S21: The Truth of the World

Ten days had passed since we escaped from the royal capital.

After that, we managed to break through the soldiers surrounding us and escape the capital — all because Brother Reston acted as a decoy.

"I'll buy you some time. Oka, rendezvous at Safe House 16."

That was what he said before charging straight into the pursuing soldiers, leading his unit forward.

I hesitated. But the thought that I had to protect Kathia, whom I was cradling in my arms, combined with Hyrince urging me onward, convinced me to escape and leave Brother Reston behind.

But that was the wrong choice.

Brother Reston had told us to meet up at Safe House 16 — the one we were currently in. He never showed.

I should have forced him to stay with us back then. If I had, more people would be here now.

The only ones in this safe house were me, Sensei, Hyrince, and Kathia — four people total.

Brother Reston, Clevea, and everyone in his unit — not a single one of them had made it here.

If I had fought alongside my brother back then, maybe things would have turned out differently.

But deep down, I already knew.

I knew that there was no way I could have put Kathia down and fought back then.

Kathia, freed from her brainwashing, had cast a spell on herself — a high-powered, wide-area annihilation magic meant to take out multiple targets at once.

Under normal circumstances, that would have been instant death.

Even though she had been revived, Kathia was in terrible shape.

There was no way I could fight properly while carrying her in that state.

Yeah, I knew all of that.

And yet, knowing didn't stop the regret from growing.

Not just from the escape, either.

Now that I thought about it, when Sue and Kathia had been talking to me through Thought Connection, something felt off. Sue had been acting strange in subtle ways, and as for Kathia — even though it was a private Thought Connection between the two of us alone, she hadn't been speaking Japanese.

Kathia always used Japanese when it was just the two of us talking.

Something had been wrong.

And I hadn't noticed.

If I had noticed, I never would have let Hugo do what he did.

I swung my sword through practice cuts in the room, as if to blow away my gloomy thoughts. As long as I kept my body moving, I didn't have to think about anything.

I was lost in that empty focus when a knock came at the door.

"What are you doing in there?"

"Kathia? Are you really okay to walk around already?"

The one who opened the door and came in was Kathia, who had been bedridden until just recently.

"Yeah. My body's fine now. Still get the occasional headache, though."

"Don't push yourself too hard. Just because the brainwashing is gone doesn't mean all its effects have completely disappeared."

Hugo's brainwashing ran deep.

Kathia had used her mental strength to momentarily regain her sanity, but all she'd managed to do with that brief window was attempt suicide.

That was how powerful the brainwashing was — she saw no other option.

Now the brainwashing's hold was gone, but Kathia still suffered from unexplained headaches.

"I told you, I'm fine. Oh, right — I wanted you to Appraise something for me, Shun."

"Appraise?"

"Yeah. I got a new Skill, but it's one I've never heard of. As far as I can remember, it wasn't listed in the Skill Compendium either. Since I have no idea what it does, I figured I'd have you look it up with Appraisal."

"Oh, got it. Sure."

I activated Appraisal on Kathia.

Sure enough, there were Skills now that hadn't been there before — Skills that I didn't possess either.

'Divine Domain Expansion: Expands the divine domain.' Even after Appraising it, I couldn't really tell what it meant.

I tried a deeper Appraisal.

'Divine Domain: The deep layer of the soul held by all living things. It is the origin of all life, and the ultimate domain upon which the self depends.' Still didn't really get it.

"Sorry, I can't make sense of it."

"Even with Appraisal?"

"Yeah. Apparently it has something to do with the soul, but I can't tell what kind of effect it actually has."

We both tilted our heads in confusion.

"Oh well. Anyway, you also picked up Heretical Resistance and things like that."

"Yeah. Those probably went up because Hugo's brainwashing was broken."

"And what about Parallel Will?"

"That Skill, when turned on, temporarily gives you a split personality of sorts."

"What the hell? Is that even useful?"

"One side keeps fighting like normal, while the other side can cast magic and such."

"Seriously? That's dirty, isn't it?"

"If you think of it as temporarily doubling your combat power, then yeah, it's pretty dirty."

"Oh. Let's turn it on right now then."

"Ah, don't keep it on normally. When I got that Skill, I tried it out, but if you leave it on all the time, you lose track of which one is the real you and it gets confusing. A split personality is basically a form of mental illness, you know. Keep it off normally and only turn it on during fights."

