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Chapter 24 — This Is the Hardest Person to Understand Yet 

Izelda’s haphazard plan was coming together well. The spirits of the dead were killing everyone they came across and possessing their bodies, expanding the reach of his search. It wouldn’t take long for him to find his target. 

The gathering of magical energy was progressing. He had to compete with the rampaging dead, but there was still plenty of prey left on board. He used the insects to manipulate his descendants into finding other people, into whom he spread even more of the tiny creatures. This method was continuing to activate more and more hosts. Among them were some who became self-aware, so he left the gathering of magical energy to them. 

As he was doing this, the spirits who had found the girl he was searching for returned. Apparently, she was heading for the pilothouse. Izelda decided to follow her there himself. 

One of the self-aware vessels sent him a telepathic message. This is bizarre. The spirits are disappearing. 

Oh? So there is someone who can fight off the spirits even under these conditions? 

With the Gift being entirely suppressed, most methods that could deal with the spirits should have been cut off. 

They are disappearing upon approaching the girl. 

A power that doesn’t rely on the Gift sounds intriguing. Go investigate the situation. 

Understood. 

Sending one of the “Izeldas” that were close by, he instructed him to confirm what was happening. He learned that the girl had two companions: a young man and a robot in the shape of a girl. The spirits would move to attack the boy, but once they reached a certain point, they collapsed and disappeared, leaving only lifeless corpses behind. 

Is it some kind of purification ability? A clergyman of high virtue might be able to purge evil by his presence alone, with no need for the Gift. 

He doesn’t appear to be any sort of clergyman, and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything in particular to purge them either. 

Perhaps I will send a weaker vessel to slip into the crowd of spirits and see what happens. 

He tried immediately, but the result was the same. Izelda’s vessel was stopped in the same way the spirits had been. But the vessel itself wasn’t dead, only the insects controlling it. 

What happened? 

I do not know. It did not appear that anything was done. They just died. 

Go see for yourself. 

He sent a self-aware vessel in next. His intention was to figure out what was happening little by little, but instead the magical energy from the boy’s location was cut off, so he couldn’t figure it out. 

Another vessel began to communicate with him. They just die. I do not understand. 

Again, the one who had approached the boy had fallen. Judging from that, their target was responding to the killing intent itself. 

Magic that doesn’t rely on the Gift? Interesting. 

Should we withdraw? If we continue to pursue the girl, it will make us an enemy of that thing. 

What are you talking about? 

It attacks in ways that are imperceptible. There is a concern that we will not be able to deal with it. 

It does not matter. Even if we are wiped out, the experience will provide valuable data for us. 

Perhaps still influenced by its original personality, the newly awakened vessel was failing to understand how little the death of each individual Izelda mattered. The Izeldas who existed here were only a few among countless vessels, each pursuing a separate path to ultimate power. Although the women were valuable research materials, their acquisition was not absolutely necessary. Knowing that people like them existed was sufficient, and that information would be recorded in his collective memory, reemerging in a future version of himself at some point to help open a path to greater strength. 

Before long, Izelda had six of his vessels standing in front of the pilothouse, having met up with others on the way. Just as he arrived, the door to the control room opened and the boy with the mysterious power emerged. After him came the girl with the interesting body, the android in the shape of a girl, and the pirate with the nullifying power. The insects paralyzing her had ceased to function, likely killed by the boy. 

“You’re the one who was supposed to protect the ship, right?” the boy asked. 

Without a word, Izelda sent one of his companions, a well-muscled pirate, after him. The man drew his sword and moved to attack the boy, but the moment he ran forward, he fell onto his face and stopped moving. He was dead, but Izelda had no idea how. 

“Interesting.” 

He was impressed by the existence of such a power. He had thought that even if the other vessels had failed to understand, he might be able to figure it out if he saw it firsthand. He knew that the boy was responsible. If he paid close attention, he should have been able to at least catch a glimpse of his actions, even if it was nothing obvious. But he couldn’t pick out anything. The boy wasn’t using the Gift, and there was no apparent use of magical energy. Without any warning, the vessel’s heart had simply stopped. That’s all he could tell. And if he couldn’t comprehend the power, there was no way of resisting it. 

Izelda was not overconfident in his own abilities. He had no reason to believe that this incredible power wouldn’t work on him. He understood fully that the moment it was turned on him, there would be nothing he could do. 

“It’s not interesting to us,” the boy said. “We’ve been getting attacked repeatedly for a while. Is that your fault?” 

“Correct.” 

“Then that makes this easy. My ability is to kill anything at will. If you’re the one in charge, you should understand that, right?” 

“Indeed. Truly an intriguing ability. As such, I’ve decided to make all of you into my research subjects.” 

“I get the feeling we’re not going to get through to him, Takatou.” 

