—I’m supposed to put my hand on the tablet and then replay the recording on the keychain... That means there must be some kind of magical system here, and this is what I need to do to open it.
She searched the altar. It was metallic, and the size of a double bed. It looked like a table you would use to sacrifice someone, and there were words carved on it.
“Sealed until one who can save all humanity appears. Death to those without that power.”
Next to the words was a keyhole that would probably match the key.
“This is it...”
She put the key inside.
There was a low roar. She knew instantly that the altar itself had activated.
The tablet she was holding began to glow. The toy had the ability to detect mana-based transmissions. She received the transmission and saw that it said, “Confirm handprint.” She put her hand against it, photographed it, and sent it off.
The response was immediate.
《Verbally input encoded password.》
She pressed the button on the keychain. Her brother’s voice played back, and then the audio password.
When she heard the sound of his voice, she started to cry. The tears landed on the altar just as it began to rise up.
“Password confirmed. Restarting system.”
Fujiko stepped away from the altar.
The altar rose up more, then split open like a box made from wooden logs, and a hole opened into the underground. The hole spread until it encompassed the whole dais the altar was on.
Then a silver cylinder rose up from the hole.
It must have been ten meters in diameter. It rose up to five meters above the ground and came to a stop.
Then a crack opened up in the side of the cylinder. It began to open to the left and right.
○
“What’s going to happen now?” Akuto asked. He could see the silver cylinder rising up beyond the student council president.
“That’s right. One could say that you’ve sinned, and need to be punished.”
The president shook her head sadly.
“Sinned?”
“You dug this up, even though we tried to stop you. You know that, right?”
“I’m aware. You were trying to make sure nobody found this place. I can tell that now.”
“What I wanted was to maintain the status quo. No, maybe ‘protect’ would be a better word. If nothing else, the government wanted to pretend this never happened.”
“Because this place belonged to the Demon King?”
“That’s right. Of course, we’re on the government’s side. We’re studying to be important officials one day. And when you’re the student council president, you already work for the government. But the government isn’t a monolith. We, the majority, wanted this place to just remain down here untouched. There was no telling what would happen if it was destroyed, and if somebody found out how to use it, there could be terrible destruction once more. Even the Black Mages don’t want to touch the things the Demon King left behind. In many cases, there’s some kind of requirement for their use. And nobody knows what that is. If you don’t know what you’re doing around them, you’ll die.”
Her words were cold and calm, but Akuto gasped at what she was saying.
“Die...?!”
“That’s right. It might be too late for Fujiko Eto. And your punishment will be that you have to watch and let it happen. I don’t know how close you were to her, but you will remember that it is your fault she died.”
“It was Eiko Teruya who led me to...”
Halfway through his sentence Akuto realized how dumb he sounded, and stopped talking. But the president heard him.
“You’re pathetic. She’s working for one of the government’s extremists. They want to wipe out all the black mages, and they’re willing to start another war to do it. She was either helping to prepare for that war, or maybe she realized that you don’t have whatever it takes to use these things, and brought you here to kill you. There’s no way to know what those people are up to. They’re an eerie bunch all around. They’re always getting ahead of the majority.”
“I see. So you’re telling me to stay here and watch, right?”
“That’s right. Don’t even think about going to save her. The Demon King’s possessions only kill those who don’t have the right to use them, and they never leave their territory,” she explained.
But something didn’t seem right to Akuto.
“How did you learn this?”
“It was a century ago when the Demon King lost the war, and the black mages sealed his possessions all around the land. They were later found, and both the black mages and the government tried to activate them. Several of the more talented ones found ways to do it. And after their deaths, they left us with the knowledge. This place was the last that anyone found.”
“Then Fujiko’s older brother...”
“Supposedly, yes. We don’t know the details, though,” she said. “We just wanted this thing to stay down here, asleep. We found this place right after you received the map. We’d succeeded in the treasure hunt far before you did. But when we asked the government if we should destroy it, they told us to maintain the status quo. Thinking back, there were probably some backroom dealings between the majority and the extremists. But whatever the case is, I’m going to obey my orders.”
The president raised a finger and drew an imaginary line in front of the gate.
“If you cross this line, I’ll show you no mercy.”
○
The silver cylinder began to open in front of Fujiko. White smoke was pouring out from inside. Whatever the contents were, they must have been frozen.
When the cylinder opened all the way, and she could see what was inside, Fujiko gasped.
“That’s...!”
A huge black beast was curled up inside.
—A dragon!
Its body was covered in black iron scales. Its horns were huge steel screws. On its back was a shining silver saddle. It was the legendary dragon that the Demon King had ridden into battle.
