Chapter 43
Kagami couldn't remember when he'd started challenging others to such futile battles. Nor could he remember when he'd stopped thinking of them as futile.
For Kagami, who knew that fighting stronger opponents earned him experience, every such battle was a chance to discover new possibilities. So he kept challenging them, whether he wanted to or not. He believed that unless he threw himself against them, he would never change.
Even without fear of death, Kagami could recognize when a battle was futile. Still, he chose to fight because beyond the slim chance of victory, he could see himself overcoming another obstacle. So Kagami fought. His lack of fear of death did nothing more than remove one barrier to taking on futile battles.
Beyond those obstacles, he could become someone no one—not even God—had ever imagined. The more dangerous the battle, the more excited Kagami became at the thought of who he might be if he won.
“This time... might be a little... bad.”
But after punching the enormous approaching monster and sending it flying several dozen meters back, Kagami was caught off guard and attacked by the monsters around him, sustaining injuries as he muttered this.
“I still have plenty of stamina, but... this is definitely impossible. Their numbers are just too overwhelming, and there must still be thousands of them... I might be screwed.”
So while he still had plenty of strength, Kagami quickly judged how this battle would end.
Kagami always fought while picturing himself victorious. But it was different when he couldn't picture that victory.
Until now, he’d sometimes underestimated his chances of winning. But when he found himself in a situation that was definitely impossible, with no chance of victory, he judged it 【pointless】 and promptly ran away. As long as there was even the slightest chance of victory, though, Kagami never stopped fighting. That made the battle no longer 【pointless】. By dividing things into two choices—pointless or possible—Kagami had fought his way through many battles with slim odds.
“Ah, man... What am I even doing?”
This time, however, he was undoubtedly in a battle he would lose. If he lost and couldn't escape, he would die. Everything he had built up until now would crumble and disappear. Even knowing that, Kagami had no desire to run.
Why?
Because he didn't think this battle was pointless.
“All right, how many can I take out?”
If he took out as many as he could here—if he managed to cut the monsters' numbers in half—the adventurers in Salmaria would surely regain their morale.
If that happened, the city could be saved. They could prevent the long war that would begin if the city were occupied. Even if the path to coexistence with the demons grew more distant, surely Alice or Takako would find a way someday. Kagami believed this was the best way to keep hatred from spreading. And there was a good chance it would work.
Kagami wasn't fighting to win. He was betting on the possibility of a 【path to coexistence】.
“Why am I... smiling?”
And yet, he was excited. Beyond this battle, the possibility of the path he'd once sought still remained. He might never get to see it himself, but just imagining a world defying the way things were made strength well up from deep within Kagami.
He had already made up his mind. He would fight until he was pushed to his absolute limit. If he could escape then, he would. If not, he would die, without a single regret.
“All right! Come at me all at once! As long as I'm standing, I won't let you reach Salmaria. You can take my life, but you won't take the possibility I dreamed of!”
The instant he declared this, Kagami lunged forward. He drove his full force through the torso of one of the largest monsters and sent it flying straight back. The monster became a living projectile, sweeping away the monsters behind it as it flew and leaving a straight swath of barren ground, as if a wide-area annihilation spell had been cast.
Immediately afterward, the monsters around him all leaped at him. Kagami kicked one away with a back kick, caught the next one that pounced on him with his back and hurled it into an approaching monster, then punched the rest of the attackers away so quickly they were impossible to follow, crushing them to pieces.
But he wasn't given a moment to catch his breath before the next attack came. Kagami responded to it at once, and kept responding. Amid the chaos, the monsters around him blocked his view, and he didn't notice the flying monster fire a heat ray. It pierced the torso of the monster in front of him and came straight for Kagami.
“I'm not letting them take your life, either!”
Kagami thought the sudden heat ray was certain to hit him square in the chest. But it never touched his body. An unknown power enveloped him and made it vanish.
“Holy Thunder: Fierce Wave Slash!”
Then the name of a Skill that should have been usable without shouting rang out, and several monsters right behind Kagami were cleanly eliminated in a single strike by a blade of light crackling with electricity.
“I'm the Hero... There's no way I can stand by while you, a Villager, fight!”
Then he heard those words and turned toward the voice. Kururu stood nearby, palm outstretched toward Kagami as if casting a spell on him, while Rex stood beside her with his sword at the ready.
“Whoa, the Hero and the Sage came to die.”
With a confused expression, Kagami said this, still unable to understand why the two of them had come.
“You mean we came to save you... Kagami-chan!”
Before he could even wonder why, Takako came rushing up with a look of surprise, moving at astonishing speed. She dashed right past him, shouting as she used her momentum to kick the armored monster closing in just behind him. The monster didn't simply go flying—instead, it shattered as easily as an egg and turned into gold.
“Takako-chan, too... What are you doing?”
“I came to save you. So you don't die, Kagami-chan.”
“No, I'm not going back, okay? If I can still escape at the last second, I'll run, but...”
“I know. That's why we're going to take them all down.”
Watching Takako take a stance so imposing that even a bear would flee, Kagami found a question mark floating over his head. He didn't understand. Even with three more people, the outcome wouldn't change. If so, he should be the only one to make the sacrifice.
“Don't do anything stupid. Take care of yourselves! I'd be in trouble if you died, Takako-chan. And you two—the Hero and the princess—there's no reason for you to throw your lives away, either. I'll take out as many as I can.”
“Then I'll take on some of the monsters you would otherwise have had to deal with, Kagami-dono. You're no more obliged than I am to risk your life needlessly.”
The next moment, the monsters within a dozen or so meters behind Kagami vanished beneath a rain of lightning falling from the sky. As Menou spoke, she slowly approached from behind Rex, having apparently unleashed the lightning.
“Hey, given your position, shouldn't you stay out of this?! Well, I guess it's a little late to say that now!”
“I'm no different from you, Kagami-dono. Right now, your life is far more valuable.”
Kagami was stunned by those words. And yet, for some reason, the corners of his mouth lifted.
“Ah! You're really all beat up! You look like a worn-out rag!”
Before he knew it, his wounds had healed. His own Skill had never healed him this quickly, so he stared in shock as Tina hurried over to him in a flurry.
Parna approached behind her and murmured, “I can't have you dying on me yet.”
“...Seriously, is this okay? You'll die, you know?”
“I won't die, and I won't let you die!”
Kagami gaped for a moment at Kururu, who said this with a determined huff.
But he quickly closed his mouth.
His heart grew warm. The feelings that had grown dull after fighting alone for so long gradually began to return. He realized that Takako and the others hadn't come here betting on the possibility that Salmaria would be safe—they'd come betting on the possibility of Kagami making it back alive.
Kagami was genuinely glad. Until now, there hadn't been a single fool willing to go along with his recklessness. He'd never had anyone who truly worried about whether he lived or died.
The strength that had been welling up inside him surged even more, stirring within him.
“All right... Change of plans! We'll go with the chicken strategy: do as much as we can, then run! Let's stay alive!”