Chapter 14: Starting a New Quest

The day after Zenof killed Dagrah, Allen and Cecil finally made it back to Granvelle City. When Allen stopped before the front gate to look up at the mansion with Cecil on his back, the guard recognized them right away and rushed inside to inform the baron of their return. The sight of his flustered response convinced the pair that they had truly come home.

Phew, we’re finally back. Feels like it’s been ages since I last saw the mansion. So, my spoils from the past few days are the murdergalsh’s Rank B magic stone and Dagrah’s mithril rapier.

The magic stone was a given, since he was the one who had killed the monster, but Allen considered it a stroke of fortune gaining the rapier too. The knight captain had told him to take it. Apparently Allen was terrible at hiding his thoughts; his face made it clear as day just how much he had wanted the weapon.

“Lady Cecil, I’m setting you down now.”

“All right.”

The knight captain had accompanied the children for the remainder of their return journey. However, it was Allen, not Zenof, who had carried Cecil back on his back. He did not let her down right until before the door to the house. When they stepped inside, they found all the members of the baron’s family waiting in the entrance hall.

“Cecil...”

“Father, I am back.”

Even though this was supposed to be a touching reunion, everyone’s eyes were on Allen, not Cecil. When the baron noticed this and turned to look at him, the relief on his face immediately gave way to alarm.

He barked at Sebas, “Call a doctor right now!”

“Yes, Master!”

After nearly being eaten by the murdergalsh, then getting pummeled and slashed by Dagrah for over an hour, Allen’s current appearance was absolutely deplorable. His clothes were now mere rags wrapped around his body, their design barely held together by the last few threads. The ripped edges were plastered with the blood he had lost when he suffered each wound. Given how he looked, anyone would conclude that he was on the verge of death.

However, when he realized that everyone was worried for him, Allen swung his arms in an exaggerated manner. “No, no, I’m entirely fine! I’ve already used recovery potions on myself!”

Another lesson learned: I should keep several sets of my uniform inside Storage. That, and I need to take countermeasures against getting poisoned. Of course, that includes stocking up on antidotes, but...I wonder if there are items that help protect against the kind of instant-acting sleeping agent that got me this time?

Through this incident, Allen had learned a lot of information that he otherwise would not have cooped up in the White Dragon Mountains, hunting solo. He was aware that this had proven to be quite the educational experience indeed. Being able to test several of his hypotheses in his fight with Dagrah had been a boon. For example, no message had appeared in the grimoire when Dagrah died, meaning that killing humans did not yield any XP.

This incident gave me so much.

Allen was instructed to come to the dining hall to deliver his report after taking a bath. Everyone was then dismissed. Water was drawn up for him and he got to enjoy his first-ever bath at the mansion.

When he walked into the dining hall wearing brand-new clothes, he was urged to take the seat at the middle of the long dinner table. The baron usually sat at the end of the table, but today he had adopted the position directly across from Allen. Cecil soon arrived as well.

The baron started the conversation. “I’m sure you’re tired, having just gotten back, but we have to decide our next move. Explain in detail everything that happened.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Since everyone was present, Allen began his account. He told of being kidnapped and stowed aboard the magic ship, the conversation he overheard between Viscount Carnel and the royal envoy, jumping off the magic ship and running toward Granvelle City on foot, encountering and killing the murdergalsh along the way, being caught by Dagrah, and eventually being saved by the knight captain.

“I see. So there’s no doubt that Viscount Carnel is the mastermind.”

“Yes, my lord. He is working with the royal envoy who visited the other day. Their aim is the mining rights of all the mithril mines.”

Allen explained how the royal envoy needed money to prop up the judicial vice-minister, a man from his own faction, as the new judicial minister. The viscount, who had been relying on mithril money to throw his weight around all this time, was now in dire straits without that income. Thus the two plotted to seize half the mining rights from Granvelle. It would really throw a wrench in their plans if Baron Granvelle were to bring the matter directly to the royal family, who were not in on the con. This was why they had kidnapped Cecil, to keep the baron in check.

“So that’s what happened. Thank you for telling me, Allen. Sebas, we’re heading to the royal palace now!”

“Understood, Master.”

The baron had both fists clenched on top of the table—Allen had never seen him look this furious. The rage from having his daughter taken away from him fueled his burning desire to have the viscount and envoy charged and thrown behind bars as soon as possible.

He’s heading to the royal palace? Now? Just like that? Alarm bells went off in Allen’s head before he asked out loud, “My lord, may I ask what you will be doing at the palace?”

“Isn’t it obvious? To let His Majesty know of everything that Viscount Carnel did. I’m sure he would take action on a matter such as this.”

You being sure won’t be enough, though. That might be true if you were up against the viscount alone, but what do you plan on doing about the royal envoy? He’d likely just give some random excuse and cut the viscount off like a lizard’s tail. If all the blame falls on the viscount, the envoy gets off scot-free.

