Episode 3
Loki was able to hear many things from the girl named Kankun.
This place was a small island in the north.
Frozen earth.
And a place where those called the Nod tribe lived; because it was a cold region year-round, they were said to be a tribe that survived through pillaging to sustain their livelihood.
But he couldn't learn the details about his own situation.
-Then what am I?
-…Huh?
-This isn't inside a game where I set up and wove the worldbuilding. Is this place a different world?
-…G-game? A different world?
-…….
A conversation devoid of substance.
In the end, he couldn't grasp what had become of his situation.
Loki looked at Kankun and rested his chin on his hand.
A strange world. But truly, a cruel world.
‘She’s truly a child born into a harrowing fate.’
A rebellion had broken out in the Rageuna tribe, Kankun's tribe.
Her uncle had murdered her father, and she had fled to this sanctuary as her last hope.
As Loki kept silent, Kankun, who had been watching his mood, cautiously stepped forward and spoke.
“Um….”
“……?”
“What should… we do now?”
Not ‘I’, but ‘we’.
She was probably asking on behalf of the village people.
And she asks me that?
Loki felt those words rise to the tip of his tongue, but he maintained his silence.
Because there were far too many things he needed to think about.
He struggled to sort out the situation.
Five minutes… ten minutes passed.
Even so, Loki couldn't find an answer.
Above all, Kankun's gaze—laden with fear and anticipation as she watched his mood—was far too burdensome.
‘…Why is this kid still here?’
“How long are you planning to stay here?”
“Huh?”
“Aren't you going back home?”
“Um… that is… are you just sending me back like this?”
“……?”
Loki tilted his head.
“……?”
Following him, Kankun also tilted her head in the same direction.
“…What do you want?”
At Loki's question, Kankun made an awkward expression.
Wasn't the demon before her the one who should say what he wanted?
She had made a wish, and he had awakened according to her desire.
If things had gone as expected, he should have taken her soul… yet he was simply trying to send her back.
“S-so I can just go?”
“Then, do you think I want something from you?”
“Huh?”
“What could you possibly give me?”
“Well… my soul…?”
It was Kakun, wearing an awkward expression and speaking in a questioning tone.
Loki shook his head.
“I don't need it.”
Kankun wore a shocked expression.
“So withdraw. I have much to think about.”
Kankun was on the verge of tears.
She had steeled herself, yet being chased out like a bug made her feel quite aggrieved.
Loki glanced at the sword Kankun held in her arms and added one more word.
“Later.”
Kankun turned back.
“I shall call for you when needed.”
“…Yes!”
Kankun exited the audience chamber and looked back at the massive sanctuary.
‘Did I… survive…?’
Relief was only momentary; she couldn't help but feel strange.
The shock of everything that had happened still lingered in her mind. And to be kicked out for being unnecessary to a demon?
Should she consider this good fortune, or misfortune…?
Still…
-I shall call for you when needed.
He said he would call her later.
‘Huh…?’
But why was she happy about that?
Just as Kankun tilted her head.
“Ah!”
Kankun looked at the sword she held in her arms.
A faint golden light was flowing out from it.
'I-I took it out without realizing!? B-but it's become brand new?'
The rusty, broken-toothed sword had become a golden longsword before she knew it.
She had gripped it tightly because of the warm energy rising into her hand… and had completely forgotten to give it to the demon.
'Wh-what should I do? I have to return it…'
Flustered, Kankun alternated her gaze between the sanctuary and the direction of her village.
“Kankun! Kankun—!”
“Kankun… are you alright!?”
Then the villagers appeared from between the bushes.
“Th-thank goodness! You're safe!”
Everyone surrounded Kankun.
“Huh?”
“For some reason, the rebels have all retreated!”
“Kankun, the village needs you. Let us hurry!”
“No, um… I have to return the sword…!”
At the touch of the villagers' hands, Kankun was led toward the village.
Loki watched Kankun leaving through a magic mirror.
And right beside him was an old man frozen like a statue, unable to move an inch.
