the distance provided dim light much like streetlights in a lonely town.

“A lot has happened,” began Akuto.

“Eh?”

Keena sounded surprised.

“I thought I should apologize.”

She then replied in an unexpectedly light voice.

“But you haven’t done anything worth apologizing for, A-chan.”

“Still…” His voice grew more and more serious. “I feel like I haven’t been thinking about you much lately.”

“Eh heh heh.”

Hearing that, she gave a careless laugh and moved closer to him.

“If you finally understand, that’s all that matters.”

“It must be tough. For me, it’s become nothing more than another part of everyday life.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s tough,” she whispered back. “It’s somehow scary.”

“Scary?”

“There’s a me who isn’t me.”

“Yeah. I know about that to a certain extent.”

“I think that other me can do way more amazing things than the real me. She might be able to do things I really can’t do.”

“I know that too.”

He started to feel he understood the fear she felt.

“So when you’re doing all this amazing stuff, I started feeling that you need the other me instead of me,” she said as her voice grew quieter.

“It looked to me like you were getting along pretty well with that other you.”

“That’s what scares me. I can’t tell how much of me is actually me. But there’s still the normal me and I can’t really do all that much…”

She began speaking more quickly to hide the trembling in her voice. Noticing that, Akuto looked over and she turned away, but not before he had seen the slight twinkling of tears in her eyes.

“Keena.”

He called out, but she did not turn back around.

“So I felt like you were only paying attention to me for the other me and I was thinking about something I could do for you and that the other me couldn’t do. I thought you might feel you needed me if I could have hem-hem with you.”

As she spoke, she began sobbing enough to be noticeable from the side.

“The other me is like me in some ways, so she’s still me, but sometimes I realize I’ve been doing things that aren’t like me and sometimes I talk as the other me instead of me, so I wonder if the things I’m doing are really me or not.”

Her shoulders started trembling as she began confusing even herself, so Akuto pulled her close and embraced her.

“Hyah!” she shrieked.

“Um… I’m not sure I can put it in words well, but I’ll try.”

He brought his mouth to her ear as if burying his face in her hair.

“Y-yeah…”

She had completely stiffened.

“You are important to me. I need you, but it has nothing to do with how useful you are. What’s important to me is how you eat rice all the time and how you take naps next to me. What I need you to do is be with me for no real reason. Having no reason is the best reason for me.”

As he whispered to her, he gathered strength in his arms.

She let out a short breath and trembled.

“Sorry. Did that hurt?”

“No. I was just really happy.”

She began squirming and turned her body to face him.

“This is…kind of embarra.s.sing.”

Akuto blushed as he looked directly into her eyes.

She did the same.

“But it’s better to face each other,” she said while hiding her face in his chest.

“Yeah.”

He moved up one arm and wrapped her hair around his fingers. While holding her head to his chest, he gently stroked her.

“That tickles.”

She drew back her head but then raised it to look up.

Akuto drew his head back too and their gazes met.

Neither of them could look away now.

The silence was filled with nothing but the thick rhythm of their exhaled breaths and beating hearts. Tension surrounded them and it felt like either of their voices would cause it to burst.

“…Do you want to do it?” she asked.

Akuto was unsure what to say.

As time pa.s.sed and he remained silent, they simply stared into each other’s eyes.

He moved his fingers from inside her hair and slid them down the back of her neck.

She let out a quiet voice.

And…

“Don’t have hem-hem in secret!”

Akuto and Keena moved apart as quickly as if they had leaped back.

They timidly turned toward Nonimora, but for some reason, the girl was drooling and fast asleep.

“She was talking in her sleep,” said Keena in surprise.

“That’s one h.e.l.l of a thing to say in your sleep,” complained Akuto.

But then the two of them laughed a bit.

“I think I’ll go to sleep too,” said Keena before innocently leaping into his chest.

“Yeah, it’s about time we did.”

He wrapped an arm below her head and she curled up on her side using his arm as a pillow and resting her knees on his thigh.

“But something’s bound to happen next time.”

“Eh?”

Akuto tried to ask what she had said, but he received no reply. She was already giving the quiet breaths of sleep.

“Milady, that would be difficult.”

That pathetic-sounding comment was made by a young member of the Hattori ninja forces.

“But we have all the equipment here, right?”

Yuuko attempted to force through her request.

She was in the communications room of the headquarters at a port town a few dozen minutes by train from the capital. Four operators stood in front of the communications equipment covering one wall, but Yuuko had asked their chief to send their own footage out to the imperial people.

