Jiro Tanaka, 28 years old, has a girlfriend.
His girlfriend is Suella Handelberg.
Memoria Tris.
Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Full-time employee).
Magic Aptitude: 8 (General Class).
Position: Warrior.
“I never expected someone like you to show up,” the Guild Master said.
Since I woke up early, I was sipping something that seemed like tea in this world, trying to wake up my mind, and waiting. For an hour, as if on cue, the man appeared.
At first, I thought it was someone else, but as he passed by my side, he said, “Sorry to keep you waiting,” and introduced himself by his position.
I was sitting at a table in the corner of the dining hall.
The person I was meeting was sitting in the seat next to me, positioned so that we could see each other’s faces if we shifted our gaze slightly.
As if to make me think I had imagined his greeting, he casually pulled out a knife from his waist and began to polish it.
In Japan, this would be considered incredibly rude, if not a cause for arrest. But here, it’s a common sight to see people maintaining their weapons, whether before or after a meal, as if to kill time.
“Guild Master.”
“This is something that would go badly if I didn’t come this time. It’s a necessary measure.”
Hearing his title, I was a little taken aback.
I never thought such a big shot would show up in person.
After our eyes met for a brief moment, I lit a cigarette to replace the emptied teacup, while the still vigorous, early-elderly man continued to polish his knife.
From a distance, it wouldn’t look like we were conversing.
I never thought I’d be having such open illicit conversations, but perhaps, in a way, talking openly like this might draw less suspicion.
Using my enhanced hearing, I listened as the Guild Master of the underworld, using the skills he possessed, spoke in hushed tones without looking at each other.
Furthermore, from my position, it was impossible for someone outside to tell if I was speaking, and I spoke in a voice so low that it was unclear if it could actually be heard.
Even though the Guild Master was visible from the entrance, he managed to carry on a conversation with me, unseen and unheard by anyone else, by cleverly using his knife and gestures.
“It seems best to keep this brief. Frankly, I have no good premonition whatsoever about your arrival.”
“You should trust that intuition. There’s no good news.”
I grimaced, as if the smoke I inhaled tasted bad.
Only those who are seriously lacking in the headstocks would be happy to hear bad news.
“As you’ve heard, the fabricated hero, the forbidden spell they’re trying to create is called ‘Face Ripper,’ a magic that even among us is considered forbidden. Naturally, if the nation’s use of it were to become public, it would be enough to topple the highest ranks.”
“Face Ripper?”
A disturbingly relevant topic had surfaced.
“Indeed. First of all, the art of impersonating others falls into the category of advanced magic. Mannerisms, speech patterns, habits, memories – even with training, humans exhibit unique movements specific to them. Mimicking all of that and eliminating any sense of incongruity is no ordinary feat. However, the ability to become another person is a spell worth a great deal of money from any nation.”
Humans create what is necessary.
And then they use what they create for various purposes.
In essence, it’s like a nuclear weapon – extremely dangerous in its power, but in demand.
This applies to energy sources as well as weapons.
I listened, silently smoking my cigarette.
“‘Face Ripper,’ a spell born in the ancient era. It involves using another person’s magic power and soul to transform into that person. Not just their appearance, but their mannerisms, habits, preferences, and even their memories. The uses are, needless to say, varied.”
“Then, what happens to the person who was impersonated?”
It would be a waste of time to think about the uses.
The important thing is that if someone close to you notices, they become an enemy.
That’s the only point.
Even so, it’s a chilling thought.
And, judging from this old man’s story, it’s even possible that several students have died.
And without their classmates even noticing.
“No, they are alive. This spell has a drawback. To maintain the spell, a portion of the target’s soul must be extracted periodically. Therefore, the targeted hero must be alive.”
“I see.”
That’s a relief, I suppose.
However, that raises a question.
Why go to the trouble of using such a dangerous spell within your own ranks?
Considering the content of the conversation, it should be assumed that this spell was used the moment the hero was summoned.
This would mean it was prepared in advance.
Why?
“However, it doesn’t mean we can all relax. Among the information brought back by the undead was data about a large-scale magic tool, which still puzzles me.”
“？ Isn’t that a magic tool to use that spell?”
