Chapter 4
The first human called D whom Rex ever saw was almost a savage.
In a way, that was only natural.
There was no way a man who had arrived at the laboratory half a year before Rex and been starved all that time would have been groomed or gotten a haircut.
But despite his shabby appearance, D's masculinity remained impossible to conceal.
If Rex had been a woman, he would have fallen in love at first sight.
But Rex was a man with normal tastes, and he was the sort of loner who wanted to hide in a corner whenever he saw a social butterfly.
That was why, when D burst through the door and immediately asked for bread, Rex could do nothing but nod.
“Mm···”
Duke brought the bread to his mouth.
After half a year without food, his salivary glands began working feverishly.
He wanted nothing more than to gobble the bread down in one bite.
But he had adopted the concept of a dignified knight, so he suppressed his appetite with superhuman willpower and began eating the bread with grace.
“Mm···”
His mind was filled with frivolous cries about how wonderful it was to meet again after 200 years and how delicious the food was after half a year without eating, but outwardly, he looked like a dignified knight.
While Duke ate slowly like that, Rex assessed his level.
Not with the system, but with this world's appraisal magic.
Appraisal magic was one of the basic spells taught at the military academy, alongside clairvoyance and telepathy.
‘Based on the amount of mana released and the weight of his presence as sensed through his soul···’
Of course, it did not calculate things with a ding! Instead, it was calculated mentally according to standards established over thousands of years.
Naturally, it was not particularly difficult magic for Rex, the military academy's top student and youngest graduate.
‘His level is···33? Not bad.’
That was enough to make him an upper-ranking knight in a decent territory.
However, Rex did not trust appraisal magic.
Since this magic had been refined over thousands of years, there were all sorts of ways to deceive it.
Because of that, appraisal magic was nothing more or less than an alibi to Rex.
An alibi to prevent suspicions later about ‘How did he know my level?’—in other words, to conceal his interface ability completely.
‘Now for the main point.’
Having established his justification with appraisal magic, Rex immediately used his possession perk.
‘View.’
He called it View rather than Appraisal.
When Rex used the View skill, Duke's personal information appeared in a translucent window.
===========
Name : Duke I. Urwick
Age : 247
Race : Human
Level : 33(?)
[Combat Stats]------<
Intelligence : 34(?)
Technique : 38(?)
Mind : 34(?)
Martial Power : 40(?)
[Command Stats]------<
Potential A
Charisma A
Leadership C
Political Skill C
Attractiveness A
[Disposition]------<
- <Loyalty (Inactive)>, <Noble A>, <Passionate A>, <Indomitable S>, <Madness S+>
[Relations]------<
- Friendly
==================
Rex focused first on the question marks after Duke's level and stats.
‘Just like the director.’
That old monster at the academy had been the same way.
There were occasionally people who could deceive even the interface like this, but Rex was not particularly flustered.
There was a way to inspect them even in cases like this.
‘There’s no need to worry about that right now.’
Rex estimated Duke's true level to be in the sixties—in other words, the sixth tier.
That much was clear from the modified goblins of the fourth tier being turned into chunks of meat without even being able to resist.
‘There’s no way a seventh-tier expert would have any reason to be in this laboratory.’
From the seventh tier onward, they were practically dragons.
Naturally, no such being would remain quietly imprisoned unless they were insane.
‘Let’s assume his level is around 65···’
Rex scrolled down Duke's profile and checked his abilities.
As he scrolled, Rex found a single word he could not possibly overlook.
<Madness S+>
‘??????’
He had never seen a rating like that, not even once while playing Hell Online.
The most difficult hero to control in the game, the mad mustached mass murderer, had an S···
‘S plus ?????’
The Madness disposition did not mean that someone grinned foolishly like a clown.
Madness indicated how far someone could depart from common sense for the sake of their goal, and, beyond that, how far their mind could become twisted.
It could be acquired either innately or later in life, but one thing was certain in either case.