"Makes sense. That's a core Skill right there."

"By the way."

"Hmm?"

"Aren't you kind of close?"

Kathia was right in front of me.

We were extremely close.

Since I was taller, I had to look down at her — and from that angle, her chest was right there.

"Don't worry about it."

"Of course I'm going to worry about it. You used to be a man but you're a woman now."

"Hooo. So that's how Shun sees me, huh? Hmmmm."

"Ah, no, that's not what I — look, it's a guy's instinct, you know?"

"Hmmm. So if I did this, you'd react?"

Kathia stepped even closer and pressed her chest against my body.

"I give up! I surrender, so stop teasing me!"

"You're so innocent, Shun."

Kathia laughed as she stepped back.

"There. Feeling any better now?"

"Ah, yeah. ...Thanks. I am."

So that's what it was.

Kathia had deliberately done that to lighten my mood.

She really was thoughtful.

"Hey, I wanted to ask about something. The healing magic you used back then — that wasn't normal healing magic, was it?"

Kathia asked me that question.

『So, Reston's execution is set for three days from now?』

『Yes. Please, whatever you do, make sure this doesn't reach Shun.』

I had been about to respond when I detected that conversation through Thought Connection.

I bolted out of the room.

"Sensei! Is it true that Brother Reston is going to be executed!?"

"Shun!? How did you — ah, you eavesdropped through Thought Connection?"

"That doesn't matter! Is it true that my brother is going to be executed!?"

"Shun, calm down. That information... is true."

"No way — then I have to go save him!"

"It's a trap."

"What?"

"Nine times out of ten, it's a trap. And you'd still go?"

"I would. Brother Reston stayed behind to let us escape. That means now it's my turn to go save him."

Hyrince let out a heavy sigh.

"Even if going would be against Reston's wishes?"

"Yes. I'm still going."

"I won't allow it."

"Sensei. No matter what you say, I can't listen to you this time."

"I won't allow it!"

"And I'm going whether you allow it or not!"

"I said I won't allow it!"

Sensei activated a binding magic.

It was a spell that used wind to immobilize the target's body.

But a spell of that level no longer worked on me.

One swing of my arm sent the wind binding flying.

"What!?"

"Sensei, it's pointless to stop me. I'm going."

"You can't! If you go now, you will definitely be killed!"

"Sensei. You just saw that, didn't you? I've gotten a lot stronger. So I won't be killed that easily."

"That's not it! Strength has nothing to do with it! Against an Administrator, none of that matters! ...Ah."

Sensei's face went pale, as if she'd realized her mistake.

"Sensei... Administrator? What is that?"

Kathia's voice was sharp as a blade.

"Is that the reason you've been sneaking around behind our backs all this time?"

"I... cannot say that."

"Sensei, at a time like this, 'I cannot say' is not acceptable! If you won't tell us, then you have no right to stop Shun!"

"Gah!"

"I'll be blunt. Sensei, you are not trustworthy. In this situation where you've given us no explanation, you've been acting suspiciously for far too long. Shun may trust you unconditionally, but I cannot. If you continue to obstruct Shun's actions without offering an explanation, I will consider you an enemy."

"I —"

"Kathia, calm down. You too, Sensei."

I tried to soothe Kathia, who was heating up, and comfort Sensei, who was looking downcast.

"Sensei, I don't think of you as an enemy. But there are things I want to hear from your own mouth. If possible, I'd like you to tell us."

I spoke as gently as I could.

Sensei, appearance-wise, looked like a young girl — younger than me. Elves just grew slowly; in actual years, she was the same age, and when you factored in her previous life, she was even older. But right now, she looked every bit the frightened girl she appeared to be, on the verge of tears.

Silence.

No one spoke for a while.

Sensei hung her head, wrestling with her thoughts.

Kathia stared at her intently.

Hyrince watched the scene unfold.

"...I understand. I'll tell you everything."

After a long period of deliberation, that was her answer.

"First, let me say this to Hyrince. The three of us are reincarnators — people who died in another world and were reborn in this one."

"What?"

"With that in mind, please listen carefully. What I'm about to say must not be shared with anyone else."

Hyrince looked around at us, stunned by this sudden revelation.

I hadn't expected her to start from this point, either.

