Xion’s wish was to live and breathe until the moment the Demon King Reinhild awoke and then closed his eyes again. In other words, if the resurrected Reinhild died, Xion too would meet death alongside him.
No matter that Reinhild would revive, once the Hero’s Sword was driven into Reinhild’s heart and he entered the “state of death,” Xion’s life would end at that point as well.
Unlike Reinhild, who would be revived by a magic circle, Xion could not come back to life.
That would be the end. He would simply die.
Presumably, Xion meant to make a wish as the price for defeating the Demon King.
But for Xion to achieve everything he wanted, first the deceased Xion would have to be brought back to life, and then, to match Reinhild’s resurrection, extend his life again.
Would the High God, who was itching to drive Xion to ruin, meekly grant that wish? He’d force the issue, saying he could grant only one wish.
“I’ll trust you with that part.”
“You’re trying to slip this onto me, but even if a quarter of me is dragon, I can’t bring a person back from the dead.”
“Please seal me together with Rein, the way you seal him.”
“I told you it’s hard enough even once without a dragon heart.”
“Would two dragon hearts suffice?”
So he did intend to go hunt dragons.
Even if they had turned their backs on him, Ainel didn’t much like dragons being treated as game.
If someone else had said that, he might have laughed it off. But since it was Xion, he worried more. Xion seemed like the type who could genuinely hunt a dragon or two.
“Forget dragon hearts. I’ll handle the mana, whether by gathering magic stones from all over the world or whatever, so leave the dragons alone for now.”
“I’ll do that.”
Even as he said so, no one knew better than Xion that Ainel lacked the power to prevent Xion’s death.
It didn’t matter.
There was another way to solve that problem.
“Even setting that aside, this plan has plenty of issues. The one who defeats the Demon King isn’t you but the current Hero. The one who makes the wish will also be the current Hero. Will that Hero obediently make the wish you want? Abandoning wealth, honor, and everything else he could gain?”
“I’ll secure a promise.”
“His feelings could change if you die.”
“He will have to make the wish I want.”
“What?”
Xion set the mug he was holding down on the table.
The cocoa, from which all the marshmallows had melted away, hadn’t gone down by a single sip.
“I’ll place a seal on the Hero’s heart.”
“If you mean a seal… don’t tell me the Hero’s Seal?”
“Yes.”
“You have that much holy power left over?”
“More than you’re imagining.”
Just how strong had Xion been?
And after honing himself over 500 years while dreaming of revenge on the High God, how much stronger had he become now?
A lunatic with power that strong… Ainel’s skin crawled.
It was at least a relief that he was a lunatic about Reinhild. If he’d been obsessed with anything else, the world would already be smashed to pieces.
“What kind of seal are you planning to set that makes you so sure the Hero will help?”
“If he can’t undo it in time, he’ll die. If I set a seal only I can break, he’ll want to live and will have no choice but to grant my request.”
“You’re going to kill your own descendant to win love?”
“I don’t know what you mean. He won’t die.”
Right. He won’t die. As long as he gives up the chance of a lifetime and obeys a blackmailer!
It had been pure accident that the High God erased Reinhild’s memories 500 years ago. The High God mistakenly thought it would be a punishment to Xion and exacted that price.
But now that the god knew the erasure of Reinhild’s memories was precisely what Xion wanted, he would do anything to avoid that one thing.
The Hero Jake West would have to negotiate a great many things with the god to fulfill everything Xion wanted.
In the process, he might end up shouldering tremendous penalties.
Ainel couldn’t help sighing in pity and spoke up in Jake’s defense.
“Still, Jake is a Hero. Couldn’t he at least break a seal?”
“The current Hero doesn’t have that capability.”
Xion… this guy knew better than anyone how wretched it was to be born a Hero and jerked around by fate, and yet he was going to steal even the wish?
If Jake were standing here right now, Ainel would want to tell him to run, Hero or not.
Not that running would help unless he escaped to another dimension.
“So… you’re going to wait another 500 years?”
“Yes.”
