Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 19 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Wasted Effort All Around

WE’D STUMBLED OUR WAY into a battle against the Death God. I hadn’t planned to fight him without the Mark One, but it was too late to back down now. I couldn’t let myself hesitate.

“Raaaaaah!”

Zanoba made the first move, rushing forward down the hall.

We were facing one of the seven most powerful fighters in the world, but he didn’t seem to give a damn. With all the tactical sophistication of a wild boar, he sprinted straight at Randolph and swung that massive club at him, shouting as he did so.

“Goodness,” remarked the Death God as he neatly sidestepped the attack. Exactly as I expected that he would. You couldn’t shrug off Zanoba’s attacks; when he landed one, it was always going to be a bone-crunching crit. The problem was that he didn’t stand much chance of hitting Randolph.

It was my job to change that. I’d already summoned a Quagmire on the exact spot Randolph had hopped over to.

“Oh, my…”

As his feet sunk into the muck, the Death God’s body swayed.

“Ice Smash!”

In that same moment, Roxy fired off a well-timed offensive spell. The Death God deflected it with a flick of his sword, but the motion left him even more off-balance than before. 

Zanoba’s follow-up attack was already on its way. With all the strength that had enabled him to hold the Immortal Demon King immobile, he swung his club with stone-shattering force.

Despite his awkward posture, the Death God managed to nimbly evade this second blow, but it was plain for all to see that he was in no position to counter-attack. He’d fallen on his rear—the soles of his feet in the air, sword pointing in the wrong direction, weight on his left elbow.

The look on his face was one of pure astonishment.

“What on earth? This can’t be…”

We had a chance to finish this. I shot a look at Roxy, then stepped forward.

Zanoba, for his part, was already charging for the kill. I held both hands out toward the Death God and channeled mana into them. If Zanoba landed his attack, we’d won. If he didn’t, I’d use my Eye of Foresight to fire off Electric in whatever direction Randolph moved toward. Once I had him paralyzed, I’d use the magical weapon on my left arm to hit him with a deadly Stone Cannon barrage. Even if he somehow managed to avoid all of that, Roxy and I could keep up the pressure steadily until he lost his balance again. Eventually, he’d get unlucky. 

We hadn’t worked out this strategy in advance or anything, but we ended up coordinating perfectly. We backed Randolph into a corner.

“Hrrngh!”

Once again, Zanoba swung his club viciously at the Death God.

But this time, something unbelievable happened.

The Death God blocked his strike. He blocked Zanoba’s club, swung with the inhuman might of a Blessed Child. And he did so with his bare hand.

It was an incredible feat of strength. The man had clearly earned his place among the Seven Great Powers. 

In the end, though, that wasn’t going to save him. His arm broke under the strain. This was it—checkmate.

“Move, Zanoba!” I shouted.

Zanoba leapt reflexively to one side, and a purple flash of lightning burst from my right hand. With a crackle that lingered in the air behind it, the bolt of electricity struck the Death God and danced over his body.

I’d landed a direct hit.

Randolph’s body stiffened in shock and slumped over like a falling tree. He stared at me, pallid face twisted with bewilderment. His Battle Aura might have prevented my spell from frying him, but it couldn’t prevent the paralysis it caused.

Now all I had to do was finish him off. Mana coursed into the weapon mounted on my left arm, and I fired off my follow-up attack.

“Shotgun Trigger!”

A hail of Stone Cannon spells, each with the power of a King- or Emperor-tier attack, flew toward the Death God. This Stone Cannon was my killing move, my specialty. Orsted himself had complimented its power; when I landed it squarely on target, it was even capable of harming him. My timing was perfect, the opportunity too beautiful to pass up. The Death God had no way to dodge this. This was no attack you could just shrug off. 

We’ve won.

“…Huh?”

And then, a split-second after I’d convinced myself that it was over—all my Stone Cannons disappeared. Reduced to puffs of sand in midair, they fell harmlessly against my target.

I couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Oh! Sir Death God!” cried Randolph, his gaze turning to something behind me. “Have you come to save me?!”

What?! The Death God?! Isn’t that who we’re fighting right now?! Was he misleading us from the very start?!

