My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

"...My father is trying to revive my mother, in other words, my wife."

Revive—so he means bring her back to life. And Lattice Nail wanted us to stop that.

I noticed that the summoned-hero group and the people born in Morrigan were reacting differently.

"...Do you understand? That's a taboo. Wait—did he say 'we've gone too far to turn back'?"

Noah's face had gone pale. I'd never seen that expression before—was it fear? Noah, of all people?

Mr. Zeal, Amaryllis, and Ria wore similar looks. Amelia's face had gone beyond pale; she was almost white. Her body trembled slightly.

"Sorry to interrupt. What exactly is this taboo?"

The hero raised his hand and spoke. Did he not notice the atmosphere, or was he deliberately oblivious? I couldn't believe he could say that in a moment like this.

"You're telling me you don't even know what a taboo is!?"

Noah's shout echoed.

From what I could gather, "taboo" likely meant something like an absolute prohibition in this world—something you must never commit.

It probably wasn't the kind of thing you'd encounter in ordinary life; if it were, Commander Saran or Mr. Zeal would surely have taught us. We had made a deal with Commander Saran—he would teach us the common sense of this world in exchange for being taught about ours—so why would he withhold the world's greatest common-sense rule, the taboo?

"I'm sorry, but I don't know either. I don't recall Saran telling me."

Sensing Noah was about to go into lecture mode and that the conversation might derail, I raised my hand and said so.

Noah frowned at me.

"What?"

"Right! The third one!"

Mr. Zeal, who'd been deep in thought, suddenly perked up.

"I see. That too. Saran would have found that hard to say."

We had no idea what he meant, but Noah seemed satisfied and turned back to us, prepared to explain.

"Listen. In this Morrigan world, a 'taboo' is something absolutely forbidden. Long ago, when Aitel created this world, he set rules that anyone living here must follow. It's said that those who try to break those rules will suffer terrible punishment from Aitel. Understand so far?"

The more you tell someone "you must never do this," the more their curiosity grows, but this seemed to be something beyond that. Apparently it's the kind of thing that, if you're born in this world, you instinctively fear and avoid on a genetic level.

"...This may be harsh for you, but listen carefully."

That warning gave me a bad feeling.

"First: 'You must not change the past or the future.'"

Noah raised his index finger as he said it.

Given this world's magic and professions, it might be possible in some ways. I knew from countless stories that changing the past or future rarely ends well.

"Second: 'You must not resurrect the dead.'"

I couldn't help but look at Amelia. It felt like Amelia's revival magic was directly defying that rule.

Amelia noticed me looking and quietly shook her head. Her color was returning a bit compared to before.

"I'm a divine child, so there's a degree of leeway for me. Besides, if you play with words, my magic only goes back a single day, so it's no different from resuscitating someone who's drowned and stopped breathing."

I'd never seen Amelia's revival magic in action, but I'd heard she created it to save kin when the Forest labyrinth in the Elf territory flooded. I was told people who'd lost limbs to demonic beasts could live normally again. But does that mean CPR-level resuscitation—even children can be taught that—can be conflated with true resurrection?

Amaryllis, a typical Human race member, looked like she wanted to say, "What are you talking about?" Of course.

"No, that's... well, fine."

Noah started to say something else but gave up and fell silent. I wished he wouldn't. Since we weren't born in this world, we couldn't judge whether Amelia's explanation was truly acceptable here.

So far, none of the taboos explained would justify why Commander Saran withheld information from us. Maybe the third one Mr. Zeal mentioned was the cruel part.

"Finally. The third: 'You must not travel from this world to other worlds.'"