A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Volume 2, page 12
As I was gradually turning into a useless decoration that couldn’t come up with any solutions at all, my skilled advisor returned, opening the door and sneaking in.
I supposed giving a greeting, even if in a whisper, made her very polite, in a way.
I had something I wanted to ask Dina about. Libra was also signaling me by moving her eyes slightly, suggesting that now was the time to confront her. But I silently shook my head, denying her suggestion since Aries was asleep right now. It probably wasn’t important enough to wake him up. It could wait until tomorrow.
“—So, we will now start the interrogation of the accused.”
“Everything you say will be added to my memory banks, so please feel free to spill everything.”
“Huh? What?”
It was the next day.
Libra and I captured Dina, who’d crawled her way out of bed seeming awfully carefree. We cornered her behind a table and surrounded her so she couldn’t get away.
I honestly felt like it was about time we took a scalpel to the mysteries around Dina and figured out the truth. She was too talented to just be a former background NPC. She could use teleportation magic, too. It was like she was just asking us to suspect her.
It could have only been that her presence was just so weak that we never noticed her abilities, but I couldn’t imagine that was right.
Put bluntly, she was in no way weak. In fact, she was strong. I just couldn’t believe that she had ever faded into the background looking at her now, but that might also be because she had changed.
If this were the game, I’d get it. If this were the game, that was. But, no. This was reality, and Aries and Libra were here, too. Apparently Libra was missing some of her memory data, but it was pretty strange for Aries to have forgotten her.
“Starting off: Dina, as for the teleportation magic you use, is that Exgate?”
“I have heard your claim that you cannot use it on others ‘unless they give you their permission.’ That coincides with one of the usage conditions of Exgate.”
“Ah, yes. It’s Exgate.”
...
Hey, she just admitted it outright.
No, wait. Now that I think about it, there really wasn’t a reason to hide that fact. In fact, she wasn’t really hiding it at all.
It was a rare technique, but apparently someone else used it to summon me here, too. If that low-level elf guy could use it, then, well... Yeah. I’m feeling stupid for interrogating her about it.
“Uhh, next. Tell the truth. Just what are you? We do barely remember you from two hundred years ago, so at the very least you are no human, right? But you don’t have the characteristics of an elf, heaven-winged, or vampire, either...”
“I’m just a half-elf?”
“...”
...Ahh, right... There were half-races, weren’t there?
If she’s mixed between a human and an elf, well, it makes sense that she has the appearance of a human but the lifespan of an elf.
You couldn’t make half-races in the MMO, could you? ...This is also totally my mistake.
“The reason for all your talents...”
“I trained really hard these past two hundred years so that I wouldn’t blend into the background! I’ll say it again. I am not the background!”
“...”
Okay, so it was so important you wanted to say it twice. I understand.
What now? I ran out of things to ask her.
Dina seemed somewhat proud of the fact that she’d evaded all our questions perfectly.
I looked over at Libra, hoping for help, but she simply made an X sign with her arms.
I guess this interrogation is over. It’s our loss. She’s innocent.
Hmm. Was I just thinking too much? I guess that headache might have just been a random headache without any meaning.
Oh, no. Aren’t I acting really shamefully?
Actually, I could just do that. I could have just used Observing Eye. Why did I never think to use this on her until now? ...That’s weird, even to me.
【Dina】
【Level】: 300
【Race】: Half-Elf
【Class Levels】
・Acolyte: 100
・Priest: 100
・Mage: 100
【HP】: 11000
【SP】: 9800
【STR (Strength)】: 650
【DEX (Dexterity)】: 1000
【VIT (Vitality)】: 683
【INT (Intelligence)】: 3850
【AGI (Agility)】: 900
【MND (Mind)】: 2967
【LUK (Luck)】: 643
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Oh, what? You’re actually strong, Dina.
She didn’t match up to the Twelve Heavenly Stars or me, but she could totally fight evenly against the Seven Luminaries.
...I’m still feeling like I’m missing something important, though.
While I was thinking, Dina glanced over at a pendulum clock that was hung on the wall. She spoke up as if she’d just remembered something.
“Ah, right. I just thought of something. I can teleport Libra anywhere with my teleportation magic.”
“Hm? So it is impossible for us but possible for Libra?”
“Yes. Inorganic objects aren’t subject to Exgate’s restrictions. Otherwise, I’d have to take off all my clothes. And since Libra is a golem, I should be able to bring her with me using Exgate.”
The reason why I wasn’t able to travel using Exgate was because somewhere in my heart, I didn’t completely trust Dina. And in truth, I had just been interrogating her because of my doubts, so it would be hard to claim that I trusted her. That would probably be seen as rejection, and I wouldn’t be able to use Exgate.
Dammit. Does that mean if I didn’t harbor any strange doubts I’d be able to teleport?
