Chapter 1 | The Assassin Finds Unexpected Company
“Your Holiness. Why was this not revealed to us sooner? If we had been allowed to view these sculptures, we would have been able to guess at which demons might appear, infer their abilities, and prepare for them,” I said.
A demon’s form was important. They, like monsters, possessed abilities that related to the animals they took after. That was only what we could learn from the statues alone. She undoubtedly knew more about the demons than even my Balor information network was incapable of finding.
“What you say is correct. However, the existence of this Sanctuary is top secret. We could not show you this room until there was no doubt you could be trusted,” the Alam Karla responded.
Don’t force me into killing demons if you don’t trust me.
I took a moment to digest her words.
“If that’s the case, does that mean the demons’ efforts to revive the Demon King, and their means for doing so, are also secret?”
“Of course. Such things are normally only shared with the hero. If this information were to become known to the public, it would bring ruination. However, Sir Lugh, the church has decided you are worthy of being told.”
That reply filled in more puzzle pieces for me, and I was quickly assembling them.
I realized I’d already stumbled upon a few clues. First, the Fruit of Life the beetle demon had tried to make. Second, the government’s extreme fear that demons would attack the royal capital. Third, the state of the towns that were attacked. And fourth, the Alam Karla asserting that public knowledge of the truth would cause disaster.
When I considered all these factors, there was only one conclusion.
“The demons want to use humans to create a Fruit of Life and then use that to revive the Demon King. I’m guessing they need tens of thousands of people to create it, which makes large cities obvious targets,” I said.
“That is correct. You are quite clever. The demons labor to gather mortal spirits to produce Fruits of Life. Souls have different degrees of strength. For example, the hero’s soul alone would be enough to create a Fruit of Life, but fifty thousand ordinary people would be needed.”
Upon hearing such a high number, everyone present except for me looked surprised.
At last, the demons’ strategy made sense. Attacking a small village with a population of only a few hundred would hardly further their goal. That was why they aimed for large metropolises like Milteu, the city of commerce where I launched my cosmetic brand Natural You, and the royal capital.
What would happen if the kingdom were to share this information with the public? Towns and cities with rich economic activity would face mass depopulation as everyone left to find safety elsewhere. Major centers of industry would wither and die. Politics and the economy would fall into turmoil, causing the country to suffer.
There was no way the citizenry could be permitted to learn that cities were the demons’ targets. This was also unquestionably why the government kept the hero in the royal capital.
“I am sorry we hid this from you until now. If we had had reason to believe you are a Chosen like me…” The Alam Karla trailed off.
“A ‘Chosen’?” I questioned.
“You received a vision from the great white goddess Venus, did you not? The characteristics of the deity you described in your letter are, without a doubt, the same as the Venus I see in my dreams. If she granted you a spell capable of killing demons, I have to imagine you are a Chosen, one who has received divine favor.”
The Alam Karla, the highest-ranking shrine maiden, was said to be the mouthpiece of the goddess. I had figured that was nothing more than flowery language to make her seem important, but it appeared that was not the case.
The goddess came to her in dreams. That meant the Alam Karla’s job was to relay the goddess’s words to human society.
“I am not quite a Chosen, Your Holiness… I have only seen the goddess twice, once when I was little and again the other day when I was given the Demonkiller spell. What about you, if you don’t mind my asking?” I said.
“Roughly once every three months. It is by the supreme goddess Venus’s words, spoken through the Alam Karlas, that this world has flourished.”
This was consistent with what I knew of the goddess. Venus could see the future, so she didn’t have to rely on other supernatural abilities or miracles to bring about change. She could do it with words alone. It was a very logical method of interference that didn’t require her to expend much energy.
“Your Holiness, next time you meet the goddess, please offer her my thanks. Tell her this: ‘I will live up to your expectations, so please watch over me.’”
“Oh, how nice. I will pass on your message.”
The undercurrent of my statement for the deity was “I’ll do what you want of me, so don’t interfere.”
“Hero, Chosen, and your fellow companions. Please hear my words. Your mission is to exterminate the remaining six demons and prevent the Demon King’s revival.”
We all performed a typical Alamism bow.
This has been very enlightening.
The snake demon had been forthcoming with useful intelligence as well.
She detested the idea of the beetle demon being the one to produce the Fruits of Life needed for the Demon King’s revival. That led me to the assumption that the demons were competing against one another, and that was something I could take advantage of.
