The night before.
“I’m going to become the new Hero.”
Beatrice was understandably baffled by Ex’s out-of-nowhere declaration.
「Ex, you can’t become the Hero just because you want to.」
“I don’t mean I’m actually going to become the Hero. More precisely, I’m going to ‘pretend’ to be one.”
There were two things in this world that proved someone had become the Hero.
The first was the pillar of light that appeared when the Hero was chosen.
The second was drawing the Holy Sword.
As for the legend about the Hero ‘wielding all three powers,’ that was merely a description of the Hero’s abilities. It wasn’t proof that someone was the Hero.
“The Holy Sword is in the Theocracy, so there’s no way I can go draw it right now. Which means all I need to do is recreate the pillar of light, and I can pass myself off as the Hero.”
「Wait, Ex! Isn't impersonating the Hero is punishable by death?!」
“No one can prove I’m lying until I stand before the Holy Sword anyway. Not even Lady Frey, and she’s a Saintess Candidate.”
「Wait, waitwaitwaitwait! Even so, nobody’s going to accept that there can be two Heroes in the same era! Someone is absolutely going to challenge you over this!」
“Exactly.”
「What?!」
Ex continued explaining.
“Two Heroes have appeared. That’s not something anyone can ignore. One of the two has to be a fake. But nobody can prove which one, because both of us can use internal energy, mana, and divine power.”
Not even the Theocracy could ignore something like that, much less the Empire.
If one of them was a fake, they would have to determine which one was the real Hero.
And if both of them were Heroes, that would create an entirely different strategic problem.
Naturally, every eye in the Empire would turn toward them.
“That attention is exactly what I’m after.”
「Attention…? What do you mean by… Ah!」
Beatrice finally realized what Ex was planning.
「You’re going to take down the Revolutionary Front in advance!」
“Fortunately, I know someone who belongs to the Revolutionary Front but holds a grudge against them. My master, who left the Academy.”
Roxwell’s contact information was still saved on Ex’s Mana Phone.
Until now, Ex had deliberately avoided contacting him because he didn’t want to interfere with whatever Roxwell was doing.
But the time had finally come.
“Once we know where the Revolutionary Front is, wiping them out won’t be difficult. My master will probably start destroying them from the inside as well.”
At the end of the day, the Revolutionary Front was a cancer festering inside the Empire.
Now that the Imperial Princess had been exposed as a demon and the cause that justified their rebellion had collapsed, they were more vulnerable than ever.
This was the perfect opportunity to cut them all out at once.
“We can also lure out the demons on the Theocracy’s side.”
「Lure them out?」
“The Theocracy only gets one real chance to launch its attack. The problem is, we don’t know exactly when they’ll choose to do it. The finals will have the largest crowd, so that would be the obvious time, but if they attack at any other point, it could turn into a massacre.”
「…If both Heroes are standing in the finals, they’ll naturally choose that moment to strike.」
“And that’s exactly when the trap His Highness and the Chairman prepared will finally come into play. Andras is hiding right now, but if she’s trying to decide when to make her move, she’ll come to the same conclusion.”
A crooked smile spread across Ex’s lips.
“If this works properly, we can gather all the vermin in one place and exterminate them in a single sweep. We’d get rid of them without even having to dirty our own hands. Once that happens, the Empire will finally escape the threat of destruction.”
「You underhanded! Heinous! Con Artist!」
“Please don’t be too harsh. That actually hurts…”
「That makes it even better!」
“?”
Beatrice had been positively bouncing with excitement, but she quickly settled herself down and turned serious.
「But creating a pillar of light on the level of the Goddess’s radiance won’t be easy. Simply producing a lot of light won’t accomplish anything. Any cleric who has mastered miracles of divine power will see through it immediately. Even with my abilities, that would be extremely difficult.」
“Even if we have enough divine power?”
「If we had enough divine power, then it would be possible, but… The divine power stored inside this ring… Even if I used everything I’ve gathered so far, it still wouldn’t be enough. Unless we happened to have something containing that much power…」
“What about this?”
Ex pulled out his other Soul Trap Ring.
It was the ring Berith had used to capture Ex’s soul.
Only after purchasing Divine Power Manifestation had Ex been able to sense the staggering amount of divine power stored inside it.
He had kept the ring just in case it ever became useful.
