Xion knew that House West had begun to conceal the true history three hundred years ago, starting with the previous hero’s era.
Because the Duke of West had taught him so.
But that wasn’t the case. House West had been hiding far more, for a very long time.
‘He was holding all this information to himself?’
The moment he thought it might be connected to Reinhild, anger surged up.
The parchment in Xion’s hand crumpled with a crackling sound.
“Oh.”
The mage watching that was purely impressed.
Every parchment here was under a protective enchantment. And a powerful one at that.
It wasn’t a protection spell set by the successive Dukes of West who had come here. As a family of heroes who wielded swords, there were more in House West who used the blade than magic, so that would have been unlikely anyway.
The one who laid the protective magic so that the parchments stored in this place would not be damaged was none other than a dragon. It was not something that could be crumpled just by squeezing your fingers.
‘He just crushed a spell set by a dragon. So being a hero is more impressive than I thought.’
The mage, once again, kept his admiration to himself. This generation’s hero had no amiable side, so he didn’t feel like praising him.
Though it was nice that he kept triggering interesting incidents.
“Ordinarily, this place too would have been handed down only to the duke and the heir, just like the floor above. The magic circle only recognized two individuals.”
“Hiding the place where the most important information is gathered… how like the duke.”
“He might have intended to wait until you completed your hero’s task and returned.”
“I doubt it.”
The Duke of West had no intention of revealing this place to Xion.
There was no need to speculate about the reason. It would be the same reason they distorted history yet kept the true past in their custody.
To savor the feeling of having the upper hand by being the only ones in the world who possessed “information unmixed with falsehood.”
The Duke of West wanted to revel in the feeling that, with nothing more than this paltry information, he held the hero Xion in the palm of his hand.
“Ha.”
In the end, Xion let out a laugh of disbelief. But that laughter did not last.
With a hardened expression, he checked the crumpled parchment.
“Oh, it says the hero and the Demon King are beings created under a contract between the High God and the Demon God?”
The mage, reading over Xion’s shoulder, spoke.
His tone was not one of surprise.
“It seems you aren’t surprised at all.”
“You aren’t either.”
“I don’t think it’s something to be surprised about.”
What surprised the mage more than the contents of the parchment was Xion’s reaction. How could he be so matter-of-fact about everything that didn’t involve the Demon King?
At this point, he just seemed like a madman.
Mad about the Demon King.
“Your becoming the hero must be the greatest misfortune for the High God.”
Regardless, Xion skimmed the parchments one by one and assembled the information.
The fact that the High God and the Demon God had made a contract wasn’t, on a little thought, an impossibility.
The more the hero accomplished, the more people praised the hero and the High God who sent him into the world. As gratitude and faith toward the High God increased, so too did the High God’s power.
Then would the High God find the birth of a Demon King displeasing, or welcome it? Naturally, he would welcome it. On hearing that a Demon King had appeared in the world, he might even have rejoiced, saying it was finally time to send down a hero.
The High God, unable to wait for the Demon King’s birth, began to get greedy.
If the High God needed a Demon King, whom would he seek out?
There was only one answer.
The Demon God.
“The Demon God periodically brings forth a Demon King, and in step with that the High God sends down a hero to amplify faith and gain strength. Not a bad contract. But it’s unfair.”
The mage analyzed the records even more earnestly than Xion.
“If the Demon King defeats the hero, the world meets its end. But if the hero defeats the Demon King, after a brief peace a new Demon King appears, right? Isn’t that unfavorable to the High God, no matter how you look at it? Is he really willing to risk the destruction of the world he created just to gain a bit more power?”
It was, indeed, strange.
If the hero made a single mistake, the world would come to an end. Unlike the Demon King, who had nothing in particular to lose, it was a contract disadvantageous only to the High God.
Was it because the High God proposed the contract first and had no choice but to agree to such terms?
If not that, then perhaps…
Shuffle.
“W-what are you doing!”
Startled, the mage stumbled back as Xion suddenly swept aside and collapsed a stack of parchments with his hand.
Had he gone mad from too much stress?
