A Chance for the Pitiful Father and Son to Meet
Now that I knew about Pector, it was Seto’s turn. With this, I figured I could more or less predict everything about the Four Heavenly Kings.
Clanis was still a bit ambiguous, but if I just got the details on Seto, I could pinpoint exactly which year she had appeared.
“Seto, you say? I don’t know that name.”
“Or any particularly strong being among the demons of that time.”
If he had changed his name or been hiding it back then, that would be a different story.
“I don’t know the name, but there was one who rode a flying dragon. The bastard who threw flaming spears.”
“As I thought.”
That was Seto. Even after more than fifteen hundred years, that idiot was still nothing but a spear-thrower. A half-baked moron who couldn’t even use magic. That was all he was.
I was an idiot myself for failing to catch him, of course.
But maybe it made sense that he was hard to catch so easily. After all, he was a guy who had lasted a thousand five hundred years.
It was also unbelievable that not a single person had gone after Seto the way I had over all that time. Anyway, the fact that this man had ended up like this was all Seto’s fault.
Seto was the reason even Pector had been reeled in.
“What do you mean?”
“That bastard put a curse on all of you. He’s not just strong in a fight—he’s damn good at toying with people’s hearts.”
Thinking about it now, it all lined up. At first Seto had seen Veratel’s strength and tried to make him one of the Four Heavenly Kings, only to fail when the man went berserk instead. So he set his sights on the son. Unlike the uncontrollable Veratel, Pector was a little weaker and therefore easier to play with. Settling for second best, he used the rampaging Veratel to forge Pector into a Heavenly King. Precisely so that Pector would receive Authority in order to take down his own father.
And for that, he submitted to the Demon King.
That was the surface reason, at least.
“Then…”
Seeing this old man’s eyes go round, I knew he had already reached the answer.
“Pector fell for it too. The father-and-son pair really did a number on me, both of them.”
Fucking hell, it was so damn annoying.
The two of them strutted around acting all cool while being complete idiots, and they were both needlessly good at fighting.
Both of them had made my life difficult in exactly the same way.
“I leave him to you.”
“What?”
“My son. Seeing that he’s still alive, it seems he still has regrets left unresolved. I’m already finished, so I entrust him to you.”
So he knew he was done for.
He had a real talent for being a pain in the ass. Still, there was nothing for it. I didn’t want to take charge of Pector. The guy was living just fine on his own, and if you counted years alone he had lived far longer than me. He had to be well over fifteen hundred by now.
“I have no intention of doing that.”
“Heh heh heh. I know your type well. You claim you won’t fight me, and yet here we are, still together.”
“Hah.”
“Many years have passed, and if you are still living like this…”
“If I’m still living?”
“I would like you to stay by his side. That boy is not the sort who picks fights with just anyone, the way I am.”
“Hmm.”
I suspected it was simply because I was the only one with enough combat power to handle him. Even if I died later, whatever strong person showed up then would probably end up fighting Pector on their own.
With this body of mine, I might only last a few hundred years at best.
If I fully spread that fragment through my body, of course, the story would change.
“My daughter-in-law—”
“No. Let’s cut the bullshit, you and I.”
Why did he keep spouting nonsense about daughters-in-law?
“Then at the very least, look after his end.”
“That depends on the situation.”
“I have talked too long. Think of it as an old man’s grumbling.”
Crackling energy flared.
The man whose circuits had been shattering just moments ago, who truly seemed on the verge of collapse, suddenly began swinging his greatsword in front of me with easy leisure.
“What the hell? Suddenly want another round?”
“This body was once called a Hegemon King. It does not die so easily. I have a request for you.”
You’re already dead, though.
I wanted to argue the point, but I held my tongue.
“What is it? Don’t just tell me to stay by Pector’s side.”
“When you meet my child, deliver this sword to him. Along with the words that I am sorry for everything.”
Oh? He wanted to entrust this to me? This sword? But what was I supposed to do with it?
I gave a prim little smile and shook my head.
“No. Too much trouble.”
“Is that so. Well, I suppose it’s only natural after all the trouble I’ve caused you. I will not resent it.”
“Something like that should be delivered by you, his father, in person.”
His head drooped as if he had somehow misunderstood me, but things like this had to be handed over by a father to his son himself. He had never resolved a single misunderstanding with his son, so this was the perfect chance to settle it once and for all.
At least this time there would be no fighting.
“What? Is that possible?”
“I broke your demonic energy circuits. Whatever the principle behind it, restoring them is also possible.”
In other words, if breaking them was possible, so was mending them.
“You speak of reviving the dead. What a formidable woman you are.”
“You weren’t even human to begin with, so it doesn’t matter.”
If he had been a truly dead human, bringing him back would have been difficult.
But someone who had already died once was different. Especially a being whose grudges and lingering thoughts ran so deep that demonic energy had been enough to resurrect him.
Raising a true dead person would be heresy, but this didn’t count.
So I reconnected Veratel’s crumbling demonic energy circuits.
“Truly wondrous. Strength is returning to my body once more.”
