Chapter 7 - The First of Seven

Despite wanting to leave as soon as possible, Jae and the knight couldn't help but stop and turn around to listen to what Chris had to say when his voice resounded with such vigour.

“Your Highness,” Looking to the one atop the throne, Chris beseeched the man with the highest authority in the room, “May I?”

“...”

No words left the king’s mouth. Likewise, nothing resembling the expected emotions of intrigue stirred within his eyes. Instead, after meeting Chris in the eyes for a stretched length of time, his only action was a single nod of the head. Taking that gesture as his cue to continue, he briefly bowed his own head with a smile of gratitude and did just that; first of all, he faced the ones holding positions of high nobility in the hall.

“Excuse me... I know there are people here who must be really busy, and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time, but there’s something I feel like I have to say.”

Moving his head, the boy's gaze scanned the room, brushing briefly over each individual present, sending them his message all the same.

“Frankly, I don’t get what that commotion around me just now was about. Sure, I appreciate Eleanor and everyone else who seems to be amazed by me all of a sudden, but I don’t understand any of it. I'm confused by what the reason for us being here is and what's going on, but anyway, what I wanted to say was just this...”

Taking a deep breath, he met everyone's gazes once more and stated with clear conviction in his eyes.

“I don't know what I can do, or what power I hold. However, you said the reason you called us here was because you needed help."

"...!"

Hearing this, Jae widened his eyes; reminded of a question he had almost forgotten to ask entirely.

"Now, I’ll be honest and say that I have no idea what it is you need help with, but I can nonetheless promise that I’ll do my best to help you in whatever way that I can.”

―Just what the hell was so wrong with this nation that they felt the need to go to such lengths as summoning students from another world as Heroes?

If he thought about it even a little, it didn’t make sense. Rather, it shouldn’t make sense unless he thought about it from the perspective of the country; the culprit of the mass kidnapping in question.

Normally, in these kinds of scenarios, the kingdom summons Heroes of another world to deal with enemy threats, right? Of course, there’s no guarantee that the same is true in this case, but it seems to be from what I've seen so far, and if it is, then isn’t this situation completely fucked?

Summoning a group of school-age kids to fight for them; wasn’t even the concept just inhumane?

No, even if they were a couple of years older―in other words, legal adults―then the morals and ethics of such a thing would still remain extremely questionable.

All they’re doing is outsourcing-- or rather, abducting kids to force them to work as soldiers...!

It made complete sense that a kingdom would prefer to use people not of their own to fight for them as there would then be less risk to their own people in the case of casualties―like cannon fodder. If the ones they had taken from outside were Heroes that had come along with special abilities to boot, then even more so would they desire to exploit them.

These guys don’t need our help... They only summoned us to satisfy their own selfish desires.

Unable to come up with any other truth that was more plausible than that, Jae clenched his fists, convinced. He lamented that he should have seen it coming, but there was nothing that could be done about it anyway.

They're all bastards...

If the purpose of the Hero Summoning was truly nothing more than to use them to enhance the country’s military strength or to use against a specific enemy force, then it only gave him all the more reason to escape.

Clap clap clap clap-!

A brief round of applause circled throughout the hall at the short but candid speech, beginning with the princess and continued by the nobility. After all, they were the main audience of his words, were they not? The rest of the students were also looking at him peculiarly. Not noticing the latter, however, the sudden positive response spurred adrenaline to rush through him, causing Chris’ cheeks to flush, but he wasn’t finished yet.

“Th-thank you everyone, but I have one last thing I’d like to say... As I said, I don’t understand what it is about me that makes me a 'Hero' or whatever you want to call me, but since I have this opportunity, I’d like to share it with you all. To be as honest as I can; here, I’ll show you what 'I' look like. It might not be much, or it might be a lot; whatever it may be, I swore I'd do my best to help you out.“

Cold droplets of nervousness began to show travelling down the back of his neck; Chris seemed to only now realise what exactly he was doing, giving a speech to an audience as incredible both in quantity and quality as this. Nonetheless, all of that being completely overpowered by the rushing adrenaline, he swallowed those anxiety-inducing thoughts and made a final announcement.

“This is my Status.”

Following his words, a magnified, transparent screen appeared in the air like a projected hologram.

To nobody in the room was it unfamiliar, but the details it contained were the origin of an uproar.

Wait, what the hell...?

As he too read through Chris' Status, Jae’s face slowly distorted.

