Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 24 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Abyssal King Vita

“AAAGH…!” I leapt up, panting and looking around me. I saw a campfire and an unfamiliar forest illuminated by the firelight. The moon and stars shone in the sky; insects chirped in the distance. My heart pounded. My arms felt heavy and numb, like I’d been clenching my fists or my circulation had been cut off while I slept. My mouth was so dry that my tongue stuck to the inside of my mouth. It felt disgusting.

“What’s wrong?” came a voice. I craned my neck around and saw a woman. She was on one knee beside me, looking at me with a concerned expression. She had smooth blonde hair and confident eyes—not a bombshell, but slim and good-looking.

“…Sara.”

“You jumped up all of a sudden. Bad dream?”

“A bad dream…? Oh, yeah. Maybe.”

I did feel like I’d had a weird dream. But I couldn’t remember what the nightmare had been about. I felt sure it must have been a nightmare…but then it slipped away from me. Dreams are like that.

“Keep it together, okay? We’re going into the labyrinth tomorrow. No one’s going to think it’s funny if you flub the real thing because you’re sleep-deprived.”

“I know that.”

“Not that I can even imagine you screwing up bad enough to get a party member killed or anything,” Sara said, laughing. She sat down next to me, bumping shoulders with me. I put my arm around her, then she rested her head on my shoulder. She smelled nice.

“We’ll be retiring too when this is over, huh?”

“Yeah.” Sara and I weren’t just adventurers in a party together. We were lovers and engaged.

This labyrinth exploration was going to be our last—we were planning to retire as adventurers and get married. How did I end up with her? It’s not that long a story. It happened back when I was around thirteen years old… A lot had happened. I’d given up on my life, and I was just managing to drag myself on. My spirit was at rock-bottom. I was a shell of myself as I searched for Zenith.

That’s where I was when I joined the party Counter Arrow. At first, I thought I’d had more than enough of being in a party and was cold to Sara and the others. But they all treated me with kindness, especially Timothy, their leader, and their second-in-command, Suzanne. We ended up working together in the same town for a while. Sara was the only one who was standoffish to me until one incident triggered a sudden change. 

Long story short, I saved her life and she fell for me. Sara was an assertive woman, very standoffish on the surface, but she didn’t really try to hide her affection. She moved fast, so our relationship heated up fast as well. When I spent a night with Sara, I still didn’t think I liked her that much. I’d noticed her, but I kept my distance from her. I think it was because I’d been a virgin in my past life. Perhaps that was why we fell in love so naturally. The natural friction of her pushing and me pulling away…

We crossed that first line early, but after that, as I got to know her better and better, my feelings for her developed unrushed. 

That’s why it lasted so long. The two of us carried on adventuring in the grip of new love. Elinalise was the reason why things changed. She gave me the news that Zenith was alive, and that Paul, Talhand, and Geese were working on rescuing her.

I immediately decided to go support Paul. Sara and I left Counter Arrow and headed for the Begaritt Continent. The rescue mission was an unmitigated success, and then we went home. 

Then Zenith told me, “I want you to live for yourself,” and so Sara and I went on adventuring. We’d now cleared five highly challenging labyrinths as an S-rank adventurer party. The whole world knew about us.

“Hey, Rudeus?” Sara called.

“Hm?”

She chuckled. “Nothing,” she said.

I loved her smile and impulsively reached for her butt. Sara went along with my mischief without resistance. In the past, she would’ve glared at me, but now it was just part of our standard physical affection. We gazed into each other’s eyes, our hands on each other’s bodies. Something suddenly flitted across her face. Sara looked uneasy.

“Once we quit being adventurers, do you think we’ll make it?” she asked.

“You’re bringing that up now? Cold feet?”

“We’re getting married and settling down—that means becoming a mother too, right? Cooking, cleaning, and washing…and raising a child… I don’t know if I can do it.”

“That’s fine. I’ll do it, then. You can keep doing what you’re good at.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

Sara was still nervous about starting a family. She’d always been an adventurer; she didn’t know any other way of life. Her worries about how she’d handle suddenly becoming a wife and a mother and being made to do housework came up over and over. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand how she felt, but I’d been reincarnated—I had memories of my previous life. When I’d died, Japan’s cultural expectations had started to shift toward expecting men and women to both take an active role in childcare. I didn’t feel any need to get hung up on Sara doing all the housework. We could even set it up so that she’d work and I’d be a stay-at-home husband. Even when I told Sara that, she didn’t seem convinced.

“There’s no point worrying about the future. We’ve just got to give it our all in each moment.”

“You say that, but all you’re interested in is the night after the wedding.”

“Hey, that’s not true.”

“Liar. My eyes are up here, by the way,” Sara said, then giggled. She was teasing, but her tone was soft. 

Okay, if I were being honest, I did have some expectations for married life, just the two of us, in love, in a house where no one would bother us… Once we were husband and wife, it wouldn’t matter if she got pregnant. All restrictions were off the table. We’d be working hard to make a son for me and a grandchild for Paul.

As I tried to work out how to answer, Sara leaned in to whisper in my ear. “But I want three kids.” She then went bright red and looked away. I think she’d embarrassed herself a little. For her, it was a bold invitation. “Um, anyway! I’m going to bed. You take watch!”

“Roger that. Good night.”

“Good night!” She punched me lightly on the shoulder, then went back to her own sleeping bag. Conscious that I was smiling, I threw another log on the dwindling campfire…then, with a start, I realized that another party member who should have been asleep was watching me from where he lay.

