Rampage
In the end, I had no hobbies. Nothing I particularly liked. No skills I excelled at, no confidence in anything. And because of that—because I was this dull, powerless person who found everything tiresome—I never really had anyone I could call a friend.
“Hey. If you’ve got nothing to do after school, want to hit the comic shop? I know a place that makes killer dumpling ramen.”
“...Who are you?”
“I’m the guy who sits right behind you, your classmate, and the class president, Choi Min-seok. Wait, hold up. It’s been a whole month since the new semester started. You seriously don’t remember the class president’s face? Is this real life?”
“Class president? Oh, right. You did have that face.”
“Yeah, this face. Make sure you remember it from now on. So, comic shop after school?”
“Not interested.”
“Nah, you’re definitely interested. Your face says it all. Just look at you lying down during gym class. I can smell a fellow otaku from a mile away.”
“Fellow otaku? What the hell is—”
Until you reached out first.
The first time I laid eyes on the name Choi Min-seok, what I felt was relief. And right after that came a longing so deep it ached in my chest.
Maybe that was why I found myself speaking to the demonic sword as if possessed.
“Min-seok.”
-...What did you say?
“Choi… Min-seok. Where is he right now?”
-...How do you know that name?
The entity is experiencing confusion upon learning that the other party knows the true name of the Hero who only ever cared for himself.
Contracted: Choi Min-seok
Contracted: Hans
Consumed by the hope of possibly reuniting with an old friend, I didn’t even notice that the room had emptied until only Sword and I remained. It was all thanks to the consideration of my contractor and Hans. They were probably together in Sion’s room right now. Assuming Sion had opened the door nicely, anyway.
They must have had a mountain of questions. The fact that they didn’t ask a single one made me both sorry and grateful.
“....”
-....
The worn-out longsword resting on the bed and the masked figure leaning against the wooden chair stared at each other. The awkward silence stretched on, broken only by the chirping of insects drifting through the window. It felt suffocating.
Then, as if slicing through that silence, the blade of the old longsword hummed lowly.
-Terror. How do you know the Hero’s true name? What exactly was your relationship with him…?
Hero. Hero, huh… What the hell had that guy been doing here to earn the title of Hero from a demonic sword?
More importantly—‘What was my relationship with that bastard?’
“Choi Min-seok was…”
My inseparable best friend since our first year of high school. The only person who kept in touch even after I got a job at the company. He was like a sworn brother, someone I relied on more than my own family. Whether he felt the same or not, that’s how I saw it. He was a precious person to me. As precious as my current party members.
-A close friend…? Hmm, so the previous contractor had formed a bond with a demon…?
It seemed like Sword was under some massive misunderstanding about the nature of our “contract,” but I didn’t bother correcting her. Anything I said here would only complicate things further. Sometimes silence was the better option.
Besides, none of that mattered. There was only one piece of information I wanted.
“Jealousy. I know you formed a contract with Min-seok.”
-....
“So please. Tell me. Where is Min-seok right now?”
The fact that the contract was still active meant the friend bound by it wasn’t dead. He was alive somewhere. At first I’d wondered if it was just a coincidence of names, but my gut was screaming otherwise. That Choi Min-seok was definitely the same bastard who had abandoned me in Terraforming and fled to this farming-sim fantasy world. Ninety-nine percent probability.
‘So the “farming-sim world” you mentioned… was this place?’
I’d always found it a little random that I’d been summoned from a post-apocalyptic world into a JRPG one. But maybe my friend had begged the Goddess to bring me here. In fantasy stories, Heroes and Goddesses always came as a set, after all.
If my guess was right, that guy had saved me twice. Once from a boring, peaceful, ordinary life. And again from a spectacularly insane, dog-shit existence that threatened to break my mind every single day.
If not… well, I’d just beat the crap out of him until he was on the verge of death. If I didn’t want to end up with all five limbs unsatisfied, I’d better pray my theory was correct.
But.
“Why aren’t you answering?”
-....
Sword remained as silent as if she had truly become nothing more than a hunk of steel. I was sure I’d given her plenty of time to speak.
Had I asked something that difficult to answer? I just wanted to know where my friend was. Was that so hard?
I stared quietly at the old longsword, debating whether to reactivate Piercing Eyes. The longer the silence stretched, the more I felt my patience being shaved away. I, Raven, was the kind of man who could be patient one moment and have none the next.
