The Natural Disaster

“The whole world?”

“Ah… I mean, among all the people in my world.”

Coming to another world really makes me get caught up in small slips of the tongue like that. I grumbled as I answered.

“But you seem to walk many paths.”

“Yeah, in my world, I’m the person who has learned the most things. So if I supplement my stats with various miscellaneous abilities… I get strong enough to be in the top ten. Even then, it’s ambiguous whether I could break into the top five or not…. It’s not like I was ever really treated like a monster….”

The words ‘I was never treated like a monster’ didn’t quite make it out of my mouth, out of a sense of conscience. Even I had to admit that someone who maxed out every single profession was a bit of a madman.

Anyway, the knights nodded as if they roughly understood. Their expressions were full of disbelief or mixed with shock, but considering I’d probably react the same way if a user with over ten million HP suddenly appeared in front of me, I just ignored it. There was no point in trying to make them understand every detail. It was better to just let them be shocked.

“If that’s enough of an answer, can I ask a question now?”

“Go ahead.”

“In this world, as long as the crystal isn’t broken, don’t you just keep resurrecting? What’s the point of an assassin?”

The elderly knight let out a silent sigh before answering.

“Physical death is not entirely unrelated to the crystal. Every time you die, the crystal sustains a small amount of damage. If it is damaged beyond repair, that is the end. Since no one knows how much damage occurs with each death, they keep trying.”

“Aha….”

That was a lore setting I had never heard of. I wondered if the NPCs were programmed to understand it this way, or if the system actually worked like that…. Either way, I understood that it was better to save Azrael if he was in danger of dying.

The elderly knight continued.

“It seems you do not possess a crystal. It would be best to keep that fact hidden. In this world, the only beings without crystals are monsters, demons, and Celestials.”

“Nothing good comes from getting involved in a Divine Trial,” Yohan added.

“That sounds complicated. What are demons and Celestials?”

I was most curious about whether they were playable races, but since it didn’t seem like they’d answer that, I let it go. Instead, I tossed out a lighter question.

“Celestials are a race that aids the Gods, and demons are those who act in opposition to them. Generally, Celestials live in the Celestial Realm and demons live in the Demon Realm. They are beings far stronger than humans who cannot cross between worlds without a specific reason.”

Standard fantasy settings. At this point, it felt a bit cliché.

Azrael, who had been sitting beside me with a face that said ‘You could have just asked me, why ask the knights?’, chimed in lightly.

“If you get caught in a Divine Trial, it becomes truly tedious, so I would like you to be a little careful. Dozens of people will follow you around and harass you based on a few suspicions alone. Since I am vouching for you, you won’t get into trouble for most things, but if they find out you have no crystal, my guarantee won’t be enough.”

“How do they know if someone is a demon or a Celestial?”

“The simplest way is the presence of a crystal, but you can also tell by appearance. Other methods involve using Divine Artifacts. For your information, the Commander’s sword is also a Divine Artifact.”

Everyone’s gaze turned toward Azrael’s sword. It was a jet-black, sleek, and sophisticated blade. If it had been pure white, I might have coveted it a little. Under everyone’s gaze, Azrael fiddled with his sword.

“That sword emits divine power when it encounters a demon or a Celestial. The fact that there is no reaction means that the Commander’s friend is neither a demon nor a Celestial.”

So it meant it had an attack bonus and special effects when facing enemies with demon or Celestial attributes. Thinking that it would probably be a cash shop item if it were released to users, I muttered nonchalantly.

“It’s a cool sword.”

The young knight, who hadn’t even dreamed of that thought, replied proudly.

“It is one of the most famous Divine Artifacts.”

Looking at his face out of the corner of my eye, he was staring at the sword with a sense of awe. I felt a bit awkward.

“May I also ask a question? Lord Andrealphus.”

The person who broke the silence while everyone was staring at the sword was the taciturn knight who usually didn’t speak much.

I looked at the quiet knight. Honestly, I hadn’t seen him open his mouth more than a few times, so it was a bit surprising.

