Prologue

One day... One day the world was going to end, no doubt about it.

A day that far into the future wasn’t worth the concern of farmers trying their best to live in the present.

A day that far into the future wouldn’t make any money for merchants.

A day that far into the future was beneath the consideration of knights who lived for the honor of tomorrow.

A day that far into the future wasn’t even in the minds of kings planning policies for generations to come.

Or, so was once the case.

When the great war broke out, all living beings suddenly came face-to-face with their ends. This was back in the era when the sky was still red. It was a period of darkness, when death was commonplace, and the world was consumed with terror and despair.

One day, among the mortal forces, an alluring woman with tanned skin called out to an old man reading a letter. “So you’re still alive? I heard you did great in the last battle.”

“I can’t die just yet. I still need to attend my apprentice’s wedding.”

“You’ll have to give up on that dream.”

“I practically have.”

Reynaud, an elderly man with a face covered in wrinkles and a head full of white hair, spoke politely to his beautiful apprentice Lara, a hint of resignation in his tone.

“It’s rare to see a letter these days, though,” said Lara. “Did it arrive recently?”

“Yes. There are many strange people in my generation. It seems that one of them took the time and effort to send this.”

Lara was puzzled to see her mentor reading a letter. The forces of darkness had destroyed the world so thoroughly that even if someone were to write a letter, it couldn’t be safely sent. While military communication was still possible, civilian correspondence had mostly died out. The fact that Reynaud had received a letter despite all that meant either that it was a matter of great importance or that someone eccentric was involved.

“It’s from an acquaintance of mine who apparently found documents regarding artificial life-forms. I recognize the name of the documents’ author.”

“What kind of person are we talking about?”

“A mage by the name of Asher who I met once, a long time ago, but we didn’t get along that well.”

“In what way?”

“Have you ever had someone lecture you for two hours straight on how wonderful magic is and how amazing their research results were?”

“Fortunately not.”

As Reynaud told Lara about the contents of the letter, he looked up at the sky, exhausted, recalling a distant memory. It seemed that even thinking about it was a painful experience, and he had a faraway look in his eyes.

“That’s good to hear. I, meanwhile, was utterly stumped by the conversation. Asher told me that if one could create a replica and transfer their soul to it, they could achieve immortality. But I wondered, who could guarantee that the transferred soul would be exactly the same person, without the slightest defect?” Reynaud continued.

“Sounds impossible. People have been coming up with similar ideas for ages, but as you’ve said before, they always stumble at that part.”

“Precisely. If you ripped out your soul and moved it somewhere else, could you be certain that it wouldn’t be damaged during the separation? Could you then say you were exactly the same person? No one knows the answer. Eventually, you’d start to question whether you were really still the same as before and go mad, though I suppose it would be possible to maintain your sanity through some kind of delusion.”

“Did you point that out to him?”

“Someone else who was there did, but Asher was the type of person to grow hostile toward naysayers. Things were on the brink of turning into a magical slaughter. But he was imprisoned before the war for failing to properly educate his disciple, and I don’t know what happened to him after that. I heard that his disciple used extermination magic during the entrance examination for a magical academy, resulting in casualties. Apparently, this was the only kind of magic that Asher taught him.”

“Whoa...” Even Lara was left speechless as she listened to her mentor digging up his memories.

“If I remember right, his apprentice was named U—”

Clang clang clang!

Va-vooom!

As Reynaud was about to dig further into the past, the sound of bells and hunting horns all across the battlefield stirred him to action.

“Teacher! Miss! The enemy army is here!” Lara’s fellow apprentice under Reynaud, who had been helping out the army with various miscellaneous tasks, rushed over to them.

“How long until I actually get a break?” Reynaud lamented as he stood up and stretched.

“You can have a nice retirement after the war,” Lara commented.

“Yes, I certainly will.”

“I’ll be going back, then,” Lara said.

“Very well,” Reynaud replied.

“Please do your best, miss!” her fellow apprentice said.

Lara could hear their two voices behind her as she moved farther into the army to reunite with her comrades.

The dragons who were allied with the mortal races flew across the sky. Orcs, with their war paint and their bloodshot eyes, let out rough snorts. Elves took out their bows. Dwarves stood firmly on the ground as they readied their hammers. Human knights mounted their horses. Monks strengthened their Life Waves. The mages’ fingers were glowing. Priests concentrated the power of light into their bodies.

This was back in the era when the sky was still red. It was a period of darkness, when death was commonplace, and the world was consumed with terror and despair. But this was slowly becoming a thing of the past. A light was driving away the darkness.

“My antiair defenses are ready!” Ferd the Hero, the tip of the blade that drove away the darkness, proudly carried at his waist not just his favorite sword, but multiple other swords provided by the army as well.

“Can you really call throwing swords ‘antiair defenses’?” Max, the Dragonsbane Knight, had some doubts about Ferd’s statement, so he turned to Erhard, the Dark Knight.

“No idea.” However, the man clad in pitch-black armor only gave a curt reply.

“Is there a need to start straining your body before the fight?” Elrica the Saint cocked her head and asked with a blank expression.

“My muscles are always in perfect condition, but they become even stronger with a little strain.” Stein, the muscular monk who’d started doing push-ups, replied with his pet theory.

“Is that so?”

Lara had joined up with her companions when Sazaki the Blademaster approached from behind her, holding not a sword but a bottle of alcohol.

“Dang. I’m the last one here, huh?” Sazaki said.

“You’re drinking again?” Lara asked.

“It’s no fun celebrating a victory without a drink.”

“You have some nerve saying that when you’ve already drunk half of that before the fight’s even begun.” Lara was exasperated at her companion’s behavior.

Sazaki, meanwhile, seemed unconcerned as he took another swig from his bottle. “Hic. So, what’s the plan?” he asked, already tipsy.

“Same as usual.”

“Gotcha. How nice. It’s the simplest plan and I don’t need to use my head.”

Then, Ferd stood before the enemy army—with troops easily numbering over ten thousand, including insect-animal hybrids, black dragons flying across the sky, and massive monstrosities that shook the earth—and announced their next course of action.

“Charge!”

This was the Hero’s party’s modest and simple strategy. They would face the terrifying army of darkness head-on, pulverizing, smashing, piercing, and cutting down anything in their path, before finally taking the enemy general’s head. It was all too simple, or to put it bluntly, a plan that could only be accomplished through overwhelming violence.

“Raaah!” Ferd put all of his strength into his sword and imbued it with dazzling light and threw it.

“Gyaaah?!” The strangely glowing sword crashed into a hybrid monster that was flying in the sky, slicing easily through it and sending it plummeting to the ground.

“Hell yeah! Let’s gooo!” With Ferd’s words as a declaration of war, the Hero’s party charged into the enemy army.

“How could such a person be born without any connection to the gods?” Reynaud muttered with a hint of astonishment as he watched Ferd from a distance.

It doesn’t make any sense. The fact that someone can have so much light within him and still maintain his human form, much less his ego, is inexplicable. At least, it’s beyond any knowledge that I possess. Part of Reynaud’s mind calmly analyzed the amount of light within Ferd and concluded that his existence simply wasn’t plausible. Harboring this light was the equivalent of harboring the brilliance of all human life, and it would be the same as a human containing all the seawater in the world inside them; it was a state that couldn’t be explained with theory.

Making the impossible possible. Keeping the world from ending. Taking down the Great Demon King. A man of courage... That’s who the Hero is, huh? It really makes you want to believe in him. Watching that impossible existence of a man made Reynaud want to put his life on the line too.

Reynaud had once been convinced that the mortal races were going to lose this war. The power unleashed by the Great Demon King during the first stages of the war was something mortals couldn’t combat, no matter how desperately they tried, and the only reason they hadn’t been wiped out yet was simply because the Great Demon King had been slow to take action. As a great mage, Reynaud understood that, but he still fought back because the idea of simply sitting quietly and waiting to die was aggravating. Many other people felt the same. Although they knew that they would die in the demon army’s massive offensive, most of them fought to escape reality, just hoping that things would somehow work out.

However, there had been a turning point. A young man leading a small group, which included Reynaud’s apprentice Lara, kept defeating the dreadful Great Demon King’s forces. At some point, he’d started being called the “Hero,” a man of courage, and his group became known as the “Hero’s party.”

“Light, come forth!” Ferd the Hero emitted light that illuminated the entire battlefield.

“Rooooar!”

“Graaaaah!”

At the summit of the sky, the transcendent and most powerful dragons clashed, unleashing thunderous sounds and aftereffects of their authority all across the battlefield.

“Everywhere I look, all I see are annoying monkeys!”

“Don’t tell me that’s the only reason you sided with the darkness!”

“What’s wrong with that?! We dragons walked the world before those inferior races spread!”

“Enough, you fool! Make way for the next generation!”

“You are the fools! You should have just stayed asleep!”

“And whose fault was it we awakened?!”

A jet-black dragon and a deep crimson dragon with bloodshot eyes were trying to kill each other. Although they belonged to the same species and were more or less acquaintances, their positions and ways of thinking were completely different.

The dragons who’d joined the Great Demon King had various motives, but this black dragon specifically was displeased with the mortal races who had multiplied in the blink of an eye, and so he’d become their enemy. On the other hand, the crimson dragon had previously gone into hibernation, believing that it was no longer his generation’s era, but had woken up to stop the chaos caused by his own kind and the Great Demon King. The dragon race tended to prioritize the individual over their own blood kin, so in the end, even if they were all related, they would readily kill each other if they became enemies. For that reason, during the early stages of the great war, the mortal races had managed to hold out thanks to their dragon allies.

“Gyaaah!”

“We don’t have enough archers!”

“Stand firm, brothers of the earth!”

Four-legged creatures, a horribly twisted mix of insects, reptiles, and furry animals, charged forward, clashing with the allied forces of humans, elves, and dwarves.

“I’m borrowing your back for a bit! Do you know anything useful?!” Max, clad in equipment with patterns of various animals, asked the crimson dragon, having been launched into the sky by Lara’s magic. Upon landing on the dragon’s back, he asked about the enemy’s weaknesses.

“Dragonsbane Knight! He’s even been called the immortal dragon! He once said that one of his scales was responsible for his immortality, and it would be pointless to assault him unless that scale was precisely attacked, but he was very much drunk at the time! Even if that is true, I can’t begin to guess which one it is!” the crimson dragon replied.

“I have to find one scale out of over a thousand and stab it?! Is there a trick to it?!”

“Probably not! Even an ancient god, millennia old, couldn’t kill him! And though it’s vexing, he’s stronger than me!”

“Anything goes when it comes to dragons’ authority, huh?! Sorry, but please be my foothold! I’ll take him down!”

“All right!”

“You damn monkeyyy!” the black dragon roared.

The Dragonsbane Knight danced in the middle of the clash between the almighty crimson and black dragons while massive boulders started to fall from the sky. The four-legged monsters below were smashed to bits. Their strong outer skins and resistance to fire, ice, and magic were all meaningless. They were pulverized under the overwhelming mass of stone. Thunder roared, lightning charring the monsters black. A continuous downpour of lightning and boulders swirled into a natural disaster.

“Hmm. That seems to be their main camp.” Lara, the Witch of Annihilation, had caused that destruction all by herself. She calmly observed a part of the enemy camp that had somehow blocked the onslaught of lightning and boulders, trying to grasp the enemy general’s position.

“Exactly. The main camp is always the toughest.”

The survivors of the enemy army still covered the battlefield, though their ranks were now thinner than paper, when a red light flashed. The enemies’ bodies were cut, sliced, severed, and split. The trail of red light continued through the enemy army in a straight line, slaying all in its wake; Sazaki the Blademaster’s sword allowed no resistance whatsoever.

“Whoa there, we got company, Stein.”

“Yeah.”

“Whoooargh!”

Red creatures tried to stop the red flash of light. It was the red of viscous, boiling lava. These were no imitations; these monsters had almost destroyed the monks’ headquarters on the Boiling Mountain. Side effects of their modifications included high resistance to magic and physical attacks. They had mastered the techniques of all monk schools and also possessed high learning abilities. They were avatars of martial arts with skills further developed specifically against monks and humans. Stein was under attack by ten true monk slayers who’d somehow escaped the decisive battle on the Boiling Mountain, gained more experience, then were reinforced anew by the Great Demon King.

“I’m taking over.”

“Gotcha.”

The crimson avatars of martial arts, who’d traumatized the participants in the decisive battle on the Boiling Mountain, faced off against martial arts incarnate, the one who walked between life and death.

“I made it!” Sazaki slipped past the true monk slayers and marched into the enemy main base.

“Kill him!”

“Dammiiit!” the enemies cried.

“Be engulfed in true darkness.”

“Light, come forth.”

The elite monsters, who were protecting the enemy base against these mortal freaks of nature, were wiped out without a trace by a darkness of a different origin than the Great Demon King’s and Elrica’s light-annihilation magic, though they were powerful enough that if one were to appear in a city, it would destroy everything in sight.

“Curse you, Hero’s partyyy!” the general of the demon army roared with resentment.

The demon army should have been on its way to victory—if it hadn’t been for the Hero’s party, that is. They weren’t simply individuals that rivaled large groups or entire armies; they were the ultimate fighting force that transcended everything and had turned the entire war itself on its head.

“Begin calculations!” A horselike monster, whose entire body was made up of mirrors, chose the optimal solution from the many hypothetical worlds reflected in its mirrors. “Alter reality! Disappear!” He further altered the optimal solution to forcibly create a hypothesis where he was victorious, then tried to force it onto the real world. However...

“Who cares, dumbass?!”

The ultimate light that refuted all crushed everything.

This was but one scene from the great war. The Great Demon King brought darkness to the world and used extreme violence to almost destroy it, but the Hero’s party took him down with even greater violence. At the end of the day, this dark age was a battle of absurdity against absurdity, of violence against violence. However, not everyone was fighting back then, and it would be wrong to say that all mortals were wise.

“Hff! Hff!” A man in his mid-twenties was out of breath as he ran to get as far away from the battlefield as possible.

It was only natural that there were some people who’d rather run away than stand and fight. There were others who would stop the end of all life, so he could just leave it up to them. He didn’t want to die, so he ran. If there was a time after the war, he would nonchalantly live a quiet life. Some people considered this behavior selfish, while others found it normal, but if there were many people like the latter, the Hero’s party wouldn’t be able to support them no matter how much they struggled.

This man named Udo was one of these. Despite his childlike face, his brow was terribly wrinkled, and he kept running without caring about the sweat that ran like a waterfall down his face. He didn’t care about the screams and sounds of battle he could hear in the distance either.

“It’s not my fault... The fault isn’t yours... No, no, no... We must run away...” He kept grumbling something, his speech so jumbled that it was doubtful whether he was even sane. That said, the great war had left many people with emotional scars, and it wasn’t unusual to see people have mental breakdowns in this era.

People who fought to survive. People who were simply alive. People who ran away to survive. All of them existed together. But that was a story from seventy years ago. Life continued because many people fought alongside the Hero’s party. Those who ran away also blended into everyday life as the world continued to exist.

And now they have all grown old.

Chapter 1: Departure

The Rin Kingdom had developed a transportation network using golem carriages, and it had places that could be called inn districts between towns and cities. Crowds of travelers flocked to those districts every night before dusk in search of a roof to put over their heads, while merchants also gathered in hopes that the travelers would be spending their money.

“Phew. All right, drinking time.” Sazaki was yet another traveler visiting one such district. As he disembarked their carriage, he looked around him in search of a merchant selling alcohol.

“Hey, Lara. Has Sazaki ever bought anything other than alcohol?” Max asked as he looked out over the district, exasperated at his unchanging companion.

“Good question.” Lara grinned as she pictured her young husband in her mind, groaning as he agonized over what kind of toy to buy for their young son.

“It looks like there’s a market over there.” Stein, the most serious member of the group as long as muscles weren’t involved, spotted a spot where merchants were gathered and started moving toward it.

“Heave-ho!” Ferd exclaimed.

“Please be careful, honey,” Elrica warned.

“Oh, this is nothing. I’m still young; I’m fine.”

Finally, Ferd and Elrica messed around as they got down from the carriage.

“I’d like to buy this bottle.” While Sazaki’s companions walked slowly, he immediately found a merchant selling alcohol to buy from.

“Thank you for your purchase.”

“Any big news lately?” While he was at it, Sazaki asked if the merchant had anything interesting to share.

“Big news? Oh, come to think of it, I’ve heard a rumor—hearsay really—that the Hero’s sword might be put up for sale.”

It’s obviously a fake one, Ferd thought. The merchant chatting with Sazaki could never have imagined that the Hero in question was listening to them from behind. And the Hero’s sword was still at Ferd’s waist, so he assumed there was a swindler impersonating him.

It’s right there. Max looked at the real sword.

It must be a very courageous person, Stein thought that someone trying to sell a fake Hero’s sword had to be truly brave.

However, they didn’t remember everything from the chaotic great war era, and connections and fate could be found in the strangest places.

“Well, the information isn’t very credible, but apparently there’s an annotation saying that the Hero only held the sword once and threw it at an enemy in the sky. On the other hand, it seems that there are some people who think it’s the real article because of this story’s humble honesty.”

Oh, I remember now... Ferd sensed a type of aura coming from his companions, as if they were saying, “Oh, that’s it.”

Indeed, Ferd had been lacking in long-range attacks in his younger days, so he’d borrowed swords from the army many times to throw at flying enemies. Therefore, there were many swords that the Hero had held, and since this one was expressly being advertised as something the Hero had only held and thrown once, Ferd had nothing to say in response.

“I see. Thanks, man.”

“Don’t mention it.”

As Sazaki walked away from the merchant who’d given him this valuable information, his cheeks were twisted into a massive grin. Upon seeing that, Ferd looked up to the sky, knowing that he was about to be teased.

“Say, Lara, how much do you think the Hero’s precious sword will go for?” As expected, it didn’t look like Sazaki had any intention of changing this interesting topic.

“Let’s see. Although he only held it once, there aren’t that many of them still left, so considering its rarity, it might actually fetch quite the price. Then again, it’s difficult to prove that it’s genuine, so I doubt it will go for an outrageous sum.” Lara decided she might as well go along with her husband’s teasing and gave a serious answer.

“It would be one thing if it were his actual sword, but there shouldn’t be any vestiges of power in a sword he only held once. I understand that there are people who’d pay for something purely ornamental, though. In other words, it’s just a flex, Max,” Stein said.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just for show. What do you think the people of the Boiling Mountain will do?” Max asked.

“My mentor and fellow disciples likely won’t take action. Besides, they would spend their money on something more practical. However, if any other sects were convinced it’s the real thing, they might make a move.” Stein understood the importance of appearances and the value that came with it, but he answered Max’s question in a way typical of a monk, preferring utility.

Depending on the sect, the Hero could be seen as the incarnation of light or even an agent of the gods. Therefore, items related to the Hero might have important meaning to various religious forces, leading to a possibility that they would attempt to acquire this sword.

“Being the Hero must be tough. He won’t be able to even casually pick up tableware anymore.” Ferd shrugged at the commotion over a sword he’d supposedly held once before and which might not even have been the real thing.

“Oho ho ho ho. That’s right. Let’s pray to the gods that the same doesn’t happen to the Saint.” Elrica laughed elegantly.

“Who knows? Maybe they’re already selling stuff like a chair the Saint once sat on,” Sazaki joked.

“Gosh. Please stop it, Sazaki... You’re joking, right?” But Elrica became worried that something like that really might be on sale.

“I meant it as a joke, but I’ve started thinking that it might be true.”

“Oh no...”

“Then they would also be selling empty bottles of alcohol Sazaki once drank from. But since those aren’t a thing, then the chair shouldn’t be either. Right, Ferd?” Max noticed that the most prolific products in the Hero’s party—Sazaki’s empty bottles of alcohol—weren’t on sale anywhere.

“I see. But no, Max. There are enough of those bottles to make several mountains. They are incredibly common, so they shouldn’t have much value, right?”

“Yes, you have a point.”

“I thought I could create a perpetual motion machine where I autographed and sold my empty bottles to earn money for more booze, but looks like it’s impossible.” Sazaki jokingly shrugged his shoulders.

Incidentally, this party was made up of elderly people who were all very visibly in their nineties. It was quite unusual for such a group to not be accompanied by any of their children. That seemed to have piqued the curiosity of a boy walking toward them.

“Hey, grandpa, granny, do you have any cool tricks?” the boy asked.

“Oh, I’m so sorry about my son. Our relatives are always going on about how amazing the adults they knew in their childhoods were.”

It seemed that the boy innocently thought that these tottering elders must be incredible people. But their age was proof that they’d survived the great war, so the boy’s relatives weren’t wrong.

“Cool tricks? Cool tricks...” Ferd glanced at his comrades for a moment. Sazaki can’t show his katana, and that’s not something you should show to children in the first place. Lara can erase mountains. Stein is incomprehensible. Max’s dragon-man form is a very serious matter. Ferd thought back upon his comrades’ “cool tricks” and instantly rejected them all. Changing mountains and the terrain was certainly impressive, but showing that off would be no joke.

“Oh, that’s right. My wife and I can glow bright.” Ferd suddenly remembered and clapped.

“What?! Really?!”

“Mm-hmm. I can’t do it right now, but when I was young, my entire body would glow like this. Right, dearest?” Ferd spread his arms to show how wide the light would be.

“Yes, that’s right, honey. It was so long ago that I’d forgotten.”

“Wow!”

“I’m really sorry. Come on, let’s go. Say goodbye to the nice man,” the boy’s mother said.

“Huh? Goodbye.”

“Ha ha ha. Goodbye.”

The boy’s mother thought that the elderly man was just playing along with her son and bowed as she left with him. The elderly man hadn’t been lying, but not even a child could have imagined that his body could shine bright enough to drive away the darkness that had covered the world.

“Now, where should we stay the night?” Besides, Ferd wasn’t the Hero anymore, but just an old man quietly continuing his journey.

“This inn district is thriving, isn’t it, honey?”

“It certainly is, dearest.”

Some time later, Elrica and Ferd looked over the district as they toddled like usual, smiling fondly at the bustling view around them. There were merchants eagerly trying to peddle their wares to travelers and hunters trying to sell the prey they captured along their journeys. This was the time when guests arrived in droves, so the inn staff were busy coming and going from their establishments. Young people were complaining that they were tired from their journey, and guards were on patrol. The inn district was full of all kinds of people making all kinds of noise. However, perhaps because this place was on the way to Greer, the Academic City-State, where Ferd and the rest were headed, there was a group of people you didn’t often see in other inn districts.

“Are those...students?”

“It looks like it.”

Ferd and Elrica were looking at a group of young people who had glasses, books, and accessories imbued with mana. They also had an intellectual air about them, making them look like they really belonged in a school.

“They were probably visiting home,” Lara said as she glanced at the young group.

“I see.” Ferd nodded. I’d like to try asking them what they’re taught about Lara, but I can’t because magic would come flying at my head. He imagined that a ray of destruction or something would be fired his way.

Not only had Lara defeated the Great Demon King, but she’d also trained many high-ranking disciples and reached unprecedented heights herself. Lara, the Witch of Annihilation, was no doubt a legend among legends whose name would continue to be passed down as long as the world of man persisted. Moreover, she’d helped rebuild the Magic Academy these students likely belonged to, making her something like an honorary dean. There was no need to expressly ask what the students were taught about her.

“Have you never taught there?” Out of pure curiosity, Max asked Lara about her connection with the Academic City-State.

“Never. At most, I took on disciples that the academy couldn’t handle.”

“Oh, that’s the kind of relationship you have with them.”

“When it comes to magic, my common sense is a little different from the rest of the world, so I would actually hinder the students if I were to teach them. My disciples are all oddballs, you know.”

“Hmph.” Stein wanted to object that this wasn’t the only place where her common sense differed, but he wisely held himself back, just sighing. It was true that she was sensible in comparison to the rest of the Hero’s party, but in the end, this was a group of outrageous people, so Stein knew that her aforementioned common sense was dubious in places.

In any case, Lara’s magic really was incomprehensible to ordinary people, so regular students couldn’t keep up with it, and with the exception of Aldrick, who’d miraculously turned out normal, most of her disciples were oddballs. But at the same time, they were still no match for her.

The members of the Hero’s party each walked their own path entirely, making them impossible to reproduce.

Sazaki had implemented his childish, absurd theory.

Lara had reached the Abyssal layer of magic where even stepping inside could make one’s mind crumble.

Stein followed an aimless path of neither life nor death that ordinary people couldn’t tread.

Max had his special bloodline’s awakening and talent.

Elrica was a murderous work of art whom religious forces had devoted all of their power to create.

And Ferd naturally possessed an abnormal light.

With such a unique lineup, it was difficult to train anyone similar.

“Is there an entrance examination?” Stein asked Lara, again out of curiosity.

“Yes, to isolate dangerous people.” Lara’s answer was strange, though.

“What do you mean?”

“Many mages are eccentric, but talented children taught by the most eccentric ones are in various kinds of danger. In short, they do stuff like using huge spells without considering the location or their skill level, or using spells that pierce magical barriers and fly into the school building because their mentors told them it was ordinary magic. Therefore, each one is tested individually to make sure, before there are any casualties.”

“What happens to those children?”

“They bar them from using magic and instruct them in common sense. If they still don’t improve, their magic might be forcibly sealed. And the mentors who were responsible for those dangerous children might also be arrested.”

“It feels strangely plausible.”

“It was actually done in a different country by a generation much older than ours. There were many more eccentric mages than now back then, so they only taught their disciples magic without caring about what happened next. The result was even a prodigy who thought extermination magic was basic.”

“What happened?”

“He was asked to demonstrate some basic magic, so he fired off the extermination magic he was convinced was basic, killing thirty people. Apparently, he thought this was a basic magic, one which the people around could easily block. According to the records, he was executed, and his mentor was imprisoned.”

“I see.” Although Stein had merely heard about the exam, he rubbed his chin after learning about the unexpected inside story.

“Was he really executed?” Sazaki asked, interested in a different part of the story.

“Well, it’s pretty doubtful,” Lara replied.

In the era before the Great Demon King had taken action, the world had been filled with war. There was no way a kingdom would have ignored a mage who could use extermination magic during such times. Especially if he was a criminal, it was very much possible that they would try to use him for their own convenience by using promises of amnesty as bait.

“Sounds like it was an era with many things going on.” As Ferd recalled the reason behind the one he called a giant moron losing his temper, he squinted and turned his eyes to the sky like he was looking at a generation and era far before their own.

Demons weren’t the source of all evil. In fact, mortals were more often the source.

Though this elderly group was on a carefree journey, the important institutions of this world never rested. The Magic Council in Greer, the Academic City-State, was a rather unique institution. It had a militant side that supported the world order in all aspects of magic and purged disturbing elements, but it also had a side devoted to educating the next generation. The ten or so people selected as members of this council were some of the most powerful mages in the world—a group of monsters who could take down a small country on their own.

“Good morning, Lady Agnes.”

“Good morning.” Agnes was one of the council members, an old mage in her seventies with all the gentle elegance of any elderly noblewoman. She politely greeted even people much younger than her as she walked through the council building.

“Good morning, Lady Agnes.”

“Good morning.” Agnes greeted another group of young mages.

In the Magic Council, which was full of eccentric people, Agnes was not only said to be its one shred of conscience, but she was also a leading figure in the manufacturing of golem carriages, which had been popularized throughout the world. This earned her tremendous fame and respect. She was also a mage of the Deep layer, not only skilled in research but a proficient combatant as well, which made her the portrait of perfection.

Agnes then came across an old man she could speak on equal footing with.

“Hmm? Agnes, it’s been about a week, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has, Aldrick.”

Aldrick the Incinerator, an elderly mage whose eyes were brimming with wisdom and conviction, struck up a conversation with Agnes. The two had an almost familial relationship.

“It’s Lady Agnes and Lord Aldrick...” The young mages who noticed the scene from afar caused a stir.

If one were to pick the mages who’d made the greatest names for themselves since the end of the great war, Aldrick and Agnes were sure to come up in the running, and they were also extremely influential in the council—even if Aldrick did seem to regress to a child when it came to the Hero.

“Oh good, the two of you are together. Could you come to my office for a moment?”

Another elderly man appeared before these two titans of magic. At around ninety years of age, he was older than them. He had long, distinctive white eyebrows that drooped all the way down to his stomach and covered his eyes, and his long hair and beard joined together, covering most of his face. Because he also stood relatively tall for his age, his back straight, he gave the impression of branches and plants hanging from a dead, rotting tree. However, his strength hadn’t waned at all. He was a sage with mana and intellect overflowing from every one of his wrinkles, whose narrowed red eyes were said to be able to see through everything in this world.

“Greetings, Master Derry,” Aldrick said with a bow.

“Good tidings, teacher.” Agnes similarly bowed as Derry’s disciple.

Derry was the current chairman of the Magic Council and one of the very few mages in history to have reached the Hadal layer. He also happened to be Agnes’s mentor. The position of chairman was periodically rotated among council members, but Derry was like a living encyclopedia of the council, who’d served as chairman multiple times.

“Ha ha. Let us go, then.” The sage, whose every word in even such a short sentence felt like it contained great power, headed to his office while the surrounding mages bowed to him. But the moment they entered the room... “Miss Lara just contacted me to say that she’ll be here in about three days, but she’s not gonna snap at me or anything, right? Right?!” After a pause, Derry started to panic.

“Maaan, you worry too much, you old geezer. Right, Aldrick?” Moreover, Agnes started to speak like a thug from the streets.

“Don’t let the mask slip too far, Agnes.” Aldrick looked up at the ceiling as the other two revealed their true natures.

Derry and Agnes had a history that wasn’t very widely known. In Derry’s young days before the great war, he’d been a back-alley thug struggling in poverty, when he’d once picked a fight with a slightly older girl. That girl had been none other than Lara, and she’d naturally beaten him black and blue, but by some coincidence, Derry had caught the attention of Lara’s mentor and ended up starting on the path of the mage. But his position as Lara’s junior remained the same, and he still hadn’t broken free of that mentality. Meanwhile, Agnes, Derry’s disciple, had once been a young hoodlum herself, so there was a gap between the public and private behavior of the members of the Derry School that would shock most.

“There’s nothing wrong with the Magic Academy’s curriculum, right? I’ve reviewed it this year, as usual.” Derry turned over the contents of his desk and started searching for documents related to the Magic Academy that Greer was so proud of. Lara had also been involved in rebuilding the Magic Academy after the war. If she concluded that there were flaws in the current academy’s instructors or curriculum, she might get angry with Derry, he imagined.

“As you already said, chairman, you look over the Magic Academy every year. Right, Agnes?” Aldrick made eye contact with Agnes.

“Right. Ha, the geezer really can’t stop acting like an underling.”

“I know, but I still need to be on my guard!” Derry shouted.

Derry was doing his job properly, though, and even when Aldrick or Agnes occasionally came to secretly inspect the Magic Academy, there were no problems to be found, so the chairman was worrying needlessly.

“You guys are lucky. You didn’t know Miss Lara back when she was at her scariest. When she was young, she... Actually, scratch that. Please don’t tell her I said any of this. She’d kill me for real.” Derry had a faraway look as he reminisced, then suddenly started looking all around him, as if he thought that a monster might appear and attack him if he let the wrong information slip. “Ahem. All jokes aside, the budget and various other reports have been roughly compiled. I’d like you to give them a quick look.” Derry returned to a serious topic after clearing his throat.

“Very well.”

“Just say that from the start, geezer.”

Aldrick also collected himself, as did Agnes.

However...

I kind of want to know, but at the same time I don’t... No, it’s better if I’m left in the dark. Aldrick and Agnes both tried to imagine Lara back in her scary days and shivered slightly, then focused on their work. They were truly sensible people.

“Come to think of it, I received a report that the Hero’s sword might be going up for sale.” A short time later, Aldrick told Derry about a rumor he’d heard about recently.

“Mm-hmm. I hear that it’s a sword he only held and threw once.”

“Did that actually happen a lot?”

“Apparently yes. I only did odd jobs in the back at the time, but I sometimes saw lights rising into the air and striking down monstrosities. When I asked Miss Lara about it later, she told me that the Hero would just throw random swords he’d picked up from somewhere. So, it’s impossible to say with certainty whether the sword being sold is fake or not,” Derry explained with a nod.

“Don’t go throwing all of your money away to buy it,” Agnes teased the Hero-obsessed Aldrick.

“But still, the Hero’s sword, huh? Even if it still has power remaining in it, it might not react at all if an ordinary person were to hold it,” Derry said.

“Ha ha, is that how it is?” Aldrick asked.

“Mm-hmm. If there are any vestiges of the light of all life left in the sword, it might even have a will of its own. And sentient weapons usually hate being used by anyone besides a worthy wielder. Taking that into account, a sword thrown by the Hero would probably only respond to someone with true courage.” Derry thought deeper about the sword that had been imbued with power just once, around seventy years ago.

“I see now.” Aldrick continued nodding in understanding.

If Ferd were here, he’d have denied this, saying something like “No, that’s not really true...” However, the people currently here were Derry, who—albeit from afar—had directly witnessed the Hero in action, and Aldrick, a passionate fan of the Hero. And because Agnes had no interest in participating in the men’s intense conversation, things were getting out of hand.

“Well, if you think about it logically, it’s doubtful that a sword he only held once seventy years ago would retain such power, but the Hero was an exception in all kinds of ways... I remember that a long time ago, Mr. Sazaki warned me not to touch his own sword, because if someone that it didn’t like held it, it would fly straight at their neck. I got spooked and wondered why he would carry such a weapon.” Derry had a distant look in his eyes when he remembered what Sazaki had told him.

“Ha ha ha, I also remember that.” Aldrick laughed awkwardly at a similar experience.

“Same here.” Agnes also had a strained smile.

“Whew... And it’s not just Miss Lara and Mr. Sazaki. Almost the entire Hero’s party will be coming... Man, I’m getting really nervous,” Derry finally muttered, fidgeting.

A few hours later, Agnes left Derry’s office and headed straight for Greer’s Magic Academy. The council members typically took turns checking up on the academy every so often, and it just happened to be Agnes’s turn. Of course, since it was necessary to also examine the academy’s more secret sectors, the council members would sometimes visit the academy incognito, but since this was an official, scheduled visit, a staff member welcomed Agnes.

“Welcome, Lady Agnes.”

“Thank you for having me.” Agnes, who was putting up a facade according to Derry and Aldrick, walked into the academy grounds with a refined dignity.

This was a large and strange institution. Because of the patchwork nature of all the extensions and renovations of the building, the walls were different colors from place to place, and bizarre, twisted chimneys towered everywhere. The school hadn’t always looked like this; the population boom after the war had resulted in more students than originally expected, which was also an indirect sign of peace.

But at the very least, the school’s current state was far preferable to the times when the students who were supposed to be enrolling were killed by the demon army and the entire school had been draped in darkness. Greer, the Academic City-State, had become a fortress against the invading demon army, with the academy being the last line of defense, the students barricading themselves inside it. The names of all those who’d died back then, including students, academy staff, and merchants who came and went to the academy, were engraved in a memorial at the academy’s entrance.

“The young ones are so energetic.” Agnes smiled fondly as she looked not at the school building but at the students running around it.

“Yes, they are.”

“Simply being smart isn’t everything,” Agnes muttered.

To assume that, as this was the Magic Academy, intellect and magic reigned supreme here, was in fact an antiquated way of thinking; Agnes’s statement was actually the mainstream philosophy at the academy these days. Before the academy was rebuilt, it had been filled with the typical academic-type mages, and many were physically frail. However, the weaknesses of said academic mages came to light during the great war.

“‘What good is being smart if you’ve forgotten how to walk? That’s one of the first things you learn, ain’t it?’ These words were a much-needed wake-up call.” Agnes shared something like an adage that had been passed down after the war.

“Indeed.” The academy staff member nodded vigorously.

Those words had been said by a completely uneducated soldier to a high-ranking mage participating in the war—to someone who was even called a sage. The sage had been unable to offer a rebuttal, so he’d passed the statement on to the other mages as a warning. Many high-ranking mages during the early stages of the war had lacked stamina. In the most extreme cases, they hadn’t even had the endurance needed to march, let alone fight in battle, and on the front lines, their lack of physical ability had made them a burden when it came to mobile combat. As a result, while many mages had excelled as immobile artillery in defensive battles, it had been difficult to use them in other situations.

Naturally, this had been a cause of concern for leaders during the war. They’d understood that different people were cut out for different things, but there was no point in someone being able to use powerful magic but being unable to go to the battlefield because they lacked stamina. In the end, the problem had somehow been offset using carriages or boats, but no fundamental solution had been found before the end of the war.

The high-ranking mages who’d rebuilt the academy were the ones who’d decided to do something to solve the issue, as they’d remained very conscious of preparing for the possibility of the demon army’s return even after the war. They established a policy to train not only the mind but the body, hoping to produce excellent mages who excelled at intellect, technique, and physical strength, advance the civilization and learning of mortals...and also prevent the end of the world, should the dangers of the past return.

If the demon army had been one or two steps ahead before Ferd and his companions had grown enough, the great war would have led to the end of the world. For all the survivors, the death and despair spread around by the Great Demon King had been truly traumatic. Ironically, the fear and caution against the demon army had brought a sense of unity to all mortals.

“Now then...” Just as Agnes was about to enter the school building, a man in his seventies who’d been running among the students approached her.

“Oh, did you just arrive, Agnes?” he asked.

He was a tall man with distinctive, gemlike, deep-red eyes. Compared to his white hair, his skin was a bit dark. He had many wrinkles, as was expected of his age, but his looks made it easy to imagine that he’d been a huge hit with women in his younger days. Even through his clothes, it was possible to see that he had a sturdy, reliable body. But a careful observer would comment that he looked exactly like a certain drunkard from twenty years ago, or perhaps that he bore a resemblance to a certain Witch.

“Falke. Yes, I only just arrived.”

“I forgot to tell you this morning. I’m going to buy some alcohol for my father after work, so I might be home late.”

“Understood.”

While Agnes was currently putting up her facade, not only did this man named Falke know her true nature, he knew her more intimately than anyone else, as he was her husband. Finally, he was also a teacher at the Magic Academy, as well as...the son of Sazaki, the Lightspeed Blademaster, and Lara, the Witch of Annihilation. He was the only magic swordsman in history to have mastered both magic of the Deep layer and the sword.

Falke’s parents, along with their companions who were like family to him, would arrive a few days later.

◆◆◆

The Battle of Greer, the Academic City-State

Merely a gathering of researchers. Merely a gathering of students. Merely a school. What a fool. If he was driven back by what he assumed was “merely” that, he was truly beyond help. That was why he’d ended up having his skull cracked open by a boy from some deserted village. In the end, the Great Demon King had looked down on mortals up until the final battle.

Chapter 2: Parents and Children of the Academic City-State

Falke’s parents were finally coming to visit, along with their friends, who were something like uncles and an aunt to him. Currently, he was waiting to welcome them at a highway a short distance from Greer, the Academic City-State, accompanied by Aldrick and his wife Agnes.

However, an outrageous bomb lay in wait at this location. Immense bronze statues of high-ranking mages created with magic had been placed on both sides of the highway in order to welcome people visiting Greer, or perhaps to show off the splendor of magic. The elaborate craftsmanship was nothing short of art, with close attention being paid to every single wrinkle on their clothes, their faces so perfectly reproduced that they were truly lifelike. And yet...the personalities of the people serving as models for the statues hadn’t been taken into consideration.

“This is really bad...” Falke said.

“Yeah, it might be...” Aldrick agreed.

The two men were looking up at one of the bronze statues, which numbered over ten in total, and they sighed as they were confronted with a problem they had been ignoring up until now.

“But it’s too late to do anything about it now...”

“Yes, it’s a bit late...”

The two friends of similar age had expressions of resignation, as if to say, “Whatever will be, will be.”

“It’s very well-made, but...it really is bad...” Agnes was similarly concerned, and she had dropped her facade.

Falke and the rest were looking at the statue of a young woman. The person raising a twisted staff to the sky and wearing heavy robes was the greatest Witch in history. She’d reached the abyss of magic and served as the strategist of the Hero’s party, ultimately becoming one of the distinguished individuals who defeated the Great Demon King and saved the world. Lara, the Witch of Annihilation, was a dazzling beauty who overflowed with wisdom as she smiled up at the blue sky. The statue of Lara created by the mages of the past, who hadn’t been aware of her inner self, depicted her as something like a sage, completely unlike the real Lara, who had a sharp tongue and constantly had her lips curled up into a smirk.

