Golden Experience

“Understood, my lord. It was the content when I heard the divine revelation. It was my first time, so I remember it well…

<< The Raid Boss of the Evil Route has been born in the Liebe Great Forest of the Hiers Kingdom. >>

…Is what it sounded like.

The other bishops did not hear some of the words or places, so there may be variations in the content for each individual.”

When I reincarnated as the Demon Lord, the system message that came was “The Specific Disaster Creature [Demon Lord] has been born”. If we consider that the information about the location was increased by the Archbishop’s [True Wisdom], it’s natural to think that “Specific Disaster Creature: Demon Lord” corresponds to the “Raid Boss of the Evil Route”.

If the announcement at the time of the Spirit Lord, in terms of the meaning of the words, was “Raid Boss of the Righteous Route”, and if that was recorded in literature passed down through generations, then I would be most suspicious.

“…You are the Archbishop of the Aural Holy Church. So, in the Aural Kingdom, you deemed that [Raid Boss of the Evil Route] is an enemy of humanity or a calamity, right? Why is that?”

“I apologize!”

“No, forget about that part.”

“In the confidential documents handed down in the Holy Church, there are legends about the one called [Raid Boss]. It is said that at times, it is a compassionate leader guiding humanity, and at other times, it is a fearsome disaster hostile to humanity. Just like humans, there are both good and evil. So, although it was the first time I heard the words, if it’s about the [Raid Boss], I thought it was necessary to determine which one it is. However, even if we determine it, if it’s a disaster, just making contact would lead to a situation involving the survival of the nation. I cannot easily meet it.

However, in this divine revelation, the description [Evil Route] was attached. Since this was only heard by me in the Aural Holy Church, it seems that, thanks to the [True Wisdom] gained through my training, I understood its authenticity without the need to determine further.”

This is a normal judgment. This is not a modern society governed by the rule of law and it’s reasonable to act on the principle of ‘destroying the suspicious’ rather than ‘do not punish the one not proven guilty’.

However, now I have grasped the overview of the World Announcement.

There are no separate skills or anything based on the faction.

There are just different interpretations of those who hear the announcements.

“But what is this Evil Route…”

“It’s not like I don’t understand, but emotionally, it’s hard to accept.”

I don’t intend to say ethical things, but as an existence, there doesn’t seem to be a difference between, for example, humans and goblins. If I were to say, there are cultural differences, and that leads to differences in experience points acquired when killing them, but considering other factors like reproductive ability, goblins might even be more valuable.

It’s the developers that created humans and goblins in the first place, and I feel a strong sense of discomfort that they have divided them into “Righteous” and “Wicked” in terms of race. Unlike players, NPCs cannot choose their own race.

If they can choose, they can only choose what they reincarnate into, and even then, if they grow up normally, they can basically only choose the normal route…

“Hm? The normal route… the righteous route…”

Let’s think again about the case where I heard the World Announcement. But since I didn’t have any skills, it only concerns things related to me.

First is my “Demon Lord” issue. The announcement at the time of reincarnation said, “Special conditions have been met”. It was mentioned as “Specific Disaster Creature” at that time. This was the first time it became known to the human nations.

From the words of the Archbishop, it seems that the Demon Lord is the “Raid Boss of the Evil Route”.

Next is the reincarnation of Deas and Sieg. At that time, it only said, “Conditions have been met”, but the situation where the undead meet the conditions due to heightened emotions is strange when considered normally. Originally, Deas and the others were undead with emotions, so it could be said that they were special from the moment of birth.

The announcement for their reincarnation was also “Specific Disaster Creature”. Well, they are undead, so they are not living creatures, but it might be just a classification as some kind of category.

Also, Sugaru’s reincarnation into Queen Arthropoda. This time, she reincarnated with only a Greater Philosopher’s Stone and experience points. There were no special conditions, perhaps that was the legitimate route. And the announcement was “Disaster Creature”.

“Could it be that the ‘righteous route’ means those who are reincarnated through the regular route, and that the reincarnated races with special conditions are the ‘evil route’?”

