"Whoa...!"
I shot upright.
The instant I opened my eyes, a familiar room filled my vision.
My feet under a soft blanket.
The door leading out of the bedroom.
The window, half-open, letting in a gentle breeze.
When I turned around, there was a pillow made from Trent seeds.
On the side table sat a
This was the bed I'd slept in so many times.
My house in the magic city of Sharia.
"Hah... hah..."
I felt like I'd been having some kind of strange dream.
"Huh...?"
But I couldn't remember what the dream was about.
All I knew was that it was a bad one.
Otherwise, there was no way I would have jolted awake like that.
Well, a dream was a dream.
"Mm... mff!"
I climbed out of bed and stretched.
Nice weather again today.
Summer was almost over, and autumn would be here soon.
I could hardly wait.
Thinking that, I started down the stairs, only for two children to come clattering up toward me.
Dark brown hair, with beast ears on top of their heads.
"Don't fall, okay?"
"Okaaay!"
I watched the kids disappear into their room, then continued down to the first floor.
Down the hallway, and into the dining room.
A single woman was in there preparing meals.
A voluptuous body packed into plain clothing—though not packed in well enough, since her tail poked out from around her rear.
When I entered, she turned around, her pointed ears twitching.
"Good morning, Linia."
"Good mornin', nya."
Her tone was somewhat curt, and that sudden, vague sense of unease—the kind that comes after a bad dream—washed over me. I hugged her on impulse.
"Linia!"
"Nyuah!?"
Linia was my wife.
How was it that I'd married her again?
Right—I remembered now. Back in my student days.
Worried about my ED, I'd been trying everything I could to treat my own condition.
That was when Linia and Purusena appeared.
Young, fresh, their bodies brimming with energy and wildness.
When I fought them, restrained them, and stripped them naked, my ED still hadn't been cured.
But over the next one, two years, as I kept running into them at the academy and the dining hall, we gradually became more aware of each other.
Eventually, the two of them started making unabashed passes at me, and with each encounter, my little soldier regained a bit more of its fighting spirit.
It was fully cured in the autumn of their seventh year.
When the two of them, wild with their mating season, dragged me into a room saying they couldn't take it anymore.
Those were the days.
That night was absolutely amazing.
After that, on graduation day, Linia and Purusena fought a duel. Purusena won.
Purusena returned to the Great Forest, and Linia came to me.
Then, every year when autumn arrived, we made children.
"Hisshaah!"
"Ouch!"
I'd hugged her and started kneading her chest, and she scratched me.
"Off-limits outside mating season! That's the rule, nya!"
"Come on, a little hug isn't—"
"I know you, darling—just a hug is never where you stop! A wife is not her husband's sex slave, nya!"
"That's really not what I had in mind..."
I sighed and sat down at the table.
Linia was always like that.
The beast tribe's customs dictated that things could only happen during mating season.
Of course, when that season came around, she was the one doing the seducing.
Kids were cute, and making them with Linia during her heat was deeply satisfying on a physical level.
But that wasn't the point.
What I wanted was something more like... love, I guess. Couldn't a little physical affection be part of verifying that?
"Come on, everyone-nnya! Breakfast is ready, so come down!"
"Okaaay!"
When Linia started banging an empty pot, the kids came thundering down from the second floor.
Not just the two who'd gone up earlier—there were twelve of them.
The beast tribe gave birth to two or three at a time, so our family was large.
Our house was filled to bursting with children's rooms.
"Hurry up and eat, then I'm off to work, nya! The students are waiting, nya!"
"Sure, sure."
Urged on by Linia, I started eating breakfast.
She was quite the cook.
When we'd first gotten married, all she could do was grill meat, boil fish, and blanch vegetables.
But over the past few years, she'd learned a whole repertoire of Sharia home cooking.
The seasoning was a touch on the bland side, but that was because we were different species. Nothing to be done about that.
"That was delicious."
"There you go. Thanks for the meal, nya."
Once breakfast was done, I changed into my robe as usual and headed out.
I'd joined the Magic Guild right after graduation, and now I was a teacher at the Magic University.
