My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

Was all of this happening in the world my fault? I tilted my head inwardly at the words the demon king had said. I had no idea. It didn’t seem to mean he was blaming me for not killing King Reytis on my first night in this world.

Of the “eye” and the “blade” the demon king mentioned, the eye was probably the "world eye." This extra skill I’d had since arriving here let me view other people’s status plates, and as its level rose it could also show a person’s physical condition and state. But that probably wasn’t the true essence of the skill. That level of ability could be achieved by normal skills like appraisal or detection if you raised their levels.

When I first activated the skill without knowing how to limit it, the scene I saw was probably the real power of the ability. The hero, Kyousuke, and the rest who’d come this far with them—Nanase, Hosoyama, Kazuki, Tsuda, Ueno—lying fallen beneath a blackened sky among countless corpses: the end of the world. And a sensation that, if I wanted, it would show me everything about this world, even the future. I was so scared of that that I refused to look and only used it to view status plates. Even after I learned it could show the whole world, I rejected it. Besides, I wanted to return to my original world, not solve the mysteries of this one, so there was no problem with limiting it.

Still, the skill had other mysteries. I’d never heard that Amelia, who also had the extra skill "world eye" and a higher skill level than me, had seen visions of the future, so maybe what people could see differed by person. “Everything of the world” was too vague anyway. A skill like that should belong to someone smarter.

And the blade? Among the hidden weapons I kept, the only sword was the "night blade god." Swords are only forged now in the Human Territory called Yamato Country, so I’d never been able to get another during my travels so far. Maybe Crow could forge one, but we hadn’t had that luxury.

This "night blade god" had been stolen from the Kingdom of Reytis’s treasury by commander saran. If the inscription on the tang and commander saran’s words were correct, it was forged by the first generation hero. But the inscription and writing on the tang were in our world's language—Japanese—and no one had been able to read them until now. The maker’s mark was hidden unless recognized, a careful precaution.

Still, so what if I supposedly had that eye and blade?

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

I said that, confused, and the demon king smiled at me. His look, like that of a troubled child, made me a little uneasy.

“Oda Akira, I have known your name from before you came to this world. This name, taught only to those who inherit the demon king through generations, is the name of the one who created the causal chain where the demon king is slain by the hero—the very first generation hero of this world. You gave the profession of ‘hero’ to this world and implanted the concept that the demon king is someone who can be defeated by a hero.”

“...What?”

I could feel everyone’s eyes turning to me.

Was it just because we share the same name? That wasn’t proof—were they really going to use only that? Oda Akira was a common enough name; there had to be others.

Before I could narrow my eyes, the demon king continued speaking without minding me.

“That’s why I told you to come here under the pretense of dealing with Black Cat. On the lowest level of the labyrinth where Black Cat was, I’d set up a magic circle that teleports to the location the person wished. If you had defeated Black Cat, heard the message, and used the magic circle right away, you surely would have come here. But you didn’t show. Observing through Black Cat’s eyes, it looked like you would interfere with my plan, so I ordered Aurum and Mahiro, who headed to the Beastmen Territory, to kill you. That is the answer to your question.”

The demon king spoke fluidly while the heroes stood there with their mouths open, looking like idiots.