If that’s the case, it’s not entirely unreasonable to accept the terms ‘righteous route’ and ‘evil route’. In the sense of regular route versus side route, it’s within an acceptable range of meaning. Choosing the evil route is the individual’s choice, so it can be understood emotionally as well.

“If that’s the case, when Sugaru reincarnated, if there was an announcement, would it have been called something like <Raid Boss of the Righteous Path>?”

This could be a possibility even when using the Philosopher’s Stone on Lyra, so it can be verified eventually.

In other words, as I initially thought, it wasn’t about categories like humans, monsters, or neutrals.

It’s a mystery why such information needs to be announced, but if, for example, in higher-level skills, the race is clearly announced, and with [True Wisdom], only the information about the reincarnation route is disclosed as a prior stage, it might make some sense.

“However, if there’s only one skill in that category, there’s no need to rush the acquisition. After all, there are subordinates here.”

Since the conditions to unlock it are not confirmed, it’s good to aim for acquisition in terms of verification, but it’s not something to do right now.

Even asking the bishops only resulted in proud remarks about the fruits of their training, so it’s unclear which condition is the unlock condition.

“Oh, right. Since it’s a rare occasion, I’ll tell you alone.”

I taught the Archbishop [Inventory] and [Friend Chat] and sent him back to Lyra.

His eyes were about to pop out in surprise, and he was about to prostrate himself again, so I stopped him. I sternly warned him and, to ease his anxiety, distributed some experience points to INT and MND. I also made sure to imply not to let others see him using the Friend Chat.

Once again, I sat on the lap of Yoroizaka and pondered.

I hadn’t paid attention to it before, but it concerned me in particular.

The Demon Lord is an advanced reincarnation race of the Evil Route, and if you trace its origin, it’s an Elf. Or it could be a Dwarf.

I reincarnated from an Elf to a High Elf, and probably became a Dark Elf, sending out demon spirits to become the Demon Lord.

Considering that the effect of the Great Philosopher’s Stone is something like “Raises the target’s stage by up to 2 levels”, Dark Elves are probably on par with High Elves, with one level up being Demon Spirit and two levels up being the Demon Lord.

In other words, at the point of becoming a Dark Elf, I entered the Evil Route. The announcement at the time of reincarnation was also something like “You can also become a Dark Elf by meeting special conditions.”

“What could those conditions be? I have absolutely no idea.”

If I hadn’t met those unknown conditions, I would probably have been the Spirit Lord now, and I probably wouldn’t have directly confronted the Hiers Kingdom. The action of attacking the Hiers Kingdom would probably not change, but I likely wouldn’t have fought against the player raid party. That party was summoned because I was deemed a calamity by Hiers.

“For now, it’s too unclear to verify…”

It’s hard to imagine that the skill configuration is the reason. Even though I’m heavily relying on [Dark Magic] and [Black Magic] now, at that time, I didn’t have such things. Rather, I probably had skills that High Elves would like, such as [Light Magic], [Holy Magic] and [Plant Magic].

It’s unlikely that it’s related to [Death Magic] or [Mental Magic]. Even if it’s related to the [Horns] of the Demon Lord, it has no direct connection to Dark Elves. Besides, both of them are skills that Elves can acquire from the beginning, so it’s too loose to call them special conditions.

Could it be because she has many undead under her command? If so, that seems to be the most likely possibility.

However, the Demon Lord is a race that doesn’t have many subordinates, and considering that, it’s unlikely that the condition is related to the number of subordinates.

“…Well, whatever. If I don’t know, it means it won’t happen in the future.”

If, by any chance, I end up having a kouhai in the future, it would be enough to catch that kouhai and look for commonalities with me.

{***}

Author’s note for chapter 139

In each capital, there is usually one person at the level of a bishop who remembers up to [True Wisdom], and they seem to have reacted like, “Evil Route!? How can you follow such a thing?” I feel like I won’t have the opportunity to depict the conditions for Dark Elves… Will there be something to achieve just by living normally? It might not be the case for everyone, but players probably have a higher probability of achieving it than NPCs…

{***}