〔Status〕

Name: Chris Rowe [Blessed]

Class : 「Hero」

Level 1

Race : Human

Age : 16

Title : 「Hero」

Trait : 「Righteous Heart」

Health Points (HP) : 520 / 520

Mana Points (MP) : 280 / 280

Strength: 20

Endurance: 20

Agility: 20

Dexterity: 20

Magic: 20

Wisdom: 20

Luck: 250 [MAX]

Titles : 「Hero」, 「Divine Protection of a God」, 「Holy God’s Blessing」, 「World Traveller」

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Passive Skills : 「Automatic HP Recovery [Lv.1]」, 「Automatic MP Recovery [Lv.1]」

Magic Skills : 「Holy Magic [Lv.1]」, 「Light Magic [Lv.1]」

Enhancement Skills : 「Attribute Enhancement: Holy [Lv.1]」, 「Attribute Enhancement: Light [Lv.1]」

Resistance Skills : 「Dark Magic Resistance [Lv.1]」, 「Holy Magic Resistance [Lv.5]」

Communication Skills :「Seronian Language Comprehension [Lv.MAX]」

Unique Skills : 「Judgement [Lv.1]」, 「Limit Break [Lv.1]」

Fucking hell...

His eyes scanned the "character sheet", causing his brows to furrow deeply.

...'Hero' as a title, 'Hero' as a class... More HP than me, more mana... Almost every single one of the base stats are higher than mine, and even his Luck stat is completely maxed out at 250 whilst mine doesn't even display a proper value...

Going down the list of differences one-by-one, his reaction only became more severe.

He's been granted the Divine Protection of the Gods; on the other hand, I've been cursed with their Affliction.

Class, title, status values―even skills.

Excluding the language comprehension one, he started out with ten different skills when I only had one. Not to mention, that singular skill I have isn't even a Unique Skill, but he has two of them... I guess it could be argued that we both have only Unique Skills, but even then, I would still only have 1 compared to his 10.

Placing them in a side-by-side comparison, he felt himself grow almost strangely venomous.

The blending of shame, frustration, and anger at the inequality seemed to rip something apart.

Sensing the cracks within wanting to tear him apart, Jae’s gritting teeth almost felt like snapping.

This bullshit...

Completely overwhelming the previous inner tranquillity brought to him by his Mental Abnormal Status Nullification, something unknown and evidently sinister seemed to consume something inside him.

It's just...

Teetering on the edge of what kept him sane, he watched a girl like the princess cling to Chris’ arm in an obvious attempt to bewitch and seduce him when Jae’s own girlfriend wasn't even allowed to exist in the same world as him anymore.

Altogether, it was enough to push him past the brink.

...Fucking unfair.

It was then.

Conditions met

Damn it...

Title 「Apostle of Sin」 has activated

Why...?

You have acquired a '■■■-grade' skill

I've lived for 16 years. It’s a short time, sure, but it’s the same length of time as Chris. Sure, he's such a nice guy and all... But it's not like I'm a bad guy or a villain, is it? Huh?

Clench-!

He gets all that extraordinary stuff and I get a stinking pile of dogshit called a curse?

You have acquired the Unique Skill: 「Envy」

And now, if I don’t make it out of this place soon, what will become of me? I’ll probably be executed on the spot for being ‘corrupt’, just like Greene...

Why is this happening to me?

Just... Why?

What have I done to deserve this?

I...

Skill 「Mental Abnormal Status Nullification」 has activated

Jae blinked.

"...Huh?"

Did he blank out? All of a sudden, his jaw was aching and his palms were marked by the digging in of his nails.

It hurts... What...?

Finding himself jolted back to reality, his eyes naturally laid upon the register of notifications in front of him as the stuck cogs in his foggy brain resumed turning.

...A new skill? When did this happen? ‘Envy’? That sounds ominous...

Gulping down the pooled saliva in his mouth, and then twice more to swallow down his internally teeming tension, Jae took a moment to collect himself.

No, let's not fuss about with this right now. I don't have time. The first priority is to get out of here. Whatever else, doesn’t matter. I can think about it all when I’m safe and secure but for now, I just need to leave.

Feeling satisfied, or at least as much as he could be in this situation, and somewhat back to his normal shape, Jae was about to step past the two knights, stunned in amazement, when the call of another classmate’s name halted him in his steps.