“What research?” the boy asked. 

“Hm. I will confiscate the ancient relic and bring you all back to my home base. There I will mate with the women and produce children. The girl has an interesting body, and the pirate is of royal blood. Adding their traits to my own will aid me in my research. As for you, I intend to experiment with your power as much as possible. I wish to analyze its source.” 

“It doesn’t look like there’s any room for us to agree here.” 

“I don’t think I want you mating with Dannoura.” 

“I was trying to ignore that part. Could you not bring it back up please?!” 

“I’m not going to let you do any of that,” the boy continued. “You know you can’t beat me, so why are you here?” 

“Hmm. If I had to put it into words, it would be ‘to play the prelude of despair for you,’ I suppose.” 

That was a bad habit of Izelda’s. He wanted to see people’s faces twist in despair. He wanted to hear them gasp in pain. He wanted to see them tremble in lamentation, soil themselves in fear. He wanted to experience their grief, their despair, their terror with every sense he had. In short, he was a sadist. 

That was what had led him to become a High Wizard in the first place. To make people despair, he needed overwhelming power, and his search for that power had led him to the pinnacle of the path of magic. 

“Forget despair. What can you even do here? We just want to leave, so could you get out of our way?” 

Of course, as he was now, Izelda couldn’t do anything to frighten this boy. But he could give him a vague sense of unease, an omen of fear to come. He could announce the endless despair that was waiting for him. 

“Everyone here is me. Izelda.” 

A young man, a little girl, a pirate, an old woman, a middle-aged man... Though they were all different ages and genders, they all possessed his consciousness. 

“I exist all over the world.” 

“I have spread myself across this world for over a thousand years.” 

“Even if I am killed by you here, it is no problem for me.” 

“I will remember your face.” 

“Your scent, the resonance of your spirit.” 

“You cannot run.” 

“No matter how strong you are...” 

“If we come at you twenty-four hours a day, from all over the world...” 

“Will you be able to stand against us?” 

“Do you not believe me?” 

“That is okay.” 

“You will understand soon enough.” 

Such an explanation might have seemed reckless, but someday the boy would understand. He would understand that this was the day his terror had begun. 

 

“I don’t know about this...” 

Yogiri was perplexed. This person calling himself Izelda went on and on talking, seemingly quite pleased with himself. Yogiri didn’t like the idea of killing someone when he didn’t even know what they were all about. All the guy had done so far was blabber, so he wasn’t posing them any real threat at the moment. 

“I think this is the hardest person to understand yet,” Tomochika remarked. 

“It’s a problem. I’d almost prefer it if he just attacked us.” 

“But if he stands in our way, our only option is to eliminate him, correct?” Mokomoko asked. 

“Fine, I get it. You’re our enemy,” Yogiri decided. The man was clearly hostile and had said that he planned to do them harm. So it was probably best to get rid of him now. “Die.” He killed the young mercenary. 

“Oh, I still don’t understand how it works. What even happened there? Could you show me again?” 

The small girl was now speaking in a way that didn’t match her appearance at all. Yogiri had wondered if killing the main boy would clear up their brainwashing, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. So he killed them all one by one. They each spoke in the same way, saying the same things. 

The last one alive was the old woman. “What an arrogant power. I can’t help but look forward to the day you will bow down before me. Today is the beginning of your hardships!” 

“Die.” 

With that, everyone blocking their path was gone. 

“For some reason, I don’t feel satisfied by that.” 

“Hm. It appeared he didn’t fear death.” 

“Wait a second, what happened to the pirate?” Yogiri asked. 

Degul had been right beside them when they had stepped out into the hallway, but now she was nowhere to be seen. The corridor had been blocked, so she couldn’t have gone forward. He peeked back into the pilothouse, but there was no one there either. 

“Did she go out through a window?” Tomochika asked after looking back into the room as well. It didn’t seem like there were any other options. 

“Well, as long as she’s leaving, that’s fine.” 

Yogiri wasn’t interested in spending time with pirates, so he didn’t much mind her mysterious disappearance. Then a strong tremor shook the ship, a loud creaking noise erupting from the hull. Looking out the window, they saw the tentacles releasing the boat. The pirates had begun to pull back, as promised. With the tentacles gone, the ship was free. 

Suddenly, it began to tilt. 

“Huh? Does that mean...” 

“It appears the tentacles were keeping the ship upright. The damage they inflicted when they grabbed it must have been quite severe.” 

“Oh, yeah, the stairs were destroyed earlier.” 

“Then...” 

“We’re probably going to sink.” 

“After all that, we’re just going down with the boat?!” 

Tomochika’s shout echoed through the halls of the shuddering cruise ship. 

 

At a place that could be called “Izelda’s throne room,” a place isolated from reality, a world that only he could reach, the choice vessels the wizard had collected were stored. At present, only his strongest vessels were gathered there. 

