CH 178

“At first, I thought that the creator of S.E.E.D., might be the Demon King, you know? I mean, eliminating the afterlife and leading the world to destruction is a perfectly Demon King-like action. But I was wrong.”

In front of the silent John, I slowly spoke and made a metal frame appear above my right hand. Following my will, an image of a middle-aged man in his fifties appeared, and the compass needle pointed towards the center of the town.

“…What is that?”

“Someone who’s creating S.E.E.D., or perhaps a mastermind? Something like that. I don’t know who he is, and I haven’t shown it to Canal. If I carelessly reveal it, we might get into even more trouble.”

“That’s a wise decision. If Canal were to find out about this person being involved in the creation of S.E.E.D… Even I wouldn’t be able to protect him. Unlike Curon, he’s not the type of person to appear in public.”

“Is that so? Well, that doesn’t matter. The problem is this.”

The man’s image disappeared, and the next person I designated appeared in the metal frame. The person shown was identical to the man in front of me. However, the compass needle pointed in a different direction.

“I just searched for the location of John D…Jones… So why is the compass pointing to a different place?”

“I wouldn’t know even if you asked me. Maybe your magical tool is broken?”

“Hah, that’s not it. This was a real blind spot. If I hadn’t checked it immediately after that day… the incident with the building, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. I mean, it’s common for someone working behind the scenes to camouflage themselves by living a normal life during the day. I wouldn’t suspect it. If I tried to approach the real… John, you’d intercept me first, and I wouldn’t be questioned about it. But that day, that time was different. It’s impossible for someone to be sleeping soundly indoors in the opposite direction of the scene right after such a battle. And my [Akashic Compass] never breaks or lies. That means you’re somehow overlaying this man’s… John D. Jones’ information onto your existence. Or is that your ability as the Demon King? Did you divert Curon’s attention and overwrite my and Canal’s information with another person?”

That’s right. My [Akashic Compass] couldn’t pinpoint the location of the Demon King because the Demon King had hidden his existence by overlaying the information of another existing person, John. This explanation fits the reason why I couldn’t find the Demon King.

“…That’s all within the realm of speculation, isn’t it?”

“Would it be better if I had definite proof? I don’t really want to do it, but it would become clear in an instant.”

Saying that, I held out my right hand towards John. This is the quickest way to determine if he is the Demon King.

“Let’s shake hands. That will settle it.”

“…Do you understand what will happen to you if you do that?”

“Haha! Of course, I do. But you don’t really want to do anything to me, do you?”

I grinned at John after we finished the answer-checking. If he had wanted to absorb me and become the Demon King while keeping his consciousness intact, he would have had plenty of opportunities to touch me before. The fact that he didn’t do so proves that John doesn’t desire such a thing.

“Hey, tell me. What were you thinking, what did you want when you became this way? Why did you protect Canal… the Hero?”

In this world, there was only one being capable of defeating him: the hero. I slowly questioned John, who was in the rather contradictory position of being the Demon King who protects that hero. Then, John, seemingly giving in, let out a small sigh and began to speak about himself.

“…I arrived in this world about 8,000 years ago.”

“8,000 years!? That’s… quite a long time.”

“Yes, it is. Back then, I was living a life befitting a Demon King. I would command the monstrous creatures that infested the world to attack humans, and I even formed a Demon King army to harass them. Naturally, this gave rise to the heroes in the world, and these heroes would challenge me to battle time and time again… Yet, I have repelled them all. After this happened hundreds of times, I became… bored.”

“Bored?”

“Yes, I became bored with being the Demon King. As time passed, my intelligence grew, and I was able to think more deeply, but I also began to see my own limitations. On my own, I couldn’t do anything about the barrier set up by the gods. There wasn’t much room for growth for me, who was just a fragment of power, and it was impossible for me to merge with my true self, which was you. All I could do was wait for you to come to me… But after waiting for 2,000 years with no sign of you, I simply grew tired of waiting.”

“Ah, well… Sorry about that.”

As I unintentionally grimaced, John laughed lightly and shook his head.

“Ha ha, it’s not really your fault. In fact, it might have been the gods’ plan all along. In any case, having grown tired of waiting, I thought that it might be nice to be defeated by the hero. Doing so would weaken my main body, but it would only be by a fraction, one hundredth of the total power, so I thought it wouldn’t have much of an impact. So, I searched for the hero at the time… But they turned out to be a complete fool. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing to someone like that, so I crushed them with all my might. Then I searched for the next person who had inherited the hero’s power… And found a five-year-old blind girl.

Being a hero is a kind of talent, so it doesn’t necessarily mean they will become strong. I tried to raise the girl to become someone worthy of killing me, but… She turned out to be quite the oddball. She only talked about her dreams of seeing the world and, in the end, never fought me. She could have picked up a sword and killed me, becoming a celebrated hero and living a life without any hardships… But she pursued only her dream of seeing the world with her unseeing eyes, and she died without realizing that dream.”

At that point, John paused and came to stand beside me. As he leaned forward with his hands on the railing, his eyes gazed at the beautiful morning sky.

“For some reason… I can’t really explain why, but I became interested in her soul. Since then, every time her soul reincarnated, I would find it and interact with it in various ways, both close and distant. Sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as a companion, sometimes as a friend, and sometimes as a mentor… Ah, I even played the role of a lover a few times, but none of those relationships lasted more than three years. It seems that such relationships are just not for me.

In any case, I became absorbed in meeting the various versions of him or her, and seeing where their paths led. For some reason, they were always born with congenital blindness, so I eliminated any interfering monsters and disbanded the unnecessary Demon King army, allowing human civilization to advance. Over the course of 3,000 years, A civilization capable of perfectly curing congenital blindness, was developed.

Once their eyes were able to see, he or she would desire to see even more, so I continued to develop the civilization even further… And now, after countless cycles of reincarnation, in this age where the existence of heroes and Demon Kings has faded into the background of history, the fate of the hero has come to her… Canal. To be honest, I thought this was destiny. Ah, I would finally die here, at her hands, and that would be the end. And that conviction only grew stronger when you arrived. Yes, that’s right, my true self, Ed. I am a fragment of your power. I will be defeated by Canal and become a part of you, disappearing… That must be my ultimate fate.”

Saying that, John turned his body toward me. His body distorted with a creak, and the face of John D. Jones disappeared into a black haze… From within it, a face identical to mine appeared.

“I will prepare a fitting final stage for Canal. There, we shall settle this―”

“No, there’s no need for that.”

Facing John, who had spread his arms as if to welcome me, I drew the [Dawnbreaker] sword from my waist and… plunged it straight into John.