Vol 1 Chapter 11 – Mage → Magic Wielder → Demon Lord【Vol 1 – When Written in Kanji, It’s Saionji Yumeba】

A pure white temple I’d seen somewhere before.

《Hey there. It’s been a while.》

“…Reincarnation God.”

And in that familiar place, a nostalgic face was waiting for me.

“Did I… die again?”

《No. You surpassed magic arts and stepped into the realm of true magic, so your consciousness was about to journey to a new world. I just intercepted it.》

“Um…?”

《Normally, when you step into the realm of true magic in that world, you get sent to what’s called the Realm of Magic Wielders—a world close to the divine realm. There was a slight time lag during that process, so I jumped in.》

“You say it so casually, but that’s truly divine power.”

《I thought you didn’t have enough practice to win if you fought the predecessor magic wielders in the Realm of Magic Wielders.》

“…Why do you think I’d fight?”

《You’ll fight. You’re not the type to accept traveling to another world while leaving behind your beloved wife. You’ll try to return to your original world even if it means massacring all the predecessor magic wielders.》

“…”

Yeah. In that situation, I’d certainly—fight.

《That said, there isn’t much time. I can’t wait around for you to master true magic.》

“Meaning I should handle it with this?”

《Exactly. That’s right.》

Not the magic I’d reached in another world, but the material that had materialized and taken form from the negative energy I’d collected on Earth.​

《It’s something you wished for and created yourself. You understand how to use it, but… you’re low on fuel, right?》

“Even substituting mana, the efficiency is too poor.”

《Yeah. So I’ve prepared something just right.》

What the Reincarnation God offered me was—something extraordinarily abnormal.

After various events, I’d safely secured fuel and discussed recent developments with the Reincarnation God for a while.

《It’s about time. You’ll be sent to a world similar to here… the Realm of Magic Wielders, where you’ll face predecessor magic wielders. I think you’ll be fine now, but… don’t let your guard down.》

“…Thanks.”

He’d said last time that breaking fairness was only for then, but he probably still didn’t think we were even considering the unreasonable things Earth’s god had done to me.

This wouldn’t last forever, but still—right now, this guy was my friend.

《That’s right, my friend. Just for now, I’m breaking fairness… and praying for happiness to visit your future.》

“Yeah, see you.”

And my consciousness flowed away from the divine realm…​

◇◇◇

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a dingy temple.

No, calling it dingy was only in comparison to the divine realm. Normally it would be a white temple, but—to me it looked like an inferior degraded version too embarrassing to compare.

“Welcome to the Realm of Magic Wielders.”

“Hmph. This one’s quite young.”

“You know judging age by appearance is meaningless, don’t you?”

“…Still, unreliable.”

Four men and women were waiting for me there.

“If this is the Realm of Magic Wielders… does that mean I’ve become a magic wielder?”

“Can’t you figure that out without explanation?”

One of the four, an elderly-looking man, spoke dismissively as if looking down on me.

“You’re the predecessor magic wielders?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

One of the four, an elderly-looking woman, shrugged in exasperation.

“Why am I here?”

“Figure it out yourself.”

One of the four, a woman with a girl’s appearance, looked at me with stern eyes.

“Why did you summon me here?”

“We didn’t summon you.”

One of the four, a man with a boy’s appearance, answered dismissively.

After finishing my round of questions, I made my decision.

“Then I’ll dispose of you now… any objections?”

“””What?”””

Following the Reincarnation God’s advice, I decided to kill these four who clearly looked down on me.​

“Are you stupid? Do you really think a newbie who just awakened to magic can beat us?”

“I can win.”

“This divine realm is our domain as predecessors. We can blow you away with a finger.”

“This isn’t a divine realm.”

“…How can you be so certain?”

“Because I’ve been to the real divine realm.”

“…What?”

“The talking ends here.”

And so I drew out it and aimed with my right hand.

An automatic pistol with refined form and 15+1 round capacity.

I’d never held a gun in my life, but it was customized for me and held firmly in my hand.

“Haha, what’s that? You seriously think you can kill us with that thing?”

“…”

Since conversation time was over, I pulled the trigger without hesitation, aiming at the sneering boy-like man.

With a dry bang, the bullet flew from the muzzle, and the boy-like man in its trajectory raised one hand to construct a barrier—and had his head blown off and died.

“””…What?”””

Unable to comprehend the sudden death of the boy-like man, the remaining three stood frozen in shock.

I had no obligation to wait, so I fired a second shot—and blew off the elderly man’s head the same way, killing him.

“Wh-What’s going on?! We became magic wielders, yet so easily…!”

I fired a third shot, aiming at the screaming elderly woman.

“Don’t underestimate me!”

Understanding my attacks were unblockable, the elderly woman devoted all her power to evasion.

She dodged the bullet I fired—it chased—she dodged—it chased—she dodged, couldn’t dodge completely, got shot through the head, and died.