“The demonic energy won’t last forever.”
Maybe a month at most.
It wasn’t my fault. He would have lasted barely a few hours without me holding him together, so the proper thing was for him to be grateful.
Yet this man simply laughed with hearty delight.
“It is enough. A body that has already died once—what’s a second time?”
“If Pector tops up your demonic energy, you’ll last even longer.”
This was both my mercy and a concession. If he simply keeled over here, meeting Pector later would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Better to keep the father alive a little while and earn some goodwill. They probably had things they wanted to settle between them. Lately I seemed to be acting far too kindly for no good reason.
Once the demonic energy circuits had fully revived, he picked up his greatsword and strode out of the fortress.
“I am grateful.”
I watched Veratel’s retreating back and felt a strange emotion.
He wasn’t going to go cause trouble somewhere, was he?
Surely he wouldn’t march straight into the Empire and start raising hell. For some reason I had the feeling an unpleasant future was waiting.
Ah, well. I decided to believe otherwise.
“Is this really all right? Haven’t you been a little too lenient?”
Celia fretted with her usual anxious tone.
Yeah. I was regretting it a tiny bit myself. Just a tiny bit. But there was no other way right now.
“He says he wants to go see his son. What else am I supposed to do? You have to cut him some slack.”
And as thanks, he had dumped every last bit of gold and treasure in the fortress on us.
Money itself wasn’t a problem for me, but it would be far more useful to the people waiting behind us.
I let out a long sigh.
What was I going to do about those hopeless disciples of mine behind me?
Those hopeless disciples who had just overheard every last thing about me.
Those half-witted party members. Their eyes had been sparkling for a while now.
Ugh. Those nuisances.
How was I supposed to handle them?
“Th-the famous young lady of House Ashtar, the Saint, and the one who reclaimed Crad Castle for the Demon Realm expeditionary force!”
“The idol of every woman in the Empire!”
“The woman most adventurers rank as the one they most want to marry!”
Looks like those kids were a huge problem too.
What was I supposed to do about this? Just thinking about it made my head throb. Was I really that impressive in their eyes already?
“Uh, look. You all have to keep this a secret, okay? I came here keeping everything secret. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
They answered promptly enough.
Hmm. What to do. It had already spread farther than I expected. At this rate it was bound to reach that brother’s ears. No—he might already know by now.
Should I put a magic seal on them? No, magic felt a little too heavy-handed for this.
We weren’t going to stay long anyway, and looking at their faces I felt I could trust them.
In that case it would be better to head straight for Libelt from here.
But first, there was something I needed to stamp into the heads of this hopeless party.
“There’s something I want to make clear to all of you.”
“What is it?”
“First of all, not talking about me is the obvious part.”
Talking about it wouldn’t actually hurt, but anything bothersome was strictly off-limits.
So silence was best.
“Yes.”
“What I want to tell you is to keep living exactly the way you have been. And don’t just use the power you’ve gained to make money. Help those in need. Do the work nobles are supposed to do. Embrace the common people and protect them.”
I had actually strengthened them far beyond what was needed for mere profit. There was always the chance these kids would throw that power around carelessly.
If that happened, I—who had taught them—might feel a little sad.
“Like the Hero Party?”
“Uh. That’s…”
Should I be honest, or should I feed them some fantasy?
No. If I lied and they later met the Hero Party and were bitterly disappointed, they might go completely off the rails out of spite.
Better to twist it a little.
“Not like the Hero Party. It’s something you ought to do. Anyone who is human. It’s something everyone should do, with or without a Hero.”
At the very least, I couldn’t trust that Hero.
He was weak as hell and dumped every single duty of a Hero onto me, the mage. All he did was use the Hero’s privileges to loaf around and eat well, occasionally smacking a few demons just to prove the value of the title. Nothing more, nothing less.
What could you entrust to someone like that?
Not that it was my job either.
Justice? Goodness? Heroes? Those things were just boring. The only reason I ever stepped in was for my own safety and my own whims.
Right now I was wearing Olivia’s mask and living as Olivia, but my actions could change at any moment.
So…
Anything troublesome should be handed off to the next generation.
“Something everyone should do.”
“Exactly. That means anyone can become a Hero. If only the one who holds the Holy Sword can be a Hero, this world would never have lasted this long.”
Even if the Hero was a special privilege of the kingdom, the symbolism ran deeper than that.
It wasn’t as if only Heroes were supposed to do good deeds.
“According to your theory, the world has always believed that only Heroes do good deeds, right?”
“I see.”
So I intended to use them as a new kind of weapon.
For the war that would eventually come.
If I set things up like this, they would be useful when that childish White King eventually started his war.
Hero. Whether that guy came to his senses or not, now that the truth about the Demon King was out, the world no longer needed anything as trivial as a Hero.
The age of Heroes and Demon Kings was drawing to a close.
That age would remain only as a fairy tale, and a far crueler fairy tale was about to arrive in the world.
The Demon King and the Hero were no longer necessary.
Because I was going to make it that way.