Heart pounding fiercely, I spun around in search of this sudden new arrival. And in the hall behind us, I saw—

No one at all.

The only thing back there was an empty staircase, illuminated by the moon.

“Rudy!”

By the time I heard Roxy shout my name, I was already falling. As I pitched backward, I caught a glimpse of blue hair down at my waist. She’d thrown herself against me. With no time to wonder why, I turned in midair to wrap my arms around her protectively.

I hit the stairs back-first an instant later. My Magic Armor creaked in complaint, but I hadn’t been injured.

“Wha—”

I looked back up toward the hallway and saw a very startled-looking Zanoba…and the Death God, who had clearly just swung his sword.

The man was moving just fine. Hadn’t I paralyzed him with Electric? Hadn’t he been crumpled on the floor? It made no sense. What the hell was going on?

“Word to the wise, Sir Rudeus—a Death God always stands behind his prey.”

His face was perfectly composed, his tone completely confident. 

And finally, finally, I understood. It had been an act. He’d allowed me to shock him with my spell. He’d deliberately stumbled, deliberately fallen. All of that, just to coax me into turning back.

Damn it! Orsted warned me about the way Randolph fights! I should have seen that coming half a mile away!

Still, how had he managed that trick earlier? Why did my Stone Cannons just disappear like that? Had he used Demon Eye somehow?

…No. On second thought, I’d seen this one before. It was the same as when I’d used magic on that Manatite Hydra. Which meant—

“You’ve got a Stone of Absorption on you, huh?”

“My, my,” he said. “You saw through that quite quickly… It seems your reputation was well-earned.”

The Death God held out his hand, fingers spread wide. A Stone of Absorption was embedded in the palm of his leather gauntlet. I hadn’t noticed it before, but he must have used it to drain the mana from my spells. Orsted never mentioned anything about him having one of these…

Could that be one of the stones we’d brought back from that labyrinth in Begaritt? It wouldn’t be surprising for an elite knight of the King Dragon Realm to collect items of that kind…and that was the sort of thing Orsted might not even know about.

Well, whatever. I got a little cocky there at first, but I never expected to beat one of the Seven Great Powers easily. It would be tough to beat someone capable of totally canceling out my magic, but I knew exactly how those absorption stones worked. You had to extend your hand in the direction of the incoming spell and feed the stone a bit of mana. I just had to make that impossible.

Getting behind him seemed like the way to go. This landing didn’t give us a lot of room to maneuver, but with the three of us working together, there had to be some way to get it done. From the looks of things, he only had one of those stones on him. Maybe if Roxy and I cast spells at him simultaneously from in front and behind, while Zanoba charged in to attack… 

Well, I knew it wasn’t going to be that simple. But if it didn’t work out, we could try something else. Trial and error was our only real option here. He’d have to go down eventually, right?

“Roxy, I need you to slip behind Zanoba, please.”

Silence. There was no reply. Come to think of it, Roxy hadn’t moved a muscle since we came tumbling down here, had she?

Wait. Was my hand wet? It felt like her shoulder was a little damp or something…

“…Hm?”

What the hell? It’s all red…

“Roxy? Wh—oh, god. What is this?”

There was a long gash in Roxy’s robe, and blood seeped from underneath it.

My heart pounded in my ears. Memories of the past flashed vividly before me—images of a man who died pushing me to safety. Images of his body lying lifeless on the ground.

Paul had died saving me. And now history was repeating itself…

Roxy! No! What?! No, I have to be dreaming!

“No, no! This can’t be happening! Roxy!”

“…I’m afraid it is happening,” she grumbled. “Would you please stop poking at my wound? It hurts.”

I jerked my gaze away from her injuries and I found Roxy glaring with the narrowed eyes of a fairly irritated woman.

“Uhm, right. Sorry.”

I’d overreacted somewhat. When I released Roxy from my arms, she murmured a healing spell that stopped the bleeding immediately.

Thank goodness. She scared the hell out of me for a second there…

“What’s this?” murmured Randolph from above, stroking his chin quizzically. “I was quite sure I’d struck a fatal blow…”

I admit I shivered a little at those words, but my wife was obviously fine. It seemed a bit weird that a guy who called himself the Death God couldn’t tell whether he’d killed someone or not, but hey, even monkeys fall out of trees sometimes. Instead of taking Roxy’s life, he’d cost me a few years of mine. 

