Creak.
But the door to the special room didn’t open.
I tilted my head.
“Why won’t it open?”
“What?”
“Kaeld must have pushed Aktion’s consciousness back under the surface. Last ti, that’s why the special room opened… don’t tell .”
As if confirming my suspicion, a screen window appeared.
‘Kaeld gave up his body?’
‘So that’s why the door is locked again.’
I let out a soft sigh.
“He has locked it.”
Everyone seed to understand what I ant.
Lepia spoke up.
“Looks like Aktion is awake again.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe that’s for the best. You said your fa is around 9.5 million now, right? You told us before that isn’t enough to defeat Aktion.”
“Correct. I will have to fill the rest and co back.”
“You’re working hard.”
“Not at all. You’re the ones who truly did the hard part. Handing over the fa you built through your entire lives, that’s no small thing.”
Everyone burst into laughter.
Then Adwin spoke.
“Hey, I’m sorry to bring this up on such a good night, but…”
“Yeah?”
“No matter how strong I have gotten, holding on to eighteen heroes and champions at once is a bit too much.”
“Ah, right. It’s gotten pretty late.”
Ti to wrap things up.
Before I could say anything, Lepia looked around at everyone and said,
“Alright, let’s head back to the underworld.”
“Yeah, Mide avenged us anyway.”
“Can’t really rember the details, though.”
“Please make good use of the fa we gave you. You have to defeat Aktion and protect this world.”
“If I were Aktion, I would just hole up in the special room forever.”
“Trying to pick a fight with that guy… maybe Aktion isn’t all that bright.”
They each made their farewells, so light-hearted, so sincere.
While everyone exchanged parting words, I quietly looked toward the ashes that had once been Velosian.
Leon had said I avenged their resentnt.
That was true, but it wasn’t just their resentnt I had avenged.
‘Impelium.’
The burden you left behind, I have finished it.
Now you can focus on your own world without worry.
Have so tea with Serad or sothing.
After that, we spent about five more minutes wrapping things up.
The heroes, satisfied with what had happened tonight, returned to the underworld.
Before leaving, Grade approached Lisel.
“So, you beca the Spirit King?”
“Yes. But it’s temporary, caused by the Branch of Corruption. Once so ti passes, I will return to normal.”
“Returning to normal ans you will be half-spirit again.”
“Even then, Mr. Mide will find a way. Right, Mr. Mide?”
I nodded as if it were obvious.
“I will make sure you two can et again in the underworld, so don’t worry.”
“Arrogant.”
“Yes, I was wondering when you would say that.”
“But… thank you, Mide.”
Grade looked at with genuine emotion.
“You’re no longer my subordinate.”
“I never was, to begin with.”
“Take good care of Lisel.”
Leaving those words behind, he departed for the underworld.
Lepia then turned to , her tone light but warm.
“Tonight really was sothing worth living long enough to see. Well, even though I’m dead.”
“Even you’re making jokes now, Lepia.”
“Take care of this world. It was yours from the beginning, so you should be the one to guard it to the end.”
“Of course. You have my word.”
With a gentle smile, she too vanished.
Next, Leon spoke.
“When you take care of Aktion, will you sit on the throne of the world again?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
Co to think of it, shouldn’t I have been invited into the embrace of the world after killing the Demon King?
‘Don’t even think about it. Neril might kill .’
Then Leon chuckled.
“If you can, just die. et us in the underworld. I think we could have so real fun there.”
“Yes. Thanks for the kind words.”
“Heh.”
Once the champions left, the heroes followed.
Eventually, only our party remained.
Xenia wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“Phew. It’s gotten quiet.”
“Good work.”
“Not really. I didn’t do much.”
“Just standing face to face with people who were recorded in history, that alone takes a lot of ntal strength.”
Adwin laughed softly.
“And now we will be in history too.”
“Hmm.”
“I’m not one to care much about that sort of thing, but… it feels strange.”
“I get that.”
I roughly gauged the ti.
It was already dawn.
“Let’s head back to the inn and get so rest. We will be busy starting tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? You already have the next plan?”
“Yeah. First, I will hold the Demon King’s trial. After that, I’m going to kill Aktion.”
“Ah, to earn the missing half a million fa, through the trial events.”
That’s right.
But there was sothing else, too.
“That’s part of it, but… there’s sothing I want to discuss with Idria. I had an idea tonight.”
“…?”
“Never mind. I will need to confirm it first, so don’t worry. I will explain tomorrow.”
Everyone looked curious, but the exhaustion on their faces won out. They just nodded.
We soon returned to the inn.
Everyone went to their rooms to rest.
Everyone except .
I sat by the window, gazing up at the moon in the night sky.
‘Trail. You asleep?’
No answer ca.
Guess he was sleeping too.
Better that way.
I took a slow breath.
‘Bion.’
There was no imdiate response.
He was pretending not to understand, of course.
‘I’m calling you, screen window. Not Trail.’
Tap.
A window appeared.
‘I have sothing to discuss.’
‘Sothing occurred to during the banquet and while dealing with Velosian. Is this system we are using really the best it can be?’
No text appeared for a while.
Was it offended or just taken aback?
Whatever it was, I kept calmly speaking.
‘From what I see, no. There are three major flaws in the current system.’
‘First. It demands too great a sacrifice from heroes and champions. They may be extraordinary, but as we saw today, they are still people, who laugh when happy and cry when sad.’
‘You an the gift of a new world? But not every hero wanted that, did they?’
‘If you offered that gift to right now, I would probably refuse.’
As if I had hit a nerve, the screen stayed silent.