“Hey,” he said, sitting up slowly. His long, light-colored hair was tied back at his neck. He gave me a languorous wave. Paul.

Say what? What’s Paul doing here? He should be dead… 

No, he wasn’t dead. I couldn’t kill him off that easily. After rescuing Zenith from the teleportation labyrinth, he’d moved to the Asura Kingdom with her, and they were working hard to rebuild Fittoa. They’d cheerfully sent me off when I decided to become an adventurer. However, when this labyrinth exploration mission came up, Paul had butted in, saying, “You kids alone? I’d be worried sick.” 

Yeah, that was how it went. Definitely.

“Dad, it’s gross to snoop on people.”

“Snoop? What’s that sleepy brain of yours talking about?”

“Oh, come on…”

“Anyway, you two have a nice thing going. You gonna marry her?”

“That’s the plan. Dad, you were there when I introduced her, weren’t you?”

“Nope, I wasn’t.” He’d definitely been there. That was weird. Maybe I was still half-asleep.

“More importantly,” he went on, “aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What something?”

“Why did you give up on yourself before you met Sara?”

“Why? Well, that’s…” Wait, why was it again? 

That’s right, Ruijerd had seen me as far as Fittoa, then I’d woken up and there’d been no one there… Huh? But Ruijerd—

Paul scoffed. “You can’t even remember a simple thing like that? And you say you’re getting married.”

Paul’s teasing was starting to tick me off, so I stood up and walked over to him. “What’s your problem here? Did you tag along just to say that?”

“Hey, I’m not saying it ’cause I enjoy this.”

“Then what—?” I began, grabbing Paul by the chest of his shirt. But then I saw it.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked.

Paul’s lower half was missing.

***

“Aaagh…!” I leapt up. As my eyes flew open, they were met with the sight of an unfamiliar room. I saw a soft blanket covering my own legs, then the door to the bedroom and a half-open window that let in a gentle breeze. Behind me, there was a Treant seed pillow and a crafted figurine on the bedside table.

This was a familiar bed. I was in my house in the Magic City of Sharia. I was panting. I had the feeling I’d had a strange dream. 

“What was it…?” I couldn’t remember what the dream had been about. Only it must have been a nightmare, or I wouldn’t have leapt up like this. Dreams are like that.

“Mmm…mm!” I got out of bed and stretched. It was a beautiful day again today. Soon summer would end and give way to fall. I couldn’t wait. 

As I bounded down the stairs, two children came charging up past me. They had dark brown hair and beast ears. 

“Watch out or you’ll fall,” I called after them.

“Okaaay.” They ran into their room and I continued down to the first floor. I went down the corridor into the dining room. A woman was there, getting breakfast ready. Her voluptuous curves were packed into her plain clothes, but they couldn’t contain her. Her butt peeked out of the bottom of her skirt along with a tail. As I walked into the room, her pointed ears twitched and she turned around.

“Morning, Linia,” I said.

“Good mornin’,” Linia said. She sounded a little curt. I felt a pang of that vague unease you get after an unpleasant dream. I went and put my arms around her.

“Oh, Linia,” I said.

“Mew?!”

Linia was my wife. How had we ended up married again? That’s right, thinking back, it was when we were students. I was worrying about my ED and trying everything to treat my little guy. That’s when I’d met Linia and Pursena. They were young and fresh and full of wild energy. We tussled, then I tied them up and peeled their clothes off, but even then, my ED persisted.

A year went by, and another, and with every encounter in class and in the cafeteria, we noticed each other a little more. Eventually, the two of them became more overtly alluring. My little guy began, slowly but surely, to respond.

It was the fall of their seventh year at the university when I recovered fully. The two of them were in heat and they’d come charging into my room, unable to restrain themselves. That took me back. What a night.

On graduation day, Linia and Pursena fought and Pursena won. Pursena returned to the great forest, and Linia came to live with me. Since then, we’d made a baby every autumn.

“Hissss!”

“Ow!” After putting my arms around Linia, I’d started squeezing her boobs, but she grabbed my hand.

“Only when I’m in heat! That’s the rule, don’t you fur-get it!”

“Come on, it’s just a hug…”

“It won’t stop with just a hug, not with you. A wife isn’t her husband’s sex slave, mew!”

“I’m not trying to make you one…” I sighed and sat down at the table. Linia was always like this. According to some beastfolk rule, I was only allowed to do her while she was in heat. When that happened, she came straight to me. When Linia was in heat, her baby-making urges were more than enough to satisfy my sex drive. And those babies? Super cute.

That wasn’t the problem. A little more touching didn’t seem like it’d hurt, just to show we…loved each other?

“Breakfast’s ready, mew!” Linia called, beating an empty pot.

“Okaaay!” The kids came dashing down from upstairs. Not just the two from earlier—there were twelve of them. Beastfolk had two or three children with every pregnancy, so we were packed to the rafters. Almost every room in the house had a kid in it now.

“Eat up and get to work, mew! Your pupils are waiting, mew!” Linia badgered me.

“Okay, okay.” I started eating my breakfast. She was a great cook. When we first got married, all she could do was grill meat, simmer fish, and boil vegetables, but over the past few years she’d learned all sorts of Sharian dishes. The flavor was a little bland, but she was a different race with different taste buds. Couldn’t be helped.

“Thank you,” I said when I was finished.

“You’re welcome.”

