At the same time the eighth match was finishing, an alert resounded across all of Aureatia.
For the citizens it was a simple order to evacuate, but it was widely known that for the hero candidates, and the people involved with them, it contained another, extremely severe implication as well—an emergency summons regarding a threat to Aureatia. So long as they all put forth their names as hero candidates, they bore a responsibility to go out and face off against any self- proclaimed demon king.
…Then at Flinsuda's estate. "YOU DON'T NEED TO MOBILIZE."
The revenant controlled by Krafnir the Hatch of Truth stood barring the door to Tu's room.
Hearing the alert, Tu the Magic was certain to go running out of the estate without thinking ahead. He needed to make sure to stop her.
"Outta the way, Krafnir! I gotta get going!"
"TU. AFTER YOU DISOBEYED ORDERS AND WITHDREW FROM THE FIFTH MATCH, YOU'RE CURRENTLY SEEN AS DIFFICULT TO CONTROL. IN OTHER WORDS, THERE'S A CHANCE YOU'LL BRING HARM TO THE AUREATIA CITIZENS IF YOU'RE ALLOWED TO RUN FREE."
"Of course, I wouldn't do anything like that! You know that full well, Krafnir!"
"YEAH. I UNDERSTAND. BUT THERE ARE OCCASIONS WHEN THE WAY YOU'RE PERCEIVED BY OTHERS DOES MATTER. IF THEY'RE GOING TO THROW YOU OUT ON THE FRONT LINES, WITH THE FEAR THAT YOU MIGHT LOSE CONTROL, THERE'LL BE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN FLINSUDA AND ANOTHER IN THE TWENTY-NINE OFFICIALS… MOST LIKELY THIRD MINISTER JEL, AND YOU NEED TO WAIT UNTIL THERE'S CONDITIONAL APPROVAL FOR YOU TO ACT."
"That doesn't make any sense! People's lives are on the line, aren't they?!" "THEY UNDERSTAND THAT EVERY SECOND COUNTS RIGHT NOW, TOO. THE
NEGOTIATIONS WON'T TAKE LONG."
"…Does that mean—"
Tu's eyes, as she stood in front of the window, gleamed with a faint green luster.
"—it's about getting money out of it?"
"..."
Tu possessed an almost childlike purity and innocence.
However, that didn't mean she was stupid. She understood the meaning behind this current situation.
Flinsuda the Portent was using the suspicions about Tu the Magic's wildcard behavior to try adding on conditions to the request for Tu's mobilization, once an outright obligation. In order to lay the responsibility of Tu's mobilization on the opposite party, in exchange for a sizable bribe.
"…TU. FLINSUDA IS DEFINITELY NOT A VIRTUOUS WOMAN. BUT SHE'S NOT DOING ALL OF THIS OUT OF HER OWN GREEDY SELF-INTEREST, EITHER. SHE'S BEING CONSIDERATE OF YOU IN HER OWN WAY. WHAT SORT OF CONDITIONS SHE WOULD NEED IN ORDER TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THE QUEEN, FOR EXAMPLE?"
"…That's neither here nor there. Right now…that's not what I'm supposed to do."
"..."
Tu surely must have believed that her wish to see the Queen was selfish.
This was why even as she desired to meet the Queen enough to enter the Sixways Exhibition—she ended up putting others before herself, as she had done when she had been protecting the Land of the End and when she had acquiesced victory to Kuze.
If she kept this up, wouldn't she run the risk of putting others before herself forever?
"When I learned that Sun's Conifer attacked the almshouse…I felt so much regret. I wanted to help out Kuze, yet…I wasn't able to do anything. I couldn't be there at the kids' side when they needed me the most."
"THAT ISN'T WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO."
"I don't think so. That goes for anyone… Anyone still alive. Nothing makes me happier than helping someone else, and it makes me sad when I can't. That's all there is to it."
Krafnir was aware of Tu's good nature. However, he didn't think it was genuine.
