Chapter 4
Something was strange.
The demon-summoning ritual was proceeding exactly as planned.
They had sacrificed humans of exceptional talent, and the amount of blood required for the ritual was already more than sufficient.
They had broken the limbs of the living sacrifices and made them breathe their last in the depths of despair.
Every condition prepared for the ritual had been met without exception.
Three minutes remained.
If they held out for exactly three more minutes, a servant of the Great One would descend upon this land—even if it was only a lesser one.
Then this frontier village would become a sea of blood in an instant.
Every living thing would become a sacrifice, and they would use that blood to perform an even greater ritual.
That was their mission.
"…Huff."
Hot breath seeped out from inside the mask.
The end was in sight.
If they succeeded in this mission, the cult would surely grant them a higher position.
But… why did they feel so uneasy?
Cold sweat slowly trickled down their back, and their chest felt tight for no reason.
They looked around.
They saw leaves swaying in the wind and birds chirping, unaware of anything.
It was peaceful.
Too peaceful.
"…It must be my imagination."
They consoled themself and looked at the magic circle again.
The red glow was growing deeper.
The ritual was proceeding normally, and there was no reason it should fail, but something… something felt unpleasantly wrong.
As if something…
had been watching them for a very long time…….
It was at that moment.
-Rustle
They heard the sound of someone stepping on fallen leaves.
The footsteps were very light and utterly casual.
Like someone who had come out for a stroll.
"…!"
All three gazes turned toward the forest.
Soon, a small shadow slowly emerged between the trees.
A small boy with black hair, wearing an ordinary shirt and looking not even ten years old….
"A child?"
For a moment, their tension eased.
Pfft.
A hollow laugh escaped them.
What a pointless worry.
To think they had broken into a cold sweat over one little child.
The boy looked around once, then alternated his gaze between the upside-down corpses and the magic circle drawn in blood.
"…Wow."
It was hard to tell whether his voice conveyed admiration or surprise.
After tilting his head for a moment, the boy waved at them.
"Hmm, hello?"
“……”
It was a greeting completely out of place with the atmosphere.
He was so nonchalant that it actually elicited a chuckle.
It seemed he had gotten lost and wandered all the way here.
And with exceptionally bad luck.
All the better.
A child's blood was highly pure.
Adding a new sacrifice would make the ritual proceed a little faster.
They lightly crooked a finger.
"Kill him."
At the command, the two subordinates standing on either side launched themselves forward at the same time.
A sword cleaved through the air, and the tip of a spear shot toward the boy.
That child would die without even knowing why.
Just as they thought that.
-Crackle
"…?"
A bizarre sound, like something scraping against their ears, rang out.
The air wavered for an instant.
No… it wasn't the air that had wavered.
It was their field of vision.
-Plop
Something warm fell onto the top of their foot.
Red blood and a human head.
"…What?"
-Plop.
This time, another one fell.
They raised their head blankly.
The heads of the two subordinates who had been standing beside them moments ago were held in the boy's hands.
Their bodies….
A beat later, they dropped to their knees, then collapsed where they stood.
The boy looked down at their heads as if nothing had happened, then grinned and opened his mouth.
"Welcome! First time meeting a munchkin?"
***
"Ugh. Gross."
I dropped the three heads I was holding onto the ground.
Rumble.
The heads rolled around the ground several times before coming to a stop.
Dark crimson blood dripped from my fingertips, and my clothes were already stained red.
I'm screwed!
What will Sis say if I go into the village like this?
'Rowoon. I wondered where you went while digging potatoes, but did you go dig up some people?'
…
It'd be lucky if it ended with just that reaction…?
Isn't this grounds for banishment at minimum…?
"…Damn."
That's why I didn't want to use it.
Who would want to walk around carrying human heads?
Anyone would think I was a lunatic!
Hmm….
I really do look like a lunatic.
"…I must be the only person in the world with a taste like this."
Of course! What taste, my ass!
It's not like I enjoy this.
"Sheesh."
I roughly rubbed the blood on my hands against the blades of grass.
It didn't come off much.
I only ended up smearing it around even more.
"…Just as I thought, it won't come off."
Isn't the Blood-Heaven Ghost King basically a blood-crazed murderer who goes around butchering people?
Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?!
Are you insane? I'm not interested in ending up like that, either.
My Trait.
【Heaven-Slaying Star (天殺星)】
Its biggest problem was a simple one.
The more blood I saw, the stronger I became.
The more blood I was drenched in, the stronger I became.
So far, so good.
The problem came next.
The more powerful I grew, the more my reason flew out the window as well.
When I first awakened, I had a pretty rough time.
The mere smell of blood made my heart race and filled me with the desire to kill every living thing before me.
Enemy, monster, or human, there were no exceptions.
In the end, only I would be left standing.
The truly frightening thing about Heaven-Slaying Star wasn't its power, but that it turned its user into a monster.
"…But."
That was a story from long ago.
It was back when I was climbing the tower….
Was it Floor 55? Or 56?
Around then, thanks to a fortuitous encounter, I obtained a way to control Heaven-Slaying Star.
Thanks to that, my mind was perfectly sound now, to the point that I could even crack jokes in the middle of a sea of blood.
Of course, using it for a long time in this body was another matter.
"…Enough."
That's enough of the old story.
I'll explain the foreshadowing later. Yeah.
I raised my gaze and looked around.
Corpses and blood… Hmm…. And a huge magic circle.
Hmm.
How should I deal with this?
This situation was an extreme emergency, but the biggest problem right now was actually something else.
The web novel I'd been reading right before I came to this other world.
I don't even remember the title.
I was the sort who sampled anything and everything, after all.
But even if I'd forgotten everything else, there was one thing I could never forget.
The world I was in now.
