Once the carriage had arrived at the mansion, Ram had shown Yogiri to his room, suddenly calling him 'dear guest' and not 'pervgiri' as well as dropping the rude remarks.
Looking out his room's window and reading his own internal clock, he could tell it was extremely late. It was so late that Yogiri merely had to lay down on his bed and he instantly fell asleep. The bed was extremely comfortable, far more comfortable than his old futon in the facility he lived in. Western beds were clearly superior to futons.
When Yogiri woke up, he finally got a good look at his room, with sunlight pouring in. It was a very fancy and ornamental European looking room, which reminded him of a French palace. There were windows to his right that were stained pink and blue, as well as a painting above a mantle that housed two flowers— one pink and one blue.
Having never bothered changing out of his clothes, he woke up in his school uniform, which was now reduced to a white shirt, a tie, and a pair of pants and shoes. He had left his jacket back with Rom because he thought that the giant clearly needed money, what with the state his home was in. He still felt a bit guilty about it, even though the incident wasn't something Yogiri had initiated.
Yogiri sat up and slid off the side of the bed, before walking out of the door to his room. He found himself in a hallway, warm in coloration. There were paintings on either side all the way down the hallway, with the occasional table and an ornamental flower atop it. He decided he would just walk to the right since he had no idea where he was going.
As Yogiri walked down the hall, he noticed something strange. The flowers and paintings were repeated every so often down the hall.
Being someone that played video games fairly often, Yogiri more or less understood the assignment.
"Oh… So it's like one of those looping hallways."
The trick was usually to just pick a random door until you got the right one.
As Yogiri opened a door he had randomly chosen, he found, on the other side, a massive library.
It was probably the largest library he had ever seen, in fact, it made no sense that such a library, containing bookshelves extending far beyond where the mansion itself would normally end, could even fit in the space it was located, where doors were so close by its entrance.
It prompted him to look around, enamored by the splendor of the library he found himself in, and in the midst of doing so, a childlike female voice called to him.
"Is it not rude to ignore a lady when she is right in front of you, I wonder?"
She sounded haughty and full of herself. Yogiri shifted his gaze from the sea of books to the voice and saw the girl in question.
She had a porcelain doll-like face, with golden hair that curled off like a drill on either, pointing downward, and a large forehead. She was wearing a pink and white dress with frills all over, and as well, she was wearing long socks that were striped dark and light magenta.
This was the very definition of "lolibaba with insane power." Yogiri knew some of those types in Japan.
"Would you stop staring at Betty, I wonder? It is quite rude."
The girl, calling herself Betty, looked slightly angry.
"Sorry, really." Yogiri said, truly apologizing.
"If you realize your mistake, all is forgiven, I suppose."
Betty had clearly not expected him to apologize so honestly, but quickly recovered.
"Just how did you guess the way in, I wonder? Betty thought that it would be a bigger challenge for you."
"I just guessed a random door."
Beatrice twisted her mouth into a sneer, and let out a haughty hmph
"Never mind, I suppose. Just be glad that you were lucky enough to pick the right door and leave. Betty has other things to do besides entertaining someone like you."
Beatrice had clearly meant the 'someone like you' comment to be an insult, considering the tone she had used which made it sound almost like she had turned the word you into a curse.
"But didn't the looping hallway outside intentionally lead me here?"
"You are truly testing Betty's patience, I suppose. Did I not say to leave, I wonder?"
"Could you at least tell me your name?"
"Betty is Beatrice. Now leave."
Her face showed a lot of anger, so Yogiri decided it was best to quickly leave.
Yogiri turned to leave, but—
Beatrice sniffed the air and then spoke.
"Wait, I suppose."
Yogiri stopped and turned towards her.
"For what."
"Can you just stand still, I wonder?"
Yogiri stood still as asked, and Beatrice approached him, one hand raised with her palm facing him. It looked like she was basically threatening him.
She got close up to him and put her hand on his stomach.
Suddenly, Beatrice backed—almost scrambled away from Yogiri. She was pale in the face and sweating heavily. Her eyes widened and shook in a frenzied state.
Eventually, she recovered some of her composure—enough to speak.
"L-leave. Leave n-now, I s-suppose."
Yogiri turned and opened the door, before walking out of it.
Beatrice's only thoughts were about the terror of the eyes she had seen. They looked like they had been there since the beginning of time, merely closed and not open.
The door slammed shut.
"Why would mother want me to contract with someone that contains that…."
The hallway seemed to cease looping after that prior incident with the angry loli—Beatrice. Yogiri could see the end of the hallway now.
"It's pretty weird to intentionally lead people to your room and then kick them out as soon as they come in…"
And so Yogiri walked to the end of the hallway and down the stairs, unsure what to do.
