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“You seem to be very good at making things up.”
“Then how else would you explain my strength?”
“There must be a trick to it.”

That was it. The reason I had fallen behind Toriyama had to be because there was some kind of trick. There was no way I could’ve lost in a head-to-head fight. If I could figure out the secret behind Toriyama’s strength, if I could uncover his weakness, it would make it easier to kill him.

I thought it was best to leave that task to the princess. I hated depending on her too much, but I knew she was more capable than I was in situations like this. For now, I decided to quietly follow her lead.

The most important thing at the moment was to kill the detestable Toriyama.

“A trick… Well, you could certainly call it that. My current status is equal to the sum of the status of all the heroes who were summoned to this world with me. In other words, it is the status of 24 of you plus α. In addition, as the heroes grow, I also grow in the same way. I would like to say that fighting me is like fighting all the heroes at the same time… but I guess it is even more than that.”

Wait—hold on. If that was true, how big was the gap between us now? Fortunately, I had the highest status among all the heroes. And by a long shot.

So even if what he was saying was true, his stats wouldn’t be 25 times higher than mine. I didn’t know the stats of all my classmates, but I was sure some of them hadn’t even reached an average of 150 yet. In that case, his stats would only be about 10 times mine.

But… wait? What exactly did he say? Didn’t he say that his stats were the sum of ours?

Just as I felt I was on the verge of figuring something out, he raised his voice a little, probably so that our classmates in the back could hear him too.

“Thank you for giving me the stats that you spend your precious lifespans on!”
“Would you please stop saying random things?”

The princess let out an exasperated sound as if trying to drown out Finis’ words.

But what did he mean? The stats that we’d spend our lifespans on? Looking around at my classmates, some of them seemed as shocked as I, but those who were a bit sharper, like Tsukihara, looked at Finis with pale expressions.

I, too, could think of a similar case. That was Takuma’s death. I believed that his mysterious death was just his life running out its natural course.

Still, there was one thing I couldn’t explain. I was currently several times stronger than Takuma had been. Yet, I hadn’t shown any signs of dying. So, did this mean that the princess was right when she said that Finis was just saying random nonsense?

If what Finis said was true, how much longer did I even have to live? Then again, I wouldn’t be where I was without this strength. And honestly, it pissed me off to even consider believing anything Toriyama said.

“Still, I believe that the world will collapse before your time even comes, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

Finis chuckled as she said that. The thought that it was Toriyama saying this annoyed me to no end. It was an earsore. He was just trying to confuse us with all this talk. I’d had enough. Nothing would matter as long as he was dead.

I already had a plan on how to attack him. I could pull it off. I didn’t need to hear any more of the princess’ commands.

I was doing this so that we wouldn’t have to hear any more of his b̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲. Everyone would forgive me for this. I had to do this because I was the strongest. Everyone would understand.

My body had mostly recovered. All I had to do now was act. It was now or never; everyone’s eyes were fixed on Finis.

If her stats were the sum of all the heroes’, then I just had to reduce the number of heroes. Her status would likely drop accordingly. Then I’d show my skills and tear her to pieces.

This was it. I was the hero, so no one would object. And if anyone did complain, that would just mean they were fools. Fools who defied the strong, the hero.

I looked over at my classmates behind me. Would I have to aim for Tsukihara first? No, it was always best to take out the healer first.

In that case, Yamabe would be my first target.

I forced my creaking body into a run. I couldn’t say I was moving at full speed, but I was fast enough to lop off Yamabe’s head—and just as I was about to swing my sword, something jumped in between us.

It was Tsukihara. She had thrown herself in front of Yamabe.

She looked at me with pure hatred. Then glanced down at her body. Just as she saw the deep cut and began to realize that this was the end for her, she opened her mouth to speak. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but no words came out. Finally, just before the strength drained from her body, she looked at my finger, noticed I wasn’t wearing a ring, and seemed oddly satisfied.