I changed into my robes and headed to work. I’d joined the Magicians’ Guild just after graduation and was now a teacher at the University of Magic. I taught classes on non-vocalized magic. It was an extremely practical style, so my course was very popular. If I established that my teaching method for non-vocal magic and my students did well, I might be looking at vice-principal or even principal down the line. 

“I’m off,” I said.

“Have a nice day at work, mew.” With that, I headed for the front door. Another day, working hard for my wife and kids!

“Huh?” The door to the living room was ajar. I sensed someone inside. Someone I knew so well it hurt. I opened the door as though someone had called me and saw a man. He was sitting on the sofa facing away from me with one arm draped over the back of the sofa. His light brown hair was tied back at his neck.

“Huh?” 

He turned around. “Hey.” It was Paul. What was he doing here? Wasn’t he dead? Then I remembered: he wasn’t dead. He’d given up on the teleportation labyrinth and come back home. Then we’d come to the Magic City of Sharia, where he lived nearby. 

Yeah, that was how it went. Lilia and Norn were living at Paul’s house now too. Paul had blamed me for not going to save him, but we got along well now.

That was how the story went. Definitely.

“You have a lovely wife.”

“A lovely wife?” I echoed. “It’s not like this is the first time you’ve seen her.”

“Nope, first time,” Paul said, smiling broadly and shaking his head. “Are you happy like this?”

“What? What’re you trying to say?”

“Nothing in particular. Just asking if you feel like anything’s missing.”

“Nothing is missing.” Linia was a good wife. Sure, the fact that she only let me touch her within a set period of time every year wasn’t ideal…but it wasn’t anything bad enough to complain about. She’d be in heat any day now, and then we’d be all over each other. She’d give me more loving than my body could keep up with. Then she’d get pregnant with another two or three kids. My manly instincts were more than satisfied. There were times when I wanted more, but when you considered we were cramming it all into one spurt, that was no big deal. My job was going well too. I was a popular teacher at the university. My classes got rave reviews as amongst the best in the school. My students loved me and I was a respected colleague. I was super successful and the future was bright.

“Yeah? Nothing missing, huh? Well, that’s a relief.”

“It is.”

“But aren’t you forgetting something?” Paul asked. His voice was gentle like he was chiding a stupid child, but it sounded like an accusation. “What about that job of yours, for example? Who’d you imitate to get all those students and teachers to like you?”

“Well, that’s…” Who was it again?

I thought I saw something blue shoot in front of me and shook my head to clear it. But the discord in my mind only intensified.

“Someone taught you, right?” he pressed me. “About how to succeed in the world.”

“What’s your problem?! Just say what you want to say!” Letting my anger take hold of me, I headed over to the sofa. I went around it to face Paul, seizing the front of his shirt. Then…I froze.

“All right, I’ll say it,” Paul said.

“I’m already dead.”

Paul’s lower half was missing.

***

“Aaagh…!” I leapt out of bed, panting. My throat was dry, and my back was soaked with sweat. What a horrible dream. I’d had an unbelievable dream. What was that… What was that…?

“That was one hell of a nightmare…” I muttered.

“Is something wrong?”

“I just had a strange dream. Back when we were at the Magic University…Linia, that beastfolk woman, was there, right? In my dream, we were married and even had kids. I was a lecturer teaching kids non-vocalized magic.”

“That’s a nightmare?”

Was it a nightmare? Now that she said it, maybe it hadn’t been a nightmare. Linia and I spent a short period each year engaged in passionate baby-making, then the rest of the time I looked after the children while teaching magic to my pupils. It was a modest life, but a good one.

And yet—

“Yeah, it is,” I said, watching my wife climb down from our canopy bed with sleepy eyes. 

She was a goddess of beauty. She was the perfect height, not too tall or too short. Her breasts were the perfect size, not too big or too small. Her butt was on the small side, but it went perfectly with her height and breasts. She was slim overall, neither scrawny nor flabby. The effect wasn’t average, it was extraordinary. Her body was the definition of “well proportioned.” The only thing out of place at the moment was her bedhead. Her blonde hair, usually flowing and beautiful, was a bit of a mess. It did nothing to diminish her charms. Her unruly hair gave her the allure of a grown woman. In a word, she was sexy. Knowing her hair was like that because of what we’d done last night made it thirty percent sexier.

“I’ve married a wonderful woman and I’m in a position where I can have everything I could ever want. I couldn’t bear being a teacher in a town in the middle of nowhere.”

“Hehe. Are you flattering me, by any chance? Good job,” said my wife, Ariel Anemoi Asura.

“Perhaps you yearn for that kind of life,” she continued. “There’s been a lot of urgent government business lately, hasn’t there? The life of the royal family certainly isn’t easy. In our jobs, even the smallest things bring with them great responsibility—but there’s no guarantee that our happiness will be enough to make that responsibility worth it. One person can only experience so much happiness.”

“You think so?”

“I imagine that in your country town, working as a teacher, surrounded by your children, the balance between happiness and responsibility was very different from your life as royalty… Perhaps instead of a woman like me, a girl like Linia is more to your taste.”

That was ridiculous. Ariel was the ultimate woman. Flawless. She subtly corrected my faults and even deferred to me in public. She didn’t mention what I did with other women and let me keep concubines. On top of that, she was good at her job. Everyone relied on her. She was the ideal leader, an idol of the people.

Except maybe she did have some faults. She was argumentative, and she valued logic too highly over emotion. Her kinks were a little unique, too. Last night… No, let’s not get into that. That couldn’t be called a fault—at least, not by me.

“I’m sorry. Did I let my mouth run away with me a little?” she asked.

“No, I was just thinking that you might actually be right.”

