Chapter 151. Anticipation
The Great Hero of Hope entered the Isolated Sea.
Yeah, that title is too long, so let’s just call him Hope.
Hm?
His name overlaps with Ruin’s daughter?
I don’t know that kid, so I’m not going to worry about it.
Anyway.
That guy was incredibly...
Extremely...
Unbelievably talented!
It took me years to figure out how to win a single battle.
But that guy figured it out just by talking to me.
“...Ah, I see. I understand the principle.”
Every time he asked—
“How do I do this?”
“What about that?”
I would answer—
“Wouldn’t it work like this?”
“Or maybe like that?”
And his response was always the same.
“...Ah, I see. I understand the principle.”
Needless to say, afterward he would show me a perfect result.
When I saw him completely master my image training...
No.
When I saw him use it far better than I ever could...
Honestly, I fell into despair.
Even the method I use now to predict my own future is something I copied after watching him do it.
“I cannot live forever like you, so I have to do at least this much.”
“Haha! Yes, I suppose you do.”
The things I needed to sit quietly and think deeply about...
That guy could do them while fighting.
While moving.
Even in real combat.
Effortlessly.
He was a completely superior version of me.
Whenever I used him as an opponent during image training, all I could imagine was an endless battle that eventually ended with my defeat.
Someone once told me that happened because I had already decided in my mind that I couldn’t beat him.
But seriously...
Who in any world could look at Hope and genuinely think they could win?
Maybe Ruin.
That man makes his own decisions in ways nobody can predict, so even Hope probably couldn’t see through him.
A perfect counter!
“And because I cannot live forever, I need to leave this place.”
“Who told you not to leave? Why are you glaring at me because you can’t get out?”
And yet...
That very Hope.
The man who seemed like only Ruin himself could properly counter him...
Surprisingly couldn’t escape the Isolated Sea.
Really.
It was shocking.
Was he trapped in the maze of the sea?
Well...
Kind of.
But do you think he was some ordinary guy?
He could reach his destination in two or three days.
I’m telling you, he was anything but ordinary.
He was beyond anything you could imagine!
He could do everything!
His main weapon was a spear, but he once picked up a sword and people started calling him a sword master!
The world itself loved him...!
“If you help me, I believe I can leave this place easily.”
“Me? Help you? Why? Several of my coffin houses collapsed because of you.”
“...I am sorry about that.”
Hope had assumed the people I kept inside those coffin houses were people I had killed.
Or sacrifices I had received.
Something along those lines.
So he went ahead and performed some kind of exorcism ritual on them without permission.
Yeah.
That crazy mage bastard must have told him something like that!
Damn him!
Those people were perfectly alive!
...
Well, anyway.
Hope quickly realized that something was strange.
But by then, it was already too late.
“To think that priest was a necromancer....”
“Yeah. I never imagined he would use unconscious people as sacrifices to summon a demon either.”
At the time, one coffin house held around two hundred and thirty people.
Ah, right.
I said people washed ashore once a month, didn’t I?
But you know how many islands are in this sea?
There are so many that even I don’t know all of them.
I picked those people up while traveling around.
And the Haemo Church existed all over the place, throughout all kinds of regions and worlds.
So there were quite a lot of them~
“Thanks to that, that damn ‘Loneliness’ I never wanted to see again was summoned....”
“I already hated seeing that thing again like this, but now even I can’t leave the sea because of it!”
Loneliness...
Haa.
Student, you possess Mind Power too, so you probably understand.
It is the final form of a demon.
The stage where its original form disappears completely...
And Mind Power itself becomes the existence.
Tragic, isn’t it?
They are also called Great Demon Kings.
But that’s only because their power rivals the Great Heroes.
Honestly, the word king doesn’t suit them.
They aren’t kings.
Those things are just monsters.
Monsters that speak and think.
You could even call them disasters.
“Fortunately, Loneliness was not summoned completely.”
“If we join forces and fight together, we can defeat it.”
“Together? Join forces?”
I stared at him.
“You abandoned your companions and came all the way here by yourself.”
“And now you want me to work together with you?”
“That was because...! This place is dangerous! I did not abandon them!”
“So because this place is dangerous, you didn’t bring your companions.”
“But now that you’ve found a dangerous monster you can’t defeat alone, you want to force the person you were trying to kill to help you?”
I smiled.
“What a bright and hopeful story.”
Unlike you, Student, Hope didn’t bring his companions into the Isolated Sea.
Because, just like he said...
It was a dangerous place.
I understood that.
But this guy refused to listen to a single thing I said!
So hearing him say something like that only made me angrier.
Why did he instantly believe every word that mage bastard said...
But never even pretend to listen to me?!
Thinking about it again is making me angry!
What?