Better luck next time, you bastard. Let’s get back to it.

“Hm?”

Just then, there was an audible series of cracks from around Roxy’s neck. I saw the necklace I’d given her before we left break apart and fall in fragments to the floor. A moment later, the ring she wore on her finger shattered too.

As I recalled…that ring was supposed to deploy a barrier in response to physical attacks. And the necklace was designed to absorb a single lethal blow.

“Ah, so that’s what did it,” said Randolph lightly. “Now I see.”

I shuddered involuntarily. It felt like a blizzard was howling through my body, draining all the warmth and confidence from me as it went. And I could have sworn that frigid wall of wind was descended from where the Death God stood.

I knew this feeling—I’d lost my nerve. But recognizing the problem didn’t mean I could do anything about it. Reflexively, I wrapped one arm around Roxy and held her tightly to me.

“R-Rudy…?”

This was it. We had to stop. I hadn’t planned beyond this. I’d made that necklace as an insurance policy against this scenario. It wasn’t luck that had kept Roxy alive, in other words—it was my foresight. But there would be no more safety nets from this point on. The man we were fighting could kill us instantly with a single strike. 

Trial and error? How many trials could you really hope for, against a monster like this? We had no Continues left. If we kept this fight going, one of us was going to die.

What the hell had I been thinking, anyway, picking a fight with one of the Seven Great Powers at close range with no plan or preparations? Orsted had warned me to keep my distance unless I had the Magic Armor on. This whole thing had been a massive mistake from the outset.

“Zanoba, back off! Now! We need to get out of here!”

“Master Rudeus?!”

“We can’t beat him like this, all right?! We need to get the Version One if we’re going to stand a chance!”

Zanoba didn’t lower his club, but he did take two steps backward and frown at me over his shoulder.

“Oh, I think you’re putting up a respectable fight,” murmured the Death God. “In particular, that last attack was very nasty. I’m not sure I could ward that off again, now that I’ve revealed my trump card…”

Not gonna lie, I thought we had him in the first half. But I wasn’t buying this crap now. Randolph was lying to me. Orsted had explained it clearly enough. The Death God lured you into attacking or defending. These words were another part of his technique, that was all.

Then again…could I be sure of that? Maybe he’d turned off his Enthralling Blade mode and spoken his actual thoughts. That comment wasn’t exactly subtle, after all. What if he was trying to make me think he—

Arrrrgh! To hell with this!

Bottom line, nothing this man said was trustworthy. And there was at least one thing I knew for sure: I couldn’t beat the Death God. Not like this. That had been drilled into my head in a single terrifying moment.

Zanoba seemed to feel differently, however.

“If you won’t fight, Master Rudeus, just stay right there and watch. I’ll face this man alone, force my way past him, and see my brother face-to-face!”

Once again, he charged at the Death God.

For me, the next few seconds played out in slow motion. Zanoba took one step, then another, his progress maddeningly sluggish; all the color drained out of the world, and sounds faded into silence.

In my Eye of Foresight, the Death God was already moving—far faster than the stumbling man we’d fought a little earlier. He was a blur, too quick even for my superpowered senses to follow.

Time snapped back to normal. 

The flash of a blade left an afterimage in the air.

“Zanoba!”

Randolph’s sword had caught Zanoba low on the flank and cut diagonally to his shoulder. Zanoba’s suit of armor shattered, and his body was sent flying upward; he hit the ceiling hard, and plummeted to the ground just in front of me.

The world was still strangely quiet. It felt like I was having some surreal nightmare.

“Huff…huff…”

My heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

Was he still alive? That strike had pulverized his armor. Its thick breastplate and pauldron had broken like they were made of glass. How was it even possible to shatter metal like that with a single swing of your sword? I couldn’t begin to guess.

“To think my Armor-Crushing Slice could be endured…”

With those words from the Death God, my hearing finally returned to normal.

It was true. Upon closer inspection, there wasn’t a scratch on Zanoba. The tunic under his armor was slashed cleanly through, but there was nothing but a bluish bruise on the skin beneath.

“Urgh… Ggh…”

With a groan, Zanoba pushed himself to a sitting position and glared fiercely up the stairs at Randolph.