“Think again. You’re already not right in the head. You weren’t in great shape before, but you’ve gotten worse over the 500 years. And now you’ll endure another 500?”
“If that’s what it takes to have Rein.”
“I’m telling you to think of another way. There has to be a better solution to this. Right! Did you perhaps never tell him you love him? Maybe he left because you didn’t express your feelings properly. Usually, lunatics—ah, sorry. That’s too harsh on lunatics. Usually, people like you only try to bind the other person and never convey your true feelings.”
“I did. Every day. Over and over.”
“Ah… right…. It seems saying you love him was the problem in your case. How about dialing down your love a little first?”
Xion scowled.
As if Xion wanted to hurt Reinhild.
He’d been carefully laying out a plan to set everything back where it belonged, in meticulous detail from start to finish…. But with things ending up like this, time was short and he had no choice.
He had to buy time somehow.
So that even if Reinhild was apart from him, he could still be safe. In the meantime, Xion had to rework a new plan to carry out what he intended.
Since Reinhild left, Xion hadn’t been in his right mind for a single second. Perhaps this plan wasn’t the best. Perhaps there was a better way, only his urgency kept him from thinking of it.
But right now, Xion had no room to think of anything else.
Even now, time was passing.
With his heart damaged, Reinhild might be suffering and dying.
Instead of sitting and bickering, he needed to move quickly.
He had to seize the Hero at once, force a negotiation, find Reinhild, and seal him.
No other method came to mind. No, he didn’t have the wits to think of one. Unless someone else came up with it for him….
“What if there is another way?”
Xion, clutching his throbbing head and suppressing the irritation rising within him, slowly lifted his gaze to Ainel.
Ainel was more serious than ever.
It didn’t sound like an idle remark.
“What matters right now isn’t sealing the Demon King, is it? It’s preventing the High God from exerting influence on him.”
“…That’s right.”
Xion forcibly swallowed the urge to add that erasing the memories that made Reinhild wary of him was necessary too.
“In that case, if Reinhild chooses of his own will to remain by your side, there’s no need to seal him or blackmail the current Hero. Right?”
Xion nodded quickly, as if urging him to spit it out if such a method existed.
“Knowing you’re the previous Hero who mercilessly stabbed his heart, he won’t choose you. That’s why you tried to erase the Demon King’s memories through the cumbersome business of subjugation and sealing.”
“…”
The words “mercilessly stabbed” seemed to prick Xion’s nerves, but who cared. It was the truth.
Ainel continued without a hitch.
“Then without bothering to seal him, isn’t it enough to cleanly erase just the memories? If you keep the memoryless Demon King by your side and protect him, there’ll be no chance of him being subjugated by a Hero, and in the meantime you can carry out the plan you originally had.”
If they did that, everything would be perfect.
The poor Hero wouldn’t be blackmailed, two dragons would keep their lives, and the magician—who, thanks to an unfortunate friendship with Xion, would otherwise have been forced to wring out two overwhelmingly powerful spells—would regain his peace.
But Xion frowned, apparently dissatisfied with Ainel’s proposal.
“There is no magic that neatly cuts out only the desired parts of someone’s memory. If you mean to erase all of Rein’s memories, I won’t stand for it.”
“That’s how it is when you think in human terms.”
Ainel boldly pointed his thumb at himself.
“Dragon magic is different.”
“…Don’t tell me….”
“Right. I’ll erase the Demon King’s memories for you.”
Xion’s face brightened.
In that expression were mixed anxiety, sorrow, and guilt, but the largest share was joy.
So he wouldn’t waste another 500 years, and could start everything over?
Reinhild would open his eyes with his memories gone and meet Xion “for the first time” again, from that moment.
‘Lunatic.’
Ainel thought it only to himself, his eyes unsmiling while only the corners of his mouth twisted awkwardly.
What sin had Reinhild committed in a past life to be targeted by Xion?
Ainel felt sorry for Reinhild.
More than for the poor Hero who’d nearly been blackmailed, more than for the two dragons who’d nearly died, more than for himself, who’d nearly been shaken down by Xion and forced to wring out magic.
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