‘A guarantee that something is wrong with his mind.’
It was also a signal that he was someone to avoid entirely.
Rex's face was colored with shock.
He could not believe that the roommate in the room next door was a lunatic beyond his imagination, much less that he had been exchanging notes with that lunatic.
‘But the letters were normal???’
Rex came up with several guesses about Duke's circumstances.
The most likely explanation was that starving him for half a year had driven him insane.
The other dispositions—<Noble A>, <Passionate A>, and <Indomitable S>—happened to support that theory.
‘So was he originally destined to become some kind of Demon King in this world?’
Rex could more or less predict the story.
Before meeting Rex, Duke's humanity had gradually been worn away by the world's absurdity.
His Noble, Passionate, and Indomitable dispositions had allowed him to endure, but half a year of hunger was enough to drive anyone mad.
But eventually, that madness had finally erupted···
‘For some reason, he escaped from the laboratory and became the Demon King.’
A light novel practically wrote itself.
Rex roughly guessed at Duke's circumstances along those lines and tried to speak to him.
“Uh···”
‘Your name···’
···he tried to speak.
But the moment he parted his lips, no voice came out.
Rex's lower jaw began to tremble.
He had already suffered from an inferiority complex and a fear of people at the academy because he had been born a commoner.
Then his classmates and the mayor who had hired him betrayed him, piling a distrust of humanity on top of that.
And now that he thought about it, he had never even spoken to the goblins; he had only suffered in silence by himself.
As a result of all these things piling up, Rex···
‘Uuugh··· Now that I’m actually trying to talk, it’s scary···’
was an extreme case of communication anxiety.
In other words, he was a complete gift set of mental illnesses combining <social phobia, panic disorder, mild depression, and so on>.
Rex rolled his eyes and took out a sheet of paper.
After dragging coal across it, Rex finished writing a sentence.
With trembling hands, he held it out toward Duke, who was eating with an air of dignity.
“P-please··· look···”
“?”
Duke brushed the crumbs from the bread and looked at the note.
[Name···]
Duke smiled the moment he saw that word.
‘Pretending not to know even though you do.’
Duke knew about Rex's abilities.
He must have already used View to inspect Rex's real name and level.
But Duke did not let that show. He nodded and gave his name.
“I’m Duke Urwick.”
Rex nodded and held out another note.
[Rex. Surname: X]
“So you're Mr. Rex.”
Nod, nod.
Rex wrote a word in the little space remaining on the note.
[Request]
“Gladly.”
Rex looked puzzled and scratched coal onto the wall instead of the paper.
[You haven't even said what the request is···]
Before the sentence was even finished, Duke spoke.
“If it is my benefactor’s request, I shall grant it, whatever it is.”
Rex hesitated at the answer before writing his reply.
[Then, um, would you sign a temporary contract with me?]
Duke nearly choked when he saw that.
A white furry creature offering a magical-girl contract had come to mind.
Naturally, the Rex standing before him was a more honest contractor than that scam artist, so
“Let’s swear it right away.”
Duke knelt on the spot.
*
“Kweeeek!”
The goblin in the support unit died with a frog-like croak.
The support unit had come after hearing the commotion on the floor where Rex was imprisoned, but the moment they arrived, they were swept aside in front of Duke like fallen leaves.
“No one passes through this corridor.”
Duke guarded the corridor where Rex was while massacring the support unit.
While Duke was on a one-man rampage against the support unit, Rex sat crouched in his solitary cell and watched it all on the screen.
‘Wow···’
This was not the first time Rex had seen a hero fight.
He had controlled heroes like this while playing games, so it was not particularly surprising.
But Duke's rampage was a work of art.
Rex did not know much about magic or martial arts.
But it was obvious to him that Duke's combat was restrained to the extreme.
His sword never missed, and he never took a single unnecessary step.