What I taught was chantless magic.
An extremely practical set of formulas—it was one of the most popular courses on offer.
If this method of teaching chantless magic was established and my students produced results, eventually even a vice-principal or principal position wasn't out of the question.
"Well then, I'm heading out."
"Have a good one, nya."
A quick word, and I headed for the entrance.
For my wife and kids, I'd give it my all again today— "Hm?"
I noticed the living room door was ajar.
I could sense someone inside.
An achingly familiar presence.
"..."
As if drawn in, I opened the door.
A man was there.
Sitting with his back to me, one arm draped over the back of the sofa.
The back of his head showed light brown hair tied off near the nape of his neck.
"Hm?"
The man turned around.
"Yo."
It was
Why was he here?
He was supposed to be dea— Ah, no. He wasn't dead.
He'd given up on the teleportation labyrinth and come back to me.
Then he'd moved to the magic city of Sharia and settled down nearby.
Yeah, that was right.
Paul had blamed me for not going to help, but we were on good terms now.
Yeah, I was pretty sure that's how it was.
"You've got a good wife there."
"Good wife—come on, you've seen her before, haven't you?"
"Nope, first time I'm seeing her."
Paul gave a lopsided grin and waved his hand.
"Are you okay with the way things are now?"
"What do you mean? You got something to say?"
"Nah, nothing in particular. Just asking if you've got any complaints."
"............No complaints."
Linia was a good wife.
Sure, technically it was a complaint that she only let me touch her during a limited window each year...
But even that wasn't really worth bringing up.
Mating season was almost here anyway, and when it came, she'd be all over me—affection at a level my body could barely survive.
And children were born. As a man, my instincts were fully satisfied.
If you thought of it as a year's worth compressed into a short burst, it was really no big deal.
Work was going well too.
I was a popular teacher at the Magic University.
My teaching methods were reputed to be among the best in the school.
Plenty of students looked up to me, and the other teachers trusted me deeply.
The future was bright.
"So no complaints, huh? That's the best news I could hear."
"...Right?"
"But you know, aren't you forgetting something?"
The way Paul spoke was gentle—like he was chiding a foolish child—but his words carried an edge.
"For example, this job you're doing now. Whose example did you follow to become so popular with students and faculty alike?"
"Well..."
Who was it again?
For an instant, something blue flickered across my mind's eye, but I shook it off immediately.
Still, the unease in my heart was growing.
"There was someone who taught you, right? How to do well in this world."
"What the hell are you trying to say? Just spit it out!"
I let my irritation take over and moved toward the sofa.
I circled in front of Paul and grabbed him by the collar.
And that's where my hand froze.
"Then I'll say it straight—I'm already dead, you know?"
Paul had no lower body.
--- "Whoa!"
I shot up in bed.
"Hah... hah..."
My breathing was ragged, my throat was dry, and my back was drenched in sweat.
That was a horrible dream.
An impossible dream.
What the hell was that... what was that...
"What a nightmare..."
"...What's wrong?"
"Ah—no, I just had a weird dream.
Back when I was at the Magic University... there was a beast tribe girl named Linia, right?
I dreamed I married her and had kids.
I was a teacher, teaching chantless magic to students."
"Is that... a nightmare?"
Was it a nightmare?
Put that way, it didn't really feel like one.
A passionate burst of child-making with Linia during her limited mating season each year, and the rest of the time spent raising our kids and teaching students their studies.
It was modest, but I thought I'd built a happy family.
But— "Of course it was a nightmare."
As I said that, I looked at my wife climbing out of the canopy bed with sleepy eyes.
She was the goddess of beauty.
Neither tall nor short—just right.
Neither large nor small in the chest—just right.
Small in the rear, but perfectly balanced with her height and bust.
Slim all over, yet never giving the impression of being either too thin or too heavy.
But there was never a sense that she was merely ordinary either.
A perfect body that embodied the very concept of balance.
If there was one thing less than perfect about her, it was that her hair was a bit mussed from sleep.
Normally flowing golden locks, slightly disheveled.
But that didn't diminish her charm at all.