“You’re quite the impressive specimen, oh, Blessed one. It would seem that slicing you to pieces may not be practical.”

The Death God met his gaze from above, that horrific smile stretched firmly across his face. Then he slowly slipped his sword back into its sheath.

“That said, I’m no adherent of the Sword God Style…I feel no pressing need to use my blade exclusively. You’re quite vulnerable to fire magic, as I recall? King Pax mentioned something of the sort.”

Oh, hell. He can use magic too? But at least Zanoba’s armor should nullify any fire…wait. Damn. There’s no way that enchantment’s gonna work when it’s all smashed up like this.

Zanoba was back on his feet. The man still hadn’t given up. He picked up his club and put one foot on the stairs, tensing for another charge.

Roxy got up as well. She stepped forward with her staff raised, ready to support Zanoba—and placing herself protectively in front of me.

Finally, I got to my feet. Zanoba was one very stubborn man. He might keep fighting until Randolph literally killed him. I couldn’t sit back and let that happen. Plus, I couldn’t allow any harm to come to Roxy. If she died here, I’d die too—in spirit, at the very least.

“You haven’t given up, then?” said Randolph, studying us with no particular emotion in his eyes. He hadn’t assumed any stance, nor was he chanting the incantation for a spell; he was just standing there, confident and relaxed. It seemed he had no intention of launching an attack before we did.

He’d claimed we were putting up a “respectable fight.” What a joke. It felt like he was taking it easy on us. The man had nullified my entire barrage of Stone Cannon spells; he could have canceled out all our magic from the very start. But instead, he’d let us cast at him and teased me into carelessness. He could very well have other tricks up his sleeve as nasty as the first one.

What had Orsted told me again? When you want to defend, attack instead…when you want to attack, defend? Could that mean my current hesitation was exactly what the Death God wanted?

I couldn’t tell. I had no idea how to proceed. He had me second-guessing every single thought. Roxy’s necklace was gone. So was Zanoba’s armor. We had no idea what kind of tricks our enemy was capable of, and even the Version Two might not protect me from even one attack.

This wasn’t going to work. It just wasn’t. We needed to back off, at least for now.

But what about Zanoba?

I had to talk him down. If that didn’t work, I’d have to knock him senseless from behind. Then we could fall back to the Version One and regroup for another try.

“You understand now, Zanoba? This is hopeless. If you keep charging straight at him, you’re going to die.”

“But Master Rudeus, Pax could be—”

“The Death God was waiting for something here,” I interrupted. “We’ve got some time to work with! Let’s regroup and come back with a plan.”

I saw Zanoba hesitate. On some level, he had to know we stood no chance right now.

“Oh, are you leaving now?” said Randolph. “What a pity… I think His Majesty will be finished up quite soon.”

Ignore him. It’s another trap… 

“Yeah. We’ll be back soon, though,” I called up, watching the Death God warily. The only question now was how easily he’d let us go. “I’m sorry for attacking you so suddenly, all right? I guess we got a little carried away. Do you think you could find it in your heart to let us leave for now?”

I wasn’t expecting this pathetic whimpering to work, of course. Even as I spoke, I was steadying my breathing and looking for some sign of how he might react. Most likely, we’d have to fight to retreat back to the Magic Armor along the route we’d taken here; once we got to it, we could finally turn on our heels and battle. If he chose not to chase us all the way, so much the better.

“Well, if that’s what you want…go right ahead.”

Huh? Wait, he’s just gonna let us walk away?

That was a bit anticlimactic. Randolph’s actions didn’t seem especially…coherent. What was his objective here? 

“Uh, Sir Randolph,” I said, “what instructions did the Man-God give you, anyway?” 

“Hm? None whatsoever. I’ve never met him in my life.”

What?! “But…you said you knew his name!”

“A relative of mine was acquainted with him some time ago, and I learned the name from him,” Randolph explained. “That’s all there is to it, really. I’ve never seen this Man-God or communicated with him in any way.”

Oh, hell. So that means… “You’re not one of his disciples?”

“I’m not sure exactly what the term implies, but I suppose not.”

Goddammit, I jumped to conclusions! What is the matter with me lately?!