“I don’t think she’ll blow it away or anything, but it will make her brow wrinkle more than ever before,” Aldrick said with some optimism.

“Aldrick, that would be true if my mother was alone. With my father teasing her, she might blow it away, along with him.” As their son, Falke knew how his parents interacted, so he thought it was too soon to relax.

“When Mr. Sazaki is involved, Miss Lara’s boiling point lowers drastically,” Agnes said in agreement.

“If worse comes to worst, I’ll calm my mother down somehow.” As evident by the normal conversation they’d been having so far, Falke was surprisingly sensible for the son of Sazaki and Lara; perhaps they’d served as the perfect examples of what not to do.

I can only describe them as unusual parents. Falke thought back to his childhood and could only describe his parents as eccentrics. Although both of them had sharp tongues and constant sneers on their faces, they somehow got along well, and Falke had never seen them fight.

As a sidenote, Sazaki had stopped drinking while Falke was a child, so he’d gotten worried when he saw his father suddenly start drinking one day, but he was later shocked to find out his period of abstinence from alcohol was actually the unusual part.

But mom was probably the one who pushed dad into it. The power dynamic in the household with these two peculiar parents was clearly in Lara’s favor, so Falke believed that his mother had most likely convinced his father to temporarily cut the alcohol. But Lara would never honestly admit that, so it would forever remain a mystery.

“Oh, there they are.”

Aldrick’s voice pulled Falke back to reality, and he turned to look at the approaching carriage.

“Aldrick, have you brought your fancy paper for autographs?” Falke knew that his friend was a fan of the Hero, and strangely enough he said the same thing as Lara had.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Aldrick replied in the same way as last time.

“Heh heh heh heh!” Agnes smirked.

“He just cut me...” Falke suddenly started scratching the back of his neck and grimaced.

“Oh, Master Sazaki?” Aldrick could guess the reason behind his friend’s behavior.

“Yeah.”

The carriage was still some distance away, but Falke could tell that Sazaki was inside it, judging whether he could cut everything around him or not.

“I once asked him why he was constantly checking whether he could cut everything, but he told me to give up because he’d been doing it for as long as he could remember. I’m sure it was a joke, but this is my dad we’re talking about...” When Falke had mastered the sword, he’d noticed that Sazaki was always aware of how easily he could cut everything around him and asked him why he did that, but it was unclear how genuine his reply had been.

“I thought I’d noticed something tough, but this is a familiar distance.” Sazaki was sitting in the driver’s seat, grinning as he chugged a drink.

“Don’t check to see if you can cut your own son,” Falke complained to his father as the carriage pulled up near him and the other two.

“It’s great to have you here,” Aldrick greeted Sazaki.

“It has been a while, father.” Agnes followed suit.

“Hey there. I saw Al the other day, but it’s been some time since I last saw you, Agnes.”

“Is mom inside?” Falke asked.

“Yeah. She said she’s not coming out until we pass this spot,” Sazaki replied while pointing at the cover of the carriage with his thumb.

“I see...”

“Oh! If it isn’t Falke and Agnes! It has been quite a long time!”

“My, my, you seem to be doing well.”

“When was the last time we met?”

“Oh, we’re there?”

In Lara’s place, Ferd, Elrica, Stein, and Max came down from the carriage.

“It has been a while, everyone.” Falke bowed his head deeply to the former legends, unlike the way he acted toward his father, with whom he didn’t need to be so reserved.

“So, which one is Lara’s statue?” Sazaki asked.

Don’t bring that up now, dad! Falke was trying to somehow get through this peacefully, but his father just had to make a teasing remark. He got flustered when he felt his mother glaring daggers.

What do I do? My chest is starting to burn... Meanwhile, Aldrick was so excited to see even the legendary monk Stein and Max, the equally legendary Dragonsbane Knight, here that his heart felt like it could stop. He was unwavering in many ways.

Greer, the group’s destination, had shining, golden walls. This city had almost been destroyed during the great war, so its people were now determined to never lose to the forces of darkness again and had woven multiple magical barriers into its walls. Thanks to the efforts of people like the young Lara and Derry, the walls had been reinforced to the desired extent, so that they would remain impenetrable even if demonic forces of the same scale or greater were to attack the city again. They were truly the pinnacle of reconstruction and magical technology. However...to the Lightspeed Blademaster, they were nothing but slightly hard walls.

“Well, that’s about it, I guess,” Sazaki muttered from the driver’s seat.

Falke breathed a sigh. He saw the sword’s consciousness extending from his father and cutting through the shining, golden walls. He believed that he could also cut through them if he wanted to, but he didn’t try to unleash an imaginary sword at them to see what would happen.

“Stop checking to see if you can cut anything and everything that looks hard,” Falke said, exasperated.

“I already told you. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember, so it’s too late to change now. Right, dear?” Sazaki replied with a grin.

“Shut up, darling. Falke, you should give up too,” Lara said from inside the carriage with a frown.

I guess mom’s the same as usual. Falke shrugged inwardly, thinking that his mother—who refused to get out of the carriage—hadn’t changed a bit. When he’d entered the carriage to see her a moment ago, he had most certainly not been greeted by a mother in tears, deeply moved to see her son after so long, but by the same curt Lara as always, who ended their reunion with a simple “Long time no see.”

“Well then, we will excuse ourselves for now.” Aldrick and Agnes were public figures, so they’d decided to enter the city first to avoid drawing attention to the elderly visitors.

“Okay. Thanks for coming to welcome us.”

“Back in the Town of Labyrinths and other places, we pushed our way through by telling them that Stein’s a monk, but we’ll be relying on you if he gets stuck at the gates.” Sazaki rubbed his chin as he asked Falke to come help them out if there were any problems at the gates.

“He should be able to pass.”

Stein was half naked as usual, but since many monks did the same, he could get away with it by insisting that he was one too. Besides, since Stein hadn’t ever been stripped of his qualifications as a monk, it wasn’t actually a lie, so they’d managed to travel along using that excuse until now. Moreover, since the Academic City-State was full of oddballs, Falke believed that most people would be convinced if they were told that monks simply went around half naked.

“Is wearing clothes really not an option?” Ferd had overheard the conversation between father and son, and although he already knew the reply, he tried suggesting that Stein put on some clothes.

“It isn’t. The Null Wave needs to constantly sense the energy of nature through my muscles,” Stein replied.

“Oh, I see...”

Since Stein’s response was a bit specialized, Ferd unconsciously looked toward Elrica, a priestess, and Lara, the brains of the group. However, Elrica turned her gaze upward, while Lara shrugged, so their replies were crystal clear. Since there was no one else to serve as a reference point, if Stein insisted that the Null Wave worked like that, no one could refute him.

“The Null Wave is really dangerous, if I do say so myself, so it’s natural that our research and understanding of it have made no progress,” Stein said with his arms folded.

“Well, that’s certainly true.” Max, who’d only heard the overview of the Null Wave from Stein, nodded.

“The Life Wave is one thing, but you also need to understand the Death Wave, which is essentially an unstable power,” Stein added.

The Null Wave was an aimless path that one could only start walking after they’d grasped not only the path of life but also the path of death, so it wasn’t currently being researched. The temptation of the power of death and destruction always carried the risk of going berserk, and the Null Wave lay beyond that, so even Stein, a practitioner, believed that it was dangerous to research it. Therefore, if Stein claimed that he could feel the natural energy of the cycle of life and death directly with his body, it became a proper explanation.

“Hmm, we’ve arrived. Falke, how does the Magic Academy view the Death Wave?” Stein casually asked Falke as he got down from the carriage.

“As heresy or a forbidden technique. I’ve never heard of it being researched, and there’s a danger of being purged if you mess with it carelessly.” Falke’s reply was as expected.

“I can imagine why. More importantly, I’m interested in lessons about the body’s nutrition,” Stein said, changing the subject.

“You can pay to tour the school or take classes.” The moment Falke replied, he felt a bad premonition in the form of an electric current running from his spine to his brain.

“Oh? Can I inspect my son’s class, then?” Sazaki said with a wide grin.

“I knew you’d say that. Right, mom?”

“Heh heh heh heh. He said it before I could.” Lara got down from the carriage with an expression identical to her husband’s.

“Give me a break...” Falke hung his head, feeling drained.

“Ha ha ha. What a close family,” Ferd said with a chuckle after alighting from the carriage.

“Oho ho ho. Yes, they really get along,” Elrica agreed, laughing like her husband.

“No, uncle, auntie. They’re just bullying me,” Falke corrected them.

“Ha ha ha ha ha.”

“Oho ho ho ho ho.”

The couple laughed without a care about what Falke had said.

How peaceful. Max, the self-proclaimed voice of reason and conscience of the Hero’s party, felt deeply how peaceful the world was as he watched this scene. He hadn’t taken his own lack of common sense into account, though. Whew! I have to muster some courage!

A short time after the teasing between parents and son, an old man—Derry, Lara’s younger disciple under the same mentor—was headed to Falke’s house. He looked professional and determined under his hood, but he felt strangely young again on the inside. Lara was, of course, the cause of this.

As a boy, Derry had been a war orphan and had been left with no choice but to steal to live. By a twist of fate, he’d targeted a well-dressed girl walking alone—Lara, of all people—and tried to steal from her.

“Really?!”

Eep! Derry shuddered as he remembered Lara’s glare and threatening tone from that day. She’d been so strong-willed back then that even her mentor—who’d later taken Derry in—had given up on the idea of her ever getting married. Then again, the mortal races had been at a clear disadvantage during the great war, so the very concept of marriage had been on the verge of being lost.

Mr. Sazaki is one crazy guy. Derry had nothing but the deepest admiration for Sazaki for marrying that Lara, but he’d never say that out loud because he’d be blown away the moment the words escaped his lips.

Actually, almost the entire Hero’s party has reunited; that’s also really crazy. Derry shuddered again, but this time from excitement, not fear.

During the great war, Derry had just been a promising youngster who’d basically just handled odd jobs. Meanwhile, Lara had joined the front lines where she’d met two warriors who’d been doing strangely well—the young Ferd and Sazaki—and she’d started taking action to oppose the Great Demon King. However, Lara’s plan had been something the wise would laugh at: They’d crush the absurdity trying to end the world with even greater absurdity. This plan had been no different from Sazaki’s childish theory that the fastest was also the strongest, and it was also proof that the two of them had been on the same wavelength since their younger days. In any case, Lara and Ferd had actually gathered the absurdity they needed to crush that darker absurdity and succeeded.

Derry had resolved himself to visit Falke’s house, where almost all of those absurd people were gathered. Falke’s house, or more accurately Agnes’s, was a splendid two-story mansion with several rooms, befitting her status as a member of the Magic Council, though it wasn’t quite on the level of a noble’s manor.

“Oh dear, welcome.”

“Thank you for having me.” Derry was greeted by Agnes, who was putting up her facade. “Is everyone here? Hmm? Isn’t your face strangely red?”

“Yes... You honestly came at the perfect moment. Everyone is getting excited talking about our wedding, so my face got a bit hot...” Agnes explained.

“Ah, I see.” Derry could now understand why she was blushing like that.

Old people talking about the past was a universal thing, and the victims of those discussions were mainly people they’d known since childhood. And since Falke was Sazaki and Lara’s son, there was no end to the topics involving him.

“Phew, I’m so nervous.” Derry took a deep breath.

“You sound like Aldrick.”

“I’m part of the generation that lived through the great war. These people practically lived in a different world.”

“I understand.”

Just like Derry said, to the generation that had personally experienced the great war, the Hero’s party was like a godlike existence. Although he could address Lara since they’d studied under the same master, he couldn’t do the same with the rest.

“Excuse me, it’s Derry.” Guided by Agnes, Derry entered the room in the position of an underling, something he hadn’t experienced in decades.

“Oh, if it isn’t Derry! It’s been a while! I’m really glad to see people from so long ago, like Falke and Agnes,” Ferd greeted Derry; they knew each other through Lara.

“Hey, Derry. Long time no see.” Sazaki also welcomed Derry.

“Yes, it has been quite some time.” Derry, the chairman of the Magic Council and a mage of the Hadal layer whose name would undoubtedly go down in history, bowed deeply.

I’m saved! Falke was the happiest for Derry’s arrival, as he’d been the topic of conversation so far. They’d kept talking about stuff like the first times he’d walked or held a sword, when he’d gotten married, or when he’d had his kid. He’d gotten caught up in a typical conversation of elderly people, and he’d been thinking how he wished they’d give him a break for once, considering he was already seventy.

“Long time no see.”

“You seem to be the same as ever, miss.”

Setting Falke’s plight aside, Derry was greeted by the smiling Lara, the most important person in the room.

“So, about that bronze statue. Can’t something be done about it now?” Lara asked.

“No... Well...there is a lot of politics at play...” Derry immediately understood what she was trying to say, but it was quite the difficult task even for someone in his position.

“Right.”

The fact that Lara had helped rebuild Greer was the undeniable truth, so if there was no statue of her, there would be talks regarding the lack of a monument to such a distinguished individual. Also, there were several factions based around master-student relationships in the world of magic, and Lara and Derry’s mentor had also belonged to a systematic branch of mages, so the two of them couldn’t remain unrelated to those factions. As a result, if there was no statue of Lara, some of those related to her faction would clearly make a fuss even though they had no direct connection to her, which would cause various political issues.

“So you’ll have to give up on the matter for the next two or three thousand years, or even forever if you’re unlucky,” Sazaki said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Easy for you to say. I’d like to build a statue of you and make it as beautified as possible.” Lara glared at her husband.

“Bwa ha ha! I’d love to see that!”

Eep! Mr. Sazaki sure is incredible. With Derry’s trauma revived, he felt an odd sense of respect in his mind.

“Say, Max, I really doubt it, but even if there are statues of me, it would be at most one or two, right?” Ferd asked Max, igniting an unexpected spark in the conversation.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Max, who’d wandered all over the world, simply laughed.

“Hold up! That’s not an answer!” Ferd got increasingly more flustered, his speech reverting to that of his youth.

“Oh no, no, it’s too much for me to say. Ask Stein.”

“Don’t worry, Ferd. They’re all over the world, but they pretty much look nothing like you,” Stein replied with the simple truth.

“Hey, Stein! Are you being serious right now?!”

“Rather, it’s only natural,” Stein added. There was no way there wouldn’t be statues of the Hero who’d saved the world.

“My, my.” Elrica was curious about whether there were statues of her husband.

“There are also statues of you, Elrica. They fundamentally come as a set with Ferd’s,” Max pointed out.

“Huh?!” Elrica’s eyes went wide. It seemed that she hadn’t realized she was also involved in the topic.

“Being famous is really difficult. Right, Max?” Sazaki said with a grin.

“You can say that again,” Max replied, similarly grinning.

The two of them, along with the indifferent Stein, were less well-known to the public than the Hero, the Saint, and the Witch of Annihilation, one of the greatest mages, so they only had a couple bronze statues of them each. Therefore, they could comfortably tease their friends. However, Sazaki, Max, and Stein had a blind spot. They were also great figures of the war, and even though the details were unclear, their names were recorded in historical textbooks... And a few days from now, they would be visiting a school full of such textbooks.

Later, Derry went home after being forced to join Sazaki for drinks, and even after everyone returned to their rooms, Sazaki kept on drinking.

“He’s grown into a big man,” Sazaki, still drinking in his guest room, said about his son.

“You do remember that you say this every time you see Falke, don’t you?” Lara shrugged; she’d heard him say that countless times.

“Well, he grows bigger every time. He was always tugging at my hair, pestering me to carry him, but before I knew it, his feet were firmly on the ground.”

“Well, that’s how it goes. They grow up in the blink of an eye.”

“Right?”

If Falke were in the room with them, he’d probably beg them to stop their reminiscing, but to Sazaki and Lara, their son really had grown big in no time at all.

“I almost rolled around with laughter when he asked, ‘Dad, why did you suddenly start drinking?’” Sazaki said.

“Heh heh.”

Sazaki and Lara discussed what they’d thought when Falke came to greet them. But this, too, was proof that the world was at peace. During the great war, water quality had deteriorated because of all the battlefields across the lands, so it had often been safer to drink alcohol rather than water. That was why it had been common to see many people, including Sazaki, drinking alcohol instead of water. But after the war, thanks to the efforts of mages and magic tools, water had been returned to a quality suitable for drinking, so the era where alcohol had been the only thing safe to drink had ended. Falke had been born later and Sazaki even tried to abstain from alcohol, but he’d gone back to being a heavy drinker in the end.

“Now then, are you coming?” Sazaki suddenly stood up and addressed Lara.

“I suppose I will.”

The two of them headed to the courtyard behind the mansion, which was a training ground of sorts for Falke. Despite the late hour, the space was bright, thanks to a magical tool. Falke stood in the center, swinging his sword.

“Urgh...” Falke let out a noise of genuine displeasure when he noticed Sazaki approaching with a grin.

“Come on, don’t sound so disgruntled, son.” As usual, Sazaki teased him. “As the founder of the Sazaki School, I want to verify my own son’s ability.”

“Your father just wants to play with his son,” Lara added, wearing a grin just like Sazaki’s.

“And how about you, dear?” asked Sazaki.

“I’ll pass.”

But Falke was over seventy years old, so having his father invite him to play was troubling.

“All right, here I come.” Sazaki’s voice was unusually listless as he slowly walked forward.

“I haven’t agreed yet!”

The way Sazaki walked was extremely peculiar; it was as if he were weaving his way through the gaps in Falke’s consciousness. Sazaki’s experience of surviving the great war meant that he wasn’t just a swordsman of unparalleled speed. Falke lacked the experience gained from abnormal combat, the sort of medley of unusual abilities that were often at play during the war.

“Ugh!” Falke managed to block Sazaki’s sheathed katana. Sazaki was of course the one who had trained him in swordsmanship, so he wouldn’t be defeated that easily.

“Hrm.” Lara took a breather and sat on a bench, watching over the father and son playing. She remembered a young Falke swinging a stick around and whining about wanting to be taught swordsmanship, and Sazaki rubbing his chin as he’d wondered how much it was appropriate to teach his son at the time.

He really has grown up well. Lara couldn’t help but feel nostalgic.

Back in the day, Lara and Sazaki both had been mostly clueless about raising children, so they’d struggled to raise Falke. As the saying went, “It takes a moment to destroy something, but grueling effort to build it up.” The legends who’d destroyed absurdity itself had been very troubled over raising their son.

“Mom! Please stop him!” Falke pleaded.

However, Lara’s once little boy was a grown man in his seventies now, so she ignored his cry for help. “Go play with your lonely father.”

“Yeah, what she said.”

“No one asked you, dad!”

“Okay, here I come again.”

Falke reacted to Sazaki’s listless voice and hurriedly moved his wooden sword into position at his right. The next second, Sazaki’s wooden sword slammed into him.

“Even wooden swords aren’t free, you know!” Falke shouted.

“That’s why I’m swinging it just hard enough so it doesn’t break,” Sazaki replied, ignoring his son’s complaint.

“Well, it’s still going to crack!”

“I’m using the right amount of force.”

“Then I’ll break!”

“Aha ha ha! Bwa ha ha ha! No way would that happen!”

“Those two really get along. I’m rooting for you.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Max and Stein watched the playful father and son with warm smiles, secretly cheering for Falke.

“What was your son like?” Max asked Ferd and Elrica, who were also watching the scene between Sazaki and Falke.

“He was always saying, ‘Duel me, daddy!’” Ferd replied.

“Oho ho ho ho. Naturally, he never said that to me,” Elrica added.

“Asking his mom for a duel would be crazy in a lot of ways.”

Ferd and Elrica’s son was much like Ferd had been in his younger days. He was always challenging Ferd to duels, wooden sword in one hand. The sound of wood striking against each other could often be heard around their house back then.

Their son, of course, also knew that Elrica was strong, but he hadn’t seemed willing to fight his mother, so Ferd had been the one solely responsible for sparring with him. But things were completely different when it came to actual training for survival and not just a child’s game. Their son hadn’t learned how to fight from Ferd, who’d never experienced proper combat training, but from Elrica, who’d mastered a variety of...techniques.

“Well, his fighting style is similar to mine. It seems that he concluded that he’d do fine as long as he could use the power of light and punch or kick. He said something about men needing to fight bare-handed.” Ferd shared his son’s pet theory.

“Huh...” Max unconsciously made a dejected sound. I just remembered something I didn’t need to...

Ferd’s son could strike with overwhelming energy. That in itself wasn’t anything strange; as a matter of fact, few could withstand his punches, since he possessed a power of light that rivaled his father’s. However, Max knew of a technique that shaped a fist from energy of incomprehensible output, and although it didn’t contain the power of light, it could instantly kill even him with just a graze, so he couldn’t help but be reminded of it.

This applies to everything, but once someone reaches true mastery, petty tricks no longer work against them. Sazaki is the perfect example. Max wouldn’t hesitate to use surprise attacks if necessary, but he knew that such tricks wouldn’t work against people who stood at the peak. Sazaki, who was currently happily playing with his son, was first on the list of such individuals.

I don’t even need to ask to know how much abuse the Great Demon King’s forces hurled at him! Falke, who now once again blocked Sazaki’s wooden sword by a hair’s breadth, could understand the feelings of everyone his father had defeated. Sazaki was simple and straightforward, and as a result, he was fast, faster, the fastest; he was just fast, plain and simple.

I can’t step forward! Even Falke could only do his best to defend himself as Sazaki swung his sword without using any feints or bluffs. Moreover, he was clearly holding back. Some of those he’d defeated during the great war hadn’t even been given the time to use their most powerful abilities.

That was close! He used a feint! Furthermore, since Sazaki was playing with his son, he weaved in some feints that he didn’t normally use, so Falke couldn’t let his guard down for a second.

So he noticed... He really has grown. Meanwhile, Sazaki wasn’t at all concerned about his son’s panic. He’d just slightly shifted the actual swing of his wooden sword from where he consciously intended to swing it, yet Falke had noticed the feint, which meant that he hadn’t just read his opponent’s body but his mind as well. Moreover, it had been a very subtle feint that only someone like Stein, Max in a life-and-death situation, or Elrica in her killing-machine state could have noticed. An ordinary master who thought they had their opponent right where they wanted them would have fallen for it.

“I’m not done yet,” Sazaki said in a carefree tone.

“I do have work and other responsibilities to tend to!” Falke shouted back, far more frantically.

“Ha ha ha.”

“Oho ho ho ho.”

“What magnificent muscle harmony.”

“Things aren’t looking good for him.”

Ferd, Elrica, Stein, and Max continued just watching secretly to avoid interfering in the father-son bonding time.

Falke got stuck playing with his father for a while. When he finally went to bed, exhausted by the whole affair, he had a dream: a memory of when he’d still been too young to even be called a young man. Falke’s memories of that time were extremely ordinary. He’d just been a typical boy who played with his father and was spoiled by his gruff mother. Moreover, from a young age, he’d noticed that the eccentric couple of Sazaki and Lara had gotten along well, and there had never been any discord in their family. But it wasn’t like he’d understood everything about his parents, nor their history.

“Lara and I used to be part of the Hero’s party.”

“Huh?”

Back when Falke was still a little boy, Sazaki casually told him about his past, which left the boy slack-jawed. It was an era when the effects of the postwar period were pronounced, and if you threw a rock, there was a high chance it would hit someone who’d participated in the great war. Therefore, the reputation of the Hero’s party was significantly more ubiquitous than it was in the present day, and not something people would speak of jokingly.

“What are you saying, dad? Hey, mom. Mom?” Falke couldn’t take his father’s joke and turned to Lara for help, but the mother he trusted wholeheartedly just shrugged her shoulders.

“We live in an area far from the front lines, so we have few acquaintances, and those who do know us turn a blind eye. You’re the son of the one they call the Blademaster and the one they call the Witch of Annihilation. Right, dear?” Sazaki explained.

“That’s right, darling,” Lara confirmed.

“Huh?” Rather than joyful, Falke could only be dumbfounded at his parents’ words. Learning that his parents were two of the seven lights who had saved the world felt like a shock that turned the world upside down.

“And so, it’s about time we started training you for real. As a man, you have to at least be able to protect yourself,” Sazaki said.

Falke could easily understand what his father meant. Even after the end of the great war, the world remained a perilous place, with danger lurking in the most unexpected places. Furthermore, people still feared the possibility of the Great Demon King being revived and the great war rekindled, so it was better to be powerful.

And thus began Falke’s training, which was at least fun. He’d fully inherited his parents’ talent, and the more he trained, the more his skills grew. He was also joined by other apprentices around his age, and they lived an active, exciting life.

However, when Falke came of age, another strange thing happened.

“Wh-Why is there so much alcohol here?!” Falke asked one day, astonished at the massive quantity of alcohol bottles stocked up in their house. No one around him was a drinker, so he suspected that the bottles covering part of the house had been delivered by mistake.

“It’s mine,” Sazaki casually came over and explained.

“Are you feeling unwell, dad?!”

“Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!”

Falke had heard a few stories of people drinking to dull the pain, and since his father had fought in the great war, he thought that an old wound of his might be hurting.

“I’ll tell you, but this is confidential.” Sazaki stopped laughing and his expression turned solemn, which convinced Falke all the more that his father must be unwell. “I thought it would be bad for my son if his old man kept drinking all the time, so I stopped. But before you were born, I used to drink every day. Every single day.”

“Huh?” Falke couldn’t believe his ears at the emphasis in Sazaki’s words, but this natural drunkard really had abstained from alcohol for so long that Falke had never seen his dad drinking.

“Mom, how much did dad used to drink?” Falke reflexively asked Lara.

“Let’s see. He drank in the morning right after waking up, then also drank on his way to the front lines,” Lara replied.

“Huh?! Even while he was marching to battle?!” Falke didn’t yet realize that this was only the tip of the shocking truth.

“He drank after arriving at the battlefield and at the start of battle, then drank whenever he had time during combat. Then, he drank when the battle was over, he drank during meals, and he drank when it got dark. Finally, he drank before going to bed.”

“Huuuh?!” The verb “drink” was repeated so many times that Falke got so confused, he could only shout in response.

Sazaki had been suspected of being the heaviest drinker of all time, but even so, the most charitable description anyone had for him was “drunken fool.” That was why his period of abstinence had been so abnormal.

“But I thought it was about time I could drink again. And so, let’s drink, Falke. Call the others too. It’s every son’s and apprentice’s duty to drink with their father or teacher. You should also join us, Lara. I’ve bought some top-shelf alcohol, which is pretty rare for me.” Sazaki had actually been looking forward to drinking with his son and apprentices, so he’d apparently bought some good drinks for a change.

“Well, I suppose it’s fine once in a while.”

“Whaaa...?”

Falke still remembered the merrymaking that followed, which had stretched late into the night.

◆◆◆

Falke, the worldly wise man.

If he brought up his parents’ names, many would look upon him with awe and veneration, but some would only give him unreadable looks.

Chapter 3: The Magic Academy

Under the dazzling morning sun, a boy in his teens, perhaps on the verge of becoming a man, was walking through Greer, the Academic City-State. His name was Connie, and he was a student at the Magic Academy, with red eyes, blond hair, and a youthful face befitting his age. His parents had temporarily gone away on some business, but his great-grandfather and great-grandmother were still living in the city. However, he had been told to participate in campus life at the academy and now lived at the dormitory. He was currently taking advantage of a morning class’s cancellation to visit his great-grandparents’ house, because he’d received a message that his great-great-grandparents were visiting, so he should come see them.

Hmm, when was the last time I saw them? Connie walked through the city with leisurely thoughts in his mind. He appeared gentle at a glance, or to put it bluntly, he lacked vigor and looked clumsy. But in an academy with many geniuses and prodigies among its student body, he had many peculiar friends...and Connie was one such peculiar person himself.

“Good morning, great-grandma.”

“Good morning, Connie.” His great-grandmother welcomed him warmly. She had been waiting for him, thinking he would arrive any minute now.

Connie loved his kind great-grandmother, who was always smiling. He had no idea that she was putting on an act.

“Now come this way.”

“Okay.”

Connie’s great-grandmother Agnes showed him to the living room where his great-great-grandparents were. Moreover, it was where the Hero’s party was currently gathered.

“It has been a while, great-great-grandma, great-great-grandpa,” Connie greeted them.

“There you are.” Lara simply grinned as usual even though her great-great-grandson had just come to see her. It was pointless to expect her to shed tears of joy over how big he’d gotten.

“Oh, look how big you’ve grown! Bwa ha ha!” Sazaki, on the other hand, looked overjoyed as he grabbed the surprised Connie and lifted him up.

“Wha?!”

Who the hell is this guy and what did he do with Sazaki? Max, who hadn’t met up with Sazaki and the others after the end of the war, felt confused by Sazaki’s behavior.

“Was he like this with his grandchild and great-grandchild too?” Max reflexively asked Stein next to him in a whisper.

“As far as I know, he was like that with his own son, even,” Stein replied affirmatively.

“For real...?”

Sazaki’s attitude toward Falke had definitely been the same one that Max was familiar with, but the Blademaster currently looked like just an old man happy to see his great-great-grandson. If Falke—who was currently sleeping, exhausted—were here, he’d complain and ask Sazaki to share some of that kindness, but in fact his father had been just like this with him as a boy.

“Wanna go have fun somewhere?” Sazaki asked.

“Umm, I have classes in the afternoon...” Connie replied.

“I see...” Sazaki looked disappointed that his great-great-grandson had refused his invitation.

I guess people have hidden sides to them. When Max saw Sazaki acting like this, he was sort of impressed to learn about this new aspect of his friend, even though his own entire life was nothing but a lie.

He also has quite a few apprentices. On the other hand, unlike Max, Stein knew that Sazaki had trained many apprentices, so he thought that this was probably closer to Sazaki’s true nature. Right after the war, many of Sazaki’s apprentices had been war orphans, so he’d been something like a foster parent to them in many ways. The sarcastic and drunkard Blademaster had many sides to him.

“It has been a while, Mr. Ferd, Mrs. Elrica.” Connie had only met the two of them a few times.

“I’m really happy to see you again. I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

“Yes, yes. You’ve really grown.”

The old couple seemed much more moved to see Connie than Lara had been; they were on the verge of tears.

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Connie.” Next, Connie greeted Stein and Max.

“I’m Stein. It’s a pleasure.”

“I’m Max. Nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

Wow, the entire Hero’s party is gathered. Connie had been told that Ferd and the rest were the members of the Hero’s party, but he was less impressed than someone like Aldrick would have been.

Connie was already unusually composed for his age, but for the current young generation, people who’d been active over seventy years ago practically lived in a different world. The same applied to the academy’s students. The sky being red, the memorial monument at the academy, or the reason the city’s walls shined golden—all of those were things of the distant past they’d only studied in history class.

“Are you having fun at the academy?” asked Ferd, one of those timeworn legends.

“Yes,” Connie replied honestly. The strangest people tended to gather at this school, but he could say with certainty that it was fun.

“That’s good to hear.” Seeing a young person living happily at school left Ferd squinting like he was looking at something dazzling. That notion was something that hadn’t existed in the past. “Incidentally, we heard that people are always allowed to tour the Magic Academy, so we’ve decided to go as well. We might even get a glimpse of your class, Connie.”

This might turn into a big deal...or it might not. Connie thought leisurely about the plans Ferd and the rest had made, and he decided to just go with the flow. He must have already had the serenity of mind of a martial arts genius. Probably.

A few days later...

“Ooh, what a large school building.”

“Yes, it really is big.”

“I guess I made the right choice to not take any alcohol with me.”

“And I guess pigs will start flying now.”

“The lecture on calf muscle nutrition would be...”

“There’s no way they have a lecture that specific.”

A group of noisy elderly people arrived at the school.

“So this is the Magic Academy.” Ferd looked up at the odd patchwork building.

As the youngest son of a family from a poor village, Ferd barely had any education to speak of. When he had been fighting on the front lines, he’d been unable to even read or write, so he could only understand the army’s or kingdom’s actions if they were explained to him verbally. As a result, even when he’d started achieving great results, nobles and high-ranking army officials had really looked down on him.

Other people had also thought the same of him: They’d believed that nothing would come out of some illiterate boy claiming he’d bring back the blue sky. This behavior might have seemed ridiculous in an era where might reigned supreme, but humans always had a tendency to seek out faults in others. In the end, a man who couldn’t even read or write had saved the world regardless—and Elrica had given him lessons after the war.

“What a wonderful place.” Elrica, who was looking up at the Magic Academy alongside Ferd, also contained many odd facets.

Elrica had been raised solely as a weapon to kill the Great Demon King. While she had been taught how to read and write, it had only been to ensure that military operations proceeded smoothly, not out of any consideration for her future. Considering that the other education she’d received included knowledge of medicines, poisons, treating wounds, and ways of killing, it was clear that she had been created as a weapon for slaughter.

“M-My muscles and nature are being obstructed by my clothes, so I can’t muster any strength...” Everyone had told Stein that he obviously couldn’t visit the school half naked, so he’d wrapped a piece of cloth around himself.

“Yeah, yeah,” Max said dismissively.

Both of them had received a proper education. Stein had been a proper clergyman who’d studied hard along with his comrades, while Max had been given a private tutor despite being a nonexistent member of the royal family, as per his father’s policy before he’d gone feeble.

Max seriously asked Stein to remain clothed. “Stay like that forever. It gives you a certain dignity.”

“I categorically refuse,” Stein immediately replied.

Stein was in harmony with nature, so without the unnaturalness that came with him being half naked, he now had the air of a virtuous priest.

“All right, time to go observe our son and great-great-grandson’s class.”

“Agreed.”

Sazaki and Lara, a couple with many similar qualities, were grinning as usual. Sazaki was the type who was just happy to swing his sword around, regardless of the presence of his son and great-great-grandson, and Lara was a sage who needed no introduction.

“Come to think of it, this might be my first time coming to a place with so many youngsters,” Ferd said as he toddled his way into the academy grounds.

“That’s right,” Elrica agreed.

Naturally, there hadn’t been any armies made up entirely of young soldiers even during the great war, so neither Ferd nor Elrica had ever come across a place where so many young people lived together. Though at some point, it had seemed like an army of solely young people had been just one step away from being established...

“Sorry, wait a moment! I forgot something!”

“Okay!”

“I feel like those two are dating.”

“Oh, I think so too.”

“Oh crap, I’m late!”

The members of the Hero’s party took in the boisterous students’ voices with their sharp ears.

“Ha ha ha.”

“Oho ho ho ho.”

Ferd and Elrica started laughing reflexively. Young people were acting like young people should. This was something to be treasured, not to be taken for granted.

How peaceful, Max thought for the umpteenth time.

At the very least, they hadn’t forgotten to give their families keepsakes. They weren’t saying their final farewells to their lovers. They hadn’t been left behind after being too slow to escape. The old norm had faded away, being replaced by the new norm that pervaded this school. Back then, everyone had been risking their lives.

“Is this...a memorial?” Ferd asked as he looked at a large, polished, white stone with names carved in it.

“Yeah. It includes everyone who died during the great war, from the students and teachers to the traveling merchants who came and went from the academy,” Lara explained in detail.

“I see...”

The memorial was right in the middle of the path leading from the gate to the school building, in a place where visitors could never miss it. The names easily numbered over a hundred, each one belonging to someone’s parents or children. They had been crushed, burned, and eaten. It was considered lucky if even half the body remained; in some cases, only an arm had been found. These were the names of those who’d fought to the end to survive.

But this was already a part of history. The memorial was just another usual sight in the students’ everyday lives. It was spotlessly maintained, but with the exception of the long-lived races, most of the generation that had been involved in the great war had already passed away, so this trending away from relevance was inevitable. Once Ferd’s generation and the one right after it passed away, the great war would be wholly a thing of the past for ordinary people.

Ferd and the rest didn’t arrogantly believe that they were somehow responsible for failing the people named here; such guilt belonged to the gods. Of course, even many of the gods had been unable to withstand the simultaneous attacks launched by the Great Demon King at the beginning of the great war and had been wiped out. No one could understand the feelings that Ferd and the others felt as they stared at the memorial. This was especially true for the students of this academy, who hadn’t been involved in the war.

“Shall we go now?”

“Yes.”

Sent off by these ghosts of the past, Ferd and Elrica stepped into the school building. Just like that memorial, they might also one day be relegated to history, legends, and fairy tales, and eventually be forgotten. However, a world where champions or Heroes were unnecessary was exactly what they had always wanted.

After that, the Hero’s party finished the process necessary to tour the academy, and they decided to split up. Sazaki had little interest in most of the school’s classes and had no intention of touring every nook and cranny, so naturally, he and Lara headed straight to observe their seventy-year-old son’s lecture.

This is stressful... Falke thought from the bottom of his heart. It was a fact that parents observed classes to see how their children were doing, but he’d never expected it to happen at this point in his life.

The students gathered in the outdoor training grounds were confused by Sazaki and Lara, who were watching the class from far behind them.

Are they higher-ups?

Who are they?

I’ve never seen them before. Are they great mages from some distant land?

Still, if they aspired to be mages, they couldn’t look down on people who were approaching a hundred years old. Even if a swordsman could no longer hold their sword after growing old and frail, a mage was actually often more powerful thanks to all of their years of accumulated knowledge. There was a fairy tale about someone trying to kick a toddling old man, only to suffer when it turned out he was a powerful mage, but in a city like Greer, where many mages gathered, there was a good chance of that actually happening.

It’s my great-great-grandpa and great-great-grandma. Meanwhile, Connie, the youngest of the bloodline, casually watched Sazaki and Lara.

“All right, let’s begin class,” Falke told the young students after pulling himself together. “My name is Falke. My role is to teach you about the relationship between mages and swords.” It was the start of a new term at the academy, so Falke started explaining his job to the students taking fundamental classes.

“First of all, cast away the notion that as long as you have magic, you don’t need to be afraid of people with swords. Even if others tell you that swords are nothing to fear, even if you become mages of the Progressive or Deep layers, this is simply untrue.” Falke looked at the students who’d studied to a certain extent under mages outside the academy, and told them to get rid of any complacency or conceit they had toward swords.

“I have a question,” one of the boys addressed Falke with his hand raised.

“Go ahead.”

“I’d like to know your layer, sir.”

“The Deep layer.”

“Huh?”

The students who didn’t know Falke murmured in surprise. Excluding the few rare historical exceptions who’d made it to the Hadal layer, mages of the Deep layer were effectively considered the top, and many of the members of the Magic Council, the pinnacle of Greer, were of the Deep layer. The students were bewildered that the teacher standing in front of them was a top-tier mage, and they were also confused because a mage like him had just told them to get rid of their contempt for swords.

“Both swords and offensive magic are ways to kill. It’s dangerous to simply assume that magic is superior and that there’s an absolute power dynamic between them; they’re both means to an end.”

A girl slightly frowning at Falke’s lesson raised her hand. “I’d like to share an opinion.”

“Go ahead.”

“My mentor believes that since swordsmen can’t break through magic barriers, it’s impossible for them to defeat mages.” The girl shared the opinion of many high-ranking mages born after the war. The idea wasn’t completely mistaken; a basic swordsman would be unable to break through a mage’s barrier and end up getting unilaterally slaughtered. However, that was only true under limited circumstances, so it was mostly just a delusion of arrogant magic supremacists.

“Excreting, eating, bathing—a creature can only constantly maintain a magic barrier if they have no need to take in or expel anything. That notion also doesn’t take into account the possibility of getting killed in your sleep. Only a knight from a fairy tale would introduce themself in an open space and come at you head-on.” Falke’s response left the girl at a loss for words.

Among researchers, some high-ranking mages fantasized about combat scenarios they had no experience with and thought about them in an overly idealistic way. The most extreme of these fantasies assumed conditions favorable to the mage and excluded surprise attacks or dirty tricks.

“Besides, even barriers aren’t the ultimate defense against swordsmen,” Falke declared that magic barriers, which should be practically impossible to break through using physical means, were imperfect.

“You can say that again.” Lara nodded at her son’s words as she glanced at her husband next to her.

