Let's Raise a Child
"I'm alive!!"
Only after I'd flown a good long while and put real distance behind me could I finally let myself breathe.
What—he was leaving the postwar cleanup of the demons to me? Had Abel lost his mind?!
It was obviously going to be an enormous nuisance, and if I let myself get tied up in it, I'd have no room left to deal with the original plot.
I was grateful to Commander 13 for the warning that had let me brace for this ahead of time.
The reply that came back was written in a style that somehow felt like he was gazing across a hazy past.
Was this what it meant to be the final boss of a story? His eye, and his mind, were both astonishing.
In that case—
Surely he could point me toward what I ought to do next as well. I had committed the colossal blunder of killing the protagonist's mentor. To save myself, and this entire world with me, I needed a scheme of uncanny brilliance.
And there before me stood one of the legendary bosses of the shonen-manga world—a fellow possessor.
I hadn't doubted for a moment that he would give me the answer. And yet...
The answer that came this time was cold.
...No. I didn't think that.
Yoel Asad of Immaculate was a cruel man who discarded even his own subordinates the instant they ceased to be of use. Expecting someone like that to hand out goodwill without condition was the sort of thinking reserved for a heroine whose head was nothing but flowers.
He was right, and I had no reply. Commander 13 posted again.
"...?!"
The questions came one after another while I was still reeling. Strangely, the barrage cooled my thoughts instead. I let the excitement settle and tried to answer them calmly.
How far could I go? As far as I was able, obviously. All the way.
This world was mine now. For my own sake, I had to do everything in my power to save it. That was what I wanted.
Then what did saving the world actually require? Well...
That was the conclusion I had reached. The protagonist's mentor was dead, which meant a new mentor was needed. A suitable person would be hard enough to find—and even if I found one, I wouldn't want to hand the boy over.
If I didn't do it, who would? This was unmistakably my mistake. Jade's death was my fault, so it had to be me.
When I finally laid that hard-won resolve before Commander 13—
What came back was a roar of laughter. He had gone out of his way to write the laughter into the post and let it explode across the screen.
Become the protagonist's mentor, and raise the protagonist. It was as good as seizing the fate of the entire world in your hands. If someone casually announced they would shoulder a burden this grave—one that might well end in failure—I would have laughed too.
But even so.
For some reason, the writing looked glad. I had the feeling that wherever he was, the man behind those words was smiling.
I answered him a little stiffly. The way he put it was strangely grand.
The place I had to reach from here was famous in this world, after all—the most pristine of uninhabited islands, and the most dangerous.
Akasha Island.
I kept browsing the gallery as I flew above Akasha Island, unwilling to land on a whim. One look below told me the place lived up to every word of its fame. The island was packed with monsters whose combat ratings averaged in the dozens.
"...'Dozens' makes it sound modest. In truth, that's the kind of strength that can smash an army single-handed."
A combat rating in the dozens put them at the level of high-tier demons, even by the standards of the Demon King's own army. The original explained why mere monsters could be this strong and swarm in such numbers: the peculiar nature of Akasha Island. It still held the energy of the primordial age, and so the creatures that lived there were strong as well. That was why people called it both the most pristine place in the world and the most dangerous.
In the original, Jade had gone out of his way to choose this dangerous place for himself.
After the Demon King fell, he announced he would train and walked of his own will into the most dangerous place on earth. His comrades had doubted his sanity—it was a mad thing to do—but thanks to it, the original Jade meets the protagonist. Because the protagonist falls onto this Akasha Island.
"..."
Recalling the crucial beats of the original tangled my thoughts. I had made the promise bravely enough, but I wasn't sure I could truly succeed at something as important as raising the protagonist.
And besides—
I knew he came to Akasha Island. I did not know when.
Commander 13 explained the situation as if he regretted it.
Nothing for it, then. I'd just have to plant myself on this island until the protagonist showed up.
The island was dangerous. That was precisely why it was the perfect place to train.
For a moment, the next post didn't come. Only after a long pause—long enough to suggest he was utterly at a loss—did Commander 13 reply.
With that, the conversation was over. I closed the gallery for good and descended onto the island. The monsters were already watching me—the uninvited guest—and I shouted at them without flinching.
"What are you staring at? If you've got a problem with me, come and get it!"
I picked the fight on purpose, and a battle with no room to breathe began.
A human, however strong, would have needed rest. But I was a succubus, a demon. My body wasn't built like an ordinary living thing's, and I had Drain. Whenever my energy ran low, I filled it by siphoning the monsters', and in that way I cycled through fighting and training without end.
I kept at it, without a single day's rest, for one year.
Then, one day, the sky over the island shuddered. Something that set the night ablaze was coming down.
It was a tremor of power that could not be ignored. I had been fixed on nothing but training for so long that only then did I look anywhere else.
"...He's here!"
I knew it by instinct. The protagonist of this world had finally arrived.