“Please, tell me if you need time off. The kingdom is more stable these days, so I can spare you for a short break. You could take a trip… It might be nice to take one of your concubines.”

“If I got any time off, I’d want to spend the whole day with you in my arms.”

“Oh, you…” she said. “Always joking.”

“I’m serious.”

How long was it since Ariel and I first slept together? At first, I’d taken lots of concubines and embraced debauchery, but these days, that was growing dull. She was the only one I needed. If you asked me what made me happiest in my life, it would have to be that I could do whatever I wanted in bed with Ariel Amenoi Asura.

“All right, let’s set a day aside for that soon,” Ariel said, laughing lightly as her lady-in-waiting dressed her. I stood up too and spread my arms. A second lady-in-waiting immediately rushed to my side. Watching the two of them efficiently dividing up the task of dressing us, I really felt important.

I felt a pang of nostalgia for my time at the University of Magic. I’d entered the university, then I’d met Ariel. Despite coming out worse in a political struggle and being driven from her kingdom, she was undaunted and gathering allies. She scouted me, the only one at the University of Magic who could perform non-vocalized magic. Even then, she was gorgeous and charismatic. I was cold to her, partly because that was right as I was suffering from ED. It was when she cured me that things changed. Her method was a bit rough. She used an aphrodisiac to force me to get aroused and come on to her. At the time, I didn’t realize that it had all been her design. Thinking I’d done something horrifying, I became her ally out of guilt and a wish for atonement.

I was like an especially strong bodyguard. I wasn’t given any particular privileges; I was only there to protect Ariel. What began to change that was, of course, the time I spent near her. Ariel always did her best to play the part of royalty. Sometimes, though, she let me see her as the vulnerable young woman she was. Little by little, I fell for her. I won’t deny I had impure thoughts from the start, but it wasn’t purely for her body—I fell for her soul too. 

My fellow bodyguard Luke and I butted heads repeatedly. I think he had his own feelings for Ariel.

Luke died in the war in the Asura Kingdom, while Ariel and I survived. I confessed my feelings to Ariel at last…and got everything I wanted. I had the best woman in the world and the greatest country in the world. I became the king of the Kingdom of Asura. Rudeus Anemoi Asura, King of Asura. That was who I was. 

Really, I was just an extension of Ariel—her puppet. She said she only did it this way because things ran more smoothly than they would if she took the lead as queen. I was originally from a very highly ranked bloodline in the Kingdom of Asura, so no one objected. Out in the world, they were calling me Magician King Rudeus. Maybe I could find a power-up out there somewhere and gain a few more premodifiers? Become Super Mega Magician King Rudeus? 

I admit, I wasn’t totally sure if Ariel loved me or not. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was just using me for my power and position. She’d only married me to facilitate the smooth governance of the nation, after all. My unease about that was part of why I’d taken such a huge number of concubines. 

Recently, I’d begun to think that it didn’t matter what Ariel’s true feelings were. Ever since we’d gotten married, Ariel had resolutely insisted she loved me. She was a hard worker. She was making an effort. It was possible that it was fake love, but it was enough to satisfy me. Maybe I was being deceived, but what an enjoyable position to be led into!

On the other hand, if I became more of a hindrance than an asset, Ariel would likely turn on me. Whether that came to pass depended on how much effort I put in. I knew I’d better work hard.

“All right, shall we go?” Ariel said. “There’s another mountain of government business to get through today.”

“Yeah.” Ariel and I left the bedroom together. The two knights guarding the door bowed to us. In fact, not just the guards. Everyone we passed as we walked down the corridor stopped and bowed.

This was power. If I told one of them I didn’t like how they bowed, they’d drop to their knees, white as a sheet. If I told them to lick my boots, they might do it. I wouldn’t do anything like that, of course, but it felt great being in a position where I could. 

The first job of the day was an issue that had come up overnight. No one had rushed to wake us, so it probably wasn’t urgent. We’d take a leisurely two hours to clear it up, then meet with the head of the knight order before lunch. After we ate, we had audiences with nobles who had appointments. In the afternoon, maybe I’d go through some petitions. It’d be nice if I could make holiday plans too. I wanted to have a baby with Ariel soon, and I enjoyed my role as a stud horse.

“Your Majesty!” Just then, the knight captain came running over to us. He knelt before me, then declared, “The knight who went to slay the monsters in the Eastern Forest returned on the verge of death! Before he dies, he wishes to speak directly to you, Your Majesty!”

“What?!” Monsters in the Eastern Forest… Had that happened?

“We didn’t receive that report,” Ariel remarked.

Right, yeah.

“This knight is dying for the sake of Your Majesty! I beg of you, be with him for his final hours!”

“You don’t need to go, dear,” Ariel said, detached. It wasn’t as if I had more important things to do, though.

“No, I’ll go see him.” The final wish of a knight who’d fought for his country. I could at least hear him out. I could remember his name. 

With that thought, I hurried to the audience chamber. Ariel looked annoyed, but she smoothed it out quickly and followed after me.

Our subjects were assembled in the audience chamber. Duke Notos, Duke Boreas, Duke Euros, Duke Zepeuro, and others—the who’s who, the VIPs, the all-around stars of the Asuran Nobility.

They all stood around a man waiting on a red velvet carpet. He lay on a stretcher, covered by a blanket. I knew his face.

“Huh…?” It was Paul. What was Paul doing here?

Ah, that’s right. When Paul heard I’d become king, he came straight here to pledge himself to my service. Despite not getting on with the Notos family, he even bent his knee to them. As a knight, he’d strived to protect me.

