Ishura - Volume 4 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Fifth Match

Late at night in Gimeena City. Kuze the Passing Disaster entered the city not in a carriage but on foot.

To ensure that no one could track him.

The night’s temperature was on the chilly side, and Kuze’s exhalations were misty white.

“…I’ve arrived in the city. I’m ready.”

He used the radzio in his inside pocket to communicate with a distant ally.

In a position a little ways outside the city, his commander for the Sixways Exhibition—Zigita Zogi the Thousandth—was supposed to be on standby.

Goblins, a race thought to have been eradicated from the land. Among them, he was a champion, equipped with an exceptional genius for military strategy.

<Understood. Please leave the scene as soon as your job is finished. My soldiers can confirm the outcome for us. The most important point to keep in mind is that you cannot be caught in the act.>

Kuze had volunteered for this latest operation himself.

It was a job to grow Hiroto’s camp’s trust in him as an assassin. More than that, however, it was a job, as the Order’s cleaner, that would thwart a deed that threatened to shock the very world.

<I would like to give one warning—Nofelt has already sensed the possibility that he would be targeted and is acting accordingly. Should he be in hiding somewhere farther beyond Gimeena City, then I do not know if we will have a chance to trap him until the day of the match.>

“It’s okay. Just gotta do it today.”

The target was Aureatia’s Twenty-Sixth General, Nofelt the Somber Wind.

They would dispose of Uhak the Silent’s sponsor and lead Zigita Zogi the Thousandth to a win by default in his match.

With Uhak then becoming a masterless pawn, he would turn into an impossible-to-deal-with trump card in the Sixways Exhibition, with only Hiroto’s camp knowing the absoluteness of his abilities. That was their plan.

<Master Kuze. Bloodshed is not entirely necessary to secure Uhak. The reason we sent you for the job, as you requested, was in part because you are the one with the highest chances of drawing Nofelt to our side. You both hail from the same almshouse, yes?>

“You’ve done your research, huh. That’s right.”

<Should information get out, and we can neither secure Uhak nor deal with Nofelt—that would be the most unfavorable outcome for you, yes? Our side can simply abandon you, pretend we’re uninvolved, and that would be enough to settle things. An overstep on your end, however, will have ramifications for the entire Order itself.>

“…Bweh-heh-heh. Listen, you don’t need to be so cautious, Zigita Zogi.”

For Zigita Zogi, Kuze the Passing Disaster was the newest addition to their cause and an untrustworthy assassin.

Whether he could deal with Nofelt here would also serve as a test to see if Kuze could truly act under the strategic leadership of Hiroto’s camp.

However, even excluding such circumstances, Kuze was resolved.

“…Nofelt is trying to expose that Uhak fellow right in front of the audience’s eyes. The ogre priest who negates Word Arts. The criminal behind the Alimo Row massacre. I don’t think for a moment that Uhak’s mere existence is a crime, but…if the truth behind him is made known to the world, it’d be blasphemy against the Wordmaker… The Nofelt I know isn’t the type of guy to do that.”

Though he had long lost the qualifications to be a priest, Kuze was someone who shared an Order upbringing with Nofelt, and he was a paladin.

He needed to hear Nofelt’s confession—what was he thinking?

“If you’re going to make someone else do it anyway, I’d rather it’d be me.”

<……I trust in your abilities.>

“Well then, there’s just one more thing I want to know… Why did Uhak the Silent catch your attention? Truth is: There were other candidates you were looking to get your hands on and use as your trump card, weren’t there?”

<You’re absolutely right. Uhak the Silent is the highest priority in that regard.>

Hiroto’s camp was gathering secret weapons they could mobilize themselves. Even under the condition that they couldn’t be affiliated with Aureatia, there were many other figures who were worthy of being called invincible. Alus the Star Runner. Toroa the Awful. Tu the Magic. Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge.

<Among the sixteen hero candidates, there are individuals whose existences are maintained by the laws of Word Arts that exist beyond the laws of physics, including the construct races, dragonkin, and the gigante. Psianop the Inexhaustible Stagnation. Alus the Star Runner. Lucnoca the Winter. Ozonezma the Capricious. Tu the Magic. Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge. Shalk the Sound Slicer. Mele the Horizon’s Roar.>

Zigita Zogi dispassionately read off a list of names.

<These eight among the sixteen participants would die instantly should they be affected by Uhak the Silent’s ability. Furthermore, he would suppress Toroa the Awful’s enchanted swords and Rosclay the Absolute’s Word Arts. Incidentally, your power would be included among them, too, Master Kuze. Also, this attack would not be limited to the arena and would be possible to use simply by having them observe Uhak among the audience, for example. A major factor regarding the information about this trump card is that only we possess any of it. Thus, the best option is to prevent any opportunity for Uhak the Silent to be exposed to public attention, just as you wished for, Master Kuze, and using him will keep his existence a secret.>

Should Zigita Zogi win the eighth match and advance, until the third match, Zeljirga the Abyss Web was the only candidate among those he could face who wouldn’t be affected by Uhak’s ability.

Indeed, if none of the other participants knew about the existence of such a being, then Uhak was the best possible piece to have under their control.

“…I got it. Sorry for making you explain all that for me. I guess I want to believe that this is really necessarily, is all.”

<Master Kuze…>

Zigita Zogi’s tone was always calm and composed.

A tactician who pushed aside his own emotions and always dispassionately conveyed the optimal strategy—and nothing more.

<You seem to have given up on letting Nofelt live right from the start.>

“…Guess so. I mean, am I wrong?”

The man who should have loved his comrades in the Order, just as Kuze did, was trying to curse not just the Order, but the entire world itself.

“…If I don’t kill him, that might be it for all of us.”

Nofelt had resolved to do as much. After Kuze failed to notice such anguish and abandoned Cunodey to her death, at this stage, what sort of words could he say to make Nofelt change his mind?

<Master Kuze. There are no absolutes in the world.>

“Fair enough. I feel the same way.”

<I interpreted Uhak the Silent’s abilities as simply a unique power that he was inherently born with, but…even making them out to be the Wordmaker’s teachings may not be the real, absolute truth.>

“……”

If that was how everyone was going to face Uhak’s existence, then perhaps Nofelt’s deeds were, in fact, salvation to make the truth known to the world.

However… What about the things Kuze had protected up until now, piling up corpses as he went?

“Me, I don’t want to think about that.”

Both Uhak the Silent’s and Cunodey’s final moments. Kuze covered his face with one hand.

“I… I want to believe in the Wordmaker… There are plenty of people out there who have found salvation from his teachings alone.”

<……>

“…Zigita Zogi. If I do let Nofelt go here, what will happen?”

He posed a new question, as if to shake himself free of his own mind.

Right now he needed to rationally paint over the sin that was going to occur that night.

<Nofelt departed Aureatia yesterday. His pretext was investigating the cause of the traffic generated by Ozonezma’s match. He is scheduled to return home on the day of the eighth match. I doubt he will stay in town anymore. The transportation traffic Haade set up didn’t just cover Gimeena City, but it extended in a wide area to the surrounding cities. In the meantime, any investigation would appear natural, no matter where it occurred.>

“Or putting it another way, no matter what happens to Nofelt, no one will notice until the day of his match.”

<You are absolutely right.>

Kuze thought.

…You really are an outstanding guy, after all, Nofelt.

He may have been very close to outwitting Zigita Zogi, the most powerful tactician in the land. All with the simple yet bold plan of leaving his hero candidate behind in Aureatia while he, the sponsor, went into hiding.

He always had the smarts to react to situations like this, ever since they were in the almshouse together.

Whenever he was about to be forced into handling an annoying job, he’d suddenly disappear right beforehand.