“High-ranking swordsmen, with those of the Clovis School being first on that list, can cut through barriers. They aren’t an absolute defense,” Falke explained.

“I can’t really believe that unless I’ve seen it in practice.” The girl refused to back down.

“Then allow me to demonstrate. Can you put up a magic barrier?”

“Y-Yes.” Although she got confused by Falke’s statement, her finger shined and she deployed a wall of light around her.

Many believed that the strength of a magic barrier against magic was influenced by the user’s skill, but that against physical attacks, they were guaranteed a definite level of strength regardless of who used them. But Falke and his close friend Clovis asserted that this was wrong.

“There is an uneven and frayed spot.” Falke spotted the barrier’s weak spot and casually swung an ordinary wooden sword, making the barrier disappear.

“Huh?!”

“Whoa!”

Several students screamed in response.

For Sazaki’s disciples, striking at a magic barrier’s weak spot was only natural, and to that end, they had polished their skills to differentiate between which parts of a barrier were easy and which were difficult to cut.

So it really was there. Connie, Sazaki’s youngest descendant, was the same. He was a genius who could discover the weak areas in magic barriers with the same keen eye as his great-grandfather.

“This technique isn’t unique to me. As I said earlier, it’s one that has been mastered by many swordsmen, including those of the Clovis School.”

Lara looked away from the students who were astonished at Falke and once again glanced at Sazaki, who stood next to her. Around seventy years ago, this man had looked at Lara, the greatest magical genius in all of human history, and said simply that while it would be a pain, he could definitely cut her down.

While the two parents were observing their son’s class, one man—Stein—was fully enjoying his visit to the academy in a completely unrelated fashion.

I also wanted to observe that class, but it would cause problems if there were more visitors. Stein was also interested in watching a class being led by the son of his comrades. However, he refrained from doing so because he believed it would be a burden for him, practically a stranger, to be in attendance as well, since Falke’s parents were already there troubling him.

Besides, I don’t want to get in the way of Sazaki and Lara either. Stein also didn’t want to impose on a couple observing their son’s work. He could be considerate as long as muscles weren’t involved.

In any case... Stein now stood at the back of a classroom, observing a class of around thirty students. I wasn’t mistaken! And he was elated.

“As we do every year, we conducted a survey on the academy’s students and have discovered that students hailing from areas where livestock farming is thriving and meat and dairy products are widely distributed, particularly the town of Lime, tend to be taller and more robust than students from other areas. But unfortunately, as we are unable to take detailed measurements from other countries, the number of comparisons by country is a little insufficient. Furthermore, just like our predecessors did, we will be entrusting this research to our juniors, and since long-term investigation will be necessary, we will continue asking for your understanding and cooperation. Now for the detailed numbers...”

Once Stein heard that there was a class on the human body, he immediately came to this classroom, where he found out that the contents of the lesson were exactly what he’d hoped for. He’d stayed in Lime because he believed that, as a rule of thumb, people growing up in an environment where they could eat meat would grow taller, but there was still no scientific proof of this.

“In addition, it’s believed that the lack of food was responsible for the shorter stature of people during the great war and the generation right after it.”

I remember that. But I heard that the school building collapsed once, yet they recorded these values right after that? As the student’s presentation went on, Stein nodded as he thought back to his generation, and he was impressed by the Academic City-State’s numerical data. This relationship between nutrition and the body was something many knew from personal experience, but the Academic City-State had actually proven it based on numbers they had collected over the years, far surpassing someone like Stein who had only his personal theories.

“Lastly, this is a guess of my own. A thousand years from now, meat will become commonplace on dining tables around the world, specialized ingredients for building muscle will be developed, and competitions will be held to showcase the best bodies.”

Stein was so overwhelmed by the student’s grandiose vision that he was left unable to ask any questions about the presentation.

Wh-What a magnificent future this student can see! I’d expect nothing less from the academy Lara helped rebuild! It’s truly a school for the wise! After leaving the classroom, Stein was deeply impressed by the greatness of the academy his comrade in arms was involved with. Master Albert, it seems that what you said is true: The world is a vast place, and ability has nothing to do with age. Albert, Stein’s mentor, had told him these words to warn him against becoming conceited, and he’d probably never have imagined that a student’s presentation would remind Stein of this.

Hmm, they have wonderful muscles despite being so young. I’d like to talk to them for a moment. Stein suddenly looked toward a group of students running outside. Their toned physiques were easy to distinguish even through their clothes, and some of them were even muscular enough to rival Stein in his youth.

“Excuse me. May I speak to you for a moment?” Stein approached the students who’d stopped to take a break, speaking in a courteous tone that he never used with his comrades.

“Yes? What’s the matter?”

“All of you are mages, correct? Despite that, you’re all really well-built.”

“Oh, I see. We want to prove that training the body stimulates the brain and improves academic ability. Unfortunately, some people believe that the time spent at a desk is what’s necessary and that the exercise recommended by the academy is only meant to maintain your health, but we believe that there is a close link between the brain, muscles, and exercise.”

“M-Magnificent... You understand the truth of the world despite being so young. I would expect nothing less from the students of the world-class Academic City-State.” Stein’s eyes went wide. He was overwhelmed with emotion to hear the student put forward a theory that echoed his own.

“Th-Thank you very much.” The student was a little taken aback.

As an aside, when Stein had been training at the Boiling Mountain, he had also excelled at his studies, and his mentor Albert had strongly expected that Stein would one day succeed him. Unfortunately, because he had been such an outstanding student, he’d discovered a path that was neither life nor death, and his future had ended up completely different than what Albert had anticipated.

“Umm, well, our academy has a saying that you should first learn to run before studying flight magic,” the student said, trying to change the subject.

“How...how magnificent!” Stein was deeply moved for the umpteenth time today. “The world’s future is bright!” one of the people who’d saved the world declared confidently. In his head, muscles were apparently closely linked to the light of this world. If that theory were to be applied, Ferd would be the most muscular person in the world. “I’m glad I came here...” Stein was filled with so many emotions that, in a way, he was the one enjoying his tour of the academy the most.

“How about we go to that classroom?” Ferd suggested.

“All right, honey,” Elrica agreed.

“Okay,” Max replied.

Unlike Sazaki and the rest, Ferd, Elrica, and Max didn’t have any specific objectives at the school, so in the meantime, they simply picked a random classroom that caught their eye and decided to drop in. However, perhaps they should have at least found out what kind of lesson it was that they were about to view.

“Today, we will be learning about Ferd the Hero and Elrica the Saint.”

Ugh! Ferd realized what the teacher had said a beat too late. His inner voice squawked like a dying chicken.

Oh my... Elrica averted her gaze.

Oh boy... Max sent his friends his condolences with his eyes.

Perhaps by some god’s mischief, this particular classroom was having a history lesson—on the Hero and the Saint, of all things.

“So, there is a lot of mystery surrounding Elrica the Saint. She’s said to be the daughter of a high-ranking priest or a child of the gods, but the specifics of her birth are unknown at present.”

I’m probably an orphan...I guess. Most likely, Elrica added to the teacher’s words in her mind. She actually didn’t know the truth herself.

During the great war, a plan had been developed to manufacture a Saint in order to combat the incoming threats, but the church forces at the time had been so focused on defeating their greatest potential enemy—the Great Demon King—that they didn’t have time to worry about what consequences their actions might have. So, they’d gathered up talented people, using both legal and illegal methods. Elrica had been among those people. However, the process of manufacturing her into a Saint had been so riddled with problems that all related documents had been erased, so she knew nothing about her own birth. Therefore, it might even be possible, in the worst-case scenario, that she was an artificial human created through forbidden techniques.

“We have no definite information on her abilities either,” the teacher continued. “The main theory is that she used the light’s divine protection to defend the Hero’s party, but that is also pure speculation.”

I-It’s actually a cross between light-annihilation magic, some forbidden techniques, and various other things... Elrica once again added in her head, though there was of course no way she could say any of that out loud.

Elrica possessed magic that could unfailingly eradicate enemies that lacked resistance to the power of light, but she’d also mastered some techniques that people typically shouldn’t learn, so for the church, she was someone who couldn’t be allowed on the forefront of history. And since the Hero’s party had been constantly charging straight into the deepest parts of the enemy lines, there had been virtually no opportunities for other people to see Elrica’s power in action. As a result, now that all of the church leaders and other authorities involved with Elrica at the time had passed away, the truth had been buried deep in the darkness.

“On the other hand, we know that Ferd the Hero was the third son of a rural family, so his origins are clear.”

Well, I never hid that fact. Meanwhile, Ferd was calm as he listened to the teacher.

Ferd’s roots weren’t something he’d felt any need to hide, so whenever he’d been asked where he was from during the war, he’d replied with the truth. And so, it had been recorded in history correctly. However, even if the records were accurate, how future generations would react to them was a different matter altogether.

“I have a question,” a student asked.

“Go ahead,” the teacher replied.

“It seems that there’s no doubt that Ferd the Hero came from a rural area, but that makes it all the more unclear how he came into possession of enough power to save the world. Was he perhaps royalty...or did he have the blood of the gods running in his veins?”

“Hmm. That’s not entirely impossible.”

No, it actually is. In his mind, Ferd flatly rejected the conversation between student and teacher. There was nothing in his family that would support a royal hypothesis, and there was nothing that suggested blood ties with the gods either, so the idea really was impossible—at least, from the perspective of Ferd, the third son of a rural family.

“Perhaps Ferd the Hero didn’t know himself, but his parents and eldest brother did,” the teacher suggested.

Wha— Ferd went wide-eyed. The problem was that if the teacher’s theory was framed as a secret passed down to the oldest son, Ferd would have no way to refute it, having been the youngest. Furthermore, there were indeed cases of such secrets being passed down to only the eldest son.

C-Come to think of it... Ferd unconsciously looked toward Max next to him. Since Max wasn’t the eldest son, he hadn’t inherited the secrets of the Rin Kingdom, though he also carried a major secret of his own: He was the younger twin of the nation’s former king. It was impossible to know what kind of secrets could be lurking anywhere, at any time.

No, no, I’m just overthinking it. My older brothers and father were just ordinary people. Ferd, who was starting to grow confused, remembered who his blood relatives were and regained his composure.

Ferd really didn’t have any connection whatsoever to the gods. He’d just been an anomaly that suddenly sparkled in a world full of darkness. However, it wasn’t very convincing that someone without a special background would have the strength necessary to save the world. As such, the generations after the war had searched for a satisfying explanation, but since there was no evidence to completely disprove Ferd’s side of the story, the situation had ended up rather strange. Unfortunately, that was just the way that it went with most legends.

“Now, it’s believed that Elrica the Saint was the last addition to the Hero’s party. The reason seems to be that the church forces were determining whether or not the Hero was worthy to be entrusted with the Saint,” the teacher continued.

Oh dear...

A lot was going on, wasn’t it?

The Hero and Saint in question currently had indescribable expressions.

The Hero had been fighting for the survival of the world, not for the gods. Therefore, divine will had been a secondary or even tertiary concern to him, and he’d had a tricky relationship with any religious groups that prioritized their god’s will above all else; he hadn’t been on such bad terms with them that they’d try to kill him or vice versa, but they hadn’t exactly been friendly either. Considering their backgrounds, there had been some disagreement during the great war over whether or not Elrica should be sent to the Hero’s party.

We should have been more careful picking which class to observe... After now having been saddled with listening to people discussing so many aspects of his life from seventy years ago, Ferd reflected on his poor judgment, feeling exhausted.

I guess I won’t say this was fun later on. Max, covering his grin with his hand, was the only one enjoying the lesson.

And the class wasn’t over yet.

“Next, who here can tell me about the Hero’s weapon?” the teacher asked.

“I can. There is much mystery surrounding the weapons of all members of the Hero’s party, including the Hero’s sword, and even after the war, we still don’t have a clear answer. Some say it was the Midnight Sky Sword of Wolf, the War God, while others claim it was the Sword of Rebirth, a sacred treasure created by an ancient god. There are also many theories about his shield, such as it being a stone tablet engraved with the blueprints of all creation.”

What? What? Ferd was so baffled by what the teacher and student were talking about that he just kept repeating the same word in his mind.

Oh no. I have to hold back. If I laugh here, it’ll be suspicious. But it might be impossible! Max was on the verge of losing his composure and bursting out laughing at the frozen Ferd, but he somehow managed to make it through by tightening up his abdominal muscles and steeling his own will.

An ancient sword and shield? It was nothing near that crazy! Ferd shouted in his mind. He wanted to speak the truth that all of his friends knew, but unfortunately, he was just an old man observing a class at the moment, not Ferd the Hero.

“Similarly, there is not much known about the staff belonging to Elrica, the Saint. There is a theory that it’s made out of a branch of the tree that first sprouted back during the creation of the world, but nothing can be said for certain.”

“Indeed. There is a lot of mystery around both the Hero and Saint. The only credible piece of information regarding the weapons of the Hero’s party is that the Blademaster most likely possessed one of the Seven Rainbow Katanas.”

Thank goodness they switched topics... Just when it seemed Elrica was about to become the subject of the lesson, she was relieved to see them move on to Sazaki instead.

“However, we can’t assert this as a fact either. Do you know why?” the teacher asked.

“Because it’s said that he swung his katana with such speed that no one could see the blade,” the student answered.

“Precisely. The color of the Blademaster’s katana isn’t recorded even in Greer’s documents.”

“But is it really possible for him to be so fast that no one ever saw the blade?”

“Hmm...”

Oh, it’s possible all right... Max commented mentally as he listened to the lesson. There were many scenes from the great war he’d never forget, but among them were those of monstrosities trying to move without realizing that Sazaki had already cut through them before they perished on the spot. He remembered the looks on the faces of intelligent enemies who had tried to see through some nonexistent trick they believed must exist to Sazaki’s speed; however, he was simply fast. In the end, they’d been left in despair, only realizing the simple logic behind it all right before their deaths.

“In any case, even if it isn’t one of the Seven Rainbow Katanas, it’s undoubtedly a treasured sword of some kind.”

A treasured sword, huh? So they just assumed. Well, no one would imagine that one of the world’s saviors wields a sinister, bewitched sword. Max, who had been listening to the teacher, knew that Sazaki’s sword was far from holy or treasured.

Sazaki guaranteed that if I tried holding it, it would fly straight at my neck. Ferd also knew that very well.

The katana at Sazaki’s waist wished for a swordsman who could master its use. To put it bluntly, Ferd, someone who just swung his sword around, was the kind of person whom that bewitched sword hated the most. Therefore, if Ferd were to wield Sazaki’s katana, all anyone would get to witness would be this so-called “treasured” blade aiming for the Hero’s life.

“We’re almost out of time... In the next lesson, we will also discuss the Great Demon King’s military strength. Can someone name a famous battle?” the teacher asked.

“I can. The battle of the Dragonsbane Knight against Gyu Ri, the Parasitic Dragon.”

Now that’s a blast from the past... Max had a distant look in his eyes as he heard that nostalgic name.

“The Dragonsbane Knight thought he’d killed Bam Bu, the Windblade Dragon, but the situation turned perilous thanks to the authority of Gyu Ri, who had been parasitizing Bam Bu’s body: The Parasitic Dragon’s power allowed it to copy the being that killed its host. It’s said that the Dragonsbane Knight somehow emerged victorious but was almost killed in the process.”

No one would have imagined that I would come out of the dragon’s body. I really was on the verge of death. Seventy years ago, Max thought he’d killed a powerful dragon, but for only a moment. He then found himself in dire straits as his spitting image jumped out of the dragon’s corpse, catching him completely off guard.

Max almost reflexively grimaced as he remembered that battle, but he somehow held back since he was inside a classroom. His powers came from the blue dragon, and they were definitely impossible to imitate. And yet, the power known as an authority, which disregarded the laws of reality, had successfully created a perfect copy of Max’s powers, and he’d ended up fighting himself, up in the sky.

“Can anyone name another battle?”

“The Fistmaster against the monk slayers. Especially the decisive battle against the ones led by Black Smoke or Purple Smoke,” a student said.

That was an unavoidable battle. Ferd nodded in his mind.

Monk slayers, monsters created by the Great Demon King, had been among the most feared creatures of the great war. Their bodies were entirely made up of lava, letting them burn their enemies to death with a single touch, and they’d even learned monk techniques. Particularly powerful or experienced monk slayers had become creatures true to their name. However, many of them had been destroyed by Stein, and many of those fights had been recorded as decisive battles.

“Kahn the Necromancer is also worthy of mention,” another student said.

Despite being so young, they know the names of some strange people. Max was a little surprised when Kahn’s name was brought up.

Kahn had specialized in manipulating human corpses, and although he hadn’t been part of the Great Demon King’s forces, he’d assisted them here and there in order to flood the world with death.

“Hmm, I suppose we’ve gone on a bit long. All right, that’s enough for today. For the next class, you should study up on Gyu Ri, the Parasitic Dragon, the monk slayers led by Black Smoke or Purple Smoke, Kahn the Necromancer, and also others like Muu Gi.”

Those are some nostalgic names... Elrica also recalled the distant past as she listened to the teacher ending the lesson. However, all those names were long gone. Defeat in the great war meant death, so none of them were alive anymore.

“Phew...” Ferd and Elrica sighed together as they exited the classroom. The young people’s inquiries had left them with a fatigue they hadn’t felt even when they’d fought for three days and nights in a row during the great war.

“As you get older, new information starts giving you headaches.” Max nodded, not even attempting to hide his grin.

“Yes, that’s true,” Ferd replied dismissively. That damn Max sure enjoyed himself. I bet he’d have run away if we found a class studying his or King Gale’s achievements. Just as Ferd expected, if Max ever found himself in a classroom praising his deeds or those of his older brother Gale, he’d have been unable to keep listening and would have run away at full speed.

“In any case, studying is a good thing. Thanks to it, I never struggled with putting food on the table,” Max said.

“It seems that you were doing a bunch of different things,” Ferd replied.

“Yeah. Still, studying alone wasn’t enough to get me literary talent...”

“So that’s your one weakness?”

“That’s right,” Max muttered softly as he shrugged his shoulders at Ferd.

Max had secretly assisted with the reconstruction after the end of the great war, and after that he made his living by frequently changing jobs, the main one being peddling. His education at the royal palace had helped him achieve this life; he’d probably been one of the most blessed people in terms of a learning environment.

“A protagonist that constantly changes names is a problem that goes beyond studies or literary talent,” Elrica pointed out.

“Ha ha...ha ha...yeah...” Max was still grinning, but he nodded weakly at her comment. “Ahem. Now, where are...the others...at...?” Max tried to regain his composure and meet up with his friends, but a particular sight made his eyes go wide.

“I can only say that you’re amazing. Please keep doing your best.” Stein, who still looked like a virtuous priest, was filled with incredible emotion as he gave words of encouragement to a group of students, one by one.

“Th-Thank you very much,” a student replied.

“What is Stein even doing?” Ferd muttered, feeling flabbergasted.

“Who knows...? Perhaps they just hit it off.” Elrica could guess the gist of the situation based on the students’ excellent physiques.

“Well then, I’ll have to excuse myself now. Hmm? Oh, listen to this, everyone. The future of muscles is truly bright. There are people complaining about the younger generation being lazy or spoiled, but that is definitely not the case.” Stein had a spring in his step after meeting his kindred spirits.

“I-Is that so?” Ferd muttered.

“Right...”

“I-I see.”

Ferd and the other two could only nod with indescribably strange looks on their faces. It seemed that not even the Hero’s party could understand the theories of a musclebrain.

“Oh, there you are. Finding you was easy. I only needed to search for a place that seems hard to cut.” Sazaki and Lara also joined the others after they’d finished observing all of Falke and Connie’s class, but the Blademaster’s searching methods were also incomprehensible.

“What should we do next?” Max asked Ferd.

“I’d like to sit down for a bit and drink some water. Let’s go to the cafeteria,” Ferd replied.

“Me too...” Elrica also wanted to take a break.

“Let’s go with that, then.”

“You look awfully exhausted. Did something happen?” Sazaki asked after noticing the state Ferd and Elrica were in.

“We had the great opportunity to listen to theories regarding the esteemed, legendary Hero and Saint,” Max explained with a grin.

“Bwa ha ha ha! I see, I see!” Sazaki realized what kind of theories Max was talking about and burst into laughter.

“That’s what history’s like.” Lara shook her head in resignation as she remembered the statue of her pure self outside the city.

Incidentally, since this was an academy full of young people, rumors here traveled fast, even faster than Ferd and the rest heading to the cafeteria. Those rumors even reached Connie, Sazaki’s great-great-grandson, in the blink of an eye.

“Hey, I heard that there are old people all around campus,” said Franz, Connie’s friend.

Connie had an idea of who these old people might be, but there was no way he could say that they were the members of the Hero’s party.

“I think they’re probably my great-great-grandpa, great-great-grandma, and their friends.” Therefore, Connie gave a bland explanation to cover things up.

“Oh, so they’re your relatives,” Franz said.

“I heard that there was also a high priest,” said Hagen, another of Connie’s friends.

“Really?”

“Yes. From what I heard, he could be a monk. Is that right, Connie?”

“Who knows? I don’t really know the details,” Connie gave another vague answer. He’s probably talking about Mr. Stein. The part about him being a monk is correct.

“I heard that there was an elderly couple who looked like they came from the countryside. Apparently there was also an old man with clothes unbefitting his age walking around. We’ve got some strange visitors today.” Next up was the puzzled Emmeline, the only girl in the friend group. She’d also been the student Falke had instructed on magic barriers earlier.

Mr. Ferd, Mrs. Elrica, and Mr. Max, huh? They’re easy to spot, Connie thought.

Franz was a short, mischievous boy, with blue eyes and short red hair. Hagen had long, gray hair, gray eyes, and a calm and collected demeanor. Emmeline had short blonde hair and blue eyes, and she looked intelligent but rigid. Then there was Connie, who always moved to the beat of his own drum. Though the four of them were completely different, they’d somehow clicked ever since enrollment and often hung out together.

“If we aren’t careful, the rumors will become even more exaggerated. I already heard people guessing that some senior officials or whatever were here incognito,” Franz said.

“Well...that’s not completely out of the question. Ordinary elderly people would find it a little difficult to tour the academy.”

“Soon, we might even start hearing people say this is preliminary work for foreign royalty to enroll here,” Franz continued.

“No, that’s a bit of a stretch. At most, they might use the academy as reference for their own country’s educational institutions,” Emmeline replied. Though she understood Franz’s suggestion, she still found it impossible.

“Come on, dream a little.”

“Do members of royalty leave their country often to begin with?”

“Perhaps something happened.”

“No way.”

It’s certainly a dream, in a lot of ways. Since Connie knew the true identities of these elderly people, he knew that the real situation far surpassed Franz’s imaginings. No one was more famous than the Hero’s party, and the elderly group currently touring the academy had more global influence than any king. To borrow Franz’s words, this situation was straight out of a dream.

“People might even start spreading rumors that the Hero’s party is on campus,” Franz said.

“Now that is unthinkable.” Hagen immediately shot down his outlandish guess.

Franz is way too sharp... Connie, on the other hand, couldn’t reject Franz’s theory, thinking of the toddling Hero and Saint, the sharp-tongued Blademaster and Witch, the half naked monk, and Max in his strangely youthful attire.

“Come to think of it, Emmeline, has your mentor ever said anything about the Hero’s party?” Franz kept talking.

“The topic never came up, so they’ve probably never met.”

“That so?”

Emmeline’s mentor seems like quite the magic supremacist and researcher. Does he ever go outside? Connie thought about Emmeline’s mentor as he listened to his friends.

Falke had shown Emmeline the reality, but the reason she’d believed that a mage could never lose against a swordsman as long as they had a magic barrier was because of her mentor. However, with Sazaki’s teachings expanding and the Clovis School being the foremost adherents, there were currently a fair number of swordsmen who could break magic barriers.

Of course, the masters of the schools that descended from the Sazaki School were part of a generation that had never experienced the fierceness of the great war, but as the world became more prosperous and peaceful, humanity’s population also increased. This meant that talented people grew in number without perishing on dangerous battlefields before they could achieve their full potential, and now that there were more accomplished swordsmen in the world, the advantage mages had once had over swordsmen was no longer absolute.

In other words, Connie guessed that Emmeline’s mentor might not be aware of the current state of affairs.

“Hey, Connie. Is something on your mind?” Franz asked Connie, who had been silent for some time.

“He’s at an age that comes with a lot of worries.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It’s just like that sometimes.”

“Perhaps it’s a phase that just boys go through.”

“Ha ha ha ha...” Connie could only reply to his friends with a dry laugh. He obviously couldn’t tell them about the Hero’s party or that his friend’s mentor might simply be ignorant.

“Oh, that reminds me. The plan is still on, right?” Franz suddenly asked Connie.

“Yes, it’s fine, though my great-great-grandparents and their friends are staying over.”

“Is that so? And they don’t mind?”

“Yes, I’ve checked.”

They weren’t discussing anything complicated; Franz, Hagen, and Emmeline were just going to take advantage of consecutive holidays to hang out at Connie’s place. However...with the Hero’s party staying there, things did, in fact, become complicated.

◆◆◆

“Don’t confuse conviction with truth.”

—Albert, founder of the monk way.

Chapter 4: Playing with Friends

Several days after the Hero’s party’s visit to the Magic Academy, Connie was on his way to Agnes’s mansion with his friends Franz, Hagen, and Emmeline. However, Emmeline was acting strange.

“I know it’s a little late for this, but I’m feeling nervous. Will I be able to properly greet Lady Agnes?” Emmeline’s face was flushed with excitement and anxiety.

“If you feel nervous, I might start feeling nervous too,” Franz teased her.

“But we’re going to Lady Agnes’s home.”

Connie’s friends knew that his great-grandmother was Agnes, a member of the Magic Council, but for mages in the making, her position felt as out of reach as the clouds above. That was especially true for the overserious Emmeline, who was especially restless. Furthermore, Agnes’s mansion was currently home to several people who stood higher than even those proverbial clouds.

“Welcome home, Connie. Are these the friends you mentioned? It’s nice to meet you; my name is Ferd. I’m a friend of Connie’s great-great-grandfather.”

“Welcome home. It’s nice to meet you; my name is Elrica.”

The students were greeted in front of the mansion by Ferd and Elrica, a wrinkly, elderly couple who had been basking in the sun since early in the morning.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Franz.”

“I’m Hagen.”

“I’m Emmeline.”

Franz and the rest greeted the old couple like normal. To note again, the names Ferd and Elrica had been common to begin with, and after the end of the war, many people had named their children after the Hero and the Saint, so for a time, it had even been said that you couldn’t turn a corner without bumping into a Ferd or Elrica. There were many students with those names in the academy today too. As a result, for the youngest generation of Franz and the others, since the names Ferd and Elrica were so ordinary, they could only accept that they would sometimes show up together.

It really is an incredible scene... On the other hand, to Connie, who knew the truth, even just the sight of this half-legendary couple merrily basking in the sun together felt amazing.

“My, my, thank you for coming. I’m Agnes, Connie’s great-grandmother.” Perhaps having heard voices outside, the owner of the mansion, Agnes, appeared.

“I-It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Franz and the others, who had been simply courteous to Ferd and Elrica, greeted Agnes nervously.

“What do you two plan on doing now?” Agnes asked Ferd and Elrica.

“I think I’ll stay out in the sun for a little longer.”

“So will I, honey.”

The relaxed couple had decided to stay outside under the sun for a while longer.

“Very well,” Agnes replied. “Now please, come on in,” she then said to Connie’s friends.

“Thank you for having us.” Urged by Agnes, the kids bowed to the elderly couple and went inside.

“Young people these days all have great manners,” Elrica commented, also thinking back to the students of the academy as well as Franz’s group.

“They certainly do, dearest,” Ferd agreed with a big nod. “When I was young, I was, well, you know.” He had a distant look in his eyes as he remembered his own youth.

“Oho ho ho ho.”

Both as a farmer’s son and as the Hero, Ferd had never had the time to learn polite language and manners, so he’d been rude quite often, and now that he thought back on it, there had been many incidents that even he realized made him look bad. For example, he’d once told the pope of a certain church that if he had time to sit back, put his hands together, and pray to his god, he should swing a mace or something. These nigh-blundering acts of rudeness hadn’t been recorded in history, but the man involved remembered them clear as day as he sat and stared into the distance.

“Hmm? Oh, Sazaki and Lara are back.” While Ferd was thinking about the past, he noticed that Sazaki was back from buying alcohol for the trip, along with Lara who’d gone with him.

“I noticed three unfamiliar distances. Are they the friends Connie was talking about?” As usual, Sazaki seemed to have his own strange method of noticing that Franz and the rest were here.

“Yes, they just arrived.” Ferd couldn’t understand his friend’s senses at all.

“Buddies are a real blessing, aren’t they?” Sazaki seemed happy that his great-great-grandson had brought over friends, but his wide grin ruined everything.

“If you hadn’t said it with that expression, I would have nodded along eagerly.” Ferd, Sazaki’s buddy—to borrow his words—nodded begrudgingly.

However, Ferd had never doubted their friendship for a second. Sazaki was the man who’d casually walked into certain death—despite not having a death wish—just because his buddy was going to defeat the Great Demon King and he’d figured he might as well help. In plays and stories, the Hero and Blademaster were very accurately portrayed as best friends; it was just that Sazaki’s sensibilities were a little peculiar.

“Well, maybe the meaning of the word ‘buddy’ has changed a bit from the past,” Sazaki said, shrugging his shoulders.

During Sazaki’s generation, human nature had been laid bare because of the adverse circumstances. As a result, although there had also been selfish people, many who had been tempered by the chaotic times had similar views on friendship as Sazaki. But prosperous times gave birth to pretense, and friendship might be becoming nothing but a formality.

“I don’t think so. Both friendship and buddies still exist where they need to.” Ferd rejected Sazaki’s words. He may have appeared as just an ordinary old man to youngsters, but his countenance was truly that of the Hero who’d fought for light and life.

Meanwhile, as Connie’s nervous friends were being shown around the mansion by its owner, Agnes, they noticed something strange.

“Hey, Connie, who is that?” Franz couldn’t help but ask while looking at the odd individual.

Through the window, they could see a spacious courtyard that was like a training area. Stein, who was unusually dressed since Connie’s friends would be coming, was sitting on the ground with his eyes closed and legs crossed.

“Why is he on the ground?”

“Is something happening?”

Stein’s incomprehensible behavior had confused not only Franz, but Hagen and Emmeline too. But a trained observer could tell.

W-Wow... Connie was in no position to answer his friends’ questions. He could only marvel at Stein’s perfect sitting posture using incredibly simple vocabulary.

Holy crap... Is he really human? Agnes was similarly shocked, and her inner thoughts, free of her usual pretense, concisely described Stein’s situation.

“Oh, are these the friends you mentioned? Hello, I’m Max, a buddy of Connie’s great-great-grandparents.”

“I-It’s nice to meet you. I’m Franz.”

Max appeared before the group that had stopped in its tracks.

How do I put this...?

This man...

His age and appearance are a bit...

But even though the legendary Dragonsbane Knight had arrived, Franz and the rest weren’t particularly impressed, instead focusing on his accessories, clothes, and tone of voice, which didn’t suit a man his age at all.

Even during the great war, Max had occasionally used a different name, rarely appeared in public because it would be an issue if his secret got discovered, and worn full-body armor, so he was considered among the two most mysterious members of the Hero’s party. Therefore, Franz and the others, who weren’t part of the generation involved in the war, couldn’t possibly have realized Max’s true identity, and thus they only considered him an incongruously dressed old man.

“Ah, you’re curious about him? What was it called again... Right, tree sitting. It’s one of a monk’s basic training exercises. Have you learned that Life Wave monks harbor the power of nature and sometimes try to unify with it?” Max asked.

“Y-Yes.” Emmeline, an honor student, responded with a nod.

“Then this will be easy to explain. That’s one of the methods to achieve that. It’s the most basic of the basics, taught to new monks from their first day. I’m sure that if you visit the Boiling Mountain, the monks’ headquarters, you’ll see this stance everywhere. But if you completely master it, your consciousness will become one with nature and you’ll be unable to return to normal, so you should give up on it if you plan to pursue the path of the monk.” Max, who in the past had commented about Sazaki really being a caring individual, also gently instructed the young ones.

Even though it’s one of the basics, it has amazing results if you master it. Meanwhile, Connie had been constantly observing Stein.

Tree sitting was certainly a basic exercise, but the story was different when it was being performed by Stein, a man described as an unparalleled genius even by Albert, one of the founders of the monk way. Just like Max had explained, Stein had gone much further than simply harboring the power of nature and drawing closer to it: his boundaries as an individual hadn’t just become blurred but vanished completely, and the force field that all living beings should possess had disappeared. Something like that was normally inconceivable.

Those with a high level of intelligence, even children, should possess some kind of force field, such as a wave, mana, or some other presence emanating from their soul. This established them as individuals in nature, which was nothing but a simple aggregation of life-forms. However, Stein was currently perfectly blended with nature, and his individuality had vanished. Doing this would undoubtedly shatter and dissolve one’s ego. Even the elves, who lived in harmony with nature, and dragons, overwhelmingly powerful creatures, would fear this as a state of no return.

Stein had achieved this state while still in his mid-teens, without losing his sense of self, and had been on the verge of mastering the Life Wave. Today, even when he was simply training while sitting down, he was at the highest pinnacle of monks in history. Despite being a monk, he didn’t believe in the gods, and after dabbling in the Death Wave, he’d started walking a different path. It was no wonder that Albert had asked him—practically begging—to stay, and he still kept his membership and position in his sect.

“Anyway, see ya later.” After finishing his explanation, Max waved at the others and left.

“Th-Thank you very much.”

Max then headed to the courtyard, and not only Connie but Franz and the rest unconsciously followed him with their eyes.

“Hmm.” After stepping into the courtyard, which was something like a training ground, Max casually felt like re-creating an old habit he’d had with Stein, so he picked up a spear-like pole that was leaning against a wall in the garden and spun it around.

Whoa... Max’s movement was truly casual, but Connie, who was worthy of being called a genius, groaned in his mind as he realized that Max had perfect control over the pole, like it was attached to his body by nerves.

Max held the pole tightly with both hands and stood there, staring at Stein. That was all he was doing at a glance.

The quality of his distance is the same as my great-great-grandpa’s, so there’s no way Mr. Stein hasn’t noticed him... But Connie’s abnormal “eyes” perceived the shortest, fastest killing distance straight from Max to Stein, and he shuddered as Stein remained perfectly motionless even though he should have noticed Max.

Max didn’t even adopt any particular stance. He simply held the pole in his hands and approached Stein.

Whoa...whoa... No matter how Connie fretted, the inescapable distance of absolute death remained in place, and even when Max got within direct range with his spear, Stein stood completely still and didn’t waver in the slightest. The sight gave chills even to the somewhat airheaded Connie, and the situation reached its peak when the tip of the pole finally approached Stein’s face.

But even so...even though his weapon was an ordinary pole, this was still lethal range for the Dragonsbane Knight, the man who’d slain most of the mighty, evil dragons who’d sided with the Great Demon King, yet Stein still remained unwavering. And then...the moment Max put a bit of strength into the pole, and when Stein became aware of Sazaki trying to cut him from a distance, he instantly regained his senses and used his fists to deploy his own distance.

“Whoa there. I surrender.” Max had been hit with a counterattack and even his opponent’s killing force, so he jokingly waved his pole around to signal his surrender.

“This takes me back.” Stein had a faint smile, even though Max had seemingly gotten in the way.

“Ha ha, doesn’t it?” Max also smiled as he thought fondly of the past.

During the great war, Stein had asked his companions to get in the way of him becoming one with nature, calling it part of his training, and Max and Sazaki, who’d just entered the mansion, were the ones who’d mostly dealt with that.

They really are incredible... In other words, Connie had shuddered at the kind of scene that had once been commonplace.

At first glance, Stein had just been sitting on the ground, Max had just walked up while holding a pole, then stopped, and Sazaki, who hadn’t even been present, had sent a slash over with just his mind. Franz and the others had visited the domain of a group of freaks whose every single action defied understanding.

After that, Agnes showed the kids to the living room. However, before there was a chance to relax, Franz began speaking.

“How many of your great-great-grandparents’ friends are visiting, Connie?” he asked.

“Umm, there’s four of them, including the ones you just met.”

“Huh. So that makes six in total. They’re one person short.”

“What do you mean?”

“If there were seven of them, it would be like the Hero’s party had assembled! The man sitting down earlier was doing monk training, right? That means one of the roles is filled already.”

“Aha ha ha, I see.” Connie could only laugh in response to Franz’s keen insight, but he shuddered inwardly. I’ll never get used to how sharp he is... He doesn’t have some secret powers of deduction, does he?

The Seven Stars, Seven Zeniths, Seven Hopes—these were the sort of names that the Hero’s party had been given over the years, so it was widely known that there were seven of them. But right now, only six elderly people had assembled at this mansion, so Franz’s guess was a rather outlandish one—or it would have been, normally. Although one of them was missing, the Hero’s party was indeed currently visiting this mansion, so the young man had hit the nail on the head.

“By that logic, wouldn’t that mean that Connie’s great-great-grandparents were also part of the Hero’s party?” Emmeline pointed out, exasperated.

“Could be. Perhaps they’re harboring some kind of secret...” Franz suggested it was at least possible.

“Well...” Connie had an uneasy expression.

“You’re making this awkward for Connie,” Hagen said, throwing Connie a life raft. From his perspective, Connie was simply smiling awkwardly at the ridiculous fantasy his friend had just floated; he never supposed that Connie’s great-great-grandparents really were part of the Hero’s party.

“Have you ever been told you have an overactive imagination?” Emmeline asked.

“I’m only saying this among us friends. People might think I’m crazy otherwise.” Franz himself wasn’t actually convinced that these people were the heroes of lore either.

“Oh, and here I thought you were oblivious to that.”

“I think most people would find that idea impossible.”

“Heh.”

“You just snickered at me, didn’t you?”

The pair started messing around as usual.

“Hello, thank you for waiting,” Agnes said as she returned to the living room.

“Oh, we’re so sorry.” Seeing Agnes floating a large board in with magic, Franz and the others stood up, looking terribly ashamed of their lack of consideration.

“Please, don’t worry about it. This is quite heavy if you aren’t using magic. Now please take your time.” Agnes placed the board down on a desk before leaving with a smile, looking like the gentle, old woman everyone unknowingly assumed that she was.

“Thank you very much,” the teens said.

“Wow, this thing is as big as you said it is.”

“Tell me about it.”

“It’s comparable to the ones they use in tournaments.”

Franz and the rest were looking at an object called a puppet board. The board featured an ultra-miniature replica world, with tiny rivers, mountains, forests, and plains arranged across its surface, all created by magic. Since this one was owned by Agnes, a member of the Magic Council, it was immeasurably elaborate and even larger than the desk it was sitting on.

So, what kind of game could people play on a board like this, one might ask?

“Should we deploy our troops on either side of the river?”

“We could also take advantage of the mountain’s elevation.”

“I want to try a new fortress design.”

The kids picked up some pieces of clay provided with the game board and poured a tiny bit of magic into them to give them form. Then, tiny clay soldiers, which were more or less human shaped, appeared in Franz’s hands and were deployed across a river, while Emmeline’s soldiers took formation on a mountain. The clay in Hagen’s hands squirmed and formed a fortress, complete with ramparts and a gate.

“I’ll try scouting, then.” Meanwhile, the soldiers Connie created ran straight into the forest, concealing themselves. “Oh, there’s the enemy. They’re split into two groups. One group is on Franz and Emmeline’s side and the other one is headed to Hagen’s fortress.” Connie’s soldiers discovered a hidden group of four-legged monsters—as tiny as the soldiers.

“All right. Don’t hit me with any friendly fire, Emmeline.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Now then, how will this construction fare?”

The others moved their soldiers to counterattack. Before long, the monsters had launched an attack on the clay soldiers and the fortress and a battle broke out, though the combat itself wasn’t anything special. The little humanoid soldiers fired tiny, almost imperceptible arrows at the monsters coming from the other side of the river, and when the monsters got closer, they swung their tiny swords at them. Emmeline’s soldiers on the mountain fired tiny dots of light that imitated magic, but the monsters could only keep ramming against Hagen’s fortress. But even if the combat wasn’t flashy, the board’s function was still incredible.