“Hey, Rudy,” he said. He raised a hand casually, as though he weren’t injured at all.

“Dad…” I said. “I heard from the captain that you drove out the monsters…”

“Monsters? What’re you talking about?”

“Huh?” 

Seeing my confusion, Paul gave a patient sigh. “That’s not why I’m here,” he said.

“I’m asking you to tell me—!” I broke off with a gasp as Paul pushed the blanket off him. His legs were gone.

He spoke calmly despite the gory, fatal wound. “Let’s pick up where we left off,” he said.

***

“Ahhh!” I opened my eyes. I’d had a bad dream. A nightmare. It felt like I’d had nothing but nightmares these past few days.

“Love? What’s wrong?” said the woman beside me, wiping the sweat from my forehead with her hand. She had ample curves and a precocious smile. My wife, Aisha.

She and I had…um, how did we end up married again?

Ah, that’s right! Okay, so we were in the bath, and I couldn’t restrain myself. She was always flirting with me, and every year her body got more… But wait, what?

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked. “Oh, now we’re married, should I keep calling you my big brother? Too late to stop now, I guess. You are such a pervert, Big Brother.”

I didn’t reply. Paul was there behind Aisha. He was sitting in a chair, and he didn’t have any legs. He watched us and shot me a flippant grin. 

“It’s no good. I’ve already got you,” he whispered. “You’ve worked it out, right?”

Had I worked it out? Oh. Okay, yeah. I’d started to work it out. The reason behind this string of nightmares. This sense that something was wrong. I’d woken up over and over again, and every time it had been a dream.

This was also a dream.

“You finally realized? It’s all Abyssal King Vita. This farce is over.”

Abyssal King? Right. Abyssal King Vita. Now I remembered.

***

Suddenly, I was back in my room—my study in a large house in the Magic City of Sharia. My desk was strewn with diaries and magical treatises, and on the shelf there was a stone tablet engraved with a magic circle and a half-finished figurine.

I was standing in the middle of the room while Paul sat in the study chair. I couldn’t tell since he was sitting down, but he probably didn’t have legs. 

Paul was dead, after all. The Manatite Hydra had carried off his legs in the bowels of the teleportation labyrinth on the Begaritt Continent, and he’d died. Because of my mistake.

“…Are you Abyssal King Vita?” I asked. 

Paul rolled his eyes at me. “’Course I’m not,” he said. “If I was Abyssal King Vita, you think I’d have woken you up from your dream?”

“Oh, yeah…” He had a point. 

“Abyssal King Vita is backed into a corner,” he told me.

“Okay, sure, but what are you?”

“Hey now. Did you forget your old man’s face?”

“I mean, it’s been a long time since you died.”

“Sheesh, that’s cold. You’d better not have forgotten,” Paul said, then grinned. That smile was exactly like the Paul I remembered. Just looking at him, I felt a lump rise in my throat. Aw, crap, I was going to cry.

Paul’s expression immediately turned serious, and he stared at the door behind me. “I’ve chased Abyssal King Vita here. There’s something that feels wrong in this house. Find it and destroy it. That’s Vita’s core.”

“Got it!”

I didn’t know who this Paul was, but he wasn’t an enemy. At least I thought so, despite not having any basis or evidence. This might even be Abyssal King Vita’s scheme, but if it weren’t for Paul, I’d have been trapped in happy dreams forever. Resolved, I exited the study into a familiar corridor. This was my house in the Magic City of Sharia. I’d bought it when I married Sylphie. The mansion where I’d found a strange doll when I’d explored it with Zanoba and Cliff. 

Then I brought my younger sisters in to live with me, married Roxy, and married Eris. My dream home, where I lived with my three wives. I knew that was real. My thoughts were still muddled, but I could hold on to those facts.

I walked down the corridor and into the living room, where Lilia was cleaning.

“Master Rudeus,” she said, wiping down a table beside the fireplace with a rag. “Is something the matter?”

“…No. I’m sorry, I’m always leaving you to do all the cleaning and things.”

Lilia stared at me in surprise for a moment, but then she smiled mischievously. “Since you mention it, Master Rudeus, you could at least tidy your study yourself. I don’t know if it’s all right for me to touch so many of the things in your room.”

“Haha, I’ll take care.” Nothing felt wrong here. Lilia sounded like herself. She wasn’t serious about struggling or wanting me to clean up. Teasing was her way of showing affection. Even if Lilia didn’t know what she was allowed to touch, Aisha did.

“By the way, where is everyone?”

“Miss Norn is at school, and Aisha is advising at the Mercenary Band.”

Nothing felt wrong there. She didn’t mention my three wives because, in this world, Sylphie, Roxy and Eris didn’t exist. For some reason, I felt certain that it was that sort of world. So nothing felt wrong. It was a contradiction, perhaps, but it didn’t feel wrong. It wasn’t Lilia I was looking for.

“Okay, thank you,” I said, then left the living room. I went to the front door, but nothing felt wrong there either. Only Roxy’s coat and Eris’s training sword were missing, but Roxy and Eris didn’t exist. That was normal. 

Hmm. Knowing what feels wrong is tricky.

It was ultimately subjective—you wouldn’t just find a sense of wrongness lying around. I was looking carefully, but I wasn’t very good at these spot-the-difference type things. I never knew how to answer at first when Sylphie went to the hairdresser, then came home and said “Rudy, do you notice anything different about me today?” Admittedly, Sylphie didn’t say stuff like that very much.

