Companion Reroll
A world that was not Lumen.
Before that world had been unified into one.
On the fringes of the continent, an arrogant king who styled himself the Conquest King appeared.
Armed with terrifying strategy and martial might, he and the loyal knights he had carefully raised conquered the surrounding nations at a blistering pace.
A few years later, his banner flew over every corner of the frontier.
Yet he was not satisfied.
He was the Conquest King. Conquest alone was the reason for his life, his happiness, his blessing.
Before long the title had become synonymous with his very existence, and he turned toward the heartland with his faithful knights at his side.
There a figure known as the Demon King barred their path.
With power bestowed by the Creator God called the Demon God, and with the armies he had subjugated through that power, the Demon King mercilessly crushed the Conquest King and his knights.
The Conquest King understood then. There was a sky above the sky.
Yet he did not despair.
He was the Conquest King. If another sky existed above the one he had conquered, he would simply rejoice and conquer that sky as well.
Even if, for the moment, he had to bow his head and submit to the heavens.
The heavens—the Demon King—saw through that thought completely, and still gladly bestowed a blessing upon him.
None other than the blessing of immortality.
Many sneered that it served him right, but the Conquest King and his knights paid them no mind.
On the contrary, they rejoiced. They would clearly need a great deal of time.
Thus the Conquest King and his loyal knights, now undead, moved as the Demon King’s limbs and waited, and waited again.
For the moment the Demon King showed an opening.
Much time passed, yet that moment never came.
As their souls slowly wore away and the faintest shadow of death began to fall across lives that had seemed eternal, a sweet fruit of long endurance finally ripened.
In the form of a battle against another world that left the Demon King wounded and half his army annihilated.
All that remained was to claim that fruit with the blades they had honed and the forces they had gathered over so long.
But before they could seize it, blade and army alike were shattered.
By the detestable angel standing right before them.
Boom!
—Massacre Angel!!!
Two eyes gleaming clearly through the swirling dust.
The grudge and rage directed at Fortuna through those eyes made Jun swallow hard before he asked her,
“...Fort, what the hell did you do to that guy?”
“I-I don’t know either. I’m the one who’s wronged here. The one who should be angry is me, not him. Every chance he got he’d drag his underlings over and raise hell. The second things got a little dangerous he’d shove them forward and run. Do you have any idea how much of a pain he was?!”
Fortuna had started out sounding wronged and flustered, but the more she talked the angrier she grew. Her wings stiffened upright as she openly directed hostility at the enemy before them.
Grudge and rage were not one-sided emotions.
Of course they wouldn’t be.
Countless beings had died in the invasion war.
Invaders and defenders alike.
It was only natural that Fortuna and the other defenders—who had lost family, lovers, friends, and comrades to the invaders’ sudden assault while living peaceful days—would feel resentment and fury toward the invading forces.
And the same would be true for the invaders.
Even if they had started the invasion, the fact that their own family, lovers, friends, and comrades had died by the defenders’ hands did not change.
There would be some who directed their resentment and rage at the leadership that had launched the war, but such people would be an extreme minority.
That guy’s probably one of those cases.
In truth the Conquest King resented and raged at both sides, but there was no way for Jun to know that.
Thud!
“Jun!”
Fast.
With the sound of a foot stomping the ground, the Conquest King charged at terrifying speed.
Right after, the beautiful sword gripped in his hand whistled through the air with a murderous howl.
The attack aimed at Jun’s shoulder—more precisely, at Fortuna hanging from that shoulder. Jun hastily twisted his upper body, pulling that shoulder back while raising Sil-iens to block.
Clang!
Two blades locked together.
Naturally Jun’s gaze met the Conquest King’s.
—Do not interfere!
“Sorry, but I can’t do that. The angel you’re after is my wife.”
“Honey, go get him!”
—...Then I’ll send you both to the afterlife together!
Fortuna’s cheer, overflowing with love and happiness, only deepened the rage radiating from the Conquest King.
Clang! Clang! Thud!
—Kh!
Hmm. Been a while—maybe I should run my mouth a bit.
Noticing the Conquest King’s sword path had grown ever so slightly disordered compared to the first strike, Jun slipped a kick into that opening and landed a solid hit, then thought:
Let’s poke his rage a little more.
“What’s got you so worked up? Don’t tell me it’s because you don’t have a lover to cheer you on?”
“Mm. Makes sense you wouldn’t. Not with that situation down there.”
Husband and wife of one heart, or so they say. Catching Jun’s intent, Fortuna chimed in as naturally as if they had rehearsed it.
