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I hadn’t expected the slave ring to break. But I suppose it was inevitable if someone’s abilities increased to a level close to mine. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting him to go after Princess Topersion… but I suppose that was only natural.

She’d made me look like a fool numerous times, and it wasn’t like I owed her anything, but I believed there were better places for her to be judged than here, so I helped. After all, I wanted her to return to Fraus. I had already planned to help her even if Zygos targeted her, so it all went according to plan.

As for how Ichinari managed to commit such a heinous act, I figured he must’ve fallen out of Topersion’s command once the ring was broken. Since I had already finished my conversation with the princess, I was no longer bound by any restrictions.

But now that I thought about it, it made sense. Given that I’d told them my status was equal to their sum, they would naturally assume that it would drop if he killed some of them. To be honest, I’d expected something like this to happen, but I would have never assumed it would go so well. I’d only mentioned my status was equal to the status of 24 people plus α.

I thought that gave away that the status of Takuma, who was already dead, was included… I figured there was no helping it if they hadn’t noticed, and I just watched, but I didn’t feel much of anything. I did have some thoughts on the matter, though. Some of them had turned pale the moment I told them that their lifespans would suffer, and most of them had looked at me with disgust the moment I told them I was Toriyama.

Some even looked like they wanted to say something, but ended up saying nothing.

When Ichinari cut down Tsukihara, who was defending Yamabe, the fear spread like wildfire. Some people looked at me pleadingly, some ran away screaming for help, and some cursed Ichinari while he slew them. Both the boys and girls were killed by Ichinari.

Yamabe, whom Tsukihara had defended, was killed much earlier, as she had just sat there with that exhausted expression. Even with the status difference, the Saint, who focused on defense, might’ve had a chance to at least escape, but she didn’t. She just died doing nothing.

She’d been abducted to another world, enslaved, and used in a war, and after one of her companions died cruelly, she broke down mentally and was killed by a classmate. Written out like that, her life looked pitiful. But to that I could only say, “Serves you right.” But I didn’t want that to show on my face, so I made a bored expression.

I wanted them to think their deaths meant absolutely nothing to me. In truth, they almost didn’t, but I did feel slightly better, so I decided to hide that fact. In this kind of situation, being a Demigod was incredibly useful. I could change my expression to whatever I wanted.

I had no reason to stop Ichinari. So I let him kill all the heroes while I just watched. But when he turned on Princess Topersion, I reluctantly stepped in.

“Why stop me? If you’re Toriyama, then you shouldn’t think fondly of this woman.”
“I don’t care much for her, but I don’t hate her as much as the person who killed me. Besides, she has somewhere she needs to be. And I want to see that she gets there.”
“Hmph. You’ve gotten quite cocky after coming back to life.”
“I didn’t ask to come back, you know? Things just fell into place, and god asked me to be his errand boy.”

Unlike before, Ichinari was more talkative. He probably thought I had no chance of winning anymore. What an awfully easy person to read he was.

“So you wouldn’t mind dying again?”
“I don’t feel like it, and I won’t die that easily. I’m still god’s gofer.”
“You sure act tough. Your status must be much lower compared to what it was moments ago!”

I didn’t think Ichinari’s body was fully restored yet, based on how he moved. He was slower than before. It seemed like he’d only doubled his stats. Everything probably still hurt, but maybe the adrenaline was helping him ignore it.

“Well, fine. I won’t lose to you anymore. I’ll slaughter you!”

Ichinari shouted and launched attack after attack. But I could’ve dodged them all even with my eyes closed. Still, I kept engaging with him normally, and eventually, Ichinari started to go berserk.

Given that he wasn’t able to move at all when he hit his skill’s limit, this must be a stamina issue.

He kept his distance from me, breathing heavily. Then, with frustration in his eyes, he glared at me like he wanted to kill me. He seemed like such a loser.

“Why?! You should’ve gotten weaker!”
“And how did you decide that? I’ll let you in on a secret. My status hasn’t gone down by 1. I said it from the start. It’s the sum of 24 people plus α. That plus alpha is equal to the status I had as Toriyama Makoto.”
“So what? You mean to say that killing the heroes didn’t lower your stats at all? You tricked us!”
“I didn’t, and I never said that in the first place.”

Perhaps there was no point in me saying any of that. It seemed like he’d become the kind of human who only heard what he wanted to hear and saw what he wanted to see.

“Many people died because of you!”
“Wasn’t it you who killed them?”
“You shouldn’t have said it in such a confusing way. Then I wouldn’t have had to kill them. But you were unlucky, too. Killing my classmates made me stronger. My skills are a level higher.”
“It feels like that, doesn’t it? I’m starting to wonder which will come first. Your lifespan’s running out, or the world’s collapse.”

Right now, Ichinari looked like he could defeat an Ancient Dragon without even using the hero skill. Also, from the way he spoke, I couldn’t help but wonder if the multiply limits of his skill had also increased. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen.