Next up is 206 finally... I really hope I can at least make it to like 208-210 this weekend...
Side Story 27 - In the Case of Mitsuse Ryouichi (Age 34 at time of accident)
Several days have pa.s.sed since Hekusa his little brother from his past life appeared.
Arc was exchanging information with Hekusa on an almost daily basis. And then, he succeeded in obtaining quite a bit of information. Among that was the fact that he was able to confirm Hekusa adored and wanted to rely on him just the same as Kenji in his previous life. Also, while they"re still low level it"s big that he had already acquired the magic special skills. He might be able to learn magic. Also, he owns a house in Radogurizu and even supposedly has a slave that serves him.
Furthermore, it was big that he was able to test and confirm details about his Unique Ability that he had no means of confirming all on his own at the riverside on the edge of the village in the middle of the night.
"However, as expected of big bro. That {Polymorph.Self} really amazing!"
As the details of the ability were gradually identified, Arc noticed that Hekusa gradually got even more excited.
"What are you saying? Even your {Skill Invalidation} is quite something as well right?"
Arc put his hand on his while replying a bit fed up with it.
"Nn~ But you know, even then when compared to big bro"s {Polymorph Self} I just can"t help but feel. Mine is completely useless when it comes to just living normally. In comparison, no matter what the situation, I can only think of ways that big bro"s could be useful at any time."
That"s certainly true and Arc thought once again but didn"t put into words.
"If there was a problem to it then it would be getting used to it I"m sure. It requires a considerable amount of practice. AS expected it won"t work through ordinary methods."
"Hn..I see. But I feel like big bro could somehow manage that as well."
"Don"t say it so easily. Even your {Skill Invalidation} I can feel it when you intend to use magic, so if I practice with it I feel like I could use it but it doesn"t go very well. Well, putting that aside, I"m really glad you came here."
"What are you saying? Did you forget the imagine that G.o.d showed us? Even if I wanted to I, couldn"t forget it...Right below my name was big bros so I had faith you were living somewhere.."
Come to think of it Arc thought it was a dream when he met with G.o.d so he remembered just casually shrugging it off. He wasn"t seriously trying to gather information from the start. Of course, since he has memories that were forcefully poured into his head he hasn"t forgotten the conversation or occurrences themselves but he couldn"t properly remember the image. Even then he thought it was a well-made dream and honestly speaking, even now he thinks the possibility is considerably high that he"s watching the continuation of the dream. However, after all somewhere in his heart the feelings (it might be reality) are remaining.
While listening to Hekusa talk about how he searched for him for a year and his upbringing and troubles and it was just a bit but Arc"s awareness started to change. I guess his younger brother was coached by the rough seas of the harsh world of Orth, he felt he had grown mentally a bit. Of course, there"s a portion he feels has become more of an idiot than before as well but when thought about it more carefully it wasn"t that he had become an idiot but his sensitivity just returned to what it was in the past felt like a better fit.
(Could it be..I"m pretty sure it"s unlikely but is it really not a dream? No, there"s no way that could be the case...There"s no way this is reality. In the first place, something like being reborn with memories and thought processes still intact, how could you believe in that...But you know..G.o.d huh..If you were to say that G.o.d could do something like that then there"s no way to object to it...Furthermore, in that case it would mean something like G.o.ds actually exist in reality. Magic as well and my {Polymorph.Self} would be reality even..)
Arc shook his head to shake off the thoughts he was having and started talking to Hekusa.
"I"ve confirmed the general outline. By the way your allies..What sort of relationship do you have with them? How much of the circ.u.mstances do they know?"
"Yeah, it"s just as I talked about before, in addition to searching for big bro I"ve been drawing a map of the country but I"ve hired them as escorts along the way. Well, they"re something like guardsmen or SP. There"s no way they"d know about something like the circ.u.mstances of being reborn. I was forbidden to speak about it from the Prince as well. Our relationship is..we"ve been together through various things for one year. Everyone, is fellows with a pretty good feel to them."
