Sora drops through the eternally spreading darkness.  He"s unable to do anything to resist his fall.  All he"s left with is hate.  He can hate his situation and die.

Not like this!  Not like this!  I refuse to die like this!  If I"m going to die—  While enduring the pain and fear of death, he laughs out as loud as he can.  "Hahahahahahahahaa guhaa… hahahahaa haa!"

Despite coughing out blood various times, he doesn"t quit laughing.  It"s better to die laughing than it is hating, so I"ll laugh.

Even when about to pa.s.s out from pain, he continues to laugh.  Even when his voice grows raw and coa.r.s.e, he continues to laugh.

—Haa…

His voice finally stops.  But I still haven"t stopped laugh.  Even if my voice breaks, I can keep laughing with my face.

Sora"s vision blurs as his consciousness dims.  His final thoughts are about them.  Still smiling, he closes his eyes and whispers within his heart.  Please stay safe.

All he can do now is wait for death.  -A new feeling washes over him as he parts with his pain and the light.

Sora is enveloped by something warm and gentle.  I don"t know if this is what dying feels like, but it feels good.  He entrusts his body to the feeling.

Some time has pa.s.sed since I let this feeling wash over my body, but I"m still awake.  Instead of losing his consciousness, all his pain vanished.  My body feels good.  Sora, out of surprise, opens his eyes— A woman"s face.

In the middle of the endless darkness is a woman with silver hair so bright it appears to be shinning and violet eyes that could fascinating anyone who stares into them.

"Eh?"

My voice… came out?  Something like that isn"t important right now.

Sora needs a few second before he can understand why such a woman is in front of his face.  I"m being given me a lap pillow.  I"m supposed to be falling, but I"ve somehow stopped.

Various questions fly through Sora"s head.  Why is she giving me a lap pillow?  Who is she?  How was I healed? 

The woman gives Sora a sweet smile, Nikkori.  "No~ you surprised me.  There shouldn"t be any humans in this void~.  You humans have a habit of dying, but you suddenly burst out laughing during yours~.  Then you got quiet and decided to die~.  It really gave me shock~."

Sora finds the woman"s voice to be very gentle.  Hearing it makes him feel blessed.  "What…"

My wounds were healed at some point, and I"m close to my limit, but there"s seriously a lot I want to ask.

Sora falls asleep.

"Hold on~!  Are you listening?  H~ey~!"

Birds are chirping piyo piyo.  The warm sunlight shinning on Sora"s body fills him with a plesant warmth.  "Haa!"

He wakes up remembering something.  He bows with both arms the moment he opens his eyes.  Realizing he"s moving without conscious will, he stands up only to lose balance and fall over.  "Ow, this is…"

Sora looks around while rubbing his hurting b.u.t.t.  He"s surrounded by various, lush, green plants.  A nearby river glitters, kira kira¸ as it reflects the sunlight.  Among everything are small birds.

He grumbles to himself in surprise at the change in location.  "Ahre?[1]  I was in that void—"

"Oh!  You"re finally awake~."  A composed voice, bikuu, comes out of nowhere.

"Uwa!" Sora turns towards the voice and, "Ahh."

It"s the same violet eyed, silver haired woman from the void.  She has the perfect hourgla.s.s body.

Upon looking closer, he notices that she has a tail.  It surprises him, but he puts it out of mind without letting it show on his face.  He takes a deep breath and considers his situation.  Three topics come to mind.Where is this?Who are you?Thanks for saving me.

Starting with the first two would be rude.  The first thing I should do here is present my grat.i.tude so I"ll start with number three. 

"Thanks for saving me."

"Ahaha~ It"s been a long time since anyone"s given me their grat.i.tude~, but you went and said it~, even though I was totally expecting you to say something else~.  Yep~ helping you was the right choice after all~!"

All right!  Flawless first impression!  Next… what do I ask!?  d.a.m.n it, what gives?  Everything usually comes out all on its own!  No- No problem, I"ll just start with a self-introduction—

She says, "I am Elias=Basard, the Dai Maou.[2]"

s.h.i.t!  I got too far ahead of myself!!  She said "Dai Maou"!?  I"m pretty sure defeating the Demon King[3]is the whole reason I was…  Wait, bulls.h.i.t, this is a queen.

Doesn"t defeating the Maou become pointless if there"s a Dai Maou?  Well, whatever.  It"s not like… I"m a Yuusha or anything. 

"My name is Kouri Sora."

"Kouri Sora~ kun?  Are you by chance a Yuusha?"

Naa!?  She understood that just from hearing my name!?  No, that shouldn"t be too strange.  My name is probably really peculiar in this world. 