I asked for further clarification. “Does that mean you’re not an enemy of King Pax, either?” 

“I am a staunch ally of both King Pax and his Queen Benedikte, I assure you. They were the only ones to ever compliment my cooking, you see…”

Exasperated, I continued pressing him. “So there isn’t some weird ritual going on inside there or anything? And you’re not just buying time until it’s over?”

“Well…I suppose you could call it a ritual of sorts. But I’d rather not elaborate with such a young lady present.”

The Death God’s eyes darted in Roxy’s direction as he spoke, and she scowled at the patronizing comment. To be fair to Randolph, she really didn’t look like a woman with a husband and a child.

Anyway. As much trouble as I was having with processing all this, it seemed this fight had been totally unnecessary. And in that case…I probably owed the Death God an apology, didn’t I? 

Yeah. Sure felt that way.

“Uhm… Okay then. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. It sounds like we’re on the same side here… Let me apologize again for attacking you like that.”

“No. It was my fault as well,” replied Randolph, bowing his head to us. “I should have explained myself more clearly.”

Wow, what a nice guy. Glad we got all that cleared up… 

Ugh. Wait a second. What if all of this is just another part of his act? What if he’s just buying time while he charges up his super instakill move or something? Okay, dumb example. But you never know!

Damn it, I can’t even think straight anymore. If this really is the next number in his puppet-master act, he’s got me doing the tango on his palm…

“Oh?”

Just as I was getting myself all worked up again, Randolph glanced backward and visibly relaxed. I didn’t let my guard down a bit, of course. I wasn’t about to let myself get careless now.

“It seems it’s over…” Randolph muttered.

Over? What’s over, Randolph? Our lives?!

“Come now, there’s no need to be so wary,” he said, glancing my way. “I have no intention of killing you three.”

“…Uh-huh, very believable. Didn’t you say something about a fatal blow before? Maybe I was hearing things?”

“Haha, I suppose you’ve got me there… I must say, you’re quite the wit, Sir Rudeus.”

Oh, good. I’d amused Mister Skull-Face. Not that I’d been trying to.

“In any case, King Pax ordered me to let no one enter until the thing was finished. And now it is, so I’ve fulfilled my task.” Returning his sword to its place at his hip, Randolph settled back onto his chair with a little sigh. “Please feel free to enter.”

Could this be another trap? Maybe he planned to cut us all in half the moment we walked past him. Seemed plausible to me.

Randolph studied us before asking, “Does the thought of showing me your back disturb you? I suppose I could excuse myself for a moment…”

“That won’t be necessary,” said Zanoba, securing his club back to his waist. “We’ll take you at your word.”

And so, inspired by my friend’s brave example, I finally decided to believe that the fight was truly over. Our battle against the Death God had ended as awkwardly as it began.

***

The king’s chambers occupied the top floor of the royal palace. It was the finest suite anyone could have asked for, an extravagant testament to the Kingdom of Shirone’s wealth. The walls were lined with paintings. Beautiful statues stood on finely crafted desks. And near the back of the room, there was an enormous, canopied bed—the thing had to be almost five meters wide.

The sheets were rumpled. In the middle of the bed, a blue-haired girl was wrapped in them, sleeping quietly. It was Queen Benedikte, and judging from the clothing scattered carelessly on the floor nearby, she was lying there naked.

A familiar scent hung in the air. Two people had very recently been loving each other very much…in a way you can’t describe within earshot of a child. So Pax and his queen had been getting busy up until just a moment ago. The man was aware his kingdom was falling apart around him, right? Talk about nonchalant.

Pax himself was out on the balcony at the moment, leaning on its railing and gazing out at the capital below. His stubby limbs and large head made him look almost childlike, and his features were more homely than regal. He was clad in only his underwear, showing off a back that was moderately muscular. It was also covered in scars and faded bruises.

The story of his life was written on his body.

“I was wondering what all that commotion was about. So you’ve returned, brother?”

The instant Pax turned back toward us, I realized how wrong I’d been about his state of mind. He had the face of an exhausted man. A man on the verge of giving up entirely. But he seemed oddly calm as well. Randolph had said something about Pax “coming to terms” with his situation. Apparently, there had been some actual…coming involved in the process. 

