On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

After rescuing the Princess, I call Teanosvera back and regroup with the others. We quickly find an inn for the girls to rest in and then order some food to fill our stomachs.

I think Millonia cooks better than the cook of the inn, but she says she doesn’t want to cook as long as there are people selling food in the surroundings. Since I don’t really care about what I eat, I shrug and agree with her.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, the waitress brings us our drinks. “Dear customers, here are your beers. Please wait a little bit more for your food. We are a little bit overwhelmed by the number of customers,” she says.𝑂𝐕𝓁xt.𝒞𝗈𝕞

“I can see that,” I comment as I look around. “As long as we don’t have to wait for half an hour for some simple dishes, we won’t shed anyone’s blood, so don’t worry.”

“A-Ah, yes…”

I said what I said jokingly, but the waitress looks at me in fear. In this world, it is not that rare for something like that to happen, so everyone takes anything that sounds threatening seriously even though the one who says it is the friendliest-looking man they have ever seen.

It is a disadvantageous culture for the weak, but thanks to it, only those who have power can feel entitled. On Earth, there are too many people thinking they are the stars even though they are not and you can’t find that kind of people here.

Only those who truly have power dare to cause a ruckus. Those who know they will be dead the moment they act too obnoxiously will treat people as respectfully as they can; they know they are not so different from the weak in front of the eyes of the people above them.

“Instead of just looking at me, why don’t you tell me something about yourself, Lunea?”

“Eh—ah! I didn’t mean to look at you.”

Lunea is fanning herself with her hand as if it is going to put out the fire lighting up her cheeks. I don’t know why she is so flustered and I don’t care enough to figure it out.

“Let us talk about what happened in Cresundia.”

“That is…”

Lunea’s expression instantly turns solemn. She stays quiet for a few seconds before nodding her head in determination and telling me about the betrayal of one of Cresundia’s Heroes.

Said Hero, whose name she doesn’t know, has the ability to control people’s minds. He has taken control of the King’s mind and now the whole Kingdom is basically in his hands.

That guy knows his game, so he is playing safe. Instead of emerging as the new king or the favorite Hero of the King, he chose to cooperate with the Princes and remain unknown.

What a smart and cunning guy; I can’t help but commend him for his scheme. Still, there is something wrong with the story, so I can’t help wondering.

Considering how selfish the traitorous Hero is, I am sure he works alone and only uses people as his puppets. Because of that, I am sure the Hero whom Yūto killed on their way to escape the Kingdom must have been under his control.

Now, if he can take control over the mind of his fellow Heroes, why did he feel the need to kill Lunea? If he is worried about her revolting in the future, he should have just used his ability to control her mind.

I believe the other Princes are also under his control; there is no way they will just let an outsider invade their affairs. Since that is the case, I am sure the Princes weren’t the ones who planned the assassination attempt on Lunea.

The assassination was the traitorous Heroes’ initiative and that was done for basically no reason.

‘Strange,’ I think as I stare at Lunea, making her slightly uncomfortable. “Do you have any idea why the Hero hates you so much that he wants to kill you?”

“I don’t even know who the culprit is—how could I know what I have done wrong?”

“Have you ever rejected a confession of a Hero?” I ask, hypothesizing that this might be just a revenge story of a butthurt dude who has a one-sided love.

“No. I rarely interacted with the Heroes from my Kingdom,” she answers with a sheepish smile. “Besides, I am not that attractive to attract any of the Heroes’ interest.”

“Agreed,” I comment, causing her to widen her eyes.

“Eh, you are not going to deny it?” she asks in shock, causing Millonia to chortle in amusement.

Waving my hand, I say, “Let’s get back to the topic. Have you ever felt like being watched by someone or getting a gaze even though there were no eyes on you?”

“Uh… no?”

I conclude that the traitorous Hero is also not a creep either. The assassination wasn’t caused by jealousy or any political reasons and I am even more confused about what to make of the situation.

Of course, I soon realized that knowing the motive behind the assassination won’t help me whatsoever, so I forget the matter entirely. I am about to ask Lunea about my shitty classmates when Teanosvera decided to reveal himself.

Whoosh!

Although he is not emitting his unbearable pressure, his unique presence still attracts many people. The people’s heads turn to us and the room instantly turns silent.

The attention is bothersome, so I warn the people, “Those who watch other’s hands too much won’t know when they lose their heads.” Immediately, they get busy with their activities and act as if nothing happens.

“You are a bully, aren’t you?” Millonia comments.

“I have been bullied once, so I know how to act like a bully,” I respond. Turning to Teanosvera, who is perching on my shoulder, I say, “Is there something the matter?”

“Master, this lass… this lass has a Crystal Mind.”

“What kind of bullshit are we talking about?”

“The owner of Crystal Mind is said to have a carefree personality and hate being caged. They have a very strong mind, they can stay calm in perilous situations and, first and foremost, they have an incredible learning capability.”

“She is special but not that special—I get it. Why did you decide to reveal yourself though?”

Teanosvera hums to himself and turns to me. “This is nothing but a possibility; Master, those who have Crystal Mind cannot be controlled by Geas or any form of mind control Magic. The Hero is probably afraid of this fact.”

“Ah, now that makes sense,” I remark.

Teanosvera and I turn our heads to Lunea at the same time. I don’t know what he is thinking, but we are both scrutinizing her to the point that she has no choice but to lower her head.

‘This girl may make a good sidekick,’ I remark inwardly as I stop scrutinizing her. “You are good at Magic I have heard.”

“Ah, yes… I am still lacking compared to many, but I have a strong desire to improve.” Lunea nods her head.

“Good. You are going to learn a lot in our journey and I can assure you that you will come out different at the end of this journey,” I remark. “Talking about journey, it is time for you to let me know where the Heroes are.”

Lunea has a personality that makes it easy for her to befriend the Heroes of Antares who are Americans. They came to Cresundia once for sightseeing and she managed to make friends with them during the one week they stayed there.

She knows each of their private communication lines, so she can contact them anytime they want. Using this, I will lure every one of them out and erase their existence from this world.

“I haven’t contacted them for more than two weeks now, but l heard that last time…”

Unhesitatingly, Lunea tells me the last location of each of my classmates. I was expecting her to be uncomfortable talking about it to us, but she seems to have understood what it means to live in this world.

After hearing about where were they last spotted and what they were doing, I can’t help asking about the oddity of the information.

“Why are there only 11 of them? Are you sure you have met all of the Heroes from Antares?”

“Yes, I am sure and I won’t lie about that,” Lunea answers, absolute. “It seems to me that you haven’t heard much about the Heroes of Antares. May I…?”

“Speak.”

Lunea explains to me what happened to most of the Heroes, allowing me to know that more than half of them fell during their Quest to Amizanima. The idiots were killed by a small group of Warriors from the army of one of the Nine Demon Kings.

Valeria didn’t tell me about it. I doubt that she didn’t know it; I am sure she purposely didn’t tell me about it because she was afraid that I might lose my motivation.

Well, I don’t.

“Let us take out Mike first,” I say. “You still can contact him, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can but… are you sure? There is a high chance that he may snitch on us,” Lunea says in worry.

“It doesn’t matter. I am going to kill anyway—adding another body or two doesn’t make any difference,” I wave my hand nonchalantly.

Mike Brown had never bullied me. Whenever the bullying happened, he always looked away; he was one of the bystanders in the class, who implicitly gave consent to the activity.