by Fuse
Where was the difference? Were the faster kids bullies? No. They picked on the slower ones, but there wasn’t any air of superiority involved. Even the stragglers flashed embarrassed smiles back at them. Even with those stern headmaster lectures, they still seemed to be having fun with their lives. But what would happen over on Lubelius? All the children running to class wore the same expression. That calm, serene smile of satisfaction, just like the grown-ups. That total disinterest in competition or personal expression; all the same face.
A fully managed society can provide happiness, but it cannot provide freedom. They were all equals, carrying out their appointed tasks, the haves providing ample support to the have-nots. This land’s people fully completed it.
That was Hinata’s goal—creating an equal, conflict-free society. A world where no children would ever be abandoned by their parents, where everyone was allowed to live in happiness. It was an ideal, Hinata knew, not a realistic concept. But whenever she felt ready to give up on it entirely, the sheer idea of Lubelius presented itself to her. Competition bred conflict, and competition did not exist in this fully managed society. It was, in other words, Hinata’s ideals put to action.
The Holy Empire of Lubelius’s political system was fairly close to communism. With their “god” the head of state, they had established total equality among all members of society. This god was the Papacy, the organization that represented the Holy Emperor.
Communism’s greatest weakness was the unavoidable presence of a ruling class above everyone else. The government was forced to sing the praises of equality while actually maintaining a hierarchy in practice. If corruption began to rot the upper class, it was difficult for the masses to rectify that. It would lead to unequal distribution of goods, expanding the disparity.
Divinity was Lubelius’s solution to this problem. The Papacy was, by definition, a superior existence from the very beginning, so inequality among the people would theoretically not become an issue. The rulers, of course, handled matters like diplomacy with other states, but under their god, all were equal. It was a con, yes, but a con that had served as reality for the Holy Empire over a millennium of history. It had served as an ideal like none could before it, and there was a good reason for it…
…Luminus, the god ruling over all of this, was actually the demon lord Luminus Valentine.
Luminus Valentine, the absolute monarch, the flesh-and-blood demon lord, the Queen of Nightmares and ruler of night—and the only adversary Hinata had ever lost to.
In front of an absolute ruler, all people held equal value. To Luminus, this concept of a fully managed society was akin to a farmer taking care of his livestock. But this was exactly why the whole utopia worked at all.
As vampires, Luminus and her kin didn’t tear people apart to live off their flesh. All they needed was a little blood to ingest, using the life force inside it to sustain themselves. The higher the vampire’s rank, the less of this blood they needed as they lived their eternal lives.
It was said the blood of those they preyed upon tasted sweeter the happier the donor was. Compared with other nations, people had it pretty good here. If a donor gave up a lot of life force at once, that would be a problem, but Luminus placed strict prohibitions on that. Thus, order was fully kept in this nation, since the lower-level vampires had no way to defy the will of Luminus far above them. Everything was equal, far more so than the Western Nations could ever manage.
It was what made Hinata believe in the equality ever present in Luminism, using justice as her credo when she joined the Church. Now she was one of its most fervent missionaries, believing its core tenets to be absolute. As a paladin, tasked with providing equal salvation to the people, she wanted justice to prevail with anything she did.
Shizue Izawa, her teacher, was far too lax by comparison, and the structure devised by Yuuki Kagurazaka, the boy from the same land as her, was too fantastic a dream to be treated at all seriously. It simply handled issues as they arose, failing to offer any real preventative measures. Seeking to improve oneself was a laudable endeavor, and she had kind words for the Free Guild’s cooperative approach. But given its reliance on fees in exchange for work, equality seemed like a lost cause with them.
Thus, Hinata left the tutelage of her teacher. Shizue told Hinata to count on her if she ever lost her way, but that wasn’t going to happen. That would be depending on her too much. If she kept depending on Shizue, Hinata vaguely thought, it’d ruin her.
………
……
…
The only thing she could rely upon in this world was her own power. Thus, Hinata sought the kind of power that nobody else could ever hope for.
She had a natural fear of carrying anything precious with her, lest she lose anything else. She didn’t deal with other people; power was her only desire. She had become a paladin a mere year after joining the Western Holy Church, then its corps captain less than two years later, building up what was lauded as the most powerful Crusader group in history with her own two hands.
But the higher she rose through Church ranks, the more she saw what it really was. And then she found what lay at the essence of Luminism. The Holy Emperor Lubelius was actually a vampire by the name of Louis. Even more shocking to her, this Louis was the elder twin brother of none other than the demon lord Roy Valentine. Conspiring with a demon lord to retain your power—nothing could have been more ridiculous, more contemptuous of its people.
It enraged Hinata when she learned of it—enough so that she went into the Inner Cloister alone to purge both Roy and Louis. The resulting battle left her with mortal wounds, forcing her to lie there and wait for her death. There she was, with her little sense of justice, her weak power, unable to save anyone. The “benevolence” of choosing whom to save, because you can’t save them all. It seemed so comical, so pointless to her.
