Rodocolte assumed that a (former) Japanese boy would jump all over this. Kanata Kaito did not look happy, however. In fact, the exact opposite expression was plastered all over his face, and Kanata was shaking his head.
“Hold on, hold on,” Kanata said. “You’re just twisting everything to make it sound good for you. What you’re actually saying is this is a dangerous world filled with monsters that don’t exist on Origin! I’m also not crazy enough to want to go on an adventure in real life.” Yes, if he could get a look at some dragons or giants, Kanata might be interested. If asked if he wanted a bucket for treasure for free, he wouldn’t have to think twice. However, if asked about actually fighting monsters, then he would say no. If asked to risk his life for the bucket, treasure or otherwise, the answer would, again, simply be no.
Those kinds of things were fun in a video game. Fun because you weren’t actually having to struggle to do them, as far as Kanata was concerned. After all, he hadn’t been pleased about risking his life fighting terrorists and criminals on Origin. Why would risking his life on some big, silly adventure be any more appealing?
“I don’t need gods and demons. I’ve had my fill of the crazy stuff on Origin. I’m not interested in helping the world grow or any of that bull either. Boring! You should be asking Amemiya if you want help with stuff like that.”
“Hmmm. You will get to take your experience and abilities over with you, though. With a little training, you’ll quickly get stronger. You’ll be pummeling dragons before you know it. Clearing dungeons will be a breeze.”
“Still not interested,” Kanata replied. “I had enough training montages on Origin, thanks.” What he wanted was to live a laidback life of leisure, a golden spoon in his mouth, all the while everyone around him praising everything he did. A certain amount of hard work and study would still be required, sure, but he didn’t want to have to work his butt off.
Rodocolte paused. “You could live like a king. Have a harem of women. How about that?”
“A king who doesn’t have lightbulbs or the internet, right?” Kanata snapped back. “How much fun can one really have in a middle-ages fantasy world?”
Rodocolte thought some more. “They have magic items. You can replicate certain things to the same level as on Earth and Origin, I’m sure.”
“Certain things. Not enough to heat or cool a room and have a hot shower every day. I’m not interested in a harem, either. I only need to ride each woman a few times and then I can move on. I get plenty of elves and cat girls and whatnot from games, too. Don’t need real ones.”
Kanata Kaito was far less interested in going to Ramda than Rodocolte had expected. Of course, Kanata had no say in the matter. There was no way for him to avoid being reborn there.
“Oh. Hold on. Mari will be reborn in Ramda too, right?” Kanata suddenly sounded a lot more interested—and that worried Rodocolte.
“. . . Yes, that’s right,” the god confirmed.
“Perfect! This time, I’ll be the one to kill her! I’m not going to drop my guard a second time. I’ll avenge myself!”
Rodocolte shook his head. Letting them take their memories and personalities from their previous lives carried over their pain and hankering for revenge. That said, reincarnating them without either their memories or personality would screw them up mentally. And if he wiped them both, then there was hardly any point in doing all this in the first place.
It would have been hard for Rodocolte to pull a trick like removing the memories relating to Kanata’s desire for revenge, too. He specialized in souls, not the mind. The two areas were related, but different in many ways. But the biggest problem was that this whole process had been set up when they all died on Earth: Rodocolte couldn’t take the time now to start changing and erasing memories.
However, it still felt like things might work out. He was only dealing with one person, and he had an urgent problem to solve. A solution that would be easy to ask of someone brimming with violence like Kanata.
“Before you do that, I have something to ask of you.”
“What is it, God? You can ask anything of me, the great Kanata, first of the Bravers to die! Anything that won’t be a pain in my ass!”
“Actually, you weren’t the first to die. That was Hiroto Amamiya,” Rodocolte corrected him.
“Hiroto Amemiya? He’s dead too?!”
“No, not him. Ama, not Ame. An easy mistake to make, trust me.”
Kanata shook his head. “Not following you.” He didn’t have much recollection of Hiroto Amamiya. They had been in different classes at high school, and Hiroto was a wallflower who tucked himself away. “Hmmm, hold on. I did hear something about two people who turned down your offer for resurrection. And one of them had a name like Hiroto Amemiya. The guy’s girl was pretty cut up about it.”