“I have a suggestion for how to resolve this incident. May I share it?”

Allen and the baron had been the only people talking all this time. The rest of the baron’s family was present, as was the knight captain, but understandably, everyone’s attention was focused on Allen, the person who had literally risked his life to save Cecil.

“Let’s hear it.”

“My lord, I want to give you all thirty percent of the mining rights I possess.” The entire dining hall gasped in shock, but Allen paid them no mind. “Please use that share of the rights to convince the royal family to thoroughly investigate what happened and to set up safeguards so that it doesn’t happen again.”

The baron’s face froze. “Y-You mean, b-bribe the royal family t-t-to take action on my behalf?” he stuttered, clearly shaken. “To do the very thing Viscount Carnel did?”

“That is correct, my lord.” I mean, you did try to do the same thing to get Cecil exempted from her duty, right? Though I guess that’s a bit different.

“B-But, that’s...”

“Knights fight in the manner befitting knights. However, my lord, you are a noble. The way I see it, nobles ought to fight in their own manner.”

“Fighting...in the manner befitting nobles?”

“Yes, my lord. Would you please look down at your hands on the table?”

“Hm? Why?”

Allen commanded the entire dining hall’s attention. The baron did as he was told, as if hypnotized. Everyone else also looked at his hands, curious where Allen was going with this.

“My lord, now is the time to dirty those hands. Please show us how you fight as a noble.”

Sebas blurted out, “Allen, watch what you say!” He could not help himself after seeing Allen so blatantly overstep his bounds as manservant.

“No, it’s fine, Sebas.”

“Master—” The butler cut himself off as he saw the tears streaming down his master’s face.

Staring at his own hands with a brooding look, the baron said, “You see, Allen...my father departed from this world when I was about your age. At the time, he told me, ‘Take good care of this realm. Protect it with your older brother.’”

“Yes, my lord.”

“My older brother was barely of age when he assumed the title of lord of Granvelle. I did my best to manage this land with him, but he joined our father right before turning twenty. This still holds true today, but I had to rely on Sebas so much back then. I thank you, Sebas.”

The age of adulthood is fifteen for nobles too, if I remember correctly.

The butler wordlessly lowered his head in response to the baron’s words of appreciation. Allen stayed silent, waiting for the baron to continue.

“Just as my father did, my older brother taught me to be an upright noble, and I’ve done everything in my power to live by those teachings so far. However, I must have misunderstood something somewhere... So, this is how nobles fight, huh? To think I’d be admonished by a child as young as I was back then...” The baron clenched both hands and stood up. “Very well, I will fight in the manner of nobles. Allen, I will be taking you up on your offer of your mining rights. Sebas, prepare for our departure.”

“Immediately, Master.”

Now we should be good. Everyone who participated when Carnel baited them with promises of mining rights shares will surely bite once the baron dangles those rights in front of their faces for real. Now, there’s only one more thing I want to ask him for before he heads to the capital.

Just as the baron was about to leave, Allen said, “Um, my lord, I don’t mean to ask for this in exchange for the mining rights, but... May I know what the duty of House Granvelle is?”

I’ve left it unexplained long enough, I think. It’s time to insist on this.

“Hm...” After a short pause, the baron answered, “Very well. I’ll arrange for a tutor to give you a lesson.”

Huh? He’s going that far to explain? Is it going to be like a lesson on royal service in general?

Without further ado, the baron left for the royal capital with the butler and, for protection’s sake, the vice-captain in tow.

＊ ＊ ＊

The storm that swept through the royal court at the end of that year would later come to be known as “the House Granvelle Affair.” As a result of everything that ensued, a group of nobles, Viscount Carnel included, were charged with corruption and forgery of official documents and brought to justice. The viscount insisted that Baron Granvelle was making everything up right to the very end, but when he refused to cooperate with the royal family’s investigative efforts, he was slapped with insurrection charges, and one thousand of the kingdom’s most powerful knights were dispatched to his fiefdom. The knights uncovered so much evidence that Viscount Carnel was divested of his title, and his realm was confiscated and incorporated into the lands under the royal family’s direct management.

Even a royal envoy and the judicial vice-minister, both highly eminent positions, had been implicated in the scandal, causing nobles to speculate in whispers what drove the royal family to go so far. Many were jailed, with noble houses going back generations erased entirely. The kingdom was wrapped up in a purge so intense, it matched, if not exceeded, the Talent fraud incident.

According to rumors, the root cause of the incident was Viscount Carnel kidnapping Baron Granvelle’s daughter over mithril mining rights, with the baron then raising hell in the royal capital in a mad rage. For the sake of getting revenge, he yielded full rights of his newly discovered mine to the royal family in order to have all the royal retainers and multiple political factions thoroughly investigated and, where necessary, punished.