The tousled hair gave her the allure of a fertile human woman.
In short, it was sexy.
And if I thought that this disheveled state was the result of our activities the night before, it was thirty percent sexier still.
"Having married such a wonderful woman, with everything I could ever want at my fingertips—why do I have to be a teacher in some countryside town?"
"You're complimenting me? How eloquent."
My wife.
Ariel Anemoi
She giggled softly.
"Though perhaps you're actually longing for that kind of life.
There's been a lot of sudden political work lately, hasn't there?
The life of royalty is never easy, you know.
Our work always carries enormous responsibility, no matter how small the task—but the happiness that comes in return for that responsibility is not always proportional.
The happiness a person can feel isn't all that grand, after all.
Perhaps the balance of responsibility and happiness is quite different between spending your days as a teacher surrounded by children in a countryside town, and living as royalty the way you do now...
Maybe someone like Linia is more to your taste than someone like me."
What nonsense.
Ariel was the greatest woman alive. Not a single flaw.
When I did something wrong, she'd gently correct me. In public, she upheld my dignity.
She never said a word about my relationships with other women, and she even allowed me to take numerous concubines.
On top of that, she was competent at her work and commanded deep trust from everyone around her.
An ideal superior, a national idol—that was the kind of woman she was.
No, perhaps she did have flaws.
She was overly logical at times, and valued reason over emotion.
And her tastes in the bedroom were a little... unusual.
But at the very least, none of that constituted a flaw in my eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say too much?"
"No—I was just thinking that maybe you might be right."
"If you need a vacation, just say the word.
The kingdom has settled down recently, so a little break should be fine.
Perhaps a trip somewhere? Or spending time with your concubines?"
"If I could get a vacation, I'd spend the whole day holding you."
"Oh, you... always joking."
"I'm completely serious."
How long had it been since I first took Ariel?
In the early days, I'd welcomed many concubines, aiming for a life of debauchery—but lately, I had no interest in that.
Just her was enough.
If you asked me what made me happiest right now, it would be the ability to love a woman named Ariel Anemoi Asura.
"Hehe—then let's make time for that next time."
Ariel giggled as her maid dressed her.
I stood up from bed and spread my arms wide.
Two maids hurried over immediately.
Watching them work efficiently—one handling each side—dressing me, I felt a tangible sense of my own status.
I missed the days when I was just a student at the Magic University.
When I enrolled at the Magic University, I met Ariel.
She'd lost a political struggle, been driven from her kingdom, but hadn't given up—she was gathering talented people.
I was the only student at the university who had mastered chantless magic, so she recruited me.
She'd been beautiful from the start, with a natural charisma.
But I was dealing with ED at the time, so I kept my distance.
What changed was that she cured my ED.
Her methods were a bit rough, to say the least.
She drugged me with an aphrodisiac, forced me into an aroused state, and had me take her.
At the time, I didn't realize it was all part of her scheme.
Overwhelmed by guilt for what I'd done and a desire to atone, I joined her group.
At first, I was essentially a bodyguard with strong combat capabilities.
No special authority—just someone who existed to protect Ariel.
What began to change was probably because I spent so much time close to her.
Ariel, who tried so hard to be a proper royal.
But who would sometimes show the face of a girl her age.
Little by little, I found myself drawn to her.
I won't deny that there were ulterior motives from the start—but I was drawn not just to her body, but to her heart.
I clashed with my colleague Luke many times.
He must have loved Ariel too, in his own way.
But in the final battle at the Asura Kingdom, Luke died, and only I and Ariel remained.
In the end, I confessed my feelings to Ariel, and I got everything.
The greatest woman in the world, and the greatest kingdom in the world...
I became King of the Asura Kingdom.
That was my name now.
I was essentially an add-on to Ariel—a puppet, in a sense.
It was simply easier for her to rule as Queen from behind the curtain, and that was the only reason.
My bloodline was already fairly prestigious in the Asura Kingdom, so no one complained.
The Mana Emperor Rudeus.
That was apparently how the world knew me.
If I powered up further, maybe I'd become Super Rudeus.