As if he had lost his reason, Xion frantically rifled through the parchments spread across the floor.
And he found the information he wanted.
[The battle between the hero and the Demon King shall, without fail, end in the hero’s victory.]
This was it.
This.
The reason he agreed to a contract that seemed so unfair: there was a contract term that made it fair.
“Ha… haha…”
It was the first time Xion learned that when something was too absurd, laughter burst out.
Without exception, the heroes of past ages had won their battles against the Demon King.
If the hero and the Demon King were born with equal power, a Demon King who used magic rather than a sword ought to have the advantage. Yet the world remained at peace, which meant that over the countless Demon Kings who had appeared over the millennia, not once had any hero been defeated.
It was absurd. Practically a miracle.
But it was neither miracle nor coincidence.
From the very beginning, the Demon King was a being created to be the hero’s sacrificial lamb.
‘Rein…’
Was that why Reinhild had to suffer?
Because of nothing more than this damned contract.
“Isn’t this all just good for the High God from start to finish? In that case, what does the Demon God gain?”
The answer to the mage’s question could be found a few pages later.
“Judging by the different handwriting, this must have been written by someone else.”
“The High God would not have directly spilled information that forms the basis of this world. Everything written here must be information the members of House West gathered over thousands of years.”
“So because it’s not the kind of information one person could collect in a short lifetime, it was completed over multiple generations? The family that begets the High God’s hero has been scrambling for millennia to dig up that god’s secrets—amusing. Why did the High God just sit back and watch this?”
“Because while digging up information is impertinent, he knew they would not do anything that would stain the name of their god. As people of House West, they would not risk their own position by spreading this truth. To anyone.”
“Then why gather this much information? A hobby?”
“Simply to revel in the sense of superiority that comes from holding the High God’s secrets.”
Speaking as if he himself were not of House West, Xion read the parchment’s contents.
[What the Demon God gains through the contract with the High God is also power.]
People think the Demon God wants to destroy this world, but to the Demon God that is only a momentary pleasure. Doing so brings him little in return.
Demons, by nature lacking in bonds and disinclined to depend on others, did not harbor faith even while knowing of the Demon God’s existence.
Watching the High God grow stronger day by day by consuming the faith of humans, the Demon God, by creating a Demon King, sought to obtain from demons this thing called “belief.”
What the Demon God did was nothing special.
When among the demons one with exceptionally strong power was born, he simply named that one “Demon King” and acted as if he were the one who had bestowed power.
The Demon God hoped that through the Demon King, the demons’ belief would grow, but it went no further than that.
The demons praised not the Demon God but the Demon King. They preferred the Demon King, who wielded mighty power before their eyes, over an unseen Demon God.
Annoyed by that fact, the Demon God decided no longer to bring forth a Demon King.
However, perhaps because they had taken a liking to playing “Demon King,” the demons, even without the Demon God’s involvement, in each generation found the strongest among them and on their own elevated him as Demon King, serving him at the Demon King’s castle.
While dreaming big dreams of toppling the world around the Demon King.
When the Demon God was thoroughly exasperated with all of this, the High God presented a contract. The Demon God did not miss the good opportunity to inflate his power while disposing of the irksome Demon King.
Thus the Demon King was thrown out as a sacrificial offering to the hero.
“Damn it!”
Bang!
Rumble.
When Xion slammed his fist into the floor, the secret chamber shook as if an earthquake had struck.
The mage, who had boasted that even if the world collapsed this place alone would remain intact, unconsciously swallowed hard.
“I-it must be that the magic here is so old it’s losing effectiveness. Don’t be mad. Hurry and turn the page. So how does the Demon God’s power increase through all this?”
Xion gripped the parchment so hard it seemed it would tear and turned the page.
He had to find out what those who dared call themselves gods intended to do to Reinhild. Only then could he take precautions to prevent the incident from occurring.
Only then could he guard and protect Reinhild.
By whatever means. Whatever he had to sacrifice, he would protect Reinhild.
Without fail.
[The Demon God, upon absorbing the corpse of the Demon King slain by the hero’s hand, is able to make that power wholly his own.]
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