Chapter 63: Dark Lord

When I teleported back to the village I found out that my party learned that the familiars had actually grown from the corpses of the monsters and people they attacked. One of them even became a different variant that was referred to as a Yeti Form. Luckily my they had managed to deal with them and burned the rest of the bodies. I had them get together and told them about what the others had said about the Spirit Tortoise. Then Therese asked a question that included a term I had never heard before.

"So this world's guardian beasts have yet to awaken?" (Therese)

"What do you mean 'guardian beasts'?"

"Do you not know about them? There were four in my home world but all of them were killed before we knew how important they were."

"Well I've never heard of them before today, so start talking."

"As you wish, my god. The guardian beasts I know of were the black turtle, vermillion bird, white tiger, and the demon dragon. The demon dragon was killed when it tried to enslave all of humanity years before the waves came. The others came after the waves started and wiped out large populations before eventually being killed. Later we learned that they worked as a way to stop the waves if they can collect enough souls. Even if they don't get enough to end the waves, they will still use the souls they collected to hold them off for a time."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" I know she wasn't trying to hide it since I asked if she was intentionally leaving anything out when I interrogated her, but for her to have left something this big out…

"I beg your forgiveness god, but it had been assumed that this world was in a similar state and then I didn't think about it during all the questions you asked before." Therese was on the ground bowing as she apologized. It is very hard to stay mad at someone while they are in an orz pose.

"Fine, your forgiven, but you better not be forgetting anything else this important."

"Thank you god, and I don't believe so."

"Blake, can Fitoria confirm Therese's information?"

Everyone looked at Blake and a few seconds later her cowlick started twitching.

"She says the names are different, but that it is basically correct."

"Is letting them rampage the choice to save the world rather than saving the people?"

Now everyone was looking at me. I guess they didn't really know about that conversation I had with Fitoria.

"She says it is and she wants to remind you that the heroes of the past hoped that you would choose to save the people."

"Are you saying that this beast will kill everyone in order to stop the waves?" (Eclair)

Blake tilted her head as she seemed to ask Fitoria. "She doesn't know how many, only that they use the souls of people and monsters and that they require a lot. She also says that she won't interfere with how the heroes choose to handle this." The cowlick stopped moving, indicating that Fitoria had no more to say to us.

"Therese, how do you think L'Arc and Glass will react if they find out that the Spirit Tortoise is waking up?"

"Hmm… Well I doubt they will do anything really. There wouldn't be any point to their stopping it and we don't know if the guardian beasts of this world succeeding would save ours."

We stood there silent for almost a minute before anyone spoke up.

"Well then, Sir Endou, how would you like to handle things given this new information?" (Seb)

"Why should it change anything? That monster is trying to kill people and it is the duty of the heroes to protect them!" (Eclair)

"No. It isn't." Everyone looked at me as I said those words. "There is no reason that someone who was abducted and trapped in a foreign world should have any duty to its people. Besides, as far as I know, the cardinal heroes are only summoned in the case of potentially world ending events. That suggests that their purpose is to ensure the survival of the world. Given that these guardian beasts have a similar purpose and an actual way to succeed, I'm not sure they should be stopped."

"You would abandon everyone to die?! What kind of hero would do something like that?"

"The pragmatic kind. Try to remember that I never asked to be summoned to this world and my first priority is to return home. If I was certain of a way to save everyone here in the process then that would be one thing, but as it stands the only thing I've been told is that fighting off all of the waves might be enough or it might result in the world ending anyways. What I know for sure is that Fitoria said that these things can stop the waves if we let them do their thing, and that it will let me get home."

"I knew you were capable of some morally questionable actions when you felt the situation called for it, but this… it's simply evil."

"M-Master Endou, you wouldn't really kill everyone just to go back… would you?" (Talia)

I chose to address Talia first. "I never said I would be helping it. I simply refuse to cut off one of the only ways I know of to get back home. Besides, I seriously doubt it will need to kill everyone, especially if it is using monsters souls as well. Odds are that there will be plenty of people left to repopulate the world once the waves are gone." I then turned back to Eclair. "As for your accusation… Have I ever claimed to be good?"

Eclair blinked before stammering, "What?"

"It's a simple question. Have I ever claimed to be good? For that matter, have I ever claimed not to be evil?"

"Fehh! The cardinal weapons wouldn't choose an evil person to be a hero."

"Good and evil are both terms that depend entirely on how you define them. If someone willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals is evil, then evil is what I am. It may be true that I don't like killing people needlessly, but if it is necessary for the world to save itself then I see no problem with it."

Eclair took two steps towards me, then slapped me across the face, or tried to anyways. My defense was high enough that I was completely unaffected and she retracted her hand shortly after.

