I Was a Small Fish When I Reincarnated, but It Seems That I Can Become a Dragon, so I Will Do My Best - Chapter 489
11-4. Another Price
“…Huh?”
“You are the root cause of everything. And it’s been recognized by all of humanity, all races, that I, Reizen, and Lize are monsters.”
“What?!”
“And now, we are in the midst of a war.”
Houen explained calmly.
He had succinctly conveyed something crucial, but it would take some time to sink in.
…Wait a minute, I can’t keep up with this information.
Houen wouldn’t joke about something like this, and it didn’t seem like a lie in the first place.
But I don’t understand the meaning.
Why am I the root cause?
And there are other things I don’t understand.
“…Wait. Can I ask a few questions?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“I haven’t done anything like that, have I? I mean, no, right? We all… defeated it, didn’t we? I don’t understand what’s going on, but we fought!”
“Calm down, Ouren. If you truly are the root cause, we would have locked you up long time ago.”
“That may be, but… Then why are you all…?”
“We know about it. About you.”
Houen took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Then he continued.
“We fought alongside you. I remember that. I don’t remember what we defeated, but I vaguely remember that we couldn’t have won without you. Memories have been twisted. Conveniently. I don’t know what you did with Ouryuu’s Judgement, but it seems that your presence was used to fill a gap created by something disappearing. Probably, it’s one of the prices.”
“Are you saying that I really did it?”
“Yes. Anyone you ask will say that you did it. But we don’t believe it.”
He opened his eyes and looked at me.
“A man with as little courage as you couldn’t have done something like that.”
After hearing Houen’s words, Asure bowed his head.
“We, the people of the Garott Kingdom, also remember you. The transformation of the country, saving the Bamil territory. Everyone knows that you are not the kind of person who would do such a thing.”
Uchikage also bowed his head.
“The Onis share the same opinion. They owe you for saving the princess.”
Dacia said, crossing her arms and puffing her chest out.
“The devils too. We know that someone who’s been reincarnated wouldn’t do such a thing. More importantly, we fought together. Even before you were painted as the root cause, the devil territories were already destroyed. It wasn’t you.”
Reality and memory were at odds.
That’s why everyone in this room could raise objections to the reality that had been inserted into their memories.
I still couldn’t accept the reality, but hearing everyone’s words was reassuring.
When Houen suddenly accused me of being the culprit, my heart leaped, but…
Please don’t say it like a threat…
“Sigh… Seriously, it’s bad for my heart…”
“But we are the only ones who doubt this memory. The countries outside of the Garott Kingdom, the Saletana Kingdom, the Bamil territory, and the Oni village… they’re all fervently trying to eliminate you, without questioning.”
“Huh?”
“I told you, it’s a war. It started two years ago.”
Humans feared me, the one being considered the root cause.
**
Information gathering continued for a while, but apparently, they eventually became fearful of the being that had destroyed a country and completely obliterated the devil territories.
In response, the three countries and one territory tried to defend me and protested.
However, the engraved memories wouldn’t be overwritten.
Houen, Reizenn, and Lize were also feared, and they hardly had any conversations.
It was normal for things to turn out this way if you remained faithful to the memories.
In fact, those who questioned the memories were the ones seen as heretics.
So other countries issued statements.
<As long as you hand over Ouren, we won’t do anything else.>
Their intentions to eliminate the threat were clear.
We couldn’t allow that to happen.
We displayed a resolute posture, fully prepared to resist, and thus, it led to a war.
But we couldn’t continue hiding ourselves.
At first, they didn’t have any information, and for several years, they focused on gathering it, but as soon as they knew his whereabouts, they became more aggressive.
It took time to determine the timing for launching the war, considering preparations and coordination with other countries.
Thanks to that, we had time to prepare on our side, but…
Still, we couldn’t match their sheer numbers.
It was a situation where devils, oni, and humans – the three races – had managed to maintain the front line, using their strengths.
It didn’t seem like they were in a dominant position, though.
“The price… It’s too much. Me being the root cause, and you three being considered monsters…”
“The people of the Salettana Kingdom looked up to me, so it didn’t turn in a bad direction.”
“As expected of an A-rank.”
“By the way, Reizenn, Lize, and I haven’t participated in this war. You can probably figure out the reason.”
“If we were to fight… we’d inevitably become complete villains.”
“Yeah. We have to be protected… I didn’t think this position would be so frustrating.”
Houen sighed.
No matter what the situation, we weren’t allowed to take action.
How frustrating that was.
If we were to take action as the feared and dangerous entities, the fight would turn into a battle to make others acknowledge our existence.
In that case, we’d become complete villains.
We must not cross the line from beings being protected to something else.
“Well, then, let me explain the current situation,” Dacia said.
She opened her mouth, taking out a large map from a magical bag and spread it out.
“First, we’ve been repelling many attacks. But there are also many casualties. We’re managing to fight thanks to the devils’ special skills. The oni’s power is helping in defense. There’s no problem with the humans providing support in the rear.”
“Hey, Dacia. Is this… is this war happening because we’re here?”
“Don’t say that, Ouren.”
But that’s probably the case.
Everyone is fighting to protect us.
“Hey, Reizen.”
“W-What is it…?”
“Do you have sealing magic?”
“I… I do… I gained it through evolution…”
“I see.”
After hearing that, I thought for a moment. One idea crossed my mind, but after coming up with it, I let out a long sigh.
“I really don’t want to do this…”