“‘Face Ripper’ itself doesn’t require such a large-scale magic tool. A magic tool about the size of an accessory is sufficient. That’s why it’s dangerous, you could say, but never mind that for now. The main point is here.”
My intuition tells me that the Guild Master’s unease, though stemming from different roots, is heading in the same direction.
After all, if he only came to convey this information, he could have simply sent a messenger this morning.
“We don’t have the full picture ourselves, but we’ve gathered information over time. Among it, there’s one piece of information that stands out.”
Information that the underworld would be concerned about must be quite significant.
Despite our neutral expressions, the tension grew.
“Two months ago, a large quantity of Ore Trees were transported into the temple. Additionally, an unusually large number of mages were assembled. I suspect this is related to the current matter.”
“Ore Trees and mages…”
Hearing those two words, it becomes increasingly possible that the hero summoning was not a spontaneous action but a planned one.
Ore Trees are a rare commodity.
Preparing a significant number of them would require time.
There must be something I’m overlooking.
There’s something I’m stuck on.
With that thought, I delved deeply into the origins of this war, considering if I had missed anything.
And as the cigarette I hadn’t been smoking turned to ash…
“No way.”
With a slight shift in perspective, a single path opened up.
Dimly, the outline of the plan this country was concocting became clear to me.
“You have some leads, don’t you?”
“…Rather than leads, it’s an unexpected prediction.”
“Originally, I came to gather information from you that we don’t have. It doesn’t need to be concrete. If you have any information, give it to me.”
The Guild Master’s tone grew heavier.
However, I was too preoccupied with a disturbing equation forming in my mind to notice.
Is this a coincidence?
No, if there is a god, it could be rephrased as fate.
“Perhaps we’ve misunderstood the premise from the beginning.”
“What?”
I began to verify the answer to that unsettling equation.
It might have started with a premise error that could be called a careless mistake.
“We heard that this war started because of the Empire. Perhaps it’s the other way around.”
“That’s not possible. The flow was that the Empire completed a golem using the Demon Lord’s remains, and so this country decided to go to war. I had my organization’s people investigate and confirm that.”
“My apologies, I misspoke. The Empire intended to go to war as well. But what if the order was reversed?”
“…What do you mean?”
The current flow of the war is: the Empire completed a golem using the Demon Lord’s remains, and because of its danger, the two nations formed an alliance and summoned a hero to intercept it.
But what if it’s the other way around?
What if it was already decided between the two nations to summon a hero, and there was a plan to attack the Empire?
“Come to think of it, there are many unnatural aspects to this hero summoning. Why, for the sake of a single golem, would they go to the trouble of raising and summoning so many heroes? Up to five people, perhaps, but I can’t see the benefit of summoning ten or more. And despite preparing such a large-scale ritual in haste, I haven’t heard of any significant damage.”
Even with thorough preparation, mistakes happen in work.
When you rush a job, mistakes are almost guaranteed.
Yet, despite the hasty hero summoning, there’s been no significant damage.
And that’s despite forcibly pulling a large number of people from another world.
Moreover, the difficulty of raising people in an environment where you’re being attacked is evident even from Japan’s history during World War II, when they were under attack.
Would a country really agree to this situation just because their military strength would increase?
Would they tolerate the disadvantages of housing so many people with different cultures and common sense?
I was swayed by the information.
I should have realized it from the initial information.
The concept of “hero equals justice” that was in my mind clouded that thought.
“That’s true.”
“Furthermore, it’s strange that the country would arbitrarily remove the seal on the Demon Lord without any precautions. There must have been some countermeasures. Otherwise, it’s odd that there hasn’t been a single rumor about the Demon Lord since the seal was broken. Nor any rumor of its defeat. While it could be wandering somewhere, the absence of any damage makes it possible that it was destroyed within the seal. But that’s a naive thought.”
The soul of the first Demon Lord was something I considered unrelated to myself.
It felt like realizing that a seemingly unimportant document was actually crucial.
The Demon Lord’s soul had a role to play.
“The Demon Lord’s soul itself was part of the plan.”
“I can’t see it. What did you see?”
The information I had access to because I possessed an Ore Tree allowed me to notice this.
And being able to converse with the hero and the bishop who was supposed to protect him led me to this realization.