Sora, realizing that starting from the beginning might be take while, checks if she"s willing to listen.  "That… would take a while to explain?"

"Well~ if it"s long~, I can just take a peek inside you~."

"Haa?"

Elias stares at Sora, jii, with her violet eyes at those words.  He"s overcome by a strange dizziness, but he fights to remain standing.

Ten seconds later, she says, "Fumu fumu~, it"s like that~.  You"re a human forsaken by both the queen and G.o.d~.  Ahaha~, that"s interesting~.  I know!  Sora, let me grant you my name."

Sora, not understanding if names are significant, says, "You"ll grant me your name?  What do you mean?"

"Well~ put short~, you"ll become Sora=Basard~ which would then~ grant you my divine protection~."

Sora=Basard… that"s way cooler than Sora=Kouri!!  Sweet, not to mention divine protection!  This Dai Maou-sama is great!!

"Yes, please!!"

"Well~ it isn"t G.o.d"s divine protection~ so are you sure~?"

G.o.d"s divine protection?  That despicable shouta G.o.d?  Don"t make me laugh.

Sora says, "I don"t need G.o.d"s divine protection because sooner or later, I"m gonna whack that shouta G.o.d b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Ahahahaha~, that"s marvelous, Sora~.  All right~, I"ll grant you my name from on~.  I believe the moment I grant you my name, a large amount of my memories will flow over~.  Do your best to endure it~.  Even if you lose your mind, I"ll protect you so don"t worry~.  Well then—"

"Ugh!?"  A heavy stream of memories flow into my head.  A lot of information enters such as Elias"s past and everything she"s doing now.  It doesn"t let up even after several minutes.  It hurts so much my head is going to crack open.  "Uuahhhhhhhhhh!"

I endure it despite losing consciousness many times.  Even if losing my mind is permissible, my pride won"t allow it. 

Ten minutes later, "Ah… Ahre?  The pain stopped."

"Ohhh~, you withstood it~.  That"s amazing, Sora~."

Looks like I somehow survived to the end.  I now have Elias"s memories in my head too.  Thanks to them, I"m now familiar with this world.

First, about the Dai Maou, Elias.  She"s an ak.u.ma[4] who was born with an overwhelming amount of power a long time ago.  She had so much that she became the Dai Maou.  Then, a few hundred years ago, the previous Yuusha sealed her within the void. 

The queen appeared during that time.  She commanded those Yuusha— to commit suicide.  The queen provided them with pendants, pendants that instilled absolute loyalty.  They were unable to resist their commands to commit suicide.

That was the last scene Elias saw since being sealed.  Once the seal weakened after a few hundred years, she became able to leave her prison.  After that, a human boy appeared within the void— the present.

Hmm?  Just how old is that queen?  She"s older than a couple centuries… According to Elias"s memories, G.o.d’s divine protection lets people live for a long time… but her appearance sure is out of balance with her age.  Even that is a lie. 

I also know about various monsters and the names of countries.

"So~ what are you going to do now, Sora~?"

Sora"s status plate depicted him as a small fry.  Therefore, his first thought is that he needs to become stronger.  "…First, I"m going to raise my level."

"Really~, then I guess we"ll have to say good bye for a little bit~.  I"ll return to Maou"s castle~.  Come visit whenever your free~.  I"ll welcome you at any time~."

Maou"s castle sounds a bit scary, but if Elias is there, then stopping by to play should be fine. 

"Maou"s castle… I got it, I"ll one day stop by to have fun."

"Yeah~, I look forward to it~.  See ya later~."

Sora checks his status plate after separating from Elias.  It shows:

Name: Sora=Basard

Age: 15

Race: Human

Level: 1

Physical Strength: 100

Magical Power: 60

Attack Power: 20

Defense Power: 50

Agility: 20

Luck: 10

Skills

Abilities

-Protection of the Dai Maou Lv. MAX

t.i.tle

-Disciple of the Dai Maou

Hmm?  Even though I now have divine protection and a t.i.tle, nothing"s changed.  Does it influence my level up parameters? 

With those thoughts in mind, Sora continues to a nearby field to level up by defeating some slimes.  He doesn"t have a map, but knows where to go thanks to Elias"s memories.

He realizes something very important on his way to the field.  I don"t have a weapon.  All I have for equipment is my uniform, shoes, and bare hands. 

Sora continues for the field while mumbling, "We-well, they"re slimes so my bare hands should be fine…"

A transparent object bubbles up from the ground upon reaching the field.  Within it is a red, diamond shaped, stone.  The stone beats, dokun dokun, like a heart.

