Translator: Saitama-sensei

Dragon and Ogre, Sin and Blame (2)

The two worlds divided by the Goddess were supported by the “Mediator”, the “Pledger”, and the “Skill Orb” — I already knew this from【World Alliance】.

However, in the long history of the two worlds, the skill orbs have always been biased towards the “Front World” — the world I am in.

That’s why the world was out of balance.

「Especially when it comes to skill orbs with higher stars. Your people pull out the skill orbs with【Orb Detachment】to prevent them from disappearing. In some cases, many of them are stored in warehouses.」

I have nothing to do with those people.

Well, leaving that aside. In the “Back World”, where the higher star skill orbs have stopped flowing to, the number of races that can use skill orbs have decreased significantly, and they are currently facing extinction.

「Is that the reason why the mediator in the Kruvan Holy Kingdom was so obsessed with the “Revocation of the Covenant”?」

It was the “Skill Orb Award Ceremony” in which Lady Eva, the person whom I was escorting, participated. The ceremony was covered in a black dome, and I heard that the mediator who appeared at that time manipulated His Majesty the Holy King to revoke the Covenant. The revocation was not registered because I broke the dome at the very last second.

The Vision Ogre nodded with a bitter look.

「That was because the mediator went a little out of control. But it was I who gave him the mission to do something about the Covenant. In a sense, his actions were expected.」

「But you demanded a sacrifice with a cryptic 8-star skill orb!」

「Sacrifice.. right, there was a sacrifice.」

The Vision Ogre recited the Covenant.

★Covenant for the Covenant (Holy Blue Human/ Underground Human)

? You can maintain the Covenant by offering the blood of a pure person.

? The mediator can monitor this, but the mediator cannot be harmed.

Because of this Covenant, the noble children in Kruvan Holy Kingdom are not allowed to receive skill orbs until the Skill Orb Award Ceremony.

「The underground people offered sacrifices every time. It was the Holy Blue people who made the Covenant null and void – the royal family of the country you call Kruvan.」

「!」

「This allows us to remind the worlds of the Pledgers and maintain the two worlds.」

「But.. that is..」

「Do you think it is unacceptable to sacrifice one life even though there are large numbers of humans dying every day? If so, that is your sin.」

「Sin....」

「We are desperately doing our best to maintain the world. And we have noticed you as the Child of Disaster.. Before this, the Child of Disaster has always caused chaos in the world. But you are a little different.」

“Child of Disaster”, is a reincarnated person.

They possess 16 skill slots, which is twice as much as a normal person — Overlimit Skill Holder.

This power can easily be abused. Unlike the power of a king, which is monitored by many different parties, the use of this power relies solely on the user.

In other words, you start thinking that you are a special, chosen one.

「If I hadn’t met Silver Balance.. I probably would have drowned in this power.」

It is also thanks to my meeting with Lady Eva, Asha, Zerry-san and.. Lark.

For the first time in that moment, I saw human emotions reflected in the eyes of the two old men

「..The previous Child of Disaster used to take off their shoes before sitting on the mat, just like you did. But their behavior changed after living in this world for a few years.. they became aggressive. In the end, to clear away that Child’s sin – in other words, to kill that Child, the human race had to sacrifice tens of thousands of lives.」

It was hard for me to believe that tens of thousands of lives were sacrificed. But the fact remains that this comes from the serious expressions of two old men.

The Sage who had been silent until then spoke.

「We do not know the thoughts of the Goddess, but the appearance of a reincarnated person like you might be in anticipation of a situation such as this. That’s why there are skill orbs with more than 8-stars.」

In the first place, it is strange that there are skills with more than 8-stars even though there are only 8 skill holders. The reason why there are skills that cannot be handled without 16 skill holders is.. to prevent the world from collapsing.

The Goddess planned for a reincarnated person to act as a safety net..

Even though we were talking about me, it didn’t feel real. My head was kind of spinning.

After seeing me like that, the Vision Ogre said.