"IF YOU GO NOW…TU, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO LIVE IN AUREATIA ANYMORE. NOT
ONLY THAT…YOU'LL LOSE YOUR PLACE IN ALL OF MINIAN SOCIETY ITSELF! OUR SOCIETY ISN'T BUILT TO TRUST IN THE GOOD NATURE OF MONSTERS! AT THE VERY
LEAST, YOU HAVE TO MAKE THEM THINK…THAT YOU'RE REGULATED BY ORDER AND DISCIPLINE, OR YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GO ON LIVING YOUR LIFE!"
"I don't get it. I'm sure that you and Flinsuda have all these amazing ideas,
and you're way smarter than I am. Still…! There are still times when if you don't act, someone might end up dead! If Rique was still alive, he'd definitely say the same thing!"
"...!"
Krafnir had regrets.
He thought of himself as smart. He believed that if he thought things through, without making incorrect choices…he would be able to accomplish his goals without exposing himself to any danger. He would keep sacrifices to a minimum.
But that hadn't been the case at all.
Every time he experienced Tu or Rique's innocence and youth, there was a sense of guilt somewhere inside his heart.
Being forced to acknowledge that this part of him remained was a terribly unpleasant feeling.
"TU THE MAGIC…I SHOULD HAVE NEVER INVOLVED MYSELF WITH YOU… THE TRUE DEMON KING, THE SIXWAYS EXHIBITION… I JUST…INTENDED TO LIVE IN PEACE…RIDING OUT THE TURMOIL IN SAFETY, AND YET…"
"Well, I'm glad we met."
Tu's eyes looked straight ahead at Krafnir's revenant.
They seemed to be peering through to Krafnir himself on the other side.
"I despaired the whole time, too. I never had the courage to look out beyond the Land of the End. But…I'm glad the first people I encountered were you and Rique. It's thanks to you both that now I can say, without any hesitation, that I want to go help others."
"…WHY…?"
The revenant shouldn't have possessed any ability to feel pain, but it was in anguish, reflecting Krafnir's own mental unrest.
His Mind Arts control was falling into disarray.
"…WHY! WHY DID YOU END UP THAT WAY, TU?! YOU, THAT DEMON…! YOU'RE A WEAPON MADE BY THAT MONSTER IZICK THE CHROMATIC, AREN'T YOU?! SO WHY, WHY AREN'T YOU A MONSTER?!"
"There are infinite possibilities in this world! There are all sorts of colors! As long as you have a just and brave heart…then even a monster like me can get to see that sorta stuff, too! That's what he taught me!"
"LIAR…!"
He could never forget.
The hand of his dying master had become terribly thin and frail. Enduring lasting agony from Izick's bacteriological weapon, the woman who had been the beginning of everything for Krafnir died a young death.
He had seen the ruins of a city Izick had annihilated on a whim. He had seen the vestiges of a coldly efficient massacre, but beyond that, where the perpetrator gleefully tormented his victims as he killed them.
"YOU'RE LYING!"
Krafnir knew Tu's inherent good nature. This young girl had never told a lie before.
But Krafnir couldn't forgive him. Ever since he heard that Izick had challenged the True Demon King as part of the First Party, he remained unable to forgive him.
Don't lie, Izick the Chromatic.
A tempest of winged insects surged through the open window.
Controlling a massive number of revenants through Mind Arts, Krafnir had finally surpassed the techniques of Izick the Chromatic.
He had to, or he would never find peace. "Krafnir!"
"YOU CAN GO…AFTER YOU DEFEAT ME!"
In this world, before the appearance of the True Demon King, the words self- proclaimed demon king didn't mean anything. Just a mere twenty-five years earlier, they were the ones referred to as demon kings.
The original demon kings of this world were demonic monarchs diametrically opposed to the true monarchs.
A demonic monarch couldn't possibly become a king all on their own. At the very least, there may have been comrades who shared the same views, or people who were attracted by their ideals. There may have been some who wished for the good fortune of the subjects that followed them, or wished for a new kind of
prosperity, or for world peace.
The demon kings of the past were destroyers of order, but they weren't absolute evils.
He was different, however.
One of the seven members of the First Party, Izick the Chromatic was a man described as the wickedest demon king of all.
For instance, Izick was said to have been heavily involved in the events surrounding a particular city, Meeti Crossroads City.