Some wondered whether the baron had really done all this just to get revenge for a single daughter, but no one pushed him for the full truth. Now that the baron had the royal family and multiple political factions on his side, no noble dared even look at him wrong anymore.

＊ ＊ ＊

Several days had passed since the baron had set off for the royal capital. Allen was asked to stay with Cecil and protect her until the baron’s return—of course, he accepted. Consequently, he spent most of the entire day stuck in her room.

According to Zenof, Vice-Captain Leibrand would not be able to defeat someone of Dagrah’s level; this was why Zenof now protected the mansion together with several of his knights, leaving Leibrand to accompany the baron on his trip. Bird Es and Bird Ds constantly circled in the sky, Hawk Eye and Night Vision permanently activated. Honestly, all this security did not seem that necessary, as the chances of the viscount making a move were very low. With the baron using the mithril mining rights for negotiation, there were no more cards for the viscount to play.

Now that he was Cecil’s constant companion, Allen ended up sitting in on her lessons and receiving his own portions whenever she had tea or snacks. And ever since returning, her prickly attitude toward him had softened. It was making him miss her former self a little.

The two were currently in the conference room on the third floor. They had been led here by Captain Zenof, who had told them this would be where they would be conducting the day’s lesson.

“The conference room?” Allen murmured in slight bewilderment.

“That’s right,” Zenof replied. “This is because you asked to learn the details of House Granvelle’s duty.”

“What?”

“The tutor will arrive soon. I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but the details that you will learn today must remain secret.”

The captain left the room, but quickly returned with the magic tutor, holding the old man’s large bag for him.

Uh, the magic tutor?

Right after stepping in, the tutor turned to Zenof, “Everything, yes?”

Zenof nodded. “Tell him everything. My lord has given his express permission,” he replied in a surprisingly respectful tone before leaving the room once more.

“Goodness gracious...”

Did he come all this way just for my sake? Allen bowed deeply. “Thank you very much for today, sir.”

“Mm. The first thing to say is, everything I will now tell you is strictly confidential. It won’t be covered even in the Academy’s entrance exam.”

“Understood.”

“It is rumored about by those with looser lips, but if it gets out of hand, the royal family will take direct action. As such, I strongly recommend against sharing it for no reason.”

So this is something actively being hushed up?

“Now, what was it that you wanted to know that led you to this topic?”

Hey, he did this during my magic lesson too. I guess asking questions is his way of teaching.

“My question was what House Granvelle’s duty is.” Allen shared how he had heard from Rickel, the head manservant, that the kingdom was not at war but then also gleaned through the kidnappers’ conversation that there was indeed a battlefield somewhere.

“I see. I’ll start by confirming what that idler Rickel said; he’s not incorrect. However, what he had learned was kingdom history.”

Uh, did he just offhandedly dis Rickel? “Why is it ‘kingdom history’? Is it not just ‘history’?”

“In order to know the truth of this world, you need to learn Demon Lord history.” The wizened old man spread a large folded piece of parchment.

“Is this a world map?”

Despite only having ever seen a map of the realm of Granvelle, Allen somehow picked up on the fact that he was now looking at the entire world. It depicted several masses that were likely continents.

“Mm, it is indeed. You’re as sharp as ever, lad. The largest continent, this one in the middle, is where we are. This is the Central Continent.”

“Oh?!” Hey, we live on a pretty big continent. Rickel once told me that there’s an empire to the north that’s several times the size of our kingdom. That means this large region must be the empire, and this small country below it is us. So, we’re in the southern portion of the Central Continent.

“This is where we live: the Kingdom of Ratash. And north of us is the Empire of Giamut,” the tutor said, tapping the countries’ respective locations on the map.

I wonder how much of this Cecil already knows. The baron already told her most everything, right?

Cecil simply stared at the map in silence as the lesson continued with Allen and the tutor doing all the talking. Allen recalled how the baron had told her about House Granvelle’s duty on the day news of Mihai’s demise arrived, but he was not sure how detailed the baron’s explanation had been. Was the part of the map she was staring at related to the battlefield that had taken Mihai’s life?

“Judging by the name ‘Demon Lord history,’ a Demon Lord has appeared in this world?”

The tutor found himself struck speechless for a brief moment by how unfazed Allen seemed upon learning of the existence of the Demon Lord, but he then tapped a finger on the map. “Yes, the Demon Lord was born 112 years ago on the Forgotten Continent, the northernmost one.”

“How do you know that?”

“The Demon Lord said so himself.”

The one claiming to be the Demon Lord had sent a proclamation to all the world’s heads of state that read: “I am the Demon Lord of the End, the one who shall bring about the demise of this world. Submit to me.”

