109. Return of the Demon King
109. Return of the Demon King
A ghost was haunting the entire world.
A ghost named Agion.
The problem was, no one was trying to catch this particular ghost.
That would be because the Guardian Duke and the Emperor, who ought to be joining hands with other organizations to hunt it down, were fanatical about it.
"... Father, why are you in that?"
"Haven't I told you? The series that made me dream of becoming an actor is this one."
"You didn't tell me."
"Then learn of it now."
No wonder Father and the Emperor had kept trying to give me spending money ever since I bought the rights to the Vandel series.
The saying that there's no favor without a reason didn't exist for nothing.
Fortunately, my father and the Emperor maintained their dignity.
Unlike my mother, they didn't go off doing cosplay somewhere or become the vanguard of some bizarre knight order and rampage all over the place.
... Though they did whine at me to make a full Agion costume set.
Both Leon and I lamented the sight.
We understood how they felt, but did they really have to act like that in front of their sons and make our insides burn?
Oblivious to how we felt, the fathers kept pestering us.
Their demands included releasing Chapter 5 as soon as possible.
"And release the Director's Cut!"
Along with that coercion-adjacent demand to sell even the Director's Cut as a collector's item.
Beside my grumbling father was my mother, who had watched the Ramy feature film and was now whining for them to make another one.
Father was Agion, Mother was magical girls.
The household was in truly splendid shape.
I rubbed my face and asked Nikolai how his family was doing.
"Yes. I asked, and it turns out my father was an Agion fan, too. My older brother's joined in as well, it seems."
"You're working hard."
I was glad my family enjoyed a film I had made, but watching them imitate it around the house was not exactly pleasant.
Why was I being punished this time when I hadn't even caused any trouble?
Filled with genuine doubt, I offered a prayer to my Lord.
Naturally, the response was silence, as if telling me not to ask for oracles over such nonsense.
Anyway, he only reached out when he needed something and was brutally cold otherwise—honestly, what a petty god.
Grumbling that I'd picked the wrong god to serve, I focused on the documents that had arrived in front of me.
The Chapter 5 release date was important right now, but more important than that was my academy life.
I'd come to my senses and found that my second year had vanished and I'd become a third-year student, hadn't I?
And the paper in front of my eyes now was, same as in second year, an application form for receiving subsidies.
The problem was that, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether I could apply for this in good conscience.
The academy series I'd started on the grounds that we could only film it while we were students had already gone way off the rails.
The protagonist was a student, sure, but a major figure like Agion had gone and appeared in it.
The slogan we'd shouted when we launched the project, "of the students, by the students," was still being upheld, but I found myself questioning whether the "for the students" part still held true.
I called an emergency meeting with Nikolai to discuss it.
"Is this really still an academy series?"
"Yes. That's standard for academy stories."
Contrary to my expectations, however, Nikolai vouched that there was no problem this time.
But no matter how I thought about it, this had already gone completely off the deep end, so I interrogated Nikolai relentlessly.
But Nikolai sighed and drove the nail in: this was an academy series.
"Boss. Think about it with common sense. If you were watching, would you actually find it fun if students just took classes at school and occasionally fought with friends?"
"Uh... no?"
"And what if the protagonist grows, but the pond he plays in is limited to the academy?"
"I'd be embarrassed to even call that growth."
"Lastly, those examples you gave of orthodox academy series—did you watch how they ended?"
"No. I got busy partway through and didn't keep up."
When I'd suggested making an academy battle series, the examples I'd given Nikolai were a story about a boy with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead and one about a girl who fired a railgun with a coin.
Recalling their plots, I couldn't remember the later parts.
"Now that I think about it, I got busy midway through watching those and never made it to the ending."
"Those ones satisfy these criteria, too."
"... You're telling me they feature massacres and wars?"
"Yes."
"...."
So the academy genre had evolved this far while I wasn't looking.
*
There was that minor episode, but anyway, we became third years.
Even as third years, the fact that we were filming Liam Walker anyway remained unchanged.
However, since we'd already shot Chapter 5, I became a jobless bum like last time until we filmed Chapter 6.
So while I was searching for somewhere to play around, like Magical Girl or Wrestle Kingdom, a little spice entered my boring daily life.
==========================
<Duel Request Form>
Applicant: Skadi Sigurdsdottir
- P.S. You haven't forgotten our promise, have you?
==========================
"..."
The spice was pretty damn hot.
This woman still remembered the promise from the entrance ceremony.
Anyway, true to her Oni tribe blood, she absolutely never forgot a duel promise.
The problem was, there was a separate reason I'd been putting off fighting her.
Losing wasn't what I was worried about.
In my John form, I'd subdued her with joint locks without even using my full power.
If I got serious, I'd beat someone like her, easily.
The problem was that I had no sense for how much of my strength I was allowed to use against Skadi.
In my life, she was one of only two people I had fought as John and then met as Allen.
The other one was Diane.
The issue was, with Diane, there was no problem since she already knew I was John anyway, but Skadi was someone who didn't know that I was John.