<Of course, we’ll need to identify Nofelt’s hiding spot before the night’s over. I can send one of our units to sniff him out.>

“Nah, that won’t be necessary. If he’s in the city, I have an idea where he’d make his last stop for the night.”

Kuze’s footsteps advanced through the streets without any hesitation.

He continued to speak briefly with Zigita Zogi before he cut the radzio communication line.

Once he had lost his conversation partner, he realized it was a terribly lonesome night.

Thanks to a wonderful miracle, we are all no longer in solitude.

Kuze arrived at a church.

He was confident that Nofelt was certain to be here.

All living things who possess minds of their own are all part of our family.

In his mind, Kuze recited the teachings he once learned.

He was unable to hope that doing so would bring some kind of salvation.

When he opened the door, he saw the figure of a man sitting down at the altar.

There was no one else. Nofelt the Somber Wind was here in this church.

“…Hey there, Nofelt. Haven’t seen you in a spell.”

“Ugh.”

Even seated, Nofelt was very tall.

He had been ever since they were kids. Every year, he’d grow taller, as if to answer the expectations of those around him, like his body itself couldn’t wait to broadcast Nofelt’s prominent talents, even if the man himself remained silent.

Nofelt laughed foolishly.

“That obnoxious speaking style, gotta be Big Brother Kuze, huh?”

“That mouth of yours hasn’t changed, either, has it?”

Kuze replied with a faint laugh of his own, and he started approaching Nofelt.

“Oh, mind if I take a seat?”

“And if I said no?”

“What? I’ll still sit, of course. I mean, lemme tell you, at this age, it doesn’t take much to make your back ache.”

Kuze sat down next to Nofelt. Nor did Nofelt make any attempt to stop him.

Sitting side by side, Nofelt was indeed about two heads taller than Kuze. Just how old was Nofelt going to get before he stopped growing? Kuze wished he had the time to indulge in such earnest questions.

“Your back? At your age, seriously? Quit it with that. You’re gonna make me look like an old man, too.”

“…Bweh-heh-heh. Don’t worry about that; we’ve both been old men for a while now. How many years do you think it’s been since then?”

“Twenty-two…? Or it is twenty-three? Heh… I don’t remember.”

“C’mon, you gotta remember that much. As of two small months ago, uh, right, it was…twenty…”

“You don’t even remember.”

“…Bweh-heh-heh. Damn, it’s that aging brain of mine.”

Despite it being all so long ago, he could remember it even now.

The True Demon King was still a far-off incident in some place the kids didn’t recognize, and even though they were poor, they were all able to help each other. The kids joined with the adults at work, they met many, many priests, and heard all sorts of words from them.

Then, even as each individual word vaguely blurred together, he remembered the many memories like a song he couldn’t help humming to himself.

Nastique the Quiet Singer surely must have seen the world in a similar way.

Kuze believed so.

“…What d’ya say to a round of feather top, Nofelt?”

“For real?”

“I still have it. The one you left with me when you graduated. Here.”

Taking a brass top out of his inner pocket, he tossed it to Nofelt.

Nofelt was by no means good at feather top, but the top was one he had always taken pride in. Seeing the dull gleam, unchanged from times past, he laughed.

“That’s kid’s stuff, c’mon.”

“Hey, can’t hurt every once and while. Here we go. Five. Four. Three.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa now. Ha-ha, wait, just hold up a sec, geez.”

“Two. One, and—!”

Aiming at church floorboards, Kuze let the feather top fly. Nofelt’s lagged slightly behind.

The two tops spun, letting out unique sounds as their spins cut through the air.

“We got yelled at whenever we did this on the church floor, huh.”

“…Right. That didn’t make any damn sense, for real.”

“Especially since all the boards were level, and it had the most space. If I ever got to be a priest, that whole stupid rule’d be gone. But I guess kids these days don’t play feather top as much?”

“Wait, Big Brother Kuze, you’re still doing that Order stuff?”

—Indeed. Kuze couldn’t leave the Order even while he betrayed the teachings more than any follower.

Would his mind be more at ease if he had lived without believing in the Wordmaker?

Could he have lived while pretending not to see the angel watching him?

“So was there some test to be a priest or something?”

“Nope. ‘Paladin’ is just a title, and I’m basically still rank-and-file.”

“Huh…”

“I hate to admit it, but you know, Nofelt… You really are special. I’m glad you left. You’ve always been the smartest, even back then. With the huge body to back it up… I never thought you’d still be growing. Your parents must’ve really been outstanding, huh…to end up like you did.”

“…Listen, Big Brother Kuze. That excuse’s a bit unfair, right? I mean, none of us had any damn parents. Even if we did, they were assholes who abandoned their own kids, right?”

The feather tops continued to spin.

The brass surface reflected the warmly flickering candlelight.

“That’s true. You…you worked hard, didn’t you? You’re part of the Twenty-Nine Officials, now.”

“Heh… Heh-heh-heh. Shit.”

The Twenty-Sixth General laughed. A dry, flippant laugh.

It slightly resembled Kuze’s own somehow.

“I’m shit. Even after becoming so great and important, I’m still shit. A shithead just like my parents… Did you know, Big Brother Kuze? Granny Cunodey’s dead. I… You know, I…”

Nofelt rested his forehead down on his hands, folded in his lap.

“…Really, I thought…if I became powerful and important, I’d be able to make things easier for everyone. Make sure that at every almshouse there’d be green strawberries after every meal…and use Kingdom money to have a cleaning lady at each one, too. Heck, I even thought for their scripts, they could use proper lambskin, you know… What else…? Heh-heh, ah right, there was another thing, too. I’d make it so the kids would be able to play feather top in church, right.”

“I know. We all knew. Not one of us thought you abandoned us and left.”

“…Stop, stop, it’s super embarrassing! Hey, Big Brother Kuze. Everyone went and died. What am I supposed to do? I don’t have anything I want to do anymore.”

“……”

One of the feather tops’ spinning wavered. Scraping against the ground with a clack, until it finally collapsed.

It was Nofelt’s feather top.

“Bweh-heh-heh… I win.”

“…Pfft… You just got lucky. This here’s my Heron’s Cry, you know.”

“That’s the thing. Sure, you learned fast, but your feather top was always weak, huh.”

“No way… It’s not weak at all. Rematch time.”

The two synced up their breathing and dropped their feather tops.

The sounds of the spins reverberated on top of each other. From somewhere far off in the church, the wind howled.

“…Nofelt.”

“What?”

“If I told you ‘Don’t give in to despair,’ would you be able to stop?”

“……”

Nofelt looked at the high ceiling. After a long silence, he let out a sigh.

Only the clattering of the spinning feather tops echoed.

“Not happening.”

“…………”

“Hold up; my top looks like it’s gonna fall again.”

“Heh-heh. I win, again, General Pushover.”

“Dammit… For real, this is so freaking… Ah, dammit! We’re having another rematch, got it?”

“It’ll just be more of the same, my friend. You trying to break your old record of eight straight losses from back when we were kids?”

“I’m telling you, if Granny Cunodey hadn’t stopped us, I would’ve won the next nine straight.”

One more time, their feather tops spun. The light of the candle continued to flicker unchanged.

Seeing the nostalgic scene in front of him, Kuze smiled. Laughing along as they did in their youth, and yet he knew they could never return to that time again.

“You came here to kill me, didn’t you, Big Brother Kuze?”

“……”

“You know… I—I can’t do it anymore. I can’t. You see the look in Uhak’s eyes…? See, I get it. Truth is, that guy… He hates all of it. The whole world and everything in it.”

“That’s all just in your head.”