I mean, I’ve been there. Sometimes you’ve got to let it all out…

“Yes, Your Majesty. I’m here to rescue you. Let us abandon the palace and make our way to Fort Karon together.”

Zanoba strode up to the balcony, and extended his hand to his brother. Pax looked at it dubiously for a moment, then snorted. “You want to rescue me? Surely you’re not serious.”

“Your Majesty, it would be wisest to surrender this position for now and gather our strength elsewhere. You can take the palace back at any time once we’ve gathered an army of sufficient size.”

“…And then what? Do I repeat the cycle once again?”

Pax met Zanoba’s gaze with eyes so cold I nearly shuddered. If you’d told me he was the real Death God, it would have seemed almost plausible in that moment.

“Repeat…what cycle, Your Majesty?”

The reply to Zanoba’s question was another disdainful snort. Muttering “as if you’d understand” under his breath, Pax’s gaze flicked out over the balcony once again.

“Comical as it may sound now, I did my best to rule this kingdom well. I dismissed the corrupt ministers my father left behind, and gave their posts to others more deserving. I gathered mercenaries to guard against the threat of war. I won’t deny that public safety suffered as a result…but I was trying to secure a future for Shirone.”

Pax slumped back against the balcony’s railing, then pointed at Zanoba.

“That was the same reason I allowed your return, brother, and gave you that unreasonable task. It seemed the wisest choice available. In all honesty, I still hate you—but I do respect your usefulness as a Blessed Child.”

“I’m well aware, Your Majesty. And I understand how difficult these decisions were for you.”

Zanoba’s reply sounded calm and reasonable to me. But for some reason, it seemed to infuriate his brother. Clenching both hands tightly into fists, Pax glared at him with bitter fury in his eyes.

“You don’t understand a thing! No one understands me, and no one cares to try. Just look, you fool. The proof is right before your eyes!”

With a wide sweep of his arm, the king gestured at the world beyond his balcony. The city far below us lay silent in the night, despite the ring of rebel bonfires burning all around the palace. You could barely make out the huge crowd massed around the city’s walls; their campfires and tents were visible even from here. At this distance, it really did look like Latakia was surrounded by a massive army.

“A horde of soldiers, my own troops, and yet they make no move to crush these rebels!”

“You’re mistaken, Your Majesty. The large majority of that crowd consists of ordinary citizens, not soldiers. Many among them are simply merchants or adventurers of unclear origin.”

“What difference does that make?!” shouted Pax bitterly, slamming his fist against the railing. “It’s still proof that everyone in this kingdom has rejected me!”

I was starting to feel a bit alarmed, but forced myself to keep looking on in silence. This wasn’t the time for me to speak. Zanoba was the only person here who might be able to calm his brother down. 

“That’s simply not true. Not all your subjects have turned against—”

“Don’t patronize me! You yourself could have led an army to this city, but instead there’s only three of you. And the other two are here to keep you safe, not me! Isn’t that right?!”

“Well, er…”

Pax wasn’t wrong about that. I’d been opposed to helping him in the first place. In all honesty, I didn’t care much what happened to him, or even to Shirone—I was here because I didn’t want Zanoba to die. Period.

“That’s what I thought! It’s always been this way. No matter how hard I try, no one gives a damn. Whenever I convince myself I’ve succeeded, everything crumbles apart mere moments later. My efforts always backfire in the end! Always!”

Pax paused his diatribe for a moment. Just long enough to jab an accusing finger in Roxy’s direction.

“Roxy!”

Startled by the sudden attention, Roxy froze in alarm and made no reply.

“You know what I mean, don’t you? Or have you forgotten entirely by now?”

“Wh-what—”

“Think back to the moment when I mastered my first Intermediate-level spell!”

Roxy’s eyes darted around uncertainly. Did she even know what he was talking about?

“I studied to the best of my ability! I practiced, and I practiced! And when I finally succeeded, what was your reaction?!”

“Uhm…well…”

From what I could see out of the corner of my eye, Roxy seemed completely flustered by this question. I couldn’t tell if it was because she’d forgotten all about this, or because she remembered all too well.

“You sighed, damn you!” cried Pax.

“Wha…”

“As I celebrated my accomplishment, you sighed at me!”

