The Perfect Plan (3)
The power known as Authority. That was the decisive difference separating ordinary people from heroes.
Authorities could be broadly divided into two types. One was obtained by stealing a monster’s Authority through the achievement of slaying it. The other was when a god that actually existed in this world directly bestowed an Authority upon a human.
When a god granted an Authority to a human, it was usually because the god had taken a liking to that person. That was when the gift would come. Still, there were always omens beforehand. Isaac had a few guesses of his own. But he had no idea which god had bestowed an Authority upon him.
I had a dream where I was a baby drinking milk. There wasn’t any character in the original story who received an Authority like this.
For now, that was the only suspicious omen he could think of. Otherwise, there was no way Isaac would possess such overwhelming physical ability.
Isaac stared at the man before him. The claim that he possessed the strength of a White Knight was no exaggeration. Yulis was putting up a surprisingly good fight against Isaac. He deflected Isaac’s attacks as much as possible and even launched counterattacks in between.
But none of it worked. It felt like punching a massive boulder that would never crumble. At least, he hadn’t experienced many battles like this before….
The era has changed. Is it time to step aside for the young heroes?
Surprisingly, Yulis did not fall into despair. On the contrary, he thought that if a hero like this existed, he would gladly make way. But not yet. At the very least, he could not yield this one thing.
“I acknowledge that you are strong. You will likely grow into a hero who supports the era before long.”
“Then step aside. There is no reason for you and me to fight.”
“But that won’t do. Behemoth is an enemy on a completely different level. I cannot send you to that monster.”
How nice it would be if he could simply crush the opponent with pure force. If that were possible, Yulis himself would have tried it first. However, Behemoth could not be suppressed by brute strength alone.
The reason the Holy Knight Order’s commander had been able to subjugate Behemoth sixty years ago was not only due to significant support from the Pope State at the time, but also because of the commander’s own Authority.
Isaac’s strength was undeniable. But strength sometimes invited poison. A hero who recklessly challenged an overwhelmingly powerful foe could be broken, or in the worst case, lose his life.
“Is that for the greater good? Or are you simply unable to let go of everything you’ve done until now?”
“It is probably the latter. I have already lost so much. It is something that can never happen again.”
“I see… Your wife as well……”
“……Yes.”
Yulis nodded heavily. The first sacrifice offered to the monster had been his own wife. What made it even more tragic was that while Yulis hesitated, his wife had stepped forward instead.
「It’s alright. Please do what you must.」
「Anna……」
「But promise me just one thing. Our daughter……」
He had sworn to protect her. He had wanted to die. Losing half of his body had been agony. And it still was. He would rather have died. But he could not die. There was still someone he had to protect while alive. At least until his child, who had not yet left his arms, fully grew up, he could not die.
He had lived only for his daughter until now. Yet what cruel twist of fate was this? One life versus eight hundred lives. If only he had been the kind of villain who could choose the latter. If only he could have turned away from everything and run.
He had thought about it again and again, countless times.
“Are you regretting it?”
“As the commander of the Holy Knight Order, I do not regret my choices until now. Even if the same situation arose again, I would make the same decision.”
Having sent his beloved wife away, he now had no choice but to sacrifice his only remaining daughter. It was a tragic fate. But he had no other option. That was precisely why he had become the commander of the Holy Knight Order in the first place.
“You…!! Are you out of your mind?! You’re willingly offering your wife and daughter as food for that monster bastard?!”
Kain, who had been listening from behind, could no longer contain his rage and pointed a shaking finger at Yulis. Yuliana barely managed to pull him back.
After a brief silence, Isaac spoke.
“So? Once all of this is over, what will you do?”
“……”
“Suicide probably isn’t a good option, right?”
“S-suicide?!”
The one who reacted most violently was Yuliana. Suicide? It was an ending she had never even imagined, so her intense reaction was only natural. This time, Kain had to hold Yuliana back. But Kain was thinking the same thing. Suicide? Why would he choose that? More than that, how had Isaac even noticed?
Yulis slowly opened his tightly closed mouth.
“How did you notice?”
“A lonely castle with none of your own belongings, and above all, your eyes showed no will to live.”
“…………I see.”
In truth, I noticed it from the spin-off’s ending!
The spin-off had described how, once everything was over, he would take his own life. Isaac had figured it out from reading that, but of course the others had no way of knowing.
“Your insight is excellent. Or rather, it means you observe your surroundings that thoroughly.”