“What did the nations do?”

“They all ignored him. There was no reason for them to make a decision about it either way.”

The Demon Lord, for his part, did nothing afterward. Fifty years passed. With each transfer of power, the nations of the world began to forget his proclamation more and more. That was, until sixty-two years ago, when he once again urged the countries of the world to “submit to him.” This time, there was one more line: “There will be no more chances.”

“And everyone ignored it again?”

“That’s right. Then, the Great Calamity occurred that year.”

“What happened?”

“The Demon Lord strengthened all monsters throughout the world by one rank.”

There was no way to know for sure that it was his doing, as he did not claim responsibility afterward. Even so, the large majority of people attributed the disaster to him.

In any case, this marked the dawn of an age of terror. All the monsters in the world had ranked up: Rank E monsters had become as strong as Rank D; in the same way, D had become C, C had become B, B had become A, and A had turned into the as yet unheard-of S. It was said that Rank S monsters had power rivaling that of Minor Deities.

The powered-up monsters, drunk on their newfound strength, went on a rampage, massacring people who had been living in peace all this time. During that year alone, millions had lost their lives.

Hold on, isn’t this the answer to what I’ve been asking all this time?

Ever since he took down his first albaheron, Allen had nursed the feeling that monsters in this world seemed stronger than their rank indicated. This sense of discrepancy, this intuition that something was off, had nagged him the entire time.

“What happened to the actual ranks of the monsters, then? If the Demon Lord made them all one rank stronger, does it mean the ranks assigned to them also went up by one?”

“Good question, but no, the ranks were left as is. It is the Adventurer’s Guild that assigns ranks to monsters, and they decided to leave all the rankings the same.”

I see, so there is an actual reason goblins all look so muscular, and why neither the knights nor adventurers could do a thing against the murdergalsh.

Due to the Great Calamity, the Rank B murdergalsh now had the strength of a Rank A monster. In the same way, the Rank A white dragon possessed fighting strength on par with Rank S, making it a truly unassailable being.

The tutor continued his lecture. As it turned out, the Great Calamity was but the overture. That same year, an army of several million under the Demon Lord’s command crossed the seas to attack the Central Continent. The Kingdom of Cortes, the Kingdom of Gamelo, and the Principality of Bashli were all wiped out in that year.

“Three whole countries disappeared in a single year?”

“Mm, that is so. Even after that, what we today call the Demon Lord Army continued pressing its attack.”

Three years later, the Demon Lord Army also annihilated the Kingdom of Rastuli. This rocked the entire world.

“Why was it that big of a deal?”

“You see, Rastuli was a midsize country multiple times the size of our own Ratash. And yet, it only took the Demon Lord Army three years to obliterate it. This was an incredible shock.”

The first three that had fallen were tiny nations on the northernmost edge of the continent. Unlike them, however, Rastuli shared a border with Giamut and had enough power to deal with the empire on equal footing. This meant it was by no means a pushover.

The story of the nation’s last moments became public, and the world was shaken once again. Supposedly, when the Demon Lord Army had surrounded the capital, the king had begged for his people to be spared in exchange for his own life, but the demons had rebuffed him, saying, “We already gave two opportunities to surrender. You are the ones who refused us. Now, grab your weapons and fight to your last breaths.”

The Demon Lord Army had forced a country that had already surrendered to continue fighting. After this exchange with the king, the fight naturally turned single-sided. According to the refugees who managed to escape to Giamut through secret passages, it was a massacre beyond description. The enemy forces advanced relentlessly until not a single human life remained within what used to be Rastuli. Less than half of its population managed to escape to Giamut.

“In other words, the Demon Lord has no interest in ruling over humans.”

“Correct. His title implied that he, too, was some kind of ruler. As such, the world expected him to reign over the lands and peoples he conquered, albeit in some twisted demonic way. However, that was not so.”

Everyone had assumed that the newest Demon Lord was a king hell-bent on subjugating and commanding the entire world. However, nothing could have been further from the truth. No, this Demon Lord intended to wipe out all life in this world.

Allen had only asked about the duty of House Granvelle. Before giving him the answer, the magic tutor had dived into a history lesson on a scale that entirely exceeded his expectations. And there was still more.

“Two years after destroying Rastuli—that is, fifty-seven years ago—the Demon Lord Army launched their assault on the Giamutan Empire.”

This marked the start of a war between the superpower that controlled two-thirds of the Central Continent and the demons. Having seen what became of Rastuli, Giamut did not hesitate to bring all its forces to bear on the front.

The current world map showed the Demon Lord Army located at the northern borders of Giamut. That implied that the empire was successfully keeping it at bay. And thanks to that, Ratash, the kingdom where Allen lived, remained safe.

“So the empire managed to beat the demons back.”

