A Monster Born Human
Alex Reynolds. Born in the slums. Noble blood ran through his veins all the same, and so, while still a child, he had begun to move through the world as a noble once more.
He might have been somewhat special by human standards, but looking at the world as a whole, there was nothing so extraordinary about him. Even so, there was no denying the present reality: he was using the Curse of the God of Death, and seemed to be wielding the Power of the Evil God besides.
We had run together as children. Partners more than friends, scraping and clawing just to stay alive. He hadn't been without his selfish streak, but everyone in those slums had been the same. It was a world where anything less meant you'd be a corpse by morning. Still, there had been something of an ordinary child in him then. He'd seemed a little more human than he did now.
I had simply wondered. What had happened to make him this way? Or had he simply been consumed by his own desires?
Either way, it was too late to turn back. The moment he took the monsters' hand, there was no path left for Alex to survive. Remain standing as the victor, or be put down as a wretched loser and a traitor. Those were, in essence, the only two choices left to him. Naturally, he would choose the former.
Rayna and Velita were a different matter. If luck were on their side, the two of them might have managed to escape the death penalty. Well — I wasn't sure about Velita. But Rayna, at least, might have. The only act by which they had directly betrayed humanity was the assassination of the Hero — and that Hero, Olivia, had hoped for their repentance. Above all, they had never taken the monsters' hand.
Alex, however, was the principal architect of the Hero's assassination, and a traitor to humanity who had gone on to lend his strength to the Death God Cult and the monsters besides. No matter what he did, there was no going forward from here. Someone had to be brought to an end.
"Alex Reynolds, I suspect, serves much the same role for me as the Shrine Spirit does here."
"What do you mean?"
The Goddess opened her mouth slowly. From the way she spoke, I understood that even she did not know everything — that she was offering a hypothesis based on the circumstances, nothing more. In other words, it was merely the most likely explanation. It might not be the truth. I needed to keep that in mind.
"I do not know where or how the contact was made, but Alex Reynolds touched the Evil God. He was chosen as the vessel through which the Evil God would descend — and he did not refuse."
"You're saying Alex was corrupted by the Evil God?"
"No. You have the order reversed."
"Reversed?"
"He was chosen by the Evil God because he was already that kind of person."
"……"
"Despite inhabiting a human body, his way of thinking is closer to that of a monster. He holds to the law of the jungle — survival of the fittest — and yet he possesses more reason than a monster. He doubts human goodwill, and gives malice the benefit of the doubt instead."
It was reasonable enough for a person to doubt another person's goodwill. But he went beyond that. He gave priority to malice, and sought to interpret everything in the worst possible light. People are not perfect. If you wish to read their actions as good, you can. If you wish to read them as evil, you can do that too. That is the nature of human behavior.
There's a reason the habit of blaming both sides equally draws such scorn. Because no one is perfect, it is almost never the case that a single person is unconditionally at fault for whatever has occurred. Some measure of fault always arises, and one must weigh it accordingly. For the person who is more at fault to turn on the one who is less so and demand, "Weren't you wrong too?" — that is itself a wrong.
Consumed by malice. To protect themselves. For any number of reasons, people attack people. As if to say: I am not the only one. You are the same.
"Alex Reynolds surely had any number of choices before him. But the one he cut all the others away to take was this: to become a servant of the Evil God."
"……"
"He is aware that he is human, and yet he neither loves humanity nor feels any sense of belonging to it. He simply stretches his greed as far as it will go for whatever he desires. He is like a monster born in a human body."
"Is it truly that severe?"
"Everything I am about to say is hypothesis. I cannot guarantee that it is true."
"I understand."
The Goddess let out a short breath, then spoke.
"The Evil God intervened once he had recovered a measure of his power. The previous Hero had been of the Reynolds family. Until then, it had always been a Reinhardt — and he wondered why, this time, it was a Reynolds."
Come to think of it, why it had always been a Reinhardt had been quite the topic of discussion among humanity as well. But according to the Goddess's explanation, the Holy Sword was simply given to whoever possessed the qualifications to wield it. The Reinhardt family had merely produced absurdly powerful individuals, generation after generation. By chance, that house had given birth to the person most suited to take up the Holy Sword — and the last time around, there simply hadn't been a suitable candidate. For those who made a study of such things, it was a painfully simple, almost hollow answer.
"As a result, the Evil God reached out to Alex — and that, I believe, is how we arrived at the present. As for what lay between those two points, I can do nothing but exercise my rather impoverished imagination."
"……"
In other words, the process might differ, but the conclusion was the same. Alex had drawn the Evil God's interest, taken the hand extended in that interest, become his servant, and betrayed humanity. That was all that mattered. The rest of the story, it seemed, was not so important.
It was remarkably two-dimensional. Human beings were not, by nature, two-dimensional. They tended toward complexity. And yet, every so often, a person would appear so flat you had to wonder if something was wrong with their head.
