#84: Death — After Becoming an Overlord, I Came to Another World! (WN)

I understood Fio’s objective, but…

“I understand why I was summoned to this world. There’s still more I want to ask, but before that I need to confirm something… You summoned us because you wanted us to do something about your mana, right, Fio?”

“That is correct.”

“…But that was five thousand years ago, right? Yet you’re contacting me like this… are you alive?”

At my question, Fio smiled awkwardly.

“…No. As I said earlier, I died when I performed the ritual.”

“…Which means the wish that called us here can’t be fulfilled…”

If she had already passed away when we arrived, there was nothing we could do for her.

In a way, that made both the caller and the called… feel empty, didn’t it?

Before that—what exactly was the Fio talking to me right now? No, I’d leave that question for later.

“…Indeed, the wish for you to help me personally was not fulfilled, but the wish to deal with the Demon King’s mana was not only for my sake.”

Fio continued while looking at me with a serious expression.

That expression… was far removed from what I had seen before, giving off something like dignity.

“I said earlier that when a Demon King dies, the next Demon King is born immediately, right? If the Demon King’s mana can be dealt with, the current Demon King—and those born as Demon Kings in the future—will be able to live normally.”

“…”

So it was to save those who would share her fate in the future, not herself…

That sentiment was noble, I thought.

“The Demon King’s mana is nothing but a calamity to ordinary life. Whether the Demon King wishes it or not does not matter… merely living drives those around them insane… no sane mind could endure it.”

“That… makes sense.”

I could hardly imagine the suffering…

And across the entire continent… no prevention and no escape… you could try fleeing to another continent, but if the mana crossed the sea, that would be the end.

Regardless of whether people loved you, hated you, or didn’t care… living among people while fearing an inevitable breaking point… yeah, impossible.

If I were the Demon King… yeah, that’d be suicide.

Perhaps my thoughts were fully visible, because Fio opened her mouth with a self-mocking smile.

“I will not say I never considered death. But even if I died, the next Demon King would simply be born… and when a Demon King dies, the mana within them disperses all at once. The damage then… would make even the word ‘hell’ feel mild.”

Was the Demon King itself like a bomb…? No, worse than a bomb that simply explodes and ends…

“…So when the Demon King before you died, there was a catastrophe?”

“Yes. If records are correct, I was the fourth. The damage from Demon King deaths nearly destroyed this world three times.”

“…Demon King mana is terrifying.”

And the worst part was that the Demon King themselves hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I could not allow the world to be dragged down with me. So I sought to neutralize the Demon King’s mana… and succeeded in creating a ritual to ‘grant wishes.’ Only a Demon King could perform it. When I tested it, it worked.”

“Tested?”

“Yes. When I wished for salt, it appeared with a pop.”

“I see. Anything else?”

“…”

Fio averted her eyes with an expression that somehow made me uneasy.

“No way… you went straight to the real thing after salt?”

“W-well, just to try?”

“…And then you died?”

“…Who can say?”

“No, you died, didn’t you?”

Was this person serious?

Wasn’t that way too few test runs?

Salt came out, so what…? Was your wish on the same level as salt?

“…I got impatient.”

“…”

When she put it that way… it was hard to retort.

No, don’t soften, me.

You don’t run the ritual that decides the fate of the world after one trial—“salt came out, yay, let’s do it for real!”—right!?

You wouldn’t… but endure it, Overlord.

“…So the Demon Kings before the current one, thanks to the ritual, only ended up frail instead of suffering from the mana.”

I didn’t know how frail, but it must have been better than driving everyone insane just by existing.

“The current Demon King produces more mana than the ritual removes. And since the ritual has already activated… the Demon King’s mana should now be spreading rapidly.”

“…That’s a huge problem.”

“If the current Demon King dies, the damage could be incomparable to when previous Demon Kings died.”

“…Can the mana collection device prevent that?”

“If my ritual was not mistaken… it should.”

That was a pretty heavy problem to be tasked with solving… Well, if it was just installing mana collection devices, it sounded simple… no, did that mean placing them across the entire world?

Not simple at all.

“…I understand why I was called here and the purpose. My next question… why can you appear in my dreams? You died five thousand years ago, didn’t you?”

“That’s the strange part… my consciousness had grown very faint since the ritual began, but when you came to this world and started acting, it suddenly became clear.”

She said it was like she’d been dreaming.

Did she think she died but didn’t? Or was this some kind of lingering will?

“Come to think of it, you can normally see what I’m doing too, right? Don’t tell me… you’re attached to me?”

“…Probably something like that. Most likely… not only my mana but my consciousness was absorbed into the ritual itself. And then it attached to you, the core existence created by the ritual.”

