by Okina Baba
“You… Hugo…?”
“That’s right.”
The knight takes off his helmet.
Sure enough, it’s Hugo. I thought he lost all his skills and ran off somewhere.
“Hugo. Don’t go giving yourself away like that.”
“C’mon, why not? I wanted him to get a good look at me before he dies.”
My brother Cylis appears to have known exactly who was in the suit of armor.
But why?
“You’re curious, right? See, your big brother here wants the throne. I want revenge on you and Oka. You’re a thorn in both our sides, get it?”
“But…why…? Cylis is already next in line for the throne…”
“Funny you should mention that. See, before he kicked the bucket, that stupid king was planning to make you his heir. He figured if he named you the next king before you could be declared as the hero, they wouldn’t wanna send you into battle!”
“As if I would let my throne be stolen away for such a foolish reason!”
My elder brother Cylis exclaims darkly, seemingly without thinking.
Thanks to a new Silencing spell set up around us, no one else can hear his interjection.
I look to the person who must have cast the spell.
“Brother. Unfortunately, you must now die here.”
Her tone is no different from how it usually is, yet her voice sounds as if it belongs to someone else entirely.
Unlike how it normally sounds, which is level but somehow still full of passion, her words are cold and full of contempt.
“Sue, why?”
“I have opened my eyes to true love, dear brother. I would do anything for the sake of that love, even if I must kill my own brother.”
This isn’t right.
Sue is definitely acting strangely.
I activate Appraisal.
The status conditions Hypnosis, Brainwashed, and Charmed appear.
“Hugo! Is this your doing?!”
“Oh dear. You noticed, huh? Took you long enough. Yeah, I did it. What do you think? How’s it feel to have something stolen from you? Sucks, right? I should know, since the same thing happened to me! Ga-ha-ha-ha!”
“Change her back right now!”
“Like I’m gonna do that just ’cause you asked nicely? What a moron.”
My vision turns red.
Dropping my broken sword, I charge at Hugo and knock him off his feet.
Blood drips from my open wound, but Auto-Recovery should take care of that.
“Oof! How do you still have so much strength?!”
Hugo groans and raises his sword.
In response, I start casting a spell to counter him.
“Oh? He’s got more fight in him than I expected.”
My magic composition dissipates.
At the same moment, I suddenly feel a horribly powerful presence behind me that I didn’t detect at all before.
“?!”
I quickly roll to one side.
It’s not any conscious thought that makes me do it. My body just reacts automatically due to fear.
Standing up, I look at the source of this sensation.
It’s a girl who looks to be around my age.
Her skin is white as death, her eyes bloodred, and her features as beautiful as a princess from a picture book.
But her ominous aura contradicts that appearance.
I immediately use Appraisal.
I’ve never seen this result before.
A skill that interferes with Appraisal?
Does that really exist?
I’ve definitely never heard of it.
But the fact that I can’t Appraise her is proof enough that this is no ordinary girl.
I wish I knew more, but there’s no doubt she’s a formidable enemy.
“Sophia! This one’s mine! Don’t go stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong!”
“Oh really? Looked like he was beating you up to me.”
Judging by their interactions, it doesn’t seem like this “Sophia” girl is being brainwashed by Hugo.
Is she working with him toward some common goal, then, like Cylis?
“Enough! Stop arguing and finish Schlain off quickly!”
At Cylis’s beckoning, Hugo and Sue turn their attention back toward me.
Sophia alone ignores Cylis’s words, instead flashing a meaningful smile.
“I won’t let you!”
At that very moment, the tiny frame of an elf cuts in.
A powerful blast of wind hits Hugo and sends him flying.
“Ooookaaaaa!!”
With a roar of fury, Hugo tries to stand up, but Ms. Oka fires another spell at him.
However, the spell evaporates into nothing as soon as it hits Sophia, who’s now standing in front of Hugo as if to protect him.
Can she erase magic, like what happened to my spell before?
I thought only wyrms and dragons had skills like that.
“Y-you?!”
When she sees Sophia, her eyes widen with shock.
“Shun! Run for it!”
Ms. Oka smashes the floor with Wind Magic, throwing dust everywhere to hinder the enemy.
“But!”
I can’t just leave Sue in Hugo’s control and run away!
“No buts! We have to withdraw for now!”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Ms. Oka sound this agitated before.
Is that girl Sophia really that dangerous?
Ms. Oka seems to know her, based on her reaction.
When I hesitate nonetheless, someone grabs my hand.
“Hyrince?”
“Leston told me you were in danger, so I came running. I’m sure you’re confused, but we just have to get you out of here for now.”
With that, Hyrince takes off running and pulls me along, so I reluctantly follow.
Ms. Oka’s magic blows away a guard who charges toward us.
All over the place, I see soldiers fighting one another.
“What in the world is going on?”