“That is not so. Giamut’s forces kept losing battle after battle. Though they were not as overwhelmed as the four countries that had already fallen had been, the empire continued losing to the point where the large majority of their border fortresses had fallen. The best it could do was slow the advance of the demons. So Giamut formed the Five Continent Alliance.”

“The five continents teamed up?”

As soon as he determined that the Demon Lord Army was far too powerful for his country to handle alone, the emperor of Giamut immediately approached the heads of state in the four other continents—excluding the Forgotten Continent where the Demon Lord lived—with talks of an alliance. This was what led to the formation of the Five Continent Alliance that was still active to this day.

“You see, the Demon Lord had made a grave mistake. Instead of focusing his attacks on the Central Continent, he also attacked the Empire of Baukis and Rozenheim, the major powers on two other continents, at the same time.”

The magic tutor pointed to a landmass northwest of the Central Continent half its size and to another in the northeast a third of its size, introducing them in turn.

The great power on the northwestern continent was the Empire of Baukis, a country ruled by dwarves. They possessed prodigious technological prowess and were the source of all the magic ships in use worldwide. Sixty percent of the magic tools in Ratash came from Baukis. The country commanded military might surpassing that of Giamut in the form of tens of thousands of golem troops that exceeded even the magic ships in size.

On the northeastern continent was Rozenheim, the country ruled by elves. Both the continent and country were named after Rozen, a spirit who had surpassed the power of a common spirit to reach the realm of a Minor Deity, gaining command over all spirits in existence. Through his contract with the queen of Rozenheim, this Sovereign of Spirits lent his power to the entire elven race, enabling them to repel the demonic invasion using powerful Spirit Magic.

Due to the Demon Lord attacking three continents simultaneously, the leading powers in all three became equally aware of the threat the Demon Lord Army posed, and in no time at all, they pushed through the formation of the Alliance. This led to the establishment of a system for countries not on the front line to supply troops and supplies to those that were.

“This improved the situation somewhat, but the Alliance’s forces still continued losing their battles.”

An allied force was formed and deployed, greatly bolstering the military might of Giamut. Even so, this proved insufficient to halt the demons’ advance. The Demon Lord Army was not composed of mindless mobs exclusively; it had intelligent commanders who knew to strike where cooperation between the united forces was weakest, as well as the fortresses manned by foreign forces that would flee in fear at the first sign of battle. It took almost no time at all after the formation of the Five Continent Alliance for the Demon Lord Army to see through all of the cooperative effort’s flaws.

“Then a truly deplorable strategy was adopted.”

Unable to bear the mounting losses, Gamut demanded troops from Ratash. Being located on the Central Continent and thus a signatory of the Five Continent Alliance led by Giamut, the kingdom had no choice but to comply. So it dispatched its knights to join the war effort.

However, the demands from Giamut soon escalated. Waving the stipulations of the Alliance in Ratash’s face, it pressed the kingdom to send its royals and nobles to the front lines too, even those without Talents. Now, it was common sense to conscript only those with Talents, but at the time, the Alliance attempted to resist the Demon Lord Army by simply matching number for number.

“The Demon Lord Army is composed of monsters, all Rank B or higher. Many of noble and royal birth died fruitlessly as a result of the Empire’s ill-advised strategy.”

We’re basically talking hundreds, thousands of murdergalshes, right? No matter how many Talentless people you send, they still can’t kill a murdergalsh.

The bulk of the Demon Lord Army was Rank B monsters, with a generous distribution of Rank As and several rumored Rank S monsters mixed in. The Talentless troops were almost entirely wiped out, regardless of social class.

This was about the time the baron’s father died, I think?

The baron had said that his father had died when he was around Allen’s current age. That meant he had likely been sent to the front lines as a part of Ratash’s response to Giamut’s demands and lost his life on the battlefield.

“This was when the Alliance introduced a system of Academies, at least one per country.”

In this world with levels, individuals could develop to become several, even dozens of times more powerful than they had been. As such, it was only natural to arrive at the idea of cultivating children with Talents to reach their maximum potential before sending them to the battlefield. Consequently, all the countries within the Alliance were ordered to set up at least one Academy City within their borders. The Academy’s location chosen by the Kingdom of Ratash had plenty of dungeons, making it ideal for training the students.

Stipulations of the Alliance stripped authority over the Academy Cities away from the countries they were located in. After all, countries would naturally be tempted to run their Academy Cities in a way that benefited themselves instead of the allied effort. The Alliance maintained direct control over all the Academy Cities it established.

The current headmaster of the Ratashian Academy City was a high elf, a blood relative of the queen of Rozenheim who had lived for over a thousand years. He basically had free rein to run the Academy however he wanted.

“What happened then?” Though judging by how the story’s going, this probably still wasn’t the turning point the Alliance wanted.

