Anyway, given all this, I thought it best to temporarily deprioritize searching for a method of return. There was, after all, one more important thing I needed to investigate: the Sorcerer King of Destruction. It was a rather important topic, as it pertained to my safety. I ran a constant risk of being wrongfully arrested. I hoped to mitigate the danger by acquiring more base knowledge on the topic.
Also, I had a vague, pressing sense that there would be consequences if I failed to learn more about my position in this world. Truthfully, that had been on my mind this whole time. I had avoided the dreadful Soul Transcription and finally reached a human settlement…but was this truly the end of the matter of the Sorcerer King of Destruction? Having circumvented the proper birth of the Sorcerer King of Destruction, had I truly brought peace to this world? Were my troubles over?
Somehow, I got the feeling that wasn’t the case. I also had the sense that I wasn’t working with the whole picture. I couldn’t stop thinking about that black demon creature that had been waiting to ambush me the moment I left the basin. That thing had clearly been different from anything else I had since run into.
In terms of power, the ancient Earth Dragon had no doubt been far stronger than the demon. After all, Goltarou had caught the demon off guard and obliterated it with a deadly first strike, so in the end, nothing actually came of that confrontation. Compared to the events that followed, that initial encounter had been nothing.
But that was only because I had been with Gol. So my actual adventure should’ve definitely ended at that moment, right?
At the time, because I had been so dazed by the abnormality of the situation, I hadn’t really processed what it said. But…hadn’t it known I was the Sorcerer King? We had only just met, yet it had sounded so convinced.
What exactly did this mean? I wasn’t sure if the answer to these questions lay in books. But at the very least, it couldn’t hurt to pore through some arcane library for relevant information.
I also wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to ask other people about this matter. I really should have asked Master Speria more about it when I had the chance, but I hadn’t thought we would part ways so suddenly. After he said his goodbyes and gave me his shoulder bag, there were roughly ten minutes before he actually left. It really happened in the blink of an eye. Of course, I could have pulled myself together and asked something.
The smoked meat on my plate had chilled. Caught in the whirlwind of thoughts, my hand had stopped moving in the middle of my meal. Master Speria had occasionally succumbed to this exact disorder when we journeyed together. But in my case, I appeared to be able to return to reality quickly enough.
Beside me, Gol worriedly peered into my face as I sat frozen with the piece of toast in my hand. Her face was quite close. Ah, my eccentric behavior had yet again caused my kind partner unnecessary concern. “Sorry, I was thinking about some stuff. I’m fine.”
Even Mr. Chotos looked worried about me.
Hey, I don’t need your concern. I’m not asking you to do anything. Wait… Perhaps this man knew something helpful? “Hey, Mister, do you know about the Sorcerer King of Destruction?”
“What? That’s out of the blue. Sorcerer King…of Destruction. You mean the one in folklore?” Mr. Chotos looked bewildered, but when he took in my serious expression, he mumbled, “Right, you’re a bit young. You must not know the tale. It used to be something only old folks talked about.”
Hey, mister, you’re pretty damn old yourself. Think you can pass as young with that ragged face? Whatever! “What did they say?” I asked.
“I believe they said that the Sorcerer King of Destruction was…yes, a man from another world. As his name implied, he had the same unusual ability as a mana beast. Or something like that.”
“I knew that already. It really is a straightforward name.”
“Hmm. Well, even though he’s called the Sorcerer King in a number of tales, I heard that he had other titles as well.”
“Other titles?”
“Yeah, how can I put it? Something like Poison King, or King of Bizarre Eating.”
“What the heck? What worthless names… Why call him that?”
“Who knows? I don’t know that much myself.”
“Jeez, mister. You’re absolutely useless.”
“Shut up. I’ll have you know I’m quite knowledgeable.”
“Huh? You definitely don’t look it.”
Mr. Chotos snorted with a scowl.
Hey, what’s with that face? If a middle-aged man like you pouts like a little girl, it isn’t remotely cute.
“Well, whatever. But about the Sorcerer King… You know, in the stories, he’s supposed to destroy the world, right? Do you know exactly how he does it?” I asked.
I was quite curious about this. To tell you the truth, I didn’t see how my powers had the ability to destroy the world. Even if I released all my power at once, I could only see it causing a small-scale natural disaster on a local level. Maybe I could crush a city or two, but this world was vast, and much larger than a mere city. It was, in other words, utterly impossible for me to destroy the world.
Furthermore, just like in that battle with the ancient Earth Dragon, if I were to do that, I would exhaust my mana in one strike and be left helpless.
Besides, realistically, I was incapable of creating a true natural disaster. The best I could muster were incidental attacks with spears and stuff. A fundamental principle of spells in this world was that: “Even if you pour excess mana into the spell, its effect size will not increase.” As such, I had no way to destroy a large area all at once, even if I was the evil Sorcerer King.
Though perhaps there was another way for me to use my power to destroy the world. Hmm. Like if, perhaps, I were to create an army of Gols.
A hundred Gols…
“Ugh…”
Just thinking about it made me break out in a cold sweat. I suddenly felt that destroying humanity was all too possible.
No, no, no! I definitely can’t do that! And anyway, mass-producing Gol would be impossible. Creating even one nearly killed me. So wouldn’t the statistical lethality of creating two or three exceed 100 percent?
Besides, could I actually reproduce my results? I still felt like Gol had been a complete fluke.
Ugh…an army of cruel and beautiful Gols using their mysterious radar to capture escaping humans and beat them to death, turning the world into a sea of fire. I paled at the thought, but Mr. Chotos didn’t know what I saw in my mind and idly continued.
“I believe it’s said that when the Sorcerer King wins, he casts some kind of large-scale sorcery spell and annihilates all of humanity. That’s why each time the Sorcerer King of Destruction appears, humanity is destroyed, or something like that.”
“Eh?”
Why was he making it sound like the Sorcerer King inevitably triumphed and destroyed humanity? What did that even mean? Hadn’t Sorcerer Kings been defeated and killed numerous times in the past? Zairein had written something to that effect in that stone book, saying prior efforts had been killed before they could destroy jack squat. That was the whole reason Zairein had devised the second step in his summoning process—the one where he chose me based on my aggregate amount of mana and planned to overwrite my personality so he could produce history’s strongest Sorcerer King.
Also, hey, wait a minute… “If humanity was annihilated, how are you and Teru here right now?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a fairy tale to scare children, right?”
Ah, was he trying to avoid explaining? What a useless middle-aged man!
Mr. Chotos looked stumped by my frustration. “Hey, Nemaki. Listen, you can’t go asking about the Sorcerer King in public, you know? I’m only talking about it because we’re inside. If the folks from the Church heard you, I doubt they’d be pleased.”
“Eh? Is this topic a religious taboo?”
“Kind of. Recently, the Church has been tightening their hold even out here.”
Ah, how dangerous. I’m glad I didn’t wander around town asking about the Sorcerer King.
At any rate, between this world’s religion that restricted free speech and my religion that restricted use of any element outside the Earth attribute… What a strict thing religion could be.
“The world of man is defined by eternal suffering, huh?” I murmured.
“What are you talking about with that enlightened face…?”
I ignored Mr. Chotos’s exasperated expression, lamented the absurdity of the world, and let out a deep sigh.
That night, I had a dream where I became a first-rate golem breeder and raised an army of Gols on a farm. All the Gols were very fond of me, and they were kind and lovely children.
However, our peaceful days didn’t last long. A bloody feud broke out among them as they fought to determine the order in which I would wipe them down.
In the end, only the first Gol was left standing.