It was curled in a ball, with its tail pressed against its head. It began to stir and reawaken. It slid out of the cylinder with a speed that belied its huge size. All in all, it was fifteen meters long. Its folded wings began to open as if it was stretching. It seemed to command far much more of the space than it actually took up.
“So it’s been a century... since I went to sleep?”
The dragon spoke. The voice was a wise one, despite its reptilian face. It looked at Fujiko with opened golden eyes.
“But I do remember. Once, I was almost awakened, but was not. That would have been ten years ago. But if I was activated for no reason, this is not necessarily a cause to rejoice.”
He was speaking to himself, but that was enough to terrify Fujiko.
“Y-You’re the legendary...”
“I’m a legend? Please don’t make me feel old. I was made to serve mankind, and treat all equally, but I was given a personality. And adhering to that personality has precedence over my mission.”
The dragon’s voice was low, and it echoed.
“I-I’m sorry. Wh-What do you mean?”
Fujiko’s voice was shaking.
“I mean, I am a selfish creature.”
It stuck out its head at her as if to threaten her. Fujiko screamed and fell backwards. The dragon laughed a little.
“It pains me to see your fear, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. If you were the one who activated me, then you lack the right to use me. None who lack the right can ever be my master. And using my power without such a master would cause harm to mankind,” it said.
“Wh-What does that mean?” Fujiko said in a shaking voice.
“When I am activated by those who lack the right to use me, I must instead grant them a swift death,” the dragon said quietly.
And then it opened its mouth wide at her.
○
“Student Council Pr
esident!” Akuto roared. Everyone there could hear what the dragon had said.
The student council president’s voice was bitter.
“I don’t want to repeat myself.”
The air became heavy, like lead. Nobody spoke, except Keena.
“Ackie! Go save her!”
“I know, but...”
Akuto was infuriated at himself, and the fact that he couldn’t move. He wasn’t frozen out of fear, laziness, or ill will. It was because he knew that politically speaking, letting her die was the right thing to do.
—Nothing good will come of showing the world that the Demon King still lives!
He’d come to the Academy to work with the government in the first place. He knew that the Student Council President’s decision was the right one.
“I have to make the right decision!” Akuto yelled.
But Keena cut him off, screaming even louder.
“Ackie, you dummy! You don’t even know how she feels!”
Akuto’s whole body went numb when he heard her words. He didn’t know what was going on, but when he looked around, he saw that everybody but Keena was looking confused. They must have felt the same sensation.
—Huh?
Suddenly he felt something flooding into his brain. It was like a waking dream, or perhaps seeing into someone else’s memories.
He was running.
Someone was chasing him.
He felt fear, and a terrible sense of urgency.
This was someone’s nightmare... No, it was something they’d really experienced.
He’d hide the key at the hot springs shrine. Then he’d write the words on the toy tablet, and photograph the entrance to the cave. He’d promised to take a photo and show it to his little sister. He’d never thought he’d end up using it this way.
He changed the geography of the forest in order to evade his pursuers — it was a higher-class spell given to him by the god Mureet. He’d been given more of Mureet’s power than anyone. He wouldn’t be able to escape entirely, but he could buy time.
Next he went into the abandoned Knight Equipment Laboratory. He hid the tablet on a shelf in the back. The reason was simple: it was the knights who were chasing him. He hoped this was enough to serve as a condemnation, but he wasn’t sure.
He continued to run. He would denounce them. That’s right. That’s what he had to do. He realized where his last hiding place would be. And he ran.
Somebody had to know... Somebody had to be told about the man who had deceived him.
When the seal on the Demon King’s final fortress had been broken, he had been sent along with the research team, despite only being a student. And that’s when that man had approached him.
“Can you find a way to break the seal on the dragon? All I need you to do is find the method. I’ll ask you to keep this a secret, but the next Demon King has awakened. The government’s decided to reseal this place after the investigation, but I want to destroy it completely.”
He hadn’t even had a clue that the man was lying to him! Part of the reason he’d said yes was the fact that he knew he was the only one who could crack the difficult passwords on the Demon King’s relic. And since he only needed to break the passwords, not the seal itself, there was no risk. He’d even looked into the man’s background. He wasn’t a black mage. He was a high-ranking member of the public safety committee. There was no reason not to trust him.
But then one day he’d learned that he was now involved in a truly terrifying plan...
Who would’ve ever imagined that...
He went inside the mausoleum. Once he’d learned about the plot, he’d done another check on the man’s background. And he’d learned that what he was being told was impossible. The man was supposed to have died during the great war that took place 90 years ago. Who was this man? He opened the box and looked for bones. Of course, there were none.
Boichiro Yamato.
He hid the toy keychain with the recorded password in the grave.
It made him sad to erase the recording that Fujiko had made. He didn’t want to face death without being able to hear her voice...
