I still remember it perfectly. My master’s words.
“It’s not like I was interested in you or anything… I just didn’t want to give you the wrong idea. Sorry.”
Three months after being summoned to another world as its hero, and after everything that had happened, I finally began learning the sword under my master’s tutelage.
Then, on the day I was finally set to depart on my journey, I suffered the bitterest heartbreak of my life. Overcome with grief, I set off wearing a suit of pitch-black full-body armor. I began my career as a hero by hunting down handsome high-ranking demons who looked like they spent their days flirting with their subordinates.
The death of happy couples is inevitable.
Looking back, I was motivated by approximately one hundred percent personal resentment.
—CLANG. CLANG.
One step. Then another.
The Black Knight drew closer. Its silhouette was exactly the same as mine had once been.
There were only a few possibilities I could think of:
1. By sheer coincidence, armor with the exact same design existed in this world.
2. There was another person transported from my old world besides Manya, and they had recreated that armor.
3. Somehow, the version of me from back then had been summoned here.
Realistically, the first two were the only possibilities that made any sense, but… the wavelength of the magic emanating from the armored knight was an exact match for mine. I genuinely had no idea what was going on.
Could this be one of those doppelgängers you always hear about in urban legends?
—CLANG.
—CLANG.
The metallic sound of the armor rang out with mechanical regularity. It was like a countdown to an execution—
“Eek! Ah—w-wait, whaa—WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“M-Masaru-san!? W-Wait for me! Don’t leave me heeeeeeeeeere!”
The two punks screamed and fled. The Black Knight didn’t pursue them.
“Apparently, I’m the one it’s after.”
Shizuku brushed back her shoulder-length hair.
And sure enough, she was right. The Black Knight came to a stop, raised its sword, and pointed the tip straight at us.
The tension in the air intensified.
『Hey. What the hell is that thing?』
I asked Shizuku through telepathy.
『I’d be more than happy to tell you, but I have one condition. I’m powerless without my magic wand. I need you to buy me some time.』
『…That’s going to be pretty difficult. Very difficult, actually.』
『What are you talking about? We have this paper airplane of yours. If you send them all charging in like you did before—』
『That was it. Sorry.』
The paper airplanes had nearly exhausted all their magic when I sent them on their kamikaze attack against that Masaru guy. They couldn’t fly anymore, let alone be controlled. At most, I could probably still manage the one Shizuku was holding.
『Y-You’re kidding… right?』
The words slipped out in an unmistakably Kansai-style accent.
Was this what she was really like underneath all that edgy posturing?
『No. I’m serious.』
Almost at the exact same moment I answered—
“――――――――――!”
The Black Knight let out a bestial roar. The air shook violently, and the park’s streetlights shattered.
And then—
“—!”
The knight lunged forward at bullet-like speed, swinging its sword.
『《False Dragon Sword: Wyvern Slash.》』
That was what I had named the technique back then.
Ugh… Just remembering it dealt massive psychological damage.
Not bad. A Black Knight using the same techniques as me.
Black Knight, black history. Get it?
…Anyway, enough with the jokes.
The blade was closing in on Shizuku.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
She screamed.
At this rate, we’d have a dead girl on our hands.
But—
“…So you can make cute noises too.”
It was a close call.
I scooped Shizuku up in my arms and immediately put some distance between us and the Black Knight.
Wondering what the hell I’ve been doing this whole time?
It’s simple. I am not just having a pleasant little telepathic chat with Shizuku. I had slipped out of the house and sprinted all the way to the park. And so, by the skin of my teeth, I had arrived just in time.
For the record, Mia was asleep at home. It was already eleven at night, after all. I felt bad about waking her, and I had no intention of bringing her anywhere near a dangerous situation.
More importantly—I wasn’t exactly eager for her to witness my “dark history”, you know?
“You… who are you…?”
“I am the master of the paper airplanes. I’ve come to save you.”
I knew full well that a line like that wasn’t exactly going to land when delivered by a four-year-old. But I said it anyway.