While Hiroshi was being sent out, she wanted to do something to help him.

“That isn’t the issue. It is probably CIMO 8’s doing, but all our footage is being supervised by the cabinet. It would be technically possible, but no one wants to be responsible.”

The ninja in a military uniform drew back from and tried to oppose Yuuko who also wore a military uniform.

“The responsibility can lie with my father.”

“Please do not be ridiculous. Listen. The Hattori ninja forces specialize in information warfare and we do not want to be manipulated by CIMO 8, but this goes beyond authority. The entire network is being monitored.”

“Really?” asked Yuuko in surprise.

“Yes. In this day and age, anyone can send a guerrilla message over the network, but the cabinet office is somehow preventing any footage from being sent over the network. Not only is the news being censored, but it is being actively provided by the cabinet office. And it differs from the information we are receiving,” warned the ninja.

But Yuuko was not going to back down.

“Brave is heading to the scene. If we show them that, everyone will realize the truth.”

“That may be true, but how are we going to prove that CIMO 8 wants war with the Republic? We can’t do anything without that proof.”

“We just have to find that proof at the scene.”

“We cannot sacrifice the Hattori family for something so uncertain. Please understand, milady. If it does come to war, we will win, so everything else is a trivial matter.”

“That doesn’t make it okay. Everyone thinks it’s okay to go to war with the Republic because they don’t know what it is.”

Yuuko gave a troubled look behind her and saw Yoshie and Keisu who Junko had called in to help.

“Unfortunately, the operator is right.”

Yoshie folded her arms and thought. She had heard most of the details when she went to rescue Hiroshi from Rubbers and she had heard that The One had some kind of conspiracy.

“No one will believe this without proof. If it wasn’t for our past experiences with CIMO 8, even we would probably laugh off this incident with The One.”

“Then what are you saying we do? Brave is already on his way.”

Yuuko pointed at the mana screen being displayed by Yoshie’s handheld device. It showed the footage provided by Hiroshi as he was flying over a seemingly never-ending ocean. The footage was being sent directly to Yoshie, so it was not on the network.

“If the operator is right and we can’t send this over the network, an electronic warfare expert must be behind it. This is superhuman. Their codename must be the Electronic Fairy or something like that.”

Yoshie nodded repeatedly.

“That’s enough of that.”

“Really? Anyway, we have two possibilities. The first is to defeat this Electronic Fairy, but I don’t think I can. I hurts my pride as a hacker to admit it, but I have no information to work off of here.”

“And the other?” asked Yuuko expectantly.

Yoshie gave a bitter smile.

“That one’s simple but difficult. We convince the prime minister.”

“Eh?”

“The prime minister leads the cabinet and commands the military. At the moment, the prime minister is just doing what his intelligence office tells him to do. In other words, he’s listening to USD.”

“Oh, I get it. But there’s no way we can do that!”

Yuuko pouted her lips, but Yoshie grinned.

“Even so, we still have a chance. If we send some choice information over the network, it will reach USD. And since he was betrayed, we can a.s.sume he doesn’t like what The One is doing. At the very least, we can show him something. After that, it’s an internal problem for CIMO 8.”

“Do we really have to bet on something that might not work?” complained Yuuko.

Yoshie smiled in return.

“You were already planning to bet your entire family on something that might not work. A nice bet is pretty exciting, though. But when you get down to it, the show is only just beginning.”

Yoshie fell into her old habits and started speaking more casually.

“About that show,” hesitantly spoke up the ninja.

“What is it?” asked Yoshie.

“It really has begun now,” he said nervously.

“So it’s finally begun for real.”

Yoshie compared the footage from Hiroshi and the CIMO 8 approved news. Rewinding Hiroshi’s footage showed that a mana beam had fallen from the sky.

“Ah ha. So the first one to strike was their Codename Esper.”

The censored news only showed what happened a few seconds later: a Republic submarine fired a missile.

“If only Brave’s footage was clearer.”

“He flies surprisingly slowly.”

“Esper probably began the attack after sensing Brave’s approach,” muttered Yoshie. “That means Brave might not make it in time.”

“Are you saying CIMO 8 planned all this?”

“Probably,” answered Yoshie. “I bet it was them that cut off contact with the empress’s private ship as well.”

The ninja nodded.