And in that situation, she was going to fight me?
Even a tiny slipup would let her recognize my identity.
In reality, Diane, too, had confirmed my identity through the joint lock I'd pulled out in a hurry to subdue her.
Thinking it would be impossible for Skadi was too complacent a thought.
As I agonized over this fact, one of the mini-Allens raised an objection.
- Rage: Anyway, your circle is crawling with people who know you're John, so isn't it a bit late to be agonizing over that?
Even just off the top of my head—imperial nobles of Count rank and above, the Head of the Knight Faculty, the executives of our studio.
At this rate, I wondered if it wasn't almost the Truman Show.
But I vetoed mini-Allen's opinion.
'Shut up. You just want to fight.'
No matter what, it was too early right now.
The people who knew my identity at this point were mostly Imperials.
The very reason I was still concealing John's identity was a matter of national security—that he was a black agent.
Because of this, it wasn't a problem for high-ranking Imperials to know my identity, but it was a different story for foreigners.
Until I was confident that this person 'was my ally' and could keep their mouth shut, I couldn't reveal John's identity to them.
The only two foreigners who knew my identity, Ceres and Kylie, I hadn't told either until I'd been sure they were my allies.
They, too, were keeping their mouths shut because they knew it could turn into a diplomatic issue at the slightest slip.
So, hiding John's identity from Skadi was the obvious course of action.
While I was brooding over how to handle this duel arena, an advisory notice in the corner of my desk caught my eye.
It was a petition from the Student Council, similar to the one from the Magical Girl incident.
- Your movies are making the students run wild again.
- Because of Dihex, students are recklessly spamming duels everywhere.
- Now they're challenging anyone they make eye contact with on the street for no reason. Is this even an academy?
- So when is Chapter 5 coming out? If you've already filmed it, release it faster.
I scratched out the emphasized last part with thick pen strokes, then carefully examined the remaining sentences.
Then I looked at the duel arena again, and back at the advisory notice.
'Okay. Let's go with that.'
Before long, with the little chime you'd hear in a mystery series, a good idea popped into my head.
I pulled a fresh sheet of paper from under the desk and wrote it out.
Before long, two letters lay completed on my desk.
One was for the Dean and the other for the Student Council.
I tied these two letters to carrier pigeons and sent them off.
'Sometimes, my own genius was so stunning even I was amazed.'
*
A few days later, a video was made that turned the academy upside down.
It was a public service announcement made through collaboration between the Student Council and Bon Voyage Studio.
The footage showed Liam Walker and Morse abruptly stop fighting and shake hands.
And the sentence that appeared on screen:
- Duels are not the only solution.
In addition, various other variations appeared, conveying one message to the students.
- Tone down the duels.
And then, Agion's speech followed.
As an actor, I was grateful that the academy’s students looked up to me.
But I hoped they wouldn't give in to youthful blood and the desire to use Dihex, swinging their swords at just anyone.
It was a bit too peaceful a sentiment for the most vicious demon king Agion, but then again, the actor who played Agion was famous for being courteous off-set.
Rather than seeming out of character, it merely gave the impression that a master actor carried himself with class even in real life.
The public service announcement made in cooperation with the Student Council and Agion's PSA video had the effect of making students practice restraint in duels.
On top of that, when the Department Head's advisory notice came down, an atmosphere of resolving issues through discussion or dialogue whenever possible came to dominate the academy.
On the day of the duel, I smiled at Skadi, who'd gleefully barged into our club room, and handed her a newspaper reporting on the new atmosphere.
"Wouldn't it be a little awkward for us to fight in the current atmosphere?"
"...Fine. I’ll let it go for today. But once things calm down, you’re dueling me."
"Sure."
A smile spread all over my face as I saw her off.
Once I confirmed that she had moved well away from the club room, I returned to the office and pumped my fist.
"Yes!"
With this, I would never have to fight Skadi.
What was that about saying 'Sure' earlier?
Of course, I did say that.
But even I could fail to keep a promise when circumstances made it unavoidable, couldn’t I?
From what I could tell, this atmosphere would last a little over a year.
How did I know that?
Because I was going to persuade the Dean and the Student Council to make it last for a year.
And Skadi was currently a fourth-year student.
That meant she would graduate next year.
As a rule, graduates could not challenge academy students to duels, and after graduation she and I would simply be unrelated adults, making a duel difficult.
In other words, she and I were never, ever going to fight.
I celebrated my victory and prepared for the upcoming third-year opening ceremony.
*
A few weeks after that.
As my third year began, new faces also entered our studio.
As I'd promised the Dean, the Liam Walker series had to recruit new students every semester like a class.
It was the same as the previous second semester, but with last year’s fourth-years having graduated, we needed to recruit quite a few more people.
The method?
Naturally, through a gloriously traditional survival audition.
And the audition results came out.
"Hello, everyone. I am the winner of this audition, Skadi Sigurdsdottir."
Why was the world so damn insistent on tormenting me?