The lord ruling the city, Rotegra the Scrupulous, criticized the faction of aristocrats who provided support for Izick's research and carried out domestic reform. The two held a deep-rooted hatred for each other.
Opposing Izick the Chromatic came with considerable risk, but Rotegra avoided direct conflict, even negotiating with him on occasions, and dexterously protected himself.
One day came when Rotegra stood on a hill on the outskirts of Meeti, without a single bodyguard along with him.
"Impeccable as always, Lord Rotegra! Right on time! Welcome! Ha-ha-ha- ha!"
He appeared to be a relatively normal worn-out middle-aged man, adorned in traveling attire—
So long as one ignored the laugh that never failed to grate on the listener's nerve.
Izick the Chromatic.
"You got here right as I finished eating my lunch! This deer meat pastry really is great, huh?! I heard this was Meeti's signature dish, right? Ain't too bad!"
Izick's horribly cheerful voice instead only brought more mental gloom to Rotegra.
He mumbled with what sounded like the whispered voice of the infirm. "…L-let me make sure…"
"Huh? What's that? You say something?"
"Y-you promised…if I surrender Meeti…m-my daughter…you'll give Selure back… I-in that case, I'll hand it over. A-all of it…"
His voice was trembling.
It was fair to say that Meeti Crossroads City meant everything to Rotegra. It
was a domain bestowed to his family as a reward for their great contributions to the True Northern Kingdom judicial system.
If he surrendered it to the world's enemy, Izick the Chromatic, it would result in Rotegra losing all his honor and wealth. However, the man's will had already been broken.
The people Izick targeted hadn't been any of his capable advisors, or major players within the city's political and business circles.
At first, the elderly librarian Rotegra was closely acquainted with went missing.
Next, his longtime friends from his youth began to disappear one by one. His driver and servants disappeared, then his housekeeping matron did, too.
Not a single person vital to Meeti's administration was included among them. Then, finally, his daughter, Selure.
"I'll tell my men…everything… Meeti, I'll…I'll hand it over…" "Oh, good."
Izick didn't carry anything. He hadn't brought anyone else along.
Yet it wasn't numbers, or power, but his spite itself that was the most terrifying of all.
His eyes were cold. He gazed at Rotegra as if he were looking down at a flea. "Hey, so do you mean, like, right now? From now on, this town is mine?" "Where is Selure?"
"Listen here, Lord Rotegra. The thing is, I'm not too bright. I never went to school or church, so sorry if I'm misunderstanding something, but, um…who's the person asking the questions here?"
"Wh-where is she?! Where is Selure?!"
"Aww, enough already… Just calm down a sec."
Izick let out an exaggerated sigh, and then scratched his head. He pointed at the hill behind Rotegra.
There was a young girl walking there. Looking from afar, there was no mistaking her.
"Ahh… Ahh…!"
"See? She's fine, right?"
"…I-I'm, I'm not even part of the aristocracy anymore. My daughter and I, together…we'll live hiding from the eyes of heaven itself…so I—I won't do anything else to you. I can't do anything more… Let's put an end to this. Everything, both of us."
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Oh, that's great! Tying a bow on this long relationship of
ours, then! Peace is great, isn't it? So from this moment on, this whooole city's mine, huh?! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Loudly cackling with both hands stretched out, the demon king looked down over the city. The city that had been Rotegra's.
Why did the Wordmaker give a man like him nightmarish power?
Meeti Crossroads City, which Rotegra had once ruled over, was now destined to be turned into the base of operations for this wickedest of all demon kings. The vast, fertile soil, all the living, breathing people within, would become toys for Izick's maliciousness.
Rotegra the Scrupulous's fight against wickedness had ended with it all being for naught.
Evil had won.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha—oh."
Izick's roaring laughter was suddenly interrupted.
He almost resembled a windup doll coming to its abrupt stop. It was eerie.
"Y'knooooow, that bakery where I got my lunch earlier, the staff there was really rude to me. They looked at their customer and clicked their teeth. What do you think of that, Lord Rotegra? That sorta thing is the worst, isn't it? I mean, I'm the customer, right? I'm paying their wages and everything. So why'd they click their tongue at me, I wonder…? I don't get it…"
"W-why indeed…?"