"How dare you strike god!" Therese pounced on Eclair and both women went to the ground. I was too surprised by the turn of events to do anything and simply watched them roll around on the ground, Eclair desperately trying to escape from Therese. The others didn't know what to do either, but Rishia did make her signature sound. Somehow Therese ended up on Eclair's back while pulling her hair to make her look up at me. "Now apologize to god for what you have done!"

"Therese, that's enough. It's understandable that a knight sworn to defend the people wouldn't like my choice and she wasn't able to harm me anyways."

"As you wish." Therese got up, leaving Eclair lying on the ground, humiliated at what had just happened.

Eclair slowly picked herself up and glared at me. "Send me back."

"Hmm?"

"Send me back to the castle. Someone needs to report to her majesty what she said and about your decision to abandon the people of this world and I can't stand to even look at you right now."

"Fine, but I've still got 15 minutes left on the skill's cooldown so you're going to have to deal with it for now. Honestly you shouldn't be getting so worked up. If Ren is right about it being easy for level 80s then he and Itsuki will be able to defeat it with no problem. If not, then Motoyasu may still be able to handle it. And if it turns out to be something that requires my power to defeat… well it's not hard to ignore my existence."

Eclair stormed off and Elder Sensei chose to voice her opinion on the matter. "So the shadow saint claims to be evil. I don't think you can be summed up in such a simple word. And even if you do claim to be evil, there is no denying the good you have already done."

"True, but there is difference between doing good when you can and sacrificing your goals because someone thinks it's the right thing to do. I guess Eclair just can't accept the idea of necessary losses."

Eclair came back about 20 minutes later to be transported to the castle. She was still angry when she left. I checked with the others and my party chose to stay with me, as did Elder Sensei, and Rishia said she wanted to fight but was ordered to stay with Elder Sensei.

POV: Clone

The shadow that had been watching my main body actually returned to report what happened shortly before Eclair arrived back at the castle, but the queen heard what she had to say on the matter anyways. Needless to say, the queen was none too happy with me. She was in the middle of ordering the shadow to have my main body return to speak to her when I made my presence known.

"Yelling at me isn't going to change things. I had accepted the possibility of something like this back when Fitoria had first told me about it, I just didn't know this was it until Therese explained what the Spirit Tortoise really was."

"So the shield demon finally shows his true colors." I had almost forgotten that Fool was in the room. Currently he was in what I can only assume to be some sort of special restraint this world developed for purposes I likely don't want to understand. I was uncomfortable just looking at it.

"Oh drop the demon stuff. If I was really as bad as you though, I would have utilized the most efficient means of leveling at my disposal back when you falsely declared me guilty."

"And what means are you referring to? To my knowledge there is no better method for leveling up than fighting in activation events." The queen voiced what the others were also thinking based on their expressions.

"It isn't too hard to figure out. It is more efficient to kill large numbers of monsters at once than hunting them one at a time. However killing humans also gives experience and cities are full of them. Put simply if I wanted to I could have started slaughtering everyone in Melromarc and probably would have exceeded level 70 by the time the wave hit Lute."

They were all too shocked to speak.

"I would have had to start with the low level villagers. With the shields ability to absorb corpses there wouldn't be any evidence left behind only empty villages that might go unvisited for days. After that I would start targeting knights and adventurers, people who have raised their level and would provide more experience. At that point rumors would spread and news of mass disappearances would have reached you and the castletown would be on full alert. Of course that would just make it a bigger target. All the guards would go missing and not even the shadows would be able to tell you how. Then, it would have been your turn to die."

The horror was plain on their faces.

"I'm not saying that I would ever use such a method, only that it would have been incredibly efficient. Anyways, compared to that, simply allowing mass killing that would result in saving the world is actually quite neutral."

The queen took a few moments to find her voice. "So you are saying that you are choosing to stay out of the battle with the Spirit Tortoise entirely?"

"More or less. The other heroes can try to kill it if they want, but I have no intention of stopping it from saving the world."

"Sir Endou. I have long accepted that you were different from the other heroes. Most people have trouble accepting the idea of killing people at first and many prefer to avoid it whenever possible. Whereas you simply verified that you had permission to slaughter an entire army when they stood against you. But this… to be willing to sacrifice the people of the world… you truly are not human."

"On the contrary. I know several people who could be said to have left the ranks of humanity, but I am not one of them. I'm simply willing to do what is necessary to achieve my goals and accept the consequences."


AN: So... that happened. I thought up that bit about how efficient it would be for him to murder everyone a while ago but I didn't expect to actually add it.
As for the Therese vs Eclair: Therese was partied with L'Arc (a vassal hero) when she leveled in this world and over level 70 (probably higher than Eclair) so even if she is primarily a magic user she is still physically strong. She also has the benefit from trusting Endou (Shield upgrade method #2) while Eclair lost faith in him.