Heh…heh-heh-heh… So much for me. The weak are always doomed to die weak. But at least I rid the world of one obstacle…
But even so…Hinata believed she didn’t make the wrong decision. She reduced the amount of evil in this world; she had nothing to be ashamed of. That, by itself, left her satisfied.
As her sight grew dim, Hinata could hear the sound of light footsteps. She thought it was her mind playing tricks on her, but then a clear, refreshing voice serenaded her.
“I could hear this racket in my own bedchamber. What are all of you doing?”
Before her was a radiant young girl with silver hair. Her heterochromatic blue-and-red eyes shone eerily, coldly looking down on Hinata and the others on the floor. The aura floating around her was on another level, making Louis and Roy—whom she had just fought to the death and beyond—look like children.
…?!
Hinata, face-to-face with death, was overwhelmed by her presence, this beauty beyond all human comprehension. This clear, transparent presence, so far away from her.
She had the dignity of the upper class, the air of someone used to ruling over others. Good and evil seemed like trifles when presented to her. And as if to prove that:
“And you two think you can die and leave me behind?”
The waves of force emanating from her revived Roy the demon lord and Louis the emperor, despite the lethal blows Hinata knew she’d landed. It was a supernatural power, one Hinata had no knowledge of.
It’s over… Everything I have done…
Despair filled her heart, as the flame of life began to flicker away—
“And you as well, human. You will not be allowed to die with that pride in your mind. What is justice? Justice is not about crushing evil. Who do you think you are, deciding whether I engage in evil or not? There is no such thing as a justice that can satisfy all forms of free will. It is arrogant to think you can do otherwise. Am I wrong?”
The words beat against Hinata’s eardrums as a warm light descended upon her, saving her life. There, as her wounds seemed to magically disappear, the girl spoke.
“You have one we
ek. If you are powerful enough to defeat my closest confidants, you can certainly overcome the Seven Days Trial. Only then will I seriously deign to engage you.”
She took the trial. She completed it, Usurping the powers of those she studied under to obtain superhuman strength.
And then, wagering her life for the attempt…she lost to that young girl, Luminus Valentine, and capitulated to her.
………
……
…
But even with that defeat, the sword refused to break. Instead, it grew more flexible, stronger—and with it, Hinata was reborn, as a divine sword, the right hand of divinity, the slayer of all travails.
To Hinata, the presence of Luminus was all that mattered. Luminus was the key to an equal, fair society, and losing her would mean the destruction of all order. Maintaining a utopia required constant effort and resolve, and along those lines, Hinata was a double-edged sword. If Luminus ever became the enemy of humanity, Hinata would have to slay her with her sword. It seemed impossible, but she was resolved to do it. That was why now, even today, she continued to put herself up to the trial.
Soon, Hinata had reached her destination. There, waiting for her, was Louis, the Holy Emperor who was now a kindred soul. He had unbelievable news for her.
“My brother died last night.”
Last night.
Hinata had chased off an unknown intruder in the cathedral that night. She was meant to meet with someone else, but after Luminus’s missive made her cancel all that, she changed her plans. That, fortunately, allowed her to end the night without dirtying the holy lands with anyone else’s blood. Or so she thought.
“You’re joking, right? Roy is a demon lord. He was at the Walpurgis Council.”
“I speak the truth, Hinata. Roy returned earlier than Lady Luminus, and the intruder you let escape ran into him first.”
“No. That intruder fled the moment he saw me. He was so fast that I wasn’t able to give chase, but…”
“Indeed, perhaps you thought it was just a diversion. Lady Luminus charged you with defending the holy lands, not with killing intruders. That is the job of our Imperial Guard, as worthless as they have just proven themselves.”
“The guard that I’m chief knight of. But Roy, being killed by someone on that level? Who’s the worthless one now?”
She laughed boldly, right in front of the Holy Emperor—Roy’s elder brother.
Luminus Valentine was the true demon lord, the twin brothers Louis and Roy her close confidants. Louis ruled the external world as its Holy Emperor, while Roy ruled behind the scenes as demon lord. Luminus, meanwhile, governed over everything as a god.
This was the world they had pursued. It was also why Luminus preferred a policy of insular government, locking herself inside the Inner Cloister and never revealing herself in public.
Roy, serving as her demon lord representative, had been more than powerful enough to sit alongside the other nine at the table. Simply being born a vampire made him the equivalent of a B, ranking-wise. His muscular strength, durability, reaction time, and everything else were several times better than what a human could muster, and his race gave him a multitude of excellent skills, including Steel Strength, Self-Regeneration, Shadow Motion, Paralysis, Charm, Coercion, Transform, and more. There were few vampires in the world, but even among the so-called high-level magic-born, they were a head above the crowd in fighting ability.
Louis and Roy were elder noblemen, both in the service of their leader Luminus since ancient times. Their powers were monumental, it went without saying, and Hinata was fully aware of that. Having fought them both once, she had no doubts. This only meant one thing: Whoever last night’s intruder was, they must’ve been unbelievably powerful.