That day, Kuze saw Uhak. He was repenting.

They were eyes that wanted to atone for his sins against the world, but without having any means to do so.

“…Listen, Big Brother Kuze. If I said I was gonna use him, right…and turn this whole big farce upside down, what’d you say? Just destroy everything… Heh-heh, sounds like a blast, right? After he’s made hero, he’ll go up in front of everyone…and show them that Word Arts, the Wordmaker or whatever, is all a big load of crap…bald-faced lies…”

“It’s okay, Nofelt. Enough, you don’t need to blame yourself.”

“I… The thing is—I… I’m just sick of this world. Seriously, it’s hopeless, isn’t it?”

“…You did everything you could. Look, it’s not your fault, okay? Seriously.”

One of the feather tops collapsed. Kuze hoped it wasn’t the case, but he looked to see it was indeed Nofelt’s top again.

All the many friends they had lived with, Cunodey and Rozelha, too—they were all gone.

Nofelt had left the Order. Kuze continued to remain in their ranks.

He had to protect the dying Order. Even if decay was the only path left, within it still remained the meaning to the life he had lived, the lives that the adults in the Order, and the children he wanted to protect, had lived.

“…I win.”

“Dammit… Why can’t I win, dammit…? Right up until the end…”

“We can keep going. I’ll take you on as many times as you want…no matter how long.”

“…Yeah, not happening.”

As he flippantly laughed, Nofelt was crying.

Tears that he surely hadn’t noticed for himself. When they were little, he made sure never to cry at all.

“This is hilarious, for real.”

“…No one’s abandoned you. No one. It’s true.”

He put a hand on Nofelt’s shoulder.

Nastique was there. The angel was looking at the pair.

Then that same angel placed her blade in the back of Nofelt’s neck.

“Did he die?” That’s right. I killed him.

Kuze mumbled. Was that the only salvation to be had?

Even if Nofelt had wished for it himself, there should have been another path available.

“…It’s true… It’s really true, Nofelt, believe me…”

The feather top was spinning.

There was now only one sheen of brass, illuminated in the candlelight.

Ozonezma the Capricious’s treatment room. Tu the Magic was squatting down next to the colossal chimera and listening to him explain the logic behind her own body’s construction.

Her race and ancestry were checkered, more so than anyone else participating in the Sixways Exhibition.

At some point, even these truths are sure to be made clear.

Tu stared wide-eyed at Ozonezma, but eventually she began to speak.

“…I’m glad I didn’t get paired up against you, Ozonezma. You knew more about me than I even do… If we fought each other, I probably woulda lost. That and you’re my big brother, after all.”

“INDEED.”

Although the chimera Ozonezma was not a pure construct, from the moment he was spawned into this word, he had undergone painstaking adjustments at the hands of the self-proclaimed demon king of the First Party, Izick, and had existed as a living weapon. A solitary offspring essentially the same as a construct.

Connections for him had always been beyond any blood relationship, including his relationship with Izick.

Therefore, he wanted Tu to live, too.

“NOW, FOR THE MAIN POINT AT HAND. YOUR OPPONENT IN YOUR FIRST-ROUND MATCH MAY BE ABLE TO BREAK THROUGH YOUR INVINCIBILITY.”

“You mean, Kuze the Passing Disaster?”

“…YUCA.”

Ozonezma called out to Yuca, his own sponsor.

He had sunk his enormous frame into a corner chair inside the treatment room and was nodding off, half asleep.

“……Hmmm?”

“SORRY, BUT WOULD YOU MIND LEAVING US FOR A MOMENT?”

“Sure? Oh, but just don’t start any fights, okay? This is my facility and all.”

“WE WILL NOT CAUSE YOU TROUBLE.”

Yuca excused himself from the room.

Ozonezma had made him leave because there was information he had obtained through Hiroto the Paradox included in what he was going to talk about next. Information that, having not entered Aureatia himself, he shouldn’t have possibly known.

Even if Yuca or a subordinate of his were eavesdropping, Ozonezma was capable of sensing their presence. However, he knew full well that, when it came to Yuca, that was one thing he didn’t need to worry about. He was an honest man.

“KUZE’S UNIQUE POWER IS INSTANT DEATH. AS LONG AS HIS OPPONENT IS A LIVING CREATURE, THIS HAS PROVEN TRUE FOR ALL HIS TARGETS. EVEN IF KUZE HIMSELF DOES NOT ACT, IF HE IS ATTACKED, HIS OPPONENT WILL BE HIT WITH AN AUTOMATIC AND UNSEEN ATTACK…AND SUBSEQUENTLY PERISH.”

“…And I’ll die, too?”

“I WOULD SAY…IT IS LIKELY SO. AS I JUST EXPLAINED NOW, YOU ARE, WITHOUT QUESTION, A LIVING ORGANISM.”

Although Ozonezma was colluding with Hiroto’s camp during his participation in the Sixways Exhibition, it was an equal partnership. He was not participating in the operation as intimately as Hiroto’s adviser, Zigita Zogi.

Thus, he hadn’t been informed by Hiroto’s camp at all about the abilities and origins of any of the hero candidates from the fifth match onward, as they were outside of his part of the bracket. Considering there was a possibility Ozonezma could leak information, it was a valid judgment to maintain Hiroto’s camp’s advantage. Ozonezma understood this all as well.

However, for Kuze the Passing Disaster alone, he been informed about the man’s powers.

Kuze was a collaborator who had been brought into Hiroto’s camp after the start of the Sixways Exhibition. The information on him he had received by Zigita Zogi was, at this stage, proving to be effective.

IN OTHER WORDS, ZIGITA ZOGI. HE MUST BE TELLING ME TO USE KUZE’S INFORMATION LIKE THIS.

Ozonezma continued. “TU. DO YOU KNOW WHY KUZE IS COMPETING IN THIS FIGHT?”

“…Nope. He’s from the Order, right?”

“FOR A LONG TIME, THE ORDER HAS SHOULDERED THE EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE FUNCTIONS OF THIS SOCIETY. ORPHANS WHO HAVE LOST PARENTS IN WAR. CHILDREN ABANDONED IN POVERTY. THE ORDER GAVE FOOD AND EDUCATION TO SUCH PEOPLE.”

“…I’m visiting the church, too. I’m not doing it to pray to the Wordmaker really, but I made friends. So…I know that everyone’s having a super-tough time right now.”

Tu leaned forward and inquired. “Hey, so. Do you think Kuze’s trying to become the hero in order to help everyone?”

“THAT IS LIKELY THE CASE. THEY ARE BEING DRIVEN INTO A CORNER. THE REASON IS BECAUSE THEY WERE FORCED TO BEAR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE TRUE DEMON KING TRAGEDY.”

“……”

The color in Tu’s eyes changed at hearing the True Demon King’s name.

The young girl was formerly called the Demon King’s Bastard.

“THE WORDMAKER THEY PUT THEIR FAITH IN IS THE GOD WHO CREATED THIS WORLD. THAT GOD ALLOWED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF THE TRUE DEMON KING. THE TRAGEDY THAT THEY HAD NO HOPES OF FIGHTING AGAINST WAS SUCH THAT THE CITIZENS REQUIRED A TARGET TO POINT THEIR ANIMOSITY.”

“That…that makes no sense. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. I mean, they could decide to blame someone and take them down, and that still wouldn’t change anything…”

“TU. THIS SIXWAYS EXHIBITION… WHILE IT IS WHERE A HERO WILL BE DECIDED ON, IT IS ALSO A BATTLE OVER THE CONTROL OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY IN AUREATIA. IN ORDER TO REHABILITATE THE ORDER’S STATUS, KUZE THE PASSING DISASTER NEEDS TO PROVE THEIR POLITICAL WORTH. TO HIM, IT COULD BE SAID, THIS IS HIS SOLE OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO.”