Whether Ariel truly loved me was something I still wasn't entirely sure about.
I couldn't completely shake the feeling that I was merely being used for my power and position.
We'd married purely to stabilize the rule of the kingdom.
That insecurity was part of why I'd taken so many concubines.
But lately, I'd come to think it didn't matter what Ariel truly felt.
Since our marriage, Ariel had consistently maintained the posture of loving me.
She was someone who made an effort.
She was trying—trying hard to love me.
Perhaps it was all an act. But I was thoroughly, genuinely content.
Even if I was being deceived, I could say that I was being deceived in the most pleasant way possible.
Of course, if harm ever outweighed benefit, Ariel would betray me.
Whether that happened or not depended on my own efforts.
I'd just have to do my best.
"Come, let's go. There's a mountain of political work again today."
"Right."
I walked out of the bedroom alongside Ariel.
Two knights standing guard at the entrance bowed their heads.
Walking down the corridor, everyone stopped and bowed.
This was power.
If I said something like "I don't like the way you bowed," that person would go pale and drop to their knees.
If I told them to lick my feet, they probably would.
Hehe—of course, I'd never do something like that. But being in a position where you could? It felt remarkably good.
Now then, the first task would be whatever had come up overnight.
Since there hadn't been any emergency summons during the night, there shouldn't be anything urgent.
I'd handle that at a leisurely pace over about two hours, then meet with the Commander of the Knights before noon.
After that, a meal, then audiences with nobles who had appointments.
After midday, maybe I'd work through some petitions.
It'd be nice to plan some time off soon. I wanted a child with Ariel before too long.
Part of my role was to serve as stud, after all.
"Your Majesty!"
Just as I was thinking this, the Commander of the Knights came running over.
He immediately knelt before me and raised his voice.
"A knight who went to subdue a monster that appeared in the Eastern Forest has returned in critical condition! He says he wants to speak directly with Your Majesty with his last words!"
"What?!"
A monster in the Eastern Forest?
Had there been something like that...?
"There's been no report of that."
Oh, right.
"It's the final wish of a knight who fought for Your Majesty! Please, please hear his last request!"
"You. There's no need for this."
Ariel was cold about it.
But it wasn't like I was especially busy today.
"No—let's meet him."
This was the dying wish of a knight who'd fought for his kingdom.
The least I could do was listen to his final words.
I'd hear his name and remember it.
With that thought, I hurried to the audience chamber.
Ariel looked displeased, but she didn't press the issue and followed.
In the audience chamber, my subordinates had gathered.
Duke Notos, Duke Boreas, Duke Eros, Duke Zephyros.
And the rest of the Asura Kingdom's noble dignitaries.
Surrounded by them, a single man waited on a red velvet carpet.
Lying on a stretcher, covered by a blanket.
His face was familiar.
"Father..."
Paul.
Why was Paul here?
Ah—right.
Paul had been the first to join my retinue when he heard I'd become king.
Even though he had terrible relations with the Notos family, he'd even humbled himself before his own parents to do it.
He'd wanted to protect me as a knight.
"Hey, Rudy."
Paul raised his hand casually, as if he weren't injured at all.
"Father... the monster—the Commander said you went to—"
"Monster? What are you talking about?"
"Huh?"
When I tilted my head, Paul shrugged with a resigned look.
"I didn't come here for that reason."
"Then why—"
Mid-sentence, Paul swept the blanket aside.
His lower body was gone.
Despite clearly bearing mortal wounds, Paul kept talking.
"Now, about what we were discussing earlier..."
--- "Whoa!"
I woke up.
I'd had another bad dream.
A nightmare.
"Honey, what's wrong?"
Wiping the sweat from my forehead with my palm, the woman beside me spoke.
A plump body, a cheerful smile.
My wife, Aisha.
How was it that we'd gotten married again?
Right—so.
She'd been teasing me while I was in the bath, and I couldn't hold back.
Aisha had been pursuing me every day, and her body had become more... with each passing year. But wait— "Hey, what's wrong...? Oh—should I still call you 'big bro' even after we're married?
