Bonus Short Stories

Castor’s Unique Skill

“Oh, now that I think about it, does Castor not have a unique skill?”

It was a simple bit of aimless musing that slipped out of Scorpius’s mouth during the journey. Lufas and her group were heading to their next destination on the transport golem Suzuki, so the passengers were fundamentally without anything to do. This wouldn’t be the case on a normal journey, but thanks to Suzuki, they couldn’t help but have an abundance of time. So killing time by chatting like this was a common thing.

The subject of the conversation this time was one half of the twins, Castor.

“Now that you mention it,” said Aries, “I don’t remember ever seeing Castor use a unique skill.”

The fact that Aries, the oldest member of the Twelve Stars, didn’t know meant that no one else would either. Everyone’s gazes, other than Lufas’s, gathered on Castor, who could do nothing but awkwardly scratch at his cheek.

“Uh... I command the Argonautai...”

“That’s not a skill though. Isn’t there, you know, anything else?” Aigokeros asked. “Something ridiculous and unfair, like your sister’s.”

“If there is, I’d appreciate it if you let us know now. Given the fights that are to come, having an accurate picture of your allies’ abilities will be important,” said Libra.

Castor just continued to look more and more uncomfortable. The others couldn’t fathom why. There was no way he would be like Leon with no unique skills.

After some more uncomfortable silence, Castor said, “I can summon The Argo...”

“I believe that is also one of your sister’s skills,” Libra pointed out.

Castor fell silent. He could only summon the flying ship named the Argo whenever his sister was nearby. However, that was also one of his little sister’s skills. It was effectively a unique skill for both of them because its condition for use was for Castor to be near her, but his little sister, Pollux, was actually the only one with the skill.

“I’ve thought this for a while now, but aren’t you twins a little too mismatched power-wise?”

“You boast that you can lead an army, but Lufas can do that too. To be honest, you aren’t exactly needed.”

“Grk!”

Castor was getting beaten into smithereens. Thanks to his little sister’s abnormal powers, he looked all the more incompetent.

“So in the end, you don’t actually have one?” Karkinos asked.

Resigned, Castor raised his head and looked at them, and when he put on a smile, his teeth seemed to sparkle. That was all. Nothing else happened.

The rest of the group collectively reacted with a confused expression, but Lufas jumped in with an explanation. “Unique skill: Hot Smile. Its effect is to double the power and impact of his handsomeness. It is not useful in battle.”

There was nothing but silence for a few moments. Then Karkinos said,“O-Okayyy then. M E needs to get our meal ready.”

“I-I’ll go keep watch outside.”

“Me too.”

Castor’s unique skill had been revealed, but the entire group decided not to touch on it. Sometimes, saying nothing was a kindness. Not all unique skills were powerful. That was the lesson of the conversation that day.

A Wild Last Boss Didn’t Appear!

Rather suddenly, I had a thought.

I—or rather, Lufas Maphaahl—had gone on a rampage two hundred years ago, completely rewriting the landscape of power across the land. Before that, Benetnasch, Leon, the Devil King, and Ladon had all ruled over their own continents in a stalemate. However, Lufas had eventually taken down one of them. So, my thought was that if Lufas had not appeared, what would the world look like now?

When I voiced that thought, Dina seemed to sink into thought. “Well, the most likely outcome would be the Devil King’s victory. The most unlikely one would be Leon’s victory.”

“I understand why the Devil King’s victory is likely, but is Leon that disadvantaged? I feel like he’d put up a pretty good fight though.”

“No way. Never. First of all, that lion’s territory is in way too bad a spot.”

Dina spread out a paper on the table as she continued to explain, drawing a simple map. She outlined rough continent shapes in the upper left, upper right, center, lower left, and lower right of the paper along with chibi-fied versions of the ruling powers next to each continent. The upper left was Benetnasch, the upper right Orm, Pollux in the lower left, Ladon in the lower right, and Leon in the center.

Seeing that, even I could clearly see what she was getting at. He didn’t stand a chance.

“Ah, yeah... That’s no good.”

“Exactly,” said Dina. “He’s in the center, so he’ll be taking fire from all sides. Even if Pollux didn’t participate, he’d one hundred percent get ganged up on by Benetnasch, Ladon, and the Devil King,” Dina said as she drew an X over Leon.

“Next, Ladon would immediately target humanity’s territories, while Benetnasch would charge at the Devil King, so they wouldn’t clash,” Dina went on. “Also, Benetnasch wouldn’t nearly be the monster she is now, so she’d just lose to the Devil King. As for Ladon, the hero approved by the Goddess would probably arrive and kill him after he rampaged for some time. After that, the hero would then set his sights on the Devil King, and they would both defeat each other, ending the story.”

As expected of the official last boss. The Devil King really is amazingly strong.

I was satisfied with that explanation, but Dina continued on. “But... The chance of this happening is low, but Benetnasch could also awaken, turning it into Benetnasch’s victory. After all, she is the kind of monster who can break through her own limits. Given that, it’s plenty possible that she could grasp victory. Either that, or she could tie with the Devil King leaving Ladon the victor.”

Daaaaang Benetnasch...

Somehow she stuck out head and shoulders above all the other Seven Heroes in terms of ridiculous power levels. I wonder why?

“Other than that... In the worst case, Aigokeros could invade from underground, resulting in the victory of the Demon King. In that case, the entire world would become Hel.”

After a moment of silent surprise, I asked, “Is he really that strong?”

“You might have forgotten, Miss Lufas, but Aigokeros is crazy scary when he’s serious. Honestly, he could be the strongest of the Twelve Heavenly Stars.”

Seriously? He’s that strong? I just have an impression of him always losing...

“By the way, is there any possibility of Leon winning?”

“No.”

Apparently Leon was destined to lose no matter what. Too bad, Leon.