“But Kuze’s attacks… They kill people, right?”

“YES. WITHOUT EXCEPTION.”

“…Killing someone will save everyone in the Order?”

“I DO NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND KUZE’S INTENTIONS. HOWEVER, THAT WOULD BE THE CASE.”

Tu looked hard at Ozonezma. Her green eyes were tinged with a faint light.

Tu combined an artless soul with an innocent sense of justice. There were times when that transformed into a cruelty that mercilessly eliminated one’s opponents.

Ozonezma was only speaking directly with Tu for the first time, but he didn’t want her to end up like that. If she learned about Kuze’s circumstances and chose to withdraw from the fight without losing her life, that was enough for him.

“…TU THE MAGIC. WHAT IS YOUR REASON FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE SIXWAYS EXHIBITION? THROUGH MY FIGHT WITH SOUJIROU THE WILLOW-SWORD, I CAME TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING… THIS SIXWAYS EXHIBITION IS A BATTLE OF SPIRIT AS WELL. IN ORDER TO TRULY STRIKE KUZE DOWN WITHOUT ANY HESITATION… YOU, TOO, WILL NEED SUITABLE CONVICTIONS OF YOUR OWN.”

“I want to meet the Queen.”

“……”

Queen Sephite. The young monarch who currently governed Aureatia, the last survivor of the United Western Kingdom.

Tu the Magic would have been present there, too, as the Queen’s kingdom fell to ruin.

“I want to meet Sephite…and have her smile for me.”

“…THAT IS ACHIEVABLE WITHOUT PARTICIPATING IN THE SIXWAYS EXHIBITION.”

There were people who could effortlessly grant Tu’s wish. However, even Ozonezma understood how difficult that would prove to be.

“Yeah. I know that. I… I just have to attend school. Rique told me that, too.”

Tu smiled.

“But studying and stuff is still really hard.”

Tu must have understood as well. That she was not of the minian races, but a being born with a deviate destiny thrust upon her, and that someone like her wouldn’t be accepted by greater society.

The juggernaut, born into this world possessing nothing more than tremendous brute force, might have been unable to make her wish come true through any other means besides combat.

Kuze the Passing Disaster, and the Tu the Magic, would fight. If the end result had Kuze coming up short, then it would be a large loss for Hiroto’s camp. Kuze had to win.

THE REST DEPENDS ON TU HERSELF. I… I HAVE, IN MY OWN WAY, FULFILLED MY OBLIGATIONS TO HIROTO.

Ozonezma closed his eyes.

…NEVERTHELESS, I DO NOT WANT HER TO FIGHT.

He hoped that the spear of absolute death and the shield of absolute arrest did not collide.

For even if Kuze won, and it was Tu who was found lacking… To Ozonezma, it would mean he would lose the little sister he had finally found.

The day before the fifth match.

Despite the sun being high in the sky that morning, a thick, gloomy cloud cast a shadow over the almshouse.

Rique the Misfortune and Tu the Magic had visited this almshouse in Aureatia’s Western Outer Ward, but along their path that day, Tu may have been deliberately more talkative with Rique than usual.

“Aigi’s short but apparently really, really good at using a spear. They said that they’ve even beaten kids two years above them in practice matches before. Also… I thought Leisha maybe didn’t like me very much at first, but you know, she’s got a really, really good memory, and no matter what I say, she’ll remember it all. Mie knows a whole lot about machines, and they showed me that they could dissemble a radzio and put it back together again…”

“Yeah.”

Rique’s reply was brief.

“……I wonder what’ll happen to everyone.”

“That’s the one thing I just don’t know.”

As Rique and Tu approached the almshouse, three young men, lingering in front of the gate and idly looking up at the structure, came into view.

Tu thought that she felt like she had seen people like them before.

“…What’re you guys doing?”

Rique let out a low voice. Today he had his bow with him. He had insisted that he needed to be by Tu’s side and take precautions to absolutely ensure against a worst-case scenario befalling her the day before her match.

“Oh, great, Rique the Misfortune.”

“Piece of shit.”

“What’re you doing here, asshole?”

The men all equally shared a boorish, rough air about them, and each hurled curses at Rique. It was there that Tu realized the truth behind her sense of déjà vu. The coats they sported were the same ones that Jivlart the Ash Border had worn when they came across him before.

However, Rique wasn’t as angered or upset as he had been then.

“We came to visit the kids. The priest in training who was fostering and looking after them died yesterday.”

“Erm, I’m uh, Tu the Magic.”

The priest in training, Naijy, was dead. The young man who had come to greet Tu and Rique on their first visit.

He had seemed like an unreliable young man, but nevertheless, he would have been a dear figure to the children there. That was why, even as Tu had her match looming the next day, she had hastened with Rique to come visit.

“Seriously?”

“Naijy, too, huh…”

Rique opened his mouth to speak.

“……I heard Jivlart the Ash Border died.”

“Huh? That ain’t any of your damn business.”

The various incidents that had accompanied the fourth match days prior were still causing an uproar among the Aureatia citizens. The death of Jivlart the Ash Border, scheduled to fight in the match. It was announced that Elea the Red Tag, who had substituted her candidate and attempted to murder Second General Rosclay with foul play, had gone missing.

Jivlart’s corpse was discovered inside Elea’s residence. The cause of death hadn’t been released to the public.

“…A little while back. The talk around a kid getting adopted from here got canceled. Naijy wasn’t given a detailed reason why, but… He asked me for advice, wondering if maybe if the whole proposition had been involved with the slave trade.”

“Quit yer yapping and kick rocks.”

“Heh. What, are you interested in selling and buying kids, is that it?”

“Enough. I want answers.”

Rique flatly cut them off.

“Jivlart the Ash Border was supporting this almshouse. Given his ample contributions, he should have had some voice in where the kids would be taken in. Was there some link with a slave organization behind the scenes? Assuming so, then the reason behind Naijy’s apparent suicide…”

One of the young men grabbed Rique’s collar.

“What the hell did you say?”

He scowled at Rique with bloodshot eyes. Theirs were eyes of hatred, of anger, and of bewilderment.

“G-go ahead. Say that one more time.”

“…So you three… Why have you come here? Just what sort of reason do outlaws like you have for getting involved with these kids? You understand? I’m looking for a convincing explanation here. If you can do that, then…”

Rique reached a hand out to his quiver, his collar still gripped in the young man’s hands.

The experienced bow hand, more than capable of putting down the three simultaneously with his bow, even within range of their fists.

“Rique. Stop… Don’t fight.”

“…Sorry, Tu. But you can say that because you don’t know.”

The color of anger equally showed on Rique’s face as well.

He fixed his eyes on the three members of Sun’s Conifer and threatened them.

“Time for some serious self-awareness. You guys… What have you been doing up until now? How many clients have you betrayed; how much did you exploit the weak? After pretending to be heroes and getting into Aureatia, what were you trying to do next? I should’ve crushed Jivlart on the spot when I first saw him. I could’ve done it, and I even knew what to expect from Sun’s Conifer, but despite it all, I… I was too soft, and now there’s yet another victim!”

“Bullshit!”

The young man grabbing Rique’s collar replied with a shrieking cry of anger.

“Piss off! Who the hell do you think you are, huh?! Jivlart… Jivlart selflessly provided for orphaned kids, and you have the gall to say that?! Always dredging up stories from the past and always treating us like garbage! You… You don’t know what our homeland was like… What were we supposed to do?! You saying we can’t try to live an honest life?! It was supposed to happen! The Sixways Exhibition…was the hope that even guys like us could rise to the top! During the Sixways Exhibition… Aureatia’d recognize Jivlart, and then we’d all…all of us…all of Sun’s Conifer—”

“Rique…!”