These game boards had existed since before the great war, and they had since become popularized across the world as a simulation in case the demon army were to return. It was a game of remarkable construction, which allowed players to reproduce the abilities not only of archers and cavalry, but also mages, and it even let them construct fortresses. Mages were often in positions that gave them an overhead view of the battlefield from the rear rather than fighting on the front lines, and they also sometimes used their magic to assist in the constructions of castles and fortresses. For students of the Magic Academy like Connie and his friends, this wasn’t simply a game, but crucial knowledge for their field.

“I heard somewhere that in one country, this game is so popular that it’s recommended study for all the citizens. If I remember right, it was the country that originally made this game board, but...which country was that again?” Franz commented suddenly as he looked at the game board.

“I mean, it’s just as popular in the Rin Kingdom. In any case, focus. Your side is being pushed back.” Hagen forced Franz’s attention back to the game.

“Yeah, the river wasn’t enough to slow them down.”

Franz was right, though. This game was popular in countries that prioritized national defense and had carefully considered the possibility of another invasion from the demon army.

“If the front line collapses, my side will also follow suit, so keep it together.” Emmeline was getting worried that they were getting pushed back a little far at the river.

“I’ll support you from the rear.” Connie’s army attacked the monsters from behind, throwing the battlefield into chaos.

“Thank you, Connie.”

“This might be bad. They’ve started climbing the walls.”

“I might be unable to hold my ground either.”

“Eek! Some more just popped out of the earth!”

“We obviously can’t scout underground, though...”

The monsters had started gradually gaining ground, trampling everything in their path, not even rivers, mountains, fortifications, or soldiers standing in their way. Ultimately, the monsters—the Great Demon King’s army—engulfed everything.

“Ugh. This is still on a low difficulty, right?” Franz asked with a frown.

“Yes. There are apparently difficulties that include a battlefield with dragons in both armies, a mobile fortress, and units that imitate the Great Demon King’s executives,” Connie replied with a nod.

“I don’t understand how we actually won that war.”

During the great war, attacks of sheer numbers had been incredibly commonplace, and in fact this was the preferable situation when it came to such battles. There had been battlefields where the dragons who sided with mortal races—led by the blue dragon who protected the Rin Kingdom—and the dragons who sided with the Great Demon King had engaged in deadly combat in the skies, and others where a gargantuan mobile fortress had run amok. Add in the cases where the Great Demon King’s subjects themselves attacked, and it really began to seem like mankind was done for. Compared to all that, a mere onslaught of innumerable but weak demons had been like a walk in the park.

“All right, one more round. I’ll try fiddling with the troop types a bit.”

“I wonder if there’s a way to sense vibrations or something...”

“The construction was poor. I’ll try a different shape.”

“We should try coordinating a little better.”

Even later generations, those not directly involved in fighting the Great Demon King, had learned to recognize his forces and prepare for them to some extent. The scars left by the great war would probably never heal.

“But seriously, this game board is incredible. It’s impressive that they could combine golem tech and magic in this way.” As Franz waited for the game board to be arranged, he stretched and admired its craftsmanship.

“I agree. Oh, come to think of it, I heard a rumor that a dwarven-made golem knight was brought into the academy,” said Emmeline.

“A golem knight, huh? I’ve heard a rumor that the early prototypes were of quite poor quality,” Hagen chimed in.

“Is that true, Hagen?” Franz asked.

“Yes. Apparently, when they were given the order to eliminate all intruders, they were on the verge of indiscriminately attacking the craftsmen too.”

“Man, that’s scary...” Franz looked shocked.

These rumors were in fact true. The dwarves, who were well-versed in matters such as the earth, smithing, and mineral resources, had succeeded in constructing golems for combat. They resembled armored humanoids, and they were capable of using weapons such as swords or spears along with shields. Although they’d possessed physical abilities that outpaced any human’s—tremendous physical strength and endless stamina, among others—they’d also come with a giant drawback. Golems were fundamentally unable to comprehend complicated instructions, and that had been even more true for the first models. As a result, there had been an accident where, right after being activated, the golems almost attacked the group of dwarven engineers in front of them, in accordance with their orders to kill all enemies.

“I also heard that the way they used their weapons was unrefined. Like they only swung their swords in perfect vertical and horizontal lines.” Hagen placed a finger on his head as he dug through his memories to retrieve this information.

“That’s also an issue...” Connie imagined the golem knights’ clunky movements.

“And since they’re golems, they don’t gain any experience or grow, right?” Franz pointed out the golem knights’ biggest weakness.

“Probably. But the newer models might have been improved since then.”

Naturally, since golems were unable to learn from experience, they couldn’t grow either. As a result, once someone determined a method to defeat them, they could be unilaterally disposed of, unable to innovate any counterattacks.

“But even if they don’t gain any experience or grow, they can still be a threat in great numbers,” Emmeline said, turning her attention back to the game board.

“Right. Even though the Great Demon King’s vanguard is only advancing in a straight line here, we’re getting pushed back,” Connie agreed with her.

The grotesque vanguard created by the Great Demon King had solved the problem of its inability to improve tactically with sheer numbers. His vanguard troops had been unable to grow, as they’d possessed neither souls nor free will, but they had still been able to overcome their foes’ more strategic planning. Or rather, as if to show that everything would work out as long as there were enough of them, they had been deployed in massive numbers during the early stages of the great war. There were places where the battlefield was so bogged down by their mass onslaught that they had actually managed to break through the front lines.

“But it seems that during the middle of the great war, the Great Demon King’s commanders had trouble because the vanguard troops couldn’t understand complicated orders.”

Connie had had the opportunity to hear about the great war from his great-great-grandparents, so he knew a bit of the inside story. When the Hero’s party had started turning the war situation around, the Great Demon King’s forces had suddenly needed to diversify their tactics. However, from the commanders’ perspective, it had been a burden to try and command a vanguard that could only take specific actions anyway.

“Yeah, having a soul and the ability to grow are pretty important elements for an individual,” Franz concluded.

“Indeed,” Emmeline agreed.

After that, Connie and his friends populated their game board with allied forces of various races. This included humans, who were average at everything, elves, who excelled at using bows and nature magic, dwarves, who could wear heavy armor despite their small stature, and the savage, mighty orcs, all clashing with the army of monsters.

“This really is difficult. We’ve somehow managed to squeak our way through the beginning, but things get tough when the enhanced individuals start showing up.”

“We can’t handle any dragons that appear either.”

Franz and Emmeline frowned as they looked at the clay soldiers defending a large city that was comparable in size to the royal capital. Although they’d somehow managed to stop the monsters by synergizing the strengths of each race, things got harder on the next difficulty setting, as soon as more powerful monsters started showing up. And of course the difficulty after that had proven fully impossible when they were annihilated by a single dragon that suddenly appeared.

“This isn’t intended to be winnable, is it?” Franz said, wondering how they could possibly win.

“It’s a mock battle, after all,” Hagen cut in.

“That’s true, but still... Seriously, how did we win back then?” Franz wondered again.

“Thanks to the Hero’s party. Many documents state that the Hero’s party just charged blindly ahead and eliminated the enemy,” Emmeline replied.

“Is that true?”

“I mean, probably...” Even she was not convinced by these records of the past.

It’s apparently true, though... Connie commented silently; he’d heard the absurd details from Sazaki and Lara, two of the people directly involved.

“How did we win? I charged straight ahead and cut through everything in my way, and before I knew it we’d won, Right, Lara?”

“That’s right.”

Monsters with enhancements, dark dragons—an apex species—and the Great Demon King’s retainers had undoubtedly imposed unreasonable force upon the living during the war. But they had been crushed by the even more excessive power and overly simplistic strategies of the Hero’s party. In an absurd turn of events, these destructive forces, which should have been the personification of ultimate violence, kept getting pushed back by the Hero’s party’s head-on assault. Ultimately, even the Great Demon King himself was defeated. Of course, the Hero’s party had also possessed intelligence and quick wit, but one could go as far as to say that the great war had been won thanks to brute force.

Meanwhile, speaking of those people actually involved in the war...

“Hey, Lara, can’t you make the soldiers wield katanas?” Sazaki requested.

“Give it up. They haven’t gone as far as to include soldiers from the eastern countries,” she replied.

“They need to revise this. I know that the monks of the Boiling Mountain are an exception, but these monks are still too weak.” Stein frowned.

“Come to think of it, I suppose priests are in charge of supporting from the rear...” Elrica had carelessly forgotten that she was an anomaly and tried to push the rear supporting units to the front.

“What’s going on here? I remember briefly hearing about this during this war, but it’s turned into this whole thing now?” Ferd stared at the board, unable to make heads or tails of anything.

The old friends were making a racket as they used the other game board in Agnes’s home.

“I’ve never had the chance to play, but this is surprisingly fun.” Max was the only exception among the group. Thanks to his highly prestigious education, and perhaps because he was born into royalty, he could skillfully manage his units and make sport of the monsters. However... “But couldn’t we just charge in and win?”

As Max suggested, the strategy of the Hero’s party during the great war had been to charge straight ahead and obliterate all who stood in their path: the countless demon foot soldiers, the dragons controlling the skies, the mobile fortress that shook the earth as it marched, the Great Demon King’s retainers, and even the Great Demon King.

“I had no idea there were such amazing things out there.” Ferd was impressed by the current magical technology, but this man was in fact at the heart of the group who’d accomplished the most amazing thing in history—even if, by now, they were just a group of old people.

“How about we go for a short walk, dearest?” Ferd, who’d been staring at the same game board, cracked his neck and invited Elrica.

“All right, honey.”

Ah, the springtime of youth. As Ferd stepped out of the mansion with Elrica, he saw young couples intimately holding hands, and he thought of a notion that he had never been personally privy to.

During an era where people couldn’t know whether they would live or die, the idea of “adolescence” had been practically nonexistent. Two days ago, you would have lost the friend you were just talking to, yesterday, the person you had shared words of love with. And today, you would lose your own life. That had been the great war, where there had been no time to leisurely nurture romance.

“If we were just a decade younger, we would have the time to attend the academy,” Ferd joked.

“That’s right, honey.” Elrica nodded.

“But I doubt I could keep up with the youngsters’ energy.”

“Oho ho ho. Didn’t you claim before that you weren’t that withered?”

“I certainly said that, but young people’s vigor is on another level.” These words were quite persuasive coming from a former young person, who’d once relied on his youth to charge right into the heart of darkness. “However, assuming there had been no war, if I’d been told to study when I was young, I’d probably just frown. ‘Who’d bother doing something that pointless?’ I’d say.” Ferd imagined his younger self with an expression that clearly said, “What the hell is this guy talking about?”

“Oho ho ho.” Elrica pictured it clearly and could only laugh.

“As for Sazaki...if there was some research laboratory focusing on booze, he might hang around and be a model student... No, he’d just sneak there to drink and be no help at all.” Ferd tried to imagine what Sazaki would be like as a student, but the whole idea seemed hopeless.

“The only thing he ever has to say about any drink is that it’s delicious, after all. And his teachers would probably be constantly warning him not to just guzzle everything.”

“Ha ha ha. I can picture it. I think Lara would be the one causing more trouble for the teachers, though. She might even be off on a little tryst with Sazaki instead of in the classroom doing her work.” Ferd figured that since Lara had already been such an accomplished mage since her youth, if she were a student, she would make a less than ideal one. He also remembered that during the second half of the war, she and Sazaki would sometimes disappear together, so she might not even go to the classroom at all.

“That happened often, didn’t it?” Elrica had a similar recollection.

“Mm-hmm. Thinking about it now, they probably just snuck out for walks or something.”

“I do recall a time when Sazaki was together with Lara and he waved his hand at me angrily... Was I perhaps...getting in their way?” A strange memory resurfaced in Elrica’s mind, and her eyes darted around as she belatedly realized that she might have been interrupting them, decades after the fact.

Toward the end of the great war, Elrica had become aware of her feelings for Ferd, but she had no sense for the love affairs of others, so she’d apparently misread Sazaki and Lara’s relationship back then.

“As for Stein...he probably wouldn’t change one bit.” Ferd could only imagine Stein constantly talking about muscles, even as a student.

“Th-That’s right,” Elrica agreed, pretending that the mistakes of her youth had never occurred.

“Max...is a smart guy, so he might actually be an honor student. Well, I can just as easily picture him trying to hit it big and failing.” Though Max was sensible, he also showed his careless side in strange ways.

“I bet he’d say something like ‘This is going to be on the test! No doubt about it!’”

“Mm-hmm. Then he’d be hanging his head in disappointment at the end, once he’d turned out to be wrong. Now, Erhard... He wouldn’t possibly wear his heavy armor even to class, would he?” Finally, Ferd remembered the last of their companions—a man as eccentric as the rest of them.

“Who knows? He just might...” Elrica couldn’t deny the possibility; Erhard had just been that much of an oddball.

“Well, in any case, it would be a fun life.” Ferd supposed that there would be all kinds of chaos, but that they would have had fun as students.

“Yes, I’m sure it would be.” Elrica nodded with a smile.

All of this was nothing but a hypothetical scenario. Not even a “what if”—just a fun fantasy. However, there were a certain number of people who earnestly wished such fantasies could come true...as well as those who would actually try to make them a reality.

For example, in the Arzyna Kingdom, which lay in the vicinity of Greer, most of the elders were apathetic sorts, living in isolation. From time immemorial, the Rin Kingdom had decided that there would be no value in invading the nation, which was surrounded by mountains. With nowhere to go, its people often looked at the sky, leading to the development of astrology. Furthermore, because the lands, blocked by the mountains as they were, received so little sunshine, the entire kingdom was covered in mirrors in order to spread the illumination. The kingdom also exported game boards simulating the great war, though those who knew of the place thought of it no differently from any other country.

So, anyway, why were this kingdom’s elderly people so apathetic?

“Your Majesty, I have come to report on tax yields.”

“Mm-hmm.”

It was not because King Nephen—a middle-aged man with gray eyes and hair—was oppressing the people. The whole kingdom was involved in its own oppression, including the ancestors of this listless king.

“There’s no doubt about it. The world will be destroyed!”

“We’re done for, this is the end!”

“No matter how many times I try, I can only see a doomed future!”

Since the Arzyna Kingdom was a small nation, all of its people were involved in some kind of stargazing. It also boasted many people who could be called master astrologers, and every citizen could read the stars to a certain extent.

And those astrologers had seen a terrifying scene: the world sinking in eternal darkness; the already-weakening gods completely eliminated, their temples vanishing without a trace; the sleeping dragons slow to awaken and submerged in darkness; every country, race, and sacred site trampled down. In this vision, the Boiling Mountain fell in a vortex of flames, the Rin Kingdom was overwhelmed by the deluge of enemies and defeated, and Greer, the Academic City-State, was reduced to a pile of rubble. The enemy army finally crossed the sea and even attacked and destroyed the neighboring continent. And the Great Demon reigned in the stillness of eternal darkness.

The astrologers’ inference had been concise...and conclusive. The world was going to fall at the hands of the Great Demon King, certainly, no matter what, absolutely, unmistakably, and without a doubt. The Arzyna Kingdom had been no exception. No matter what tribute they could offer him or how much they submitted, the Great Demon King would mercilessly dispatch his troops, and not even the name Arzyna would remain.

Having arrived at that conclusion, the people of Arzyna moved from despair to apathy. Unfortunately, in a world with extraordinary powers at play, where the gods were often directly involved, there were many highly accurate prophecies and predictions, and it was not unreasonable that many would believe them.

“Let’s take it easy until doomsday arrives.”

“A request for reinforcements? What’s the point in doing something so meaningless?”

Not many had committed suicide, and since the people had kept living out of sheer force of habit, they hadn’t faced any hardships. But no matter how many times other countries asked for its cooperation, Arzyna had continued to refuse, looking at their pointless efforts with cold eyes. Its people had seen no point in fighting on the battlefields to only experience pain and suffering, and they’d considered those who kept struggling to be fools.

Of course, the king and some others hadn’t remained idle spectators and had tried to do something about the situation, but practically the entire kingdom besides them had given up. The people had been annoyed by the king’s constant attempts to rouse them into fighting for their lives, so they’d banished everyone who began shouting about them joining the war, including the king and his immediate family. It was laughable that despite feeling despair about the state of the world, they’d still had the energy to exile “annoying” people, but the king’s younger brother then succeeded the throne. Soon, everything would end with the upcoming annihilation of the world—or at least it should have.

The dragons had taken to the skies much earlier than predicted. The Boiling Mountain had repelled the vortex of flames. The Rin Kingdom had slain the countless invaders. Greer had been rebuilt. The world had continued to exist, while darkness itself had been defeated. The future, prophecies, and readings the Arzyna Kingdom had believed in...no, the entire kingdom itself had been mistaken. The kingdom had survived because its people had maintained the essentials of their everyday lives through their grit, but after the war, Arzyna came to be known as a kingdom of complete and utter buffoons. The results they’d been so sure of hadn’t come to pass, and the other countries they’d ridiculed for pointlessly struggling now called them fools, leading to the Arzyna Kingdom becoming even more insular than before.

The entire Arzyna Kingdom was yet unable to admit to its mistakes of seventy years past, and they still insisted that they hadn’t been wrong. They had continued telling their children that the world would eventually end, inducing apathy, so what would you call them if not fools? But after so many years, differences in attitude between generations inevitably emerged. The younger generation believed the elderly to be morons, creating a huge rift between them and the generation who had grown up constantly being told that the world was going to end. In other words, anyone middle-aged and above in the Arzyna Kingdom believed everyone else to simply be jealous enemies, who ridiculed them.

It was into this stagnant kingdom that Emmeline’s mentor, Udo, had fled.

“Your Majesty, Master Udo has arrived.”

“Mm-hmm. Bring him here right away.”

Udo had come before King Nephen. He was a man of terribly advanced age, with the rich, golden hair he’d had in his youth long gone and his back bent. He was on the verge of death no matter how you looked at it, but his blue eyes still shone brightly with the light of blind faith.

“I will begin my report. As expected, a direct descendant and a high-precision computing device are necessary to activate it. I have an idea for the device at least,” Udo said.

“A direct descendant after this long...” Nephen frowned from the bottom of his heart.

“If Your Majesty would share some of your blood, my creations can find their scent and bring them to us.”

“Won’t it cause a commotion?”

“There shouldn’t be any unless it’s an exceptionally special location.”

It was true that the plan had progressed greatly thanks to this old mage, but the king realized that he was a little, no, very obsessed with magic and his own creations in particular. Therefore, even though Nephen gave his stamp of approval, he couldn’t quite trust Udo.

“Very well.” But Nephen couldn’t begin to imagine how long it would take to find what they were looking for at this stage either, so he gave permission in the end. “What about the computing device?”

“To put it another way, it’s the core component. Someone with the ability to perform magic of the Deep layer is required. It would also work well enough with someone simply possessing the potential for it,” Udo explained. However, most mages of the Deep layer were important figures and not people they could easily exploit.

“Do you have any ideas on that front?”

“Well...” Udo was being evasive. After all, he’d once tried to create a mage with power beyond the Hadal layer—to put it bluntly, someone comparable to Lara—yet his creation’s potential had only been of the Deep layer at best, so he’d given up on it. Therefore, he was being vague in his response, as he was unable to admit that he’d failed.

“That will be all.” Udo disliked being questioned too deeply, so he ended the conversation and went to take action.

These extreme fools were trapped in the delusions of an era steeped in mystery, staying stagnant in an enclosed space with their victim mentality and persecution complexes, and were now on the verge of exploding.

Immediately after this, Udo ran away with the treasured article.

◆◆◆

The ultimate light that will never, ever, no matter what, break, bend, or give up. The ancient monsters of darkness, the Great Demon King’s forces, were the ones who’d ended up facing a truly freakish situation in the face of this.

“If you had a buddy of your own, you wouldn’t even need to ask that.”

When the Great Demon King asked the Blademaster why he was there without any great sense of justice on his own, he was left shocked by the answer, wondering if that was truly all there was to it.

Chapter 5: Old and Young

“My shoulders are getting kinda stiff,” Franz said after they’d spent a long time on the board game.

“Why don’t we go stretch our legs in the garden?” Connie suggested.

“Sounds good. I’d like to take in some fresh air too.”

“All right.”

Hagen and Emmeline also agreed, so the group left the room.

“Ah, great-great-grandpa.” Connie saw Sazaki sitting on a bench in the garden.

“Oh, if it isn’t Connie and company. It’s nice to meet you. You can call me Korou.” Sazaki just happened to be in the garden. He assumed that with a “Ferd,” “Elrica,” and even “Sazaki” in the same place, Connie’s friends would figure out they were the Hero’s party, which would lead to trouble. So, he instead introduced himself by an alias he often used. “I heard you were playing that board game. I tried it as well, but the difficulty level’s all wrong. There should be more friendly dragons. At the very least, they should have been present on the large battlefields,” Sazaki complained.

“Oh, so it really was like that.” Connie nodded.

Judging from his appearance...he must have participated in the great war. As Emmeline observed their conversation, she was convinced that Sazaki was from the generation that had experienced the war.

“Were there any conditions for allied dragons to appear?” Franz asked Sazaki without any hesitation.

“Hmm... Ah, I see. Conditions, huh? Now I get it. How about searching for a place that looks like a dragon valley and breaking stuff here and there?”

“Huh?” From a young person’s perspective, Sazaki’s reply was really strange.

“Hmm? What, you don’t know the details about how our allied dragons joined the battle?” Sazaki was also a little puzzled, noticing that Franz and the rest seemed confused. “The Hero—though this story took place before he was called that—stormed into the valley where it was rumored that the dragons who’d given way to mankind slept, and he woke them all up. He became pretty famous back then for entering their sanctuary uninvited and wrecking it. Everyone my age knew the story, at least. There should be plenty of documents about it too.”

“Th-Those documents do exist, but you’re saying that actually happened?” Emmeline asked.

“Yeah. You should forget anything you’ve heard about the Hero being a man of irreproachable conduct. Everyone who knew him back then described him as a weirdo.”

“What...?” Emmeline’s impression of the Hero changed slightly after hearing a testimony from someone who’d lived back then, but just as Sazaki said, that incident had been quite famous during the great war.

“It would have been a major incident in times of peace. The Hero was actually disliked by some because he ignored appearances, honor, and protocol, and instead just plunged straight ahead using the shortest, most efficient route. Even a brat like me could hear people arguing whether they should enter the dragons’ territory or not, yet some random boy from who knows where went and destroyed the place. The church powers at the time thought he was truly shameless.”

Back when Ferd had still been a duo with Sazaki, he’d trespassed on—practically attacked—a land that the church—and the gods themselves—had designated as a sanctuary for the dragons who’d passed the world on to mankind and fallen into near-death sleep. Therefore, the mortal races had been arguing over whether or not it was acceptable to trespass on these sacred lands to awaken them, as the dragons would undoubtedly side with them.

But even though Ferd hadn’t reached the peak of his strength yet, he’d grown strong enough to destroy the sanctuary’s barrier, after which he and Sazaki broke in and woke up all the sleeping dragons. And Ferd’s plan had been successful. In the period between the first massive threat to mortals’ survival and the full formation of the Hero’s party, the dragons had successfully held the demon army back, albeit just barely, and derailed the Great Demon King’s plans.

From the Great Demon King’s perspective, since even the clergy had been told not to enter the sanctuary, he’d assumed that even if the dragons were awakened, it would have happened much later. In fact, his assumptions hadn’t been wrong, as the church forces had been in major conflict, with one faction creating Elrica and trying to oppose the Great Demon King no matter what, and the other prioritizing the gods’ will above all. It was just no one expected the anomaly that was Ferd.

However, the church hadn’t been the only power facing internal conflict during the war.

“Ah, it seems that during the first stages of the war, national governments were also arguing with each other. Apparently, each country and each race was trying to make sure they would suffer the least damage. But that’s only natural. To put it bluntly, a king has to prioritize his own country’s interests. But in the end, many of them were nearly or fully destroyed.”

Just like Sazaki said, during the opening stages of the great war, when the notion of it being a battle for the survival of all mortal races hadn’t yet emerged, different countries’ interests hadn’t been unified, and the situation had been a far cry from the coordination Franz and the rest had shown on the game board.

“It’s impressive we won at all.” Sazaki shrugged as he recalled those early days.

“Achoo!”

As an aside, Sazaki and Ferd—who’d just sneezed because people were talking about him—had been decried as felons for what they had done to the sanctuary, but everything had been forgiven thanks to the dragons’ intercession and the results that followed.

After Franz and the others listened to Sazaki’s old stories, they greeted Lara, who had just arrived, and took a closer look at the garden, or more specifically, the training grounds.

“I see signs of some impressive training. Are you training too, Connie?” Franz’s attention was drawn to well-worn wooden swords or spears.

“Yeah. Both swords and magic are means to an end, so you have more options if you can use them both.” Connie was familiar with that equipment.

“I’ve seen a demonstration that swords can beat magic, but trying to master both at the same time is really hard, you know.” A short time ago, Emmeline would have said that it was better to master magic over the sword, but her values had been shaken after Falke broke through her barrier. Even so, she still believed that trying to master both magic and swordsmanship was unrealistic.

“I thought I’d just give it a go,” Connie replied.

“Well, it’s not a bad skill to have. It’s dangerous to use magic in crowded places, after all,” Hagen said.

“That’s true. Hey, Connie, can I take a swing?” Franz nodded at Hagen.

“Sure. You can try, but they’re pretty heavy, so be careful.”

“What, heavy?” After getting Connie’s permission, Franz picked up a wooden sword. “Whoa, you’re right. This weighs a ton.”

Just like Connie had warned, the wooden sword in Franz’s hands was incredibly heavy, and despite its lack of cutting edge, one could still easily beat someone to death with it.

“Magic is nice, but swords are also cool. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a swordsman,” Franz said.

“I can understand the sentiment,” Hagen agreed. Despite being students at the Magic Academy, the two of them seemed to appreciate the blades.

“Really?” On the other hand, Emmeline didn’t understand the men’s sense of adventure, so she was just puzzled.

“Oh, that’s right. Connie, are your great-great-grandparents here from Mr. Falke’s side or Lady Agnes’s side?” Franz said.

“They’re from Great-Grandpa Falke’s side.”

“Then since they’re Mr. Falke’s parents, perhaps they can teach me the secrets of swords and magic? Can I go ask them?”

“I-I think that should be fine...” Connie muttered. Franz must have some kind of special power! Connie swallowed his shock for the umpteenth time at Franz’s unexpected proposal.

Since Falke was highly skilled in both swords and magic, one could assume that his parents would also be well-informed on those two subjects. However, Franz had no idea that he was asking advice from the best of the best.

“You sometimes get people like him,” Sazaki said.

“It’s hard to judge based only on this,” Lara replied.

The two of them had been listening to the kids with their superhuman hearing, and they had a hunch when it came to Franz. Occasionally, a person was born who could unconsciously continue choosing the optimal solution and achieve maximum efficiency, or who was so loved by fate that they could even defy the more cruel hands that fate would have dealt them. The shining example of this was the tottering old man relaxing in his room.

“Excuse me. Do you mind if I ask you something?” the young man, taking control of his own destiny, said to the Lightspeed Blademaster and the Witch of Annihilation. If any of Sazaki’s or Lara’s apprentices had been here, they would have been stunned by how well he had chosen.

“Go ahead.”

“Do you know the innermost secrets of swords and magic?”

“If you draw your sword, you only need to think about killing. Something like that.”

“Don’t forget that the foundations of magic are death and destruction.”

Sazaki and Lara gave incredibly simple answers. In other words, both of these were destructive powers, immutably.

“Umm...”

Franz, as well as Hagen and Emmeline, who had been listening, were confused by the all too simple answers.

“At the end of the day, a sword is a tool for killing. Not just monsters, but people too. The term ‘lifesaving sword’ does exist, but I think swords only take lives.”

“Magic is the same. It’s a skill meant for destruction, and any applications that enrich people’s lives are merely by-products. If you don’t understand that, you’ll be swallowed by the abyss of magic.”

To put it bluntly, if you used them, you would either kill or be killed; this was a fairly well-supported opinion in this world. Even after the war, wild monsters still existed, so death always lurked around the corner and would swiftly come for anyone of naive convictions.

“If your enemy is human, couldn’t you capture them alive or something?” Franz asked.

“In my personal opinion, that’s never something worth considering. There are too many people with incomprehensible abilities, so if you waste your time trying to avoid landing a fatal blow, you’ll probably be the one to die,” Sazaki said.

“Even if you capture someone because you want information, that’s not the end of it. There have been cases where someone was caught and interrogated, but it turned out they had the ability to contaminate the mind of anyone listening to them speak for a long time. Or other times where they managed to curse their captor to death even from their jail cell. Or even times where someone activated their powers while imprisoned and caused a massive explosion. Of course, sometimes they just bribe someone and get out the normal way,” Lara added.

“Throwing someone behind bars isn’t the end, anyway. In fact, it’s the same as giving your enemy another chance to kill you. Therefore, if you wield a tool for killing, make sure to kill your opponent. That’s what I would teach to any apprentice I take.”

Franz and the rest were impressed by the elderly couple’s words, not even aware of how deadly a force the pair remained toward their enemies. To put it in extreme terms, the Hero’s party was the ultimate group of murderers, who had taken even the Great Demon King’s life. And they’d continued spelling death for their enemies even after the end of the war.

“This is just the opinion of some old folk who lived during the war, though. I’m sure people have formed other opinions by now. Right, dear?” Sazaki said.

“Indeed, darling,” Lara replied.

The path which must never be taught, as it came too close to death and could lead to destruction. The very existence of the power of the dragon could never see the light of day. The light of annihilation that shouldn’t exist, and a power of light so intense it would be impossible to reproduce. Sazaki and Lara were part of a group with such incredible people. Yet despite that, they’d trained many apprentices, and they concluded their advice to Franz with simple words.

“Those two really are caring,” said Max, who was inside the mansion watching his two comrades talk to the kids.

“Yeah.” Stein nodded.

“What are you doing in the hallway?” Falke had just come home from a simple job he’d needed to do despite it being a holiday, and he bumped into Max and Stein.

“Welcome back. I was just watching your parents and thinking how helpful they are.” Max casually waved his hand, signaling that he didn’t have any serious business there. “I don’t know that much about them since I cut ties with my companions a while ago, but I hear they raised many disciples.”

“Yeah. It was always lively,” Falke replied, remembering the past.

Since Sazaki and Lara had primarily taken in live-in apprentices, Falke had lived together with many of them. As a result, Falke had a sibling-like relationship with many of them, including Lara’s apprentice Aldrick and Sazaki’s apprentice Clovis, and they’d had all kinds of fun together.

“If we compared postwar contributions among our group, those two would surely take the cake,” said Stein, who’d kept some contact with Sazaki and the others after the war.

“Yes...I suppose so.” Falke had an indescribable expression, but this was the truth.

In the modern era, where the great war was a thing of the distant past, mankind had maintained a certain level of strength largely thanks to the growth of Sazaki’s and Lara’s apprentices, who’d then further spread those teachings. These apprentices were so skilled that they would have excelled during the great war themselves, and they were some of the strongest fighters in the current day, save for the Hero’s party.

“You’re also one of the people contributing, though,” Max said with a grin.

“Give me a break.” Falke waved his hands, flustered. But as a teacher, he was in charge of combat readiness and training, so Max wasn’t wrong.

I can’t be in the spotlight, after all. Max looked at the bashful Falke, thinking that he couldn’t contribute in the same way.

As a secret member of royalty, Max couldn’t be in a public-facing position, and since the dragon’s power was hereditary to the Rin royal family, he couldn’t teach it to other people. But before he died, he wanted to at least say his goodbyes to all the people who’d helped him. He was also planning to at least visit his father’s grave; he wasn’t a hermit or anything.

“If we’re simply talking about teaching skills, Lara would be at the top, right?” Max moved on, ignoring the embarrassed Falke.

“I agree. It’s an impressive feat that despite being at the incomprehensible Abyssal layer, she can teach people with theory rather than intuition.” Stein nodded deeply in affirmation.

Stein, who was one with nature, couldn’t explain the layer of magic that Lara had reached. Since the world she lived in was such an unusual one, it was impossible for her to come to a mutual understanding with others. Despite that, she’d trained many mages of the Deep layer, which was something worthy of praise.

“Besides the fact that Ferd’s power can’t be reproduced, though, he’s hopeless at teaching,” Max muttered softly.

“He certainly is,” Stein interjected, though he wasn’t exactly fit to criticize others himself.

“No, I don’t want to hear that from you, Stein. You always tell people to have a conversation with their muscles.”

“That’s because there are solid theories behind that.”

“Say that when your theory is at Lara’s level.”

“My father said something similar. ‘Even from my perspective, Ferd is an unconventional, instinctive guy, so it’s pointless to think about what he’s trying to do,’” Falke said.

“That’s right. He just does everything by force, without any logic, so he’s the natural enemy of scholars and historians. There’s no way a Ferd School of swordsmanship could be established with a guy like him heading it,” Max agreed.

“So there really isn’t one?” Falke asked.

“Nope. In terms of pure swordsmanship, your father is far superior—in fact, he’s the best. I’d never want to be in front of him when he’s ready to strike. Someone of my level would simply get beheaded. Perhaps Stein could bring it to a tie.” Max shuddered theatrically.

“Who knows? I’ll pray to my muscles that that never happens.”

As a matter of fact, even the members of the Hero’s party would have trouble dealing with Sazaki’s Lightspeed blade, and no one would want to stand against him in a battle to the death. On the other hand, there was no particular method to Ferd’s swordsmanship; he just swung.

“To be frank, I don’t think Ferd is particularly talented physically,” Max said.

“I agree. In terms of talent alone, the youngsters at the Boiling Mountain probably surpass him,” Stein added.

“That’s true. But even so, I think Ferd is the one I’d have the least chance of beating.”

“Indeed. To this day, I’ve never seen such mental muscles. Actually, Erhard was similar, but his murderous intent was a bit too strong.”

“Yeah... I was in it for pretty selfish reasons. Your goal was the survival of the Boiling Mountain. Who knows when it comes to Elrica? Erhard believed that the Great Demon King definitely, absolutely had to be killed for the sake of the world of man. Lara was kind of just giving it a shot for the sake of it. Sazaki’s only reason for joining the fight was that his buddy was also going... Hey, are these people actually okay?” Even though he’d always put his country first, when Max remembered the reasons for his comrades’ participation in the war, he began to seriously wonder what was wrong with their group.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Stein nodded solemnly.

In other words, even within the Hero’s party, Ferd was a minority who’d fought of his own volition, not for the sake of his country or family, but to preserve the larger notion of life itself and reclaim the blue sky. That was why, in a world full of despair, he’d shone a light brighter than the gods themselves.

“I don’t know anyone more incredible than Ferd when it comes to ambitions,” Stein said with his eyes closed.

“Right?” Max agreed. That image was still burned into his mind: the back of the man who’d possessed neither technique nor skill, pushing through the dark, gloomy, red sky with nothing but the light emanating from his own spirit, eventually becoming the light of all people combined and defeating the Great Demon King.

“In any case, these students are quite unique.” Stein suddenly changed the subject, looking at the young people who would lead the next generation.

A short time later, Franz left the garden and followed the path to the bathroom that Connie had shown him earlier. This mansion really is huge, he thought, feeling impressed. The bathroom was also far away, so it was quite possible that he’d bump into someone along the way. For example, the former Hero, returning from his walk.

Oh. Franz noticed the silhouette and saw Ferd toddling closer. His face was that of an ordinary, good-natured old man, and it would be impossible to recognize him as the leader of the group who’d fought a deadly battle to save the world seventy years ago. Franz himself hadn’t actually realized it, but there were exceptions.

“Hello, Mr. Ferd.” Franz was able to easily remember his name because he shared a name with Ferd the Hero.

“Oh, if it isn’t Franz.”

It seemed that Franz and the old man with the same name as the Hero had the same destination, so the two of them headed to the bathroom together.

“May I ask you something?” asked Franz.

“What is it?”

“Have you ever felt that it was a burden to have the same name as the Hero from your generation?”

It was quite rude to ask someone whether their name, which they had no control over, weighed so heavily on them, but Franz felt like he needed to know the answer, for a reason he didn’t even understand himself. Little did he know that this action would lead to something great.

“Hmm. I can’t say it has ever bothered me.”

“Is that so?”

“Do you have any classmates named Ferd?”

“Yes. They’re proud to have the same name as the Hero, but I wondered what it was like for someone from the same generation...”

“I see. Let me think... The Hero was pretty reckless, so I suppose the other Ferds didn’t really want to be lumped together with him. I even happened to hear a joke that since they had the same name, they should also be able to do the same things. Thinking about that...back then, perhaps the name wasn’t just a burden, but in fact completely unwelcome.”

“The name was unwelcome?”

“Mm-hmm. That guy did some really crazy things, after all. I honestly have no idea what the other Ferds are thinking right now.”

This old man’s conjecture had hit the nail on the head. When the name Ferd had first become famous, it had practically been synonymous with recklessness and stupidity, and it had definitely not been welcome back then. And since there had been very few people alive with the name Ferd at the time, there was very little way to know how those people felt about the name now.

“Did you know that the title of Hero isn’t even something he gave himself?” Ferd asked in reply.

“Yes. I’ve been taught that people just naturally started calling him that.”

“Mm-hmm. I know this firsthand since I was alive back then, but as the war approached its conclusion, I noticed that he was being called the Hero.” The old man seemed to think that it would be boring to leave the conversation off after the discussion of the name, so he started telling the young man a story. “I think the Hero didn’t care much about his name or title. He wasn’t after anyone’s praise, nor was he thinking about having his name go down in history. To put it bluntly, he might have even thought it would be fine if he was forgotten entirely.”

“He defeated the Great Demon King, yet he was fine with being forgotten?” Franz repeated the old man’s words, taken aback by his opinion.

“Yes. For the Hero, the fact that his name became famous and that he came to be called the Hero was just a recognition of the fact that he had defeated the Great Demon King, one which simply stuck with him afterward, I would assume.”

Just like any young person, Franz believed that wanting to become famous was just natural, but people had an infinite variety of opinions.

“At first, he was only treated as a kid who was spouting nonsense about bringing the blue back to the sky. People just called him whatever back then. In fact, perhaps they weren’t even interested in him at all.”

Yes, he’d never dreamed of saving the world simply because he was the Hero. He’d never thought of it as some mission. He’d had no need for the condescending praise of the gods. He’d possessed no desire to be eternally praised by all living beings to satisfy some need for approval. He’d just charged ahead, doing as he pleased. The Hero had only sought the return of the blue sky and the survival of the world. Purely hypothetically, even if he had been considered dangerous and was betrayed by the gods and mortal races, to be wiped from existence, as long as the blue sky and world continued to exist, that counted as a victory in his mind. He’d have felt no pain or anguish if his achievements and name were erased from history after that.

“You and your friends are studying. Children are playing. Young people are falling in love. Couples are raising their children. Old people are smiling at their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Hero might think that this is enough.”

“I see...” Franz nodded, acknowledging that this was also a way of thinking. He had unintentionally succeeded in renewing recognition of the old man’s accomplishments, something which, unknown to all, had been on the verge of disappearing.

“Well...I know I’ve just said a lot of things, but...it might be best if we pass on the story of the fight against the Great Demon King too, to ensure that something similar to the great war doesn’t happen again in the future.” It was a voice, a cry, from the memories of the old man who was looking off into the distance and would become part of history. Unlike the words of the Hero, these chronicles were recorded properly and passed down to future generations.

“It looks so cool when you jump up and swing your sword!” After returning from the bathroom, Franz was trying all kinds of things with his wooden sword in the garden.

“Why are we talking about it being cool or not?” The exasperated Hagen shut him down at once.

“There are swordsmanship schools that involve fighting while dancing, so what’s wrong with a style that’s about looking cool?” Franz noted a famously eccentric school of swordsmanship as an example.

“What kinds of swordsmanship would that even be? Swordsmanship is just the accumulation of basic training.”

“Exactly. Besides, how are you supposed to fight while dancing?”

Hagen and Emmeline rejected Franz’s idea.

“No, it does exist! Right, Connie?!”

