Published: September 10, 2025
2015/10/12 Typo corrected.
2015/10/12 Some parts revised.
This is Satou speaking. When punishments go too far, they turn into lynching. To avoid going overboard, it’s important to keep a cool head.
◇
“Alright, first let’s take control of the City Core.”
There must be others besides the Dark Sage Soligero who can use the City Core’s power.
I reached out toward the City Core floating in midair, emitting a blue light.
‘Welcome, King who rules the Upper Realm. Would you like to register this land as a satellite city?’
Unlike earlier when a message displayed, “User already occupies this,” a voice that was hard to judge as male or female spoke directly into my mind.
—Who’s the king?
] Title “King” acquired.
] Title “Nameless King” acquired.
] Title “Hero King” acquired.
Ignoring my inner retort, system messages about titles popped up in the log.
This “Nameless King” and “Hero King” are probably because the name field is blank and the title is “Hero.”
The Upper Realm must be the source of Dragon Valley’s power—after all, it was once ruled by the strongest Dragon God.
“Register it.”
‘Understood—’
] Title “Lord” acquired.
‘Shall the other auxiliary administrators be inherited?’
“No, do not inherit them.”
‘Auxiliary administrators will be removed. Shall the terminals lent to them be reclaimed?’
“Please.”
When I agreed to the City Core’s proposal, about seven bracelets with the same design as those worn by the Depressed Demon King appeared in front of me.
‘The first terminal lent to the previous lord and the fourth terminal lent to the entity named Shizuka have not been reclaimed. Creating new terminals requires stored magic power in units of 20,000.’
“No, there’s no need to create new ones.”
“Shizuka” mentioned by the City Core is the name of the Depressed Demon King.
It seems I cannot retrieve the items stored in my own storage.
‘Shall the environmental settings be inherited?’
Settings, huh... I don’t intend to fiddle with those—
“Show the differences between the previous lord’s and earlier lords’ settings.”
‘Understood. Red indicates the previous lord, blue the average settings up to the one before that.’
The Dark Sage seems to have altered settings arbitrarily; the red and blue display shows quite large differences.
It seems the magic power of the City Core, which should stabilize the citizens’ lives, was used by the Dark Sage lord for personal enhancement and experiments.
“Adjust the settings to match the blue.”
‘—Settings changed. Due to insufficient magic power, it will take 21 days for weather condition changes to fully apply.’
This should improve life in the surrounding farming villages somewhat.
Alright, time to return from this detour.
“Can this room be closed?”
‘Possible. Execute?’
“Do it. If I want to unlock it later, I’ll command from a terminal.”
I collected the seven bracelet-type terminals placed on the floor into storage using my Principle Power Arm (Magic Hand) and issued the order to the City Core.
Now, there’s a reason for taking control of the City Core.
It allows free movement within the city by “Unit Placement.”
Alright, preparations are done; let’s begin the punishment.
◇
“You wretched false god’s fanatic!”
“W-Why is ‘Blessed Demon King’ on the hero’s side?”
When I and the Depressed Demon King Shizuka stepped outside the City Core hall, as expected, operatives of the Light of Freedom were waiting.
First, I used the Sound Pressure to incapacitate the lower-level ones, then swept down survivors and those feigning death with guided stun bullets (Remote Stunner) magic.
“Hey, what’s going on here?”
“That white mask seems to be the culprit.”
“Can I eat that? I’m hungry!”
From the entrance of the hall filled with horrific wailing and screaming, three prominent men and women appeared.
“T-They are the Four Heavenly Kings!”
“T-This means the hero is finished.”
“After all, they are swift as a gale—”