kscans

Chapter 125 - The Human Heart

Man, blowing yourself up is the best. Brimming with satisfaction, we respawned in Enma's Palace. I had set it up so we would be sent here if we were taken out. The exercise was over, so I removed the restraints I had placed on myself. I deployed a large scale healing field and healed everyone who was injured during the exercise. I could also repair the things we destroyed, but I purposely chose not to. For the sake of the future, they need to handle that on their end. They will probably need to do some analysis and stuff anyway.

"Don't you have a heart, Uncle?"

"Satou-san, everything you did was straight out of a villain's playbook."

"Hero Uncle..."

Hahaha, I am getting quite the negative reception. Well, I am aware I did enough to deserve it. This kind of reaction is just what I expected. I knew that if I showed this to kids their age, their emotions would get the better of their logic. So now it is my job to explain the logic and turn what they saw in this exercise into a lesson. Although, it looks like Sarna-chan already gets it.

"Also, why are you younger?"

"Well... when you're doing bad things, you feel young again, right? And if you make your body younger too, you get even more into it. Right?"

"Yeah. It feels like you can get away with anything just by playing the kid card."

"Even if we are a couple of old folks in our mid thirties on the inside."

We cackled and laughed together.

"First, allow us to express our gratitude. Thanks to you, we have discovered many things we had not seen or noticed before."

"I am glad to hear it. About what comes next..."

"Yes. We would like a more detailed explanation. Of course, we understand it ourselves, but."

"Consider it done."

Enma led us to a room that looked like a conference hall, where the Ten Kings and other key figures were already assembled. Some of the people I had fought with directly during the exercise were there. As we exchanged words of thanks for each other's hard work,

"Huh...? Why is everyone so friendly...?"

"Even after all that was done to them..."

That is a good observation. Normally, you would be pretty ticked off if someone wrecked your place that badly, even for an exercise, right? But that is how humans think. Even if they have similar thought patterns to humans, nonhumans are still nonhumans. There is a definite "gap" between them and people, whether big or small. In this exercise, I exploited that aspect as well.

"Well then, Enma-sama. May I borrow a whiteboard and a screen?"

"Yes. Be my guest."

Still, it is a little funny that hell uses whiteboards and markers. They are useful, so there is no reason not to use them... but you know, it just does not fit the atmosphere, right?

"I am sure you already understand, but the myth of the afterlife's inviolability has completely crumbled."

I wrote the word "Special" in large letters on the whiteboard and drew a big X over it.

"If this were, say, the myth of a small, single region, we might have been able to make an example of them by crushing the whole thing."

If a small, local mythology had pulled something like this, we could have maintained the myth of inviolability by having everyone crush them. We could have made an example of them, showing what happens when you cross the line. Well, even that would have left a crack, so it probably would not have lasted forever.

"But our opponents were the Greek gods. It's not that simple."

"Indeed."

It was an unspoken agreement that was never codified in the first place. If Olympus were to voluntarily offer an apology, the Buddhist faction would have no choice but to accept it. The main culprit has already been completely annihilated, after all. Taking a hard line here would only hurt both sides.

"There might be talk of using this as an opportunity to create a formal non-aggression treaty..."

"It has been raised as one possibility. But even so, things will not be the same as before."

"I would imagine not. Which is precisely why the topic of reinforcing your defenses came up in the first place."

The fact that a precedent has been set is a heavy burden, again and again. The fact that it was the well known Greeks who did it is also a problem. Let us say some faction wanted to make the Greek pantheon cry uncle and made a move after a formal treaty was signed. They could just say, "You guys already did it once." That would draw massive criticism in international society, but with nonhumans, who knows. That is true even if you add a clause saying that if the treaty is broken, the other mythologies will jointly attack the violator.

In the end, mythologies are all about fighting over believers. Some would probably come up with a lame excuse and refuse to participate in the punishment. In that case, there is no real benefit for the Greeks in signing a formal treaty. If they were to attack the afterlife of a mythology that retaliated against them, they would be the ones who were hit first, but it would still be their second offense. Other mythologies could use that as a pretext to intervene. You know, by saying that place is dangerous after all.