"The first thing I did after reincarnating in this world was learn the language. Once I had a decent grasp of it, I spent Skill Points to acquire Thought Connection. I attempted to communicate telepathically with Potimas, the Elf Elder. After hearing me out, he took it upon himself to search for the other students. By the time I had grown enough to join, a considerable number of students had already been found and safely taken in at the Elf Village. Once I was mobile enough, I joined the search as well. Four of them we reached too late. Some had been born under powerful figures and couldn't be easily reached. Those were Shun, Kathia, and Hugo. Yuri was born an orphan, but by the time we discovered her, the Church had already marked her as a Saint candidate. Ideally, we would have sheltered Shun and the others among the elves as well, but political circumstances made that impossible. The reason we tried to protect them was to keep them from being drawn into this world's system as much as possible. Haven't you ever questioned the Skills, the Status, the Levels in this world? Hyrince, you were born here, so you probably never had any doubts. But in our original world, none of those things existed — Skills, Status, Levels. Such things only exist in games. They can't exist in reality. And yet this world is a game. One run by beings called Administrators. They pit the Human race against the Demon race, forcing people to grow stronger for the purpose of fighting. They raise their Skills, Status, and Levels — and then they extract that power from the souls of the dead and absorb it for themselves. That is this world's system. The Hero and the Demon King are nothing more than pawns created by those Administrators to make the Human race and Demon race fight each other efficiently. The Church is the same. Their teachings — to develop Skills, to listen to the voice of God — that faith was created by the Administrators too. The Church's involvement in the current crisis almost certainly traces back to the Administrators' schemes. Hugo believes he's using the Church, but in reality, he's the one being used. And through Hugo, they've engineered Brother Reston's execution. It's undoubtedly an Administrator trap — aimed at Shun, whose power has grown far beyond what any resident of this world should possess. That is why I cannot let Shun go. I am a teacher. I refuse to let my students be killed by those incomprehensible beings. So please — don't go. I'm begging you."

Dead silence.

It was Hyrince who finally broke it.

"According to you, the Hero — Julius — was forced to fight for nothing, all for the sake of these so-called Administrators?"

"Yes. We elves have been appealing to both the Human race and the Demon race to end the war — to put a stop to that pointless conflict. The previous Hero and Demon King accepted that offer and reconciled. And in secret, they were preparing to challenge the Administrators. Both the previous Hero and Demon King were rare wielders of Dimensional Magic. Using that power, they attempted to tear open a dimension and teleport to the Administrators' location. But it failed — it tore open a passage to our world instead. Our deaths were caused by that magical explosion."

"What!? How is that!?"

"I don't know how deeply the Administrators were involved in that accident. But the ones of us who died there were caught up in this world's system and reincarnated here. The reason we were born with Skill Points and Skills — things people native to this world shouldn't have from birth — is that we were people from another world, and the power engraved upon our souls at the time of death had not yet been reclaimed by the Administrators."

"So then... our deaths were caused by the Hero and the Demon King?"

"And by extension, by the Administrators who were pulling the strings behind the scenes. The Administrators are the lowest of the low — beings who feed upon us, who feed upon this world."

"Then why didn't you let us meet the other students?"

"I've been having the other students live as much as possible without acquiring Skills — so the Administrators wouldn't notice them. But Kathia and the others had already grown too strong for that. The Elf Village is protected by powerful barriers that even the Administrators can't easily penetrate, completely isolated from the outside world. But if I brought Kathia and the others — who might already be on the Administrators' radar — into the village, the Administrators' attention might spread to the students inside as well. That was my fear."

"And the Dominators?"

"Dominators are beings who, by default, are meant to serve as the Administrators' pawns. Because of that, they can use a small portion of the world's system's power. By acquiring certain special Skills, one becomes a Dominator — and I obtained one of those Skills, becoming a Dominator myself. That said, I'm not under the Administrators' influence."

"That's what you've been doing behind the scenes all this time?"

"Working to prevent war between the Human race and the Demon race. And gathering the means to defeat the Administrators."

"Can they be defeated?"

"I don't know. We didn't even know where the Administrators were in the first place."

Sensei turned to face me directly.

"Shun, I understand that you want to save Reston. But please — don't go. If you do, you will die."

In the face of her earnest gaze, I…