Even the spells he used from time to time precisely targeted vital points and were employed only as much as necessary.
If the beauty of restraint were rendered through combat, then Duke's fighting was exactly what it would look like.
‘I may not know his level, but his technique is the real deal···’
Rex even felt awe toward Duke's one-man rampage.
And that was exactly what Duke intended.
‘This is my first battle, so I need to make a strong impression.’
Duke ravaged the support unit with meticulous calculation, ensuring that Rex would have no choice but to recruit him.
Crunch.
Duke caught a goblin's axe barehanded and struck it in the throat with his elbow, killing it instantly.
Immediately afterward, he halted the arrows flying toward his back with telekinesis, then returned them to the archers with a gesture.
“Retreat! Fall back!!!”
Faced with a single hero, the support unit could only scramble to flee.
But Duke did not allow them to escape.
Crack-crack-
When he stretched out his hand, the ceiling began to make an ominous sound.
Bang!
Then the ceiling collapsed, completely cutting off their escape route.
With nowhere left to retreat, the support unit turned around in terror.
Clomp, clomp.
A death wearing the shape of a human was slowly killing them one by one, starting from the front.
The terror soon spread throughout the entire unit.
“Aaaah! Open up! Aaaah!”
The support unit, broken apart by fear, was slowly wiped out by Duke.
Watching the scene on the screen, Rex could not help but clap.
‘Ahh··· So satisfying.’
It might have been terrifying for them, but for Rex, who had been beaten by them for the past two months, nothing could have been more satisfying.
Of course, it was a little frightening even viewed through the screen, but it was even more exhilarating.
As Rex cheered on the rampage, Duke returned to the solitary cell where Rex was after annihilating the support unit.
“Do you have any further instructions?”
Rex floated a translucent typewriter in the air and began typing.
Tap-tap-tap.
Ding!
[Please open this door first.]
Rex's message was transmitted into Duke's mind.
At the same time, a translucent arrow appeared, pointing somewhere.
Duke nodded and followed the arrow.
A door outlined in red appeared in Duke's field of vision.
It was the room next to Rex's.
“Understood.”
Duke ripped the door open effortlessly with telekinesis.
Rex scurried out of his solitary cell and headed toward the open room.
‘A···’
He wanted to check whether A happened to be in that room.
But the only things there to greet Rex were the notes he had sent over the past fortnight, piled up with no reply from A.
Rex's mood darkened as he thought of the friend whose face, voice, and name he did not know.
Then Duke pointed toward a corner.
Rex's eyes widened as he followed Duke's finger.
It was a shoe.
Rex carefully picked it up and asked Duke,
“A···’s···?”
“It’s highly likely.”
D- Duke also knew about A's existence.
He, too, had occasionally spoken with A through Rex as an intermediary.
R-Rex and D-Duke met eyes.
The two men settled on a goal.
“Duke. Let’s get out of here first.”
Once he steeled his resolve, Rex spoke without stumbling.
Duke supported his resolve as well.
“So we need to find someone whose foot fits the shoe, who knows the shoe’s shape, and who knows Mr. Rex and me.”
Duke recited the exact method Rex had used to find A in the original story.
(Naturally, because he wanted to look knowledgeable.)
Thanks to that, Rex's goal became even clearer.
“Duke. Please.”
Following Rex's instructions, Duke stepped out of the area where they had been.
But···
[···Would it be all right if I continued giving instructions from my room?]
Rex tried to scurry back to his solitary cell after being out for only three seconds.
Seeing a resolve that had not even lasted three seconds, Duke barely managed to suppress a snort.
‘Right. He was this sort of guy.’
But Duke knew exactly how to handle Rex.
“Will that be all right?”
[What do you mean?]
“There’s only one corridor here for now, but once we go down, there will be guards I failed to notice. If one of them goes toward you, I won’t be able to protect you.”
The reply came considerably later than usual.
[I’ll come along. I’ll keep my distance.]