You’re asking how someone who can predict the future could act like that?
Because he was stubborn!
Stubborn!
“Every automaton I made was destroyed when Loneliness was first summoned.”
“If I want them moving again, I need to rebuild every single one from scratch....”
“Do you have any idea how difficult one of those is to make?”
“....”
“I can’t ask the people of the sea to help either.”
“That thing is far too dangerous.”
“I can’t bring myself to tell them to fight it.”
“....”
“Me?”
“I’m only good at fighting weak enemies.”
“Combat isn’t my specialty.”
“Do you understand?”
“What?”
“You’re asking if I fought you well?”
“Of course I did!”
“I fought someone exactly as strong as you, who thought and acted exactly like you, several thousand times!”
“Inside my head!”
“....”
“Do you understand now?”
“There isn’t a single person in this entire Isolated Sea willing to throw away their life for you.”
“This is aaall your own fault.”
Hope was very young.
Ah.
Not in age.
Mentally.
He looked wounded by something.
And he seemed almost pathologically obsessed with something.
I had met Heroes.
I had met Great Heroes.
But I had never seen someone so obsessed with being right.
I saw him muttering to himself over and over—
“I must succeed.”
More times than I could count.
“I never imagined a situation like this.”
“That monster’s power is so absurd that it exceeded even my imagination.”
“I could not predict it.”
“...Even so, there must be some way.”
I gave Hope a looong sideways stare.
Like this.
And I frowned really hard!
As long as Loneliness was blocking the gate, there was nothing I could do either.
So if Hope somehow dealt with it, that would benefit me too.
But what could I possibly give him?
He seemed bad at creating things.
So maybe I could make him a weapon.
Or prepare some equipment.
I certainly had enough materials left for that.
But he already possessed plenty of excellent weapons.
He even carried the Blessing of Light.
What else could I possibly make him?
It would only become extra baggage.
“I need to leave this place as soon as possible...!”
“....”
His eyes were filled with impatience.
Despite carrying the name Hope...
No.
Perhaps precisely because he carried Hope on his back...
He was anxious and impatient.
Watching Hope look like he might do absolutely anything gave me chills.
This was someone with an obsessive fixation on righteousness.
What if he did something strange?
Tap.
So I handed him a grimoire.
Actually, there wasn’t anything particularly dangerous inside.
If anything...
It was a book that sealed whoever read it.
You know forbidden books, right?
Hahaha!
Honestly, I originally made it because I was embarrassed by a novel I had written and wanted to lock it away.
And somehow it became that.
What?
It sounds dangerous?
Does it?
Anyway.
Hope quickly figured out roughly what was going on.
He stared at me with wide eyes.
So I decided to make things absolutely clear.
“...I could sacrifice the people in the coffin houses and strengthen you, just like Loneliness was summoned.”
“....”
“I especially researched that kind of thing.”
“After all, freeing those people is the greatest goal I carry.”
“...That cannot be allowed....”
Yes, yes.
What a relief, right?
He hadn’t gone that crazy.
No matter what...
He wasn’t insane enough to justify sacrificing other people for his own goal.
Instead...
He was crazy in another way.
“...Could you use me as the sacrifice instead?”
“Why?”
“Light asked me to stop Ruin.”
“If someone of that level were offered as a sacrifice, would that not be enough to erase Loneliness?”
“Then everyone in this place would regain their peace as well.”
He looked miserable.
His face was already the face of someone who had given up.
Whoa!
Why are you getting so angry?
Hm?
Give up?
The word give up bothers you?
Whoa, whoa!
A-Anyway!
Thinking about it more carefully...
I think Hope had already experienced failure several times before.
And because he believed he was going to fail again...
He decided that if nothing else, he would sacrifice himself to restore peace.
“Forget it.”
Want me to be honest?
That scared me even more.
To him...
I...
The companions waiting outside the gate...
And the people of the sea whose faces he didn’t even know...
Were all equally valuable lives.
And he placed himself beneath all of them.
If saving any of those lives required his own life...
He was ready to throw his away.
What was that called again?
It’s been too long, so I don’t remember perfectly....
Agape!
Right!
It was somewhat twisted, but it resembled the spirit of agape.
“What about your companions outside?”
“...Even without me, those children should somehow be able to survive now.”
“Oh, come on!”
“You’re unbelievably irresponsible!”
“Take proper care of your own people!”
“Stop feeling guilty toward strangers you’ve never even met and thinking about killing yourself!”
You’re surprised Hope was weaker than you expected?
You didn’t know?
Hmm.
I don’t know what he’s like now...
But back then...
He was veeery fragile.
Back then.
Anyway.
I started thinking seriously.
Was there some method that would let him defeat Loneliness?
First of all...
I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t even raise my head properly in front of Loneliness.