“It’s a rebellion.”
“A rebellion?”
“Yes. Hugo and Prince Cylis are the ones behind it. But they’re planning to blame it on you and make it look as if they’re the ones who quelled the rebellion.”
My teacher’s explanation makes my blood run cold.
“Leston’s forces are fighting them right now. He’s buying time so that we can get you out of here.”
With that, we flee from the castle.
After our escape, we arrive at a lone mansion.
“Leston is supposed to meet us here. Once he arrives, we’ll leave the kingdom.”
“Ms. Oka, wait! We have to do something about Hugo, or Sue will…!”
“We can’t.”
“But, Ms. Oka, if we can stop Hugo, this whole thing should blow over. We have to go back and catch him…”
“No.”
“Ms. Oka!”
“The Church has announced the new hero. His name is Hugo Baint Renxandt.”
“Huh?!”
“Even the Church is cooperating with him.”
I can’t help but stumble.
Hyrince offers a shoulder to prop me up.
“Do the elves have any idea why the Church would be complicit in such an absurd plot?”
“It’s safe to assume that Hugo’s brainwashing has reached within the Church.”
“Impossible. The effects of Brainwashing are only temporary. It’s not powerful enough to incite a situation like this, is it?”
“Usually, no. But there is one exception.”
“An exception?”
“One of the top-tier Seven Deadly Sins–class skills, Lust. Its brainwashing effect is far more powerful than any other skill can induce. I have no doubt that Hugo now holds this skill.”
The Seven Deadly Sins?
Does something like that really exist?
I’ve never seen anything like that o
n my list of acquirable skills.
Which means they must be highly unusual skills that can’t be acquired even with 100,000 skill points.
“At any rate, we have no way of knowing how far Hugo’s influence has spread. It’s best to assume that this entire kingdom has been lost.”
“That can’t be…”
I’m speechless.
The entire kingdom is lost?
The kingdom that my father ruled, that my brother Julius loved so dearly?
“I can’t let that happen. That’s all the more reason we can’t simply let Hugo go! If we do something about him now, we might still be able to stop this in time!”
“No!”
Ms. Oka cuts down my sliver of hope with a sharp voice.
“As long as Sophia is there, we have no chance of winning.”
Ms. Oka’s expression is bitter as she speaks.
I can’t believe she would say something like that without even trying to put up a fight.
Just who or what is that girl named Sophia?
“Teacher, who in the world is she?”
“Sophia is…”
Just as Ms. Oka starts to explain, the door bursts open.
Along with my brother Leston, two familiar faces enter.
“Shun, are you hurt?”
“Your Highness, it’s good to see you again.”
“You’ve grown into a fine young man, Your Highness.”
Leston is flanked by Anna and Klevea, two women who used to be maids for Sue and me.
Anna has been helping Fei level up, so I’ve seen her once in a while, but I haven’t seen Klevea since we left for school.
Compared with Anna, whose youthful appearance is preserved by her part-elf blood, Klevea looks considerably older.
And yet, it seems she’s come running to my aid in my time of need.
But all I feel is despair.
“You too, Anna?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re under Hugo’s control, too!”
When I Appraised Anna, I saw the Hypnosis, Brainwashed, and Charmed statuses clearly.
At the same time as my shout, Anna’s eyes narrow.
She begins constructing magic at a high speed.
I interrupt her, striking her with the side of my hand to knock her unconscious.
While I’m at it, I try to use Healing Magic to cancel out the status conditions.
But the letters describing her altered state refuse to disappear.
“Dammit! Not Anna, too!”
Leston clenches his fist in frustration.
“Shit. We’re surrounded.”
At Hyrince’s words, I look outside the house to see a large crowd of soldiers.
“We’ll have to force our way through.”
All of us nod at Ms. Oka’s statement.
“Shun, use my sword.”
Leston passes me a weapon.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a divine sword handed down through the royal family. Since you’re the hero, I think it’s better if you use it. It’s outside my expertise anyway.”
“All right. Thank you.”
I accept the sword and lift up the unconscious Anna.
“Let’s go!”
We charge out into the encirclement, with Hyrince leading the way.
At the same time, Leston’s hidden troops launch a surprise attack.
“Now!”
We push our way through the besieging forces.
Hyrince, who protected the hero Julius for so long, and Ms. Oka, who’s traveled around the world to track down her reincarnated students.
Even the royal guard doesn’t stand a chance of stopping us.
We beat back the soldiers, cutting a path in the crowd.
But when we break through, another unit is waiting for us.
And leading them…
“Shun. You don’t know when to give up, do you?”
“Katia…”
My best friend from my previous life stands in my way.
FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH AN ADMINISTRATOR
Since gaining those levels netted me 200 skill points, it’s time to pick up a new Evil Eye skill.
This time, I’m going with Heavy Evil Eye.