The magic tutor nodded in response to the look on Allen’s face. “Even with the Academy system, this proved insufficient to push back the Demon Lord’s forces.”

Wave after wave of millions of monsters continued to barrage Giamut’s fortresses and other crucial locations, overrunning them one by one. Eventually, a fourth of the empire had fallen to the demons, and it was losing more and more habitable space. A few decades after the launch of the Demon Lord’s offensive, hope had disappeared from the world and all peoples had resigned themselves to their eventual annihilation.

“However, Lord Elmea, the God of Creation, had not abandoned us. He granted Giamut a Hero.”

After dwarves and elves, now we have a Hero too?

Twenty-two years ago, a commoner child with the Talent of Hero was born in the Giamutan Empire. His name was Helmios.

“It was a miracle. Helmios personified invincibility and indomitableness.”

Having grown up with the hopes of the world riding on his shoulders, Helmios received the very best education possible at the Giamutan Academy City at twelve years old. He was then dispatched to the front lines at fifteen; there, he managed feats that greatly exceeded what anyone had imagined. Rumors that verged on legend abounded, with the most commonly repeated one being “wherever the Hero goes, the land becomes stained with monster blood as far as the eye can see.” Helmios pushed the Demon Lord’s army back with the momentum of a thunderclap, restoring the original borders of Giamut in only five years. He was still fighting on the front lines at that very moment, currently striving to recover the land of lost Rastuli.

“You have heard of our kingdom’s Land Reclamation Decree, yes? His Majesty established this policy as an effort to send more supplies to the war effort.”

As a signatory to the Five Continent Alliance, Ratash was currently focusing all its energies toward increasing the volume of the support it sent to the front lines. Raising the amount of food produced locally was a large part of that drive.

So that’s the reason behind the founding of the village I was born in. And... Ah! That’s the reason there was so much pressure to hunt more great boars!

For the first time ever, Allen realized how intricately history was woven into the story of his own life. Krena Village came into being because of the Land Reclamation Decree; the Decree was issued because of a war; and there was a war because the Demon Lord was attacking all of the civilized world.

Why was the baron so bent on meeting the great boar quota that he made the trip to Krena Village in person? Why could the great boar meat produced by the village not be found in Granville City, not even on the baron’s own dinner table? These questions that had plagued Allen’s mind all these years finally had their answers. The meat was sent along, not simply to the Ratashian royal capital, but beyond, all the way to the front lines north of the Empire of Giamut. Processed meat could be kept for a long time; the beasts taken down by Allen’s father and fellow villagers were filling many soldiers’ bellies even now.

“Finally, we come to House Granvelle’s duty. As you might have guessed from everything I’ve covered so far, this is not something that only House Granvelle is charged with. Naturally, even the royal family is subject to the same obligation.”

All nobles and royals born with Talents in Ratash were conscripted for three years of compulsory service under the stipulations of the Five Continent Alliance. Even members of the royal family had no right to refuse. Everyone had to be posted at a fortress on the front lines to fight against the Demon Lord’s army for three years. Those who attempted to get out of this duty, as well as those who failed to graduate from the Academy, were severely punished, with some even having their families stripped of their nobility. If a royal member did so, not only would the country lose influence within the Alliance, it would also lose trust from other countries on the world stage, incurring unmeasurable diplomatic and economic losses.

Naturally, positive reinforcement had also been woven into this system. First, a reduction in taxes was promised for the realms of any nobles who succeeded in completing his or her three years of service; furthermore, this achievement made it much easier to enter a position within the royal court. All members of the Academy Faction, which held overwhelming sway over the royal court at the moment, were nobles who had returned from military service. Additional years were required for those wishing to apply for certain higher positions; vice-captains of chivalric orders needed to have served for more than three years, whereas knight captains and members of the imperial guards—the most powerful chivalric order in the kingdom—required more than five.

The magic tutor, being a Wizard, had served his three years. After returning to Ratash, he had assumed a position at the royal court that allowed him to perform magical research, and now he had the freedom to spend his postretirement life however he wanted.

However, even after taking all the promised rewards into account, there was no denying the harshness of the compulsory service. Back when the magic tutor did his service, seventy percent of Talented youngsters lost their lives. The situation was better now, thanks to the efforts of the Hero, but even so, fifty percent never made it back home.

Allen shot Cecil a look. She had remained quiet this whole time, her crimson eyes seemingly burning a hole into Giamut’s northern border on the map. In all likelihood, she was thinking of Mihai, the brother whom she had lost to this conflict against the Demon Lord.

So this is why it had to be Hell Mode, Allen thought in retrospection. This is why I had to be reincarnated. Now everything makes sense.

＊ ＊ ＊

November arrived and, after a month’s absence, the baron finally returned to Granvelle City. Although he looked thoroughly exhausted at dinner, he declared that the matter of the viscount had been wrapped up loud enough for Allen, who was on serving duty, to hear, then ordered him to come to the conference room the next day.