He had been informed last night that their master—Roswaal L. Mathers—was out on business. He likely wouldn't be back until later today.
Yogiri decided to just go downstairs, find the kitchen, and make breakfast.
Nearly an hour later, after a lot of searching, Yogiri finally found the kitchen and began to work. He took stock of the ingredients available, and decided he would make a western style breakfast, with eggs, pork, and potatoes.
While he worked, he noticed an intense gaze on him from the doorway to the kitchen. Although there was no danger, so Yogiri decided to just ignore it. It was probably some of the maid staff, and if they didn't want him to cook he wouldn't.
Some time later, he was done cooking. He hadn't seen that person that was staring at him, which was odd, but it probably didn't matter.
Yogiri decided to take his food into the dining room to eat.
When he entered, he saw someone that looked remarkably like Ram but had blue hair and a bigger chest. Yogiri thought she definitely deserved to wear a maid outfit that showed cleavage like that.
Yogiri walked over to the table, set down his plate and silverware, and then began eating. His mom had taught him a lot of cooking, sometimes with western recipes, so the food was fairly good.
As he ate, the blue haired Ram clone continued to stare, but said nothing. Eventually, Yogiri decided to break the ice.
"Are you Ram's twin or something?"
"Yes, Rem is Ram's twin sister." She said in a monotone voice, with a blank face.
"Your name is Rem?"
"Yes, dear guest, Rem's name is Rem."
Another robotic reply.
"Huh… Are you okay with me cooking in the kitchen like I did?"
"Rem requests that you ask for food from me, instead of making it yourself."
"I get it, yeah. Then I'll do that next time. Hey, when's your master gonna come back?"
"Rem thinks Roswaal-sama will be back in a few hours."
Considering how emotionless every reply was, Yogiri guessed that Rem either hated her job or hated him.
As Yogiri ate in silence, he pondered what to do, and decided that he should just go exercise outside. Mom had taught him that exercise was incredibly important.
In the very early hours of the morning Rem was walking down the hallways of the Mathers mansion. Her goal was Yogiri's new room. She wanted to ask him if he had any food preferences, as well as about his clothing situation.
As she entered his room, she saw him lying on the bed.
He was clearly sleeping, and she didn't want to disturb him, so she simply walked over to the curtains and opened them, to let some light in.
As Rem did this, she noted that Yogiri's face looked like that of a defenseless baby as he slept.
As she walked past his bed, she inhaled with her nose and rather than the smell of a sterile and clean room, she caught a whiff of something far worse.
Scenes of her family dying, her village burning, of her beloved sister Ram's horn being cut off—of black hooded figures with red eyes on their uniforms. This smell, it was the Witch's scent.
Her eyes widened, and she could no longer breathe. She grabbed her heart. A witch cultist, right here, as a guest of this mansion.
She will get her revenge.
As Yogiri jogged laps around part of the front lawn, he noticed it was more like a large field. As he made his 50th lap, he noticed something. Emilia was sitting in a gazebo to his right, apparently talking with Puck. She had a worried look on her face.
Yogiri decided to stop jogging, and run over to say hello to Emilia.
As he reached the Gazebo, and Emilia noticed him, her face shifted into a smile.
"Oh, Yogiri! How are you?" Emilia asked, in a cheery voice.
"I'm fine. I'm just waiting for Roswaal-san to get here."
Although that was true, Yogiri didn't have much to do to wait, and it was pretty boring.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm talking to the lesser spirits."
"The lesser spirits?"
It sounded like a fantastical magic concept, Yogiri was interested.
"You don't know what lesser spirits—you're pulling my leg, right? Well I'll explain anyway. They're beings made of mana that can use magic. Spirit users can contract with them to use their mana through the spirit's gate and cast magic like I do with Puck. There are lesser spirits, spirits, and great spirits, which are more powerful versions of the previous one."
"Gate?"
"A gate is an organ in a person's body that allows them to cast magic using mana."
"Then if I made a contract with a spirit I could use magic?"
An androgynous and cheerful voice spoke up.
"I can check your compatibility with spirits if you want, Yogiri. But first we need to know what type of magic you use!"
Puck had floated out from behind Emilia's neck and said as much.
"Type of magic, like elements, right?"
"Something like that. There are four types of magic; Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind."
"I get it, so basically just elements. Then, can you check what element of magic I can use?"
"Sure!"
Puck lifted up his hands and put them onto Yogiri's forehead.
"Myon, myon, myon, myon, myon, myon."
After a few seconds of magical sound effects, Puck spoke up. He had widened his eyes and made an odd facial expression, but then dialed back to his normal cheerful self.
"Your element is Yin!"