“What is that thing?! What IS that thing?! What IS THAT THING?!”

The last girl-like woman was annoying, so I’d specially tell her as a parting gift.

“God-Slaying Weapon [Lucifer, King of Pride]. An absolute weapon for killing even gods.”

Well, since it’s a special weapon for killing gods, it won’t release its full power against mere magic wielders, but the power is more than sufficient.

Yeah. The result of my negative energy taking form was this.

A god-killing gun that had slept inside me for sixteen years and just finished completion moments ago.

The bullet’s power multiplies in proportion to the targeted subject’s strength, and even if they try to escape, it chases forever…

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

The last remaining girl-like woman fled at super high speed.

A speed that wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call light speed.

Probably the result of using true magic, but…

“Futile.”

The god-killing bullet fired from God-Slaying Weapon [Lucifer, King of Pride] chases at double the speed of its target, making escape absolutely impossible.

The fourth bullet flew at double the speed of the girl-like woman fleeing near light speed—blew off her head and killed her.​

“Phew. That would’ve been dangerous without the bullets the Reincarnation God prepared.”

It looked like an easy victory, but only because I could operate the god-slaying weapon.

True, the God-Slaying Weapon [Lucifer, King of Pride] was my negative energy taking form and materializing, but even with just this, the magazine had zero bullets loaded initially.

And to load bullets into this magazine—I needed to kill gods and steal their souls.

As an alternative, using my own mana as bullets wasn’t impossible, but that wouldn’t display the original abilities, and the mana efficiency was terrifyingly bad.

The efficiency was so poor that even using all the mana I’d stored in my subconscious room, I could barely fire one shot.

Knowing this, the Reincarnation God had prepared bullets—gods to serve as sacrifices.

Earth has a phrase: yaoyorozu, eight million.

That wasn’t just a figure of speech—Earth actually had countless gods, and through futile meetings involving the vast majority of gods, they executed a plan to use me to collect misfortune and raise Earth’s absolute happiness quotient.

Among them, eight pillar gods who became key deities.

These guys had been searching for the next sacrifice to embed the misfortune-collecting mechanism when they were captured by the Reincarnation God and offered as sacrifices to me.

《I regret overlooking them last time, and I had no intention of letting them do as they pleased anymore.》

He’d said that, but he’d probably acted for my sake and prepared gods who were no longer needed.

Thanks to that, I divided the mana remaining in my subconscious into eight parts against the powerless gods, created powerless bullets, and succeeded in finishing off the eight pillar gods and stealing their souls.

Against proper gods, even pouring all my mana into one bullet might not have been enough, but against powerless gods, even dividing by eight was more than sufficient.

Thus I accomplished revenge against those who’d tormented me so much in my previous life while successfully loading eight bullets into the God-Slaying Weapon [Lucifer, King of Pride]’s magazine.

I’d used four of those to defeat the four magic wielders.

Since they weren’t gods, it was obviously overkill, and killing mere magic wielders couldn’t reload bullets—but I’ll consider this a necessary expense.

“Now then…”

《Wait. One warning before you return.》

Just as I thought about returning to Yumeba, a glowing sphere flew from somewhere and the Reincarnation God’s voice echoed.

“How did you get here…”

《First, let me say this is like what you’d recognize as a recording, so even if you talk to it, I can’t respond. Listen with that understanding.》

“…”

Apparently the Reincarnation God’s consciousness hadn’t come—he’d just sent a pre-planted recording.

《The topic is none other than the God-Slaying Weapon [Lucifer, King of Pride] you created from negative energy.》

“Figured as much~”

Since I’d literally created a weapon that kills gods, nothing else came to mind.

《Ah, you might be misunderstanding, but I’m not angry you created that. Considering what Earth’s god did to you, it’s natural retaliation, and I’ve always thought gods being immortal was unfair anyway.》

“You really do emphasize fairness.”

《So the problem is the name. As you’ve noticed, [Lucifer, King of Pride] is the name of one of the seven Demon Lords related to the seven deadly sins.》

“Ugh, bad feeling…”

《Yeah. In other words, possessing a weapon bearing a Demon Lord’s name means… you’ll be recognized by the gods as a genuine Demon Lord.》

“Figures~”

No, I kind of predicted it.

A weapon that kills gods wouldn’t fall into normal human hands.

I’d surpassed being a mage or even magic wielder and somehow became a Demon Lord.​

《So please be very careful with your actions. If you carelessly try world conquest or something, other gods will send dozens of cheat-level heroes to subjugate you.》

“…Please, seriously no.”

Dozens of heroes with genuine cheats attacking would be nothing but a nightmare.

《Well then, I’m secretly praying for your good fortune in that world. Your friend… the Reincarnation God.》

“…”

《P.S.: I won’t say don’t fool around with your wife since you’re newlyweds, but the person watching was about to vomit sugar.》

“You’re watching?!”