Judas, a knight of an ambiguous age—neither young nor old—was the type who silently did his own work. I remembered him because he had stayed quiet without saying much even when I first appeared.

“What is it?”

“How strong are you?”

Hmm.

“Isn’t that a similar question to what Sir Levi asked? I haven’t surpassed humanity or anything.”

Judas shook his head.

“I am not asking about your level compared to others in your world. I am asking how strong you are. To my estimation, your power feels closer to a natural disaster. ……Am I wrong?”

That question was so unfamiliar that it made me feel a bit confused. It wasn’t that Judas was right or wrong; I just hadn’t ever thought that it would be perceived that way.

“Uh… I’ve never thought about it like that.”

I just answered honestly.

“I usually went around raiding strong monsters. Dragons, Krakens… anyway, things that were huge and incredibly powerful….”

“I see.”

“Even if I’m a bit strong for a human, if I lose focus for even a second while fighting those monsters, I take heavy damage. And to deal damage to them, I have to use strong attacks….”

The taciturn knight listened to my rambling words silently, without much surprise. Gaining a bit of comfort from that reaction, I added a bit more.

“To be honest, those things felt more like natural disasters, so I never really considered it. But by the standards here, I guess I might be natural disaster-class.”

After saying it, I felt somewhat embarrassed. It felt like I was bragging about myself, and at the same time, like I was pretending to be something great over nothing.

No… it’s just that I really had never considered it, so it truly… felt strange. A Meteor spell is something you can get just by reaching level 50 in one of the offensive mage classes in The Hunters…….

Logically speaking, summoning a meteorite from the sky to attack a wide area is a natural disaster… technically. ……I guess it is. It is, but no matter how much I thought about it, an unsettled feeling wouldn’t go away.

“Based on the Commander, how many times stronger is Lord Andrealphus?”

The knights looked at Judas as if to ask how he could dare compare the Commander to someone else. My look wasn’t much different. To think he could ask that so bluntly in front of his boss.

I opened my status window and Azrael’s status window simultaneously, did the math by gesturing in the air, and answered.

“Based on pure stats, about 50 times?”

The moment I answered, the surroundings became deathly silent. I heard the sound of someone gulping.

“Thank you for the answer.”

Only after a fair amount of time had passed did the situation settle. By then, the atmosphere wasn’t right for continuing the questions.

But I had something I needed to ask.

“I’ll ask one last thing. What is the target you are currently fighting? Is it humans? Or monsters? Or demons?”

Because right now, I was missing the most important information.

The knights exchanged glances. Yohan stepped forward as if to answer, but the older Saul and Levi stopped him. Saul spoke cautiously.

“To put it simply, it is all three.”

“You don’t have to leak any secrets, but I want to know specifically. I don’t know anyone here except Azrael, so unless there’s a special reason, I want to act with him.”

I took a breath and continued.

“But if the enemy is humans, it’ll be difficult. I’ll be a burden.”

The elderly knight looked at me as if he couldn’t understand.

“To be honest, by my common sense, I cannot understand how you possess such power and yet have never killed a human.”

“I understand that you can’t understand it.”

“But it is clear that your reaction is not that of one who enjoys slaughter. Such a thing cannot be faked. That much… I can see as well.”

At the unpleasant topic, I just gave a hollow laugh. Thinking to myself that I wished he would just answer the question without talking so much. Saul continued slowly.

“The first enemy of this knight order is a foreign nation currently at war. You must have seen that for yourself. The war has not ended for over a hundred years, and it is a situation where no one can be off guard.”

“Yeah.”

“Most of the assassins were sent by them.”

I nodded.

“And the second enemy is the monsters. Since they have been enemies of humanity for as long as humanity has existed, I don’t need to explain that they are enemies… but recently, an anomaly has occurred. As His Highness mentioned, the monsters are becoming stronger.”

“They are ‘Demonizing,’ aren’t they?”

Yohan chimed in. Saul looked at Yohan as if to warn him, but Yohan just shrugged as if to ask what the problem was.

“You were going to explain the demons anyway, weren’t you?”