“Ryan Kashiko?”

...Now, hold on.

With his characteristic toothy grin blooming on his face, Ryan swaggered over to the princess with a demeanour of great, likewise characteristic arrogance. He glanced at Chris and spoke aloud.

“Ohhh~ Hey! This Hero of Justice fella is lookin' mighty anxious, eh? Why, what’s wrong, bud? Did I do wrong to ya family or what? Why the scowl?”

In return, Chris asked with furrowed brows, “Is it a disease that necessitates you try and needlessly provoke me every time we face, Ryan?"

The latter's grin turned into something reminiscent of a sneer.

“Oh, boy. I dunno. Ya just had such a grand and praiseworthy speech and all that, but I was so bored outta my mind that I almost fell asleep halfway through. Could you, like, make it more interestin’ next time? Well, at least it was short, right?”

“Tsk. What are you going on about? Just put your hand above the plate and get on with it.”

“Pff. Did all that ‘Hero’ shit go to your head or somethin’? Where do you get off tellin' me what to do, huh? Shut ya mouth and watch, pig.”

Without warning, he snatched the knife out of Eleanor’s hand and pricked his finger without a moment’s hesitation over the ranking plate. Thinking he was only messing around like usual, nobody expected much...

Vhoom~!

“...!?”

―But that quickly changed.

“This...!”

What were previously the faces of those who simply wanted him to get it over with and leave without causing trouble turned into expressions of shock as everyone stared in wonder at the bright and mesmerising violet light that emanated from the plate.

It was a light no less powerful or beautiful than Chris' gold, and a sight certainly no less brilliant to see.

In fact, perhaps the inherent rarity of such a colour made it even more of a spectacle.

No one had the wherewithal to react with words for a while even after the light had diminished. As such, a few moments had passed where Ryan was simply relishing in the looks on the faces of these people of influence before the elderly mage muttered something with a clearly bewildered expression.

“Two... Special-ranks... in a row...?”

The old man’s attitude was clearly disparate when compared to when Chris stepped up despite the ranks being declared equal, most likely due to the boy’s ego.

However, even though he was an impossible character to like when confronted with, they began to applaud him all the same. They couldn’t not; after all, he was the second Special-rank Hero to appear in immediate succession, and his light didn’t lose out to even that of the so-called 'Legendary Hero' himself.

Everyone present, no matter whether they liked Ryan’s personality or not, simply celebrated the fact that two Special-rank Heroes had appeared at once.

Jae, on the other hand, felt himself at odds with this rising atmosphere.

Was it instinctive?

He wanted to get away immediately―he knew there was no other choice if he wanted to live―but he couldn’t make himself move even an inch.

He felt something.

Something inside him had changed since a while ago.

More specifically, it was as if a switch had been flipped.

His now-vacant head was blanked out, but that sensation remained vivid.

Something inside him snapped, and the only proof of something occurring was a notification that appeared.

Skill 「Envy」 has activated

He felt once more that the world was unjust.

Fuck...

Skill 「Envy」 has activated

Skill 「Envy」 has levelled up [Lv.0]→[Lv.1]

You feel a fraction of your soul become tinted with desire...

Silently questioning the abrupt surge of messages as more and more changes began to swirl around within him, he suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice.

[Ahhh...]

Resounding throughout his head, it spoke to him in an uncannily warped and corpse-like raspy tone.

[It feels wonderful to experience the fresh, crisp air after so long... Ah...?]

"......"

He hated it.

He hated the way he felt; the burning jealousy that took root deep inside.

In an instant, he felt nothing less than despise towards the changes that had occurred, but he intuitively knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

...It changes nothing.

Survival.

If I want to prove that this... "Envy" is wrong, then I need to live, first and foremost.

[Hmm?]

He spoke out, addressing the knight who stood astounded beside him like a fool.

“...Hey. I really need to go to the toilet now...”

“Eh? Oh, my bad, kid. I was just so amazed by the appearance of two Special-rank Heroes, haha. You see--”

“......”

Skill 「Envy」 has activated

[What, your plan is to run away...? Kuh... Kuhaha..! A-ah, no, wait... Truly? Kuhahahahahat...! Ahh, my goodness, I'd call you a fool but at this point, that's really all you can do, isn't it? You can’t be blamed, but it sure is pathetic. You pitiful soul.]

...What have I done to deserve this?

At this rate, he truly was going to lose his mind.