by Okina Baba
I’m not sure what Miss Ariel is asking exactly.
“I mean, he might already be dead. But if he is alive, should we kill him or let him live?”
Ah, I see now.
She’s being considerate because he might be a reincarnation like me.
In that case, I think the right course of action is obvious.
“Kill the bastard, of course.”
“Pffft!”
Miss Ariel snorts out a laugh.
“What are you laughing at?! Rude!”
“Sorry, sorry. But, uh, I think that was kinda your own fault, Sophia.”
“It’s not very nice to pass the blame onto others.”
“Right, right.”
Miss Ariel looks somehow displeased.
“What is it? Were you expecting me to say please don’t kill him?”
“Hrmmm. Yeah, I guess so.”
“How absurd.”
“Absurd, huh…?”
Miss Ariel looks to the heavens and sighs.
“I mean, since you were born and raised in Japan, wouldn’t you normally feel weird about, y’know, murder? Especially when it’s a fellow Japanese person we’re talking about. Besides, from what you guys told me, this Sasajima lost control of himself because of the Wrath skill, right? He wasn’t doing it of his own free will. Shouldn’t you take that into consideration?”
“We have a term for that in Japan, Miss Ariel. It’s called involuntary manslaughter. And it’s still a crime.”
Miss Ariel looks up and sighs yet again.
“Besides, even if I was born and raised in Japan in my old life, this version of me was born in Sariella and raised all around this world. I left my Japanese sense of ethics behind when my hometown was destroyed. And I was never all that attached to my old life anyway. So why would I feel any obligation toward someone whose face I don’t even remember?”
Miss Ariel…hasn’t stopped sighing since I started talking.
“On top of all that, we don’t know if he would have been decent even if he wasn’t out of control at the time. He even had that repulsive Kin Eater title and all.”
“Huh?!”
When I saw that title in my Appraisal, I couldn’t believe my own eyes.
There’s only one condition I can think of that would make a person gain that title, right?
No one who would do such a thing could possibly be a decent person.
Even if he did it while he wasn’t in his right mind, it’s still repulsive.
“So that’s what Nia was talking about. What an atrocious thing to do…”
I don’t know what Miss Ariel is muttering about, so I just ignore her.
“And most importantly! That damn bastard nearly killed Merazophis! That’s more than enough cause to kill him!”
Miss Ariel covers her face and groans.
“How could I possibly forgive him after he injured Merazophis so terribly? And Merazophis even apologized to me because of him! I never want to see Merazophis make a face like that again… Although it was kind of appealing in its own way. Um, I mean—! I couldn’t possibly allow the bastard to live when he upset Merazophis so much. I’d like to tear him limb from limb myself, in fact. Oh, I know. I can do to him what he did to Merazophis. I’ll slice off his arms, kick him around, and laugh at him while he rolls across the ground! And after that—”
“Okay, stop, stop, stop. I get it already,” Ariel interrupts, looking exhausted. Then she mutters to herself, “Maybe we didn’t raise you right…”
I’m sorry, what was that? Did you mean to say that out loud?
As I open my mouth to press her about it, Ael and the other girls come into the tent.
“Welcome back. How’d it go?”
Ael just shakes her head silently.
“I see. No good, huh?”
She didn’t just get that from the gesture: Ariel is linked to the puppet taratects with Kin Control, so she can understand them pretty well.
They must have relayed the situation to her that way.
“So apparently the glacier where you guys fought totally broke apart, then actually slid down the side of the mountain like an avalanche. Since Sasajima must have been caught up in all that, it’d be pretty difficult to find him.”
I see.
Well, that’s a bit of a shame.
“I guess he might be dead, huh?”
“No, he’s alive.” I shake my head. “My level hasn’t gone up.”
“Ah.”
I’m still at level 1.
I haven’t actually raised my level once since I was born.
The reason for this was an uncharacteristically lengthy explanation from White: “You shouldn’t level up until you max out your enhancement skills.”
When skills that enhance your stats evolve, they exponentially increase how much those stats go up with each level up.
White said that one of those skills, Skanda, was really useful.
So I’ve been holding off on leveling up until my skills reach an advanced level, too.
You can still raise your stats and skills without leveling up, after all.
And my level still hasn’t gone up, even now.
If we’d actually beaten such a powerful enemy, surely my level would have gone up quite a bit.
So he’s definitely still alive, of that I have no doubt.
“Heh. And if he’s alive, then we’ll have to have a rematch someday.”
He and I will meet again.
I just know it.
“Yikes. Now, that’s a nasty smile.”
Miss Ariel mutters something under her breath.
Ael looks away indifferently, Sael is trembling in the corner, Riel tilts her head uncertainly, and Fiel has a vacant look of I don’t know what’s going on, but wow.