It was embarrassing. Painfully so. But right now, I needed to deliberately contract a severe case of chūnibyō.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to look directly at the Black Knight—the living embodiment of my darkest, most embarrassing past.
My mental strength would give out long before I ever had the chance to cross swords with it. Fortunately, Shizuku seemed to be one of those people herself, so I probably wouldn’t get too much of a horrified reaction.
“…Wonderful.”
Huh? Shizuku-san, why are you looking at me with those sparkling eyes?
And, uh, we’re currently in a princess carry here. Could you get down? It’s kind of hard to fight like this.
O-oi, why are you wrapping your arms around my neck like that—
…Whoa.
She’s actually pretty well-endowed.
“――――――――――!”
The Black Knight’s roar snapped me back to reality.
It wasn’t really a sound that could be put into words, but the intent behind it came through loud and clear.
“—Quit flirting in front of me, or I’ll fucking kill you.”
Okay, look, this was an accident. A completely unavoidable accident. Can’t you just let it slide?
Apparently not.
“—!”
The Black Knight hefted its sword onto its shoulder and charged straight at me.
“Tch!”
I leapt backward once more.
“Shizuku-san, I’ll handle things here. Hurry up and find your magic wand.”
“Y-Yes! …He ordered me around. Hehe.”
Shizuku happily dashed out of the park.
However—
“T-There’s a barrier! A barrier’s been put up, Master! We can’t leave the park!”
Who the hell is your “Master”? And what’s with the sudden personality change? You were way more arrogant before. Why are you suddenly speaking so politely?
More importantly, a barrier, huh?
Did the Black Knight put it up?
Well, whatever. I can investigate that later. As far as barriers went, this one was moderately strong. I could probably break it in ten seconds. But under the current circumstances, leaving myself exposed for that long would be far too risky.
Which meant—
“I guess I’ll have to settle this first.”
I muttered under my breath, then sent Shizuku a telepathic message.
『Shizuku-san, tell me everything you know about this knight.』
『Hyaaah!? Master’s voice is inside my head…!』
『Forget that. Just hurry up and tell me.』
『Even that cold side of you makes my heart flutter…!』
Maybe I should just suck the information directly out of her head. If it turned her into a vegetable, well… so be it.
『Um, we don’t have much time, so I’ll keep this brief.』
『Just spit it out.』
『This knight was created by the magical researcher I’ve been pursuing. Apparently, they can access records from another world and copy legendary heroes at the peak of their power, or something like that…』
『Do you know the hero’s name?』
『Umm…』
There was a pause of several seconds.
Then—
『Yoshiton. The Hero Yoshiton.』
Who the hell is that?
『Apparently, he was the only hero ever to defeat an evil god. Ah, maybe it was Yoshito? But there’s no way someone with such a Japanese-sounding name could exist in another world, so it must be Yoshiton.』
Uhh…I’m pretty sure it was Yoshito.
In other words, it’s me in my previous life. Well, I did defeat an evil god, so I suppose it makes sense that my name would be remembered.
Hmm. The people in that world were actually pretty similar to Japanese people in certain ways. They had a tendency to turn everything into cute girls, or perhaps I should say they had a particularly deep-seated brand of degeneracy. I could totally see them making a game a thousand years from now called “The Hero Yoshito Was Actually a Beautiful Girl!”
Not that I wasn’t curious. But right now, I had more important things to worry about.
The Black Knight standing before me.
Me. At the peak of my power.
I had mixed feelings about the fact that the period when I had gone berserk after getting dumped by my master was being regarded as my “prime”, but I supposed I’d be magnanimous about it.
『Master, is there anything I can do to help?』
『You can’t use magic, right? Then stay over in a corner and be a cute little decoration.』
『C-Cute? You called me cute again…!』
『Can’t help it. It’s the truth.』
Ahh. Yeah. That was definitely the kind of line I’d remember later and want to crawl into a hole and die over.
Another page added to my dark history.
Damn it.