That so-called “gift” was just groundwork to expand humanity’s domain.
Could that really be called a reward, just because it was wrapped up and presented as one?
Maybe so gladly accepted it.
But others must have taken it out of sheer duty.
And I was definitely one of the latter.
……
Even so, I would have accepted it.
The fact that this is “Mide’s world” is proof enough of that.
Why did I make that choice back then?
‘Anyway… maybe Aktion was one of the latter too.’
‘My point is this: giving soone a new world isn’t an adequate reward. The system really does demand too much from heroes and champions.’
New text appeared.
‘It’s tied to the first. Among heroes, there is a risk of corruption. No matter how great soone is, if the burden keeps piling up, they will eventually break. Especially if they accepted a gift they didn’t truly want, out of duty.’
‘This doesn’t need much explanation, does it? There’s the precedent of Aktion.’
Even though I was only talking in my head, my mouth felt strangely dry.
So, I licked my lips once and continued.
‘The last one, the third issue. Honestly, this is the biggest one.’
‘This system makes people depend too much on the Hero.’
‘It’s not just dependence, it’s blind faith. After my fa reached 1.2 million, even the Emperor bowed his head to . Without having to give any proof, they believed everything about Velosian without question.’
‘No. This is…’
How should I explain it?
After a brief pause, I thought of the right taphor.
‘The people of this era worship as a new Celestial God.’
‘The na just changed from Adin to Mide, but the Celestial God still exists all the sa.’
‘And what happens when I die? There’s no guarantee that whoever gets treated as the next Celestial God after won’t have the sa corrupt nature as Adin.’
Bion stayed silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
I scratched my head and went on.
‘There’s a way to solve these three problems.’
‘In this land…’
I hesitated before continuing.
If I said this, maybe the system screen wouldn’t like it.
After all, his role was to assist “the world” itself.
He might find my plan, which completely rejects the system of that world, offensive.
But I had to say it.
‘I will make it so that the Demon King never descends again.’
‘I will make sure the Demon King can never appear again. Then naturally, no Hero will be born either.’
‘And after that, I will leave everything to humanity and retire. That’s my goal now.’
For a while, nothing appeared on the screen.
Was it angry?
I sighed.
But the next words that appeared proved I was wrong.
‘Did you just type “Heh.”?’
‘……You okay with this?’
I leaned closer toward the screen.
‘Sounds like you have known for quite a while.’
‘Then why did I lose all my mories and get abandoned as a baby?’
‘Co on. Just tell . What more do you need from ?’
The screen tilted slightly as if thinking, Hmm…
Then text appeared.
‘How much fa did I have back then?’
I imdiately felt a sharp headache.
What the hell.
After scraping together every bit of fa from past Heroes, I barely managed to reach 9.5 million.
But back in my Hero days, it was twenty million?
What kind of monster was my past self?
‘So basically, you’re not telling .’
‘……’
I let out a faint laugh.
Forget about the past for now, there is sothing more urgent.
‘Anyway, back to the point. You agree with , right? About erasing both Heroes and Demon Kings from this world.’
‘Didn’t you say earlier that the seat of its master was vacant?’
‘Fine. Then I will tell you the specific plan to achieve my goal. Hear out first and decide.’
‘I will…’
……?
I blinked.
‘I haven’t even said anything yet.’
‘……’
All I could do was open and close my mouth soundlessly.
‘How did you…’
‘……Was I really like that?’
The ssage radiated firm conviction.
I scratched my head again.
‘But what other choice do I have?’
‘What? What is it?’
After a pause, new text appeared.
‘Trail? If he cooperates, will it work?’
‘……’
Once again, he read perfectly.
I answered quietly.
‘Right. This is my personal ambition, after all. And besides, I…’
‘Stop reading my mind.’
After a long hesitation, I finally woke Trail.
He spoke in a groggy voice.
[What is it. I was having a nice dream.]
[Uh… yeah. Hello. Wait, Mide, you were talking to it?]
Then Bion calmly and thoroughly explained everything to Trail, our plan to rewrite the entire system of the “World of Mide.”
At first, Trail snorted in disbelief.
Then he declined seriously.
But eventually, his attitude softened, understanding, even agreeing.
Finally, he said:
[Yeah… I think that’s the best option we have got.]
“Hold on. Think carefully. Once this is done, there is no going back.”
[That’s my line. What were you thinking, trying to make yourself the vessel for all negative emotions?]
“Well… I’m the Hero. And the supposed master of this world. Since it was my idea, I should take responsibility.”
[What about all that talk about retiring?]
Right on cue, text appeared on the screen.
“I do!”
[Hmm. I kinda felt that too. How can soone who insists on taking every responsibility ever truly retire? It’s just lip service.]
“I said I do!”
“Hey!”
[You’re pretty sharp yourself.]
For so reason, there was a strange sense of camaraderie forming between them.
I sighed.
“Are you sure about this, Trail?”
[Yeah.]
“Why? This is my plan, my selfish wish. You don’t need to sacrifice anything.”
[Hmm…]
He hesitated for a mont before replying, his voice soft but steady.
[I just want to help you. Isn’t that reason enough?]
The mont I heard that, a faint mory stirred in my mind from that party Impelium had once hosted.
Back then, I had thought there must be a single word that perfectly described Trail.
But I couldn’t quite rember what it was.
Now, I finally knew.
‘I see it now.’
Without realizing, I said it out loud.
“Trail.”
[Yeah?]
“You’re…”
I steadied my voice, holding down the surge of emotion.
“You’re my friend.”
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