Chapter 5: The Stories Start to Intertwine

While I had Satsuki gather the information I needed, there was someplace I needed to go.

“I didn’t expect to be heading back so fast.” I looked at the red thread on my wrist. If I wished for it enough while wearing it, I could go back to Harissa’s world.

My watch said it was just a little past six. There were just six more hours until the meteor strike. If I wanted my plan to work, I needed to get a certain item from her world.

I had Iris show me to the courtyard so that I could use the red thread.

“All right, time to go.”

“Yes, let’s.”

For some reason, Iris was wrapping herself around my arm. She seemed excited.

“Iris, if you keep clinging to me like that, you’re going to get dragged to the other world.”

“That’s exactly why I’m doing it.”

“I’m not exactly going there to play.”

She had her fancy bag on her shoulder, and seemed to think she was going on a little trip. I tried to get her to wait here, but instead she just got mad.

“You already defeated the Demon Overlord, right? So it’ll be fine. I had Daddy give me all my tools back. It sounds fun! And I’m definitely not letting you leave me again!” She pressed herself against me some more.

H-Her breasts! I wasn’t sure how to handle the soft feeling on my upper arm, but I was happy to see she was feeling better. I didn’t expect this to be dangerous, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take her.

“Fine. I’ll take you, so get off me a little.”

“Pussy,” R said.

I wanted to tell her to take her flat chest and shove it.

But instead, I ignored her, grabbed Iris’s hand, and made a wish on the red thread. “Take me to Harissa.”

The bracelet started to shine. And then a single ray of red light— a red thread, just like the name— stretched out into the air and formed a circle with a one-meter radius. I could see what looked like dancing flames on the other side. The red opening instantly swallowed us up.

▽

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the castle at Aburaamu. The red thread frayed and fell from my arm. Evidently, it could only be used once.

“Wow... That felt pretty different from a warp, huh?” Iris seemed impressed. She was staring at the stone walls around her, her eyes shining with curiosity.

“H-Hero?!” I heard a voice behind me.

“Are you the cook?”

I turned around and saw the old cook who’d been worried about Harissa. She was blinking in surprise at our sudden arrival.

“Huh?” I had been sure it would take me directly to Harissa. Well, I guess I could just ask. “Excuse me. Do you know where Harissa is?”

“She’s gone.”

I didn’t expect the answer I got.

“Huh? Why?”

Her expression got sterner after I asked the question. “Because of you!”

“Me?”

“Because you’re a fake! They said Harissa’s a liar, and they’re going to execute her!” Her shoulders were shaking with rage. But her anger quickly turned to sorrow, and she covered her face with both hands and started to cry. “It’s your fault! It’s your fault!”

“Why are they saying that Harissa’s a liar? Please, tell me!” Harissa and I had defeated the Demon Overlord. I thought I’d brought Harissa’s story to its end.

But when I heard what she had to say, I realized how stupid I’d been. “I didn’t draw the Hero’s Sword, so they refused to accept me as the hero?” That was what it came down to.

The warp watch had malfunctioned, and so the two of us had gone into the Demon Overlord’s castle and defeated him without anybody knowing. It had only taken a little over two hours. Thinking back, nobody would believe that happened unless they were there. And worse still, I hadn’t drawn the Hero’s Sword to prove I was the hero.

Harissa had summoned a normal-looking kid like me, and I’d vanished from the castle in only two hours. And the Hero’s Sword was still on its dais, too. What would happen then?

“They all think you got scared, turned tail, and ran!” Of course. Everybody would think that.

And since Harissa had failed to summon the hero, she was going to be executed, as was originally planned.

“She kept saying you were the real hero right up until the end. But nobody believed her, so she gave me this red thread before they took her to the execution grounds.”

“Damn it!” I’d been in such a hurry, I’d forgotten to explain things to the king and his men!

“Wait, Rekka! Where are you going?” I shook Iris’s hand off my sleeve.

“I have to go save Harissa!”

“But they all think you ran, right? If you go now and say you defeated the Demon Overlord, they’re not going to believe you, are they?”

I froze like somebody had dumped cold water on my head. She was right. Now that they thought I was a liar, they wouldn’t believe me without proof.

Calm down! Think. Think about what you have to do. The first thing I needed was prove that I was a hero. The other was prove that I’d defeated the Demon Overlord. I needed the latter especially, and if I was going to get it, I needed to go to the Demon Overlord’s castle.

“Crap! I forgot the warp watch!” The Self-Defense Fleet had taken all my stuff when I’d arrived at the Owaria. I was starting to panic when Iris poked my shoulder.

“I have the warp watch with me.”

“Huh? Really?!” I didn’t see anything on her wrist.

“All my tools are in here.” She took the warp watch out of her bag. “This bag uses wormhole technology, so it can hold anything. I’ve got a laser gun each for you and me in here, too. I’ve also got snacks, drinks, shampoo, and a change of clothes.”

Wormholes connected two points in space, right? My guess was that anything put in the bag was sent to another place, where it could be retrieved whenever she wanted it. Alien technology was incredible.

