“When I say I’m a part of the ebony god, I mean that I am a sort of double that he created in order to watch and listen to humans, since he cannot be directly involved in their society. He’s been observing humanity through my eyes, basically. But it’s not a surveillance thing—more like a means of relieving many years of boredom, if anything. So honestly, I don’t serve any particular purpose in this world. This situation doesn’t change that. The only power I have of my own is that of a normal human, the man called Hyrince. Sure, there have been times when I synchronized with the ebony god and so on, but for the most part I’ve lived my life purely as Hyrince. And even though the ebony god can meddle with me, I can’t do a thing to him. So we’re not in communication at the moment.”
With that speech, Hyrince shrugs.
In other words, Hyrince was able to control this UFO because he has the ebony god’s memories.
Judging by Anna’s shocked expression throughout this explanation, she didn’t know Hyrince was connected to the ebony god, either.
“So to summarize, is it safe to say you are the human called Hyrince, and not the ebony god?”
“That’s a fine way to look at it. In fact, maybe it’s not so different from you reincarnations. If you think of me as a normal human with the memories of my previous life as the ebony god, you wouldn’t be too far off.”
I see. That’s certainly something all of us can understand.
“Does this mean that you’ll be fighting for the ebony god?”
“…No. Like I said, I only have the power of a normal human. I’m not strong enough to make a difference in this battle. So I wasn’t really planning on doing anything…until I happened to spot this ship being attacked, anyway.”
Hyrince chuckles awkwardly.
It doesn’t seem to me like he’s lying.
“But I guess I’m rooting for the ebony god, even if I’m not siding with him. I understand very well how he feels, since I have his memories and all.”
“You’re not going to side with him even though you understand his feelings?”
“It’s because I understand him that I can’t side with him, see. I don’t think what the ebony god’s side is doing is right. I doubt he thinks so himself, either. But he’s going to do it anyway, just because he has to, even if it’s not right. That’s why I’m rooting for him, but not siding with him.”
I see…maybe?
It sounds like the ebony god has a lot of complicated feelings, too.
Even from the perspective of a partial outsider like me, it’s hard to say that either side is right, based on the contents of Taboo. The situation is too complex.
I’m sure it’s even harder for someone like the ebony god, who’s right at the center of the conflict.
“Long story short, I’m not getting involved in this fight. So I don’t care that you have ruler authority or anything, Ms. Oka. I’ll just be the bouncer for this ship or something.”
Mr. Hyrince raises both palms to emphasize that he means no harm.
“I do want to talk to you alone for a minute, though. Is that okay?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Wait a minute, please.”
Miss Kudo interrupts my agreement and comes over to whisper in my ear.
“Can we really trust him?”
“It’ll be fine, I think.”
I don’t sense any ill intent from Hyrince.
“…I’m sorry, but we can’t count on your judgment alone.”
…I suppose I can’t argue with that, since I let Potimas take advantage of me for so long.
“If you’re worried, we can stay in sight. How about we stay on this side of the room? That way you can see us but not hear us.”
Hyrince’s suggestion makes perfect sense: The cockpit is large enough that our conversation shouldn’t be audible if we stand at the other end.
It would allow the others to keep an eye on us, too.
“That’s all right with me.”
“…Boys, if anything happens to Ms. Oka, go rescue her right away.”
The boys nod uncertainly at Miss Kudo’s command, although I doubt they’d stand a chance against Hyrince even if they all came after him at once.
He was in the former hero’s party for good reason.
By comparison, these students who barely raised their levels in the elf village probably wouldn’t be able to fight Hyrince at all.
If anyone here could be a match for Mr. Hyrince, it would be myself or Ms. Anna.
Now that we’ve let him into the UFO, if Hyrince had any treacherous intentions, it would already be too late to stop him.
If he does try anything, I’ll just have to handle it somehow.
Though personally…I think we can trust him.
Hyrince and I walk to the other side of the cockpit.
“Now, we can’t have anyone overhearing this. Let’s use Telepathy to talk.”
“All right.”
“Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.”
Our conversation begins by way of Telepathy, though I can’t imagine what Mr. Hyrince wants to talk to me about.
What could be so secret that he would go to such lengths to avoid having the students hear it?
“I believe you have a skill that shows you certain information about the reincarnations. What does it currently say about their future?”
“How did you know that?!”
I’ve never told Hyrince about my unique skill, Student Roster.