While staring at the empty space between the guy’s legs with eyes full of genuine pity.
That look would really piss anyone off.
—Y-y-you bastards!
It was not an act for provocation; the gaze came from the heart.
The guy seemed to feel it too. His shoulders trembled as if he might explode any second. A little more prodding and he really would.
“Calm down, Solo. No—Solo King. We’re in the middle of a fight right now.”
“Pfft! S-Solo King, he says. Pffft!”
Unaware that the guy’s name was the Conquest King, Jun had been attaching a nickname for convenience and provocation when he spotted the crude crown sitting on the skull in place of a helmet and corrected the moniker.
Hearing the revised nickname, Fortuna clutched her stomach and howled with laughter.
It seemed their side was the one that needed the reminder they were in combat.
Fwoosh! Fwoooosh!
—I will kill you. I will kill you without fail. Even if my soul vanishes in the process.
“...Did we push him too far?”
“...Yeah, maybe.”
Yellow flames—the same ones that had drained Dennis’s life force—rose across the Solo King’s entire body.
While Jun and Fortuna regretted their actions at the enormous power felt from those flames, the fire was sucked into the jewel set in the center of the crown.
Hummm!
The jewel began to vibrate, and then—
Fwoosh!
Fire caught on the scattered remains of the Skeleton Knights littering the ground.
Clatter clatter. The shattered fragments joined and connected, rapidly reclaiming their forms.
“Oh, come on.”
—To dare look away while standing before me!
Jun hurriedly moved to smash the remains, but the Conquest King—no, the Solo King—would not simply stand by and watch.
Was it because of the nickname? The line he spat out somehow sounded even more unpleasant and creepy.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
—Kugh!
In any case, the guy had spent quite a bit of power raising the knights again; his movements were weak and sluggish. Yet by exploiting the nature of a skeleton that was nothing but bone, he blocked Jun with minimal damage.
And a short while later—
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Skeleton Knights, restored to their former selves, drew their weapons with imposing dignity and leveled them at Jun.
“Hup!”
Jun fired blades of electricity and wind forged from Sil-iens at the Solo King.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
The knights who had gathered at the Solo King’s side as if escorting their king raised their shields in perfect unison, as though they were a single body, and blocked the assault.
It was no match for a lightning storm, yet it was an attack that even Blue-rank fighters would struggle to stop.
To block something like that so easily... A groan slipped from Jun’s lips of its own accord.
“...I thought this was the easy path. Turns out it was the harder one.”
“Jun, why can’t we ever take the easy way?”
“That’s because you two didn’t know when to stop.”
While they were cursing the unfair reality together with Fortuna, a pointed remark drifted from behind.
Turning his head, Jun saw Dohwa approaching—the one who should have been protecting the party members.
In human mode, not mini mode.
“Dohwa, the party?”
“I put them to sleep with sleeping pills and laid them inside Dowonhyang. Please rest easy, Master.”
“...When and why did you even buy sleeping pills?”
“...Elder Sister told me to buy them.”
“Dohwa!”
At Dohwa’s words, Fortuna’s face twisted into the exact expression of Caesar betrayed by Brutus.
Dohwa looked apologetic yet still turned her head to avoid Fortuna’s gaze.
“Haaah~. We’ll talk about this later. Fort, you switch to human mode too.”
Judging by the looks on those two, the reason for buying sleeping pills could not possibly be good.
For some reason—really, for some reason—the back of his neck prickled and his sphincter clenched hard, but given the situation Jun postponed the interrogation.
“Sheesh! I’m mad!”
Fortuna entered combat mode to vent her overflowing sense of betrayal.
Clad head to toe in holy armor and divine power, leveling her holy spear-hammer at the enemy, she looked every bit the noble holy knight.
Even if the reason she had taken up her weapon was thoroughly impure.
“I shall match their numbers as well.”
So saying, Dohwa dusted off her hands.
Pink birds shot from her fingertips and settled upon the earth.
Rumble! Rumble!
The ground surged upward and swallowed the pink birds.
Even after that the earth continued to rise, forming Eastern-style soldiers that leveled spears and blades at their own unworthy children who had not returned to their embrace.
“Jun.”
“Please give the order.”
Left, Divine Beast. Right, Angel.
A lineup as reliable as any emperor’s made his chest swell with grandeur.
—...How long do you intend to mock me? Come at me already!
Was he envious of that?
The Solo King ground his teeth in fury.
In answer, Jun shouted exactly as his heart commanded.
“Yeah, here we come, Solo King. Got enough underlings to soothe that loneliness of yours?”