Chapter 6. The King Wishes For The Hero's Death
"Come closer. Yes, you too…"
I walked to the prime minister.
The documents on the table were piled so high that it was covering half of the man's face.
The language these documents were written in were all foreign to me.
The only reason I could read them was probably because of Xenoglossy.
"This one's quite interesting."
The prime minister slowly looked over me.
I, too, observed him.
His skin that had been tainted with age didn't have any wrinkles in it. His eyes were filled to the brim is stress and exhaust.
"I already know how you got here. A corpse, eh… Nice to meet you. You probably saw my name through the use of Oracle already. So, what's your level?"
Should I tell him?
When I looked over to Necro, the man stepped forward.
"Well, level isn't really important, is it? It's not like it's going to be the same as the hero's."
"So, what is it?"
Necro waved his hands without saying anything for a moment, as if he had become quite nervous. In the end, he opened his mouth.
"…1!"
A small change appeared in the prime minister's mouth.
"He managed to kill five level two kids even with that level? Why would level matter at that point anyway?"
Well, it is possible to catch higher-leveled monsters in video games as well, after all.
"You see, Oracle isn't really something that measures attack power, but… a growth potential… Right, you know one of those things that estimate height for kids in puberty? It's just like that. You should know as well."
Is that so.
So that means that those five kids killed their classmate despite knowing that 'experience will not go up'.
"This person is… eh… right, a corpse. His level's one because he's a corpse."
Made sense.
I'm already dead. Since I can't even move, I can't harm other creatures.
Because of this, I am level one.
Perhaps the creator of Oracle didn't even expect something like this to happen?
My eyes met with that of the prime minister's.
"Since it's coming from you, I'll believe it. So this is a murderer who brutally slaughtered five children as soon as he got summoned."
There wasn't really a need to reaffirm that.
"Is he that valuable? Valuable enough to manipulate the conditions for summoning using your disciple?"
Necro raised his arms with a smile after hearing the minister's angry shout.
"Dennis is pretty dumb, you see. You must've mistaken it for manipulation. I'll deal with him later."
That kind of excuse won't work at all…
"Sir Necro, this country isn't something that a single magician can deal with."
That much is obvious, isn't it.
The hero created a rebellion, but they haven't made a move yet.
That just goes to show how strong the country was. It was powerful enough not to be taken down easily.
"The power the king of this country mustered is far greater than what any normal human might imagine. No matter what you're planning, just remember this one thing."
"Yes, yes, of course!"
Necro looked playfully into the minister's angry eyes.
The minister looked over the documents near him, then opened his mouth.
"…Right. If there are no problems, we can keep going like this. But do understand, we cannot afford to make any mistakes. I need to take a look at the card you have drawn myself. Do you have time today?"
Necro tilted his head in confusion after hearing the question.
"Didn't you check out his skill yourself a while ago?"
"This isn't enough. Right, it isn't. That idiot who couldn't even become a wizard… even if we had an army of him, we wouldn't be able to take down the warrior."
The idiot he's speaking of should be the colonel.
So who's the warrior? One of the hero's friends?
"We'll only get casualties if we try to fight with weaklings. It'd be far better to use elites."
"There's the 2nd Subjugation Battalion as well, there's really no need…"
"Why would we need the special task force if we have the 2nd Subjugation Battalion, then? It'd be better to put you and the saint into the 2nd Subjugation Battalion."
I quietly raised my hand.
"Uhm…"
The minister raised his head.
"What is it?"
"What about my opinion?"
The two's faces stiffened.
"I came here because I became curious, but there's no real need for me to get involved, is there?"
Necro's eyes shook.
The minister's noble expression didn't shift one bit, but I could feel the surprise within his eyes.
Necro and the minister quickly exchanged looks together. Then, for some reason, they both grinned.
"I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but… you're dead."
I immediately understood where he was trying to get at.
"I'm not an expert on magic, but it's not very hard to imagine what would happen if Necro stopped providing energy into your body. In fact, you should stop moving completely after a short period of time. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're completely correct! Ah~ as expected of the prime minister!"
Necro turned my way after giving the prime minister two thumbs-ups.
"Right~ I'm the one who's in control of your battery right now? You'd last about a week like this, but after that, then what? You're a corpse, you understand? A corpse. But if you help me, I can consider reviving you."
Revival? Was such a thing possible?
"Just look at me. Anything I say, I can do. I just have to put your soul into a fresh body, you know? I'm the strongest black magician in the world. What, don't you trust me?"
It was hard to make a decision due to my lack of information.
"So you'll revive me once I take down the hero and his braves?"
The prime minister responded.
"Of course. In fact, we'll even reward you. You can take the money from Sir Necro."
It's hard to believe…
But it wasn't like I had a choice.
If I decide to step out of the game here, all there was left for me was destruction.
"…Fine, I'll do it. Oh, and one last thing."