“Are you talking about the Madley School?” Connie immediately recalled the school’s name.

“Yes, that one!” Franz was relieved at Connie’s confirmation.

“Wh-What? It’s actually real?”

“I can’t believe it...”

Hagen and Emmeline were expecting Connie to deny it as well, but they now stood perplexed.

“The school utilizes leaps and dancing-like moves in its maneuvers. I’ve heard that the practitioners use special moves to dazzle their opponents, then bring them down once there’s an opening,” Connie explained.

“I-Is it strong?” Hagen asked, his disbelief evident on his face.

“In the nationwide martial arts tournament held in the Rin Kingdom, they came in...what place was it? I feel like some of the school’s members advanced quite high. Oh, but the highest-level fighters weren’t participating.”

“Huh...” Upon learning that the school had actually been successful in a proper tournament, Emmeline looked truly confused.

“Exhibition matches, huh? Come to think of it, I’ve never had any interest in those.” Sazaki, who had been listening to the kids, cocked his head slightly in confusion.

“As far as I know, your apprentices don’t participate in them either,” Lara added.

“You can’t really fight seriously in them, and those guys aren’t interested in money and fame.” He shrugged.

As these were martial arts tournaments held by the powerful Rin Kingdom, the rewards for victory were certainly outstanding. Therefore, many aspirants dreamed of victory, but some had a different opinion. Those at the very top often said they weren’t particularly interested in money or fame, with that position being rather prevalent among Sazaki’s apprentices.

“Besides that, some swordsmen find showing their techniques to others absurd.” Among the martial artists Sazaki knew, some didn’t take apprentices and just honed their skills in solitude. People like them would probably shudder just at the thought of their techniques being seen and studied by a large crowd. They’d also gotten into disagreements during the great war.

“Some people even brought this up during the war.”

“Certainly.”

The like-minded couple shrugged their shoulders in the same manner.

Even during the great war, there had been extremely obstinate swordsmen and mages, but some of them would never show their skills in public, even if it had meant the extinction of all mortal races. Some had even said that they’d rather die than reveal their techniques.

“Despite all their claims, most of them weren’t that big a deal.” Not all of those obstinate people had refused, of course; some had cooperated, albeit reluctantly. However, from what Sazaki could remember, their skills had been nothing to write home about, despite all their boasting.

“Cutting off contact with the world means that you can’t keep up with the changes and growth around you—with some exceptions,” Lara suggested.

“For sure.”

It was beneficial for swordsmen to hone their skills and for mages to immerse themselves in research. However, the technology of the world progressed thanks to the efforts of a huge number of people. Those obstinate individuals who had fought in the great war had been confronted with the fact that their skills and research had already become outdated and obsolete in this modern age, and in most cases, they were no longer of any use at all.

There were two exceptions among exceptions, though: the killing machine that the church declared was the pinnacle of perfection, who had indeed maintained those killing techniques, and the man possessing the power of light beyond what anyone else had yet achieved; despite the fact that they’d secluded themselves in the mountains for nearly seventy years, those facts still held true. Although there might be others qualified to attain the peak of the power of light, as that power had been honed under the extreme conditions of the great war, it would be difficult to gain the necessary experience to attain such a level in a peaceful world.

Speaking of obstinate hermits, there was one present who had been unfortunately influenced by such individuals: Emmeline, at whom Lara was currently looking.

“Maybe I should brush up on some common sense...” Emmeline told herself, perplexed by this dancing sword style.

In fact, Emmeline had been the first person in a long time to get caught by the safety measures at the academy’s entrance examination. She’d been under the impression that magic reigned supreme and could never lose to swordsmanship. Her belief that a sword could never break through a magic barrier no matter what had been strongly influenced by her mentor. However, there were quite a few swordsmen in the world who could break through magic barriers, with the members of the Clovis School being a prime example, so Emmeline’s mentor’s teachings were more evidence of his prejudice than anything else. He was ignorant of the world, or at least he perhaps wished that his teachings were fact.

As a result, Emmeline’s knowledge had been imbalanced, leading to her hoping to use rather powerful magic during her entrance exam. Fortunately, since she’d asked in advance, rather than just using the spell, it was judged that she did have common sense, and she’d been allowed to enroll after all the necessary red tape. In other words, Emmeline was as odd an individual as the rest of her friend group. Then again, the strangest group in history was right next to theirs, so by comparison, the youths ran far closer to average.

“Perhaps I should look at some more common books as well,” Emmeline muttered to no one.

Thinking that she wanted to relax for a moment, she moved away from the noisy boys and sat on the bench that Sazaki and Lara had been on earlier, a sigh of relief escaping her lips.

The world is vast, and so very different from what I believed. I never realized that when I was at Master Udo’s place.

Emmeline had been mentored by Udo, an old mage who was well-known in his field for his expertise in alchemy and astrology, but completely lacked the ability to teach others. Within Udo’s atelier, which was filled with stacks of history books and papers etched with geometric patterns, she’d been taught that magic was truly magnificent, and that they were equally magnificent for being able to use it. He’d also skipped teaching her the basics, jumping straight to more powerful spells. For better or worse, Emmeline had the aptitude, so she’d taken well to this style of teaching. However, her odd mentor and teaching environment had made her believe that highly destructive magic was a basic skill, and she’d been on the verge of using such spells during her entrance examination.

I’m so glad I asked before the exam...

Emmeline still remembered that day, and how the awfully strict examiner had given her warning after warning: “Don’t use powerful magic, or even a spell that might harm a defenseless baby or an insect. Do you understand that using magic under the assumption that the examiner will block it since they can create a stronger magic barrier than you goes against the very premise of the exam?” and so on and so forth. Emmeline had found that very strange. She’d only been taught offensive magic, and she’d figured it was impossible to use it without even harming a defenseless insect, so she’d told the examiner everything about the magic she’d learned and the education she’d received from her mentor.

Fortunately, Emmeline had managed to enroll after undertaking a certain amount of reeducation, but the Academic City-State had subsequently concluded that Udo was a dangerous individual—too dangerous to be left alone, in fact. They’d then started negotiations with the country he resided in and considered arresting him. In a way, what Udo had done in sending Emmeline out into the world like this was the same as lighting the fuse on a bomb with no idea how it would explode, and in some countries, it was a criminal act punishable by law.

“May I sit next to you?” Elrica asked with a gentle smile.

“Huh? O-Of course. Go ahead,” Emmeline replied, coming back from thinking about the recent past.

“I was unable to tour it in its entirety, but the academy is an amazing place.” Elrica started making some small talk.

“I was also surprised when I first arrived.” Emmeline nodded deeply.

The two of them had been born and raised in isolation and had started out similarly ignorant of the world.

“Are you having fun at the academy?”

“I am. I get to learn heaps of things I never did before, and I’ve also made friends.”

“That’s nice to hear.” Elrica was happy for Emmeline from the bottom of her heart. Elrica, the killing machine, had once flown out of her birdcage into the unknown sky, and she had been blessed with friends. Though it had been right in the midst of an era of darkness, it had been an important time for her.

“But there’s so much I don’t know, it’s almost embarrassing,” Emmeline confessed.

“I used to be the same. I couldn’t even tell salt apart from sugar, so I just tried throwing everything in together when I cooked, but now that I think back on it...” Elrica knew the feeling all too well, so she couldn’t help but look up at the sky.

“You’re talking about seasoning? I believe a meal is appropriate as long as you get the necessary nutrition from it,” Emmeline said, looking a bit puzzled.

“Oho ho ho ho. I had the same opinion when I was young.” Elrica smiled with nostalgia and laughed elegantly. “But don’t you think it’s nice when your friends get to enjoy delicious food?”

“I...do.” Emmeline hesitated slightly but agreed. Although she wasn’t picky about her food, she found it wrong for her friends to have to eat something with barely any taste.

“Oho ho ho ho,” Elrica laughed again at that answer. Time flowed peacefully around them.

“How about we head for a little walk too?” Sazaki meanwhile suggested to his wife.

“Sure,” Lara agreed without asking why.

Even though it was just a walk, there would have been no end to the spectators coming to see the Blademaster and Witch who’d saved the world, but here, they were just an old couple visiting their family. They went outside with no issues and started walking leisurely.

“Being back here in this city really takes me back.”

“It really does. It was just as chaotic when we had our apprentices.”

The bustling of the students visiting the city from all over made them feel nostalgic. When Sazaki and Lara had taken on many apprentices sixty years ago, it always felt this way around.

“I’d decided to take on apprentices, but then I was troubled wondering what to feed them.”

“That’s right. You were fine as long as you had booze and snacks to go with it, and I wasn’t very picky about my food either.”

Sazaki and Lara both smiled a bit awkwardly. When they’d prepared to take on apprentices, the first obstacle they’d run into hadn’t been teaching methods, but nutrition. During the great war, all members of the Hero’s party had tended to make and eat all their meals in a hurry. Among them, Sazaki had thought that anything was fine as long as there was alcohol and his stomach was full, and Lara had been content with just getting the necessary nutrition, but they couldn’t have offered the same to their young wards, who had still been growing and had large appetites. As a result, Lara and Sazaki had been very busy preparing meals for Falke and their apprentices, who’d numbered about a dozen.

“Old Reynaud was a major help.”

“‘What? Lara had a child and even took apprentices of her own? This must be a dream. I need to wake up quickly.’ The old man couldn’t have been happier.”

Lara’s mentor, the old mage Reynaud, had been the biggest help to the couple when they’d taken on their apprentices. Reynaud had completely given up on his own apprentice ever getting married, so when Lara had told him about her marriage to Sazaki, he’d stopped in his tracks right in front of her to clean the wax from his ears, and had then gone immediately to sleep. When she’d later told him that she was also planning on taking on apprentices, he’d been moved to tears.

“I’m glad we managed to at least have him meet Falke,” Sazaki said.

“You say it as though we were short on time, but I never expected the man to live until he was 110. He didn’t just get to see Falke as a baby, but as a fully grown adult.” Lara shrugged her shoulders as much as she could.

Reynaud had lived quite a long life. He’d participated in the great war despite being in his seventies, and he’d died at the age of 110 as a lively old man. Then again, Reynaud himself hadn’t expected this, and while he’d been relieved to meet Falke, it was still a long time before he passed away, leaving even him wondering when his time would actually come.

It really was nice to have him meet Falke, though. Lara didn’t actually say it out loud, but she’d been glad to be able to show her son to her mentor. Reynaud had taken her in as a child after her parents’ death, so he’d been like a father to her; she’d even shed tears at his passing.

“How do you think you reach the Hadal layer?”

“Beats me. Maybe by making sure not to neglect the basics?”

“That’s such a cliché answer.”

While Sazaki and Lara were reminiscing, a group of students engaged in lively conversation passed next to them.

“The basics, huh? When Falke was only tall enough to reach my knees, he was already trying to move stones.” Sazaki thought back to when their son had been a toddler.

“Heh.” Lara grinned unconsciously.

Back then, Falke had made cute groaning sounds as he pretended to try—and fail—to move a rock with magic, before he had even formed any mana of his own.

“If I remember, at that time, didn’t you poke the rock with your finger?”

“Bwa ha ha! ‘Daddy, no!’ I remember him scolding me, then hitting me repeatedly.”

Moving objects with magic was the most basic of the basics for mages, and an exercise that all of them undertook. However, even though Falke was Lara’s son, he’d obviously been unable to use magic while still a toddler, so the rock hadn’t budged an inch. Sazaki had been unable to just watch and poked the rock with his finger, so like the little kid he was, Falke had gotten angry, wanting to move it himself, and had hit his father’s leg with his tiny fists.

“This sure takes me back. Now, the two of us are great-great-grandparents, while Falke and Agnes are great-grandparents,” Lara mused.

“So what? None of us have changed a bit,” Sazaki declared with a grin.

“I’m not so sure about that.” Her expression was difficult to describe.

You care about our family, after all.

You’ve never stopped caring about our family.

Although this couple was difficult to understand in various ways, in this case, they each held the same opinion of their spouse. To those who didn’t know them well, Sazaki seemed like he’d cast away everything besides alcohol, while Lara looked like just a moody old woman, but their love for their family was stronger than most. That was probably why they were still getting along so well even after the better part of a century.

“Oh, that’s right. I don’t have enough booze to drink with Falke. Do you mind tagging along?” Sazaki suddenly remembered the lack of drinks and invited Lara.

“Not at all.”

“All right, let’s go buy some, then.”

Their date continued for just a bit longer.

“It’s so quiet now,” Falke muttered in a wistful tone when Connie and his friends returned to their dorm.

“You see Connie often at the academy, don’t you?” Agnes shrugged, acting like her normal self now.

“Well, that’s true, but we’re purely student and teacher there.”

Unlike Falke, who was a teacher at the Magic Academy, Agnes was a member of the Magic Council and thus couldn’t visit often with their great-grandson, who was living in the academy dorms. On the other hand, Falke also had to conduct himself as a teacher at the academy, not a great-grandfather.

“Well, this is all for Connie to learn social skills, so I can put up with it,” Agnes said and shrugged again, picturing Connie’s face.

Since Connie had been partially taught by extraordinary associates of Sazaki and Lara, there was little for him to learn at the academy. Even so, his parents had made him enroll there and live in the dorms, just to have him live in a different environment from his usual one and learn about society.

“Still, one of his friends was caught by the entrance exam’s safety measures,” Agnes continued.

“I’ve never met Udo, but he’s as eccentric as the rumors say,” Falke added.

“Right? I never imagined that, in this day and age, someone would teach magic meant for war as basic magic, nor that their student would believe them. When you combine an eccentric teacher with a child prodigy, crazy things happen.”

“I don’t know the details because this happened before my mother’s generation, but it seems that there was a truly terrible event that was the reason those safeguards were established.”

“It took place in another country, but I happened to read the records about it. Apparently, at least thirty people disappeared without a trace, and part of the school building was cleanly gouged out, so I think it was probably annihilation magic or some magic that affected space. No matter how you look at it, it wasn’t the kind of magic anyone should use at an entrance examination.”

Even for Falke and Agnes, who were digging up their old memories, it was a little unexpected to hear that the academy’s safety measures would ever have to be activated in this era, which showed just how eccentric Udo was and how exceptional Emmeline’s talent was.

“Now then, my dad was calling for me, so I’m heading out for a bit.”

“All right. Don’t destroy the estate.”

“I’ll be sure to tell my dad.”

The couple had known each other for a long time—all the way back to their teens—but Falke decided it was about time and stood up, Agnes seeing him off.

That depends on what he wants, though, Falke thought. Agnes had only been joking when she told him not to destroy the estate, but Falke didn’t know why it was that his father had called him out to the garden on his way back from his walk, so he was beginning to worry about the safety of the estate after all.

“Hey, there you are. Come on, what are you looking so annoyed for? You’re gonna make your old man cry. Right, dear?” Sazaki said with a sniffle, putting on the act of a poor, old father to try and elicit sympathy from his wife.

“I’d have a normal expression if you weren’t going around lying down in alleys with bottles of booze in your arms. Right, mom?” Falke replied, referring to events unrelated to the current situation.

“I’d say you should stand up to your father more, Falke, but there’s no point really.” When both her son and husband sought her approval, Lara sided with her husband.

Sazaki picked up one of the wooden swords leaning against the garden walls and tapped Falke on the shoulder with it. It was no wonder that Falke looked so annoyed, having already played around with his father so much just a few days ago.

“Wasn’t that good of a father...” Sazaki suddenly started talking about something unrelated.

“What?”

“I wasn’t. I worked you and my apprentices really hard.”

Falke’s and Sazaki’s apprentices had been born not long after the end of the great war, in an era when nightmares still lurked right around the corner. Sazaki had barely been worried about the return of the Great Demon King, but he’d been concerned that a different, similar entity might be born. As a result, he’d worked Falke and his other apprentices hard. It had been fine for his apprentices because they’d wished for this, but Falke had been forced into his training. Lara’s magic lessons hadn’t been particularly taxing on the body, but Sazaki’s training had definitely been very intense.

“From my perspective, there was nothing wrong with it,” Falke said.

“Well, I also think it was necessary, but that was from an adult’s perspective.”

Looking at it objectively, it had been a necessary measure to ensure Falke’s survival in the chaotic postwar era, but that was much easier for Sazaki to say.

“Why are you suddenly bringing this up?” Falke asked.

“Because I only have about a decade left. I didn’t know when my next chance would be, so I wanted to apologize,” Sazaki replied bluntly.

Even for someone without any deep connections to magic like Sazaki, there were several methods to prolong his life. However, he was a member of the Hero’s party, who’d all decided that things wouldn’t turn out well if they got too old, and he didn’t have many chances left to apologize to Falke for the past. But this wasn’t actually the first time he’d apologized.

“You used to apologize all the time when I was a kid, remember?” Falke’s expression was beyond words as he thought back to his childhood.

“Oh, you remember that?” Sazaki looked surprised for a moment.

“I don’t resent you for it, and I never thought it was difficult. You worry too much.” Falke wasn’t lying or being tactful; to him, his training with Sazaki hadn’t brought him any pain. In fact, he possessed superhuman physical ability just like his father, so it was hardly a bother.

“I see...” Sazaki only said a few words in response. It would be difficult for anyone else to tell how he felt about his son’s response. “All right, come play with your dad, then,” he said, raising his sword with a grin.

“No,” Falke flatly declined. He’d been forced to completely go along with his father’s whims just recently, so he’d rather not repeat it.

“Dear, our son is being cold to me.”

“He’s at that age. Be understanding, darling,” Lara replied with a smirk.

The rest of the Hero’s party were watching the scene in the garden through a window. Calling it father-son bonding time would have had a nice ring to it, but the truth was that Sazaki was forcing his son into this sparring match.

“They’re messing around.” Max grinned, fully aware of the circumstances.

“Mm-hmm. It’s great that they get along.” Stein nodded.

“Ha ha ha ha.”

“Oho ho ho ho.”

Ferd and Elrica merely laughed cheerfully, leaving Falke isolated and helpless.

“Still, that game board was made in the Arzyna Kingdom, huh? That explains the difficulty.” Max changed the topic to the game he had been playing alone until just a moment ago, suddenly realizing its hidden agenda.

“What do you mean? No, it couldn’t be...” Stein was about to ask Max what he was implying, but he suddenly put a hand on his chin and went into deep thought, like he’d just realized something.

Stein also knew that during the great war, the Arzyna Kingdom had prophesied the end of the world at the hands of the Great Demon King, so its people had given up, thinking that anything they did would have been pointless. From that point on, only the kingdom’s exports of game boards had thrived, but the explanations were limited for the level of difficulty.

“Are you saying that this wasn’t somehow our fault?” Stein asked, looking somewhat worn out.

“Probably not,” Max confirmed.

“Hmm? What are you talking about?” Ferd was confused, unable to follow the conversation.

“Do you remember how Arzyna refused to join the allied forces because their astrologers’ predictions showed that resisting the Great Demon King was pointless?” Max asked.

“Yes, I remember that much, but I don’t know anything more than that,” Ferd replied.

“I guess you wouldn’t. Even I barely know anything about the Arzynans since they’re so isolated.” Putting Ferd aside, even Max, a member of the Rin Kingdom’s royalty, didn’t know much about the Arzyna Kingdom. However, Max tended to observe people closely. “Maybe this is what Arzyna is trying to say by exporting those game boards: ‘Look, can you defeat the Great Demon King’s forces and clear the game? You can’t, can you? Anything you do is pointless. That’s why we weren’t wrong back then.’ I don’t think their game board exports are such a priority because they’re after foreign currency, but because they’re a way of self-assertion and justification.”

“Huh...”

“Well...”

Ferd and Elrica wore strange expressions, unsure how to reply to Max’s conjecture.

However, Max was right on the money. The Arzyna Kingdom had continued exporting game boards to prove that their way of thinking during that great war had been correct. They viewed these not as a commercial commodity, but a means of propaganda, in service of affirming the kingdom’s past choices. Of course, the countries that purchased these games didn’t care about any of that; they simply used them as convenient tools to test whether they would be able to react accordingly if something similar to the great war happened again.

“The Hero’s party isn’t excluded from the game because it would be too easy to beat it that way. Actually, that might also be a reason, but moreover Arzyna just didn’t want to include the people who negated their prophecies. Or perhaps the Hero’s party didn’t do much by their readings at all, so this is just the reflection of the facts, as Arzyna sees them.”

“Is that also why the monks are strangely weak?”

“I checked, and it turns out you can adjust the monks’ strength to before and after the fall of the Boiling Mountain. You were dissatisfied with their strength after the fall, when all the main monks had been wiped out. For Arzyna, the fall of the Boiling Mountain was a certainty.”

Max continued expounding his theories to Stein, and together they continued probing into the heart of the issue. The game boards the Arzyna Kingdom continued making followed their astrologers’ predictions, so they’d been designed to be impossible to beat from the start. If people actually beat the game, it would once again prove that the Arzyna Kingdom had been foolish, after all. Fortunately for them, no one had been able to beat the game, which had been built following the astrologers’ readings to the letter.

“Well, even among the church forces, not many people thought it was possible to win. Neither did the gods.” Elrica’s recollection of the situation back then seemed like it was defending the Arzyna Kingdom a little, perhaps befitting of a Saint.

“Same on my side,” Max agreed.

“That’s what they thought at the Boiling Mountain too,” Stein added.

They had been up against a seemingly innumerable, hideous army, with dark dragons soaring the skies among other overwhelming foes. And even all that aside, how could one have been confident that defeating the Great Demon King would ensure the survival of all living beings? Even transcendent beings like the war god who was intending to fight for the sake of but a few surviving living beings and the blue dragon who’d awakened to protect the Rin Kingdom had judged that there was a high probability they’d be unable to endure the onslaught.

“Nobody really thought we were going to win...” That is, until the people running alongside Ferd the Hero, destroyer of fate and destiny, turned the entire situation on its head. However, there had also been those unhappy with the way things had turned around.

There was an uneasy air between Derry, the leader of Greer, the Academic City-State, and Aldrick, who happened to be visiting Derry’s office.

“Udo has gone missing? Where did he go? Don’t tell me it was to the Arzyna Kingdom.” Derry frowned as he read the report.

“Would they take him in?” Aldrick asked, feeling puzzled.

“Who knows? Perhaps two narrow-minded parties would get along.”

Udo, Emmeline’s teacher, was well-known in his field, so a report of his disappearance had reached Derry, but Derry was stumped as to where Udo might have gone. At this rate, there was the possibility that another dangerous student with improper education would appear, which was a serious problem for the Magic Council, who aimed to maintain order in all aspects of magic.

“You seem to really hate Arzyna.”

“During the great war, Arzyna declared that they would do nothing to help because everything would be destroyed anyway. How could I like a country like that? Even kids like myself were finding ways to do our part back then, but those fools called our efforts meaningless. For a national government to be saying something like that—it was unthinkable.”

“It’s been proven which side was correct.”

“Well, clearly. But perhaps because of that, Arzyna just became even more closed off than ever.”

Arzyna, which was not far from Greer, was isolated in the middle of steep mountains. Just like Greer, it was completely contained within the Rin Kingdom, but it was extremely insular and rarely interacted with other countries much, known for little else besides its flourishing board game exports.

And then...during the great war, Arzyna had made the official declaration that nothing they did against the Great Demon King would matter, which had caused quite the commotion. There was no question that many individuals had grown apathetic, but it was still unprecedented for an entire nation, however small, to simply accept its impending destruction and to go so far as to call other kingdoms’ resistance futile.

However, the living still walked the earth, and the Great Demon King had been defeated, contrary to Arzyna’s predictions. This had been extremely humiliating for the kingdom, and its already insular tendencies had since progressively worsened, the kingdom now no longer interacting with other countries except through commercial channels.

“We need to track down Udo. I hope nothing bad happens.” Derry’s nervous muttering drifted off into the blue sky outside.

◆◆◆

“Aren’t the socks you’re wearing mine, Aldrick?”

“What?! These are yours, Falke?!”

Seen above: a boisterous scene from the past, between a son and a fellow disciple.

Chapter 6: The Second Battle of Greer, the Academic City-State

It was a completely ordinary day for Connie.

“Good morning,” Connie greeted his friends, his voice dispirited and listless.

“Good morning, Connie.”

“Good morning.”

Emmeline and Hagen didn’t mind—as this was typical of Connie—and returned his greeting.

“Huh? G’mornin’, Connie...” If anyone was acting differently, it wasn’t Connie, but Franz, whose reply was more sluggish than usual.

“Is something wrong?” Connie asked, confused by Franz’s strangely inarticulate response.

“No, not really...I think,” Franz replied.

“Hmm?” Connie was even more puzzled by Franz’s strange reply.

“He’s been like this ever since we met at the academy today. Hey, Franz, did you hit your head or something?” Emmeline asked with concern.

“No...I’m okay. I’m just a bit restless, that’s all.” Franz gave another strange reply.

“Restless?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine! There’s no problem!” Franz seemed to have abruptly gotten over whatever the issue was and was back to his usual tone. “Oh, by the way. How about we all go shopping together after school?” he suddenly proposed.

“Sure, but are you really all right?” Hagen asked, still worried.

“I said I’m fine!”

“Hmm.” Hagen shrugged, figuring that Franz was apparently back to normal.

“Do you think there are any badass swords around for sale? Like those golden or jade swords made by ancient dwarves or something? What do you think, Connie?” In typical teenage fashion, Franz began rattling off some real-life examples of powerful blades.

“Something of that level might just barely be possible...I guess?” Connie replied. Since Greer was essentially the center of the world’s magic, the chances of powerful swords circulating there were considerably higher compared to other cities.

“Take your seats. Class is starting,” the teacher announced, cutting off their friendly chattering.

“I’ve been looking forward to this class,” Franz said with a contented smile, some time later.

“Really? I’m sorry to say this in front of Connie, but is there even a point in it for us, since we can use magic?” Emmeline meanwhile seemed skeptical.

Apparently, their interest in this current lesson couldn’t have been any more different.

“Even if we are mages, we need to properly understand swords. Swords are also connected to proper etiquette,” said Hagen, his expression composed.

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“I see.” Emmeline gave a slight nod, seemingly convinced.

“By the way, how good are you with a sword, Connie?” Franz asked, paying Emmeline and Hagen no mind.

“Hmm... I think I’m pretty good. My training routine is pretty involved.”

“Really, now?”

Mages who were interested in swords or who could at least handle them well were in the minority. Magic swordsmen were a thing in fiction; it could take an entire lifetime for someone to master either swords or magic, so in reality, it was difficult to imagine someone who’d learned both at a high level.

“All right, let’s go.” With Franz at the front, the group headed out to the sports grounds.

“All right, let’s begin class,” Falke told the students after confirming they had all gathered in the sports ground. “My name is Falke. My role is to teach you the relationship between mages and swords.” Since the new school term was just beginning, Falke explained his job to the young students who were trying to step up to the next level.

“The first thing I want to tell you is that swords are lethal weapons, perfectly capable of killing mages. If your mentor or anyone else has told you that swordsmen are nothing to fear as long as you have magic, forget it. That remains true even if you become mages of the Deep layer.” Falke’s words weren’t making much of an impression on the students. Mages were clearly superior to swordsmen in terms of destructive power, and since there were also magic barriers that could block physical attacks, mages had the advantage in several ways.

“I have a question,” one of the boys addressed Falke.

“Go ahead.”

“I’d like to know your layer, sir,” he asked, thinking that his teacher was only calling swords dangerous because he wasn’t very skilled in magic.

“The Deep layer.” Falke’s reply put him just one step behind literal legends. Realistically speaking, the Deep layer was the most powerful one there was.

“Huh?”

“To put it bluntly, both swords and magic are means developed for killing. It’s incredibly dangerous to just assume that one is superior to the other.”

Emmeline slightly frowned and raised her hand, unconvinced by Falke’s lesson. “I’d like to share an opinion.”

“Go ahead.”

“My mentor says that since swordsmen can’t break through magic barriers, it’s impossible for them to defeat mages.”

An old scene played in Emmeline’s mind. Several large glass panes, water tanks, liquids, books, and magic circles. Even within the dark room, Udo’s eyes were gleaming as he stressed just how magnificent mages were...or rather, muttered it to himself. During her entrance examination, Emmeline had learned that what was common sense to her was considered absurd by the rest of the world, but she believed that Udo was right about the relationship between swords and magic.

“You are forgetting about physiological needs and instincts such as excretion, eating, or sleeping. Since people have the need to expel after they take something in, it’s impossible for them to constantly maintain a magic barrier. Enemies are always waiting for a chance to strike. Only a knight from a fairy tale would introduce themself in an open space and come at you head-on.”

Falke’s response left Emmeline at a loss for words. She’d been born and raised in isolation, so there were many things she had no real experience with. As a result, she somewhat lacked any idea of what she should do, and she was also unaware of how inexperienced she truly was. Udo was the one responsible for that: In his senility, he’d judged that real experience wasn’t necessary for Emmeline and had abandoned her.

With no destination and no clue, Emmeline had followed the idea that magic was magnificent and knocked on the door of the Magic Academy. There, she’d been treated as a scholarship student and had her tuition waived, partly because letting her roam free would be dangerous, and she had stayed there ever since. However, that had turned out for the best. Franz had reached out to her when she’d clearly been out of her depth, and she’d joined his circle of friends with Connie and Hagen, allowing her to quickly learn about society, obtain the real-life experience she’d been lacking, and establish her individuality as Emmeline. At the Magic Academy, she’d learned all sorts of fundamental things like society and sociability; in that respect, she was the same as Connie.

“High-ranking swordsmen, with those of the Clovis School being first on that list, can cut through barriers. They aren’t an absolute defense,” Falke explained.

“I can’t really believe that unless I’ve seen it in practice,” Emmeline insisted.

“Then allow me to demonstrate. Can you put up a magic barrier?”

“Y-Yes.”

Seeing, hearing, feeling, learning, communicating, playing. Having experienced all that, Emmeline had already reached the impressive rank of the Progressive layer, and she was a rare genius among her generation, with even the Deep layer not out of her grasp. When Falke broke through her magic barrier, she learned yet one more lesson.

It was just another ordinary day.

“The Hero has to be the strongest among the Hero’s party.” During break, Franz suddenly brought up the subject, possibly because he was bored and had nothing in particular to talk about.

“Where did that come from? I guess this is the same as usual, though. Hmm... Yes, I think the Hero is the right choice.” Hagen was used to Franz’s random behavior and indifferently agreed with him.

“I also agree,” Connie added. Great-great-grandpa also said that he probably couldn’t cut the Hero.

“You guys... We’re in a place with ties to Lady Lara, you know,” Emmeline admonished the boys, since it was wrong of them not to nominate Lara for the position of strongest. They were all students in the academy she was involved with, and she was also the great Witch with no equal in terms of firepower.

“In terms of pure military achievements, the Dragonsbane Knight is also incredible,” Hagen said.

“That’s true. I’ve seen the list of evil dragons he took down, and it was amazing,” Connie agreed.

“I heard that the Hero’s party included a member of royalty hiding their identity,” Franz said, somehow surmising the truth.

“As if. What reason would they have to hide?” Hagen cut in.

If a royal had been one of the saviors of the world, the influence of their homeland would have increased tremendously after the war. However, there had been no such large-scale publicity, so thinking about it rationally, it was unlikely that any royalty had fought alongside the Hero. But Franz was, in fact, correct.

The amazing thing about Franz is that he makes you think it’s actually possible. Hagen knew how sharp Franz was, so he ended up thinking that maybe a member of royalty had been in the Hero’s party. It seems that he only proposed this as a joke, but just how sharp is he? Hagen was aware that he was poor at socializing, but he got along fairly well with Franz, who’d spoken to him on the first day of school. However, he hadn’t completely grasped the extent of their relationship.

However, Franz really was just a youth of little note. At best, he’d just been born into a slightly wealthy family and managed to enroll into the Magic Academy because he had a bit of talent for magic. Compared to those around him, he had absolutely no fate or destiny tied to his bloodline, nor ancestors of note, no matter how far back you traced his family tree. This was actually pretty strange considering the ones close to him, but he really had been born as just an ordinary human. But such anomalies did occasionally appear in any era. Like the ordinary village boy who’d saved the world seventy years ago, they could overcome even the most absurd forms of destruction with greater, even more illogical absurdities of their own.

Franz continued his conversation with his friends just like u-u-u-u-u-u-usual...

“Oh man. If only the Hero’s party would come tour the academy. Then again, even if they came, would they be incognito?” Franz laced his fingers behind his head as he wished for something truly extraordinary.

“Yeah. Otherwise, they couldn’t take a single step anywhere.” Just like Connie said, if the Hero’s party openly visited the academy, the commotion would turn the place upside down. In the worst case, all classes would be suspended, and everyone involved would be rounded up to prepare to welcome them.

“Come to think of it, Emmeline, has your mentor ever said anything about the Hero’s party?” Franz asked.

“The topic never came up, so they’ve probably never met.”

“That so?”

Or he hates them so much that he doesn’t even want to talk about them. Given how eccentric he is, someone who feels that way toward the Hero’s party...could exist, I suppose. Hagen could tell that Emmeline’s mentor was an odd one based just on her answer to Franz, and he assumed that said mentor was no fan of the heroes. Nothing good comes from remaining in isolation, never progressing. Hagen knew that when emotions were left to simmer without outside input, it could lead to actions and thoughts that defied common sense.

The Magic Academy was concerned about such closed-mindedness, so it proactively encouraged its students to interact with the outside world, lest all of their ideas be contained within the walls of the institute. It was thanks to that school custom that the academy had accepted Falke, an anomaly capable of using both swords and magic. The academy taught its students that swords were also a valid weapon, not just magic. Schools weren’t just places for students to study at their desks, but also somewhere to learn how to interact with other people, which was truly the foundation of this world.

“Hey, Hagen. Is something on your mind?” Franz asked.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just at that age.” Hagen really had been pondering something, but since there was no need to go out of his way to bring it up, he just casually shook his head and cut his train of thought.

“What does that even mean?”

“Perhaps it’s a phase that just boys go through.” Emmeline seemed confused.

“Oh, that reminds me. The plan is still on, right, Connie?” Franz suddenly asked.

“Yes, it’s fine.”

“Nice, then let’s go to Lady Agnes’s house as planned.”

They weren’t discussing anything complicated; Franz, Hagen, and Emmeline were just going to take advantage of consecutive holidays to hang out at Connie’s place.

“I can’t wait. I wonder how incredible the game board at Lady Agnes’s place is,” Emmeline said.

“Indeed,” Hagen agreed.

As the two of them were pondering the game, Franz suddenly turned toward Connie.

“By the way, will your great-great-grandparents be there?”

“Huh?”

It was a very typical conversation. A few days later, they visited Agnes’s manor, struggled with the game board’s difficulty, and swung wooden swords in the garden. It was just another ordinary d-d-d-d-d-d-day...

The scene changed.

“Hey, let’s go shopping.”

The kids had left Agnes’s house before dusk and were on their way back to the dorms when Franz invited his friends to go to a section of town that was packed with stores.

“Say... We went to Lady Agnes’s house today, right?” But Franz suddenly stopped and confirmed the day’s events in a low voice.

“Are you feeling okay?” Hagen looked puzzled, unsure what his friend was talking about.

“Never mind, it’s nothing. More importantly, let’s go buy some legendary swords,” Franz joked after shaking his head a tiny bit and regaining his composure.

“Keep dreaming.”

“I’d also like to see if any new books on magic theory have come out.” Emmeline had business in a specialized bookstore.

“You bought some the other day, didn’t you?” Connie asked, a bit confused.

“What are you on about, Connie? Those were about the techniques of that day, like you said. I’m after the techniques of today,” she insisted.

“I see.” Connie sounded convinced.

“Come to think of it, you were saying that you wanted to go on a trip, so are you going to buy a golem carriage too?” Hagen asked Franz.

“No, buying a golem carriage for a solitary journey is a bit much, isn’t it? I think a stagecoach would usually suffice,” Franz replied.

“It might be a bit unmanageable,” Connie added.

Just like the two of them said, a golem carriage would be overkill for a solo trip, not to mention relatively expensive.

“If you buy one, I could modify it for you.” Emmeline came out with an unexpected suggestion.

“I’ll consider it as long as your modification is actually provably possible.” Franz could vividly picture her saying something like “This modification is perfect in theory.”

“By the way, has anyone been to the restaurant that recently opened around here?”

“Oh, I have. The food was delicious.”

“Really? Maybe I’ll go there next time.”

“Maybe I should go too. I’d like to try all kinds of tasty food...just so long as I don’t get fat.”

“You’ll be fine as long as you keep saying that.”

The friends continued their trivial conversation. Like the endless blue sky, their relationship should have carried on. But...the four of them suddenly stopped. In fact, everyone around them looked up at the blue sky.

“Where did that damned Udo go? Don’t tell me it was to the Arzyna Kingdom,” Derry wondered.

“Would they take him in?” Aldrick asked.

“Perhaps two narrow-minded parties would get along.”

A short time ago, the two of them were in Derry’s office, discussing the whereabouts of a dangerous individual.

“You seem to really hate Arzyna.”

“During the great war, Arzyna declared that they would do nothing to help because everything would be destroyed anyway. How could I like a country like that? Even kids like myself were finding ways to do our part back then, but those fools called our efforts meaningless. For a national government to be saying something like that—it was unthinkable.”

“It’s been proven which side was correct.”

“Well, clearly. But perhaps because of that, Arzyna just became more closed off than ever.” Derry frowned as he remembered how the Arzyna Kingdom had always refused any kind of contact, and he nonchalantly looked up at the blue sky.

“We need to keep tracking down Udo. I hope nothing bad...happens...” Derry’s mutters drifted off into the blue sky outside; or it should have, at least. As he happened to look up at the sky, he happened to notice the change.

“This can’t be...”

Just who had muttered those words? It might have been Aldrick, or...everyone currently outside in Greer. But most of those people hadn’t witnessed this personally and only knew of it as a tale from history.

Of course, Derry could not deny his eyes. Every morning, when he and people of his generation got up, they would check the sky and pray for it to be blue, for that dark day to never come again. But those prayers had been shattered. Their ordinary everyday life had been smashed to bits. That day, the day of destruction, had come again.

All of the moisture drained from Derry’s mouth, and his wrinkled face turned pale, tinted with a blue now...unlike the sky. In an instant...color changed, the sky changed, the world changed. The sky was red—deep red—without a single speck of blue in sight. It was certainly getting close to sunset, so it wouldn’t be that strange for the sky to be tinged with crimson, but it was a completely different story when even the clouds were a blood-soaked red. It was a traumatic sight for all living beings. Not even the transcendent dragons would have wished to fly in that sky again.

Derry’s eyes could tell that this was no natural phenomenon, but one caused by magic, which meant that the reasons behind it were limited.

“Fucking hell!” Derry came to his senses at once and cursed like he had in his young days. He pulled down a bookcase in the council chairman’s office and activated the magic circle hidden behind it. “In the name of Derry, Chairman of the Magic Council, I declare Red One! All combatants to battle stations! All civilians take shelter at the academy!”

The magic circle Derry had activated let his voice reach not only Greer, but all allied parties like the Rin Kingdom. The alarm he had just declared, Red One, was a doomsday signal, to be used only if the sky should ever turn red again; in other words, it signaled another great war...and the Great Demon King’s revival.

“Hurry!”

“Evacuate quickly!”

Even seventy years after the end of the war, the people in charge still regularly conducted training across the city by simulating the great war, so they immediately started evacuating the citizens just like they’d practiced, and those registered as combatants rushed out. This was proof that no matter how many generations went by, the terror of the war had lingered in everyone’s hearts, but it was this same terror that made everyone act so swiftly.

But their enemies were also swift. There was a good reason that, despite having so many great mages, Greer had been caught off guard and fallen behind during the great war. Space itself twisted. A single point, then ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand small points in space cracked and twisted, until they were all smashed apart.

“Gryaaah!”

Countless massive creatures started crawling out of the tears in space. They were hideous crosses between insects and reptiles, their bodies and faces a mixture of all manner of beasts and bugs. Their scales and fur mixed into mottled patterns, and each of these foot soldiers was as large as an elephant, their red eyes shining devoid of reason.

“Gryaaaaah!”

