Chapter 04….
The Greed Arc
The Hero’s Ritual!
I wrapped myself up in the blanket again and returned to the room where we had been summoned a little while ago.
“Hm, Sakura, what’s wrong? You look so pale—”
“Uh, h-hi.”
“When are you planning to put on some clothes?”
At this point, the only thing protecting me—physically and emotionally—is this single blanket!
“Father, perhaps you’d like to explain in detail?”
“Seems like it’s no use saying ‘what about’.”
Hmm, she’s calling the king “Father”… so this girl is a princess?
Now that I think about it, she does have that kind of aura.
She looks seriously angry.
I’ll just… edge away bit by bit…
“As you can see, we have performed a Hero Summoning in our country.”
“When summoning a hero, each of the three nations must give consent, and each nation may summon one hero… It’s an old rule, but you haven’t forgotten it, have you?”
Ah, so that’s the rule.
True, in anime and manga, heroes from another world are crazy strong.
They must know that too.
Wait. Hold on. Huh?
I’m pretty sure it was me, my younger brother, and that handsome guy who were here… three of us…
Does that mean they summoned three heroes for one country?
“And any nation that violates the regulation will be purged by the other two.”
“Exactly.”
“Do you intend to start a war!?”
Ughhh!?
So basically, the other nations are going to come at us full force to wipe us out!?
Isn’t that bad!?
“If no one finds out, it’s fine.”
Wow. The king really just said that?
‘If no one finds out, it’s not a crime’—that’s something only someone experienced in cover-ups says.
This country’s gotta be neck-deep in shady stuff, maybe even assassinations.
“And then… there’s this person.”
“What about her?”
Huh? Me? Me what?
“You’re going to feign ignorance, are you? Fine, I’ll say it.”
Very well, I’ll listen.
“…‘If a female hero is summoned, it may mean a Goddess is involved. Kill her.’”
“!?”
Eh…???
“How do you know that!?”
“Who knows?”
A female hero? …Wait? Who could that be…
Oh. It’s me!!?!?
No, no, I’m a guy! But right now I’m a girl!
Or… is that handsome guy actually a girl? No no no! It’s me!?
“Eh? Eh? Eh?”
“Please calm down.”
How am I supposed to calm down!?
“I’m here now precisely to stop that from happening… You were summoned at the cost of a thousand lives. If you die here, those people will have died for nothing.”
“A th-thousand lives!?”
What the hell!?
Information just keeps coming!
“You also have a right to know. Isn’t that so, Father?”
“….”
The princess looked me straight in the eyes as she spoke.
“The Hero Summoning Ritual… requires a rare ore called the Stone of God and a thousand human sacrifices—”
“—Wait, wait! You’re saying a thousand people died just to summon us!?”
“Yes. And it’s not ‘us’.”
“Huh?”
The princess raised one finger.
“It’s a thousand per person.”
“!?!?!”
N-no way!
“As for that, there’s no issue. They were criminals and volunteers—”
“—‘Criminals and volunteers,’ right, Father?”
“….”
“Do you perhaps know anything about the ‘Mass Disappearance Incident of Kubal Village’?”
“—!”
Ah, that’s the look of someone who knows exactly what she’s talking about.
“However you did it, you couldn’t quite gather three thousand people, could you? So you turned to the dark slave trade, buying everyone up, and even dragged in unrelated people.”
“Grr…”
S-sorry… that it ended up being me you summoned…
“Father, please don’t pile on any more sins.”
“…Even so, with the possibility of a Goddess being involved, we cannot simply leave it be… You understand.”
Wait, what’s with this ‘Goddess’? The female god? Why is that bad?
“Long ago, someone who tried to destroy the world was a hero who called herself the ‘Goddess’—the very symbol of absolute evil.”
“C-could it be…”
“Yes… She too was a female hero, just like you.”
O-oh… that’s a perfect match with me!?
Wait, they’re going to kill me for that?
It’s not like I asked to end up in this body!
No way, no way, no way!
Come to a new world and immediately get marked as absolute evil? This is way too hard mode!
What am I supposed to do!?
“In that case, my actions here are… justice!”
“W-wait!”
As the king raised his hand, all the knights in the room pointed their weapons at me.
And the knights further back aimed a magic circle my way.
…My first time seeing a magic circle and it’s one meant to kill me!?
“Stay close to me.”
“Gladly!”
I’d been keeping my distance, but now I hid behind the princess’s back.
My phobia of women makes this extremely uncomfortable… but whatever! If putting up with it keeps me alive, I’ll do anything!
“Step away from her, Sakura. Throwing a tantrum won’t change anything.”
“That may be true, but looking closely, all these knights are Father’s close aides… The others probably don’t even know about this summoning.”
Before I realized it, my whole body was trembling at the core… This must be the fear of being killed…
“Ugh…”
Tears welled up.
I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!
“Fufu…”
The princess noticed me and gazed into my eyes.
“It’s all right. When you wake up, everything will be over.”
Huh? Were her eyes always that color…?
“Sleep.”
They were… that red… weren’t they…
My strength drained away as if I’d been given full-body anesthesia, and I passed out.
