Published: March 21, 2026
A magic circle spread at my feet. I couldn't move in time; before I knew it, I had been thrown by Akira and landed twisted beside the Master of No.7 near the door of the audience chamber. Apparently the time Yoru tossed me into the air when the airship was attacked by a wyvern paid off.
When I looked up, Akira and Asahina-kun were left where we had been standing, and the magic circle beneath them was on the verge of activating. Nothing I did now would reach them. Still, my hand reached out even though I knew it was futile. Inside the glowing circle, Akira refused to give up and stretched his hand toward Asahina-kun.
“Reverse.”
A clear voice echoed from a space where no one had been. In the corner of the audience chamber near the now-open door, an arm suddenly appeared in midair and reached toward the throne at the edge of my vision.
At the same time, the magic circle that had been set under Akira and the others and was about to activate vanished in an instant.
“Ah, long time no see. You’re going by Master of No.7 now, are you? Kar on Kronel, my foolish brother’s former retainer. And pleased to meet you, Crow of the previous generation hero party.”
The hand floating in the air made a peeling motion, and then Crow, who should have stayed on the airship, appeared from it. He threw the black cloth he’d been holding to Lord Lattice Nail and, as if it were natural, stood beside Akira and began speaking.
Come to think of it, I’d heard at Krul’s gate that Lord Lattice Nail had lent the black cloth—an item that grants concealment—to Ms. Amaryllis. So Akira, who wasn’t particularly surprised when Crow appeared, and these three were co-conspirators. I hope Crow told Ms. Noah and Ms. Ria that he was coming. Please, value reporting, contacting, and consulting. My heart actually stopped. We need a serious discussion when we return to the ship, including about Blythe Otto’s reckless fighting. I’ll drag Akira into that meeting if I have to.
When Crow left with the airship, the Beastmen-specific rapid aging had progressed to its final stage and he’d looked like walking was painful. Now he had the light step he’d had when we first met. If Amaryllis was involved, it was probably medicinal rather than magical.
In any case, Crow’s appearance bought us some breathing room. After all, as a member of the previous generation hero party he’d gotten within a hair’s breadth of the demon king and had even fought Mahiro and returned alive.
Mahiro, who had placed a barrier around the throne, sent Akira and Crow, while the demon messenger Noren accompanied the master’s allied demon soldiers and Asahina-kun. I headed toward the demon king, who sat on the throne inside the barrier watching us.
The demon king sat leisurely on the throne and raised the corner of his mouth when he saw me.
“You seem to have something to say, current hero?”
A being sitting comfortably on a throne, protected by Mahiro’s barrier. The demon king I, the “hero”, was supposed to defeat.
Akira had seemed to doubt that from the moment he was summoned. Indeed, when we were first summoned, as King Reytis had said, the demon king wasn’t invading human territory; the human continent was peaceful. In that situation, it must have been absurd that we believed King Reytis and tried to defeat the demon king.
But in the end, the reason we were summoned was the demon king, and it turned out he was planning not just world conquest but even an invasion of our world—to resurrect his single slain wife.
Even Reytis, who summoned me and could be said to be the origin of our troubles, was just a pawn turned in the demon king’s hand.
“Why do you think ‘heroes’ exist?”
He pointed a drawn sword at me through the barrier and asked.
Which came first, the egg or the chicken. It had been bothering me for a long time.
Why was Oda Akira embroiled in this world’s turmoil? Because the first generation hero was the Akira of a parallel world and this world’s primordial humans were his ancestors. Akira had a connection with this world and, Lord Lattice Nail said, was loved by the war god. But what about me?