Chapter 53 - Who Knew the Death God's Cult Had a Promising Recruit Here?

As an adult, getting angry at a boy who hadn't even come of age was somewhat embarrassing, but I couldn't help myself.

What angered me most wasn't that this brat was considered the brightest prospect, rated even higher than Laward.

As I kept saying, I didn't know this Hakan fellow. I'd never even heard of him in my previous life.

If he was so strong, such a genius, why hadn't he shown up?

Where were you, and what were you doing, while the kingdom's elite were being slaughtered and my brothers in the order were dying?

"Sir Daywin, I believe you're mistaken. I didn't run away. Ha ha, ha, running away? And snakes, foxes... I have no idea what you're talking about..."

"You're even running away from my words now."

"W-well, I don't know about that. More importantly, sir, about that sparring match I mentioned. I asked you at the palace, but you still haven't given me an answer. No, never mind an answer—you didn't even respond! Ha!"

"Probably because it wasn't worth responding to."

"Now, now, don't be like that. You'll change your mind once we cross swords."

"The Peach Garden Festival is coming up anyway. You'll get to run wild there, so why not be patient?"

"Ha, the Peach Garden Festival? That's nothing but child's play!"

"Child's play?"

"I already conquered that stage last year. I swept the competition in my second year, is what I'm saying. I've grown even stronger this year. What interest could it possibly hold for me?"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"You talk as if you've had a taste of something that wasn't child's play somewhere."

"..."

"Then I'll see you at the festival."

"W-wait? I, Hakan, haven't finished speaking..."

When I turned around, Veronica was standing a short distance away. She must have recognized me too, because she came over with quick little steps.

"Huh? You haven't left yet?"

"What about you? Do you still have business here?"

"No, I just finished."

For some reason, Veronica looked relieved.

"You?"

"I'm finished too."

"Really? Then let's go together. You're heading back to the marquisate anyway, right?"

"Finished? But I, Hakan, still..."

He broke off and stared at Veronica's face.

"... My lady."

Then, pitching his voice as low as he possibly could, he approached her.

"My lady, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You don't appear to be a cadet. What brings you here...?"

Hakan had suddenly adopted a strange way of speaking and started putting on airs. Not content with that, he even offered his hand as though asking her to dance.

"If you would permit it, might I, Hakan, show you around?"

Veronica stared at him for a moment before finally spitting out a single remark.

"Who the f*** is this asshole?"

Her expression went cold, as if she'd just rummaged through a garbage can.

I'd thought she'd at least ask whether I knew him, but she'd gone straight to cursing him out.

To think her unfinished socialization training could actually come in handy.

"No, I was..."

Perhaps he'd never met anyone from the slums before. Hakan turned pale.

"It was... nothing..."

His shoulders drooped, and he walked away.

Only after he'd receded to a speck in the distance did she ask,

"Someone you know?"

"Too late. Why are you only asking now?"

"That swishy blond hair got on my nerves. I couldn't help it."

"I don't know him."

"Then it's fine."

Around then, an important fact occurred to me.

"..."

I'd just realized it from Hakan's behavior. The way his attitude had changed the instant he saw a beauty like Veronica, and how he'd started fawning over her.

That bastard must have been the same...

It had to be women...

The reason he hadn't made a name for himself in my previous life. Just like Laward, it had to be women.

Whether it was a once-in-a-generation genius like Laward or a bizarre genius like Hakan, they'd all been too busy fooling around with women to give a damn about the apocalypse.

The reason I'd fought for my life, the reason I was still fighting without even having lost my virginity—it was all because you self-proclaimed, universally acknowledged geniuses hadn't fought.

"These... fucking bastards..."

I clenched my fist so hard it shook.

"Wh-why are you suddenly angry? I wasn't talking about you!"

053

"Hey."

On the train ride back, Veronica suddenly spoke to me.

"I believe I told you I wanted a quiet trip."

"This is serious. Hear me out. You'll be interested too."

At that, I had no choice but to fold up the newspaper I'd been reading. I'd been enjoying an article about Chiron's exploits while wearing my face, too.

I vowed not to let her off the hook if her story was less entertaining than his exploits.

"Remember how I said I had something to take care of? Well, I heard something while I was doing that."

"I'd prefer you got to the point."

"..."

Veronica stared at me sulkily for a long moment, then flopped back against her seat.

"Is there going to be a war? Like a hundred years ago?"

"Is that what you're afraid of?"

"It's not so much fear. I just don't understand."

"Humans naturally fear things they can't understand. Humanity learned the emotion of fear to keep us from approaching or growing curious about unknown places and beings. It was by learning to fear what we couldn't understand that we survived, avoiding predators."

"What are you suddenly going on about?"

"I'm saying you're afraid."

"..."

Once again, she gave me a sulky look.

"Aren't you scared?"

"No matter how sudden a jump scare is, it won't get me twice."

"You haven't made any sense this whole time."

Silence again.

She flagged down an attendant passing through the aisle and ordered a drink. Orange juice. Only after it arrived did she speak again.

"Ugh, I have to go right back to work when we get back... I hate this, seriously..."

"Why didn't you do some sightseeing while you were out making the delivery? It was a business trip, and you'd been given travel expenses. You could have blamed the contact at the military academy and sneaked off for a day. According to the paper, there's a large, beautiful lake nearby."

"Wow... Listen to you... Spoken like a true gang boss..."

Wasn't it just that she was surprisingly conscientious?

"Forget it. What's the point of having fun? I need to earn money."

"You really do love money."

"I hate it. Really."

