Having snuck in to spy on the temple, I was deeply moved. The temple was empty. Everyone but the barest necessary personnel had evacuated somewhere safe.
The Goddess Repinal’s lovely worshippers really were clever. They didn’t fall for a demon corps commander’s suspicious provocation. How admirable, how rational of them.
The thought that my plan had worked kept me happy all day. It was a fairly mild day for winter, and taking Theo out for a walk through the village put me in an even better mood. A cheerful whistle came out of me all on its own. Theo, walking along with a firm grip on my hand, stared up at me.
“Rihen, did something good happen?”
“Mm. Getting to come outside with Theo has me all excited.”
I grinned wide and hoisted Theo up.
“I’m hungry. Let’s go have a nice dinner.”
“Yes, let’s!”
He broke into a bashful smile and wound his arms around my neck.
I’d fed Theo until he was full, bathed with him, and was just about to read him a storybook before bed. Then Theo suddenly made a request.
“Instead of a fairy tale, I want to hear about you, Rihen.”
“You want to hear the rest of the Snow White story?”
“No. Not a fairy tale you made up. A story about you.”
“I already told you my age and my job last time.”
I tried to turn him down indirectly, but Theo wouldn’t bend.
“That’s not enough. I want to know more. That’s what living together means, isn’t it? Getting to know each other...”
He didn’t seem to be grilling me because he suspected my identity. It was closer to pure curiosity rooted in affection. I scratched my head, a little embarrassed.
“I’m nobody special. So there isn’t much to tell.”
“I don’t mind if it’s nothing special. Anything about you is fine, Rihen.”
The child’s innocent eyes shook me. There was no way I could refuse. After some deliberation, I opened my mouth.
“Um... I really like games.”
“Games like chess? Or the sporting kind, like riding or ball games?”
“Yeah. Games that use your head, games that use your body, I like them all. Anyway, I played games any chance I got.”
Ending up in this world was all because of a game, after all.
“And... I used to sleep in a lot, but that’s gone lately.”
Since possessing Shane’s body, I was perfectly fine on three hours of sleep a day. A demon’s body really was sturdy.
“I was in poor health when I was little, so I had to get treatment for a long time. Luckily I’m all better now.”
Theo listened to me with shining eyes. That gaze was so warm that it made me want to keep talking for no good reason.
...No, this won’t do. Children need to sleep early. More importantly, I can’t set the temple on fire until he’s asleep.
“That’s it for today. Time to sleep.”
I gently swept my hand down over Theo’s eyelids to close them. Theo pushed his lips out in a pout, as if disappointed, then reluctantly nodded.
“Good night, Theo.”
“Sleep well, Rihen.”
“...Yeah.”
Rihen. The name of a dead saint.
That name, which could never be mine, snagged on my heart all over again.
Thankfully, Theo fell asleep quickly. I looked down at his sleeping face for a long while, then carefully got up.
This was the last time I’d see twelve-year-old Theo. Once I cleared today’s quest and got the points, I’d be meeting a fifteen-year-old Theo.
Twelve-year-old Theo was trusting and innocent, which made living with him easy. Would he get sharper as he aged? Would he start looking at me like I was suspicious? I had to keep building our trust steadily so that never happened.
I threw on a black robe that looked just like the night sky and kicked off from the roof. As I picked up speed, the wind tore past my ears. I leapt almost as if taking flight and landed on the roof across the way. Storm clouds hid the stars and the moon, and the world was pitch-dark all over. A good night for committing evil.
I hid myself in a tree near the temple and surveyed the situation. With sight and hearing far sharper than a human’s, I roughly gauged how many people were inside. About a hundred knights, and one high priest. The knights were solidly armored in fire-resistant helmets and plate, and the high priest, worthy of the “high” in his title, had strong divine power. He’d hold out to some extent even in flames. No problems.
All right. Let’s get this fire started.
I floated a small flame on my fingertip for practice. Shane’s innate skill, Flame. Even at level 1, the magic was formidable. More than anything, maybe because the color was black, it made me feel like a real villain.
The reaction had been pretty good when I used this fire on the altar right before smashing the statue, too. The problem was that the level was still low, which made fine control difficult. Once the fire spread far, I couldn’t put it out at will. That was why I’d cleared every last cleric out.
Resolving to commit a successful arson, I climbed down from the tree and hid myself among the bushes.
“Fire!”
A tearing shout split the air. The knights on patrol all rushed toward the direction it had come from. The temple entrance. The clatter of armor rang out noisily. But there was no fire there, no smoke, not even a trace of a spark.
The floor was cold, the air still. As though the scream from a moment ago had been a lie.
“Nothing here!”
“And no sign of whoever shouted!”
In the instant confusion spread among the knights, black flames bloomed at the innermost part of the temple, the direction exactly opposite the entrance. Fire neither red nor scarlet, darker than the night itself.
Flames like burning shadow climbed the walls and pillars and spread in a heartbeat. There was no firewood or oil in sight, and still the fire kept swelling. It looked ready to devour everything around it without leaving a scrap.
