The Ordinary Sorcerer's Fun Otherworld Villain Play - Chapter 27 - Everyone's Positions and Tomato's Requiem

“What are you afraid of?! What are you holding back for?! If you lot got serious, you could easily strangle me to death! Domination! Try using even a bit of your authority! There’s absolutely no need to wield your swords so refinedly!!”

“—!”

CLANG!!

Every time Grelod swung her arms, swung her black feathers wide, black lightning burst forth.

The white-haired woman was blown away by it.

“War! You too! Wield your authority, your curse! Why are you dressing yourself up so prettily?! You could kill so many more!”

“Famine! An innately high-rank species! A monster among monsters—what a state you’re in! Your very existence is harmful, and yet look at you now!”

The two women were also pushed back by Grelod’s violence.

“Perform your karma, all of you! Killing, suffering, being hated—that’s life! Why act refined now?! Expose yourselves more! We’re the same kind of monsters—let’s kill each other as monsters!”

Raging magic power.

A fierce body.

I couldn’t move even a single step before a real magic user’s violence.

But they were different.

They, who wore those clothes, wielded their swords.

“Scarlet, Kuro. Can you still follow? All her attacks have darkness attribute magic power imbued. Deflect them.”

“No problem, White. I’m grateful to my lord. These clothes, this sword—they really do fit well after all!”

“Fuhe… aged magic user… hard to kill, but… a bit fun.”

Even when blown away, even when slammed down, they still rose to challenge the great enemy.

——Ugeee, Snow-san, scatter buffs! Buffs!

——…Annoying! Enemies everywhere! This is the worst!

——Ahahahahahaha, we’re gonna die! We’re actually gonna die! Ahahahaha!

Just like us back then.

“—What are you lot?! Those faces! Don’t tell me you plan to fight as humans now?! You think you can become human at this point?!”

The witch who had become a monster directed those claws, that magic at her own kind, and shouted.

“We can.”

“We are humans.”

“Fuhe, not destruction. Not curses.”

The answers they returned came with smiles that even felt refreshing.

——Don’t wear our clothes and act like you’re in some kind of heartwarming story.

“—Hihihihi! You make me laugh! You lot who are the world-destroying prophecies incarnate!”

Even the magic power seeping into her voice shook the world.

The witch laughed uproariously.

But those women showed confident smiles regardless.

“””Curses of our level won’t destroy the world.”””

Their faces overflowed with relief and fulfilled hearts.

Expressions unique to those who feel fulfilled.

——Expressions unique to those who know they’re loved.

“You lot…”

Grelod’s magic power exploded upward.

What is this…? This isn’t the amount of magic power that humans—that living things—should be able to emit…

But that torrent immediately stopped.

“No good.”

The suddenly expressionless, youthful Grelod muttered.

“””…What?”””

“This is abnormal. No good, no good. For you lot to have changed this much—it’s truly an abnormal situation. There’s something, no… someone, isn’t there?”

“What do you intend to say?”

“It’s decided, isn’t it? I’m escaping.”

At Grelod’s words, the women readied their swords.

But faster than that—

“Erosion—”

The witch dyed the world black.

“””——”””

“Hihi, an opening.”

An instant, like time had stagnated.

The black overflowing from Grelod stopped eroding the world.

Instead, it swallowed her like a vortex.

“Temporary retreat, brats. The death goddess ritual, my beloved’s revival—all regrettable, but it can’t be helped.”

Against the backdrop of the vortex, the black-feathered beauty smiled fearlessly.

“Risk and merit don’t match. The abnormality that changed you lot this much is nearby, right? Sorry, but I still want to live long.”

“You think you can escape?”

“…No, White. She herself is already not here. …This is merely a shell—just residual magic power imbued with her will.”

“Fuhe, le-let’s pursue immediately… If we go now, we can track her by the scent of her magic power…”

“Of course. Rather, if we use the transfer gate Grelod left behind… Ah, she disarmed the trap too. We can pursue now.”

*Snap.*

The red-haired woman snapped her fingers.

Just that made a black vortex appear in midair.

They began walking toward it.

“Wait!!”

“…”

The three women stopped.

I can’t stop anymore.

The relief from escaping the life-threatening crisis had conversely removed all my restraints.

“Take me too! I still haven’t heard anything! I still haven’t gotten any answers! Wh-who are you?! What’s this about a king?! …Why are you wearing our clothes…? Brotherhood’s…”

“There’s no need for that.”

“Ah, eh…”

“You have other important people you must cherish, right? Plus.”

The white-haired woman pointed her long finger at me.