“We could test it now if you’d like. Using this would be much smoother if we were to test it out several times now rather than having to wing it.”
“Hm... What do you think, Libra? We believe there is value in trying it.”
“...I judge that there will be no problems. Jupiter has yet to approach this area. As long as he does not somehow have a convenient way of sensing that I am gone, the probability that he will use this opportunity to attack is less than 5%.”
Libra herself told me that her maximum sensor range was 150 km. In other words, Libra’s statement meant that Jupiter was at least 150 km away. Then as long as he didn’t attack as soon as Libra left, there would be no problems.
Hm. Well, nothing bad will happen. Probably.
I gave permission for their experiment.
“Ah, right. Then why don’t we take this chance to organize your equipment, Miss Lufas? I wouldn’t be that great at figuring out which ones are useful by myself... Really, I’m just not that knowledgeable about weapons.”
“Understood.”
“Master, it will require around ten minutes. Is that okay?”
“Sure. We do not mind.”
There’s no way Jupiter would just happen to show up in the space of the next ten minutes.
Assured by that thought, I sent the two of them off. Once they had teleported away, I returned to my room and rolled around on the bed.
The time to act will come after the two of them get back. Then we can have a discussion on how to approach Merak.
A scant seven minutes after that, someone attacked the white town and suddenly everything was kicking off.
Wai— Wha—... Really?!
＊ ＊
The Sky King Merak’s life was constantly filled with glory and honor.
He was born with good looks, of course, but he also had an excellent sense for heaven-arts. More importantly, his wings were a white so pure they almost shined.
His father was the king of the heaven-winged, and his mother was the queen. He was blessed with anything and everything; his life started at its peak. Others called him the Holy Child of Light Born of the Emperor—and he himself never doubted that his position was above others.
He was special, born to the Emperor and with a large amount of talent on top of that. For those reasons, he believed that he was the most fit to lead others. He was certain that he would be the one to save the people if they were suffering.
But that was nothing more than the road that was laid out for him. It was not something he decided for himself. Ever since he was born, he had never once made a decision on his own.
However, she was different.
Lufas Maphaahl was different.
She was like the mirror opposite of Merak with her taboo black wings. She had nothing close to glory or honor. A child of ill omen, a demon child, an abominable child—she was referred to as all those things. She had stones thrown at her, and she was constantly showered with looks of disdain. Even her name—Lufas Maphaahl—was taken from the evil demons Halfas and Malphas, who dragged people into depravity. Her original family name was something different, but she wasn’t even allowed to have that.
But she never allowed any of that to bury her. Instead, she used it as fuel. She turned the whole world against her, crushed it under her foot, and ridiculed all the heaven-winged, as if saying what small people they were for crying out like that in their tiny village.
She waged war on every country in the world without discrimination, and her acts of absorbing them all into her territory were ironically just like the deeds of the demons she was named after. Everyone shivered, saying that she really was a demon child.
But Merak thought she was blindingly radiant.
The throne Merak sat on had been given to him. It wasn’t something he’d taken for himself with his own power, like her throne. Merak’s people had been there from the beginning. They weren’t like the people who had pledged loyalty to her of their own will. The course of Merak’s life had been decided from the moment he was born, unlike her, who’d decided her course for herself.
Those who have, and those who have not. White and black. Light and shadow.
There was no doubt that Merak was more blessed with his surroundings.
However, if one looked closer, they’d find that she had ownership of the world within her grasp, clawing her way up until even the devilfolk couldn’t easily lay their hands on her. Before Merak noticed, he was looking up at her.
Could I do that? Could I, after being born with black wings and living in the worst of environments, turn all of that around and climb that far? ...No way. It’d be impossible for me.
She is the true king—one that grasps power no matter what environment they were born in. That makes for a true king.
That was why Merak was consumed by a thought even now.
Every day since he’d defeated Lufas, Merak asked himself something. And he always came up with the same answer.
I’m not fit to be king...
“That is why I’m telling you, Your Majesty. You must show the power of a hero to those uppity filthy-wings and shut them up!”
“No. We should instead exile them from the country.”
“The discontent of your citizens is rising. It’s because you treat them as equals for some reason that they’re so conceited!”
Merak looked at the chirping ministers surrounding him as if this was somehow happening to someone else. They all place so much importance on the whiteness of wings, but that’s outdated. If we keep on like this, the heaven-winged will eventually decline.
Not only is the overall population of heaven-winged low in the first place, but quite a number of them are born with strangely colored wings. Since the trend is more pronounced in areas with more mana, the mana in the air is most likely the cause of their wings being colored.
If that’s the case, the color of one’s wings shows how much as well as what kinds of mana one absorbed before they were born. Wouldn’t that mean the ones with darker wings would be superior? Isn’t the only reason why the heaven-winged’s wings are white because we’d been living in a mountain with sparse mana?