"Yin? But aren't there only four types of magic, or did I just get the rare extra magic that you have to reroll characters for."
"I'm not really sure what any of that means, but there are two types of magic I didn't mention since they're so rare; Yin and Yang. Yin is used to remove or hinder things, and Yang is used to create or improve things."
"So I basically have debuff magic?"
Yogiri remembered debuff magic as not being particularly useful in any games he played.
"I don't know what that means either, but sure. Anyway, If you want to try out magic, I can temporarily hook you into your body and let you try."
"That sounds good. Go ahead."
Approval was given since Yogiri wanted to see what magic he could use.
"Now, focus and think of what your gate looks like. Imagine mana flowing out of it and out of your hands. And then say 'Shamack'"
Yogiri did as asked, imagining the mana flowing from his gate and into his hands, before leaving those hands in the form of a spell.
"Shamack."
The incantation was said, and nothing happened.
Puck froze and widened his eyes. And then he stumbled a bit before going back into the air. He slowly and clumsily flew back behind Emilia's neck.
"Puck..? Puck are you okay?"
Emilia was clearly worried.
"I guess I can't use magic."
"Sorry, Yogiri. It seems like you can't. Puck said he's going to take a break."
"It's alright. I'm gonna go take a bath. I just exercised."
Yogiri walked away.
In a poorly lit and very dirty tavern somewhere on the eastern wall of the capital, a man was utterly confused.
This man, sporting hair so bright red that it could be called the embodiment of a flame, as well as possessing a handsome face that could easily charm most of the maidens in the world, was investigating something he had heard about just recently.
A few residents of the slums had claimed to witness Elsa Granhiert, the Bowel Hunter, walking towards an apparently locally famous location known as 'the loot house'.
This man did not give credence to just anyone's claims of witnessing such things, but when he tuned into his divine protection and found that none of them were lying, he was obviously more than a little alert.
Elsa Granhiert was known as a mass murderer so brutal that her very name invoked primal fear in most people, which was almost reminiscent of the name of the witch.
However, when this man, Reinhard Van Astrea, had been expecting a brutal crime scene with corpses splayed around, guts hanging from the ceiling and such—
—What he found instead was almost completely incomprehensible.
Elsa Granhiert was laying on her back, looking like she had fallen out of a chair, and most people would probably mistake her for sleeping.
But Reinhard knew she was dead.
There was one other corpse, who equally lacked many wounds. She looked simply like she had fallen and gotten scratched up.
The worst thing was, the implication of something being powerful enough to kill Elsa Granhiert and someone else, leaving no wounds, and making someone go practically catatonic, was terrifying.
Even Reinhard, all powerful as he was, a being without equal, had an emotion resembling fear crop up in his mind, before being forcefully shoved down never to be seen again.
Reinhard decided he would find who did this killing and give them a reward for the bounty of killing Elsa Granhiert, and a thief.
"I failed… My daughter—she's… I could've stopped this from happening…"
First, he would have to get some information out of the catatonic old man next to him.
Yogiri had been bored out of his mind, but finally, the lord was here.
He had gotten out of the bath earlier and been offered clothes by the maid twins, which he put on.
Now, he was standing outside on the lawn, next to Emilia, waiting for Roswaal to arrive.
"Hey, Emilia, is Roswaal-san weird?"
"Hmmm…? Weird? Ummm… You'll see."
Emilia seemed to be saying that it was a lot deeper than just 'weird'
"Hey, Emilia. Why does Rem keep glaring at me like she wa—"
"Miss Emilia, dear guest. Our master, Lord Roswaal L. Mathers, has arrived."
Just as Yogiri was about to ask Emilia about Rem and her seeming hatred of Yogiri specifically, the two maid twins had come to notify Yogiri that Roswaal had arrived.
"Oh, cool. Can we go inside then?"
Yogiri wanted to see Roswaal, because his name sounded weird and because he was probably the best chance Yogiri had of getting any information about Japan, or the means to go back there.
As Yogiri and Emilia followed Rem and Ram, they were mostly silent. Eventually, they reached the dining room of the mansion.
The trio walked through the doorway into the room, a tall man loomed over them.
He wore clownish makeup, and clownish clothing, and a clownish posture, and a clownish—he was a clown, basically.
Yogiri's impression of him was;
This guy seems pretty weird.
Everything about Roswaal irked Yogiri. Although, that was probably normal. He didn't think anyone in their right mind would be comfortable when meeting this man in front of them for the first time.
To their left also, was a hallway leading out of the dining room where Yogiri recognized Beatrice, whom he had met earlier today, was standing.
"Myyy myyy, this is the young Yooogiiiriii Taaakaaatoouuu I heard so much aboouut? Hooow very niiice to meeeet you! I am the heeeaad of this household, Roswaal L. Maaatheers!"
