The World Where I Died
The world where I died.
Do you know the most terrible thing a Hero can do? Do you know the most terrible thing a Sage can do? Do you know the most terrible thing a Saint can do?
The answer to that question always came down to one thing.
"Failing to slay the Demon King and meeting their end."
To children trained for the sole purpose of killing the Demon King, that answer was obvious. It was common sense. Refusal was unthinkable, doubt was taboo, and this was a duty to be carried out as a matter of course. And so the children had lived, taking it all for granted.
Well, everyone around them said so, so that made it true. That was how they thought.
But at some point, doubt crept in.
Would children raised that way ever understand human beings? Could they truly grow into the heroes the world spoke of — the kind who could slay a real Demon King? No, more than that. If children raised like that ever went berserk... could I actually keep them under control?
That was what the Higher-Ups believed. And so, into the midst of those three, they wedged a Guide — someone to keep them from losing their way, and a weakness to boot.
Six years old, the same as the other children. A mind no less mature than an adult's, housed in a child's body — a nameless orphan raised in an orphanage, with no family and no backing, who could approach those children as one child to another.
Surely, they reasoned, this way the children would kill that orphan by the time they reached adulthood, and their hatred for the Demon King would grow naturally from the grief.
The Higher-Ups thought it, spoke it, and it came to pass exactly as decreed.
And the child they had wedged into their midst, as if to prove the reason for his existence, corrected the others whenever they strayed and guided them onward.
The Hero found the contradictions hidden within the word justice and learned to face them. The Sage came to understand the responsibility that comes with knowledge. The Saint learned what lay concealed behind the word goodwill.
Now, all that remained was for that Guide to die, and the calamity of this era could be overcome with ease.
And the remaining three — once they had brought down the Demon King and grown weary — would be subdued with every ounce of force available, killed, and made into heroes.
A perfect scenario.
But it was nothing more than the delusion of people who understood far too little about the human heart.
Put one boy in the midst of three girls, and feelings are bound to take root.
The answers already leaving the children's lips were not what they wanted to hear.
—Do you know the most terrible thing a Hero can do?
—Do you know the most terrible thing a Sage can do?
—Do you know the most terrible thing a Saint can do?
"It's dying without being able to protect you."
"Hmmm~ Guinea pig. I wonder... does that mean I won't be able to touch your body anymore?"
"It would be failing to heal the wounds on your body, Brother!"
The answers had changed long ago.
The children who once saw themselves as tools — who believed such a fate was simply the way of things — no longer existed. What had been made instead were people who could truly save others, and who could do good by their own will.
"You insolent wretch!!! You knew from the very start, you son of a bi—"
"That's why you should have come to check on things once in a while, you pieces of trash."
Yes. Perched atop your thrones, amusing yourselves while despising the hearts of men — that was your fatal blunder, and the very reason I win.
Now the Hero, the Sage, and the Saint will move — to bring down the Demon King and save this rotting world.
I will die here, but at least what I leave behind will remain upon this land, never to vanish.
"Well then, keep up the good work. I'll be going on ahead."
With those words as my last, blades come flying from every direction, and my body is torn apart past all recognition.
Before long, the doors of the audience chamber open, and in walk three women drenched in blood from head to toe.
The last sight to enter my fading vision was those children, and with it came a single thought.
So I, too, never understood the human heart.
The path the Guide had held in place now splits apart. It forks in every direction, scattering wide.
Past all hope of reining it in.
And here I was. Carrying the memories of my past life, I woke once more in a sewer.
"Ugh, my head."
That was the first thought to cross my mind.
If they find out, I'm dead.
First chapter
Latest chapter