It gives me brief information about my reincarnated students’ pasts, presents, and futures.
The reason I decided to keep them in custody in the elf village in the first place is because the “future” column showed that most of my students would die.
I used the “past” column to deduce their hometowns.
“It’s easy enough to guess. You were able to track down the exact locations of the reincarnations all over the world and bring them to the elf village for safekeeping, which means you had some way of getting information about them. And since you were certain that they had to be protected, you must have known something about their future. For instance, that they were going to die, perhaps.”
…He’s exactly right.
“And yet, you never told them this. Which means there must be a restriction that prevents you from discussing it. That’s the logical conclusion, anyway. Am I right? Ah, no need to respond if you can’t talk about that, either, of course.”
…That’s all correct, too.
“If you can’t say anything about it at all, that’s all right. But I would appreciate it if you could check what that skill says about the reincarnations’ futures right now.”
“…Very well.”
In all the chaos, I haven’t checked my Student Roster since the battle at the elf village.
At the time, it showed that all the students who have lots of skills were going to die by having their skills stripped away from them.
And it also said that Hugo—Natsume—was going to die in battle in the elf village.
But Natsume survived that battle.
The future has changed.
So it’s entirely possible that the other reincarnations’ described futures might be different now as well.
If anything, it’s very likely that they’ve changed, now that the world quest has been thrown into the mix.
Nervously, I close my eyes and activate Student Roster.
Information about my students appears in my mind’s eye.
And it says…
“Huh?! …Whah?!”
I let out two exclamations in a row.
The first is out of surprise at the information I saw in my Student Roster.
The second is at the shaking of the UFO.
“We’re under attack!”
One of the students shouts.
I look at the giant monitor in the cockpit and see flying monsters swarming around the UFO.
“They’re really still chasing us?!”
Miss Kudo’s cry echoes my own bewildered thoughts.
“Looks like we’d better discuss this later.”
“Ah…”
Hyrince starts to walk away.
It’s true, we should probably wait to talk until we’re not under enemy fire.
But if what I just read is true, then…!
I grab Hyrince’s hand.
“What is it?”
Hyrince turns around in surprise.
This is no time for chatting.
But I have to relay this information right away!
“No, wait! This is terrible! At this rate, mankind will be doomed!”
“What?!”
“We had it all wrong! The ‘evil god’ isn’t the ivory god!”
“…What do you mean?”
We had the wrong idea entirely!
We misunderstood about the “evil god” the world quest mentioned!
✦ ✦ ✦
<An evil god is plotting to sacrifice humanity in order to prevent the destruction of the world. You must either prevent this plot, or assist with it.>
✦ ✦ ✦
That’s what the world quest announcement said.
The sequence that followed revealed the truth about this world, and that the ivory god was planning to sacrifice more than half of humanity to free the goddess Sariel.
Along with the fact that we could pray to help or hinder the ivory god.
Based on all that, we just assumed that the “evil god” referred to the ivory god.
But we were wrong.
✦ ✦ ✦
<The Evil God D rings the final bell of judgment. Evil God D will exterminate half of humanity.>
✦ ✦ ✦
For some reason, this was stated in my Student Roster.
“The Evil God D rings the bell of judgment! Evil God D is the one who’s going to sacrifice half of humanity!”
“…No way. Are you serious…?”
Hyrince covers his mouth with a trembling hand.
“That can’t be true…can it? …No, it can. This is D we’re talking about. If anything, that makes much more sense! Dammit! So that was the plan all along!”
He pushes his hair back roughly.
“No matter how the battle between the ebony and ivory gods plays out, D is going to sacrifice half of all humans and demons regardless!”
Wait, but if that’s true…what is the purpose of the battle that’s going on now?
“Why would this be in my Student Roster…?”
“That’s obvious. Because D is the one who gave you the Student Roster skill in the first place.”
“But even then, what was the point of sending me this message?”
“Maybe it’s supposed to be a hint? D is taunting us with a tiny glimmer of hope that we can avoid destruction somehow.”
But how would we even go about that…?
“Ah?!”
It seems the battle outside has progressed while Hyrince and I were talking.
There’s a blaze of bright light on the monitor, and I automatically close my eyes.
Then, when I cautiously crack them open, I see a familiar face sitting atop a wyrm.
“Shun?!”
“Shun!”
Hyrince and I exclaim almost in unison.
On the monitor, Shun and his friends had just defeated the flying monsters.