It increases the effect of gravity on any target in my field of vision.
Now I can slow my opponent’s movements with Heavy Evil Eye, weaken them with Cursed Evil Eye, and finally seal their movements completely with Paralyzing Evil Eye.
My triple-threat Evil Eye combo is complete!
This whole arrangement is based on the goal of stopping my enemies in their tracks.
I already have plenty of other moves for attacking.
If I have to, I can always pick up some magic skill or other for 100 points.
Huh? Why don’t I just do that in the first place, you ask?
I’ve gotten a little obsessed with the whole Evil Eye thing, but if my stats are anything to go by, I think I’m supposed to specialize in magic?
Does that mean I should really be focusing on only magic skills in the first place?
C’mon, that’s not true.
At least, let’s say it isn’t.
I’m definitely not getting hung up on this simply because I like the idea of having eight different Evil Eyes at once.
I’m not, okay?
Anyway, I’ll be saving the rest of these points for a while.
I don’t know how many more I’ll get as an evolutionary bonus.
I’ll adjust my strategy based on that as I go on.
If I get a really big amount, I might even be able to aim for skills that’ve been too expensive to get so far, like Sloth.
Aaanyway.
Its usefulness in any kind of battle isn’t the only reason I picked Heavy Evil Eye.
Now, let’s test this out. Evil Eye Activate!
Oof! What’re you doing, information brain?!
What do you mean, what? I’m increasing my own gravity.
It’s heavy!
Well, I was thinking. What is it I lack, if anything? Muscle, of course!
Great, here comes a speech.
When the Z warriors trained in super-high gravity, they became strong enough to defeat the ultrapowerful enemies who came after them!
Yeah, yeah. I get what you’re saying and all, but it’s making de-scaling kinda difficult, you know.
Well, the whole point is to get used to it by keeping it active all the time.
Great idea! Good luck, body brain!
Let’s try one thousand times the gravity next!
No, that’d kill me!
So, yeah. I decided to try applying extra gravity to myself all the time.
If I’m constantly using it on myself, I bet it’ll raise my physical stats, not to mention give me more Evil Eye proficiency points to boot.
It might even increase my Herculean Strength skill level or something.
Since this Evil Eye skill’s only at level 1, it doesn’t feel like anything but a little extra weight right now, but I’m sure it’ll be quite a burden once it levels up.
Then, if I deactivate it during battle and return to normal gravity, I’ll get to have a “remove the power limiter”-type moment!
Sweet.
I’m definitely gonna yell “RELEASE RESTRAINTS!” or something when I do it.
Well, I can’t actually speak, but you know what I mean.
Huh?! My Space Perception is reacting to something!
A distortion in the air?
I’ve never experienced this before, but somehow, I know exactly what’s happening.
Teleportation.
Something is about to teleport here.
I have no way of stopping it.
At my Spatial Magic level, I can’t even teleport myself, never mind interfere with someone else’s ability to do so.
Judging by the distortion in space I’m sensing, I’m guessing whoever’s teleporting here must be really good at Spatial Magic.
That means t
hey’re way stronger than me, at least when it comes to Spatial Magic.
Most concerning of all is that they’re using magic in the first place.
That means, without a doubt, that the user must be on a very high level of intelligence.
So far, I haven’t seen a single monster use magic.
Even the fire dragon I defeated earlier is no exception.
It had magic skills, but it never once used them.
That’s only natural.
Magic involves a very complicated process of composing spells.
The user needs a certain amount of intellect to be able to accomplish that.
In the fire dragon’s case, it was far more effective to use its own skills to create fireballs than trying to construct magic spells.
There may be some monster species that can use magic, but they have simpler and more powerful skills to use instead.
However, whatever’s about to teleport here is utilizing some seriously complicated magic.
Which means it must have a specific reason for coming here.
But what could that be?
All that’s here is…me.
In other words, it must be coming here because of me.
I can’t imagine that it’s just teleporting here by coincidence.
All this reasoning flashes through my mind in seconds with Thought Acceleration.
I stand on guard.
The air cracks open, and a man appears.
A very dark man.
I don’t know how else to explain it.
He’s wearing black armor so tight, it’s as if it’s part of his body.
The small section of his face that’s visible is dark, too.
So is his hair.
Only his eyes are eerily red.
I know the moment I lay eyes on this guy:
I can’t win here.
He’s on a different level.
And something else confirms this suspicion.
Those words.
Yet, for some reason, I don’t feel like I’m in danger.
In fact, I feel a strange sense of kinship with this man.
And at the same time, I feel a little bit of irritation toward him.
Why is that?
I’ve definitely never met this dark man before.
I don’t know why I would feel this way toward such a strange figure appearing out of nowhere.
What in the world are these feelings?
“*********?”
The man speaks.
But I don’t recognize the language.
Without thinking, I tilt my head.