"What? What is it?"
"You called this a 'rebellion', but I haven't heard why such a thing happened. I want to hear why you want to kill the hero."
The hero was a symbol of justice. He was the one who defeated the demon king to save the world. In other words, an idol.
If one were to kill an idol like this, the backlash would be incomparably big.
The killer would be assaulted by those who revered the hero 24/7.
I needed a reason to fight. After all, a battle without reason was a loss from a start.
But even after much waiting, I didn't get an answer.
Was it a sensitive question, after all?
They asked the hero to kill the demon king, and now they're trying to kill the hero…
There was no worse form of repayment.
At least, this was the case from a standard viewpoint of the world.
The minister tapped the table for a moment, then pointed to a chair in the corner.
"This is going to be a long story. It'd be good to sit down."
Once I brought the chair and sat on it, the minister leaned back on his chair.
"Where should I start… right, the base of this nation, and the story of its creation should do well."
The minister started here.
"The creator of this nation was a wizard called the Rainmaker. The name we derived from this to name our nation was the word 'Haze'. Of course, this is all just legend, and the first true king of this nation was a simple boy living next to the sea."
Rhoden.
He was a son of a fisherman.
He, who showed his talent for magic at the age of thirteen, got noticed by a certain wizard and managed to enroll in a school of magic.
He fully displayed his talents there, and managed to create multiple forms of summoning magic.
The one who stopped him was the demon king.
The red star of destruction, [Mirage Belt].
The world neared the brink of destruction under him, the 'oldest evil'.
Many people attempted to defeat this evil, but all perished in the end.
Here, Rhoden came up with an idea.
If no one from their world could fight the demon king, they might as well get help from a different world.
After much effort, he managed to form a contract with the [Master of Chaos], and began trying his hardest to master a certain form of magic.
Bessica Pisces.
The forbidden magic to bring in beings from different worlds.
As expected of a forbidden magic, the summoned hero was extremely powerful.
He managed to use magic however he wanted, and shocked the world.
He split the earth in two, created magical islands, and created mechanical spiders for transportation.
But after defeating the demon king, the hero disappeared.
Some said he died.
Others said he went back to his world.
No one knew the truth.
The problem came after this-
"You guys got addicted to summoning heroes?"
"That's a bad way to put it. Just think. The people who crossed over from other worlds all attained an ability without even crossing the border of life and death. Abilities that others would only dream of getting after decades of training! Here's a way to attain great military power easily, so why stop doing it altogether after one try?"
If there was a problem, they would summon someone to fix that problem. Eventually, summoning itself became a problem.
But apparently, there wasn't much trouble in the initial stages of this.
Since most of these people longed for something akin to fantasy, they became content with living in a place like this.
Some people even claimed that this was a part of the storyline, and told the country that they'd find a way to live on their own.
Well, after all, back then, there was no danger in the world. Everything was peaceful.
The problem came when the demon king revived.
Monsters began to multiply.
Food shortages began to happen.
Wars became common, and summoned peoples became conscripted into armies.
If this was a peaceful world, there wouldn't have been a problem.
"When troubling times began, those from different worlds began to beg to be sent back. Of course, this was impossible."
The summoned people from other worlds became frightened when their rights were taken away, and planned to start a rebellion.
Some of them got killed brutally as a result.
Their families got executed and stoned in the public square.
This was when it was created.
The rebellion, that is.
"…Is there really no way to go back?"
"We can trigger the magic circle no problem, but we have no idea how it works."
Necro answered this question.
"But if the hero defeated the demon king, he should've have had a good relationship with the nation?"
The prime minister stayed silent for a bit, then responded without showing any change in emotion.
"The situation was quite dire at the time, so… we hid some facts. The others just misunderstood several things afterwards."
So they were fooled.
And by the time they realized it, they couldn't do anything about it.
"Is it fine? It doesn't look like killing the hero and his comrades would finish everything."
An army of summoned people…
In other words, an entire army of modern people with special abilities.
When the prime minister heard my worries, he grinned like a sly fox.
"Oh, it would. Everything would be finished."
"How so?"
"Do you seriously think that our country would be afraid? Of one hundred brave-class men? And the million people that rallied under them?"
The prime minister sneered.
"Of course we wouldn't be afraid. That much power is something that even we have. What we're truly afraid of are the ones who can fight the nation by themselves, the hero and the braves. As long as people like those exist, no ruler in the world would be able to sleep peacefully."
Was that so.
"In any case, the hero and his braves were set to die from the beginning."
The kings of this world desired the death of the hero.
After his death, the kings would somehow justify it with false rumors.
"I feel that I've explained enough… so, what will you do? I'll ask for the last time. Will you bail, or will you side with the majority?"
What should I do?
I took a look at my ten fingers, and measured my gains and losses on a mental scale.
Should I side with justice, or should I side with profit?
The answer was far too obvious.