And the novel in which my sister Isabel was the heroine had definitely been an ordinary romance fantasy.
Isabel, a commoner, entered the academy through a special exception, flirted with the crown prince, made the heir to the Grand Duke of the North jealous, became friends with the mage tower master's disciple, and so on…….
It was an utterly ordinary story.
At least, it had never contained a cult like this that hung people up alive and summoned demons.
"…Why?"
I muttered quietly.
Not a single line like this had appeared in the original.
Could it be because I hadn't read the original properly?
No.
I'd even binge-read every one of Isabel's childhood flashbacks.
If people like these had existed, there was no way I could have failed to remember them.
Which meant a variable had appeared.
"…Don't tell me."
Was I not the only one who had crossed over to another world?
Or had something from the world I'd lived in flowed over here?
"…Hmm."
I stood there blankly, lost in thought.
Plop.
Something caught on the tip of my toe.
It was Villain No. 2's head.
Without thinking, I gave it a little kick.
Plop.
Once more.
Plop.
"…”
Wait.
I was playing soccer with a human head.
Even if it was after death, I felt a little sorry about this.
"Sorry."
I apologized with my mouth alone and withdrew my foot.
At that moment.
-Bang!!
The deafening boom of air exploding shook the forest.
The leaves all shook at once, and something was flying toward me from dozens of meters away at incredible speed.
***
"The demon worshippers suddenly went crazy and started fighting each other!
And I didn't do anything!
I'm serious!"
"…"
Silence.
A strange silence descended over the forest.
Even the sound of leaves swaying in the wind and the birdsong drifting from far away.
They all fell quiet, as if they were watching this situation unfold.
I was currently kneeling with both hands held high.
To anyone watching, I must have looked like a puppy that had caused trouble and was begging its owner for forgiveness.
Of course, until just moments ago, I had smashed a demon-summoning ritual, been holding three human heads, and been covered in blood from head to toe.
But that was merely a description of the circumstances. It wasn't something I had done.
…I wanted to insist.
"Sheesh…. Sheesh…."
The girl standing before me let out a deep sigh.
Her small shoulders drooped, and her silver hair, tied into twin tails, swayed lightly in the breeze.
On the outside, she looked like a perfectly ordinary child.
A squishy little body.
A squishy little face.
And a height even squishier than fourteen-year-old Isabel's.
And squishy.
Ahem. Anyway,
Anyone who met her on the street would have thought she was nothing more than a cute little kid.
And without knowing what slept inside that small body, they'd get their arms and legs ripped off!
The novel I had read before crossing over to this world.
In other words, the original source of this world.
In it were four beings whose names people didn't dare utter carelessly.
They were called the Four Emperors!!
The Sword Saint, who had reached the end of the concept of the sword.
The Sage, who had awakened to every truth in the discipline of magic.
The Divine Archer, ruler of the bow who had touched the realm of the gods.
And the being who had shattered the human limits of the physical body.
The Extreme King.
"…"
I quietly looked at the girl in front of me.
Honestly, I was a little taken aback when I first saw her.
No, I had guessed it from the novel's description, but….
Didn't she look way too young?
She's shorter than Isabel, I mean?? Right now??
The novel had clearly described her as a monster of martial arts who trampled enemies across countless battlefields, but what stood before me was just…
A cute little kid.
……She tramples enemies with those feet…?
The girl folded her arms and looked down at me.
"So……. Who did you say you were, Teacher?"
"……."
For a moment, the girl's expression hardened.
"I just told you."
"Ah."
"Don't tell me."
"Yes."
"You forgot?"
Her little finger pointed at my forehead.
Tap.
Ouch.
"I'm the Extreme King!!"
Tap.
"The Extreme King!"
Tap.
"One of the Four Emperors, the Extreme King!"
"Was hitting me three times really necessary…"
"I hit you so you'd remember."
"……."
I had no choice but to admit that made sense.
The Extreme King.
A monster who had surpassed the limits of humanity in martial arts, while also being an existence who could tear giant monsters apart with her bare hands and end wars on the scale of nations all by herself.
Her age was well over a hundred,
Ah, this is important, so I'll say it one more time.
Her age was well over a hundred, but she had reached the realm of rejuvenation and reversed the flow of time in her body.
Though she looked like a young girl, she was literally a living legend. She was the Extreme King.
-That was the original setting.
So, was she saying, "How can you not recognize me, a living legend"?
That's why she hit me?
"…"
I looked at her once again.
My eyes fell on the little finger that had just hit my forehead.
Hmm. To be honest about the Extreme King's strength.
By the standards of me at my prime, she was just a baby.
A pretty cute baby at that.
Of course, my body was currently nine years old.
Anyway, if we fought now, I'd lose.
Overwhelmingly.
In other words, this was only by the standards of the past.
Important distinction!!
Don't get confused!!
"Tell me already!"
The Extreme King stomped her foot and cried out.
"Who took care of all these guys here?!"
"I told you, it's true!"
I raised my hands with an aggrieved expression.
"These people suddenly went crazy and started fighting each other!"
"Then."
The Extreme King pointed around with a finger.
"Why are all the corpses here fallen in the same direction?"
"……."
"Why are there explosion marks on the ground?"
"………."
"Why is there blood on your clothes?"
"Well, that's because."
I answered boldly.
"They fought right in front of me."
"…"
"I'm the victim here."
A brief silence followed.
The Extreme King's eyebrows trembled.
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuu…”
“……?”
"Why!!!
Why is it so hard!
To get through to you!!!"
The Extreme King's small body trembled.
"You're so annoying!!
You're seriously so annoying!!!
I've never seen a little brat like you in my life!!!"
Bonk.
"……."
Ah.
I got a knuckle tap right on the forehead.