Recently, Merak had started to think that way. And if he was right, then that would mean the heaven-winged were running away from their own evolution.
All these people talk big, but the ones with colored wings started living here first. They should’ve been prioritized in the first place.
Gjallarhorn was originally something Merak founded for those with colored wings who had nowhere else to live. The reason for it was nothing more than atonement for having betrayed Lufas. But in a fit of irony, the “Maiden” Parthenos—one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars who were Lufas’ subordinates—occupied the white-winged’s hometown.
As a result, Merak had no choice but to accept them. Once he did, they once again gripped the reins of power and quickly started discriminating against and throwing stones at those with colored wings. It’s like nothing’s changed at all.
That was why the white-wings were the ones who were multiplying, and the colored-wings were nothing more than victims.
In that case, Merak should just have told them all off. He should have said they all needed to cut it out.
But Merak understood the feelings of those in the white-winged faction. There was no way long-standing tradition and what was considered common sense in the past could be reformed so suddenly, so Merak found himself wanting to take their opinions into account, at least a little. And the current situation was a result of Merak refusing to take sides.
Both the black and white sides were dissatisfied, losing trust in Merak. The country’s delicate peace could blow up at any second.
I’m so incompetent... Merak’s answer to his self-imposed question bound him firmly. It all started and ended with self-abuse.
But today, things didn’t end like that.
It was time to pay the price for allowing the problems of this country to continue for so long.
A part of the white town exploded. At the same time that the reports started rolling in, Merak realized that civil war was now unavoidable.
＊ ＊
Suddenly, bullets of wind rained down on the white town, destroying houses and other buildings. Several people were wounded or crushed under their houses as a result. The white town should have been peaceful but was engulfed in fear and confusion in an instant, becoming a tumult that took over the area.
“It’s an attack! Those bastards from the black town are attacking us!”
That was when Jupiter, disguised as a human, started shouting false information. Of course, that attack was something he’d committed himself, but no one else knew that. The people of the white town were already paranoid, so they wouldn’t think it was the doing of anyone other than the black town.
All that was already enough to set off the people of the white town, but a voice reverberated through their heads, striking the final blow.
“Kill them.”
The voice sounded demonic, and just listening to it seemed like it would shave away at one’s sanity. It produced more discomfort than nails on a chalkboard by several tenfold, and the voice disturbed the hearts of everyone in the area.
“Kill if you detest them.”
The next moment, they all caught a glimpse of an incarnation of a demon. It had a goat’s head on a human body with bat wings growing out of its torso. Its image was exactly that of a demon from myth.
Said form spoke, stirring up the hatred inside them.
“Kill.”
The residents of the white town lost their reason and sanity.
There was the sudden attack, the confusion, and the fear. And then there was the incitement. The demon’s invitation seemed to be directly whispering to the hearts of the residents of the white town.
The heaven-winged of the white town—who up until now may have discriminated against the other side but nevertheless toed the line—changed into beings with absolutely evil countenances not unlike demons themselves as they all reached for weapons.
“Kill them.”
“Kill them all!”
“Drive them out!”
The angel’s descendants, driven to madness, all shouted in unison as they formed up in rows and columns. There was no discrimination between young and old, male and female. Even the children joined the formation while screaming hateful curses.
There was no longer any sense of reason holding them back.
“Those bastards from the white town are attacking! They’re going to kill us all!”
The black town was in an uproar. They already knew that the white side of town hated them and wanted them gone, but somewhere in their hearts, they didn’t take that seriously. After all, they were the first ones to settle in this country, and the king had said the country was made for them. That was why they thought they were safe.
But there were also people who had expected this to happen. The reddish-black-winged man who Lufas had met, for instance.
See? Look at that. I knew that opportunistic king couldn’t be trusted. He was the one who killed Lufas in the first place and sent us all back down to hell. In the end, he’s just another white-wing supremacist. He’s no different from the others. He looks down on us with disdain.
“Take.”
That was when they all heard a voice.
It was a demon’s whisper which instantly melted away their reason, driving them berserk. The voice spread throughout the black town, magnifying their feelings of anger.
“Take before you are taken from.”
Not wanting to be stolen from was completely natural, something that everyone felt.
Up until now, the people of the black town were always being stolen from and oppressed. They were discriminated against just because of the color of their wings, and simply clung to each other without even a place to live. And as soon as they thought they had gained the ruler they desired in Lufas, she was killed by Merak, and they were once again targets of oppression.
So the question was, would they allow themselves to be stolen from again? Would they just allow things to repeat?
“...We’ll steal from them.”
Someone spat out a curse.
“If they’re going to try to take from us, we’ll take from them instead!” another passionate voice shouted out from the crowd.
Voices of anger started appearing one by one, matching that fervor.