Once I dealt with this Black Knight, I am going to beat the hell out of this so-called magical researcher who’d caused all this, too.
＊ ＊ ＊
Now then. Let’s put the joking aside for a moment.
First, I’ll present the results of the [Appraisal] skill.
| [Name] Black Knight Yoshito [Gender] Male [Race] Chūnibyō [Age] 18 [Title] Hero [Stats] ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Level: 34 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Attack Power: 244(-100) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Defense Power: 231(-100) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Vitality: 211(-100) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Magic Power: 234(-100) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Mental Strength: 221(-100)(-50) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Agility: 253(-100) [Abilities] Unknown [Skills] Unknown [Magic] Unknown [Status Ailment] Degraded Summoning ・ Heartbreak |
As you’d expect from a hero, the stats were absurdly high even at such a low level.
Nostalgic.
Back when I was the Black Knight, I relied almost entirely on brute force, letting my ridiculous stats do the work. Then, after everything that happened, my stats were reduced to one-hundredth of what they had been. That’s when I switched to a fighting style centered around technique instead.
If you looked at the numbers alone, then sure, my Black Knight days really were my “prime.”
But—
Numbers like that could be overturned in all sorts of ways, depending on how you chose to fight.
For the sake of comparison, I suppose I should pull up Shizuku’s stats too.
| [Name] Shizuku Aitori [Gender] Female [Race] Chūnibyō [Age] 14 [Title] 8th Head of the Aitori Family (Prospective) [Stats] ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Level: 52 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Attack Power: 54(-30) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Defense Power: 51(-30) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Vitality: 40(-30) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Magic Power: 82(-70) ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Mental Strength: 35 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙ Agility: 56(-30) [Abilities] Unknown [Skills] Unknown [Magic] Unknown [Status Ailment] Forgotten Item: Unable to use a magic wand, making magic usage difficult. Negative modifiers applied to stats. |
It’s a bit late to realize this, but Shizuku wasn’t just some girl with Chūnibyō delusions after all.
Apparently, she really can use magic. That said, right now, she’s still just a glorified ornament.
Make sure not to leave anything behind. Seriously.
＊ ＊ ＊
“――――――!”
The Black Knight’s blade flashed.
A horizontal sweep. A diagonal slash. An upward cut—
Every one of those sword strokes was familiar.
Of course they were. This guy was me, after all.
“Amazing…!”
Shizuku let out an awed sigh, but from my perspective, there wasn’t anything particularly impressive about it.
I knew exactly what the Black Knight was capable of, and I could instinctively predict his thought patterns. In a sense, this was a battle between identical characters. Which meant, naturally, that I knew this guy’s weaknesses too. The me back then had been a simple-minded idiot, and unexpected situations were his Achilles’ heel.
So how about something like this?
An extraordinary power that the me of my previous life could never have known about.
“Earth nurtures metal, and metal gives rise to gold—《Golden Escape: Illusion Technique.》”
Put simply, it was a clone technique. I created copies of myself out of clumps of earth, then used the refraction of light to make them appear indistinguishable from real, living people.
It was one of the supernatural arts passed down among the nekomata.
Suika-san had taught me this technique.
“――――! ――! ―――――――!”
Judging by the way he was opening his mouth, I assumed he was saying something along the lines of “Fight fair, you coward!”
The Black Knight proceeded to cut down my illusions one after another.
One of his strikes caught a panda-shaped playground structure in its path and cleaved it cleanly in two.
A park bench was smashed to pieces. Then the sheer force of the blow gouged a crater into the ground.
What ridiculous strength. If one of those attacks landed cleanly, it would be all over.
I’d been fighting the Black Knight for several minutes now. It wasn’t long, but in that short span of time, the park had already been reduced to a miserable wreck. Every piece of playground equipment had been mangled, and even the paved walkways had been torn apart.
They aren’t going to send me the repair bill, are they?
I really think the guy who summoned the Black Knight should be the one paying for all this.