Tu cut in and forcefully tore them away from each other.

She didn’t know what sort of suffering Rique the Misfortune had endured in the past, nor the type of life the Sun’s Conifer members had lived up until now. She didn’t understand either of their circumstances.

However, she thought that this hatred needed to be stopped by somebody.

“Ha-ha-ha… Honest? You guys? Honest?”

Rique spat as he covered his head once again with his hood.

“You really were just giving money to poor children without any sort of schemes up your sleeves? Don’t tell me, did you want to be seen as the good guys or something? Just from doing the sort of superficial good deeds a child would think up…?! Were you seriously thinking that’d be able to write off all your crimes?”

“Rique!”

“Fine, so you thought of something, did ya?! You able to think up a way for idiots like Jivlart, idiots like us, to make it out there, huh?! What’ve any of ya done for us, huh?! What the hell do you know?!”

Sun’s Conifer. Poor, uneducated young men who had climbed up from the frontier solely through violence.

Those who involved themselves with the guild would always get hurt. That was the character of their group.

“…Yeah, right.”

This time, before Tu had any time to stop him, Rique instantly dragged the young man from Sun’s Conifer to the ground.

“Enough crap! Don’t think that sort of cheap…worthless talk about your rough life is enough to get the world to sympathize with you guys! You were just helping kids, huh…without anything in return? Bastards like you, all of a sudden outta the goodness of your hearts? How ’bout, if you got the time to play the hero, you go apologize to all those people you ruined to get here, huh?! People living honest lives to begin with, and you bastards crushed them underfoot! Give back everything you stole to rise up to where you are now!”

Rique shouted as he thrust with an arrowhead.

“Apologize to her…to that bride whom I wasn’t able to protect! The Sun’s Conifer!”

“Hic, mrrrm…bweeeh…!”

He was crying. The young man of Sun’s Conifer, exuding an air of violence and brawn, was crying.

Unsightly—and unable to offer any rebuttal to Rique’s sound logic.

Almost like a child, Tu thought.

Forsaken by this world, without any education or social status to their name…yet possessing only brute force as their way to resist that world. They had thought with such strength they would be able to obtain their wishes.

Violent and rough: children.

It’s the same with me.

In that Land of the End, Tu the Magic had always been the Demon King’s Bastard. She hadn’t had any other means at her disposal to protect someone.

She thought that the men of Sun’s Conifer were villains. They had, of their own free will, hurt those weaker than themselves solely for their own benefit. However, things were sure the same for Tu, too.

Exactly who would teach her the imagination to realize such sins?

For those who realized long after all the many crimes they had committed, how exactly were they supposed to make up for it?

The almshouse courtyard. There was an ominous shadow lingering in a position to witness Rique the Misfortune’s argument with Sun’s Conifer in front of the gate.

The man was wearing long black clothes, similar to a priest’s vestments though with a slightly different design.

…I can aim at Tu from here.

He was Kuze the Passing Disaster. The sole being capable of spurring the angel Nastique, bringer of absolute death, into action. An assassin’s fight was not a face-to-face brawl with his enemy in an arena.

Naijy was dead. He died in despair at his, and the children’s, future.

Learning of Naijy’s death, Tu had come to check up on the children. He knew that she would be the type to do so.

I’ve heard all about you, Tu the Magic.

Kuze captured Tu in his sights from under the shade of a tree.

So they said your sprint’s faster than a carriage. C’mon now, you can’t be going all out like that when you’re up against a kid.

Now, while she was bickering with Sun’s Conifer, was his golden opportunity. He could lay the blame for Tu the Magic’s sudden death on the hands of Sun’s Conifer.

It was the reason Nastique the Quiet Singer was truly the strongest assassin of all. On top of the absoluteness of her lethality, the method was impossible to prove. Even supposing Kuze was amid a crowd at midday and faced off with another hero candidate and killed them, there wasn’t anyone in the world who could produce evidence that Kuze was the cause of their sudden death.

Although everyone would understand it was inconceivable that a petty thug would be able to stab Tu the Magic to death, it was also possible to create a situation where there was no choice but to accept that explanation.

It’s actually thanks to you that Leeno really started talking to everyone else, you know.

When an opponent went to kill Kuze, Nastique would kill that opponent.

However, there existed one other condition he had not told his collaborator, Hiroto the Paradox.

Heck, that even got Leisha to become attached to you. So that’s why…

In order to make sure he didn’t show that condition to anyone else, he had to stop the fifth match from happening.

Thus, Kuze would kill Tu.

He went to do so.

“This is…your first warning.”

Voices, innumerable and inhuman, reverberated from the surrounding bushes.

The owner of the voice was nowhere to be found.

“Kuze the Passing Disaster. Leave until you are far enough away for Tu to be out of sight. At once.”

No, that wasn’t it. The voice’s owner had long been visible. The gaps in the leaves of the trees. The spaces in the lawn at his feet.

Unnatural winged insects with a metallic luster were amassed in a swarm, enclosing around Kuze’s feet.

“…Bweh-heh-heh. I’ve heard all about you… Didn’t expect you to be such an overprotective guy.”

The one who discovered the world’s fifth system of Word Arts.

Now, with Izick the Chromatic’s death, the person said to be this generation’s greatest wielder of constructs.

“Krafnir the Hatch of Truth…!”

“I ALREADY HAVE A GRASP OF YOUR MYSTERIOUS ATTACKS. IF YOU IGNORE MY WARNING AND STUBBORNLY REMAIN HERE… I WILL INTERPRET THAT AS AN ACT OF AGGRESSION.”

A former hero candidate who boasted a tremendous range of perception through his construct terminals.

Krafnir the Hatch of Truth. Even after he had relinquished his hero candidate spot to Tu, her sponsor, Flinsuda the Portent, would never sever her relationship with a man as powerful as him.

Flinsuda had always let Tu the Magic move as she pleased in order to uncover anyone who went after her life and attacked her. From the very beginning, Rique the Misfortune hadn’t been the only one guarding the girl.

Kuze raised both his arms. The stance of surrender.

“If I say I won’t do anything, would you believe me?”

“Let’s believe you. Though, let me make one thing clear. Until the beginning of the match tomorrow, we will not bring Tu out into public.”

“……”

“You won’t get any more opportunities to go through with your assassination.”

“…And what if you disappear right now?”

“Want to try it?”

Turning aside his overcoat, he produced a small shield from inside. The bladelike insects didn’t let the opening from his movement go by, and they rushed at him in untold numbers. Metallic revenant insects. Kuze smacked them down with his shield’s breadth, but the swarm slipped through his defenses and tried to rend Kuze’s eyeballs. All of them died and fell to the ground, without reaching their targets.

Are you okay—? Sure was.

“Naaah, let’s go ahead and stop… This here’s a church. Can’t do this here, now can we?”

“AS LONG AS YOU ARE TAKING AGGRESSIVE ACTION, YOU CAN SIMULTANEOUSLY DEAL WITH MULTIPLE TARGETS AT ONCE. NOT LIMITED ONLY TO LETHAL WOUNDS, YOU REACT TO NONLETHAL ATTACKS PURPOSEFULLY AIMED AT YOUR EYES OR ARMS.”

Krafnir dispassionately analyzed Kuze’s attacks. He was pressuring Kuze by showing him that as long as he continued to fight, Kuze would grow more and more disadvantaged.

“Dammit, since when can members of a candidate’s entourage attack other hero candidates?! Krafnir…!”