It was the army of darkness of the olden days. The vanguard troops, their numbers easily exceeding ten thousand, bellowed as they rubbed their twisted horns, claws, and mantis-like sickles together, creating an unpleasant din. It was the same as the past, just like the day these troops had used the forbidden technique of teleportation to launch a surprise attack on Greer. Even the Great Demon King had only been able to use this forbidden technique once, but since teleportation had been considered impossible, the surprise attack had worked perfectly, and this city-state had been one step away from collapse.

The great mages heading to intercept the dark vanguard gathered at Greer’s shining, golden walls. There was a mage clad in a hood and a woman hiding her face behind a mask with geometrical patterns drawn on it. An old mage’s staff rang as it hit the ground. There was a woman of nearly eighty years old who still looked as young as a child and a delicate, bespectacled man who observed the dark army with great interest, among many others, making for close to twenty great mages of all kinds. Every last one of them belonged to the Deep layer, and they had in each of them the strength of a thousand warriors.

“They came here by ignoring my teacher’s anti-teleportation measures, which means that...he really has revived?” Aldrick, the man wielding flames powerful enough to earn him the title of Incinerator, was also here.

“How long has it been since I experienced real combat?” So was Agnes, with her sharp glare.

“I don’t believe I’ve grown dull.” And Falke, who’d drawn his sword.

Many of the people here were Lara’s students, part of her family, or other super elites connected to her.

“Don’t think I’ll be a brat forever, dammit!” There were easily over a thousand mages stationed there, and the one leading them had once been a boy running small errands during the great war: Derry, a mage of the Hadal layer, which was recognized as the pinnacle of all magic.

Everyone’s fingers started shining, bright enough to rival the golden walls.

“Commence attack!”

“Perish!”

“Lightning crashes down!”

“May there be silence!”

“Turn them all into dust!”

“Flames, come forth!”

At Derry’s command, destruction broke out, following magic’s true objective, and the second battle of Greer, the Academic City-State, began.

“Gryaaah!”

The monstrous vanguard troops let out horrid shrieks as they advanced toward Greer. An army of over ten thousand, each soldier as large as an elephant, shook the outskirts of the city as it tried to break through the walls. All manner of magic was activated atop the walls in hopes of stopping their progress.

Aldrick the Incinerator had become Lara’s apprentice early on, and because he was one of the most sensible in a crowd of oddball mages, his fellow apprentices relied on him. This wasn’t him getting the short end of any stick; he was an outstanding man who chose responsibility willingly, and he was most definitely not just a fan of the Hero’s party.

“Flames, come forth!”

A torrent of dark red flames as eerie as the abhorrent, red sky—even more eerie, in fact—erupted from Aldrick’s five shining fingers. Fire in its rawest form, the great primordial destructive power, headed straight from the city walls toward the demonic vanguard. Even the monsters’ tough hides and armor stood no chance against a flame so merciless it could even counter the breath of a dragon and melt unwarded castle walls down to nothing. Swallowed by the inferno, a group of monsters burnt to a crisp before they could even bellow in pain, incinerated so thoroughly it was like they had never even existed.

Offensive spells often resembled natural phenomena that were easy to picture, as was the case with these flames. Being able to form a solid image of the intended outcome made the magic more powerful.

“Perish!”

It was because of this that Agnes was deemed a bit unusual. As she cried out, a portion of the enemy army turned to dust. The young mages who only knew the gentle version of her had no idea of her older title. It was why the mages in their sixties and above never picked fights with her. “Agnes of Perishing,” she was called. She was an eccentric mage who forced the concept of perishing itself on her foes rather than any natural phenomenon. Creatures without magical or conceptual defenses instantly died and turned to dust when Agnes inflicted her power upon them. This power was bordering into the absolute bounds of “perishing” incarnate, but it was by no means perfect; it could still be countered by magic. Still, no one would willingly turn against a mage possessing an ability like this.

The one who had trained her followed an orthodox school, but he possessed immense power. On the surface, he was an old, dignified mage, but on the inside, he was a playful geezer. The levelheaded Derry silently looked down at the demon army with cold eyes from atop the city walls, while the moist sounds of objects being crushed echoed across the battlefield. Anyone who could see magic or mana would recognize the gravitational whirlpools emitted from Derry’s six shining fingers.

The great old mage, who had come to be known as the “Crusher” after the great war, could manipulate gravity, the most primal law of this world. Combined with his skills of the Hadal layer, his magic allowed him to ignore most defenses and simply crush his targets, with the exception of a few dragons who possessed abilities that could completely nullify magic. These mere vanguard troops could not oppose him, and they were all crushed until they were liquid—no exception.

While the mages continued their assault from atop the walls, one of them stood out. Falke alone came down from the walls to face the demon army.

I can’t believe it. This is just like something my dad would do.

Falke’s father Sazaki, who was probably lying down in an alley with a bottle of alcohol in hand at the moment, had once said during the great war, “If you can get past me, you win. If I don’t let any of you through, I win.” He’d exterminated the demon army on the battlefield where he’d made that declaration, and in the end, not a single soldier had managed to get behind him in that fight—so the legend went.

The walls behind Falke had been built by legendary mages, including Lara, but they weren’t an absolute defense, so it would be best if the enemy never reached them at all. Therefore, Falke had decided not to let any of the demon army get past him. Not a single breath escaped his lips as his slashes went flying. His blade almost appeared to stretch as it smoothly sliced through a monster’s hideous body, then bisected the one behind it, and the one behind that one, and so on.

But he didn’t stop there. The five fingers holding his sword glowed, and the wind around him danced. Falke’s clothes swayed gently in the breeze, but any mage who didn’t know him would be speechless at the sight. With his body at the center, swords of wind spread out to form a circle. There were one hundred swords, all of them independent. He hadn’t simply activated a single spell, but had manipulated and deployed one hundred different swords one by one. To be frank, this wasn’t humanly possible, rather it shouldn’t have been without having a hundred brains. Yet Falke was perfectly controlling all of the swords.

Without even the need for a verbal prompt, Falke’s swords of wind flew just like their namesake and assaulted the vanguard troops. The swords severed, bisected, sliced, and cut. They slew everything in their path, not facing a shred of resistance. Every last enemy was cut apart as they danced through the battlefield. The fact that Falke could control all of the wind-woven blades meant that it was as though there were a hundred masters of the highest caliber present, recognized as full-fledged by Sazaki without parental bias.

The demonic troops, whose numbers had already been reduced by the mages’ onslaught, had no way to fight against the wind swords, and not only did they not manage to pass by Falke, they were unable to even get within direct range of the sword he was holding, and they simply died one after the other. In addition to controlling one hundred swords which were a match for one thousand foes, Falke also possessed secret sword techniques that could only be used with his own body. Although he followed a different school of thought from his parents, he undoubtedly stood at the top.

Of course, Falke wasn’t the only one excelling in this fight. The demon army that covered the earth was being bombarded by various destructive forces fired from atop the city walls, and the enemy forces kept dwindling. They were imprisoned in ice and smashed apart, pierced by earthen spears, blown to smithereens, and twisted by strange force fields, among other overwhelming means of destruction. This was the culmination of the efforts of those who’d trained their apprentices in the hopes that they would be able to fight if there was another crisis for all living beings after the war...even if they had died themselves by then.

“We won,” someone muttered. But perhaps that was a careless statement.

What?! A chill ran down Falke’s spine. It was a clear signal of danger, or more specifically, what one would feel when their life was in danger.

The next moment, space twisted, accompanied by a sound like breaking glass, and an object reflecting light started to appear.

“Rea...”

Dammit! Falke could scarcely make out the words from this sudden voice, but his intuition set off the loudest alarm so far. But that was a natural reaction. If this being—which was distorted and hadn’t properly formed yet—activated its authority, Falke would be erased from reality; but only if it could activate it.

“Raaah!” Falke dispersed the hundred swords of wind, and at the same time he gathered all of his power into his one beloved sword. The power contained within it overflowed, and its disguise was lifted. He accelerated again, again, and again, with the wind granting him even more acceleration. His sword transformed into a katana.

Falke’s father had once casually gone out, turned some ancient ruins upside down, and brought back a timeworn katana, which his mother had then restored with magic techniques; that legendary katana was now shining. It was a treasured sword spoken of in Eastern legends. One of the three highest-ranking katanas, a product of ancient times, had just made its appearance. Everything was complete. Its power was an orange exceedingly close to the red of the sky, which—

But there was no need to go into details. All of that latent power was nothing but superfluous. Only one detail mattered: The katana wouldn’t break even when Falke drew it with all his strength. As long as that detail remained true, it was fine. He was simple and straightforward, and as a result, he was fast, faster, the fastest; he was just fast, plain and simple. It was a childish theory of always taking the initiative to kill the opponent first.

“...lity?!”

Even though the monster had suddenly appeared, it had been too slow in everything. It had been slow in appearing completely, slow in activating its authority, slow in noticing that the almost red trajectory had separated its top from its bottom, and slow in noticing that the blades of wind that reappeared a moment later had chopped it into tiny pieces, sending it to its death. It had been slow in every last thing.

Falke, who had swung a single katana, then a hundred, regained his stance. He was undoubtedly the Blademaster’s son, his swings closest to the fastest shade of red. The glimmer of his sword signaled victory.

“Yeaaaaah!” The young mages cried in triumph.

The side of the living hadn’t suffered a single casualty against the demon army, which now lay annihilated. The second battle for Greer had ended with a perfect victory for the mortal side.

We now turn back the clock a little.

“In the name of Derry, Chairman of the Magic Council, I declare Red One! All combatants to battle stations! All civilians take shelter at the academy!”

As Derry’s voice echoed across Greer, the citizens staring dumbfounded at the red sky came to their senses. Perhaps thanks to long years of drilling, or because most of the current generation only knew of the red sky and great war through history books, people started evacuating toward the academy without falling into extreme panic. Of course, Franz and his friends were among the people evacuating, so they also ran toward the academy alongside other citizens.

Something’s strange. Connie entertained certain doubts as he evacuated. Although she wasn’t in this city right now, Lara was supposed to dwell within the abyss of magic, which humanity couldn’t comprehend, so it was inconceivable that she wouldn’t notice the Great Demon King’s revival. Yet the sky was indeed red.

“What’s going on?!”

“I have no clue!”

Emmeline and Hagen kept running, simply confused about the color of the sky above.

“This way! Here!” Franz was the only one among them who chose the right answer for this situation instead of wondering about it. It wasn’t the optimal solution for himself, but for his friends. Franz led them to a small, deserted weapons store, the owner of which had already run away.

“Hey, Franz?!”

“The academy is where it’s safe!”

“Don’t worry about it! I just have the feeling that this way’s better!”

Franz rushed into the shop, forcibly dragging the confused Hagen, Emmeline, and Connie with him. Since magic was so prevalent in this city, business wasn’t going particularly well for this store, and its selection wasn’t that impressive. Thinking about it logically, it would be much safer to flee to the academy, which had many professors and functioned as a last bastion. However, the fact that there were so many people there was also a problem. Franz was doing this to protect secrets that must never come out. Not his own secrets, though; Franz didn’t believe he had any secrets of his own, and in truth he actually didn’t have any hidden side to him; he was just a boy loved by fate a little. But there was Emmeline, who was harboring a secret she didn’t even know herself, as well as...

On a different topic, Udo, who’d mastered astrology and alchemy despite living in isolation, could easily be called a genius. That was why no one would have imagined that he’d succeeded in the creation of artificial life-forms identical to humans, to the point that not even Falke and Agnes had noticed.

“Ugh!” Emmeline, groaning in pain, held Franz down and placed a shining finger at his neck.

“What are you doing, Emmeline?!” Neither Hagen, Franz, nor even Connie could react to the unexpected development in time.

“D-Don’t move! Argh!” Emmeline shouted at the others. Judging from the look of complete anguish on her face, it was clear that she wasn’t in control of her own body.

I’d need to take a sword from one of the shelves, stop Emmeline’s magic without killing her, and rescue Franz. That would be difficult... Unfortunately, Connie didn’t have the skill to pull that off.

“Here you are.” Four robust men appeared at the entrance of the weapons store that had suddenly turned into a battlefield. They all had identical blank faces, like expressionless quadruplets, which could give some people the impression that they were actually golems.

“You’re the direct descendant of Arzyna’s royalty, right? Come with us.” The men weren’t looking at Connie or Emmeline, and certainly not Franz, who had no secrets. Their eyes were fixed at Hagen, who was now white as a sheet and had tried to change the topic whenever the Arzyna Kingdom came up in conversation.

Hagen Arzyna was a direct descendant of the Arzyna royal family, which had been driven out of the kingdom during the great war, and was the youngest of the family who’d tried to hide his identity and fade into history.

“If you don’t come with us, your friends’ lives are forfeit. We have command of Number Six,” one of the men told Hagen.

“N-Number Six?” Emmeline stuttered.

“That’s right. You’re Number Six, created by Master Udo. Don’t you remember?”

“My mentor?” Emmeline was confused, with no idea what the man meant, and her expression remained one of anguish.

She’d been born and raised in isolation, so there were many things she lacked real experience with. As a result, she somewhat lacked any idea of what she should do, and she was also unaware of how inexperienced she truly was. Udo was the one responsible for that: In his senility, he’d judged that real experience wasn’t necessary for Emmeline and had abandoned her. With no destination and no clue, Emmeline had followed the idea that magic was magnificent and knocked on the door of the Magic Academy. There, she’d been treated as a scholarship student and had her tuition waived, partly because letting her roam free would be dangerous, and she had stayed there ever since.

But that was only natural. Although she possessed advanced computational abilities for magic as the result of Udo’s long and careful research, she was nothing more than a prototype already discarded; an experimental artificial human now needed once more.

“What do you intend to make me do? Do you even understand the current situation?” Hagen asked.

“We need you, the direct descendant of the royal family, along with Number Six, in order to completely unlock the treasured article’s functions. What is happening at the moment is unrelated to the orders we have been given. I will say it again: If you do not come with us, your friends’ lives are forfeit,” one of the Hounds—specially made artificial humans who had been tracking Hagen using the blood and smell of the current King of Arzyna—replied indifferently, reissuing their ultimatum.

Instead of manipulating Emmeline from the start to have her restrain Hagen, the Hounds were trying to make use of the friendship they shared. This stemmed from Udo’s hidden obsession, but that was irrelevant here.

“Well?” Manipulated by the Hound’s voice, Emmeline took a step forward with the restrained Franz in order to press Hagen to make his decision.

Here stood the direct descendant of the rulers of a hopeless country that was already completely done for, and an artificial human who followed the orders of her creator. There was no way these secrets could be allowed to be brought to light. If the truth came out, Hagen would be involved with a country that was effectively finished, while Emmeline might even be disposed of, in the worst-case scenario. Maybe that was why Franz had been shown the way to this deserted place, where he could resolve everything with his friends.

But what followed from that point on was ultimately a choice made by one person’s resolve. Thanks to Emmeline’s step forward, Franz could reach a secondhand sword left careless lying on a shelf.

“We’re buddies because we’re prepared to die for each otheeer!” Everything revolved abnormally around Franz, who let out a battle cry. This was similar to the miracle that the Hero—who was currently supposed to be in seclusion on some mountain—had caused seventy years ago through his own determination.

When Emmeline heard Franz’s shout, she regained control of her body, albeit for only a moment, which created a small opening where she wouldn’t fire her magic.

As an aside, there were actually quite a few swords that Ferd the Hero had imbued with light and thrown as antiair weapons during the great war. In the chaos of the battlefield, they’d been recovered as ordinary sword, passed on to other people, and sold as secondhand weapons after the war. In particular, the swords that the fully awakened Ferd had imbued with light even once during the latter half of the war had somehow not degraded over time, and they were still in good condition even seventy years after the end of the war.

But in the end, they were nothing but mass-produced swords. Since there was nothing distinctive about their appearance, some of them had been passed around from place to place, without anyone realizing when the weapons had been made or what they had gone through. For example...one had been sold to a small weapons store in Greer, where swords weren’t popular products.

The faint vestiges of light remaining in the sword’s core responded to the young man who had chosen to push forward with his own resolve. Everyone was dazzled by the blinding brilliance of life that shone forth. Though they were only dregs of power from seventy years ago, that was plenty. The light of life, the smallest fragment of all mankind’s prayers, touched the artificial soul.

I’m Emmeline! Having remembered who she was, Emmeline regained full control of her body and pointed her shining finger at the Hounds.

This is my fault! At the same time, Hagen realized that if his secret had caused this crisis, he had to sacrifice his life to save his friends, so he also tried to activate his magic.

But one person here was more enraged than anyone else: the man whose friends had been manipulated, taken hostage, and nearly kidnapped. The enemies stood inside the striking distance of the slender boy who was so angry he was actually smiling. Since there was another possibility of Emmeline being manipulated, capturing these attackers alive was out of the question. He was after their total elimination.

He casually picked up one of the store’s swords.

He drew his sword.

There was a flash.

He sheathed his sword.

“Die.”

All four of the enemies’ heads were sent flying.

The genius muttered a single word after he’d finished taking all of his actions. Sazaki, the Lightspeed Blademaster, had said that if the boy was just taught the proper frame of mind, he would then achieve greatness on his own.

And soooo, the fiiiiirst mayhem of Greer conducted behind the scenes had also endeeeeed...

There was the sound of glass cracking.

They have the ability to completely regenerate themselves?! Right in front of the surprised Connie, the Hounds he’d definitely cut down reconstructed their bodies in the blink of an eye. The sight was both repulsive and horrifying, as every single muscle fiber from their necks to their torsos regenerated at astonishing speed.

“It’s their hearts! Join togetheeer!” Franz shouted without a care in the world, and he ran at the Hounds with the tip of his sword pointed.

However, the tiny vestiges of light in Franz’s sword had already been used up, so he couldn’t expect another miracle to occur. But so what? Seventy years ago, the Hero hadn’t stood to fight simply because he’d possessed the power of light, nor because he’d believed he could perform miracles. It was because he’d possessed the determination and conviction to accomplish his goal even if it meant dying. He’d stood against the red sky with only those two things.

“Raaaaah!” Franz was exactly the same. He poured his conviction into his sword and ran. He just ran in a straight line, just straight ahead. The light of a young life dwelled in his sword, not the light of an old man who was content with fading away. The Hounds, which hadn’t finished regenerating completely yet, couldn’t do anything against it.

At the same time, Emmeline, Hagen, and Connie each set their sights on a Hound. It was the same as usual. The three of them had been pulled around by Franz in various ways during their daily lives, and although they didn’t understand what he’d meant by shouting “Join together,” their minds were in perfect sync. You could say they were used to going along with Franz’s erratic behavior. And so... Emmeline and Franz each struck the heart of a different Hound with their magical attacks. Connie cut up the heart of another Hound. And at the same moment, Franz stabbed the tip of his sword into the heart of the last Hound.

Their lives were linked?! After everything was done, Connie noticed the Hounds’ mechanism. The four Hounds’ lives were linked, so even though Connie had chopped them up at almost the same time, he’d been unable to kill them; the only way to deal with them was to kill all four at the exact same time. And the four kids had pulled it off while seeing the Hounds for the first time.

“Ouch!” The Hounds vanished like mist, making Franz tumble to the floor because of his excess momentum. “Hell yeah! We need to evacuate to the school! I have a feeling it’s safe now!” But he stood up immediately and started running off, practically dragging the other three with him, without asking Hagen and Emmeline about their circumstances or paying any mind to Connie, who was wondering what to do.

“Haah...” Emmeline sighed.

“He’s the same as usual,” Hagen remarked offhandedly.

“Ha...ha ha.” Connie had an awkward smile as he ran ahead.

All three reacted to the unchanging Franz in their own way. The battle to protect the secrets that no one else knew ended with a victory for friendship.

Then...it shattered, shattered, shattered. Everything shattered. The calculations were finished.

“This can’t be! Just what is going on here?!” Udo screamed before pulling his face away from the mirror he had been looking into.

He couldn’t understand. He’d used the device in order to secure Emmeline, who could use a device that could perform calculations as close to reality as possible, and Hagen, who could fully unlock the device’s functions. And yet, when Udo peered into the mirror—the computing device—he saw something unexpected even for him: the world once again covered in a red sky. However, since there was no one present who’d participated in Greer’s battle during the great war, no one had noticed that the demonic vanguard defeated by Derry and the other mages in the virtual world of Udo’s calculations included the exact same soldiers who had attacked Greer seventy years ago.

“Eek!” The one behind Udo’s scream had a very simple objective, which in some ways resembled him: It wanted to calculate the correct world of the past, instead of the flawed world of the present, and impose it on the reality of now.

“Aaaaah!” Udo screamed as he was sucked into the mirror, and the Hounds, who were still alive in the real world, also got caught up in it.

Truth be told, the Arzyna Kingdom didn’t have such a grand ambition. It was only trying to use the treasured article to construct a perfect computing device, which would predict a definite future and prove that they were correct. The problem was that the person who’d given them the treasured article before the start of the great war had joined the forces of evil during the war, but hid that fact from the world.

The mirror kept cracking. It went out of control, repeatedly performing all sorts of calculations. As a first step, it calculated the army that had brought down Greer during the great war and imposed it onto the virtual present, creating another battle for Greer. But because that failed, it started searching for the possibility that the demon army could triumph this time, but...there was a difference between the world in the calculations and reality: the behavior of a completely incomprehensible, mass of shining light.

“Is this the thing trying to cause trouble?” Ferd, said shining mass, found the cracked mirror.

In the world inside the calculations, there was no way that the Hero’s party would have come to this city. Without a driving force, Sazaki wouldn’t have left the town of alcohol, and Lara wouldn’t have wanted to come here because of her statue. Stein and Max would have no business here either. But in reality, they were here. Because Ferd had decided to leave the mountains, the Hero’s party had found itself before the cracked mirror and in front of the crisis of the virtual world trying to encroach upon reality.

“I remember this.” The treasured article Ferd found was a mirror shaped like a horse. Moreover, it was a general of the demon army once defeated by the Hero’s party. It was a monster that depicted numerous virtual realities on the mirrors that made up its body, and tried to impose the optimal solution among them onto reality.

◆◆◆

Falke, the person closest to deadly red.

He’s slower than his father? There’s no need for anyone to point that out; Falke knows it better than anyone. So you can just die before you even have the time to fully realize the difference between them.

The friend group of Connie, Franz, Emmeline, and Hagen.

Everyone knows that friendship can be fragile, but surprisingly little is known about what happens when complete strangers try to belittle it and tear it apart.

Chapter 7: The Great War of Old

The Hero’s party sprinted along under the blue sky of the real world, not a speck of red above them, and discovered a horse-shaped mirror running amok near the Arzyna Kingdom.

Lara frowned as she observed the cracked mirror. “What a pain. Although this thing operates almost exactly the same as the mirror horse we fought during the great war, it’s going to take more than just breaking it to fix things. If we shatter it, we risk the simulations inside of it leaking out into reality.”

“Ugh.” Max also had a terribly sour expression.

“The only way to resolve this is to get in there right now and stop the core.”

“Will it be a two-way trip, I hope?”

“I can manage it.”

“Hmm. Are there any areas of concern?”

“As we make our way through, we’ll need to fix the calculations that make us lose the great war in their simulation, so it will be quite the workout. The Garden of the Summit, the Rin Kingdom’s capital, and the Boiling Mountain are all facing collapse.”

Stein nodded at Lara’s concise explanation, but her last words had made him turn his head, baffled.

“Oh my,” Elrica said with a hint of surprise.

“Tsk.” Max clicked his tongue and frowned intensely.

The Boiling Mountain was Stein’s old home, while the capital of the Rin Kingdom was the birthplace of Max, a former member of royalty. As for the place known as the Garden of the Summit, it was the headquarters and holy ground of the religious forces, and most importantly, it was where Elrica had been born. Even though it was only in a simulation, it was hard for the three of them to remain calm when places so important to them were on the verge of collapse.

“Hic. Then let’s just quickly go and get this over with,” Sazaki suggested, drinking all the while.

“That’s right,” Ferd agreed, as advancing in a straight line was the only strategy he knew of.

“Let’s do it, then.” Lara, who was strangely hot-blooded despite dwelling in the abyss of magic, also nodded. She activated her magic, isolating the mirror from the outside world and entering inside.

“Well, well, what a strange place.” Ferd entered the mirror and the world of its calculations, gazing at the space within, which was filled with mirrors of various sizes.

The group went past a mirror fragment depicting the battle of Greer, which had just been calculated, but as a tiny mirror piece passed next to them showing the results of the calculations of Franz displaying the brilliance of man, they heard that voice.

“That’s right, boy! Well done! You did great! That is the light of life!”

“Perhaps we should hurry...”

“Indeed...”

Ferd and Elrica felt exasperated at the familiar voice that they’d never wanted to hear again. In fact, every member of the Hero’s party looked fed up.

“It’s nothing but an imitation. But yes, we should probably hurry... There it is, the Garden of the Summit.”

In the space with various small mirrors dancing all around, a rather large mirror depicted a scene taking place on an old battlefield. It was a surprise attack on the mortals’ most important base launched by the Great Demon King, which would later be labeled the decisive battle of the Garden of the Summit and should have ended with the victory of the living. However, that result was about to be reversed. The holy ground, located in the mountains of the northern part of the continent, with various blooming flowers decorating large, white temples, was burning red.

“O Lord!”

“Bring us salvation!”

“We’re getting pushed back!”

“Call for reinforcements!”

Priests using the power of prayer and temple knights clad in white armor were desperately fighting back. Since this was the holiest location in the entire continent, the church possessed powerful military strength, but they were being pushed into more and more of an unfavorable situation.

“That accursed dragon!” A high priest was glaring at the sky, where a black dragon soared overhead.

“Huh? Isn’t that Ka Ru? I took him down, didn’t I? Why is he alive?” Max wondered as he looked at the flying dragon in the large mirror approaching them.

“Because you probably died first here,” Lara replied, raising even more questions for him.

“What?!”

“I already told you. This is a simulation where we are defeated.”

Ka Ru, the Dragon of Darkness, whose entire body was jet-black and even larger than a fortress, was the natural enemy of all religious forces. His unreasonable and illogical powers specialized in unequivocally erasing the gods’ power of light, leaving the temple soldiers who fought using the power of god unable to defeat him no matter how hard they fought. However, in reality Max had killed Ka Ru in the battle right before the decisive battle at the Garden of the Summit, so the dragon shouldn’t have been here. In other words, in this scenario it was possible that Max, the cause of Ka Ru’s death, hadn’t been involved with him for some reason—which would have been the case if Max had already died.

“I’m not there... Could it be that the front line didn’t manage to hold out so the fine-tuning on my construction hadn’t been finished in time?” There was one more difference. Elrica, whose final adjustments should have finished in the small opening when the situation in battle had improved a little, wasn’t there either.

“Maybe.”

“All right, we’re going in.” With the mirror finally reaching them, Lara gave the signal for them to start.

“Okay!” Ferd poured his strength into his sword.

Ka Ru, the Dragon of Darkness, had thought that he held absolute superiority over light, but he had been unaware that there was a domain he couldn’t reach.

“Light, come forth!”

“Augh! Light?!” The Garden of the Summit glowed bright, and Ka Ru was dazzled by the unexpected brilliance from the geezer who had plunged into the mirror.

Red clouds, a red sky, red heavens; even though the Hero had fought his hardest to turn them back to normal, the sky was the same bloodred as in the past.

“All right, let’s go.”

What Ka Ru was facing wasn’t the light of the sealed gods... Although the final battle had been an exception, Ferd the Hero, whose mental state was currently the same as in his prime, illuminated the world with a light that wasn’t derived from the gods, but from the people.

Hey, been a while. At the same time, the blue Dragonsbane Knight, who’d defeated all the evil dragons, cut through the air to attack Ka Ru. The blue ring shining on Max’s finger screamed in a high-pitched voice that only he could hear. This Ka Ru was but an imitation created by the calculations, but it didn’t matter; the ring still told Max to go kill him right away.

Responding to the plea of his practically cursed equipment, Max flew into the sky the moment he entered the mirror. The very fact that he was flying was already far from ordinary. The sky was the domain of the gods, dragons, and birds; flight magic was so unbelievably difficult that even Lara found it tedious to do more than simply float. However, since Max had dragon blood running through his veins, he operated a bit outside of human logic, and he’d only needed footholds until the middle of the great war. Having fought through the final battle, Max was no longer bound by the laws of gravity and magic.

“What?! I was told that you died!”

Don’t go killing me off just yet! The Dragonsbane Knight leaped into the sky with the sun at his back and unleashed his full power, cursing at the first true dragon he was fighting in seventy years, rather than an imitation from a dungeon.

I haven’t gone all out in over half a century! I hope I haven’t grown weaker! Max had traveled from place to place, running into all kinds of trouble, but there still hadn’t been an opportunity for him to use his full power. He hoped that his skills hadn’t grown dull. Of course, he had no reason to worry about that. Someone who so easily lost their edge would never have kept up against the Great Demon King in the first place.

Max was enveloped by pure blue inside his armor. Unlike the halfway transformation he’d adopted back in the dungeon, he was now a complete dragon-man. A torrent of power surged out of him like lightning and covered the sky.

Wh-What is this power?! How is he surpassing the blue one’s strength?! Ka Ru was shocked by his enemy’s unbelievable power; it truly was an earth-shattering event for him.

Ka Ru had realized that Max had been granted the power of the blue dragon who protected the Rin Kingdom, but common sense dictated that it was unthinkable for the person receiving power to surpass the one who had bestowed it upon them. Especially since the recipient of that power was a mere monkey, a species far inferior to the dark dragons. This was truly mind-boggling to Ka Ru. But this wasn’t the Max from the middle of the great war, when the decisive battle at the Garden of the Summit had originally taken place. This Max was the man who’d broken through his limits at the very end, during the final showdown against the Great Demon King, and reached the peak not only with the power of a dragon but also with the power of a human.

Let’s do this, you guys! Max’s cursed equipment—the comrades who’d fought alongside him throughout the great war—also responded to him. A great variety of weapons all jumped out of his ring at once; not just the sword, dagger, bow, and spear he’d used in the dungeon, but also an axe, crossbow, halberd, flail, rapier, mace, and others.

“Groooooar!” Ka Ru finally recognized that he was facing an enemy and unleashed dark energy from his massive maw. As expected of a true dragon and the natural enemy of holy warriors who fought with the power of the gods, his attack was powerful enough to reduce the barriers of the great temples all across the Garden of the Summit to shreds, and it brought instant death to all living beings.

In order to block the dragon’s breath, various shields also popped out of Max’s ring—including a buckler, kite shield, lantern shield, and dueling shield—all of which more or less got between Max and the incoming attack. The shields clustered into something like a single giant shield, from which black smoke billowed as the dark energy collided with it. But Max was no longer behind the shields. His slitted blue pupils had locked on to his prey’s eyes before the pitch-black explosion occurred. Max pulled his bowstring back to its limit, loosing an arrow as Dragonsbane energy also flew from the crossbow floating next to him.

“Don’t underestimate me!” Ka Ru put up a dark barrier that resembled black flames to block the attack.

Right back at you.

“What?!” However, the arrowhead only encountered a little resistance before breaking through the barrier and heading for Ka Ru’s eyes. “Aaargh! Dodge?! I, Ka Ru, the Dragon of Darkness, have to dodge?! How dare you make me do something so unseemly?!” With a large flap of his wings, Ka Ru managed to dodge by a hair’s breadth, indignant from his wounded pride.

But as the arrow went past Ka Ru, it drew an arc and headed back for him at incredible speed. He had an arrow that he couldn’t ignore coming from behind, while Max was approaching from the front.

“The great darkness will cover all!” Hoping to clear out everything at once, Ka Ru created a dark, egg-like aura with him at the center, which he then unleashed in every direction.

“Hmph!” To deal with the approaching black wall, Max gripped his axe and halberd in each hand, then swung them down with all his might. As the two sides clashed, the sound of an egg cracking echoed around them, and the next moment, the dark shell was one-sidedly smashed to bits.

“Impos—” Even as death approached him, Ka Ru could not seem to believe it. Meanwhile, the numerous weapons that entered the shell crashed into his torso, wings, tail, and legs.

“Hyah!” And the real killer was the sword that Max had just thrown with all his might—directly at Ka Ru’s eye.

“Argh!” Ka Ru was too slow to react, and the blade, which was specialized for killing dragons, pierced deep into his right eye. This was a serious matter on its own; it was as good as being poisoned by Dragonsbane power. But the flying weapons digging into Ka Ru’s body only made things worse. The last thing Ka Ru saw was the same thing many of his comrades—and his own real-world counterpart—had seen in their final moments: Through a gap in his helmet, the blue Dragonsbane Knight’s eyes shone with deadly intent as he brought his spear down at the dragon’s head.

There was the sound of a mirror cracking.

All done, all— Max watched the Dragon of Darkness falling to his death, but he didn’t overlook something starting to squirm inside the corpse. He readied himself for another battle.

It should have been impossible. This creature was one that Max had definitely defeated, but their clash should have taken place in the later stages of the war than this—and above all else, the host was different.

“You aren’t meant to be parasitizing this guy!”

Blue appeared from the back of the corpse as though it was molting. Its appearance and voice were exactly the same as Max’s back in the day.

“Gyu Ri!”

Gyu Ri, the Parasitic Dragon. No one knew what he really looked like, as his authority allowed him to perfectly copy the killer of his host. And in this case, that killer was...

“You’re such a pain in the ass!” Max cried.

“O power of the blue dragon!”

Huh?! That voice?!

The power of blue versus blue clashed at the very pinnacle of the Garden of the Summit.

“Gyu Ri? What’s going on, Lara?” Ferd was perplexed by seeing the two Dragonsbane Knights clashing in the sky, which would have never happened in the original timeline.

Lara could imagine two possibilities. “Either the virtual world is doing its best to eliminate us, the foreign entities, or this world has gotten so messed up that it can no longer control its own power.”

“So...I guess we should hope it’s the former?”

“In terms of how much of a hassle it would be, then yes. Things would be much easier if this world is working hard.”

The preferable scenario was that the virtual world had complete control of this situation, but there was also the incredibly bothersome possibility that it was going berserk.

“But, well...” Lara hesitated, as if something was on her mind.

“There’s no doubt that all kinds of things are going wrong.” Stein, who had been observing Gyu Ri’s muscles, finished her sentence.

“Let’s do this, you guys!” Dazzling weapons, as good as new, burst out of the brand-new, shining blue armor and helmet and attacked the original Max.

“Agh! Shaddup!” Max’s scarred, battle-hardened weapons screamed inside his head, burning with rage as they intercepted their sworn enemies, who had given them a terribly hard time seventy years ago. Sword against sword, spear against spear, battle-axe against battle-axe, mace against mace, the weapons clashed like dogs biting each other.

If you’re gonna copy us, do it properly! That’s what we were like seventy years ago! Max’s copy had brand-new armor and weapons, but the real ones showed clear signs of wear and tear. The difference between them was obvious, so when Max heard his own strangely young voice, he realized he’d ended up fighting himself at the height of his prime—or so he’d thought.

This one hasn’t spent seventy years with these noisy guys! If I just knock him down, we can all gang up on him and win! If Max had any chance of victory, it would be because he’d spent a much longer time with the weapons floating around him. And unlike back when his comrades had their hands full and couldn’t come help him, if he now knocked his enemy down to the ground, they could all surround him and crush him.

Let’s do this! So Max and his weapons decided that they only needed to surpass their past selves for a brief moment, and they attacked the imitations with everything they had.

“What’s different?!” Meanwhile, Gyu Ri was astonished by the clearly strange difference between them and was struggling to regain his footing.

Could it be?! Max realized what was likely happening as he watched the familiar scene, but the weapons continued doing their thing. Two blue shooting stars clashed, a sword parried a battle-axe, a shield averted a blow from a spear, and a battle-axe repelled a bow.

“Raaaaah!” Max shouted.

“Raaah?!” Gyu Ri parroted.

The difference was evident. The dim veterans were striking the shiny fakes, again and again. Max’s weapons would sometimes settle into his hands and sometimes fly of their own volition to repel the fakes’ fierce assault. The blue trails intertwined over and over, but the gaudy brilliance was repelled every single time.

Gyu Ri wasn’t in any position to keep resisting. “How can you fly?!” he protested.

I knew it! As Max looked at Gyu Ri plummeting to the ground, he became convinced that his earlier guess was right.

To begin with, Gyu Ri’s power allowed him to copy the person who’d killed his host, so it was really strange that he was copying Max in his younger days. And the fact that Gyu Ri couldn’t fly freely meant that he was not yet in the state that Max had reached through the fierce battles in the later stages of the war, when he’d overcome the rules laid down by the gods. In other words, this fake had taken the form of the yet-inexperienced Dragonsbane Knight, who hadn’t been fighting in the great war for that long; this was also proof that this virtual world couldn’t perfectly reproduce Gyu Ri’s abilities.

The second half of the war was full of nothing but real monsters, after all! The faces of those he’d fought to the death near the end of the war—with Gyu Ri being one of them—briefly flashed in Max’s mind.

This is purely hypothetical, but if Ferd had killed Gyu Ri’s host, Gyu Ri would have turned into a spitting image of Ferd; he would have also turned into a perfect copy of Lara, Sazaki, Stein, Elrica, or Erhard if one of them had been the killer. But because Max had still had room to grow at the time, unlike his already almost perfect comrades, he’d improved, just a little, even during the course of that battle, allowing him to surpass himself from just moments prior and barely emerge victorious, albeit coming out of the fight half dead.

Hypothetically speaking, in a one-on-one fight, this perfect copying ability, which had no upper limit or exceptions, could be used to aim for mutual death against more than half of the Hero’s party, so a perfect recreation was more than this simulation could manage.

“Come dooooown!”

“Shields, come forth!”

“Raaaaah!” Max and his weapons slipped through the rain of flying armaments and charged into the group of shields Gyu Ri had deployed, breaking through them as well.

“Argh!” Max’s face—or rather, Gyu Ri’s—was tinged with panic as he was struck by the battle-hardened weapons, one after the other.

Next, Max put all of his strength into his spear, piercing through his fake self’s cracked armor and penetrating his heart. The shooting star kept falling with the same momentum until it crashed into the ground. The accompanying sparks also bit into the fake’s limbs and neck, piercing them as if sewing them into the ground.

“He’s dead, right?! Like dead for real?! Nice, he is!” After causing thunderous noise and a cloud of dust, Max shouted zealously as he confirmed that his troublesome foe had sunk into the earth and died.

“Looks like it’s over.” Lara, who’d been observing the fight, sensed that the mirror world had started collapsing.

“If I’m not mistaken, there were many more troublesome guys on the surface, right?” Meanwhile, Sazaki, who’d been routing through the foot soldiers on the ground, was a bit confused.

“Yes, they’re clearly inferior in both quality and quantity. It seems that the Great Demon King here has remained conceited,” Stein agreed.

Nothing extraordinary had taken place; the demon army had just been cut apart by a sword and pulverized by a pair of fists, but this fight should have normally been more worthy of being described as a decisive battle.

“Things probably unfolded in such a way that he assumed the mortals were no stronger than this.”

“Mm-hmm. That’s what most likely happened.”

Elrica and Ferd had also noticed how feeble the enemy soldiers on the ground were.

In this simulated world where the Hero’s party lay defeated, the Great Demon King had easily trampled down on mortals—just like in the game boards made by the Arzyna Kingdom—so he’d never made a serious effort. As a result, he’d only deployed what he believed would be sufficient forces, without including any of his close aides, so this battle ended up worlds apart from the life-and-death situation that Ferd and the rest had experienced.

“Oh... That’s me, isn’t it?” Elrica muttered. Before the calculation results were rewritten with the fact that the demon army had been defeated and this place collapsed, she looked up at the power of light that rose toward the heavens from the depths of the great temple, and judged that her power had come to fruition in this simulation.

“On to the next one,” Lara prompted.

“Very well,” Elrica replied, smiling nostalgically.

The party headed to the next large mirror, where the scenery and the world itself changed.

“Stop them!”

“Defend to the last! Hold the lines!”

“Don’t retreat! There’s nowhere to run!”

The massive military force the Rin Kingdom had so desperately mustered was clashing against the demon army in a wasteland.

