Chapter 168 - Volume 8 (1/2)

Volume 8, Chapter 26: It seems Like I’ve Become a Legend Again, Part 2

“This is ……”

Kyoji advanced carefully with the remaining half of his forces, and a few hours later they found something that resembled an altar behind the steps that lead down into the basement.

Just looking at it, Kyoji could tell that this altar would only respond to the pure magic power of the [Hero]. He didn’t know if he could get at it, and it was certainly not in the range of things that he sought out.

“Still, I have no choice but to try. Everyone, back up.”

“But……”

“It seems to only react to a Hero.”

As Kyoji had everyone else step back and squeezed out [Pure Magic] from his soul into the altar, the altar began to glow brightly, and letters began to form on the walls.

“““Oohhhhhhhhhhhh!!”””

“This is…… the [Hero’s Secret Arts]?”

The [Hero’s Secret Arts], left by the first hero. Kyoji’s shoulders drooped a little, even though knowing secrets of all of the other heroes’ military power was cause for celebration.

“Lord Kyoji, there’s a small passageway through here.”

“It’s true!”

Hearing his subordinates call out, Kyoji rushed forth.

The passageway that his subordinate had found was a really cramped and dark passage, and even though it wasn’t quite clear, it seemed like monolith-like objects continued down the corridor on its sides.

“We’re going in. Everyone, line formation. Jared, take point.”

“Understood.”

The oldest of the senior knights stood in front with his shield out.

Only Jared had been with Kyoji from the very beginning when he came to this world, and he was the only one amongst them who had become [Hero-class] through tempering in battle, and not through artificial growth. Kyoji trusted Jared the most.

They walked down the dark passage in a line.

Nothing seemed to happen, but when Kyoji, who was in the rear, walked past it, the stone plates lit up.

“Is this also a secret art?”

“It looks like it…… but it’s not meant for battle. And it’s from an older language than the writing in the last room, so I can’t quite tell. “

When Kyoji had been summoned to this world, he had acquired the [Common Language Skill], but the characters on this stone board were old, and it would take a long time to read even if he had the skills to.

“We’ll decipher it later. Let’s advance.”

“““Yes.”””

Things were going well. What he sought was ahead. But,

“guh”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t think we can advance any further……”

“It seems like there’s a barrier for you all. I will go on alone here. The rest of you, return to the front hall and secure the perimeter.”

“……I apologize.”

Jared bowed his head again, but Kyoji waved him off and walked all the way to the back of the passage alone.

“Ohhh…… This is the contract for skills?”

At the very end of the passage was an enormous stone monolith.

It seemed that the castle itself was a magic circle to concentrate and absorb magic from the surroundings, and the small letters that had been carved deep into the enormous stone plate glowed with a pulse.

It was an ancient contract made by the great mages with the Great Spirits for their lives, to give people the use of skills.

“Hehehe…… heheHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHEHEUEHUEAHAHA!! I can use any skill as I like with this. I can give and take as I wish! With this power, I can become the prophesized god of the new world!”

Kyoji, who usually kept his calm, was unable to suppress his excitement as he touched the stone stele.

While the fine print of the spirit language was unreadable to Kyoji, but Sefira had told him that he could control this contract by pouring his own magic into it and then “overwriting” the contractor.

“Kuuuh……”

However, no matter how much magic he poured in, the overwriting didn’t end.

It wasn’t something that he could do in a day, and in fact it would take months at the least.

“What, this is……”

Kyoji tried to break contact, but his hand could not be removed from the stone board. And in fact, even if Kyoji tried to stop the flow of magic power, it was being forcibly ripped from him.

“Don’t you dare take me lightly!!!”

Kyoji rapidly calculated a counterplan and drew out [Pure Magic] from his soul. Although it was forced, he thought that the use of the pure magic power would rip out some of the control of this stone tablet.

“HYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Yes, thank you for your efforts~”

When the voice of the young girl suddenly cut in, the stone stele suddenly stopped absorbing his power, and Kyoji, whose hand was freed, jerked backwards, falling onto his butt.

“Princess Yurushia……!?”

“Oh my, it’s been a while, Keiji.”

She suddenly appeared there – the golden Saint, Yurushia, who was supposed to have been taken over by evil and turned into the [Demon Lord].

Something was wrong. It felt different from before. Kyoji’s eyebrows knitted even while he was surprised at her casual neighborly attitude.

“How are you here…… no, how did you get rid of the curse of the [Demon Lord]?”

Kyoji’s senses as a [Hero] caused him to recognize the existence of the [Demon Lord] or some other equivalent “evil”.

It was insane to try to even save the vessel from that existence.

That was why Kyoji had started to work on his own purposes and abandoned humanity, who dreamed to rescuing Yurushia.

Was that really Yurushia before him? Her black hair had returned to its original beautiful golden blonde, but that didn’t mean that it was real. As Kyoji doubted, Yurushia smiled beautifully and knowingly…… a smile that seemed a little pleased with herself.

“Of course, I had everyone’s help. Aah, yes, there was some “Traitor” who had run away early from the [Demon Lord] earlier than anyone, but Mizuki’s squad has become the new [Heroes], and there were the two Dark Elven Princesses who helped them, and it seems that they’ve both calmed down too. The Demon Lord is gone, and I think they’ve signed a ceasefire agreement too?”

It was like he was being rejected from a job interview. Yurushia giggled along, and then laughed, as Kyoji watched on bug-eyed.

In the outside world, Kyoji was being called a traitor who had fled from the Demon Lord, and in that new, peaceful world, where the warrior heroes were no longer needed, new heroes were born.

“……… is that so?”

But Kyoji had all the time in the world to be able to mock himself over his own failure.

In order to get rid of everything and attain everything in this world, he had asked for this [Skill Contract] without gathering sufficient information about it.

Various things were in motion, and as long as this suspicious girl died, it could all go well.

Up until this point, Kyoji was unable to do so thanks to the bindings of his own social position, and all of those annoyingly powerful Hero-class attendants of hers were supporting her.