What Are These Guys...?(2)
Something felt off.
The demon-summoning ritual was proceeding exactly according to plan. Gifted humans had been offered as sacrifices, and the blood required for the rite was already more than enough. They had broken arms and legs while the victims were still alive, forcing them to draw their last breath in the depths of absolute despair. Every condition prepared for the ritual had been met without a single omission.
Only one thing remained.
The moment this ritual ended.
Three minutes left. Just three more minutes of holding out, and even if it was only a lesser one, a servant of the Great One would descend upon this land.
Then this backwater village would become a sea of blood in an instant. Every living thing would become a sacrifice. And with that blood as the foundation, they would perform an even greater ritual.
That was their mission.
"...Hah."
Hot breath spilled out from behind the mask. The end was in sight. Succeed at this mission, and the cult would surely recognize him for a higher seat.
And yet… why this unease?
Cold sweat slowly traced its way down his spine. His chest felt tight for no reason at all.
He looked around. Leaves trembling in the wind. Birds chirping, oblivious to everything. And the quiet flow of the stream through the valley.
Peaceful. Far too peaceful.
"...I'm imagining things."
He soothed himself and turned his eyes back to the magic circle.
The crimson light was growing denser by the second. The ritual was normal. There was no reason for it to fail. And still, something was wrong.
As if… something… had been watching them for a very long time…
That was the moment.
Crunch.
The sound of a footstep on fallen leaves. Light. Casually unhurried. Like someone out for a stroll.
"...!"
Three pairs of eyes snapped toward the forest at once. From between the trees, a small shadow slowly revealed itself.
Black hair. An ordinary shirt. A little boy who didn't look like he'd even reached ten years old.
"...A kid?"
The tension drained away in an instant.
A dry snort of laughter slipped out. So he'd been fretting over nothing. Cold sweat over a single child—how ridiculous.
The boy glanced around once, then looked back and forth between the corpses hanging upside down and the magic circle drawn in blood.
"...Whoa."
Whether it was admiration or surprise was hard to tell. After tilting his head for a moment, the boy raised a hand and waved at them.
"...Hmm. Hello?"
"..."
A greeting that had absolutely nothing to do with the atmosphere. He was so nonchalant about it that a hollow laugh almost escaped. Must have gotten lost and wandered in here. With spectacularly bad luck, at that.
Actually, this worked out perfectly. A child's blood was pure. One more sacrifice would only speed the ritual along. He flicked a finger lightly.
"Kill him."
The order fell, and the two subordinates flanking him launched themselves at the same time. Blades carved through empty air. A spear tip shot toward the boy like lightning. The child would die without even knowing why.
That was what he thought—
Zzzt.
"...?"
A grotesque sound scraped across the ears.
The air… trembled, just for an instant.
No. It wasn't the air that had trembled.
It was his vision.
Thud.
Something warm dropped onto the top of his foot.
Red blood.
And—a human head.
"...What?"
Thud.
Another one fell.
He lifted his head in a daze.
The two subordinates who had been standing at his side mere moments ago—their heads were now held in the boy's hands.
Their bodies, a beat too late, dropped to their knees and toppled over.
The boy looked down at the two heads as if nothing of note had happened, then grinned and opened his mouth.
"Welcome! First time meeting a munchkin?"
"Ugh. Gross."
I set the three heads I'd been holding down on the ground with a soft thunk.
They rolled a few times across the dirt and came to a stop. Thick, dark-crimson blood dripped steadily from my fingertips, and my clothes were already soaked red.
I'm screwed. If I walk into the village looking like this, what is my sister going to say?
Rowoon. I wondered where you'd gone while we were digging potatoes—did you dig up people instead?
…
I'd be lucky if that was all she said. Isn't this at least grounds for getting banished from the village…?
"...Augh."
This is exactly why I didn't want to use it. Who in their right mind goes around carrying people's heads? Anyone looking would think I was a complete lunatic!