And now, that decision was finally paying off.
「Ah, that’s…!」
Beatrice sensed the divine power inside it as well.
「That’s the ring Andras gave you before, Sir Ex! It contains two years’ worth of accumulated prayer! That’s more than enough!」
“If we release two years’ worth of divine power all at once…”
「Creating a pillar of light would be child’s play! …Gasp! I serve the Goddess! How could I say something so blasphemous…?!」
“I’m sure she’ll forgive you. It’s for a greater cause.”
「Even if the Goddess won’t forgive you, I will!」
Not that her forgiveness seemed particularly relevant.
「But shouldn’t we tell Brother ahead of time?」
That was the one concern Ex had.
“His Highness is far too cautious. If I tell him the plan beforehand, he’ll start making preparations to ensure everything is safe, and that’ll delay us too much. Just this once, I intend to carry out the operation on my own.”
「Brother is going to dunk you in lava.」
“When that happens, I’ll be counting on you, Lady Beatrice.”
「Hehe. Leave it to me. If I threaten to stop speaking to him for a few years, Brother won’t have any choice but to give in.」
‘Imperial Princess, are you sure that actually works on him?’
And so, the operation to scam the entire nation steadily came together.
To make absolutely certain everything went smoothly, Ex opened the system for the first time in a while.
『Base Stats
Stamina : 4.0
Intelligence : 3.0 [Increased by 0.5]
Agility : 3.7 [Increased by 0.2]
Magic Power : 3.0 [Increased by 0.5]
Demonic Power : 1.0
Divinity : 0.1 [Newly Added]
Luck : 0.0 [Fixed State]
Charm : 2.0』
Perhaps because he had purchased the Divine Power Manifestation talent, a new stat called Divinity had appeared beneath Demonic Power.
It was certainly ironic that he possessed both demonic power and divine power at the same time, but once the system had officially registered it, there wasn’t much he could say.
‘Yeah, I paid 50,000 points for that ability. It had better do at least this much.’
It was a little disappointing that his Divinity was only 0.1.
Then again, he had never properly prayed in his life, so the result was hardly surprising.
‘I can just buy more stats.’
He immediately checked his remaining Editing Points.
『Current Editing Points : 72,900』
‘…What the hell? Why do I have so many?’
Things had been so chaotic lately that Ex hadn’t been paying proper attention to the system. It was almost strange that his Editing Points had piled up this much without him noticing.
He soon found the reason.
『Winner of the Turnabout Trial! You have escaped the status of a criminal and exposed the true mastermind!』
『Titles Orator (B), Gambler (B) acquired.
50,000 Editing Points acquired.』
『New Titles
Orator (B) : Deception +50%, Crowd Control +25%
Gambler (B) : Mental Resistance +50%, Intelligence +1.0』
『Upgraded Titles
Politician (C) -] Orator (B)
Thick-Skinned (C) -] Gambler (B)』
Ex had been rewarded for exposing Andras’s secret during the trial and managing to escape conviction. He had received two B-rank titles along with a massive amount of Editing Points, which explained why his balance had grown so much.
‘So these titles are part of why I managed to win the trial.’
At this point, he was starting to wonder whether he had become just as specialized in manipulating crowds as Andras.
Whatever the case, the good news was that he had more than enough Editing Points to raise both Divinity and Demonic Power.
Without hesitation, Ex purchased both stats all the way up to their current maximum of 2.0.
『Base Stats
Stamina : 4.0
Intelligence : 3.0
Agility : 3.7
Magic Power : 3.0
Demonic Power : 2.0 [Increased by 1.0]
Divinity : 2.0 [Increased by 1.9]
Luck : 0.0 [Fixed State]
Charm : 2.0』
The instant the purchase went through, Ex felt something inside him change.
But it wasn’t happening inside his physical body.
It came from somewhere much deeper.
His soul itself was changing.
‘Ugh, I feel sick…’
Was it because good and evil were growing stronger inside him at the same time?
An inexplicable wave of nausea hit him all at once.
「Sir Ex, did you eat something bad?」
“No, it’s just… Ugh-”
He eventually had no choice but to bolt for the bathroom and violently empty his stomach.