Then my eyes wander over to White.
“…She saved me again.”
“Oh yeah. She can make thread again, huh? Maybe it’s like when people get superhuman strength in times of crisis?”
Miss Ariel misses the point of my comment ever so slightly.
It certainly was a miracle she was able to produce thread in that situation, so I do think it’s amazing.
But to me, the most important point is that White saved me.
Again.
When I’m in trouble, White always comes to the rescue.
Two years ago, when White lost all her power, I have to admit that I was thrilled.
I selfishly thought I could finally repay my debt to her by protecting her in her weakened state. Worse, I was just gleeful to see her not all-powerful for once.
From my perspective, White was way too strong.
She could do anything, protect anyone.
So she was always saving me, and I could never pay her back.
At the same time, it felt unfair that she was so strong.
So when she got weaker, I was secretly happy.
Awful, isn’t it?
But this incident made one thing clear: White is still strong.
Even in her weakened state, she was still able to rescue me.
It’s not a matter of her physical prowess.
White is strong in a different way.
And I’m still weak, in body and mind.
“I want to get stronger…”
“I think you’re plenty strong already, Sophia.”
“Not at all.”
I can’t let Miss Ariel comfort me.
I’m still so much weaker than her and the others.
“I have to get so much stronger!”
It won’t be easy to improve on my inner strength.
My awful nature has stuck with me since my former life.
I haven’t changed much.
Of course, I haven’t given up on myself yet. I have to improve, little by little.
But it’s going to take time.
In the meanwhile, I can strengthen my body.
At the very least, I have to be able to defeat that awful oni.
“That’s
it! I’m going to train even harder starting tomorrow. Just you watch! That bastard won’t beat me next time!”
“Hoo, boy. Just take it easy, all right?”
I clench my fists tightly.
Riel and Fiel imitate the gesture, while Ael discreetly edges away.
Sael?
She’s still just trembling in the corner.
“Hang in there, Merazophis, buddy,” Miss Ariel mumbles.
She looks concerned, but it’ll be fine!
Merazophis has already done more than enough!
It’s my turn to get stronger, and I swear I will.
So that next time, I can be the one to rescue White.
And so that when that oni and I meet again, I won’t lose.
Broken shards of ice litter the frozen landscape.
As if to mirror the destructive impulses of the person who broke them.
The red blood scattered across the ground evokes the image of frozen fire.
A fire that never goes out.
There’s not a sound to be heard, as if everything has frozen over.
But even in that frozen field, the oni could not put out the flame raging inside him.
The more his body froze, the hotter the flame burned.
Hotter and hotter.
Searing away his humanity, leaving nothing but flames of pure rage.
All he saw were things to be destroyed.
All he heard was infuriating noise.
All he smelled was the scent of prey.
All he tasted was blood, drawn from his own lips by gnashing teeth.
And all he felt was deep, unending wrath.
“GRAAAAAAAH!”
There was no spark of sanity left in the oni’s eyes as he roared.
AFTERWORD
Hello, I’m Okina Baba.
As of today, I’ve just about run out of clever ideas to start off my afterwords. What a pickle.
But don’t worry: I haven’t run out of ideas for my stories!
In fact, I’ve been writing so much that I’ve no idea how to fit it all in one book.
What a pickle.
Hmm? I’m in quite a few pickles?
Well, I can’t let that get to me. Nope, nope.
But the flow of the story has changed considerably from the web version, and now I have to collect it all into volumes, so things do actually seem kind of difficult right now.
In the process, Mr. Gotou, who was just a named background character in the web version, has inexplicably stolen quite a bit of the spotlight.
Seriously, he wasn’t supposed to be important at all, but here he is turning into a proper character.
And he might just have more appearances in the future, so he’s really come a long way.
Almost as much as Tiva, who didn’t appear whatsoever back in the web version.
But I think the character who’s come the furthest is still Fei, who won a regular spot in the S story.
Anyway, in a volume where so many characters are getting different treatment from their roles in the web version, it’s not just the humans who have changed.
For some reason, Miss Ice Dragon wound up being a fully fleshed-out character.
How did that happen? She didn’t even have a single line in the web version.
Strange things happen every day, I suppose.
Come to think of it, there have been tons of dragons and wyrms in every single volume of this series.
I guess you could say they’re the ones who have benefited the most.
Let’s aim for dragons in every volume!
Finally, I’d like to say some thanks.
To Tsukasa Kiryu, who draws everything fantastically, be it human, monster, or mech, thank you so much.
And thank you to Kakashi for drawing such heated battles in the manga adaptation.
Volume 4 of the manga features some literally white-hot battles in the fiery Middle Stratum, so be sure to check it out.
To my current editor, W, and everyone else who helped make this book a reality.
And to everyone who picked up this book.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.
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