Goodness, big bro, you really are a pervert, aren't you?"
"..."
...Behind Aisha, Paul was there.
Paul—missing his lower body—sitting in a chair.
Looking at me with that lopsided grin.
"It's no use. You know that already, don't you?"
Paul murmured.
Did I know?
Ah.
Yeah.
I was starting to figure it out too.
The reason the nightmares kept coming.
This persistent sense of wrongness.
I'd been waking up over and over.
It was all a dream.
Which meant this was a dream too.
"So you've finally figured it out. Underworld King Vita. The show's over."
Underworld King.
Right.
Underworld King Vita.
I remembered now.
--- When I came to, I was in a room with no door.
In this doorless room, there were three chairs.
No other furniture, but it felt somewhat like my own room.
A blend of my room in my past life and my current bedroom.
As if you'd added the two together and divided by two.
In this room, I sat in one of the chairs.
Before me were two figures.
No—two entities?
One was a skeleton.
Wearing a crown, its entire body stained a dark, grimy black.
The other was a slime.
At least, I thought it was a slime.
A blue, jelly-like object sat in a chair.
Or at least, it appeared to be sitting.
"Pleased to meet you. I am Underworld King Vita."
The slime spoke.
A translucent blue slime.
So that was the true form of the Underworld King.
Then who was the skeleton?
It couldn't be Paul...?
I didn't remember what Paul's skeleton would look like, but that crown wouldn't suit him at all.
"I concede this battle."
The slime said with a solemn expression— Well, I couldn't tell where its face was, actually.
It spoke with a solemn voice.
Conceding meant this had been a fight.
He had shown me visions.
Blissful, happy visions.
If I hadn't noticed, they would have continued forever—an eternity of happiness.
"...So you used some kind of illusion on me, showing me visions."
"Yes. I predicted the most likely future from your memories, and blended in your desires. A top-shelf hallucination, you might say."
An illusion, huh.
So that was a thing too.
A "most likely future"—though when I thought back, there were quite a few gaps.
It had been a world without
"Your libido was extraordinarily strong, so it was easy."
"Well, I was abstaining..."
How embarrassing.
And the fact that the visions had been Linia, Ariel, and Aisha— Sure, there was... maybe a little?
Saying I hadn't felt anything toward Aisha at all—that might have been a lie.
No, wait—I didn't! I absolutely did not feel anything toward Aisha! Not at all!
"But my feelings for my wife and my memories of Paul were what shattered the illusion?"
I'd seen this kind of illusion magic many times in my past life.
Mainly from manga knowledge, but—anyway, I knew how to break them.
It must have manifested unconsciously, leading to this result.
"...No. Actually, you were completely under the illusion. Granted, your unusual spiritual constitution made it take hold more shallowly than normal... but once you were that deep, breaking free should have been impossible."
Huh?
"Then how did I break free?"
"That... was this."
Vita pointed to where the skeleton sat.
The skeleton sat with perfect posture.
"What is it?"
"Don't play dumb. You anticipated fighting me and prepared this from the very beginning, didn't you? The 'Raslas Bone Ring'—my natural enemy."
"..."
"Now that I think about it—when you showed off that transformation ring to
The Raslas Bone Ring.
I had no memory of preparing any such thing...
"The Raslas Bone Ring was created by Death God Raslas specifically to kill me.
It manifests in the form of the most trusted revenant, shatters the illusion, and cuts off the caster's escape route.
Of course, without a trusted revenant to draw upon, the ring wouldn't activate..."
Death God Raslas... a Death God's ring!
The one I'd received from Randolph!
I'd been wearing it! I had definitely been wearing it!
"I seem to have underestimated you rather significantly."
I hadn't predicted any of that.
I hadn't intentionally hidden the ring either.
"I failed.
If I'd known it would come to this, I should have manipulated Ruijerd and used him to threaten you.
I panicked because Ruijerd was prepared to destroy a village just to get close to you.
You didn't seem to be on guard at all, so I thought things would proceed smoothly.
But to think you'd prepared a counter against me... to think this was a trap to corner me..."