「Aah! Sir Ex! If you’re going to throw up, take the ring off first!」
“Sorry, ugh… Bleeeargh…”
「Wait, why is your vomit that color?! I’ve never seen vomit with black and white all mixed together like that! Not that I’ve ever thrown up before!」
Ex wanted to ask Serry what the hell was happening to him, but Beatrice was right there, making that difficult.
Serry still only responded to voice commands.
‘I really need to raise the System Level soon…’
It was only after he had spent a long while vomiting that his body finally settled down.
And once it did, Ex instinctively understood what had happened.
‘Looks like using Divinity and Demonic Power together is going to be difficult.’
The two powers were clashing with each other, violently repelling one another.
Each seemed unwilling to tolerate the other’s existence, and both were fighting to occupy the center of his soul. But since they were perfectly equal in strength, neither side could win.
They couldn’t mutually annihilate each other, either, so instead they kept their distance to avoid making contact, circling endlessly around the center of his soul.
Ex found it bizarre that what should have been nothing more than raw energy seemed to possess such a distinct will of its own.
‘At least I didn’t just flush all those points down the drain.’
The purchase alone had cost him a staggering 44,500 points.
Combined with the 50,000 points he had spent on Divine Power Manifestation, he had invested nearly 100,000 points into this.
It was an enormous relief that the system hadn’t simply erased 100,000 points’ worth of abilities in the name of plausibility.
‘Wait. Plausibility…?’
A sudden question occurred to him.
The system was obsessed with plausibility.
Whenever something happened that violated plausibility, the system would inevitably come after whoever caused it, whether that person was Elysia or Ex.
It was practically an absolute law of this world.
‘But what about everything that’s happened to me?’
He had seemingly died twice, only to come back to life.
His race kept changing back and forth whenever it felt like it.
Now he possessed both Divinity and Demonic Power at the same time.
‘Does any of this make sense under the rules of plausibility?’
Of course not.
If anything, every single one of those things was a direct violation of plausibility.
And after all those violations, the Main Scenario had gone off the rails, while even Leon’s changes had become impossible to predict.
There was only one reasonable conclusion.
‘The system is hiding something I don’t know about.’
And whatever that secret was, its value had to be beyond anything Ex could currently imagine.
Ex decided that someday, he would have to analyze the system in depth.
For now, though, there were more immediate problems to deal with.
If he was going to pull off a scam on the scale of the entire Empire, he needed to be in perfect condition.
“Lady Beatrice, I need to rest for tomorrow, so I’ll go return the ring to His Highness.”
「No. I’m staying here.」
“…That would be difficult. Even if you’re only present in soul form, spending the night together with you would still be rather improper…”
「Brother Darius snores way too loudly! If I can’t sleep and collapse from exhaustion, then as the Sword of the Imperial Princess, Sir Ex, it’ll be your fault, won’t it?」
“That is the most ridiculous logic I’ve ever heard…”
「It’s an order! Tonight, I’m sleeping with Sir Ex! If you refuse, I won’t cooperate!」
With no other choice, Ex contacted Darius through his Mana Phone and explained the entire situation.
Naturally, Darius responded…
[You fucking son of a-]
Only after listening to thirty straight minutes of majestically dignified, impeccably disciplined Imperial profanity was Ex finally allowed to go to sleep.
‘What a miserable life…’
***
And now.
The Empire had been plunged into absolute chaos.
“There are two Heroes?!”
“That’s impossible!! Wasn’t Leon the only Hero?!”
“But that light was definitely the Goddess’s radiance!”
An unprecedented event had occurred.
There were now two Heroes.
Could two Heroes truly exist in the same era?
The followers of Deuslute went back through their histories and doctrines.
They searched every last passage to determine whether such a thing was even possible.
And the conclusion they reached was…
“There is no rule stating that there can only be one Hero.”
No such rule existed.
There was one Hero.
It was so obvious that nobody had ever seen a reason to explicitly write it down.
Except now, for absolutely no apparent reason, there were suddenly two.
“WHY ARE THERE TWO HEROES!!!”
“I told you not to write your thesis on Hero legends.”
“AAAAAGH-!! MY TIME!! ALL MY WORK!!!”
The anguished screams of scholars who had spent their lives researching the Hero or writing papers on the subject echoed throughout the Empire.
And they weren’t the only ones affected.
A storm also swept through the ranks of the powerful nobles and officials who had been trying to establish connections with Leon to secure their own interests.