When Allen obediently went to the third floor the following day, he found the baron and butler together waiting for him. The table in front of the baron was loaded with three bags in a row.

The baron gestured at the seat across from his own, so Allen obliged. The boy looked up and found a conflicted look on his employer’s face.

What’s the matter? He looks...hesitant about something.

Eventually, the baron broke the silence. “Allen, you’ve already had the lesson with the magic tutor, yes?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Allen was now in full knowledge of Demon Lord history. He had learned the choices the nations had made in response to the actions of the Demon Lord and fully understood the situation of the world as well as the burden on House Granvelle’s shoulders. Once she turned fifteen, Cecil would have to enter military service with a fifty-fifty chance of survival, the very same service that had already claimed Mihai’s life.

In a dejected voice, the baron said, “I tried asking His Majesty if it were possible to exempt Cecil from her duty, but he said that she had to go, case closed.”

After all, after being properly nurtured, her rare two-star Talent could provide fighting strength that the front lines so desperately needed. Holding her back was not up for consideration, no matter what. The king gave his condolences, saying that it was out of his hands. That meant the baron truly had no other way out.

A well-trained mage can take out a lot more enemies than a well-trained swordsman, after all. This is all the more so for her, being not a mere one-star Mage, but a two-star Wizardess.

“So that leaves me with one request for you, Allen.”

“Yes, my lord.” This is what Zenof was referring to when he told me to lend the baron an ear that night we camped out, right? Now that I have the full picture, it’s easy to see where the baron’s going with this.

“Please attend the Academy with Cecil and protect her on the battlefield.”

“Of course, my lord.”

“I am aware how unreasonable my request is. Before you here are the reward for killing the murdergalsh, the reward for saving Cecil, and your wages for being Cecil’s bodyguard for three years.”

Each bag on the table held two hundred gold, making it six hundred in total.

The baron cast a worried look at Allen’s face. He was well aware that this boy was not particularly attached to money—he had given up his mithril rights without a second thought when he thought it necessary. In the first place, he already possessed over five hundred gold from selling the materials he had gathered from armored ants. He had no great need for money.

Hm, I’ve already answered in the affirmative twice, but he still doesn’t look convinced. I should probably say it one more time and make it clear. Talk about déjà vu—how many times have I experienced something like this before?

Back when Allen was Kenichi, he had found himself in a similar situation many times in the games he played. His first experience was a king asking him to save a princess kidnapped by a dragon. In another game, someone begged him to save a shrine maiden who had been sent as a sacrifice to appease the master of a lake. Countless village heads, town mayors, feudal lords, and kings had approached Allen with their requests. And he had accepted and granted them all.

After all, if he didn’t, the story wouldn’t progress.

He even recalled a few times when he had found the request too unreasonable and chose “No,” only to find the conversation stuck in an endless loop. Right now, before his eyes, was a feudal lord in the throes of despair after having his father, brother, and recently, even his son killed by the army led by a Demon Lord. And his request was to protect his one and only daughter, preventing her from meeting the same fate.

There’s no doubt; this is a quest. You can also say that the plot is finally moving. I see; in this world, it takes four years to trigger the kind of quest that you’d normally get the second day after arriving in town.

“My lord, I, Allen, shall protect Lady Cecil with my very life,” Allen declared, taking care to enunciate each syllable.

“You accept?!” The baron leaped to his feet with emotion. “You really do?!”

The boy reached out to take only one of the three bags resting on the table. “Furthermore, I’ll accept one of these bags, but may I ask for something else in exchange for the other two?”

“You wish to...exchange them? For what?”

Hah, what a noob quest-giver. It’s common sense that the completion reward is given after the quest is over. And how’d this hopelessly poor family gather six hundred gold anyway? Don’t tell me he put the mansion up as collateral?

The baron’s family was poor because he was shouldering a portion of the taxes his citizens were supposed to pay so as to lighten their burden. It would take a few more years before the mithril mining operation turned a profit. In short, Allen suspected that the baron had gone to rather absurd lengths to procure the money sitting on the table. Moreover, now that he had learned Demon Lord history, Allen knew that the other nobles—and even the royal family—of this country were destitute. No one had the leeway for extravagance, drained as they were by decades of fighting against the Demon Lord. There was no way the baron had six hundred gold sitting around in his ledgers.

“I don’t need this four hundred gold. In exchange, please exempt my family from having to pay head tax.”

“That’s all you want?”

“Um, if possible, then please exempt Krena’s family too. That’s all I want in exchange for this four hundred gold.”

“Very well. Your family’s and Krena’s families are exempt from their head tax as of now.”

