Chapter 7
The screams and angry shouts echoed all around me. I staggered to my feet, unsure of what I was supposed to do. The slaves were divided between those trying to escape and those who simply trembled where they stood.
Most of the escaping slaves headed for the warehouse where the Skill Orbs were stored. The doors had been left open so someone could take out 【Shadow King★★★★★★】. The slaves had had their dangerous Skills taken away, which, put another way, meant they had "room to add Skills." Perhaps they had also realized that Skill Orbs could fetch a high price if they took them out of the mine.
A fierce battle to the death was unfolding between the mine guards protecting the warehouse and the slaves.
(What will happen to me...?)
If I just stood there in a daze, the mine guards would eventually capture me, and contract magic would turn me back into a slave under another "master."
(...No. I don't want to go back to that illusory life.)
I had grown accustomed to life in the mine and thought, "It isn't so bad. At least it's better than being hated by my siblings and going without food." But once I learned that it had all been an illusion caused by contract magic, I never wanted to return to that life again.
But I didn't want to return to my birthplace, either.
Then what should I do? It was obvious. I had to acquire the power to survive on my own.
(Lark...)
She had been the first to acquire that "power to survive." And she had reached out a hand to save me...
(Don't think about her right now.)
There was only one thing I could do, having stayed behind. I would go to the warehouse and acquire a Skill Orb. Luckily—or unluckily—I hadn't acquired a single Skill, so I could absorb anything.
When I headed for the warehouse, the slaves were on the verge of winning. The mine guards, who didn't want to die pointlessly, and the slaves, who had nowhere left to go, had very different levels of determination. I followed the slaves pouring into the warehouse and slipped inside too.
"So this is what it looks like...!"
The warehouse was spacious, with several shelves lining it. Holes had been bored into every shelf so the Skill Orbs could be placed there. But now, most of the shelves were empty.
"Damn it! They shipped out all the worthwhile Skills already!?"
"I don't want any one-star junk!"
"If you don't want it, hand it over!"
"What!? I'm selling this!"
The slaves were on the verge of killing one another over the few remaining Skill Orbs, but—
"Hey, there's a door in the back!"
The slaves all turned toward it. The locked iron door was helpless before the desperate slaves charging toward it. After they repeatedly brought down their swords and shields, the lock broke, and the door opened.
"Whoooooa! What the hell is this!?"
"It's full of Rare Orbs!"
Light spilled through the doorway. The slaves flooded into the small room, grabbing the Orbs one after another and absorbing them.
"Hey, you! I had my eye on that!"
"Idiot, whoever gets it first wins—ow!?"
A sword thrust out from the side, and the Skill Orb fell from the slave's hand. The blue Orb, wrapped in dazzling light, rolled to my feet.
【Four-Element Magic★★★★】
It displayed four stars. Apart from the six-star Orb Lark had acquired, I had never seen such a rare Orb before. As I hurried to pick it up, a shadow suddenly slipped in from the side.
"Get lost, brat!"
"Urgh!?"
Kicked from the side, I was sent bouncing across the warehouse floor. My stomach was empty, but the pain was so intense it felt as though my abdomen had been torn apart.
"AHAHAHA! Looks like my luck has finally turned!"
The one laughing as she held the four-star Skill Orb was the cafeteria lady. The light sank into her body.
"You old hag!"
"Give it back!"
"AHAHAHA! Out of my way, you useless fools!"
When the woman raised her right hand, a powerful wind sprang forth and slammed two slaves into the warehouse wall.
(Amazing... With just one Skill Orb, you can gain this much power?)
Fearing they would be caught up in the magic, the slaves fled the small room. Of course, not a single Skill Orb remained.
"Damn it, you old hag! Remember this..."
The slaves who had been slammed into the wall also left the warehouse. The cafeteria lady had already left.
"There's nothing here..."
I was the only one left behind in the empty warehouse.
Holding my aching stomach, I staggered toward the small room. But there was still nothing in the dim room—huh?
"Huh? There's one rolling around here—gasp!"
I hurriedly covered my mouth with both hands. I had heard that some Skill Orbs could heighten human senses. I couldn't risk anyone hearing the sound I had just let slip.
I cautiously made my way toward it.
I swallowed hard.
It was a pitch-black Skill Orb. At its center was a rainbow-colored point, spinning as though it were sucking in light.
【World Ruler★★★★★★★★★★】
An impossible Skill Orb.
—There are stars beyond eight...
—Huh?
—Those are things humans cannot handle. I've seen one once... an Overlimit Skill Orb beyond human understanding, sleeping in the depths of this mine's warehouse...
So this was it. I didn't know whether it was truly beyond human understanding, but this was the Overlimit Skill Orb.
For some reason, I felt as though this Skill Orb were calling to me.
I slowly extended a fingertip and touched the surface of the Orb. I had expected it to feel smooth, but my fingertip sank into it with a soft plop, as though I had touched the surface of water.
"Ah..."
The black surface split, and rainbow-colored light burst out from within. The light twisted like a raging torrent, split into countless streams, raced around the small room, and flew into my forehead.
"Ah, ah, ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
What I saw was the universe stretching beyond the walls of the small room, beyond the great cavern, beyond the mine, beyond the clouds, beyond the atmosphere.
"So that's what it was..."
It was then that I learned.
"That's why I could use this Skill Orb..."
My old emotional wounds had been torn open, I had witnessed several gruesome murders, and I had even been kicked aside—yet despite pushing away my older sister's hand and suffering one misfortune after another, I felt almost refreshed.
"To think I would be reincarnated in another world like this. Since I have two lives—my previous life and this one—my Skill slots are doubled, to 16."
Yes, I had a proper name after all.
"I'm Harumi Reiji. I died when I was a high school student... and was reincarnated in this world."
＊ ＊
It had grown completely dark outside the window.
Left alone in the classroom, I had been tapping away at an unfamiliar keyboard when I said, "Mm..." and stretched.
"Finally done... I'm exhausted."
The class's cultural festival attraction was a haunted house. Even for something so ordinary, our lazy, conservative homeroom teacher had thrown the assignment at the class: "Compile the budget and the plan, along with the measures we'll take to prevent accidents." Then the class representative had dumped it on me, saying, "Harumi-kun, you'll do it, right~?" before going home.
This was work for work's sake. Even if I finished the paperwork, the homeroom teacher would be the only one to look at it, and that would be the end of it. I could practically see from his attitude that he didn't want to waste time on such pointless work.
"Phew... I should go home and study."
I could hardly remember anyone ever doing anything for my sake. I spent my days being "used" by others and "never thanked."
But studying never betrayed me. The more I studied, the higher my test scores climbed, and I could keep raising the rank of the universities I hoped to attend. What I enjoyed now was "studying."
...You think that's hollow?
Sure! I mean, I wanted to enjoy a sweet, romantic high school life with girls, too!
"Not with me being this short, though..."
As I left school and pedaled my bicycle with a clunky squeak, I resented the body I'd been born with—so small and slow to grow. The trouble was, I was distracted by thoughts like that.
The bicycle skidded off the road. I fell into an irrigation canal swollen by recent rains and drowned.
＊ ＊
I quickly understood what effect the Skill I had acquired—【World Ruler★★★★★★★★★★】—had.
The various pieces of information flowing into my mind were the essence of this Skill. For example, if I looked up at the sky, I knew that it was a spring sky and that a shower would fall around midnight. It was an indescribable sensation. Everything happening within my field of vision simply became known to me—a feeling of omnipotence.
"This is... the World Ruler...!"