The high priest of the Nod tribe, Shaman.
“How long are you planning to stay here?”
“H-how should I express this….”
Shaman placed a trembling hand over his chest, then slowly knelt and lowered his head. He assumed a posture of submission.
“I am Shaman. I worship the Seat of Sin, whom my ancestors have served for generations.”
His voice was filled with fear, and reverence.
“D-Demon, no, L-Lord of All Sins! As the high priest protecting the Nod tribe, it is my calling to serve you and protect this sanctuary. My duty is to let you rest in peace. So….”
“Get lost.”
Shaman looked up at Loki, seemingly shocked.
“I-I find joy in serving you and living here. So please trust in my loyalty and faith—”
From within Loki's helm, red light flashed through the eye sockets.
“I care nothing for such things.”
“…….”
Shaman retreated with a tearful expression.
“Later.”
Then he turned and looked at Loki.
“I shall speak with you once my thoughts are in order.”
Shaman's face brightened.
***
Kankun was moving busily.
To clear the broken village and deal with the bodies.
She turned her head.
The villagers were moving about in haggard appearances.
While some were treating the injured, others were absentmindedly dazed, unable to accept reality.
“Kankun.”
Then an old man with many wrinkles and clad in ragged clothes approached Kankun.
He was one of the elders of the Rageuna tribe.
He watched Kankun's mood with great anxiety.
“What do you think we should do now?”
“Huh?”
“You are the niece of the traitor Kudan Rageuna, but before that, are you not the daughter of Karan Rageuna, who ruled this village? As you bear the chieftain's bloodline, the decision rests with you.”
Kankun froze stiffly. And she could feel the countless gazes pouring toward her.
The hundred or so people who had survived in the ruined village.
They all looked at Kankun.
The weight of the responsibility to protect them pressed down on Kankun's body.
Kankun couldn't help but shrink involuntarily.
Having just reached adulthood at fifteen, she was far too young to bear responsibility for all of this.
“W-well….”
“Kyaaaaah!”
A sudden scream.
Villagers who had been in the forest were seen fleeing.
And behind them, breaking through the bushes, came a massive horse. And atop it, a warrior.
Cavalry bearing great spears burst from the forest.
“Wh-what!”
“It's a raid!”
“Has Kudan come again?!”
Screams erupted here and there. And Kankun could see.
Heavily armored cavalry covered in golden scale armor over horse barding.
Among the pillaging Nod tribe, there was only one tribe with such high-quality equipment.
“The Golden Lion… the Pareutaseu tribe?!”
The Nod were pillagers.
Their usual slave hunt had begun.
***
The Pareutaseu tribe was extremely cruel.
“What? Did some other bastards already sweep through here!?”
“Capture everyone as slaves! You can kill the old ones!”
Mad laughter dominated the surroundings.
Where the cavalry swept through once, countless bodies were strewn about, and heavily armed infantry in golden armor slowly trampled that path.
At that sight, Kankun's face turned deathly pale.
“Wh-what are you doing!? Run away quickly!”
Kankun shouted to the Rageuna tribespeople, but they despaired as they looked at her.
“Wh-where are we supposed to go!?”
“Kankun, it's impossible. There's nowhere for us to run!”
The village had already suffered great damage due to the rebellion of her uncle, Kudan Rageuna.
Those able to fight were few, and with those numbers, it was absolutely impossible to face the Pareutaseu tribe.
She despaired.
The hope of having survived was momentary; to think another disaster would strike like this…!
“Uwaack!”
Men who resisted screamed as they were pierced by spears.
“N-no! You can't! At least that child…!”
Grabbing a woman by the hair, they forcibly separated her from her child and dragged her somewhere.
Her mind turning blank at the scene before her eyes, Kankun involuntarily thought of a single person.
“The sanctuary….”
The being who was the demon and the seat of that place.
He had harmed only those who showed hostility toward him; he had spared her and Shaman.
Perhaps… he might not be such a dangerous existence to those who did not show hostility.