“I…uh…”

“You might as well have come out and said it: About time. Took you long enough. Do you have any idea how crushed I was?!”

Roxy’s eyes went wide, and she bit her lower lip. Was this story actually true? It was incredibly hard to believe. She’d always been so happy for me every time I made the slightest progress…

“And still, despite it all, I adored you! You treated me less dismissively than almost anyone I knew. Even after that awful moment, I desperately strove to catch your interest. But to no avail! Your mind was always elsewhere, and your eyes looked right through me! You were too busy writing letters—to some man I’d never heard of—to so much as glance in my direction! Why, I began to ask myself, was I even bothering? Why work so hard, when all my efforts were so clearly wasted?! My motivation waned and failed. So then you gave up on me entirely! You looked at me like I was a rotting piece of garbage, and your lessons grew more half-hearted by the day! In the end, you shrugged and left Shirone for good!”

Pax tore at his hair with both hands as he ranted on and on. The memories must have been flashing vividly through his mind. His eyes were rimmed with tears, and grew more bloodshot by the second.

“I…I’m sorry, Pax. Back then, I was—”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear your excuses!”

Roxy fell silent. The expression on her face was one of deep regret.

I guess some people might have stepped in here to say “No effort is ever wasted” or something equally cliché, but I had no right to be lecturing him on that subject. Since my arrival in this world, at least, I’d gotten plenty of external validation for my efforts. When I tried my hardest, I usually got results. Not to say I never failed, of course—but when I succeeded, there were people there to compliment me.

How would I know if effort was its own reward? I’d never been in this guy’s shoes.

“Oh, never mind. It’s not like you were wrong about me, clearly.”

Abruptly, Pax deflated before our eyes. His shoulders slumped; his voice grew softer.

“His Majesty handed me the Kingdom of Shirone on a platter, and look what I’ve made of it. No one accepts me as the king. No one rallies to my banner. Instead, they flock to join a rebel army in the name of some random child who may not even be a prince. And in their uprising, I’ve lost all the knights the King Dragon Realm entrusted to me. I can only imagine His Majesty’s disappointment.”

Pax smiled in bitter amusement. Tears flowed freely down his face.

“In the end, I suppose it was only Benedikte who ever truly cared for me. She loved me as I was, for what I am. Words never came naturally to her, but she smiled for me, and that meant the world.”

It seemed that Pax’s earlier bellowing had been audible from the ground. I was starting to hear the murmurs of distant conversation from the bonfires around the palace. Maybe some of the soldiers had spotted Pax up on the balcony.

Pax glanced down at them with a look of dull disinterest. “Tell me, brother…what should I have done?”

“I would not presume to say. However, I imagine killing all our siblings went a bit too far.”

“Yes. Yes, I suppose that’s true. But if I’d let them live, I think they would have started another rebellion much like this one.”

“You…may be right.” Zanoba paused for a moment, then shook his head as if to chase the thought away. “In any case, everyone makes mistakes. And once you’ve reflected on them, you can apply the lessons you’ve learned to your next endeavors!”

The words echoed through the king’s chambers, filling the entire floor with Zanoba’s cheerful voice. You had to hand it to him—the man had an amazing ability to ignore even the heaviest of moods.

“It seems I’m incapable of that. All I ever do is repeat the same mistakes, over and over again.”

The slow, steady way Pax shook his head in that moment looked exactly like the way Zanoba did it sometimes. The two of them were completely different in appearance, but they had a lot of mannerisms in common, at least. 

Raising his head, Pax glanced at something behind me. “Randolph?”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

I startled. Just a little. The man was standing right behind me, and I hadn’t even noticed his approach. Kind of unnerving, you know? What with the whole always stands behind his prey thing?

“Proceed as I instructed earlier, please.”

“Your wish is my command, Your Majesty.”

“Good, good…”

What were these instructions he’d given earlier? Were we about to find ourselves back in battle with the Death God? Our positioning was terrible, if so. He had gotten way too close. Without the Version One it would be a tough fight anyway, but if the fight started at point blank range, we didn’t stand a chance.

All these thoughts flashed through my head instantaneously. But before I could react in any way—

Pax hopped up and over the railing of his balcony.