"Hmm… Y'know what? Forget it. I don't need a city like this." Rotegra heard a sound splitting the air, like the rumbling of the earth… A terrifying sound like nothing he had ever heard before.
And from the direction of town… "I-Izick."
…came screams.
The shrieks of the people he could hear from Meeti down below, all at once.
Innumerable.
Overlapping in countless numbers, they reached all the way to this plateau so highly removed from the city.
They were the last gasps of the very city itself.
The townscape spread out before his eyes began to be dyed in a chilling black.
The swarm of something, appearing out of nowhere, was alive—or at least, appeared to be alive.
Unnervingly bubbling forth. Incessant and everywhere. "A-ahh… e-eauuugh…!"
Rotegra could no longer keep himself standing, and he frantically moved back, dragging his waist along the grass.
There were countless red eyes mixed among the black clouds devouring the city.
An enormous sea of rat revenants…overflowing from the sewers, from the floorboards, and every other nook and cranny throughout the city, was greedily devouring the living.
The chorus of screams below him continued. They were making sure their victims could still use their voices as they killed them.
They were none other than the voices of the citizens of Meeti, having their flesh chewed away and devoured while they yet lived.
"Eeeeaaah, I-I'm sorry… Please, please forgive me…!"
"Weeeell, you gave me the city, right? That means I can destroy it if I want, right? Thanks!"
"Stop, it's not my fault, it's not—eeaauuuuuugh!"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah, this is so much fun! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- ha-ha!"
Even as the cackling and the screams tore his mind apart, Rotegra ran toward the hill.
His daughter. As long as Selure…
On top of the hill, his beloved Selure was walking.
With tottering steps, while her unfocused eyes looked at Rotegra. "..."
"S-Selure."
It seemed like something moved inside his daughter's face. Something…like a tiny swarm.
"Lord Rotegra."
He heard a bone-chillingly cold voice from behind him. Izick wasn't laughing anymore.
"You remember what happened a little while ago, right? Right, right, it was juuuust before that girl of yours went missing, I think? You insisted on peace talks or whatever, but as I was heading there, along the way some bandits… Knights? I couldn't really tell, but they came and tried to attack me, you see… Boy, did that give me a scare, let me tell you."
"I—I don't know… I…I didn't know anything about that! M-my
subordinates acted on their own!"
"Oh-ho! Your subordinates! So that's how it is, huh? So it wasn't your fault, then, Lord Rotegra? It's fine; it's fine! See, I'm really forgiving about that stuff. Besides, those men of yours…"
The earthshaking screams had already stopped. Black.
Meeti Crossroads City was covered in black.
Now there was nothing but an eerie silence in the carcass of the metropolis. The army of rat revenants didn't raise a single squeak.
"…are already dead anyway."
It was silent. Just like Selure was, walking before Rotegra's eyes.
"Please… Y-you promised, didn't you? I—I gave you the city already.
Selure… Y-you promised to give her back… That was the deal…" Selure's head hung limply. She was still moving. Still walking, even. A pink tail peeked out of her earlobe and disappeared inside her skull.
Rotegra prayed that the face still twisted in agony, and her repulsive driven steps, were all part of a replica made in bad taste by the demon king.
"Huh? Hold on. Was thaaaat the deal? Did I say I'd return her?" Rotegra fell to his knees.
His daughter's body burst from the inside, and a small black army swarmed him.
"Aww, too bad! I liiiiiiiied! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Listening to Rotegra's dying breaths as the surface of his skin was shredded apart, Izick the Chromatic laughed with utter delight.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
A mere twenty-five years earlier, they were the ones who were called demon kings.
They didn't need any companions. If they required an army, they could make one.
They possessed neither beliefs nor ideals. Without any clear objective to their massacres, they spread unbridled destruction and took joy in misery.
The malicious will to paint over absolutely everything in their color.
In the past, this world had a man called the wickedest of all demon kings. He was the self-proclaimed demon king, Izick the Chromatic.