Kankun shouted at the top of her lungs to the tribespeople.
“To the sanctuary-!!”
The Rageuna tribespeople looked at Kankun.
“Go to the sanctuary! We will be safe there!”
“……!”
The tribespeople scrambled to run.
Was it because her voice was too loud?
The Pareutaseu warriors began to look at Kankun.
Kankun broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly stepped back….
“That kid, grab her-!”
Kankun turned and began to run.
She had to flee.
As fast as possible…
To the sanctuary where the Seat of Sin was-!
***
Loki looked at the skeletons before him.
Skeletons covered in pitch-black armor.
From massive greatswords, shields, spears, bows and daggers, to even a military band holding instruments.
Various military branches were lined up.
They were monsters he had arranged to protect this Balhal Palace back when he was a game planner.
‘Hmm….’
When Loki flicked his finger to the right, the skeletons aligned to the right.
When he flicked it to the left, they aligned to the left.
It was movement without a hint of trembling.
‘…Interesting. So they move according to my commands?’
Loki snapped his fingers. A glass membrane formed in the split air, reflecting Loki like a mirror.
An iron helm in the shape of a horned goat—a symbol of the demon. Between the eye holes of that helm, crimson eyes blazed like fire.
Heavy black iron armor, a fur cloak, and black smoke rising from between the armor plates that occasionally formed the shapes of snakes and wolves.
‘As expected… it is indeed the character I created.’
The ringleader of evil who led the army of the dead and the kings of giants, bringing about the end of the world. The one who caused Ragnarök.
Loki.
He had become the game character that he had conceived and designed.
‘But…’
If what Kankun said was true, this world wasn't even the game world he had constructed.
It meant it was an entirely different otherworld.
‘Even so, they must follow my commands because they have preset values.’
Loki looked at the skeletons before him.
And those behind them.
He looked at beings composed of black bones that exuded a much more powerful aura, as if expressing ‘death’ itself.
An immortal legion of fifty, consisting of Death Knights and Liches, among others.
‘It seems they follow me as well.’
Loki lowered his gaze.
Beneath Balhal Palace.
Beings that had been under development.
‘What about the kings of giants?’
Since he had still been building their settings before coming here, there was no telling how they would react.
Just as Loki narrowed his eyes.
“U-um… D-Demon… no, L-Lord of the Seat of Sin!”
Loki raised his head.
The Nod tribe's high priest, Shaman, stood tall.
He spoke, breaking out in a cold sweat.
“U-uninvited guests have arrived.”
“Uninvited guests?”
“They are residents of the Rageuna tribe. Shall I drive them out?”
Residents of the Rageuna tribe?
-I-I am Ka… Kankun Rageuna… the shrine maiden who serves you.
Loki recalled the girl he had just sent away.
She had the surname Rageuna. Were they people related to that child?
“Why have they come?”
“…It seems their tribe has been attacked.”
Loki recalled when he had first met the girl.
Come to think of it, back then too, that girl had been under attack by unidentified men.
‘That girl.’
She had held the holy sword, Bureuteugang, in her hand.
Loki drew his finger through the air.
Space split apart accordingly, and a magic mirror was summoned.
The magic mirror began to display a scene.
A map showing the surroundings of Balhal Palace.
There, he saw a girl running while holding Bureuteugang, and men in golden armor chasing after her.
“…Is she not using the sword?”
‘Or perhaps she doesn't know how to use it?’
Loki tapped the armrest with his finger.
‘Bureuteugang recognizes the one who first holds the sword as its master.’
A myth-grade item imbued with divine protection.
If one who was neither god nor master tried to wield it, they would burn to death alongside a burst of intense light.
‘However, if the master dies, the story changes.’
If that girl dies, those men shall become the masters of the myth-grade item.
He rose from his seat.
He would retrieve Bureuteugang. And he had many things to ask them about this world.
Loki began to move, and the skeletons that had been kneeling with heads bowed to him also began to follow.