Even Death Was Not Enough
"Hah! Hah! Hhk—!"
Having crushed Blood Zen's brain and claimed victory, Kaisent sank to the ground, gasping for air as sweat poured from him like rain. Facing an enemy who had burned even his own Innate Qi to attack had demanded an equal expenditure of inner power.
I won…! I… won…!
With his own hands he had executed the villain who had wounded the women he loved. He wanted nothing more than to collapse where he sat, yet the satisfaction of having protected what was his drew a natural smile across his face.
"Hehehe. I thought you were just an adorable little thing, but it turns out you've got a manly side after all~"
Charlize approached and held out her hand so he could stand.
"Um… I'm sweating quite a lot right now…"
"It's fine. Right now, nothing is more precious than your strength."
"Then, if you'll excuse me."
Taking Charlize's hand, Kaisent rose. His legs nearly buckled before he steadied himself.
"I'll be honest—I was surprised. I never imagined my little one would handle it alone."
"It wasn't my strength alone. If my companions hadn't protected me, I would have died without even getting the chance to fight."
Had Kaisent ultimately failed to break free of Blood Zen's curse, they all would have been captured and reduced to fodder for the man's talent. And it was the sacrifices of Lillian and the others that had allowed him to cast off that curse's influence.
"Destroying the brain as a confirmation kill isn't a bad method. But that alone isn't enough."
"Pardon?"
Charlize flicked her fingers lightly. Flames instantly engulfed the headless body of Blood Zen. Even at a slight distance, the heat was enough to dry the sweat streaming down Kaisent's face.
He was tilting his head, wondering why she was cremating the corpse, when the body suddenly lurched upright.
"Wha—!?"
"Just as I thought. I sensed residual will clinging to the flesh, so I figured it was possible."
With a casual gesture from Charlize, several stones rose from the earth, transformed into massive stone spears, and shot toward Blood Zen. The corpse, its limbs torn away by the spears, thrashed like a worm before crumbling completely into ash and vanishing.
"What was that just now…?"
"Destroying the head or the brain is an excellent confirmation kill—but it isn't universal. If we had simply left, Blood Zen's will would have animated the corpse and found some way to revive~"
"…"
A chill ran down Kaisent's spine at the thought that the man had still been scheming to survive even in that state. His expression soured further at the realization that, in the world of true masters, even a destroyed head was no guarantee of death.
"This was a special case. But those who have reached a high realm always have some final measure to preserve their lives. Don't let your guard down~"
"Y-yes!"
Having delivered her valuable lesson, Charlize turned back toward the others. The eyes of a warrior bent on killing his enemy softened into those of an ordinary, pure, and adorable boy. Watching him, she felt a mischievous urge rise—a desire to fluster those cute eyes of his.
"By the way, little one."
"Yes?"
"I have one question~"
"Yes."
"How did you use holy power~?"
"Eh…"
Caught out for having used holy power, Kaisent's face went rigid, and he began sweating even harder than before.
"Th-th-that's…"
"Saying I must have been mistaken won't work~ Most of the Guardian Order are holy-power users, you know~"
"Ah—uh—eh—ugh—khek."
Not knowing where to begin or what to say, the boy produced a string of strange noises.
"Clerics are the sort who want to advertise, one way or another, that they serve a god. But my little one doesn't have any of that~ Mind if I ask which god you serve~?"
Behind that smiling gaze he could feel an iron will—the certainty that she could see through any lie he told. Figuring a clumsy falsehood would only cost him her goodwill, Kaisent decided to be honest.
"I—!"
"Never mind~"
"…Pardon?"
"Hehehe. I just wanted to see you flustered~ I'll keep this a secret for you~"
Charlize winked cutely and hummed a cheerful little tune.
…So this is why Lillian finds her so unnerving…
Watching the woman toy with him, Kaisent finally understood why Lillian had called her frightening.
Still, she's clearly a good person.
An otherworlder who did not believe in any god had used holy power. It was an incident that could shake the very foundations of this world. Under ordinary circumstances she might have interrogated him relentlessly—or even seized him on the spot for research. That she was letting it go spoke to a nature far from ordinary.
An otherworlder using our gods' holy power without a scrap of faith. I can't go around advertising something this entertaining♥
If word got out, those stuffy, joyless clerics would abandon even the Foreign God Alliance and make Kaisent their top priority for the hunt. But for a woman who ranked her own curiosity above piety, he was a delightful research subject.
And besides.
The way Kaisent blinked those anxious, adorable eyes at her smile—
Killing a child this precious is simply out of the question.
The urge to take him home that very moment and raise him for the rest of his life bloomed inside her.
Akina lured Kaisent in with a scheme. I don't care for hitching a ride on that girl's plot, but…
Having resolved the major problem that was Blood Zen, she decided to set Guardian Order business aside for a while and return to her true work. She found herself already looking forward to the day she would meet Kaisent again.
Charlize and the rest of the Guardian Order left the cleanup to others and vanished. With the Foreign God Alliance's movements demanding their attention, they had no time to waste on residual chores.
In truth, the villagers were all dead, and the Guardian Order had already claimed every important piece of the Foreign God Alliance's spoils, so there was little cleanup left to do. Still, Merencia ordered Patisha to seal the cave entrance, then decided they would return to make their report. The scale of the aftermath was simply too large for their current numbers.
Having recovered only the bodies of their fallen comrades, the party—exhausted—settled on a brief rest before heading back. The knights kept glancing toward Kaisent's group as they rested apart. Their comrades had died with almost absurd ease, and they had witnessed sights beyond imagination.
"Kaisent, you're really all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Honestly, I'm quite worn out, but a little rest should put me right."
"Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness…"
The knights could scarcely believe that a child like him had single-handedly dealt with Blood Zen—a foe so strong that an ordinary fight would have wiped them out in under a minute.
"Talent or not, to cut down an Origin-level powerhouse at that age…"
"Did you see? He watched Blood Zen's techniques a few times and copied them outright."
"What happens when he grows even further…?"
Their reaction to Kaisent's unreal rate of growth had passed admiration and envy and settled into fear. Envy, after all, was only possible when you could still imagine catching up.
Talent that defied common sense and perception. Overwhelming talent so absolute that envy itself could not take root. And the problem was that the being who possessed it was an otherworlder.
Can we trust an otherworlder?
He seems fine for now. But if he grows even stronger…?
What happens when an otherworlder with values different from ours seizes power no one can challenge?
This world had suffered many troubles at the hands of otherworlders—and was still suffering them. Democracy, the Foreign God Alliance, and countless other problems had all been stirred up by their kind.
If a genius born of this world sought to unify it and reign supreme, people might call him a new hero. But if an otherworlder whose very way of thinking differed from theirs tried to unify the world?
If an otherworlder with the talent to face and defeat an Origin-realm master at only fourteen imposed his values upon their world?
The knights' unspoken anxiety swelled, fed by a talent that the word "transcendent" could not begin to describe.
Wouldn't it be better to kill him now?
A trap, poison—anything…
"Enough."
Sensing the ominous current among the knights, Merencia cut through the atmosphere.
"Look at that child. Does he look like the kind of being you're imagining?"
At her warning, soft laughter drifted over from Kaisent's group. The sight of him smiling under his companions' affection was so innocent that no one could seriously call him a villain who would endanger the world.
"He's fine for now, but once he grows into an adult, there's no telling what he might become."
"Exactly."
"Of course he looks safe at the moment, but…"
The knights laid bare their unease.
"I trust the character I've seen in Kaisent so far. And when our comrades fell into danger and he erupted with righteous fury, that conviction only grew stronger."
"She's right. If that child ever becomes an enemy of our world, it will be because our world gave him a reason."
Following Merencia, Patisha spoke up in Kaisent's defense.
"And Moth—ahem. Lady Akina knows this as well, which is why she summoned him—to educate him so he doesn't go astray. The more you treat him as an enemy, the more completely he will become one."
Some of the knights accepted her explanation. The rest fell silent, unconvinced.
If education alone could solve it, otherworlders wouldn't keep causing problems.
Wouldn't simply killing him be easier and cleaner?
No matter how carefully you educated one, an otherworlder was still an otherworlder. What if he later grew strong enough to rampage through the world, reshaping it to match his own values?
An uneasy atmosphere was spreading among the knights who had witnessed Kaisent's power.
While Kaisent's party rested after returning to Akina's castle—
That child already defeated a master who had reached the Origin realm?
Having learned the full situation from the reports of the Guardian Order and her daughters, Akina wore a grave expression.
That Kaisent had single-handedly dealt with Blood Zen—whose strength rivaled Origin—was an undeniable fact, confirmed by witnesses. Charlize had noted that Blood Zen had expended considerable power sealing them away, yet even so, the gap in realm had been overwhelming.
I thought I understood Kaisent's talent well enough. That child is someone who will one day surpass Origin and reach Ascension.
In all of Zelsdad's history, only two people had ever attained the Ascension realm: the founding emperor of the Haint Empire on the Eastern Continent, and the founding emperor of the Dimeneus Empire on the Western Continent.
Strangely, two Ascendants had been born in the same era. Each had founded a nation—one in the east, one in the west—and sought to unify the continents. Astonishingly, at that time the Eastern and Western Continents had not been divided by sea; they had been a single continuous landmass. The battle between those two demigods had reshaped the world's geography, shattering the center of the continent into an ocean and creating the Eastern and Western Continents as they now stood—a fact formally recorded in the histories.
There were even harder-to-believe accounts that, under certain conditions, they could elevate their subordinates' realms to Origin in a single stroke—though the details were lost to time.
Those who learned the power of absolute masters at the Ascension realm all yearned to reach it themselves. Yet whenever someone seemed poised to claim Ascension ahead of the rest, the others would unite to strike them down. Because such ambushes had become so common, no new Ascendant had been born.
That was why I intended to support Kaisent. But the talent sleeping inside that child seems to have exceeded even what I imagined.
The problem began now.
My knights have seen that his talent has surpassed ordinary bounds. From this point on, the rumors and the attention will never stop.
This world had suffered greatly at the hands of otherworlders. Nobles despised them. Otherworlders hated the nobles who labeled them "heterogeneous" and oppressed them. The Haint Empire of the Eastern Continent sought to manage otherworlders and turn their power and knowledge to beneficial ends—but across the Western Continent, fractured into countless nations, such systematic management was nearly impossible.
Once word of Kaisent spread, the nobles of the Western Continent would brand him a threat, while otherworlders would look to him for salvation and try to use his power for themselves.
It wasn't my original intention, but I'll have to keep that child close.
She had planned to train him for half a year as promised and then send him on his way. Now that his talent was known, letting him leave had become dangerous.
The worst scenario she could imagine was Kaisent, enraged by the world's malice toward him, throwing himself into something like the Foreign God Alliance. If he joined their ranks and turned that genius talent toward destroying the world, she could see no outcome but the world's ruin.
Or I could kill him with my own hands… No, no! What am I thinking? I know better than anyone that he's a good child!
Horrified that she had even considered killing Kaisent, she hastily shook her head.
…First, I need to confirm how far that child has grown.
She would measure Kaisent's strength. The finer details could wait until after.
Having set her schedule, Akina assumed Kaisent would be utterly spent from the battle against such a formidable foe and resting deeply—and turned her attention to the administrative work of managing her domain.