Sporting a cheery voice and face very much befitting of his clownness, Roswaal introduced himself to Yogiri.
"And ohhhh myyyy! Is that Miss Beeeaaatriiiiceee? You haven't jooiiined us for dinner in quiiite a long time!"
The way Roswaal spoke was definitely grating on Yogiri, and one look at Beatrice made it evident she did not enjoy the presence of Roswaal at all.
What was weirder was how Beatrice kept shifting her gaze to Yogiri, getting a sad look in her eyes, and then looking away.
Yogiri thought back and couldn't remember ever doing anything mean to Beatrice.
"Shut up you perverted clown. Betty is here to see Bubby, there is no other reason!"
Ever prideful in her response, Beatrice immediately shot down any assumptions Roswaal could have made.
"Beatrice calls Puck 'Bubby'. She's quite taken with him."
Emilia explained what was happening to the confused Yogiri.
"Well, Lia, I'll see you later! I'm gonna go play with Betty!"
Yogiri found it a bit odd how Beatrice was just now meeting Puck today when earlier Emilia had said he was playing with her, but he figured it was nothing important.
Puck shot off, out of Emilia's hair and towards Beatrice.
"Bubby!"
Beatrice let out childlike squeals of excitement and affection as she quickly snatched up Puck and began petting and cuddling with him.
"Bewildering, isn't it?"
"Are there people that still say bewildering nowadays?"
Yogiri was incredibly confused at how such a childish person could speak so archaically.
Now that dinner was officially underway, everyone was seated at the dining room table. Roswaal sat at the far end of the table, while Yogiri sat next to Emilia. Rem and Ram were standing off to either side of Roswaal, making the impression that they were ready to do anything for him at a moment's notice.
They had just finished eating, which was very uneventful. Emilia had spent the entire time blankly staring in a random direction. Roswaal and Rem were staring in an odd way at Yogiri, while Ram kept repeatedly glancing at Yogiri, shaking her head, and then looking away. Ram's behavior had been repeating for several minutes, and Yogiri frankly wondered why she was doing it. He had made several truthful comments to her in the carriage but never once had he done anything to spite her. He couldn't understand.
Noticing that the room was silent and nobody was particularly paying attention to anyone but Yogiri or, in Emilia's case, the wall, Roswaal decided to interject.
"Soooo, Yogiri, I hear you helped Lady Emilia with her busineeeeess in the capital?"
Roswaal already knew exactly what had happened, his book had given him all he needed, and he had interpretation down to a science.
"Yeah. She said she needed help finding some insignia and I went along."
Yogiri decided to exclude the "only doing it to get back home" part.
"I seeeeee… Then I muuuust thank you! Had you noooot helped her, Lady Emilia would have beeeen out of the running for the royal selection!"
At this, Yogiri was confused. He had figured Emilia was a noble, and the insignia was just a status symbol. He knew nothing about a royal selection.
"What's the royal selection?"
"Well you seeeee… The royal family all died sooome time ago, and because of that, Lugnica needs a new king! Because of that, they created a cooompetition to get the most votes. Whoever gets the most votes wins! Lady Emilia haaappens to be a part of this competition."
Yogiri more or less understood. It was a polling season to determine the new king, like how the Japanese president was decided.
"And I guess the insignia determines whether or not you take part?"
Yogiri could guess that much from how Roswaal had said that Emilia would be out of the running without his help.
"Sooooo you understand. In that caaase, you understand I must reward you fuuuully. You may have aaaaaanything you wish for!"
Yogiri decided to cut straight to the point.
"Can I live here as a guest and have access to the library?"
Roswaal smiled widely at this. If bingo was a game that existed in Lugnica, he would've thought it's name right then.
"Yeeees you may stay as a guest. I will have to ask Miss Beatrice if you caaan use the library."
Yogiri had no idea if this place had a different language, but if it did he would just ask Roswaal to help him out. When offered something like this, you don't just decide to be modest for good looks.
"Theeeen if that is settled, I shaaall take my leave!"
With a whimsical voice, Roswaal stated such and took his exit, with Ram and Rem trailing behind him. The only people in the room were now Emilia and Yogiri.
"Hey, Yogiri. Why'd you ask for access to the library?"
"I want to research Kararagi and see if there's a way back home from there."
"Then you lived in Kararagi?"
Emilia was confused. Yogiri had mentioned wanting to go back home, but she figured he was from Gusteko or Kararagi. It sounded like he was saying that he was not from Kararagi but that Kararagi was close to where his home was.
"No. But my home was pretty similar."
"Where was it then?"
A place similar to Kararagi but not Kararagi was not a place that Emilia had heard of existing.