“It would seem the Republic is attempting to avoid a fight. Instead of repeatedly attacking, they are fleeing while their king tries to make official contact. However, it seems the prime minister is doing nothing more than giving a curt greeting. Having the prime minister handle this is legally correct, but this would not have happened if we could contact the empress. They were trying to contact her earlier, after all.”

Hearing that, Yuuko approached the ninja with a clearly displeased look.

“If you know that much, why didn’t you stop this war?”

“Well…” He gave a troubled shake of the head. “When there are those in the highest levels who want a war, there is no way to stop it. Also, we didn’t know it would turn out this way. Just think about it. The empire has not fought an external war in over a thousand years. In fact, there is nothing that could pose an external threat. We had never even considered the possibility of starting a war before.”

“That’s right. What everyone feared was the demon king devastating the empire from within. The only thing anyone talks about is not letting another demon king show up. But now that we’ve made external contact, it’s obvious that this empire’s entire system could become the aggressor. No, it might be that it already has.”

Yoshie pointed at her mana screen.

It showed Kei sinking the Republic’s submarines, one after another.

“Am I not going to make it in time?”

Hiroshi decided they must have planned it this way.

As he flew across the ocean that never seemed to end, it irritated him a bit how the lack of any obstacles allowed him to see the distant attacks.

—I tried to look so cool back there, but will I be able to do anything at all?

He was not fully aware what was going on between Kei and the Republic’s submarines, but he could tell Kei was attacking the submarines in order to provoke them. He could also see the news being broadcast across the empire thanks to Yuuko and the others sending it to him.

The footage had a time lag and it was obviously manipulated, but a single story played out there: negotiations had broken down due to the Republic and they had started attacking the empire.

Footage of sinking submarines was already reaching him. He was about to catch up, but he was worried they had already been wiped out.

He heard a roar and a pillar of water rose high into the sky. Once he finally arrived, the battle was mostly over. He had happened across the final ship being sunk.

A large portion of the ocean surface was filled with bubbles from the destroyed and sinking submarines. A film of oil and scattered parts floated up along with the bubbles.

Someone Hiroshi had seen once before floated in the air above. Given the sequence of events, the boy had to have been there for several days without any supplies, but his beauty had not diminished in the slightest. Kei was just as elegant, bewitching, and cruelly charming as ever.

And the actions Kei had taken were just as…no, even crueler than his appearance. Unfamiliar people had been lifted up into the sky using his magic power. Their skin color was a bit different from the imperial people. The biggest difference was the fin-shaped things on their arms. It was obvious they lived in the sea, but their silhouettes were definitely human. Those humans were forcibly held afloat with expressions of pain. There were around thirty of them, so they were likely the crew of several submarines. Seeing a single demon king holding that many people in the air brought fear up from the depths of Hiroshi’s heart.

Hiroshi uneasily predicted the even uglier and impossible to ignore moment that was coming.

With a casual motion, Kei telekinetically tore off one of their heads.

Blood spurted ten meters upwards and it poured down like a shower. Kei fixed even that blood in place. Like water floating in zero gravity, countless scarlet drops colored the surrounding s.p.a.ce.

This was truly shocking to anyone who could estimate how much magic power this would take, but it was even more frightening how much Kei was enjoying it.

The other people of the Republic grimaced in the air as they guessed they would be killed in turn. But Kei betrayed their expectations by ripping all of them in half at once. They remained conscious for a few seconds afterwards, so they all gained expressions of disbelief. Kei seemed to have been antic.i.p.ating that reaction because he gave a satisfied smile after seeing their expressions.

Hiroshi saw it all clearly. He was using the zoomed-in footage from the camera on his suit, but he saw the expressions of the people from the Republic and the look on Kei’s face.

After a short delay, the words cruelty, brutality, fear, and anger filled his mind. He felt something hard press against the core of his body and a hot emotion quickly filled him. He could hear nothing as something pressed out from within and threatened to explode. He was most likely shouting.

It was only then that Kei turned toward Hiroshi. He had likely known Hiroshi was there the entire time. It was possible he had hastened the killing because of it.

In a contrast to Hiroshi, Kei’s expression was cool.

“Has anyone ever shown off a slaughter so beautifully? Were you the only one in the audience? Unfortunately, their king wasn’t there.”

Kei smiled gently toward Hiroshi.

His appearance was almost enough to cool down Hiroshi’s heated head.

A giant sphere floated in the sky and it was made of countless smaller scarlet spheres. The droplets glittered in the sunlight. As they blew in the wind, fantastical rainbow-colored waves spread across the sphere’s surface. The beautiful boy spread his arms in the center. It looked like a well-composed painting and it may well have been a piece of artwork made by Kei. He was aware of his appearance and ability, so he had used the lives of others to show them both off.