But the best thing he could do right now was leave behind a way for someone else to break the dragon’s seal.
He listened to Fujiko’s voice one last time, letting it soak into his brain, before overwriting it with the password and closing the box.
Then he made the map.
《A message to the courageous one who reads this map...》
If possible, he wanted the black mages to find it. They were the only ones he could trust now. It was ironic — until now, he’d hated them, but now it was the government that he couldn’t trust.
The most likely place for a black mage at the Academy to be was the Mental Monastery. He was the only one, besides the black mages themselves, that knew they used it as a dead drop. He’d hated them so much he’d spent his personal time tracking them down.
He put the map up there.
And then he left a hint that this was meant to denounce the government. He hid the map on the spot in the constitution that dealt with the establishment of the public safety committee.
It would take several decades for someone else to appear who was capable of breaking the dragon’s seal. The government had no one left who could break the seal on their own. And if things worked out, the black mages would find his message in secret. Even if they didn’t, if the map became public knowledge, the civilians and government majority would see it before the extremists did. If that happened, it would be impossible for them to control the dragon on their own.
All his work was done, except for one last thing.
He had to erase his memories of the password, and of the hidden map. He would be caught soon, and once he was, they would kill him and subject him to necromantic magic. He had to delete the memories, or rather records, from Mureet while he was still alive.
He used his rank of assistant priest to summon the god. He found the records that matched his search parameters and deleted them. He would have to delete almost everything that had happened during his life at the academy. After his death, his family would probably suffer.
The job was done.
The man was standing in front of him, so beautiful that it made him feel hatred. The man seemed bright, easygoing, and cheerful, but on the inside, he was none of those things... or perhaps he was. Maybe his easygoing, cheerful nature was what let him proceed towards his goal.
“Oh dear. You erased your memories? So now we can’t get the dragon?” the man asked. “Splendidly done! This will cause a huge delay in the plan. I suppose I’ll just have to come up with a new method.”
The man shrugged. It felt good to see his disappointment.
But there was no way he could defeat the man.
He would die soon.
The man’s hands stretched out.
Pain.
And then a sudden darkness.
“What the hell was that?!” Akuto yelled.
Everyone else had the same expression on their face as he did.
Korone’s calm voice gave him the answer.
“These are memories recorded inside the dragon. While it doesn’t seem to be using the official methods, that dragon records all the memories of every imperial citizen.”
“So that’s the black mages’ god?!” Akuto shouted in surprise.
“It seems that even while it slept, its recording function continued to operate. No one was able to use it for a hundred years, though, until now.”
Korone’s explanation mostly made sense, but there was one thing it didn’t clear up.
“Why was it sent into everyone’s brain?”
“Someone probably served as a catalyst. Who that was, I couldn’t say.”
Akuto looked at Keena. She had a look of shock on her face. She didn’t seem to know either.
—But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’ve seen it. And that changes things, doesn’t it?
Akuto smiled at
Keena.
Keena saw him and smiled back.
“Yup!”
The student council president must have noticed the change within him.
“Don’t blame me if you regret this. I’m not going to hold back.”
She waved her hand to shoo Hiroshi and Keena away.
“Korone,” Akuto said.
Korone put on her roller skates (they seemed to be a favorite of hers) and dashed over to Hiroshi and Keena, then carried them off under her arms.
“Hattori,” he called out to Junko as well. She shook her head.
“The followers of Suhara never retreat.”
“Well, do it anyway. There’s no reason for you to take any risks. This is my responsibility.”
“No, I owe Eiko Teruya some payback as well. And I think you’re doing the right thing here, too. And... and...”
Junko fell silent. Then her face turned red as she whispered.
“And if you chose me, I...”
“Huh? Did you say something?”
Akuto couldn’t hear her.
“You idiot! I said...” Junko started to yell.
But once again, Akuto couldn’t hear her. Before she finished her sentence, he was blown back by an incredible force.
—What?
He was smashed into the ground before he even knew what was going on.
The same thing had happened to Junko. She’d seemingly taken more damage than Akuto —she was lying on the ground moaning.
“What the...”
“What did you do?” He tried to ask, before another impact struck.
But this time, as he was knocked backwards, he was able to see what was happening.
The student council president’s arms were stretching out. He wasn’t sure if she was instantaneously generating more arm tissue, or like Junko’s clones, she was dealing damage with only mana, but this much he was sure about: she was standing right where she’d been before, ten meters away from him, and still managing to land punches.
“The fight starts the moment you decide you’re gonna fight, you know,” she said. And then she continued, sounding unhappy. “I saw the same memories you did. I understand how you feel. But the things I believe in tell me that I can’t let you through.”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 2 Page 12