I took the warp watch and said thanks to Iris. Okay, now I had my means of getting to the Demon Overlord’s castle.

“All right, let’s get the Hero’s Sword first! Ma’am, can you take us to the basement where the Hero’s Sword is sealed?”

“Huh? I... I guess.” She quickly nodded.

“Thank you. Let’s hurry!”

The cook led us down into the castle’s basement. The Hero’s Sword was kept in a surprisingly small room, only about two meters to a side. In the center was a dais that seemed to be carved from solid rock, and there was a two-handed sword buried within it.

“This is the Hero’s Sword?”

“That’s right. Thousands of people have tried to draw it, but nobody can.”

Since nobody could draw the sword, they didn’t even put a guard in front of the room. That meant that all we had to do to get in was use the laser gun to blow off the lock. Okay, time to pull this thing out and go to the Demon Overlord’s castle.

I grabbed the hilt and pulled it... and it wouldn’t come out! “Huh?” Next, I tried pulling it with both hands.

“Fnnnggghh!” It moved a little, but it still wouldn’t come out.

Huh? What was going on here?

“Y-You really are a fake!” The cook was sobbing.

Hang on a second. I might have been a normal person, but I was summoned here to save the world. Shouldn’t I be able to pull out the sword? I did what I always did when I didn’t know what was going on, and turned to R for help.

“Hmm? I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because you’re advancing multiple stories at the same time?”

Wait. So since I wasn’t the hero of this story alone, I didn’t quite have the right to pull out the sword? Or was it because I wasn’t the real hero, and just their stand-in? This wasn’t part of the plan, and it was very bad news.

In the worst case, could I just bring proof that I’d defeated the Demon Overlord to the execution grounds? No, if they told me it was fake, I’d be finished. The Demon Overlord hadn’t left his castle since he’d come back to life, and nobody in Aburaamu had seen him. You’d think anybody who saw that huge dragon would be convinced, but since they thought I was a liar already, they’d probably get suspicious. If I was going to convince them, I needed to be the hero.

“When was the Hero’s Sword sealed, and why, anyway?” If I wanted an out, I needed information, and I needed it fast.

“Well, it was sealed by the Legendary Hero for when the Demon Overlord revived.” The old cook was still sobbing as she spoke, with snot running down her face.

“He could’ve just thrown it in a treasure chest somewhere. Why’d he put it in this rock?”

“I don’t know. Maybe to keep people from using it for evil?”

That didn’t help me. Was this the end? I needed the Hero’s Sword to stop the meteor, too! If only the Legendary Hero hadn’t put this seal on it... wait. Seal?

“Hey, if it’s sealed, does that mean this sword’s stuck in here with magic?”

“Of course it is. If it was just stuck in there on its own, a strong man could pull it out.”

The reason I couldn’t pull out the sword was that I was acting as the protagonist of multiple stories. That meant I didn’t have the right to be the hero, and so the seal was stopping me from pulling it out.

But I’d forgotten something important. It was my one advantage. There was no need to break the seal on the magic sword.

I just needed to get the sword itself. I had the high-tech items that Iris had brought me from Finerita. Take out. Move. Transport. What tool could do that?

“Iris, put coordinates into the warp watch.”

I offered her the arm that was wearing the warp watch, and with my other hand, I grabbed the Hero’s Sword.

“What should I put in?”

“I just need to move about a meter.”

“Got it.” Iris had the coordinates entered in under a second.

“Coordinate entry confirmed. Ten seconds to warp. Nine. Eight. Seven...” The electronic voice started its countdown. It felt like it was taking forever, and I kicked the floor in frustration.

It felt like an eternity, but after ten seconds I warped. Since I’d only moved a meter, I was still in the room. But now, the Hero’s Sword was in my hands.

“Yes!” Iris had said aboard her spaceship that the warp watch could transport what you were carrying. The dais was carved out of the ground, so it was part of the ground. And so, I’d warped carrying only the Hero’s Sword.

“Wh-Wh-Wh-What’s going on?!” The cook seemed very confused, but I didn’t have time to explain.

“Iris, the next thing I want to do is go to the Demon Overlord’s castle.”

“I could calculate that fast, if I had a map of this world.”

“Then let’s go to the study. Hurry!” I ran out of the room, carrying the Hero’s Sword, but before I did, I said, “Ma’am, I promise I’ll save Harissa!” And then I ran to the top of the western tower where the study was.

▽

By the time I got back from the Demon Overlord’s castle, Harissa was about to be executed.

She was on her knees on the execution platform, her arms and head locked in the stocks. She looked exhausted. Behind her, the executioner stood silently. A bunch of idiots had gathered in the plaza to watch the execution.

It was too packed for me to get through on my own, but Iris made a path by picking people up and tossing them aside, so I was able to run straight up to the platform. Behind the platform was the castle balcony. One of the ministers was up there, reading something off a scroll. He was probably reading out a list of Harissa’s crimes. When he was done, the executioner would bring the ax down on her neck.