“Prepare to make contact with this new Hero named Ex!!”
“Family Head, what if that man turns out not to be the Hero…?”
“We’ve already missed our chance with Leon! I don’t care if Ex isn’t the Hero! While everyone else is still waiting to see what happens, we need to claim him first!”
“B-But even so, isn’t this all rather sudden…?”
“On top of that, I hear Ex has extremely close ties to the Imperial Prince! If we don’t get on that side now, we’ll never get another chance!”
The balance of power had already begun shifting toward Ex.
The fact that Ex and Darius were known to be close had ended up carrying far more weight among the Empire’s power brokers than anyone might have expected.
Whether Ex was truly the Hero almost didn’t matter.
He was still an opportunity to establish a connection with the Imperial Prince.
Meanwhile, Ex himself was currently standing before Darius…
“GET OVER HERE, YOU DAMN BASTARD-!!!!”
“Please calm yourself, Your Highness…!”
“Milia, let go of me!! I swear, I’m ripping that bastard’s head off with my own hands today!! I’ll drink wine from his skull!!”
“You cannot, Your Highness…! It’s already too late…!”
Milia was desperately restraining Darius as he thrashed around, hell-bent on murdering Ex.
All Ex could do was prostrate himself flat on the floor and tremble until Darius’s fury finally burned itself out.
「Ahahahaha! I’ve never seen Brother this angry before!! Seeing this alone made everything we did today worth it!!」
“Lady Beatrice, please pray that I survive His Highness’s wrath.”
「Ah~ Apparently even the Goddess can’t help you with that one.」
“Almighty Deuslute, guide me with your eternal light. Almighty Deuslute, guide me with your eternal light…”
「Give up! There’s no light for you here!」
The reason for Darius’s explosion was obvious.
“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THE ENTIRE FLOW OF THE EMPIRE HAS CHANGED BECAUSE YOU DECLARED YOURSELF THE HERO?! LOOK! LOOK AT THESE REPORTS PILING UP LIKE A FUCKING MOUNTAIN!!!”
With the political situation of the Empire shifting by the hour, the amount of paperwork Darius had to handle had grown into a literal mountain.
Even someone as capable at administration as Darius couldn’t possibly process all of it.
“DIDN’T YOU SAY YOU WERE GOING TO DO THIS DURING THE FINALS-!!! DID YOU CHANGE THE PLAN SPECIFICALLY SO I’D BE CRUSHED TO DEATH UNDER A PILE OF PAPERWORK?! LET GO OF ME, MILIAAAA!!!”
No one was happy when their workload suddenly multiplied, so Darius’s fury was perfectly understandable.
After raging for a while longer, Darius finally exhausted enough of his anger to sit down in his chair and catch his breath.
“Haa… Haa… You could have told me first… Why did you do this without consulting me at all?”
“…May I answer honestly?”
“Lies won’t work on me, so you had better tell me the truth.”
“I thought Your Highness would oppose it if I told you beforehand…”
The lie detector judged his answer to be completely truthful.
A vein visibly bulged across Darius’s forehead.
“OF COURSE I WOULD HAVE OPPOSED IT!!! A rumor would have been one thing, but by making it look as though there are definitively two Heroes, you’ve completely altered the political landscape of the entire Empire, you miserable bastard!!! AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN EVERYONE FINDS OUT LATER THAT YOU AREN’T ACTUALLY THE HERO?!”
“B-But this was the best way to prevent the destruction that’s coming… Even if an attack happens, we have to minimize the casualties.”
“Ghk, grrrrgh… AAAAAGH-!! WHY DOES THAT HAVE TO BE TRUE, DAMN IT!!”
BANG!!
Darius slammed his fist down on the desk.
“Explain everything! You had some kind of plan before you pulled this insanity, didn’t you? If I don’t like that plan, I swear I really will split open your skull and offer it on the Goddess’s altar!!”
Only then was Ex finally able to explain the plan he and Beatrice had devised.
As Darius listened, his eyes widened in disbelief.
By the end of it, he could only click his tongue in astonishment.
“You absolute lunatic… You seriously expect a ridiculous plan like that to work…?”
Then he let out a single incredulous laugh and finished running through the calculations in his head.
“…But I like it.”
And just like that, Ex managed to secure Darius’s approval as well.
–TL Notes–
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