So, what about excluding the Greek pantheon? No. That would mean it is okay to attack the Greeks since they are not part of the treaty. It is dangerous to have such a major power with a strong military outside the treaty. But even so, forming an alliance of treaty members to crush the Greeks would not go well either. You would need a really good excuse to take down a power as big as the Greek pantheon.

"Let me say it again. The afterlife is no longer a place of absolute inviolability. In a war between mythologies, it will be a definite target. And in that case, the fighting will never end with a single skirmish."

The same is true for normal wars. The standard is to attack over and over to occupy territory. A clean, one shot victory is impossible unless there is an overwhelming difference in military strength.

"That is exactly why this time, we chose to stir up the afterlife in such a manner."

"Thorough and relentless harassment, was it?"

"Yes. We ignored important facilities from the start and relentlessly attacked places that seemed to have low difficulty."

In a war between mythologies, you can always gather numbers, regardless of quality. It is easy to form an army with troops who do not value their lives in the slightest.

"Preparing not just to defend, but to cut your losses effectively, is absolutely essential."

I continued to list more problems and explain our actions in detail. Then, one of the Ten Kings raised his hand.

"...May I have a word?"

"Yes. Uh."

"I am King Shinkou."

King Shinkou looks like one of those beefy old man characters from a fighting game.

"I am sure you have a faint inkling of this, but we would rather not involve humans if we can help it."

"I thought so."

They would likely try to avoid mobilizing their believers.

"However, this exercise has once again reminded us of the difference in perspective between humans and nonhumans. We are thinking of appointing past military commanders in an advisory capacity. What are your thoughts on that?"

Sounds good to me.

"Do you have anyone you would recommend?"

"When it comes to ability, you all are more knowledgeable, having judged them yourselves, but..."

Ah, but it might be better to avoid picking them all from a single era. There have been many eras overflowing with war, or rather, it was constant until modern times. I think it is better to pick a number of people who have survived the most terrible periods of their respective eras. A terrible period means it was also a time overflowing with malice.

"We will take that into consideration. Thank you."

"Not at all."

"I have a question as well. Ah, I am King Godoutennrin."

The King who handles the final judgment.

"About that final self-destruction... what sort of technique was used for that?"

"Indeed. Hearing the reports from moments before, it seemed you had no energy left."

Ah, they did not see it directly, so they do not understand.

"I will explain. Yes, to be blunt, this is the very thing I am most concerned about."

To get straight to the point.

"The energy used for the self-destruction was the damned souls continuously suffering punishment in hell."

In this exercise, the damned were not included in the isolation measures. But that is not a good thing.

"When it comes to an invasion, there is no resource more useful than sinners."

After all, they are a resource you can never use up. There are all sorts of punishments in hell, like mountains of needles and burning at the stake, things that would normally kill you, right? Death can come even to a soul. But if they died, it would not be a punishment, would it? That is why the damned are given a pseudo immortality by the laws of hell.

"This time, we simply used them as energy for self-destruction... but surely you see?"

There are countless techniques that produce devastating effects by offering a sacrifice. There is no better resource to use as a sacrifice for them than sinners. You might think the defending side could just use them for attacks too, but they cannot. There are things that beings on the "side of good" cannot do, things they cannot overlook. It is not about face, it is a matter of their very reason for being, so they cannot do it. Using sinners who are being punished to atone for their sins in a war would cross a line for the officials and guards of hell.

"It is like a nasty combo in a trading card game. And what is really terrible is that the key card is a common."

It is a bargain, costing less than ten yen for a stack. That is insane, right?

"Cutting off their immortality would mean messing with the laws of hell itself, so it will not be easy."

Therefore, the next best plan. You should create a system to isolate all the sinners in one place if an invasion occurs. That was my suggestion, but...

«...»

"Um, what is it?"

Most of the attendees were completely put off.

"Useful resource..."

"Never use up..."

"Compared it to a TCG..."

"A common..."

"And it costs less than ten yen..."

"A... a human heart..."

Hey, what are you all whispering about...

"You guys asked for this! You're the ones who requested malice!"

Why is this being turned back on me!?