“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY THAT RIGHT NOW… AND I WILL WARN YOU, KUZE THE PASSING DISASTER. COMPLAINING TO THE AUREATIA ASSEMBLY ABOUT OUR INFRINGEMENT WILL BE MEANINGLESS.”

An ophidian revenant tangled around Kuze’s right leg. Faster than it could sink its poisonous fangs into his shin, he slammed it, still wrapped around his leg, into a rat revenant. Using the edge of the shield, he severed the snake’s head.

Krafnir was exactly right. The categories of participants in the Sixways Exhibition from the very start were not fair and balanced. There were those who would be criticized for foul play and those would be doing the criticizing.

Kuze the Passing Disaster was also a hero candidate whose purpose was to lose. To the point that his own sponsor was sending assassins against him.

There was buzzing to his rear. The winged insects were firing needles at him. Spinning around, he flashed his shield and blocked the needles. He had let some of them slip through, but they didn’t hit him. He still had the leftover stamina to dodge.

“You’re a surprisingly……swell guy, huh, Krafnir the Hatch of Truth.”

“WHAT?”

“Forget it. Doesn’t concern you.”

The angel would kill those who tried to kill Kuze. There were no exceptions, even when up against a construct user whose true form was far away.

…Nastique’s just killing constructs that’re attacking me automatically. In other words, you yourself still aren’t seriously trying to kill me.

There was the sound of wings above him. Kuze looked at the sky. A strange-looking flock melded into the clouds. Avian revenants.

Maybe he just doesn’t have to.

The children couldn’t see him, could they? Tu the Magic hadn’t noticed him, had she? He took a defensive stance.

Curving in complex lines, the bird flock swooped down on him. He used the tree as a shield. It couldn’t fully defend him. The thick tree trunk was instantly shredded and scattered everywhere. The birds circled back many times, and their slashing attacks kicked up a storm. One bird. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Five of the birds were killed by Nastique before he readjusted his stance and parried the next assault.

There were still three birds remaining. The insects encircled Kuze yet again. Rat revenants sprang forth, too.

Krafnir was purposefully only utilizing small-size revenants. He was trying to force Kuze to constantly deal with them and exhaust his stamina. It wasn’t only Kuze’s side who was trying to wrap up the fifth match without a fight.

“This isn’t Word Arts or any type of magic item. Just what is this counterattacking ability of yours…?”

“WH-WHO’S TO SAY…? MAYBE I’VE GOT AN ANGEL WATCHING OVER ME?”

“Spare me the nonsense.”

An arachnid revenant tried to slit Kuze’s throat. It was intercepted and fell to the ground.

“……!”

Nastique wasn’t the one who protected him. A chestnut-colored braid fluttered along behind her like a tail.

The young girl, her shoulder turned, looked at Kuze with one green eye and shouted.

“Kuze the Passing Disaster!”

He didn’t want to kill. He didn’t want to make Nastique kill. If the wish was enough, then it would have all been so simple.

Kuze the Passing Disaster’s power wouldn’t let him do such a thing.

Thus…

“Bweh-heh-heh… You found me, huh.”

The spear of absolute death and the shield of absolute arrest.

In this Sixways Exhibition to determine the strongest in the land, there was no fifth match.

Their battle would ultimately be settled the day before their match.

Kuze the Passing Disaster versus Tu the Magic.

Kuze the Passing Disaster was surrounded by an army. An army he could see—and one he couldn’t.

It was small enough to lurk in the almshouse courtyard and avoid discovery at a glance, yet it easily wielded enough military might to bring death to an entire squad of the Aureatia army. Revenants made from the corpses of insects and small animals.

“TU. DON’T REVEAL YOURSELF. THE SAME GOES FOR YOU, RIQUE.”

Just how was it possible for a small flying insect’s body structure to be capable of transmitting voice? Krafnir the Hatch of Truth was simply a construct master capable of such extremely delicate craftsmanship.

“Krafnir. Stop your attack. Kuze…hasn’t done anything yet. Not a good move.”

“…YOU’RE TOO SOFT, RIQUE. HE WAS TRYING TO KILL TU.”

The bow-wielding dwarf was Tu the Magic’s bodyguard, Rique the Misfortune.

Rique was already ready with an arrow nocked to his bow, but Nastique still hadn’t reacted. The dwarf was simply readying himself to keep Kuze in check.

Then there was Kuze’s opponent for the fifth match, Tu the Magic herself.

An invincible living weapon who possessed the physical and defensive abilities to completely nullify any and all attacks.

“Sorry… Kuze the Passing Disaster. I had no clue that Krafnir was out to get you. I actually want to fight you fair and square in our match… A win won the wrong way is totally meaningless.”

Fair and square, huh. I’m not a splendid sorta guy like that.

Krafnir’s hunch had been right on the mark. Kuze had indeed been trying to assassinate Tu before the match. The one attempting to avoid a fair and open fight was Kuze himself.

Am I…supposed to kill Tu now?

His target, Tu, was right before his eyes. If he used the other condition to send Nastique into action, he would be capable of disposing of Tu far more easily than in the situation moments prior.

However, the circumstances had changed. At the very least…he had been seen by the remaining two, Rique and Krafnir. In order to keep his trump card a secret, he would need to kill these two as well.

With that, he would add more unnecessary death, more murders running counter to his faith.

Keeping his aim fixed on Kuze, Rique addressed Krafnir.

“Krafnir. Did you attack Kuze under Flinsuda’s orders? So she could sell the information on guys like this, aiming to attack Tu, to the other powers?”

“THAT’S RIGHT.”

“…I guess, then, I really don’t gel with the way you guys do things. I’m saying this for your own good… Kuze the Passing Disaster. Leave. If you make contact with Tu, you’ll draw false suspicions from Aureatia, too.”

“I will? But not you all?”

He understood. From the very beginning, this was an unfair fight.

“Why’s an Order guy like me…the one who’s arousing suspicions for being at an almshouse?”

“He’s right… We’re the ones who should leave.”

Tu cut in to defend Kuze.

“I’ve heard a bunch about you from the kids! They talked about how their beloved teacher’s going to appear in the Sixways Exhibition! That if Father Kuze wins the fight, he might save the Order!”

“…Bweh-heh-heh. You shouldn’t really be standing up for a villainous old dog like me.”

Kuze sighed and tried to shut them out—the unclear and terribly dark emotions brewing inside of him.

Everyone said the Order was at fault. That the Wordmaker’s teachings were wrong. The hero who killed the Demon King was just, the champions who displayed their honor on the battlefield were just, but the murderous paladin would remain unable to become a priest—and never again allowed to return back into the world’s light.

“Kuze…”

“…THIS MAN HAS ALREADY SHOWN THAT HE IS WILLING TO ATTACK,” Krafnir’s bug ruthlessly announced.

“A HERO CANDIDATE TRIED TO KILL SOMEONE ASSOCIATED WITH ANOTHER HERO CANDIDATE. YOU WON’T BE FIGHTING IN THE SIXWAYS EXHIBITION. YOU LOSE. KUZE THE PASSING DISASTER.”

That had been the goal from the start. The construct user, never exposing his true form, had attacked Kuze, left with no choice but to automatically counterattack, from his disadvantaged political position.

It was not Tu the Magic but Krafnir the Hatch of Truth who was truly Nastique’s natural enemy.

“Wait a sec, Krafnir.”

Tu once again held him back.

“Kuze. There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you ever since I first heard about you…”

“Bweh-heh-heh… You sure there’s any fun to be had from hearing this old man’s story?”

“Why do you kill?”

It was a terribly naive question. Cruel, like an inquiring child.