“I don’t care about that! Stay where you are!”

Hiroshi charged in, ordered his suit to activate the mana canceler, and set all the weapons except the plasma b.a.l.l.s on standby.

“Please don’t rush this.” Kei shook one hand. “The beauty has only just begun.”

The scarlet sphere began to drop as if gravity had started working once more. b.l.o.o.d.y rain poured down on the surrounding area.

The blood produced a rainbow.

It was most likely no different from a normal rainbow, but the colors looked horribly strange.

“Defeating you is easy!”

Hiroshi tore apart the rainbow as he flew, but Kei flew backwards to avoid him.

“I know that, which is why I’m running away. You’re borrowing that suit, but it’s yours for as much as you’re authorized to do. Unfortunately, I don’t know when it will be taken from you.”

“I don’t care!” shouted Hiroshi. “I’ll do whatever I can! Stop running!”

Kei’s actions and words were light as he evaded.

“No thanks. Since you still have your suit, it means he has allowed you to kill me. I did what I came here to do, so I just have to run away.”

Kei seemed to slide through the air and he produced a transfer circle there. A moment later, he slipped inside it and vanished.

“Wait! What do you hope to gain with this!?”

Hiroshi’s shout echoed futilely across the ocean as the b.l.o.o.d.y rain covered the surface.

Yuuko’s voice helped Hiroshi partially regain his calm. He was not aware of it himself, but he may have been shouting for a long time.

“Kita-san’s equipment proved useful. I’m thankful.”

He touched the camera and communicator attached to his suit’s helmet.

“I’ll return after filming the ocean surface.”

He approached the area of ocean where the tragedy had occurred and recorded it. The blood had mixed with the seawater and lost its color, but sharks were already gathering around the corpses floating here and there.

He heard Yuuko, but he did not know what else to say. He could give into his anger and hurt the sharks, but it would accomplish nothing.

He then noticed that one of the objects being attacked by sharks was not a human corpse. A single dolphin was floating on the surface after presumably getting caught in the middle of the battle. Its fins had been bitten off and its white stomach was pointed upwards. A shark was biting at it from below and it would occasionally shake.

—If it was only caught in the middle of all this, I feel sorry for it.

As Hiroshi watched, he saw a different movement from the dolphin’s stomach.

“Eh?”

The dolphin’s stomach swelled up as if something was pushing from within.

Then a blade stabbed out from inside the dolphin and sliced its stomach open front to back.

“Someone’s coming out.”

Hiroshi prepared for a possible fight.

After the dolphin’s stomach split open, an arm came out and Hiroshi instantly realized it belonged to someone from the Republic.

—Come to think of it, he said something about not getting their king.

The king had supposedly been aboard the advance fleet of submarines.

A young man with an imposing build appeared while covered in dolphin blood. Sharp eyes turned toward Hiroshi though the hair plastered to the man’s face with blood.

“At the very least, I am the enemy of your enemy,” said Hiroshi.

The Republic man slipped from the dolphin’s stomach and into the ocean. Drawn by the scent of blood, several sharks approached the young man. With a flash of his knife, he grazed the tops of their noses which was enough to keep them away.

He lowered his head toward the ocean, placed the knife in a case on his waist, and rubbed seawater on his face. He used both hands to smooth his hair back, revealing the wild and fearless face below.

“It was painful, but I saw what happened outside. I do not know who you are, but I thank you for crying out for my men.”

The young man’s voice carried well and his tone held calm and sincerity.

“I am ashamed to be the lone survivor, but they went as far as to kill an innocent dolphin to save me. I cannot do anything to reward you now, but ask me anything once I end this. I am Marine, King of the Republic.”

“I am Brave,” said Hiroshi.

Marine nodded and started back into the ocean. In that instant, Hiroshi felt a stir in his heart, and he found himself yelling for Marine to stop.

“Please wait!”

“What is it?”

The man looked up and Hiroshi held out a hand.

“Let me work for you.”

Marine looked puzzled.

“I have no reason to have you do that. Give it some thought and make sure this is not a momentary emotion.”

Hiroshi was unsure what to say, but he held his hand out once more.

“Then at least let me work for you until you can meet the empress.”

“The empress?”

“I have heard the situation. If you wish for a peaceful resolution to the succession issue, then we want the same thing.”