"Do they have any kind of background relationships to them?"
"Background relationships..They were all originally just simple adventurers. There"s no way that"s the case right? Of course I"m sure they have families but it"s like they all live on their on own."
"Then it should be fine to get rid of them huh.."
Hearing Arc whisper that with his arms cross Hekusa was shocked.
"Get rid of!? What are you saying?"
"Think carefully, Kenji. I can transform. If it"s now then as long as they"re a man, excluding really small children..babies and infants..then I can transform into anyone. In other words, I can become them including their status and everything. Certainly, it"s just as you said it"s something that can be useful in any situation."
Seeing Arc make a smile while saying that Hekusa made a suspicious expression for a short while but soon thought of something.
"That sort of thing huh.."
"It"s that sort of thing. But, going to the capital needs some preparations."
Arc said that while thinking (After all is it a dream? His ability to grasp things is strangely high for Kenji).
"Yeah, certainly. We need to crush a number of possibilities things might seem suspicious. Yeah, got it. Since big bro says..It"s unfortunate but certainly it seems that there"s no choice but for them to die...Killing them itself shouldn"t be all that difficult as long as it"s not from the front, and.."
"Hn? And?"
Arc was interested in the words Hekusa stopped saying partway through. Normally it was a voice soft enough to miss it but since they"re discussing something like this he was interested in it.
"Nn, I don"t know if you know about or not and it"s suspicious if you"ll believe me but promise that you won"t laugh."
"Yeah, of course. I won"t laugh, I promise."
And then, Arc heard something surprising. Of course, it was something he lightly imagined. That time, G.o.d said "if something doesn"t level up you can"t meet it". However, with this his resolve was decided.
(Leveling up from experience levels..It"s decided. After all it"s a dream, this world. If that"s been determined then I feel like I can do anything!)
"..In other words, it"s believed that if you kill some kind of living creatures then you level up and slowly get even stronger. Honestly speaking, I"m not saying it in confidence either but there"s several pieces of circ.u.mstantial evidence so I can"t help but think that it"s not completely mistaken. Also, Alex, Sel, and Myulu all completely believe in it...It seems it"s to the point that on the Judgement days they"ve negotiated to rotate taking turns executing criminals who are given the death penalty. Recently it seems like Ren thinks so as well...On the way here I had them let me finish off monsters and stuff that appeared as well."
(Gyahhahaha, this fellow is a child. With just that..Huh? If it"s a dream then I guess that"s fine huh? If that"s the case then I can"t afford to be doing nothing anymore either.)
"I see. Since it"s before adulthood I thought it was a bit early but I guess it"s time for me to leave the house as well."
"Big bro, is that alright? It"s fine if you don"t overdo things in a hurry. If I continue to say I haven"t found you yet I can still pull out more money."
Hekusa thought if they were going to finish off his adventurer allies then they should at least do everything they can to prevent Arc"s existence from being exposed.
"Yeah, that"s certainly true. But, the sooner the better. It should be best to start make preparations early. It"s necessary to gain as much information as we can while we"re still young."
"Nn, if big bro says so then.."
Hekusa felt a strange sense of relief with how confidently and boldly Arc said it.
........................
"Since that"s the case we"ve already confirmed the intent of sub-n.o.ble Arnic.Strife as well. We"ll make him into a direct imperial guard of the prince and he"ll end up spending several years training. He won"t be able to get into contact for several years and depending on the case this might be your last time meeting in this lifetime. Please finish saying your farewells."
Hekusa politely lowered his head to Arc"s parents and decisively stated. From Hekusa"s opinion he thought the decision was already decided. There"s no reason they would refuse it.
"Oh! Envoy-dono, our Arc has, no, Arnic is going to be an imperial guard of prince Alexander!"
"What a great honor! Arc, make sure you do your duties properly!"
"Father, Mother, of course I will. Arc will definitely show you that he can be useful to his highness the prince!"
"Arc. For you to..I"m envious..Make you"re remain steady."
"Arc, take good care of yourself.."