Well… I do kind of look like a lunatic right now.
"...I'm probably the only human on earth with a hobby like this."
Of course! Hobby, my ass! I am not doing this because I enjoy it.
"Haaah."
I roughly wiped the blood on my hands against some grass.
It barely came off. If anything, it just smeared worse.
"...Yeah, of course it won't wipe off."
So what, because I'm the Bloodfiend Demon King I'm supposed to be some blood-crazed murder freak who butchers people for fun? You should love this! Is that it?
Are you insane? I pass on that kind of ending, thanks.
My trait.
Celestial Slaughter Star
This thing's biggest problem was simple.
The more blood I see, the stronger I get. The more blood I drench myself in, the stronger I become.
So far, so good.
The problem came after that.
As I grow stronger, my sanity flies out the window right along with it. The first time I awakened, I had a hell of a time. Just smelling blood made my heart race and filled me with the urge to kill every living thing in front of me. Enemy, monster, person—distinctions ceased to exist.
In the end, only I would be left standing. The truly terrifying thing about the Heavenly Killing Star isn't the power. It's that it turns its user into a monster.
"...But."
That's an old story now.
Back when I was climbing the Tower… the fifty-fifth floor? Fifty-sixth? Somewhere around there, a stroke of fortune I stumbled into by chance gave me a way to control the Heavenly Killing Star.
Thanks to that, my mind is clear now. I can even crack jokes in the middle of a bloodbath.
Of course, using it for long in this body is a whole other problem.
"...Enough."
Old stories end here. I'll pay off the foreshadowing later. Yeah.
I lifted my gaze and looked around. Corpses. Blood. And a massive magic circle.
"...Hmm."
How am I supposed to clean this up? The situation right now is an absolute emergency, sure—but the real problem was something else entirely.
The web novel I'd been reading right up until the moment I got dropped into this other world.
I don't even remember the title. I was always the type to dip into whatever was lying around. But one thing I remember with absolute certainty.
This world I'm in right now—and this novel where my sister Isabelle is the heroine—was definitely an ordinary romance fantasy.
Commoner-born Isabelle gets special admission into the Academy, starts a slow-burn with the crown prince, the northern duke's heir gets jealous, she befriends the Magic Tower Lord's disciple… that kind of thoroughly ordinary story.
At the very least, there were no cults hanging people alive and summoning demons.
"...Why?"
I muttered under my breath. There hadn't been a single line of this in the original.
Maybe I just never finished reading it?
…
No. I binge-read every last one of Isabelle's childhood flashbacks. If bastards like these had existed, there's no way I wouldn't remember.
Which means a variable has appeared.
"...Don't tell me."
Am I not the only one who crossed over into this world?
Or… has something from the world I lived in spilled over into this one?
"...Hmm."
I stood there blankly, lost in thought.
Thud.
Something caught against the tip of my foot. Villain Number Two's head.
Absentmindedly, once—
Thud.
And again—
Thud.
"..."
…
Wait. Was I just playing soccer with a human head? Even if they're already dead, that's a little… sorry about that.
"My bad."
I apologized with my mouth only and pulled my foot back.
That was the moment.
BOOOOM!!
A roar like the air itself exploding shook the forest.
Every leaf trembled at once. From dozens of meters away, something was hurtling toward me at tremendous speed.
"The demon worshipers suddenly went crazy and started fighting each other!"
"And I didn't do anything!"
"It's true!"
"..."
Silence. A strange stillness settled over the forest.
Even the rustle of leaves in the wind, even the distant birdsong—everything went quiet, as if the whole woods had gathered to watch this spectacle.
I was currently on my knees with both hands raised high. Anyone looking would have thought a puppy who'd messed up was begging its owner for forgiveness.
Granted, it was true that just moments ago I had wrecked a demon-summoning ritual, been holding three human heads, and was covered head to toe in blood.
But that was just the situational description. I didn't do it.
…Or so I wanted to insist.