After being reminded that we couldn’t breathe a word of what we had learned there, we departed the Sanctuary.
When our group left the hidden passage and returned to the castle, Epona turned to face me. “I’m surprised they were keeping such a massive secret,” she said.
“Yeah. I would have liked to know earlier, but they had their reasons not to let us know,” I responded.
“Let’s both do our best. We can’t allow something as dangerous as the Demon King to return.”
I smiled and nodded.
My mind turned to the future only I was privy to. The goddess had told me that Epona was going to go insane after killing the Demon King. That meant that in that future, the demons would succeed.
No, it’s too early to give up… If the future were set in stone, there would have been no purpose in sending me to this world. I’ll fight until the very end.
A party was held the next day.
It was even grander than the celebration when I had been named a Holy Knight, and the mood was noticeably different as well. Aristocrats from near and far were in great spirits.
They hadn’t trusted my abilities initially. Now that I had killed a demon, I had gained their confidence. I couldn’t blame them. After all, I hadn’t been certain my method of demon slaying would work.
I was praised for my triumph during the festivities and formally recognized as a Chosen by the church. This would make it far easier to do as I pleased. As long as I was endeavoring to end the demon threat, very few were left in the kingdom who could challenge my actions.
Perhaps that was part of the goddess’s plan. The position of the Alam Karla itself could have been created solely to proclaim me a Chosen and make my life easier.
There was one unexpected development during the party—my formula for Demonkiller was made public.
This surprised me, given the presence of foreign nobles at the party. The Demonkiller spell could have made for a strong negotiating chip, depending on how it was used.
Every power in the world would have been desperate to know the secret to killing demons without the hero. Without it, they’d be doomed the moment a demon appeared. Sharing such a valuable bit of knowledge like that for free seemed odd.
“Oh my, it seems your glass is empty, Sir Lugh,” came a woman’s voice.
A noblewoman with dark skin and black hair sauntered over to me, holding two cups, one of which she passed to me. Her voluptuous body was clothed in a revealing outfit.
What the heck is she doing here? What does this mean?
I took the glass while being careful not to show that I was troubled.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to see you in a place like this,” I remarked.
“Why, this is the first time we’ve met, Sir Lugh. Perhaps you mistake me for someone else?” she responded with a giggle.
There was no way I was wrong.
This woman was the snake demon I had encountered after killing the beetle one. She had disguised herself as a human. Her mana and the miasma that accompanied demons had also been concealed.
Still, I knew.
Assassins were masters of disguise, and we also had the skill to see through the trickery of others. We could identify a person not just from their appearance, but also their smell, way of speaking, habits, timing, mannerisms, and so on.
“It seems I was. My apologies. Yet it feels like we were somehow fated to meet here. Perhaps later we should retire somewhere we might speak more freely?” I proposed.
“Are you asking me out on a date? How bold. Going out with the Holy Knight would be such an honor. See you later, then, Sir Lugh,” she purred back.
That was the response I’d expected. She was clearly here for me. The snake demon curtsied and took her leave, a swarm of male nobles bustling after her. After watching her go, Dia and Tarte came up to me with plates full of food.
“I see you ogling, Lugh! She is extremely beautiful,” said Dia.
“Um, do you like that kind of woman?” Tarte asked meekly.
It seemed like neither had figured out it was the snake demon.
“She’s not necessarily my type, but I do find her a little interesting,” I answered.
“Oh really? I told you I would allow unfaithfulness if it was with Tarte, but I will be mad if you cheat on me with a seductive older woman you just met, okay?” warned Dia.
“Lady Dia, Lord Lugh would never do something like that…,” Tarte protested, jumping to my defense.
It wounded me that Dia was so quick to mistrust me, although her jealousy was cute.
“Relax. You’re the one I love, Dia. I’m only interested in her for my work.”
“Hmm, all right.”
That’s right. Work. That’s why I was reborn here, and now it’s my job as a Holy Knight.
I had promised to meet with the snake demon later, but she obviously intended far more than a casual encounter. I needed to know how she had wormed her way into this country and what kind of position she held.
~Goddess’s Point of View~
In an alabaster room, a deity wreathed in white observed and analyzed the world, as she always did.
When the goddess was alone, she was as expressionless as a doll.