“…But it doesn’t really matter, does it?” Hinata whispered. “As long as Lady Luminus is safe. Not that anyone need worry about her…”
Not even Hinata could fully gauge the depths of the demon lord Luminus. She was beyond all imagination, a supreme being that served as both an ideal goal to reach and a potential opponent sometime in the future. It would be impertinent for Hinata to even bother worrying about her.
Roy, meanwhile, was worth about as much as a pebble on the street. Not to offend Louis, but it didn’t really matter whether he was killed or not. He was weak, he died, and that was that. As far as Hinata was concerned, that was his own fault.
“It does matter. We let Roy exercise his violent streak as a threat to make people adhere to Luminism. With him dead, there is a chance people’s faith in our creed may dwindle. The evil dragon Veldora is alive once more, and yet, the Forest of Jura still remains stable as well.”
“You have a point…”
Hinata could guess why. It was that slime she let slip through her fingers. This, she had no excuse for. It was fully her mistake, and nobody was more aware of that than she was. It was her choice to let last night’s intruder go, but that slime, Rimuru, she wanted eradicated from the world for good. She couldn’t help but praise him.
I can hardly believe he managed to escape that place. I knew you were a careful one, Rimuru, but that was nothing I could have imagined…
“…I can’t speak about the dragon, but I imagine the forest is stable because of that slime, Rimuru, I let escape.”
“Mmmm. I conducted some of my own investigation, and it has been confirmed that the Kingdom of Farmus’s forces have been annihilated. Counting the time back from Veldora’s resurrection, it had to be the work of that Rimuru. Quite an adversary for you, wasn’t he?”
“I suppose the moment I saw him, encased in that Holy Field, was the best chance I had of defeating him.”
“You didn’t give him some discretion, perhaps, after he claimed to be from your realm?”
“Of course not. Lady Luminus’s aims are incompatible with that slime’s. I know where he’s coming from, and leaving him to his own devices would only wreck our plans. That’s why I chose to ignore what he had to say and instead tried to destroy his town…”
“So the angels will be moving soon enough.”
“They will. They’re safe for now, but if they keep developing the town at that pace, they absolutely will.”
“That would be distressing. We aren’t ready for them yet. I’d like to ensure that our victory in the next Temma War is absolute.”
“I know. We need to tear those angels limb from limb, and that’s why we can’t afford to speed up the timetable.”
Louis nodded.
Whenever the cities of the world developed past a certain level, the angels began to attack them. Why, nobody knew, but their actions followed a set recognizable pattern. When it happened, countless numbers of innocents died—and to combat them, Hinata had expanded her forces and devised a way to knock them completely out of the picture. Her proselytizing for Luminism was also a way to help people work together, making their harmonic cooperation a palpable force to work with. That, she believed, was the best way to follow the will of Luminus, her god.
Rimuru’s behavior was getting in the way of that—and now that she knew Rimuru was the cause of Shizue Izawa’s death, she had personal issues with him. There was no reason at all for her to cut him any slack. With him were his monsters—intelligent, rational, and understanding of humans. It pained her a little to involve them in this, but Luminus called them her enemy, and her will was the law.
Victory in the Temma War was of utmost priority, and to earn that, Hinata wouldn’t hesitate to do what must be done. She was cold, pragmatic, and above all a rationalist.
“But perhaps your failure will turn out well in the end.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Western Nations will likely band together to deal with the threat in the Forest of Jura. With Roy gone, what better foe to unite the human race against?”
“…Do you think so? I doubt it’ll go that easily.”
But did he have a point? Maybe, Hinata thought, it was a good thing after all. A stable Forest of Ju
ra was what they wanted, and if they sought to live alongside humanity, that was all for the better. But if Rimuru really did massacre the Farmus force, he was clearly a threat they couldn’t afford to overlook.
Still…
“You know the Eastern merchants who brought me information. We were planning to meet last night as well. If it weren’t for Lady Luminus’s order, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Oh? Rather good timing, then.”
“Almost too good, isn’t it? Those merchants were trying to use me. If you think about it, maybe keeping Rimuru alive and present was the right answer, not to make excuses.”
But the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. They may have survived the Farmus invasion, but the resurrected Storm Dragon was bound to attack Rimuru before long. Plus, Rimuru was calling himself a demon lord, apparently, which invited the rage of the other ten and earned him a ticket to last night’s Walpurgis.
“I would imagine so. Until we are fully ready, I’d prefer to use that land as a bulwark against the East…assuming Rimuru survived the Walpurgis Council.”
“Right. Do you think he’ll make it through?”
“Lady Luminus will return soon. We will know by then.”
“Having to tell her of Roy’s death is a depressing thought.”
“She’ll be in a bad state, I’m sure.”
“She was a lot kinder to him than I ever was…”
“Mmmm. I suppose I’m not very kind myself. My own brother is dead, but I don’t feel sad about it at all.”
Hinata just shrugged at Louis. They stopped talking, waiting for Luminus. Before very long, a herald arrived.
“Stand back! Lady Luminus has returned!”
In a flash, the cathedral became a hive of activity—and soon, Hinata and Louis were going to face a conversation they never expected to have.