“Hornet has died. He had such a promising start too.” 

“Did you think so? Stacking the Hero class with the Imperial Sword class seemed like a waste. Both lean heavily on swordsmanship. Don’t you think it would have been better to choose one and then another unrelated power?” 

“The Gift’s nature is somewhat determined by bloodlines, but chance is still a considerable influence. If we could choose how it would turn out, things would be much easier for us.” 

“We found someone who belongs to Manii’s royal family.” 


“She seems to be a runaway, so that should be convenient. There will be no need to step on Eglacia’s toes.” 

“Surely we have no need to concern ourselves with Eglacia’s feelings at this point?” 

“There is no reason to become his enemy. There are plenty of other options available to us.” 

“There was also an interesting girl.” 

“Her physical abilities were exceedingly refined. It is hard to imagine they occurred naturally.” 

“She was likely produced via controlled breeding, much in the way we have been operating.” 

“We have been somewhat negligent in our cultivation of physical traits, haven’t we?” 

“There is a good chance we can adopt her traits if we can take her in.” 

“Indeed. Those physical parameters do become the base values that skills operate on, after all.” 

“And what about the boy with the strange powers?” 

“We have learned nothing. We will need to continue investigating.” 

“Intriguing. I would very much like to determine the source of his power.” 

A number of vessels within which Izelda’s consciousness had awakened were currently conversing. Their location was an empty space, meant only for them, and it contained nothing else. Being permanently awake in a space like this would be dull, so they normally just slept. Only when something of particular note happened were they simultaneously activated to discuss the situation. 

Fundamentally, all they did was talk. They didn’t normally create plans, nor did they give out orders. For any problems in the real world, they were happy to leave the solutions up to the vessels who lived there. This was no more than a storage area. The only thing that ever changed was the arrival of new vessels, and that wasn’t likely to occur again for some time. 

After talking for a while, they decided to return to sleep. 

And then eyes appeared. 

“What?!” 

In this space, where no one but Izelda should have been able to enter, which should have rejected everything from the outside, eyes had begun to open. Lines ran through empty space, opening vertically to reveal them. The movement was like that of eyelids lifting. They continued to appear one after another, filling the entire space. 

“What is going on?” 

“How did they get here?” 

“You are the boy on the ship...” 

It was little more than a hunch, but Izelda felt something of the boy’s atmosphere from them. 

“I see. So you have come to kill me.” 

“I never expected someone to be able to find this place.” 

“But what of it?” 

“Did you think this was my core?” 

“Killing me here will change nothing.” 

“I exist all throughout the world.” 

“I do not exist in the shape of a single person alone.” 

“There are versions of myself that are so small as to be invisible, like tiny insects.” 

“The power that allowed you to reach this place is astounding. I recognize that.” 

“But did you think such a thing would be sufficient to annihilate me?” 

“No matter how many of me you kill, there will always be more.” 

“I am beyond numbering. I am everywhere.” 

“No matter how many of me are gone, as long as even one fragment survives, I will continue to multiply.” 

“I am already prepared to face great losses.” 

The storage area was important, but it was not the foundation of his plan. Even if every vessel stored here was killed, it would not be a problem in the long run. Izelda had constructed a system to multiply and disperse himself all but infinitely, with sufficient redundancy to make himself, for all intents and purposes, immortal. 

Izelda reached out with his mind and tried to confirm what was going on out in the real world, but there was no reply. That was odd. He was constantly in a state of mutual observation. In order to deal with the most unlikely of occurrences, a warning should have been sent if anything had happened. But no warning had come. The Izeldas in the real world had just gone silent. 

What did that mean? He didn’t understand. The simple answer to that question was right in front of him, but he couldn’t face it. 

“What is happening?” 

“Even among the humans, there should be more than a million of me...” 

“If even a single one of them, one single creature were alive, I would have received an alert.” 

“Preposterous. The majority of them were normal humans, without my own consciousness having awakened.” 

Most of the people containing Izelda’s essence lived their entire lives without even knowing it. That was both as a precaution against danger and to facilitate the development of diverse characteristics based on different environments. There should have been no way to know that Izelda existed within them, nor any way to check. And even if it was somehow discovered, they were just ordinary humans. No ordinary person would be able to kill someone just because they had the potential to be dangerous. Izelda had that much faith in humanity. He had thought that humanity was, at its core, good. 

But this boy was different. However he had found them, however he had accomplished it, every single vessel in the world had been killed. Over one million people, livestock, wild animals, insects, plants, and even miniscule bacteria—everything that had carried his essence was gone. 

