Last time too, I rejected him several times but eventually reached an agreement. The result was fairly decent. The color was black so the blood stains wouldn’t show, and the appearance had its flashiness reduced somewhat.
‘If you don’t want to see me die, hand it over.’
[You’re not threatening me with your life. And the black one… here it is.]
His voice was tinged with tears and regret. However, tears from someone other than Ruvlian had no effect on me.
Grasping the sword I was seeing for the first time in a while, I rushed toward the monster I had left alone while talking with God. The monster kept rushing at me saying something, but I couldn’t hear it.
“That sword is the one that pierced our Demon King…!”
Seeing my sword, the monster swung its sword with even more force. Clang— the sound of swords clashing rang out. At the same time, I felt my abilities from my Hero days returning. Divine Power and mana filled up abundantly in an instant.
‘Why are you releasing my abilities?’
It felt disgusting, as if they wanted me to eliminate the cause that disrupted the world’s balance.
[The monster Sihyeon is facing is a high-rank one. Plus, the power of whatever caused the rift is insanely strong, so releasing them is more beneficial for the world.]
Rift? I wondered if that’s how they also expressed the balance being disrupted, but that didn’t really matter. Because I had no intention of dealing with it.
‘I’m telling you in advance, I won’t catch the culprit who caused the rift.’
[What?]
‘And this much is easy.’
After changing the properties of tree branches to be like rubber with magic, I gestured. Following my gesture, the tree branches extended at high speed and bound the monster’s feet. Taking advantage of that gap, I moved behind the monster and stabbed what seemed to be the monster’s core with my sword imbued with Divine Power.
With a squelching sound, black blood splattered. My white school uniform, my face—there wasn’t a place that didn’t get hit. I rubbed my cheek with the back of my hand. However, far from being wiped away, the black blood seemed to have smeared across my cheek.
Since touching it more would only smear it further, I racked my brain for how to deal with this now. It was fortunate there were no passersby. This was absolutely a situation that couldn’t look normal.
[As expected of Sihyeon! Good work!]
‘Then I’m leaving. You clean this up yourself.’
When I said that while nudging the dead monster with my foot, God stammered as if flustered.
[Why, why?]
‘What do you mean?’
[A-are you really just going to leave?]
‘Yeah. I have no intention of catching the culprit.’
Though I did intend to spirit them away. I fiddled with the phone in my pocket. I couldn’t have him coming out to look for me when I’m not there.
Last time, just in case, I knew there was no way to find my location since I had removed the spell on the fountain pen, but I was anxious. My palms were sweaty. I moved my hands behind me, pretending to be unbothered. I had no intention of killing Ruvlian with my own hands or watching him die.
[Why, why? Only Sihyeon, who caught the Demon King, can stand against the culprit who caused the rift…!]
Interpreting those words meant that unless I caught Ruvlian, there would be no chance of Ruvlian dying. I felt fortunate that I had been a Hero.
Even if Ruvlian lost his reason and was swallowed by desire, I wouldn’t be able to kill him… so at least Ruvlian wouldn’t die.
‘I said I don’t want to.’
[…Are you serious? Sihyeon, many people could suffer. I’d like to resolve it myself too, but I told you when you caught the Demon King.]
‘That God cannot directly influence the human realm?’
[Yes. That. Actually, there are some people with abilities superior to others who can awaken, but they’re all weaker than Sihyeon and have zero experience…]
God trailed off. I read the underlying meaning that no matter how many solutions I considered, the only way was for me to resolve it.
Strictly speaking, I held the upper hand. Unless God intended to abandon the world, it was a situation that would be difficult to resolve unless I stepped forward.
‘If I catch them?’
[What?]
‘If I catch the rift culprit, what will you do?’
If they would just send him back, I was willing to bring Ruvlian. Since my feelings when Ruvlian returned weren’t a consideration, sending him back was far better than him remaining in this world and facing dangerous bloody battles.
[Hmm. It’s a bit ambiguous.]
‘Why?’
[Seeing that they haven’t directly committed anything, they don’t seem to be swallowed by desire, but besides the monster Sihyeon killed, a large number of other monsters crossed over. It seems like they deliberately used the rift to bring them. They’re all full of thoughts about killing the Hero…]
‘Me?’
Something was strange. There was no way Ruvlian would deliberately bring monsters who harbored hatred toward me. In the first place, didn’t he say he crossed to this world a week ago and went back and forth between past and present? The probability of those words being lies was low. So Ruvlian didn’t have the time itself to bring monsters.
Did someone other than Ruvlian cross over? But then why didn’t the phenomena that occur before the world’s balance collapses happen? My head was filled entirely with questions. The questions were endless.
[Yes. You, Sihyeon. Plus, this seems to be a forcibly opened rift so… Ah. I never explained what a rift is. A rift is— huk. This can’t be!]
