Demon King Daimaou: Volume 7

by Shoutarou Mizuki

  “I’m activating the device. I’m about to send every person and every thing in this area into virtual phase space. Just so we’re clear, I did exactly what you told me to,” Yoshie said. The VPS control device had come alive, and was giving off a low moan.

  “Every person and every thing?!” 2V gasped, and then reached out a hand to grab her.

  “It’s too late,” Yoshie whispered.

  2V’s hand failed to reach her. Their vision was already blurred. The space around the two of them had started to glow as it sank into the ground.

  “I’m teleporting the whole school, me, and this device into Megis’s virtual phase space.”

  “The device itself...? That’s insane! You don’t know what will happen!”

  “True. The device only works properly if it’s outside the space. But if I don’t take it inside, you’ll be able to control it, right? And what’s more, I’ve put in some things you didn’t expect. I’ve used my own game program to define the rules of that world, which means that he can handle the rest. I believe it.” Yoshie was calm, even as she sank down into the ground, holding the device in her hands.

  “Tch! You thought of all that in this single moment? But... I’m going inside too!” 2V stretched out his right arm, and then grabbed it at the elbow with his left. And then he ripped his right arm out at the elbow. It was the kind of thing that only a doll could do.

  And then he threw his right arm at the device. Yoshie covered it with her hands, but it managed to grip onto her own hand tightly.

  “I’m sending my hand with you, at least!” 2V screamed.

  And then the whole world around her sunk into “the other side.”

  ○

  Moments before the device activated...

  Akuto was standing on the podium, unsure of what he was supposed to say.

  He was leading the morning assembly today, in front of the entire student body. The student council president and her trio were both absent, so the job had fallen to him.

  At Constant Magical Academy, the principal only led the morning assembly on special occasions. It was up to the student council president to warn the students not to get too out of hand, or tell them when there was something they had to know. But today, that was Akuto’s responsibility.

  “Our theme for the week is ‘Keep the school clean,’ but I need you to all understand that this goes beyond simply picking up trash.”

  After announcing that he’d be doing the assembly today, that was the first thing Akuto had said. In retrospect, this was a mistake. He’d decided he didn’t just want to read words off a page, but to tell everyone about his own interpretation of the meaning behind them, and hopefully bring about a constructive debate. This, however, was not a good idea. The more he talked, the more his speech started to go in a strange direction. He was having a progressively harder time explaining what he was getting at.

  “...Filth builds up in places where things get out of control, like dust building up in the gaps between a tangled mess of cables. If you want to clean it up, you need to unhook and untangle the cables. If you want something to be truly clean, you need to break it down. And ‘keep things clean’ applies not just to the world around us, but to your minds as well. The filth in your minds builds up because they’re out of control. They’re a mess. I’ll go back to the example of the cables I just gave. Cables are a useful way to transmit information, but they’re also a fixed, immobile system. Doesn’t that mean that it’s important to break down the fixed systems in your minds?”

  Akuto was trying to talk about himself, but he’d totally lost control of what he was saying. And his words were starting to freak out the students.

  “I don’t get it. Is he telling us to doubt what we know?”

  “No, he’s talking about fixed systems in our minds... So he must be telling us that we need to go insane.”

  “...I see. I guess it makes sense that the Demon King would give such an abnormal speech.”

  —No, that’s not what I meant...

  Akuto didn’t know what to do.

  “What do I mean by ‘systems’ of the mind? I mean the systems we use to recognize the world around us. In order to reduce the load on our brains, humans are made to have a simple understanding of the world around us. It’s this simple understanding of the world that makes you do things like come to school. Going to school is not the same thing as studying. It’s just a system. And you need to remember that it’s these fixed understandings that connect to the system of society itself.”

  The students started to panic even worse.

  “So he’s not talking about madness. He’s talking about proactively destroying the systems of society!”

  “Anarchism! And during morning assembly, too!”

  “And he’s only even here as a stand-in!”

  —What’s happening here?

  Akuto wracked his brain to come up with something else to say.

  “...No, I’m just saying that our school beautification movement needs to be turned towards these fixed ideas as well. Eventually, these ideas will start to drain the life from us. If we understand that our job is to be pillars of society, then we need to proactively involve ourselves in difficult battles for the sake of a new era...”

  “Wow! He’s turning the morning assembly into a riot!”

  “A battle for a new era... That’s just what a rioter would say!”

  “We were only listening to you because you were giving the morning assembly speech! But we won’t let you get away with this!”

  Now there was no way he could calm them down. They were starting to boo and scream at him.

  —Oh no... I need to come up with some way to talk my way out of this...

  “Be quiet! You can yell, but I’m right! My words are nothing to be ashamed of! You shouldn’t care about who’s saying them, only the words themselves! And if you’re not willing to listen to them, it means this entire school has lost sight of what’s right! And the punishment for that is...”

  Only after the words were halfway out of his mouth did Akuto realize what he was saying. His tone gradually began to drop, but the students didn’t notice. Before he was finished speaking, the entire school began to “sink.”