“Our king doesn’t take interest in the weak.”

“Ah, ah, aaah, wai—”

“And we won’t meet again. Ever.”

They disappeared.

Without me understanding anything.

While I was left behind.

Why? Why am I panicking this much in the first place?

[Snow, you understand it best yourself. It’s a thorn.]

A voice whispered.

[The past you yourself ended, thought you’d discarded—it was something more precious than your reason thinks. Look, those are the clothes you discarded, the memories you discarded.]

A voice echoed.

[Did you see? Those women’s faces… They looked happy. …Like the old you. Like you when you were playing Life Field.]

The voice was annoying.

[I’ll tell you why you’re suffering so much right now. It’s because you’re weak.]

…

[You’re weak, so you can’t choose. You can’t make the women before you spit out what you want to hear. You can’t follow them. All because you’re weak.]

…That’s right.

Even using my Gift, I probably couldn’t even touch Grelod, let alone them.

[Ah, if only you had power. If you were an existence called the strongest, you wouldn’t even have such feelings.]

I understand—this voice is poison.

A voice speaking at such a time, with such timing?

Nothing good can come of it.

And yet—

[You want power, don’t you, Snow? Player?]

“I want it…”

[Very well. Then let’s start with practice—practice at choosing fate, defying fate. I’ll give you a mission.]

[Main Quest “Noble Duty”]

[Quest content: “Follow the women, or save your classmates.” Choose.]

[Reward: “Prophesied Child Skill Tree”]

“…………Ah.”

[This is practice. Choose freely, Snow. I’ll affirm whichever choice you make.]

I thought about it.

Everyone was still crucified there.

Perhaps thanks to Grelod’s influence disappearing, or thanks to their magic power, their complexions were gradually returning.

If I did this, I could preserve everyone’s stamina with my Gift.

But then I couldn’t follow.

I’d let those women escape.

It’s fine. I’ll protect everyone with a spirit summoning barrier, and then—

“I can’t…”

If I left here, probably—

They’d disappeared into the vortex.

I won’t make it in time anymore—

“Reincarnator hero.”

Late at night, a sound like snow piling on the bottom of the night—quiet.

“Beyond here is our place, our domain. You are unrelated.”

—Ah.

[—Time’s up, huh?]

Poof.

The moment the vortex disappeared, they too vanished.

[But here’s a reward. You chose not choosing. I hope you can choose next time.]

[Acquired: God’s Apostle Skill Tree]

The voice was no longer audible.

Behind me were my classmates.

They were crucified with peaceful faces, but they were all alive.

I didn’t save them.

I can’t choose anything. I can’t fulfill my duty.

I—

“…I’m weak.”

There was no one who would answer.

◇◇◇◇

That man waited alone in the field, biding his time.

[Skill tree expanded]

“Gift – Spell Creation.”

[Gift interferes with skill tree. Several combinable skills exist.]

He selected from the various information reflected in his vision.

The sensation of gazing at a skill tree resembled the pleasure of watching a bank account slowly accumulate.

“…Decided. This and this.”

[Fusing Curse Power Manipulation – Enhancement and Curse Power Attribute – Lightning]

[Acquired “Skill – Lightning Veins”]

[Existences attempting close combat with you will suffer lightning damage if they fail their resistance check]

“Hey hey hey hey hey, what a dangerous combination I made. I might be a genius.”

[…Player, they’re coming.]

At Navi’s voice, the man slowly stood up.

The large vortex that had crushed the field rose slowly, slowly into the sky as if being lifted.

“Alright, is this much enough? Tch, they’re chasing. If I set something on the reincarnator hero… Hm?”

The large vortex contracted and disappeared.

What appeared in the sky instead was a woman—a black-feathered beauty.

She tried to kill the man sitting on a log at the field’s edge below, as naturally as breathing.

The killing intent directed with the ease of dusting off a desk, however, instantly transformed into doubt.

“…Wait. You—why are you inside the barrier…?”

Confusion. Astonishment.

The beauty muttered with a face holding various emotions.

“Tomato.”

“Eh?”

“Return the tomato.”

“Huh?”

“If you can’t—”

The man’s voice, quiet.

“—die.”

Excellent magic users could understand the outcome of a battle just by meeting eyes.

A legendary magic user who had lived 1000 years.

The emotion that raced through her brain was—

“Hii.”

Magic and curse.

The pinnacles of supernatural power from different worlds—superhuman tools of killing.

Magic and sorcery.

Holga Village magic-sorcery battle—

“Spell deployment.”

—Begin.