「In any case, what we want to ask is for you to destroy the Covenant using【World Alliance】. You can try convincing the Pleger to revoke the Covenant, but it would probably prove too difficult. Unless it is for something of paramount reason, they are made to feel the need to maintain the Covenant.」

「Is it something like a passive suggestion?」I asked.

「Well, yes.」

「What would happen if the two worlds are connected?」

「Hmm.. the density of life will probably be temporarily doubled. Every living creature will be preserved and made to live in one world.」

I was slightly relieved to hear that. If there are sacrifices involved in restoring the two worlds into one, I probably wouldn’t want to trigger such an event.

「But as you know, the monsters in the world under my management are evolving violently. I have spawned 8 giants but I still couldn’t control the monsters well. Those monsters will be coming too. If you don’t take sufficient measures, there will be a lot of victims.. that is not what we want.」the Vision Ogre said.

Right.. When the monsters from the other world arrive here, the residents of this world will be helpless to fend for themselves.

「I can see it plain on your face that you don’t want to do it.」the Vision Ogre said.

「Naturally. Nobody would want to be party to an event which could give rise to such a loss of life.」I said.

「But if you leave it alone, the world will perish.」

「Can’t we stop it? For example, improve the balance of the distribution of skill orbs..」

「Are you going to go around and break 5 and 6-star skill orbs?」

「........」

That is impossible.

A 6-star skill orb is something that surpasses a national treasure.

Even if I say “The world is about to collapse, please destroy that skill orb”, nobody would listen to me. In that case, I would have no choice but to do it by force.

「What will happen to the world when it collapses?」I asked.

「Oh? Do you wish to collapse it with your own hands?」

「No, not that.. I just want to consider the various possibilities.」

「That is simple.」the Sage replied instead.「The life activities of all creatures are forcibly stopped, and they return to nothing. The Vision Ogre and I may remain, but it is not guaranteed.」

The matter seems to be more urgent than I expected.

「How long do we have?」I asked.

The Vision Ogre shook his head, saying he doesn’t know.

「Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe 100 years from now. The world is made up of various elements in circulation, but my world is currently clogged up at many points. The most important part is that the blood of a pure person from the Holy Blue bloodline was not offered to us. We cannot predict what will happen next.」

To think that what happened at the “Skill Orb Awarding Ceremony” of the Kruvan Holy Kingdom had such a great influence on the fate of the world.

「Regarding the Red Gate.. Why did you connect the two worlds with that red crack?」

「I felt that it might be able to clear a number of the clogging.」the Vision Ogre said.

「That thing is out of regulation. I feel it would rather accelerate the collapse.」the Sage said.

The opinions of the two old men were the opposite.

Is that why the mediator tried to invade through the crack and the dragons tried to close the crack instead?

「There are few points of consensus between me and the dragon.. but those few consensus are absolutely certain. As you suggested, it may be good enough to break the skill orbs and correct the distributions. But that might still not be enough — the dragon and I are in agreement that we don’t have enough time.」

「........」

Does that mean that there are virtually no other options?

「Sound the alarm that many monsters will soon appear, and have each country prepare for battle as soon as possible. And revoke the Covenant as soon as possible..」

Simply saying those words reminded me of the difficulty of the task at hand.

「Why..? Why me? Why do I have to be the one to do this? I can’t.. I can’t do it.」

I almost wanted to cry.

I didn’t come here to hear all these things.

I just wanted Lark to be healed.

Is it so bad to wish for the health of my one and only sister?

「We are making you carry too heavy a burden on your back at such a young age. It’s alright. You don’t have to decide now. As the Vision Ogre said earlier, this world may still be here.」

「Dragon, aren’t you being too sweet to this guy? Are you fine with this world perishing? With this guy’s power, he should be able to save the lives of his friends.」

「This child, who wishes to save the lives of strangers, and not just his friends.. is a child who carries a kind soul, unlike the previous “Child of Disaster”. So it is alright. You do not have to carry this burden on your back.」

The Sage stretched out his hand and patted my head.

The wrinkled hand did not transmit the warmth of a human, but I felt kindness from his surprisingly nervous touch. I bit down my teeth to stop myself from bursting out crying.