Her expression turned serious at my teasing remark.

"Ow..."

Then she brought the back of her hand to her forehead, as if she'd suddenly developed a headache.

"Well, anyway. Tuition alone isn't enough to study and live at university. I need to earn as much as I can while I have the chance."

Her expression quickly returned to normal as she complained.

"I'll have to focus on my grades at university."

"I didn't take you for the type to care about grades."

"I'm going to start. I want to show what I can do."

"Show what?"

"You don't need to know. Ah—but I still don't want to go straight back to work. I wish I could take just one day off. It'd be nice if someone could work for me."

"That's a dangerous thing to say in times like these."

"How is that dangerous? Isn't that something anyone working for a paycheck says?"

"Because that's why the necromancer started the war."

"Huh...?"

Veronica looked blank.

"What's so surprising? Did you think she was just a warmonger?"

"Yes."

"Honestly."

"That's what I thought. Villains are usually like that, aren't they? Apocalypse, conquest, destruction, that sort of thing."

"It was the opposite."

"The opposite?"

"The necromancer's goal was to create a paradise."

Paradise.

The same word as the title of Ending 30. The ending Laward had wanted, and ultimately achieved, in my previous life.

But a hundred years ago, it had been the ending the necromancer longed for. The happy ending she wanted.

"A paradise where no one would have to work."

"... Huh."

"She failed in the end, though."

"Could she... actually have been a good person...? Hey, is there any chance the war heroes were the bad people...?"

"You've been saying one dangerous thing after another..."

At my words, Veronica looked around at the nearby seats. Since it was a night train, everyone but us seemed to be asleep.

"It's possible, isn't it? Nothing's a hundred percent certain."

Especially when it came to mages.

"Who knew the Death God's cult had a promising recruit right here? If you're thinking of joining, tell me beforehand. I'll cut your head off on the spot."

"Oh...! So that's what those fanatics want too...!"

"Quiet."

"That's what they wanted...!"

Veronica exclaimed softly. Instead of raising her voice, she waved both hands about.

"I get it now...! It all makes sense! I never understood why so many fanatics gathered around her. If the necromancer's goal was paradise, her followers still want it...!"

"Well, more or less. Incidentally, everything I've told you should have been covered in history class at the academy."

"I'm a woman who only moves forward. I don't look back at the past."

With a wonderfully cool expression, she said something wonderfully stupid. It was a talent impressive enough to list under 'Skills/Aptitudes.'

"Have you turned into a train just because you're riding one?"

"... Then most of the Death God's cult must have been workers?"

"Slaves, to be precise. A hundred years ago, this land was an empire, and slavery was legal."

"Then she wanted to free the slaves?"

"That's right."

"But they branded her the Death God and killed her...? That's just... so sad."

"Ah, is it time? Should I cut your head off now?"

"No, just hear me out."

Veronica covered her neck with one hand and waved the other.

"You said she wanted to free the slaves and liberate people from labor. There's nothing bad about any of that."

"More importantly, you don't seem afraid anymore."

The emotion furthest from understanding. That wasn't only true of admiration; it applied to fear as well.

"Yeah... I guess not."

"To think not wanting to work would lead you to understand the Death God's cult. Honestly..."

"What would you know? You order your underlings around with a wave of your hand. Do you have any idea how workers feel?"

"The necromancer did indeed try to free humanity from slavery and labor. She alone could create beings to replace workers. She believed that once everyone was free, discrimination and conflict would disappear."

In modern terms, perhaps the necromancer was someone trying to bring about an AI revolution. Substitutes that would think and work in humanity's place.

But naturally, this world lacked both the science and the technology to create AI.

Instead...

"... The undead."

Correct.

"Yes. She meant to recycle humans."

"Can you really call it... recycling?"

"Her thinking was that rather than leave them buried, you could dig them up and put them to use again. If the dead could free the living..."

If they could still be useful after death.

"Then humans were beings of even greater value than we knew."

"... The undead don't have emotions and just follow orders, like machines, right? If that frees people, isn't that enough? Did they really have to go to war...?"

"Yes. Beings that follow orders and take humanity's place to set humans free."

"Right, right."

"Isn't another word for that 'slaves'?"

"Huh...?"

"The necromancer created another kind of slave to abolish slavery."

"Isn't that different? They're already dead."

"Could you bear to watch your beloved family or lover working for others even after death?"

"..."

"If a lack of emotions means you can do whatever you like to something, is it fine to trample flowers to death?"

"... Hmm."

"They're different from machines."

"Ah, I don't know."

Veronica ruffled her hair.

"They say both the necromancer and the person that statue at the military academy depicts lived as slaves. Despite both having been slaves, they took different sides. It wasn't such a simple conflict."

"I guess not. And now she's come back to fight that complicated battle all over again..."

"Haha."

"Why are you laughing all of a sudden?"

"If that's what you're worried about, there's no need."

I spoke to Veronica as she sat there blank-faced, her eyes darting about.

"I told you. That was all a hundred years ago. Perhaps it doesn't really matter to a woman who only looks ahead. Yes, you're right. That's all a villain needs."

"You mean it's different now?"

"Slavery has been abolished, and the empire has fallen. Most importantly, the necromancer lost. That's why the Death God's cult are a bunch of idiotic fanatics. Right or wrong, they still think she has some ideology."

"Then what is her goal?"

I cast my gaze out the window, into the endless darkness.

"Revenge."

The time for understanding and the chance for persuasion were already far behind us. A hundred years behind us.

Now, all that remained was force.

"Simple. Isn't that nice?"