Perfect, since I probably won’t be able to send money home for a while in the near future. Now that they don’t have to pay taxes, life should be much easier for both of our families. I hope Mash and Myulla will grow up healthy and happy.

“Lastly, my lord, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to serve you, and for raising me as a member of your family throughout the past four years.” Allen dug out the Granvelle crest in his pocket and laid it on the table. After figuring out what the baron’s request would be, he had made up his mind what he had to do. As the baron waited quietly for him to finish, Allen declared, “I, Allen, will return to being a commoner. Then, as a commoner, I will protect Lady Cecil and fight the Demon Lord Army by her side.”

“I see. As I’d thought.”

Oh? He saw this coming?

Sebas, who had been standing behind the baron, stepped forward as if prompted. After picking up the crest Allen had left on the table, he set something else down in its place.

Allen examined the beautifully ornamented silver dagger in confusion. “What is this, my lord?”

“This,” the baron replied, “is the proof of being a guest of Viscount Granvelle’s household. It was forged under the royal family’s auspices.”

“Uh...viscount? Guest?”

“Thanks to you, Allen, House Granvelle will be a viscountship as of next year.”

The baron went on to explain that he had yet to tell anyone else; he planned on announcing it over dinner that night, but wanted to let Allen to be the first to know as an expression of his gratitude for all of the boy’s contributions so far. The king had been incredibly delighted by the baron splitting the proceeds from an entire mithril mine among the royal family and other noble families, touting him as a role model for striving to enrich the entire country as a whole instead of hogging all the profits to himself. As a reward for the baron’s endowment and for righting wrongs, the king would be bestowing him the peerage of viscount next year.

The baron ended with a dry laugh. “To tell it like it is, I basically bought the viscountship with money.”

“So you have been promoted! Please allow me to express my heartfelt congratulations.” Allen bowed his head. When he looked back up, however, the look of confusion from before was back. “However, what does it mean to be a guest?”

“It means you have been accepted as a part of House Granvelle. If another noble causes you trouble, we will take your side as if you were a part of our own household. Conversely, if you cause any trouble, we promise to take responsibility and handle it for you.”

In other words, House Granvelle now shared collective responsibility with Allen and would back him up with all it had. That was the contract implied by this crested ornamental dagger.

Allen had yet to know this, but the baron had somewhat overdone things at the royal palace, spurred as he was by Allen’s words. When word of him being willing to share mithril mining rights went around, the general poverty of the nobility prompted many to leap at the opportunity and express their willingness to cooperate with the baron’s investigative efforts. This was how he had managed to wrap up the affair so quickly.

A dagger as a reward... I see, so this current quest is complete. Allen thought back over the past four years as he stared at the blade. At the same time, he realized why he was here. All this time, I’d asked the question of why I had been reincarnated and forced to start this life as a newborn instead of being transmigrated. Turns out it made all the difference.

If Allen had been simply brought over, the whole chain of events that led to his current situation would not have happened. No hunting great boars with the villagers of Krena Village meant no serving House Granvelle as a manservant. No service with House Granvelle meant no attending Academy City with Cecil. Furthermore, in this world where information about the Demon Lord was so strictly controlled, he might have bumped into the Demon Lord Army and died without being any the wiser.

And there’s meaning in Hell Mode too. It had to be Hell Mode. Ah, I see. So this is the answer to how I came to this world.

When he learned the truth of the world, Allen finally understood the importance of Hell Mode. Back when he was Kenichi, he had found the website that led to this world after typing “game hell mode challenging” into a search engine. In all likelihood, if he had typed “casual game,” the link would not have shown up. The God of Creation had been looking for someone who was up for the challenge of the ultimate Hell Mode: being reincarnated into this world.

So, you want me, the person who selected Hell Mode, to save this world where the balancing has all gone to shit?

Those in Normal Mode—no matter how many they numbered—were powerless against the Demon Lord’s army. This was a world heading for destruction due to the game balance getting completely ruined—so to say, the balancing was now complete garbage. There was no telling whether the current Hero even possessed the ability to kill the Demon Lord. This was the backdrop against which, ten years after the Hero’s birth, the person that Elmea had been looking for, someone who chose Hell Mode, was brought over.

Allen strongly felt how much this world wanted—no, needed him.

“I accept this quest.” Allen stood up and clutched the silver dagger tightly to his chest. “Please place your trust in us. I swear that Lady Cecil and I will destroy the Demon Lord together.”

The first thing to do when trying to kill a Demon Lord is to look for party members. I’m getting so hyped!

The baron wanted to reply with, “Uh, I didn’t ask you to go that far,” but he was so overwhelmed by Allen’s confidence that he swallowed his words.

Thus, Allen retired from his position as manservant of House Granvelle and became a guest of the household instead. It was time to shift the stage of the story to the Ratashian Academy City.