“That’s a good question… I wonder why.” Kuze mumbled.

The first time he had killed someone, he then thought about dying himself.

The despair from trampling, irrevocably, over the Wordmaker’s dogma.

However, the era of the True Demon King didn’t even allow for such despair, either.

Amid the era of terror and murderous will, Kuze the Passing Disaster, spreading death simply from being wherever he stood, could truly only live on as a passing disaster.

Those who dared to kill needed to be killed themselves.

To Kuze, this was the righteousness he had taken up, even if it meant abandoning the Wordmaker’s teachings.

He could only ever carry through on this righteousness, yearning for the faith he once held in his chest.

“…I don’t care if I lose. Even if I can’t win in the Sixways Exhibition…I think there’s got to be some other way out there that’ll let me see Sephite. That’s why I’m participating.”

“…Sephite. I see. So you want to see Her Majesty, huh, Tu.”

There were mere children who could accomplish Tu’s trifling goal without any obstacles in their way.

Conversely, however, there were some people who wouldn’t even be allowed that much, unless they appeared in the Sixways Exhibition.

The world of light and the world of shadow.

“I want to help out the Order, too, you know. All I can do is fight, so if I’m able to help everyone by fighting, then I think that there’d be some meaning to the life I’ve lived! But even still. Everyone in the Land of the End, Rique, Krafnir…even the Sun’s Conifer guys… Everyone has their own ideas and holds their own language. That’s what the world outside was like… Kill it, and it’s over… I don’t want to kill you, either, Kuze!”

Tu’s words were incoherent. Yet she had a genuine heart. Plain enough for Kuze to see.

“If you win, then maybe the Order might just be saved! But you really can’t fight without killing anyone?”

“I can’t.”

Kuze shook his head.

“Tu. You’ve probably heard about my abilities from that Krafnir fella over there, right? No matter how much I may wish for it, that’s one thing I cannot do. Anyone who fights against me is guaranteed to die. Regardless of my own wishes, I remain alive. And my enemy dies.”

“In that case… If that’s really the only option, I don’t want to let you win after all, Kuze.”

“……”

“…I mean, if you end up winning…then after that, you’ll end up killing someone again, won’t you?! You’ll kill someone every time you win… Even the hero’d get killed! If that’s the case…you’d be unable to be saved the most, wouldn’t you…?”

“…Tu.”

Kuze couldn’t turn back.

In order to win, he killed Nofelt. He had been a close friend.

He didn’t want to make Cunodey’s self-sacrifice meaningless.

Maqure and the deceased Rozelha had entrusted their wishes to Kuze.

Then the children. There were children with futures, capable of protecting the faith, unlike Kuze.

However, for this girl.

Tu the Magic… So you’re going look at me with those eyes, too.

Beautifully green pupils. Innocent, childlike pupils, capable of believing there was good in the world.

They were like the pupils of the white angel who continued to watch him.

“Tu the Magic. Please. If you let me win here… I’ll withdraw in the second round. No more assassinations like this time, either. There is only one person…who I truly want to kill.”

“…Until the next match?”

“That’s right… Now, why did I go saying that? Bweh-heh-heh… I really hadn’t intended on mentioning that at all…”

He hadn’t even disclosed it to Hiroto. It was the greatest secret of the Order’s plans.

“Why, then, I wonder…”

Why did he reveal it to this young girl…and not just any young girl, but Tu the Magic, his supposed opponent?

It was as if he was only going to kill one more person.

And he was begging her to forgive him, wasn’t he?

“The second round…Kuze the Passing Disaster. Wait, you can’t possibly mean…”

Tu wasn’t the one to react.

It was Rique the Misfortune, his arrow still trained on Kuze.

Of those gathered there, he alone realized the meaning in Kuze’s words.

…Oh no!

It all happened in an instant. Rique pulled back his bow. Then the arrow—

“Rique!”

“Get away from him! What this guy’s trying to do? He’s—”

That was the end.

Faster than the flight arrow could be fired, Nastique’s blade brushed against Rique’s arm.

The weight of the death, brought down in a split second, made Rique’s arrow ever so slightly miss Kuze.

One of the reasons Rique the Misfortune had survived across numerous battles was because he would sense approaching death as a red flash of light—however, the angel of absolute mystery alone had been imperceptible.

“Rique! Rique!”

“I couldn’t see it, ah…dammit…nothing at all…”

“Rique! Hey…c’mon, you’re okay, right?! Nothing hit you at all or anything, right?!”

Tu screamed, even as the shallow cut running along his hand was plainly visible.

Feebly reaching a hand out to Tu’s crying face, Rique groaned.

“…It’s okay, Tu. It’s all right…”

And then it was over.

He had tried to kill Kuze. Thus, he died.

In the midday almshouse courtyard, Kuze stood stock-still, aghast.

“You gotta be kidding me.”

Both Kuze and Tu were trying to avoid a fight. Right up until that moment. Yet the death dispersed by Nastique had nothing to do with Kuze’s own intentions.

A decisive failure.

He moaned in a voice too small for anyone else to hear.

“B-blast it… Damn, dammit all… Dammit…!”

He hadn’t been able to avoid anything. It had been impossible for Kuze, possessed by an angel of death, to end things without a single sacrifice.

He had already killed. He couldn’t stop it.

“WEH, HIC, RIQUE. RIQUE. WAAAAAAH…!

“RIQUE… KUZE THE PASSING DISASTER, YOU BASTARD!”

Krafnir’s myriad constructs were surrounding him. Tu’s sights, emitting green light, were aimed toward him.

Nastique would make her move when intense murderous intentions were turned Kuze’s way.

She’d end their lives faster than they could act on those intentions.

Everything. Anything and everything.

Murderous intentions focused on Kuze— Ah. It was all going to be for nothing.

“Can I kill this girl?” Please stop.

“Can I kill those who kill you?” No.

“Is it okay if I kill everyone?” Nothing in this world was okay to kill.

“Krafnir!”

Tu shouted, still crouched down beside Rique’s corpse.

“Don’t kill him!”

Her expression was hidden behind her bangs.

“TU…! BECAUSE I’LL GET HIT WITH HIS COUNTERATTACK?! YOU THINK THIS IS THE TIME FOR SOFT NAÏVETÉ?! RIQUE… RIQUE, HE… HE’S BEEN KILLED! NO MATTER HOW MANY CONSTRUCTS DIE, THIS BASTARD’S GOING TO PAY!”

“E-even…even still! It’s the same for Kuze! Even Kuze…doesn’t want to kill anyone, either!”

It was like she was squeezing the words out of her chest.

As though she was shouting Kuze’s own feelings in his place.

Still at a loss for words, Kuze shrunk one step back.

“……”

“Let’s just end all of this. Enough of this, Kuze… People dying, getting killed… You’re—you’re fed up with it, right…? Right, Kuze?”

He couldn’t believe it. Nastique wasn’t killing Tu.

In other words.

I…

Tu the Magic wasn’t showing any intention to kill him… Even after accidently killing Rique.

I don’t want to kill. I truly didn’t want to kill him.

There was no continued chain of murderous thoughts sent his way.

“…Hey, Krafnir. You think maybe I had things all wrong from the start…?”

“…TU.”

“I tried to make my wish come true…by becoming a hero candidate and winning my fights…but I never even realized that it might end up meaning I’d have to kill someone…”

“NO, YOU… TU. YOU’RE INVINCIBLE. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO WIN EVEN WITHOUT KILLING ANYWAY.”

“I… I’m not going to participate in the Sixways Exhibition anymore.”

She personally rejected the chain of death and violence. That meant withdrawing from the Sixways Exhibition.