Izelda began to feel fear. He wasn’t afraid of that power. He was afraid that he might actually die. Until that point, he’d had no reason to fear one of his vessels perishing. If it did, its memories would simply be passed to and inherited by another. By spreading those memories to many others, he could grow into any number of people. 

But now that redundancy was gone. If he died, it would be over. Everything would disappear. All his efforts and studies would all have been for nothing. For the first time in over a thousand years, he felt the fear of everything ending. Before, death had been a phenomenon that was wholly irrelevant to him. But now it had come for him. An unavoidable end was staring him in the face. 

“A-All those people you killed! They were innocent, ordinary people! Do you feel nothing for them?!” That was all he could think to say in his desperation. He hoped to make the boy feel at least a small amount of regret, but the crowd of eyes showed no response. They didn’t seem to possess a spirit that could be shaken by such things. 

“Please spare me! There should be no reason for you to kill me now!” 

“I understand your power! I will never interfere with you again!” 

“How long do you think I have struggled to build this up?!” 

“If you came all the way here, you must want something from me, right?” 

“What is it? Money? Women? I’ll give you everything! I have everything you could want!” 

Right until the very end, Izelda never knew what those eyes were thinking. 

 

The High Wizard had been thoroughly eradicated. Not a single fragment of his DNA remained anywhere. 

 

Yogiri, Tomochika, and Mokomoko made it up to the deck of the ship. The boat was listing more and more severely, leaving little doubt that they were sinking. 

“What were those pirate morals she was mentioning earlier?” Tomochika asked. 

“She did keep her word to leave,” Mokomoko pointed out. 

“Maybe I shouldn’t have told her to go,” said Yogiri. 

“Well, let’s get out of here! Mokomoko, can you make us a boat?” 

“I know it’s kind of late for this,” Yogiri interrupted, “and I’m fine with escaping by boat and all, but where are we escaping to?” 

“Huh? To the east, right?” Tomochika hadn’t given it much thought. 

“To the island of Ent? That’s still pretty far away. We do have quite a bit of food in our bags, but...” 

“What else are we supposed to do?” 

“I think we should head for land. Whatever’s closest. But I don’t know where that is.” 

Tomochika looked around, but even with her fantastic eyesight, she couldn’t see any land nearby. “Should we go back and look for a map?” 

“I don’t think we have the time for that.” 

“It appears our only option is to create the boat and get out to sea,” the guardian spirit interjected. They didn’t have much time left. As Mokomoko said, they had no choice but to escape right away. 

“Need some help?” 

Yogiri turned to see where the voice was coming from and found a familiar-looking boy smiling back at him. 

“Who are you again?” He remembered the face but couldn’t recall the name. 

Tomochika, however, did. “You’re Kouryu, right?” 

“Right, right, that’s what it was.” 

“Huh? Were you on the boat with us this whole time?!” 

“You said I could follow you, remember?” 

Yogiri recalled he had indeed told him that. “All right, yes, we have a problem. Will you help us?” 

“Sure. I can fly, after all.” 

“Oh, yeah! I remember you saying something about that!” said Tomochika. 

“I mean, I am a dragon.” 

“Wait, really?!” Tomochika was shocked, having clearly forgotten. Yogiri was starting to remember the story the boy had told them a while back. 

“Huh, I was hoping my earlier introduction would have more of an impact...” 

“Wasn’t there some reason you couldn’t fly, though?” Yogiri asked. 

“Yes. If I do, I’ll get caught by the Sages’ alarm system. But if you can fight them off, there’s no problem.” 

“Is that all it was?” 

“That’s all.” 

“Well, this is kind of an emergency, so I guess we should take you up on that.” 

Yogiri was a little concerned. If he responded to an attack coming their way by killing the local Sage, the Philosopher’s Stone he or she held would lose its power. If their goal was to obtain the stones, that kind of ruined their chances. But he also felt like he needed to prioritize getting off the sinking ship. 

“Oh, so you’re one of those long, skinny dragons,” Tomochika said. 

Kouryu’s transformation had been instantaneous. In the blink of an eye, he had taken on the form of an actual dragon. As Tomochika said, he looked like the dragons of Far Eastern tradition back home. 

“I wonder where that reverse scale is...” Yogiri recalled stories of dragons having a single scale that grew in backwards. 

“It’s near the tail in Monster Hunter, right?” 

“Don’t touch it!” 

With that, Yogiri, Tomochika, and Mokomoko (in Enju’s android body) climbed onto the creature’s back. 

“All right, here we go.” 

Kouryu lifted gently into the air. Despite the speed with which he cut through the sky, they didn’t feel the wind. Yogiri had worried they might get blown off, but it didn’t seem like that would be a problem. 

“Oh, by the way, I can’t fly all that far, so sorry in advance.” 

“Couldn’t you have told us before we were in the air?!” 

It seemed there were still plenty of reasons to worry. 



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