"A small island nation to the east, right?"
Yogiri had stated the location of his home but posed it as a question. It was entirely incomprehensible to Emilia.
"Lugnica is the nation farthest east in the world… Are you trying to say you're from beyond the Great Cascade?"
Now it was Yogiri's turn to be confused. He had heard of flat earth theories and thought about how the ocean would work in a flat earth. Was this world flat somehow?
"What's the Great Cascade?"
Emilia decided she had enough with what she perceived as him pulling her leg.
"Stop with the tomfoolery! If you don't want to tell me where you live, you could have just said that…" Emilia pouted.
"Who says tomfoolery nowadays?"
"I can't read any of this."
Yogiri had looked at the shelves in the library, searching for anything mentioning Kararagi, but what he instead saw on the spines of the books lining the shelves was completely unreadable.
That was what he had told Roswaal, which led to him getting Ram as a tutor for the language.
This also resulted in the current situation:
Yogiri was currently sitting down in the chair with Ram over his shoulder. She was very professional about it, although for some reason Yogiri caught her occasionally bringing her hand up towards the top of his head before pulling back.
He couldn't sense any killing intent, so it was really hard to tell what the reason for her doing that was.
And then, after a number of long hours of independent study, Yogiri finally completed his assignments. Ram had told him to work on his own, and he had done so as diligently as he could. Learning this language was important if he wanted to go back home.
So, having finished, he turned around to tell Ram and ask her to grade his work, only to see her laying on his bed, facing away from him.
"Ram-san, why are you laying in my bed?" elicited no response, so Yogiri decided to just go to sleep. It was late anyway.
He got into his bed, pushing Ram a little to the side to make room, and turned in for the night.
Meanwhile, Ram had lost her composure. Pervgiri had been so bold to simply get in bed with her, a defenseless maiden. It was completely unfathomable and incomprehensible.
That being said, the bed was extremely comfortable, and she fell asleep quickly. Ram woke up feeling extremely refreshed and warm, it was probably the best sleep she had gotten in her life, oddly enough.
There was a cold glare pointed at Yogiri coming from the doorway in the middle of the night. Yogiri noticed it, but no actual danger was presented, so he ignored it.
Over time, Yogiri and Ram, through these tutoring sessions, had gotten much more interaction with each other. The two bonded over their love of sleep and comfort in particular. They had also bonded on one other thing: their sense of justice and self importance. That is to say that they both thoroughly believed that preserving their lives was more important than sacrificing yourself in some foolish notion of heroism. Ram particularly hated that sort of stuff, and Yogiri agreed that it was overrated. Their answer to the trolly problem was simply to not get involved so that nothing is your fault. After all, unless the trolley is coming towards you, what are you even losing by pulling the switch or letting it be? However, if the trolley is going to kill you, it would be better to pull the switch and make it go towards other people instead.
Over those four days Yogiri had also talked with Emilia on a semi-regular basis. She would often talk about things like spirits or laugh at jokes that Yogiri told. Yogiri didn't really have many original jokes, but because most earth jokes were completely unheard of here, it seemed like he was a genius to Emilia. Puck was seldom ever there, and when he was, he was his usual cheerful self, although he often came off as completely hostile to Yogiri. Yogiri figured it was probably just an overprotective father thing.
Yogiri had also talked a bit with Roswaal, and decided he was definitely a creep. His maids were dressed weirdly, he had a funny way of speaking, and he looked like a clown. There was one thing however that creeped out Yogiri in a way that went beyond all of the above. Everytime Roswaal looked at the maids, or they were mentioned, he got a sad look on his face. It was like he knew something that nobody else knew, and didn't like it.
Beatrice was typically pretty quiet, and since Yogiri didn't know the language yet he seldom went into the library. When he did, Beatrice was either playing with Puck or reading the same black book silently. Yogiri had also figured out that he basically just needed a desire to visit the library, and to walk through a door to go there. Every time he did, Beatrice was completely baffled, but Yogiri thought that she probably let him in most of the time.
The one person he hadn't quite gotten very acquainted with was Rem, who would mostly just glare at him and speak in a monotone to him, with extremely stiff word choice.
However, on the fourth day, Yogiri was completely bored out of his mind. For the past four days, his only activities to do were working out, talking to people, and learning the language.
So when he heard that the maids were going to visit the village, he decided he would definitely tag along.
Meili had more or less set up a perfect plan, and all the pieces were in place. All she had to do was kill one of the mansion residents and kidnap the village children. It was a weird contract, but she didn't really bother caring about it much. This specific client was always weird. Although, she had begun to wonder where her big sister Elsa was. Mama had looked angry a few days ago, but Meili figured it was because Elsa was missing. Elsa would never die, that simply couldn't happen.