Thou shall not hate. Thou shall not harm. Thou shall not kill. Treat others as thou would treat thy own family.

“…TU. I… I’M GOING TO KILL. IF I WIN AND ADVANCE, THAT’LL MEAN MY OPPONENT DIES. I’M NOT GOING TO BACK DOWN NOW, THAT’S FOR SURE.”

“I’m sure you can avoid killing them; I just know it.”

Tu smiled, tears streaming down her face.

“…I settled things, without us killing each other.”

Kuze the Passing Disaster bit his lip.

As if he were standing before a blinding light. For the sake of his faith, he had to betray someone he absolutely shouldn’t, the person who believed in Kuze the Passing Disaster, even when he should have been her hated enemy.

“…This is farewell. Tu the Magic.”

If the two of them had fought in the fifth match, would Kuze have been able to win against Tu?

He knew that answer ever since he heard about Tu from the children.

It was this very understanding that left him no choice but to assassinate her here instead of facing her in the arena.

Tu the Magic was kind. She had no intentions of killing Kuze the Passing Disaster from the very start. There was no way he would be able to kill an opponent who wasn’t trying to kill him.

“…Hey. Kuze.”

From far behind him, a voice called to Kuze.

The voice seemed to be in tears.

“I know.”

He didn’t have the courage to turn back.

“You…you can’t kill people; you just can’t…”

“…Of course not. I know that… I always have…”

Which was why he was the only one who should be burdened with the responsibility.

The next day. One of the hero candidates, set to appear in the fifth match inside the castle garden theater, never appeared.

Checking the time, Twenty-Sixth Minister Meeka the Whispered declared—

“Silence!”

Her raised voice traveled well, even through the noisy spectators.

“…The significance behind consenting to the true duel in the Sixways Exhibition is to question the very resolve and courage of all those who would declare themselves heroes! Putting one’s entire destiny, their entire lives on the line, and losing it all should they suffer defeat! Inevitable logic would dictate one should be fearful of such a thing, and no one unable to stand as a champion themselves should denounce anyone for this fear… However, I ask, just how terrifying must it be when compared to the True Demon King who our hero battled against!”

For these Sixways Exhibition matches, when one of the two combatants failed to appear…

“Thus, I, Meeka the Whispered, have decided that Tu the Magic does not have the qualifications to be the hero! The winner of the fifth match is Kuze the Passing Disaster.”

Sparse applause, nowhere near the cheers of the fourth match, surrounded the black-dressed man.

“…Sorry.” Kuze softly murmured with his face covered.

“I’m sorry, Tu.”

She had left the spiral of conflict herself.

He had hoped she wouldn’t show up there. That she wouldn’t break her promise with Kuze.

Kuze was double-crossing Tu the Magic. The young girl who had been so willing to earnestly extend a helping hand.

Even if he hadn’t told a lie, he was deceiving her. He was acting in opposition to the Wordmaker’s teachings.

Tu the Magic. I… I…can’t save you.

Neither Hiroto the Paradox’s faction, who he was cooperating with, Nophtok the Crepuscule Bell, who had used assassins to probe into Kuze’s abilities, nor Tu the Magic had a grasp on the other condition to triggering Nastique the Quiet Singer’s attack.

By winning this very first round by default, he was able to keep that truth secret.

During the war with Lithia, he had killed Curte of the Fair Skies. He used his power to sever the life of a dying young girl.

In a church, he had killed Nofelt the Somber Wind. The general had accepted his own death without any resentment for Kuze.

Nastique the Quiet Singer’s true power was not limited to automatic counterattacks bringing instant death.

The condition was line of sight. As long as they were within Kuze’s sights, no matter who it may be…

He could kill them with just a thought.

That’s why my assassinations are guaranteed to be successful.

He was targeting the life of a single person.

Tu the Magic. The sole person I’m trying to kill in my second-round match…

Rique the Misfortune had known Kuze’s ability and still disregarded his own life to try to take Kuze’s.

It was rightful rage and intent to kill.

The Sixways Exhibition held official royal games, and beginning with the second round, it was common knowledge that the royalty would come to watch the matches.

“I want to meet Sephite.”

He had learned that this humble and simple wish was Tu’s only desire.

I’m trying to kill…the Queen. That person is Sephite, Tu.

He would kill the hero. If the person who was finally left standing in the Sixways Exhibition was going to be treated as the hero, then in order to make sure that no hero was born, the only choice was to crush the Sixways Exhibition itself.

With the Queen’s death, everything would be over.

Neither Hiroto the Paradox nor Nophtok the Crepuscule Bell knew the true reason behind the Order’s participation in this fight.

Seizing on the Imperial Competition to assassinate the last member of the royal family. A wicked deed that would likely be passed down through generations.

Nevertheless, the group, only able to watch as they were carried away in the all-too-colossal current of the times…needed to make some sort of move right now. In order to make sure their compatriots were spared in the world coming on the horizon.

The Order was putting their final plan into motion.

Rique the Misfortune died.

Kuze the Passing Disaster departed with his disappointment, and afterward, Rique’s corpse and Tu were the only ones left behind.

Winged insects drifted in the air besides them.

“I… I TRIED TO MAKE YOU WIN, TU.”

Even through his insect mouthpiece, Krafnir’s chagrin came through clear.

“BUT I NEVER… I NEVER WANTED TO LEAD RIQUE TO HIS DEATH…”

“…I know that. Even Rique knew that, too.”

Tu smiled. Ever since they had first met in the Land of the End, Tu knew.

“You’re actually a good guy, Krafnir.”

“…ARE YOU REALLY OKAY WITH THIS? RIQUE’S DEATH WILL BE FOR NOTHING. THERE WERE ALMOST NO YOUNG MEN LIKE HIM. I… I REGRET LETTING THIS HAPPEN…”

“Ah-ha-ha… Really, I guess…this whole Sixways Exhibition stuff might’ve been impossible for me from the start. I can’t fight against Kuze.”

“HE’S LYING…! THAT ‘CONDITION’ HE LAID OUT TO YOU: IT WAS AN EMPTY PROMISE! HE’LL EASILY GO BACK ON HIS WORD!”

“I believe him.”

Kuze the Passing Disaster. Sun’s Conifer. And the Demon King’s Bastard.

There were those in this world who were immediately distrusted. That may have been their own responsibility—and always correct, natural logic.

“I want to believe that Kuze’s not going to kill anyone…that he’ll be saved.”

Even if reality differed, she wanted the world to be this way.

“Besides, I just need to go to school if I want to meet Sephite, right? Rique told me about it! I’ll study from here on out…and pass whatever tough exam they throw at me, and then, and then… I’ll see Sephite.”

—and apologize.

“I… I MAY BE ONE THING, BUT YOU—YOU COULD’VE FOUGHT HIM…!”

The spear of absolute death and the shield of absolute arrest.

Within the Sixways Exhibition, the two individuals never truly exchange blows using these abilities.

“IF YOUR BODY TRULY IS INVINCIBLE…! IF YOU REALLY ARE IZICK THE CHROMATIC’S MASTERWORK! EVEN KUZE’S ATTACKS MIGHT NOT HAVE EVEN LEFT A SCRATCH ON YOU! IF YOU FOUGHT, THERE WAS A CHANCE YOU COULD WIN!”

Who was truly the strongest? Would a time come when the world would find out the answer?

“…Yeah. But…even if it all really was like that.”

She wiped her tears. She faced Krafnir and gave him a smile.

No matter how cruel the reality she saw outside the fish tank was, even if it was different from the vivid colors she believed in…

“Even still, I wanted to save Kuze.”

Match five. Winner, Kuze the Passing Disaster.