I didn’t want to treat a comrade harshly, but I wished she would open her mouth soon. Of course, Sword didn’t actually have a mouth, but if she kept this up I might just carve one into her blade.
-That is… haa…
Sword, who had seemed to be hesitating, finally yielded to my quiet pressure. She let out a heavy sigh and slowly began to speak.
-Min-seok… the Hero, that is… was defeated by the Demon King roughly a hundred years ago… and went missing.
“...?”
Did I hear that wrong? What?
Demon King. Defeated. ‘…Missing?’
“Defeated by the Demon King and went missing… a hundred years ago.”
That was a long time. In terms of time passed, it was even longer than when I’d been possessed by Terraforming. Had he been summoned here before me? Or maybe time flowed differently between Terraforming and this world.
……Ha. Damn it.
No matter how hard I tried to steer my thoughts in another direction, no matter how I tried to suppress the boiling rage, it wasn’t easy.
Crack.
I smelled blood. Even though blood shouldn’t flow through me anymore.
-...Terror? Are you all right? Terror…?
The world turned red.
“How dare you.”
To touch him. The first person who ever reached out to me—
—Crrrrk.
Like radio static that couldn’t find a signal, noise erupted in my ears.
Mana density is too high. Disruption failed.
Warning. Focus. Mutation cannot be controlled.
The solid wall of reason I had painstakingly built since arriving in this world cracked. The power I had been restraining and suppressing began to leak out.
Fear. Dread. Revulsion. Everything that could evoke terror in intelligent life. Something trapped inside my body began to spread, claiming a wider territory.
The Monarch’s Domain has been declared. All shall kneel.
—Nya?! Wh-what is this nyang!
—Ugh… my body won’t move properly….
—This alien wave of mana… Don’t tell me it’s Raven…?
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Haa….”
I could feel the heartbeats of countless lives. Frantic pulses as if fleeing from something. The rhythm was so addictive. Their fear and terror tasted so sweet.
I decided to reach out a little further.
Vrrrr.
My senses expanded. My domain expanded. Upward. Downward. Sideways. It stretched without end.
Fear detected.
Fear detected.
Fear detected.
The wider my domain grew, the more fear multiplied. It was a most welcome thing. Because to me, fear was power. And with more power, finding my person would become that much easier. So I craved fear.
Fear Eater is showing signs of rampage.
No—I endlessly hungered for it.
But then.
—Bang!
The sound of a door being violently thrown open cut through everything, followed by a voice.
“Stop it. Raven. Please stop now.”
This is a breach of contract.
A painfully familiar voice.
“Contract….”
A softly glowing candle. Rain tapping against the window. Moldy wallpaper. The person who had boldly reached out to me there.
“Contractor.”
Yuri.
In a world dyed red, the moment I saw his—or rather her—figure, strength drained from my body. I couldn’t hurt my contractor, the person who had entered my sanctuary. My friend was important, but my contractor was also precious to me.
I staggered. As the rage subsided, strength left my limbs.
Why is my body so weak…?
My cheat-like body had always maintained perfect condition without a trace of fatigue. Yet now I felt abnormally tired. Sleepy.
Sleepy?
Me?
Ding!
While kneeling on the floor, still sensing something was wrong, a translucent message floated in the air.
You have inflicted a critical threat upon contractor Yuri Alcast. Contract violation penalty will now be applied immediately.
Penalty: Mana Restriction 10,000 MP
Duration: 7 days
“Ah.”
So that’s why my body felt so weak—my usable mana had been restricted….
As I crawled across the floor like a slug, the rest of the party appeared behind my contractor.
“Yuri! Are you oka—”
“Wait, what the hell is—”
“...It looks like Raven went on a rampage—”
“Kyu kyu kyu—”
My ears felt muffled. My mind was hazy.
“Hans, over here—”
“Whoa, he’s heavy—”
“Seriously, what are we going to do with this masked lunatic…!”
Feeling my contractor and Hans supporting me while Sion patted my back, I thought:
...I should sleep for a bit.
And then I lost consciousness.
“Are you awake?”
“...Where am I?”
“Ah, please don’t worry. This is the underground prison beneath the Magic Tower. Exactly as the name suggests—an underground jail belonging to the tower. Your guardians said they were going to take the promotion exam, so they should return shortly if you wait. Probably.”
“...I see.”
When I came to again, I had become an inmate in the Magic Tower’s underground prison.
“Just perfect.”