Anyway, it looked like I might have to get stuck in and take down notes to work out my adversary’s intention and what felt wrong here.

I went to the dining room. And gasped.

I’d found it. The thing that felt wrong.

“That’s not fair…”

Thinking about it, all the dreams had been the manifestation of what I guess you could call fantasies of mine, wishful thoughts that had crossed my mind.

The world where I never got ED and things were going well with Sara. The world where Linia cured my ED and we got married. The world where the angelic beauty Ariel and I fell in love, then I became king. The world where things happened between me and Aisha.

That last one I’d never fantasized about explicitly, but I couldn’t deny it might have held a certain subconscious appeal. She was my little sister, so I didn’t really get turned on by her, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know she was objectively attractive. In another situation, I might have been interested.

The point was, they’d all been worlds made to suit me. Nothing had felt wrong. In each world, I hadn’t even sensed anything was off until I’d been faced with an obvious contradiction.

This house was different. Paul was here from the start, and I had my memories. That was how I knew what was off the moment I saw her.

“Oh, Rudy, you’re home. You’re early today,” said Zenith as she got food ready. Placemats were on the table for the whole family, with plates and cups set out. I didn’t say anything. “What’s wrong? You seem troubled… Oh! That’s right. You’re home early, so that’s perfect. The thing is… Ta-dah!”

She looked well. She was a little older than the Zenith I remembered, but otherwise, she was the same cheerful mother I remembered from when we lived in Fittoa.

“You’re grown up, Rudy, but I haven’t heard anything about romance! So I went out and found a partner for you!” Zenith declared, showing me a painting of a woman on a board—a matchmaker photo. I knew the woman in the painting. I was pretty sure she worked at the Magicians’ Guild, the fourth daughter of a Ranoa noble family. She had more of a talent for magic than her sisters, so she’d enrolled at the University of Magic, but while she was there her family fell into ruin. Unable to go home, she’d joined the Magicians’ Guild.

“She’s in the same guild as you. When I said I was looking for a bride for you, Rudy, she seemed enthusiastic. You don’t seem like you’d be happy with a strategic marriage. Well, I thought that was a matter of taste, so I talked to her, and she didn’t seem totally opposed…”

She sounded really happy.

If Zenith hadn’t ended up like that in the Teleportation Labyrinth, if I hadn’t married Sylphie or Roxy, if I hadn’t had any other romances—I bet then Zenith would have started meddling in my love life. If I accepted, she’d be overjoyed like a schoolgirl making her dolls kiss and hurry things along. If Sylphie had lived nearby, she might have done everything she could to bring Sylphie and me together.

“What do you think, Rudy? Isn’t she pretty? Will you meet her?”

“Okay,” I said.

“That’s great. All right, I’ll talk to them first!” She sighed. “I worry about you. And Aisha is just the same! Neither of you have any instinct for this kind of thing. Norn’s the only one with any luck in this department.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“I thought, as Paul’s son, you’d be insatiable… It’s because you’re too cautious around girls!” Zenith said, then went back to setting the table. 

“I’m your son too, Mom…”

I stood frozen, magic concentrated in my finger as I pointed it at Zenith. My hand was shaking and tears threatened to spill down my cheeks. I couldn’t do it. Zenith left the kitchen. 

A few days passed. Paul was in the study the whole time, his legs gone. He said to me, “Have you found what’s wrong? Then hurry up and destroy it,” in a tone just like the one he’d used when he was alive. When I told him that Zenith was the source of the wrongness, he didn’t say anything else.

In this world, I was a magician who belonged to the Magicians’ Guild. The same scenario as when I was with Linia. The only difference was that Zenith had been rescued safe and sound. Paul was dead.

We’d bought the house when Norn and the others came to the Magic City. It was supposed to be a home for everyone when Paul came back. I went to work at the Magicians’ Guild, then came home at night to have dinner with my mother and sisters.

If, in my previous earthly life, I’d ever gotten out of my shut-in ways and managed to find a job, my life might have fallen into this sort of rhythm. That’s how the time I spent here made me feel.

My prospective betrothal was also progressing. Our meeting had gone off without a hitch. Maybe because we’d worked together and knew a fair bit about each other, arrangements galloped along. She’d known me since her days at the University of Magic and she’d been a little fond of me ever since.

I didn’t remember this, but apparently one time she’d been surrounded by some dodgy guys. I’d come to her rescue.

She came across as quiet and plain, but she was clever, sensible, and observant. Maybe she was a bit lacking in appeal as a potential romantic partner, but as a potential wife she was perfectly adequate. After we were first set up, we went on two dates. On the third, I proposed. She said yes. Zenith just about put on a festival when I told her. After that, our wedding preparations sailed along at a rapid clip. We were fortunate enough to have a house with plenty of unused rooms; it wasn’t a problem bringing my fiancée into the household, and so she moved in right away. 

More than anything else, it was what Zenith wanted. She gushed to Lilia about how “When Rudy’s bride arrives, we’ll do this together and that together…”

The night before the wedding, Zenith and Lilia were beside themselves with excitement. Norn and Aisha joined in on the fuss for a while, but eventually got bored and went to bed. I stayed with the two of them until Lilia fell asleep. She’d had a bit much to drink. Without anyone else to gush at, Zenith kept on chipping away at the drinks, telling me about what I’d been like as a child and things like that.

Out of the blue, she said, “It feels like there’s a weight off my shoulders.”

“I was a burden on you?”