God, who had been trying to explain what a rift was, was shocked. Though it was a single scream, I frowned because it echoed in my head. When I pressed my temple with my hand and asked why they were screaming, God said while sobbing.
[First, could you kill the other monsters and then we can talk more? I’m somehow making people feel fear when they get near the monsters so there are no people around them, but it’s better to eliminate them as quickly as possible. Sihyeon, please help me! I’ll grant you one wish you want later! Please!]
‘Anything?’
[Yes. Anything I can do.]
Did they know what I would demand when they said that? For a god, they were too naive and foolish, but I decided to take advantage of that point.
When I nodded, God guided me to where the monsters were like a navigation system. There was an animal-type monster that looked cuter than the one I had just killed. For reference, it resembled a rhinoceros.
Grrrr.
Earlier it was a half-human half-monster so it could speak, but animal types can only make beast cries. I wrapped Divine Power around my pupils while watching the monster violently spew toxic gas disguised as breath.
The monster’s core is… over there. When I stomped my foot once, a magic circle spread beneath the monster. Thick chains emerged from the magic circle and bound the monster by wrapping around it. Before the monster even had time to react to the magic circle, it happened in an instant.
It was easier because animal types were much more stupid than half-human half-monster types. After creating a spear with Divine Power, I threw it toward where the monster’s core was. Black blood spurted from where the spear pierced through and the monster’s movements ceased.
Blood got on my clothes again. I roughly wiped the blood that splattered on my face and dealt with the monsters one by one as God led me.
Whether Ruvlian was following while hiding, he occasionally sent me signals. I was on edge more than once or twice, worried God would notice. He doesn’t listen even when I tell him to stay quietly at school.
‘This is the end now.’
[Yes. This is the end now! I set it up so I could track them right away when I discovered monsters gathered in a cluster. There’s a small penalty since it’s direct intervention though…]
‘Penalty?’
[Yes. I didn’t explain properly before because there was no time, but direct intervention isn’t completely impossible. If it were impossible, how could I have made them feel fear? It’s possible, but to intervene without penalty, permission must come from the higher-ups.]
God continued speaking as if that wasn’t the end.
[But that permission is really harsh. If the world’s destruction isn’t imminent or if there’s talent that can prevent it, they won’t give permission. If I had killed the Demon King without Sihyeon’s help and without permission from the higher-ups, I probably would have been extinguished forever.]
Their disgust was evident. It seemed they had requested permission from the higher-ups many times only to be rejected.
‘I’m leaving now.’
I had heard everything I needed to hear. When I tried to leave, God reacted quickly.
[What?! Wh-what about the rift culprit?]
‘I won’t catch them.’
I had to quickly take care of Ruvlian and send him to his original world. The probability that Ruvlian was the one who did this was extremely low, but that didn’t mean Ruvlian was an existence who should be here.
[But still— huk!]
In the middle of God trying to continue speaking, enormous mana was detected from the place where Ruvlian had sent a signal. At that moment, along with a tearing explosion sound, a building’s rooftop exploded.
“Ruvlian!”
I reflexively opened my mouth and called for Ruvlian. My heart started pounding like crazy. Even though I knew he wouldn’t be caught by such a crude explosion.
“You called me?”
As I was calmly settling my startled heart, warm breath touched my ear. But this wasn’t Ruvlian’s voice. It was similar, but a more rich and mature voice.
Startled, I turned around to see a man. The man’s hair and eyes contained the colors I loved intact.
…What is this? Without even thinking to step back, I stared stupidly at someone who looked exactly like Ruvlian.
“Hmm. Honey. Your spaced-out face is a bit funny, but snap out of it, yeah?”
“…Who are you?”
Even at my question, the man’s face was clearly delighted. Unlike Ruvlian’s bright smile, it was a bewitching and somehow provocative laugh.
The man looked at the sword in my hand, then swiftly snatched it away, threw it, and trampled on it. It wasn’t something that would break this easily, but the sword shattered into pieces at the man’s light kick. It was to the degree that I wondered if it was actually made of glass.
The man approached me elegantly and leisurely, as if he hadn’t just performed such a violent action. Unlike the movements that created the illusion of a slow melody that might be heard in a ballroom, rough hands grabbed and lifted my chin.
“Urk.”
A short groan flowed from my mouth.
The man stared at my eyes like that. When I met his dark eyes of unknown meaning, my stomach suddenly churned and my head hurt as if it were flipping over, making me naturally frown. The man, who roughly released my chin, tilted his head at an angle and pulled up his scarlet lips.
“Ahh. If you were pretending not to know, I was going to have some fun until you remembered… but that’s not it. How unfortunate.”
And then he spouted incomprehensible words.
One thing was certain. This bastard was the rift culprit and at the same time the bastard who blew up that building.