“I’d better finish this quickly and catch the real culprit…!”
Now then.
I hadn’t spent all this time doing nothing but running away.
“—《Binding Spell: Gravity Bind.》”
I linked together the magic circles I’d drawn throughout the park and activated the spell.
It was an extremely high-level binding spell. Even the me at my peak would have needed some time to break free of it. Of course, stopping him wasn’t the real objective.
While running all over the park, I’d been collecting the paper airplanes that had run out of magic. Now I had replenished them and floated them into the air.
Every one of them was fully charged with magic—and then some were overloaded. The slightest stimulus would be enough to trigger a massive explosion.
I brought my right hand down. In perfect synchronization with the motion, the paper airplanes all swarmed toward the Black Knight at once.
With a deafening roar, a blast of hot air sent clouds of dust billowing into the air. My entire field of vision was engulfed in flames.
They say that asking, “Did I get him!?” at a time like this is basically a guaranteed failure flag.
『You got him… right!?』
Shizuku, please don’t send me ominous telepathy like that. Adding polite speech to it doesn’t make it any less ominous. What are you going to do if he’s still alive after this?
Eventually, the flames died down, and the dust began to settle.
And beyond it—
“――――――――――――!”
The Black Knight isstill standing.
『The Thunder Bird: Falling to Earth Like a Stoner Sun—didn’t work…!?』
Shizuku, could you please stop making up names for my attacks?
“――! …! ………!”
Hmm. Apparently, that attack hadn’t been a complete waste after all. The Black Knight’s left arm hung limply at his side. His legs didn’t seem to have much strength left in them, either. He could barely remain standing, looking as though he might collapse at any moment.
“Good thing I brought these along, just in case.”
I reached into my clothes and pulled out a shuriken made from origami.
I infused it with magic and hurled it.
CLINK!
It bounced off the Black Knight’s helmet—but it had more than enough force to shatter the already crack-riddled thing.
The helmet broke apart, exposing the face beneath. I had expected to find someone who looked exactly like me in my previous life.
But—
“What the hell is this…?”
I was speechless.
What had been hiding beneath the armor was something that could hardly be called human. Something pitch-black, viscous, and tar-like. It writhed and squirmed, stretching out tendrils—
Wait, that’s dangerous!
“M-Master!?”
The Tar Guy (temporary designation) tried to impale Shizuku with one of its tendrils.
I managed to shield her at the last second, but…
This is bad. It had gouged into my right side.
“Guh… ah…!”
Agonizing pain. Cold sweat beaded across my forehead. The tendril had wormed its way into my body through the wound. It felt like something was fiddling with my organs from the inside—a nauseating, deeply unpleasant sensation.
And the invasion wasn’t limited to my body. It was spreading into my mind as well.
—The sorrow of being rejected by my master.
—Jealousy toward all the couples in the world.
—Hatred for handsome guys.
One emotion after another flooded my mind, trying to paint over everything that made me who I was. Apparently, the Tar Guy was trying to absorb my very existence.
But, you know…these were emotions I had in the first place. What happens when you add black paint to black paint?
Simple. Nothing changes.
And compared to the me I was back then, my mental strength was far greater now. I had lived through many more years after all.
Besides—Mia is waiting for me at home. Who the hell cared about some old heartbreak anymore?
I took a deep breath.
Instead of letting the Tar Guy’s consciousness take me over, I invaded it in return.
“Going on a rampage just because you got rejected? Seriously, how pathetic.”
“And calling yourself the Black Knight? That’s so painfully cringe. Seriously, so cringe.”
“You actually thought that would make girls like you?”
“Don’t worry, past me. You’re going to stay a virgin until the day you die.”
Every time I drove my own old wounds deeper with another insult, the Tar Guy’s will grew weaker and weaker. And after about five minutes of relentlessly tearing into myself—
“………………!”
With a voiceless scream, the Tar Guy vanished.
It was a dangerously close victory. If I had to keep it up for another minute, I don’t think my own sanity would’ve held out.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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