That stone is called a mana stone, according to Elias"s memories.  All monsters have one.  Remove it and the monster dies.

Taking the mana stone is simple.  If enough damage is inflicted against a monster, it will revert into a mana stone.  However, the monster will eventually revive if the mana stone is left alone.  The type of slime before Sora have an average level of 3.

The slime has yet to notice Sora.  This is my chance.  He hides himself in order to wait for the right time to strike.  He both crouches within the tall gra.s.s and holds his breath.  Once the slime shows him its back, Now!  He leaps forward and thrusts his hand into the slime.

Sora grabs the beating, doku doku, heart like mana stone and pulls it from the slime"s body.  The slime vanishes with a popping, beccha.

"Fuu, I managed to do it bare handed.  Well, I doubt I"ll level from defeating just one of these."

With those thoughts as encouragement, Sora continues and plucks out the mana stones of 10 slimes before checking his status plate:

Name: Sora=Basard

Age: 15

Race: Human

Level: 2

Physical Strength: 120

Magical Power: 90

Attack Power: 25

Defense Power: 55

Agility: 22

Luck: 10

Skills

-Evil eye: Lv. 1

Abilities

-Protection of the Dai Maou: Lv. MAX

t.i.tle

-Disciple of the Dai Maou

"My ability hasn"t gone up at all… but I gained a skill!  Etto, evil eye!?  The time for my eye to awaken has finally arrived— Rise, my evil eye!"

Sora"s raises the tension as he invokes his skill called evil eye, the skill that would make the hearts of the two kitchen talkers flutter.  All that happens is that another slime bubbles up from the ground.

With a bonyari, appearing before Sora"s eyes is:

Slime

Lv 3

Skills

"Ooh, it lets me see your level, name and skills?  Will my evil eye let me see even more details if I level it up?"

According to Elias"s memories, the evil eye will let me see more details by leveling up.  It also looks like the effectiveness will increase as my other skills raise in level.  As for protection of the Dai Maou, there isn"t anything within her memories.  Maybe I"m the first person to receive it?

Well then, should I hunt some more slimes or go to a nearby country to find lodgings?  It"s starting to get dark.  Yeah, I don"t want to sleep outside. 

Sora defeats 20 more slimes and heads for the nearby Runega Kingdom.

The Runega Kingdom is surrounded by a wall.  A gate keeper stands at the sole entrance and exit.  Sora is well aware he won"t be able to simply walk inside.  As expected, the guard stops him the moment he tries to enter.

The guard says, "Do you have any identification or proof of social status?"

Sora considers showing the guard his status plate but decides, that"s no good.  I absolutely can"t let him see the divine protection of the Dai Maou.  Maybe I should try saying something from the templet?

Sora says, "I"m actually from a distant village.  I don"t have any sort of doc.u.mentation."

"Ah, is that so?  Is that distant village Nedor?"

Nedor village?  There aren"t any villages with that name in Elias"s memories.  Is he trying to trick me?

"Nedor village?  I"m not familiar with it.  I think my village might be far away from it."

"Really?  All right, you can enter.  If you don"t have any identification, then you can head to the guild and get a guild card for free."

"Seriously!  Thank you so much."

Was the gate keeper trying to test me after all?  Well, whatever.  First thing I"ve gotta do is trade these mana stones for gold.  Etto, I"m pretty sure I can sell them… at the adventurer"s guild.  No problem, I"m planning to go there anyway. 

–Stand aside (…..) here comes Cute Star ★–

Cla.s.smate Section

Karou and his cla.s.smates follow the soldiers out of the chamber upon separating from Sora.  From there, they"re given rooms and told where they can find the dining room.  Each student then separates for his or her own perspective room.

Yui says, "Kaoru-san, Rin-san, please come to my room later.  Nao-san, you too."

While Kaoru and Rin nod, Nao complains.  "Ah?  What do you want?"

"To talk about what happened with Sora."

Nao turns for her room while saying, "Fine…"

Kaoru frowns and says, "Why"d you invite Nao?"

"Because Sora asked me to."

"Really…?"

Everyone then heads for their rooms.  Each one has a large bed and a full bathtub with various amenities.  Yui releases a heavy sigh as she sits down on her bed.  "My friend… please be safe."

Someone knocks on her bedroom door after about ten minutes.  Yui gets up from her bed and moves towards the door to peek through its scope.  Outside stands Nao.

Yui opens the door to let Nao through upon confirming her ident.i.ty.  Nao enters the room in an instant and asks what Yui wants to say about Sora.  Yui doesn"t answer and says says she wants to tell everyone together.  Nao makes a face that can"t accept her words and sits on the bed.