I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’d thought I’d ended Harissa’s misery and her story. She was supposed to be happy now. I wasn’t going to let it end like this!

The minister rolled up the scroll and sent a signal to the man on the platform.

He took his huge ax and moved next to her. It didn’t look very sharp, and the blade was covered in scratches, but the weight alone would be enough to make sure it went right through her thin neck.

“Hold it!” I yelled, but my voice was erased by the roar of the crowd.

He raised the ax high. I yelled again, but no one could hear me. Damn it! Screw this!

Harissa, fight! Why are you just sitting there?! I knew she was a crybaby, but she wasn’t crying. There was no expression on her face at all.

It was the face of someone who’d given up on everything. She closed her eyes, as if in anticipation of her coming death. That idiot!

“I said, don’t give up!”

Clang!

Gah! It’s heavy! That ax is really heavy! I was lucky I managed to block it without my sword snapping. That’s just what I’d want from a Hero’s Sword.

But the masked executioner showed no sign of hesitation. He raised the ax again. That’s when Iris jumped in.

“What do you think you’re doing to my Rekka?!”

She gave him a vicious jump kick! She may have been a girl, but she had several times the strength of any Earthling. Her kick sent the executioner flying clean off the platform.

“Hero?” Harissa looked up at me, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.

I wanted to say hello, but first, I had to deal with all the soldiers that were surrounding me. They were my first priority. I looked up at the king and the other ministers on the balcony.

“Hey, king, you know what sword this is, right?!”

I raised the Hero’s Sword that I’d just used to block that giant ax, and the men on the balcony, and the crowd too, started to whisper to one another. Evidently, the Hero’s Sword was just like the legend of the hero, and everyone knew it.

That made this easier. My first plan had been to persuade the king that I was the hero, but it would be better to just stir up the people.

“I am the hero, chosen by the Hero’s Sword! I was summoned here by the great wizard Harissa Hope, and I have just come from the Demon Overlord’s castle, where I fought to save the people of this world!”

The crowd got louder. The hero had appeared, gone to the Overlord’s castle, and returned... I could see the hope in their eyes.

“Do not be fooled, my people!” One of the ministers on the balcony shouted.

It was the old guy who’d doubted that I was the hero the first time I came here. He had a mustache and beard, so it was easy to recognize him.

“That child was only summoned here this morning! Even if he was the hero, he couldn’t make it there and back in such a short time!”

Normally, he’d have a point.

“Shut up, Mustache! I’m the hero! I can do whatever I want!” But I just yelled right back at him.

If I had more time, I could’ve told him about the technology I’d used, but just like before, time was running out. That’s why I needed proof, and I needed it now.

“Iris, bring it out.”

“Leave it to me!” She opened her bag and pointed it in a direction where no one was standing.

There was a huge thud, and the whole plaza shook. Out of the bag’s wormhole appeared the roasted head of the dragon. It was bigger than a grown man, and an impressive sight. Even if you’d never actually seen the Demon Overlord, you would surely believe that this was his head.

The people in the plaza forgot even to panic. They all looked at the Demon Overlord’s head in shock. The man who brought them this was the man who pulled the sword out of the stone. Nobody pointed out that there was no proof that this was the Overlord’s head.

I thought that the mustached man might try complaining again, but I’d cut open the barrier around the Demon Overlord’s castle when I was testing the sword. Without the barrier, anyone could go inside the castle, where they’d find the rest of the burnt body. Then nobody would be able to call Harissa a liar.

I raised the sword high, and the sun glinted off the blade. “I have defeated the Demon Overlord! There is no more need to fear his demons!”

It was a few seconds later when the cheers began.

▽

We got out of the plaza before we could be surrounded by the cheering people. Harissa was having trouble walking, so I carried her in my arms. First, we moved someplace empty, and then we met up with the old cook.

“Harissa! I’m so glad...”

“Ma’am...”

Harissa grabbed the crying old cook, and they both rejoiced in her safety.

I sighed in relief. I’d managed to get her out okay.

“I’m sorry for doubting you, Hero.” The old cook apologized as she cried.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m just glad Harissa’s safe.”

“T-T-Thank you, Hero!” Harissa thanked me with tears coming down her face. Dark stains were forming on her flimsy prisoner’s robe.

“Hey, don’t cry,” I teased her.

“When I’m in front of you, I always sweat and cry!” She smiled, just a little, and wiped her tears away with her sleeve. “You saved me again, Hero.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“But... but... I said that I’d save you this time!”

“Harissa... if you really want to pay me back, would you come with me to Earth?”

“Earth?”

“The world I’m from. It’s in great danger right now, and I need your help to save it.” I felt a little like I was taking advantage of her, but I really did need her help.

“You really need me?”

“Yeah, I do!”

“Okay!” She rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, and smiled with a red face.

“I’ll do anything to help you! Please, let me help save your Earth!”

“Thanks! First, let’s get your clothes and your staff.”

Now I had the cards I needed. It was time for the biggest game of my life.