Suddenly, Meili stopped thinking about such things and noticed that one of her marks was currently easy prey. A black haired boy, who she had been informed had joined the mansion as a guest, was currently completely alone staring at the forest.
All she had to do was put on an innocent little girl act, go up to him and ask him to look at the dog, and then leave. The target would die that night, and she could kidnap the village children with one less potential obstacle, as well as an objective down.
She approached the black haired man and tugged on his sleeve, and he turned around. The man looked and saw the dog in her arms.
What came out of the mouth of the man who had just begun speaking was nothing she had ever expected.
"Why does your dog want to kill me so much?"
Meili broke out into a cold sweat. She had been compromised and she knew it. Immediately, Meili sent out an alert to the wolgarms in the forest. The plan was simple, with a barrier crystal disabled, and him being completely isolated, she would get a few wolgarms—no, he had sensed her killing intent, she would need more than a few. She would send at least ten wolgarms through the barrier to kill him. That would be perfect.
As the signal was sent out, Meili retreated into the forest, and the young man merely watched.
She waited, crouched in the forest, and heard all of her wolgarms rush towards the target. They were sure to kill him. And then, silence. Meili felt no connection with any of the mabeasts she controlled. She was completely and entirely alone.
"What?"
Frustrated, she tried as hard as she could to feel the mental link between her and the mabeasts she controlled—any one of them, just at least one.
"No…"
There was nothing. She could feel no mental links at all, not with a single mabeast.
The only way this could happen is if every single mabeast she had under her control was killed instantly.
What the hell could do something like that!?
Every nerve inside her was screaming out in terror. A being that could kill the thousands under her command in seconds was far more than simply scary, it was completely terrifying. She needed to get away from here and go somewhere else, anywhere else. Where would she even be safe though?
Some of her mabeasts had been far away, or deep in the forest, among other things. They had still died all the same.
Nothing can escape what just happened to her mabeasts, it can happen anytime and anywhere, there is simply no avoiding it—that was what her every instinct told her.
Those were the last thoughts Meili Portroute ever had. She crumpled to the ground there, without even knowing she had died.
As Yogiri watched the girl run away, he wondered why she would do that when she wanted to kill him so much. Then he heard howling and footsteps. Suddenly, nearly ten or more wolf things, which had a single horn on their head, charged out of the forest and jumped over the fence towards Yogiri. As they leaped with their mouths open, ready to gnaw at Yogiri and turn him to a pile of shredded meat, Yogiri unleashed his power.
Every single wolf that had been charging towards him continued in the air, carried by their momentum, before hitting the ground with a thud and laying there, dead.
Yogiri could tell something else was controlling all those wolves, but since every single wolf was under the control of one thing that wanted to kill him, Yogiri figured it would be better to just kill all of the wolves and the thing controlling them. He could do that because every single one of them had at least some killing intent towards him.
As he began turning around, figuring he should probably go meet back up with Ram and Rem, he saw the two approaching with some of the villagers behind them.
"Mister Yogiri, we heard the howls of the wolgarms and came looking for you, but did you defeat them all on your own?"
Rem had spoken up first. Apparently the village had heard the howls of those things—apparently called wolgarms, and figured there was trouble, so they came to check it out.
"Yeah, but there was some girl with them, I think. She tried to kill me. I think she definitely was involved with those wolgarm things. She ran away into the forest."
"As expected of Mister Yogiri."
For some reason, Ram was expressing deep admiration. Rem however had an odd expression on her face. Something like a completely blank face with a deep, seething hatred behind it. She was sweating, as well.
"You okay, Rem?"
"Yes, I am fine, Mister Yogiri. More importantly, we have purchased all of the supplies we needed, so I recommend we go back to the mansion."
Rem was as robotic as ever in her reply, although there was something like a shake in her voice when she said 'Mister'.
"Yeah, I agree. If we're back too late it'll probably worry Emilia."
Ram concurred as well, so they went back.
Rem's thoughts were filled with horror and rage. There was a witch cultist right there, sharing a bed with her sister and living in her mansion, it was all but confirmed now.
Yogiri had just finished lessons with Ram, but he wasn't very tired, so he went to take a walk around the mansion. As he walked along the hallway, having just exited his room, he suddenly noticed something.
Killing intent was sharply pointed right at him from behind. Yogiri heard the sound of chains shuffling. Right as it was about to get dangerous—
"Die."
Yogiri killed the source before he could get hurt.
The assailant limply fell to the floor, and Yogiri heard chains yet again, as well as another, heavier thump after the light thump of the assailant hitting the ground.
And then, he noticed a red-haired man approaching him. Yogiri had never seen this man in his life, but the man was approaching like he knew Yogiri.