There was an unnecessary comment at the end, but I honestly accepted my friend’s message.

The Reincarnation God was a fair deity, but perhaps still thinking he hadn’t evened out the unreasonable treatment I’d received from Earth’s god, he favored only me and treated me as a friend, which made me a little happy.

◇◇◇

And so, before I knew it, I was standing in the original place in the original world.

“Lio? What’s wrong?”

And since no time had passed during the events in the divine and magic wielder realms, Yumeba beside me looked confused at my state.

“Yumeba, I… became a magic wielder.”

“?”

Of course, not in the sense of staying a virgin past thirty.

Anyway, tonight—I’ll tell Yumeba various things in bed.

Even though I could use true magic now, I’d actually need to research how to use magic and trial and error would be necessary.

But I could probably at least stand alongside Yumeba as I’d wished.​

◇◇◇

The next day, I began magic research as planned.

First, I’d need to convert all the magic arts I could currently use into true magic.

Even with the same effects, I needed to investigate how magic arts and magic differed, and know whether power and efficiency changed.

For starters, I’d try modifying Aegis.

“Mmm…”

Starting research in the morning, by noon I was groaning.

No, the research wasn’t going badly, but the freedom had increased so much I’d lost sight of the landing point.

If I expressed the difference between magic arts and magic in one word: the freedom and mana efficiency were incomparable.

Until now, I’d thought I’d developed various convenient magic arts by recombining incantation and inscription laws, but with true magic, that freedom greatly increased and what I could do exploded.

Previously, when Yumeba and I fought the Yamata no Orochi, I’d assembled and used roaring thunder magic mid-battle, but back then Yumeba had to restrain the Yamata no Orochi alone while I nervously struggled with assembly.

With true magic, if I imagined ‘I want to use this kind of magic’ in my head and sent the necessary mana, that image would become reality and activate.

Magic had that much freedom, and consumed less mana compared to magic arts.

In other words, I was troubled by too many possibilities.

“What a luxurious problem.”

Still, too many options making it impossible to imagine the finished product was troublesome.

“For now, I’ll create it with a simple power-up image of Aegis.”

And so I executed modifications bit by bit…

“…Done.”

It was completed easily.

Since it’s a superior version of Aegis, I’ll name it Aigis.

The performance was completely superior, with all defensive capabilities naturally improved, but mana consumption drastically reduced.

Now I could have surplus mana without needing a mechanism to absorb external magic essence.

Well, yesterday’s events left the mana I’d stored in my subconscious room completely empty, so I’d economize mana as much as possible.

“Still, it’s so easy.”

I’d thought converting magic arts to magic would be harder, but since the theory was already established as magic arts, I just switched it wholesale into the magic category and used the extra space to power it up, completing the superior version.

After that, I converted all my magic arts to magic, but it didn’t even take half a day.

The magic wielders in the Realm of Magic Wielders seemed to be repeating research and experiments there, but what were they so desperate about with such simple work?

I almost thought that—converting magic arts to magic was so easy.

Well, maybe I only think this because I became a magic wielder.

Besides, paths to becoming a magic wielder vary endlessly with different methods, so if they became magic wielders differently than me, maybe their research wasn’t progressing as expected.​

Yumeba came home in the evening.

“I’m home! ♡”

Finding today’s Imperial Guard training boring too, she clung to me and acted spoiled the moment she returned.

Of course, I embraced Yumeba back and went for a welcome-home kiss…

“Now, now. Do that after returning to your room.”

Just as I tried, Yukina-san stopped us.

“Mmm. Mother’s so mean.”

“I’m not saying don’t do it.”

Meaning we should continue after returning to our room.

“…”

This person’s true colors were gradually showing—I used to project my ideal mother image onto her, but—thinking about it, there’s no way a woman of House Saionji could fulfill the role of an ideal mother, let alone an ideal wife.

It’s a bloodline where they’d proactively take on all childcare and education to keep children away from their husbands.

“Besides, if we return to our room now, we can’t eat dinner.”

“True.”

“…”

In House Saionji, when couples return to their room together, going straight to bed is the default.

“Can’t be helped, so I’ll eat first, then take a bath with Lio, then return to our room.”

“That’s good.”

“…”

In House Saionji, couples bathing together is also default, I know.

Incidentally, since Yumeba and I started living together in this house, a new bath was added, becoming our exclusive bath.

In House Saionji, marital life is absolutely prioritized, so if two couples live together, two baths are necessary.

Because bathing together without anything happening is virtually impossible.

In fact, since we started living together in this house, I’ve bathed with Yumeba many times—every time, actually—but nothing not happening has never occurred once.

(Is the Reincarnation God still watching and vomiting sugar?)

While thinking such pointless thoughts, I sat down for dinner—and turned my thoughts to the upcoming enjoyment.