The Guild Master, who couldn’t grasp the conversation, looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Once you cross a taboo, it becomes easy to do it a second time. And if it’s a taboo of ‘Dwarves’ rather than humans, it’s even less relevant to humans.”
“…”
An Ore Tree is a metal that grows like a tree, using the user’s magic power as nourishment.
Originally, it’s supposed to root itself in the ground, draw magic power from it, and transform into high-quality metal.
However, conversely, when treated as a weapon, it can change its shape.
Most of these weapons become dull, but occasionally, with a probability of one in several thousand, they become legendary swords.
This is what I was told when I bought my Ore Tree.
But there’s a continuation to this story.
It’s not like there are no hidden techniques for growing Ore Trees.
A few days after buying my Ore Tree, I heard about it from a weapon shop called Hands.
This is a taboo within a taboo for weapon smiths, not just among dwarves, but even among giants who create grotesque things.
“This country plans to create a divine sword, no, a divine weapon, using the hero.”
The Guild Master fell silent when the word “dwarf” was mentioned, but I continued to state the answer to the unsettling equation.
For Ore Trees, high-quality magic power and souls are the best nourishment, irreplaceable.
They utilized this property.
Weaponizing Ore Trees by sacrificing the hero’s life imbues the weapon itself with the hero’s abilities.
However, even with the nature of Ore Trees, while they can absorb magic power, they cannot absorb souls.
But the sealed soul of the Demon Lord makes that possible.
The Demon Lord and the hero are equals.
The Demon Lord’s soul, during the processing stage of weaponizing the hero, acts as a whetstone for the unique difficulty of processing the hero’s soul.
The Ore Tree created in this way becomes a weapon that grants the user the hero’s skills, the hero’s latent magic power, and their stats – truly a weapon as if bestowed by a god upon humans.
“Is there any basis for this?”
“I possess an Ore Tree myself. And I heard this story from someone who knows it’s possible. The credibility is high. More importantly, your information confirms it.”
“Speak normally. You’re the one who should be speaking first… However, I see. It makes sense.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
I had returned to speaking politely after the disturbing premonition had made my tone normal, but I stopped with a wry smile.
And the Guild Master’s words after hearing my answer were concise.
The disjointed pieces of information finally connected for me.
Why didn’t the bishop defend young Suzuki, the hero, who was constantly being blamed?
There was no need to defend him in the first place.
If the hero said they wanted to quit, they could buy time by using ‘Face Ripper’ to replace them, and in that gap, they would create a more convenient divine weapon than the hero.
They were training the hero to create a weapon of slightly higher quality. They chose a reliable weapon over a child whose usefulness in war was uncertain.
“So, your appearance must have been quite unexpected for them.”
“Probably. Looking back through history, there’s no record of anyone coming to pick up a hero.”
Everything was going smoothly for the alliance.
Then I, an unexpected presence, got involved.
It must be a frantic situation for them.
“By any chance, has anything like this happened in the past?”
“…It’s more accurate to say that I realized this from this conversation, but in my memory, there are several fairy tales that end with the hero leaving behind a legendary weapon.”
That’s a difficult thing to say.
I can’t say for certain, but it’s enough to raise the probability of this prediction being correct in my mind.
It seems we’re truly running out of time.
“Are you going?”
“Yes. I have an acquaintance there. Besides, the idea of a child I don’t know becoming a weapon leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
“You can’t be sure yet, can you?”
“Are you telling me to become a tragic hero who only realizes it’s too late after gathering information?”
I’d rather not.
First intention, full commitment. Since I’ve come this far, let’s see it through to the end.
“I see. I’ll provide some backup then.”
“That would be appreciated.”
I can’t go in unarmed this time.
My plans for today decided, I extinguished my cigarette, left the Guild Master there, and returned to my room.
My bad premonitions are often accurate, but I sincerely wish this one would prove to be wrong.
Jiro Tanaka, 28 years old, has a girlfriend.
His girlfriend is Suella Handelberg.
Memoria Tris.
Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Full-time employee).
Magic Aptitude: 8 (General Class).
Position: Warrior.
Today’s Word:
Turn the tide before it’s too late.
That’s all for this installment.
I realized that the protagonist is easier to move this time.
The story will shift to the protagonist’s perspective from here, but I plan to insert a chapter or two from Amelia’s point of view.
Thank you for your continued support of this work.