“No, that’s not what I mean. You always looked after us after Paul died in the Teleportation Labyrinth, Rudy. I’m your mother. I shouldn’t be getting looked after, I thought. I should be looking after you… I wished I could.”

“I see.”

“Rudy, once you’re married, if your wife is ever in a bad mood or there are girl things you don’t understand, you come and ask me,” Zenith said. She stroked Lilia’s hair where she slept beside her, looking a little embarrassed. “I’m sure Paul would’ve been able to say it better, but I’m your mother, so I know I can give you advice too.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Rudy, hey there, what’s wrong?” I realized tears were streaming from my eyes. All the dreams Vita had shown me had been happy. This one was no different. If I hadn’t remembered, I could have lived a happy life here.

In a world with no Eris and no Sylphie, I’d still be a virgin, so I’d marry my first girlfriend. My sisters would be grossed out and Zenith would tell me off. I’d go through ups and downs…and, little by little, I’d grow. It was entirely possible I’d screw it up spectacularly and we’d get divorced, but even so…

In this world, my family would all live a happy life, not wanting for anything. I knew that. I knew in my soul that that was how it would go. This had to be Vita’s final act of resistance. He was doing this on the bet that even though I knew it was a dream, I wouldn’t destroy it. And he would be certain that, so long as he took Zenith’s form, I wouldn’t destroy him.

This whole time, I’d been waiting and watching. I saw Zenith smiling like she used to. I thought that maybe staying like this would be okay. It was true. I couldn’t kill Zenith. 

But Vita. 

I’d already remembered. I’d remembered the people who weren’t here—Sylphie and Roxy and Eris, the goofy children we’d had together. The happy, irreplaceable family I’d given everything I had to build. The most precious thing I had. Zenith wasn’t like Paul. She was in a sort of vegetative state, but she wasn’t dead. 

I already knew all that. 

Getting a straight answer might be difficult, but through the Blessed Child I could even ask her for advice when Sylphie was in a foul mood, or Roxy was sulking, or Eris blew up at me. Zenith couldn’t smile anymore, but I knew she’d be overjoyed to give me advice. So this was over. This dream I’d wanted to stay submerged in forever. This dream of a cheerful and kind Zenith. I faced Zenith, reached out, and touched her face. 

“Thanks for everything, Mom.”

Then I fired a full-power Stone Cannon at her. 

***

I felt like I’d had a devastating dream. What the hell did that asshole Vita show me? I thought. I didn’t feel angry. Probably because the final dream had been so kind. Instead, I felt peaceful. Strangely peaceful. 

I looked around and saw I was in an unfamiliar room without a door. Three chairs were arranged within it. No other furniture in the room, but it felt messy somehow. The vibe reminded me of my own room. Like they’d taken the average of my room from when I was alive and my current study. I was sitting on one of the chairs. In front of me were two people. Or were they animals?

The first was a skeleton. It wore a crown and was covered in black grime. The other was a slime. Probably. It was a blue lump shaped like a jelly, sitting on a chair. At least, it seemed like it was sitting.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Abyssal King Vita,” said the slime. This translucent, blue slime was his true form. 

“You’re Vita?” I asked. All right, who was the skeleton, then? Not Paul, surely? I didn’t remember what state Paul’s bones had been in, but that crown wouldn’t suit Paul. 

“I suppose I lost our fight,” said the slime with a solemn air—I didn’t know where its face was. I had to rely on its tone of voice. I lost, he’d said. That meant we’d been fighting, even though how felt hard to pin down. What I’d done to escape from that dream was a kind of battle, I guess.

“So you used, what, some kind of illusion magic to give me visions?” He’d made me dream. Incredibly happy dreams. If I hadn’t caught on, they would have gone on forever. 

“Yes. I predicted possible futures based on your memories and blended them with your desires. It was a top-quality hallucination.”

Illusion magic. I suppose that had to be possible.

Possible futures… For all that, there’d been a lot of holes in those illusions when I looked back on them. Worlds without Sylphie or Roxy or Eris, where Paul, who was dead, kept on popping up.

“You have a very strong libido, so that made it easy.”

“I’m celibate at the moment,” I admitted. Oof, that was embarrassing. I’d been with Sara and Linia and Ariel and Aisha. I’ll admit I might be lying if I said I didn’t have any feelings for any of them—except for Aisha! There’s nothing there! I said nothing!

“My love for my wives and my memories of Paul broke through the illusion. Is that right?”

I’d seen this kind of illusion magic in my previous life. Or rather, I knew what I’d learned from manga. The point is, I knew the typical ways you broke through it. Maybe my subconscious mind had put that knowledge to use.

There was a pause, then Vita said, “No, don’t be ridiculous. You were totally taken in by the illusion. It’s true, the illusion’s hold on you was weaker due to the unique nature of your psyche…but once you’ve been taken that far in, breaking out isn’t possible.”

I was stumped. “So why’d the illusion break?” I asked.

“Because,” Vita said, “of that.” He pointed at the skeleton. It sat up straight in its chair.

“What is it?”

“Please, don’t play the fool… You foresaw that we would battle, that’s why you were ready from the beginning, isn’t it? With the bone ring of Raxos, my nemesis. Now I come to think of it, that’s why you so ostentatiously took your ring of disguise off in front of Ruijerd—to conceal the ring on your left hand…”

Raxos’s bone ring? I didn’t remember bringing anything like that… Wait, Death God Raxos? The Death God’s ring! The one Randolph gave me! That’s right, I’d been wearing it!

