Maccad Empire Castle, Interrogation Room
“The statement that ‘the human known as Inori Takafuji no longer lives’ was deemed to be true.”
Seated at a round table, a woman dressed in a uniform read the results of her report aloud.
“The statement regarding the incident of arson in the Rising Sun Kingdom’s castle, where he claimed that ‘A meddlesome demon who had little to nothing to do with the coup infiltrated the castle. He ran into the knight captain by chance and tried blackmailing her into accepting his marriage proposal. However, she flat-out refused him. Angered, the demon killed her and then reduced the entire castle to cinders’ was deemed to be true.”
Occupying the other seats around the table were the leaders from each country of the alliance. The one speaking was the Chancellor of the Maccad Empire, Indera Djenda.
“The statement about the demon who ‘introduced himself as the new demon king and declared war on the hero army’ was also deemed to be true. This concludes the testimony of the hero, Ryuto Shinzaki.”
“A new demon king? He must be quite formidable indeed, to be able to burn an entire castle down.”
“We can’t ignore this.”
“Don’t you find it strange for a demon to propose marriage to one of our species, though?”
“No—demons are eccentric beings. I’ve heard that there used to be a village in the Republic of Ghrantze that took demons as sex slaves.”
“In any case, his statements weren’t flagged as false, so he must be telling the truth.”
“The Maccad Empire will continue its investigation of the heroes. Please raise your hands if you have any questions.” At Indera’s words, a man nervously raised his hand. “The pope from the Holy Land of Ryne is recognized.”
“Who is this ‘Inori Takafuji’ individual? This is the first I’ve heard of him. Was he a hero?”
“Allow me to explain,” said Indera with a nod. “He was the fourth hero summoned in the ritual performed by the Rising Sun Kingdom.”
The man was unsatisfied with her reply. “Why weren’t we informed of this?”
Paying no heed to his attitude, the chancellor calmly replied, “The Rising Sun Kingdom apparently tried to hide the fact of his summoning from us. We only caught wind of it through our information channels. However, we lacked hard evidence to corroborate such claims, so we elected not to bring it up during the hero army meeting.”
“A fourth hero? This is unprecedented.”
“He was an irregular. His physical abilities were that of a layman, or perhaps lower. None of that matters anymore, though. We’ve no means to learn anything else about him.”
The pope from Ryne brought his hand to his chin, falling into thought. “I understand,” he said, apparently deciding against continuing that line of questioning. “There’s no point in discussing this any further.”
The chancellor looked away from the pope and scanned the faces of the other members around the table. “Are there any other questions? If not...”
“Hold up.” She was stopped by a guy who spoke in a low voice, without any pretense or formality. He had a large, muscular frame, and a very bushy beard covering his rugged face.
“President Rudolf Bilgon of the Dwyr Federation is recognized.”
“This ain’t exactly a question, but... Here we are, at the round table in the Maccad Empire. And I coulda sworn that, as the suzerain, you promised that all information obtained would be shared with members of the alliance, in the interest of fairness. That’s funny, ’cause I coulda sworn you just admitted to keeping the existence of a fourth hero in the Rising Sun Kingdom from us. How’s that fair?” He shot the chancellor a sharp look, but she neither cowered nor looked away.
“As I previously explained, the information about the fourth hero was neither confirmed nor deemed particularly important. Consequently, we made the decision to hold off on releasing a statement until we’d received concrete proof. I apologize that we’re only sharing this knowledge after the fact. However, we’ve now shared everything we know about Inori Takafuji.”
“Oh, I couldn’t care less about him. Rather, I’ve got a bone to pick with the fact that the Maccad Empire is still hiding information about the heroes.”
At these words, the room began to buzz. Rudolf glared right at Indera with a faint grin. Up until this moment, she’d handled things coolly, without causing a ruckus. But he hadn’t missed the very slight twitch in her eye at his accusation.
“There’s a legend about the last generation of heroes, one that’s been passed down through time. They stayed in a small settlement called Galhey. Apparently, they wielded a power that surpassed Divine Blessings.”
“That is but a folktale. It’s more than likely that it’s been rather exaggerated over the years.”
“But the exact same legend has been passed down in other villages. Hard to believe it’s all just one big coincidence.”
Indera began to panic internally. The last generation of heroes had visited the Dwyr Federation during the latter half of their travels. Since this had been after the heroes had received their powers, it was possible that information about it had leaked...but she hadn’t expected for it to have persisted in the form of a folk legend.
“Please, allow me to explain—”
“No, that’s quite all right, Chancellor.”
“Your Majesty?”
The emperor of the Maccad Empire commanded Indera to sit down. “I will admit that we have not been forthright with all our knowledge. However, please understand that what we do not share has been deemed to be of no use, so there is no need for it to be disclosed.”
“Not useful? Even though the information could help us bolster the ranks of the hero army? Even a child could see that it’s not useless. You’ve gotta be kidding.”
“I’ll allow the chancellor to explain in further detail.”
“Yes, sir.” At the emperor’s command, Indera took the floor once more. “What President Rudolf is referring to—a power that exceeds even Divine Blessings—has been named ‘Over Box.’”
“The hell kinda name is that? Why not a simpler name, like ‘Awakening’ or something?”
“We appropriated what the previous generation of heroes called it. In that sense, it’s the perfect appellation.”
Since none of this information was being written down, the only thing those present could do was attempt to parse it mentally.