“That creature... Could I have died fighting against that? I’ve only heard stories about him, but that might have been a bit tough of an opponent for me back when I first left the castle and had only ever fought against dragons...” As Max looked at the scene before them, he realized why he was dead in this world. This place was the same as the previous one: A monster that shouldn’t have been here was taking part in the battle.

“Black Smoke is alive? That must mean I messed up in this scenario.” Stein was familiar with the humanoid creature made of pitch-black lava that was walking at the forefront of the demon army.

In the real world, during the decisive battle on the Boiling Mountain, which had ended with the mortals’ victory, Stein had fought a fierce battle to the death against Black Smoke. Even the Great Demon King, the creature’s creator, had been puzzled over how something like him had come to exist. And in this hypothetical world, Black Smoke had killed Max, who’d had little experience fighting anything besides dragons. He was the strongest mutant among the true monk slayers—not the fake ones in the Nightless Inferno—whose powers had extended to incinerating concepts instead of merely burning objects.

Black Smoke, huh? As Stein plunged into the mirror, he thought about one of the formidable foes he hadn’t seen in seventy years. This black lava monster was an enemy he’d fought at the foot of the Boiling Mountain, one he should have defeated at the end of a fierce battle where they’d locked eyes for over ten minutes, then exchanged a single, deadly blow with all their might.

“I’ll take Black Smoke on,” Stein briefly told his comrades as he entered the mirror world, then started running toward Black Smoke, who stood on the front lines of the enemy army.

“Okay.” At the same time, Lara brought forth natural disasters with her magic, but Black Smoke, the enemy commander, was unable to deal with them.

The only sounds that echoed in the area were that of footsteps on gravel, earth, and sand. Although this was but a simulation, the monk who’d reached the pinnacle of ability was facing a formidable enemy for the first time in decades.

He really has the same muscles as seventy years ago. This simulated world is certainly impressive if it can perfectly re-create Black Smoke.

He’s old, but...is that Stein? No matter how you look at it, he’s grown old. So instead of dying back at the Boiling Mountain, he got swallowed up by some space-time disturbance?

Amusingly, Stein and Black Smoke were perceiving each other with similar senses. In other words, this mutant monk slayer had similar senses as Stein, so the perfectly re-created Black Smoke was a monster capable of killing Max when he’d still been inexperienced in combat. However, while they had similar senses, Black Smoke couldn’t perfectly grasp every aspect of physical matter like Stein could, so it could be said that he was clearly inferior.

But is this the result of aging and decline? The quality of his muscles has changed, and his reach has shrunk a little. It would have been better if he’d died in his prime instead of getting caught up in a space-time disturbance. Black Smoke, who’d only just been created for the decisive battle on the Boiling Mountain, was strangely unfazed by the situation and was disappointed by his archenemy, who should have died moments ago but was now clearly old and frail.

Stein no longer possessed the muscular body and fighting spirit that had made him worthy of being called the embodiment of destruction, and his reach had also decreased, if only a little.

But that was enough analysis. Both of them took a step forward with their left leg, taking a stance, and stared each other down, ignoring the tumult of the battlefield. This was a reenactment of the legendary decisive battle on the Boiling Mountain. The pair ignored Lara’s cataclysmic magic, Sazaki’s slashes, Elrica’s light magic, Max dancing in the skies, and even Ferd’s brilliance. Slowly, steadily, little by little, just the tiniest bit of movement. But as long as something was moving, it would eventually meet its end. The last time, they’d continued glaring at each other for over ten minutes, but since Stein looked clearly weakened, Black Smoke took action the moment their reaches overlapped.

Black Smoke thrust forward with all his might. Even though his body was made of lava, the thrust generated by the twisting and springing force flowing through his legs, waist, torso, and arms advanced in a straight line, erasing even sound—quite literally. If monk slayers burned monks with their lava bodies, then the body of this mutant, Black Smoke, had the power of erasure. In other words, he possessed the ultimate body in terms of both attack and defense; he erased anyone he touched along with all their defenses, and any enemy who touched him got erased along with their attack.

Stein’s options were limited. He could either use the pseudo-Null power to forcibly smash his foe apart like he had done before or surpass him with pure skill. He moved gently, like a leaf floating on water. His fighting spirit hadn’t simply weakened with age, nor had his reach shrunk because he’d grown frailer. This was the result of him achieving even greater heights by condensing his power to such high density that nothing leaked out of him.

Although Black Smoke possessed the power to erase anything he touched, the ability was limited to his body from the knees and above, and it came with certain conditions. After all, if his power applied to his feet as well, it would erase the ground, making him unable to even stand on it. In addition, this power of erasure required him to be standing on ground that was originally magma, so it ceased to function if he was in midair. For those reasons, Stein decided to put his accumulation of seventy years of experience to use against Black Smoke.

Black Smoke was speechless. Even though he should have clearly taken the initiative, he couldn’t believe that not only wasn’t Stein at the end of his fist, he was actually close to his chest. And even more unbelievable was the fact that Stein had caught Black Smoke’s ankle with his toes just as he was about to throw his punch, flinging him up into the air.

I was overwhelmed by conventional martial arts?!

Unless Stein had a perfect grasp on Black Smoke’s movements and performed his martial technique with perfect physical control, exactly as he envisioned it, there was no way he could have thrown Black Smoke—a creature that had mastered a variety of monk-slaying techniques—using only his foot.

I understand now. He hasn’t grown weaker. This is the optimal solution, which he determined from his accumulated experience. Completely unmatched in martial arts, Black Smoke was all but defeated and could do nothing against Stein, who moved his left leg forward into a stance again and raised his fist.

Forgive me, Black Smoke whispered in his mind. Who were those words directed at? Were they meant for Stein, who hadn’t been able to properly settle things back on the Boiling Mountain? Or perhaps...for his brothers?

There was the sound of a mirror cracking.

“Black Smoke!”

Purple Smoke?! Stein reacted to another deep voice he hadn’t heard in seventy years and dodged the burning purple fist that had suddenly intercepted Stein’s attack.

This was a powerful creature who had been born later than Black Smoke. Although he had participated in the attack on the Boiling Mountain, he had somehow managed to survive the attacks by the Hero’s party and had also lived through many battlefields after that. His name was Purple Smoke. The experience he had accumulated was near the peak, making him one of the strongest monk slayers in the later stages of the great war.

According to my muscle perception, he shouldn’t have been here a moment ago. Either this world brought him here by force, or there really is some kind of malfunction going on. For some reason, this monk slayer made of boiling, purple lava hadn’t been caught in Stein’s net of perception when he had been scanning over the battlefield. He had suddenly appeared out of thin air, further suggesting that this virtual world wasn’t functioning normally.

“Let’s do this, Black Smoke!” Purple Smoke stood next to his older brother.

“O...kay?” Black Smoke shook his head in a bit of confusion, then turned to face Stein.

This would seem like a natural scene since the two of them were brothers, but it looked completely absurd to Stein, who knew them personally.

Such nonsense. If you’re going to re-create them, do it properly. Black Smoke was perfect until a moment ago, but the determination in his muscles is wrong now. Uncharacteristically for him, Stein was a little irritated at this fake world.

Both Black Smoke and Purple Smoke were fighters who’d wished for a fair duel with Stein and had been defeated thus. Stein was certain that this would remain true no matter how much danger their brothers were in, yet the two monk slayers in front of him thought it was natural for them to team up. In other words, Stein had realized that this world of calculations was unable to properly reproduce his old archenemies.

Then, something even more irritating took place.

“Let’s flank him!” Purple Smoke circled around behind Stein with incredible speed, while Black Smoke remained in front, putting Stein between the two slayers.

Purple Smoke had no special abilities; all he possessed were his speed and accumulated experience. He was skilled at closing the distance with his speed and slaughtering his opponents with his honed martial arts prowess, and he was also very skilled at escaping. As a result, he had somehow continued surviving the deadly battlefields where the Hero’s party had rampaged, and he eventually became one of the most studied monk slayers. However, Purple Smoke was a strangely mentally unbalanced monster, and although he had been shameless enough to run away, gain more experience, and prepare for the next time, he’d never tried a surprise attack from behind, instead insisting on head-on deadly confrontations.

How can I fear Purple Smoke when he lacks his usual persistence? Who would fear Black Smoke when he’s started finding that behavior natural? Stein was at his limit. If this place was going to dishonor the memories he’d built through battle, he had to correct things at once.

“Rah!”

“Yah!”

Stein was assaulted from both sides: with a fist of black lava that burned everything from the front and a fist like purple lightning that even left afterimages from the back. However...a person’s personality was the product of their accumulated experience. In other words, it was the result of training their skills, so could someone truly fully utilize their skills when their personality and thought process were different? They couldn’t, not in this situation at least. To begin with, if these two had possessed their original personalities, they would know what would happen if they carelessly got within reach of Stein’s fists: There was absolutely no doubt that they would die.

How can he notice an attack coming from behind him?! Purple Smoke was shocked as his fist didn’t connect with Stein.

Stein’s muscles moved gently, using the minimum effort necessary to dodge Purple Smoke’s fist, then he caught Black Smoke’s foot much, much more easily than the previous time and tossed him slightly off the ground.

“Hah!” Stein cried. Go to sleep. This time, he swung his fist to finish off his old enemy for good.

“Thank you for everything.” Perhaps because he was on the verge of death, Black Smoke returned to his normal self and briefly thanked his archenemy before being extinguished.

“Black Smoke?!” But Purple Smoke couldn’t tolerate watching his brother getting killed right in front of him.

Next, Stein turned around to put his other old enemy to rest, moving his body slightly to the side to dodge Purple Smoke’s fist. Although that punch seemed like it had the same speed as earlier, Stein became more vigilant.

This copy of Purple Smoke has improved a little, Stein thought. Purple Smoke’s speed hadn’t changed; it was his martial technique that was different now. There was no intent.

It was said that master monks could sense their enemy’s intent to attack and preemptively avoid it. This was the technique Stein had used to dodge the attack coming from behind him. No matter how fast the attack was, it was easy to deal with if he knew his enemy’s movements in advance. Of course, Stein was also at that level, but conversely, there were techniques that erased that intent that could be used against his fellow monks, even killing them. Purple Smoke’s intent to punch and kill carried by his fist had been completely hidden, meaning that he was regaining the skills worthy of giving him the name of monk slayer.

However, the two of them were already within killing range of each other, so a conclusion would be reached soon.

“Impossible!” Purple Smoke was shocked for the umpteenth time.

If there was anything truly unfortunate here for Purple Smoke, who was using all of his experience in a life-and-death battle against Stein, it was that he had not been perfectly re-created yet. And that was why he fell for this little trick. Stein did the opposite of erasing his intent: He assaulted Purple Smoke with a storm of easily over a thousand imaginary fists. If Purple Smoke had been properly re-created, he would have probably realized that they were nothing but intent-filled illusions, but since he was only halfway to his original self, the monster reacted completely to them.

A straight punch! From the right! Even though this Purple Smoke was just an imitation, he was still a monk slayer who’d lived until the end of the great war. In but a brief moment, he sensed Stein’s true intent among the thousand false moves and tried to dodge the attack before it reached him. But for some reason, his leg was kicked and smashed.

Is it even possible for a living creature to have their consciousness and body move completely separately?! Purple Smoke immediately grasped Stein’s technique and realized what had happened. Stein had earnestly tried to throw a straight punch with his right fist, but his body had moved differently and kicked Purple Smoke’s leg.

This is it! Purple Smoke learned even that unexpected technique in an instant, and as his final, vain struggle, he intended to correct his posture with his mind while his body threw a desperate punch at Stein.

However, Stein dodged even that. The legendary monk had perfectly grasped Purple Smoke’s movements through simple kinetic vision and direct observation. He once again dodged Purple Smoke’s attack with the least movement necessary, and this time, he unleashed a right hook with all his might, exactly as he intended it.

Just how much knowledge and experience does this man have?! Purple Smoke’s final thoughts expressed awe at all of the martial experience and skill Stein must have accumulated in his long life.

But as Stein swung his fist, he also silently sent his thoughts to the monk slayer he’d once been acquainted with, who had turned into literal purple smoke. He’d learned everything the legendary monk had to offer, becoming the ultimate monk slayer and winding up defeated after an incredibly fierce battle.

“Looks like we’re pretty much done.” As Ferd looked at Stein vigilantly maintaining his stance, he also confirmed that Lara had routed the demon army, which wasn’t a dangerous force in this location either.

“Is the Boiling Mountain next?” Sazaki asked Lara about their next destination, sipping from his flask, uncaring of the world cracking around them.

“It is. Apparently, it was taken down by long-range magical attacks in addition to the true monk slayers,” she replied.

“Hmm? Magical attacks, you say?” Sazaki was puzzled, as none of the enemies he recalled encountering during the middle of the war had been capable of using magic powerful enough to cause the fall of the Boiling Mountain.

At the same time, the simulation collapsed, and the Hero’s party headed to the next one.

The mirror before them displayed the Boiling Mountain under assault from magical attacks, surrounded by a vortex of flames.

“It seems that even though I died in this scenario, I saw to it that my body was properly disposed of, but apparently my idiot mentor messed up and got his corpse controlled.” Lara’s mentor had passed away after the end of the war in the real world, but here, he was a corpse being puppeted by necromancy.

“Aaargh!” Screams erupted all across the Boiling Mountain. Though it was normally a sacred land, which was named thus for the steam rising from monks’ bodies, right now it was literally on fire. The monk slayers, monsters made of lava and proficient in martial arts, wrapped up the inexperienced and unorganized monks inside their scorching bodies, attempting meanwhile to overwhelm the few elite monks with sheer numbers.

In the real world, many mortal mages had also participated in the decisive battle on the Boiling Mountain, but in this virtual world, most of the powerful mages had already been defeated, reduced to mindless resurrected corpses. The skeleton walking at the head of the group was the great mage Reynaud, Lara and Derry’s mentor. He was one of the greatest mages ever, who’d reached the Hadal layer and left his name in history. Reynaud had already been old and had been unable to make sure his corpse was disposed of after his defeat at the hands of the demon army, so he’d now been dragged into the assault on the Boiling Mountain.

It was a very simple concept: As monks fought with their bare hands, they lacked long-range attacks, and since blocking said attacks with their muscles was unreasonable, their defensive options were limited. Furthermore, in this virtual world, Stein was currently in the middle of a stare-down with Black Smoke at the foot of the Boiling Mountain, and his mentor Albert had his hands full dealing with the assault by the elite monk slayers. A long-range magical attack by the undead now would completely overwhelm the Boiling Mountain’s defenses.

Reynaud’s body wordlessly pointed its six glowing fingers at the Boiling Mountain, devoid of a will or memories of its own. He remembered nothing—not that he’d given up on his apprentice Lara ever getting married, not that Lara had been forced to blow herself up just the other day, not that his final apprentice Derry had been killed by the demon army while performing odd jobs, and not even his own death.

The undead mages detachedly pointed their fingers at the Boiling Mountain. Before them, the clouds at the peak of the mountain parted, the light of the heavens piercing through. A massive, glowing, white magic circle appeared, large enough to perhaps cover the entire mountain. The runes of power adorning the circle were massively potent, each word they spelled out incomprehensible even to these once-great mages. Yet, they could not be expected to understand them; this was the crystallization of the power of the Abyssal layer, a power that no one had matched in seventy years—the power of ten glowing fingers. Prior to the war, the very notion of a mage who could make all of their fingers on both hands glow would have been utter insanity.

“To bed with you now, old-timers,” Lara said, despite being quite old herself.

Even though her mentor Reynaud had now been reduced to only a skeleton, she’d identified him through his mana wavelength, and fired concentrated destruction through a gigantic magic circle. The mere aftereffects of the power of annihilation that radiated from it stirred the heavens themselves as it charged toward the army of undead, Reynaud included. It canceled out the combined magical attacks led by Reynaud that it collided with, disregarding all of their magical defenses. It was said that even a single layer could make a world of difference. Their leader, Reynaud, was the only one at six fingers, while most of the other undead were of the Progressive layer at four fingers, so they had no chance of putting up a fight.

However...along with the sound of glass cracking, something unusual took place in the middle of the army of the dead. Their numbers suddenly doubled, and undead priests appeared. Their robes had originally been luxurious with gold embroidery, but now they were blackened and gave off a rotten smell. But one of them wielded a staff made of bones stacked upon each other, with a bit of rotten flesh clinging to his own skeleton and black flames burning in his gaping eye sockets.

“You damn Wiiitch!” the undead shouted. He was Kahn the Necromancer, known also as the king of the undead. He was a figure infamous even in the future.

“Kahn is here? Looks like this virtual world doesn’t understand a thing about reality.” Lara merely sneered in return, even as Kahn glared at her hatefully.

In the normal timeline, Kahn had been feared early during the great war, when he’d stolen corpses from battlefields to turn into his forces, using them to attack strongholds where the mortals least expected him. However, this puppet master, in a sense, had found himself at a disadvantage when the living made a comeback, and he’d fallen easily at the hands of the Hero’s party. In other words, although he was as well-known as Gyu Ri or Purple Smoke, he wasn’t among those who’d fought a deadly battle with the Hero’s party, so the virtual world had clearly picked the wrong person.

“Begone.” The light fired from the Witch of Annihilation became even brighter, but before it could strike the army of the dead...the simulation distorted the past even further, into a convenient scenario where a certain corpse had failed to be disposed of properly.

“Get her, Witch!” Kahn shouted.

At his signal, the corpse of a woman appeared. She had lifeless, dark brown skin, blank, heterochromatic blue-and-red eyes, a large, gaping hole in her chest, and ten glowing fingers. In this new scenario, a young Lara had been raised after death, and she now stood against her old self, sending forth an identical-looking aurora. The two auroras collided with each other and fought for dominance.

“Hmph.” In response, Lara snorted and scoffed at the simulation again.

The past wasn’t something to be tampered with lightly. In a scenario where, conveniently, Lara’s corpse had remained intact, other changes had taken place. As a result of Lara’s strenuous efforts to help those around her escape, he was now alive.

As an aside, there were people among the mortals’ ranks who could crush any mere foot soldiers effortlessly, though this wasn’t the case with the more unique or powerful among the Great Demon King’s army. For example...

“Dear me, I have no idea what’s going on here...”

“Wha—” Kahn reacted to the voice he suddenly heard near him, but his head had already been separated from his body.

Before the great war, if someone had to choose the most fearsome mage, most masters would have muttered a single person’s name in fear. The name of a mage who could even cause natural disasters yet had ultimately circled back to the basics: Lara’s mentor, Reynaud the Slaughterer.

“...But it seems you’ve been running rampant.” Reynaud had transformed back from a corpse into a living person in the blink of an eye, and he didn’t understand the situation very well. But when he noticed his clearly dead apprentice, the necromancer who was apparently controlling her, and the army of undead, he became enraged and the glow of his six fingers intensified.

The rapid sound of muscle fibers being torn apart echoed, and the heads and limbs of many corpses went flying. The cacophony spread in the blink of an eye throughout the surrounding area, littering the ground with body parts.

Object manipulation was the most basic skill for a mage. It was the first thing apprentice mages learned, and it was used to move small objects around during everyday life. It tended to be underestimated, in both the past and the present. However, when a mage of the Hadal layer took notice of how easy it was to activate and mastered it, it could become a deadly weapon.

I’m not done yet! Kahn, reduced to only a head, beamed his thoughts to Lara’s corpse to command her to self-destruct—a mage’s final trump card.

Self-destruction magic made the user’s mana go berserk and detonate, and it was something many full-fledged mages could achieve. If Lara were to use it, it would probably wipe out the entire area around the Boiling Mountain. Moreover, Lara’s corpse could self-destruct before the encroaching aurora reached her—but only if that red light hadn’t arrived.

“Do you really think so little of me?” One finger on the elderly Lara’s left hand glowed even brighter, and a red light, far thinner and far faster than the aurora, shot out from it and sliced through her younger self’s corpse. It was a single-target severing spell Lara had created that prioritized speed to kill the enemy before they had the time to do anything. As was its intended purpose, it cut Lara’s corpse into tiny pieces before she could activate her self-destruction magic.

At the same time, Reynaud tore Kahn into a thousand pieces with his magic, and the necromancer finally disappeared in a swirl of flames. Then, the aurora struck the army of undead and wiped them out, avoiding Reynaud in the process.

“You really are slow.” Lara landed next to Reynaud, criticizing him.

“How bizarre... The Lara I knew was always calling me a geezer, yet here she is as an old woman.” Reynaud thought he’d failed to retrieve his apprentice’s corpse, but he became puzzled when he realized the old woman next to him was actually Lara.

“Well, it has been seventy years for me. I’m your senior currently.”

“Seventy years? Is this the result of some space-time disturbance? Or has history been altered and you’ve come to restore it? Is this perhaps not the real world?” Reynaud managed to deduce the correct answer simply from Lara’s appearance and words; he was truly worthy of being called a great mage.

“Correct. In reality, we were victorious. This is a simulation inside of an artifact, which is trying to forcibly impose a world where the demon army won onto reality. It seems it’s gone out of control, though.”

“Aha. So the survivors of the demon army persist to this day?”

“Listen and be amazed: There are practically no remnants of the demon army anymore. The last time any of them were spotted was at least fifty years ago. This has nothing to do with the outcome of the great war; it’s all the fault of some bigheaded, foolish human.”

“My goodness...there are people like that in every era, huh?” Reynaud looked downhearted and shook his head. “Well, there was once a mage who threw his apprentice out without giving him a proper education, leading to disaster at the academy’s entrance exams. I suppose people don’t change that easily even after a hundred years.”

“I was actually going to ask you about that. Do you know anything more?”

“Let me see... This is only thirdhand information, but that apprentice decided to go to the academy because he wanted friends or something... I didn’t really interact with them, so I don’t know more than that.”

“I see. One more thing. I remember that you told me that mentor was trying to transfer his soul to achieve immortality. Do I have that right?”

“Yes. My, did I mention that to you? I suppose it seems like something that I would do, given the circumstances. Whoops, the world is collapsing. It seems that this is it.” Reynaud was being asked question after question when he actually had some questions of his own, but he noticed that the world was starting to shatter around them. “It was a pleasure to talk to you again. However, you’re here to correct history, aren’t you? You must have a way to deal with that being, right?”

The “being” Reynaud was referring to was what had caused his and Lara’s simulated deaths. He was the natural enemy of not just Lara but every mage in the world, because of his preposterous authority that made it impossible for anyone around him to emit magic outside their body. Faced with such an ability, Lara had been unable to even escape in this simulation and had to activate her magic inside her. In other words, she’d had no choice but to self-destruct and take her enemy down with her.

“My husband should be able to deal with him.”

“Your...husband? You mean you got married?!” Reynaud was interrupted as time ran out and the world collapsed first, saving him from the response to the words he’d been about to carelessly speak: “You?! Really?! How?!”

“Good grief. That was just like talking to the real thing.” Although this world had been but an imitation, Lara was reminded of her past and shrugged as she returned to the space with floating mirrors. She missed the mentor who’d actually let those last words slip when she’d told her about her wedding in the real world.

“Now then, let’s move on to the next one,” Lara prompted.

“Okay,” Sazaki replied listlessly.

The next mirror displayed a certain sanctuary. While its existence was normally unknown to mortals, someone had used his ability to nullify magic in order to break through the barrier and attempt to tamper with the dragons sleeping within... It was also the location where that someone had once fought a fierce battle against two boys who’d happened to be there, and had been defeated by them.

“Hic. There’s not much left.” Sazaki lamented the meager amount of alcohol remaining in his bottle. An ominous clacking sound was coming from the katana at his waist, but his comrades, who knew what it meant, didn’t say anything—the sword was angry.

Is that the extent of their defenses? Muu Gi, a humanoid dragon with dull-white scales, quietly moved from shadow to shadow as he observed the barrier of the sanctuary where many dragons slumbered.

During the great war, the dragon named Muu Gi had possessed the authority to stop magic from being released to the outside of one’s body, but the side of the mortals had been completely unaware of his existence. Just like his older brother—the dragon with the authority to reflect magic, who’d tormented Lara early on in the war—Muu Gi had been born in a form similar to Max’s dragon-man transformation, despite being a pure dragon. This had caused his dragon parents to abandon him, and so he’d dwelled in darkness. Then, the Great Demon King who’d risen to kill all mortal-kind reached out to them. As a result, mortals, including the churches that were well-versed in myths and legends, had gone into the great war without knowing about the dragons who held absolute authority over magic.

In this virtual world, Muu Gi had entered the dragons’ sanctuary, messing with the sleeping dragons to put them into even deeper sleep to make it impossible for them to join the war. Furthermore, he’d killed many mages until Lara was able to take him down with her. However, this was currently a simulation of a timeline before any of that had happened. The dragons’ sanctuary was safe, and Lara hadn’t lost her life.

O Great Demon King, your humble servant Muu Gi shall plunge these foolish dragons into an even deeper slumber. Muu Gi’s red eyes sparkled with obligation and ambition.

Muu Gi’s brother, who stayed by the Great Demon King’s side, was physically strong and skilled in combat, but Muu Gi himself was quite feeble for a dragon, and his stature was about the same as a human’s, so he was more suited to scheming and operating behind the scenes. However, there were always people who acted in ways that didn’t suit their abilities. This was all the more true for someone who’d been abandoned by his parents, which gave him a strong desire for recognition and the need to seek great military achievements, wanting to prove that the Great Demon King had been correct to pick him and his brother up.

But despite Muu Gi’s desire to join the battlefield, his unimpressive combat skills had been a huge hindrance. He’d happened to run into a boy who’d just started to understand the power of light just enough to open a tiny hole in the sanctuary’s barrier, another boy tagging along with him, and the three of them had fought to the death. This fierce battle ended with Muu Gi’s defeat at the hands of the inexperienced humans.

And in this virtual world, there was nothing Muu Gi could do, as he was already within range. Could he recognize the old man walking toward him with his sandals stepping firmly on the ground? Could he recognize the clacking sound? Could he recognize the trails, deep red as the sky? Could he recognize his own body, which hadn’t merely been cut into pieces but turned to dust? And above all else...

“Hey, we meet again. By the way, it seems that you took good care of my wife and her old man.”

Could he recognize the anger in Sazaki’s voice as the Blademaster finished everything in an instant?

Although this old man usually had a nonchalant expression that suggested he was detached from feelings of friendship or love, his words and actions were often the complete opposite. That went double when it came to the cause of Lara’s death, even though it was only in a made-up scenario. Lara also knew that, so she watched silently without any snarky retort.

Then came the sound of a mirror cracking.

Once again, an assumption about the past had been conveniently altered. In order to get rid of his imperfect humanoid form, Muu Gi had been given special enhancement by the Great Demon King, and he now took the form of a mighty dragon. He was flying with large, bat-like wings. His powerful limbs collapsed firmly onto the ground. His robust tail, that could even destroy castle walls, roiled. And then...

“Whoaaargh!”

His shouting head went flying from his body. Red trails covered him. He was slow. Far too slow. His slowness could not be overemphasized. He dared to appear within the Blademaster’s reach, shouting? Why would he not assume that this was plenty of time to kill him? The newly appeared Muu Gi’s body was chopped to pieces, and he vanished again.

It was impossible for anyone to stand before Sazaki unless they had complete immunity to physical attacks, or they were a transcendent being with a conceptual authority that allowed them to always make the first move. Many such exceptional beings had existed during the great war, so the Hero’s party, who had defeated them all, was still regarded with awe and veneration.

“Hic. Hey, Ferd, you got any booze?” Sazaki went back to his usual drunkard self.

“Of course not.”

“Should have brought another ten bottles.” He sadly shook his almost-empty bottle of alcohol, all the while speculating why he wasn’t present in this simulation.

The next moment, the ground shook fiercely.

“Hmm? But I didn’t do anything.” Ferd remembered this shaking; it was the same as the one he’d felt in his young days after he’d somehow defeated Muu Gi, invaded the sanctuary, and woke the dragons up.

“The flow of events has been mostly fixed now, so things are probably being pulled in the original direction. That means there’s only a little bit left to solve.” Lara believed that the distorted calculations about the great war’s events had started going back to normal.

“What’s going on?! What is this red sky?!” Immediately after that, over one hundred mighty dragons came flying out of the earth and were shocked at the sight before them. The sky was a deep red, and the divine power had clearly declined in the world. The dragons could tell from the low amounts of divinity they felt that this was an abnormal situation.

“Now then, off to the next one,” Lara prompted.

“Okay,” Sazaki replied listlessly once again. He’d eliminated the causes of his comrades’ deaths one after the other while assuming that the cause of his own death was something trivial.

The next mirror didn’t display anything spectacular; it was neither a sanctuary nor a military base. If one had to describe it, it would be a small town where despair was particularly intense during the early stages of the war, unlike everywhere else they’d been within the mirror.

“I think...it was this way...” Ferd searched through his memories as he entered a back alley in this small town.

No matter how you looked at it, it was clear that the people here were hanging their heads in the face of impending death, so no one had the time to help others. So no one paid any attention, even when someone collapsed in a back alley. Even if, for example, it was a young man with a bottle of alcohol rolling down next to him.

“Hic. Hey, pass me that bottle of booze.” The young man, who was lying on his back in the alley and had a clear look of death about him, made that request to Ferd’s group.

Seeing the scene, Sazaki leaned against the wall and shook his practically empty bottle of alcohol.

“You need to get medical treatment and something to eat first,” Ferd told the young man.

“Medical treatment...huh? I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Did something happen?”

“I got stabbed by a bewitched sword, and my vitality won’t return. It’s like I’m cursed or something. Even high priests can’t lift the curse, so I’ll probably die soon. On top of that, I killed a buddy I’ve known for twelve years, so my motivation’s at zero.”

As Sazaki listened to the apathetic young man, he recalled memories of eighty years ago while looking nowhere in particular. Memories of the man who had been his friend and rival; the two of them had run around in fields together, jumped into rivers together, and swung around tree branches together. And when he’d fallen to the dark path, Sazaki had been left with no choice but to kill him. The young man lying down here had very recently experienced the exact same thing, and he was about to end his troubled life.

“I hear you, but I can’t just stay silent and watch someone die. So I guess I’ll give it my all.”

“Old man, you don’t know how to mind your own business, do you?”

“I used to be told that often.”

If only it hadn’t been for the strange boy back then who’d said he’d give it his all and poured light and vitality into the young man until he collapsed.

“Anyway, I’ll give it a go.” Just like he’d done seventy years ago, Ferd sent his light to the young man.

No one had paid any attention to a young man who’d suffered defeat after defeat in every war front, had barely any food, and lay dying in some random street. All the more so since they hadn’t known he would later accomplish himself as the Lightspeed Blademaster.

Another mirror cracked.

The young Sazaki, who would have died in the virtual world without anyone noticing, also disappeared.

“I only died in this simulation, right?” Although Sazaki had been angry about Lara’s death in another simulation, he shrugged like nothing had happened.

“Hmph.” Lara, who had been quiet up to that point, merely snorted.

“Well then...looks like this is the last one.” Ferd ignored the couple’s messing around and squinted at the scene reflected in what was surely going to be the last mirror. He could unmistakably see his hometown, but this mirror was different from the previous ones; it shone black, as if to reject them.

“What’s going on, Lara?” Stein asked.

“There’s a high chance it’s quarantined. It’s probably too much for Ferd to handle,” Lara quickly replied. She forcibly undid the mirror’s quarantine and stepped inside.

“This feels...so nostalgic...” As Ferd stepped foot into his hometown—which was not burning—memories of eighty long years ago came rushing back, and he got a faraway look in his eyes.

It was just a farming village you’d find anywhere before the great war. Golem carriages were nowhere close to being a thing yet, so it was far from any trade networks, lacked distribution of goods, and was quite impoverished. The villagers went to bed early on cold nights and worked in the fields from early in the morning. This went on and on forever, and it wouldn’t change for the next generation either.

“May I ask you a question?” Ferd approached a middle-aged woman.

“Yes?”

“I’m a friend of Isaac’s. Are he and his family doing well?” He spoke his father’s name for the first time in forever.

“Yes, they’re doing quite well.”

“That’s good to hear. I think his youngest son was called Fe...”

“Little Ferd is doing just fine too.”

“Oh, I’m truly glad to hear that.” So I’m here too...

Through his conversation with the woman, Ferd confirmed that he did exist in this virtual world. But she said something odd next.

“But it seems that he’s been trying to leave the village recently. He said that something was strange, so he was going to check outside.”

“‘Something strange,’ huh?” If Ferd’s memory served him right, he’d never said anything like that and tried to leave the village. But the Ferd in this world apparently thought something was strange.

“Hmm? Who are you people?” A young man—no, more like a little brat—suddenly arrived and looked at the unfamiliar old people with confusion.

“Pfft.” A bit of air escaped Max’s lips, while Elrica unconsciously covered her mouth.

The boy’s golden hair jutted out everywhere—perhaps because of bedhead or he’d simply not groomed it at all—and his strong-willed, blue eyes stared at the elderly people. His clothes were shabby, with clear signs that they’d been sewn back together, and his nails were full of dirt. Anyone who saw him in person wouldn’t need to speculate about him being a descendant of the royal family or a demigod; they’d just consider him an ordinary village boy.

“If it isn’t Ferd. This man says he’s your father’s friend,” the woman said.

“He knows my old man? I’ve never seen him before. Did they meet before I was born?” The boy—the young Ferd—seemed puzzled and continued observing the old people.

Damn, I remember this. His face shows that he’s thinking I’m human mixed with something else. Max, who was being more closely watched, remembered how Ferd had stared at him seventy years ago and almost burst into laughter.

“Well, whatever. I’d like to take you to my dad, but I have some urgent job to take care of.” The young Ferd stopped observing the old group and started walking toward the village’s exit. He was headed to the world. He was going to slip out of the fake blue sky disguised with illusion magic and go fight to smash the deep red skyyyyy...

The calculations failed. It tried again and again, but no matter how many attempts it went through, it was all in vain. This time, it had even tried using illusion magic to make it appear that nothing strange was happening in the world, but Ferd had felt that something was off, like the answer was somewhere nearby, and left the village.

The scene changed.

Even when the army that burned down Ferd’s village was doubled in number, he’d managed to escape.

The scene changed.

Even when Ferd’s village alone wasn’t attacked, he’d left his village determined to fight for life and the blue sky.

The scene changed.

The biggest problem was that the virtual world was unable to perceive Ferd when he’d been reproduced with increased accuracy, leaving it unable to understand where he was or what he was doing.

The virtual world collapsed.

“What happened?” Ferd was confused as the village around them crumbled and they were thrown into a space filled with a swirling torrent of mirrors.

“This world miraculously managed to re-create part of you, but you wouldn’t listen to it, so it tried to isolate you. But things didn’t go well, so now it’s falling apart. It would have been better if it had been unable to simulate you from the get-go. This is an example of what happens when someone overly theoretical tries to understand something like a singularity. But still, it would be an issue if this were to leak into reality in a strange form, so we definitely need to stop the source.” Lara, having more or less grasped the situation, explained with a mix of exasperation.

The virtual world had briefly isolated the beginning that was Ferd and prepared convenient calculations up to a point, but this had resulted in it continuously spewing out abnormal errors. Prophets, dragons, gods, and numerous astrologers had concluded that they would be defeated at the hands of the Great Demon King. If it was impossible to perfectly re-create the man who had overturned that fate, it would also be impossible to manipulate him as expected.

“Hmm. Is it impossible for it to hypothesize about killing me before I was born or when I was a little kid?” Ferd asked.

“It seems that the core, which is having its fun in that timeline, is getting in the way. I’d like to tell it to focus on something else for a bit. Oh, there it is. I’ll make a path,” Lara replied as she poured mana into an especially large mirror in order to break into it.

Errors had to be corrected, and people had to wake up from their dreams. The Hero’s party peered into the dreamlike delusion reflected in the mirror.

“Please stop it, sir. It’s pointless to take this any further,” a young man replied to his upperclassman, shaking his head.

This young man had been granted special entry to a school of magic which was located in a different country than Greer’s Magic Academy. For someone like him, who was already on the verge of stepping into the Deep layer, it could be asserted that fighting with an upperclassman was pointless. But in any era, exceptional people tended to attract enmity and jealousy. When his upperclassman had accused him of cheating at school in some way, the young man had responded by demonstrating his overwhelming skill.

“Good job, man!”

“You showed him!”

The young man’s classmates praised him for driving away their arrogant upperclassman.

“No, I didn’t do that much...” The young man scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

He had big eyes, a youthful face, and a slender build to boot, so the girls were sending some slightly dangerous looks his way, while the teachers recognized him as the greatest prodigy since the school’s founding. There was no doubt that he was the center of attention among the new students.

But it was time to wake up from this dream. The mirror that Lara had poured mana into stopped functioning.

“Huh?” the young man muttered. He was no longer inside the school, and his classmates were nowhere to be seen. He was instead in an outdoor exam venue, where the ground was littered with the charred, carbonized remains of the youngsters that would have become his classmates and the adults that would have become his teachers, all victims of the aftermath of his extermination magic.

“N-No...” The young man’s face changed in an instant, turning into the old mage Udo. “M-My mentor was to blame! It was his fault for only teaching me extermination magic! A-And the school was also to blame! Why did no one tell me in advance not to use such dangerous magic?! B-Because of them, I was treated like a disposable weapon! No, that’s all wrong! We’re a child prodigy and top of our class in this school! We have many friends and even a girlfriend!”

Udo was no longer sane. He was a little older than Ferd and the rest, and he should have been beheaded for using extermination magic at his entrance examination. Yet, behind the scenes, a special magical device had been placed around his neck, and the country used him as its convenient weapon. Though he’d managed to regain his freedom during the chaos of the war, he became completely obsessed with his failure and turned delusional.

The Arzyna Kingdom had made contact with this dangerous individual. While the kingdom had been trying to create a treasured article that could perfectly calculate the future, Udo had attempted to have the device perform calculations to his own convenience, correct his past mistakes, and impose them onto reality; complete and utter foolishness on his part. Of course, even if he were to redo his school life, the great war would start soon after that, so it would have been completely pointless.

In the end, Udo had executed his plan, but he’d gotten trapped in the virtual world before he could secure the two keys necessary for imposing those calculations onto the real world: Hagen, who could best harness the artifact, and Emmeline, the biological component that could assist with the calculations. As for the artifact itself, which had run amok and was on the verge of exploding as it tried to repaint reality, Hagen was actually a nuisance, since he had even the tiniest possibility of being able to control it, and Udo was sufficient for assisting with the calculations, since he’d stepped foot into the Deep layer.

“Aaaaah! You wretchessssss!” Udo—a man who’d kept making the wrong decisions and was trapped in all kinds of delusions—screamed when he noticed the Hero’s party still outside the mirror.

The mirror cracked and the virtual world offered its last resistance, revealing a secret about Udo that he didn’t even know himself.

“Huh?” Memories poured into Udo’s mind: A magic circle inscribed with a technique for transferring souls. A young Udo suspended in a container overflowing with liquid. A vessel for escaping an old body.

The achievement of dividing one’s soul and pseudo-immortality. Although everything had gone well at the start, when he’d tried to use his magic to show his skills during an entrance examination, a deviation between his soul and mind had caused him to lose control, leading to tragedy. Furthermore, he’d lost his sanity upon realizing that his ego hadn’t been perfectly re-created, and his memories and personality became muddled by his delusions.

In other words, this wasn’t Udo, but...

“Aaaaah! I?! We?! Udo?! No! No, that’s right! Nonono! You! We! She! I! Whoaaaaagh!” Udo started losing his marbles as he remembered that he hadn’t just forgotten the technique for transferring souls, but that he’d been one of the products of this technique.

“I’d considered the possibility that they weren’t mentor and disciple, but rather the same person. It seems that I was right. I believe his name was...Asher. This is the result of casually experimenting with duplicating your soul. Are they exactly the same person? Do they possess the same will? The same mind? Since no one can prove any of that, it can only lead to insanity,” Lara commented indifferently as she watched Udo through the mirror. “Let’s end this now.”

“Diediediediedie! If you plan to get in my, our, your way, then diiiiie!”

Lara created a pathway for entering the mirror, and the Hero’s party marched into it. Words were unnecessary. There was no point in saying anything anymore.