Yulis genuinely admired him. He could count on one hand the number of true heroes he had seen who observed their surroundings so carefully. Since Isaac had put it that way, there was no point in denying the truth.
“As the commander of the Holy Knight Order, I have no regrets. But as a husband and father, I regret it every single day.”
“And the price for that is suicide.”
“I sent my beloved wife away, and I couldn’t even protect the daughter I swore to my wife I would safeguard.”
“……”
“What right do I have to keep on living?”
No emotion appeared on Yulis’s face. Yet for some reason, Isaac thought he could see tears flowing from those eyes. They had simply dried up long ago and were no longer visible.
“I understand your intention clearly. That is precisely why I cannot step back.”
“You mean you will not yield?”
“That’s right. Besides, Behemoth doesn’t need a sacrifice in the first place.”
“……What do you……”
“Come out. If you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
At Isaac’s cold command, most of them flinched. At the same time, question marks popped up in their heads. Who was he talking to?
But they soon realized exactly who those words were directed at.
……!!
……!!!
The ground began to shake as if an earthquake had struck. A bizarre noise that human ears could not comprehend slammed into their minds. At the same time, the incarnation of calamity revealed itself through the cracked earth.
The Tyrant of the Earth. Behemoth.
Fitting its name as a calamity, its massive body tore through the ground as it revealed itself. Isaac clicked his tongue at the sight.
According to the spin-off, Behemoth was in a greatly weakened state. Even so, neither Yulis, who possessed the strength of a White Knight, nor the Holy Knight Order could stand against it. This was because of Behemoth’s Authority.
Nothing that came from the earth could wound it. In other words, ordinary weapons had no effect on Behemoth. Naturally, swords made of metal were the same. It was not called a calamity for nothing.
Yulis shouted in shock.
“This can’t be! Why has Behemoth revived?!”
“Didn’t I tell you? Behemoth does not need a sacrifice. What a calamity needs is negative emotion.”
“Negative emotion… Don’t tell me……?!”
“Yes. It has grown by feeding on your despair and sorrow.”
Even without that, it would recover on its own over time. But devouring negative emotions drastically shortened the recovery period. That was how the spin-off had ended.
In the end, Behemoth revived. The Holy Knight Order and Yulis, who rushed in to stop it, were annihilated. Kain also died fighting Behemoth. That was the ending of the spin-off.
However, Isaac had rejected that ending.
Who the hell would accept an ending like that?
As he had said earlier, Isaac harbored a grudge against the author who had reincarnated him. Therefore, he had decided to thoroughly change the story to suit his own tastes.
Happy endings would become even happier. Bad endings and sad endings would also become happy endings. The reason he specifically chose happy endings was simple: it was Isaac’s preference. That was why he had chosen this particular concept.
Isaac stepped forward.
The revived Behemoth resembled an elephant. But it was far larger than any ordinary elephant. Large enough to completely trample even the castle walls while still maintaining its form.
The Holy Knights and Yulis drew the weapons they had prepared in advance to somehow confront Behemoth, but as expected, they had no effect.
That was the Tyrant of the Earth.
The Authority Isaac possessed was Materialization. It was a cheat-like Authority that could manifest anything he imagined in his mind. According to the setting book, Isaac had possessed this Authority ever since he founded the guild.
However, that was not the end of Isaac’s Authority. In the original story, Isaac had only been able to materialize swords. That was because the original Isaac’s vessel had been small, limiting him to that much.
The current Isaac was different. If he could set his own concept and even stake his life on it, then from that moment on, it was no longer a mere concept. It became conviction.
And there was no way the vessel of a man with such conviction could be small.
Materialization had completely devoured Isaac’s setting. Thanks to that, Isaac had truly become a dullard. But even if he had known about Materialization in advance, he would not have changed his choice.
Because that was romance.
At last, Isaac grasped the hilt of the sword. Seeing him stand unflinching against the overwhelming Behemoth, the monster sensed danger and attacked him first.
In an instant, the sword drawn from its sheath became light. Like the light of dawn slicing through darkness.
A dullard cannot defeat a genius. Yet this was the ultimate blade that completely shattered even that obvious truth and reached the heavens.
"一揮掃蕩"
"血染山河"
⟨ One Swing to Sweep Away All, Blood Staining Mountains and Rivers ⟩
And they saw it. Everyone saw it. The being once called a calamity. No, the being that had been called a calamity. They saw its massive body split apart together with the sky it had been blocking.