“Hey, Furcas.”
“Hmm?”
Kaguya asked without looking back at Furcas, who was crouching down to confirm Seere’s death.
“—The Corpse King is an otherworlder, isn’t he?”
A moment of silence.
After a pause long even for Furcas,
“Why?”
the Knight asked Kaguya back.
“I’m certain now because of that reaction. One of the heroes summoned by the Holy Kingdom of Grifill a hundred and eighty years ago. I thought it was strange when he overreacted to the name Giltums… but looking back with that sense of dissonance, the timing and everything matches up. The reason the Corpse King disappeared for so long is also clear.”
Because of that, Kaguya faced another question.
And as expected, Furcas also looked out at the scene through the window with a face more serious than usual.
“Helheim… can you see the distortion of this organization now, Gremory?”
“…The distortion is likely the Corpse King himself. Does he have a death wish?”
“Who knows?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Furcas made his armor clank loudly.
Otherworlders.
A turning point of the world that frequently appears in history. Peerless in strength.
A match for a thousand. They blend into history as heroes and are passed down to future generations.
The characteristic of these heroes who appear in various forms in heroic tales is—being [lonely].
They are strangers who wandered into a different world. It is a self-evident truth that they are solitary in this different world.
But that is not it.
They do not appear on the main stage unless forced by necessity.
There is one reason for that—to avoid contact with the creatures of this world.
The creatures of this world possess mana without exception.
They release mana from the mana pathways everyone has in their bodies to cast magic.
And they recover by attracting and taking in mana from the atmosphere to replace what was consumed. They become part of the circulation in that way.
This mana is the “source of life.” Just as races with large amounts of mana—demons, Primordials, elves, etc.—are long-lived, mana capacity and lifespan are proportional.
The reason Gulba, a mere human, lives for hundreds of years can also be explained by this causal relationship between mana capacity and lifespan.
On the other hand—otherworlders are not subject to that.
Otherworlders are “foreign objects” to this world. From the start, they are not incorporated into the circulation.
Otherworlders cannot—attract mana from the atmosphere.
The bodies of otherworlders, which have not been completely reconstructed, do not have such a function in the first place.
Then, what is the true identity of that extraordinary mana, starting with the Corpse King?
In reality—otherworlders have an organ like an [external mana tank] generated within their bodies.
Along with the mana pathways to handle magic and the sense to feel mana, they are given “finite mana.”
Even for otherworlders, there are individual differences in the mana they can use in a day. If they run out of a day’s worth of mana, they will be exhausted just like the creatures of this world.
And, instead of mana from the atmosphere, mana is replenished into the mana pathways from that mana tank-like organ.
It’s not recovery through the world’s circulation, but complete self-sufficiency.
Even if mana vanished from the world, otherworlders could replenish mana from the tank inside their bodies.
To put it simply, in a world where oxygen cannot be taken in from the atmosphere, they are creatures that possess a giant oxygen tank inside their bodies. That is an otherworlder.
—The flaw of such an otherworlder.
It is a “large hole” opened in the mana tank.
It exists as a fatal weakness that one wouldn’t notice if living normally; the weakness of an otherworlder.
However, even if there is a hole, the tank is filled with more than enough mana to compensate for it, so it doesn’t become much of a problem.
Mana that won’t run out for hundreds of years if no magic is used, or even two hundred years if used frequently, is provided in an otherworlder’s mana tank.
But that is—only if “living alone.”
The creatures of this world attract mana.
Yes. This principle is no exception for the mana leaking from the mana tank inside an otherworlder’s body.
Otherworlders, who are constantly leaking mana, will have their mana sucked away if they get close to the creatures of this world.
In other words—when an otherworlder comes into contact with the creatures of this world, their lifespan is shaved away.
Conversely, the creatures of this world suck vast amounts of mana from the otherworlder, their lifespans extend, and their mana capacity increases significantly.
This, this was exactly the reason for Helheim’s strength.
“I could understand if it were normal humans… but a half-breed of demon and angel. A Primordial dragon and wolf. And the icing on the cake, a spirit that is a mass of mana… surrounding himself with nothing but guys who eat mana like crazy… is he really that afraid of being lonely~?”
“—Ten years from now, all your mana will be sucked away. Oh, Corpse King.”
■
“Otherworld…er?”
“Yeah. Sorry for keeping it a secret.”
“Wh-what are you talking about… Hel-kun.”
Hresvelgr turned back to me with a stunned expression.
But this is my secret, without falsehood.
I was afraid.
“Hresvelgr, grab my hand.”
“……! N-no!”
As expected, or rather naturally, Hresvelgr distanced herself from me.
The creatures of this world attract mana.
Even at this very moment, Hresvelgr is sucking away the mana leaking from my body—in other words, my very lifespan.
This girl hated that.
“I thought it would turn out like this. If I told this secret… what do you think the Hakkai (Eight Precepts) will do?”
I must have a pathetically unreliable face right now.
I might be unbearable to look at due to anxiety and fear.
But I desperately reach out my hand.
“If you knew that being together would keep sucking away my lifespan… you guys would definitely leave me… Because you don’t want me to die… you’d never stay with me, right?”
“……Ah……”
Finding no words, Hresvelgr’s lips trembled.
As if mirroring my face, her beautiful face was stained with sadness.
“That’s why… I couldn’t tell you. Something like this… even I want to be with you forever!!”
A scream of raw emotion, unlike me.
My throat hurts. Wanting to look away from Hresvelgr’s face, I look down.
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“…Hresvelgr… won’t you stay with me…?”
“…I-If we’re together, Hel-kun… you’ll d-die…”
As if unable to say the rest, Hresvelgr covered her mouth with trembling hands.
I’ve spilled the secret.
All that’s left is to show my feelings.
“I… had no intention of telling you this until I died. I know it’s unfaithful and the worst. But to me, you guys are… the family I made in this world. I don’t care if you think it’s just playing house. Shaving my life away is nothing to me… you’re precious family I don’t want to leave even if I die.”
I wonder what Hresvelgr thought my secret was.
At the very least, she probably hadn’t imagined it was something like this.
I appeal. I keep appealing.
And I believe that if it’s Hresvelgr—the free-spirited and selfish wind spirit—she will surely take my hand.
“Hey, Fu-chan.”
“…Hel-kun…”
“Fu-chan, don’t you want to be with me and the guys from Hakkai?”
“—I want to be together! Of course I do!!”
Hresvelgr, who couldn’t find words to say to me, said so clearly without hesitation this time.
That’s right. And Hresvelgr can only live honestly. That’s how she was created, the free wind spirit Hresvelgr.
“—Live together with me, Hresvelgr. If I’m going to die anyway, I want to be killed by you all.”
There is no wavering.
Humans die someday. At that time, if I can be with those guys from Helheim, I don’t mind if it’s early.
So before that… so that these kids can look forward and live in a world without me.
So that they can laugh instead of crying when they remember me.
“Let’s go home, Hresvelgr.”
As a King, I’ll live my life to the fullest.
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