And then, suddenly, the man stopped smiling or looking nearly so friendly. He began walking towards Yogiri, and Yogiri felt more killing intent.
The man lifted his fist, and Yogiri noticed that the danger covered the entire hallway, not just his body.
"Die."
Yogiri killed the source of the killing intent, but the man did not fall. Yogiri assumed he was being controlled somehow.
After a large amount of time gathering evidence, and questioning the man he had found at the loot house, Reinhard had finally arrived at the location of Yogiri and Emilia with proper proof of their great deeds and rewards as well.
It was fairly late, although not quite bedtime. Reinhard approached the door and knocked, where he was greeted by no answer. After several successive knocks and some time waiting, Reinhard decided to merely open the door and walk inside. He then walked around, attempting to find Yogiri.
Eventually, on the third floor of the mansion, on the left wing hallway, Reinhard found Yogiri. He was walking silently, with a blue haired maid behind him.
The blue haired maid pulled out a morning star and swung it towards Yogiri. Reinhard could not react in time, before—
"Die."
The blue haired maid dropped to the floor with a thud. She had died instantly, without a sound or anything visual. She had merely dropped dead from the commanding words of this man.
Reinhard felt fear yet again. This was far worse than before. When he remembered what just happened, he wanted to run away, he wanted to get away, he wanted to kill Yogiri, he wanted to kill Yogiri, he wanted to kill Yogiri, he wanted to kill Yogiri, he wanted to kill Yogiri. He will kill Yogiri. The Od Laguna demands it. The Sword God demands it.
So, he walked towards Yogiri and lifted his fist, about to punch him.
"Die."
And then, as his fist shot forward, nothing happened. He had thrown a sluggish punch, and Yogiri had merely stepped backwards.
That was when Reinhard noticed something strange. He could no longer feel any divine protections. He could no longer feel the Dragon Sword Reid. He felt like all his power was gone. It felt incredible. He was unchained.
He no longer had a responsibility to protect the kingdom anymore. If his power was gone, he was just another normal man.
Reinhard fell to his knees, and began sobbing.
"T-thank you! Thank you Yogiri! I've finally been freed!" He began sobbing louder, singing Yogiri's praises, and crying.
"In the first place, who are you?"
Yogiri was completely baffled by the situation.
Yogiri more or less understood the situation. He had killed two gods who were forcing Reinhard to kill him. Reinhard had come here originally to reward him for killing that woman at the loot house—whom he learned was a dangerous serial killer. But when Reinhard saw Yogiri kill Rem, the gods went crazy and forced him to attack Yogiri.
"But, since you killed the Od Laguna, I think divine protections will no longer work."
"Divine protections?"
This was a term Yogiri had not encountered before.
"They are special blessings from the Od Laguna given to those it favors. They give certain special qualities to people."
"So I just debuffed the entire world…"
Yogiri couldn't help but feel a little bad. He had more or less just made most people normal humans with some magic.
"How come they wanted me dead?"
"I cannot pretend to understand the intentions and thoughts of the Od Laguna and Sword God, but I imagine they likely saw you as a massive threat."
Basically, Yogiri was too OP and the two gods wanted to get rid of him before he made things too unbalanced. It made sense to Yogiri.
"So what are you gonna do now?"
Reinhard had basically been freed of his duty because he was no longer under the powers of the gods, so he was free to do as he pleased.
"I suppose I'll simply follow you."
Reinhard gave a smile at this.
"I don't mind."
Yogiri had no qualms with letting Reinhard join him since he seemed like a good person.
Ram woke up feeling like she had slept a lot worse than she had been sleeping recently. She turned to see Yogiri was not in bed with her, and for some reason felt discomfort at this.
Maybe her frustration with a lack of attention from Roswaal made her feel this way about Yogiri's company. She couldn't really understand any of what she felt towards the man. Ram decided she would figure all of this out today.
She looked through the window and saw it was still dark out, she had woken up in the middle of the night. Ram decided she would go get a drink of water and try to go back to sleep.
Exiting Pervgiri's room, Ram entered the hallway and turned right, looking to go downstairs to the kitchen.
As she turned, she saw something blue in the corner of her eye. She looked at it, and saw something horrific.
Her sister, Rem, was lying dead on the floor.
Right outside of Yogiri's room.
She had gotten too comfortable and trusting with Yogiri, and her sister had paid the price.
"RAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Ram screamed, and ran towards the stairs, and down it. She entered the lounge, where she saw Roswaal, Emilia, and Yogiri, as well as the Sword Saint. She didn't pay any mind to anyone but Yogiri.
Her screams were filled with anger. It was not all directed at Yogiri, however. Some of it was directed at herself.
"YOU!"