Someone else knocks on the door a few minutes later.  Yui checks and sees Kaoru standing outside.  He enters the room and sits on the bed to wait for Rin.  She arrives a few minutes afterwards.

Yui takes a deep breath upon confirming that everyone has arrived and begins.  She starts by explaining Sora"s status plate and then tells them the conclusion he secretly predicted.  "Sora-san whispered various things to me during the middle of that queen"s explanation.

"My friend, according to this templet, I"ll probably be banished from this country.  The queen will most likely call me out at the end.  Well, this is just a guess, but if I don"t come back, I was probably banished.  Tell Kaoru, Rin, and Nao.  Also, don"t go against the queen.  She probably plans on using us.  That"s why, endure it until your chance appears.  Once that chance does come, leave her speechless.""

"As I said, since Sora-san never returned after that explanation, we can conclude that he was exiled from this country."

Kaoru and Rin are left dumbfounded by Yui"s words.  Only Nao keeps a straight face.  Yui notices and says, "You don"t seem too surprised, Nao-san."

"Yeah, I"m not surprised, probably because this is just like him.  Besides, even if he"s banished from the country, he won"t die."

The two people who were shocked by Yui"s words says, "That"s right."

The four then discuss what to do in the future.  As a result of Sora"s message, the first thing they decide on is to wait for a chance to act against the queen.

–Welcome to your new home, Cute Star, ★–

The next day, the students are gathered within the chamber housing the giant statue of the angel.  Kaoru"s group looks around for Sora, but is unable to find him.  Sora"s other cla.s.smates notice his absence and begin to raise a fuss.  At the same time, the door is forced open with great vigor and in steps the queen.  She stands before everyone with a pensive expression.

The students stop acting up upon noticing the queen"s face and become serious.  The queen takes a grandiose, deep breath and says, "Yuusha, I have something very important to share with all of you.  Many of you already noticed, but Sora=Kouri is not here."

Several students shake their heads.

The queen says, "I ask you, please do not say anything more.  Sora=Kouri "betrayed us.""

The students become rowdy at the queen"s words.  One boy raises his voice and says, "Please tell us everything."

The queen releases a relaxed grin, nyari, at the boy"s comment.  Many students fail to catch it, but Kaoru"s group doesn"t.  She says, "Yesterday, after everyone retired to their rooms, Sora=Kouri remained behind to speak with me.  I am certain all of you remember this.  However, the moment everyone left, Sora=Kouri began to rampage.  He s.n.a.t.c.hed a nearby soldier"s weapon and took me hostage.  After ransoming me for gold, he fled the country.  Such behavior is unacceptable!  Yuusha—"

Kaoru"s fist trembles at the queen"s speech.  The queen"s complaints push his patience to its limit.   "Quit joking around, Sora—"

Yui notices and covers his mouth.  She whispers, "I understand that Sora is not that kind of person, but please bear it for now.  Don"t you remember what we discussed yesterday?"

Yui removes her hand from Kaoru"s mouth and he says, "Ahh… sorry."

The queen continues, "Sora=Kouri must be punished.  However, right now we do not even know if he is alive.  If you are to by chance come across him, please seize him.  Act as Yuusha and protect my kingdom.  In the worst case, treat this as a matter of life and death."

Thus, Sora was made the enemy of his cla.s.s without knowing it.

T/N:  A secret talk between those closest to So- Wait, one guy"s missing!  So much for Tomo being his current best friend.  I hope he didn"t fall for that queen"s slander.  If not, then he"ll probably be the first guy to fight Sora and the most hateful of him.  Also, here"s a guess, but maybe Nao stopped talking to Sora because she"s jealous of his friendship with Yui?  I do have one complaint for the author.  What do you mean Kaoru"s group??  Yui is clearly the one in charge here!  Well, maybe he"ll step up (not that I"m holding my breath).  We"ll see in two more chapters.

Actually, I was planning to make an Isekai Mahou release this week.  A third of it is already translated too, but stuff happened and this was released instead.  One more note, I plan on doing a third series too.  It"s a short series with only 4 chapters.  Because of that, it will be released on a monthly schedule.  I won"t say any more than that, so just sit there and wait.  Tune in to American Faux and read it once it"s out!

-Gandire Alea

[1] It"s p.r.o.nounced ahre but spelled, "are."  I"m purposely spelling it wrong to avoid confusion.

[2] Maou = devil or demon king. Dai= great or important.  Dai Maou= great demon king.

[3] I"m translating as Demon King due to the comparison of queen.  May happen again in future chapters as needed.

[4] A devil.

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