After a moment of thought, Marine took Hiroshi’s hand.

“I thank you, hero.”

Meanwhile, Fujiko visited an apartment near the academy.

Normally, a young girl visiting an apartment would have a s.e.xual undertone, but that nuance was wholly absent from Fujiko’s visit. If anything, it resembled a break-in.

“You will be giving me answers.”

She hung a rope down from above the apartment ceiling and wrapped it around the neck of the man sitting in the room. The tea table was overturned, the ramen bowl had rolled off and the noodles and soup had spilled over the floor.

“Wh-what answers?”

The man who kicked his legs and was unable to resist the lightly tightened rope around his neck had terribly unruly hair and bizarre gla.s.ses. He was Suzuki Issei, the former leader of the black magicians. He had protected the secrets of the black magicians until Fujiko – the very person strangling him now – had stolen them from him. After that, he had been captured by the priests, so he had wanted nothing more to do with her. But just as his life was getting back on track, Fujiko had appeared before him and there was nothing he could do.

“There is something I cannot understand just from the doc.u.ments,” said Fujiko. “Or perhaps I should say there is something I was able to see because of the doc.u.ments.”

She already had the black magician information she had stolen from Issei. It had almost all been technical information and had contained almost nothing on their network or origins. As such, that was what she wanted to ask about. As her elder, he would know more about the black magicians’ origins due to hearsay and his experiences.

“Is there a connection between the Republic and the black magicians?”

“Is that all you want to know? …Oh, I guess there isn’t about that in the black magician database that my pa.s.sword let you access.”

He spoke while struggling to breath and pointed at his neck to tell her to loosen the rope.

She did so and asked again.

“Does that mean there is a connection?”

“I have no real proof, but it came to me as soon as I heard about the Republic’s origins. When the empire was formed, I a.s.sume those who espouse absolute freedom left and made their own nation.”

“I believe Kazuko said all such people died.”

“You saw the database, didn’t you? It says the same thing, so this is speculation on my part. They might have some records on the matter in the Republic. I don’t know what you’re so desperate to find, but if you seek absolute freedom as the ideal of black magic, you should join the Republic.”

Issei’s casual wording caused Fujiko to tighten the rope.

“Don’t tell me you actually know nothing.”

“Ah… Th-that isn’t quite it. Let me tell you.”

He cleared his throat to begin speaking again.

“You aren’t making this up because you can’t breathe, are you?”

“No, I’m serious. …The demon king system has always been an internal thing. When you create a social system by building G.o.ds, everyone has access to all those resources. But to prevent people from killing each other, you set rules. And the one who deviates from those rules is the demon king.”

“You mentioned this before.”

“Yes, but after learning about the Republic, I realized this only applies inside the empire.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even if you reformed the current system and created a world based on the black magicians’ ideals, mankind would not be destroyed. The empire would be, though.”

Fujiko understood that much of Issei’s explanation.

“I see. Come to think of it, you’re right.”

“Yes, so even if the demon king starts a war, it doesn’t necessarily mean the destruction of mankind.”

“That makes sense,” agreed Fujiko.

“In that case, doesn’t it seem strange? If the demon king is just a weapon as Kazuko claimed, he has too much power. But if the demon king was created to truly destroy mankind as the G.o.ds claim, then he doesn’t have enough power.”

“If the demon king truly only has control over the empire’s internal resources, it does not reach the scope of all mankind,” muttered Fujiko.

No matter how heretical her thoughts were to the empire, her viewpoint was still bound within the empire. But once she freed her thoughts from that restriction, Issei’s point made logical sense.

“Kazuko should have known, but she said the Law of Ident.i.ty doesn’t exist.”

“She was lying. Either that or she didn’t know the truth. It’s possible she didn’t. Even if the G.o.ds and demon king are complicit, neither the demon king nor the empire has the power to destroy humanity. If that power exists, it must exist outside. In other words, there is an external G.o.d. Or to be more accurate, there is a true G.o.d.”

It made sense and it matched what Fujiko had overheard Yamato Bouichirou saying.

“You mean there really is a true G.o.d?” asked Fujiko half in fear.

“I don’t like the idea either, but with this turmoil in the imperial family and the existence of the Republic, I have to a.s.sume so. You came to ask me this because you were worried about that, right?”

Issei removed the loosened rope and looked up.

Fujiko had already moved from above the ceiling.

—All of this suggests the existence of a true G.o.d? Who can stand up to a fear like that?

An unspeakable anxiety filled Fujiko.