"Arc, give it your best. And then, if there"s a good man then introduce them to me!"
"Brother Arv, sister-in-law Misu..I"ll take care of my duties so as to not dirty the Strife name. Also, sister Evessa, as expected that is..I can"t promise you but I"ll try."
Arc"s upper older sister is married into one of the squire households. His younger older sister is still in the house but she"s 22 years old and since a suitable age for marriage.
Two days after that, Arc gathered together his belongings, and left Ridasu village while clinging to the back of one of Hekusa"s adventurer allies riding a horse.
They continued traveling for about a week and it was a short while after they entered the Royal Family"s Direct Territory. After they had breakfast in a certain village and departed, around the time it was almost noon.
(Now then, I guess around here should be fine..)
"Today, shall we find an adequate camping place after getting past the next village?"
"Even though you say that Hekusa...Since sub-n.o.ble Strife is together with us as well, it"s our first candidate for imperial guard right? Even if we don"t go out of our way to do something like camping.."
The leader of the veteran adventurers said that but the one who responded was Arc.
"Well~ if it"s just one or two nights of camping there"s nothing to it. I"m alright. Also, you camp out while training as well right? If I just think of it as advance training there"s no problem at all. Rather I"m the one who wants to request it."
"Nn..Thanks for saying that, Arc. In the first place, camping here is something that"s necessary. We"ll leave look out to Arc tonight. The training of an imperial guard isn"t something like this but we need to look at your apt.i.tude after all. Everyone else be careful not to lend him a hand as well."
"..Well there"s not many monsters around this area so I think there should be any problem though.."
Even then the adventurers were a bit worried but since Hekusa argued them down saying it was a condition for becoming an imperial guard and said it would be fine to drink a bit of alcohol as well they honestly obeyed. If it"s Hekusa who"ve they shared meals with for around a year that says it like an examiner while looking at Arc then it can"t be helped and there"s almost no monsters in this region. It was big that they a.s.sumed it shouldn"t develop into any large problems.
They were easily able to finish off the three adventurers by mixing some paralysis poison into the low-quality cheap alcohol. There once again, a characteristic of {Polymorph.Self} that he couldn"t test until now was identified. Even after the target has died as long as he"s touching a portion of their body it"s possible for him to transform.
"Fu...Just as I thought. Since I was able to transform using hairs that fell out from quite a while but I thought there wouldn"t be a problem but.."
"Yeah, I guess so. If it"s this then just as big bro said.."
After taking all of the threes belongings they buried them in a hole in the bushes on the side of the road, then after taking turns sleeping until morning and the siblings walked on leading the four horses. Since Arc didn"t have the skill of horsemanship.
It took several days but after the two were able to sell two of the horses in a reasonably large town, they took their time arriving at the capital Randogurizu while teaching the older brother to ride a horse.
........................
After they arrived at Hekusa"s house in the capital they immediately ordered his slave to dig a deep hole in the yard and after the two of them cooperated to kill Hekusa"s slave, Arc transformed into that slave. The corpse was buried inside of the deep hole he dug himself.
"We"ll go to Ren"s place tomorrow. Big bro should accompany me while still acting as him. Listen to the conversation carefully and make sure you properly get a grasp on Ren"s personality and my way of speaking."
"Yeah, of course. Even when it comes to becoming someone else if I don"t know about their surroundings then.."
"That"s right. Well I"m sure it"ll take at least a year for them to get out of the knight group. We need to properly figure things out about the capital until then...Make sure you practice even more with the horse as well. I"m sure they aren"t doing it seriously either way but even then they"re being trained by the White Phoenix Knight Group so if your skills are too bad they might become suspicious of it."
"Oh~ leave it to me. You know about me right? I can do anything."
"That"s right..Since the past big bro has always been able to do anything. If it"s big bro then I"m sure it"s fine. I"m sure things will go well."
"That"s only obvious. Fufu, I"m looking forward to it."
Arc and Hekusa exchanged glances while laughing happily.