The goddess had a thousand faces, and she was able to simulate whatever personality suited her needs, taking into account the situation and the person she was speaking with. Thus, when alone, she had no need of expression and didn’t bother with the effort.
Her face remained unnaturally neutral. If a human were to see her, they probably would have thought she resembled a machine.
“Progression to next phase confirmed. Deviation from estimated destruction of the world confirmed. Margin of error is 5.623. I attribute uncertain factors to Lugh Tuatha Dé. Primary causes are the subjugation of demons and alterations to the world brought about by his hand. Probability of the world’s destruction lowered from 99.87 percent to 86.23 percent.”
While the odds still favored the planet’s annihilation, the drop was a major success.
“Deaths of Fallan Forteil, Deique Grouline, and Nacha Coradorph confirmed. Lugh Tuatha Dé is the only surviving external factor. Obtainment of resources by way of external phenomena confirmed. Use them to invite new external… No.”
The goddess did not believe in anything. Probability was her only guide.
No matter what worldly resources she used in her simulations, things always fell to ruin. That was why she’d had no choice but to invite factors from the outside.
The first was Lugh Tuatha Dé, but he was not the only one.
Statistically, it was more favorable to introduce multiple individuals.
The same reasoning could be applied to taking a test. It was easy to get a seventy. Raising your score above that was where it got complicated. Aiming for a perfect score demanded more than three times the effort.
Thus, the goddess didn’t bet everything on one person. Rather than attempt creating one perfect individual, she hoped to raise multiple seventies and trust that one would succeed.
That should have increased the overall chances.
“Error in guiding principles confirmed. Recognition that Lugh Tuatha Dé is special. Proposal to higher beings. Forwarding Lugh Tuatha Dé’s accomplishments. Rather than bolstering the number of attempts by introducing more external factors, we should concentrate on Lugh Tuatha Dé. I have decided there is something about Lugh Tuatha Dé that probabilities cannot describe.”
Even if none of her decisions until now had been incorrect by statistical theory, all external factors other than Lugh Tuatha Dé had perished without exhibiting any influence on the world.
Still, the goddess did not think her initial decision was incorrect. She possessed no attachment to her own choices, however. If something outperformed expectations, she would recognize it and adjust.
As a result of her recent analysis, she accepted that Lugh Tuatha Dé was unusual and worth taking a gamble on. For that reason, rather than use the resources they secured from the deaths of the external factors to replenish their stock, she decided to bet on Lugh Tuatha Dé.
The higher beings answered the goddess’s proposal with consent.
“Approval confirmed. Additional resources for Lugh Tuatha Dé obtained. I will entrust the world to him.”
She would not invite any more external factors into the world.
This would simultaneously be good news and bad news for Lugh Tuatha Dé. He would receive even more support, but everything rested on him now.
“Running simulation for optimal use of additional resources. Outcomes detected: 72,346. Among those, the highest probability is… No, probabilities are unreliable when it comes to Lugh Tuatha Dé… Focus should be placed elsewhere.”
The goddess made a decision, one that ignored her calculation of the future.
“Requesting resources from higher beings… Approval received… Assets will be ready for use in thirty-seven days. Accessing channel into present world, the Alam Karla, to ensure optimal use.”
Alamism. A religion to guide humanity… It sounded good when put that way, but the goddess had merely created it as a tool for managing the world at a minimal cost. She used it to speak to the shrine maiden known as the Alam Karla in her dreams.
Any action the deity took to interfere demanded resources. When she spoke directly to people in the world, she had to do so with the knowledge that it could mean her destruction.
Thankfully, appearing in the dreams of only one person cost her very little. She was able to spread the religion of Alamism throughout the world simply by talking to one girl in her dreams.
This convenient tool had not developed naturally; the goddess had created it out of necessity. With her power, it wasn’t tough.
The alabaster deity smiled within the dream of the current Alam Karla. Then she began to talk about Lugh Tuatha Dé.
She filled her smile with the compassion of a saint. The goddess always wore the facade the one speaking with her desired. She understood what kind of personality one who depended on the gods wished to see.
The goddess broke off her connection to the girl and closed her eyes. It wasn’t sleep, but rather a total shutdown. There was nothing left she could do. As such, the best course of action was to wait until such time that she was needed again.
Just as Alamism was her creation, so, too, was she a tool meant to manage the world.
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