Chapter 2

CHAPTER 1 Laughing at the World a Second Time Thank you for coming, Hero. I— Guph!” As soon as I opened my eyes, I instinctively threw a punch at the vile object of hatred standing before me. My fist landed square in the princess’s stomach, and Alicia Orollea’s silver hair fluttered as she staggered back and kneeled down, clutching herself in pain. It was a totally opportunistic, half-assed attack. I wanted to punch her right in her pretty little face, but my position on the ground made it impossible to land a good hit. ““Y-Your Highness!”” The royal knights were stunned, unable to process what they’d just seen. They rushed to her side, administering a low-level healing spell that enveloped the princess in a pale light. I was left feeling dissatisfied. My attack was far weaker than I’d imagined, and I couldn’t think of a reason why. Sure, I was unarmed, with no buffs or enchantments (or luck, it seemed), but so was she, and she wasn’t wearing armor, either. Once I realized that issue, another thought came to mind. “Hmm? Wait, what’s going on? Is this a dream? Is my life flashing before my eyes?” I thought I had died, but when I looked down at my body, there was nothing wrong with me. The Immortal-Slaying Blade, the sword that killed me, was nowhere to be found. Even more concerning, my clothes were completely different. I was still wearing the black school uniform I used four years ago, when I, Kaito Ukei, first came to this land. “What are you doing, you cur?!” “Hero or not, nobody harms Her Royal Highness!” The royal knights brandished their weapons, but I could tell they wouldn’t attack. The old me, unused to combat, could never have read their intentions so easily, but now they were like open books. So I ignored them, continuing to take in my surroundings. I was in the summoning chamber within the royal castle. Just a moment ago, I had been in the Dragon Crypt, the inner sanctum of the Dragon Temple. But the Dragon Temple lay at the farthest reaches of the world. The two locations must have been about ten thousand kilometers apart. It would take at least a dozen reactivations to teleport over that sort of distance, and even the demon lord, who boasted unrivaled magical prowess, couldn’t make the trip in one go. …Which meant this must be my life flashing before my eyes. But then why did it feel so real? Why could I think so calmly and rationally? And the feel of that punch, and the guard’s eyes… It was all too clear to be a dream. If it was neither a dream nor my life flashing before my eyes, then unfortunately, I was out of ideas. Nothing could explain the situation I was in now. “Hey, are you even listening to me?!” asked a knight. “Nope,” I replied. “What?! You insolent dog!” My candid reply must have injured his pride, for he instantly stopped yammering. Now the way he held his sword told me he meant to use it. Though my mind was still hazy, my body leaped into action immediately, responding to the threat. “Huh? Guplgh!” I stepped forward and planted my weight on my front foot, launching my elbow into the guard’s throat with everything in me. For three years, I had trained and fought to defeat the demon lord. After that, the world decided it no longer needed me, and I spent a year being made a scapegoat for their problems. To survive that long, I learned to react with lethal force to any perceived threat. The other guards stopped in their tracks at this unprecedented turn of events. The one I struck fell back against the wall, his throat crushed, mouth foaming. He appeared to be having a little accident down below, too. “Oh? I’m surprised that didn’t decapitate you. Is that a spirit-reinforced neck plate? Hmm, no, I don’t sense any magic. You know, my body feels heavy. Hmm?” In the deathly silent room, I was the only one speaking. My opponent was a run-of-the-mill knight, not exactly some expert warrior. Even my unarmed attacks should have dealt more damage than this. That should have bent his head backward ninety degrees or more. “Ro-Roland!” After a few seconds, one of the other knights overcame his shock and rushed to his side, quickly reciting a healing spell. When he realized that wouldn’t be enough, he reached for his belt and administered a more advanced healing potion. “Wh-whatever is the matter, Hero? D-did we displease you…?” stammered the princess, her face pale. When I heard her voice, my rage became palpable, and everyone in the room froze in response to it. “You bet your ass I’m displeased, Alicia. I hate everything about you: your voice, your eyes, your heart and soul. I hate you inside and out. You make me sick. I want to vomit after hearing the word hero spoken by the likes of you.” The sense of impending danger whipped the royal knights into action, and they moved to protect their princess. However, there was no point in them doing so. After all, none of them were fast enough to stop me. “Eek! Ack! Ghgh!” My body felt strangely slow as I slipped between the guards to grab the princess by the throat and slam her against the wall. “You summoned an innocent human to be your hero. You made me do whatever you asked. Then once the sorceress was gone, you turned your sights on me and stabbed me in the back without ever breaking your perfect smile.” “Wh-what are you talking abou—? Ghk!” What a joke. Did she think I’d forgotten? The moment we triumphed over evil, the world double-crossed me. The priestess painted me as the enemy, and the kingdom followed suit, pinning all their crimes on me. I’d fought alongside them. I thought they were my friends, but they betrayed me—all of them. My reward for trusting them blindly, for believing their story and agreeing to save them, was for them to throw stones, abuse me, and spit on me. This princess was one of them. After the sorceress fell, the world changed. I didn’t know who was on my side anymore. That was when she came to me. She told me she’d protect me, and tired as I was from a life on the run, I believed her. Then she double-crossed me, laughing all the while. She gave me a teleportation stone and promised that it would take me to safety, but it was a trap, leading to a room in a dungeon from which I could not return. I barely escaped with my life, and the wounds I sustained in the process took a long time to heal. “Oh, I still remember what you said to me back then. ‘It’s not a betrayal. I was never on your side to begin with.’ As though otherworlders don’t even register as human beings to you.” “I really…don’t know what you’re talking about…” She was making a fool of me. And what a fool I had been. If I hadn’t been so blinded by “trust” and just looked at her and taken the time to be skeptical, I would have noticed her true intentions before it was too late. Even now, as her face paled with terror and pain, I could sense the evil lurking deep inside. I could see it in her body language, her gaze, her breathing, and the minute changes in her facial expressions. On the battlefield, such things betrayed your next move. Here, they betrayed the princess’s true thoughts to me. “Heh. You’re good at playing dumb; I’ll give you that. I don’t know what’s going on here, or if this is a dream or what, but I don’t care. I’ll think about that later.” A sigh escaped my lips. “I don’t know how much extra time I have, and I did swear an oath, after all.” My voice overflowed with joy. My face contorted with delight, and my heart beat faster and faster, my arms growing restless. “Ah… Ugh…” Then any hostility I detected from the princess disappeared. I released my grip, allowing her to fall to the ground, and she looked back up at me with fear in her eyes. I saw myself reflected in her pupils, a twisted expression plastered on my face. But that was okay, because I finally got to live in a simple world where I could be the hero, only for that world to betray me and call me the enemy. It was the punch line to a sick joke. Who wouldn’t laugh at that? The pure-minded fool I had been was long dead, and I lived only for revenge. Now with my sworn enemy lying right at my feet, how else was I supposed to look? “Please…please help me…”