The hero and I were walking the red wasteland, headed towards the light source spilling over the horizon. We were basically going back on the path we took from where I woke up to the settlement.
Bad things would happen if you were in the sunlight...was what the cat-eared man had heard from a god. The reason was much too vague, and the hero didn’t seem to care about it.
“Is it true that it’s bad to be in the sunlight?”
“Out of all the residents of this kingdom, I’ve been here the longest. I’ve been walking around outside of the settlement and ignoring the god’s warning, but I don’t sense any abnormalities occurring.”
“But it’s a warning directly from the god’s mouth, not some myth with an unknown source, right?”
“I can’t trust that god. He looks like a child.”
Huh, so the god here is similar to Lemn. The cat-eared man seemed like a good person, so I could see him believing the words of a twisted god. Since I knew a suspicious god who looked like a young boy, it was easy to accept that their god was the same.
“I know a similar phony god,” I said.
“That god controls the inside of shadows. I think he probably tells people that the sunlight is dangerous and they should stay in the shade because he wants to keep the residents somewhere he can keep his eye on them.”
“Maybe the god I know isn’t just similar but the same one...” That dark one is here too? He sure does show up anywhere and everywhere.
If Lemn was here, I wanted to ask him to bring me back to life, but it only took a moment to realize that was impossible. He was a god that valued the laws of the world, so he would never approve of something like resurrection.
The hero thought it was impossible for me to be familiar with Lemn. “It’s probably someone else,” he said as a preface. “The place we’re going to now is also somewhere the god said was dangerous. That’s why I think there’s a clue to how we can be alive again there.”
“I see. So it’s not dangerous, but inconvenient for the god.”
“Exactly. I believe that opening the door is the only path to revival.”
“The door?” I asked.
“I call the place we’re headed to ‘the door.’ It should be coming into view soon.”
We’d come far more east (I think) than the spot I’d woken up in. Once we hiked over a slightly tall hill, the hero pointed in a certain direction.
There was a door—a giant door. A frame with double doors stood in the middle of the empty red wasteland. There was no building it led to. There was just a gray door sitting in the middle of the desert.
It looked like one could easily walk around it, and it didn’t seem to be doing its job as a door. I wonder what the other side looks like. I didn’t have to voice my question, because the hero began to explain.
“There’s nothing on the other side. It doesn’t separate anything. It’s a pointless door, but...”
“It seems like something mysterious could happen there.”
“Indeed, but nothing happened. I’ve pushed on the door before, but it doesn’t budge. I think it can only be opened through some special method, not force. That’s why I’ve brought you here.”
Don’t worry, even if you need to brute force it, there’s no better person for the job than me.
Unable to contain myself, I nearly ran towards the door, which seemed like it could be connected to the world of the living. But before I could, the hero stopped me.
“Calm down. The door has a guard.”
“That’s even more suspicious. How have you been inspecting the door?”
“I haven’t gone near it since the guard came, so it’s been about a year.”
According to the hero, the guard had only been placed there recently. It had been completely open and free for all to inspect until then, so maybe the fact that a guard appeared meant it really was connected to the mortal world.
“So the god got worried and placed a guard there, right?”
“Nope, he has nothing to do with the god. The guard protects the door because he wants to—no one’s instructed him to do so.”
Huh? Why? Is it his hobby? Is he volunteering? Is this gatekeeper even a person? If he is, then he’s someone who died recently, and should have no reason to guard the door. Also, there’s probably a reason the hero is so sure that he has nothing to do with the god...
The hero seemed to know a lot about the gatekeeper, but he only shared minimal information. “I have some personal stuff with him.”
“I guess it’s tough being the king of the Kingdom of Twilight,” I said.
“No, we had a relationship when we were alive.”
Oh, I see. I guess it’s possible to meet someone you knew when you were alive here. Wait. It was only recently that the guard started guarding the door voluntarily, and the hero died a long time ago... The timelines don’t match up. Does that mean the guard’s been here for a while, and he only just started guarding the door recently?
“I’ll distract the guard, so I want you to head to the door,” the hero said.
“Will that work? What if the guard prioritizes protecting the door?”
“That won’t happen, though if you’ve done something to make him resent you, things might be different...”
So the guard hates the hero. I decided not to press further. It seemed like there was something about the guard that the hero didn’t want to share. I probably don’t know him anyway. I’ll focus on the door.
The hero was to go first and distract the guard, while I took a detour to head to the door. We were able to come up with our rough formation right away.
On his own, the hero headed towards the silhouette that looked small when compared to the giant door behind it. Though I could make out his outline, he was backlit, so I couldn’t see any of the guard’s other features. I need to focus on the door, not the gatekeeper.
While hiding behind the dunes, I took a massive detour and headed to the door. It seemed like the hero and gatekeeper were arguing about something. I made my way closer to the door while the guard was distracted...
“No way...” I said, the words accidentally slipping out of my mouth.
There was no way I couldn’t react after seeing the man facing the hero—after seeing his long black hair and the face I dared not forget, which belonged to the man worthy of standing opposite the hero.
✦ ✦ ✦
He’s supposed to be dead... Oh right. He’s dead.
He’d heard my voice, and the man—no, the Demon Lord—turned around.
“You... After all that boasting, you still died young, huh?” He should have wanted revenge on me, but the Demon Lord looked at me with compassion.
I see. If people come to this kingdom after they die, it makes sense for him to be here. I’d thought that the gatekeeper was a stranger, but the exact opposite was true. I can’t believe I’m being reunited with the person I killed...
Our plan to raid the door had collapsed. I just stood there, unable to say anything else, and the hero opened his mouth next.
“I didn’t think you two knew each other. I assume you met after the seal broke?”
The hero... That’s right, he said he was called “Hero.” The hero dressed like a king, knew about the Kingdom of Valschein and was hated by the gatekeeper... That was all I’d known about him, which made his identity a mystery, but now that I knew the gatekeeper was the Demon Lord, his identity was easy to narrow down.
The hero who’d been in the Kingdom of Twilight for several hundreds of years had to be none other than the first king of Valschein.
The hero and Demon Lord from the foundational era of the kingdom—and me. After sealing away the Demon Lord, the hero died of old age. After escaping his seal, the Demon Lord was killed by me. And I died for some unknown reason.
The three of us, who had all died at different times but were all connected, were gathered together in the Kingdom of Twilight.
“I never thought I’d see the hero and Demon Lord together,” I mumbled.
The Demon Lord reacted, pointing at the hero with his chin as he said in a displeased tone, “Hero? You’re saying that guy is a hero?”
That’s right. The story of the hero and the Demon Lord was manufactured after the fact.
The true story was that the first king had feared the power of the Demon Lord and betrayed him, sealing him away. Then it was spread that a hero had defeated the evil Demon Lord.
In the past, the Demon Lord had tried to destroy the kingdom, but it wasn’t possible for him to do so now. In that case, I wanted to be on his side.
The Kingdom of Twilight was where those with regrets gathered. Maybe my regret was that I couldn’t save the Demon Lord. I stood beside the Demon Lord and faced the hero.
“I don’t know your current situation, but I’m on your side,” I said to the Demon Lord.
The legendary hero was against the allyship of the final boss and the hidden boss. It was unclear who would be victorious in this battle.