  “Wha...?!”

  “Kyaaah! What’s going on?”

  “Is it the Demon King’s power?”

  “Aaah! Are we going to hell?”

  The schoolyard was filled with screams. But even the screams vanished as the school was swallowed up.

  —I know this feeling!

  It was what Akuto had felt when he’d gone inside that book.

  —Does that mean...?

  Instantly, he suspected Keena. But when he picked her out among the crowd of students, she was standing with Korone and looking as shocked as everyone else.

  —What the hell is going on here?

  ○

  Junko was one of the few other people who understood what had happened.

  “This is virtual phase space, isn’t it?” she said to Fujiko Eto.

  “No doubt about it. Not that I’ve ever been inside.”

  Fujiko was trying her best to keep the girls around her calm. Her personality was much more demonic than Akuto’s, and she was a worshipper of black magic to boot. But the rest of the student body hadn’t figured that out yet. The female students especially looked up to her as an object of admiration.

  When she spoke, the sobbing girls raised their heads and turned towards her.

  “Do you know what’s happening?” they asked.

  “Yes. This is most likely virtual phase space, the space we move through when we teleport. I’ve seen something similar once before.” Fujiko looked around her.

  Constant Magical Academy was inside a forest. The school had always been surrounded by nature, but the forests around them hadn’t been near as deep as this. It was like a jungle had grown its way right up to their doorstep. They were clearly someplace they hadn’t been a moment ago. The plants and trees were di
fferent from the ones that grew in the island nation of the Empire.

  “It seems the whole school was teleported, huh?” Fujiko turned towards Junko. Junko nodded.

  “But Fujiko, the school building is...” Junko pointed towards the building.

  It was definitely the same school building, but something was different now. One of the other students in the yard was the first to figure it out.

  “A fortress... It’s a fortress! This is what the school looked like when it was a fortress!”

  The building had very few windows, and those it did have were located high up on its walls. Those windows were thin and narrow, with room to fire a gun out of them and not much more. The walls were flat and unadorned, with no easy way to climb up them, and the front gate was locked with a heavy door.

  “I heard... that the school was made from what was once a fortress during the first Demon King war,” Junko said. The other students around her began to murmur amongst themselves.

  “Then does that mean we’ve gone back in time?” one asked. Fujiko shook her head.

  “No. If that were the case, then somebody would be inside the fortress. We haven’t traveled through time. We’ve been moved to a world that’s been changed in accordance with some set of rules. And that world is virtual phase space.”

  “A world that’s been changed according to a set of rules?” one of the female students asked. This time, Fujiko nodded.

  “Yes. In other words, we can assume we’re inside a story, or inside a video game!” Fujiko said, basing her statement on her earlier experience.

  And then suddenly, a voice answered her.

  “That’s correct. I’ll explain what’s going on here. And also, I’m afraid I need to apologize.”

  It was the clear voice of a man. Everyone turned to look at the source.

  A young man, with a delicate but noble air about him, had just come out of the jungle. He had long hair, and wore an ancient style of armor.

  “My name is Yoshihiko. And I need you to hear me out.”

  Yoshie wasn’t surprised at all to find that her body had changed. She was the one who’d set up the virtual phase space so that would happen.

  —I’m glad I loaded that game data just in case I needed it...

  In order to escape from 2V, she’d set the rules for the VPS to match the game she’d created. It was the fantasy war game that Keena had been playing, an imaginative reinterpretation of the first Demon King war.

  —I can remember the exact rules of the game later. The first thing I need to do is figure out what my first move is.

  Yoshie calmly went over the best ways to fight back against 2V’s plan.

  She’d escaped into VPS to protect Akuto. She had the control device, and it couldn’t be accessed from the outside. 2V’s hand was somewhere in here with her, but she hadn’t found it yet. That said, it probably didn’t have that much power on its own.

  —But if they can alter the game’s program, I’ll have a big problem on my hands. However, any major changes would put the school’s students in danger, which means they would be off-limits.

  Even 2V wouldn’t want to cause a massacre. The one thing she knew about him was that he was involved with the government somehow.

  —So my goal is to get to the Demon King, and if I can get rid of 2V’s hand before then, even better. I suppose that’s all there is to it.

  Once she’d settled on a course of action, Yoshie decided to reveal herself to the students. In the long run, it would be a bad idea to tell them the truth about the plan, but she needed to take responsibility for getting them caught up in this.

  —But they should be basically safe. The game’s rules are keeping the world stable. And I was the one who designed it, so I know it better than anybody...

  “Yes. In other words, we can assume that we’re inside a story, or inside a video game!”

  As soon as she exited the jungle and came out into the courtyard, she heard a pretty voice speaking.

  —Wooaah! Somebody’s already figured out what’s going on, huh? I heard this school’s students were pretty smart, but that’s amazing...

  Yoshie took a step forward, impressed. And then she realized she had no idea how her male avatar was supposed to talk.