"Then why did Alex join my journey at all? If the Demon King was already playing the Saintess's role for the monsters, granted power by the Evil God — then Alex had no real need to participate, did he?"
Olivia scratched her head as she spoke.
"No — even if he joined for some purpose, shouldn't he have been trying to get in my way? I don't remember Alex interfering with me even once during the journey. That's why I was taken in even more thoroughly."
If he had meant to obstruct her, Olivia would have noticed. Her instincts were good. That she had failed to notice not over a short stretch, but across that entire long journey, meant that throughout it all, Alex had faithfully carried out his duties as the Hero's companion and Sage.
Which brought us back to the question: why? If the Demon King's value had been low, it might have made sense. But he had been strengthening monsters of every kind, and he himself was far from weak. Why discard him so readily? I couldn't understand it.
"It's a simple story."
"What is it?"
"You were too strong."
"……"
"At the start of the journey, he judged you still manageable. He may well have intended to assassinate you in the Monster Realm. But you grew too strong. He discarded most of the plans he had prepared, and resolved to carry out what remained."
"Assassination?"
"No. Marriage."
"Marriage? ...Ah, come to think of it, I think Alex said something about being my fiancé... Ugh! Lois! That's a misunderstanding! I didn't even know I had a fiancé!"
"I didn't say a word. More importantly, that isn't what matters right now, so let's move on."
"It matters to me...!! A-anyway, so the plan was for him to marry me?"
"That's right."
The Goddess looked between Olivia and me, then spoke.
"At first he meant to kill you and make you a Hero who had failed to slay the Demon King. But you grew too strong. Strong enough that he could no longer lay a hand on you."
"Wouldn't a straightforward assassination attempt still have been better, though? Assassinating me before we took down the Demon King would have been preferable to doing it after."
"There was likely also a need, for the time being, to play the part of humanity's ally."
"Lois?"
I looked to the Goddess, asking with my eyes whether I might speak. She nodded.
"Judging by Alex's actions thus far, he has certainly betrayed humanity — and yet I also get the sense that he wishes to preserve his current position. He likely wanted to finish things, as far as possible, while still remaining 'Alex Reynolds,' a man of the kingdom."
If Olivia had been weak, he could have simply handled it himself and been done with it. But she was too strong. Assassinating her alone would have been difficult. He would have needed his companions' help — and proposing such a thing before the Demon King was slain could have tangled everything. Even after the Demon King was defeated, it would have been dangerous if he hadn't first gotten a proper leash on them. In that sense, I suspected that even for Alex, assassinating Olivia after she had grown so strong was a last resort.
"He tried to bind you with the leash of family. Even that proved impossible."
"I see."
"Moreover, in the Monster Realm, Olivia remained sharp. It was only after reaching human territory that her tension eased — isn't that what you said?"
"W-well, yes... Even so, we'd slain the Demon King and come home. It would've been stranger if I hadn't let my guard down, wouldn't it?"
"Exactly. That was the first — and last — opportunity Alex had been aiming for."
Assassination while she was still weak: failed. Taking her down together with the Demon King: failed. Binding the Hero Olivia with the leash of family, or anything else: failed.
"With plan after prepared plan discarded, Alex must have grown impatient. That is why he went through with the assassination, even bearing the risk."
"I see..."
"Olivia in particular had intended to keep traveling after the subjugation, to save people, hadn't she? To Alex, who had already taken the Evil God's hand, that was no different from a declaration that she meant to stand in his way."
"……"
In the end, Alex became certain that Olivia could never be made an ally. And he made his decision. Assassinate her.
He would have kept that option in reserve, as a contingency. But it would have been a last resort, nothing more. And yet he chose it. The last option, and the worst.
It's always like this. Whenever you take too long to choose, you pick the bad option. That habit of yours hasn't changed a bit — I can't even laugh. You made too big a mess of things. I can't laugh this off.
"He really doesn't know anyone but himself, does he."
"Well... yes."
The atmosphere grew a little awkward. I looked at the Goddess and spoke.
"Goddess — would you be able to tell me Velita's location?"
If she was heading for the City of Water, we might be able to meet her. Meeting her once before we encountered Alex wouldn't be a bad idea.
"Velita, you say? I am sorry. I cannot presently see all of humanity, and there is much I do not know."
"Hm?"
I understood that much — but she didn't even know the Saintess upon whom she herself had bestowed a blessing? Or had she given the blessing without knowing who received it? Was that possible? There was something faintly off about it — transcendent, and yet somehow not.
"The current Saintess."
"Ah. One moment."
Only then did the Goddess nod and concentrate. After a moment, she spoke.
"She is heading for Erchia, the City of Water."
"I see."
So Velita was heading for Erchia. Hmm. Well.
"……"
"Lois? What's wrong?"
Just now, something had felt off. I couldn't be certain, but in that brief exchange about Velita, I had felt a sense of dissonance.
"……"
There was still time. Perhaps I should look a little more deeply into this unease.