Narumi Naruse. She had been popular, meaning Kanata remembered her even though they had been in different classes. On Origin, she had gotten close to Amemiya because she thought he was this Amamiya guy. Things had cooled off between them when she found out her mistake, but in the end, they dated and got married. Thinking over that now, he realized that this “guy with a similar name” from the rumors must be the Hiroto Amamiya Rodocolte was now talking about.
“Allow me to provide you with everything you need to know,” Rodocolte continued.
“No, I don’t need any more clutter—uwaaah! He was that undead we killed?! God!”
“You need something?”
“I’m not talking to you!”
Kanata got another infodump from Rodocolte, discovering in the process that the user of death attribute magic on Origin had been Hiroto Amamiya. When he also learned that the guy was already down on Ramda, he let out a shriek. Forget taking revenge for his own murder—he was going to be the one getting revenged on if he went down there!
“I knew it! Cancel this bullshit! I can’t beat that monster alone! At least wait for some of the others to die and get here!”
That undead was so powerful that Kanata paled at the thought of having to fight him. First, he could throw up barriers that cancelled magic and physical attacks while still being able to launch his own attacks. There was none of the comic book crap about having to open the barrier when he attacked. He also surrounded himself with poison, bacteria, and mold at all times, a single touch of which meant death. The only way to get close to the guy would be to put on a freaking spacesuit.
If that was all, then Kanata could use his cheat ability to pass through the barrier. But it wasn’t the least of it. The security guards trying to flee had suddenly gone crazy, gouging their own eyes out while they laughed their heads off. One of the research assistants had turned into a mummy on the spot, and a female researcher had gotten eaten inside out by bugs as she begged for her life. The monsters had all sorts of bizarre ways to attack. Kanata’s strength was useless if he couldn’t even name what he needed to pass through. The guy was basically the ultimate enemy of life itself.
However, there were also records that indicated that he helped the other test subjects in the facility escape. He had kicked down the door to where they were being held, destroyed the control devices embedded into them, and led them out. Considering the way it looked like he wanted Bravers to kill him, you could make an argument that the undead had retained some measure of rationality.
Rodocolte spoke. “I want you to find this Hiroto Amamiya—on Ramda, he is called Vandal—and kill him.”
“I’m telling you, I can’t!”
“He’s much weaker now than he was in that undead form. You should be able to take him alone.”
“. . . Seriously?”
Rodocolte nodded, and proceeded to share the rest of the information he had on Vandal. However, he couldn’t reveal the existence of the reincarnation system to a mortal being, meaning he also held his tongue concerning Vandal’s ability to crush souls. Rodocolte simply said he needed Vandal dead because he didn’t want Kanata and the other resurrected getting wiped out by him. And if he hears about maybe getting soul-crushed, he’ll probably get all scared again, Rodocolte thought.
On the other hand, Kanata—who still didn’t have the full picture but did have plenty of it—was starting to think that Rodocolte was exceptionally dumb for a divine being.
Why, for example, did the god try to curse Vandal or force him to commit suicide? How convoluted and pointless. After Amamiya died on Origin, the god should have tried to win him over to his side. That’s what Kanata would have done. He could have promised to let him be reborn in a rich family, or given him cheat abilities, or promised him the harem that he had proposed to Kanata. There had to be all sorts of better ways to do it.
Putting that aside, though, fine, Kanata thought. At least he understood the assignment. He still wasn’t keen on it, and he felt a little sorry for Vandal. At the same time, however, he considered this an opportunity.
“Hey. I’m happy to kill this Vandal guy, but I have two conditions.”
“Conditions?”
“You bet I’ve got conditions. For wiping the butt of a god? You bet!”
“This is also about protecting yourself, is it not?”
“Hey, I could easily beg him for my life,” Kanata chirped back. “I’d lick his boots if I had to. Tell him I didn’t know what was going on. That I was only doing what Hiroto Amemiya and Koya Endo told me to do. Given him all the information I know and beg him to save my life. If I pushed it hard enough, he’d probably forgive me. He seems pretty kind.” Even as an undead, he had tried to save the others from being experimented on, after all.