“…Huh?”

Did she just say created by the ritual?

“That’s right. I said you were summoned to this world, but more precisely, you… all of Einheria were created by the ritual.”

“What do you mean? I was about to play a game in Japan, and I was summoned as Fels, wasn’t I?”

“…No. You and the person who was about to start the game are different people.”

That was absurd… I clearly tried to start the game that day… and the next moment I became Fels.

My consciousness was continuous… yes, when I came to this world, I still felt like I was holding a controller.

“What was your name in Japan?”

As I recalled the moment I was summoned to the Audience Chamber, Fio asked seriously.

“…My name?”

My… name?

“Your parents’ names? Your dog’s name? Your friends’ names?”

I… didn’t know.

I remembered having parents, and having had a dog… yet the memories were vague.

I could recall everything about Sword and Legions, which I had replayed countless times.

I had knowledge of other games, Japanese history, math, language, English… many things, but I couldn’t remember where or when I learned them.

“When I created the countermeasure using my Demon King mana and the accumulated mana of past Demon Kings over five thousand years, the reference I used was the game Sword and Legions. My ‘wish’ crossed worlds and found a solution. And by chance, the reference was data that had been replayed dozens of times. But the core king had no ego.”

The protagonist of Legions was intentionally blank—a silent protagonist.

Other characters probably had personality settings in the game, but…

“Exactly. So I implanted the memories of the data’s owner into the core king.”

Demon King mana… it didn’t just drive minds insane—it was incredibly versatile.

She had manifested game settings, items, and abilities… unbelievable.

“I preserved the memories from the moment the game was about to begin and transferred them into the body… so it felt like you became Fels instantly.”

…So I wasn’t me?

I was just a being created by a ritual?

“The one who created you was Demon King mana and the ritual, and your consciousness is merely a copy of the consciousness of a game-loving young man who lived in Japan.”

“…”

My body made of mana, my identity just a copy… could I even call myself alive?

“I truly am sorry. I created you for my own reasons… I will never ask you to forgive me… I want you to resent me.”

Fio lowered her head with a deeply apologetic expression.

…

…No, I could.

“Eh?”

“Yeah, I can say I’m alive. Definitely.”

I was having an amazing time in this world… If I lamented not being alive, that’d be absurdly negative.

Rather, wasn’t this lucky?

“…Is that really fine? You must have endless complaints toward me.”

“No. Sure, I was surprised and confused. But I’ve been allowed to do whatever I want in this world, more than enough, and I’ve got no complaints. I don’t know the name of the person I came from… but I’m Fels. I don’t need to be anything else.”

The past wasn’t necessary for me now.

I’d never thought life in Japan was better, nor that I wanted to go back… the person I came from must’ve been carefree.

Good thing he wasn’t overly serious… no, since I’m thinking this, maybe I’d think differently with a different personality… in other words, it didn’t matter.

I was me, and I chose to call myself Overlord Fels… that was the end of the story.

All that remained was living as Fels… though boldly declaring myself Overlord still felt a bit embarrassing.

“Aren’t you overly positive?”

Despite the line, Fio still looked apologetic, and I smiled at her.

“It’s fine. I’ve had no hardships and enjoyed this life more than enough. I’d thank you for creating me, not resent you… ah, wait, actually there is something.”

“…”

Fio flinched for a moment, but when she saw my grin, her face reddened.

Since she could read my thoughts, she must’ve known what resentment I meant.

That redness wasn’t embarrassment—it was anger at being teased.

“You picking fights with me every single time made me spend fifty million precious mana stones the other day. I seriously resent that…”

“T-that was because you started it…!”

“Man, that shocked me… bedridden level… actually, I might have been bedridden…”

“In the first place! It’s your fault for not checking the consumption amount properly! I did nothing wrong!”

“…Can’t argue with that… but if you’re used to the controls, isn’t it normal to proceed quickly? If you’d told me the rate was different from the game back then, this wouldn’t have happened!”

“If you’re used to it, that’s even more reason to carefully check displayed information!”

“I have no rebuttal!”

Yes, yes… the Overlord is at fault… raising Strategy 5 as a test costing fifty million… even the Overlord’s mental state couldn’t endure that…

I felt like I couldn’t tease her about the salt ritual anymore.

“I thought you were an idiot, but spending half the treasury instantly goes beyond idiocy. You have no idea how loudly I screamed when I saw that!”

“…So you really watch my actions in real time.”

“Not that I want to.”

“Total stalker…”

Baths and toilets…

“D-don’t think strange things!”

“Y-yeah! This is getting dangerous! Let’s drop this topic!”

Before my sanity collapsed!