“Damn it, find him!”
The knight commander’s shout scattered into the smoke.
“The smoke’s too thick! We can’t see ahead!”
“Track the demonic energy. There’ll be a trace!”
But no matter how they strained their senses, the knights couldn’t feel the familiar presence. There was definitely an ominous energy in the air, yet none of the demonic aura they knew.
“This is strange. He’s a demon, and I can’t sense any demonic energy at all. I’ve never encountered a case like this.”
At those words, every face hardened.
Until now, the method for finding demons had been simple. Follow the demonic energy and the enemy was always at the end of it. But this opponent was different. His demonic energy was so faint it couldn’t be detected. An enemy who fell outside all common sense was more than enough to appall the knights.
That was when it happened. Atop a pillar half-collapsed and wrapped in flame, the silhouette of a tall man revealed itself. His face couldn’t be perceived, and a uniform as dark as night covered him from head to toe. Only the red pendant on his left shoulder shone clearly.
The demons’ Thirteenth Corps Commander.
He bowed gracefully at the waist, like an actor greeting his audience. Then he burst into exaggerated laughter for all to see and vanished into the smoke, his black cloak billowing.
“There he is!”
By the time the shout came, it was already too late. All that remained where he’d stood was pitch-black fire, licking doggedly at the temple walls.
Whether by the goddess’s grace or not, mercifully there were no deaths. But there was no denying that the temple had burned to the ground.
Blackened pillars belched smoke, and ash drifted through the air. The temple that had honored Repinal, Goddess of Dawn, was no longer a sacred space. Cloth burned and torn, books reduced to a handful of ash. What remained there was nothing but helplessness.
The clerics stood clutching one another. Their faces were pale, and eyes that hadn’t escaped their terror wavered this way and that. Some knelt and prayed quietly before the altar that had turned to ash, and others couldn’t say a word and simply let their heads drop.
Off to one side, the knights had gathered and were talking.
“Isn’t it strange? He was definitely a demon corps commander. He wore the commander’s mark. But... he had no subordinates. No ambush, no backup.”
“That’s right. It was just one man. Setting the fire, causing the chaos... all of it was a precisely calculated solo operation.”
The mood sank heavily. The knights carried on their conversation in a state of confusion.
“An ordinary corps commander would bring at least a few elite troops along. Even if he didn’t show them, he’d keep them hidden somewhere. So why did that one...”
“Doesn’t that mean he’s that confident in his own skill? If he’s strong enough to do a whole corps’s work alone, he wouldn’t need subordinates.”
The knights asked and answered each other’s questions, struggling to gauge the commander’s wicked intentions.
“He could have killed us. But he didn’t. Why not?”
“Isn’t it simple? Plant fear, wear down our mental fortitude... and when the time comes, offer our souls to the Demon King. Once your mind is weakened, the soul can be drawn out.”
Hearing their comrade’s guess sent gooseflesh racing over them. It felt like being livestock raised to be eaten.
Subjugation without killing. Controlled destruction. A presence-less disaster that might be hiding in the shadows watching them even now.
The knights looked around without thinking. A thick dread ruled them all.
Right after the ○○-less ○○ team comes the corps commander with no corps... And that’s me.
Handling every single thing from one to ten by myself wasn’t easy. It was harder still since I’d sent advance warning and pushed the clerics’ guard to its absolute peak. I even worried about things like whether they’d look down on me as a commander who didn’t have so much as one subordinate.
But I did it! I completed the arson mission without sacrificing a single innocent citizen.
〈QUEST COMPLETE〉 Infamy +700p
How should I distribute these precious seven hundred points? I sank into happy deliberation.
First, 500p goes to Theo, no question. That much was already decided. Once that was settled, where the remaining 200p should go sorted itself out quickly.
I used 100p to raise Flame to level 2, and spent the last 100p raising Magic from 3 to 4. Maybe because I was a crossbreed with human blood mixed in, my magic was on the weak side no matter how you looked at it.
Still, thanks to how diligently I’d been using and practicing my flames and my magic, 100p was enough to raise each of them by one. If I’d tried to force them up without practice, a hundred points wouldn’t have done it, and neither would a thousand. The fact that the points needed for a level up changed according to how much effort you’d put in was one of this game’s charms.
I held my breath and moved to Theo’s side. His deeply sleeping face looked even younger than usual. After taking in twelve-year-old Theo for a long moment, I opened the window and spent the points.
Three years passed in the span of a few minutes. The body that had been a child’s rushed through puberty and grew into an adolescent’s. He got taller, and the round lines of his face sharpened. Even so, his sleeping expression was as gentle and innocent as ever.
I patted his slightly broader shoulders. In a voice small enough not to wake him, I whispered,
Hello, fifteen-year-old Theo. I’m counting on you from here on out.
The boy who had become fifteen gave no answer at all, and simply slept on, breathing softly.