  —Oh, crap. I’ve only ever done text chat with this character. How am I supposed to talk if I want to sound manly? Hmm... I know. I’ll talk like one of those boys in an otome game.

  An otome game was a game for girls to enjoy a simulated relationship with handsome young boys. Of course, these games only ever had the most handsome of boys. Yoshie didn’t have many samples of boys to choose from, so this was the best she was likely to get.

  “That’s correct. I’ll explain what’s going on here. And also, I’m afraid I need to apologize.” It was a little weird to be speaking in a man’s voice, but Yoshie was satisfied that she did, in fact, sound like an otome game character.

  “My name is Yoshihiko. And I need you to hear me out,” Yoshie said.

  “Explain? Apologize?”

  The students began to bombard her with questions. Everyone was staring at her. Normally, Yoshie wasn’t good at speaking to others, but she was happy to find that with a different face she was able to do so.

  “You are currently inside a virtual phase space control experiment. The experiment was supposed to be done on a smaller scale, but due to an error, you were caught up along with it.”

  The students began to shout at her in anger and terror. Yoshie’s expression clouded with fear.

  “Wait. We should hear her out.”

  One of the students interrupted them. It was a handsome girl with short hair.

  “I’m Junko Hattori. Please continue,” the girl said. Yoshie nodded and smiled at her.

  “Thank you.”

  But then Junko turned away. It was a little upsetting to find her gratitude ignored, but for now, she needed to continue talking.

  “...That’s what I needed to apologize for. But don’t worry. This is a control experiment for a virtual reality game. As long as you keep a few things in mind, there’s no danger at all.”

  “A few things?”

  “The rules of the game. First: If you can’t get back to the real world within one week of game time, you might really die.”

  “What? How is that not dangerous?!”

  “I-I’m sorry. I’m just trying to keep you safe. The longest period anyone’s been able to stay in VPS before is a week. This time the area is under my control, so you can probably stay longer, but no food is being brought in from the outside. A week of game time is around twelve hours of real time. Your physical bodies should only be able to endure that level of hunger and thirst.”

  “...I see.”

  “Second. If you die in the game, you return to the real world. That means you can always get back by dying.”

  “What?”

  Everyone was surprised to hear that.

  “It’s hard to believe that...” they all said, and frowned.

  —Yeah, I can see why they wouldn’t believe that. Hmm... What to do? I know!

  “Are there any animals around here? Does the school keep any as pets?” Yoshie asked. One of the students pointed towards a corner of the school building. There had been a chicken coop there before, but now it was gone. Instead, there were several chickens wandering around.

  “Huh? The coop’s gone, but the chickens are still there...”

  “Watch that chicken.” Yoshie took a dagger out of her armor and flung it at the bird. The sharp blade sliced the bird’s head clean off.

  “How could you do that?!”

  Some of the female students screamed and covered their eyes, but the students that kept watching began to gasp in surprise. The headless chicken took a few steps forward before blurring and vanishing into thin air.

  “Huh?” Everyone began to gasp.

  Yoshie smiled to herself.

  —Wooah! This really is a game. Normally I couldn’t hit anything with a da
gger, but this time it worked perfectly. I haven’t had time to really think about it, but maybe being inside a video game is more fun than I thought... No, I need to focus on explaining this.

  “But any creatures that were born within VPS...” Yoshie picked up the dagger, which was now perfectly clean even after having been covered in chicken blood, and then turned her eyes towards the jungle. She found the animal she was looking for: a rabbit.

  “Watch that rabbit.” Yoshie raised her dagger again.

  “This one? It’s cute! Do you want me to catch it?” One of the female students near the rabbit started to walk towards it. It rounded its red eyes and perked up its ears as it hopped towards her.

  “Watch out!” Yoshie shouted.

  “Huh?” The girl froze.

  And then, the bunny leaped.

  This time it wasn’t a cute little hop, but a fierce leap towards the girl’s throat, clearly intended to kill her.

  Hissss! The bunny let out a strange howl, as it bared fangs that looked closer to sharp daggers than teeth.

  “Kyah!” The girl covered her face with her hands. But the bunny was aiming for her throat; it was going to bite open an artery and kill her on the spot.

  But just before the rabbit struck, Yoshie’s dagger sliced off its head.

  There were two wet thud sounds as the bunny’s torso and head hit the ground independently. The blood from the wounds dripped out and spread along the ground. The dagger, now embedded in the ground, was covered with blood as well.

  “It’s still here...?” the girl whispered.

  “What you just saw is a Head-Hunting Murder Bunny. Now, I assume, you understand that it’s a game, as well as what happens if you die here. This body will disappear too, after a time, but it will remain here far longer than any living thing brought from the outside.”

  Junko interrupted her explanation.

  “I don’t know about killing ourselves to go home, though... I’m not saying you’re lying, but there’s a chance it won’t work right, and of course, mentally it’s a hard thing to do. Is there a better way?”

  A pretty girl with long hair answered before Yoshie could.