Her voice was shaky but filled with rage.
"WHY DID YOU KILL MY SISTER?! WHY DID YOU KILL REM?!"
She was completely mentally unstable at this point. Rage had consumed her. That was how much Rem meant to her.
"She tried to kill me."
A lie. How could she ever believe that?
"LIAR! YOU MURDERED REM!"
"The morning star on the floor is pretty clear evidence she tried to kill me."
Yogiri was calm and it only served to make Ram angrier. Why did he care so little about murdering her sister?
Then, Ram began to process what Yogiri had said and remembered.
There was a morning star on the floor next to Rem's corpse. Rem was laying on the ground, but her hand was outstretched.
Rem had tried to defend herself from Yogiri.
"I see now…" was all she had to say, in a quiet and listless voice.
"El Fu—"
"Die."
Ram collapsed with a thud to the ground. The mana that had been at her palm dissipated into the environment.
As everyone watched the girl crumple to the ground, a certain mouse colored cat stared at Yogiri with a mix of worry and hate.
What most people did not notice was that Yogiri had hesitated slightly in killing her.
This is chapter 2. Again, thank you for reading. In my personal opinion, this chapter was not quite as good as chapter 1 was, but maybe I'm wrong. I still made it about as good as I could have. If you see something wrong, don't hesitate to point it out in the reviews. It is important for me to know my mistakes so that I can improve my writing. Sorry for making you wait so long for this chapter, beta reading is complicated. Thank you to my beta reader, who caught a lot of mistakes that I honestly had no clue even existed.
ExoticIdiot: This is weird? I feel as though the pacing in this chapter is way too fast. Yoguri already killing gods in the second chapter? And instantly killing Ram and Rem without even questioning their intentions? That's far too much for merely two chapters. Redo this chapter, it'll be better if you slow things down a bit, and make Yoguri have a bit more... life. Also instead of just... getting Ram killed without remorse, especially after her and Yoguri were getting along so well doesn't make sense at all. Try and flesh out the development Ram and Yoguri were having at the start of the chapter, instead of instantly ruining it. And don't have him 1 shot the damn God of Re:Zero in the second chapter. Save something like that for later.
I don't really think Yogiri would have the time to question Rem or Ram when his head is milliseconds away from being crushed by a morning star or cut off by a wind blade. I see what you're saying, but I also think that you're severely misunderstanding something. Yogiri has no idea what the Witch Cult is. He has no idea who the other witches of sin are. He has absolutely no clue what the backstory on Rem, Ram, and Emilia is. He also doesn't care. His only powers are to detect danger and to instantly kill things. He has no defense, he's literally just a teenage boy. This means that, while some other character might have just dodged the morning star and asked Rem what she's doing, Yogiri would not be able to do any of that. A morningstar being swung by someone with insane physicial abilities is both impossible to dodge and guaranteed to kill someone. A blade made out of wind moving at insane speeds is also impossible to dodge and guaranteed to kill someone.
This is a long ramble, so I'll get to the point: Yogiri kills people that want to kill him. He is a perfectly logical person. He was isekaid, he wants to leave. He's going to leave. It's not his fault people are all trying to kill him, all he's trying to do is go through the most logical steps towards going back to Japan. If Rem wants him dead, Rem will die. If God wants him dead, God will die. There is no "Oh haha, you were only trying to kill me because I smelled like the people who killed your parents, I totally forgive you!" because that is not even remotely logical. What is logical is seeing someone is about to kill you, and killing them first before you die.
The title is Instant Death, right? You shouldn't be asking "Is Yogiri going to win this fight?". There won't be a fight. The question is answered in the title, right?
Otagema: I agree with the review that said the MC is OP yet interesting, but I have a question can he kill the concept of 'death' to revive someone? And does his ability to 'kill' affect concepts and objects, or objects only?
If Yogiri were to kill the concept of death, he would die permanently. His ability to kill affects everything, as seen with the door. I may have made a mistake implying Yogiri can revive Felt, because after remembering further the lore behind Yogiri, I realized that every death he causes is irreversible and does not send anyone to the after life. This means that anyone Yogiri kills will never reincarnate, as well, although I'm not even sure that matters anymore, since the Od Laguna is now dead. Speaking of, please tell me if that will affect reincarnation like I think it does. I had this in the bank for ideas about what would happen with the Od Laguna being dead, but I have no idea if it would actually work like this. Basically, the Od Laguna removes every person's memories before reincarnating them, so would killing the Od Laguna make everyone keep their memories when reincarnating, would it not change anything for reincarnation, or would reincarnation simply cease without the Od Laguna?
Sorry, that was long, and it's not a new chapter. I just figured I wanted to clear some things up, maybe I said too much though. Peace.