“Wh—”

Wait, this is the fifth floor. Is he— Huh? He jumped off the damn balcony?!

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

Zanoba sprinted forward. There wasn’t the slightest chance he’d make it in time, but he ran anyway, his hand outstretched desperately. He grabbed hold of the railing with both hands, and leaned forward…and his momentum ripped the metal off the balcony, sending him tumbling into the air.

“Zanoba!”

My heart pounding with panic, I spun around and ran out of that room as fast I could.

We found them in the palace gardens.

Zanoba was kneeling in the dirt, his face blank with shock, cradling his brother’s lifeless body in his arms.

“H-hurry, Master Rudeus,” he croaked as I approached. “Use your healing magic…”

Kneeling, I retrieved a scroll from within my robe and placed it against Zanoba. The fall from the fifth floor had left him visibly bruised and battered.

“No, no…use it on Pax…”

I shook my head without a word.

Pax was already dead.

It looked like he had hit the ground head-first. It was a gruesome sight. I wanted to believe he hadn’t felt any pain, at least.

“He’s…gone?” asked Zanoba quietly. 

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Zanoba.”

I hadn’t even considered that he might suddenly leap to his death like that. But in retrospect, it might have been his intention from the start. Pax had been surrounded by his enemies, and felt he had no allies he could turn to. Maybe that was why he’d never tried to flee the palace—he thought he had nowhere to go.

Maybe he’d anguished over the situation for days on end, ultimately deciding he was a complete failure as a king. Maybe he was ready to die from the moment we walked in that door.

“Master Rudeus…”

Still cradling his brother’s body, Zanoba looked up into the night sky. The top floor of the palace was visible far above; a beautiful full moon hung in the sky beyond it.

There was no king in that majestic castle now. It was nothing but an empty shell.

“How could I have failed so completely?” Zanoba asked.

I didn’t know what to say.

“Were all my efforts simply meaningless?”

“No,” I answered. “You did everything you could, Zanoba. I mean it.”

Pax hadn’t recognized his brother’s efforts for what they were. He was desperate for others to acknowledge his own hard work, but couldn’t do the same for Zanoba.

I mean…in all honesty, it felt like the man was barely even aware of Zanoba as anything except another piece on his chessboard. But that could have changed over time. Pax could have eventually learned to trust Zanoba. I’d always thought of Pax as an irredeemable scumbag, but even so…I felt like Zanoba would have gotten through to him eventually.

“Why… Why did it have to come to this?”

“…I wish I knew, Zanoba.”

For a little while after that, Zanoba brooded wordlessly. He eventually looked up at me with the expression of a man who’d just remembered something.

“Could it be…that this too was the Man-God’s doing?”

I still had no idea what strings the Man-God had been pulling. None of his disciples had revealed themselves. But in the normal flow of history, Pax was destined to turn this kingdom into a republic eventually, following a few twists and turns. Now those events were never going to happen; if the Man-God was involved, that was probably the reason. Maybe his one and only goal this time had been to cause the death of Pax.

That pixelated bastard could see the future. He didn’t have to send someone to murder you if he could set off some series of events that he knew would drive you to despair and suicide, right?

Well…maybe. To be honest, that sounded like a really slow, roundabout way of doing things. Maybe the Man-God had played no direct part in anything that occurred here over the last few weeks. 

But in hindsight, there was one thing I knew for sure: he’d arranged for my first visit to this kingdom, many years ago. That directly resulted in Pax’s exile to the King Dragon Realm. And according to Orsted, the Republic of Shirone would cause the Man-God problems in the future. He’d acted to prevent it from coming into existence at least once. It seemed safe to assume that he’d always been looking for ways to deal with Pax, one way or the other.

What a disaster. I should have realized all this from the start. I’d jumped to all sorts of conclusions, some of them less than reasonable, because I hated Pax too much to think the damn thing through.

“Yeah,” I finally replied. “It’s possible.”

“I see…”

Zanoba gently lowered his brother’s body to the ground, then exhaled very slowly. His expression suggested he was crying, but no tears ran down his face. I don’t think I would have been so stoic in his shoes.

After a long silence, he turned to me and murmured “Let’s go home.”

I nodded. There wasn’t much more to be said.