“Don’t get in the way of our futuuuuure!” In an instant, Udos of all ages split into an army a million strong, their shouts echoing all around. All of them were the same individual, created by the simulation and soul transfer technique running amok. Because they were linked, they would each instantly revive unless they were all killed at the exact same time, making this quite the hassle.

The deluded mage Udo—or Asher—appeared before the Hero’s party and was crushed without leaving a single trace. The million identical individuals were unable to withstand the overwhelming mass of the darkness that enveloped them all at once...

The world was engulfed in darkness.

“See?! When such fathomless idiots are born in this world, you would want to wipe everything clean, wouldn’t you?! You want to start over and try harder?! Do better next time?! Duplicate your soul to become immortal?! Even if you polish your exterior and gain superficial inner experience, if your core nature remains the same and you don’t try to change it, it’s all pointless, you fool!” This shout belonged to a being so hollow and improperly re-created that he couldn’t even realize that he was also included in his own rant, objectively speaking.

Sazaki twisted his body and placed his hand on his katana. Lara’s fingers started shining abnormally. Stein readied his Null Wave at full power. Max turned completely blue inside his armor. Elrica’s staff was covered in shining runes.

“You’re also in the same situation. Don’t you understand that?” Ferd asked the black mist, shining so brightly that nobody could look directly at him anymore.

As if there would ever be a story that takes place before the main character is born. That book wouldn’t sell a copy. Oh well. I wasn’t prepared to die anyway. A part of Max’s consciousness was running away from reality as he cursed at the black mist in his mind.

This being was too imperfect, too patched together, too hollow. He was nothing but a pale imitation, an inferior reproduction who didn’t even understand why he was here right now.

“You’re all defective creatures to begin with! Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, and all the rest! You kill each other in wars for honor, money, justice, or some other ‘great cause’! You slaughter every last person, even the elderly or infants! Those dogs who kill their prey to eat are far better than all of you! Why have you been killing each other for nonsensical reasons for thousands of years?! I’m sick of it! All of it! The living races? Yeah, right! You don’t care about life any more than I do, yet you have the nerve to call yourselves that!” But his voice was exactly how Ferd and the rest remembered it.

“Allow me to make a prediction! You defective creatures will destroy each other even without me doing anything! In the worst case, you might destroy this planet itself! So it would be much better to destroy you all now! Here and now, I’ll bring an end to this shared resentment that will continue until the end of times! The number of lives I will eradicate now will be far less than the number you living races would ever take from here on!” There was passion, rage...and despair.

All educational institutions, including the ones in Greer, the Academic City-State, taught the exact reasons for the outbreak of the great war: All living beings had fallen from grace because they’d killed, cursed, and violated their own kind. Then, one of the primordial gods had risen in response to the cries of darkness and negative thoughts, forsaken all living beings, and sought to eradicate them.

“In the end, all of you will die out! If you don’t want to die right now, try killing me!” A self-righteous transcendent being who’d dreamed of the preciousness of life yet chose to cast it away. “Come! It’s time to settle things!”

In front of the Hero’s party stood a being with a dark mist emanating from his entire body. This was the one who’d destroyed the world and taken countless lives. This was the power of darkness he wielded, limitless and bottomless. He was the incarnation of the despair and death of every living thing and the very antithesis of the Hero—the light that had filled the world. The great god and king of demons.

“Feeeeerd!”

A phantom of the Great Demon King had appeared. But this had been impossible to begin with. The artifact used Udo’s desires to calculate the world, but since reproducing the most essential parts was extremely difficult, it kept spitting out errors. That was why such unlikely events were taking place now.

“I am the darkness, the end of life!”

The Great Demon King, who should have been defeated at the very end of the great war, had suddenly appeared. He was difficult to reproduce and just patched together, with only his surface-level rage being apparent.

Just before the Great Demon King could make a move, a blade of murderous intent compressed to a terrifying density turned into a red glimmer and came flying at his neck. Sazaki, the Lightspeed Blademaster, and his bewitched sword were going all out. The ultimate speed cut through the space of darkness that rejected everything and definitely reached its mark. However...

“You’re too fast, you drunkard!”

If it was too fast to avoid, then there was no need to worry about it. Even being cut along with space itself only caused a bit of pain to the Great Demon King.

“The tower falls. The heavens fall. Let ruin come here. Let destruction come here. Now is the time of annihilation.”

Lara activated her magic without a moment’s delay. Unlike what she’d used against the army of undead, the beam of destruction that was fired from this magic circle was impossibly slim. In other words, it was incredibly concentrated, and it clearly contained far too much destructive power to use against a single opponent. If any of her apprentices were here, would they be rendered speechless to learn that she’d even chanted to cast this spell? No, they’d probably understand that it was only natural for their mentor to get serious against the Great Demon King. While chanting delayed a spell’s activation, its power increased with each spoken word. However, there were very few enemies that Lara would need to go to that trouble for. It was because she was up against that Great Demon King that she had no choice but to go all out.

“Odd little creature! Why are you throwing these pebbles at me?!”

Although thin, the destructive power was beyond human understanding, and yet the Great Demon King batted it away with his bare hands like it was a balled up piece of paper. As the magic was deflected behind him, it dragged everything around the point of impact into a void of nothingness.

Normally, Max, Stein, and Sazaki would have jumped in at this point, but they matched their pace with the slower Ferd; the three of them couldn’t stand before the Great Demon King without him.

“At least remember that you lost, you giant moron! I’m gonna crack your skull open again!”

“What are you talking about, you fool?!”

The two ultimate counterparts argued like common thugs, but the clash of the extreme light and darkness was the end of the world itself.

“Go to hell!” The Great Demon King clenched his fist tightly and threw a punch at Ferd.

“Rah!” Ferd, who’d assumed a shining humanoid form, focused his power into his shield.

The black mist and the shining shield collided. The moment the world cracked, it seemed as though time rewound and converged between the fist and shield, then another crack appeared in the world immediately afterward. Light and darkness combined, on the verge of birthing a primordial chaos.

“My path is null. My fist is null.”

“You know what it means to trade blows with me, don’t you, you exhibitionist?!”

Yes, I do, Stein thought.

Stein was trying to take advantage of the opening between the two, but there was no way he could survive the Great Demon King’s fist. The weight behind the punch alone was an important factor, and no scholar could calculate the density and mass of this fist of darkness, which was like an entire world in itself. The Great Demon King’s fist was a lethal weapon; if anyone other than Ferd was on the receiving end of it, even a graze from its pinky would undoubtedly result in instant death. But the same was true for Stein. The Null Wave, which didn’t originally exist, was supposed to be an ultimate power that could strip away all things and completely erase them from this world.

“Drop dead!” the Great Demon King shouted. Not only was he alive and well after getting hit in the side by Stein’s supposedly ultimate fist, but not a single part of him had vanished, and he tried to punch Stein back as if in retaliation.

You bastard! But before the Great Demon King’s attack could land, Max thrust his spear at his foe’s head, glowing such a bright blue as he unleashed his full dragon power that even his equipment’s disguise disappeared.

“Tell that lass to come here herself, you gofer!” Even after the Great Demon King was hit by the spear that had killed all manner of dragons, his face merely leaned back a bit. And as if that weren’t enough, he even called the blue dragon who’d bestowed her power to Max a mere “lass,” and in his irritation tried to break the shining spear.

But before the Great Demon King could act, a red glimmer ran across his neck. No living being could survive a direct slash to the neck from Sazaki’s bewitched sword, but the Great Demon King wasn’t someone who could be classified as a living being.

“Insignificant!” the Great Demon King shouted in annoyance, feeling no more than a tiny itch.

The next moment, Elrica suddenly appeared behind the Great Demon King. She drew the blade hidden in her staff, and the power, letters, and patterns—the poison meant for slaying gods—emitted a dark glow. As if her usual unsteady steps were nothing but a lie, she moved with agility befitting an assassin sent against the Great Demon King and tried to stab her blade into his back.

“You damned puppet of those utter fools!” the Great Demon King cursed at Elrica, the gods’ favored and one of their creations made solely for killing.

The Great Demon King was emotional as he derided the gods because some of them had been even worse than him, and the battle between him and the gods had been so chaotic that it had been difficult to evaluate which side was good and which was evil. But that would be a story for another time.

In any case, the blade that specialized entirely in killing the Great Demon King was sucked into his back. Seventy years ago, Elrica would have been convinced that this attack would bring certain death, but she was different now.

“That hurts!” Even when the Great Demon King was hit by a blade containing the gods’ grudges, it was just a mere stab for him.

The churches and the gods had been naive. The specially made blade they’d believed would bring certain death, along with the specifically calibrated Elrica, were nothing more than simple weapons. However, the King’s attention was undoubtedly diverted to his back.

“Yah!” Ferd swung his sword down. The dazzling brilliance bright enough to overthrow the darkness became a sword and struck the Great Demon King’s head. No one should have been able to survive a hit to the head from a sword containing the prayers and the brilliance of life of all mortal-kind.

“Ouch!”

With a certain exception. This time, all Ferd’s attack did...was cause the Great Demon King deep pain.

I’m really sick of this... This guy’s way too tough. Not to mention that we’d be knocked dead with a single punch. Things are fine for now since he’s still humanoid, but if he goes all the way to his final form, I’ll die for real this time. Max complained inwardly about the Great Demon King’s absurd resilience and monstrous stamina.

Did he possess the power to alter reality? No. The power of the stars? No. The ability to suppress the gods’ power? No. The power of judgment? No. The power to impose calculations onto reality? No. Although he’d once had people with all kinds of abilities working under him, he was exceedingly simple himself. The Great Demon King’s humanoid form simply destroyed everything with its ridiculous stamina and physical strength that only Ferd could withstand.

Our enemy is nothing but a defect, but things are also tough for us since we don’t have Erhard... Sazaki calmly thought as he continued swinging his katana.

The Great Demon King was cobbled together and full of defects, but the Hero’s party was also missing the companion who had served as a special offensive force against the Great Demon King alongside Ferd, so the balance between the two of them was maintained to a certain extent. But if anything, the Hero’s party had the advantage.

It really was only able to re-create the exterior. He was a much sharper, faster, and terrifying existence than this. As Lara’s magic slipped past him, Stein realized that this inferior copy lacked the complex mix of joy and sorrow that the original had felt toward humans, and that only his superficial power and will of rage had been reproduced. Even disregarding the seventy years of experience under Stein’s belt, the Great Demon King before them was clearly inferior to the real one.

“Ugh!” The Great Demon King grimaced as Stein punched him.

Not to mention tougher. Stein knew that the real one wouldn’t have been injured in a brief battle like this.

The real Great Demon King had finally started feeling actual damage after being under constant assault for an entire hour. He was the sole being in history who’d not only had anything left of him after enduring an entire hour of devastating attacks from the Hero’s party, but had been able to continue fighting them to the death.

But even so, I shouldn’t allow myself to get hit. Stein evaded the Great Demon King’s fist with a bit of leeway, though the very fact that he could dodge with any leeway at all was abnormal. If he’d tried parrying the Great Demon King’s arm, that alone would have carried him away and sent him flying, leaving even someone as sturdy as Stein beyond recovery.

“Die!” The Great Demon King threw a backhand blow, like the kind used by a common street thug.

We somehow need to end this before he reaches his final form... Elrica crouched to dodge the blow, feeling a slight sense of urgency as she pressed the ball of light she’d created in her hand against him.

In his current state, Ferd couldn’t attain the pinnacle of further converging the light of all mortal-kind, like he’d done seventy years ago. Even if he could, he would likely be unable to endure it this time and pass away. However, there was a very high possibility that Ferd would be drawn in by the Great Demon King—the other side of their shared coin—and embody the ultimate light inside him; if that were to happen, they would likely end up taking each other out.

“Graaaaah!”

“Raaaaah!”

The light and darkness roared. Ferd had already been struck by five of the Great Demon King’s attacks, which alone would be an achievement worthy of praise from all the gods. The real one hadn’t been someone who could nullify attacks from all the gods’ authorities, but rather a monster that wouldn’t care about being cut up into pieces, relying solely on the sturdiness of his body. Confronting the Great Demon King head-on was an option that the gods had ruled out at the very beginning, but since that was all Ferd could do, he kept charging ahead with brute force, just as the Great Demon King did.

This is why he’s such a pain in the rear. Lara silently cursed at their archenemy. Though they had a bit of breathing room, they still couldn’t let their guard down against him.

Just like Ferd harbored the hopes of all mortals, the Great Demon King was drawn by the grievances and hatred born from the resentment of living beings who had killed their own kind and been killed by their own kind for over a thousand years. As a result, if the Great Demon King suffered too much damage, the impurities of mortals’ grievances inside him would disappear, and he’d start returning to a purer black, changing through several forms before reaching his final one. On the other hand, it was impossible to kill him without attacking him, so the Hero’s party of seventy years ago had been stuck with fighting a monster that kept growing stronger until reaching his final form.

He isn’t changing forms for the time being, and even if he does, I think he’ll only reach the second one at most, but we’ll see. Let’s pray that it’s impossible for him to assume any form from the third onward.

Lara’s assessment was, in fact, correct.

“Groaaaaah!” The Great Demon King screamed, vapor gushing out of the mass of black mist. The murky black figure regained a little of its purity, and started swelling into a massive humanoid shape. But...that was all that happened.

“What?!” Rapidly worsening cracks began to form in the body of this imitation—who wasn’t even himself aware that he was merely a copy. The artifact, which had already been spitting out error after error, was ultimately unable to re-create the Great Demon King in full.

It was now or never. Sazaki gripped his katana tightly with both hands for the first time in a while, swinging the bewitched red sword with every ounce of his strength. Lara pressed her hands together, unleashing an impossible wave of magic from her arms. Stein radiated a bizarre light as he threw a straight punch—the most basic of the basics. Max became one with his armor, exposing his dragon-man form to everyone around him, and thrust his spear forward. Elrica unleashed a light that was not the gods’ but her own. And finally...

“Raaaaah!” Ferd jumped up and slammed his brightest sword of the day once more into the Great Demon King’s head.

“Argh!” With that brief cry from the King, the world collapsed around them entirely. All of the mirrors had been shattered. The mist of darkness vanished. The calculations were over.

Really? That was all it took? The Great Demon King had nearly destroyed the world and had held his own in a literal life-and-death battle against the Hero’s party, the people whose very existences bordered on the impossible. Even though he was just a replica, could he truly be defeated so easily? No. No. No. Most definitely not.

“It will take more than that to defeat meeeeeee!!!” The mist, which had nearly vanished, coalesced back into a body.

This is bad. Lara was rarely ever anxious, but she was suddenly struck with a sense of impending doom.

Then, the Great Demon King heard a voice.

“War has broken out. This must be a business opportunity. For now, we’ll definitely be able to sell our entire inventory. If we navigate this well, we should be able to aim even higher.”

It was just a voice.

“I have good news. Our country was at a disadvantage, but it seems that we’re making a comeback thanks to the arrival of a great champion. Personally, I have nothing to complain about, since our business is going well. All that’s left is to be careful how we conduct ourselves after the victory.”

This voice...

“The places that became battlegrounds were a terrible sight to see. Everything was razed, not a single village spared, the villagers themselves massacred. There were even infants among the heaps of burnt corpses. As I looked upon those scenes, I realized: That’s what happens when you’re defeated. So, thank goodness we weren’t.”

...wasn’t from the great war.

“The occupied city had a terrible stench. Corpses littered the ground everywhere, and I couldn’t stay for long for fear of contracting some illness. Once my work was done, I came back immediately.”

It was from before the great war.

“I’m glad that the work ended early, but the women and children are walking too slowly. I have no idea when I’ll be home at this rate. Maybe I should whip the people at the end of the line. No, that would damage the goods.”

A voice from before he’d woken up.

“Skewering the babies of the foolish citizens who planned to rebel only made them angrier, but it’s laughable that people with one arm cut off would plot a rebellion. How were they planning to win? Killing half the villagers to make an example out of them was fine and all, but now I’m exhausted.”

Then he heard a different voice.

“I just can’t come up with any ideas for new torture implements. Is this what they call an artist’s slump? I’ve gone through something similar before, but this is worse. Last time, I got my ideas from torturing my siblings in various ways, so perhaps I should pick a suitable civilian as a canvas. Or should I go fox hunting instead? I’ll need to prepare a mother fox and her cubs. Last time, they just froze before me, begging for their lives, but it might work this time.”

And another.

“I’m absolutely certain someone’s after my life. Last year, I massacred the villagers in the south because they were targeting me, but the survivors escaped to the neighboring village. They hate me and intend to see me dead. I need to track them down and choke the life out of them. If none of them are found, it means that the other villagers are either hiding them or already let them go. I’ll need to torture them and make them spit out those fiends’ whereabouts. But then they’ll surely hate me too, so I’ll need to kill them as well.”

Another, and another, and another.

“The townsfolk were laughing and throwing rocks, so I went to see what was going on and found some kids from one of those outsider races dead. Apparently, the survivors were in hiding, and the townsfolk who found them chased them down and killed them. From what I heard, they died while calling for their mom. She might still be in hiding, so we need to find her too. But it’s such a pain. If they’re going to make me search for those filthy foreigners, I wish they would give me a raise.”

He kept hearing the voices, repeatedly, endlessly.

“Graaaaah!” came the voice of a man who had been framed for a sin and burned as a heretic.

“O great lord, I beg of you... Please forgive me... I beg of you...” sounded the screams of a woman who had been violated and tortured to death.

“Waaah! Waaah! Waah...” rang the cries of an infant who had been impaled on a spear and held aloft as a trophy.

“Nooo! Oh gods, please no!” were the screams of an elderly man who had been trying to put his wife’s entrails back into her body.

“It hurts. It hurts so much...”

“Mom... Mom...”

“My eyes! My eyyyes!”

The voices of villagers who had simply been living their lives yet were trampled underfoot echoed.

“Not my sister! Please, anyone but herrrrrr!” cried the brother who begged for his younger sister to be spared before he was tortured.

“Brother! Nooooo!” screamed the sister, who’d been forced to watch that horrific sight before being violated herself.

“Why?! We’re all human, so why?!”

“Stop... Stop throwing rocks at me... Plea...se... Oh, mommy... I can...finally...see you...”

These were the final whispers of children who had been stoned and chased to death simply for being different.

Voices, voices, and more voices. Grief, grief, and more grief. Endless.

He could hear more voices.

“Ha ha ha. You moron. That’s not the people’s money; it’s mine.” This was the voice of a priest who’d laughed as the screams of the fool who’d exposed his cohorts’ embezzlement were drowned in the flames.

“Aha ha ha ha ha ha!” Another man’s laughter echoed, much louder than the woman’s screams.

“Now the world is a slightly cleaner place!” crooned the voice of a man who’d been delighted at the death of an infant from a “filthy” race.

“You disgusting ignoramuses. You’ll be a little more comfortable with fewer mouths to feed,” came the voice of a noble who’d been delighted at the “cleansing” of all the useless elders in his land, sneering at the citizens who rallied against him.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Keep throwing!”

“Ha ha ha!”

These were voices of villagers who’d been unnerved by the children who had been different from them, and who had laughed and thrown rocks at them.

The Great Demon King heard them again. The voices continued.

“I beg you, I beg you.”

“Please kill them. Please kill them.”

“Please kill them, please kill them, please kill them, please kill them.”

“Curse them, curse them, curse them, curse them.”

“Reveeenge!”

“Why, why, why, why, why did this happeeeeen?!”

“Everything...should disappear...”

“O Great Darkness, please grant our wish.”

“Please wake up. Please wake up.”

“Please awaken from your slumber.”

“Please listen to our prayers.”

“Please take shape.”

“Please appear once more.”

“And then...”

“Please.”

“Please.”

“Please.”

“Please.”

“Please.”

He could hear their wishes and prayers.

“Please destroy everything.”

Snap.

“Cut it out already, you idiooooots!” The great waterfall of darkness overflowed, seething with rage. After being fed those negative feelings for over a millennium, eaten away by mortals’ grudges as they begged for annihilation, the great embodiment of destruction burned with uncontrollable rage. This was the Great Demon King.

The Great Demon King’s mist spread around him, and the dark humanoid form grew bigger.

“May the heavens split and the earth perish! Let the end of the world come nooow!” One day, one day the world was going to end, no doubt about it. His was a very pure power that could make that one day be today. A giant—the Great Demon King’s second form—had appeared.

“Die, all of youuu!” The roaring, jet-black figure before them was simply too massive. Only the upper half of his body was sticking out of the ground, but his imposing aura still easily towered over castles, mountains, and even the heavens themselves. While one could say that he’d simply grown bigger, if the carnage he could unleash, which only Ferd could withstand, kept growing with him, none would be able to stand up to him...theoretically, anyway.

“Get cruuushed!” Once again, the Great Demon King simply swung down his arm, which was as large as an entire mountain range. Were this the real world, such power could shatter the ground, destroy entire cities, and flatten any nation.

“Light, come forth!” The only thing capable of standing against such thoroughly primal power was an equally primal, high-powered light. As if responding to the great darkness, his polar opposite, Ferd’s light grew even stronger, and with his shield, he managed to block the gigantic fist that was primed to paint the world pitch-black. This collision transcended the laws of physics, letting out not a single shock wave.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” the Great Demon King screamed.

Even in his first form, the Great Demon King’s fist was powerful enough to crush many gods, but in his second form, it was destruction incarnate. With but a blow, he could vanquish all creation. Ferd’s mass was orders of magnitude less than this, so he should have obviously been flattened; and yet, he still stood firm.

At the same moment, Ferd’s sword and shield grew much, much, much brighter. Even seventy years after the end of the great war, a sword he’d merely held and thrown once still held some of his light in its core. So, it was only natural that the equipment he had kept by his side across countless hellish battlefields would harbor unimaginable power.

“You’re nothing but the hope of all those worthless people!” The Great Demon King was infuriated at this display, at coming face-to-face with the brilliance that was the crystallization of all mortals’ prayers, and struck again, but Ferd blocked the attack with his shield and remained unharmed. At the same time, pitch-black flashes and remnants of light scattered all around them, almost destroying the already unstable virtual world. However...

This really is tough! For the first time in seventy years, Ferd clenched his teeth and endured the impact, feeling like it would tear his entire body into tiny pieces. Still, his frail, ninety-year-old body would not be able to keep this up for long.

Ferd!

Hold out just a little longer!

Even though his muscles are inferior to the real one’s, this situation is bad!

We have to finish this quickly!

Elrica, Sazaki, Stein, and Max were also feeling the pressure as they ran toward the Great Demon King, whose body was growing out of the ground. During their fateful encounter, every member of the Hero’s party had just barely survived, so the longer this dragged on, the worse things became.

“Reason, shatter and fall! My name is Annihilation!” A destructive force that even the Great Demon King couldn’t comprehend surged from Lara’s fingers, and an aurora taller than any tower crashed into the Great Demon King’s head.

“Damn you! That freaking hurt!” the Great Demon King cursed, his head bowing back slightly at the magical impact. If any other gods were present, they would surely have shuddered at Lara’s extraordinary feat.

The gods had once launched an all-out attack on the Great Demon King, but they’d been unable to significantly injure even his first form, and they’d all been crushed to death. Thus, to be able to inflict clear pain on the Great Demon King’s second form was truly unimaginable. And Lara’s attack wasn’t the only one.

“Light, come forth!” Elrica’s entire body transformed into a poison that turned everything she touched into light, and she melted the Great Demon King’s body.

Sazaki’s slash—no longer leaving even a red glimmer behind—cut off another part of the Great Demon King.

“Hrah!” Stein continued unleashing the full power of the Null Wave, an ability that only he had achieved, and shaved off parts of the body of darkness as well.

“Raaah!” Max had turned into a blue meteor, his spear piercing the Great Demon King.

Seventy years had passed since the end of the great war. In this modern era where most figures of legend had already fallen, there was perhaps no one left in this world who could receive the full power of the Hero’s party and still remain in one piece. Since they were only up against an inferior reproduction of the Great Demon King, he should have naturally died by now. But even so...even as an inferior version, he was still immensely strong. Even though he wasn’t the real one, he was still this tenacious.

“Out of my waaay!” Not only was the Great Demon King alive and well, he was even rampaging. The Great Demon King could easily topple castles, and he shrugged off relentless attacks that could eliminate entire armies, yet he kept single-mindedly swinging his fists at his archenemy Ferd. As he did, an uncontrollable torrent of darkness burst out from his entire body and dyed the world in deeper darkness.

Seventy long years had passed since the war, and though most people had started thinking of the Great Demon King as a thing of the past, he was an existence who’d inflicted lifelong trauma upon the gods and brought fear and despair to this entire world. No one ever thought that he could be defeated—not even the dragons, nor the war god who’d somehow survived while moving from battlefield to battlefield.

The Arzyna Kingdom hadn’t been foolish for falling into despair. Even the replica second form could have crushed the kingdom and every living being along with it, so defeating the real Great Demon King should have been impossible. Just as the Arzynan astrologers had seen, he possessed inexhaustible stamina and tenacity, and sheer destructive force powerful enough to pulverize all creation; just by taking action, he’d plunged the world into darkness and silence. That had been the undeniable future—if only a certain young man hadn’t been there at the time.

“I’m already so old, people are worried if I’ll be able to eat anything hard when they look at me! What if I end up chipping a tooth, you moron?!”

“You won’t get to grow old!”

“Take a good look—I’m already an old geezer with barely ten years left! And I’ve probably already lost one of those years, thanks to you!”

“What the hell are you talking about, you idiot?!”

“Just look at my face and figure it out, you buffoon!”

The polar opposites kept simply cursing at each other, but the chaos they were causing around them was beyond imagination.

“Liiight, come fooooorth!” Ferd’s state of mind was similar to the one he’d had seventy years ago. When he gripped his sword, light of such high density materialized that every sage would have proclaimed it impossible. As the Great Demon King’s fist came down at Ferd, he struck it with his sword, repelling it. Although the two of them possessed the conflicting powers of light and darkness, their fighting styles were similar: they both used overwhelming mass to force their way forward.

“How is this even possible?!” the Great Demon King cried.

Because of Ferd’s extraordinary strength, the King had focused all his attention on trying to kill the Hero, but that was very much a bad move. While he was preoccupied with Ferd, Elrica and the rest reached the Great Demon King’s pitch-black cranium and all struck it with their full strength. A light that was toxic even to the Great Demon King shone. An imperceptible katana slashed. A Null fist thrust. A blue spear pierced.

“Agh! Ouuuch!” This onslaught wouldn’t have been nearly enough seventy years ago, but the replica’s head had already been torn open by Lara’s attack, so this new wave of violence left it in clear pain.

Please don’t turn into your third form! Max prayed for this to be the end of it, since the situation would become a major hassle if the Great Demon King transformed any further. But his prayers weren’t answered. Shit! Max’s face went pale as he watched the giant start shrinking rapidly. This was an omen of that fearsome third form.

Looks like I have no choice but to do this! No living creature could stand against attacks from the third form onward. Therefore, Ferd had decided it was time to cross a line that he had first crossed seventy years ago, where he’d transformed into the very concept of life and the brilliance of all existence. Of course, it was a miracle that he was still alive after treading that domain the first time; he couldn’t expect a second miracle.

“I’ll admit it. Ferd, Elrica, Sazaki, Lara, Stein, Max. You six are actually fighting me to the death... Hold on, what happened to Erhard?” The shrinking mass of darkness praised the heroes, but then, there was a clear confusion. The Great Demon King noticed that Erhard—the Dark Knight and last member of the Hero’s party—was nowhere to be found, even though he should have definitely been present.

“I keep telling you! You already lost seventy years ago and the Hero’s party disbanded! Erhard is resting in peace somewhere out there!” Ferd shouted angrily.

“Huh? Wait, what? Is that you, Ferd? What’s going on? I could never mistake you for someone else. But why are you so old? Are those the side effects of the power of light?” The Great Demon King collapsed with a thud. “No, that’s not right. Wait, wait, wait. Actually, what’s wrong with me? Why didn’t I know that Ferd turned into an old man? How many decades has it been since then? You’re telling me I have missing memories? Ferd said I was defeated. Not to mention my power is weak. Was I revived imperfectly? Or am I just a re-creation?”

The reproduction has gotten too complex! all members of the Hero’s party thought in unison.

The Great Demon King had continued being re-created far beyond the mirror’s ability, but as a result, he finally realized that it was strange that his archenemies were old, and that he had been unable to realize this until now. Furthermore, as he thought back to Ferd’s earlier words and confirmed that he was clearly weaker, he arrived at the correct conclusion that he himself was only a relic of the past. As the Great Demon King realized that he was only an imitation of his past self, the strength quickly left his body.

“Seventy years ago, you were the one who said that we had to settle things! Everything ended long ago, so just go back to sleep!” Ferd swung his sword down, keeping as much light inside him as possible while barely maintaining his human form. Elrica, Sazaki, Lara, Stein, and Max also attacked with all their might at the same time.

“Tsk!” The black sphere—who was unable to establish his own existence and had started crumbling away—could only click his tongue in response. The next moment, the attacks of the Hero’s party, still unquestionably the strongest group in the world, landed, engulfing the Great Demon King in the torrent of power.

“Seventy years ago—nearly a century. Damn it... I suppose a loss is a loss...” The Great Demon King grasped that it had been nearly a century since his defeat based on what Ferd and the others looked like, and that very few people could have woken him up at this point. Therefore, the Great Demon King vanished, muttering an inexpressible complaint to one of his former subordinates—the most likely candidate for the current state of affairs.

This time, the virtual world itself came apart.

“I for sure just lost several years of my life...around ten of them.” Now back in reality, Max collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

“Then your funeral should be today or tomorrow. We need to hurry with the preparations.” Stein sat down and went along with Max’s joke.

“It’s been a while since I felt this tired. Lara, do you have any booze?”

“There’s a bit in the small bottle.”

“For real?! Yippee!”

Sazaki and Lara shared one of their unique exchanges, as usual.

“That was exhausting, dearest...”

“It truly was, honey...”

Ferd and Elrica returned to being a tottering old couple.

◆◆◆

Everyone dreamed of these things: the blue sky, symbol of life, the continuation of life, the light of life. It was obvious to everyone how precious those things were. But there were those who ignored them, slighted them, belittled them! All of you did the same! That was exactly why he was asked, implored, and begged to fulfill so many dying wishes to destroy it all.

Epilogue

A shock wave ran through the elites at the pinnacle of the world.

After examining part of Udo’s calculations, Lara discovered that the artifact responsible for this incident had originally belonged to a subject of the Great Demon King who’d resided in the Arzyna Kingdom. Since this matter was political in nature, Elrica and Stein contacted the churches, while Max got in contact with his older brother Gale. The elites became practically frantic upon receiving news of the situation; in the worst-case scenario, this might have led to the revival of a monster that not only could take on the whole world, but crush everything single-handedly, had it not been for the Hero’s party.

The worst part was that an artifact linked to the Great Demon King himself, if indirectly, had been the cause of all this. Unlike Udo, the objective of the Arzyna Kingdom had simply been to create a device that could perfectly predict the future, but no matter how insular the country might have been, even children knew not to mess with relics that had even the slightest connection to the Great Demon King.

For the mortals who’d almost been annihilated by the Great Demon King’s tantrum—so to speak—the red sky and the Great Demon were truly traumatic elements. They lived in constant fear of his revival and didn’t regard the Hero’s party—the ones who’d defeated the source of their trauma—as a threat, instead wishing for all party members to live long lives, as things would be completely hopeless if there was ever a repeat of the great war.

Even among humans, with their average lifespan, there were still people from the generation that had experienced the great war who were still clinging to life, and although they were old and retired, they held great influence, so they instantly took action. However, even those people had started panicking, so these events couldn’t be made public immediately. If news of this were to reach places with a high population of people who’d lived through the great war, such as the countries of the long-lived dwarves and elves, there would be major panic, and the situation would undoubtedly devolve into the sort of uproar that could even cause casualties.

As a result, many countries secretly deployed as many soldiers as they could muster and tried to intervene in the Arzyna Kingdom while also suppressing it politically...

“Your Grace, there has been a report...” An elderly man wearing a monocle, who belonged to a family that had served the Rin royal family for generations, addressed Gale, the former king.

“What’s the matter?” Gale already had a bad feeling, as his servant was unusually hesitant to speak, but what he heard next shocked him.

“Well...I don’t know how to say this, but the ones governing the Arzyna Kingdom have lost all motivation and there is great chaos...”

“Mm-hmm... Huh?”

There was no hidden meaning to the report; it was exactly like the man had said. The Arzyna Kingdom’s dream of creating a device that could perfectly predict the future, which the country had held on to for seventy long years, had been brought to an end when Udo ran off with said device. Moreover, there was no way that the insular kingdom had the military strength or manpower to chase him, and they had been left in a difficult position as they were unable to let any outsiders know about an artifact of such cursed origins. As a result, the older generation, who had been clinging to that dream—in other words, the country’s upper echelon—had now lost their purpose for living, and the kingdom had fallen into disarray.

“Should we intervene by cooperating with the churches to bring the disorder under control?” Gale wondered. It’s not like I don’t understand their position... Gale’s experience with his mentally ill father gave him some insight on the situation. If you looked around, you could find quite a few kings and nobles who’d abandoned their governmental duties after the death of their eldest son or beloved wife.

After Gale slightly adjusted his plans for intervening in Arzyna and took action, the situation progressed rapidly, and the Arzyna Kingdom effectively came under the jurisdiction of the Rin Kingdom and the churches. Now that the turmoil had died down, what was Gale’s younger brother Max doing?

“Again? You’ve been doing this ever since that whole trouble happened. That ointment stinks so bad it affects the taste of my booze, Max,” Sazaki complained with a frown.

“Shaddup. I’m old, so I have to do at least this much.” Ever since the incident had concluded, Max had been taking care of his body by applying ointment all over it to alleviate muscle inflammation.

Even though he had been an imitation, they’d still fought once more against the Great Demon King, so they’d suffered immense physical and mental fatigue, and furthermore, they’d been preparing in case the Arzyna Kingdom had been hiding another similar artifact, so there had been no time to rest.

“Aren’t there any scholars researching muscle strain due to exercise and their limits?” Unlike Max, Stein was his usual self, doing push-ups on the floor and asking Lara questions.

“I’m sure there are, but they’re probably looking into regular humans. Anyone researching the limits of monks’ muscles must have a lot of time on their hands.”

“Hmm...”

“What nice weather.”

“I agree.”

Elrica and Ferd were the same wrinkled old couple as always, nonchalantly drinking their tea.

“Maybe it’s about time we depart,” Ferd muttered, having rested enough.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Had Ferd decided to go on a journey because trouble was brewing, or was trouble brewing because Ferd had left on a journey? Nobody knew. But either way, Ferd had decided it would be best if they set off to their next destination. Things progressed quickly from there on.

“I wish you well, Miss, and everyone else too,” Derry said.

“I’ve already said this once, but I wish you good weather on your travels,” Aldrick added. I still didn’t get their autographs...

“Well, we’ll take our time,” Lara replied with her usual grin.

Upon learning that the Hero’s party was planning to depart, Derry, Aldrick, and others visited Agnes’s manor, though the matter of the artifact was keeping them quite busy.

“Take care, great-great-grandpa, great-great-grandma.” Connie had also come to see his great-great-grandparents off.

“Yeah! I bet you’ll be even bigger the next time I see you! Ha ha ha!” Sazaki patted Connie’s head; he gave his great-great-grandson a rather preferential treatment.

Connie was unaware of the artifact, and since everything had happened inside a simulation, he continued his student life as usual. Naturally, the same went for Franz, Hagen, and Emmeline, who weren’t present at the moment. Since Udo and the Hounds under his command had been eliminated in the virtual world, the secrets that needn’t be revealed would remain secret. The unconscious, absurd power of a child of destiny, which had been theoretically triggered by the bonds of friendship, would remain dormant as long as no one was trying to exploit the bloodline of a finished country and the manufactured existence.

“Dad, mom, come here when your journey’s over,” Falke told his parents.

“Please feel free to visit,” Agnes followed.

“If we feel like it. Right, Lara?”

“Well, yeah.”

By the time this journey was through, Sazaki and Lara would need to start seriously deciding where they might like to be buried, but for now they replied to their son with their typical insincere attitude.

“But thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Me too.”

“If your memory fails you, I’ll tell you again once you return.” Falke handled his parents with practiced ease.

“Ha ha ha.”

“Oho ho ho.”

Ferd and Elrica watched the scene as they boarded the carriage, smiling at their unchanging friends.

“See you then.”

“Don’t catch a cold.”

Sazaki and Lara also got on the carriage without delay. This wasn’t a final goodbye, and the two of them were completely divorced from any lingering emotions of a touching parting.

After their simple farewells, the carriage started moving.

“My parents really were the same as usual,” Falke muttered as he saw the carriage off.

“Ha ha ha ha ha,” Agnes laughed.

“Someone looks happy,” Lara told Sazaki inside the carriage.

“Must be your imagination.” Sazaki was drinking, as if trying to avoid her gaze.

It was plain, but there was definitely a bond between parents and child. And in this carriage, there was also a man who had to visit his father’s grave.

“Oh boy...what do I do? I’m getting nervous now that we’re actually going...” Max’s expression was a mix of gloom, anxiety, and nostalgia.

The group’s next destination was the capital of the Rin Kingdom. It was the center of the largest country in the continent and a place with deep connection for certain people. In other words, it was a large city with a great number of connected parties—incomparably more than Greer—and a place with many victims of various sorts who’d gotten caught up in the whirlwind that was the Hero’s party.

Afterword

It’s been a while, everyone. I’m fukurou, the author. I’m unbelievably happy that we can meet again. Thank you so much for picking up the second volume of One Last Hurrah! I imagine that if you put this one next to the first volume on your bookshelf, you’ll end up seeing a bright “Hurrah! Hurrah!”

How have you all been doing? I’ve started walking regularly, and while I’m out, I can smoothly put together the descriptions or scenes I’m stuck on, so by the time I get home, I’ll be thinking, “Let’s go with that. I’ll do it like this.” Well, once I’ve finished showering, it’s all gone from my head, so instead of sitting down at my PC after that, I start by trying to remember.

For the first time in maybe fifteen years, I walked along the route to my alma mater, though not because I was writing about a school. The scenery from back then mixed with the current one, which is completely different from what I remember. I made note of every little detail along the way as I walked: The houses that used to be there but were no longer, the lack of paddy fields; the roads were clean, but that one house was still the same; this is the irrigation canal I once fell into, etc. I thought that perhaps this was how Ferd and Elrica felt, but the two of them were secluded for seventy whole years, so I reassessed that their case was probably much more extreme. After such a span of time, there would only be faint traces left of the objects in their memories, or they would have been remodeled so many times they would be practically unrecognizable.

Now then, the next part of the story where all the main characters are elderly has been published, but what do you think about it? (whisper) By the way, the main characters’ children, including Falke, are also old, which is crazy in all sorts of ways... But this time, Connie, Franz, Emmeline, and Hagen were also there, so the average character age has significantly dropped since the first volume! Oh, I had quite some fun writing Falke’s “class observation day,” but I also ended up laughing awkwardly as I remembered my time in middle school when I forgot to tell my parents the date for the class observation day. I didn’t think much of it back then, but I guess your sensibilities change with age.

While there were young people in this volume who study for the sake of the future, there were also people who wanted to undo their past mistakes. That’s about it, I guess. Since the Hero’s party—who are on their final journey before they die—were there, many different values were present together. But since it was a school, perhaps it was expected for people of many values to be all mixed together. Connie, Franz, Emmeline, and Hagen are also individuals with their own values, but accepting each other and moving forward is another form of friendship.

Furthermore, the much-mentioned Great Demon King finally made an appearance, albeit only as an inferior copy, and we also got to understand some of his values as well. The Hero’s party fought for the sake of life, and the Great Demon King, roused by the dead, fought to kill. Light and darkness, tomorrow and yesterday, past and future, hope and grudges. The two conflicting sides fought a fierce battle during the great war, and things ended with another victory for the Hero’s party. In any case, it might be some kind of fate that the Hero’s party traveling toward tomorrow would be fighting those trapped in the past. What will happen from now on as their journey continues?

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the editor working on this book, johndee for providing the illustrations, Drecom, everyone else involved, and all the readers!

fukurou