“Raxos’s bone ring was crafted by Death God Raxos for the purpose of killing me. It takes the form of the deceased person most trusted by the wearer to break the illusion, then corners the illusionist by taking away their hiding places. It only activates for wearers who have such a trusted person, though…”

Trusted person… In other words, Paul suddenly appearing in the dream was the doing of the bone ring. It was true, the shock of Paul’s appearance had forced me to confront the fact that none of it was real. After I realized I was dreaming, he’d given me the hints I needed to corner Vita. It wasn’t sloppy illusion magic on Vita’s part.

“It seems I was a little dismissive in my assessment of you. I was expecting it to go better at the end, too. Ah well. No one told me you were the sort of heartless man who’d raise a hand against his own mother.”

I hadn’t expected an attack like this. I hadn’t meant to conceal the ring, either. Actually, I’d been wracked with indecision. I’d wanted to spend more time with Zenith while she was healthy. I’d even gone along with an arranged marriage out of duty to her. After what she said to me at the end, I had no choice but to step away. The real Zenith would have told me to do the same. I’m sure she would.

“I made a mistake…” Vita said. “If I’d known, I’d have made Ruijerd threaten you instead.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Ruijerd was considering joining you even if it meant leaving his village to die. I panicked.”

Ruijerd…

“You were off your guard, so I thought everything would go smoothly. I never imagined you had a plan in place to counter me…or that you’d set a trap to ensnare me…”

It’d been entirely unintentional. I almost felt like I should apologize or something. Maybe Orsted or Death God Randolph had predicted something like this. It’d be nice if Orsted at least could have told me how to deal with it in advance. To be fair, he did tell me to wear the ring. So maybe he’d stayed quiet about the rest. I could imagine him thinking He only has to wear the ring for it to work? Then the Abyssal King isn’t worth worrying about.

He could have explained it! What if someone else had ended up possessed?

To be fair, this wasn’t the first time Orsted had failed to convey any more than the bare minimum information, nor the first time I’d failed to ask for more.

“Pride goes before a fall, I suppose.”

“Indeed it does,” Vita said ruefully. He shrank before my eyes, as though his strength was rapidly draining out of him. Beside him, the skeleton slowly crumbled.

The dead person I trusted most… That’s who Paul was to me?

“After reigning for centuries as the most powerful king in the Stickies’ history, I never dreamed things would end like this. Well done, Quagmire Rudeus.”

How was I supposed to respond to that? I hadn’t seen this coming. Should I tell him it was luck? Well, maybe not luck. I had gone to see Randolph of my own volition.

I considered telling him You can’t call yourself the most powerful king ever, but ditched that idea. There was something I needed to ask him.

“I have one question. Are you a disciple of the Man-God?”

“Yes, I am. I am indebted to Him. He helped me to escape the clutches of Death God Raxos and showed me the way to Hell on the Divine Continent. I’ve only survived this long thanks to Him… But then I left, and look where it got me. I suppose it was fate.”

Vita shrank smaller and smaller. When we first got to this room, he’d been person-sized, but now he was only as big as a fist.

“Let me tell you one last thing, Rudeus,” he said. I waited. “The Man-God is awful, but there are many like me who will put their faith in Him simply because He saved them.” Vita was now the size of a fingertip. Meanwhile, the skeleton crumbled into dust and blew away.

“Wait! The other disciples…!” I shouted, but my awareness faded.

***

My eyes opened. I felt wide awake. I remembered all of it—the dreams and the conversation from the room at the end.

“Ugh.” I was seized by a sharp pain in my stomach and felt the urge to puke. “Bleargh…” I moaned, bending over on all fours as I vomited up a sticky fluid. It was blue. The blue fluid oozed over the ground, mixed with stomach juices and last night’s dinner. 

Was this…Abyssal King Vita’s corpse?

Just then, I felt a strange sensation in my left hand. I removed my gauntlet and the Death God’s ring fell to the ground in shattered pieces. It sank into my puke with a squelching sound.

The ring had broken. I guess that confirmed Vita’s story. By entering my body of his own accord, Vita had committed suicide via the Death God’s ring. Poor guy.

Was this a bad call on Vita’s part, really? If he’d taken control of me, the Man-God would have as good as won. There would have been nothing I could do to stop it… 

It was a coincidence—or maybe I ought to call it fate—that had stopped him. Raxos’s bone ring hadn’t only been good for making Kishirika talk after all. Randolph himself might not have known the ring’s real power, either.

“Oh, right,” I said, looking around. “What about Ruijerd?” I was inside a building. This floor, these walls, this layout… I knew this place. It was Ruijerd’s house.

Considering what had happened, maybe Ruijerd had carried me here after Vita jumped from him to me? It was light outside. How many hours had passed? I decided cleaning up the puke could wait until after I’d found him.

“Ruijerd?” I called, but the master of the house didn’t reply. Maybe he was out. Or maybe there was another reason. For the time being, I’d survey my surroundings. I needed to see what was going on.

I sat up. Right away, I found Ruijerd. He was lying on the ground on the other side of the hearth.

“Rui—” I began, then broke off, speechless. Ruijerd’s face was gray and he was wheezing, shivering violently as he clutched at himself. 

Oh, this was bad.

It reminded me of something he’d said. If Abyssal King Vita dies, his offshoots die as well. The village will be engulfed by the plague again.

So Ruijerd was in this state because…

“The…the plague…”

Abyssal King Vita hadn’t just died quietly. Yeah, what he’d done had been more than an inadvertent suicide… It was a suicide bombing.