It wasn't a trap, you know.
Sorry about that.
But perhaps
I wished Orsted would just tell me countermeasures in advance for once.
No—come to think of it, he had told me to wear the ring.
Maybe that was why he said nothing more.
If simply wearing it was enough, then the Underworld King wasn't really a threat anymore, or something like that.
He could have been more explicit.
Well, Orsted failing to relay all the necessary information was nothing new.
And me failing to ask all the right questions was nothing new either.
"...There's a thing about arrogance leading to defeat, isn't there."
"Yes. Truly."
Vita spoke with bitter regret while continuing to shrink.
As though rapidly losing power.
At the same time, the skeleton was also crumbling apart, piece by piece.
"As the strongest king in the history of the Fit Race for centuries—never did I imagine ending up like this. Rudeus of the 'Dead End.' Magnificent."
...How should I respond to that?
I hadn't predicted any of this.
Should I say it was luck?
Going to meet Randolph had been my own decision, so calling it purely luck didn't quite work.
Or should I tell him not to call himself the strongest in history?
No—more important questions came first.
"One thing I want to ask. Are you a servant of the Human God?"
"Yes. That god has been of considerable help to me.
He saved me from the clutches of Death God Raslas and showed me the path to the wastelands of the Heaven Continent.
Thanks to him, I lived for a very long time...
But this is the result. Is it karma? Or fate?"
Vita continued shrinking.
When it had first been in this room, it had been human-sized—now it was barely the size of a fist.
"Rudeus—one last thing, before I go."
"..."
"The Human God is a wicked deity—but I am not the only one he helped and earned the devotion of."
As Vita said this, it continued to dwindle until it was the size of a fingertip.
At the same time, the skeleton dissolved into sand and vanished.
"Wait! The other servants—who are they—"
My consciousness, too, was fading.
--- I woke up.
My mind was clear.
I remembered everything about the dream, including the conversation in that final room.
"Ugh..."
A sudden, searing pain hit my stomach, and nausea swept over me.
"Bleaaagh..."
On all fours, I vomited a stream of viscous liquid.
Blue liquid.
Something like a blue slime, mixing with gastric acid and the remnants of dinner, spreading across the floor.
The corpse of Underworld King Vita...?
As I was thinking that, I felt something wrong on my left hand.
When I removed the gauntlet, the Death God's ring shattered and clattered to the ground.
The ring landed with a wet splat and sank into the vomit.
"..."
The fact that the ring had broken meant that what Vita had said earlier was true.
In other words—Vita had entered my body of its own volition, and the ring's effect had caused it to self-destruct.
Pathetic.
But it hadn't been Vita's miscalculation, exactly.
If it had taken control of me, the Human God's faction would have won on the spot.
And in that moment, I had no means to prevent it...
Coincidence.
No—perhaps it was destiny.
The Raslas Bone Ring of the Death God.
It wasn't just useful for getting Kishirika to listen.
Though it was possible Randolph hadn't known its true effect either.
"Oh—wait, what about Ruijerd?"
I looked around.
I was inside a building.
The floor, walls, layout... I recognized them.
Ruijerd's house.
Going by the sequence of events, after Ruijerd had been used to transfer Vita to me, I must have been brought here...
"..."
It was bright outside.
How many hours had passed?
Dawn had broken.
I'd clean up the vomit later.
"Ruijerd?"
I called the householder's name, but there was no response.
Had he gone outside?
Or was there some other reason?
I got to my feet and looked around.
I needed to assess the situation.
No—there he was.
Ruijerd was lying on the far side of the hearth.
"Ruijer—"
His face was deathly pale. He was wheezing, breathing in thin, shallow gasps.
Hugging his own body, he shook violently, his teeth chattering.
The instant I saw that, I lost my words.
He was clearly not in a normal state.
"Vita is suppressing the progression of the disease.
If Vita dies, the clone dies too, and the plague will spread."
That single line came rushing back to me.
In other words, Ruijerd's current condition was...
"The plague..."
Underworld King Vita hadn't simply died.
It had self-destructed, yes— But this was a suicide bombing.