"Haaah, you know…. Haaah…."
The girl standing in front of me let out a deep sigh. Her small shoulders slumped, and her silver hair—tied up in twin tails—swayed lightly in the breeze.
On the surface, she really did look like an ordinary child.
A tiiiny little frame. A tiiiny little face. And a height that was way more tiiiny than fourteen-year-old Isabelle's. And tiiiny.
Ahem. Anyway—if you ran into her on the street, you'd just think she was an adorable little kid.
But I knew better. I knew what slept inside that small body.
In the novel I'd been reading before I crossed into this world—the original story of the world I'm in now—there were four beings whose names people didn't even dare speak lightly.
The one who reached the end of the concept of the sword. The Sword Saint.
The one who awakened to every truth of the discipline of magic. The Sage.
The master of the bow who touched the realm of the gods. The Divine Archer.
And—the being who shattered the human limit known as the body. The Extreme King.
"..."
I quietly looked at the girl in front of me. Honestly, I'd been a little thrown the first time I saw her.
No—I'd had some idea from the novel's descriptions, but… does she have to look this young? She's shorter than Isabelle?? Right now?? The novel clearly described her as a martial arts monster who trampled enemies across countless battlefields. What I'm looking at is just…
A cute little brat.
……She's supposed to trample enemies with those feet…?
The girl crossed her arms and looked down at me.
"So……. Who did you say Teacher was again?"
"..."
In that instant, the girl's expression hardened.
"I just told you, you know."
"Ah."
"Don't tell me."
"Yes."
"You forgot, you know?"
A small finger pointed at my forehead.
Tok.
Ow.
"I'm the Extreme King, you know!!"
Tok.
"The Extreme King!"
Tok.
"One of the strongest beings in the entire setting—the Extreme King!"
"You don't need to hit me three times—"
"I hit you so you'd remember, you know."
"..."
I had no choice but to accept it.
The Extreme King. One of the four strongest beings in the world.
The existence who surpassed human limits in the field of martial combat.
A monster who tore giant creatures apart bare-handed and ended wars on a national scale by herself.
The moment she moved, countless powerhouses held their breath, and her name alone made enemies abandon the fight.
She was well over a hundred years old—and this is important, so I'll say it again. She was well over a hundred years old, but she had reached the realm of Rejuvenation and turned the clock of her body backward.
Outward appearance: a little girl.
But inside her lived nearly a century of experience and overwhelming martial might.
A living legend, plain and simple.
—That was the original setting, anyway.
"..."
I looked at her once more.
Small hands. Small height. Small face.
And—the small finger that had just flicked my forehead.
Well. Honestly speaking.
By the standards of me at my peak… she was just a baby.
A pretty cute baby, at that.
Of course. Right now I have a nine-year-old body. And if we fought right now, I would lose.
Overwhelmingly.
So this is purely a past-tense assessment. This is the important part!! Do not get this twisted!!
"Spit it out already, you know!"
The Extreme King stamped her foot and shouted.
"Who took care of every single one of these guys here, you know?!"
"I'm telling you, it's true!"
I raised my hands with a thoroughly wronged expression.
"These people suddenly went crazy and started fighting each other, I'm telling you!"
"Then."
The Extreme King pointed a finger around us.
"Why are all the corpses here fallen in the same direction, you know?"
"..."
"Why are there explosion marks on the ground."
"..."
"Why is there blood all over your clothes, you know?"
"Well."
I answered with complete confidence.
"Because they fought right in front of me."
"..."
"I'm the victim here."
A brief silence. The Extreme King's eyebrows twitched.
"Uuuuuuugh…"
"……?"
"Why!"
"Why is it!"
"So impossible to talk to you, you know!!"
The Extreme King's tiny body trembled all over.
"This is so annoying, you know!!"
"This is really so annoying, you know!!!"
"I've never seen a brat like this in my life, you know!!!"
Thwack.
"..."
Ah.
I just got knuckled on the head.